Chapter 109: Vampire Martial Arts
Throughout the entire fight, Peter had stuck by Layla’s side, too afraid to help the fight against the dalki. He was only a level 2, and not very good at fighting, so he feared that if he helped then he was only going to get hurt, or worse, get in the way.
That was when Erin stepped inside of the old building, seemingly determined, but as she walked up close to Peter, both him and Layla could see that she was shaking.
Taking in a gulp, Erin began speaking.
"I can’t do this alone. I need... I need help."
Even though Layla didn’t want Erin to drink her blood while she was hurt, she realized that the situation had grown too dire.
"You’re hurt, you need to drink my blood—" Layla said, shifting her body to get closer to Erin.
That was when Layla doubled over, wincing in pain where her lower torso had been impaled. It wasn’t as bad as it was earlier, but she was in no condition to give Erin blood, much less fight.
Immediately, Erin rushed over to help Layla stay upright.
"No, please stay here, I can’t bear to lose you too," Erin spoke, her voice cracking near the end.
Layla could see it, genuine fear in Erin’s eyes. An emotion she had never seen Erin display before.
"You need blood right?" Peter interrupted, which got Erin to fling her head in his direction, "I can’t be of use in this fight, but if what you need to defeat the dalki is my blood then... just take it!"
Peter lifted his arm out in front of Erin, and she stared at it.
Ever since the red portal planet incident, Erin hated Peter. He had nearly shoved his own friend, Quinn, onto a death planet, and she nearly died on said planet herself. He wasn’t strong, and was more often than not a liability.
Not wanting to wait for an answer, Peter quickly made an earth knife using some loose sand, and cut his hand, cupping it into a bowl-like shape. The blood pooled, and Erin, knew that he was basically handing her his blood.
"Just take it!" Peter shouted.
—
Back on the battlefield, Quinn and Fex tried their best to put on a good fight, but Quinn was only human, and Fex himself was only doing a little bit better. Ever since Fex had the two of his daggers eaten by the dalki, he was on the back foot, constantly dodging the dalki’s attacks.
Behind his back was one of his hands, holding onto a string that was tied to a large metal chunk not too far away.
The dalki sliced in the air, narrowly scratching Fex’s cheek as he stepped out of the way. In turn, Fex threw a blood swipe at the dalki’s face before following it up by flinging the large metal at the dalki.
The metal flew fast enough to slightly budge the dalki’s head, but before it fell to the ground, he grabbed it, and threw it back at Fex.
"Crap!" Fex cursed, narrowly jumping over it.
It crashed behind him, shaking the earth, and causing sand to float in the air.
Jumping back, Fex was thinking frantically about what to do. He hadn’t been this troubled in a fight since the deathbat, and yet, this dalki was just as fast as he was, perhaps even faster.
’Damn it, I don’t have a puppet!’ Fex gritted his teeth.
"Don’t forget about me!" Quinn shouted.
Quinn ran, and formed a large fist of earth, crashing it into the dalki’s body. The dalki took the hit head on with his arms in an X like formation, then released the X breaking apart the earth fist.
The dalki charged at Quinn, and he summoned an earth wall to rise from the ground, but the dalki simply broke through, kneeing him in the chest. This had dented the metal chest piece Quinn was wearing, knocking the air out of him, and fell on his back.
That was when Fex’s eyes fell onto Quinn.
’I’d prefer it if he wasn’t hurt, but I would also prefer if this green freak wasn’t here,’ Fex thought as he flung his strings in Quinn’s direction.
Quinn collapsed onto the ground, clutching his chest, the dalki’s foot right over him. Fex’s string attached to Quinn, and he flung him over to where the young vampire was at, taking him out of danger.
Quinn was now suddenly in front of Fex, not fully capable of moving his body. He has seen Fex use this move on Erin once before, and assumed that he was now under his control as a puppet.
"... Please be gentle," Quinn worriedly whispered.
"I’ll try," Fex quickly responded, "Make a sword!"
Quinn lifted his fingers up, creating a small pillar with a crude handle to form in the ground.
Flicking his fingers around, Fex moved Quinn’s body to run towards the handle and grab it, yanking it out of the ground revealing it to be a sword, more blunt object than blade.
The dalki charged at Quinn, and he was controlled to smack the sword into the dalki’s head. The sword crumbled as the dalki’s head twisted from the hit, and retaliated with a swing of his claws.
Flicking his fingers, Fex concentrated hard to pull Quinn out of danger, avoiding devastating hits and deadly slices. Constantly making new stone swords, and smashing them into the dalki, even making a few earth spears.
Sweat was forming on Fex as he was focusing on keeping up, but they were able to see progress. The dalki’s body was clearly taking hits, his body bruised and bleeding in a few places.
Quinn’s body jumped back, and pulling his arm behind himself, Fex allowed Quinn to create a weapon of his choice, so Quinn chose to make gauntlets.
The dalki swung his arm at Quinn, but Fex was able to expertly maneuver Quinn’s body to avoid it, his fist clenched as Fex controlled Quinn about to do a hammer strike. To use some extra firepower, Quinn added some mud from his mud pouch into the move, creating a faux blood hammer.
The dalki stumbled back, but he smiled, and they could see a little bit of green blood staining the insides of its mouth. Instead of looking at the two of them with fear, the dalki smiled, looking proud of himself. It was almost as if the dalki was tanking the hits on purpose.
"I didn’t expect you to push me to this point," The dalki said with a wide smile, a row of sharp alligator-like teeth, "I’ve heard of this thing called ’martial arts’ that humans use. I thought it simply some useless thing, until now. You actually managed to bypass my hard skin, and hurt me from the inside."
That was when on the dalki’s back, a small bump just below the dalki’s spike had formed, and instantly, Quinn knew what was happening.
The dalki took a step forward, his sinister grin unfaltering, "Did you know, the more hurt a dalki gets, the stronger they become?!"
