Hamming it up for power

WHAT HAVE I DONE!? WHAT THE FUCK! As I got further and further away dragging the two red-heads behind me I started to feel less and less certain about what just happened.

Eventually, the haze going around me faded and I had to look at what I had just done.

I killed four fucking kids! Sure, they were planning on killing me but I took such glee in their suffering. I mocked them as they died and spat on that kid's final sacrifice.

I tore the heart out of that guy and felt nothing but hunger as his body fell before me. It was maddening and it was only the serene calm dragging me away from my breaking point that saved me.

During that battle, I fell into a predator vs prey mindset. The type of bullshit that Shadow-Stalker swore up and down upon.

I quite literally took satisfaction in murder and amusement in the futility of their struggle.

I felt less shitty about the dick head who sentenced me to die but my part in his death was not that large. Beyond my fucked up sense of morality in that moment what I did to Mei and her probable family was driving me crazy.

I knew how valuable the ability to resurrect someone was but I just showed it off for the shits and giggles. I made a game at the probably panicking woman who wanted nothing more than to protect a young child.

I prodded and mocked the woman who could end my life if she was feeling in top form and had no collateral. I was playing with fire and I did it with dumb laughter and a ridiculous smile on my face.

Why the fuck was I leaning so hard on the old mysterious vampire vibe!? Sure I was older than I looked but I was not a century-old vampire who threw wise but mysterious remarks.

Not, that any of those remarks were wise they were more mocking and targeted to get the best rise out of my target.

I was acting like a troll, a murderous one at that. At that moment I did not care about what happened next I only considered what would bring me the most joy in the moment.

I took a tentative look at Mei as I dragged her along.

The woman was glaring at everything around her with a paranoid expression on her face. She looked like she wanted to stab something and I certainly made myself prime stabbing material.

The mother on the other hand looked to be in better spirits. She did not doubt that her sudden resurrection was a part of some grand illusion so the paranoia was lesser with her.

She was still upset and planning on hurting me but she was more reasonable.

Apparently seeing her daughter safe in the hands of the monster that fucked around with her calmed the irate woman. She was prepared to sacrifice her life for her daughter so she was content to sit and wait for her opportunity.

I wanted to release them and explain things but I was kind of afraid of them. Mei was still not in top form but she could probably merc me if I made a simple mistake.

She was also not in a very trusting mood right now. Not, that I would trust a shinobi in the first place. That was just asking for my neck to be slit in the middle of the night. No, my best option was to leave her to cool down for a long while.

I could probably pull releasing the mother as I should be able to handle her. Sure she might stab me in my sleep but as I vampire I did not really need that.

Although, I would miss sleeping in and snuggling into my blankets. I guess I could figure out a way to go to sleep but that was a notion for another day.

I looked over at my only other hostage and felt conflicted. The girl was humming a happy tune but was shooting Mei and her Mother worried looks.

She did not have a firm grasp of everything going on but as far as she was concerned her mother came back from the dead and all it cost her was having a strange boy follow her and her mother being put in time out.

I was a bit kinder to the girl when I was in that state but I still used her naivety and hurt her mother right in front of her. So you can see why my feelings were rather conflicted at this moment.

I tried to distract myself with the pop ups that my vampire self was ignoring. I leveled up again and got a nice chunk of XP.

I wanted to dump more points into LUK but my current luck values did not really help me all that much. I was still kind of hoping to grind out stats in a regular fashion.

Hell, in that little battle I went through I gained three points of DEX and one point of STR. So it was clearly easy to level up these stats.

I did feel myself twitch as I did not gain a single WIS point and it was supposed to be far easier to gain those. I guess it was clear that I did not make a single wise decision back there. Story of my fucking life.

I let out a sigh and assigned it to LUK again. I may not be seeing the results of my increased luck yet but it was only a matter of time before I saw something.

Although stumbling upon Mei of all people might be lucky but I also put myself in danger and KILLED FUCKING CHILDREN.

Take a deep breath and repress. The motto that I lived and breathed by.

Would that cause me issues further on in my life? Maybe who the fuck knows these things?

Running away from all of this by using the Blind Eternities was sounding more and more tempting.

I would not have to deal with the consequences of mocking and prodding Mei. I could escape from this rather violent and disturbing world. All it would cost me was a moment of complete and utter discomfort.

No, that is still a rather poor estimation of what the blind eternities are like. The blind eternities are overwhelming and traumatizing. 

With a sigh, I abandoned the notion of running away from all of this. It was not the pure and utter chaos that the blind eternities would bring to me that was causing me to abandon this route.

It was that little girl humming happily. I may not know her very well but I put her in a rather awkward position. I had also promised to do my very best to bring her family back to her.

So until I at least accomplished that I was not going to leave this place. 

I will say that out of all the places I could have ended up Naruto is actually pretty okay. Sure there are threats and wars going on almost constantly but it is not something that I could not overcome.

If I ended up in Warhammer of all places I might have escaped using the blind eternities immediately. Then again God knows if you could actually escape out of Warhammer using that method of travel.

I was not actually that familiar with what the Chaos Gods could do in their world but judging by the fear of their names they might notice an unwelcome traveler. 

I may not know much about the Chaos Gods but literal demonic entities that proclaimed themselves gods are not pleasant in most fiction. From my understanding, their domains include disease, blood, and fucking literally anything that walks.

Those Dominion speak for themselves and while I might not be fair in my evaluation I have heard some rather disturbing things about Warhammer. So if push came to shove I would rather not come anywhere close to that place. 

Which meant further travel throughout the Multiverse is going to have to be nixed. Maybe when I have a better understanding of the Kaleidoscope I could travel as I please but at this moment that's not happening.

Either a better understanding of the Kaleidoscope or a ludicrous amount of luck that would ensure I never came within spitting distance of Warhammer. Thus my investment in luck further proves its value. 

I gained some levels in skills but I gained another title and I honestly did not know how to feel about it.

[Title gained: I am Dracula Bleh Bleh Bleh.]

You're a vampire big whoop. Come back to me when you're a proper vampire not this murder happy fool. Wait a moment I might have been speaking too quickly you look like you have what it takes to make it to the big league kid. 

When you are really Hamming it up as a vampire you receive a 75% boost to all stats. 

If you say I am Cam bleh bleh bleh before a fight you may recover all of your health by draining a single victim. 

If you are hamming it up as a vampire all weaknesses that are normally associated with vampires become available to you and deal double what they usually do. 

If you insist that you do not in fact say bleh bleh bleh then you will find yourself slowly becoming less and less like a vampire. Maybe eventually this immortal curse will fade away from you.

[]

I got it my system had a rather persistent need to completely and utterly mock me. Even when it chooses to give me a relatively powerful ability it still wants to throw its digs at me.

That boost is frankly insane and all it would cost me is a few moments of embarrassment later on. Although I will question if I even need to ham it up as what was shown to me in that battle already fit this to a tee. 

Sure having to deal with some rather vital weaknesses when I ham it up is bad but that stat boost is certainly worth it. I just had to make sure that I did not act like hey two bit vampire when I was not prepared for battle.

That should be rather easy but I was not really in control of myself in that previous battle. I would like to think that it was the rush of a battle and my vampiric instincts taking over that pushed me into that state but I just don't know enough to really define it. 

I can only pray that I managed to control myself when it counted. Isn't that ironic enough of a vampire praying for control over his maddening self?

That actually might be the plot of a more cheesy romantic vampire fiction. I will forever be scared by reading Twilight when I was in Middle School, the horrors. 

The ability to completely heal myself at the sacrifice of one person is rather vital even if I don't want to think about the consequences of that.

The side effect of having to say bleh bleh bleh was not really that insulting in the long run. Although I will probably recall the strange looks that the people around me will give for the rest of time. 

Now on to the part that I'm actually conflicted about. I was given an opportunity to completely remove the vampiric side of myself now. 

Before all this happened I would have said that only a fool would give up what I currently have.

It is not like I was chained down by the typical vampiric weaknesses. I wasn't even cursed with being forever 11 as I would grow into my proper age and then awaken my ideal blood. 

No the only thing that drew some sort of hesitance out of me was the state I was in battle. Losing my sense of self and having my morality twisted into a ball of yarn was not pleasant.

At what point do I become what that thing was and lose myself completely to my vampiric instincts? That was the question that would haunt me for the rest of time if I kept this curse as it was. 

I let out a sigh and decided to postpone the decision. Maybe that particular case was rather extreme because I was caught off guard for the first time. I can only hope that would be the case. 

It appears that I've run out of things to distract me from my current state. Well, I was going to have to face this eventually so I might as well get it over with.

I looked around the forest around us and as far as I could tell we were still in the clear. I was not actually sure if Mika had any sense of where we were going or if she simply chose a direction following the terms of our deal. 

So it's time to bring someone who had some semblance of grounding in this world. It sucks that it has to be one of these redheads but beggars can't be choosers and I have kind of put them through a lot. 

I looked at Mei for a moment before rolling my eyes at even considering her. She might consider all of this some grand trick if I offered and trying to handle her was out of the question.

I locked eyes with my other captive and felt my face twitch as her own eyes locked on mine. At least she did not appear raving mad but she had some semblance of caution when she was looking at me. 

Well since I caught her attention I might as well get this over with. I bowed my head with an embarrassed with awkward look on my face that was not fake in the least. 

"I'm sorry about all of that I was not exactly in the best state of mind." I let out sheepishly as I looked at her. She seemed completely and utterly baffled that I would apologize for what I had done.

I mean I could certainly understand where she was coming from as I was rather abrupt with my methods back there. 

Before she could settle on some sort of response I decided to release her from the runic chains. Suddenly being released from her chains and being within stabbing range again the woman hesitated as she looked at me. 

Maybe it was the complete and utter sincerity behind my eyes that caused her to pause. Maybe it was the notion that I could kill her at any moment and I had proven that. Honestly, the reasons for not immediately stabbing me we're not that important.

As long as we were able to establish some sort of Common Ground I was fine with whatever relationship they wanted to apply to me. 

"Mom!" The little one shouted out and ran to her hugging her for all she was worth.

I blinked as she did not try to do that when I was dragging her mother about. I guess the little one had more control than I gave her credit for.

Her mother may have been stunned by all of this but she was not going to give up the opportunity to hold onto her daughter again. God, knows when the last time she would be able to hug her after all.

She had already greeted the reaper once she was not going to give up on her right now.

"I know that I've intruded upon your life rather intensely but I made a promise to Mika and I intend to follow through on it. Again I would like to apologize for what I put you through but I had my reasons for doing it. Even if those reasons aren't really that good." I let out and the woman looked over at me again with a strange look on her face.

I suppose the difference between how I was acting and who I was right now was rather clear.

"Those reasons being?" She asked with some hesitance but she clearly needed to know something.

I looked over at her and while she was clearly uncomfortable but she was willing to hear me out. I let out a mental sigh of relief and decided to explain.

"We all have our gifts I'm sure you are far more aware of that than most people are. These things you see in my mouth are not just for show, part of my bloodline means that I can draw power and heal from my wounds if I feast upon the blood of others. A consequence of that is when blood is in the air a mental override happens and I start to treat other humans as prey instead of a fellow human being." I explained with a sour look on my face.

I was kind of pulling most of that explanation out of my ass but it certainly fit what happened to me. I could only hope that I would not be in a position of more blood being around me.

Something told me that that was a stupid wish and one that was going to be broken far too quickly.