Pushing open the doors, I don't know what I expected.
But for someone named after the popular character of fiction Count Dracula, I didn't expect it to be so clean and dust free.
Marble pillars holding up the ceiling and the several banisters hanging around at the side of the hall, a large red carpet ran up the stairs before they stopped at a throne flanked by four candelabras burning with blue fire.
And sitting on that throne made of gold was the one man who had intermittently appeared during my fights holding an inexplicable grudge with me.
It wasn't as if I killed anyone important right?
Head covered in black flames, my orange eyes glimmered as they stared into the Count's own red ones, actively circulating mana around my body so that it could instantly burst into fire when needed
It had the side effect of blocking that strange gaze trying to mess up my mind with CIA brainwashing so that was a plus.
So I met the Count's gaze without qualms causing the Vampire King's eyes to narrow slightly.
"Hey, you're a count right?"
Opening my mouth, words began to flow from my mouth as I discreetly looked around the room for any signs of possible ambush.
Sitting regally, Count Dracula's eye twitched at the improper tone before lifting his head arrogantly "What is it to you human?"
'Three- No four, possible places of ambush' Tearing my eyes from the shadows I crossed my arms.
"Well isn't a Count two noble levels below a king? Did you kill all three of your superiors to take that throne? What were the Levels again? King, Duke, Marquess then you?"
I widened my eyes and snapped my fingers in mock realization "Oh wait! Did you become a stinky rotting corpse unable to see the sun so that you could kill the king and take over this place?"
"...I am a Vampire not some-"
"Last I recall about the stories of this place, the reason why the previous king and his entourage moved to Newcastle Island was because they couldn't stand living next to a stinking corpse."
"That's because I killed the previous Kings under watch by his Roy-"
"Yada yada, it's because they couldn't stand living right next to a rat in their rafters, they didn't even know you existed did they?"
Pointing my finger at Count Dracula now clenching his fist menacingly as ribbons of red start to emerge from behind the throne.
"Oh is that how you killed them? Hid behind that Golden Throne of theirs before killing them unawares? Not exactly sportsmanlike and honourable is it?" I smirked while inching my way to equip armor the instant I could.
"Humans like you are unworthy of suc-
"Yeah? And I thought you were once HumAN!?"
Voice breaking, I dodged the three black fireballs that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Don't you DARE Lump me in as one of those filthy pigs!" Voice booming loudly, I had the brief hallucination that the entire palace was shaking, but since that hallucination disappeared as quickly as it came I brushed it off
"Yeah? And why can't I dare to lump you in as one of those humans?"
Dracula stood up from his golden throne, a good chunk of its armrest breaking apart as he did so.
"The powerful always judge the weak, the humans once judged me as well, now, I judged you and sentenced you and your kind. To extinction."
"...I now have the feeling that you are the one who spread the malaise ravaging the island."
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't" Dracula glared at me with crimson eyes before being consumed by a cloud of red bats that appeared out of nowhere, his voice echoing through the shrieking swarm. "I can only say that they deserved it."
'...Well this just got complicated.'
Staring warily at the cloud of bats that gathered at several places at once, I thought about what the Count had just said.
From what I can understand, the Vampire count wasn't originally human but was instead born as a vampire, and swiftly following it up, it seemed that humans.
Or humans from the past of Oldcastle island in particular, had incurred the Vampire Count's wrath by judging him somehow?
In essence, Count Dracula had a story
But then again, who didn't?
'And to think I just came here to kill the guy who killed me.'
Thinking about how complicated things have gotten, I rolled out of the way from Count Dracula's foot stomping out of the bat cloud.
"Stop wasting my time by fighting you."
"By the looks of it, you had plenty of time to sit on the throne while sending undead my way."
Looking at the body connected to that foot, I didn't notice it while he was just an illusion and floating five meters off of the ground, but now that I think about it, didn't his body structure match that of those giant sword skeletons?
'Well I don't think I can think about this fact when I'm about to die if I don't move.'
Hurriedly shelving that small discovery within my mind I dodged underneath the three black fireballs the size of a cantaloupe before threading the needle and dodging in between five more sent my way.
Crashing into a nearby pillar, instead of an explosion of flame, chunks of the stonework had been shaved off with a snap.
And by the looks of it, the Count had a lot more where that came from.
"Arrogant Whelp, stay still and accept my judgement"
"I guess I'm a lawbreaker then"
Sliding underneath another deluge of flaming balls sent my way, a rapier found its way into my hands followed up by a thin scar being drawn on his skin.
Eye twitching at the first blood drawn in this fight so far, Dracula instantly disappeared back into the cloud of bats
Right before appearing behind me and stomping down twice before swiftly following it up with an overhead smash.
"Bloody Hell!"
Having dodged the first two stomps, if I didn't want to place myself into a worse position by dodging once more I had to block.
But as expected of someone of a much larger stature, his blow nearly sent me stumbling.
I had the sneaking suspicion that weight class wasn't all there was to it however since a blood red hue covered his fist and started to attack the area struck by his fist
'But again, I'm not one to just stand still and get hit.'
Ignoring the tingling sensation on my forearms, the rapier transformed into a broadsword that fell from above, cutting into the heavy black cloak covering Dracula's body.
"Stay still!"
"No!"
Teleporting to the other end of the hall, a large deluge of fire balls started flying towards me, which I responded by sending my own deluge of much larger fireballs.
It seems bigger isn't always better.
Hurriedly dodging to the side, Dracula appeared right besides me, bringing down twin fists covered in blood, the thin scratch on his cheek having healed by now.
Bringing out my shield having learnt my lesson, the red hue harmlessly spread against my shield causing my mind to instantly go into red alert.
"I see you listened this time and stayed still."
Carrying an arrogant smirk on his face, Dracula exaggeratedly swung his cloak like that of a magician revealing his secrets.
But instead of a bunny from a hat, a meteor appeared from a cloak.
Covered in crevices and valleys, large magma filled boulders bursting with heat instantly hurtled towards me alongside several bats
"Nope!"
Instantly realizing that the meteor was much to close to escape while also being much to large to block on all my lonesome I hurriedly backstepped.
Reaching into my inventory as my metal boots struck against the marble floor hard enough to form cracks, blocks of wood found their way into my hands.
Placing a line of them in front of me, the vine rune on my hands instantly glowed green as the blocks of wood responded to my will
Growing vines with my power, they stretched upwards to form a concave wall that curved at the sides.
The wall broke of course, but that didn't mean it wasn't effective in keeping my life intact.
Hurriedly running to the left as the meteor flew to the right, the very moment it collided against the walls of Master's keep it exploded harmlessly against the marble.
It's remains were anything but harmless however.
Covering the entire throne room in burning magma, I hurled a kunai at the other side of the hall, wrapping it around one of the many pillars and pulled.
Swinging out of trouble, almost instantly, Dracula was once more on me, bringing down both of his fists in a rain of pain.
But I was familiar with this pattern by now.
Seeing the collection of bats gathering in front of me, a spear found its way into my hands before my arms thrust forwards.
"Guh!"
"Yes!"
Grinning underneath my helmet, a black glow suffused its insides followed up by crimson colored blood seeping out of Dracula's gut.
Hurriedly dissipating once more into a cloud of bats, the spear in my hands transformed into a crackling whip made of lightning which I swung.
*SKREEE
Letting out a chorus of bat screams, the red furred mammals struck by the whip turned black and fell to the ground now covered in puddles of magma, some of the more lucky ones gaining black singes on their coats.
Gathering atop another portion of the throne room untouched by the rapidly cooling magma, Dracula appeared more than worse for wear.
With several gashes lining his undercoat and stomach, his once pristine clothes had been torn in several places, revealing grey flesh that rapidly knitted itself together.
"I've been a good sport until now, but this fight has been going on for to long, now die!"
Grabbing at the two edges of his cloak, he flipped them open revealing a deluge of red bats that hurriedly swarmed outwards in a frenzy, their shrieks shaking my mind as they lunged at me.
"Gah!"
Hooked claws digging into the iron armor covering my body, the red furred beasts bit into every crevice that they could find, tearing at the armor on my body until they could reach the delicious blood back hidden underneath.
And reach it they did
"AAARRGH!"
Letting out a cry of agony, numerous fangs and claws dug into the hole on my arm where the red hue struck, the once sturdy armor collapsing as if exposed to rust.
"Get off me!"
Instantly bursting into a ball of flame, every single one of the red bats clinging to my body instantly evaporated into dust, letting out naught but a single scream before they went.
"Gahaha! Not so proud are you human!"
Laughing loudly, I turned to look at Dracula who had by now healed most of the major wounds covering his body save the giant hole on his stomach I placed on him.
Raising his hands, expecting another deluge of black fireballs or meteors, I hurriedly raised my shield to block only to see his hand point downwards.
'Huh?'
Confusion filling my mind, a bright light rose up from beneath me causing every single one of my instincts to fly into overdrive.
Time rune slowing down my perception, flames and mana boosted my legs upwards so that I would be able to dodge the black and purple flames kindling at my feet.
Flipping over backwards, still using the time rune, a glowing red insignia mimicking that of the inferno rune appeared, manifesting a pillar of flame that climbed to the ceiling.
"No more escape for you!"
Instantly gathering into the form of a vampire with a bloodthirsty smile, the bats that made up his body surged around us in chorus of deafening screeches
Appearing directly to my right, instead of performing the one two combo of trying to stomp my head into mush, red balls of fire manifested in his palm.
'How devious.'
Tricking me into thinking his motions of flipping open his coat always meant he was going to shoot something at me, Dracula instead pointed his palms downwards and generated pillars of flame all over the hall.
And as I was left stumbling from hurriedly dodging the possibly fatal attack as was seen by the pillar that climbed straight from the ground to the ceiling in a millisecond.
He appeared with an actual ranged attack in his hand.
A very devastating one that would carve a hole through my body at that.
Realizing all this in my adrenaline filled mind, almost instantly, hormones flooded my system in a last ditch effort for survival, filling my body with a seemingly endless well of strength.
But I knew it wasn't so.
The human body put limiters on our strength so that we wouldn't harm ourselves from the uncontrolled strength, but even this uncontrolled well of strength had its limits.
My eyes flashed orange.
Limits that I would be finding out in my new mana improved body.
Picking a solution I probably would never have chosen if it weren't a life and death situation, my arms were gathered together to grasp at the item that appeared in my hands in place of the shield
Ram rune activating and forcefully dragging my legs to the ground, they dug stably into the marble flooring now bearing several cracks and signs of battle on its reflective surface.
Flames covering my entire body shifting to my hands and legs, the color of the orange flames shifted from red to blue.
And similarly, blue mana circulated through my joints, exploding outwards as they jettisoned my limbs towards Dracula's near body.
Eyes straining as they took in all the small bits of information surrounding me, blood pooled at their base as several capillaries running through my eyes burst.
Muscles screaming as they unlocked their limiters and outputted raw strength uncontrolled by normal means, my brain had an epiphany as everything fell into a somewhat supernatural silence.
'This is a gamble'
'Well of course it's a gamble, I'm trying to not die right now.'
'Yeah, but why am I fighting as if I might die? I can just come back later and much stronger, now that I know how Dracula fights, I can just kill him easier right?'
'But doesn't Dracula also know how we fight? And now that he knows we can potentially kill him he'll be more on guard then before.'
'I understand that, but...'
'But what?'
'I feel like if we don't kill him we won't get another chance to do so.'
'...'
'God I hope I don't regret this.'
+++
Sick Tree