The Rules of Blood-Volume Two ; Chapter 69 (285) - The Hill That Moved
Blanc closed his eyes, thanking the Vita he did not miss at that fateful moment. But that did not subside the anger in his heart.
He opened his eyes to the stunned faces of Lendros and Velakia, still looking at the giant mole dead on the ground, just as Tahreni came rushing toward them.
Only when she approached did they turn to look at her, then at Blanc in the distance.
With Velakia’s wide eyes remaining on Blanc the longest as he placed the bow back on his shoulder.
Tahreni stopped, and after checking to see if Velakia was fine, began looking over Lendros’s body, making sure he was unhurt.
Luckily, the backpack had cushioned the most dangerous of wounds he could have gotten; still, the sharp rocks had left a cut on his side, right below the ribs, with crimson red blood slowly flowing out of it.
"Tise narit, letustro!" Tahreni slapped him over the head.
“Tahreni,” Velakia sighed, opening his mouth to stop her friend from cursing Lendros.
But Blanc took this opportunity to speak, “Lendros.”
All three of them turned their face to Blanc as he approached.
“You absolute buffon of a man,” Blanc clenched his jaw, “When I tell you to remain silent, you remain silent. Not act of your own and put anyone in danger, you got that?”
“Blanc, he does not understand you,” Velakia intervened, a sad smile on her face, as she got in between the two men.
“I do not care if he does or doesn’t. You two almost died because of his stupid act,” Blanc clicked his tongue, stopping himself a foot away from Lendros. “I studied every beast we might encounter for this very reason, yet he panicked and ignored me.”
There was no need for translating Blanc’s words in Iskahese; the seething anger in his voice directed only at Lendros made everything clear enough for both Tahreni and Lendros.
“Sezcu,” Lendros bowed lightly, his voice quiet, before a sharp pain from his wound sent him back straight, groaning.
Tahreni took a step forward, placing herself between Blanc and Lendros.
“He apologized, Blanc,” Velakia added, “Please, let it go.”
Blanc stared at Tahreni’s eyes as she blocked his way, but sighed, taking his backpack off. He crouched down and pulled a small wooden chest from his backpack. Inside, between hay, stood the three healing potions he had been given from Blood Maroux.
The bottles were small, filled with a dark red liquid.
He took one of them and offered it to the women who placed themselves between him and Lendros.
“Make him drink a muthful, keep the rest to yourselves in case you need it in the future,” Blanc said, closing the door with the other hand. “And wait until I’m done.”
“Are you sure?” Velakia hesitated to grab the potion, “I know how hard these are-”
“Take it,” Blanc interrupted, placing the palm-sized bottle in her hand.
“Thank you, dear,” Velakia smiled, “For this, and for saving us.”
Blanc placed the small chest back in his backpack before getting to his feet, placing his hand on her cheek, “I’m happy you're okay.”
Velakia smiled, placing a hand atop his, “Go then, we will protect you while you harvest.”
Blanc nodded before passing the still-staring Tahreni and approaching the giant mole.
Focused on the beast’s body while thinking of the battle, Blanc did not see the polearm before almost stepping on it.
With a sigh, he bent down, grabbed it tightly, and pulled it out of the mole’s corpse before turning to face Lendros, who looked surprised to see Blanc return his weapon.
“Here,” Blanc said, placing it into Lendros’s free hand.
“Sirme,” Lendros thanked him, a sad smile on his face as he closed his hand around the weapon before sending it back into the marble.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, the violation.
Blanc nodded to him before turning back towards the giant mole.
After a walk around it, he kneeled near the beast’s chest, looked once towards Velakia, who nodded in his direction, before he placed a hand on the mole’s chest, feeling his mind falling below the surface of the world.
The serpents of amber and crimson left through the giant mole’s chest and began their dance through the air towards Blanc’s own chest.
Once they touched Blanc’s skin, the serpents began pulsing in a brighter color, taking over Blanc’s own heartbeat as they made their way inside his heart.
Once settled, for a moment, Blanc was the giant mole.
Darkness was all around him, his hands moving and breaking every rock in his wake as he dove underground. Pain was overwhelming his body; one of his legs was rendered useless.
He wanted revenge.
And the Vita answered his desire. Vibrations came from above. Two pairs of steps were moving away from him. Perfect.
He used all the strength he had, using the clawed limbs he had left to push himself off the rocks, picking up as much speed. An uncomfortable heat reached his skin as he lounged towards the vibrations.
He opened his mouth to rip to shreds whatever was there. But the heat vanished from his skin, replaced by a deep cold.
Was it all a dream, after all?
Blanc opened his eyes as his mind returned to him, two new Marks on his body.
Two white dots stood one below the other in between his nostrils, the other below the fingernails of his right hand. Two White Marks of the Giant Mole.
A good harvest,
Blanc thought to himself as he focused on the Marks.
The intense smells that hit his nose were overwhelming. He had many Marks that enhanced his smell, but this was beyond anything he could imagine.
It would take him some time to get used to that.
With that in mind, he closed his right fist and opened it a few times. His bone density increased again, his skin thickened, and the addition to his strength was a welcome sight.
He took a rock in his palm and focused his right hand muscles, his breathing, his focus, on the Mark and the rock in his hand, and with a quick ‘Hmph,’ snapped his hand shut, shattering the rock into seven smaller pieces.
“Good job, dear,” Velakia said, a smile on her face as she watched him, “It seems the harvest went well.”
“Better than expected,” Blanc replied, getting to his feet, his body feeling lighter than before, making him lose his balance for a second as he adjusted.
On the side, Tahreni was pouring the potion down Lendros’s throat despite his apparent disdain for the idea. Blanc chuckled at the sight, while Velakia approached him.
“I will have to thank you for all you’ve done, you know,” she whispered, dragging a finger across his chest.
Blanc smiled, shaking his head lightly, “You also did well, despite panicking at the end.”
She turned to look at Tahreni and Lendros, grabbed the collar of Blanc’s tunic, and pulled him into a quick kiss. Blanc’s eyes went wide in surprise.
She let go after a second, “That’s all you get for now.”
“Are you mad?” Blanc muttered, turning his sight quickly towards Velakia’s protectors.
Luckily, Lendros was with his back towards them.
Unlucky, however, was that Tahreni was staring straight into his soul. But she sighed, shook her head, and then turned her different-colored eyes back towards Lendros.
“What?” Velakia giggled, “Did that scare you?”
“You know what’s scary? That mole behind you,” Blanc pointed to the side.
“What?” Velakia jumped, grabbing one of her daggers by instinct.
But there was nothing there.
“You bast-” she turned to speak, but Blanc’s lips silenced her quickly.
“That’s all you get for now,” he whispered before he started walking towards Lendros and Tahreni.
That night, long after Blanc and the others had left, continuing on their journey, the corpse of the giant mole still lay lifeless among the rocks.
The blood all around had already dried up in the late-summer sun. And during such harsh heat, they mostly sleep. Unless they were hungry. But he was not hungry.
And now, in the coldness of the night, the heat becomes bearable for him to move around.
“What amusing humans they were,” a deep voice spoke as the rock hill nearby slowly became undone by his movements.
His tail was the first to surface, the spikes at the end of his tail smashing the smaller rocks it touched.
But slowly, as he got up, the rocks fell all around him, and by the time the dust settled, his might was shown to the moonlight watching.
He was an earth dragon, a wingless beast, five times the size of the giant mole.
A True Vita in all his might as he took in a deep breath, rejoicing in the fresh air and the smell of blood.
His back was composed of dark-gray scales that, in the sunlight, looked like huge boulders.
Unbeknownst to Blanc and the luck he carried, he was not hungry, nor interested in that small a food as the humans were. But that giant mole would make for a fine meal.
So he stretched his plated neck, opened his teeth-filled mouth, and with a nod upward sent the mole’s corpse flying into the sky, before, as it came down, catching it whole in between his teeth.
“Mmm,” he muttered, in between crunches, enjoying the iron taste of the blood wetting his dry throat.
With a satisfying look, he turned his eyes towards the moon for a few moments, before, with the horns on his head, he made way through the rocks, slowly going back underground.
When he was done, ready to nap the meal away, he closed his eyes again.
He will be asleep for a while.
But to the outside world, a new hill emerged in the place where Blanc, Velakia, Tahreni, and Lendros fought the giant mole just half a day ago.
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Volume Two ; Chapter 69 (285) - The Hill That Moved
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