I don't know whether to call Mathew stupid, or naive. Why would you want a vampire of all things to follow your group and yourself?
Whilst I do understand, Mathew has only been conscious for a year. From the smell that radiated off his new body, and the unwavering voice he talked with, he was not lying. However, how his life was so far, he shouldn't trust me so easily. Did he learn nothing from that one time?
A fourteen year old girl, a wolfkin… Knowing that damn organization… his life will only get worse. Paired with that permanently injured foot, and how bad his eyesight is in his left eye? It was as if he's fated to die.
Thankfully, this moronic kid found a group. Yukina Gabri was his new name, adopted into the house Gabri.
Finding out it was Mathew of all kids to be a reincarnated genderbent individual, that shocked me.
It's been over a week since I saw him, and he was still getting used to his body. Some days, I would notice he skips wearing a bra. Or both types of underwear, for someone who's been a woman for five hundred years, it was obvious. It doesn't actually need five hundred years of experience to be fair..
Every time he was caught, he'd be shocked and his face turned bright red. Thus, did I decide he was just plain stupid in this life. And today, made it quite, quite obvious.
Well, I was too, I was dumb. A vampire needs blood to be strong, stronger. My physical abilities without blood are weak; weaker than any adult foxkin, or human.
Even little kids are stronger, faster and have more endurance than I do. Yet, I decided to try and leave today, I didn't want to lose myself from drinking blood.
My cravings… they were almost uncontrollable. I needed to separate myself from everyone. Conversely, I did not want to, I needed this group, like when I first awoke in this world.
Alas, I tried, and tried to leave. Mathew didn't let me, I couldn't get out of his grasp, I was trapped. It was not just him, it was the rest of the group, Jin was the first one after him.
Although I did… have intercourse with him, I didn't feel attachment. But he was vehement on having me around, the frosted peaks would kill them all if they traversed it. After that, they ignored my pleas about letting me go. They saw me as a friend.. Even when I hurt Yukina and Melinda back in that town.
Time, and time again, they pestered me. Mathew was pulling on me, wanting me to drink his blood since he wouldn't turn. I wanted to drink his blood, I was barely able to contain myself.
Yet…. I fell into my desire. Mathew was on the ground, and I held his neck in my hands. Then, I allowed my fangs to drive into his neck, and I felt him squirm for a moment.
To put it short… it was invigorating, I felt my spine tickle with each bit of blood that entered my blood. Furthermore, I felt a drunken feeling take over my body. It was sweet, delicious, like I was eating a delicious cake; moreover, I started drinking more of the blood, causing this sickening feeling to overtake my body.
I felt an urge to vomit, a feeling I had when I hit my limit on blood. In which, I released her neck, covered my mouth and took a step back.
Since then… we went through the beginning of the frosted peaks. At first, it was quite easy, aside from Mathew. He was struggling to climb up the rocky ramps.
Due to this, Allisa took his bad side. With her support, the traversal up was much easier.
We climbed a small ledge, I helped pull up some of the women; whilst the guys helped get the kids up.
"Here, Yukina, take my hand." As I was deep in thought, Verd, a very handsome man, held himself up with one arm. His other hand was lowered to pull Mathew up.
Mathew looked slightly disgruntled, pulled himself up and put his hand into Verd's hand.
With a quick and easy pull, Mathew was yanked to his feet on our rocky foothold.
"Thank you…"
At least that kid learned some respect. I kept to myself, turning around. This is just going to get tougher as time goes on. This small lip was just the beginning, the climbs will be steeper, plus monsters appearing.
"Can- hey, hey! Master Shen can-"
"We need to keep going." I cut Mathew off, pointing to the hills ahead. "Before night falls, we need to get past that. There will be caves we can rest in."
"That's going to be difficult."
"Thanks, that's pretty obvious." With a snarky reply, I began to lead this group again.
It took us nearly an hour to scale this incline; Mathew had to be begrudgingly carried, same with Verd's daughter and son. The wives of the group were already exhausted from the first climb, but they kept pushing through their limits.
The resiliency in this group is surprisingly high. Reminds me of my first party. Although, just one other and I are alive now, I hoped the other three were living a new life.
James caught up to my walking speed, and now was at my side."Shen, we really need a break. The kids and women in this group won't make it at this pace!"
"Use your healing magic on them, " I replied to him in a cold manner. "If they cannot last this much, they're better off curling into a ball and passing on."
"..."
James went silent, his entire face contorted into a silent rage.
"You went through this before, don't act naive."
"Not with kids."
"Stop acting naive and ignorant, we're already in the crosshairs of beasts."
I could hear heavy huffs from behind a rocky pillar, it was an ice bear. This dumbass next to me only tilted his head.
"Move your ass!" I yanked him away; as I heard, I saw a giant, light blue bear staring at us.
No one was looking towards it, aside from Yukina.
I pulled a sword from my spatial storage, and sprinted towards the bear.
It was pushed back for a moment, blood began to pour out of a wound in its neck.
As it reeled in agony, I plunged my sword into its neck.
"There's more to come!"
Before anyone could react, bears in various sizes started to appear. That's what sucked about this world.
It was unpredictable, even for my lifespan.
It became worse, when I found Mathew again; he was essentially a harbinger of bad luck.
With my command, we encircled the weaker bears. There were a dozen ice and polar bears.
Unlike earth, these bears were immensely aggressive and were much larger. Every ice bear had blue crystals on its claws, ears and snouts.
Shaun was used to our formation for creatures, he used provoke on all the bears and ran out.
With a constant stream for two healers, every paw that smashed his body became negligent.
I had to use [Pain Nullification] on him, otherwise he'd be screaming in agony.
Each time his body was battered, broken, he'd grit his teeth. It was only seconds, but I sprinted into the fray.
"James, use your stamina recovery spell on everyone."
"Got it…"
"Yukina, stay by my side; I need you up at the front with me."
"Eh? Why?"
"Your sense of hearing is better than mine. You can react quicker." I pointed at his flopped ears. It was the truth, as an animalkin, I can sense Mathew has the potential to be stronger than me. Not just strength, but in any regard. "Don't ask anymore questions, just listen to me."
"Alright, alright… geez." Mathew scratched the back of his head.
"Ah, right. Here, let me put this on you." Without another thought, I put my hand on his head and released a spell. How did I even forget about that spell?
Mathew's limping looked like he was in pain, it was quite possible. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to heal permanent injuries like that.
Instead of trying to heal it, I used [Pain Nullification] again. Mathew raised his head, and had a slightly embarrassed look on his face.
I rubbed his head slightly, and smiled slightly. "You should be able to walk fine now, if not, I'll carry you again."
"Can you remove your hand, please..?"
I did so, and let out a slight chuckle…
It's time to leave again.
Everyone was back to their prime, and we continued up this slope. Well, before I pulled out clothes for Shaun, he had a nice body, unfortunately.
I kept my ears wide open, ready to hear if there's any issue. And of course, we did run into issues. More bears attacked us, it was a never ending fight for a couple fights.
Even myself, I was getting exhausted. My arms were slowly burning, and I felt my mana was a quarter down. And the blood cravings were starting.
This is a first time in a while… ugh… I kept myself silent. Mathew was breathing heavily, and my spell was starting to wear off.
I reused it, and kept going. The first cave is near, I can feel it.
We just had to climb this one ledge, just this last one. My hands tightened on each rock, just below me was Jin, James, and Shaun.
James had buffed all the women, they were able to pick themselves up. When I looked down, the kids had their arms around each adult's necks; they were carried up.
Once I had my hand around the lip of the top, I forced myself up; it was tiring, my hands were cramping up, and so, I used my healing magic to ease it. Other than that, I helped pull the kids up; then whoever needed it.
James sat on the ground, his knee was propped up and body exuded exhaustion; he spoke in an air of tiredness. "Miss Shen… is there a way we can take… a break?"
I nodded my head, and pointed towards a little slope to our right; caved inwards was a small cave, from my view there were no beasts there.
"Oh… thank… thank the gods-" James let out, his voice was invigorated. He pulled himself off the ground, and stretched his body. "We need to go a bit more you guys- let's get to that cave!"
His voice echoed across this canyon, er… valley; we were surrounded by giant mountains; befitting of the name frosted peaks.
"Can you quiet down?" Yukina asked, her face contorted in a slight pain. Her ears were a little lower. My spell finally wore off, huh? That's faster than usual… "We need to be quiet…"
"Eh?"
"Do you not see the mountains?" Yukina raised her arm and pointed at the mountains around us. "If we're too loud, it could cause an avalanche…"
"R-Right…"