I opened my hand and caught the three rods that made up my coiling dragon staff and waited. Nothing happened for a few seconds then suddenly all the lights that were on the top forty or so floors went dark. To the sound of shrieking and twisting metal the building started to shift. It slid down a bit, shifted then twisted and collapsed in on itself. The vampires that were sent to hunt me down stopped and watched the building fall. I could feel the thing ride the collapsing building to the ground.
I waited a few moments for it to dig itself out and when it decided to stay in the rubble I jumped towards where it was buried. I opened my hand and let my coiling dragon staff go before grabbing the center rod, a twist of my wrist turned it into a staff that I spun and dove into the ground with both hands when I landed.
The rubble evaporated at the impact. Dust flew everywhere as I drove my staff down. Soon my staff hit the thing in the chest. It was wearing the corpse of an older man dressed in a business suit. Its eyes went wide when my staff connected and I drove it down into the dirt the building was built upon. The buildings around us were ripped from the ground and thrown away when we hit the ground. The vampires that were hunting me instantly turned to dust as collateral.
The thing let out a scream from where it lay in the crater I had slammed its body into. It was not a scream you would ever hear a human make. It echoed around us in sound and through reality. I grabbed some more essence inside of me and rolled it into another technique. In game it was a defensive technique against esoteric attacks, here in this reality it harmonized my mind, body and soul, letting me shrug off the scream like water.
Pulling my staff back I twirled it then tried to slam it down into the thing again. The thing rolled to the side and lifted its hand in the shape of a claw, slashing at me. I watched from its nails black rotting tar flew out towards me in five waves. I aborted my attack and jumped away from the thing and its attack. When it got close I leaned back and twisted through them. They continued past me and I landed lightly, facing the thing wearing human skin.
It was on its feet glaring at me. I could see the cracks that I had done to its body, little golden lines spiderwebed out from where my staff had hit it. It started circling me like a predator, “I think you are too dangerous to let live.”
The thing's voice was layered. Hundreds of voices speaking at the same time.I shrugged at it even as I listened to the buildings collapse behind me from its attack, “Yea that happens. You got yourself a pretty cushy position with this city.”
Now that I was focused on it I could feel how its essence was seeping into the city itself. It was probably here from the day the city was built. I took a step towards it and the thing hissed, stepping back, “Scared?”
It started scooting back instead of answering but we were in a crater so it couldn't leave my eyesight. I grabbed my pipe from where it was on my hip and whipped my arm out, throwing it. It glowed gold as it flew through the air and hit its fore head. It bounced off and came back to my hand and the thing groaned and grabbed its face.
I slid my kiseru back into my belt and the thing lunged at me. I turned to the side and watched its swipe fall past my body, more tar like stuff flying off its claw shaped hand. It turned and swiped at me with its other hand trying to claw out my chest. I turned the other direction and weaved below its claw attack. It pulled back to attack again and I brought my arm between the two of us and jerked it back.
The free hanging end of my staff reached out and touched it in the chest again. It let out a howl of pain and shot back. It hit the edge of the crater, destroying a side, then flipped up in the air out of the crater. I watched it ragdoll through that air, its scream of pain sounding farther away and closer at the same time. I crouched down then pushed off, shooting up into the air after it.
I watched the thing ragdoll through a few buildings then it landed on a street and bounced to a stop. I kicked the air in front of me to slow myself down and not over shoot the landing. It was picking itself up when I landed on top of it, slamming my staff down on its back. This hit was not as hard as my opening hit and it only bounced off the asphalt while shrieking. I spun my staff over my shoulder and it unflexed from a single piece into three.
I caught it with my other hand and swung it ahead of me at the thing. The staff tagged it in the head and it went end over end down the street. It disappeared through the building down the street and I watched the shockwave from my staff hitting him expand out, shattering every piece of glass around us.
I leapt forward at the thing again, I could see the buildings it was slapped through collapse in a row. It was on its legs this time and had a brick in its hand. The thing threw it at me and I slapped the brick with my staff turning it into dust and stopping my forward momentum. My feet touched the ground and the thing was trying to tear my throat out with its claws. Every swing was followed by black rotting tar. Everything around us started rotting and decaying as the tar spattered across them.
The attacks were fast. It wasn't putting power behind the blows, it was just trying to land one. They came in a cascade. Soon the ground was rotting around us and I had to watch where I stepped. I twirled my staff in my hand and brought it around to retaliate by swinging it at its head. The thing broke into a grin and gladly went for the trade, its claw approaching my face.
I pulled some chi up from my pool and twisted it into a technique, deciding not to make the trade. I fed it down to my feet then stepped into the things blow and twisted. Then I stepped through time and I was behind the thing swinging my staff. I watched as I did the technique and vanished when my attack connected.
The attack hit hard, cracking the ground below us and sending the thing flying again. I wasn't going to let it get back to its feet so I crouched down and shot after it, through the hole it had made in the decayed surroundings. It was trying to pick itself up again when I got to it and turned its head towards me. It eyes widened when it saw how close I had gotten, “BULLSH-
My staff slammed into its head driving it into the ground. I didn't let up and started using my staff like a nunchuck. Spinning it around my body and constantly slamming it into the thing. I didn't want to have to dodge like that again and letting it get any momentum in this fight would lead to that.
Every hit the thing let out a shriek that continued to echo through reality. I angled downwards driving deeper into the ground. Every hit drove it deeper and compacted the ground under it. Soon I was standing on the edge of a crater slamming my staff into the thing. The golden cracks that I had been leaving on my hits had built up and soon it was covered in them. My refined chi started grinding away at the things spirit.
Its screams turned from pain and shock into screams of horror. It started thrashing in the pit trying to escape from my rain of blows. If it tried to claw at me I would aim at its forearm and stop the movement, slamming its arms back down into the hole. Between one hit and the next a chunk of the things ribs broke off and turned to ash. It faced its true death, not with a scream of rage but with a whimper.
I stood at the edge of the pit I had planted the thing into and stared at the cherry red ground, feeling the heat come off the hole. The ash of the thing had mixed in with the bubbling liquid stone. I was breathing hard and could feel sweat roll down my forehead. Refined chi was leaking off me in droves, it was starting to pool around my legs and I was glowing like a lightbulb.
I could feel its ichor that had spread through the city start to dissipate. It would be quite a while before it was completely gone but I could feel it happening in real time. I released the techniques I had been holding and I felt something inside of me relax.
I took a step back and turned from the hole. That final push had not done the surroundings good. There were half standing buildings and some had fallen down into the crater. It was still dark out but I knew the devastation would look a whole lot worse during the day.
“Is it done?” I heard from my ear.
I jumped at the sound. I had forgotten the earpiece Owl had given me, “Yea it's done.”
“How sure are you that its really dead?”
“It's gone and it's not coming back. The city is already starting to feel better.” I replied to Owl.
“Do you know what's going to happen to the rest of the vampires that are on the planet?” Owl asked.
“They are probably going to continue to do vampire things.” I sighed and looked at the dirt below me. It was a mix of earth, concrete and dust. “This thing is dead, dead dead. The vampires are still going to be around but they won't be able to call the thing back to the planet or whatever people did to summon the thing in the first place.”
I walked up to the side of the crater and took a seat on the rim, away from the buildings that looked like they were going to collapse. From where I was sitting I could still see lights on across the city. There were broken pipes and things sticking out of the side of the crater in parts. Some of them were leaking water, cleaning this place up was going to be a job.
“I will let Doctor Kathor know the next time I see him then.” Owl replied.
“When did Doctor Kathor leave?” I asked.
“Not long after you were teleported to Angle City. He had something to do with the magical counsel. They probably wanted to monitor the mystical side of the fight.” Owl answered.
My breathing had slowed down by now and I felt more relaxed. I pulled my kiseru from where it was hanging on my waist then reached into my bag, pulling out herbs and filling the bowl. I brought the mouthpiece to my lips and lit the bowl with a flicker of chi. The pull I took from it tasted of root beer, it even had the carbonation. “Hows the telepotation thing?”
Owl chuckled, “It burnt out quite a bit of the servers. I was holding a fire extinguisher just in case for the last few seconds.”
“Oh..”
“Oh?”
“How am I getting home?” I asked her.
Owl sighed, “I will send a plane.”