Chapter 23

Unplanned Events

Our recent excursion to the Abyss taught me that my bond with Kathrine was stronger than my bond to Luke. Hunting and killing the floor bosses gave her forty-one levels while he only gained twenty-six. Considering Luke killed eight times as many monsters as Kathrine had, saving countless lives in the process, the difference in how many levels each one gained had very little to do with Luke’s starting level being twenty levels higher than Kathrine’s and everything to do with her bond being stronger.

Angelica and Davina had both gained twenty-one levels and my deathlords had gained at least fifteen. Carolyn and Davina’s people both saw positive gains, but they were natural gains in line with what people expected. I still wasn’t sure if Carolyn’s people had enough skill to face the Darklord. There levels were too low for me to be certain, but it looked promising. Promising enough for Luke to start training and consolidate his gains.

Each day for the past three weeks, Luke had been adding a few points to his attributes while we spared. The gradual increase didn’t throw off his timing or mess with the strength behind his strikes, so he never lost his edge. It meant that each day he grew a little more lethal than the one before.

I blocked Luke’s blade half an inch from my throat, locked my arm in place, and let his strength push me away from him. My feet skidded across my training hall floor as I used a palm strike to knock aside the dagger that he’d thrown. The dagger flew off to the side and hit the magical barrier protecting the walls, before clattering across the floor.

Fights between warriors with low and high attributes were entirely different affairs and required different training. Warriors with high attributes could climb a rock wall with two fingers and jump over small buildings. Those with low attributes could not. This meant if you had high attributes and executed an underhand slash, and your opponent blocked your blade with theirs, they could end up thirty feet away from you because your sword swing contained enough force behind it to easily throw someone’s body weight that distance.

Throwing them away from you might be exactly what you wanted to happen if you were planning to make a run for it. Or it could be what you didn’t want to happen because they might then run off instead. It meant fights at Luke’s level looked more like something from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon rather than a medieval war movie. There was a lot of knocking you opponent across the room and trying to land a blow while they were in the air.

Luke’s right eyebrow twitched as he spotted what he thought was an opening. It was one of his tells and wasn’t a big issue because outside of sparing he’d be wearing his helmet. He went for a thrust.

I placed one finger on the flat of his blade and push my body out of the way, using his grip and strength against him. This opened up his left side and I tapped Slaughter’s tip against his armour covered kidney.

“That’s my win,” I said.

Luke stepped back indignant. “Stop cheating old man. In a real fight, the enchantments on my blade would shred your fingers before you could push yourself away.”

That was almost true.

“In a real fight, your opponent would be wearing gauntlets similar to yours. Do you have a plan for fighting someone who can safely hold your sword blade?”

“I’ll slam them into the ground so hard they get stuck.”

That was an actual technique high level knights used.

Luke carried on. “Then I’d stab them in the eye with a dagger.”

“You threw your dagger at me already.”

Luke glanced down at his empty sheath. “Shit.”

“Language. Also, that’s my win.”

He scowled. “Fine.”

I slid Slaughter into its sheath.

Luke had taken my advice when we first parted ways. Trainers had been following him and his party wherever they went. With their help, he’d made a lot of progress in a short amount of time and there wasn’t a lot that I could teach him anymore, but I could be a training dummy for him to beat up. It let him push himself to his limits without needing to worry about hurting anyone.

He’d still improved over the last three weeks. He wasn’t entirely sure about fighting the Darklord, but he was willing to train like it was going to happen. He understood Kathrine wanted out of Murdell, but not if it meant war, so this was the only way for her to gain her freedom.

Luke sheathed his longsword and began stretching, allowing his body to recover for our next spar. Now that the new school year had begun, I had less free time to train with him at night, so he made sure that we got the most out of our time together.

Through my bonds, I sensed one of my people go from being fine to standing a death’s door. He was bleeding out and too far away from me to help. A fraction of a second later, a dozen deathlords were fighting for their life.

My head blurred until I was staring up and towards town. I focused on my bonds, my connection to those who had taken my oath. Many of them weren’t where they were supposed to be. It was nearly midnight. They should have been in bed or inside the hotel studying and practicing magic. Instead, they were all moving through the hotel or in the streets around it.

Another group of deathlords began fighting for their lives. They’d been moving through the streets far from the first group. A third group ended up in the same situation, and then a fourth. Their actions finally made sense. They were establishing a perimeter.

Something was going down in town.

Something big.

I cast a spell, flicking the switch on the wall to disable the training room barrier. I had to get up there.

A thousands of objects in motion filled my ears as the barrier disappear. I heard heartbeats pounding erratically, doors being broken, people fighting for their live, screaming, yelling, begging, and the sound of spurting blood being lapped up and guzzled with abandon.

Magic filled the school and Dalin’s voice announced what I could hear before I did. “The infirmary is under attack by vampires. Requesting immediate assistance. This is a level 5 security threat.”

I couldn’t sense the auras of any vampires, but I could hear people fighting for their lives and losing. I knew the sound that was made when something drank blood from the living, and I could hear it taking place all over Darksmith. If they really were vampires, not some other creature, then we were dealing with elder vampires and stronger. They were the only ones who could hide their aura.

If my guess about elder vampires was correct, we had a very big problem. I could hear close to a thousand of them moving through Darksmith. They were everywhere. By itself that was bad, but my people were also fighting in town. And a few elder vampires weren’t a threat to them. They would have to be facing a similar situation to what we were facing here for me to sense so much danger. And if there were that many elder vampires here and there, there had to be an ancient vampire somewhere.

We were in trouble.

I turned to Luke and chose my words carefully because we were being listened to. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make your way to the infirmary and convince Dalin to give the command to evacuate Darksmith. Once he’s given the command, help him and his staff fallback and hold the gate.”

Luke blurred to the corner of the room where his helmet sat. “Why the hell are vampires attacking the school?”

My son understood I could piece together a situation much faster than he could. “Most of the students live in warded homes. Once turned, they can bypass those wards and turn their parents.”

“That implies a wider plan.”

“There is no reason for vampires to be at Darksmith unless there is a wider plan. The scale of this attack is absurd.”

He slammed his helmet on and buckled it tight. “Let’s do this then.” He blurred toward the door.

I pulled aside my coat as I blurred through my apartment to my private occult library. There were several books in the library that were too dangerous to fall into vampire hands and too valuable to destroy. “Shadow. Summon Gorgath. We might need his help.”

Shadow slid from my coat and disappeared under the door as I shoved the last valuable tome into my storage pouch and released a necrotic wave. Every book in the library dissolved under a whirlwind of black necrotic energy. They crumbled to dust, utterly destroyed.

I went to find Kathrine.

I blurred my way down to my classroom and through the door to the main hallway. One of the few weaknesses of entering the Deadlands was you couldn’t easily interact with the physical world or pass through solid object, so doors remained shut. That meant I needed a path free from obstructions when I entered.

Once outside my classroom and through the department doors, I wove the Deadland spell together and entered. Everything took on a black and white quality as I blurred through the hallway in the opposite direction Luke had taken.

The infirmary wasn’t the only place under attack, hundreds of vampire elders had descended on my building to intercept the professors while they were alone. I passed shattered classroom doors and signs of battle. Faculty had been ambushed from behind as they tried to make their way to infirmary to give support. Their lifeless bodies lay on the ground, drained of blood. There were magical battles taking place in other sections of the hallway and classrooms, each one between a group of vampires and a lone professor.

The vampires knew that if enough of the faculty could get together, they would be a serious threat. They were making sure that wasn’t possible.

I moved around anyone or anything that got in my way, ignoring everything I saw. These people didn’t matter. Only my children mattered, and I had to get them out of Darksmith.

The scale of the fighting grew as I exited my building and blurred through the crystal gardens and walkways. Battles were taking place everywhere as students tried to escape or form large enough groups to protect themselves from the hundreds of elder vampires that had descend upon Darksmith. Fire rained from the dungeons ceiling as a group of students attempted to surround themselves with enough violence to keep themselves safe.

I spotted Professor Fergus as I approached the dorm entrance. He was leading two dozen members of the Undead Fight Club in battle against the elder vampires blocking their path.

The Undead Fight Club all followed the rules when it came to the club events, but they also experiment in their free time. Each of them had half a dozen undead under their command and Fergus had more than two dozen dog warriors.

The students were exchanging spells with a pair of elder vampires, using their undead as shields, while Fergus directed his dog warriors and their undead to tear several elder vampires’ limb from limb.

He must have managed to impart a class on his dog warriors and level them. They were able to keep up with the elder vampires. Alternatively, he could have been using control undead spells to weaken his opponents.

His battle became unimportant as I ran through the entrance and made my way down the hallway to the staircase. I went up three flights, until I was on Kathrine’s level, and then made my way to her hallway.

It was a mess.

Half the doorways were broken in. The other half was in the process of being broken into. Kathrine room was one of the ones missing a door.

I stopped in entrance to her dorm room.

The cold calculating part of me that had said to put my house in order and improve our chances of escape before trying to help my daughter vanished as I spotted a vampire with Kathrine’s throat in her mouth. She had my daughter pinned against the wall, feet a few inches off the ground twitching. Riza lay dead on the floor behind her, the right side of her face carved in by a single strike.

The vampire wore a long flowing white gown with a belt. A holstered wand sat on her right hip and sheathed dagger sat on her left. Blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders enhancing her beauty in the most predatorial way.

The vampire was in a blissful trance fully engaged in feeding. Luke blood and lifeforce had an intensity to it that Kathrine’s didn’t have when I arrived. That had changed when Kathrine leveled.

Rage filled me at the sight, the kind that would end empires. It was cold and focused with a deep need to be satiated.

I drew Slaughter and exited the Deadlands behind Kathrine’s assailant. The vampire’s scent reached me as I slammed my blade through her side directly into her core. Her scent said I was dealing with ancient vampire, not an elder.

My rage didn’t blind me to the need to get it away from Kathrine.

Raw mana rushed from the vampire’s core, through Slaughter, and into me. Kathrine was too close for me to use combat spells, so I wove a control undead spell using Slaughter as my focus. I commanded the vampire to focus on the pleasure Kathrine’s blood was giving her.

I extended my fangs and lunged.

My teeth tore through the muscle in vampire’s neck to reach her artery in her throat. At the same time, I unleashed my ancient vampiric soul touch upon her.

As her disgusting blood met my tongue, I saw flashes of memory, different events in different places and times, all jumbled and out of order. The flashes were too short to make sense of, but I caught one detail. A name. Her name. Aroneska.

Raw mana raced down my sword arm and into my core, as I wrapped my other arm around Aroneska’s stomach and kicked off from the wall, pulling her off my daughter. I couldn’t be gentle. I had to move fast. Aroneska’s teeth ripped through Kathrine’s throat, but I put that out of my head, as I flick the contents of a healing potion over her wound with a spell.

Without holy magic, I only knew one way to put down an ancient vampire. Starve it to death. I drank mouthfuls of disgusting semi-coagulated blood and consumed her lifeforce as fast as I could. Her body replaced the blood as quickly as I drank it, but my ancient vampiric soul touch caused an unexpected reaction as I used it.

Aroneska grew weaker.

Vampires for the most part didn’t have souls, but they did have demonic parasites, and demons were mostly made from the same energy that souls were. Demonic parasites were made from very small, concentrated amounts of soul energy, so the nibble I took when I fed destroyed and consumed the weakest of them.

Flashes of memories continued to flicker through my head as my back collided with the far wall. I kicked off again and threw us out of the room and into the hallway, casting minor spells to remove the wand and dagger from her belt and slide them into my storage pouches. The blissful trance Kathrine’s blood induced and my spell to enjoy the experience faded as Aroneska’s lifeforce poured into me.

As she came to, I felt her instinctively used her ancient vampiric touch to slow the drain on her lifeforce. She then calmly reached for my arm circling her waist. I wrapped both my legs around her legs, clenching the muscles tight, right as she ripped off my arm.

I ignored my missing limb as the last of Aroneska’s mana rushed into me. Now that I was the only one with mana and we were far enough away from Kathrine for me to use combat magic, I had the upper hand. With Slaughter still insider her, I used it as my focus to cast the destruction spell. It was my most powerful single target spell.

I felt her try to weave the ambient mana around her to counter the spell, but it was too little too late.

She threw her head back and screamed as her demonic parasites were forced to turn their attention to containing the necrotic energy that was trying to disintegrate her from the inside out. This spell caused too much damage even for our kind.

Elder vampires poured out of the surrounding rooms in slow motion as I triple cast the Deathlock spell, cutting off the hallway on both sides, and the door to Kathrine’s room. At the same time, my arm tore itself from her grasp and reformed in its socket.

Despite the crippling pain, Aroneska’s skill levels prevented her from losing control of her ancient vampiric touch and she continued to slow her death. However, the pain did stop her from being able to hide her aura and I was immediately aware that I was in over my head.

Her aura was several orders of magnitude stronger than mine and that was with her growing weaker.

Across the academy, I felt three stronger ancient vampire auras appear and disappear like sparks in the night. If I was them, I would have used that display to determine who was the closest, so they could come to assist.

I had seconds at most.

Based on how quickly I could feed, I needed thirty to finish her off. My children’s safety came before revenge. Four ancient vampires were an impossible enemy to defeat. We had to escape.

A dozen scenarios played through my head with each passing second as I tried to come up with a plan that would assure their survival. I had planned for two ancient vampires at the most. Three working together was unheard. Four wasn’t something I’d even considered.

I needed a new plan and better escape route for Kathrine.

The infirmary was one option, Luke was there. Davina and Angelica were another. They were with the princess, who had dozens of old monsters guarding her. The VIP dorm was the safest building at Darksmith, even if there was currently an ancient vampire inside it.

My bond with Sir Trent suddenly flared, warning me his life was in danger. Gregory’s flared a moment later.

Gregory was fighting at the town’s dungeon entrance. His people were fighting all over town, but based off their locations, they were trying to evacuate people toward him. With each passing second more and more of my people were entering life and death situations.

I had the strong impression the town was lost, and my people were running away.

With a spell, I levitated Aroneska and I to a standing position as I listened for the sound of footsteps coming from where I’d sense the nearest aura. I waited until the footsteps reached the building, and then dropped the Deathlock spell covering Kathrine’s door and pulled my mouth from Aroneska’s throat.

A prompt appeared.

Your Ancient Royal Vampiric Bloodline skill has increased to level 4.

I snapped my fingers and cast a second destruction spell. Instead of turning to dust, Aroneska dissolved into a pile of bloody mush that landed at my feet. I stepped back and snapped my fingers again weaving an inverted void barrier around the mush. It would prevent her from healing and eventually kill her if her ally didn’t break her out.

I blurred through the doorway into Kathrine’s dorm, recasting the deathlock spell behind me. Kathrine kingmaker distribution had her on her feet and chugging a healing potion despite the wound to her throat. I disintegrated her window and wall with the finger of destruction spell as I ran to Riza’s corpse. Kathrine would be upset if I left her friend behind.

“I’m getting you out of here,” I said as I bent down and threw Riza over my shoulder.

“I can-”

I threw Kathrine over my other shoulder before she could finish her sentence and leapt through the hole I’d made, heading for Davina. Kathrine’s scent transformed as I held her and fled. It went from pure terror to relief. I didn’t slow to enjoy the fact that my daughter was relieved to see me. I had to move fast.

It would only take a few seconds for whoever was coming to help Aroneska break my void barrier and free her. Aroneska would then have to convey what had happened which would take longer. If their minds worked the way mine did, they wouldn’t act until they understood the situation. And I’d want to know everything I could before engaging an unknown ancient vampire.

The reason I’d waited to the last second to run was meeting another ancient vampire in the open would’ve resulted in Kathrine’s death. I needed the helper distracted, so we could safely leave the dorm.

I ignored the fighting and the dying going on around us and ran as fast as I could. The number of elder vampires increases as we approached the VIP dormitory. They were stationed all around the building on the balcony’s, cutting off every exit.

Positioning them their also made it possible for them to compel They had a second larger group waiting below for someone to succeed so they could invade the building.

That wasn’t their only plan. A dozen true elder vampires stood in front of the entrance, trying to perform a ritual casting that would bring down the building’s barrier. These ones were a lot stronger than the others I’d passed. They weren’t newly turned elders raised on the blood of ancient vampires. They were the real thing. I could smell their age in their blood.

All of them were dressed in armour similar to Lukes, except theirs had centuries to grow stronger. They would not be easy opponents.

I could hear a battle taking place inside the VIP dorm as guards tried to deal with the ancient vampire that had walked through the building’s defences. The threat to Sir Trent’s life had diminished, which suggested he’d been running reconnaissance. He was now back on the highest floor in Davina’s suite. I could hear the scratching of pens near him, which told me they were making a plan.

I circled around the building to catch the ancient vampire’s scent and learn what I was up against. He was male and old, very old. Judging by the lack of secondary scents, he was also naked and unarmed.

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Curiosity sated, I leapt from balcony to balcony, heading for the one where I sensed Angelica was waiting. She’d moved to it as she sensed my approach.

The vampires guarding the balconies ignored me, making the logical assumption that I was an ally. I did nothing to interfere with this assumption.

When I arrived, Angelica was standing inside the balcony door staring through the glass into the eyes of the elder vampire. She was wearing her Crypt Keeper set and I could see she was trying not to laugh at the elder vampires attempts to compel her.

She continued playing the distraction as I placed Kathrine on her feet and passed her Riza’s body.

Faster than the elder vampire could react, I caught him by the throat, cutting off his voice. I then drew slaughter and impaled his core.

Angelica opened the door, dropping the barrier covering it. She pulled Kathrine inside, then she stepped aside so I could enter with the struggling vampire.

I turned to Angelica as I kicked the door closed to reinstate the barrier. “Compel this vampire for me.”

Angelic turned her gaze on the elder vampire and harnessed the power of her set. “Stop resisting.”

It went slack in my arms.

I let go, placing it on its feet. Unlike the true elders outside, this one only wore a set of sorcerer robes. He’d been turned so recently that I could still smell traces of his living scent.

“Compel it to answer my questions,” I said.

Angelica rolled her eyes. “Answer his questions honestly and try to be helpful.”

I turned to the elder vampire. “How many ancient vampires are here?”

It stared blankly at the wall in front of it. “There are twelve. Four at the academy. Four in the town. Four protecting the perimeter.”

“Why are they here?”

“To turn the students?”

“Can you be more specific?”

“No. My position in my scourge is low.”

I was dealing with a useless pawn. “Apart from the ancient vampires who would know why you’re here?”

“Members of the outer court. They are elder vampires who have the vampire queen’s respect. You can tell them by the smell of their blood. It is old.”

He was talking about the vampires who’d been performing the ritual to get inside.

“Is the vampire queen here?”

“I don’t know.”

This was getting me nowhere and taking up too much time. An ancient vampire could do a lot in a few seconds it they felt threatened. I swung Slaughter and removed his head. I caught his body as it fell and sucked the life from him, leaving nothing but dust.

I tossed his robe and wand into a storage pouch as I turned to Angelica. “At some point, I might say ‘that one’ and point to an elder vampire. You will compel that vampire to follow us.”

Angelica nodded. “What the plans?”

“Vampires are attacking Darksmith so we’re leaving.”

I turned to Kathrine. She was holding Riza’s corpse, without a hint of tears. Kathrine had seen Davina’s healing ability while we were in the Abyss and her panic had fled the moment I appeared in her dorm room.

“Sweetheart, it’s important that you don’t say a word to anyone. There are plans in motion that you’re not aware of. We’ll take care of your friend shortly, so please follow me.”

Kathrine and Angelica followed me as I made my way through Davina’s private suite to her training hall. Like all the other VIPs, she had a dozen personal guard. There were six paladins and six clerics standing outside the training room guarding the door against Carolyn’s people.

Davina was nowhere in sight.

Instead, there was an hourglass on the table beside the training hall entrance. It looked like there was a minute left until Davina unleashed her spell.

I flicked my gaze to Sir Trent and gave him a series of hand signals that I’d learned from watching his people.

One ancient vampire in building.

Three ancient vampires outside.

Area fully compromised.

Retreat necessary.

Local threat impeding retreat.

Engage local threat.

Sir Trent nodded and turned to his people. Of the forty-eight Old Monsters guarding Carolyn, thirty-six followed me out of the hallway into the sitting room. Six of them were archsorcerers. The rest were nonmagical combatants.

Even with them, our chances of killing this ancient vampire were low. He was the strongest of the four, but he would likely run the moment he realised we could kill him. Ancient vampires preferred to run when they didn’t know what they were getting into and a saint and ancient vampire appearing out of nowhere would do that.

I walked over to Angelica and checked the straps on her armour. They weren’t in right place or tight enough. That wasn’t her fault. She needed help getting her armour on. If Davina hadn’t had time to help her put it on, she would have done it herself rather than asking for someone else.

I began correcting the mistakes.

Everyone checked their equipment while they waited for my signal. I heard the ancient vampire below us finished killing everyone on the first floor and listened to him make his way to the second floor.

Luke completed his mission while we prepared.

Dalin’s voice filled Darksmith. “Students and faculty, this is a level 5 security breach. Please flee the academy with all possible haste. We cannot contain the vampire threat or provide protection while you are in transit. The rally point is the entrance to Darksmith. We will hold it for as long as we can. The vampires are numerous and well-coordinated, so anyone who does not make it to the rally point before we retreat will be dead before help can arrive. Running is your only option. Good luck.”

His voice cut off.

Sir Trent and his people had put away their dress armour, the stuff they wore around the academy when they were playing guard. Today they wore their real equipment, and it was the best Arcadia had to offer. It was good that they had it. They were going to need it.

A pair of Davina’s cleric had followed us into room and were silently casting buffing spells over everyone. Sir Trent and the others nodded their thanks.

I listened to the fighting down below and heard when Celest abandoned her guards and surrounded herself in a greater barrier. The act probably saved her life. It bought her the time she needed for Davina’s spell to be ready.

I signalled Sir Trent with a few seconds to spare and then I blurred down the stairs, listening to the screams of the dying as I follow our target’s movements. I reached the second floor ahead of the others, and charged through broken front door, down the hallway littered with bodies, and into the large dining room.

Celest stood at the back of the room, holding a greater barrier in place. Her guards lay in a broken mess around the room, dead and drained of blood.

I didn’t see our target as I blurred into the room. It turned out to be because he didn’t want me to see him.

He landed on my back without me sensing anything. His body was much larger and taller than mine and his agility far greater than I’d imagined. He lifted me from the ground and pulled my head back before I was fully aware of what had happened to me.

His fangs sank into my throat, tearing through my flesh.

I couldn’t fight his strength or compete with his speed, so I drew Slaughter and reverse the bladed, impaling both of us. The blade went through my kidney and into his core. Magic rushed from his core into mine as I used my ancient vampiric soul touch to slow the lifeforce drain and buy me time.

Due to what I’d done to my soul, I could no longer store excess lifeforce withing my body. That meant he could drain me to a starving state a lot faster than I liked. Thankfully my ancient vampiric soul touch was stronger than his, but he was drinking my blood, so he came out on top.

I pointed my finger at his head and cast finger of destruction. The skin around his forehead blackened, regenerating too quickly for the spell to do serious harm. He was a lot tougher than I was.

Seeing how ineffective I was, I immediately gave up and began casting deathlock barriers around us to pin us together and slow his escape. His brute strength was likely enough to break the spells, but it would take a moment.

Sir Trent led the charge, blurring into the room, with his massive sword. Angelica was close behind him. They both stabbed their weapons into the massive vampire’s back, which was impressive considering Angelica was using a staff. I smelled death fire, and sizzling flesh, but my attacker didn’t react. Another three Old Monsters quickly joined them, as they all tried to pin the creature. Sir Trent’s fasted archsorcerer entered the room and unleashed a pillar of fire upon the two us.

Then the last second ticked by.

An explosion of holy magic blew through the building, passing through walls, before spreading through Darksmith. The holy magic slammed into the vampire behind me, with the intensity of the church’s cathedral defences, setting his skin aflame and increasing the damage from the spells that were bombarding us. To my surprise, he didn’t die.

He just panicked.

He released my throat and tore his body through the weapons impaling him, before leaping over me in the direction of the nearest exterior wall.

I caught one leg and Sir Trent caught the other, as we both brought our blades down and through his thighs. His legs separated from his body, and I continued to feed on the lifeforce inside to replace what I’d lost.

Neither of us let go, expecting him to return for his limbs. He didn’t, instead midair his naked body shifted form to something like a bobcat. The leg in Sir Trent’s hand dissolved into a liquid, shooting forward, and flowing into the creature. I was feeding on the one I had, which seemed to prevent it from doing the same.

He didn’t turn around for his missing leg, instead he remained in the bobcat form covered in holy flames and charged through the dining room wall into another hallway. Debree went everywhere as I hurled a destruction spell after him.

His skin slagged off, holy flames continuing to burn, as his then reformed as he turned the corner and fled. With another loud crash he fled building.

Sir Trent gave a shaky breath. “That was a very old, very powerful vampire. Was it the only one?”

I shook my head. “There is another that is nearly as strong and two that are weaker.”

“We need to leave.”

I couldn’t agree more.

I was still holding the vampire’s leg. The demonic parasites inside the leg were still trying to repair the damage. Blood was spurting from the end, being regenerated as quickly as it vanished.

I drastically reduced how much lifeforce I was drawing from the leg, until I felt it begin to change into a less solid form. The moment that happened I slightly increased my feeding rate. It stabilized in my hand. Drinking Aroneska’s blood had given me flashes of memories, hopefully this would do the same.

I lifted the bloody flesh to my mouth and drank.

There were more flashes of memory. They came disjointed and incomplete like they had with Aroneska.

Sir Trent ignored me and turned to his people. “Find the survivors and collect the bodies. You have until she’s ready to move.”

They blurred out of the room taking the bodies with them.

I walked over to Celest and watched her face grow pale. I didn’t stop drinking from the leg as I paused before the barrier and drew Slaughter.

I shouldn’t have bothered.

Celest dropped the barrier and stepped forward, grabbing my hand with hers. She pulled back my cuff and bit down on my wrist as hard as she could. The moment her teeth pierced my flesh and her tongue tasted blood her jaw clenched.

Her teeth struck bone, locking her in place.

The girl was a seer. There was no doubt in my mind that her actions were meant to save herself. This was somehow tied to a future she’d seen. The question I had to ask myself was this a future that would help me escape with my children?

Her only benefit from becoming my familiar was that it would be impossible for another vampire to turn her. If she saw that her death was inevitable, this might be her way of stopping her coming back. That could tie me to a future where my children died with her. Or it might be a future where they survive. Or it could be a false future and she was too inexperience to know that.

I didn’t have time for her to explain.

She smelled hopeful instead of defeated, so this likely wasn’t a future where she died painfully but didn’t turn into a vampire. It was likely a future where she survived.

I could use that.

I lifted my mouth from the bloody leg and slammed my fist into my chest, stimulating my heart to beat, once for her, once for me, and once for the bond we forged.

As the third beat faded, her jaw unclenched, and I felt the bond slid into place.

I pulled my hand from her grasp and lifted her chin until she met my gaze. “You will follow and protect my daughter to the best of your abilities, taking any risk that is necessary to insure her safety. You will take no action that endangers her and do your best to act as an ally. Angelica will introduce you.”

Angelica walked over shaking her head. “You’d think someone who grew up with a Darklord for a father would know not to make deals with hellspawn.” She grabbed Celest by the scruff of the neck and blurred out of the room.

I went back to drinking the blood oozing from the leg. The flashes of memory continued as I blurred my way downstairs to the hallway nearest the entrance. Sir Trent’s people came out of the first-floor suite with bodies and dropped them on the ground next to me, before moving higher.

There were only four VIPs currently at Darksmith. Celest, Davina, Carolyn, and Marin, a close relative to the Emperor of Bo. Marin was 83rd in line for the throne and trying to improve his standing by becoming an emissary to Murdell. The Bo Empire didn’t believe in selecting their next ruler just from the emperor’s children. Three quarters of the time, the next emperor was chosen from relatives. This had made them one of the most stable empires in the region, because succession wasn’t a popularity contest. It was a competence and character test.

Davina and Angelica appeared beside me as I looked down at Marin’s dead body. He was a dark haired handsome young man. He’d paid attention during my lessons, and hadn’t cursed anyone, so I had nothing bad to say about him.

Davina dropped to a knee and began resurrecting him. “Angelica said you fought an ancient vampire. Is the threat as serious as I fear?”

“It’s worse. We need to run for it. How long will your spell incapacitate the elder vampires for?”

“The strongest ones will have already recovered.”

That seemed wrong. “Was that by design?”

“Yes. I saw them feeding on everyone they encounter through a window, so I chose a spell that would stop those that had been fed on from turning.”

Marin opened his eyes and gasped for breath.

He spotted Davina and smiled. “Is this the afterlife?”

Angelica took Davina’s place as Davina moved on to the next person and slapped the smile off Marin’s face. “You’re not dead, idiot. You’ve just been resurrected. Now which of these dead bodies belong to your strongest guards. We need them back in the fight.”

Marin blinked and then sat up. He looked around him, noticing the hallway filled with dead. His hand flew to his mouth, and he turned pale like he was about to vomit.

Angelica slapped him in the back of the head this time. “Which are the strongest.”

His eyes darted between the bodies, and he began to point. He froze as he turned to me and spotted the large human looking leg I was feeding on.

Angelica hit him in the back of the head again. “Ignore him. He’s on our side.”

Marin’s gaze moved past me, and he finished showing them the order they should resurrect his people in. He took a deep breath and stood up. “Where do you need me to fight?”

Angelica replied as she moved bodies around for Davina. “We don’t need you until we make a run for the gate. The academy is lost.”

“You’re fleeing?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“I’ve got something that will help.”

Marin turned and sprinted back into his rooms, using his agility to move five times faster than a normal person would. He appeared a few seconds later carrying a master storage chest. He placed it on the ground, flung it open, and then used a spell to retrieve a large deep blue carpet.

He turned to Davina and grinned. “This is a royal carpet, crafted by legendary enchanter Zortin during his final decade. It is one of a kind.” He picked it up and held it out to Davina. “It’s yours to help you escape.”

Davina didn’t look up from her work.

Angelica laughed at him. “This is the wrong time to flirt.”

I stopped drinking. “He’s not flirting. That’s a flying carpet equipped with an expert tier flying spell, master tier defensive spells, and a carrying capacity of up to twenty people.”

Marin nodded. “It is the finest flying carpet in my collection.”

I stuck the bleeding leg back into my mouth and blurred to his side. He froze in place. I looked down.

His master storage chest had clothing, furniture, and all the trappings most wealthy people carried, but it also had a truly massive collection of flying carpets. If Marin was from Earth, he would have been a car guy, a very rich car guy.

There were nearly a thousand carpets in his collection. Half of them looked like they were so badly damaged from age that they didn’t work. Then there were the ones that would work but would work poorly. Based on appearance, only about a tenth of his collection had been crafted in the last century and only half of that collection was worth the reagents used to craft them.

I lowered the leg again as I spotted something interesting. “Is that a mobile palace?”

Marin swallowed. “Yes.”

“Does it work?”

“If you have enough archsorcerers to power it.”

Far above me, I heard Carolyn argument with Rupert finally get to an explanation of why she didn’t want to leave yet. “Luke’s coming for me. We just have to wait a little longer.”

Stupid teen hormones.

I blurred through the building until I was standing beside her and then lied through my teeth. “Stop wasting time, Princess. Luke is out there risking his life to make a safe path for you to escape through. We need to get to him and help before something finds him that he can’t deal with.”

Carolyn’s demeanour immediately changed. “We’re moving now.”

I blurred my way back downstairs and stopped beside Davina as she resurrected the last of Marin’s guards. “Carolyn’s on her way.”

I turned to Marin’s guards. Half of them were already on their feet. They seemed to have taken their deaths in their stride, but their equipment was destroyed. They were pulling replacement battle robes and staffs out of their storage pouches.

“Marin will move with Princess Carolyn,” I said. “Half of you will provide barrier support and the other half will provide ranged support to those clearing the path. Do not hold back and I won’t have to undo your resurrections.”

Their gazes moved to the leg I was holding and then back to my bloody mouth.

“Act now think later. If I meant you harm, I wouldn’t have had you or your boss resurrected.”

That was enough to convince them.

I used a necrotic spell to disintegrate the blood on my face. The last thing everyone outside needed to see was me sucking blood from a leg. It was not a good impression when vampires were trying to kill you.

Without drinking the blood, the flashes of memories were no longer coming. That was a problem, because they were finally beginning to give me some experiences which made sense. I needed to see more, but we had to move first.

Sir Trent came racing down the hallway behind me. He stopped beside me and began using hand signals.

Threat assessment.

I replied in the same manner.

Twelve dangerous hostiles.

Large number of secondary threats.

Remove primary threat.

Running battle to rally point.

Sir Trent nodded and relayed the message.

I turned to Davina. “You’re with me.” I looked at Angelica. “You’re guarding her.”

They both nodded.

I blurred to the end of the hallway and ran into the building’s entrance, looking through the glass doors. The dozen elder vampires that had been performing a ritual to bring the barrier down were covered in holy burns. Despite that, they were holding their position. I threw open the door and charged towards the nearest one.

Each of them raised a hand. Twelve fingers of destructions flew towards me. I triple cast the Deathlock spell blocking six. I caught two on Slaughter’s blade while taking four directly on my coat as I closed the distance.

My coat wouldn’t last long.

A holy wave flew past me as Davina entered the field. The wall of light forced three of the elder vampires to cut off their attack and unleashed an unholy wave of their own. The spells collided with each other. They didn’t cancel each other out. Instead, they bounce off one another and flew in random directions.

I finished closing the distance and swung Slaughter at the nearest threat. Her gauntlet blurred and she conjured a barrier to intercept the blade. Slaughter cut through the barrier so quickly she didn’t have time to look surprised. Slaughter passed through her armour’s barrier with the same ease, before loudly tearing through the metal protecting her throat. Her head disconnected from her body, flying away.

“He carries Lavire’s Kalij,” one of the more well-informed males shouted. “He can cut through magical barriers. Switch to swords.”

I raised my sword and pointed. “Angelica, him.”

Angelica raised her voice. “Stop resisting.”

I turned and charged the next closest. He drew his sword and met my blade with his.

“Attack the strongest among you,” Angelica commanded. There was a fraction of a second pause. “Stop resisting.” That order was Angelica’s first mistake. It was quickly followed by several others. “No stop attacking him. We need him. Stupid fucking vampire, you ripped his head off. Attack the one who knows the most, but don’t rip off his head. Stop hitting yourself and attack another vampire. Not the one you decapitated, another one.”

Angelica managed to say all that while engaging one of the elder vampire in single combat. The one I was dealing with had found a friend and it was taking everything I had just to keep ahead of their blades. They were strong, fast, and skilled and if I was alone, they probably would’ve been able to incapacitate me.

I fired off several fingers of death, but unlike their ancient vampire masters, they knew the value of quality gear. Their armours magical barriers blocked me spells.

With the elder vampires safely engage, Sir Trent and his people rushed from the building. The elder vampires noticed the speed of those rushing towards them and realised the odds were steeply against them. Those that could disengage did. In less than a second, nine became one.

The unfortunate one was my opponent.

He stepped back and raised his hands in surrender.

I took off its head and turned to Sir Trent as he removed the head of the elder vampire Angelica was controlling. “Don’t destroy them. We need to interrogate them.”

Sir Trent bent down and threw the body and head to the people behind him. “Take the prisoners and keep them under control. We’re moving now.”

Marin dashed out of the building with his rolled-up carpet and tossed it on the ground. It unrolled itself and lifted into the air a few inches above the ground. Marin leapt on to it as his guard formed a circle around the carpet.

“Ready,” he shouted.

Carolyn and her guards exited the building and joining him on the carpet. Kathrine and Riza followed a few paced behind with Celest and stepped on. Barriers sprang up around them as archsorcerers gave them the best protection possible and Marin engaged the flying carpets defences.

Kathrine was as safe as I could make her.

Davina and Angelica appeared beside me as I turned to take in Darksmith. Everywhere I looked there were elder vampires writhing on the ground. Davina unleashed holy bolts whenever she spotted one, causing them to explode into flames. In other places, the stronger elder vampires were on their feet fighting, exchanging spells with students and faculty that were trying to make their way to the entrance.

Students spotted our group and jumped from windows to rush towards us. Other groups of survivors running through the open saw us and changed direction to join up. There was safety in numbers.

Elder vampires began to throw spells from windows, but only at people who looked too old to be a student. I got the strong impression that the weaker vampires had been compelled into service, because they made less the logical decisions, fighting in the open instead of sniping from cover.

I heard hundreds of frightened heartbeats throughout Darksmith. Students that were too afraid to move. Even the old me agreed that there was nothing I could do for them. The vampires were already regrouping.

I slid Slaughter into its sheath and raise my hand, creating a finger gun. I cast finger of destruction spells in quick succession as I lead the charge through Darksmith to the gates. I had a lot of mana to work with, but I had far more enemies. Each shot distracted an elder vampire or disintegrated one writhing on the ground, but there was always two more to take their place.

Nearly a hundred students had joined us by the time the entrance was in sight, which was where our next problem lay. The vampires had trigger Darksmith’s defences. The entrance barrier was working at full power and there was no way to shut it off.

Against the barrier were lines of students and faculty with their own overlapping barriers. They were watching the windows for any sign of threat with spells ready to unleash. Clerics stood in their ranks, spread out so as not to be an easy target. I counted close to fifteen hundred. It was less than a quarter of those at Darksmith.

In front of them all was an undead horde controlled by the Undead Fight Club and Professor Fergus. They were ready to engage ground assault. Luke was standing with them shouting orders. He didn’t look over as I rushed past, but he ordered Sir Trent to reinforce him.

Students leapt out of my way, as I rushed to where Professor Jirt was trying to bring down the barrier. Their fear thickened sweat and frightened panicked heartbeats intensified when they realised, they were in my path.

It was good to have a reputation.

As I got close to the barrier, I shoved aside several professors who had their backs to me and stopped behind Professor Jirt, the head of the enchanting department.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

She didn’t look up from her work. “For the last time, the failsafe has been activated. The barriers working at full power, and it won’t power down for another day. We can’t access the academy’s mana generator because its barrier activates when this happens.”

Good, I wasn’t missing any details. “Was the barrier created using the line or socket method?”

“The cheap bastards used a direct line, not even a multiline. It’s right through the barrier here. I’m-”

I heard four different voices issue the same order as they overheard our conversation and came to the came conclusion as me. “Attack now!”

I pushed Jirt aside and slammed Slaughter through the barrier and into the mana line.

A flood of mana shot through my blade, across my mana network and into my core. The mana I’d expended was replaced in fraction of a second. My flawless mana network had no limit to how much mana it could move at once, so I redirected the mana through my sorcerer sovereign links, allowing it to pour out of my core as fast as it entered.

The barrier vanished as I pushed all the mana through my links to Gregory and his people. Letting the mana spill out around me, would only allow it to keep powering the barrier enchantment on the gate less effectively. I needed to get the mana away from here without shattering my people’s cores, which would happen all too quickly.

I didn’t have to tell anyone around me what to do.

The moment the barrier vanished, everyone moved. Everyone yelled, “Retreat. The barrier is down.” And everyone pulled people with them.

If all of them had to move along the ground, it would have taken ten seconds to get them all through. But they didn’t. A lot of them could fly. They faculty turned and shot into the air passing above everyone’s heads. The older students followed a second later as others ran into the tunnel. Marin zipped into the tunnel, weaving through the fliers taking Kathrine to safety.

Professor Jirt saw the barrier was down and leapt through without a second thought.

The Undead Fight Club were the last ones through, having held the frontline, and they left their undead behind, to move so quickly. Luke and Sir Trent didn’t wait for them, knowing my temperament.

Start to finish, the evacuation took four seconds. In that time, the windows filled with elder vampires and spells flew across the distance and began colliding with the barriers.

I was the last to step through the gate into the tunnel and by that time I saw a powerful naked figure blurring towards me.

I withdrew Slaughter for the mana link. The flood of mana racing through me cut off as the barrier reappeared in place. I sheathed Slaughter and shoved the bleeding leg back into my mouth. The flashes of memories began again.

When the gate was at full power like this, I couldn’t pass through it. Based on their reaction and how quickly they had given the order to attack, they couldn’t either.

We’d gained a head start.