“For six hundred years, humanity had fought the Ze`nadar, and what we eventually came to realize were their overlords to a standstill.

The unknown enemy was using the insectoids as we were once used against others.

The Titans of humanity had paid a high price to achieve a stable battlefront. The number of dead was in the trillions on top of the already trillions that died before our fleets could get in position.

Despite the length of the conflict and the myriad clashes, we still had no word from either of the aggressors as to why we were being attacked.

What we knew was that the enemy was waging total war on humanity so that we could do no less.

At the emperor's orders, two fists of Titans were dispatched to move into Andromeda. It was where we suspected the invaders hailed from.

They were to locate any enemy worlds and exterminate them leaving nothing living behind.

We may not win this war despite the lines being drawn, but we knew it was only a temporary situation.

Our fleets were being damaged faster than we could repair them, and we began to lose more humans than we could replace.

The end may not be that far away. It was a sobering thought.

At least we would have our vengeance.”

- Elistar Iscariot, Grand Magister during the second Kingfisher dynasty.

The enemy just kept coming. The fleeting moment I thought we would win was overall, too soon.

The battle was raging across several interconnected caverns, each separated by a precarious ridge of stone. The one I found myself in was a desperate stand held entirely by the beardless dwarfs, who were valiantly trying to repel the wyrmlings back towards a tunnel, away from the heart of the cavern and the gate I could see in the distance that seemed to be embedded in the rock.

They were simply not able to get a proper line in place across the cavern to beat back the overwhelming number of wyrmlings that were attacking them. The only thing keeping them from being overrun was a line of golems doing their best to beat back the tide.

Well, I wasn't getting anywhere near where my spirit was drawing me on account of it being someplace behind the damn wyrmlings. There is not much to do for me but to be a menace to a wyrmling society. At least I was leaning into my strengths.

Darting in and out of the enemy flanks, I tried sowing as much chaos as possible.

Since I couldn't understand what the beardless dwarfed were shouting, there had been a couple of close calls where I was almost hit by the bolts of those ridiculously large crossbows they used, at least for their size.

Each one took two of the beardless dwarfs to wield. The one in front crouched down behind a shield that had spikes on the bottom to stabilize them. The second one was the shooter used the top of the shield to take the weight of the weapon.

After a shot, both of them would work a cranking mechanism as fast as they could to arm the crossbow again.

I couldn't see the other battles anymore, but I could hear them and see the flashes of Awakened abilities being used on both sides.

Trying to keep to the strategy of hitting where the enemy seemed weak or the golem line lost more than a golem at a time. I jumped between the breaches in the lines and tried to create chaos in the flanks.

It worked for a while, but it didn't take long for the wyrmlings to see a pattern in my actions, and I suddenly found myself surrounded by three awakened wyrmlings. For some reason, only the wielding wyrmlings wielding weapons were the only ones I had come across.

This would be my fourth encounter with the enemy Awakened, but three previous ones had only been one-on-one fights.

Covering the area in Darkness, even though I knew it wouldn't completely take their vision away, it would at least hamper their vision as if they were diving in a slightly muddy lake.

I more or less had Celerity activated at all times now, and I hadn't realized how much damage my body was taking by moving at such speeds over a prolonged period of time until I almost snapped my ankle while removing a mob of wyrmlings from a golem.

The beardless dwarfs seemed capable of reanimating the fallen golems, but the less damage it had taken, the quicker it was. With the wyrmlings trying to smash any golem they could into powder, the golem line was slowly losing its ability to keep the enemy away from the crossbow-wielding beardless dwarfs. I didn't think they would stand much chance in hand-to-hand combat with the wyrmlings.

Using Push against the trio, I tried to separate one of them from the half circle they were standing in but only managed to make two of them take a step back.

It would have to do. Moving in tentacles first, I grabbed at the one that was closest to me, trying to drag it closer, but its companion was there hacking at my tentacles with a toothed and spiked two-handed ax.

While my barrier didn't cover the tentacles, they were sturdy, and it would take quite a bit to damage them. This was apparently quite a bit since I had to retract my top left tentacle to heal after the wyrmling's third blow. While not cut through, I could feel it wouldn't take many more blows before I would need to regrow a new one.

Switching my sword to my left hand, I drew a spike and threw it at the wyrmling I was trying to restrain.

Its nose was apparently not its favorite place to get smacked. Despite the wyrmlings barrier making sure it wasn't hurt, it did flinch when the spike hit it. That moment of inattention was the only invitation I needed.

Pouncing forward sword first, I struck the wyrmling on the same spot as my spike had hit it before drawing myself back, only to get a stomach full of toothed ax head, sending me careening back. The follow-up swing almost hit the side of my head. Asshole!

I could feel the energy dispersing across my barrier, but it was still enough to lift me off the ground.

Sliding in again, I fainted towards the ax wielder, who only seemed to be too happy to see me. With a high swing, its ax made the air howl as I came towards me.

Slipping down and under the swing, I felt the air from its blades passing on the top of my head, my hat long since gone to my despair. Activating Push from my prone position, I sent a wave of force straight up to its groin.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It wouldn't hurt it, but even with its barrier in place, when it stumbled back. I shot toward my first target, who had, too late, realized I had another target in mind this entire time.

With the wyrmling still raising its sword for a slash to block my path, I pushed forward with my tentacles at an incredible speed, catching it flatfooted and started hammering at its face, lifted arm and stomach with a spike in my left hand and the sword in my right hand.

Sadly, the third one, who had stayed back until now, decided this was its moment and came after me with its wicked curved sword, making me dodge and dance to get away from its furious attack.

Sensing the ax wielder closing up on my right, I chose to retreat back to the nearest golem.

My body was a mess. I didn't think I could keep this going for much longer, but looking around, I noticed the far flank had almost wrapped up the wyrmlings against the cavern wall. By keeping their Awakened focused on me, I allowed the beardless dwarfs to push forward and hopefully trap them in the tunnel from which they had come.

The trio had apparently also picked up that something was wrong and were now looking towards their collapsing flank. Nope, can't have that. Sorry, boys or girls. With a tired sight, I moved back into battle against the three Awakened wyrmlings.

I don't know how many times I forced my broken body to engage with the trio of Awakened. I didn't dare draw on the power of my rift again. I was too tired, and it made me afraid I would lose myself in the emptiness and either just let them slay me as I stood looking at the world and wondering what the point was, or I somehow decided that everyone needed to die, so there only was emptiness. With at least three third-ranked Awakened close by, I found the chances of success on the last one doubtful, but either way, it would end the same way, namely me being dead.

No matter how much I tried, each time I went on the offensive, I got a hit in, but more often than not, I got at least two in return. This isn't sustainable. I would run out of my barrier long before I could take down even one of them.

They were simply too coordinated and, quite frankly, more powerful than me, which made me question why they didn't use their abilities more or maybe that was the trick when fighting Awakened…Only one of the other Awakened I had fought here so far had used an ability I could notice, and that was the only one.

In the end, it came down to who had the power enough to win. I felt like an idiot. I had already lost, and I hadn't noticed until It was almost too late.

No rank one Awakened was supposed to take on multiple battles against other Awakened during a single battle alone. Sure, when you came up in the second rank and eventually started generating your own power, however little that was. You could probably flee, rest, and come back, but at rank one, my body just wouldn't regenerate fast enough, and neither would my energy. I was still fully reliant on food and sleep to generate energy, and it was even slower than the minuscule amount a rank two generated internally. Sure, I gained power when slaying enemies, but that didn't do much if my heart gave out from the lack of energy to use it.

If I abandoned the flank now, with three Awakened here, it would collapse, and I wouldn't put serious money on my chances of escaping in time for them to plow through the golems and come after me. Even the thought of moving my body was painful at this point.

No, Alucard. Time for you to do something useful with your sorry existence for once in this life and the last.

I couldn't help but chuckle at my own pep talk. I should probably work on that if there is something to work on in the next life. If there was one. I knew how silly I could get when I was tired, so I tried focusing on the battle again.

Sending a silent goodbye to Sarge, Bullseye, Blondie, Peanut, Handsome, Grace and last but not least, Fancy. I had a feeling this wasn't the first time I had done so, and I silently thanked Smiley or myself for the things I had been shown.

Finally, I said my apologies to Mira, Egmont, Hartwin, Albert, little Siska and finally, the four-legged horror, also known as Fang.

I knew they would be taken care of, though. Egmont would see to it, and Mira would receive my percentage of munition sales when it was up and running. Things would be fine.

I tried putting myself in their shoes and seeing if I would be sad if one of them died, and I still couldn't tell. I knew I would be angry and seek vengeance if someone was responsible, but this empathy thing was still a working project for me. I just couldn't tell until it happened, and now I would never know.

With a groan, I stood up again as they started circling me. A nice little rest that didn't help at all.

Feeling slightly feverish, I couldn't stop smiling as I said. “Well, boys and girls, it's time to end this little spat. Better things to do, new lives to live, people in other parts of creation to piss off, gold to hoard and last but not least. Screw you. Screw you sideways against a barbed wire fence.”

Raising my sword a final time, I couldn't help but take note of how dented it was. It was a child weapon anyway; its purpose would end soon, and it could become one with wherever they dumped my body over the next few hundred millennia.

Aiming at the one that I had been trying to stick my arm in and rip its heart out since this little spat started, I slide toward the trio.

Not bothering with being fancy, I hurled almost all my remaining spikes at its face when I was too close for it to dodge and activated Jump, tackling the bastard even as I felt one of its claws tearing at my barrier and the pommel of its sword hammering against me even as we were airborne.

Crashing into the ground, I sat up its chest, pinning its arms with my knees and started hammering its ugly reptilian face with my one remaining spike and the pommel of my own sword. Each hit sent a jolt through me from the wyrmlings barrier.

Die, you bastard! Just as the barrier broke, I managed to plant the spike deep into its left eye socket, and then I was airborne again. The one wielding a spiked club had, by the looks and feel of it as I was looking behind me, taken a running start and clobbered me good.

Using a rather large, muscular, clawed wyrmling as my landing cushion, I hit the ground in an explosion of blood and gore.

Well, my barrier was just about to give out. Looking around, I found myself deep in the enemy lines.

I wasn't sure where my sword had gone, but it didn't matter much at this point. With the power coursing through my body, I knew I had been successful in taking down at least one more of their Awakened. It would have to do.

Flexing the five tentacles that were still functioning, I gave a wide grin to every wyrmling looking at me, and that was everyone on this side of the battlefield at this point before I started spinning.

Working my way into the enemy ranks as a hot knife through butter, I figured I only had a few seconds before it was too late, so the plan was to do as much damage as I possibly could in the seconds I had left.

It took eight seconds. I counted slowly inside myself as I turned as many wyrmlings within my reach into pulp. It had been glorious, and I really think I could have made this flank rout if I had a minute or two more time.

The pain of having a toothed ax stuck in my belly is something I won't forget for the rest of my short life. Not only did the asshole crumble what little remained of my barrier, he sent me flying again, but this time I was followed by ribbons of blood.

On the bright side, the wound didn't seem to have cut into my actual intestines, thank the barrier for that, but my six-pack had turned into an eight-pack, so I didn't give myself a high chance of having something that resembled a good fighting stance at the moment. Maybe I should tell them to come back later.

Still grinning, I watched the remaining two Awakened wyrmlings come walking towards me, slowly as if they were walking through mud.

Now I was laughing so hard my ribs hurt and blood splattered the front of my shirt. If they had only been here five minutes earlier. On the ridgeline behind them, I first saw one, then ten and then hundreds of armored dwarfs, the bearded sort, making their way down into the cavern.

Some of them slid, others rolled, and a few ran as fast as their stubby legs managed until they came to the cavern floor. It was such a hilarious sight I just couldn't help but keep laughing. Admittedly, there may have been a slight maniacal tone to my vocal approval over the Fate's sense of humor.

Their dwarf's tumbling entrance didn't stop them from hitting the wyrmling flank like a fat guy at the buffet.

The discipline and orderly ranks I had briefly observed before coming down here were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they charged into the wyrmling ranks like berserkers. Admittedly, it was the world's slowest charge, but it didn't stop them from removing legs and heads when they finally made contact.

I had little doubt they would win this battle now. With a sigh, I looked towards my executioners. I was just too tired to care. Maybe eternal darkness didn't sound all that bad. Giving it some more thought, It actually sounded wonderful at this point. No pain, no frayed muscles, torn ligaments or nerves on fire.

Then they were there. The one wielding the spiked mace must have thought our reunion wasn't private enough because it stomped its foot toward the golems that were trying to close in and sent them flying. Something similar to my Push ritual, but more powerful by the looks of it.

When the area around me was clear, having sent golems tumbling even further back. The one with the ax stood over me and hissed something at me. I, of course, had no hope of understanding whatever nonsense it was trying to communicate. It might be trying to whistle and just really suck at it, for all I knew.

Decided the appropriate answer was spitting and giving it the finger. I did just that and was quite pleased with the outcome, except for the part where the spit didn't go further than my chin, but what can you do? I was barely able to keep my eyes open, and considering what I knew was coming, I almost let myself close them.

Walking to my side, it stood looking down at me with its head tilted while the other one stood looming over my head.

With a last hiss, it brought the ax up above its head before slamming it down again.

I had closed my eyes despite my resolve. Not daring to breathe, I opened one eye and then the other one when what I was looking at didn't make sense. My head was still attached to my body.

Looking further, all I saw was an ax lodged into the ground just above my knees. It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing, but when it did, then I started feeling nauseous and faint.

My blood was pounding against the ax head, still lodged in the ground as the pain hit me. I couldn't stop the scream from leaving my lips, even if my life depended on it.

Even as I drew another breath, my head muddled with pain and my stomach ready to rebel. With the thud of my pulse hammering against my eardrums, almost taking my hearing away, I barely heard the second wyrmling mace descend.

The sickening crunch as It hit my right arm above the elbow I did hear, and probably anyone halfway across the cavern.

It was too much. The pain and the understanding of what they were doing to me and the blood loss was taking too much of a toll on my sanity. I was not strong enough for this as my already scattered mind started fading into the dark.

With a feat of will I did not know I possessed, I did the only thing that came to me.

I tore away the rift that held the power of my domain in check, and without a second thought, I fled inside.