After fusing two bats with Mildred, she grew slightly paler, the fullness of her lips more prominent and crimson, as if kissed with blood. Her figure became even more slender with longer claws, pulsing crimson eyes and claws that seemed no different from nails but with an exaggerated length and durability.
Finally, facing the remaining seventeen bats, sixteen the largest of them all with the gray bat, Kaelor spoke softly, a whisper that not even Damien could hear.
"Fuse the rest with me."
[200FP for the gray bat + 160 for other black bats. 360FP deducted!]
Blue flames roared to life, lifting all seventeen giant bats, rotating them around Kaelor whose feet slowly left the ground before the fusion finally began.
It lasted much longer than the others that Mildred’s expression changed from anticipation to concern. Fear licked her face as she watched the flames die out, then roar back to life, only to be extinguished in the next instant.
The man standing in their midst wasn’t the same Kaelor, not in the slightest.
Towering at nearly a hundred and eight-six centimetres, his frame was a study in carved precision, broad-shouldered, lean-waisted, and corded with sinew as if a god had sculpted him from pale marble and set him loose upon the world.
His skin, drained of warmth, held a smooth, pallid sheen. Each muscle rippled beneath that pale canvas, forged like a predator’s body. But nothing commanded more fear, more reverence, than the wings.
Vast and alive, they unfurled behind him like a cathedral of dusk. Each wing stretched longer than his own body, jagged at the edges like torn parchment soaked in night. The membranes were a deep, midnight black. Bits of the membrane were frayed, like old silk that had weathered too many storms, yet the damage only gave them more menace, as if the very air cut away what dared to brush against them.
The bones of the wings were ridged and gnarled, extending like the twisted fingers of some ancient bat king, these wings were a league ahead of the Ebony Wings for they were Umbra Wings.
Each movement of the wings stirred the air, disturbing its flow and stirring dust. When he flexed them fully, it was as though twilight itself took form, blotting out Damien’s and Mildred’s sight of the sky.
His blonde hair, shoulder length and tousled, flickered in the wind, catching brief glints of the fading light, a cruel contrast to the shadowed monstrosity at his back. His eyes were narrowed and unblinking, framed by thick, regal lashes, giving his stare a captivating appeal.
[You have successfully risen to the level of a Trueblood as a Bloodclaw, Lord Kaelor. Your physique has broken through the boundaries of a Sword Expert, you now possess the physique of a low level Swordmaster, though the capabilities of your physique will match that of a peak level human Swordmaster. Your bones are not hollow due to the Direwolf traits, neither has your ears transformed but your strength has increased greatly.]
[Estimated strength: You are able to lift an adult African Bush Elephant at full strength, weighing about ten thousand pounds.]
[Your commander’s estimated strength is about twenty thousand pounds at full strength.]
Kaelor froze. Not from the numbers but because the system seemed to have become more interactive. It was a good thing but right now, over a thousand people had their eyes on him. The awe and shock in their eyes and expression overwhelmed him.
Turning, he found Mildred staring at his wings without being able to formulate a word. Internally, she felt a stir in her blood. Kaelor was her superior and should he command her, she wouldn’t be able to disobey.
The rest of the Bloodkin felt the same thing.
Finally, after the people left, Kaelor ordered Soren to train his men and also get wood to make their bows. Then Hound got the mission to take a group of Guardsmen and scour the forest for direwolves, he had to raise their numbers to a hundred by fusing wolves with forty-one human Guardsmen.
After everyone left, workers kept on building homes. All the bat leather, including that of the gray bat, were taken to the Leather Armourers. The Armour Tailor had already harvested the wool from the dead sheep and a lot more from the colossal and mountain Urus.
Farmers were busy with the Starlight Rice and the Eonwheat.
Everyone attended to their duty, but none of them could stop talking about their lord’s new look after the bat fusion.
The jolly mood vanished when darkness covered the skies and everyone, except guards on night duty, went to rest.
Fast asleep in his bedroom, with moonlight pouring through the window, illuminating his pale face, was Kaelor, tossing and turning in his bed until he sat upright, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he gulped incessantly.
Kaelor lifted up his trembling hands and saw his claws were out, no longer black but the shade of normal fingers, however, they were still frightening.
He felt thirsty. An unnatural thirst that overwhelmed him.
His bed creaked as he rose to his feet, only for a howl to pierce through the air, prompting him to dash out of his residence.
The moment he emerged into the yard, he found Mildred, wings spread out, clutching a dead rabbit, her lips already stained crimson.
Titan watched her silently. Chains clinked as all three heads turned toward Kaelor who, lifting up his head, saw other Bloodkin flying through the skies like shadows under the moon.
He could feel it too. The thirst.
But if any of them went rampant...
"Come here, all of you." His voice was low, but every single Bloodkin felt a tug pulling them toward the lord’s residence.
[A/N: Your support through REVIEWS, POWER STONES, COMMENTS and GOLDEN TICKETS will be much appreciated as it helps me write better!
10 reviews for two extra Chapters, the day after the reviews are met. Not on a Sunday tho]