39: Nightmare

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The blood of the elven race is amber!

With that thought, all my drowsiness suddenly disappears.

"Joseph? What are you doing?" I ask, bringing a hand to my eyes to rub them, pretending to just wake up.

At my words, I watch in horror as Debi turns to me. Her face, on which I see an expression of bewilderment, is a strangely distorted mask. Her mouth stretched to twice its normal size, with two fangs protruding above her upper lip. Her light blue eyes seem to glow in the dark.

When I inspected her class, upon first seeing her, none appeared. However, now the class 'Vampire' appears next to her name.

She drops Joseph's body, which falls to the floor as if he were a puppet whose strings have been cut.

I see with growing horror that his neck is bent in an unnatural position and that one side of his neck has a gigantic hole in it. My vision is blurred...

Memories of my parents' death, revived upon returning from sleep, mingle with the image of my lifeless friend on the floor…

I don't know what's going on, but it doesn't matter…

I want to, we want to kill her for what she did… In my mind, that's all that matters.

I uncork the flask in my hand and drink its contents in one gulp. As Azur lunges, with a furious roar, towards the girl.

Azur's feelings mingle with mine.

Its fury fueling mine and vice versa. I take out my sword from my inventory and get ready to throw myself towards Debi.

Then something strange happens.

Azur's body dissolves into light mid-run, and the resulting light comes in my direction, giving me strength.

My mind and Azur's mind intermingle, giving rise to a new consciousness, at the same time I see a notification appear.

[New skill acquired: Spiritual Fusion Lvl. 1]

The power inflames my body.

But it's not just strength. I feel that every little movement and thought is exaggerated, driven by abilities that I did not have until a few moments ago…

I feel dizzy. I don't even know if I could walk in this state since a part of my mind thinks I should be on all fours.

However, the fury and hatred are still there, so I try to assimilate my state as fast as possible to be able to face my enemy.

While I try to get used to this feeling, I see Agustin pass by me, mace in hand, to try to attack Debi.

She, which is still looking curiously at the place where Azur dissolved, moves her hand in a flashing movement that cuts Agustin's arm at the elbow and throws him backward, where he crashes against a wall and falls unconscious.

This wakes me up a bit.

This is no time to be disoriented. If I'm unsure if I can walk, I'm going to do something else.

I jump towards the girl and try to attract her attention with a slash from above, the girl tries to counterattack with the same move she used with the boy with the mace. But…

Although I can't understand how to properly move myself, my body reacts instinctively blocking it with the sword.

The vampire jumps back in surprise, which I take advantage of to pick up the boy's arm and throw it at Sabrina. Who is behind me, trying to revive the boy at her side.

"Girl, don't let the boy get back up and stay out of the way. It's going to be hard enough fighting this monster without having to worry about you" I say to Sabrina, my voice a kind of raspy roar.

"Xelean?" asks Sabrina, fear in her voice.

"He's not home at the moment, or yes, but not at the same time? It's confusing, I don't understand it myself. You'll have to wait until I'm done with this to talk to him. Try sticking the boy's arm with a potion" as I say this, I slowly approach Joseph's body, but it's a shame.

Indeed, his light has gone out.

The fight noise seems to have awakened Debi's parents, who emerge from a room with crude weapons in hand and dart in my direction.

The father carries a sickle, while the mother has a kitchen knife, held in two hands. I push them back with a flare I shoot from my mouth and see them fall to the ground writhing.

I turn to the vampire and see that she is preparing 6 mana bullets, which moments later she fires in the direction of Sabrina and Agustin.

I jump to get in her way, but I only manage to block 2 of them, one with my forearm protector and the other with my sword.

When I do so, I see that my hand has a kind of claw made of blue light surrounding it like a glove.

Of the rest of the projectiles, one hits me in the leg and the others pass me by, getting lost behind my back.

I launch myself towards the vampiress, more and more comfortable with my new abilities, and try to give her a slash aimed at her neck, which she tries to parry with the same movement she did before with her right hand, but I alter the direction of my blow halfway and deflect her arm to the side. Then, I equip my mithril dagger in my left hand and pierce her chest with it at the level of the heart.

We are glued to each other and, confident of my victory, I allow myself to be distracted by the reflection of my face in the blade of my sword.

My skin is pale and scaleless, though with a bluish sheen, and my eyes are two pools of blackness illuminated by bluish vertical pupils.

But then I notice, confused, that Debi is smiling.

Following the direction of her gaze I see with surprise that, piercing my stomach, there is a reddish blade.

A weapon that Debi holds in her left hand and that she did not have a few moments ago.

At the same time, I feel three impacts on my back.

The situation is very strange. I don't feel any pain, neither from the stabbing nor from the blows to my back, but I see my health bar decrease by half.

Debi kicks me away, thus freeing herself from the dagger that was stabbing her chest, which falls to the ground beside her. The wound in her chest seems to have her without a care, as it is healing at an alarming rate before my helpless gaze.

And, although I try to get up to attack her before she finishes healing, I am hit by a mana bomb that throws me back to the ground.

A second later, I feel two more blows on my back, at the level of my shoulders.

My health bar drops again and I see a notification before my eyes. [Survivor Lvl. 1 activated]

"That's enough, dear" I hear Debi say, in a melodious voice completely contradictory to her appearance and, following the direction of her gaze I see… Sabrina? "He must be under my control by now"

I don't understand... Sabrina has three wounds from the projectiles. One in one leg, one in the stomach, and a third in the shoulder. But she is standing as if nothing, preparing magic bullets, apparently destined for me…

However, at Debi's words, she lets the magic bullets dissolve and I stupefied contemplate the look of adoration she gives the monster that killed her friend a few moments before.

"Today must be my lucky day!" exclaims the creature, exultant "I got my first taste of elf a few moments ago, and now I'm going to get to taste you, whatever you are!"

Debi approaches me at a slow and calm pace.

For some reason, she seems to think she's already won… Well, I'm not going to disenchant her just yet.

I get up slowly, but without letting go of my sword. And I let my arms hang at my sides, inert, pretending to be defeated and trying to imitate Sabrina's expression.

When Debi reaches a sufficient distance, I turn on my sword and, gripping it tightly with both hands, I throw a slash with it to decapitate the vampiress.

If stabbing her doesn't work, I guess cutting off her head will have to do the job. She, caught off guard, desperately tries to defend herself with one arm, but the skin alone doesn't grant much extra resistance and her arm is cut off by my sword cleanly, which runs its course, decapitating the girl.

Despite being headless, the body keeps moving. Throwing herself to the ground and tried to reach for her head with her remaining hand. But I kick the head away.

I hear Sabrina scream horribly and see her lunging on all fours for the head as if it was the girl's dearest thing in the world.

Before long the body stops moving, finally lifeless, and I start getting a large number of level-up notifications.

I try to ignore them and look at Sabrina cautiously.

The girl has her back to me, covering Debi's head with her body.

As I look at her, undecided on what to do with her, I begin to feel immense waves of pain and exhaustion hitting my body and mind.

It seems that both, the time of the spiritual fusion and the time of the witcher's elixir are over. Because I notice how my mind weakens and splits again in two, Azur's and mine.

I see the ground approaching at great speed.

How strange, I think with my mind confused by the intensity of the pain, before I lose consciousness.