XXI: Slay the Knight

Kaizer was blind in the darkness, relying solely on his heightened senses and instincts, while Coach Ignatius, with his Vampiric sight, had the advantage of vision.

The clash began with a brutal strike from Ignatius, who had silently stalked Kaizer's position. His fist connected with Kaizer's jaw, causing blood to spatter into the air. Kaizer staggered backward, disoriented but undeterred. He could taste the metallic tang of his own blood on his lips.

Kaizer retaliated, swinging his arm through the darkness. His fist met air, but his elbow slammed into Ignatius's side. A sickening crack echoed through the dungeon as ribs snapped under the impact. Ignatius grunted in pain but maintained his composure.

The fight escalated into a frenzy of punches, kicks, and painful grapples. Ignatius, relying on his Vampiric senses, evaded most of Kaizer's attacks with graceful ease. Yet, Kaizer's tenacity and relentless onslaught were hard to ignore. His punches found their mark, and each blow was punctuated by the sickening sound of flesh meeting flesh.

Kaizer's blood-slicked hands groped in the darkness, seeking an advantage. His fingers found a jagged piece of stone from the dungeon floor, and with a savage desperation, he thrust it towards Ignatius's direction. The makeshift weapon struck flesh, and a guttural scream of agony confirmed the hit.

In painful rage, Ignatius lunged forward, grappling Kaizer, his vice-like grip constricting around Kaizer's throat. Kaizer gasped for breath, his vision fading as his world became a maelstrom of pain and darkness. With every ounce of his remaining strength, Kaizer drove his knee into Ignatius's groin, forcing the coach to release him.

In the pitch-black abyss, Kaizer knew the futility of his Shadow Magic without a source of light. He reached into his pocket and retrieved his iPhone 6s, activating the flashlight to cast an eerie glow over the dungeon's stone floor. The dim illumination revealed their battered forms and glistening bloodstains.

Both combatants bore the marks of their conflict. Kaizer's body was marred by deep gashes, his clothing soaked in his own blood. Ignatius's regal appearance had been reduced to a disheveled and bloody mess, his once-imposing presence diminished. A single stone shard stuck out the side of his cheek, lodged tightly. Kaizer put the phone back in his pocket, and it provided just enough light through his pants, casting his visible shadow on the floor and walls, enabling him.

Kaizer summoned his shadowy tendrils from his back, coiling them around his arms, turning them into lethal extensions of his will. He coiled and twisted them, readying to attack again.

Ignatius, no stranger to the arts of the Vampire, responded by summoning ethereal chains made of blood, each link pulsating with crimson energy. The chains and tendrils clashed, sparks of dark magic lighting up the dungeon.

With a sudden, savage lunge, Kaizer shadowstepped, phasing through a flurry of Ignatius's attacks, and reappeared at point blank distance, thrusting his tendrils forward like vipers, lashing out and penetrating Ignatius's abdomen. Ignatius's agonized cries filled the air as the tendrils tore through flesh and bone. Blood sprayed in dark arcs across the dungeon walls as Keizer yanked the tendrils back out, painting a grotesque tableau on them and the floor.

Then, Kaizer created illusions of himself, mirages that bewildered Ignatius. In the disorienting darkness, multiple Kaizers seemed to dart and weave, making it impossible for Ignatius to discern the real target. It bought Kaizer precious moments to strike from unexpected angles.

The fight escalated into a whirlwind of blood-soaked punches, kicks, and spells. Ignatius's Vampiric senses and centuries of experience allowed him to predict many of Kaizer's attacks, but the young Human's determination and inventive use of magic kept the coach on the defensive.

Feeling a surge of spontaneous creativity, Kaizer created a mirage of himself that seemed to stumble, luring Ignatius into a false sense of security. Ignatius charged forward, thinking he had Kaizer at his mercy.

Using his shapeshifting ability, Kaizer secretly morphed into a clone of Coach Ignatius within the split-second time frame that he Shadow-Stepped away from the fight, then emerged forth from the shadows with a devastating blow to the side of the Vampire's head, completely catching Ignatius off guard in his pursuit of the illusion. The strike sent Ignatius flying across the dungeon. The sound of flesh splattering against stone echoed as Coach Ignatius' body shot like an arrow into the dungeon's back wall.

Coach Ignatius lay sprawled, his once-mighty form reduced to that of a broken and battered ragdoll. His limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and his body was coated in a gruesome tableau of bruises, lacerations, and oozing wounds.

Kaizer approached with a deliberate, slow stride, the sound of his boots resounding, and the dim glow of his iPhone 6s casting foreboding shadows across the dungeon's stone walls. He took his phone out of his pocket and shined the light on Coach Ignatius. Ignatius's eyes, bloodshot and filled with pain, met Kaizer's cold and unfeeling gaze.

"How's it taste? Your own medicine, I mean. Not the blood." Kaizer remarked, his voice as cold and unfeeling as his expression.

"Fuck. You." Ignatius croaked, blood spurting from his lips as the spirit of defiance smoldered in his battered form.

In that critical moment, Kaizer put his phone back in his pocket, its flash still shining through. He looked down at his hands and sighed deeply. "I'm gonna have to kill you now."

With slow precision, he knelt down and used the blood on his hands to draw the Water and Earth symbols in the stone floor. Yet, this time, he did something different. He added an extra, unusual symbol: an ordinary triangle overlapping the other two shapes. The alchemical symbol for Fire. He held his hand over the blood tapestry, and a crackling, crimson energy surged from it. A cylindrical object manifested, oozing up to the floor and poking through into the dungeon. Kaizer reached down, and pulled through a monstrous blood sledgehammer, and its peculiarity was shown in that instead of the usual, smooth consistency of the texture of Blood Conjurings, this weapon was crystallized, sporting jagged edges and tough ridges all throughout it, as if it had been burned in a diamond-smith's forge. Ignatius mustered a terrified, shocked expression.

"Blasphemy!" Ignatius managed to spat.

"I guess I picked up a thing or two while I was gone. Turns out there's more than just one way to use Blood Magic," Kaizer shrugged. "But looking at the sheer quality of this Conjuring…tsk tsk tsk. I see why you guys don't teach this stuff in the Academy."

Seizing the opportunity, Kaizer lifted the weapon over his shoulder.

"Kaizer…" Ignatius sputtered. Kaizer froze, allowing Ignatius to have his last words—not out of sympathy, but amusement.

"You have no idea—" he coughed. "How grave of a mistake you're ma—"

Kaizer swung, unhinging Ignatius's jaw and silencing him. He kept swinging, raining blows upon Ignatius, shattering bone and flesh. He clobbered away mercilessly, not a hint of emotion or empathy in his eyes.

The dungeon echoed with the sickening thud of each blow, every one followed by a horrific silence before another one landed. Kaizer's assault continued for what seemed like an eternity, each strike resulting in Ignatius's form becoming more and more unrecognizable.

Finally, with a final, ferocious strike, Kaizer shattered the remnants of his former mentor and adversary, leaving only a grotesque pool of gore upon the stone floor. He stood, panting and drenched in blood, the dim light of his iPhone casting eerie shadows across his blood-soaked visage.

Kaizer, victorious but greatly injured, stood amidst the carnage of their battle, his breath ragged and his body trembling. He looked down at his hands and clothing.

"Shit. I just bought these pants."

In the darkness of the dungeon, he chuckled under his breath. He raised his hammer and kissed the crimson mallet end eccentrically, then exclaimed a hoot of joyful triumph. He just killed an Elite! He pulled out his phone again, opening up the Camera app. He pointed the lens at Ignatius's remains. There was a flash.

SNAP!

He marveled at the work of art on his phone, the screen elucidating his sadistic smirk. He wished he could send it to Queen Hundred, but he knew that the message he'd send when the Academy found Ignatius here would be enough. Besides, there's no way he'd find cell service this deep underground anyway.

Kaizer, although injured and bloody, turned to exit the dungeon, extreme confidence and conviction within him. He hobbled out into the halls of the school, stopping at the threshold of the passageway to look back at the mess he made. He smirked and kept limping, yet again leaving behind a path of blood in his wake.

"Boy, do I love being a Vampire."

He had already ignited the first phase, stirring a commotion in the Academy.

Now, Kaizer's focus shifted to his escape.

As he skulked through the subterranean passages, a mirthless smile curled on his lips. He had meticulously planned this escape route, and every step was a deliberate act of defiance against the Queen. His ebony cloak, billowing like a shadowy specter, concealed him from prying eyes.

Finally, after days of travel, he reached the Barrier that separated Sanguine from the Overworld, completely going around the Black Forest. The Overworld was a Realm where Queen Hundred's dominion waned, where he could evade her grasp and wait for the time to regroup. The Barrier shimmered with an eerie, pulsating energy, an indomitable, gigantic cube that had kept countless secrets trapped within it for centuries. Kaizer stretched his arm through.

Slowly, the wall began to ripple like water disturbed by a stone's touch. A breach, small but growing, manifested before him. Kaizer stepped forward, his heart pounding with a heady mixture of triumph and fear. He had to escape, to reach the Overworld before Queen Hundred's wrath descended upon him.

As he passed through the widening rift, he felt a sudden rush of exhilaration.

Kaizer stepped into the familiar black room, its never-ending expansiveness engulfing him like a comforting shroud. It was his sanctuary, a place where he felt protected from Queen Hundred's relentless Vampiric forces. The room's obsidian walls seemed to stretch infinitely in all directions, providing a sense of solitude amidst the chaos outside.

As he moved forward, his eyes fixated on the terminal stationed at the room's center. The dimly glowing screen beckoned him, and his eyes instantly locked on to the option: Overworld | Sanguine | Underworld. Without a moment's hesitation, he reached out and tapped on "Overworld."

A subtle vibration pulsed through the room, and Kaizer waited patiently, his heart racing with anticipation. Suddenly, as if the walls themselves had vanished out of thin air, he found himself in an entirely different place—a movie theater.

Kaizer's calm demeanor in the face of the sudden change wasn't a display of indifference or recklessness; rather, it was a testament to his seasoned experience with the terminal. Over time, he had grown accustomed to the unpredictable nature of his journeys into the Overworld.

With each use of the terminal, he had come to expect the unexpected. The terminal's ability to transport him to various and often entirely unrelated locations had become a regular occurrence in his life. It had trained him to adapt swiftly and remain composed, regardless of where he found himself.

The element of surprise had lost its power to evoke fear or confusion in Kaizer. Instead, he had honed his ability to approach each new destination with a sense of curiosity and adaptability. He had learned that both the Overworld and Sanguine were places of infinite possibilities, and embracing the unknown had become second nature to him.

Kaizer found a certain comfort in the "less-extreme" vibe of uncertainty he felt when he was in the Overworld. It was a place where he could be transported to the most unexpected places and face the most unexpected situations, yet he knew he possessed the resilience and resourcefulness to navigate whatever challenges or adventures awaited him, for many of the daily struggles of Humans felt trivial in comparison to his trials in Sanguine.

The transition was abrupt, the black room's endless void replaced by plush red seats and a massive silver screen. The scent of buttered popcorn and the distant murmur of excited chatter surrounded him. A large box of popcorn and a large CocaCola sat in his lap. Kaizer blinked in a brief moment of surprise. He had used the terminal countless times before, but this was the first time it had transported him to a place of leisure. And where did the snacks come from? He shrugged.

As he settled into the comfortable seat, he marveled at the realism of the theater. The movie hadn't started yet. Despite the uncertainty of his situation, Kaizer couldn't deny the allure of the cinematic experience before him. The room seemed to have a surreal quality, and he couldn't help but appreciate the respite it offered from his relentless battles through the earthly tunnels of Sanguine.

With a contented sigh, he leaned back in his seat, ready to embrace the experience.

'I bet Queen Hundred is shitting her panties right now,' Kaizer thought, a grin on his face as the movie started. He reached for some popcorn, shoving it in his mouth hungrily. He took a sip of his beverage, leaning over the cupholder next to him.

He felt gratitude when he realized that the rest of the mission was left up to his friends, and all he had to do was enjoy his time in the Overworld, and patiently wait for their game of lies to play itself out. He grinned, entertaining the notion that it was like a game of chess; in his mind's eye, he saw the metaphorical chessboard, with Queen Hundred being the white queen piece, and himself the black king piece.

He went over the details of the events that were unfolding in his life within his mind, imagining the black king moving square by square to the other side of the board, getting knocked over after each move by pawns, knights, bishops, and the Queen as well, yet still getting back up again and again until it reached the other side, taunting the queen piece for the mere fact that he was still alive, and she hadn't yet claimed checkmate, despite her assumptions.

He imagined the enemy knight piece, the intimidating Ignatius in his patriotic fervor, going for a direct hit at the king, swinging his mighty Zweihander, but missing, ultimately being eliminated by the king, who refused to back down after coming so far.

He imagined the king piece retreating back to the black kingdom square by square yet again, but this time in secret, then hopping off the board, the board symbolizing the realm of Sanguine.

He laughed aloud, picturing the furious queen dashing in one move across the board, straight into the black kingdom to search for the king, only to be faced with Alaric, his rook; Disguised as the king piece, he risked his immortal life so that the queen could not figure out the king's true whereabouts.

Lucius, like a faithful bishop, risked his life for the sake of not only the king, but also the pawn, daring to flank from the shadows and eliminate the queen's defenses on the other side, while she was distracted by her desperate attempt to kill the King, unaware that she was fighting on-top of the wrong chess board, with the wrong chess piece — allowing Darcia, his Pawn, camouflaged by the surrounding chaos of war, to successfully infiltrate the queen's castle by simply strolling in.

"And you know what means," Kaizer mused to himself, chuckling. "Promotion."