Delor, the Commander of the Royal Guard of Eldoria. When Noah and his friends first met him, they had been suppressed by his raw presence, left unable to move or even think. Now, Noah, the vampire, was trading blows with him and suppressing him with ease. This made sense. With the skill he had and his ridiculous mana, it was only natural that his strength would eventually eclipse that of the Commander.

Additionally, what Delor didn't seem to know was that fighting a vampire under the moonlight was equivalent to suicide. The night was the domain of the vampire, especially when the full moon was out. Delor, who hadn't realised this blunder of his, was hopelessly overpowered. It seemed that this battle would end as quickly as it had started.

Or would it?

It was important to note that Noah's mimicry didn't just copy the strengths and abilities of the monster he copied. As seen by the fact that Noah had the lower endurance of snakes when in his amphiptere form, the weaknesses of the monster Noah was mimicking would also be copied. And Delor knew this.

A few hours later, Delor had been forced to his knees, and Noah had his arm pulled back with his fingers and long vampiric nails fully extended, ready to deliver a piercing thrust. Right as he was about to deliver the final blow on the rude bastard who showed up out of nowhere and started yapping, a sudden impact sent him reeling. He stumbled back a few steps, immediately vigilant of whatever struck him.

But it was too late. The damage had already been done. Noah tried to stabilise himself as the world seemed to spin around him. Clutching his chest where the impact originated from, he fell to his knees. Delor slowly focused his eyes on Noah and shakily pushed himself off the ground onto his feet.

With much difficulty, he spread his lips into the same malefic smile the Hero adopted, revealing his bloodied teeth as he took steps one at a time towards Noah. A gravelly, hoarse voice that took every ounce of stamina remaining from Delor left his throat.

"...brat. It seems you really don't think highly of me."

Delor coughed up blood for a few moments and caught his breath, but he didn't let that stop his spiel. His blue and white-accented armour was now torn apart, with only shreds remaining, as if it were paper rather than the dull steel - mithril alloy the Royal Guard used. He had bruises littering his body where they were visible and splotches of blood where they were not. He hawked up some blood, then spit it in Noah's direction, though it only reached the ground before his knees. Still, the meaning of the gesture was clear to Noah, who was now gasping as he clutched at his chest, his eyes widening into saucers.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"...did you forget, brat. The Royal Guard never fights alone."

The subordinates Delor had left trailing behind his bicorn, who had been on ordinary horses, had only caught up several hours later. Before he left Eldoria, he had entrusted silver-tipped arrows to them. On a full moon night, he knew that Noah would assume the form of a vampire at all times. It was simply the superior choice. On such a lunar occasion, the vampire was superior to the unicorn in healing, the ogre in strength, and the wyvern in speed.

Delor's plan lied in the reasonable belief that he would be able to trick Noah into believing he was the only opponent, despite being of the Royal Guard.

And this was true. Noah believed that the Commander was unlike the rest of the Royal Guard and trusted himself to fare well alone in battle, thus lowering his guard to the possibility of external threats.

Noah's guard would be lowest, however, right before a killing blow. The Commander trusted his men he had trained himself to arrive late, so that they would only arrive after the fight started and Noah was too distracted to notice them, and to deliver the opportune shot with the silver-tipped arrows, right as Noah was about to deliver the killing blow.

Delor tried to get to Noah, but he was too worn out to cross the distance of a few trees between them. He slowly stumbled to a nearby tree, then leaned against it, staring at Noah with his unbruised eye and a triumphant, tired gaze.

Noah had shrivelled up. Pools of blood lay beside him; they had poured out through his eyes and ears, and he was now just skin and bones. His cloak, which usually was a snug fit, now loosely hung from him. Delor watched as Noah's gaunt fingers wrapped around the arrow in his chest, trying to push it out to the other side. Noah tugged once. He tugged twice. The arrow did not budge. Silver stuck too well to the skin of a vampire, and Noah was currently too weak.

Both parties were aware that mimicry would not function as an exit card for Noah. Silver would seal off the mana nodes of a vampire, and mana was necessary for mimicry. Death was imminent for him, and both of them knew it.

Delor watched as tears fell from Noah's face. But with Noah keeled over and looking at the ground, Delor couldn't see his angry and desperate expression.

'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! And I just decided never to let this shit happen again! Why! What do I need to do to prevent this shit?! Damn!'

Noah had come to a realisation after what felt like his second consecutive loss after he escaped the Hero. It was that he only felt comfortable at the peak. His life of mediocrity had never allowed him to truly be the best at something, and having been there for a full year, or at least having thought he was there, he revelled in it. It was the first time he felt truly fulfilled. It wasn't even about feeling superior to anyone else or anything arrogant of the sort.

When it came to strength, he had experienced being at the peak and could not imagine being anything else. That was all there was to it.

Yet, twice in just one week, he had been reminded of his inferiority.

Now, that was thrice. And this loss, too, wasn't even to anyone special. Delor was certainly one of the strongest in Eldoria, but when Noah thought about how he had an inherent huge start to Delor, about how Noah was meant to compete with those way above those of Delor's calibre, but now had lost to him, he truly felt as if he had returned to his days of mediocrity on Earth. Noah forced a raspy voice, similar to Delor's, out of his throat.

"...Never again."

"?"

Noah's words didn't make sense to Delor, but he attributed them to the rambling words of a dying man. This was, however, anything but. To Noah, it was a vow, one he would now physically engrave with a scar.

With arms that he weakly and slowly extended away from his chest, with a sudden thrust, he pierced his own chest with his nails. Noah let out furious, repeated grunts through gritted teeth as he worked to rip out his chest with the arrow inside it.