The Legend of Vox Machina x Original Male Character

Chapter One: The Blood Hunters Origin

Morgrim POV

I hid in the shadows of the forest woods watching my prey slowly I took out my hunting bow aiming an arrow at it and for a slight second my eyes sharply glared at it before I exhaled letting the arrow fly striking the deer right in the forehead. 

I smirked "yet another excellent hunt as of yet...sigh I do wonder when something more challenging will come along," I muttered out to myself walking over to the dead corpse of the deer. 

I take out my hunting knife ready to harvest the corpse of it's meat there hasn't been any monster attacks around the village area since I've hunted most of them down leaving only normal animals. 

"On hindsight I should have probably spared a few let them grow stronger so that I could have had a more challenging hunt," I muttered tossing a strip of meat into my satchel. My eyes glanced around the forest, scanning for any sign of movement anything that might break the monotony, but it was calm, unnervingly so.

I sheathed the knife my eyes drifting toward the distance where the trees seemed to gather like a wall of shadows. Somewhere out there, something bigger was waiting a true hunt. The thought sent a strange thrill through me though I knew better than to wish for it.

The wind stirred slightly, carrying the faint scent of something... wrong. Something I couldn't quite place but knew all too well my eyes narrowed, and my pulse quickened.

"Finally."

I left the half-harvested deer behind my instincts guiding me deeper into the woods. Something was out there and this time it wasn't prey I was after—it was something else.

I pushed through the dense underbrush the faint scent of something foul growing stronger as I pressed forward. The wind carried it from somewhere ahead a place where the forest seemed darker more oppressive. My breath misted in the cool air as I approached the source. The ground dipped and there half-hidden by creeping vines and twisted roots was the mouth of a cave.

The air seemed thicker here heavier a whisper of unease crawled up my spine, but I ignored it, driven by that unshakable instinct that something worth hunting was near. My grip tightened on the hilt of my knife as I stepped inside.

The cave was cold and silent, save for the sound of my boots echoing off the slick stone. The deeper I ventured, the more oppressive the atmosphere became a weight pressing down on my chest. Then I saw it an altar ancient and crumbling at the heart of the cavern and there resting on the cracked stone was a dark tome.

Its cover was black etched with blood-red symbols that pulsed faintly in the gloom I knew what it was. I had heard of it read of it my mentor in the village had spoken of such thing's relics of blood magic, powerful but dangerous. He hadn't used the craft in years, claiming it was too corrupting but this tome... it was real, and it was calling to me.

My heart raced as I approached, the malicious aura emanating from the book thick in the air. I hesitated for only a moment before reaching out and taking it into my hands. The moment I touched it a pulse of power surged through me, cold and intoxicating. I knew I shouldn't have, but the lure of the knowledge it held... it was too strong.

With the tome tucked under my arm, I made my way back to the village (this would later be a decision I would come to deeply regret and agonize over the years to come). 

-timeskip to the village- 

My mentor's eyes darkened the moment I set the tome down on his table. The old man once a towering figure in the village, now seemed smaller, and frailer. His eyes though still held the sharpness of someone who had seen far too much in his years.

"You know what this is, Morgrim," he said his voice low and wary he didn't reach for the tome, keeping his distance from it. "this... this isn't something to be meddled with."

"I know," I replied my voice steady "but I want to learn you've seen what I can do as hunter with just normal techniques but with this...I could be something more," I continued with conviction. 

My mentor shook his head his hand absently running through his graying hair "It's not that simple. Blood magic takes, Morgrim more than you can imagine you think you're in control, but this book... it has a will of its own I can tell just by looking at the damn thing."

"I don't care," I snapped my patience fraying. "I need this. I want you to teach me."

He stared at me for a long moment, his weathered face tight with worry. Finally, he sighed the weight of my words settling over him "fine but remember this once you start down this path, there's no turning back the power will change you."

"Let it," I replied my resolve unshaken and with that the book was finally opened. 

Some months would pass by I learned quickly faster than I expected. The tome was powerful, more powerful than I'd imagined, and with my mentor's guidance I grew in strength. My hunts became easier, my enemies fell before me like leaves in the wind but the whispers in the back of my mind... they grew louder.

One day after returning from another routine hunt I noticed the stillness in the air. The village usually bustling with activity, was deathly silent. My stomach twisted as I sprinted through the empty streets, dread building with each step.

Then I saw him.

My mentor stood in the center of the village, the dark tome in his hands his eyes wild, crazed with power. Blood covered his robes and around him lay the bodies of the villagers—the people I had sworn to protect. His face twisted into a grotesque grin when he saw me.

"Morgrim," he crooned, his voice distorted, thick with madness "look what the tome has shown me! I've unlocked its true power!"

I drew my scythe, feeling the familiar pulse of necrotic energy course through it "What have you done?"

He laughed, a sound that chilled me to the bone "what I should have done long ago. This power is beyond us, beyond anything you can imagine and now it's mine."

I lunged at himbut he was faster than I expected his movements erratic and unnatural. Blood magic crackled through the air as he threw curse after curse, each one battering me, weakening me. 

I pressed on though, slashing with Bloodthirster, its blade cutting right through his blood shields.

The battle was brutal, each strike of my scythe was met with a surge of dark magic. His eyes once so filled with wisdom were now empty, consumed by the power of the tome. My mentor—the man who had taught me so much was gone all that was left was this corrupted shell in front of me.

With one final desperate strike, I drove the Bloodthirster deep into his chest. He gasped, the tome falling from his grasp as blood poured from his wound. For a moment his eyes cleared, and I saw a flicker of the man I once knew.

"I warned you," he rasped, his voice faint, almost pleading "the tome... it took everything  Morgrim my apprentice you must destroy t-the book..." and then he was gone his body crumpling to the ground a faint light glow left from his body entering mine.

I stood there, breathing heavily, my hands stained with blood—his blood around me, the village lay in ruins the people I had grown up with slaughtered. I looked down at the tome, now lying innocuously at my feet, its dark aura seeming to pulse in the fading light.

The weight of what I had done what I had brought upon my people crushed me. I had become consumed in my lust for power and glory and in the end I had lost everything.

 My mentor.

 My village.

 My purpose.

I collapsed to my knees, the reality of it all hitting me like a wave. I had wanted to be a hunter someone that protected the weak and destroyed monsters but now as I stared at the destruction around me, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had become one and that it was too late to turn back.

-the blood hunter's origin concluded- 

stay tuned for more chapters of the blood hunter till then