What is the Purpose of Blood?
Elijah lived in pain, agony, and anguish, but he still lived. Despite the destruction of his tissues by the blood that burst out of him like the needles of a porcupine, his Health didn’t drop. In fact, it rose slightly.
Whenever the blood spikes came in contact with the ample pools of Goblin blood, they absorbed them, boosting Elijah’s Health, utilising the Blood Regeneration Trait his glitched Familiar bond had granted him.
It didn’t take long for the teens red bar to reach full, then slowly creep beyond. A new, temporary section was added to the display.
The young man’s foes didn’t just stand still and let him do this.
Balls of green flame crashed against the wall of bloody spikes but were ripped apart into pure mana and joined the flow that was produced by Elijah’s Mana Heart. His Mana also got a temporary boost which ticked down every second.
The sneaky Goblin tried throwing knives at the thing that had spawned from the teen’s body, but to no effect. It was made out of fluid and simply reconnected when cut.
The warrior Goblin regained his senses and began to gather together the five or so lesser Goblins which hadn’t died in the earlier assault.
Elijah simply screamed. The pain of his body healing, then being torn apart over and over, was simply too much.
Once all his resources, Health, Mana, and Stamina were at or beyond full, the blood bristles retracted. Snapping back into the teen’s now intact body. His right hand had returned to its normal shape, and his left had been regrown.
He looked fine, except for the blood-red eyes.
The warrior didn’t hesitate, sending his minions to attack with a cry that caused a wave of orange enraging light to engulf them.
The lower-levelled Goblins were all injured, but none dared question the command as they rushed towards Elijah, bounding over each other, eager to rip him limb from limb.
They were behaving more like rabid dogs than the semi-intelligent fighters they had been before. Elijah knew he would have to fight to survive; he tried raising his left hand to jab out and give him space.
His right hand rose, palm outstretched. The teen was powerless to control his body as the beast within took the reins.
A thin spike of crystallised blood shot out of his palm, snaking through the Goblins, piercing each of their heads in turn, before retracting back into the teen’s body. They all fell to the ground. Dead before they had been able to contribute.
The warrior smiled and cheered at the display of violence; the assassin threw another knife towards Elijah’s back, and the newly reborn lich threw balls of raw, death mana towards his face.
The young man strained to react to either one of the incoming threats, but again his impulses were suppressed, and the blood acted in his place.
Simultaneously, his right arm snapped out towards the black bubbles of corrosive death, and his left arm moved behind him to block the sneak attack.
A circle of swirling blood appeared from his right palm, stealing the Mana from the attack before it could even get close, and his left hand snatched the knife from the air without looking before throwing it back into the darkness, eliciting a yelp of pain and surprise.
After absorbing the Mana from that last attack, Elijah had 260 points, though they ticked away faster the further above his maximum of 130 he became.
The blood acted quickly. As soon as it had the required Mana, it activated a Skill Elijah hadn’t yet been able to use: Domain of Darkness. The Skill he had gained for overcoming his fear of the dark and subsequently defeating the Candle-Sweep.
As the cloud of absolute black billowed out from the teen, engulfing the church and all those inside, the real Elijah railed against the inside of his own mind.
As the seconds passed and it became more and more clear that he had no control over any aspect of his body, he began to panic. Was he going to be stuck in his own mind forever? Able to see but never touch? Forced to watch as this monster stole his mortal vessel?
His internal wailing caught the attention of the blood. It turned its focus inwards while the Skill took hold.
“Learn!” it commanded in its multitudinous voices.
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Elijah was stunned, but when the pressure of its words ceased to ring his mind like a bell, he realised something was off. Not only with what it had said, but with the manner in which it had been vocalised.
The blood’s voice was still an amalgamation of numerous souls acting in concert, but before there had been a thousand in the chorus; now there were merely a hundred. It was still overwhelming and overpowering, but not nearly to the same degree.
Had this creature grown weaker? Why did it want him to learn? What did it want him to learn?
Elijah didn’t know the answers to any of these questions, nor did it seem that the blood felt inclined to elaborate, so, with reluctance, he decided to sit back and watch what it did with his body.
As the blanket of impenetrable night fell, Elijah couldn’t see anything. Even so, he could feel everything, from the movement of his enemies to the fluttering of the wind to the wriggling of bacteria as it began to eat away at the dead bodies that were piled high.
For the teen, it was too much all at once, and he couldn’t make sense of it. For his faux Familiar, however, it was simple to only focus on the necessary information and forget the rest.
Like a wraith of death, Elijah’s body ran across the stone, his footsteps muted by the magically reinforced darkness.
It had only been a few seconds since the Skill was activated, but as Elijah felt them draw near the slim figure of the assassin-type Goblin stepping about blindly, he realised, somehow, it was already lost.
The blood activated Light Footed when they drew within three steps, ensuring there was no way they could be detected. Drawing blood out of its palm and using Blood Manipulation, it created a solid blade of crystallised blood.
Stepping behind the wary creature, its daggers drawn and its guard up. The blood caused Elijah to thrust the weapon into its back, directly through its heart. There was a dull glow around the wound as some Skill tried to save it, but the extra 10% damage from Dishonourable ensured that it was dead.
The monster that was controlling Elijah’s body moved onto the next target before the corpse hit the floor. This Skill had a time limit, and it wasn’t wasting a second.
The warrior was next on the chopping block. Unlike the assassin Goblin, this one wasn’t scared. It didn’t even have its guard up. It simply stood there with its eyes closed, meditating?
The teen stood undetected, to the left of the monster. The blood changed the arm holding the sword into a tentacle and snaked it around the Goblin to delicately poke its jugular on the right side, causing green blood to gush forth.
Faster than Elijah could blink, the warrior slashed down with his axe, severing the tentacle arm and causing the crystallised weapon to clatter to the stone. If he had been standing there, he would be dead or severely injured.
The blood ran away. The Goblin continued to strike the air, its frustration growing with each swing. The teen wondered why the blood hadn’t continued the fight before he realised: the Goblin was already dead; it just didn’t know it yet.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, the monster keeled over, having turned a far paler shade of green. The tiny cut to the jugular had been a fatal wound, and the notification that appeared proved that the fountain of blood that had sprayed all over the darkness had been necessary for the warrior to continue living.
Then there was the mage. Unlike the others, the sudden darkness had invoked anger in this Goblin. It threw balls of fire and death in all directions with its seemingly bottomless supply of Mana.
The blood took the time to refill Elijah’s Mana by absorbing some of these attacks, then stepped behind the monster. Using a needle of blood, it injected the creature with a concentrated supply of pure mana.
It tried to spin around and attack, but the blood grasped both of its hands and squeezed until they were mangled, destroying them with pure Strength.
It tried to cast another spell, but without the use of its hands, it was unable to make the signs it had been using, and nothing manifested.
The Goblin’s glowing green orbs opened wide in shock, pain, and surprise as Elijah’s sandaled foot kicked the monster. It collided with the snot Goblin who had been stumbling around with a ball of sticky stuff.
They tumbled to the ground, becoming glued together.
As they flailed about, trying to get free, the timer on the Skill ended and light returned to the world. Just in time, as less than a second later, the mana-filled balloon of a mage exploded into a pillar of dark green flames that scorched Elijah, even though the blood had been running his body away ever since the kick.
Trapped within the containment of his mind, Elijah heard an internal sigh that shook his consciousness. The words repeated, far quieter and with even fewer voices than before.
“Learn,” it said, less of an order and more of a plea. The next thing he heard were the quiet rumblings of sleep as the blood beast returned to slumber.
He tried to move his hand. It opened and closed at will. He tried to jump. His legs leaped at his command. He tried to punch. His hand shot out without delay. Elijah was back in control!
The monster had relinquished its grasp without provocation, and the teen still didn’t really understand why.
Was he supposed to be grateful to it for showing him how to better use his Skills?
How could he be? He would always hate the imposter for killing his true Familiar.
Elijah felt confused, which only fed the anger that grew deep inside him.
Congratulations!
You have completed the Trial of Evolution 1: Goblin
Grade: C
Objectives:
- Subjugate the Goblins without bloodshed: ?
- Subjugate the Goblins by killing them all: ?
- Complete the Trial in under ten minutes: ?
- Don’t get detected while undergoing the Trial: ?
- Prove your Strength: ?
- Prove your cunning: ?
Rewards:
You have earned the right to Evolve from a Goblin into 1 of 3 Goblin Evolutions:
- Goblin Scout
- Goblin Shaman
- Goblin Warlord
Choose Now!
patrons: