The dragon's harem

Hardened blood shattered and splintered, sending red-hot fragments of empowered sanguine everywhere like a rain of bullets, and a woman hit a wall with enough force to shatter it. She gasped, and the thick sheet of hardened blood on her chest and stomach crumbled. She was just hit with a punch that felt as heavy as getting him with a freight train.

“Strange, how come a mere vampire like you is this durable? It’s more than just hardened blood.” Poppy’s flesh vessel stared at the vampire woman with a smile, and her arms swelled with muscles.

The woman fell back onto her feet and threw a sharp glare at the monster-child facing her. If not for Eris’s blood that Arad gave her, she would’ve died long ago. At this moment, Poppy doesn’t suspect anything and just thinks the vampire woman is just abnormally durable as a quirk, but if she found out, she’ll probably try to extract the divine blood out of her first.

“My blood is quite stubborn; if nothing else, I got my tenacity.” She smiled, lifted both arms, and took a stance. “Let’s see who falls first.”

Poppy smiled. “Fine, then let’s end this. I’m getting hungry.” The muscles on Poppy’s small legs grew larger, and she burst forward at a terrifying speed. The vampire woman dodged to the side, but still ended up losing an arm to Poppy’s fangs.

^Shit! She is trying to drink my blood, if she does, she’ll…^

Poppy, who was now licking on the woman’s severed arm, blinked. “Oh, I see. Divine blood.” She glared at the woman. “So you got your hands on such a rare thing? I’m lucky indeed.” With a single slurp, Poppy sucked all of the blood from the arm until it dried out, and then threw it aside.

The woman knew that she couldn’t keep fighting any longer. She had tried to contact Arad or anyone else many times, but all of her attempts failed; something was interfering with her magic. That was Cain’s influence, but she had no way of knowing, and even if she knew, she could not possibly resist his will.

Her last resort was to summon Arad directly through blood, but even that seemed to have failed, for a different reason. Since the blood link is directly between her and Arad, the Blood Lord, Cain wasn’t able to get in the way, but that’s where she herself became the problem.

She had long since left the vampire army and started her new life to live in peace; she had married and was now raising her daughter in peace. That was her problem; she didn’t have it in her to once more give her body, soul, and blood to the Blood Lord and reignite that link of submission.

She was now standing on a cliff, unable to jump even though she knew she would be fine. She was neither trusting nor crazy enough to attempt the summoning and thus hesitated at the last moment. Her second arm got torn off by Poppy’s second bite, and she found herself hitting the wall again as the child-monster pinned her with bone spikes.

“You monster…” As the woman growled, Poppy shoved her fist into her chest and pierced her heart. “How pathetic… even with such powerful blood, you couldn’t bring out its best.” Then, with a swift swing, she slashed the woman’s head off and slurped the blood splashing out of the severed neck.

As she finished and kicked the dried body away, Poppy’s blue eyes flashed red as she looked at the end of the alleyway. “So, you didn’t drink all of the blood yourself. There are still a few drops of that holy blood out there…”

It was a critical mission, and Poppy could use all of the power she could get. Now, a new objective had appeared in front of her. She had gotten around 80% of the divine blood from the vampire woman, but the remaining 20% was with her daughter, and Poppy would very much like that extra power.

“I won’t mind a small detour for that…” She turned around and started heading toward the vampire woman’s house.

At this moment, Poppy was fighting on three fronts. A part of her mind focused on the rampaging monsters to guide them across the city and create a huge distraction for everyone, and especially Arad and his wives. She didn’t want any of them to track her true body, which was in the sewers.

Her true body that was in the sewer was the second front, and with it, she controlled the flood of blood and the spread of Cain’s influence to mask everything and prevent the spread of knowledge and information between Arad’s people. That means that as long as no one is directly aware of a fight, the people can scream their lungs out and no one would hear them. That was the reason no one rushed to help the vampire woman, even though her fight with Poppy caused quite the ruckus.

The last front was the flesh body that had just killed the vampire woman and was heading to find her daughter. That body’s mission was to find out where Violent and Yog are in the city, and ping them for Cain to snipe. His goal was to retrieve AO’s heart and brain, and those two held them.

If Poppy manages to clear her objectives, Cain will then be able to eliminate Arad, the only other Pricolici, and thus she’ll be able to rule the vampire and werewolf populations of this world with ease. It was true that she was nothing but a bug compared to Violet and Yog in power, but her mission wasn’t to confront them, but just to find their location.

Can’t Cain just locate them on his own? He can, but they would spot him back, especially since Yog is a pain to deal with. That’s why Poppy must be the one to find them, so he can strike before they notice or be able to react.

Poppy even asked about how he is going to deal with Yog’s omniscience. If she knows everything, how could he hide from her? It was then when one of the black tentacles pointed at the stream of foul water in the sewers.

[There is an L-shaped turd there, did you notice it? It was in your vision all of this time; you even looked at it once. But it just didn’t stick in your mind or consciousness. Like how the countless faces you pass by in the street never register in your mind, I’m slipping through her consciousness. It’s hard, but doable for me.]

Back at the vampire woman’s house, the door opened up.

“Therisa! I’m back!”

Therisa ran down the stairs as she smelled her mother’s scent. “Mom! You’re back early.” But the moment she looked at the front door and saw the bloodied Poppy, her face grew darker, and her skin paled.

Poppy stared at Therisa with a smile as she spoke in her mother’s voice. “Come to mommy, don’t be afraid.” Unlike her, who just looked like a child because of the witch’s experiments, Therisa was an actual kid, a vampire kid, but a kid nonetheless. Mind control and blood manipulation should work on her with ease, even with the divine blood.

CRACK! At that moment, Poppy blinked. The little girl who was terrified on the stairs had disappeared. She was now just a meter away from her, with a foot breaking through the wooden floor as she threw a straight punch forward.

Poppy dodged the punch on instinct and quickly jumped back to glare at Therisa. “Aren’t you an energetic brat?” Poppy giggled.

Therisa stood there, looking at her fist. She missed the punch.

“I just killed your mother, who was much stronger than you. Stop resisting and give me that blood, I’ll even make you my servant if I like the taste of your blood.” Poppy started slowly releasing her magic, aiming to strike where it hurt. She’ll use the fact that she killed the girl’s mother to manipulate and control her mind.

^She just lost her mother; she’ll break down soon…^ But it was then when Poppy realized that she had picked the wrong target. In the little girl’s mind, there was no sadness or remorse for her mother’s death, just pity.

“You’re the girl that Our Blood Lord asked for?” Therisa glared at Poppy with glowing red eyes.

Poppy growled. “I’ll send you to your mother so you can ask her!”

“Mother? She got what she deserves, straying away from our Blood Lord to live on her own? The audacity!” Blood started seeping out of her skin. “At least, she died in his service.” At that moment, blood exploded from her body and tore the door’s wall apart.

^Damn it! That little girl is a fanatic… her blood is much stronger and purer than that of her mother.^

Vampires have an innate level of power, but they can get stronger by serving stronger vampires. As an example, the vampires who directly serve Arad tend to be stronger than those who serve Eris, since their direct lord is stronger.

Therisa, unlike her mother, was a patriot of the Blood Lord and thus preferred the old ways of life, and she was no different than the nuns and vampire paladins serving Arad with her iron will. Her connection with Arad’s blood and the inner fiend of her vampiric nature was far stronger, making her a fiercer monster even if she had far lower stats than her mother.

Poppy was in trouble.