A pair of black wings tore out of Alexander's back. His face began to grow black hair and his bones broke and became hollow as they reformed.
His ears grew wider and his nose sunk into his face and transformed. His fine, aristocratic clothes tore apart as his body became more grotesque and large.
A fifteen foot tall bat with fangs the size of a three year old's arms stood before Valerian. Marie, who sat in the stands had her jaw drop. This was an ancient skill, [Great bat transformation].
'Has this skill always been in my family?!' She wondered. Ancient skills were thought to be lost but she was not stupid enough to think that there were not a few tucked away among some old Families. Her own Family had a few but what surprised her was the [Great bat transformation.She did not know about that one. How many secrets was she unaware of?'
"A Pureblood using a Trueblood skill?" Valerian pondered. "The power is great than one of a young Trueblood but you are a true aristocrat. Is it that you do not know any Pureblood transformations?"
The question was asked in earnest but seeing Valeria critic one of his trump cards so harshly Alexander could not help but feel inadequate and irritated.
He raised his wings and brought them down thereby successfully launching himself toward Valerian.
BOOM!!!!
The sonic boom that resounded from the sudden speed and power of flight hurt Valerian's powerful ears. He hunched over in shock but when he rose from the surprising effect he was nearly face to face with a massive bat that was ready to bite down on him.
With a look of annoyance on his face, and with great speed, Valerian raised his left arm, while his other arm clung to one of his ears that was still ringing. He placed his free hand on the face of the incoming bat and uttered one word.
"Fool."
He then grasped the fur of the gigantic beast and threw it, head first, into the wall of the arena. The action was so quick and fluid that even Alexander could not change the direction of his body and could only brace himself for impact.
BOOM!!!!
The crash was spectacular. It tossed dirt and stone into the are covering the area in a field of dust.
Alexander was furious.
'One hand?!' His mind roared. 'He negated my attack with ONE HAND?!'
This was somehow worse than being disrespected. It was as though he had been completely disregarded.
He was a pure blooded vampire d*mmit. He was a ruling class vampire! No matter what, he had power that even even surpassed the monarchs of the four allied vampire kingdoms and some of the vampire families.
Since ancient times, vampires had the ability to transform into specific animals. Their most proficient transformations were bat like. They could turn into a small bat for travel which only took a portion of mana to change into and change back as well as the massive bat that Alexander had transformed into was for combat but burned through mana to maintain the transformation.
The benefit of this grotesque transformation was the quadrupled strength and agility, the downside was that most modern vampires were unaware of this ability.
The second fault, which Alexander was experiencing, was the mental corrosion that occurred when a vampire used the skill while forgetting to fortify their mind.
Vampires were such grand shapeshifters that even their genes and instincts could take on the design and purposes of a bat but so could their mind if they failed to protect it hence Valerian calling Alexander a "Fool".
In Az'Talon, foolishness was looked down upon but forgiven if one educated themselves however incompetence was a cardinal sin. Alexander thought himself to be the one testing Valerian's identity but it was actually Valerian who was testing the usefulness of the descendants of his empire.
Alexander rose and looked at Valerian with animalistic rage but his mind was calculating his next moves.
"Good there is still some intelligence left in you. Shall I show you what that transformation's true abilities should look like?"
Without waiting for a response, Valerian began his transformation. He grew eighteen feet, black, glossy fur with a purple shine covered his body and a pair of hooked massive wings tore out of his back.
His face became gruesome, ugly and terrifying. He looked more like a cross between a humanoid and a bat. His ugliness did not hide his regal air. His back was straight. His wings extended, he jumped into the air and the sound of his wings, his body eclipsing the fake sun, dominated the entire arena.
Alexander looked on in awe. The shock to the part of his mind that held true intelligence helped chase away part of his mental corrosion.
He expected Valerian to speak but the vampire's golden eyes looked at him with disdain and pity.
*****
Marie felt helpless looking at Lord Valerian's transformation. It had to be a joke. Marie was not weak in the modern world but seeing Valerian completely dominate her family's backer and patriarch, she could not help but want to laugh at the madness of it all.
'This is the power of the Ancients?' Her thoughts were wild. 'It is so vulgar, so taboo and so domineering.'
While in her thoughts, the ancient vampire turned his gaze toward her. In her mind everything turned black. In this black void, it was just her, Valerian and the sound of his beating wings.
The image distorted and suddenly Valerian was gone. Marie and her patriarch looked around in confusion.
The menacing vampire appeared beside Alexander without even raising a single grain of dust. His oppressive presence made Alexander's body instinctively turn rigid. He barely managed to turn his head to face the massive being when one of Valerian's wings shot out and slapped half Alexander's body.
Alexander was tossed back with absolute prejudice. He crashed into the arena again. As he was raising he looked where Valerian was but the moment their eyes locked, Valerian disappeared again.
The Archduke felt the impending threat and tried to fly up into the sky but before he could launch into the sky, Valerian appeared in front of him. Valerian reached out with his clawed hand, wrapping it around Alexander's face and disappearing with him again.
Valerian appeared high above the arena. Alexander's body struggling, his wings beating violently trying to break away from Valerian's grip and claw at him.
"Wrap your wings around yourself."
Valerian spoke completely indifferent to the situation but his eyes were glowing red.
Alexander had been [Compelled] but how could that work without Valerian looking into Alexander's eyes?
It was as simple as using his voice and lacing it with powerful intentions.
The demon-like Val looked around indifferently, his wings flapping calmly. He extended his other hand, grabbed one of Alexander's wings, let go of his face then with no remorse, with no regret or afterthought, Valerian threw his opponent like a d*mned baseball right into the ground.
Marie stood up and held the arena ring, worried out of her mind. She watched as her family's most respected living ancestor try to control his decent but Valerian's act of using Alexander's wing to cast him down made the fall too difficult to control. His wing had been wounded.
As he was about to hit the ground, he wrapped his wings around himself and braced himself. At this point, Alexander looked like a cocooned caterpillar.
"He only wanted to know if you were who you really said you were. This was too d*mn excessive!" Marie screamed as Alexander hit the arena floor, shattered it and sent a dust cloud into the air.
Valerian looked at Marie. His gaze, even in this grotesque form was chilling. He turned his eyes into the dust cloud.
"To test me is the fault of the foolish. I am your Founder. If I must reintroduce myself, I shall. I am the First Lord Valerian Erebus Jata. It is a pleasure to meet you,"
Valerian tucked his wing inward and dived. He pulled back and arm, broke the sound barrier, entered the dust cloud, the sound of his fist connecting was the last thing Marie heard before the world distorted and disappeared.