Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

Something I haven't mentioned about the track until now is that it was elevated over a shaft that ended in a plain concrete floor a hundred feet below. If you flew off the track, you were basically dead unless you had some way to slow down your fall.

The colosseum said this was to discourage cheating by going off track and taking a short cut, but I think the real reason was they liked the spectacle of it. People didn't fall off often, but when they did, it made a big splash, for lack of a better way of saying that.

Technically, there wasn't any rule against taking a shortcut. This was simply because trying to do so would be the equivalent of signing your own death warrant. No one had ever tried it before and lived, so no one tried it anymore.

That was until Mira came along. When the three other competitors came around the corner, I stood up. I don't really know why. Maybe it was out of nerves, or fear, or maybe it was just because I wanted to be able to see better.

I don't know what made me do it, but I was lucky I did. Or unlucky I did. It really depended on your perspective. When I stood up, I saw something I didn't expect see. Or rather someone I didn't expect to see, in a place I very much didn't expect to see them.

I could see Mira flying through the air, but she was hanging out in no man's land. She wasn't really flying. It was more like falling with style. She was falling with style over the empty space outside the boundaries of the track.

Way outside the boundaries of the track. She looked like she was trying to cut half a mile of track off her lap by taking the shortcut no one ever survived. And that's exactly what she was doing.

She was falling from high above the track. She might have actually been able to make it, but it was going to be close. Her competitors were only a hundred meters away from the finish line. Even if she did make it, she still might not win.

To my horror though, I watched as she fell further and further down. She wasn't going to make it. And she didn't. Just before she reached the edge of the track, she fell down out of sight.

My heart sank as she disappeared out of view. Not only was she not going to win the race, she was going to die. It didn't matter that her limbs weren't organic at that point. Falling from that height meant severe internal bleeding even if the fall didn't just straight up flatten you into a pancake.

I had lost almost all hope when I saw it. Mechanical hands gripping the edge of the track. The same mechanical hands that were attached to her serpent arms. I had to thank Ralph for the life saving grip strength of those hands.

That wasn't all though. Using the serpent arms, she must have retracted them at high speed because she shot up over the lip of the track into the air. Mind you she had almost no forward momentum so she wasn't going to win the race, until I saw her aim her hands at the banner hanging over the finish line.

Her hands shot forward at incredible speeds, grabbed the metal banner and retracted, pulling her down out of the air and toward the finish line. She swung down over the finish line just as another competitor was making his way over the finish line as well.

The ribbon broke, a camera flashed, and the race was over. I still didn't know who won. Mira landed awkwardly and hard because of her swing from the banner. She tumbled and rolled on the ground, until she finally stopped.

I ran up to her, but she wasn't moving. She was laying on her stomach with her face resting against the ground. I rolled her over and patted her cheek a few times. Not a slap. Just a pat.

Her eyelids flickered open and she looked me in the eyes. "Did I win?" She said.

"I don't know," I said. "It was really close."

But just then a race official ran over to Mira and lifted her hand into the air so hard she was lifted back onto her blades. The official raised Mira's hand into the air and declared her the winner.

A bunch of fanfare happened, confetti exploded over us and roses rained down on our heads. Someone with a microphone came up to Mira and asked her how it felt to win.

She said, "Good, I guess. I still can't believe I won!"

Her competitors came over and each shook her hand and congratulated her. They stared daggers at me. I couldn't imagine why.

An official looking man in a suit came rushing up to Mira and shook her hand. Mira, not really knowing what to do, shook his hand and smiled.

"You must be really proud," the man said.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she said, smiling. Experience new stories on empire

"Good," the man said. He reached into his jacket pocket. I assumed it was to hand her a check or some certificate or medallion signifying or straight up stating her victory. But instead of any of those things, he pulled out a gun.

Still holding her hand with his other hand, he pulled her in close and pressed the gun against her chest. "Gino says bye," he said, and unloaded the entire magazine into her chest, until pulling the trigger just made a clicking sound because he had run out of bullets.

He pushed Mira over and she fell onto her back. She convulsed on the ground as she bled out. A medic immediately rushed up to her and started trying to do something. I couldn't tell what.

Everything went into slow motion. The colored drained from the background and all I could see was the man who had murdered Mira. Without really even thinking, I raised my hand, palm facing out.

Blood burst out of my palm, shooting at the man and forming a spike that stabbed him in the chest. The spike went all the way through his body and out of the other side. I changed the shape of the part of the blood spike that had come out of the other side of his body into a large wide arrow shape.

I shortened the blood spike, pulling the man to me and grabbed him by the shirt collar. Then I extended my fangs, plunged them into his neck, and began draining him of his blood.