Blessed by Night

Chapter 150  Why Nightmares Are Feared

An enormous bolt of black lightning fell down onto the castle and blew the entire structure apart. The only remainder of the once proud vampire home were the charred bodies lying amongst the rubble. The vampire remained unconcerned with the dust and debris flying into his face as he remained focused on another fact. "What ... are you..?" He said in genuine confusion. The sovereign knew the abilities of these nightmares very well. Their powers had a distinct felling of negativity that seemed to be inescapable and filled sentient creatures with terrible helplessness and dread. That last attack was certainly fearsome, but there was something wrong about it. Something that was almost... godly. His eyes scanned the wreckage for the culprit and he found him; munching on the head of what appeared to be the concubines of one of his nobles. Before he could think of what to do next, he sensed a large number of his brethren approaching. Coming from the west, his remaining three nobles were being trailed by a large number of their soldiers. "Sire!"

"Was that your attack?"

"I heard it all the way form my bed chambers!"

The sovereign shook his head as he felt his body start to heat up from the poison he\'d been subjected to. "It was not mine, no.... We have had a guest." He said nonchalantly. The sovereign pointed down towards the currently munching nightmare and his nobles sucked their teeth in. "That.. is one of them, correct?" One asked. "I am not entirely sure... It pays no heed to my words, nor does it seem to be capable of speaking. It is akin to a wild animal."

"Then... what are we going to do..?"

The nightmare finally finished it\'s appetizer and looked up at the sovereign like it was ready for it\'s main dish. "...Subdue him." He ordered. "I believe that he might be rather interested to learn of this one\'s existence."

"But how are we supposed to-"

"By any means necessary."

Before any of the vampires could carry out his order, the nightmare acted first. Opening up the mouths on all four of it\'s tails, the creature fired individual beams of what felt like concentrated heat and malice. Anticipating a very real sense of danger, the vampire sovereign flew above the attack and meticulously avoided any stray beams. His underlings however were not so lucky. The nightmare\'s beams were something like highly corrosive plasma, burning up the bodies of the vampires and giving them the most painful death imaginable for their kind. It must be noted that the nightmare wasn\'t actually trying to hit any of them. His beams were focused on shooting down the sovereign but the rest were getting in the way. "Subdue him!"

"For the blood sovereign!"

A swarm of vampires rushed at Mal from every angle, looking to force him onto the ground and subdue him by any kind of available method. The nightmare was pelted with multiple projectiles, some made of ice, others of blood, and a few were even made from patches of the earth. He allowed these projectiles to pierce, burn, or bludgeon him without any real regard for his own safety and it was unknown whether these attacks actually caused him any pain. But they eventually must have turned into quite a hassle, cause he decided that he was done playing around with them. Shadowy constructs arose from the ground around the creature. Taking the form of enormous black hands, they easily caught tens of vampires by the fistful and either squeezed them to death or simply smashed them into the ground. Once all the flies had been swatted away, the nightmare resumed looking around for the morsel he was sure would be the most delicious. However no matter how far he searched, he couldn\'t find him anywhere near him. Stab!

Looking down, the nightmare found a fist buried in his gut. The hand of the vampire sovereign quickly found what should have been the spine of this monstrous being, and sent pulses of icy energy through his palm. Starting with his stomach, the creature\'s body began to freeze from the inside out, in the hopes of immobilizing it. As far as he knew, there was no way to kill one of these things. But if he could manage to succeed in halting it\'s movement, then he could hold it until he could get in contact with the dark one. It seemed like his plan was working out rather well so far, when a sudden feeling of weakness nearly knocked him onto his butt. \'...No, not now..!\' n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The nightmare venom was becoming more inconvenient with every jerking motion or use of his magic would only worsen the effects. Even now, his nose and eyes were beginning to bleed as he continued trying to freeze the creature. Somehow, this had turned into a test of endurance. If he wanted to succeed and have a hope of survival, he had to endure this challenge long enough for the nightmare to succumb to being frozen solid. However, it did not seem like he was going to get his wish. While the nightmare did look like it was having a hard time for a few moments, that may have all been an act. The nightmare suddenly reached out and grabbed the vampire by the face, digging it\'s dark claws into his flesh. By now, the vampire couldn\'t even teleport away as he\'d been doing for the bulk of this fight. Panic began to set in as the vampire tried and failed to pull away due to his adversary\'s formidable strength. Once again, all four of his mouths but into the vampire\'s body and he felt his vision beginning to darken. Opening it\'s mouth wide, the nightmare positioned it\'s teeth over the boss\' skull and bit down hard. Snapping, cracking, and crunching sounds could be heard as the creature dined on the head of it\'s enemy. As it expected, he tasted so wonderful that he wasn\'t sure how he\'d ever gone without it before. But the best part of his meal was still to come. After eating around half of the corpse, an invigorating energy coursed through his entire being, that eventually gave way to extreme drowsiness. -

Bianca and Luna had to run on foot to try to reach the area where Malachi was thrown. They would have used Shiro, but it was as if the young fox could sense the malicious energy in the air, and she absolutely refused to come out. And when the girls finally found the man they were looking for, they could see why. Malachi was standing still in an utter wasteland, eating the corpse of some unfortunate vampire. Around him were enough blood stains to make someone\'s head spin, and what seemed like a ruined castle underneath him. "He did all of this..?" Luna muttered as she looked at the damage. "It would seem like it...but somehow I don\'t feel like he was really trying." Reasoned Bianca. That was a scary thought to imagine. If this form of Malachi\'s was capable of effectively clearing a SSS rated dungeon alone without even trying, then what on earth could it accomplish when it was angry?

Suddenly, the girls watched as the nightmare finally finished eating and wobbled a bit before falling over outright. Concerned, they tried to run to his side when they realized their bodies were starting to feel heavy too. They had only taken a few steps before the both of them fell over onto the ground, mere inches away from Mal\'s monstrous figure. They tried to fight the overwhelming drowsiness and keep their eyes open, but eventually this proved to be easier said than done and the two of them fell asleep right beside each other.