Disclaimer: I do NOT own Goblin Slayer or any of these characters.
Author's note: Alright! I am back with another chapter! So at a last moment i decided to make this a two parter. The only reason being, just so you guys could review this chapter, because I will just replace chapter 8's AU with first part, and the second part will be chapter nine.
Now about the poll 67% (39 people) voted for the vampire buff. Another 32% (19 people) voted against it. So, Goblin Slayer will be powered up. And for those who want to know what this buff looks and how it scales, just imagine Goblin Slayer as mentally unstable, anti-social, goblin obsesed Captain America. There. That's GS now. Plus he will have some interesting interaction with mirrors, garlic and all the fun stuff. Sun will tire him out, and at night he will have energy to spare. And other small changes that will balance him a little. Not to strong, just a little stronger than the avarege human. Trust me guys, i do not want to lose that „normal human against the odds charm". So it's nothing to OP.
And for those who want to know how Vampire curses work in my AU GS world. So High Vampires are ONLY BORN to other High Vampires. You can not become a High vampire by a bite, only by being a product of two High Vampires banging each other. However, when High Vampire does bite you, and lets you live (in other words, doesn't suck you completely dry to the point your heart and brain stops), you will turn PERMANENTLY into those ugly vampire creatures I described earlier. And because High Vampires can't control their desire for blood, they often suck their prey dry, so that's why there is not a full world of those ugly vampires. Or an army. In appearance, they similiar to ekimmaras in Witcher 3. That's my explanation for this whole curse not curse thing and how vampire work in this world.
So it went something like this. Goblin Slayer got bit, the curse and transformation took effect, his muscles, body and most prominently his inner organs began to slightly change. When his heart nearly stopped, the transformation to a vampire fasten in that minute, but GS was still not dead as his brain still was working in that minute. Then Priestess came in, brought him back from the dead (basically), mixed all the vampire stuff with the resurrection miracle, and here we are.
And that's everything from me. Enjoy this chapter(s) and see ya.
Chapter 8: Dreams of Slayers and Maidens p.1
Skies were clear and blue, with sun shining brightly. Birds were flying high in the air, with clouds nowhere to be seen. Peaceful and quiet place. With the skies checked, he looked down. A flat field, with green lush grass which was dragged all the way to the place where his eyes could no longer see. However, something else grabbed his attention.
There were flowers. Mostly white, although there were pink, red, yellow and purple ones too in small numbers. As far as the eyes could see, the fields were filled with them. He couldn't help himself and closed his eyes for a moment and too a breath in, enjoying the moment. The pleasant scent he inhaled kept him at peace. Peace, he long forgotten existed in his soul.
Once he opened his eyes, the scene changed before him. Lilies still bloomed on the field, but skies turned orange, with white fluffy clouds floating peacefully as the sun was setting over the horizon in the distance. Wind began gently blowing, and the colorful petals from the flowers began to fly around the field. Though the changes in environment were remarkable, the most prominent change happened right in front of him.
Within the reaching distance, one lily sprouted to an unimaginable height. He could swear she reached the clouds themselves. The giant lily petals above him could be easily mistaken for a treetop with how much shade the petals cast.
He slowly backed away from the giant flower, to take a look at her from the distance. Trying not to damage the other flowers, he carefully walked further away, from the shadow which was covering him from the giant petals. And after few instances of walking, when the shadow wasn't looming over him, he stopped.
The lily looked like any other flower on the field. The only exception was the height, and surprisingly, the color of her petals. As the other lilies had vibrant colors, this one had light brown petals with white corners.
Suddenly, he heard noises behind him. Quite familiar noises, which he was silencing for the past five years. And before he knew, those ugly creatures were everywhere he looked. They were appearing, right in front of his eyes, left and right, all around the giant lily.
Everywhere. Thousands and thousands of them appeared from thin air. It all finally stopped when the last one appeared. A big one. A Goblin Champion.
With one roar from the Goblin Champion, all the goblins charged against the giant lily on the field. Running through the field, they were trampling all the lilies, squashing and tearing them apart. He wanted to do something. To draw a sword and start killing them. Every single one. But for some reason, he was unable to move. He stood there, rooted and helpless, watching all the lilies being defiled and perish into the night.
Green moon replaced the sun that was setting over the horizon as all of this was happening and the clouds disappeared. Slowly but surely, goblins made their way to the biggest lily. Once goblins got to the giant lily, the goblins began jumping on her. Hordes and hordes of goblins overwhelmed the flower so much, they began crawling over each other to reach the stem and began climbing to the top. Throughout the climbing, they were cutting the stem with their long nails and knives.
Even in the night, he saw the wounds inflicted upon the lily. She began heavily bleeding from the cuts. Red blood poured out of the stem and leaves of the lily, making a pool of blood below her. And when the goblins reached the top, they began tearing the brown petals, throwing them down, celebrating with their primitive hopping from side to side on the very top.
The remaining petals that still remained on the stem, began withering. The previously chestnut color began to blacken, the white corners were curling up, and the life filled light green stem with leaves began wrinkling and darkening in color. The brown lily was lowering herself in height, and slowly, she withered to the point, where she bathed in her own blood pool.
Then, with their yellow eyes, goblins turned their attention to him. He still couldn't move a muscle. He was afraid. And shaking. Again.
In response, the goblins began laughing mockingly, like they knew his own fears. As some goblins were laughing, the others charged at him, with the big Goblin Champion in the front. He still couldn't move, only watch as they charged at him, covered in her blood. Goblin Champion reached him first. And without hesitation, Goblin Champion smashed him with his giant club, sending him into unconsciousness.
His eyes shot open. He was breathing heavily and unevenly, which was very unusual for him. It didn't take long for him to calm down from what he saw earlier.
"A dream… " he realized. Though for him, this was more of a nightmare than a regular dream. "Lilie…" he closed his eyes as he recalled her name.
Goblin Slayer didn't dwell on the nightmare too long though. Nightmares are his old friend, and they visit him regularly.
First thing he saw was the ceiling above him. Goblin Slayer recognized the roof he repaired with Cow Girl's uncle. He is home. Moreover, he was feeling well. In his opinion, too well. If he remembers correctly, he collapsed from all the pain last time. But there was no pain. No soreness. Not even tiredness. It was like it never happened. Well, maybe it really didn't. He is in bed, woken up from his sleep. Perhaps he dreamt about the fight with that goblin whore before the vivid lily dream. It would make much more sense too. He drank quite a lot at Apprentice Cleric's birthday party, and sleeping for so long would be another logical thing that could have happened. Judging by the few sunrays in the room, it's morning. Maybe he really slept all day long so his body could recover from the party. It would be such a shame though. With zero goblins killed, it's a needlessly wasted day.
He slowly sat up, and a bunch of things happened.
First, he felt something wrapped around his arm, legs and torso. Looking down, he saw a bunch of blood drenched bandages wrapped around him. The one around his torso fell off him as it was teared in the middle, but the others stayed on his body.
"This is not from the birthday party... " he thought once he saw the bloody bandages. At least he thought it's not from the birthday party. There was a possibility that he pissed someone off so much that they did this to him. For some reason, he has a great talent in pissing people off. What is really annoying, is that he doesn't know how he is capable of that.
Anyway, those injuries did not come from a bar fight. It seems like that fight with that goblin lover or whatever it was, happened. "I wonder if there will be a little pay bonus for her. Harder than a regular goblin quest thanks to her. "
In all likelihood, the Guild will give him a bonus for killing that woman. If he didn't kill someone he shouldn't. That's still a possibility. Though he should be just fine even then. It was self defense after all. And regarding the bonus payment, if she was indeed some kind of a monster, it should be handled similarly to the situation they had with the Ogre. Bonus payment for a bonus monster slain, plus a compensation for startling jump in difficulty. Ah, those were thoughts for later. He had to focus on the here and now.
Second thing he did, was raising his left arm, examining the limb. It was wrapped with bandages, which hardly came as a surprise to him. Goblin Slayer curled his fingers into the palm several times, looking at it with fascination. "Looks like I'm not dead yet. "
But when he tried to check his other hand, something was holding it up. And she was the third thing that surprised him.
"What is she doing here?" he asked himself. The question didn't remain hanging in the air for too long, as Goblin Slayer quickly came up with an explanation. Naked, clutching to his arm with only a blanket covering the bottom half of her body. Slow peaceful breathing. An identical scene to the one from the Water Town. So she saved him. Again...
She looked at peace, with a relaxed smile plastered on her white face. Her mouth was slightly opened, as she was breathing through her in her sleep. With those long blonde hair, she looked really... He didn't know how he would describe it. But it was very pleasant to look at her. And his own soul was at peace seeing her sleeping like a baby.
Looking at her, he recalled the conversation with his sister. Just before his bedtime, when little Goblin Slayer always begged her to tell him stories about mythical creatures. Giants, elfs, dwarfs, demons and so on. Some were proven real, some weren't. And some are yet to be discovered. Little Goblin Slayer always pictured himself heroically killing the bad creatures, chasing his kid dream of becoming the hero. And as a true hero he also wanted to make friends with good mythical creatures, making a dream team with them and fighting evil side by side until they would become legends. Foolish kid dreams...
But, regarding these mythical creatures, his favorites were always the big strong ones. Giants being his number one. On the other hand, his gentle sister had a different favorite. Guardian Angels. He looked up and recalled how his sister once described why Guardian Angels are her favorites.
I know they are not strong compared to your giants. However, your favorite giants won't protect you when you need them to. I like Guardian Angels, because they are there to protect you, not to hurt others. Guardian Angels may not be the tallest or brawniest creatures, but they are not meant to be. They only need to be powerful enough so they can get you out of precarious situations and protect you from harm. They are there, to watch over you. Every second of your life. Like some sort of endless guardian. I like to think they are real and that there is one protecting you from the things I can't.
With that memory back in his head, and with Priestesses blonde hair, blue eyes, white robes and religious background, it was hard to not make connections to his previous life. After all, the only thing he saw Priestess doing on his quests, is protecting him. And she had done a damn good job at it. She even protects Goblin Slayer from him himself. "Seems like you were right again, big sis. It looks as if I found one." Goblin Slayer looked back at sleeping Priestess.
Eventually, his eyes strayed away from her face, and laid on her bare chest. Goblin Slayer tilted his head slightly. "Huh, they grew slightly." And for some strange reason, he could now see more details in her breasts then last time. He saw more colors when looking at her breast and pink nipples. New shades of pink and white laid in front of him. It was like his eyes saw much more now. Even her soft breaths were quite loud in his head. He shook his head, thinking he is imagining things.
But it didn't help. When he looked at the canary on the table, he thought he even heard the rustling of canary's feathers, when the canary began picking something out of his feathers with his beak. Whether it was real or not, it was getting too much for him to handle. The wind blowing through the window was loud and unpleasant to listen to. His own sped up heartbeat was unpleasant to listen to.
And in all of this chaos in his head, his nose suddenly began picking up scents he never knew. Priestesses scent was by far the most prominent one. And as his head was spinning from all the overwhelming sounds, scents and colors.
Priestess's scent of snow and winter from her put him at ease for a moment.
Although it did help a little, it was not enough to diminish the headache. The headache increased steadily, and even the pleasant scent couldn't numb it. As his headache increased, Goblin Slayer couldn't take it anymore and had to get out of here, in hopes to find some place quieter. Since his bed was in the corner of the room, and he was near the wall, he climbed over Priestess. Even when he was trying to be careful, in this state, it was impossible. He tripped over her body a few times, but it seems that she is sound asleep.
As soon as he got to the edge of the bed and his feet hit the floor, he began having troubles balancing himself. He stumbled from left to right, spilling the red water in the basin that was near the bed. Thanks to the increasing noises in the room, Goblin Slayer had to cover his ears. His whole center of balance was off and walking in a straight line proved to be a real challenge. As the world around him spun, he sloppily began tearing the remaining bandages of himself. With several grunts of discomfort he tore the bandages around his arms and legs.
He stopped at the dresser on which the canary cage was placed. Covering his ears helped to some extent. He managed to finally control his breathing, but when his eyes focused on the canary before him, his eyes began hurting from all the information and colors they had to process. His eyes began to hurt and his breathing became heavy. Goblin Slayer remained kneeling in front of the cage, with his elbows on the dresser, hunched up, trying with all his might to erase his perception of the world right now.
"What is happening to me? Wha-What is all this noise?! I-Is this some kind of goblin poison? "
He took a deep breathe. With closed eyes and covered ears, he tried to find peace in his mind. And despite the enormous headache, he managed to regulate his breathing. Discipline, he kept repeating. Discipline your body to a point it obeys your every command, even when all laws of nature tells your body to give up. He tried to control his ears and all the noise he heard even with covered ears.
Surprisingly it helped. Though he thinks this is not only his doing. For some reason, his body naturally began to accustom to these weird changes. The noise was still there, but his ears start to filter them better and they weren't so annoying. With his over-sensitive hearing calming down, he opened his eyes, and even them began to accustom to these changes. The canary seemed different, but it didn't hurt so much to just look at the canary.
„Seems like it's is wearing off..." Goblin Slayer thought as his hearing calmed down. Whatever it was, it's most likely just an aftermath of the healing. Although Resurrection miracle heals poisons too, they may be some after effects. Or maybe he is not fully healed. He'll have to ask around a little later on.
Goblin Slayer began standing up again, his legs were a little shaky but they managed to hold him up, with his right hand on the dresser supporting him. His left one still hold his aching head.
Few minutes went by, and he felt better. There were still some problems with his eyesight and smell, but right now he couldn't care less. He is hungry. Goblin Slayer hoped Cow Girl is already cooking something. Goblin Slayer already smelled something, so that is a good sign. He can cook fish or pick some berries when he is hungry in the wild, but home made meals are home made meals. As he opened the doors out of his room, he looked one last time at Priesteess in his bed and left, not even realizing, his grip left a visible hand print on the steel door handle.