Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 52: Sense of Wrongness

Kalien also finished eating his fruit and walked over to the two with the remaining fruits in his hand.

Sera smiled at Rudy and turned towards Kalien. "Give Vlad a fruit."

Kalien nodded as he knelt beside Rudy and offered him a fruit, a friendly smile stretching across his face.

Rudy responded with a smile of his own and took the fruit from him.

His fingers brushed across the smooth skin of the bright green fruit as he lifted it closer to his lips, then his mouth opened wide, and he bit down on the fruit.

The juices of the fruit flooded his mouth as its soft flesh exploded under the bite of the lesser vampire, and a look of ecstasy appeared on his face as the absolutely delicious fruit satiated his hunger.

The sound of chewing and sucking filled the area as the circle ate the fruits without any care.

Once they finished eating, they stared up at the sky in a daze, their eyes dreamy.

Rudy looked at Sera with a frown and asked, "Did we eat all the fruits of the day?"

Sera and Kalien frowned as well, and she answered in a dejected voice, "Yeah..."

Feeling the somber mood, Kalien shot to his feet and muttered after slamming his fist against his bronze chestplate, "I can get more for us!"

Rudy’s expression brightened, and his lips arched upwards.

Sera snapped her head towards him and hissed, "No."

Kalien and Rudy looked at her with puzzled expressions, and Kalien asked while sitting back down, "Why?"

Sera’s fury vanished. She pointed at the shimmering spring and said in a reverent tone, "The spring goddess is kind. She has given us fruits and water."

"Spring goddess..." the two mumbled in a tone similar to hers.

She removed the hood covering her head, and her dreamy gaze drifted between the two as she asked, "How can you take more from the goddess without paying any offerings?"

A sense of guilt and embarrassment filled the two irregulars, and they spoke at the same time, "What should we do then?"

Sera stepped closer to spring and said with her arms opened wide, "We will protect our home from intruders who dare sully the land of the great spring goddess!"

A fire similar to hers flared in their eyes. The two rose to their feet and raised their hands high as they responded while grinning, "For the great spring goddess!"

The circle then knelt beside the spring and chanted the spring goddess’s name before all of them walked under a broad palm tree.

They held each other’s hands as they walked. Rudy was at the center, Sera at the left, and Kalien at the right.

"How is your shoulder, Vlad?" Kalien asked worriedly.

Rudy looked at him with furrowed brows. "Is something wrong with my shoulder?"

Kalien shook his head and gave him a knowing look as if he knew Rudy from childhood, "Why are you acting so tough? We both remember you falling from the tree and injuring your right shoulder."

Upon hearing his best friend’s words, Rudy’s expression grew confused, and he thought, ’When did that happen?’

His lips parted to tell them that such a thing never happened, but as he was about to tell them, something within him told him not to.

’Why?’ He questioned himself, ’Why am I keeping secrets from my friends?’

His confusion deepened. ’On a second thought, why are they calling me Vlad when my name is Rudric?’

They reached the palm tree.

Sera slumped to the left, Kalien to the right, and both of them patted the space between them. "Come, Vlad."

Rudy looked at them with a puzzled expression for a moment, then nodded.

He lowered himself between them and leaned against the tree.

Kalien and Sera slipped their hands into his and said, "It’s about time."

Rudy nodded. "Yeah..."

The circle looked at the sun with calm smiles as it dipped.

As the sun neared the horizon, the sky was painted orange by its glow, and as it grew closer, the color deepened; at last, it turned red, spreading like a crown.

"It’s beautiful," Sera whispered, with a reminiscing smile that disappeared when she shook her head and mumbled, "What was that?"

"It’s still way less gorgeous than you, Sera," Kalien commented with a mischievous smile.

Sera gave him a deadpan look and muttered, "Not funny."

The circle burst into laughter, and the perilous heat began to lower.

Soon the sun dipped below the horizon, and darkness engulfed the sky and the land as the bright moon rose over the desert.

The bones around them began to rattle.

The circle looked around as they rose to their feet, and Sera stated sharply, "Make sure none of those wretches set foot on the oasis’s grass!"

Kalien and Rudy nodded as they walked in different directions, and for some strange reason, Rudy felt uncomfortable about doing this.

He looked at his pale palms and mumbled with a troubled expression, "What’s wrong with me?"

Grass brushed his boots as he walked to the edge of the oasis, and just as he was about to step beyond it, he stopped and said, "I have to stay within the oasis."

He didn’t know why he believed that, but for some reason, it made perfect sense to him.

As he stood there confused, the cold wind brushed him, and his long, vivid red hair flowed wildly.

The sound of pushed sand reached his ear, and he narrowed his eyes.

A noon scorpion, which was making its way towards the oasis, entered the edge of his vision, and his eyes began to glow.

Red, orange, and yellow lines appeared across the scorpion, and two chaotic purple orbs floated in it.

"Deviant fiend," he spewed hatefully.

White sparks flickered around his left hand and turned into a broken sword.

"I need a new sword," he mumbled as he held it tightly and got ready to kill the bastard who was daring to intrude on his home. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The scorpion neared, and Rudy mumbled after cutting his own palm with his sword, "Blood ma..."

However, the strange feeling from before returned, and he whispered with a deep frown etched on his face, "Why shouldn’t I show them my abilities...? They are my friends."

The next moment, his expression turned confused, and he mumbled while looking around, "What was I thinking?"