VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 106: Crazy? I was Crazy once.
’Feed. Feeed. FEED!’
The ’whisper’ shouted in her mind as Belladonna stood over the dead body of the Hunter that had shot her. Even if the wound had healed, that still hurt. Well... It did as much as the pain inhibitor allowed it to hurt.
Still, it was incredibly rude!
She had snapped his neck on purpose, making sure not to spill a drop of that precious blood in order to keep it for Beans’. But the voice in her head had other ideas. Her teeth ached in her mouth, as if they were begging to sink into flesh, and her hands twitched slightly as she held them at her side.
It was taking everything that she could to keep her sanity, even if she lost it a bit after this rude hunter shot her. Only a little bit though.
"No! I need it! You can’t just feed on everything!" She shouted in her mind, or... did she also do it out loud? She wasn’t entirely sure on that one, her mind was focused more on keeping herself together.
Whether she thought or spoke was a secondary issue. Besides, what were people going to think? That the murderous monster was crazy? Oh no, how terrible.
The whispers still continued, chipping away at her sanity and urging her to relish in her unending gluttony. It was almost as bad as the Sin-sucker. Actually... that might have been a bit better, because it was easier to get rid of.
Belladonna glanced down at her own hands, turning them over curiously as she inspected their monstrous and twisted appearance, before clenching her fists and flexing her muscles. They were filled with power, far more power than she had ever had before, even with her infusions.
Risking her sanity slightly, Belladonna used a sliver of her consciousness to call up and study her status screen. She almost lost her grip on reality from the shock.
Like this, half of her status screen had been wiped out, replaced with something incredibly basic. But the numbers were what surprised her the most.
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[Status: Blood Frenzy (Healthy)
Name: Belladonna Walachia
Attributes:-
Strength(STR): 400 (+40)
Agility(AGI): 400
Vitality(VIT): 400 (+30)
Perception(PER): 100
Resistance(RES): 10
Esoterica(EST): 35
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400 Strength?! That was quadruple her normal strength, plus she still got the bonuses from her Sanguine Essence. It was no wonder she felt like she could snap these men like they were tooth picks.
The bonus was itself curious, as it seemed that direct drinking of the living didn’t change her bonus and instead fed the blood frenzy.
That was good to know.
Glancing over her shoulder, Belladonna’s eyes perked up at some soft groans of pain. It seemed the assassin had survived her hit, if barely.
With a flash of movement she appeared above his body as he crawled away, one of his legs bent in the complete wrong direction in a part that was never designed to bend. She winced slightly at the gross feeling that gave her, before leaning down and grabbing the Assassin by his hair.
He whimpered and pled, trying to negotiate with her as she lifted him off the ground by his hair. But they fell on deaf ears as Belladonna leaned in close and sunk her teeth into his throat without hesitation.
She took her time with her meal, focusing on keeping her sanity and not losing herself to the frenzy. An already difficult task to accomplish normally, but with life-force rich blood pouring over her tongue, the whispers became deafening and threatened to snuff out any sane thought in her mind.
There was definitely a reason why it was called a blood frenzy.
However there was some benefit to this. As soon as the Assassin was drained completely, and she left his corpse looking like a sad little raisin as she dropped him, Belladonna’s eyes quickly locked onto her status screen once more.
Everything looked exactly the same, except for the agility stat that now ready 415.
’Damn, I really am draining their life force. Blood frenzy gets stronger the more blood bags I drain with it... Although inversely, it gets much harder to control with it and I could definitely end up hurting my allies with it.
Still... That is one serious power up. If I could get control of it, then it would be an amazing ace to use. Until then, it’s gonna have to be for solo runs only.’
Now that was all sorted out, the only question became how to turn it off. As it turned out, it had a rather simple answer, although an inconvenient one. Wait.
That was it, wait. It was a time based transformation that she activated with drinking living blood, and also extended the time of it by doing the same thing. She tried multiple methods, but as far as she could tell the only way to make it turn off was to wait for her body to process all of the life-force.
A solution that was simultaneously tedious and incredibly stressful, which was not a pleasant combination. Especially since she was spending most of it focusing on keeping her mind, and didn’t distract herself with looting.
When it finally deactivated, and her body started to crack and snap back to its original form, a wave of exhaustion immediately smacked Belladonna as hard as a truck trying to send her to another world.
She swayed slightly and collapsed to one knee, panting heavily as her muscles burned and ached. It was the same feeling she got after an entire day’s worth of training in her youth.
Everything was simultaneously weak and jelly-like while also being painful as all hell, which was yet another thing the pain reducer conveniently ignored. Seriously, she could get stabbed through the chest and hardly feel anything but had to suffer through every little muscle cramp?
What the hell kind of system was that?
But she couldn’t just sit around here for much longer. With the time she wasted waiting for her transformation to wear off, the party she killed was already going to be on their way back.
With a heavy, pained groan Belladonna forced herself to her feet and crawled over to the archer. The stench in his pants was more than enough to tell her his blood would be just as viable as the two headed cows.
