"Was that the —"
"Yes, Jason," Vlad said as he pointed to his flesh wound.
He coughed up a bit of blood and explained, "I have been fatally wounded for a while now. It happened several years ago when the bastard hunters separated me from Anastasia and Evelynn, and I…I was already exhausted. I just didn't see the bullet come at me."
The vampire sovereign sat down as he continued, "The bullet was purified and coated in Apollo's grace, whose resounding light cursed a creature like me to hide and cower in the shadows for a chance at recovery."
"The good news…is that the noble vampires have been looking for a cure to these bullets for hundreds of years now, and we believe that we have finally found it," Vlad said with a sigh. "The bad news is that we have only collected the first ninety-five ingredients, and I can't go search for them alone. My presence here preserves peace, and I can't worry my subjects with such a disgraceful weakness."
Vlad pulled out a dusty papyrus scroll and with the flick of his wrist, let it unroll until the bottom hit the floor with a thud. Jason squinted his eyes and focused, noticing dozens of ingredients that he had never heard of before.
The Count of Garlacia pointed to the remaining five ingredients circled with blood, and Jason shivered with fear, knowing his next request. Asking gently, Jason questioned,
"Vlad, why me? Why not the other vampires?"
"Jason, you are the first royal vampire that I have hand-created in two thousand years and the second of all time. Though the other vampires may be stronger now, I believe that you can easily surpass their skills within a few decades or at most a century. After all, the royal blood increases your familiarity with blood control and fire resistance by over a hundred times that of a noble vampire," Vlad said as he flashed a weak smile. "However, the problem we have is time. If I were to estimate conservatively, I believe that I would only have nine months to live."
"That brings me to the main reason why I chose you. Trust. My daughter trusts you and that is enough for me."
"Though Zeus's blessing prevents direct conflict and head-on civil wars, some vampires have grown restless and have tried to seek outside help to overturn the status quo. Fortunately, my position as the oldest and most powerful vampire on the Isles deters them from attacking Garlacia but if they were to find out about my weakened condition…no one would be safe."
"Please, Jason. Help me find my cure's final ingredients," the vampire king implored with dazzling eyes. "I know you can do it."
The hate reader nodded slowly before focusing his eyes on the five remaining ingredients. It read:
A Mermaid's Tears
The Highest Quality Sheep Milk
A Dragpard's Kidney
A Vial of Snoblue Blood
And A Demon's Heart
'What in the world?' Jason thought as he sat starstruck. 'How am I going to find all of these?'
The Doom Monkey jumped in surprise beside him as his natural survival instinct screamed "Danger!" and fainted at the sheer mention of the ingredients.
Eve looked up at her Big Brother with an adorable pleading face and asked, "Pleaseeee? Can you help us? We really don't have much time left."
A few seconds of silence passed as Jason thought about his situation. Everything had been happening so fast around him that it was a bit hard to keep up. His mind raced through the recent events as he rubbed his hand thoughtlessly on the arm rest of his blood throne. "Give me a few days to train with my new blood abilities, and then we'll set out to find the ingredients. No promises, but we'll try our best to save you Vlad."
"Thanks Jason," replied the old man with a soft smile. "I would recommend starting with the mermaid tears since Garlacia is only a couple days from the Coast. After all, we are the Southmost region of the Isles."
"Sounds good, Vlad. Prepare to make some fishies cry, guys!" Jason said enthusiastically to his friends.
However, a faint whisper from Karl immediately dampened the hate reader's mood.
"M-Master," he said weakly as he regained consciousness. "Can I not go? T-The mermaids don't like me very much."
Jason looked quizzically at his little companion.
"Why's that?"
"W-Well…Let's just say…I had a thing with one of them, and it didn't work out too well…yeah that's right."
The Doom Monkey shuddered at the memory of his bachelor years spent pursuing a beautiful mermaid with priscilla flowers and winced as he remembered begging her to stay. Though their relationship didn't last long, Karl had fallen head over heels for her and after so many years, had finally gotten over her but… it was just too soon for him to see her again.
Karl blushed red with embarrassment at the thought of his mermaid lover, quickly pushing the thought to the back of his mind.
"Ahhh…" Jason said with a sinister smile, recognizing what was happening. "So that means that you can help us get the mermaid tears easily then, can't you, my little monkey playboy?"
The Doom Monkey froze with fright as he saw a devilish grin grow wider and wider on his master's face.
"HAHAHHAHHA," he laughed in a disquieting manner, scaring the little monkey further.
"O-Okay fine," the once-rude Doom Monkey conceded obediently. "But please, let's leave quickly after?"
"Sure thing, Karl," the hate reader replied, the smile still on his face. "Well then, shall we start training, Eve?"
"Mm, Big Brother! Let's go."
—
A week passed quickly for Jason, Eve, and Karl as the brilliant sun rose and fell day after day in the Southern region of Garlacia.
During this week, the two vampires followed a strict schedule, waking before dawn to train bodyweight exercises and improve endurance, eating heartily during lunch, and training blood control precision and sparring in the afternoons.
Given his newly-transformed royal vampire body, Jason could feel his strength adaptation and stamina improvement significantly skyrocket with each workout and ended the week with a max pushups attempt of 60 and a max pullup record of 10. Additionally, his muscle regeneration ability had improved significantly, allowing him to condition his shins repeatedly for hundreds of reps, pushing his kicking force closer to that of a mini-SUV car crash.
But the hate reader wasn't the only person who had improved as his silver-haired sister could finally complete her 10km run, 1000 pullups, 1000 pushups, and 1000 squats in under an hour.
Furthermore, under the tutelage of Vlad, Jason and Eve improved their blood-wielding abilities massively. For the first two days, Jason struggled to maintain control of his blood sphere for longer than a few seconds, while Eve struggled to control her weapon versatility and power output in every strike.
As a result, the two young vampires trained their blood circulation and control while eating, running, and sleeping, continuing to push and pull blood in different directions until it had become second nature.
By the fifth day, Eve could now fluidly switch between a variety of blood weapons, from scythes to swords to hammers, in one hand while activating Sanguine Claws and Veil of Blood with the other, and Jason, too, was able to form his first weapon using blood.
Choosing the bow in memory of Alea, the hate reader practiced archery on the training grounds against target dummies, continuously honing his skill until he could hit the bullseye with a consistent 30% accuracy. In addition to his newfound strength and height advantage, his vampire transformation had massively improved the clarity of his senses, granting him eagle eye vision in his field of sight and a stronger perception of sound, allowing him to hear how the wind blew.
During it all, Karl slept well, practiced his skill with the axe, and rehearsed his tear-jerking speech to the mermaids.
As the seventh day neared its end, Jason drew his blood bow and nocked a special arrow, the tip lit with the ember of his blood. With full concentration, the hate reader released the string in a smooth motion and watched as the arrow embedded deep into the heart of the target dummy.
Jason turned around with a smug smile and snapped his fingers, causing the ember to grow and explode inside the target. 'After all, cool guys don't look at explosions,' he thought with a proud look on his face.
Boom! The training dummy recoiled to the other side of the training grounds and fell to the floor with a thud.
'I guess I really did learn Vlad's basic blood to flame conversion," he muttered to himself, patting himself on the back. He was no longer the average high-school teenager that he once was and as he opened his mouth to call for Karl, a sharp scream rang in his left ear, causing Jason to jump back in shock.
"RAWR!"
Jason immediately nocked a second ember-lit arrow and pointed it at the empty space in front of him.
"Eve! Stop it."
"I got youuuu, Big Brother," she said lightheartedly with joy. "If this were a fight, you would have already died three times by now, you knowww."
"Ugh, I know, I know. Never let your guard down, right? I'm trying my best here."
The silver-haired vampire removed her veil of blood, deactivating her stealth, and stared straight at the hate reader with an evil grin.
"You were aiming too high again, see? Tsk, tsk," she said cutely as she touched the arrow with her pointer finger, defusing its flame. Eve pointed to the gap between the arrow and her head and shook her head.
"It's no good, Brother. You need to be able to use your other senses like sound and smell to gauge the target's distance and range. You still rely too much on your vision."
Jason nodded his head obediently before asking, "Where's Vlad? Did you finish training early?"
"Father says it's time for our final spar, Big Brother," she replied, her tone changing wildly as the emotion drained from her face.
If there was one surprising thing that Jason had learned about his adorable sister over the last week, it was that she was a massive battle maniac, and their stay with Vlad had only made it worse. Every evening, his sister would turn into a completely different person as she beat the living daylights out of Jason with a massive smile on her face. Her eyes would turn blood red, and she would slash him with her scythe, stab him with the sword, and block his attacks with her shield in a state of pure bliss as she watched the hate reader stumble to his feet, generating missing limbs and broken body parts every few seconds.
However, the scariest thing was that this trait seemed to be rubbing off on Jason as well. He didn't know if it was a part of the royal vampire blood within him or perhaps just the awakening of a primal instinct, but he had begun to feel the itch to fight every so often as well.
Jason mentally prepared himself against his "deadly assassin / versatile fighter" little sister as they headed toward the arena. Tomorrow, they would embark on a new mission, side-by-side as friends, to save the King of the Vampires, but today, they were mortal enemies, and only one could leave the arena alive.
Eve waved to Vlad, signaling her readiness, as Jason did the same. Wishing the two the best of luck, Vlad cast both hands into the air, preparing the arena's defense mechanism.
Suddenly, a large crashing sound pierced through the air, and hideous plumes of black smoke spread throughout the arena, blinding everyone present.
"AHHHH, I CAN'T SEE," shouted the Doom Monkey anxiously. "WHICH MOTHER FUCKER DARES TO FIGHT ME?"
Vlad immediately silenced Karl with a blow to the head and stared anxiously at the rising smoke. He waved his hand, erecting the strongest blood barrier he could muster and grabbed his daughter with other.
"YOU. WHY ARE YOU HERE AGAIN?" the vampire sovereign screamed with pain in his voice. "MUST YOU PUNISH MY ONLY REMAINING DAUGHTER TOO?"
The ominous being crumbled the blood wall like origami paper and released a chilling laugh.
"Silly vampire, you are too weak to escape death. But today, I am not here for you."
The creature swiveled around within an instant, his two ruby-colored eyes glaring directly at the aghast hate reader.
"Boy," he said eerily. "I have finally found you."