First Step

The atmosphere in the audience room was suffocating and heavy. Orion unleashed the full force of his aura, encasing the huge room in his killing intent and bloodlust.

To the vampire ahead of him, it felt as if a large and heavy hand began to wrap around the necks of everyone present, slowly squeezing their life away the longer they stood still.

Fear completely took over the vampire's mind and he was paralyzed for a couple of moments. Orion stepped forward slowly and never lost eye contact with the vampire in front of him.

When the vampire looked into Orion's shining golden eyes, he felt something he hadn't felt since the day he was banished from the vampire kingdom by the patriarch and ruler of all vampires.

He felt despair. He couldn't see his face behind that terrifying demon mask, but those golden eyes, they made him truly scared. It felt as if he was looking at the pinnacle of strength. A demon without a shred of mercy, covered in the aura of death.

The countless amount of lives that Orion had taken throughout his life appeared in front of the vampire as his aura continued to manifest and grow thicker the closer Orion came to him.

It was suffocating, terrifying and domineering as every step Orion took made the vampire quiver more and more in fear. This feeing made the vampire furious. He couldn't accept the fact that he felt fear from a human.

He gritted his teeth so hard that they cracked loudly. The taste of iron from his blood filled his mouth and snapped him out of his stupor. He yelled at Orion with anger, trying to regain his confidence and arrogance back.

"You dare bare your teeth at me human?! You are merely my food! Where do you get your confidence to face me, Corvul von Roth, trash?! I, am a vampire count! I am of noble blood! HOW DARE YOU INSULT M-"

Orion cut him off as he manipulated his mana into his vocal cords and spoke coldly, "Shut up and die quietly, you insect." He didn't speak loudly but due to the mana in his voice it sounded domineering and sent shivers down Corvul's spine.

Corvul's face was filled with rage and waved his hand as to signal for something. Right away, two towering monsters came from each side of the room. They were about ten meters tall and were dark grey in colour.

The monsters had a single large eye and large mouths with two tusks protruding from their lower lip. They had no clothes on except for a loin cloth and held onto a massive wooden club with metal spikes on the upper half.

One of the monsters swung down his club instantly with both arms and smashed it into the ground where Orion once stood. Orion dodged by simply side stepping to his right and letting the club swing by, missing him by a hair.

Smoke rose covering the scene, but suddenly two small axes flew out from the smoke towards the two monster's large eyes. The one that swung his club had both hands on his club and couldn't dodge the incoming projectile.

The axe hit the eye dead centre and it exploded as the axe came out the other side of its head. The other monster saw it coming and lifted his arm to block the impact.

The axe cut through his arm easily but only scratched the monsters cheek when it flew out of his arm.

"RRAAAAAHHHH!" The monster screamed in pain as it lowered its arm to look for the tiny human in front of it.

Orion didn't stand still as he moved immediately after throwing his two axes. He expected this outcome since he charged at the monster that's still standing and manipulated his mana into his legs.

When he reached the monster, Orion jumped using his reinforced legs and using gale step simultaneously. When the monster lowered its arm to look for Orion he saw the man right in front of his face spinning in the air.

Orion spun around once and swung his leg fiercely at the monsters head. It was stunned and couldn't react as the heavy, spiked boot landed directly on his temple.

*CRACK* *SPLURT*

The monster's huge skull got crushed by Orion's kick and his eye exploded as he fell to his knees and collapsed. Orion landed on the monsters back gracefully even though he was fully equipped with his heavy armor.

Orion hopped off the monster's back and began walking towards the vampire. Corvul was terrified by his display of strength but his fight or flight was beginning to kick in.

Corvul pointed down at Orion and spoke trying to hide his fear, "Insolent human, no matter what you do to me I will not die! We vampires will regenerate millions of times before you could even dream of threatening my life!"

Corvul began to gain some of his confidence back as he continued, "You will get tired, and I will retain my strength! I will enjoy torturing you for disrespecting me huma-"

*BOOM*

Corvul's sentence was cut short as his face came in contact with Orion's fist when he suddenly appeared in front of him. His head exploded and his body was sent flying into the wall.

Orion ran towards him and grabbed Corvul by his collar. He then threw Corvul over his shoulder and launched him into the middle of the room. Corvul's head was halfway regenerated and his mouth and nose were fully restored.

"YOU BASTARD! How dare you!" Corvul yelled and stood up into a defensive stance. Orion charged at Corvul and sent a punch towards his almost fully regenerated head. Corvul weaves to the outside of Orion's arm and sent a counter to Orion's face.

*BAM*

Corvul's punch made contact which should've made him happy, but his hand was in immense pain as if he hit and iron wall. "GAHH!" Corvul jumped back in pain and looked at his hand that was regenerating the broken bones sticking out of his fingers and wrist.

Corvul looked at Orion to see if he inflicted any damage only to see Orion's palm covering half of his face and looking at Corvul with his uncovered eye.

When Corvul saw that chilling and murderous gaze from his golden eye, he understood that the human in front of him wasn't actually human, 'he's a fucking monster!' Corvul said in his mind.

Orion lowered his hand and spoke slowly with anger, "the reason I'm not using my weapons on you, is simply because I want to inflict the most amount of pain possible, before ending your miserable existence."

Orion stepped forward and cracked his knuckles as he made a tight fist. Corvul began to panic and activated his innate magic, "Blood Magic: Blood Coffin!" Corvul yelled and suddenly the blood from both the giant monsters came rushing towards Orion.

'Oh? Is this how magic is used? Interesting," Orion thought to himself as he stopped moving forward and allowed the giant amounts of blood to circle around him. "HAHAHA! You fool!" Corvul screamed with delight when he saw Orion allow himself to get trapped.

The giant pool of blood created a huge sphere with Orion in the middle. Suddenly the sphere began to condense and shrink more and more, attempting to crush Orion into pulp with the massive pressure.

"Blood Magic: Judgement!" Corvul yelled again as he casted another spell. Thousands of spears made of blood materialized and hardened as they began to float in the air. Corvul waved his hand downwards and all the spears swarmed at the crimson red sphere.

Corvul smiled widely as he saw the spears penetrate the sphere. He regained his arrogant demeanour and spat on the ground as he said, "Trash! This is the outcome of your naivety, you'll be my dinner tonight!"

*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*

Suddenly, hundreds of after images of a blade slicing through the the sphere appeared before Corvul.

*SHATTER*

The blood imprisonment broke into thousands of pieces and fell to the floor revealing an unscathed giant man exhaling thick amounts of steam.

Corvul felt an electric current course through his body as the shock hit him hard. "h...ho..how a..are you a..live?" Corvul stuttered as fear rose in him once more.

"Pathetic. Is this the strength of a noble vampire?" Orion sneered at Corvul's incompetence and stomped his foot and cracked the floor as he lunged at the stunned Corvul.

*BAM*

Orion's uppercut collided with Corvul's gut creating a gaping hole in his abdomen and sending him flying into the air. Orion jumped into the air reaching Corvul instantly and landed another punch on Corvul's chest to make him plummet back down to the ground.

Orion landed on top of Corvul with both feet together. He stomped on the almost healed hole in his stomach making Corvul vomit blood as his organs were crushed.

Orion grabbed both of Corvul's arms and stepped on his chest. Orion pulled quickly as he pressed down on his chest with his foot and tore his arms off. "AAAHHHHH!" Corvul's yell was filled with agony as his mind began to race wildly with fear and pain.

"You said you would regenerate a million times before you die, right? I'm counting on it," Orion spoke without emotion as he looked at Corvul dead in the eyes.

At this moment Corvul felt that his life is no longer his. If Orion wants him to die now or later, he had no say in his decision.

Minutes passed as the hall continued to be filled with screams of pain. Meanwhile, the mother and daughter pair at the top of the stairs looked down at the gruesome scene without blinking. At some point, the mother had stood up and walked to the edge of the stairs beside her daughter.

Orion looked at the disfigured corpse on the floor and saw something shining. He bent over and picked up a crimson red orb and instantly realized what it was.

With out hesitation he swallowed the orb and the crushed body bellow him suddenly stopped regenerating. Orion saw two prompts pop up in front of him and read them quickly before turning to look at the mother and daughter duo.

[DING

VAMPIRE COUNT X1 SLAIN: 1000 LFX AND 500 LFP GAINED]

[DING

EPIC VAMPIRE COUNT CORE X1 ABSORBED: 5000 LFX AND 1000 LFP GAINED

SKILL: REGENERATION LVL.1 GAINED

TITLE: LONGEVOUS GAINED]

When Orion looked at the two ladies he was shocked to see them smiling at him with a thankful gaze. They didn't say a word and just stared at each other as the two women began to turn to ash and dissipate into the air.

The vampire's body, as well as the two large monsters in the middle of the hall turned to ash and disappeared as well. Orion walked towards the crown and tiara left behind by the mother and daughter and picked them up.

'Rest in peace,' Orion mumbled as he turned around to pick up his two axes. He then began to walk out of the great hall. 'If this is how this world works... I'll have to make a place with my own rules..." Orion began to ponder and organize his thoughts as he walked out of the large audience hall.

His back was straight as he walked away, but if one were to look closely, they'd notice that it also looked lonely and pained.

At this moment, Orion made his first step at forging his own legend in this world.