As soon as the ambushers were close enough, and Rex had noticed two archers rising their bows in preperation to shoot, he did not wait any longer, infusing mana in his arms and legs, making them much stronger. Then, within moments, he flung his spear with deadly accuracy, impaling one of the two archers in their chest, the power of the trow ragdooling the body a few meters further back. As soon as the spear had left his hands, he bent his knees and propelled himself forward, the action empowered with generous amounts of mana. In just another blink he was infront of the man with a two hander, who was blocking his access to the second archer. A swing from his sword that the two handed sword wielder atempted to block was used to slightly alter his own trajectory, barely moving past the melee fighter to reach the archer. And then, another stab later, the ranged attackers had been taken care off.

Rex did not have much time to dally, since a loud yell came from two handed sword wielder, comanding his asociates to drop the stealth aproach and attack in full force. Said yell was followed by a quick action from the man, who had lunged forward and was swinging his two hander down from above. Rex used a minimal movement, along with a perfect positioning of his shield to redirect the sword strike and then used the opening he himself had created to stab the attacker in his guts. He did have to stop before he could inflict trully letal wound on the man, since a few other swords were already swung with the intention to end his life, thus Rex had to step a few steps back, avoiding all weapon range.

"Healer!" the stabbed man exclaimed, moving his empty hand to press on the stab wound as three other friends of his charged at Rex. A slight smile crept on his face, as the perfect opportunity presented iteslf to him. And so, he willed his mana and his blood wire into action, creating a very thin and barely noticable, but extremely flexible and dangerous wire saw. And with it, like a whip he swung it around, seperating the heads from the bodies of the hree attackers as well as the wounded two handed sword wielder. Confused expressions were the last thing that crept on the faces of the four bastards, as their heads landed on the grass field.

The rest of the girls had already left the tents, creating a rather well defensive position around the two coachmen, with Alurial boing wild with her fireballs, creating quite the chaos among teh remaining attackers. Veena and Samanta used their ranged advantage to great effect, aiming for the legs of whoever tried to close in on them. Rex timely suprise strike had caught the attackers with their pants down, not having reched the perfect positions for their liking. Meru worked like a perfect wall against wwichever bastard managed to reaach them, before yet another arrow ensured said bastard was out of commmision.

Ria was casting a few buffs on the rest of the girls, ensuring their stamina was toped off as well as providing them with more power than was aviable to them on a daily basis outside of combat. And whenever Meru was even slightly wounded, she rushed to heal said wounds, worried about a possible poison or paralythic coumpound applied on the blades of attackers.

In less than a few minutes, Rex had taken out six of the twenty attackers, while the girls had managed to create an utter chaos among the remaining ranks, alongside a few more casualities.

"CAPTURE THE WOMAN FOR FUCKS SAKE!!" screamed another man, who Rex noticed was in a slightly better equipment as the rest, marking him as one of the leaders, if his hunch was correct. The other, was most likely the poor two hand sword user he had decapitated just moments ago, so it was rather desirable to capture him alive. Though he still had a problem to deal with in the form of another ten men or so. Thus, having no other eyewitnesses besides his own team, he called upon the free blood that was there for the taking at his feet, slowly oozing out of the dead men he had just slain.

In a few more moments, under his orders, the blood followed, and with a single swipe of his hand in the heigh of his chest formed a rather thick, rope like object, akin to a floating keyboard of sorts, but without any movable elements. Then, from the front side of said keyboard, spikes formed, aimed at the attacking men. With another movement of his hand, the formed spikes shot forward, peppering the ambushers, earning painfull wails and curses whenever any of the needle like spikes connected.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" in a panic exclaimed the remaining leader, confused beyond reason at the sight before him. A mage would make sense, but what he whitnessed did not. He had never seen a mage who used blood, of all things as the medium of their spells. Nor had he ever read of one. The only thought that came to his mind when the words 'blood manipulation' were brought up chilled him to the bone. Vampires were the only creatures known to civilized people who not only could, but often would immerse themselves in the study but also perfection of the art. And not some lowly and disfigured specimen either. Blood manipulation was a noble art, so much so that their ranks and titles were rumored to be assigned based on the mastery over said art.

Any other knowledge about the art, as well as deeper insights in the politics and other internal affairs of the vampires were shrouded in mystery, but that alone was enough to freeze him in his tracks for a while. What? How? Why? countless question raced through his mind as more adn more of his subbordinates were incapacitated due to the injuries the blood spell caused, eventually leaving him the only one capable of action.

"End the rest while I secure our informant!" Rex exclaimed as he shot towards the leader,bringing out from the stupor the remaining people around them. With countless questions in their minds, the girls nevertheless acted upon his order, moving in and delivering killing blows. It was either them or their would be captors/ killers, so there was little to no compasions they felt. Well, maybee just a little due to how savagely Rex had twarted their attack. Still, it was pitty towards a stupid beast at best, not interfering with their tasks.

"Shit!" exclaimed the leader, pulled from his stupor as Rex yelled out his order. Yet with a heart filled with terror, all he could do was turn around and try to escape with his life. Something that turned out to be quite difficult, especially since the moment he had turned around and was trying to infuse his legs with mana, similar to the monster chasing him, a sharp pain cut through, disrupting his attempt and causing him to fall face first into dirt.

"Urghh." A pained groan escaped his mouth, his legs having been pierced, no doubt with the same hardened blood needles that had taken the last of his men. Just death was the least of his worries now as he remembered all kinds of horror stories the old soldiers used to tell about many different monsters of the higher tiers, vampuires being one of the most used. It was hard not to. Human like monsters, that feasted on thir blood, making slaves and bloodthralls, forcing you into enternal servitude. Or worse still, the vampires that were fascinated with necromancy. And now, he was in the presence of one of them.

The terror was growing further and further, as he forced his mana into his wounded legs, trying to get away, only to realize that his shoulders, were griped in a cice like hold, ensuring he could not get away, even if he sacrificed a leg or two.

"Now, now. We cant have you leave so soon. We have a couple of questions that need answers after all." The monster spoke, his smile sending shivers down his spine.

"So Bob? Can I call you Bob? Of course I can. So Bob? Who was the fool that fired you?" the monster asked once again, as if his life was nothing to him. Then again, what was he, a mere mercenary of E rank to a monster of such rank, if not just an eyesore? And, either noticing, or smelling his inner fears, the monster added.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"If you cooperate with us, you will get to have a quick and painless death. Nothing more, nothing less." Sure, he did not want to die, but if the alternatives were to either be a mindless servant for who knows how long, or worse, be bound to his own bones, forced to serve for eternity, a simple death did not seem as such a bad bargain at all.

"A lordling paid us to get the half elf for him." he stammered out, hoping that the monster would keep his word, quickly adding "And if we could capure more of the girls alive- bonuses."

"Anything else?" The monster asked, his calm smile did nothing but elevate the terror he was fearing towards it.

"N-no. Thats all." the merc replied.

"Hear that Alurial? Your lordling was so enamored with you he sent a goon squad after you." The monster laughed for a moment, and then returning his gaze to the mercenary.

"A deal is a deal." the monster spoke, one last smile appearing on his face as the vision of the mercenary dimmed. 'Ahh, so thats it? Release, thank the lords.' were the last thoughts in his mind.

xxxxxx

Rex looked towards the girls who were keeping their distance alongside the two coachmen. All eyes warily eyeing him.

"So, care to explain?" Rex asked "I know that blood magic is not common, nor did Lisa mentioned it as one of the forbiden ones. Thus, I am guessing there is something else there. Care to explain, because it feels as if you are looking at a monster right now?"

Rex question was met with increduluos gazes, as the camp site was overtaken by silence.

"You dont know?" suspiciously asked Alurial, her voice quiet, so much so that all Rex heard were some mumblings.

"Louder girl. Where did your voice suddenly go? I aint no lip reader." Rex quiped, slowly getting annoyed at the situation.

"I will cast holy magic on you." determined spoke Ria, waiting for Rex reaction, and showing even more confused reaction whne Rex just shrugged.

"Sure, go ahead. Though care to explain why?"

Still, even with all of her confusion at Rex willingness, she quickly gathered herself and cast a smiple holy spell, slowly aproaching Rex. 'Sanctifying light' it was called, and it supposedly cleansed corruption in a small vicinity around the caster. Soon, Ria was standing right in front of Rex as she held her hand close to his face, only causing him to close his eyes once the light was too bright.

"Would be nice if youd did not try to blind me with it." he annoyedly said, untill Ria exhaled loudly and allowed the slepp to end.

"So? Explanations?" Rex asked a moment later, as there was a deadly silence still.

"So you actually dont know?" asked Ria once again.

"No seriosuly. will you tell me or not? This is getting mightily annoying."

"Vampires." was the one word answer from Meru.

"I am guessing the blood suckers can use blood magic, yes? So, whats with all the fus then?"

"Emm. As far as we know, they are the only ones who can ue it. Thus it is asumed that whenever it appears, a high class vampire is right behind it."

"Seriously? Only vampires? Cant be right. Its just a school of magic, not some rare bloodline ability." Rex sighed, shaking his head, his eyebrows rising in the air as realization dawned on him.

"Wait, you though I was one of them? Phfffff. Ha ha ha ha." Rex started to laugh loudly, the absurdity of the situation too hilarious for him.

"Think about it. You are extremely young looking, wield your weapons with ease and skill of a seasoned veteran. Make calm and calcutated decisions during stressfull situations and act far too mature for your age. And you have access to blood magic. If Rias holy spell have had any effect on you, we would stil believe you to be one. But vampires are extremely vulnerable to holy element, so much so that even the greatest procettion one can aquire does not cover said vulnerability entirely, making your indiference to it a guarantee that you are not one of them." Spoke up Ria, as a holy element healer, she had the greatest knowledge regarding anything from the negative and corrupt side of the world, be it plants, animals, creatures or curses and the like.

"Still, your ability to use it is something to ponder. Could you perhaps have some of the vampiric bloodline in your veins, but thin enough to make you human when it comes to weakneses and the like?" she mused further, only to be interrupted by Rex.

"Nope. That much I know. To be honest, I have a general idea why it is so, but that is not something that can be easily explained, or willingly for that matter. What I can say is that it is an inborne ability. Every mage, or to be precise, every person, has an element that they feel more in tune with, familiar if you will. Take Alurial for example. From what I have seen, she uses exclusively fire, does she not?"

"Yes I do." Allurial confirmed.

"But why? Do you perhaps feel that fire comes almost as if on its own? Unlike any other element that you have perhaps tried?"

"Yes. With other elemental spells it feels as if I have to whip them into shape and form, and even then it does not come out perfectly as I want it to. But I already knew that."

"Sure, but the question regarding affinities is this- how many of them are out there? Just the basic elements plus space and time? or are there others, more complex and niche that are simply not talked about and researched." Rex questioned further.

"Like what?" asked Alurial.

"Lets start with metal, plants, illusions?"

"Wait what? what specific?"

"Yes. My element of blood" Rex started, thinking to himself 'soul and space as well, but there is no way I am talking about those anyways', before continiuing "is just one of such niche elements. Now, if you dont know that they exist, and whatever little tallent you have is forced to exercise the base elements, none of which you have affinity for, showing your lack of aptitude, what do you do then? Train as a fighter and use your mana tallent for reinforcement, am I correct?"

"Thats about right, yes." Replied Meru.

"And there you have it. Because there is a perfectly viable alternative instead of desperately seeking your own smal corner of true competence, people settle for whats known, leaving these niche and unknown elements just that- unknown. Of course, there will likely be some savants that in one way or another discover their true affinity, most likely then falling into the sight of some religious or zealous, or perhaps both, group, quickly meeting their demise as a heretic or demon worshiper or whatnot, once again forcing the element to remain obscure and unexplored."

Rex sighed as he took another moment to sumarize his thoughts, since there was a rather logical reasong to the way the world worked as it did.

"Though, to be fair, most of the world around us exist in a rather calamitous state, where no one knows just what kind of monsters could surface the next day. Thus resulting in a constant need of manpower and warriors. Few could afford to possibly waste away in search of their true discipline. Damned if you do, damned if you dont."

"And how would you suggest the issue to be tackled, if not solved entirely?" asked one of the coachmen, the elder of the two, clearly seeing a possible path towards quite the profit.

"Aha, I see a man with a nose for profits." Rex smiled at the man, continiuing "I might have a few possible theoretical solutions for it. Unfortunately, I dont do charity."

"And how comes you know all that? Sounds like some extremely esoterical stuff." asked Veena.

"Lets just say that I have an extremely high affinity and comprehension when it comes to mana manipulation and controll in general, as well as I have fiddled around with quite a bit of stuff on the matter. And gentlemen, feel free to share the theoretical part of the conversation with your organization. They will surely find a way or two to profit, and reward you in turn. Though note that my affinity with blood magic should remain a secret. Neither of you want me after you." Rex smiled, this time with an unsettling and predatory smile.

"Now then, since the problem has been solved, I advise to go to sleep for those that want to, while the rest of us should go throught our would be ambushers and loot everything of worth, as well as go after their horses that are waiting there" Rex pointed in one dirrection "to be picked up. Should fetch a pretty peny at our destination."

Once both Meru and Ria were sent to sleep since they have had none this night, the remaining group got to cleaning up the bodies. The first few minutes were spent by the girls staring as Rex was siphoning blood from the bodies, condensing it all into a sword shape. With that done, alongside quite a few questions regarding his school of magic, the group did their task admirably, having finished even before the coachmen woke up. Even the horses had already been collected, wating patiently for the departure.