Loopshard Novel Chapter One-Hundred-and-Fifty-Seven

< < Collectible Relic > >

< Lesser Bloodfiend Fang (Uncommon) — The canine fang of a lesser bloodfiend >

Adam had managed to collect eight fangs just by going through the Pious district and tracking the strong lodies of the lesser bloodfiends that hid in the houses and dark alleyways. Unlike the goblins of Stage Two where only one ear counted, both upper jaw fangs could be collected, and they were easy to transport, compared to hearts, ears, or the large mimic tongue.

Still, the tongue is worth a lot.

I do wonder if the stronger bloodfiends will have higher-rarity fangs to collect. A sha the last one was turned to mush by the mimic.

Unsurprisingly, Aeran had done most of the fighting, though Sofia and Luo had pulled their own weight, since the enemies actually fought back this ti, unlike their first two encounters.

Luo’s Monster Hunter evolution of Archer gave him a really powerful crossbow bolt skill called Shell-Breaker, which was capable of killing a bloodfiend without having to pierce its heart and cut off its head. The bolt penetrated deep to deliver an explosive payload, and the damage it inflicted apparently ca with an anti-healing affliction that was powerful against the vampires.

Sofia also utilised her Avalanche Boots well, kicking the enemies to stun them, before chopping them apart with her longsword. Her fighting style was brutal, because she focused on severing the limbs first, but she explained afterwards that her Blood Saint evolution of Warrior basically boosted her attack speed and impact the more blood that was spilled in a fight. Adam suggested that she focused on getting Bleed upgrades, which she apparently hadn’t considered, but he also promised her that he’d try to help by exsanguinating their enemies when they fought.

As he had expected, Luo and Sofia weren’t actually weak, it was just the fact that Aeran and Závi were so powerful that it made them seem weak by comparison. Their setups obviously weren’t perfect, but they made good use of their weapons and Relics.

I just hope it’s enough for them to survive the real fights of this Stage.

They’d only been targeting lone bloodfiends as they went south towards the Artisan district, and these were the lesser types that didn’t possess magical powers. That was bound to change soon, especially as the sun started its descent towards the horizon.

Adam kept his blood sense as spread out as possible without compromising the detection quality as they moved through the large Pious district. He especially made sure to scrutinise the ordinary-looking citizens, since Beck had ntioned so of the stronger bloodfiends liked to disguise themselves.

They’d already visited the Good Drink to tell the proprietor about the church’s reopening, and he had been so elated that he’d gifted them 600 Shillings. They’d yet to find a vendor though, so the jury was still out on whether that was a lot of money or not.

Like the border between Pious and Cloth, the way to the Artisan district was blocked by a large canal. It was too wide to cross for Aeran and Závi, but since it was full of boats moving up and down its length, the pair ran and jumped between the vessels to reach the other side.

Adam had ward up to Luo and Sofia, and he’d already displayed a lot of his capabilities to them, so, instead of taking the bridge, he once again used his boots to launch them into the air. But this ti he mainly relied on his flesh magic pulling on his body to fly them to a rooftop on the other side, above where Aeran and Závi had landed on the edge of the canal below.

“You can fly??” Luo asked incredulously.

“I knew the way your Spring Boots worked was odd,” Sofia remarked.

The sound of a hook catching the edge of the roof tile proceeded Aeran’s flight up the side of the building. He landed next to them with a scrape of his boots on the red-brown ceramic tiles.

“How are you doing that?” he asked Adam suspiciously.

A mont later Závi hopped up next to him, having climbed and jumped her way up using her gravity-defying boots.

“Are you not a Blood Mage?” he went on, clearly suspicious. “Or is it part of your secondary weapon’s capabilities?”

Adam knew from Lasse that the appraisal would show both of his weapon types to Aeran, but the nas of his evolutions weren’t obvious, which clearly frustrated the guy.

I suppose I could use the spidersilk to swing around like Spider-Man.

“I am manipulating the blood in my body,” Adam replied.

“That sounds dangerous,” Závi remarked, though none of her concern spread to her voice.

Once again, Aeran couldn’t tell that Adam was lying, but his lody was full of suspicion and doubt.

He’s not a complete idiot, so I should probably play it safe.

“What was that thing with your ears earlier then?” he asked.

Adam shrugged. “Who can say?”

“I thought you were in favour of teamwork,” Aeran jabbed. “Keeping secrets is hardly conducive to cooperation.”

“You go first,” Adam offered. “You’ve yet to reveal what your evolutions do.”

Aeran laughed.

“Where to next?” he then asked, dropping the subject for now.

His Duellist evolution is definitely sothing powerful or worriso, otherwise I don’t see why he would hide it.

All he said about the Insightful Gentleman evolution is that it’s versatile and quick.

I’m sure the ‘insightful’ part of its title is a hint.

Adam pointed across the rooftops to a nearby plu of smoke rising from a tavern.

A few minutes later they reached the building. It stood alone and was only two stories tall. The back of the tavern had a deck with chairs and tables that looked out upon the lagoon that Moonport floated in. From the edge of the city here they could see a large green island a few kilotres out.

I don’t think that’s the Matriarch’s island, but I’m not sure what else it could be.

< < Tavern Discovered > >

< Waterfront Refuge >

They entered the establishnt and were greeted by a young woman with a green shawl tied around her long brown hair to keep it contained. She wore a white dress with a green apron over it.

“Would you mind spreading the news that the church in the Pious district has reopened?” Aeran asked, putting on a nice-guy attitude and a fake smile.

“So good news at last. I will make sure to spread the word!” the girl said cheerfully. “Would you like to order anything? You can pick any of the unoccupied tables you’d like.”

“We’re not staying,” Adam told her.

“I see.”

“I did have one question though. What is that green island that’s visible from here?”

“That would be Garden Isle,” she replied.

“Thank you,” Adam said.

As they left, Aeran gave him a curious look. “Do you know about the island?” he asked.

Adam nodded. “There’s a treasure on it. We should explore it later.”

“Why don’t we just do it now, while we’re here?” Sofia asked.

“We’d need to find a boat first, and getting the treasure involves a puzzle of so kind, so it might take a while,” Adam replied. “It’s more important we finish up the church quest first.”

“What about our quest?” Luo asked. “You said the Artisan district might have a clue, and we got the Changeling’s Core from the mimic.”

“I was just guessing,” Adam told him. “I think all of our patron quests should wait.”

As they spoke, Adam leant against the tavern’s fa??ade and discreetly manipulated a hand out from under his cape. He’d shaped a few of them earlier using the defeated bloodfiends’ flesh, and this was the second one he was leaving behind, with the first being by the Good Drink tavern. When the others looked away, he moved it up into a dark cubby above the entrance where a half-roof shaded the doorway.

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“We have five more districts to go, and only a few hours before it gets dark,” Adam told them.

“Let us get this over with,” Aeran agreed, though he was clearly just bored with their fetch quest.

Their party moved through Artisan district quickly, making only two detours to eliminate lesser bloodfiends lying in wait. The district was, as its na suggested, centred around various crafts, aning that most of the buildings were free-standing workshops, which in turn removed most of the dark alleys that the vampires liked to use for their ambush tactics.

Artisan was connected to the Cloth, Pleasure, and Wine districts, but they stuck to the southern part that led to the last of the three. Where the two districts t was a large bridge with ample space for wagons and carriages, and it was clear that the privileged and rich enjoyed easy access to the wares made in the Artisan district.

When they reached the marble bridge, which had several luxury shops embedded into it, similar to the Rialto Bridge in Venice except larger and more opulent, they saw aristocrats and their servants flowing between the boutiques, their entourages carrying many purchased goods.

Adam tightened the range of his perception and sharpened his blood sense, scrutinising the lodies of every person within his line of sight.

He quickly got his first hit.

That servant is a vampire, he realised, zeroing in on a pale youth with slicked-back blonde hair wearing a fine white shirt, blue vest, and blue pants, all of which were nearly as opulent as the clothes worn by his pretend master. He was also strikingly beautiful, as though his skin was made of porcelain.

He must be using illusion magic or shapeshifting, because he doesn’t have the eyes, ears, nor teeth of a bloodfiend.

Adam dislodged a finger from the last flesh-wrought hand that he hid under his cape. As he passed the disguised vampire, he sent the finger into his back pocket without anyone noticing.

Aeran and the others continued walking past the servant and his master, and Adam followed them, bringing up the rear.

As they reached the top of the bridge, the cowl Adam wore alerted him to active Mana. It was a faint violet cloud that hung about a beautiful woman in a crimson dress with a deep cleavage. She had three guards in black armour protecting her, while a servant held a black cloth umbrella above her head and another fanned her with a black lace fan in a steady rhythm. She stood near the railing of the bridge, watching the boat traffic below while sipping a glass of wine.

That’s definitely not wine…

I think she’s using hypnosis or illusion magic, based on that cloud surrounding her, though my bet is on the forr.

Regardless, I shouldn’t get too close.

Adam stopped while the others kept going down the other side of the bridge. He equipped the Hobgoblin Pendant and brought out a tiny bit of blood filled with his Mana, carefully floating it around the periphery of the guards, servants, and lady. He waited a few tense monts until sothing drew the lady’s gaze away from her wine glass, and then he sent his blood into the drink, mixing it in. His Mana easily spread into the liquid, proving that it was indeed blood she had filled in her glass.

The following seconds were excruciatingly slow as he waited with bated breath. Outwardly, he pretended to be very interested in a hand-carved clock, but his attention was fully locked onto the bloodfiend.

Then she lifted the glass to her lips, and Adam took control of it once it passed between her teeth and entered her mouth. He brought a glob into her head and let the rest travel down towards her stomach.

With a flick of his left index finger, he drove the blood in her stomach up into her heart and lungs, and the blood in her head through the delicate structure of her brain. The damage was imdiate, but he wasn’t done, because he then activated Blood Crystal, instantly ruining the lifeblood inside of her.

“I’ll co back later,” Adam told the vendor selling the clock and then he followed after his friends, taking two steps at a ti, but trying to not look like he was in a hurry. He switched his necklace back to the Blood Mage Choker, regaining his sense of touch and feeling.

[Third Generation Bloodfiend defeated.]

A surprised scream ca from the top of the bridge, followed by the sound of sothing heavy hitting the water below.

I’m glad that worked.

People started shouting, and Adam looked back, knowing it was important to not act like nothing was happening in case there were observers keeping an eye on the area.

“Soone just fell over the bridge and into the water!” a man yelled as he ran past Adam, presumably heading down towards the edge of the canal to help. A few others followed after him, and Adam went along, pretending to be part of their group until he reached the bottom of the bridge where it was connected to the Wine district. He broke off from the group and went over to where his team waited for him. All of them wore surprised and horrified expressions on their faces.

“How the fuck did you just do that?” Aeran asked.

“You all got the announcent?” Adam responded.

Sofia and Luo nodded.

Adam grinned. “Let’s get out of here first. I’ll tell you how I did it on the way to the next tavern.”

Twenty-five minutes later, they were sitting out in front of the Rose Terrace tavern. It was a fancy three-storey building with large guestrooms with balconies for anyone staying overnight or indulging in carnal desires during the day, given the lodies Adam was perceiving from above. Like all the buildings in the Wine district, it was a free-standing tavern made of marbled stone with terracotta-red tiles on the rooftop and the terraces, and there were beautiful rose-covered thorny vines climbing up the walls and curling around the railings of its balconies.

“Here he cos,” Adam said as the young servant trailing his master entered the plaza in front of the Rose Terrace.

As a sign of the district’s opulence, besides the fancy clothes everyone wore, the large free-standing buildings, and clean streets, there were many plazas such as this one, each with fountains and small gardens. Though of course, the aristocrats hardly seed to make use of the plentiful public areas, rely preferring to pass through.

Aeran had a strange look on his face as he appraised the youth. Adam interpreted his lody as showing a small amount of concern, but also confusion.

“How ridiculous,” he remarked. “That servant is a second-generation vampire. What is he doing pretending to be a serf?”

“Can you tell what sort of powers he has?” Adam asked.

“Dream magic,” Aeran replied.

How is he hiding his true appearance then?

Unless another bloodfiend with flesh magic changed his appearance.

I hadn’t actually considered that possibility, but it makes a lot of sense.

“He may be able to put us to sleep if he gets the chance,” Adam guessed. “If we go to sleep in this Stage, vampires like him will be a big threat.”

“We can’t sleep?” Sofia asked, horrified.

“At least not for long,” Adam replied.

Závi frowned. “We need to get rid of it.”

Luo pulled out his crossbow. “I can hit it from here,” he said.

“Unless we can do it discreetly, we shouldn’t do it,” Adam said. “The guards and other citizens may believe us to be criminals.”

“I have an idea,” Sofia said. “Since he’s carrying his master’s things, why don’t we pretend to rob them. They don’t have any guards, and if it’s just one of us doing it, he may pursue on his own. Then the rest of us can ambush him sowhere out of sight of other people.”

“That may work,” Adam replied.

“I will be the bait,” Aeran said. “My Skittish Skaters will protect

in case he tries to cast a spell.”

He can dodge that? Adam realised in surprise. He’d used the boots once, and the effect simply let the wearer evade an attack aid at them every 90 seconds. They weren’t very effective for sustained defence, but in terms of an ambush or unexpected attack, they could completely negate the damage.

I didn’t realise how strong they were, but I guess that’s why Aeran is using them rather than the Slothling Spring Boots or sothing else.

They left the tavern and followed the aristocrat and his entourage for a bit, until Adam noticed a part of the district that had no lodies and seed to be a secluded plaza with a nice garden that was walled in between three buildings, creating a dead-end. A small street let into the plaza and it would serve well for an ambush. They waited within the garden, with Závi and Luo hiding out of sight, prepared to fire their explosive projectiles the mont the target entered.

Adam tracked Aeran as he went out to get the bloodfiend to follow him. Thanks to the finger he’d left in the bloodfiend’s back pocket, he knew the exact mont that Aeran bumped into him.

“Get ready,” he told the others.

Sofia quickly hid behind a statue and Adam floated up to the rooftop, having already prepared a spell pattern on the grass between two rose bushes that Aeran knew to jump over when he entered the plaza garden. He’d also finally taken the ti to set up his Beckoning Crimson and Shade Barrier spells, both wrapped around his torso, with the spidersilk coated in harvested blood. He knew that the bloodfiends could sll him from afar, but hoped that his appearance would just serve to fool them into thinking he was a lesser vampire.

Although Beck had stated that all the bloodfiends except the Patriarch and Matriarch only possessed one special power, Adam knew from Elia that any of them, especially the older ones, were extrely strong, even without the nightfall transformations boosting their physiques. Even though the second-generation vampire had appeared young, the very fact that he was a second-generation ant that he was incredibly strong and quite old.

Aeran’s lody ca closer, but for a while the finger Adam had planted didn’t move at all.

Then suddenly it was in motion, travelling absurdly fast.

Adam looked down the street as Aeran ca running, holding a golden egg in his left hand.

Aeran activated his jacket twice to launch himself forward, just in ti to avoid the pale blonde servant swiping his clawed right hand through where he’d been, after performing a leap so powerful it broke the stone tiles under him.

Shit. Second-generation bloodfiends are absurdly strong.

Adam gestured down to Závi, who in turn gestured to Luo and Sofia. In an instant, all of their lodies hardened, their worries and fears quelled under a heavy blanket of determination and anticipation.

Aeran flew forward with an activation of his grappling hook, just as the bloodfiend chasing him skidded to a halt and pointed his right index finger at him, firing off a beam of red-tinted purple Mana. Aeran’s boots must’ve activated, because his body suddenly spun around the attack, sending it flying into the air ineffectively. Then he landed back down on the street, turning into the plaza.

The vampire seed frustrated that his attack had missed and sped up his pursuit. His lody was unnervingly calm, and there was a sadistic note to it, perhaps because he knew he’d chased the thief into a dead-end.

Aeran hopped over the spell pattern on the grass as he ran through the garden, passing by where Závi and Luo hid. Then he stopped in front of the back wall, adopting a look of despair as he turned to face the bloodfiend entering the plaza.

“I appreciate the entertainnt,” the blonde youth said with a grin that revealed prominent canine fangs. The voice that ca out of his mouth was deep and coated in oil, nothing at all like what such a youth ought to sound like. His ears had beco long and sharp, and his eyes were a malevolent red. It was as if the physical exertion had undone part of his disguise. His hair was also a ruffled ss.

With a lazy gesture of his hand, a wave of red-purple magic flowed through the air and struck Aeran, imdiately knocking him out cold.

The vampire slicked his blonde hair back, grinning to himself. Then he sauntered into the plaza, stepping onto the grass.

“I will bring you back ho so we can have a lot of fun together,” he said, even though Aeran was fast asleep. Then he sniffed the air, clearly noticing so scent.

But before he could trace its source, his right shoe, a shiny dark-brown leather thing, touched Adam’s spell pattern.

“Now!” Adam shouted as the magic took hold and the Snare sent thorny vines of blood and flesh up from the grass like serpents, locking the bloodfiend in place.

Závi and Luo ca out from hiding, firing their bolts almost simultaneously, while Adam raised his right hand and launched his Heart Lance spell.

Luo’s Shell-Breaker struck the vampire’s torso, while Závi’s bolt sunk into his forehead, and Adam’s beam cut through his neck and shoulder. The explosive payloads of their projectiles sent blood, flesh, and fragnts of bone flying everywhere, while Adam severed the remains.

Before all the separate pieces settled on the grass and plaza tiles, Sofia had already rushed in and started chopping it all apart.

In just an instant, their ambush had succeeded.

[Second Generation Bloodfiend defeated.]

It’s just like Beck said, Adam mused. It’s okay to cheat and fight dirty, if it benefits humanity.