I stumbled another step back and wiped at my face using the scarf to make sure I would at least not swallow any of this disgusting mess. I had no clue if a dragon's blood was as bad as a wyvern's but I certainly didn't want to find out the hard way. I was moderately successful in this endeavor but the scarf was a total loss. I would have to make it up to Gash'zur later, once we were really done here. That dragon was only a pawn and not the real opponent after all. My gaze darted around searching for the vampire.

I wiped some of the mess of my armor as well since the cloth was already ruined anyway but that was an exercise in futility. Some of the stuff would dry on my scale mail anyway. I could only hope that it wouldn't cake and crust together in a way that would limit my mobility. At least the dragon's twitch started to slow as it bled out. Eventually it stopped moving altogether. Still no sign of the vampire either. I took the chance to check myself over after my exposure to the lightning strike in close proximity and the fall I had taken as a result.

My toes were still tingling a little but I could move them just fine. I could move everything else as well. Nothing was broken or dislocated. I would have plenty of bruises and aches tomorrow but for now I was well enough. That was as good as things would get and would have to do for now. Then, as I looked up I saw her.

The vampire stood at the very edge of the steep stairs leading up the side of the malevolent ziggurat. One moment I could feel her burning gaze on me, the next her attention shifted to the dead dragon. Her fists clenched and she threw her head back to scream or rather wail. It was the same painful keening I had suffered from in the glade of the headhunters. This time I was far enough away though to not be almost killed by it. Still it was anything but pleasant. After a moment that seemed like a short eternity she stopped again.

She was not done though. She raised her arms ans as she did so all the spilled dragon blood started rising as well. I had seen her manipulate blood before but it was a surreal experience anyway. All the blood rose higher and higher, heading towards the impossible black blob above the pyramid. The storm had obviously not been able to disturb that thing. Not even in the slightest.

It wasn't just the blood spilled into the dust either. With wide eyes I could watch as the blood still stuck to my armor came off only to rise towards the same destination. The feeling as the blood still stuck to my face came away was beyond disturbing as well. It took only moments. Then the shimmering dust all around me was as pristine again as it had been before all of this. The same was true for me and my armor. Under other circumstances I might have been a little grateful. As things were though I felt that this was an ill omen.

A sound at my back distracted me for a moment. It was Gash'zur. The giantess looked a little shaken. No wonder, even hidden inside the ruined building the storm conjured by me probably had not left her untouched. Behind her, in the shadow of the ruin, were some of the Ganarl we had freed.

I licked my lips and looked back up the stairs. The vampire didn't show any intent to descend. Quite the opposite was true. She fixed her gaze on me one more time and broke into maniacal laughter. Then she turned and moved away from the edge of the platform at the top. I couldn't see her anymore but I could still hear her laughter.

That wretched little … was she mocking me? The giantess groaned as well as she rejoined me. Her eyes weren't on the vampire herself though. Instead she was eyeing up the stairs. “We have to climb all the way to the top, don't we?” She groaned before I could answer. “We have to climb all the way to the top.”

I was tempted to laugh although this really wasn't a laughing matter. Instead I just grinned and patted her on the back. At the same time I drew in Mana again, channeling it into the same combination of spells I had used to allow us to cross the desert in a single day. “I want you stay a little behind me. Stay hidden if you can. I'll confront her first and once you strike once you see an opening.”

I turned towards the Ganarl still hiding in the shadow. “Grab anything useful you can still find. More importantly though stay hidden. There might still be some ghoul patrols about. We will come back and get you once we have dealt with matters up there.” I nodded in the direction of the ziggurat and more importantly the stairs leading up for emphasis. Then I go t going.

Gash'zur followed me but kept her distance as I had asked her to do. If all went according to plan she would stay out of sight, at least at first, while I confronted the mastermind behind this whole mess.

Even enhanced by the spells of my choosing the ascent wasn't fun though. There simply were entirely too many stairs. In the beginning I counted them. I gave up by the time the count reached a hundred while we still were not even a third of the way up. Maidens forgive me, but for this insult alone I wanted to bounce that damned vampire down the stairs in hopes she would somehow hit each and every single one of them.

Well, that most certainly wouldn't happen but if I got the chance I certainly wouldn't be above giving her a little shove. That wretched creature deserved it if not far worse.

Without Bear's Endurance and especially Leviathan's Lungs we probably would have had to pause halfway up. Thanks to them we kept going instead. As we neared the top I dropped these spells though to enhance myself with some combat oriented spells instead. Cat's Grace, Auroch's Strength, Blur and Mage Armor were the spells of choice for what lay ahead of me. My previous encounters with this humanoid mosquito suggested that I would need every advantage I could get. This was not the time for half measures.

Gash'zur fell behind a little more and I finally crested the top of these damned stairs. And there she stood, arms still raised, directing the last of the dragons blood towards the blob that had started looking a little like a giant egg while I was busy climbing stairs. Or maybe that was just because I was closer now? Never mind. It filled me with a little twisted satisfaction though to notice that the vampire hadn't gotten through the storm unscathed. While her skin was unblemished, probably thanks to her unnatural regeneration, her robes were barely more than tatters. It wasn't much, but it was something at least.

What irked me was that fanged grin still firmly in place on her face. She was still entirely too certain of her victory for my taste. Well, time to put on a little show and a smirk of my own! “Would you look at that. Here we are again, I and you, the most pesky mosquito the world has ever known.”

That apparently was not quite what she expected. For a moment her smile faltered and I got a glimpse at pure unadulterated rage instead. Finally she retorted baring her fangs even further in the process. “Where does that overgrown pest get the confidence to call me a mosquito? Do you really think you'll do better than last time we met, now without an army at your back?”

I just rolled my eyes. “You were always one for big talk, Otohe, but even with your fancy new teeth your words are lacking any real bite.” As I spoke the name to match the face the fog around those strange memories from another lifetime lifted a little once more. I looked around demonstratively for a moment. “And this time you can't push me over the railing of any balconies either.”

For a moment she looked at me in disbelief. Then burning hot fury overtook her. She screamed but it was not the deadly wail I had come to know. The last drops of dragon blood splattered across the platform around us. She screamed as she launched herself at me. “I'll throw you off the edge of the ziggurat then! It' ll do just fine!”