Chereads / The One Above All / Chapter 35 - Punishment

Chapter 35 - Punishment

I woke up shortly thereafter in the room below. The glass above was broken. Diach must have brought me down here after I collapsed.

The scientists were watching me from a distance as I slowly lifted myself up and off the table. The room around was still dazed but I had to find the girl. As I looked around, she was nowhere to be found.

"Where is she?" I said holding my head to keep from falling. No one answered the question so I had to repeat myself.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" I yelled to the scientists. A few jumped from the excitement but still no one answered. As I started to walk towards one of the scientists, my strength faded before I started to topple over.

"Take it easy. You are still weak." Diach said holding me up by the arm. As weak as I was, I was still sure I could get the answers I wanted if I forced the issue. None looked strong enough to fight me. But they did have importance with the clan if they were in charge of making more of me.

'We will have to be creative if we are to get answers from them.' The demon said without skipping a beat.

Before leaving again, we turned to say "We will see you again. For answers." I know I had just seen the girl but even her smell had been erased. She was completely gone. As I stood on the other side of the door smelling the air around, there was nothing.

"The cover works it seems." Diach said as they all watched me on the cameras. It was a thin door so them talking was easy to hear. The walk back to my room was long and arduous. We had to stop every few moments to regain our bearings. The other vampires saw our crippled condition as we walked through the corridors.

Some of the newer recruits thought this was their golden opportunity as they blocked the hall a few meters away. With the strength we had now, we would be no match for them. We had to bluff our way out of this one.

"Even as weak as I am, you all know I will still kill you with little resistance. The princes would not like me having to kill our own in the base but not much else to do, I suppose." I said looking at them ready to fight. We stayed next to the wall so we could feign strength and keep from collapsing if so need be.

"You are not fooling even yourself. In your condition, one of us could kill you let alone us all as a group." One of them said motioning another forward. There was no chance I could hit them full power so I had to defend to prove my point.

The vampire hit me in the torso with his forearm but there was an incredible weight behind his strike. The force of the blow slammed me into the wall and bounced my head off the rock. He was certainly someone I fought in the tournament but he was not this strong. Part of it was my current weakness, sure, but he was still much stronger.

"You feel that? That strength? We have come up with a little something just for you." The same vampire said as I rubbed my head. There was an odd lingering scent in the air since I came from the scientists' room.

'They have poisoned us. Watch yourself. I cannot come out for some reason. They have rendered me unable.' The demon said. I did not think there was anyone who could stop him physically let alone him coming out. My legs finally gave out before I dropped to my knees. His attack sapped the last of my strength.

The same one took another step toward me but stopped mid stride. The rest scattered shortly there after. After a few moments, I managed to get back to my feet. When I looked around to see what they ran from, there was no one around. After another hour, we finally made it back to the room. Diach was already there when I walked in.

"I could have swore you were just in the scientist area." I said confused. He pretended he did not hear me as he went on about what he was doing.

He could have been the one to make the others run. He was certainly strong enough to send them cowering away. But we both decided it best not to ask. That was a problem for another night.

We were bed ridden for days. We were even weaker the next night but started to feel better slowly from the third night on. It was a week before we were back to full.

We jumped out of bed after a week. It was refreshing having our strength back. What to do first, what to do.

'We have an order we need to take care of. The vampires are first. Then we will look for her.' I told the demon. He seemed to be in agreement as he was silent.

We walked around the base for a time before we found any of them. There were two sitting together in the feeding area waiting for their turn.

"Oh, only the two of you. That is quite the disappointment. Maybe with enough blood, the others will come." I said as I walked in looking directly at them. Sweat started beading on their foreheads. They knew they were no match as a group but with only the two of them they'd last seconds if that.

"Sir, you will have to take your personal issues outside, there is no fighting in the feeding chambers." The desk clerk said watching me. From what I could guess, he was rather weak and would not be much of an obstacle. None of the vampires waiting their turn would be able to stop me, not even together.

"Well then, I guess you better call security." I said as I dashed forward toward the pair. They jumped up out their chairs as I hit full stride. The next thing I knew, I was sliding face-down across the rock.

"Isn't this quite an interesting development?" I said spinning away from the clerk. He got up, came around the desk, and got to me before I could close the distance which meant he was quite fast. It was a few dozen meters but regardless it was a very quick ordeal.

Before I could even prepare to fight, he had me locked by the joints. The demon remained silent as I was tossed by the clerk.

"I will wait for you outside. There is only one entrance and exit to the feeding chamber and I have all the time in the world. We will have our fun. Call your accomplices if you want, they will suffer the same." I said getting to my feet to exit. We sat for over an hour on the opposite side of the hall watching as vampires came and went.

Finally the duo came out. The other two were nowhere to be seen to my surprise. They must have known they stood no chance at all even with the four so why come out alone?

"Where are your partners in crime?" I asked without lifting my head to look at them.

"We can do this alone. No reason to bring them here." One of the two said looking at me. It was an odd answer, certainly unexpected.

"You know I am going to kill you both horribly, right? Surely that possibility has crossed your mind." I asked seriously confused at what they were saying.

"You cannot kill us. The princes will not let you. You are still weaker than them, even if you are different from the rest of us. You have to follow their orders just like the rest of us." The other boldly claimed. He was the gutsier of the pair.

"Granted, I am not SUPPOSED to kill you, no. But do you really think you are worth more than I. The most I will get is a slap on the wrist." I said evilly grinning. There was no way the princes would actually care about these wastes. I could have my way with them as long as I wanted and no one would miss them. The other two could try for vengeance but they are bound to meet the same fate eventually.

"Well, off we go. The woods will be a sufficient final resting place. I'll make sure to dump your bodies somewhere the humans will never find so you do not have to worry about that at the very least. Let's get to it." I said standing up and walking with them following behind.

A few vampires stopped me on the way out to ask what was going on and I gave them the truth. There was no reason to hide it. They could tell the princes, sure, but no one could intervene fast enough to stop the next sequence of events. The princes would not leave their room for something this small.

"I am just going to kill these two. And their friends at a later time to be decided. I will be back before long." I said to those who asked. No one followed us out as they already knew the outcome of this battle.

We made it to the woods not too long after. It was quiet this late at night. Most of the animals had already taken shelter for the night besides a few owls and rabbits but even they were wise enough to keep their distance. The animals in these woods were generally pretty friendly with the vampires but they sensed bad intentions from me.

"Come on." I said waiting for them to get ready to battle. They were frozen in anticipation for my first move. Attacking first would be the worst possible outcome for them. Deciding to wait for me to attack was a wise choice. I was impressed.

"Well then, I will come to you." I said rushing forward to them. Before they could react, I was already punching one in the jaw, the one who did not know when to shut his mouth. He was moderately bigger than I was but that did not stop his body from rolling across the ground.

The other tried to throw a punch but I spun around it and kicked him in the head. It was more for show than damage. I wanted them to spend the last of their lives in dread.

As I hit the gutsy one in the ribs with a three-punch combo, the first finally got back to his feet. He paused where he stood, not wanting to challenge me. As I stared at him frozen, I finished this combo with a leg sweep and a kick in the chest to send him sprawling to his friend.

"You will have to fight as a team if you want any chance of even landing a hit. I have yet to even use any of my powers. At least try to make this a little interesting." I yelled to them. Every time they attacked, I separated them to show I was much better than they could hope to be. After tonight, they would not have a chance to close the gap between our abilities regardless.

When I managed to separate them for the third time, I took the opportunity to start dishing out vengeance. The talker tried to throw a claw out but I grabbed his hand as he did. He was screaming in pain after I punched down into his shoulder breaking the bone and ripping the muscle underneath.

Shortly after, the other got to his feet and tried to come in to save his friend but was of little resistance. I elbowed him in the chest and broke his sternum from the impact. He fell to his knees but I did not care as I kicked him away. Surprisingly, he was not down for long, even with broken bones in his chest.

When I picked up the first and slammed him into the ground, he let out a deep breath before I kicked him in the face and lifted him into the air. The other was standing by now just a few meters away so I kicked this one in the head and sent him flying into his friend.

The night was filled with screams and yelps of pain as I continued torturing them for hours. I made sure my voice was the last thing they heard before death.

"Do you see now what happens when you toy with an apex predator? You should have killed me when you had the chance. Now I am going to kill your friends, your human family, and everyone you have ever held dear." I said holding his head up so he could hear me.

The vampire let out a pained scream hearing this but I slammed his head back into the ground to silence him. With the strongest kick I could muster, I crushed his skull before killing his friend.

As I left their bodies in a tree to let the birds have, I went back to the base. There was still hours before the sun was due to rise.

I still had some blood splattered on me from the pair but that was of little concern to me. The others knew what I had done so they all avoided me in the halls.

After I got back to my room and washed my face and took off my tux, a messenger came to my room from the princes.

"I know what this is about." I said before he could tell me why he was here. I had to put on another suit before I could go talk to the princes.

I stood outside the door as I awaited this talk. I really did not want to deal with it. They had it coming.