I found that the food was delicious and the wine tasted wonderful. Some of the food was made from humans and some of it was made from monsters. In human society that would have been cannibalism, but in monster society it was called lunch. While we ate, Tarous and I discussed fighting styles and techniques. I finished my meal and had the vampire/human heart smoothie for dessert that was particularly good.
I never liked vampires, except as a snack that is. The closest monster to a vampire that I had ever liked was the Butler and he was definitely not a vampire, though he shared several abilities with them. Well, “liked” was a rather strong word to use. It would be more accurate to say I feared the Butler in ever tiny corner of my evil little soul.
Ignis returned to clear the table. We both flirted a little more. I was rather enjoying myself. Tarous rolled his eyes again.
Chapter 19
A few days later Tarous and I returned to the courtyard to train. He told me he had read both of the books I had lent him at least twice. He didn’t wait for me to officially begin the match, instead he went ahead and activated Withering Fist, covering his entire body in flames including his two short swords. Underneath the black flames his entire body was glowing golden. Whatever technique he was having issues with before, he seemed to have finally mastered it.
“This is the final form of Healing Angel Hands,” he informed me. “The books you gave me were very helpful in mastering the technique. My knowledge of life qi had been severely lacking, but not anymore.”
I removed my cube as well and instantly I had a large sword in my hands. Seeing that I was prepared, Tarous attacked first. I dashed forward to meet his attack while several copies of myself appeared, surrounding me. This time there were eight copies of myself. This was the final form of the Demon Mirror technique.
All of my copies moved with incredible speed. They moved in sync and as they got closer they all used the Inescapable Illusion Sword Art. Suddenly eighty-one blades shot towards Tarous. This time things were different. He couldn’t tell which of my swords were real, but I could tell he knew which of my copies was real. He followed me with his eyes.
I moved to the left and activated my Bloodlust technique. My eyes glowed red and a blood red aura covered my entire body. I could feel my bloodlust raging inside of me. I rose a few feet off the ground, my hair also turning blood red. My speed exploded.
The Bloodlust technique filled the air with my desire to kill. My killing intent was so strong it blocked Tarous’s ability to track me. Illusions of dogs, bears, tigers, and birds appeared, attacking and confusing Tarous.
My blade pierced his back and when he turned to slash me I stabbed him from the front as well. A third stab wound appeared at his shoulder, though he didn’t see the attack. I doubt he even realized he was stabbed it had happened so fast.
The final form of his Healing Angel Hands instantly healed him, which surprised me. His healing was now almost on par with mine. I felt myself being stabbed multiple times as well while we fought in such close quarters. Despite that we were in a draw. I was unable to hurt him enough to defeat him and the same could be said of me.
“FINALLY A TRUE CHALLENGE!” I yelled in a voice far deeper and louder than usual. I never expected Tarous to improve so fast.
I would do him the honor of showing him my true form! My body turned back into a black liquid and reformed. A humanoid shape began to appear, but it didn’t stop at a normal human height as I continued to grow larger and larger. My form towered over Tarous. My true form was at least ten feet tall, probably more.
More and more heads began to take shape. Eventually ten heads and twenty arms took shape. All twenty of my eyes were glowing red and all of my heads had long black hair and large white tusks sticking out of my mouths. I tried to speak but it came out as a growl, like that of an insane beast. All ten of my heads roared at the same time, a terrifying roar that shook the ground.
My eyes glowed brighter red and soon my skin began to turn a deep blue. All twenty of my hands had long curved fingers ending in long black claws. Each claw dripped a purple liquid, a natural poison. My arms were four times as thick as a normal man. More like tree trunks than arms. Each bulged with muscle. The bloodlust that was previously in the air grew a thousand fold. I was losing myself to my bloodlust. My desire to devour flesh was overwhelming.
Tarous stood very still before me. Life and death qi swirled within Tarous’s body, increasing by the second. Faster and faster it circulated through his body until a black scythe symbol appeared on his forehead. In a flash, Tarous disappeared and reappeared amongst my ten heads. I snarled and tried to devour him.
With a sword in each hand he began to chop off my heads. It was mildly painful but as soon as one head went flying it regrew immediately. I didn’t belong to some third rate monster bloodline after all. I slashed him with my claws that were covered in poison. Those wounds didn’t heal.
I was slowly gaining the upper hand. It became apparent that he was going to lose this fight. He was an impressive fighter, but I was a Rask. A small crowd of monsters had gathered to watch the fight.
One of my large hands grabbed him, followed by another and then another. I had finally trapped him. He could no longer use his speed to dodge. I wanted to end the fight quickly so that I wouldn’t accidentally hurt him.
Devouring Life technique. Life energy flooded out of me and into him. His wounds began to heal, despite my poison. Without meaning to, I loosened my grip in surprise. Then he increased the power of his Withering Fist technique. The flames on his body tripled in intensity and death qi flooded into my arms where life qi once pooled. Eleven of my arms immediately exploded from his technique. Something that was incredibly painful for me.
The effect of his Withering Fist technique was apparently magnified when combined with the monster technique Devouring Life. One technique emptied out my life qi and the other replaced it with death qi. It was a powerful attack combo.
Tarous looked rather smug until all of my arms grew back and giant swords glowing with lightning magic appeared in each of my hands. I drew back all twenty giant glowing swords at the same time and prepared to strike. Lightning danced between the twenty blades, each bolt incredibly powerful.
“ENOUGH!” yelled the Lord Rask standing on a nearby balcony. His voice thundered and shook the ground. It was far more frightening than any thunder though. I shrank back at the sound of my father’s voice and quickly returned to my human form.
I looked over at Tarous and I realized that seeing my true form had left him visibly shaken. Few have ever even heard of such a large and powerful creature outside of fairytales. Even a Dreg in dragon form would be easily slaughtered by a Rask in our true form.
“It truly is hard for me to find a sparring partner. Thank you.” I said with a satisfied smile on my face.
I expected my father to be angry about the fight. Instead he wore a curious expression on his face that turned into amusement as I looked up at him.
“Congrats human, my son has bestowed the honor of allowing you to see his true form.”
“More like I beat the crap out of him and he had to transform,” mumbled Tarous. My father and I both chose to ignore his mumblings.
“Going forward you are no longer a prisoner of war, but a servant of our Rask family.”
“What’s the difference?” asked Tarous.
“You now get paid,” replied Lord Rask with a smirk. Then he turned and walked back into the castle.
It was at that point Tarous and I realized that parts of the castle were currently missing after our fight. Tarous at that moment was rather glad he didn’t have to pay for the damages.
“The damages are coming out of your pay!” yelled Lord Rask to Tarous from within the castle.
“Crap.”
Chapter 20
“Let’s go for a walk,” I mentioned to Tarous casually.
After our fight I had a new respect for Tarous. He would one day become a powerful warrior and there wa
s nothing in all the dimensions that was more respected by monsters than strength. To show Tarous that he was appreciated I decided to take him for a walk around the city. Some fresh air would do him good.
Monsters pointed and stared at us as we left the castle. Tarous seemed to be caught off guard. In the castle he was invisible, but outside everyone was watching him. A few were drooling at him as well.
Tarous pointed out that our society was primitive and we didn’t have anything like computers or video games. I pointed out that eating people was one of our favorite hobbies. He stopped pointing out how primitive our society was after that.
Eventually it grew tiresome having to deal with people staring or vendors trying to sell me something. My clothes were far finer than the average monster and they all wanted to take advantage of my wealth. I knew a shortcut and turned down an alley I had used several times before. Today, that was a mistake on my part.
In that particular dirty alleyway several shadows detached themselves from the wall and began to surround us. Each was easily seven foot tall and bulging with muscles. Tarous stopped beside me, already tense and on guard.
“Great, more werewolves,” I muttered to myself. I was getting rather tired of werewolves. I truly think the monster gene pool would be better if werewolves were removed from it.
There were seven, no, eight of them. It wasn’t unusual for others of high society to hire thugs to kill members of rival families. None of them had weapons, apparently they preferred claws.
I guessed that between George’s defeat and the discovery of the new feeding grounds, the Rask family was growing in power a little too quickly and had upset another noble family. I decided that I was going to send a message back to all the other noble families. I rarely get angry. I’m actually a rather nice person. Unfortunately, others mistake my kindness for weakness.
“Whatever they are paying you, I will double the amount,” I said as the creatures drew closer. It was an empty offer, I was just buying time.
“No deal. This is only half about the money. Getting to kill the son of a Lord is worth a lot to us,” said one of the larger werewolves in the group. Most of them had brown, black, or silver fur. This one had gold colored fur.
I made sure to make a mental note of that, golden fur meant he had a purer bloodline than the rest. A noble family among werewolves. I would soon take care of that family and remove their bloodline from the gene pool.
“Mutts,” I murmured. The thugs could hear me clearly with their impressive hearing. They did not appreciate being called such an offensive term.
“Muscle for hire with little brains, werewolves,” I told Tarous. “One of the lowest forms of monsters.” Werewolves are a mixed breed of monsters and humans. Often times with more human blood than monster blood. There are almost no remaining werewolves of pure blood. Most could manage to turn into wolves, some could barely manage to do more than grow hairier. Those with purer blood often had silver fur and the most pure of bloodlines sometimes even had golden fur. Those were far stronger than the average werewolf.
There had been talk in the past that if more humans couldn’t be found then the next step would be to start eating werewolves. A few of the youngest and oldest werewolves, too weak to defend themselves, had already mysteriously disappeared.
“We will show you who the real monsters are!” yelled one of the werewolves as he completed his transformation and charged.
I exploded into a black liquid. It was a halfway point of my transformation, like how a werewolf can change into a human or a wolf, but with enough control they can stop halfway. That in-between form is actually their strongest form.
A thick strand of the black liquid shot at each werewolf. The tip of each strand was harder than steal and sharper than any sword. Each werewolf died in seconds as their hearts were pierced simultaneously. This was another of the many powers of a Rask. Even the golden furred wolf died when I stabbed him through his heart. A strong werewolf is still a werewolf no matter the color of its fur.
I reformed into my human form. Tarous relaxed his guard and looked thoughtful.
“Trash like you never even stood a chance,” I told the dead bodies. I took the golden furred werewolf’s head as a trophy. I really enjoy collecting trophies.
I continued to show Tarous the city. It wasn’t all that impressive. The city really was primitive compared to human standards. What really seemed to interest Tarous the most were the creatures living in it. Every monster from every fairytale or story existed here, and several that humans had never even heard of or imagined.
Vampires and werewolves walked right beside creatures made of fire and stone. Creatures of every size imaginable and of every color existed here as well. A rainbow colored slime was a rather interesting sight to behold even for me. Tarous went crazy over it, asking me a ton of questions.
Eventually we returned to the castle where we found the Lord Rask was waiting for us. He stood at the entrance tapping his right foot. I wondered how long he had been there. He looked rather upset.
“After you snuck out on May she decided to cancel your engagement.”
I honestly didn’t care.
“You have put us in a difficult situation. As a Rask, few monsters possess a significantly powerful bloodline to qualify for marriage into our family. We had to arrange a new marriage with another family. One we had hoped to avoid.”
At those words, I truly began to worry.
“They also arranged the marriage without asking their daughter’s opinion and I’m pretty sure your future wife has already hired people to have you killed. Despite that, you have left us no choice. You will marry her, no matter what the two of you want.”
My father turned and walked off. I gave chase immediately.
“Father! How could you?”
Lord Rask did not slow down as he kept walking. “You left me no choice.”
We arrived outside his office. He took out a key and went in with me close on his heels. He went and sat in his comfortable leather chair behind his big wooden desk. I placed my golden furred werewolf head onto the corner of my father’s desk because I was tired of carrying it.
I wondered once again about my obsession with trophies. Did I need constant validation or something?
“Have you ever heard of the Ice Empress?” My father interrupted my thoughts.
“Isn’t she the one that’s also known as the black widow because she has had every husband from every one of her arranged marriages brutally and horribly murdered?”
“So you have heard of your future wife,” replied my father with a big smile.
“Dad!”
“Why do the black widow’s parents keep arranging marriages if she keeps killing them all? Is that some acceptable thing here in the world of monsters?” Tarous asked quietly. It seemed like a rhetorical question, and everyone ignored him.
My father glared at me. “What do you want from me? Between you and your mother you’ve managed to run off every eligible female monster.”
The werewolf head had a lopsided smile on its face, and it seemed to be laughing at me. I backhanded the head, causing it to roll onto the ground. Tarous gave me a strange look.
“You have to learn to never take crap from anyone, even a decapitated werewolf head,” I said in a serious voice.
Tarous rolled his eyes again. At this rate they were going to get stuck.
The thick wooden doors of Lord Rask’s office exploded into a thousand wood splinters.
“MY BABY!” my mother yelled. She sprinted across the room and quickly wrapped her arms around me in a giant hug.
When she noticed the werewolf head on the floor she immediately covered my eyes with her hand.
“Don’t look, it’s horrible!”
With my mom’s hands over my eyes I replied while doing my best to remain calm, “Mom, I’m the one that killed it. I am fine, everything is ok, please calm down.”
“Of course you did baby. DON’T LOOK, it’s a gruesome sight.�
� I tried to get away, but it was a lost cause. She continued to keep my eyes covered with her hand. At this point she was almost hysterical.
“MY POOR BABY! I heard you had been attacked and I came right away!”
Lord Rask looked at my mother. “Dear, don’t coddle the boy.”
“HE IS MY BABY AND I WILL CODDLE HIM ALL I WANT!” she screamed so loud the walls shook. Small dust particles slowly fell from the ceiling. I don’t think that crack in the wall had been there before either.
Tarous took a few steps back in fear. He had almost died once and was currently being held prisoner in a world full of flesh eating monsters. He wasn’t accustomed to this level of insanity.
Lord Rask held out his hands in front of himself as a sign of surrender, or to shield his face. I’m not sure which.
“Dad, tell her I was the one to kill the werewolf.”
My dad grinned. “Sure you were.”
I couldn’t win for losing.
“Edward don’t lie about such horrible things! I’m just glad someone came by and saved you. My precious son could have died!”
I released a loud, slow sigh. “I’m sorry for lying mother. I will be more careful in the future.”
Tarous had his hands over his mouth and was doing his best to contain his laughter. His face had begun to turn red and his entire body was shaking.
“You’re forgiven son. I love you so much! I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Afterwards my father managed to pry my weeping mother off of me. He then escorted the weeping mess that was his wife out of his office and through the hole that once had a door covering it. I have seen tornados that are less destructive than my mother.
I sat down in my father’s office to reflect on everything happening in my life. I wondered who would kill me first, my mother by smothering me to death or my wife through castration. I know castration doesn’t kill and I can also shapeshift, but I just know somehow my new wife will find a painful way to slowly kill me. Not so different from the typical marriage, I guess.
Tarous Page 10
