Altar got to the location the smoke was coming from and was met with a village, but rather then a lively atmosphere of villagers going about their day all he could see were men walking around the village walls. The walls were large and made of wood, there were armored men patrolling the walls, other men on towers with bows and arrows watching the perimeter.

He covered himself in black energy and went invisible. He moved to where the gate of the village was located, on the south side of the wall. What he saw were remnants of a battle. Parts of the walls were damaged by blades and arrows, but what worried him were the giant gashes that seemed to be created by a giant beast.

'These men seem well trained' he thought while looking at walls of ice created by the wall. 'The magi was on the defensive against these men or maybe they managed to chase away the bandits' his thoughts lingered on the possibilities and tried not to focus on the large smell of blood in the air. Altar decided to take a closer look at the village and dashed towards the gate. He was still invisible so he was quite confident that he could get through, but as he was one hundred feet away what sounded like a bell went off and the ground he stood on exploded.

The guards in the towers took aim at the direction of the explosion and those on the ground prepared for possible combat. They stood for a few seconds before one asked.

"False alarm?" he asked.

"No, something or someone triggered it, be alert!"

"Yes captain!" the yelled in unison.

"Pass along that there is a possible threat in the vicinity and make sure the commander is informed!"

"Yes sir!" A young guard said as he entered the village at full speed.

The threat in question had managed to dodge the explosion and get away with barely any damage. He looked at the small crater that was left by the explosion, he cautiously walked forward and waved his hand above the ground to see if there was any reaction. When nothing happened he rubbed his chin in thought. Black energy moved from his foot closer to the village and just s he got to a similar distance from the village the black energy was pushed slightly back.

'Dense amounts of mana, it seems to react only when stepped on, so maybe I should try a more diplomatic approach' the veil of black energy went away and his body came into view by the guards.

"Excuse me gentlemen, I find myself a bit lost. Can I please get some help?"

The men on the towers coated their arrows in mana and shot at him, the men at the gates slashed their swords and sent sharp waves of mana at him. An explosion ten times the might of the trap shook the very ground. Altar rolled out of the smoke with a few injuries including a missing left arm. He recovered from the roll and prepared to charge at them. Before any of them could prepare a second attack he shot through the air towards them.

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"Strike now! He won't be able to dodge in the air!" the captain yelled.

Altar became invisible mid air and before they could strike where he was an explosion from 60 feet away went off.

"Attack in that area!" The captain ordered.

Before letting loose another explosion on their right side 30 feet away went off.

"He's propelling himself using the explosions!"

They let their attacks fly towards it and when they landed creating another explosion, they were momentarily blinded by the smoke, but the captain saw a quick glimpse at what they had hit.

"His left arm?" he asked.

Altar had indeed used the explosion to propel himself, but while doing so he had tethered his missing left arm with a tendril of black energy and caused an explosion to distract them to divert attention to their right side while he continued towards their left side. Altar landed on the shoulders of one of the guards and punched down crushing his head. The archers took aim preparing to shoot and the guards on the ground backed away from their now dead comrade, but in those few seconds Altar was close to another guard and struck him with an uppercut taking his head off, just when he thought he was getting away scot-free, when the captain who seemed to have predicted the moved swung his sword in his direction.

'He must be a Rank 2 or peak Rank 1 aura user' Altar thought as he swiped the sword from the headless guards and parried the attack.

Altar stabbed the captain in the chest, but because of the parry the captain had moved back enough for the sword to only go through the armor and give him a flesh wound. 'should've gone for the neck' he thought.

Because of the speed of that short altercation the arrows that were aiming for his previous position only just hit, blinding the guards and giving a Altar a hard time. While his invisibility was still functioning, the smoke could give away his movements if his opponents were perceptive enough, which the captain proved he was.

'My injuries are healing, but not fast enough' he thought.

Altar looked at a nearby guard and charged while opening his mouth revealing sharp fangs. As the man dried up like a old corpse, Altars body healed from its wounds. The body dropped as a gust of wind blew the smoke away. The captain was surrounded by a wind as he raised his blade that was coated in green aura.

"The captain is getting serious!"

"Prepare!"

The guards seemed to have recovered some morale with the captains show of aura.

'Fuck' Altar thought.

"You might as well remove that invisibility of yours, I see you clearly" he said words laced with fury.

"You can, but your men can't, I imagine they can't do that" he replied.

The captain looked at the dried up corpse on the ground.

"I was suspicious because of your appearance, but it seems I wasn't wrong in my assumption. What's a vampire doing this far west?"

"Vampire?!"

"Prepare silver weapons!"

Altar smirked at their actions, not like they could see it. It wasn't a first he be mistaken for a vampire, he shared some characteristics with them, while at first he was very annoyed at this, it's always better that his opponents fight confidently believing that have an advantage. Silver and holy water doesn't elicit any kind of reaction from him, negative or otherwise. A stake to the heart of course effected him like most living creatures, but the only real thing weakness shared by him and vampires is the sun, one he remembered effects him in his current state, it makes using his dark energy difficult, making it impossible to go invisible and strengthen his body.

'I need to get my body to at least rank 2 to strengthen my energy enough for the sun not to be a hassle' he thought.

Taking Altars silence as an answer the captain charged at him with increased speed. Altar coated the sword in his hand with black energy charged at the captain. The clashed creating a wave of pressure that caused the other guards to take a step back.

To be continued...