Frei fell on his butt, avoiding a sharp horizontal sword swing and followed the blade of the sword with his eyes as Gregor positioned himself for a vertical stab. When the tip of the blade bit into the wooded floor,, Frei was already under the bed.

  The moment he saw the sword tip from under his unexpected hideout, he also saw the numerous haired legs that quickly strode in his direction.

Spiders were on their way to aid Gregor in his quest to slay his unlucky subordinate.

"No way, the monster is too overpowered! What is going on?" Frei complained under his breath while quickly escaping from under the bed, ending up beneath the second one that was directly pressing against the door. Naturally, his previous hiding place had been run through by Gregor's sword and first spiders that arrived began quickly disassembling the pile of furniture to get their hairy pedipalps on Frei.

  Gregor had his sword stuck in the bed, but instead of trying to pull it out, he grabbed the first bed and pulled it away from the door. The giant spiders immediately used the freed up space to quicken their efforts of taking the pile of junk apart. Gregor jumped over the bed, pulling his sword out while still in the air and strode in Frei's direction to repeat the process after he had landed on its other side.

"All saints lend me strength!" Frei fidgeted under the bed, getting himself into an almost impossible position with his legs pressed against the bottom side of its wooden frame and his back on the floor, he pushed with all his strength in the right moment, when Gregor was still a few meters away. Due to his increased strength, he was able to send the frail bed flying, obstructing Gregor's way and flattening some of the spiders along the way.

  Even though he was able to buy only seconds for himself, as Gregor had split the flying bed apart with his sword, it was enough to make a difference. In the meantime, he frantically jumped to his feet and opened the door that had been no longer obstructed thanks to the dilligent work of the spiders who had been trying to get closer to Frei just a second ago. Jumping through the door, he shivered when his body brushed against one of the hairy legs that was trying to stop his escape.

  He sped up, running through the forest like a drunken deer. He tripped over a stump, but just rolled on the ground to immediately stand on his legs again, not daring to pause his dash for even a second. Without looking back, he made his way through the forest while the light rays of the afternoon sun pressed against his back. He heard a painful roar and imagined that the monster probably forced Gregor to follow him, the sun rays sealing his fate.

He decided not to stop until he would see the walls of the Waldorf Castle.

* * * *

"That was quick." Nitarja almost got through Ratel's defense with her blunt sword. Both of them were breathing heavily only after a few minutes of their intense spar. They have not moved outside of the castle for days and training was all they did, this time it was with swords.

"Follow this one." She launched a series of quick stabs not unlike she was holding a spear instead of her sword, a move that most of the people would not use during a spar as stabs were still quite dangerous even with blunts. However, their training could be a bit more rough thanks to the talent in regeneration the vampire race possessed, it was not to the point of the vampires from fables and fairy tales, but it certainly helped.

Ratel deflected most of the blows expertly except for the last one, Nitarja managing to delay her reaction with a quick feint.

"Ugh." Ratel bent over and held her belly where the blow had landed, clearly in pain.

"I got you!" Nitarja jumped with joy, not concerned about Ratel's health.

"My turn." Ratel growled and launched her own blow that failed to surprise the still beaming Nitarja. Her surprise attack deflected with ease, she stubbornly followed with more blows, but it was clear that despite being a good fighter, she had trouble with her sword, too used wielding her sharp claws instead. Ratel became more reckless and her blows slowly turned into wild flailing without much finesse, due to her frustration of using the unfamiliar weapon.

  On the other hand, Nitarja began to laugh unreserved and used graceful movements to avoid Ratel's monotonous attacks. When the beastkin's frustration reached its peak, she hit her sword hand and made her drop her blade, pointing her own firmly against Ratel's neck.

"I win, you are not going to beat me, animal." Nitarja said with a smirk, caught in the thrill of her superiority.

"You are just a cheap whore." Ratel spat out, their confrontation suddenly turning personal and her opponent frowned at her instantly after her insult.

  Yet, before Nitarja could reply to her harsh words, she caught the blade of the blunt sword with her left hand and attacked Nitarja directly with her claws, red trails of blood immediately appearing on her chest. She shrieked out and jumped back, holding her injured chest while glaring at Ratel with hate.

"Who is the boss now bitch? Do you dare to have a real match, or are you just a good cock sheath?" Ratel flexed her clawed hands and stepped forth, drops of blood staining the dirt of the training ground. In response, Nitarja jumped to the nearby weapon rack and grabbed her real sword that leaned there against the wall.

"I will kill you." Nitarja hissed and the two would have surely injured one another severely if not for Ejay, who jumped in between them in the nick of time.

"What do you think you are doing? Are you crazy?!" He shouted, his face red. He was unable to fathom how the situation had escalated so quickly.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Why have you done it Ratel?" He looked accusingly at the initiator of the violence, but could not see a shred of remorse in her eyes and he was unable to figure out why.

"And you, drop that sword! That is against enemies only, you know?" Ejay turned his head to Nitarja, but she seemed to share Ratel's relentless attitude.

"It is, that is why I am holding it." Her statement blew Ejay away, he sensed that something was going on between the two that he was not aware of.

"How can you say that?!" He could not believe what she had just said, but before the situation could escalate further, the pair suddenly relaxed their postures and walked away, as if someone had pushed a button. Ejay looked around, confused, but caught a glimpse of a familiar figure in one of the windows.

"Ah, Victor, thank god!" It was probably the first time he was glad that Victor was in control.

Wait, could he be the initiator of this confrontation? Ejay quickly dismissed the option, as it did not seem to be his style.

  He followed the two and shortly stood before the vampire who had decided to forcefully summon them. Victor looked more impatient than usual, playing with the hem of his cloak out of habit, his attention darting from one person to the other until Ejay sighted another person arrive, his clothes looking like he had gone through a century of battles in the forest.

"Frei!" He exclaimed, but held himself back from expressing himself any further due to the unsettling presence of Victor. Frei only nodded and his eyes accidentally wandered in the direction of Nitarja, his facial features hardening when he saw her injury. Frei quickly turned to look at Victor hatefully, but their master just nodded in the direction of Ratel, her bloodied claws explaining more than thousand words.

Yet, Frei's attention promptly returned to Victor, glaring at him for apparent reasons.

"Come on, do you think that I am this petty?" Victor just brushed it off and coughed lightly, changing the topic.

"I have brought you here, because the circumstances demand immediate action. Your training needs to be hastened." Victor spoke, looking in turn at each of them.

* * * *

"I have brought you here, because the circumstances demand immediate action. Your training needs to be hastened." Frei heard Victor's words, but could not focus as he was still thinking about what had happened in his absence that the situation escalated in this way. Was it just an elaborate Victor's scheme or had the rift between the two women become this deep?

"No more learning of little tricks, you will learn the best combat and utility spells you can and depart for your first real mission. We need every hand we have and all have to do their utmost in this matter." Victor's presence changed out of the blue and everyone could tell that he was serious about the upcoming mission.

"I do not care what is going on between you, but if it hinders the operation in any way . .. " He paused and looked at them menacingly, revealing his sharp canines out of habit.

"You know what I have told you that night, I will not become the second Lilian." Frei was the last person he rested his eyes upon.

"There will be no trouble." Ratel said firmly, knowing that she was the one who appeared the most volatile given the situation.

"And I expect no less. Fine, the boring matters have been cleared out of the way, we can proceed with your assignment." Victor relaxed his body and everyone could feel the tension in the room lessening.

  He explained the details of the mission and the next few days were nearly continuous intense drill with weapons, ending by two days of learning dark magic, this time targeting spells that would actually have some use in their future battles. Frei was not surprised when Victor had separated him from the others and sent him solo, he could tell that he considered him a high risk, high return asset. He gave him a dangerous mission that would either bring Victor significant prestige or kills Frei, getting Victor free of the risk he posed to his safety.

For Victor, it would be a gain either way.

"I am getting sick of the forest." Frei cursed his luck while walking under the treetops that were obstructing the stars. No, it was not the forest he was sick of, but what might lurk within. He had been unable to find any clues about the strange monster he had encountered with Gregor, but judging by how Victor brushed the matter aside, he consider it but a minor problem.

If the incident had been only a local issue at the northern border, it should really not be their concern, as all their mission objectives were mostly in the south and further east.

Nitarja, Ejay and Ratel had been assigned to deal with the beastkin in the southwest, he would be snooping around the elves in the south and in the border region between elves and humans to the southeast. Their objective was to convert The Gifted and keep sending them to the Waldorf Castle as lesser vampires.

Of course, The Gifted were the ones that would be the players in the good old game terms.

"What a nuisance, I have to search for exactly the people my difficulty cheat is useless against." Frei grumbled, not content with how the situation played out.

Despite receiving some basic training with melee weapons, he was still just a beginner and would probably need to rely on his spells. Without having any kind of a list anymore, he had to dig in his mind to remember what he had learned during the short two days. He noticed that some spells described in the book he had received like Blood Domain were totally out of his league, he could learn just the vary basics, but he should still be stronger than an ordinary Joe, especially if the person was not one of The Gifted.

  He had his old, trusty Shroud, along with the novel Shadowstep that allowed him to turn into incorporeal shadows for two seconds and move with a greater speed than normal. He had to wait for roughly ten seconds before using the move again, but it was still quite a powerful utility spell. Its only weakness was that it could not be used under direct sunlight. Black Blade and Shadow Claws were his main offensive spells.

  Shadow Claws were very similar to Wind Blade that he had used when he was an elf, but the spell required more articulated gesture to unleash and the claws were more powerful with the cast time under one second thanks to his dark magic proficiency. In addition, the number of claws was naturally five, making the attack much harder to avoid.

  Black Blade spell performed a single slash with a huge, imaginary great sword with the range of only a few meters, but its destructive power was much greater compared to Shadow Claws.

From other schools of magic, he relearned Flame Fist, Wind Blade and Frost Bolt, but the spells had longer cast times and were weaker, as he had no longer the starting bonus of the elves. He just wanted to have something against monsters immune to the dark attribute, if there were any.

"Ah, what a nostalgic view!" Frei whispered when he saw the tops of the tallest towers of Lartherion, his original starting location and the capital city of the elves, his mission would start right at the place where he had first set foot into this fancy world.

"How was it? A recluse, who has been living in the Great Forest Ash'Al'Orcleion for decades is bearing grave news of . . . " His smile changed into a grin. " . . a new hunter, who is looking for a prey."