The same day… night…
A group of six, all obscured by thick, dark cloaks, floated above the boisterous Blue Hillock city.
Making up most of their numbers was Keoghan and the three Adepts formerly responsible for the forward base's construction. The other two were the newcomers, Adepts Muret and Latour.
They'd arrived above this human city not long ago, and the person supposed to come and receive them was nowhere in sight.
Before the frowns of the two veteran Adepts could worsen any further, a bat-like creature arose from one of the dark corners of the city below, beating its thin wings with urgency as it hurried towards them.
The humanoid bat stopped a short distance away before a burst of red mist transformed it into a finely dressed noble who performed a respectful bow. "Sirs, I'm here to fetch you under my master's orders. Please, this way…"
Muret, who was easing up on his expression, immediately rewound his face back to the prior displeasure and pointed a finger at the noble, letting loose a stream of bright flames that engulfed the latter's arm.
"I am the only master here. Bring me to Adept Mary. Now!" he commanded.
Afraid to complain and suffer worse punishment, the noble kept his grunts and whimpers of pain muted and transformed into his bat form once more, turning around and diving toward the city with one of his wings on fire.
He obviously struggled with the flight, swaying uncontrollably for a good minute before Muret huffed and waved his hand, extinguishing the flame and relieving him of the agony.
Keoghan and the rest of those in the first batch to arrive shared multiple complicated looks with each other, wondering how the inevitable meeting would unfold.
Of course, Mary's personality and reputation gave them some idea of how she'd react. However, since the order to hand over the city came from the higher ups, they held some doubt regarding her brazenness.
Well, they wouldn't have to wait long for the show.
The blood thrall led them to a hidden backdoor that led into Tulip Hotel, following the same path Swiftsword Jake took to go see Mary about the arriving group of knights about a week ago.
Unlike Swiftsword though, he didn't go into the secret innermost room and simply bowed and gestured his burnt arm towards the open door.
Without sparing him or the guards a single glance, the visiting Adepts waltzed into the room, Muret and Latour in particular doing so like they owned the place.
They noticed Mary's huge blood pool as soon as they walked in, the large bed that used to be its position long gone.
Completely relaxed, the Bloody Queen received treatment worthy of her self-given title, her arms resting on the sides of the tub as her subjects attended her.
Two of the beautiful attendees massaged her exposed arms, another held a golden goblet filled with blood and brought to her lips from time to time, and on the opposite side, another girl used a toothpick to feed her the occasional grape.
Greem stood a short distance away from the display of indulgence, his back straight and arms crossed behind him as he observed the visitors.
They noticed his stare and did the same, their contemplative gazes lingering on him for a brief moment before switching back to the "insolent" Mary, their expressions going darker.
With their level of power and incredible perception abilities, how could Muret and Latour miss the resentment the Adepts of the first batch directed towards them?
They were all First Grades, but because the two of them had advanced for a long time and even participated in a planar war before, they'd been elevated above these newbies in the clan hierarchy.
This was bound to generate some negative feelings in them, but so what? Did their resentment matter more than the clan's orders? No. And Keoghan and the others knew that.
However, it seemed Mary and that Greem they'd heard so much about didn't get the memo. It would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating.
Two Adepts who advanced less than a year ago, practically babies learning how to walk, had the guts to challenge and disrespect them so openly despite their apparent superiority and the clan's orders?
The audacity.
"You must be the freshly advanced Adepts, Greem and Mary."
Mary sipped from the goblet offered to her, not even glancing in Muret's direction. Greem simply kept staring at them, his gaze firm and unreadable.
The spectators watched with interest and bated breath, while the ignored Adepts flushed in indignation and embarrassment. "Lord Fügen's message was clear. We are to take over management of Blue Hillock City from you. So hand over your spies and puppets immediately."
Her lady bits hidden under the waves of blood, Mary stretched like a cat, her pale skin contrasting heavily with the bright red of the liquid.
"The city is right there. You can take it if you want. As for the spies and puppets, they're my blood servants, a part of my strength. You're basically asking for my claws, fangs, and wings. How do you think I should respond to that? Mmhmm?"
Incensed by the contempt flashing in her gaze, Latour, who'd been quiet this whole time, chose to speak. "Are you going against Sir Fügen's orders?"
"This is considered disobeying orders? Sir Fügen ordered me to cooperate with you and that's what I'm doing. Blue Hillock City is right there. As long as you don't touch my subordinates, you can do whatever you want.
What are you bothering me for? Don't tell me two veteran adepts working together can't take over a simple human city. If that's that case then…" Mary paused here and laughed, her enchanting voice bouncing off the walls of the room like she'd heard the most funny joke.
Greem's stoic visage cracked, his expression giving way to a small smile as he shook his head lightly. His lover really had a talent for riling people up.
"You…" Latour looked between the couple, noting in particular the abrupt shift in the latter's stony countenance and growing further enraged because of it.
The plainly visible anger on his face began to morph, shifting into something else, something worse, ferocious and malevolent.
A maddened, inhuman roar left his lips as his face stretched and elongated into a feral snout, a heavy coat of black fur erupting all over his form.
Teeth grew into wicked looking fangs, nails lengthened into pitch black claws, legs went digitigrade, and muscles bulged and rippled, leaving a 2 meter tall werewolf with ghost green eyes in Latour's place.
Already moving before Mary or anyone else, (Latour included), Greem stepped into the werewolf's line of sight, cutting his lover off from the transformed Adept's predatory gaze and planting his gloved fist in the offender's face.
A thump that rattled his own and all bones present reverberated throughout the room as Latour staggered back a few steps, the wood beneath him creaking with his backwards stagger.
Greem had attacked him mid-transformation, that's why he failed to react in time. The thought of such insolence angered him even further, the ferocity of his wolf side agreeing and lending him more of its strength.
Lines of blood crawled into the green of his eyes as he fixed this maddened gaze on Greem and crouched, a rumbling growl and visible steam rushing out of his open maw.
On his end, Greem prepared himself for the confrontation, levering the control of his body and life force to the limit and raising his fists.
The two disappeared right after, reappearing a split-second later almost mashed together, Latour's hairy left arm trapped in Greem's armpit as the body adept landed a straight punch on his solar plexus which he followed swiftly with a nasty uppercut, right beneath his snout.
Reeling from the strike but unable to move away, Latour had no choice but to watch his other arm get trapped under the enemy's other armpit, his strength unable to budge the steellike rib cage and biceps.
Everyone including Latour himself wondered what Greem was going to do next and he showed them immediately.
BAM!
He reeled his own head back and slammed his forehead into the werewolf's face and snout, sending an audible crack into the ears of the onlookers.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Slam after slam landed on Latour, the transformed Adept's legs and trapped arms growing weaker and weaker, his body going lower and lower with each hit.
When Greem felt that it was enough, he loosened his arms and let the werewolf fall, engaging his muscles again and catching the latter's falling form beneath the snout with another uppercut.
Latour flew back like a dart, his limbs hanging loosely as the hit slammed him into the stone wall near the room's entrance, sending a little tremble through it and dropping him on his ass.
Demonstrating the impressive regeneration of bloodline creatures and werewolves in particular, Latour shuffled to his feet right after the collision, light cracks emanating from his face area as his bones reset themselves.
He grasped his snout with clawed hands and huffed, sending a glob of thick blood onto the wood floor before fixing another challenging gaze on Greem.
"Enough!" Muret shouted, unwilling to let the debacle continue. A pillar of flame erupted from him and reached the ceiling, its blistering presence elevating the room's temperature to a thousand degrees in an instant.
Those with Adept level strength and defenses were fine, but most of Mary's thralls suffered, their bodies caving in to the intense heat the same way the wood in the room did.
The Bloody Queen controlled some of the blood in the pool, mixed it with her blood energy and covered those attending to her in a protective shell that easily withstood the indiscriminate warning.
As for the thralls unluckily positioned near the door and too far from her, they'd long lost their skin, muscles and lives, their bodies reduced to shrunken and blackened corpses.
"We're leaving," Muret announced after giving Mary's forcefield and Greem a pointed look. He walked out promptly, glaring at Latour and sparing brief glances at the figures in pitch black armor positioned in the corners of the room.
Left alone in the midst of hostiles, Latour's werewolf instincts fought him for control.
He growled and roared for a few seconds before the blood receded from his eyes, his body shrinking as the dense fur, sharp claws, and fanged snout all vanished in a blast of dark mist.
Staring daggers at Greem, the bloodline adept didn't want to leave on such terms. He didn't want to leave as the loser.
But he had no choice but to obey Lord Fügen, hence, he made sure to convey through his gaze to the two of them that this wasn't over, turning to leave right afterward.
Summoning a large and clearly expensive couch from his storage ring, Greem set down in a relatively intact part of the room and lay on it, slipping his mask on right after.
Keoghan and the others walked forward toward him with smiles on their faces, these smiles cracking when their unexpected saviour maintained his reclined position and jabbed his thumb in the relaxing vampire's direction.
"I'm busy. Talk to her."
Crossing his arms over his chest, Greem proceeded to ignore everything and resumed his examination of the data he scraped from the Spellbreaker Knight's mind and body.
While it wasn't complete, the amount was enough for him to get a head start on breaking down their runic power system. And he'd already made significant headway.
He was currently attempting to combine the useful and workable parts of what he'd learned with the runic and body inscription knowledge he tasked Snorlax to obtain.
Even his crafting abilities were factored in the mix, just to determine the kind of things he could bring to life, and the early results were promising.
To get something concrete and usable right now though, he needed more information on the higher levels, a proper lab, and materials only obtainable back in Lethon.
For now though, he'd focus on the little he had. Keoghan and the rest could go sit somewhere else and not disturb him.
The rebuffed group of clan adepts made their way to Mary, who had shooed away her attendants and now glared at them with displeasure.
"Hmph! A bunch of cowards. Do you take me for an idiot? You let those idiots walk over you and even brought them here to come and fool around. You wanted this to happen. Is that what I am to you? A scapegoat? The one who sticks her neck out? You guys better have some compensation prepared, or else there won't be a next time…"
Contrary to what one would expect, wicked smiles greeted the vampire's outburst.
For the first time since they'd come to know her, the Adepts found Mary's blunt and straightforward personality very easy to work with. Her demand for compensation was a welcome one as they'd already made prior preparations.
Their identities and status in the clan were too awkward and complicated for them to confront Muret and Latour directly. That's why they brought the two here, hoping Mary with her loose ties to the clan would deal with the two for them.
Greem taking part in the confrontation was unexpected, but not completely out of bounds. Mary was his lover after all. Even if she could defend herself just fine, why should she raise her dainty hand when he was present?
Nonetheless, he'd clearly expressed that he had no interest and that they should discuss things with her. So that's what they did, bargaining with the vampire on how they could make things up to her.
****
Author's note:
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