Jeremiah saw the green men again. Or the 'JSDF' as they referred to themselves as. Following a dirt path, he was searching for a nice village or a city to feed off of when he sensed multiple large objects approaching from behind. He turned around to see a trio of large green boxes, all in a line. The Vampire sensed humans inside; he did not move. Some distance away, the metal boxes stopped. They looked like enclosed carriage wagons to Jeremiah, but without a horse to pull them.

Magic perhaps?

That was the only thing that made sense to him. The horseless carriages remained still as The Vampire awaited their next move. He was ready to defend himself against any strange tricks these men pulled… And then they fled, turning around in big circles and leaving the opposite way. Something inside the boxes roared like a great beast as it went. Jeremiah realized that they were retreating. Smart.

But not smart enough

Craving humans and with no pesky sun in the way, Jeremiah began to run after the carriages. A brisk jog at first, until it became a fast run, and then a full on sprint. But the carriages were still gaining distance. The Vampire went on all fours, sprinting with the power and the speed of a horse. At first he maintained speed with the cars, but suddenly they roared louder and gained even more speed. They were approaching the limit of Jeremiah’s senses.

No mere carriage can outrun me!

His eyes turned a scarlet red and he burst forward, chaining together powerful jump after powerful jump to go at breakneck speeds. He nearly careened over the closest carriage, at the last second latching himself onto its roof. Piercing the top with his sharp fingers, The Vampire peeled the roof off like a scab, odd ropes and furs splintering off like skinning an animal. Inside were three humans, one grasping a wheel, and the other two pointing the handles of their strange clubs at Jeremiah.

How odd-

More bits of fast metal hit Jeremiah in the face as the green men roared with fear and aggression. The one holding a wheel, assumedly the carriage driver, jerked it hard to the right, and the entire box swerved in the opposite direction. The Vampire lost his balance and was flung off the roof, only just hanging on to the edge with one hand. Meanwhile, the men inside continued to fling bits of metal at Jeremiah from the window’s of the carriage, the men up in the front carriages joining in and flinging bits of metal too. He barely felt the projectiles, but their kinetic force made balance harder.

I'm not here to play with metal toys, I must feed!

Reaching his free hand inside, The Vampire grabbed one of the Green Men passengers by the leg and yanked him out through the window. In spite of his screaming and struggling to break free, Jeremiah held extremely firm, gripping his leg so hard there was an ugly CRUCKLE as his femur was broken, eliciting the man to wail in pain. The Vampire wasted no time revelling in his agony, he pierced an artery in his leg and drained the Green Man into a dry husk, before being dropped onto the moving ground like a sack of potatoes. The passenger seat soldier had a crazed look in his eyes now, seeing his companion die so brutally. Jeremiah ripped open the passenger door and began to crawl inside to get at the remaining men, until suddenly the driver yanked the wheel even harder to the right. Everything turned sideways for The Vampire, before the roof of the carriage tipped over so far the entire thing rolled onto the side. Jeremiah was crushed underneath the heavy carriage as it skidded on the ground, his body being ground against dirt before being slammed against a tree, trapping Jeremiah.

Heh, that almost hurt.

After taking a moment to regain his bearings, The Vampire slowly pushed the carriage off of himself like a fallen dresser. The remaining three metal boxes had fled, no longer within his vampiric senses. Jeremiah shrugged, opening the now battered and dented driver door to find the green men gone. Out the opposite window, Jeremiah saw a man propping up his wounded and crippled comrade as they desperately tried to make distance between them and the carriage.

Make distance between them and me.

Jeremiah stepped around the carriage and approached the two at a leisurely pace. Even now, as The Vampire was rapidly closing the distance, the uninjured man refused to abandon his brother in arms.

If only I knew their language, how I would love to taunt them. Still, their will to survive is strong.

In one clean motion, Jeremiah grabbed the uninjured man by the back of his neck like a doll and pierced his jugular. His screams lasted only a moment before The Vampire drained him into an empty husk. Meanwhile, the injured soldier continued to struggle, dragging himself along the ground. His legs like useless sausages attached to his torso. It was obvious that he was in great pain, that he was terrified. That natural instinct was telling him to run and this was the best he could manage. Jeremiah found this pathetic. But, at the same time, The Vampire noticed that this was the driver. If the carriage had not tipped over, there was no doubt he would have hunted down and drained each soldier one by one. But it had. Why? Because this man yanked the wheel so hard it caused the carriage to tip over. Did this soldier sacrifice himself to save most of his compatriots? Jeremiah found this amusing. The crippled man was like an ant, sacrificing himself for the good of the colony. Too bad it was all for nothing.

Jeremiah picked up the crippled man by the top of his head and held him like a doll, his thrashing that of a child. The Vampire brought the soldier's neck to his fangs and began to drink, draining the man of his essence until he was a mere husk…

And then he had an idea. Laying his thumb over the puncture wound, Jermiah concentrated all of his essence into the smallest of points at the very tip of his digit. A miniscule amount, the barest inklings of a liquid began to form. A liquid so black, so foul, so terrible that descriptions fail it. A liquid that can only be described as an extremely small amount of Liquidated Evil. The stuff flowed straight into the crippled soldier's open wound…

His flesh, which was turning cold from death, slowly began to warm to The Vampires touch, before a gentle pulse came back. The soldier haphazardly stood up on his broken legs, both of them bent at odd angles that they shouldn’t normally be able to do. The soldier slowly started to limp towards Jeremiah.

“I am not your food” The Vampire commanded, and the soldier paused, almost with a look of confusion, before beginning to limp in a random direction, his eyes were glazed, his face sagged, and his arms were at the side.

An exemplary peon.

Satisfied, Jeremiah left the peon to aimlessly roam the woods in search of human flesh as he returned to the metal carriage. With interest he pulled out one of the strange weapons he mistook for a club at first.

They pointed this end at me and it flung metal quite fast. Strange.

Experimentally, The Vampire took the weapon with one hand and pointed the end with the hole at a tree. It did nothing. He tried shaking it a little. Still nothing.

They also held it a certain way…

He tried mimicking how he saw the soldiers holding it. Then he tried shaking it while holding it the same way. Still nothing. He tried shaking it even more vigorously, and while nothing happened, he did notice there was a moving outside piece that shook a bit independent of the weapon. Holding the entire thing sideways, he curiously began fiddling with the loose bit.

BOOM

The weapon went off, flinging a piece of metal out of the end and into a nearby tree. This startled the daylights out of Jeremiah, although he would not like to admit it. He looked down at the weapon. It was a bit warm to the touch. Jeremiah reached down and wiggled the loose bit again, causing the weapon to launch its contents once more. In the heat of battle, The Vampire never noticed that these weapons were quite loud. Testing it one more time, he pointed the weapon at the carriage and wiggled the loose bit, causing the strange contraption to punch a hole straight through the metal door.

Impressive, for a weapon made of mere steel.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Losing interest in the human contraption like a child loses interest in a toy, Jeremiah moved on to ransacking the metal carriage. Inside, he found:

A spare green uniform, which roughly fit Jeremiah. He inspected the thing for any strange quirks, but found it to be rather normal besides being made with a blend of wool, and a second rather strange material. Still, he did not want to be naked, and perhaps wearing this uniform would throw off these ‘JSDF’ people, so he put it on.

More of the same weapons, but also multiple strange ‘L’ shaped contraptions with a similar loose bit. Jeremiah pulled the bit and it shattered one of the carriage windows in a similar but less intense explosion. Jeremiah decided to put it away.

And a map folded many times. It was made of a strange smooth material and the colors were odd, but The Vampire could recognize it contained a lot of information about the local landscape. The only problem was that all of the text was in a foreign language he did not understand, assumedly the language of the green men. But he did recognize one of the rivers by its shape and he knew he was south of said river, so after some careful deliberation and following a brown line he assumed was a road, Jeremiah found his location on a map. He then followed the dirt road with his finger as it went up closer towards Gentodir, on the way the brown line became a thicker gray line before intercepting with a symbol that Jeremiah recognized. A castle. The Vampire began to grin.

Time passed…

Daylight came and went, Jeremiah spent it in an abandoned barn underneath some rotten hay. The Vampire was never one for dignity or grace, usually taking the most direct approach towards everything. Which paid off too, as later in the day The Vampire had a nice quick meal draining a farmer boy who opened up the door and came right inside, apparently looking for something. After he was done he buried himself back under the hay.

Past the barn there were fields upon fields of golden wheat being tended to by laborers. It was the height of summer after all, and while The Vampire cared little for temperature; out there hundreds of farmers and farm hands sweat as they cut, prepared, and hauled the grains under the intense sun. To where? In the distance was a large stone wall, which surrounded a large collection of modest town buildings, and these town buildings surrounded a second wall which surrounded a keep which contained a lord, who commanded and taxed every person who worked in the fields. Jeremiah figured there were 5000 people inside those layers of walls, not including any stationed guards and troops, or even more of the ‘JSDF’. However, once night fell there would be no stopping The Vampire from having his fill and finally having an amount of essence he would consider ‘Adequate’.

Time passed once more…

Jeremiah casually strutted towards the town gate as the sun finally went below the horizon. A disheveled miller bumped his shoulder on his way into the city walls. The Vampire repaid in kind by grabbing the man by the neck and draining him in seconds, before throwing him off to the side. Jeremiah continued to strut further towards the city gates, a commotion beginning from within. Several dozen guards rushed into position, and these were not green men with strange weapons but normal men wearing chainmail with a pike in both hands and a shortsword on their hip. The Vampire smirked as they pointed their pikes outward, blocking off the city gate completely. Behind them was an older, rather imposing figure wearing worn but decorated plate armor. His heavy tan, the ugly scar running diagonal across his entire face, and the world weary scowl he wore all spoke of years of combat experience.

He shall be a feast!

The Vampire had to resist the urge to salivate, instead reaching behind and bringing out his Adamantium Staff.

“Do not consider this enemy human!” Their captain billowed

“It is a monster, the only way any of us will make it out of here alive is to do battle!”

No words have been more correct and wrong at the same time.

“I will devour your souls!” Hissed Jeremiah, essence backing his words and sending a wave of pure dread to each and every soldier. The Vampire began to advance forward, which caused the pikemen to begin falling apart in a panic. One of them tried to make a break for it, but the captain would have none of it and punched him across the face, the shock of which restored discipline.

“Fight dammit, if not for your lord, for your loved ones!”

The pikemen uneasily returned to their position, weapons out and ready. Jeremiah was almost impressed by the captain's ability to maintain order.

But in the end they will all fall the same.

The Vampire suddenly burst forward straight past the tips of the pikeman's spears and into the thick of it, swinging his staff and brutally decapitating five men in a row. The situation quickly devolved into chaos, as the men became a flurry of swinging blades, stabbing, and the captain desperately attempting to maintain order. Each time Jeremiah swung his staff, a handful of men were brutally gored. It only took several dozen seconds for discipline to break completely as any man who did not flee was immediately annihilated by Jeremiah. In mere moments, every man was effectively gone. The Captain took a reluctant step backwards, he saw the now blood drenched vampire pause, looking over at him, before the man did the same as his compatriots and fled.

“Monster, run for your lives!” He bellowed through the streets. There was a pause, a miniscule instant where the townsfolk saw the vampire and merely stared. Before mass panic broke out. Bloodlusted, Jeremiah held no restraint as he jumped from building to building, person to person, pinning them to the ground, draining their essence, and repeating over and over. Most tried to flee, some tried to fight, but it did not matter for the vampire. Pin. Drain. Repeat. He let instincts do the work. Sense. Kill. Sense. Kill. The Vampire careened through walls, ripped open doors, rooted out every human he could get his fangs on. In the craze, a fire broke out, consuming the numerous crowded wood and straw buildings.

Jeremiah did not count how many humans he killed. It was a great number to be sure, and even more fell to the fire, and no doubt whoever survived fled from the city. Once the streets were empty, and all was ashes, Jeremiah finally set his sights on the last bit of carnage for tonight. In the slums of the city resting in a corner was one final building which had humans in it. An orphanage.

The Vampire’s bloodlust was over, this was merely to ‘fill out the corners’ as a human would put it. He kicked open the flimsy wooden door to find a dilapidated building inside, a majority of the room being taken up by old beds. He took a couple steps forward, the humans were here, he could sense them, but where…

The Vampire stepped into a dirty kitchen with even dirtier wooden tables and tiny chairs. The only nice thing about the room was a sword on a plaque, unlike everything else it seemed well polished. There were no humans, but their presence felt stronger here. Somewhere… below…

Jeremiah raised his foot up, and sent it crashing into the wooden floor. It crashed through planks, mortar, and brick before breaking into a wine cellar below. Pulling his foot out, The Vampire looked down the small hole he made to see a woman using her body to shield dozens of children. She looked immensely frightened.

As she should be.

Jeremiah saw a ladder leading up to a trapdoor he missed, and he grinned. He began to move toward it, until-

"Wait!"

Shouted the woman, her voice commanding such power and authority to rival Jeremiah. He had no reason to obey her, but out of curiosity The Vampire paused. The Woman whispered something to the children, and climbed up the ladder and out the trapdoor hidden underneath a barrel. She shook like a leaf, but stood firmly on top of the door, which placed her in between Jeremiah and the children below.

"You may have me but you cannot have the children, I refuse to allow it!"

Jeremiah merely continued to grin. This was very amusing to him, and yet he was not surprised. When a creature threatens her ducklings, the mother goose will defend them no matter what. Even against a bear, even with no chance at all of winning. This is all she could do.

"Your will to protect your young is… commendable." Said Jeremiah, leaning on a table.

"But daring to order me? A death sentence…" The Vampire stepped forward until he was looking down at the woman.

"But that is an acceptable loss for you, no? So, it only seems right to also punish the children too."

The woman stood her ground, staring straight into his eyes like her life depended on it. Finally tired of this game, Jeremiah grabbed her by the bottom of the head and hoisted her up like one holds a goblet.

"Don't worry, I won't punish them… you will."

Jeremiah went to pierce her jugular but paused when he heard a SHINK from below. He looked down to see she had stabbed the mounted sword straight into his ribs. Pain suddenly exploded from the embedded sword, The Vampire dropped the woman as a sudden agony overtook him

Why… Why is this happening?!

Jeremiah's dead flesh reignited with life, and he fell to the floor, his nerves awakening after being numb for so long. A warmth spread from the sword to the rest of his body. One would think this would feel nice, but to a vampire such as him it meant that his dead flesh was remembering that it was supposed to be well and truly dead. He desperately tried to pull the sword out, but even brushing up against it sent even more waves of pain through The Vampire. He was so consumed with pain he hardly noticed the woman leading her children out of the orphanage, curled up in a fetal position. This continued for hours, positive energy killing him but his Vampiric essence keeping him undead. Slowly, however, the pain wound down as the energy within the sword dissipated into Jeremiah. Eventually The Vampire yanked the blade out, throwing it off to the corner of the kitchen. Hours more passed, and he stayed in a fetal position slowly healing his wounds. Eventually Jeremiah got up, and slowly trudged out of the orphanage. He wanted to go after that woman, kill her and all of her children, but he was so tired. The Vampire limped out of the gate he went in, leaving a city of ash and blood in his wake. His goal now? As before, Gentodir.