Bloody Escape I

『Dorian, don't forget your abilities are not limited to blood alone.』

Dorian's brows knit upwards as soon as the screen flickered and Winona's voice came again.

"What does that mean?" he mumbled, his voice barely a whisper. He didn't bother to look at anyone or focus on the staff ready to attack.

He simply lowered his gaze to his cuffed hands and realized the thorns had managed to slip between the space between his hand and the cuff.

『It's a one-time thing, since you haven't consumed enough shards. Kill the lights, find a way to cut yourself and concentrate on the darkness alone.』

"That's not enough information. I'm leaving here alive. If I bleed more—"

『It won't cause harm to you as long as you have food and enough blood around you.』

Dorian glanced at the circle, then at the two men who now suddenly held clubs. He raised his gaze to the lights at every corner of the field.

They were all connected to the massive switch near the observation deck, and it was oddly open....too open, in fact.

He sighed.

"I can't reach it. It's too high."

The screen flickered once again:

『Blood Level: 88/100%』

『Filling the bar grants more power, Find the source of that shard and consume as much as you can.』

Dorian smirked, "That sounds fair."

Silas, who noticed Dorian's odd silence first, looked closer to see he was talking to himself and looking at different places.

His brows rose in confusion. What exactly was Dorian planning? he wondered. But what baffled him the most was how Rose managed to pull it off without making contact with him.

Dorian suddenly looked at him, and he flinched.

Then he noticed Dorian's eyes, the black and red, then the veins threading through them.

"No…" he trailed off.

It finally dawned on him, he assumed Dorian had been consuming more of the contents of the beasts, probably even their flesh.

"You disgusting child!" Silas yelled. "You've been eating the beasts, right?!"

Breanna frowned. She hadn't thought of it because it was very impossible, but considering the type of things Dorian would do to survive alone, there was a possibility.

Dorian, however, slowly turned to face Silas with a smile. "What makes you believe I actually ate the beasts?"

It was obvious, the bloody spikes or thorns, the way his eyes looked, and not forgetting the strange voice that came through the comms.

Silas hesitated, he shifted uncomfortably where he stood and glanced at the other children.

"Subject Thirteen," Silas muttered, his voice cold as metal. "Move. Now."

The boy stood still.

Silas shoved him forward until he stumbled and almost fell over.

Subject Thirteen's alloy-plated body reflected the light of the blood. He was meant for things like this, resistance to fire, blades, and even syringes.

He walked forward, metal boots thudding softly against the grassy parts of the field.

Dorian realized what Silas was planning, and as much as he hated to hurt the kids who had also been taken and made prisoners, he had to escape.

Then, as soon as Thirteen stepped onto the outermost ring, the thorny vines slithered back slightly.

Dorian lifted his head. "You're… one of the new ones," he said quietly, observing the boy from head to toe. He was around eleven, with pale white skin and blue eyes. "You're quite young. Wanna come with me?"

Thirteen said nothing.

His body was tense, and his fingers trembled beside him. He shook his head, declining Dorian's offer, hbecause there would be no way he would want to escape from his 'home' with a monster.

Dorian's face twisted in annoyance, not because the kid was being resistant, but because he had been brainwashed so much it wouldn't change anything.

Thirteen finally charged. His blow landed hard on the thorns that moved to protect Dorian. The impact rang through the field like a thunderclap, metal smashing into bone.

Dorian sighed slowly and forced his wrists out of the cuffs, then grabbed the boy's fists before he could withdraw them.

A red thorn burst from the cut in his wrist, it curled like a serpent, sliding along Thirteen's arm.

Then it stabbed into the joint of his shoulder, piercing through the hybrid's armor with a wet crack.

Thirteen froze, his eyes wide in pain.

Mana cracked around his core and flowed out of his heart, through his veins, and into the thorn.

『System Fully Online…

Blood Source Identified: Subject 13, Micheal Norman

Initializing Core Protocol: Reclamation

Warning: Nutritional Host Detected. Extraction in progress, do not retract or end contact.』

『Mending Damaged Core.』

『Mending Mana Pool reserves.』

『Perfecting Host's DNA.』

The thorn pulsed once, then Thirteen screamed out painfully. Blood began to drain through the red vine, into the lines on the floor and into Dorian's body.

Dorian blinked slowly, lips slightly parted. His eyes glowed faintly, watching the boy seize beneath his grip as the color drained from his body.

Then the boy fell, with lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling.

Above, panic reached the entire facility, voices came through the comms.

Breanna's voice shattered the horror-filled silence.

"Get away from him! Someone, stop him!" she yelled into the intercom, but no one moved.

Dorian looked up, slowly, without effort, he stared directly at her, and smiled.

Breanna stumbled back, hands trembling, heart in her throat.

That smile, it wasn't smug neither was it that knowing smile, she wasn't even sure it was his anymore.

Then the system's voice returned, clearer now, louder inside Dorian's head.

『Core Upgrade Confirmed.

New Directive: Mana-Flesh Conversion.

Supplement Detected: Rift-Shard Particulates (Class A).』

[Override Complete.]

Two of the guards, the hefty ones from before, finally moved from their spots and took cautious steps onto the circle's edge, holding up their clubs.

The moment their boots touched the bloody circle, their expressions twisted into pure, silent agony.

They froze, their veins turned black, and their eyes rolled to the back of their heads.

In the next second, both men collapsed as blood gushed violently from their legs, sucked down into the glowing ring like water into a drain.

The thorns pulsed again and grew thicker.

Dorian exhaled slowly, and for a moment, just a moment, he looked like a blood sacrifice.

Then—

『Sequence Expansion Unlocked

New Requirement: High-Rank Lifeforms.

Target Range: Subject-Class Entities.

System Request: Continue Feeding.』

"Make it stop," Breanna whispered, almost breathless. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the rail.

From the south door, the same one Dorian had been dragged through, Rose came running in with her biosuit half worn, pushing a massive cart.

The sound of boots stomping angrily behind her and shouting her name paused at the door when they saw where she was heading.

She stopped inches away from the circle and pulled off the tarp, revealing a black-armored beast. Its eyes were wide, soulless black, with the same swirling particles in them.

She held up a knife in the air, as if reading Dorian's mind, and then he smiled.

He quickly held out both his palms, and she sliced across them without thinking. Massive thorns shot out from the cut and immediately stabbed through the beast's eyes.

The remaining thorns faded from a deep red hue to white, and finally a darker shade of red. One of the thorns softened and snaked around Rose's waist.

It lifted her into the air and dragged her within the circle.

The blood and the particles in the beast's lifeless eyes drained through the thorn, as well as the colour of it's skin, now leaving it pale gray.

Winona's voice finally echoed through the chambers again.

『That should last for a few days, Go!.』

Rose picked up on the signal and flipped the knife in her hands, now holding the sharp end. She threw the knife into the air with perfect precision.

As it descended, the thorns lifted her high enough to reach, and she kicked the knife into the electricity box for the field.

The lights began to go out one by one. Dorian's thorns absorbed the darkness, and before the last two went out, he could swear he spotted silhouettes rising from the circle.

"Sorry, Dorian," Rose uttered when he shifted his attention to the silhouettes forming in the dark. She brought out another knife from her pocket and stabbed him right in the neck.

A painful hiss escaped his lips. He snapped his head toward her, but she smiled nervously and pointed at the top of the field, where the roof was.

The second the last light went out, the roof began opening, letting a stream of moonlight pour into the field, casting a bloody, chaotic view from above.

A figure stood there, holding a rope. They tossed it down and raised a thumb, giving the go-ahead.

Dorian only smiled and glanced at Breanna, then at the other subjects frozen in their spots.

The thorns, acting on his thoughts, headed for them, causing Breanna to scream and punch the glass protecting her from Dorian when her attention was locked on the kids alone.

Dorian saw it as a chance to escape. The thorns wrapped around Rose gripped her tighter and reached upward toward the opening, while Dorian headed for the rope.

Breanna ran past him without thinking. Dorian just kept going, his thorns heading to their target.

The moment one of the thorns stabbed Number Fifteen through the leg, it snapped from its source and began flickering violently.

It expanded abnormally, causing the small boy incredible pain.

Breanna, sensing it was going to explode, screamed at the top of her voice—

"RUN!"