Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 194: Alternate
Dar released a burst of power that knocked Miranda back before activating a transformation technique that enlarged his body.
Formerly standing at 5 feet 9, Dar grew to a whopping 12 feet; more than twice as tall as Miranda was!
This enlargement wasn’t just for show; it significantly increased his strength, durability, and energy capacity. What’s more, with this technique, Miranda’s flames that had been dealing damage over time to his left hand were finally put out, and his right elbow that she dislocated snapped back into position.
With a touch of Light magic, he easily healed the wounded joint.
His Strength and Durability Stats had increased, but conversely, his Agility stat dropped immensely.
His first two strikes were enough for Miranda to notice this, so she optimized herself for speed, transforming her legs into the hind legs of a wolf before crouching on all fours.
Miranda’s canines grew larger and her body erupted into flames as she leapt towards Dar at hypersonic speed.
Dar tried to calculate her trajectory based on the trail of flames she created as she moved, but before he could strike, Miranda fired a sonic blast that redirected his hand and made him punch the ground beside her instead.
The ground fractured from the point of contact, sending omnidirectional shockwaves that split the earth into pieces like a pizza being sliced. The force of the blow radiated outward, creating deep fissures and causing chunks of earth to jut upward.
If she was on the ground, Miranda would’ve undoubtedly taken damage from this, but in the same moment that she unleashed that sonic blast, she leapt into the air.
Miranda created a flaming whip and lassoed it onto Dar, using it to pull herself towards him and land on his back.
She tightened her left arm around his neck and locked her right arm under his armpit, before widening her jaws beyond normal limits.
|GARAGAAAAA!!!|
Dar bellowed in pain and rage as Miranda’s fangs dug into his neck. She ripped off his skin and sunk her fangs deep into the flesh underneath, hungrily devouring his blood.
Normally, drinking the golden blood of a god would be a first-class ticket to the afterlife for any vampire, but due to her Hybrid Nature, a god’s blood was the same as any other blood to her.
The magic power within the blood of a Half-Deity was enough to strengthen Miranda even more. Dar tried to force her off his body, grabbing onto her left hand with his left and trying to push off her head with his right, however, Miranda’s grip grew stronger as she absorbed strength from him.
The flames on her body burned brighter by the second, and they naturally spread onto Dar’s body and began burning him too.
However, unlike her who received no damage from her violet inferno, Dar felt his soul burn!
Dar mustered all his strength and broke off Miranda’s arm that was on his neck, but before he could move to push her off, the broken bones healed and she snapped her hand back around his neck and squeezed it tighter, trying to strangle him.
The god roared and threw out punches to her head, succeeding in dealing blunt force trauma that knocked her head off his neck.
At that moment, while Miranda’s eyes were heterochromatic as usual, her left iris was a deep crimson red.
Between her and Jamie, she was actually the first one to ’Alternate’; transforming into a semi-mindless state where she only thought of blood, violence and destruction.
Frustrated at having her blood supply cut off, Miranda screamed directly into his ear, rupturing his right eardrum before transforming her head to that of a wolf’s and biting down on his neck with her more powerful fangs, ripping out a huge chunk of his flesh in the process.
If Miranda had her humanoid head at this point, then her lips would have curled up into a disconcerting grin at the sound of Dar screaming in agony.
Her eyes were filled with an amused glint as she attempted to bite back down, but Dar conjured a giant Six-ringed Magic circle at his back, releasing a giant light spear that pierced Miranda’s heart from behind.
This finally caused her grip on him to loosen and gave him the opportunity to grab her arm and fling her off him.
He tried to follow up with an attack, but Miranda had ruptured his right eardrum, so his sense of balance was out of sync. He tripped and fell to his knees, and this had more blood pouring out of the wound on his neck.
Miranda had ripped off a good chunk of the veins and arteries there when she bit off his flesh, so he was rapidly bleeding out.
It also didn’t help that Miranda used her blood manipulation to control his blood and form blood spears that stabbed into his back, turning him into a porcupine.
She transformed into her full wolf, growing to a similar height as Dar, knocking his body down on his back and smacking his head down into the ground with her forelimb.
Widening her jaws, she bit into the man’s neck again from the front, ripping out his flesh with ease.
Miranda silently watched as blood gurgled up the man’s throat, but instead of ending his misery immediately, she proceeded to bite his arm and rip it off, before doing the same to his other arm, all while the claws of her forelimbs pierced into his chest.
She unleashed two consecutive sonic breaths to his face, seemingly laughing as the light in his eyes slowly went out.
Finally, she condensed flames in her maw and released a flame laser breath to his neck that tore his head right off it.
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[...]
[Level Up]
Miranda returned to her senses when the consecutive Level Up notifications rang out. Memories of the past few moments came flooding back into her mind and her feet became unsteady.
Her wolf transformation was forcefully released and Miranda dropped to her knees before puking her guts out.
It was as if she was trying to vomit all the blood she had drunk, despite knowing it was impossible as that blood had already been converted into energy that strengthened her body, energy core and soul.
Silent tears dripped from her eyes and mixed with the golden blood staining her face as she panted heavily.
Forcing herself to her feet, Miranda returned to the area where the battle first began. She ignored the gazes of the remaining wounded Argeryan guards, ignored the dumbfounded Tiris and searched around for the only person on this planet she cared about.
However, she didn’t see him and this made her already turbulent emotions grow even more unstable.
Just then, she sensed a huge spatial disturbance behind her and turned to see Jamie reappear, with new clothes on and the severed head of the drifter in his hand.
He glanced at the scorched earth around him, a wry smile playing on his lips as he spoke.
"Well, it’s not that I didn’t expect this."
The man tossed the head in his hands away and opened his arms a second before Miranda crashed into him.
She hugged him tightly, tight enough that any other person would’ve had their bones begin to creak due to the force in her arms, however, Jamie just patted her back with one hand and rubbed her hair with the other.
"That’s my girl."
As Jamie hugged the silent Miranda, his eyes suddenly widened as a thought crossed his mind.
’Ah...this is bad...’
Just as he thought that, he felt a sharp pain in his neck, informing him that Miranda had sunk her fangs into him...just like he expected.
’Forgot how appetizing the blood of other Hybrids is to us. It’s like Angela put in some sweeteners or something...’
Comparing it with other people’s blood was like comparing the monetary value of copper to gold.
Right now, Miranda had only sucked his blood on instinct. She perceived something ’nice’ mixed in with Jamie’s comforting scent and her instincts which she lacked control of took over.
Unlike Jamie who had his Hybrid Powers active at all times, Miranda’s were just unsealed and since she never learned to properly control them, she was easily lost in them.
During her fight with Dar, the god had noted that her blood constructs were progressively getting stronger. This was because Miranda had actually been learning blood manipulation mid-fight!
Assuming her wolf form which should have been second nature, was harder due to it being enhanced, so she had to take a step-by-step process, starting from her arms, then her legs, then her head and finally her full body.
It wasn’t noticeable, but her sense of balance in that form was also off due to the size difference, which was also why the transformation was quickly released after killing Dar.
Moving back to Miranda sucking Jamie’s blood like she was starved for years—which she was—the young woman’s mind dug up memories she should have compelled herself to forget.
The taste of Jamie’s blood felt ’familiar’, but she could not pinpoint why this was the case. In a bid to figure this out, she unconsciously broke the compulsion she placed on herself, and the memories she had hidden away in the deepest recesses of her mind rose to the surface.
But despite the result being the same, ’releasing’ and ’breaking’ the compulsion were two different things, and the latter caused Miranda to fall unconscious in Jamie’s arms.
Jamie was slightly surprised, but upon seeing that it was just mental exhaustion, he calmed down and picked her up princess-carry style.
He looked around and saw that all the cars had been blown to smithereens, shaking his head lightly as he opened his subspace to bring out another.
Indeed, Jamie had cars in his subspace.
Minus his personal collection from various planets, he had an identical set of cars to make up a convoy, given to him by the same people who hired him to protect Tiris—the Argeryan Family.
They were prepared for the scenario of the cars getting destroyed.
Jamie brought out only 6 of them, as the number of guards and mercs still alive couldn’t even occupy all that space.
These cars didn’t run on petrochemicals, but magic power batteries. Compared to the cars of the Year 2018, these were visibly much older, clunkier and less efficient; but as at this time, they were in vogue.
Jamie put the sleeping Miranda into one, pulling Tiris along with him and sitting her opposite Miranda.
After, he came out and looked at the guards picking up the corpses of their deceased allies. With a snap of his fingers, the bodies were all warped and arranged in a single line in front of them, and all necessary personal effects were neatly placed atop each corpse.
This action instantly called their attention to him, and he proceeded to pose a serious question concerning their current situation.
"Which one of you knows how to drive a car?"
