The Fallen Vampire

Vaal led the group through the open door and out into an unknown danger.

The first thing any of them learned was that their little boxes weren't the only dark spaces in here.

The cavern the group had entered was a pitch-black space that seemed to go on for several miles.

The air was cool and damp, yet there was also a stale quality to it that made one wary of breathing in too deeply.

Vaal and the other assanbossam could see with perfect clarity from the moment that they stepped inside. But the humans required only a small bit of adjusting.

The group walked through the cavern with no real direction in mind. Or at least, that is what they believed.

Unconsciously, they had been following the source of the cold.

Vaal held up his hand to stop the group when they arrived at a steep drop-off.

Sitting below them was a large, frozen lake with only one figure waiting for them on top of it.

A man adorned in a simple blue gi lie on the handle end of a floating scythe over seven feet long.

For some reason, he was blindfolded.

Vaal sensed immediate danger, but wasn't sure why.

"…Dai-Sh-"

"I hope that your studying was successful."

Suddenly, the examinees were pulled into the icy pit by an invisible force they couldn't fight against.

Their bodies hit the frozen lake one after the other. Some managed to land on their feet while others were far less graceful.

Corey was one of the few who landed awkwardly on his knees.

Before he could fully get to his feet, his grandmaster was looming above him.

Corey didn't see anything before his world went dark. A well-placed heel to the back of the skull had not only sent him tumbling into dreamland, but it had also shattered the base of his skull.

The only reason he hadn't died instantly was due to the fact that his body had been tempered due to cultivation.

But none of the others were fooled.

If Taira had applied the faintest bit more force, Corey may not have even had a head to heal.

The group looked up, and Taira was gone again.

Several mistakes were made from that point forward.

The disciples adopted defensive positions. But they were still packed too closely together.

Taira appeared in a circle between Himari, Raymond, and Sawyer.

Himari was first.

Taira's claws sailed into her eyes and punctured them like miniature water ballons.

As her screams rattled off the walls, Taira heard the sound of several hearts dropping in unison.

He felt vibrations coming from behind.

He casually tilted his head to the side and avoided a large fist aiming to pulverize his head.

Smirking, he grabbed the arm and bent it awkwardly over his shoulder, snapping it so brutally that the bone pierced through his flesh..

As Raymond screamed out, so did Tiche.

She and Sawyer lunged at Taira from two opposing directions.

Two of Taira's tails lashed out like whips and grabbed the duo by the necks.

They flew towards each other like bullets shot out of a cannon. When their heads crashed together, the blood splatter was immediate.

In less than four seconds, four very high-level cultivators were reduced to broken toys.

Vaal started to move in as well as a few others, but before they could do so, a familiar voice played in all of their heads.

'All of you stop and think!' Shakti yelled. 'We need to get away from him, we can't fight the Dai-Shi head on when he's not pulling punches..!'

Vaal felt the dots connect in his mind as he slowly backed away. 'He said he hoped that our studying was successful.. the manual he gave us was a breathing technique...'

Vaal's eyes slowly widened as he realized the mistake they had all made since the beginning. Ramming their heads against a wall they couldn't climb over.

And contrary to what they had initially believed, Taira was giving them a fighting chance after all. It was the whole reason why he was wearing a blindfold.

"RUN!! Use the new breathing art and hide!!" Vaal roared.

The other cultists responded to Vaal's order quickly.

They lunged away from the massacre by the droves, rushing deeper into the cave and finding dark, isolated spots to hide.

As they got further and further away, they erased their breathing, the sound of their footsteps, pulse, and even dropped their body temps.

But it was an unpracticed technique, requiring a great amount of mental fortitude.

Taira was already noticing different mistakes. He could sense vibrations through the floor. Hearing heartbeats beat out of control. Frantic breathing.

He shook his head while suppressing a small smile.

Taira never thought that he was the kind of man who would like teaching. But he did find that he was finding this to be a great deal more fun than he thought he would.

*Crack!*

The fox stomped through the frozen lake and revealed familiar, icy blue water sitting underneath.

He grabbed Himari by the neck and dropped her into the water face-first.

As her eyes healed, Taira lifted his blindfold off of one eye and stared at the four other bodies on the floor.

Raymond- in shock. Tiche and Sawyer- likely concussions and skull fractures. Corey- definite concussion and skull fracture.

'...They'll be fine.' Taira shrugged.

-

Vaal hung from the cavern ceiling with his body hidden behind a stalagmite.

He tried to compact his form as much as possible to hopefully improve his chances of staying hidden.

But if he was honest, Vaal was starting to go insane.

He was losing track of just how long he and the others had been getting hunted like this. Weeks? A month? It was at least longer than when they were in isolation, that was for sure.

Vaal could see why Taira sent out a waiver to the adults in the cult before this retreat.

This training was nightmare fuel.

Taira's brutality was barely even the beginning of it.

The worst thing about this exercise was the denial of any semblance of basic comfort or recuperating time.

Being unable to bathe or even sit down was fucking nothing.

It was the lack of the ability to sleep that was the most painful.

This new art that Taira had given them to study was a finicky one. Just getting some semblance of understanding required utmost concentration.

If Vaal started to doze off for even a few seconds, his concentration was subsequently broken, and Taira would show up to make him pay the price for it.

Four days ago, he plunged his hands into Vaal's chest and froze his lungs. Even now it hurt to breathe.

The sleep deprivation was one thing. But starvation was an entirely different ordeal.

The pouches of grain balls the disciples had been given were a nutrient-dense supplement designed to keep an individual full for seven days off a single pill.

But they were crunchy, stale little things. And too big to swallow whole.

Trying to eat one was practically putting up a beacon for the Dai-Shi to zone in on their location.

The last time Vaal tried to eat one, he had his windpipe crushed and his entire jaw fractured.

He was starting to think that maybe his big brother had some repressed rage against them that he hadn't told them about...

Vaal was hoping that this stage of training would be over soon. But he had no idea what exactly they would need to do to pass this phase.

The only thing he knew for sure? He was hoping that it came with a very long nap afterward…

Vaal turned his head a short distance away where Shakti was also hanging from the ceiling.

'Regretting signing that waiver just yet?' He asked telepathically.

Shakti took a while to respond before grumbling out an answer. Vaal could practically sense her blood boiling.

'Believe me… it's not the only thing that I'm regretting.'