The name hit like a truck. Alucard was the name of the vampire that Alya mentioned, that Maddie had mentioned. The human side of Dracula's lineage. The Eastern branch.
"I'm sorry did you say Alucard?" he stuttered, trying to make sure he wasn't mishearing between the bell toils and flapping bats. She must be messing with him.
Rosy giggled. Seeing her fellow bats beginning the twilight dance, she grabbed his hand. Her touch was cold.
"Come on we can't miss the dance."
As Rosy was pulling him towards the edge, as confusion and disbelief clouded Ryker's mind, his phone rang. Stopping like a statue, he pulled his phone. Liv was calling.
Rosy pulled again, but Ryker was rooted. The phone wouldn't stop ringing.
"Hey Liv," Ryker answered, ignoring the impatient pulling from the Alucard girl.
"When are you coming back?"
Glancing at the bats flying in formation, he replied, "Not sure. Some kind of vampire dance."
But then Rosy stole his phone. She waved it in front of his face before she morphed into her bat counterpart.
"Hey!"
Morphing as well, he chased her through the sky. Two bats were behind the entire swarm now, with one trying to get his phone back. This chase wasn't one of those thrilling experiences he had with her before. Stealing his phone made him annoyed. Liv was fragile and needed constant assurance and she messing with that.
After what felt like flying for ten minutes, he managed to catch her as Meridian City was slowly becoming visible below them. Tackling her to the roof of a skyscraper, he was able to wrestle the phone from her.
Both were in their humanoid form but Ryker was now sitting on top of her.
He put the phone to his ear.
"I'll be home soon okay?"
There was a long silence. Then he heard Liv's sigh of relief on the other end.
"Okay."
After ending his call he got off Rosy. Getting ready to scold her but loud music distracted him as it boomed over them from hundreds speakers on the streets. Every citizen down below were cheering and celebrating.
Minotaurs were running in between cars like giants. Their tribal screams could be heard from all over the city, like a race where the bats had to fly through them.
"Wow."
Hundreds of bats started flying, weaving through the stampede. A complex symphony of leather wings, guttural roars, amplified by thousands of pounds of muscles and the excited shouts of spectators. A stampede and a storm colliding.
Rosy jumped up, dusting her clothes. Her face had a childish a wild joy on it.
"It looks fun right?"
Ryker knew this was just a spectacle to show off the vampires' supposed superiority. And yet... he couldn't deny the thrill buzzing under his skin. To fly amongst this chaos without being torn apart, to be a part of something so much larger than himself.
Standing on the edge, thinking about what to do, he saw a familiar face. Rul. The minotaur looked tiny from up high.
He wanted to join but he should be getting home to Liv as he was thinking this Rosy pushed him.
As he fell, the world spun. The cold air rushed past his ears and the smell of barbeque hit his nostrils. Before panic could fully set in, his instinct took over, his body shifting as bones and skin contorted in that familiar, dizzying rush.
One moment later he was just another bat weaving between the descendants of Asterius. He felt like he was cheating death at every turn. It was terrifyingly exhilarating.
Down on the city streets, Rul was a monument of muscle and silver fur, charging with a rhythm that made the very ground tremble. Too busy with dodging cars to notice Ryker was on his shoulder. Rul turned his massive head. Then a deep snorting huff escaped him, not one of anger, but of surprised amusement.
"Ryke!"
The bellow was enough to shatter glass, but it was all the welcome he needed.
"You enjoying yourself?" Ryker asked.
One mintoaur made a mistake and crashed into a car, sending debris towards them. Ryker shielded his eyes. Rul just ran through it like it was dust.
"Hell yeah," Rul boomed.
"This beats sitting in a classroom anytime!"
The path of the swarm twisted and turned, and soon they were next to a port. Bats were diving into the ocean. Rosy was flying above the two friends, her smirk visible even from her bat form.
The minotaurs were heading somewhere else as Ryker could see Rosy's form get smaller and smaller.
Rul noticed this.
"Hang on buddy."
Suddenly stopping in the middle of street, he grabbed Ryker from his shoulder, pressing him into a ball and arched his arm back, throwing him like a baseball, passing by the laughing bat into the ocean with a plop.
The world became a blur of black and blue.
His pulse quickened. A wide grin appeared on his face, because of Rul tossing him. It was expected yet still funny. It had the exact kind of playful unpredictability that made their friendship so solid.
Rosy shot pass him. Her form illumated by the bioluminescence of the ocean. Bubbles were shooting out of her mouth as she tried to speak only to produce gibberish.
Her frustration was hilarious and Ryker couldn't help but laugh, a strange, gargled sound underwater.
Glaring at him, she grabbed his arm and started pulling him further down.
Fishes were swimmimg in unison. Mermaids were directing the symphony as the jormungandr were racing in the ocean, their long serpentine body producing massive underwater currents. Some bats were racing them. Some even won.
Then the long eight legs of the umibozu's started appearing. Ryker's stomach sank at the sight. They looked similar to water spiders something he genuinely disliked.
Rosy and him entered one of the current and were shot forward like a cannon. He closed his eyes and when he reopened them they were at the beach like dead bodies washing ashore.
Bats were now flying in the skies over the forest. Trees were lighting up as if they had a mind of their own. It was a hypnotic dance of emerald and viridian bioluminescence, pulsing in time with a bass that thrummed from the forest floor. Somethig only possible with all tree-kin.
Ryker looked around for his dryad, for Anna, the one person he truly loved here, but she was nowhere in sight.
Instead Rosy led him away from the beach into the chilling embrace of the mountain's peak. An earthquake was rumbling as they flew past the golems. Boulders were being flung at each other like it was dodgeball. A game for them.
Then came the final ascent. The higher they climbed, the thinner the air became. Soon giant fire clouds could be seen from miles away. It was the dragons. Dozens of eastern and western dragons were performing some sort of dance that made them crash into each other.
"Are they just slamming into each other?" he asked seeing as Kael was literally doing that to another dragon. That wasn't elegant or regal.
Flying next to him, Rosy chuckled.
"They're dragons," she said, "You expected grace?"
Just seeing that he wanted to be like them. An S-rank adventurer with the power of a dragon at his fingertips.
A few bats were in the middle of the stand offs. Their small body competing against the mighty dragons. Ryker watched as some bat, full of pride flew straight at a dragon only to get swatted away like an insect.
"That would've been me right?"
"One-hundred percent," Rosy answered without missing a beat, her bat form doing a lazy loop-the-loop.
Finally the Twilight dance was over. Of course Irvin made another snarky insult at Ryker and boasted about the superiority of vampires. After that Rosy and Ryker were sitting in a cab. Her book was open again, the same one from earlier, a worn paperback with a cheesy cover.
This time the ride was quiet. He was far too tired from flying and mana exhaustion. Reaching Meridian Academy, they stepped out. It was 2 am. Not the time for any serious conversation.
"So you're an Alucard."
The name lingered between them, a question and an accusation all at once. The cab driver had long gone, leaving them alone under the pale light of a streetlamp.
She yawned. "I'll see you around... Ryker."
Lightning coiled around her body as she transformed into a bat and practically disappeared. Ryker went home with questions.
Opening the door, a sleeping wolf on the couch, he felt the same exhaustion. The apartment was quiet. Alya was still sleeping in hisbed. But Liv was standing in front of her door. She seemed wide awake.
Her arms were crossed.
"You're late."