Chapter 115 [Bonus ] 113 - Alucard
After giving the small snake a name, Milo asked it what it thought about the name telepathically and Alucard responded with a childish cheer. Hearing that Alucard liked its name, Milo smiled at the snake and gave it a small rub under its chin. It was good to see that the snake already seemed to like Milo, it would make raising the little beast even easier than the Beast Whisperer ability already did.
After finally cleaning up the mess from when Alucard hatched, Milo did one last overview of the room to make sure it wasn't too messy, when all of a sudden his stomach growled. Once his stomach made the gurgling noise signaling that he should eat something, Alucard once again spoke the word, "food?" into his head. Milo laughed at this, the Alucard was really smart and was even able to tell that Milo himself was hungry, seeing this Milo wondered just how smart the little snake really was. He spoke like a child but maybe one day the two would be able to converse as he would with any other person.
Soon after hearing his stomach make noises, he ordered himself some food, and spent the rest of the night playing with his new partner. Eventually he fell asleep with Alucard coiling up on the pillow next to his head. He had a gate to close the next day and he'd hopefully be able to see Alucard in action, but not too much, he was still a baby after all.
Waking up the next morning, Milo put on tight clothing that would be going under his armor for the gate and made his way down to the hotel lobby. Alucard had coiled himself around Milo's neck, giving Milo a sort of living necklace. At his current size, Alucard was about 16 inches in length and about an inch wide, meaning he could only get one full wrap around Milo's neck. His tail could be seen swinging down past Milo's shoulder, and while walking his head was at attention and his wings would flutter occasionally as he took in all the sights, sounds and smells of the hotel.
He seemed to be almost as curious as Waki, as he absorbed all the sensory information of his surroundings. Once the pair got down to the lobby, the rest of the team were surprised to see the small beast coiled around Milo's neck. Milo greeted all of them, and there were mixed reactions from the group, the twins were especially surprised as Milo had received the egg only a few days ago.
Harvey with his papa bear instincts walked over, and reached out to rub Alucard under the chin. "Who do we have here Milo?" he said, as Alucard pushed his chin deeper into Harvey's giant hand, enjoying the attention.
Milo went on to explain what had happened the night before and introduced Alucard to the team. If he played it off that Alucard was friendly to him after hatching, he figured he may be able to avoid any unnecessary questions as to why his bond with the snake was already so close.
Harvey nodded in understanding, "I know the species, they're incredibly smart so he probably knows you didn't want to hurt him after you brought him food. You got yourself a good little ally Milo, welcome to the team Alucard."
Milo then heard Alucard say, "team?" in his head. He explained that these people were friends of his to Alucard in his mind, and after the explanation Alucard seemed to understand. Milo could hear Alucard say, "friends!" in his head, before he seemed to flap his wings a bit in excitement.
Soon all the attention was on Alucard as the rest of the team came over to introduce themselves to the little snake. With all the people coming up to say hi, he slithered down Milo's arm and was now wrapped around his hand interacting with all the team members. Eventually the vehicles meant to transport them to the gate arrived, and the team checked to make sure they had all they would need.
After their checks, the team got into the SUVs and rode to a park that was located in the city. Alucard had his eyes on the window watching the buildings of the city move by as they drove to their destination. Once they arrived, the team disembarked from their vehicles and walked to an area that was roped off. At its center, the gate could be seen, GAA members and other people were milling about the area, keeping reporters at the rope barrier at bay, taking measurements of the gate's activities, and preparing for when the strike squad was ready.
While the rest of the team put on their armor and prepared, Milo was locked in an argument with Alucard. Milo wanted to place the little snake in the beast vessel for now for his own protection, but Alucard was adamant about staying outside and helping Milo. Eventually Milo convinced Alucard that it would be safer in the beast vessel and that once they closed the gate or found a situation where Alucard could help he could come back out. He also had to bribe him with another dungeon mouse in order to get him to completely agree.
After agreeing to stay in the ring, Milo said "return," and Alucard was pulled inside the ring, causing the red gem to glow brightly. Once Alucard was safely inside the Beast Vessel Ring, Milo pulled his equipment out of the dimensional storage earring, causing it to auto equip. His armor was now all put on, and he returned to the rest of the team where they were having a strategy meeting for the gate.
Harvey had the information provided by David when they were leaving for the GAA branch building in New York City in his hand. According to the reports from their scouts, this was a standard C ranked gate, which was symbolized by the yellow color of the gate they were about to close. The guild was populated by lizardmen which meant the team would have to be cautious as lizardmen were a bit smarter than normal beasts. The team had gone over their strategy and was finally set to enter the gate.
Milo would be focusing on ranged attacks in this gate, as Lizardmen commonly used weapons they made to fight. By keeping at range, he'd be able to deal with their ranged attackers and throw up ice walls to protect their supports and ranger.
Once inside, the team was doing well, clearing out the lizardmen. That was until they reached the boss room however. The boss of the dungeon was a Lizardman Shaman. The shaman was able to use magic and the spells he was using were proving to be extremely annoying for the team. The shaman would keep up a protective barrier around it that no one was able to break through. Along with this, it kept bringing back dead lizardmen to fight for it. No matter how many lizardmen they killed, they would be brought back as zombies to keep fighting. If they continued on in this way much longer, the team would run out of stamina and may have to retreat.
It was at that moment Milo could hear Alucard's voice pop up in his head. "Alucard help," he heard the snake say. Milo thought he was hearing things at first until he heard the same plea. This was something that the description of the Beast Vessel Ring left out. Not only could Alucard speak with him, but he seemed aware of what was going on outside the pocket dimension inside the ring's gem.
Milo wasn't sure if he should let Alucard out, as he was still a baby, but eventually after a close call with one of the zombified lizardmen he gave in. "Release!" Milo shouted and soon Alucard had materialized, flying next to his head.
Alucard then did something strange, he flew up above the shaman and shed some of his feathers. Once the feathers touched the barrier made of magic power, the barrier began to disintegrate as if it were made of tissue paper.
Once the barrier was down, the shaman turned to look at Alucard with hatred in its eyes. It knew exactly who caused its barrier to go down and prepared a spell to fire off at the small snake that was flying over its head. The shaman threw out a fireball, but Alucard easily avoided it, twirling in the air like an acrobat. Before the shaman could let out another attack, Milo was at its side and had his sword shoved through its chest. As soon as the shaman's life was extinguished, the zombified lizardmen that they had been killing over finally fell to the ground as the magic fueling their new life force disappeared.
After the shaman and all the other lizardmen were down for the count, the team collected all the loot and made their way to the gate's exit. Alucard was getting lots of praise from the members of the team for his move that allowed them to defeat the boss. Meanwhile Milo was shocked to find out that Alucard's feathers had a sort of magic power draining effect. This wasn't covered in the system's description of Alucard, and as if on cue, a ping was heard in his head and a new screen popped up in his vision.
[Notice]
Tamed beast status is now viewable from the user's status screen
(clear)
Reading that he could now view Alucard's status screen, Milo was grateful that he'd finally be able to see exactly what Alucard was capable of. The system seemed to evolve and react to all his thoughts and the things going on around him. This made Milo wonder if there was anyone who was controlling the system from the shadows and spectating everything he did.
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Thanks for all the summoning pens, the semester is finally over so I can spend some more time writing, hoping to get up to releasing 2 chapters a day, or at least 12 a week. I hope you continue to enjoy, and as always feedback is appreciated whether it be through comments or sending power stones. :)
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