Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

On the second day of searching for a ship together, after reassessing the docks, having no luck whatsoever, John and Nine decided to split up.

There was one main tavern known to be frequented by arena fighters. John had managed to win a good sum of crystals within it the day before, and there were makans in attendance. The only people to take note of his entrance today were some of those makans. Three men and two women. The women looked like they could be twins, but one of them had a face covered in scars and stared at him with a hate in her eyes he recognized. She tapped one of the men and nodded his way.

John strode up to the group. The man Koni Dral tapped said, “You’re not welcome here, Peerless swine.”

Ignoring the man, John said to Koni, “I need to speak with you. It’s important.”

Koni growled menacingly and said, “I don’t talk to scum-sucking dogs of the Peerless. Get out of my sight.”

John feigned tripping, planning on catching himself on Koni’s leg. Quick as lightning, Koni stopped his descent with a hand around his throat. All he needed was physical contact. He quickly found her mind, tugged on it, and was relieved when she accepted.

The struggle to pull Koni into his mind was his toughest battle yet, but in the end, he stood victorious. And Koni, formless, said, “What is this? Where am I? You cannot trap me here, Peerless dog.”

“It’s my Mind’s Eye. In here, what we say can’t be monitored by the Mele. But, when you exit, you must control your thoughts. They have ways to read minds, and not just through brain waves. The key to tricking Mele is similar to how pain is controlled. You just ignore it. Think of this conversation the same as you do pain and ignore all thoughts of it.”

After scoffing, Koni said, “We know how to go unmonitored. And why would I want to talk with a dog of the Peerless?”

“Because no matter how much you hate them, your hate pales in comparison to my own. Your people control two worlds, and both are untouched by the Peerless. While you just hate them but still hang around a city of theirs, my plan is to destroy them. Your people were not made their Kahaka. Your people have never even engaged them in battle. I…”

“You don’t know what they’ve taken from me, you filthy dog,” shouted Koni as she interrupted John. “They’ve taken everything from me! I live here because I must. I am keeping my enemies close. How are you hiding your [Titles]? Is this a manifestation? It feels like I’m really in your Mind’s Eye.”

“I told you this is my Mind’s Eye. I can pull others in here,” answered John.

“It makes no matter what this is or how you’re hiding your [Titles]. Fevl will kill you before this conversation’s over.”

John smiled. “Then there’s no reason not to hear me out. I need friends that hate the Peerless and are willing to sacrifice to see this empire fall.”

Koni scoffed again. “You’re a Silver that’s a slave to their empire. A lowly dog. A gnat. Powerless.”

“I beat you in the arena when I was a Bronze. I won’t always be a Silver. And I will be the rot that festers, spreads, and destroys them from the inside out. To me, nothing is held more sacred than vows of vengeance, and I swore vengeance against them. I will destroy them or die in the attempt.

“You and the others of your kind here have a choice. You can just hate them while continuing to do them no harm, or you can help me. What’s your answer? Whine and do nothing, or have words become deeds?”

After a pause, Koni said, “I’m listening.”

The nav point of Ma Aom was well guarded by a massive fleet of Peerless. The makans expected to be given a hard time before being allowed to pass, but they quickly received permission and headed off towards the planet Isb.

Nine didn’t trust the makans, and neither did John, but they were their only means of reaching Isb.

John hoped Isb was the correct target. The Nani never named the world they wanted conquered. Still, Nine was certain it was Isb.

Since Isb was Tech 0, in order for John and Nine to afford the price the NCS would charge them to invade the world, they’d have to put and keep every piece of tech they had into their storage devices. And since the natives of Isb hadn’t invented storage devices yet, it would make the invasion price cheaper if the two Li agreed to have their bracers locked while on the planet.

John was fashioning a partial scabbard to carry his sword, Ah’krat’ra, in. He would have to hold the sword, as it was too long to carry on his back without the magnet-sheath, and that sheath counted as tech and had to be stored in his bracer. No other way to carry the sword on his back would work. Not that he could come up without the sword dragging on the ground behind him.

Adumbration, the band of suffering necklace, and the unitive belt were fine, but not his biosuit or the CSL bioware. His subdermal armor bioware and his smart-link weren’t removable, so increased the cost of the invasion.

A little less than two weeks remained of their flight to Isb. John had lied his ass off to get the makans’ cooperation. They were not easy to get along with. They were also cheapskates and had no desire to use so much fuel or give strangers escape pods without recompense, and it was not easy to get them to agree to do so.

John couldn’t fault them for that. He was cheap too when resources were low, though he was generous when he had plenty to be generous with.

Thankfully, Nine had caught on to the plan quickly. It was easy for the biosynth to get the makans to believe he hated the Peerless. Koni had seen Nine placed under arrest. All the Kahako of Kotown knew Nine’s ship had been impounded and stolen from him, as it caused them to worry about their own ships.

Like John, Nine didn’t have to fabricate a story as to his reasons for hating the Peerless, as they wronged him terribly.

The loyalists that had managed to escape Yellow didn’t have an easy go of it. They met with one calamity after the next. They had managed to make it to the Dzòŋkɑ Empire, powerful delta-types located a few sectors away from Yellow’s own.

The dzòŋkɑns promised to help the loyalists defeat the separatist faction and return rulership to the AI through the puppet monarchy, but only if the loyalists completed a task for them. Completing the task was not easy. It took almost a decade. Only Nine and Thirteen had survived.

On his way back to the Dzòŋkɑ Empire, Nine had stopped at the city of Victor on the moon Fe An. He asked permission to use the Peerless internetworks system, a common thing travelers did to save time, and not usually risky. If he was granted access, he could’ve shaved close to a year off his flight by quickly traveling to a remote system near the edge of the sector.

The Peerless had named a truly outrageous price to use their internetworks, far in excess of reason and what Nine could ever afford. When he refused to pay and tried to leave, he was informed that his docking fee was the same exact price stated for internetworks access. Since he couldn’t pay it, his ship was impounded. He had no choice but to take great risks to earn vast sums of crystals.

And how Nine chose to gain funds ended in tragedy and the death of his ward. With Thirteen dead, the last royal of Yellow, his mission had ended. Even if he made it back to the Dzòŋkɑ Empire, there was nothing for them to restore.

When John first heard this story, he had wanted to ask Nine why he would swear to the Peerless after what they did to him. He secretly hoped Nine was like him and wanted to bring about the destruction of the Peerless Empire as revenge.

The only other reason John could think of as to why Nine would swear to the Peerless was that old saying – any port in a storm. Nine, having lost his function for living, grabbed on to the closest thing that gave him a purpose, and that thing was the Peerless Empire.

Getting the makans to help was not easy, but John felt it wasn’t as difficult as it should’ve been considering the costs involved. He chalked it up to them being fanatics. The group of makans truly hated the Peerless.

If John’s long-term plan didn’t sound all that feasible, even with all his lies and exaggerations, it was still a plan. The makans had a lot of hate but no plan.

John gave them a way to turn those feelings into action as he spun a tale of how he’d destroy their mutual enemies in the future, a much grander tale than his actual plan to accomplish the deed.

As the two sat in the room they were told to stay within, John felt Nine tense. He looked at his friend. Nine’s head jerked up. The biosynth’s face was blank and emotionless, but he still seemed anxious.

“What,” asked John.

“Can you feel that? Our ship has begun to quickly decelerate. There are many Transcendents approaching from far off.”

John extended his senses. He could feel them. Very distant, but he felt power. He asked, “Is it Peerless following us from Ma Aom? Why would they let us pass and then follow us?”

“Prepare for battle. Full kit.”

John did as instructed and began donning his biosuit. None of the crew seemed anxious, nervous, or fearful. If the Peerless followed, the crew wouldn’t be so calm.

And, from how John understood things, ships couldn’t be found or intercepted while traveling at high speeds through deep space. If the ship was decelerating, this was a coordinated and planned meeting.

The captain was a first tier Transcendent. Another of the crew also achieved the second Tree. There was little John and Nine could do if they had been betrayed.

The two Transcendents entered the room without knocking. The captain trained the machinegun in his hands at Nine. Koni Dral entered behind Fevl, her pistols trained on Nine too. More of the crew followed her in.

The captain, smiling, said, “There’s been a change of plans. We do give you thanks for getting my cousins past the blockade at Ma Aom, but instead of flying you to Isb for free, we’ve decided to sell you Peerless dogs to the Kaw’n Federation.”

Just as John was about to attack, Nine signaled for him to stand down. John thought that was the wrong move. He hoped Nine knew what he was doing.

It didn’t seem like Nine knew what he was doing. After being handed off to the Kaw’n Federation, before being bound, gagged, and fitted with collars, Nine lied and told the kaw’ns that he and John were full Oli and sworn to the Peerless Empire. A third-tier Transcendent kaw’n just laughed.

Escaped Kahaka were supposed to be given refugee status by the races belonging to the Sector Council, and the kaw’ns were a race of the council. John kept his mouth shut. He assumed Nine had to know something he didn’t.

Before he had the collar placed on his neck, his captors made John empty out his bracer. They took all his crystals and two of his mats but let him keep his two swords and shield. The same was done to Nine.

The collars restricted access to essence. It didn’t cut off access, but it made it nearly impossible to reach and manipulate, and trying to do so caused great pain. And with the band of suffering necklace John wore, it became even harder for him to access his essence.

The two Li were kept in the brig, in separate, dark, and sound-proof cells. John knew they made a jump and, later, he thought they may have entered internetworks. It was easy to tell when a ship jumped to a nav beacon though hopping through internetworks was hard to differentiate from jumping.

No food was brought to either prisoner. No one went to question them. They were just left alone. The bindings holding John’s hands behind his back that connected to his ankles had no give at all, and there was no chance of escaping them.

Meditation became very difficult, but not impossible, and John whittled away the time inside of himself, often visiting Avatar, and manipulating external energy.

John tried using energy to force his bindings apart but had no luck. Nothing useful to help with his situation could be done with this energy but manipulating it increased his control of it. He tried forming it into various shapes and tested how long he could maintain the forms.

John also put some thought into a fast casting [Ultimate]. His current one was far too slow. But the faster the cast time, the less damage it would do and the less it would take from his foes.

If John had to guess, about two weeks went by before the cell was opened and his head was covered with a hood and his ankles were freed from his bindings. His orb-eye could still see everything. He was put on a shuttle with Nine and flown down to a planet. Without the eyes of his head being able to see, he had no access to the info function of the NCS. He did have to study the planets of the sector during academy, and he recognized the planet he was descending towards.

It was named Thecla and was the largest and most important free world in the sector. No race controlled the planet. The Peerless claimed it was a lawless place, a hive of villainy, filled with pirates, scum, and the depraved.

The planet was many times larger and had gravity significantly higher than Earth. If he was remembering correctly, most people not C-grade or Bronze tier or higher would have heart issues in such gravity and could die if too much time was spent subjected to it.

Earth had slightly lower gravity than Gani. Earth and Gani had a very similar atmosphere, whereas Thecla had much more oxygen, carbon dioxide, and argon, and much less nitrogen.

That’s all John could remember besides that Vodalus was the biggest city of Thecla. The city he and Nine were brought to was large, but he had no idea if it was Vodalus or not. Once the shuttle landed at a port, he was walked to a hovercraft and driven a good distance away.

John had no view outside the craft. When it stopped, he exited into some sort of warehouse filled with goods and took an elevator down many floors before he was redeposited into a dark room, pushed to the ground near Nine, and had his ankles bound again.

It would be easy to track time through the NCS, but John didn’t see the point in knowing such specifics. No water or food was brought to him or Nine. The longer he went without food or water, the more his body drew on his vital essence. He wasn’t worried. He could go a lot longer before his body forced him into a coma-like state.

The same was not true for Nine. He knew his friend needed a special kind of food, and if the biosynth went too long without any, he had to use the essence of his dantian to power his body. Nine would go into something like a hibernation-mode soon after the essence within his dantian expired and could die if he remained in that state for too long.

If John had to guess, a little over a week passed before the door opened. Two Transcendents and a Silver entered. His hood and gag were removed.

The mid-low Transcendent was an umpanian. The low Transcendent was a raloin. The Silver was a kaw’n. The raloin said, “I hope you’ve enjoyed the accommodations so far. I don’t believe you’ve been welcomed yet, so welcome to the Great Ring of Vodalus, the finest stadium in the whole sector. The games put on here are known to be the best and most entertaining. Oh, by the way, I’m Gnahad, your new owner.”

If John couldn’t escape, he could at least show he wasn’t intimidated or bothered, and still in good spirits after being left alone for so long with no food, water, or means to dispose of his waste hygienically. He put on his best smile and said, “Hello. Thanks for the welcome. Wow, you look very fierce with all those cybernetics. Just the sight of you has me cowed. I’d bow but I’m bound up at the moment. I hope we didn’t cost you too much.”

Nine didn’t look as if imprisonment agreed with him and remained silent.

Gnahad tried to mask his annoyance. The cybernetic lizards of Raloin didn’t have normal human facial expressions, but the eyes showed enough.

“Oh, the cost was significant,” replied Gnahad. “Thankfully, Peerless dogs dying in the prime event is a big draw. Many people fly to Vodalus to see such a beautiful thing. You were a good investment.”

“Good to hear,” said John. “I was worried for a second there. By Peerless dogs do you mean escaped Kahaka? You know the Peerless don’t give the worlds they conquer much of a choice in the conquering, right? And if we do manage to escape from them, being forced to be Kahaka is still held against us? That’s not cool. Honestly, it seems rather harsh.”

Gnahad laughed. “Next time, don’t get conquered. Or choose death before being made into a dog. You’re wearing one of their suits. Your companion said you’re both true and full Peerless, not even their dogs. I have the recording of this statement. Harsh or not, fair or not, people love watching Peerless dogs die, and I am a great believer in giving the people what they want. Well, as long as they’re willing to pay crystals to get it.”

Gnahad turned to the Silver and said, “Arbiter, please, proceed.”

The kaw’n stepped forward and asked, “Has any possession of either of yours been taken from you against your will?”

It was easy to check a storage device by touch. While bound, John still had access to it, though the collar made it much harder to even just feel for the contents. Both of his swords and his shield were in his bracer. All his other items were still worn. He said, “Yes, all of my crystals and two of my mats,” right after Nine said, “My crystals.”

The Silver asked, “Was that before or after reaching Thecla?”

Both John and Nine said, “Before.”

The Silver turned to John and asked, “Do you consent to taking an injection of an unknown substance before entering the arena tonight?"

Before John could reply, Gnahad said, “Say yes or rot in here until you’re willing to.”

John asked the Silver, “Do you consent to the Challenge of the Mighty Khaga?”

The Silver looked surprised and turned to look at Gnahad. The raloin laughed and said, “She’s an Arbiter and here in that capacity only. Don’t bother offering the challenge to me or anyone else. If you’re so hot to fight and die, you’ll get more chances than you could ever want in the arena. Consent or rot in this cell.”

John nodded his head.

“Consent verbally, so she can record it,” demanded Gnahad.

“I consent,” said John. He’d much rather fight in an arena than continue to be tied up in a room.

The Silver turned to Nine and asked, “Do you consent to wearing and not attempting to remove this device on a collar around your neck before entering the arena tonight?”

Nine spoke in a weak voice. “That’s an electromagnetic disruptor. I’ll wear it if I’m given food rich in nickel oxyhydroxide, zinc, mercury oxide, and lithium. And water.”

John said, “I would like some water too, please.”

“You’ll be given water on the way to the arena,” stated the raloin. He looked at Nine. “If the lack of those substances is making you weak, staying in here without them won’t help.”

“Then no,” replied Nine. “I will not consent until I am given the sustenance I require. In lieu of food, I will accept a couple portable computer devices. Most types would suffice.”

Gnahad laughed. “Stay here and rot then. I have a feeling you’ll give a different answer next week. If you’re still alive.”