The prince was ready for battle and shot forward the instant the proctor said start. He was faster than anyone or anything I had ever seen. He was on me in less than a second. Before I could even put my hands up to block, he kicked me in the side of the face with an incredible power.
The blow left me spitting up blood in a daze but the assault did not stop there. The prince shifted his weight back around and spun around to kick me on the other side in the ribs. This time I was expecting his speed and readied my body for the blow. It still hurt like hell but was not as effective as the first.
"Oh?" The prince said interested in my adaptive abilities. He elbowed me in the chest and sent me stumbling back from the unexpected attack. The crowd was going even crazier with each attack he landed.
My anger was surging and I could feel the power coming. My claws were already mostly grown and my fangs had come out but as we fought, I changed more. My wings had grown and my fangs got even longer.
The prince looked on as I transformed but kept attacking. When he tripped me and kicked me away, I was steaming with anger. I let out a ferocious roar as I took in the cheers of the crowd.
They slowly quieted down and looked at me in disbelief. The prince was stunned seeing how I looked. My teeth were all canines and not the usual 4 most vampires had.
"What is this? What did you bring into our base?" The prince yelled towards Diach who watched with intent. It was not a new scene for him so he did not think anything of it but for the princes and crowd who had never seen something like me, they thought I was not a vampire at all.
"He is a vampire, I assure you. I made him myself. But he is a new breed." Diach beamed watching the fight. The prince launched forward before rolling onto his hands and catapulting his feet up into my face but I caught his feet mid kick and whipped him away.
The prince did not seem nearly as fast now that I was angry and operating at 100%. As the prince slid to a stop and stood back up, I jumped towards him and stopped so we were face to face. He sized me up as I did him.
"You are a bold one, aren't you?" The prince said with a smirk looking up at me. I was tall in this form, much taller than he was. The prince was already a pretty short man but compared to me transformed, he was miniscule. He jumped back as I stood and watched him. The crowd was still silent looking at me. They must had never have seen anything like me.
As I lowered my stance and got ready, the prince watched my next set of moves. He brought his hands up instantly and blocked the punch I threw after darting into him. I knew my abilities by now and if I kept attacking, I would get faster and stronger as I did. Whether he attacked or I did, I would gain the upper hand eventually.
"You are thinking you will gain the advantage if this drags on, aren't you? Allow me to show you just how mistaken you are." The prince said cockily. He blocked my strikes as they came and did not even bother dodging or parrying me. As my attacks got faster, so did his blocks. I would have to rely on my martial arts if I stood a chance.
I backed away and changed stances. First, I had to control my breathing to increase my power. As I took deep breaths in and out, the prince stood back up.
"Ah, is this the famed new age human martial arts? I have wanted to see what it was like since hearing about it six hundred years ago." The prince said watching as I focused on myself before focusing on him. As I slowed my breathing and recentered, I could feel the air circulating in my lungs and throughout my body. Next, I opened my eyes and looked at the prince to pinpoint his weak points. He seemed to be favoring his left side.
His attacks were ever so slightly faster on that side but he was confident on both sides. I looked at him and jumped forward to attack. I was not throwing the same strikes as before but switched to a more fluid motion but my strikes were even more crisp now. They were more crisp and more powerful.
We switched from me attacking to both of us attacking and defending. As he tried to shoulder check me, I used the momentum to circle and elbow him from the opposite side. We walked around each other before fighting again.
I kicked up and over his head which he blocked and punched up into my jaw. As I spun in the air, I turned my momentum and kicked down into the prince's shoulder. He shrugged me off with no effort. I had to wipe the blood from my mouth from that strike. I was getting stronger and stronger but he was still batting me away like I was no more than a fly.
I changed stances again, this time deeper down and my arms relaxed. 'Flowing river crushes rock' I said in my mind and I ran forward and whipped my arm around and down into his ribs. He checked me and shook it off as I was expecting. Next he attacked with two palms directly down into my shoulders but I caught his hands mid swing. When I tried to headbutt him to back him up, he came up with a knee to my jaw. I was dazed from the force of that strike.
The crowd started cheering again after I changed into my human martial arts but this time half were cheering for me. The half that were not were not even cheering against me as much as just going along with the excitement of the crowd at large. The prince lunged forward in my grogginess and hit me with two strikes to the chest. The first took all the air from my lungs and the second near crippled me. I dropped from pain at the second strike.
It was an incredible force but it was so pinpoint that I could not tell if he hit me with a fist, a palm, or directly with his fingers. I looked up at him to see if I had done any damage at all but he was still as clean as before we fought except for a few scratches to his armor from my attacks. The prince ended it with a two-punch combo followed by a roundhouse kick to my jaw. I fell over unconscious after his kick.
I woke up in the medical bay an hour later. In a panic, I jumped up and out of the bed to the ground but my legs had not reacclimated and I fell over as soon as I landed. The doctor gave Diach some money and walked away.
"I tried to tell him you would jump out of the bed but he did not listen." Diach said counting the coins in his hand. He tossed the bag in his jacket and sat on the chair next to my bed. I had a pounding headache and the rest of the night before was a little hazy.
"What happened?" I asked Diach rubbing my head where it hurt the most. It was a tender spot and touching it hurt even more but relaxed the tension in the area.
"You did better than anyone was expecting, including the prince. But I had to get your unconscious body from the middle of the ring and bring you back here. The stands were erupting in cheers for you regardless, though, so congrats to you on that. I have not heard them cheer like that for someone against the princes in a long time.
You won them over with your refusal to lose." Diach said reading some parchment he had buried in his pocket. He looked over the long paper before stuffing it back in his pocket and looking over to me.
"I did not do anything except get beat up." I said back looking down disappointed in myself. I was expecting to at least put up a bit of a fight but I was manhandled like I was a toy. Diach watched as I pitied myself.
"You did better than anyone could have expected. The tests usually take about 3 or 4 minutes but you managed to stay conscious for over 20 minutes! That is very impressive." Diach said. He was very proud of me but I was not proud of myself. Even all my years of training were nothing against the prince's overwhelming strength.
I was prepared to do anything to get on their level based on the stories but experiencing it firsthand, I did not know if I would ever even be in the same realm of abilities. We sat in silence for a little under an hour before the doctor came back in and said I could leave whenever.
"You are not going to give me anything to help me heal?" I asked the doctor as he turned to leave. He spun back around before answering.
"Ah, yes, you were a human until recently. Well almost any injury you sustain will heal on its own given a little time. Our bodies can heal almost any injury in under a night. You should be just about healed up now if not already fully healed up." The doctor said walking around the curtain and away.
I was feeling better than when I was fighting but my head was still pounding. It was partially from stress from what I could tell. I got up from the bed slowly this time to give my legs time to adjust.
After a few steps around the bed, I was back to normal and left the medical bay. Diach led the way back to the bar from before. I was met with some high fives and whispers on the way.
"That is him. The new breed who fought off the prince for nearly 25 minutes." A female vampire said whispering to her friend as we approached. Her friend stopped me on the way and gave me a small kiss on the cheek before they walked away. It caught me by surprise and made me blush.
"Not used to that, are you?" Diach said with a laugh at my reddened face. I slapped both my cheeks and kept walking along. I would remember those two as they were very gorgeous women. They far and away surpassed even Nikki and Linz from my human life and they were absolutely stunning.
The one who kissed me had silver waist length hair while the other had long brown hair. The silver haired one was noticeably taller than the other by about 5 or 6 inches. When we got to the bar, everyone crowded around us. They barraged me with cheers and good jobs for my fight. I was still disheartened from it but everyone else was in joyous spirits so it lifted me up.
Before long I had a big smile on my face and we were partying in the bar. It was a joyous night with all my newfound comrades.
Half way through, a man came and whispered something to Diach which made him get up and leave. I watched as he exited but he motioned that he would be back soon so I did not pay him much mind but partied on with everyone here. The barhand was sliding drink after drink down to the bar at me; none of which spilled at all.
His skill impressed me more and more with each drink as I got more drunk. These drinks were like a fermented blood of some kind as they had an alcoholic effect. The two women from before found their way end towards the end of the night and came and sat on either side of me.
"Well hello there, ladies." I sputtered out now hammered. They both smiled at me before scooting closer. I was liking the attention I was getting from them.
"This is Kristine and my name is Ally." The silver haired woman whispered in my ear. She blew into my ear and sent a shiver down my body. The woman was very seductive but I had never been flirted with to this extent so I did not know how to respond.
"Hi, I'm Kristine." The long haired brunette said with a smile. She was very peppy but still somehow reserved when talking to me. "I got my friend here to come with me to talk to you. You did really well against the prince and I wanted to come check on you."
"I am okay. It was a little disheartening to be tossed around like that but I did well from what everyone tells me." I said after hiccupping from drunkenness. I had a strong blood smell on my breath from all the fermented blood I had been drinking.
"Well the prince can kill almost anything on this planet pretty easily so considering how long you stood up with him, it was a very good job. I have never seen anyone fight with him like that. To tell you the truth, I have only actually seen him fight a few times, usually it is the guards that fights everyone for the test." The woman Kristine said still smiling at me. When she smiled, I could really see just how beautiful the woman was. She was truly breathtaking.
"Thank you." I said in a moment of clarity. I felt a strange attraction to her just from this short conversation and her friend must have picked up on it. As we continued talking, the friend slowly distanced herself from us. I felt like we were the only two in the room as I talked to her for a time. Just before dawn, Diach came back but he sat a little ways away with the other woman.
I was relieved he did not come right back to us as I was enjoying talking to her. I noticed I was not getting nearly as tired since I was in the base as I had before because the sun came up. It was almost like night never ended in here but ever so slightly I could feel the fatigue setting in. After yawning, I finally stood and stretched.
"I am going to go find somewhere to sleep for the day. I am exhausted from fighting the prince." I said to Kristine. She looked towards her friend who gave her an approving nod.
"Well, you can come back with us and sleep in our room. It is not usually allowed but I am sure the prince will not mind tonight considering what you have been through." Kristine said sweetly. I was not sure about going back because I did not want to do something that I would regret and end up never pursuing this woman again.
"Do not worry, we are only going to sleep. It is going to take a lot more than that to get me involved with you." Kristine said sweetly. I decided to go along with it and followed her back to her room. She slept a ways away from the bar almost in the back of the resting quarters. They were separated into male and female from what I could tell walking through some all-male rooms and a few all-female rooms after.
The room itself was not anything overly impressive but it did smell just like the women did. It was a mesmerizing scent and I instantly fell head-over-hells for the smell. When I got my shirt off, Kristine looked at me amazed.
"Wow, you take really good care of yourself." The woman said sculpting my muscles with her hands. She liked what she saw as she ran her hands down my chest and abs.
"I lift a few weights from time to time." I said back looking down at her. Being this close to her, I could really tell there was tension between us. She quickly backed away and went to her bed to lie down. I only saw two beds in the room so I was not sure what I was supposed to do about sleeping.
"You can come lay here with me. We are only going to sleep." Kristine said lying down in her bed. I did not think anything of it because of how tired I was. When I got in the bed, I fell asleep instantly. The bed was so soft and warm and smelled like Kristine. It was a comfortable place to be. It made me a little sad that this would be a one time thing.