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Stampede

Undead city-Altraud

Inside the dungeon of shadows, near the border of grasslands.

"Yo, earth to Arya, what are you thinking? " Maya asked while peeking at the absent-minded Arya, only to find her staring intently at a puddle of colourless liquid in front of her.

Sweat trickled down her forehead as she concentrated on the liquid but nothing seemed to change. Puzzled at her weird behaviour Maya poked her chin and questioned,

"What's wrong? You are sweating. Is this another one of your masochistic training methods? "

Arya just glanced at her.

She already understood that insulting others was just Maya's way of getting along and just rolled her eyes while pointing at the colourless liquid, " I am trying to control it " she uttered and focused back on the liquid.

"Control it? How? That's not blood " Maya asked back confused, as far as she knew the colourless liquid was just that, a liquid and she knew that blood affinity is an affinity for blood, not liquid.

"There are still some small amount of blood substances present in it, if I learn to control them then my skill will improve"

Maya's skeleton eyes blinked repeatedly,

' So it was another one of her masochistic training methods after all ' she thought while massaging her skull in irritation.

"I don't know why you are trying so hard and neither do I care but try to enjoy your life a bit more" she advised and walked towards the tiny undead.

Arya peeked at her departing figure, confused.

'How do I enjoy life? ' she thought but found no answer, Shrugging her shoulder she glanced back at the puddle to continue her training only to feel the ground under her quake, sending a ripple in the liquid.

Curious about the cause of the quake, Arya stared at her surroundings and found dozens of black wolves approaching her while kicking a cloud of dust into the night sky.

"It's a stampede" Maya announced with a confused stare and stood ahead of the tiny undead in a protective stance. Ervin too picked his bow and aimed at the beasts, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

The beasts however didn't seem to care about the undead group as they rushed towards Arya with intoxicated eyes.

They howled noisily and attacked her from all sides. Arya tried to dodge the attacks but the beasts were faster than her.

She barely dodged a couple of strikes due to their predictable attack patterns but failed to avoid a strike aimed at her stomach.

Noticing the wound on her stomach, she hurriedly jumped into the air and turned the flowing blood into wings. Hovering above the beasts she taunted them, trying to provide valuable time for the undead to evacuate but to her surprise, an arrow zoomed past her hitting a wolf beast in the eye and killing it in the process.

Turning around she found Ervin firing another arrow towards the beasts while Maya was guiding the tiny undead towards the exit with hurried steps.

" Hold on for a bit longer and don't enter the forest. I will be back as soon as I can" she screamed while running. Before long the group disappeared leaving only Arya and two undead behind.

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'Wait, two undead?' Arya paused while staring at the unexpected member which almost caused her to lose an arm. Returning to her senses in the nick of time she dodged an incoming wolf's bite and flew to a safer distance.

"Teacher, I will help too" the additional member, Peter, announced while opening the skill book that Maya had entrusted to him.

Tearing a page that had the magic circle for skill and wrapping it around a crystal, he threw it towards the beasts with all his might.

The object moved in a parabolic path and landed around the edge of the beast group. As it landed the crystal inside the object shattered because of impact, sending all its stored energy into the magic circle and activating it in the process.

A dark green energy rushed in all directions from the circle, engulfing the beasts. The beasts howled in protest but the skill did its magic and rapidly drained their speed.

Arya who was hovering above them was finally able to follow their movements but her expression didn't relax in the slightest.

Glancing at the dark forest she observed the dusk cloud spreading higher and higher, not reducing in the slightest.

After some internal monologue, she used to create a blood dagger and sliced at her left arm, cleanly severing it below the elbow.

Her move stunned both Ervin and Peter who were doing their best to support her from a distance.

Arya didn't elaborate, opting to concentrate on the blood flowing from her severed arm and making sure to spill it on as many wolves as she possibly could.

Her face grew paler by the second but she resisted the urge to fall unconscious. Controlling the blood and turning it into arrows, she aimed them towards new beasts emerging from the forest and fired.

The arrows didn't have the strength to pierce the thick hide of the beasts and only managed to settle as a stain on their fur but Arya looked pleased with the result.

Making sure to cover the stump of her left arm and prevent the blood from spilling, she rushed towards Peter and Ervin.

"Teacher, are you ok? "

Peter hugged her immediately after she landed and asked while glancing at her wounded body. There was a rapidly healing scar on her stomach and she was missing her entire left arm below the elbow. Patting his skully head Arya tried to reassure him but the boy refused to calm down.

"Are you hurt in the head? Why did to attack yourself? " he questioned with a worried look.

Ervin too gave her an inquisitive look. Sighing at the two she pointed at the group of Wolf beasts, they were fighting and tearing each other apart.

Ervin noticed the beasts focusing their attacks towards the wolves with large blood stains.

The beasts in the dungeon didn't bleed so that blood stain was definitely due to Arya's blood.

He stared back at Arya and found her smirking.

"They seemed to be intoxicated by the smell of blood, so I spilt as much blood as I could and spread it around the field. It can buy us time to escape and hide" she explained while controlling a part of her blood wings, making it detach itself from her and wrap around Ervin.

She used to make Ervin fly and then carried Peter with her right hand as they all flew away from the beasts behind them.

************************

Edinburg City.

Unlike the Edinburg Ford, Edinburg City was one of the 15 great cities of the world and acted as a home for a large population of humans.

Inside a chamber of a tall building near the city, an elderly man sat on a luxurious chair while caressing an orange cat.

A young woman stood opposite him, she had long silvery-white hair and crystal blue eyes. It was Fiona and she was staring at the elderly man with a tinge of respect.

The elderly man sighed and glanced at her,

"Are you sure that the vampires near the human camp are Selena's guards?" he asked in a tired voice.

"According to the reports, yes "

The elderly man's sigh deepened, " Of all things it had to be them" he muttered in frustration.

"Chief, Is something wrong?" Fiona asked in worry and received a nod in reply.

"Yes, things are very troublesome. One of my spies in the neighbouring city recently discovered proof linking Selena to human supremacists. I think her guards approached the human camp to conspire with a human supremacist for some wicked scheme "

Fiona's face grew pale as she listened to his theory. The caption of the human camp was a friend of hers and if there was a conspiracy then she knew that his life was in danger.

"I will visit the camp" she announced, expecting to be reprimanded but the chief just nodded,

"You can go. Veld wouldn't attack for some time"

Though sceptical about his statement Fiona saluted and rushed towards the exit.

Alone again the chief sighed and caressed his cat,

"I hope she will accept the position of city chief soon, this job is too exhausting for an old fool like me " he muttered to no one while glancing at the pile of papers on his desk.