While the howls of the fallen terrified every vampire on Ixtal, Max who was underwater was completely oblivious to what was going on above the surface.
Unfortunately due to the times that Max lived in he spent more time sharpening his other battle techniques and sensed rather than sharpening bloodline ability.
There were hardly any occasions where Max fought with his Bloodline ability on full display without a care in the world and it was for this reason that he did not truly understand the power that he inherited.
The bloodlust, the problems with satiety index and the heightened sense of smell were all the side-effects that occurred within weaker primordial vampires who let their primal instincts control their being.
But, the true powerful primordial vampires were not the ones that gave in to the madness but the ones that were tempered through it and the ones that achieved true control over their senses.
The greatest ally of a primordial vampire was the battle sense that they inherited when their satiety dropped below 60%.
The primordial vampires were a warrior race that were violent and hunted their prey on a daily basis to feed themselves and their young ones.
They did not have a complex diet of food and wine like the modern vampires but rather thrived on blood and blood alone.
When Max forcefully suppressed his nature as a primordial vampire by draconification, what he lost was the heightened innate sense of battle that was passed down generation after generation of primordial vampires.
He became sentient and tame, but he lost the opportunity to hone his senses through the madness and reach the pinnacle of what his bloodline powers were capable of, and hence today the Sanguis reminded him of his true nature.
In the few brief moments that Max was inside the river, the water level of the Sanguis dropped by nearly 50% as it looked like Max was sucking the blood river dry.
By the time he was thrown out of the Sanguis, Max was knocked out cold like a block of ice and the Aurelius were all over him.
They dragged Max through the mud, chained his hands, feet and neck and threw him back inside the prison they brought him from as they perspired in fear while they did so.
If there was any lingering doubt in the minds of any individual on Ixtal regarding Max's true origins it was dispelled after today as they all witnessed the blood river responding unnaturally as it protected Max.
However, if there was one emotion they felt that was way more pronounced than hatred towards Max, it was FEAR.
The tale about the primordial vampires and their nature while depicting them in a very negative light also rooted fear into every vampire child that heard it.
While the centuries of vilifying the return of the primordial vampires did help in creating a negative folklore, it also served as a means to propagate the true terror of that race.
**********
( Meanwhile Max )
In a semi- comatose state Max was currently being shown the history of the river Sanguis as the hopes and aspirations of his ancestors fell on his shoulders to bring the perpetrators of their downfall to justice.
He saw the dastardly way in which the modern vampires fought both the primordial vampires and the werewolves and drove them off Ixtal through sheer numbers.
But in that moment he also witnessed the true glory of the primordial vampires.
Outnumbered 10-1 they still held their ground with their eyes shining a bright shade of red like no other modern vampire's could.
Their reflexes, their agility, their innate battle sense lead their charge as for every scratch they received to their body was only in exchange for an enemy head rolling on the floor.
Blood spears, arrows and shields sprung from the ground below as the blood of the fallen became the fuel of the primordials to kill even more opponents, as inside the bloody battlefield they became the incarnation of the gods of war themselves, unstoppable and infallible.
But it was then that suddenly sunlight fell on Ixtal, illuminating the entire battlefield and taking the primordial vampires by surprise.
While the modern vampires were unaffected, the primordial vampires fell to their knees as strength beseeched their bodies and their skin began to sizzle under sunlight.
Before they could regroup or even respond to this dastardly tactic, the modern vampires took the battlefield by storm and massacred all those that stood in their path through sheer numerical superiority.
The blood of the fallen primordial vampires trickled into the ice below from where it eventually found its way to the birth glacier of the river Sanguis until it became a part of the blood river itself.
As Max slowly opened his eyes, he felt his heart rate shooting through the roof as he felt like he had firsthand experienced the bloody war that had happened aeons ago.
It was almost like the river was trying to show him about the true form of a primordial vampire that he had forgotten about, and trying to show him that he needed to start fighting like one.
As he opened his status bar, he saw that there were two big changes that had happened to his status bar as a result of falling into the Sanguis.
The first change was that his mastery of [ Blood Manipulation ] went up from advanced to [ Master ] which was only one step behind perfect.
And the second change was that there was a new move that was now available to him.
[ Call Of The Sanguis ] ( Unique )- The Sanguis has acknowledged the primordial vampire and has merged with every cell of your existence.
You can now summon the blood river at will and it will manifest, converting any battlefield you fight into a blood plain.
Max did not understand why, Max did not understand how, but somehow the Sanguis had literally become his weapon and he had become the Sanguis.
—--------
/// A/N - Bonus chapter 3. Enjoy! ///