CHAPTER 50 - Dark horse
I am sure the vampire is dead, in fact, I don’t think there are any remains of her left after the explosion.
I don't wait for the dust to go away to pick up Bruma, I quickly get her before leaving the place.
I don’t like leaving like this, but staying here right now is a death wish. I can’t leave a message written anywhere either as the vampires won’t be able to read.
More importantly, I don't have time to spare, the lord of the castle will probably come here once he gets the news, and I am damn sure I don't want to stay here by then.
I don't see any of those vampire soldiers, but I am sure there were a few following me, just like those two that nearly ruined my last attack, they could be anywhere, and my scans of the area are too short-ranged to give me a good enough answer.
So I start running away… ‘Wait.’
I hold my retreat just one more second, crouching next to the corpse of one of the vampire guards we killed.
‘Here… another line here… and there… Done.’ Once my work has been done, I leave the area, using only short bursts of qi to propel myself out of the city. Now, an easy feat, not having to worry about carrying a bomb on me.
Not being able to use the van to return, I invest nearly an hour to get a new vehicle. Sadly, I can’t find one that still works, so deciding not to lose more time, I leave on my own.
Bruma is still tired and groggy from the battle, but I have recovered somehow, enough to get us safely to our destination.
I run through the woods, avoiding any trails where there are signs of animals, not knowing how strong they are. By the time the sun starts hiding itself in the horizon, we leave the forest.
I take the road again and quickly follow it till we get back to base, arriving after dusk. I don't see anyone standing guard outside, but that is a good sign, they shouldn’t attract unnecessary attention.
One quick scan over the area tells me enough, they are all still waiting, not having received a single report from us yet.
I walk to the door and enter the place once the guards confirm it’s me.
I am greeted by everyone, all of them aware that we were executing their first plan against the vampires this morning, even though most of them weren’t told the exact plan to avoid any sensible information from getting out, just to be sure.
Some of them are happy to see someone return, while others keep a gloomy expression once I close the door behind me.
‘Hmmm… They deserve to know, even if I tell it first to the other ones in the meeting, they all deserve to know that it wasn’t in vain.’ I wish I could have brought back the head of the vampire to them. To be able to show them that the sacrifice of their comrades and family wasn’t in vain, but my words alone will have to do.
A couple of the survivors in the group come to me, asking me for the rest of the group that left this morning. If I remember correctly, they must have been friends with the younger woman I brought with me. She said she was left alone after the vampires took all her family as captives. ‘I guess she wasn’t as alone as she thought.’
“Both of us are the only ones who got away, the rest of the team died.” I say holding onto Bruma. Better not to say anything else yet.
I look at the leaders of the group, to see if they want to hear what I have to say first, but even when I see two of them sending signs my way to not say a thing once they notice my expression, I can see the rest of them staying in silence.
‘Well, if I am let to choose, I am definitely telling all of them.’ If they are all seeking revenge against the vampires, they all deserve to hear the results of their work.
“I will report now how it went.” I say as I walk to the center of the indoor camp, sitting on a chair near the middle to help me rest after all the running I just did.
I proceed to tell them what we achieved.
“The plan was going perfectly till the moment we already predicted the vampires to ambush us. They did send a far more powerful and important force than the one we were waiting for, but I will tell you what you need to know.”
“And I want to tell you the final recount from both sides at the end of the mission too.”
At those words, every single one of them focuses on my words, even Maria and Sera seem to want to pierce me with their gaze.
“From our side, three people died: Martin, Steve, and Ashley…” I didn’t have the time to chat with them on our way there, as I was keeping the orb in check, but I could still hear their conversations on our way there. The least I could do was remember their names.
How all of them were wishing for the families to be reunited at some point and how they all didn’t mind putting down their lives to make that wish come true.
I take a couple of seconds to organize my thoughts. Their deaths did buy us some time, at least for now.
“From the enemy part… I took down a dozen of those strengthened humans who acted as guards on my way in.”
“Once I left the place after getting the conditions we wanted from their leader, he sent one of their family members after me to tail us and kill us all, coupled with two more of their ‘royal guards’ to make sure everything went smoothly.”
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I can’t help but clench my fist as I remember the image of all three of them getting killed in front of my eyes.
“The vampire of their family that they sent was probably the wife of the lord, she followed us till I joined the rest of the team at the extraction point, ready to leave the place. There, before I could even get near, she ambushed all three of them, killing them in the process.”
I see sadness on a lot of faces, but they are all still waiting for me to finish.
“Thanks to her using her surprise attack on them instead of on me though, I was able to fight back, killing her and both her guards in the process. Once more reassuring the lord of the vampires that he needs to cope with our demands.” At least I hope so.
Not waiting for any questions and being in no mood to talk right now, I leave the place and head to the meeting room. I will discuss everything with the sisters and the rest of the leaders before taking a good night's sleep.
We can’t mourn the dead for eternity, and thanks to them we took a big step towards our goal.
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The next morning I wake up to a tickling sensation on my neck.
Opening my eyes, I see Bruma sleeping next to me, using my neck and the sheets as cover. I even need to abstain myself from sneezing as part of her fur brushes against my nose.
I quietly get up, thinking about going somewhere else after a quick meeting and breakfast, choosing to enjoy a quieter place to train on my own.
I attend the meeting, where I tell the whole story to Maria, Sera, and the rest. After that, I wake up the white furry ball and have breakfast with her before leaving for the day.
It takes a while to think about a place where I can stay unperturbed, but after a while, I end up on the rooftop of one of the highest buildings in the city. My improved body helps me stay warm under the strong currents of air that whip the place.
We haven’t seen a single monster or mutated animal yet with the ability to fly that can be a threat to us here, so this seems like a good enough place.
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‘It should be about time. Even with her poor skills, taking care of that guy should be easy enough.’
creak-
Raising my head, I look at the entrance, where one of the guards I assigned to oversee the plan enters the room. He walks closer to me and even climbs up the whole flight of stairs to whisper something in my ears.
“My Lord, I lost contact with the two bodyguards we sent. There are no signs of Her Majesty the Queen coming back either.” He whispers to me.
‘Hmm.’
‘Did she betray me? No, as much as she may have had those plans when we married, she let go of her revenge after our sons and daughter were born. This doesn’t make sense, but I have too many enemies right now to put my focus elsewhere.’
I look to the side, and I can see the guard, Leron, one of my oldest subordinates, staying still, waiting for orders.
‘All these years he has been loyal to me, I will need to trust him more from now on.’ I sigh, all of this is falling apart too fast, and now this.
That human must have been sent by someone else, anyone from the opposition could be the culprit, there is no way he would know otherwise that the lighting he was storing in the orb was deadly to vampires.
The fact that he is a native of this mana-less world and yet he got that kind of strength in this short amount of time is another proof of that, but nothing I can deal with. The problem is if the opposition is helping the natives get power in an attempt to overthrow my rule and mess up my plans.
‘May all of them burn in hell! I need to conserve my strength for now, I can't be using my powers sparingly. These damn non-magical worlds don’t have a single strong creature that I can feed upon to restore my powers.’ With no other choice, I will go in person to assure myself that no more variables come up.
“Leron.”
“Yes my Lord?”
“Guard this room in my absence, make sure that no one enters while I am gone. Not even those from my family. Not my son and not even my daughter.” All I need is his nod to stand up and leave, no time to lose.
‘I need to be fast, they will take any chance they find to ransack this place and kill everyone, I am the only thing that’s keeping this whole place standing.’
A couple of minutes after flying around the palace, I find the area where the battle took place, and as soon as I spot it I gently land on it. A recently carved gorge is the only thing I can see that remains in the center of the battlefield.
I look around, and I see two corpses lying on each side of the gorge. I walk to them and see that both of them are the guards that were sent chasing after my wife, to make sure everything went down as planned. That’s when I start to panic…
‘Maybe an ambush?’
‘Did they use the human as bait to get one of us out of my reach and kill him/her once isolated?’ Maybe they took out the human too, to cut any trails leading to them.
Every single one of the possibilities I can think of, doesn’t make too much sense, openly attacking me right now it’s not a good call for anyone. None of my enemies would gain a thing weakening me right now, it would be quite the opposite.
Focusing on sensing the magic in the surroundings, I get flustered.
‘There’s no chance…’
I can feel the tracker I have put with my blood inside of my wife. I have done so to keep her in check on the day of our marriage, so I follow the trail amidst the rubble and dig up till I get a hold of a red crystal with small cracks.
Remains of lighting magic being used lay all around, the mana from the magic shares the same as the orb that the human was holding.
“...”
My wife is dead, and even though I wanted to get rid of her for her treacherous behavior, I am in dire need of her family support.
Not going to forget that she was very caring for our kids too, so faking her death is out of question.
As I keep thinking, I lay my eyes on the blood-red eye drawing on the forehead of one of the guards who were killed. The drawing itself is crude, noticeably so, showing that it was done by no artist and with haste.
‘It all points to that human being the one at fault.’
‘I hide this from everyone, if I play my cards right I may be able to turn the tables with this.’ And so, I take flight again.
Once I am far enough, I throw a small blob of blood to the place where the battle occurred to get rid of any clues. Seconds later, a small, controlled explosion clears all the rubble coupled with both corpses and marks around the place.
‘Done, any more than this, and it would be obvious who was the one who did it.’
‘I will have to keep an eye on that human boy and his actions. He may have the potential to be our trump card in our fight for power. Let’s give in to his demands for now.’ He may be the solution to our power struggle that has been going on for so long.
‘I will need to be careful to not show my knowledge about their common language too, there may be spies monitoring me that I am not aware of.’
‘Let’s get back before anyone starts asking questions.’