Never Take a Pirate for Grant'd! 8 - or 'So, I guess I have to fill up for Grant, heh?' (Castlevania Netflix Grant Danasty!SI, Lite Gamer)

Adriana Tepes was... unsure on how to judge the trio of humans that woke her up.

One wielded a degree of magic that was currently gazing at her with wonder and hope, another had piercing eyes and a rather familiar weapon in the form of a whip he was currently grasping with unease, while the last one was...

Peculiar.

Adriana was taught by her mother to be quite perceptive of people and their traits, having learned all she could about strengths and limits for humans, but also with all sorts of monsters she may end up facing. Yet she had never met someone so paradoxically odd.

This individual looked akin to a pirate due to his bandana and sea-faring outfit. His cutlass also a defining trait for a pirate and... and yet something felt different with his blonde hair and sharp eyes. Something akin to nobility, but quite hidden, easily covered and yet barely veiled to anyone with a good sense of people.

Likewise, his energy was perplexing. So humane and yet so unusually high. It wasn't magic, but it felt similar to it. It made her incredibly curious- and concerned.

"Why are you all here?" She softly asked after lifting her body out of the coffin and turning it to face the trio.

"It was true, the story about a messiah resting below Gresit," The magic user muttered in awe, but this wasn't a mutual feeling with the other humans. "The one that will save us from Dracula."

As if... I could ever beat him.

Instead of honesty, Adriana carefully shifted to the one in the middle. "What about you? Were you looking for a messiah too?"

"I just fell in here," The whip-wielding man rebuked bitterly, a sign that she was indeed correct with her initial assumption- a Belmont.

"And you...?" Adriana asked, then frowned as she saw the pirate man scratching his chin while looking away from her. "What?"

"You... you know that you are quite underdressed, right?" The man asked, the other humans tensing up as he brought up something Adriana had forgotten about.

She hadn't expected to be awakened in such manner, by others' involvement. So she may have decided against to cover her wounded chest before going through her slumber. Holding back a blush and merely closing her eyes while summoning her shirt to her waiting hands, Adriana thus moved to clothe her upper body properly.

"You saw nothing," The dhampir muttered quietly and the pirate nodded.

"I don't even know what we are talking about."

What a peculiar bastard. "Now, what is your purpose to be here?"

"Finding the daughter of the one man responsible for a spreading massacre all over this country and beyond," The man replied truthfully, taking a few steps toward. "The one that tried and yet failed to knock some sense into Dracula."

...

"S-She is Dracula's daughter?" The magician appeared baffled, while the Belmont was shocked by this development

"A human and a vampire can actually... can they fuck?"

"She is proof of that," The pirate remarked much to Adriana's growing chagrin before shifting back to the main point. "Still, you faced him before trying to break him away from his plans. The issue now is that it's been a year or so since you fell aslept and numerous innocent lives have been lost to his mindless army of monsters."

Adriana felt... displeased to hear this. She knew it would have taken time to heal, but even after a year her injury hadn't truly recovered to the fullest. Likewise, a year was also too much as it meant that hundreds of lives have been lost to her father's ruthless decision upon humanity.

"I see... so you seek my help to stop him?" The dhampir inquired, surprised by the response shortly after.

"To kill him," The man corrected, "He has done enough to warrant this. He is not coming back out of it as he is suicidal."

...

"You faced him," The fellow woman deduced, "You actually faced Dracula."

"And you lived through that experience, how?" The Belmont pressed, suddenly sounding suspicious of someone Adriana thought would have been a close associate. An untold truth could be seen by many as a big lie.

"I have indeed braved the castle after finding him, killing some guards and monsters, even got to kill one of the vampires but ended up short of killing Dracula as he decided to try and have me killed by launching me down onto the lake where the castle was sitting before it teleported away. From that clash I realized that, truth be told, no one here can kill him, even if we were to combine our forces."

This last bit puzzled Adriana immensely. "Yet you sought me. If you knew this much, then why look for me?"

"I have to agree with the vampire here-"

"Adriana Tepes, but you may call me Alucard,"

"Sypha Belnades," the Speaker introduced herself, followed by the grumpy 'Trevor Belmont' and...

"Grant Danasty, I am a-"

"Nobleman," Adriana interjected once again, this time out of realization as she remembered reading his last name from one of the books of Wallachian noble families. "The House of Danasty is indeed involved in this?"

"I am alone as I have long left my family to pursue adventure," Grant admitted sheepishly. "The Black Sea was my home for a while, but as I returned back to Wallachia due to my injuries, I have seen firsthand the actions of Dracula's Army. No one but me survived the attack on the village that was nursing me. Not even the monsters I personally slaughtered for such a horrendous crime."

"Still, what is your goal by awakening me if it's futile in killing my father?"

"It would be impossible for us to beat him... if he was to fight seriously. He will hold back if you are here with us."

That irked but intrigued Adriana at the same time. "You think so?"

"I know so. You are what is left of his wife, you are what is left of his family. As much of a monster he may sound like, how he may have reputed to be, he is still quite humane... but even then, he seeks not to live beyond what has happened in those months. He is done for, as only the monster in him keeps on living for the sake of anger. He will not kill you, not even if he was at his wits' end"

It was a ruthlessly true analysis. This much Adriana knew during that last fight with her father. She thought it had been due to her own interest to hold back, but, even then, she expected him to have a degree of hope within him to fight back the pain. It wasn't there. The sorrow was stronger than anything she had ever experienced from her father to conjure. And in the end, he did spare her after defeating her.

It was overwhelming how this had happened- how this proved that what little humanity had left was only going to spare her and nothing more. He wouldn't rethink his actions, he would not back down. His father was dying in the worst way possible and-

"Still..." Grant spoke up, regaining the attention of the rest as he walked up to the middle of the chamber. "I don't think you are honest about wanting to kill him."

The pirate's words struck a chord. He was right, but that didn't mean she was fine about hearing this. "I will not hold back."

"Then prove it. Show me how strong you truly are when there are no reasons to hold back for you," He said as he released his cutlass. "I want you to come at me with everything you got if you truly wish to tag along or... I don't know, sleep and let the world die in flames."

And that was a rather sharp stab into her emotional situation. Adriana felt angered by such a demand- to treat this situation as if she was the one looking to join their group! They were the ones that came looking for her!

"Y-You think that I-"

"Can't do it? Yes, I do," The pirate interrupted, smiling as he took a stance. "Once again, you are not coerced into this... but you would be regarded as an accessory to this massacre by sleeping it out. Like a child being told to skip dinner for being disrespectful to their father."

The pure hatred that was mustered by such a disgusting insult made Adriana summon her sharp sword by her side, eyes now narrowing angrily at her prey. And then he did something that made her rush at him with absolute anger.

He grinned.

"W-Wait, we should-" Sypha tried to stop this but she was refrained by Trevor. "We need to stop them!"

"He is confident. And... I think he knows what he is doing."

The speaker appeared uncertain of this, but the Belmont wasn't done with it.

"Also, you have seen how fast he was when he helped us to the lower platform," Trevor added, offering a confident smile. "He got it."

Adriana barely heard their conversation, too busy snarling and attacking with as much swiftness and power she could muster, but she quickly realized she couldn't just outpace him with that alone. Despite his looks, it became clear to her with each blocked hit that Grant was not a mere pirate.

His sword was dangerous nonetheless. Weak as it may have been, it was still exuding a degree of holiness that made her tense up the few times she saw it coming for the kill. He wasn't holding back either, so it was fair to unleash as much ferocity she could against him. His reaction time, his resilience and even his foresight was above what many humans could ever hope to achieve after numerous years of combat.

Yet he was able to produce one of the most infuriatingly strong defense she had ever faced. Adriana just wanted to beat him for good, to show him how impertinent he was against someone far superior than anything he could ever hope to be, to just show him that he had fucked up.

None of that seemed to go to plan as he was just being an outrageous prick with his grin. He was indeed focusing, but that smile was just bothering her to the core. Then, as the stalemate grew more 'slower', Grant used this chance to finally go in the offensive, pushing away her sword and forcing some distance as he mustered a glowing ax through his magic. Surprise flared to Adriana as she saw the projectile soon rushing towards her chest, but it failed to land as she swiftly morphed into a white-furred bat and flew upward before she could be hit.

The dhampir-turned-bat flew fast, her speed even greater in this form, but she also knew she had to get closer to him. So, Adriana morphed again, this time in a more lupine form. Once again her fur was white, but her immense speed as a bat was now translated in a rapid and short presence that lurked the ground's area and eventually managed to do it. She pushed the human on the ground, forcing him to drop his sword and she snarled while preparing to bite his throat when... she realized something.

"Oh no, my weakness~..."

His amused tone was a clue that she had fucked up. His shit-eating grin was also another. But it was the feeling of his fingers twitching and teasing her lupine sides that pretty much told it to her.

"A cute floffy doggo~!"

Adriana had fucked up for she was tickled into a laughing happy wolf and thus was defeated.

Having never explored the full extent of her transformations, the dhampir was caught off-guard by the utter pleasure emerging from being tickled in her lupine form. As soon as she got her mind in control, she shifted out of her lupine form and returned to her normal form.

Her hair was now disheveled, her cheeks were flaring red as her body twitched at the lingering feeling of bliss tearing into her body.

"Y-You... You scoundrel!"

"I was just petting a cute doggo! As if I would molest a non-consenting lady!" He snapped back, causing her to look away and... refrain to speak any further as she was moments away to let out a very weird and embarrassing noise. "Nonetheless, it was a good and intense fight and I would say you meant it. Welcome to... uh... the team?"

...Only to kill her father. Nothing more- it wasn't like she would ever think of keeping this fool of a pirate around after what had just happened.


AN

Petting the doggo went wrong! Or maybe too well!