As she and Marianne set off towards The Soaring Cliffs, Verena pulled up her system to look through her skills. The notification for increasing her understanding of her Aspect had said that she had new skills available, and her level ups had given her a skill point.
Looking through her available skills, she saw a large number of leadership-based skills now available to her. However, above them all, there was one that caught her off guard.
[Unified Growth](Passive Skill): You and those around you gain strength from each other's progress. Each [Bonded Companion] gains a percentage bonus to all experience gained equal to your Charisma. For each [Bonded Companion] you gain experience equal to 10% of any experience they gain.
It was absurd, even for what she had seen, so far. Double-checking her stats, she confirmed that her Charisma was currently forty-eight. On top of that, she currently had six stat points to spend. If she fully committed to that, she would be giving Marianne a fifty-four percent increase to her experience gained, and she would be receiving a total of thirty percent of that as experience, herself.
She had a short discussion with Marianne, and they both ended up agreeing that it was the right call. Verena selected the skill, and she put her stat points into her Charisma. Once she was done, she checked her status page.
Name: Verena Tavanor
Race: Vampire
Gender: Female(Hermaphrodite)
Age: 70
Titles(10): [Unbreakable Will], [Hope of the People], [Battle Maid Liege], …
Companions: Marianne Whispwind([Battle Maid], [Bonded Companion])
Class: Avatar of Connection
Level: 8
Strength: 12 (10+2)
Dexterity: 28 (18+10)
Agility: 20 (12+8)
Vitality: 31 (28+3)
Intelligence: 22 (18+4)
Will: 66 (62+4)
Charisma: 54 (49+5)
Arcane: 12 (8+4)
Passive Skills(4): [Bond of Power], [Calling of the Heart], [Unified Growth], …
Active Skills(2): [Lover’s Boon], [Connected Copying]
The sight of her growth, clear and open before her, made Verena smile. Once she was done with her system, she glanced at Marianne with a grin. They chatted for a short time, and they confirmed their plan.
The trip to The Soaring Cliffs would take two days. On the way, they would keep an eye out for any monsters they could find, to gain some more experience. Once they arrived, they would go to the local adventurer's guild, and start doing quests. While doing work, they would keep their eyes and ears open for any potential allies who they could find. In particular, Verena was to keep an open mind about candidates for additional [Bonded Companion]s.
With their plan confirmed, they moved along on their journey to get ready for anything that may be coming.
*****
It was a day and a half before they encountered any enemies. The only thing of note to have happened, so far, was that Marianne had a bit of trouble walking in the morning. Verena had a smug look as she lovingly helped Marianne along until she was okay on her own.
Around the middle of the day, the two were interrupted in their journey by several figures.
"Well, well, well... What do we have here, boys?" A scruffy-looking man stepped out of the trees, onto the path ahead of them, followed by three others. Glancing back, Verena confirmed two more men behind them. All six were dressed in ragged, ill-fitting clothes. "You ladies really shouldn't be out here all alone. There's all sorts of unsavory folk around here who'd take advantage of beauties like you..."
Verena just looked at the walking cliché with a baffled expression. "Well, it's not really what I was expecting, but a fight's a fight."
Marianne glanced at Verena. "Um... Weren't we supposed to be looking for monsters to fight?"
Verena just shook her head, drawing the Sanguine Claw, from her hip. "Monsters come in many forms, Marianne. Just look at them."
Looking at the men more closely, Marianne noticed a few things she hadn't seen the first time. Non-lethal weapons were out, the leader had several sets of shackles on him, and she even recognized an anti-magic collar hanging from one of the men's belt. These weren't simple bandits. "Slavers..." Marianne's expression darkened, and her surroundings followed suit. "You know," She spoke loud enough that the men could hear her. "I was planning on giving you all a chance to walk away, but now that I see what you really are, I've lost all desire to grant mercy. Instead, I'm going to give you a different chance. Throw down your weapons, now, and I'll grant you a swift death."
One of the men started laughing, shaking his head. "Bold words, girlie, but not a single one of us is under level twenty. You really think you can beat all six of us?"
The leader, however, had a serious look on his face. He dropped the cudgel he was wielding, and he pulled out a sword. "Boys... these two are dangerous. They're not worth the money to take them alive." Hearing the tone of his voice, the rest of the men turned serious, similarly taking out proper weapons, those meant to kill.
Verena, however, just smiled wider, entering a practiced stance as she turned towards the two men behind her. "Marianne, you deal with the four in front. I'll handle these two. Don't intervene unless I'm in danger."
Marianne just nodded, smiling. "Of course. I'll be watching you."
Verena smirked, and then she moved with a speed that momentarily surprised the men before her. They could keep up with her movements, but they hadn't expected the sheltered-looking woman to be particularly capable. Her hands and face were soft, and she didn't have any battle scars. For that reason, they expected her to be a weak, pampered, rich girl with little real skill.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't know enough about vampires to understand their mistake. Vampires didn't get callouses, and they could only be scarred by powerful poisons or magic. Their skin remained flawless, but that didn't mean they were delicate.
Verena had been learning the sword since she came of-age. She had been wielding a blade since before these men, all in their thirties, were alive, and it showed. Thanks to her [Bond of Power] skill, Verena had received a fairly significant boost in her Dexterity and Agility. Those boosts, combined with her naturally higher speed, as a vampire, meant that she didn't lose out against foes whose levels were in the twenties.
The first man barely reacted in time to block a strike that would have otherwise ended in him losing his head. The blood-red edge of the blade she was wielding served to strike deeper fear in the hearts of the two. Before they had even realized what was happening, they were on the defensive. Verena didn't have much Strength, but she more than made up for it with speed, precision, and the sharpness of her saber. Furthermore, with each cut she inflicted on her enemies, the blade sucked up the blood, the red of the edge creeping up the blade like veins. The more blood her weapon drank, the faster and more deadly she became.
Seeing the joyful bloodlust of their enemy, the two looked to their allies for aid. However, what they saw only deepened the despair in their hearts. All four of the others were on the ground, and the woman who had been fighting them was standing, calmly, watching the fight with amusement and affection.
The single moment of hesitation they had, from that sight, was all it took to end them. The first man reacted just a bit too slow, and the vampire's sword bit deep into his shoulder, causing his arm to stop working properly. As she pulled away, her weapon sucked up a large amount of blood, causing the man to turn pale, very quickly. The next moment, his head was sailing through the air.
Before he could even process what had happened, the second slaver felt a searing pain in his neck. He turned to find the vampire biting him from behind, her fangs deep in his flesh. In a surreal moment of calm as his life drained from his body, he had a single thought. Wasn't she over there...? He was looking at the other man who had been fighting her. He was three feet in front of him, and his head hadn't even hit the ground. Yet somehow, the woman who he had, initially, been on-par with, in terms of speed, was now behind him.
Before he could do much more thinking on the matter, his consciousness slipped away.
As Verena dropped the slaver from her grip, his skin paler than her own, she took a deep breath. She could feel the call of the blood. The Sanguine Claw made it stronger, made her stronger, but at the cost of control. Her bloodlust was stronger than she had ever felt, but oddly, she was still perfectly lucid. She could feel the intense desire, but she knew, in her core, that she could just say 'no' to it.
When she sheathed her weapon, she felt the hunger slowly fade away. She was still a bit confused. She knew, from her father, that the family's twin blades would empower the wielder, growing stronger as the weapons were fed blood, but they came at a cost. The more they fed the weapons, the stronger the pull of their instincts became.
Fortunately, the effect wasn't permanent. Once the battle was over, the bloodlust, and the strength, would slowly fade. However, she had never heard of someone being able to put the blade away so easily. Not after consuming that much blood.
Then, she realized. "Holy fuck..." She stared at the blade in awe as she started to understand what had happened. The thing that most heavily impacted a vampire's ability to control their instincts was their Will. The swords took that away by temporarily reducing the stat. However...
[Unbreakable Will](Prestige Title): You are wholly immune to all effects that would negatively impact your Will, or alter your perception.
Her smile began to get wider and wider. That title, the mark of her triumph over the efforts of those who had targeted her, was proving that it was one of her greatest assets. Because of it, she was immune to the drawbacks of her family heirloom. All the power, without any loss of control. She pulled the blade back out, and she felt the hunger return. It wasn't quite as strong as before, but it was far from fully drained. Then, she brought the blade to the body of her first foe, the one she had beheaded. She placed it against the bleeding stump where she had taken his head off, and she let her weapon feed.
The red of the blade spread quickly, and Marianne started to panic. "Verena! What are you doing!?" Marianne knew how the weapons worked, but before she could react, the blade had turned completely red, a state in which control was a distant memory for any Tavanor of the past. When they reached this point, they would not stop fighting until they were forcibly stopped, or they ran out of blood to feed on, in their surroundings. Marianne tensed, but Verena just turned to her with a smile and calmly put the sword away.
Marianne was stunned. "How did you...?" Then she, too, realized what was happening. She stepped up to Verena, her eyes wide. "By the gods... You can..."
Verena calmly nodded, smiling. "It doesn't affect me." Marianne stared at her in awe, and a slight bit of fear.
This was a major game-changer.