I woke up to the sweet sound of yelling and pounding on my rover. I got up and looked out the window to see a large white man with a very thick mustache yelling about blocking the way for his customers. I rolled down the window, "Sorry about that sir, I'll be on my way!" I called out to him. He glared at me before going back into his store.
I looked at the console, we had only drained half of an energy cell so fuel wasn't an issue. I suspected the vehicle had pulled over as we had reached the outskirts of the city without an actual destination and thus pulled over so as to not block traffic.
I looked through possible selections in the destinations but only shops and restaurants filled the majority of the list. In the filters, I put in library and blood and the search refined itself into libraries, hospitals, blood donation builds, and so on. I chose the library, for now, I needed information and a place of knowledge was probably my best bet.
As I rolled through the city, I marveled at all the sites. Every 20 miles, there would be a wall about two stories high that would block off portions of the city. I wasn't sure why you would need the walls but thinking about the wolves and spiders I had run into a while back. I realized maybe they weren't the biggest problem the cities had to deal with.
During my trip around town, I saw people levitating, throwing fire, and all sorts of abilities being used though most of the time it was for fun, I had seen a few people using their "gifts" against others in a more forceful manner.
I didn't feel bad for those being hurt. Instead, I was excited, there was an abundance of prey and that violence seemed to be a normal past time.
Within an hour, I arrived at the library. I parked my vehicle and put away my sleeping bag, I locked my doors and headed for the library doors. It was relatively late into the evening but the library was still open, so I walked up to the counter where a young man was working at his station.
He looked up and smiled at me, "Good evening sir, we will be closing in the next two hours, is there anything I can help you find?"
I smiled back and leaned against the counter, "Indeed you can, I need a few economics books as well as history going back the last 20 years. I'm doing some research and need a few references."
The boy typed while I talked and he passed me a paper with the number 8 on it, I raised an eyebrow wondering if it was a coincidence.
He spoke up a moment after, "I saw the 8 on your back so I put you at table 8, in a few minutes the books will be brought over just remember you don't have a lot of time before we close."
I nodded and headed over to my table, I didn't wait long as a small robot hovered over and dropped a small stack of books in front of me before zipping away. The one on top read "economics for dummies" which I found amusing, I skimmed through it as I had no real interest but I needed to know the currency and how it worked.
Luckily it wasn't too complicated, credits were the form of currency and there was a tax for the government on everything 3%-25% depending on the goods. I didn't have a lot of time for the rest of a business lesson so I briefly looked at news articles of major events.
Apparently I was on a planet called Ranquist,' strange name', and it was a planet under the Terran Protectorate, which was a federation of colonized planets. Thanks to breakthroughs in FTL (faster than light) travel, seed ships had traveled quite far though it would only take a year of travel from my current planet to reach the "homeworld".
Looking through the relevant history there was only one conflict in the last 10 years and that was with a planet on the outer rim of control, a race of blues skinned giants called the Urwani, though I dug a little deeper and they were just big compared to humans while on their own world they would be similar in scale to the Terrans.
There was however no mention of bloodsucking monsters anywhere. 'Maybe my kind is brand new to this world?' I wondered. I went back to the young boy at the counter, "Excuse me, I'm just curious have you ever heard of a race of bloodsucking creatures, and bipedal wolves, or even intelligent giant spiders."
This time I received a strange glance but the boy shrugged before he tapped on his station before returning his attention back to me, "Well we do have a small collection of myths and legends along with quite a bit of fan based material but I will have them taken to your table."
"Thank you!" I called over my shoulder as I walked back to my seat, once the books arrived, I didn't have too long until the library closed. I quickly looked through several myths and legends of the vampire, werewolves, elves, and many others. The Arachne were in a few myths as well but I took everything with a grain of salt.
Many of the myths and legends were steeped in fear of the unknown, possible hearsay, or propaganda by religious institutions. The fictitious works were over romanticized and obviously not to be relied upon, there was even one that had the vampires glittering like crystals refracting sunlight. Though most of the stories had a semblance of weakness under the sun.
I highly doubted that silver was the bane of any supernatural beings. Even if the silver was blessed or forged in a certain way. Closing the books, I decided to leave, I thanked the young man on the way out and made my way to the rover. On my way back, I could hear music and laughter. I looked around my rover and saw where the sounds of fun was coming from.
Across from the library, there was a bar. Now, I had no money, so I supposed I would miss out or so I thought, until I saw a large group of men pulling several wealthy looking kids into the back alley.
"Now this could be fun." I smiled to myself and opened the rover, I picked out a few knives to replace the ones I lost while I put on a pair of black gloves and my spiked knuckles. I dumped out a few bottles of water before putting them into a small first aid kit, I locked the rover before I crossed the street with a skip in my step. I was starting to get hungry.
I approached the alley, no one stood guard so I walked slowly to the end of it. I heard a bit of yelling and decided to listen in. I approached a small crowd of thuggish characters, and for some reason, they were all wearing blue.
I placed my first aid kit against a wall and watched the show.
A group of five youths were forced against the back wall, a slightly muscular boy stood beside a cold faced female who was speaking to what looked like the leader of the thugs while three other youths hid behind them.
The thug leader had spiky blue hair and easily towered at 6 feet tall, his muscular arms were similar to the color of stone and were crossing his chest. He spoke in a loud voice to rile up his pack. "Come on now, we all know that you rich kids at the academy can spare some change for the less fortunate?" a few of his lackeys snickered while they brandished their weapons.
The cold-looking princess reached into her bag and tossed out a stack of banknotes before speaking to the leader in a frigid voice, "That is all the cash I have." the others followed her lead and tossed out their banknotes as well.
One of the lackeys went forward and collected the cash. He counted it quickly before handing it to his boss, "A little over 3000 credits Ray."
The boss clicked his tongue, "The two boys can leave but you three girls will need to add a bit of incentive if you want to get out of here, these streets are dangerous so just think of it as a protection fee." the boss sneered.
The faces of the girls went pale and the tall youth in front clenched his fists.
At this point, I was getting bored, and so while everyone was focussed on the kids, I thought this is a good chance to have a snack.
I walked up behind one of the lackeys, before he knew I was there I wrapped an arm around his throat and cut off his airways so he couldn't scream. He struggled as I dragged him into the dark alley, he elbowed my ribs which started to ache after a third blow, I heard something metallic scrape free. He must have a knife, not wanting to get stabbed, I wrenched the fellow around and smashed his face into the wall.
Disoriented, he tried to catch his bearing but in the dark he had trouble seeing me. I gave a light jab to his throat, he immediately dropped his knife and wheezed for air. While he struggled to breathe, I rushed forward and grabbed him by his hair and guided his face to my knee.
The thug fell to the ground, he was a tough little cockroach. He started to crawl back towards his friends, though that ended with a kick to the side of his head. I picked him up and carried him towards the rover. I checked and made sure no one was watching before I crossed the street.
I opened the car, broke out some rope and trussed up my little piggy before I fashioned a gag just for him made of duct tape, this rover was filled with all sorts of tools just waiting to be used. Preferably on prey and looking down at my snack, I couldn't help the thought popping into my head 'who doesn't like meals on wheels?'
I could smell a light scent of blood from the fellow, he must have gotten scratched up a bit during the fight. A part of me wanted to eat him now but there was more than just this one fellow that needed a beating.
I left the rover and ran back to the alley, there was hollering and cheering coming from the thugs now so something must have happened in the few short minutes I had been away. The girls were back up against the wall, the tall cold beauty had a cut lip and her uniform was dirty while the young man in glasses was bleeding out on the ground.
The strong looking youth was currently being beaten to a pulp by a few of the thugs. I was a little curious as to why these rich kids came here but it didn't matter in the end. All that mattered was that the cold beauty smelled delicious. I was going to feed from her.
A wide grin crept on my face.
I approached a pair of thugs that were cheering from the back of the crowd, there were only 11 remaining after I collected my meal to go. I pulled out my knife and waited until one leaned back towards me, I put my hand over his mouth and jerked him backward. I stabbed the thug in the neck and tossed him to the side, he would be dead in under a minute.
I moved onto his friend.
The man started to turn when he noticed his friend was missing, I stabbed at his eyes but he backed away and screamed, luckily the others didn't catch on. He had a steel pipe and swung it at my head, I ducked to the side and felt the wind pass my lips before I could recover a thick pillar of earth came out of the ground and slammed into my side.
I left the ground for a few moments before we got reacquainted, the pain radiating from my side was probably from cracked or broken ribs, I went with blow and rolled until I could get my feet beneath me.
The thug I was fighting sneered at me, his eyes were glowing an earthy yellow, I wondered if he had any other abilities. I had dropped my knife but my spiked knuckles were all I needed, I charged forward before doing a quick spin to my left dodging another earth pillar.
Surprised that he missed, the thug swung his pipe. I took the blow to my shoulder and struck his jaw with a right hook, he stumbled back and I pressed my advantage.
Two jabs to his nose and a kick to his groin dropped the man to his knee, of course his pipe went flying and made loud metallic pings as it rattled across the ground. With nothing but a moment to spare I pulled the thug up to me and bit his neck, it wasn't quite as delicious as my first meal but that may have more to do with what my first meal was, though the amount of power I was receiving from this fellow was also very small in comparison to my first.
I watched the crowd while I greedily sucked the life out of their comrade, one after another noticed the commotion and turned to face me. I didn't mind them watching, the blood I was absorbing had made my pain disappear while my strength returned in spades.
Behind the crowd, the boy on the ground was barely conscious while the girls in the back were wide-eyed, though, with either fear or shock, I couldn't tell. The leader of the thugs glanced at me for a moment then ordered his lackeys to kill me.
I backed up towards the alley, it was narrow and it would keep the fight even. Only two, possibly three thugs at the most, would be able to come at once and they probably wouldn't be very well trained.
A steel pipe, a knife, and surprisingly a gladius. Though the sword was rusty and looked like it hadn't been taken care of in many years, it would be a more effective weapon than the pipe. I kept backing up until the thug in the center tripped on a bottle.
He stumbled into the pipe wielding gangster, I shoved my hostage towards the trio sending them all off balance, the swordsmen recovered first and gave an unsteady stab at my face. I ducked beneath the lunge but he caught me in the shoulder, I traded the attack with one of my own.
I didn't have an angle in my crouched position to do much but I put a spiked fist into his crotch eliciting a sharp wail, the blow was light enough that it wouldn't debilitate him. I backed away as the other lackeys started to recover. Their lack of training was evident as the man with the pipe ran ahead of his friend in a mad charge screaming something about vengeance for Freddy.
He gave a few wild swipes that I dodged away from. His wild attacks got in the way of his back up, though his frenzied attacks made it difficult to get any openings for my own blows and I would run out of alley soon.
I dodged an overhead swing and gave a solid blow to his ribs before I backed away toward one of the walls. I heard a grunt before I backed away, I could smell a new scent of blood as my spikes did damage.
Heat radiated from my side and smacked into my face and the force of the small blast knocked me down. I rolled up against the wall and looked up to where the blast came from. One of the trio was holding his fist directed at me, the fist had dull orange flames flickering in and out around his fist. another ability user?
"How many of these people had abilities?" I hissed.
The thug with the pipe turned my way and screamed a battle cry and charged towards me. I rolled away from him, his pipe struck the wall. The wall spiderwebbed like a broken windshield, nearly three feet in diameter. If I had taken that blow, I would be hard pressed to walk away from it.
Biting off more than I could chew as a vampire, how ironic. Though I am faster, it seems like I am at a disadvantage. It seemed like the big oaf was incapable of formulating a real plan of attack.
I made a clear line of sight for the fire user while dodging the wild blows of the berserker with the pipe. Finally, I felt the heat again and fell to the ground. The fiery fist hit the berserker in the face and dropped him on his back, I dived onto him and began landing blows on his burnt face.
My spiked knuckles soon turned his face into a ruined mess. A blast of fire struck me from behind, interrupting my attack. The blast bowled me over. I quickly stood up and ran to the entrance of the alley. I went around the corner and heard footsteps coming my way. I stopped and waited in ambush, the fire throwing youth came around the corner and before he could shout, I grabbed him by the collar and bit into his neck.
His blood washed down my parched throat. He even tried to light me on fire, but I refused to let go even as he burned my back. His blood was a real treat. It was spicy compared to my other meals, several footsteps started coming my way preventing me from completing my meal.
I tossed the man to the ground and raced across the street and pulled my keys from my pocket. There was a faster way to deal with so many targets.