The Extra Wants Control

Neveah frowned as his eye brow furrowed. "Hmm," he muttered, "This is draining energy fast. Looks like I can comfortably support two for now. Not bad... Let\'s get of this random field and leave the others."

With a thought, he extended the crushing force outwards, pressing down on the attackers, forcing them to kneel. A sigh escaped him as he glanced at his axes, their obsidian blades shining from the light from the red ground. "What\'s the use if I can\'t even try you out?" he grumbled. "These people are weak."

The scene was a chaotic – a lone masked figure manipulating gravity and flames and ice. Yet ge stood there with a bored face, the cause of all this.

"Then why don\'t you level the ground and we\'ll give you an interesting fight?" A kneeling vampire said, defiance and a poorly attempted look of provocation on his face.

Neveah with his bare feet walked on the heat of the floor towards the kneeling vampire, with no discomfort at all. With curiosity he aske. "What do you propose? What can you possibly offer me?" With his deep voice.

"Limit your…" the vampire began, grunting in pain as molten fabric of his pants dripped onto his already burning flesh of his knees which were healing and burning in a constant agonizing cycle. He just gritted his teeth and continued, "… strength. Level the playing field, and then… we\'ll give you a fight worth..."

A deep sigh escaped Neveah, "No," he said, "If that\'s what you offer, then it seems this is over. I can\'t... I won\'t limit myself. I\'ll just look for some stronger."

Disappointment and fear flashed across the vampire\'s face.

Then Neveah let go of everything, deactivating his spells. The heat subsided as confusion replaced fear on the vampires\' faces. The ice barrier around them dissolved the floor rapidly cooled leaving traces of black charred ground from the earlier flames. The gravity pressure also disappeared easing the air. All 128 vampires well the ones alive looked at Neveah, unsure of what to expect.

"What now?" someone dared to ask.

"Now you put your tokens in the basket and leave. And if don\'t try anything…" he said as ge made an ice basket following up by making a neck cutting gesture with his thumb.

" That\'s robbery..." Shouted a person

" And? What are you going to do about it." Neveah replied.

" Mhmhmmmm." Whimpered the vampires unable to do anything.

" Young master... You are acting like a thug." Said Sharon

" It\'s a price they are paying for their lives." Said Neveah.

" Fuck this..." A vampire tried to escape but a blood spear shot him in the head making his head explode and he died.

" I don\'t bluff... So don\'t try me." Said Neveah with a terrifying killing intent that scared the vampires even more.

His message was clear. No further resistance would be tolerated. The vampires, cowed by his display of power and the chilling threat, scrambled to comply.

Grumbles of complaint arose, a vampire here and there lamenting their lost shot at advancement to baron status that was so close if only they gathered a few more tokens, but ultimately, all their tokens found their way into the ice basket Neveah made.

" Why did this crazy bastard show up here." Most thought glaring at Neveah, who when he looked at them made them turn their heads and whistle.

With a sudden thought, he sent a telepathic message, "Come to think about it… I don\'t even know the rules of this tournament. Well how do I win? Sharon..."

A pause, and then Sharon\'s voice, laced with tiredness was heard in his mind. "Sigh… You are clueless. But that\'s why I\'m here. First of all, the queen didn\'t make any rules. She simply revoked all titles of vampire nobility and started the tournament… There\'s no one exact and final winner. The purpose itself was to restructure the vampire nobility, ensuring only the strongest rule."

"Still there\'s a \'win\' condition. For that you will need tokens, same like the ones you gathered there," Sharon explained. "Everyone in the vampire race had a starting point of one. So the more tokens you collect, the better your shot at being a noble. But there\'s a catch - the number of nobility seats are fixed. So, only the highest token holders within a qualifying bracket get the seats."

A flicker of understanding dawned on Neveah. "Thanks, dear."

"Anything for the young master," Sharon responded professionally cold unfazed by Neveah\'s compliment.

Neveah sighed at the icy tone. "So cold," he thought to himself. MVLeMpYr-unofficial-chapter

Neveah\'s gaze then strayed on the vampire who had dared to propose the condition of weakening himself. "You there, idiot number 1" he said, his voice deep"Tell me why there were there so many of you here. You seem strong enough… Why weren\'t you fighting amongst yourselves for tokens?"

The vampire straightened, a flicker of fear battling with a spark of defiance in his eyes. "I-diot?... Cough...Well… we are mercenaries, foot soldiers, part-timers, call us what you will. But our purpose is the same – to help the high-performing participants, and they pay us in tokens."

Interest flashed on Nev\'s face. "Explain," he demanded authoritatively.

The man was now confused, then stupidly blurted out, "Don\'t you know this? Where have you been? Living under a…" he said dismissively as if he was talking to a bumpkin forgetting his earlier situation only to stop as a wave of terrifying intent pressure slammed into him. He choked back a gasp, then Neveah stopped.

"Gulp…" he swallowed in fear and continued cooperatively. "So… anyway, Cough… we\'re hired for territory wars between the high rankers. The winners get to loot the losers\' tokens."