Things have been a bit of a blur since the crash. All I remember of the crash is a massive spike of pain in one of my legs, causing me to black out in pain. At the moment I am not even sure just how much time has passed since the crash has occured.

It has not been a whole lot of time thankfully. Since I can still tell that the control formations of my ship have begun to start burning. It is not a pleasant feeling to have control of a formation that is being physically destroyed. It feels like somebody is yanking on all the nerves of your body. Right now that is the case with a majority of my formations so let's just say it is hard for me to think in this pain. It is something that I am somewhat used to thankfully.

Well, crashing into the ground has brought us some time. It will take them time to land safely on the ground, and then rush their way towards our location. We fell right into the trees, something that Matthew will not do unless he wants to crash right to the ground. It does not give us very long.

Right now my goals are only related to the survival of me and my soldiers. blindly flailing about is not going to be helping me out. that means that I will have to take a deep breath and focus.

right now there are two points of worry, first being my sword. finding the sword is going to be easy. after all I am able to sense the thing though I can only tell the general direction. I set out from the wreck of a room that is the formation control room. it is completely levelled, partly destroyed from the fire and partly crushed by the roof of the room which has fallen into the formation room.

The sword is fine, if a bit dusty due to having fallen on the ground. The crash to the ground had thrown it quite far into the forest. Even touching it gives me a sense of security. After finding this, it does not take me long to find the members of my troop as well.

Speaking of the ship, it has been completely and absolutely destroyed. Most of the damage is due to the fires caused by the enemies cannon. Thankfully, most of the damage seems to be physical. I don't even want to check the damage that might have happened to the formation.

I find Trevor first. The man is not dead, thankfully and is directing Andrew into giving first aid to Jacob. All of them are banged up but nobody is dead which was my worry.

Sadly, their injuries are enough to leave them quite helpless on the battlefield. I will have to make sure that they have escape to make sure that all of us survive.

"What are we going to be doing, Trevor.", I ask the man. I already have an idea but it is not like asking the man will hurt me.

"Well, captain I would assume that the ship is well and truly fucked.", he asks me. "Then our only option is to abandon ship and make it to the inner keep before the enemy catches up to us."

"We won't be flying on this anytime soon.", I reply.

"Well, then we will have to make our way towards the fortress as quickly as possible.", Trevor speaks. "The organisation is our only hope."

"Well, we are about a day away from the city. Travelling there might risk a fight.", I reply. "I am not sure if I will be able to win a fight with the vampire called as Matthew."

"Well, it would be wise that we leave at this moment.", andrew speaks up suddenly. "We cannot be sure when the enemy will be making their move. We aren't in the state to even fight of a team of bandits."

"I am sure that they are already here. If not, I wouldn't even be sure if we were fighting bandits", Trevor replies. "Somehow I get the sense it was not the ship that has attracted the attention of the enemy."

"Well, I have reason to believe that enemy leader is able to track my presence. I am atleast sure that the man can speak to me remotely.", I speak. "The only chance of survival that we are going to have is that you guys escape now while the enemy is still faraway. I will act as bait, distracting the enemy forces."

"Are you sure that you will be able to do so, captain", Trevor replies. "You were barely able to survive against only the man the last time. Now he will have the support of an entire ship. I would not be surprised if he has the other captains too."

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"Well, all I can do is try. I can ensure that I am alive if I am alone. If I have to worry about your safety as well, things will get complicated quickly", I reply. "Anyway, our goal is to escape. This seems to be the best way."

It did not take long for us to quickly complete our plan after this and even more quickly for the troop to leave me. Right now I am walking in a direction opposite to theirs.

It is a weird experience if I am to be Frank. The forest is a strange and dangerous place for me. It does not help that I am waiting for a voice in my head to go of which would herald in a fight that I am not sure if I will win. It causes an itch in my teeth.

It does not take long for the enemy to appear though. To be clear it is an enemy, as I can only sense Matthew. The man has no reinforcements and the man is certainly not trying to ambush me. With every step of his I become more sure that the man can sense me. His steps are too purposeful for that not to be the case.

"Young mutt, it would be wise if you do not force me into a fight.", the man speaks before appearing in front of me. "Would you believe me If I have only come to talk to you. I have not even brought my soldiers with me."

"Well, I would have assumed that you would have brought an entire team with you. After all, I have killed one of you before.", I reply. It is mostly bravado that keeps me talking.

"Well, I will be frank. Esmeralda is a bit of an idiot. She has such little control over her emotions that I am not sure how she survived till now.", the man speaks. "She possessed a body haphazardly and then she grew angry enough to follow you into a purifying ground. She is a fool, I am not."

"Well, will you kill me now then.", I reply, sounding confident though my heart is beating like a drum. I am sure the man opposite me can hear it. "You can certainly try. Who knows I might just end up killing this pawn of yours."

As the man's hand extends into claws, I remove my sword. I don't activate it but circle my vital mana. We circle each other for a few seconds.

I block his first hand with the flat of my blade, while dodging his second hand.

"Well, what would a genius formation mage like you would be doing with the guard corps.", the man speaks, while charging towards me.

"Well, how can you be sure that the sword was created by me.", I reply, while blocking him again. With this second clash I am sure this man does not know how to fight in hand to hand combat.

"I am a vampire of great age, young mutt.", he replies. "I understand the magic that you use."

He replies while blocking a strike of mine.

"Well, that doesn't explain why would you be coming to fight me alone. Also I would like to know how exactly you are tracking me." I ask the man. "Do we need to be fighting like this. You seem to be more interested in talking to me than fighting me."

"Appearances have to be maintained, young man. You never know who is looking at you.", he replies. "I would like to kill you, but the body of a grunt does not allow me many tools. You seem to be proficient in using that sword of yours too."

He enforces this point by attacking me which I block again. It was not even particularly hard.

"Still, it is true that you are useful. How you are useful you will have to understand. Right now there are three clans of vampires.", he speaks. "The first among them are the flaming moon. They wield flame magic, as you can guess and are quite skilled at combat."

(By the way we are still fighting. I have just removed all descriptions of it to keep consistency of the knowledge that he speaks.)

"Why are you speaking of this?", I ask him.

"They are good at combat, but have no sense of strategy. Most are idiots like Esmeralda.", he speaks, ignoring my question. "The second clan is hunger kings. They practice the art of flesh transmutation, capable of devouring it to grow more powerful. You need to beware them. You never know what they can do."

"Seriously why are you telling me this.", I ask again.

"Youngsters, dont even have the patience to listen their leaders.", he speaks. "You want to know why I have come here to speak to you. You have the potential to screw things with them."

"Oh", is all that I am able to tell the man. I relax a second to process this information and a strike to the throat that I barely block with my sword is the reward.

"Let me tell you of us vampires, young mutt. We are forced to work together due to the threat that we face from your kind.", he says "that means many things, but the thing you need to know is we do not like each other. If you can cause problems for them, why wont I describe them to you."

(At this moment we have stopped the sham of our fight.)

"So you must be the third faction. What is your mission?", I ask.

"Now why would I be going about making my mission harder, grunt. The failure of this mission would certainly cause me a few headaches.", he replies. "it is true that I don't want to kill you, but I also have people that I must work with. Can't have them complaining. Think of this as a test.

As he speaks this his eyes suddenly starts to bleed. I cannot even wonder as to a reason why as my head bursts in pain.

It feels like a worm that is worming into my head.

"Let this be a lesson too, since that sword of yours is fascinating.", he speaks. "Blood mana is like a wild bull. If you do not have control over the bull, it is very easy to cause it to rampage. To a skilled mage he won't even break a sweat. That is even true even if you were to dilute blood mana with other types. The only way forward is absolute control. Anyway here are your allies. I would have thought that I would have to maintain this sham for eternity. You really need to think about getting better soldiers."

He continues speaking but I am not able to make out anything more as the world around me becomes a void in which I feel as if I am drowning.