Complete silence encapsulates the tavern. Lucian and Abenor knew that their lives were never more in danger than it was now.

"Why do you hide? I simply want to talk," it said.

Abenor stood up, and pointed his daggers at the door, nudging Lucian to the other side. If anything came through, cut it, he gestured.

"Oh come on, maybe you guys are just friends of Shayf Jare," it continued. "That's why you probably have his shoulder plate!"

The voice was getting closer to the door, and soon it was right across their ears, behind the only cover that sheltered them. The man's breath was almost upon them, only two slabs of wood away. The breathing stopped, and any sign of him had vanished. Lucian grew anxious, as did Abenor, holding their positions, with weapons ready.

Suddenly, the door burst open with a deafening creak, and before they could react, the Nosferatu lunged into the tavern. Reacting instinctively, Abenor and Lucian swung their weapons towards the figure, aiming to catch it off guard as it entered, but the creature was faster than they anticipated, ducking low to avoid their blows with an unnatural agility. In the darkness of the tavern, only illuminated by the small specs of the dawn light that came, the Nosferatu's form seemed to blur and shift, its movements fluid and unpredictable. With each strike, it countered with lightning-fast slashes of its own, forcing Lucian and Abenor to constantly shift their stance to evade its deadly blade that sat inside the sleeves of the suit. There was no intent to kill. It was playing around with them, almost as if to show the power it possessed through the near-fatal blows, that seemed to just miss.

The room was filled with the sound of clashing metal and the grunts of exertion as the trio engaged in a deadly dance of blades. Lucian felt a surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins as he fought for his life. Abenor moved with a grace born of years of training, his movements precise and calculated as he sought to find an opening in the Nosferatu's defenses. But the creature seemed to anticipate his every move, parrying his strikes with uncanny accuracy.

With each passing moment, the fight grew more intense. Lucian and Abenor were locked in a desperate struggle for survival. Lucian could feel his muscles burning with exertion as he pushed himself to his limits, his mind a blur of adrenaline-fueled focus.

"Come on! Give it your best now, I need to enjoy this," the nosferatu shouted, with a sinister grin, showing its teeth that seemed to be perfectly shaped, and pointed, like a shark.

As the battle raged on, the tavern around them bore the scars of their conflict, tables overturned and debris scattered across the floor. It was comfortable. Too comfortable. Knocking Lucian back, and subduing Abenor, it stood proud. In front of Abenor, saying, "That's all you have?" It looked up, in disappointment. In that slight second, Abenor spotted a small opening in the Nosferatu's defenses. With lightning-fast reflexes, he seized the chance, and leaped up from the ground, aiming for the neck of the nosferatu, but it dodged once again. This time, it could not evade it fully. Abenor's strike grazed the creature's cheek, drawing a thin line of crimson blood.

The Nosferatu recoiled with a snarl of pain, its eyes narrowing as it tasted its own blood on its lips.

"Sick bastard, you never seen your own blood before?" Abenor laughed.

In a terrifying display of primal instinct, it licked the blood from its cheek with a twisted grin, its gaze fixed hungrily on Abenor.

As the Nosferatu's attention fixated on Abenor, Lucian knew this was his best chance. He slowly got up, not to alert the creature, and lunged forward, aiming his blade at its exposed back. The steel pierced the air with deadly intent, seeking out the vulnerable spot where the Nosferatu's heart lay. But the creature was quicker than anticipated. It sensed the impending attack and twisted its body with grotesque flexibility. Lucian's blade found its mark, but only partially, the tip embedding itself in the Nosferatu's flesh.

Before Lucian could react, the Nosferatu whirled around, its movements more distorted now. With a vice-like grip, it seized the hilt of Lucian's blade, wrenching it free from its own body with a sickening squelch of tearing flesh. In a brutal counterattack, the Nosferatu reversed the blade, driving it deep into Lucian's abdomen with merciless force. The impact slammed Lucian against the rough wooden walls of the tavern, the breath forced from his lungs as agony surged through his body.

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Pinned in place by his own blade, Lucian gasped for air, his vision swimming with pain and shock. He could feel the cold steel piercing his flesh, sending waves of searing agony radiating outward from the wound. Through the haze of pain, Lucian glimpsed Abenor's horrified expression, the realization of what had just transpired dawning on both of them. With every ounce of strength he could muster, Lucian fought against the overwhelming darkness threatening to consume him, clinging to consciousness with a desperate resolve. He could see the nosferatu walking back to Abenor, it's back wound already healing.

Move, get up! Please, I have to save him. Move! I can't die now!

*DING*DING*DING*

Lucian saw the box again, with a completely different message now.

NOTICE Requirement "taste the blood of the worthy one," has been met. Would you like to proceed with weapon binding? Yes l No l

He was going to die. Too much blood was lost, and it did not matter what any of it meant. If it could make any difference, he would do it.

"Yes," he said, blood pouring out of his mouth as well now.

The box closed, and it was gone now, with only a view of the nosferatu overpowering Abenor, and pinning him down, remaining. Lucian's stomach felt tight, and his breath calmed. He dropped to the ground, with the blade popping out of the open wound. Touching his stomach to feel the blood and the gape, his hands were instead met with smooth skin, and his abdominal muscles. All the blood had gone, and he was back to normal. No, not normal. Something more. There was a new energy in his body, a feeling of lightness like he could float. His arms felt stronger, and his eyes sharper. There was no time to process all of it, Abenor was in danger. Like a cat, he leaped into the air with his longblade and struck the unaware Nosferatu, who was balled up over Abenor.

It rolled sideways, clutching the impact spot.

"Abenor!" Lucian wailed, holding him up from the floor. He had bitten and chunks of flesh were oozing where the bite mark was.

"Lucian? You're aliv-" He could barely finish his words before throwing up a mountain of blood.

The nosferatu darted up, still clutching the wound. The expression on its face changed, from rage to worry. "What did you do to me?" it said.

Lucian met its gaze and firmly held the longblade. It pounced, blades rearing out of the sleeves. With his newfound agility, Lucian dodged and kept dodging. The nosferatu was getting frustrated now, and he lunged at him, mouth open to tear his flesh off. The speed of the attack was far quicker than the previous, and Lucian barely managed to put the longblade in between his face and the fangs of the nosferatu. He kicked it back, managing to land a slick slash across its jaws.

It held the new open cut, and scowled at Lucian, screaming "What the hell are you!"

At this point, when he observed the nosferatu's actions, Lucian deduced two things. It was panicking and the wounds that he made were not healing. Whatever happened to him after he accepted the "weapon binding" caused this to happen. There was no time to delay. Abenor needed help quickly. He could not dodge and play on the backfoot anymore. The hunter would become the hunted.

With a surge of determination, Lucian launched himself into the fray, his senses heightened and his movements fluid as he closed in on the nosferatu. It arrowed forward, blades gleaming menacingly from its arm sleeves. Lucian anticipated its every move. Ducking and weaving with unparalleled agility, Lucian evaded the Nosferatu's frenzied strikes, his longblade poised to strike. The more he struck with the creature, the closer he got, cornering it.

For the first time, there was fear in its eyes. The creature itself did not know how to react to this new sensation. With nowhere to go, the nosferatu went rabid, trying to protect itself. Seeing a small gap in its movements, Lucian delivered a devastating blow to the creature's midsection, eliciting a horrific roar of pain and fury. The longblade was jammed for a second inside and became cold to the touch. Lucian's body zapped during that brief moment, like a power surge running through inside of him.

Following the strike, like a tiger with its claws, Lucian swiped the hideous nosferatu's head off, causing it to roll now, dismembered and lifeless.

It was over. He sighed a breath of relief from the exhaustion, which surprisingly had gone away in the last minute after he had dealt the fatal blow to the nosferatu.

Abenor!

Lucian crawled to Abenor who sat there, back against the wall, and a river of blood under him.

"No, no, no no," Lucian whimpered. "Stay with me Abenor, we won, look we did it!"

No response. "Abenor! Abenor! Dad!" he cried.

Abenor's eyes slowly opened, and he threw up more blood on the floor. "Lucian? How?"

"Come on, I'll carry you, we have to get out of here," Lucian urged, trying to pick him up.

He fell right back down, and the blood kept pouring. "Go on the ship, quickly before it leaves," Abenor pleaded. "Leave me here."

"But your daughter, you have to find her, right?" Lucian's eyes were holding back tears. "What will I do without you?"

"She is your sister now too. Go find her," he replied. "When you land in Kinghaven, ask for Haymond, son of Rutherford. He will help you."

"Not unless you come, didn't you tell me to never accept death? Huh!?" Lucian shouted.

"I have not given up, but I know reality. My body cannot move," Abenor placed his hands on Lucian's teary cheeks. "Perhaps the Gods led me to you, and this was my role."

"Go, my son. Live." Those were the last words that came out of Abenor, son Josef.