"Reinhard Style: Overdrive Drill!" He roared, erupting in a more chaotic aura of purple qi.
He suddenly zoomed forward in a straight line with much greater speed than he had possessed before. Even Abel wasn't quick enough to react in time and was hit by a full power slam into his body from him.
The force behind the slam was too great and he was launched off his feet in the process. As he began to slide across the hall floor, he was relentlessly chased by the noble. Being hit in this battle ignited a new rage inside of him and he couldn't stand to see Abel not get seriously beat up from this.
He thrusted down his fist, only to see Abel swerve around and remain untouched. His fist crashed right into the floor, and he had once again been outdone by this mere commoner. He ripped his fist out the ground with a grunt and turned to his adversary, who was now charging right at him.
The initial slam from his advance hurled Elric into the wall behind him, and he received a haymaker straight to the face in quick succession.
Abel then drove his knee upward and into his gut with a vicious snarl. The knee slammed him right back into the wall he was just resting on, and the impact caused it to quake.
The noble suddenly felt immense pain and nausea that he could barely endure. His legs fell under his own weight, and he began to grasp his gut tightly. He looked back to his followers, that now looked less interested in supporting and motivating him.
Looking back up to Abel, who was now positioned with his back to his crew, he could see his demonic face once again.
"Curse you, you stupid demon!" He whispered, before coughing up blood from the attacks he had received.
An academy master was now in the hallway after feeling the quaking from within the walls.
"Medics, attend to Elric at this instant!" One of the masters exclaimed.
Just as he was about to approach the scene, Zeke was there to shield Abel, and pulled him into a more secluded position.
"Listen to me, Abel. Hey, listen to me!" Zeke shouted, slapping his friend across the face.
"I know you're pissed and I understand, but you have to hide your face. Just hide your face for me, please!" Zeke pleaded.
Abel fell out of his trance, and then the black veins across his race retreated back to his eyes and eventually vanished.
He felt like he had completely lost sense in himself. The untamed beast took control, and the dangers of this poison were truly starting to manifest.
"Abel Gerbaut, leave this place at once! If I ever see you treat another student in such a way, the punishments will be grave!" He warned, shooing him away.
Zeke followed after him as he was sent away, and they headed to one of the more secluded forest-like areas in the academy.
Abel was sweating even more profusely now, and his vision was swaying while he remained still.
He was resting on a tree trunk to remain stood up, and according to this poison he wasn't going to have many more hours of life.
He had been stabbed in the evening the previous day, which meant that once his school day was over, he'd be a goner.
Abel held his stomach, looking ahead as he felt a nauseating feeling from within his bowels. He spit out more blood, that looked more black than it did red this time. Zeke immediately rushed to his aid, struggling to think of ways to help his friend.
"I don't think we can stay here any longer. We might just have to leave the academy now." Zeke decided.
Abel was fine either way, whatever would keep him alive, he would try his very best to do. With that, the two were off and snuck out of the academy to head through the city of Fragan, back to Zeke's home.
****
As Elric was being attended to in the infirmary, he couldn't get the horrifying image out of his mind. The black veins across Abel's face. The glowing amber eyes that were like those of a wolf's.
He shaked his head violently, struggling to get those thoughts out of his mind, and he felt disgusted by the fear he was feeling. Fear? For a commoner?
No, he had to have been using some form of enhancement, an elixir or enhancing pill of sorts. Nevertheless, if he didn't get to the bottom of this, his reputation would be gravely tarnished for the foreseeable future and he was not willing to let that happen.
"I'll find out just what trick you pulled today, Abel, and get you back for what you did today! Don't think that you are free, you have merely placed a target on your back!" He thought to himself, infuriated.
****
As Abel entered Zeke's bedroom, he suddenly felt a warm, odd numbness in his legs. His vision blurred and Zeke turned to see him staggering from side to side.
"Abel? Abel, are you okay?" Zeke asked.
"Uhh, yeah." He raspily replied, before collapsing.
Zeke dropped down with him and immediately tried to awake his friend, but it was to no avail. No matter how hard he shook or shouted at him, it didn't seem like he was going to be getting up anytime soon.
"Damn it." He whispered to himself, before rushing to his bedframe.
Under such bedframe was a wooden box filled with old, brown books. They looked like tomes, and were all covered in weird characters.
This was the language of Nudra, the language of the Abryssian vampires to be specific.
"Darn it, there should be something here about an antidote!" Zeke thought, hastily searching through this pile.
He rummaged through it, speedily taking in the information that each book possessed. He could read full pages within seconds, and his eyes would glow red as he read at such a fast pace.
However, he still couldn't find anything. While doing so, he would give worried looks back to his friend, who hadn't moved ever since he'd collapsed.
"Here!" He shouted, upon reading through several pages of a book he'd found.
It had a black casing, and the pages weren't as weathered as the others. This usually meant it wasn't as commonly read as the other books he owned.
"The antidote needs all of this?! This better all be in the market!" Zeke thought to himself, rushing out of his home.
Instead of using the streets, he decided to activate his qi and leap across the rooves of Fragan. This wasn't an uncommon sight, and usually armoured soldiers or simply cultivators in general would use this mode of transport.
Those without trained bodies and strong qi as a foundation would struggle to journey in this way over long distances.
In under a minute, Zeke was already within the market, and was using his superhuman senses to take in his surroundings as best he could.
Even through the loose crowd of people, he would use his sight to read the signs across the street of the stalls around him. He would also use his smell to try and identify the herbs and elixirs that were being sold. With his hearing, he'd eavesdrop on conversation and take in the hawking of merchants even tens of metres away.
He hurriedly crossed these streets, frequently barging into people and even causing them to drop to the floor. Zeke was an incredibly strong person, with a conditioned body, and colliding with others wouldn't even cause him to be knocked off course at all.
He eventually found the stall of a merchant selling many compounds that were used to make elixirs. These foundational ingredients were commonly sold in bulk, and he was delighted to see vines and several pots of the herbs and flowers around him.
Looking at the checklist he had made of all the ingredients, it was all here.
First, black scarlet rose. This was a flower with petals that had a dark red glow to them. They were called black scarlet due to the black soil that they had to be grown in for them to survive.
Next, blueberry grass and violet aquaberry grass. These two forms of grass were common in elixirs, and the final ingredient was just the blood of a vampire.
"Could I have some black scarlet rose, blueberry grass and aquaberry grass please? I would like a few handfuls of each please." Zeke asked.
"Alright, that'll be 2 gold and 40 silver coins, please." The merchant started.
Zeke weighed the options up in his mind but just didn't have enough time to be counting the money he had brought. He wasn't sure if he had enough, and just used his compulsion instead.
"Give me what I want, I'm sure the money's all there already." He stated, as his eyes contracted.
The merchant entered this weird trance-like state, and after he finished talking, he immediately began gathering the materials that he wanted. He prepared three like pouches of the resources, tying them closed with ropes.
"Here you go, thanks for the trade, young sir." He said, before waving the vampire off.