“Entering Blood Dancer Imprint Tutorial!”

  Blinking my eyes, the world slowly came into focus.

  I was looking into a smooth black pool of water and the reflection I saw was not my avatar’s.

  She was a young Haithan woman with long drooping ears, lilac colored skin, full black lips and rose colored eyes. She was wearing the very same Garb of the Heartrose, that barely covered her bare breasts, and billowing silken trousers. My reflection growled at me in a husky familiar voice, “Is this stupid thing working?”

  Trying to speak out loud I found that I couldn’t. This hot tempered young woman had to be Anaya.

  My field of view shifted up from the sluggish flow of dark water and toward the faint light filtering through a circular portal. I appeared to be crouched in a pipe overlooking a vast shifting black sea of without the distinct sheen and glint of reflection. In the distance a masted sailing ship rose and fell against the backdrop of the endless sea of stars that was the Spiral. The center of the swirling cloud of light inched its way toward the horizon.

  My viewpoint shifted back to the sluggish black pool and Anaya regarded me with her lip curled revealing her long canines, “It’s gotta be working. Let’s get this over with.”

  She leaned closer to the dark water and growled, “I just finished my training with Theodora and she says that this is the first thing I have to do. You are going to have free reign to take on this mission that I am about to complete. Theodora says that my experience on this mission will inform yours. If you stray outside my experience you will be warned to return. This is going to teach you how to be a Blood Dancer using the abilities I have on hand. Good? Good.”

  My viewpoint shifted back toward the open sky and shifting dark waves, “Welcome to the Pools. I’m not sure when or where you will encounter this memory but this was the latest world to be consumed by the Spiral. The Heartrose only went off to fight the Lady of Flame two years ago and he hasn’t come back.”

  Standing smoothly, my view turned to peer down the tunnel in the tell-tale gray cast of the Eyes of Theodora to a twisted and broken grate. Her accented voice continued, “You should gain control soon. There is a small group of grathan pirates in these tunnels. Kill them all.”

  I felt her roll the avatar’s shoulders and then look down into the pool again to stare at me, “Don’t do anything weird with my body.”

  At that I gained control and stumbled a little toward the nearby wall of the tunnel.

  Taking a deep breath, I flicked open my character sheet to get an idea of what I was working with. The sheet was just a brief run down of Anaya’s abilities and basic statistics.

  Most were similar to those I had just gained. It seemed likely this was a truncated description of the Blood Dancer’s abilities.

  Closing the character sheet with a flick of Anaya’s wrist I reached down to a pair of hilts extending from my hips and slid the two daggers out. They were black steel triangular blades with white leather wrappings around the hilts.

  Spinning them in my hands I slid them back into the sheaths at my waist. When I spoke it was in Anaya’s voice, “Are you going to be able to give insight during this or…”

  There was no response. Shrugging uncomfortably I turned to the tunnels and the darkened sewers. Dropping into the stealth I made my way to the grated entrance and climbed through with ease. I made my way to a T-Intersection at the end of the tunnel and paused to listen.

  To the right I could hear the distant chitter of high pitched voices. As good a marker as any I guess. Starting that way, I slipped the two blades out and into my palms as I heard the voices resolve into coherent speech.

  “I’m telling you Catchy, these Heartrose idiots are going to get us killed. We should be working for the Lady. Once they have the worlds we can run the Silt Sea. Who knows what the vampires will make us do?!”

  A second deeper and thicker voice answered, “AND the Lady might set us on fire. I don’t want to be set on fire.”

  The voices continued as I reached a bend in the tunnel that opened into a larger chamber.

  The first hissing voice returned with a chuckle, “They won’t worry about little ships like ours! They just want to keep the gate safe.”

  The deep voice sounded worried, “But the Spiral…”

  A smooth and amused female voice interrupted, “Will collapse a long time after you are dead, Tonton.”

  She continued, “You two should keep your thoughts to yourself. Majit has already made his decision about it.”

  Peering around the corner I got a sense of the chamber beyond. The sewer tunnel had been broken open to a much larger cave. There were three figures. They appeared to be a small ape-like race with human faces surrounded by fringes of fur and twisting prehensile tails. Two were in the center of the room, a nearly human sized monster of a creature with black and silver fur and a slender small creature with golden and white fur. Both were wearing a suit of dark leather armor and a dark green bandana around their upper arms.

  The third sat above them on a ledge. They were similarly massive to the dark furred creature below but more pronounced in the girth of their belly. They were wearing a robe and guzzling a mug of something as the two creatures below moved crates from one side of the room to the other.

  How to handle the three of them? Checking the sheet again I saw nothing pertaining to stealth. Given that Anaya seemed more focused on dodging I decided on the direct approach.

  When I spoke, her husky accented voice had a playful note to it, “Let’s give this a try then.”

  Striding out around the corner with the blades tucked around my back I glared at my targets. The two creatures moving crates were the first to notice me. The smaller one’s tail whipped around and grabbed a knife from their belt as they spoke, “Hey, what in the depths are you doin here?!”

  The big one grabbed a heavy club off its waist and spoke dumbly, “You not supposed to be here, lady.”

  The overweight Grathan on the ledge muttered in terror, “Vampire!” With that she grabbed up the most janky looking steampunk shotgun I’d ever seen.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  By that time I was too close. As I rushed the larger club wielding figure I activated Crimson Dance and Surging Blood. The blade on his friend’s tail was whipping toward me and faltered as I disemboweled the larger Grathan with a deep slash across his stomach. As the giant let out a wail in slow motion I rushed his ally Tonton, leading with my bloody blades.

  Normal speed encroached once again as I rushed up to the golden furred grathan. He cried in alarm as I drove one of the blades into his clavicle. As the little monkey creature’s blood sprayed free and onto my avatar’s skin I noted the Blooded buff dropping into my notifications. It seemed I honestly could consume Essence through my skin.

  Hearing the large Grathan on the ledge curse, I saw her swing the dark barrel of the shotgun toward me. Tonton swiped a tail blade at me but I smiled and grabbed him pulling him close and between me and his ally on the ledge.

  There was a blast and Tonton’s body rocked as it absorbed the majority of the shot. The light went out of his eyes and I threw the ravaged corpse to the stones. Behind me, Catchy was trying to hold in his entrails on the floor crying out for help.

  The space between me and the gunner blurred past as the Grathan on the ledge tried to reload her weapon. As I got within a meter she let out a strangled ‘Eep’ of surprise and dropped the weapon to raise her hands.

  Surprise dawned in the creature’s eyes as they seemed to recognize me, “An… Anaya? What are you… Did we do something wrong? Is Zethic displeased?”

  Raising an eyebrow at that, I considered asking questions about Anaya and her history but the grathan took the matter out of my hands when she tried to grab a sharpened piece of wood and lunge toward me.

  She managed a nasty scrape on my wrist but I rolled past the attack to lunge in and bury the blades in her chest. She convulsed and dropped the broken shank of wood to the ground. Surveying the dead, I noted that Catchy had finally passed, still clutching at his intestines in death.

  Leaving them behind I continued into the broken pipe on the other side of the room. For the next hour I hunted from chamber to chamber, making my way sometimes through maintenance platforms built into the defunct sewer system and others in caves exposed by broken sections of pipe.

  Many of the grathan pirates were just going about their daily tasks; eating, sleeping or cleaning. Despite the cutthroat nature of the tutorial task I did not shirk from my duties. Each of them was cut down in silence as I worked my way systematically toward what must be the chamber that housed the one the fat grathan had called Majit.

  As I made my way down the final tunnel in my search Anaya’s voice filled my mind, “For this last encounter I want you to observe to get a good idea of how you can use the Blood Dancer’s skills to their full capability.”

  There was a pause as I stopped and listened. She finally said, “I don’t know what age you live in or how we came to know each other but remember the goal, Remnant. Remember that no one can stop us from reaching the heart of the Spiral. Remember that the Lady of Flame lies between us and that goal.”

  Her voice was filled with raw emotion as she continued, “No one.”

  My control detached from the npc. There was a hiccup in the avatar’s movements as my simulated run through ended and the actual recording began again. My view detached from hers and my field of vision was dragged into third person over Anaya’s shoulders. She pulled the black steel daggers out of their sheaths and spun them before rolling her shoulders. Sitting back I relaxed my haptics as I prepared to watch. She advanced toward the end of the tunnel where it opened up into a large cave chamber suffused by an emerald green glow.

  The chamber was a rocky cave filled with hanging moss and lichens. Ledges above were connected by ramshackle wooden bridges. It appeared that Anaya’s attack on this compound of tunnels had not been as silent as mine. There were many grathan pirates glaring down at the tunnel directly at her. All were armed, most with weapons in their hands and clutched by their agile prehensile tails.

  Amongst them, lounging on an honest to goodness golden throne on one of the higher stone escarpments was the biggest grathan I’d seen. While I’d likely call most of the others monkeys this monster was an ape. Easily eight feet tall if he stood up straight this black furred giant idly toyed with a giant club next to its seat and paid Anaya no attention at all. Its long tail was weaving around above its head with what looked like a holstered blunderbuss attached to it.

  My first perception was that this must have been the leader Majit but I was quickly dispelled of that notion as a tiny white furred grathan dropped onto the giant’s shoulder. It had a golden fringe around its face and wore a black vest traced with silver etching. It spoke in a high masculine voice with clear intelligence, “I can’t believe I’d see the day when Zethic’s poisoner dog would accept the Heartrose’s bite.”

  The little grathan scowled down at her and chuckled, his voice filled with venom, “What happened to you killer? You used to be someone I could respect.”

  Anaya’s answer was smooth and husky, “The kiss has its benefits. What about your knees? I heard they folded as soon as the high priest looked at you the wrong way.”

  Majit snarled and raised his tiny hand but the expected order never came as my viewpoint vanished and reappeared again looking at the back of a confused grathan pirate. It quickly became clear that my list of abilities during the tutorial were nowhere near the true skills of the Heartrose vampire. It appeared that she had activated some kind of ability to teleport through shadow to get the drop on one of the pirates.

  With that she started to butcher the confused pirates. Where I utilized stealth and speed to hit and run my targets Anaya was a true dodge tank. She charged into close proximity with the terrified grathans and tore them apart with deep bleeding cuts.

  Their reprisals met empty air as she danced around their attacks with grace and precision. As gouts of her enemies blood filled the air I was treated to an exterior view of a vampire in the throes of the Blooded Buff. Her eyes blazed with fiery red light and her targets were practically torn apart at the force of her strikes . It was clear that she was using weapon skills specifically designed to cause damage to critical areas and hamper her enemy’s attacks.

  Anaya danced amidst the screaming grathan pirates bathing in the mists of blood bursting from their wounds. She left them bleeding wrecks in her wake. When they tried to strike she casually spun past them with the grace of a dancer.

  Majit, for his part, rode the shoulder of his giant thuggish subordinate and reloaded the cannon like blunderbuss on its tail everytime it was fired.

  Splinters of stone and nearby crates went up in clouds that surrounded Anaya as she continued her slaughter.

  Soon Anaya had killed all of the pirates and found herself exchanging blows with the hulk as Majit shouted directions and taunts. It was here that I saw the true brutality of the woman. Anaya exhibited the depths of her anger as she tore the pirate leader apart. She vanished from shadow to shadow bursting out to tear into the flailing and desperate creature. Majit’s ride, the dim looking hulk with his club, stumbled and started to cry out for mercy.

  She ended it’s existence with a single vicious downward stroke as she appeared from a shadow, yanking the blade free as it whined a final time and fell still. Majit dragged himself away whining as his blood pooled around him, “We were just talking… Zethic… Does he know?”

  She knelt before the dying grathan and growled in her low accented voice, “Why do you think I joined the Heartrose? Did you think I didn’t hear you all chuckling about how Zethic had me wrapped around his finger? How I was a loyal dog for him?”

  Her bloody black knife drifted up before her eyes as I watched and she rasped, “What was it he said?”

  Majit’s eyes went wide as he choked and tried to speak, “No… he didn’t mean it! Don’t…”

  The slender blade swiped across the struggling creature’s neck and he slumped backward as she swiped the blade on her bare skin to clean it. The bright red blood vanished into her skin as she muttered to the open air, “As long as she thinks she loves me, she is a loyal and useful soldier. Why not let her live her fantasy, even if it will come to nothing?”

  She turned to look into a nearby mirror and stood smoothly, slipping her blades back into their sheathes as she sighed, “We all have issues to work our way through. Mine is a stupid meathead warlord who used my feelings for his own gain.”

  She sighed and rolled her shoulders as she swiped something away from her cheek, “If you take anything away from this lesson, learn this: Question every motive.”

  She reached up to her neck and whispered softly, “That’s it. Good luck out there.”

  My world went black and then I staggered forward as the mausoleum faded back into hard reality. Lydia made several announcements in my ears: