“Did it work?”

Scott and Micky were inside a hangar a few cities away from Torque. They were staring at a large screen, their mouths wide open. The explosion exploded for an eternity, but something was off.

Between the blast, the debris, the cries, and the smoke, they spotted a blue glow. When the camera’s lenses finally got a clear view, Micky jumped up from his seat.

“How is that possible?!”

Although many skeletons had disintegrated, the twelve flying wizards held their arms in the air, keeping an array intact. Using their combined power, they had formed a blue dome around the reptoids.

The shield disappeared a few seconds later, but the wizards weren’t exhausted. Hundreds of human and reptoid corpses levitated up. The cursed mages ripped away their flesh with magic, leaving only their bones intact. They dropped them on the streets, where stood a new skeleton army.

“Stephen, do you see this?!” Scott had heard of the skeleton cursed, but creating hundreds of soldiers within a few minutes was beyond his imagination. Stephen was as shocked as him.

…

“Killing the leader, huh?” Zephyr was in silver armour, but it looked better than the one worn by other reptoids. He examined the masked vampire with his laser shotgun.

He couldn’t see his expression through Rib’s bloodstained skeleton mask, but Zephyr could see his stance. He was holding his curved blade without a shred of doubt, with an expert’s valour, and his stance was perfect.

Zephyr smiled through his helmet. “That’s not a bad plan-”

“If you can win!” Zephyr pulled the trigger.

Rib jumped away and narrowly avoided the shotgun’s blast. The reptoid fired continuously. A laser scratched his shoulder, but the vampire threw the reptoid off with his speed. Once Zephyr realized he had moved behind him, Rib’s scimitar was already on its way to cut his neck.

However, Zephyr’s armour had sensors. It was alive in a way. As soon as it detected the threat, the armour closed in the gap between his helmet and body armour.

Rib’s sword vibrated after colliding with the metal bandage. His wrist broke, yet he kept hold of his short sword and flew away.

The armour responded again. Two sets of chains bolted out of Zephyr’s shoulder plates. Zephyr then jumped extremely high. The masked vampire’s leader flew up until he was out of reach. He dug into his long vest before pitching his plasma disk at Zephyr.

Despite being in the air, the armour moved on its own again, protecting Zephyr as if he were its egg. The disk flew by him. “That was close!”

“You shouldn’t have messed with our territory!” Rib dived down like an arrow. He held his scimitar into his two palms and smashed it onto the

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unrelenting armour. He wasn’t trying to cut Zephyr but to blunt his metal plate.

“Urgh!” Zephyr fell and made a large crack inside the pavement. But he didn’t stay dull as long as Rib had hopped. He fired a laser at Rib’s left leg. It penetrated.

Rib had left a small opening. The armour’s chains attacked again. Thankfully, they hit Rib’s sturdy mask. The skeleton mask fell off, revealing his true face.

“So that’s what you look like!”

His face was charred and mottled. His black vampire eyes had two identical cross-shape scars. Rib’s nose’s cartilage poked out of his thin, saggy skin. It wasn’t the face of a ruler. It was the face of someone scarred for life, someone who had gotten tortured into becoming a vampire.

Zephyr grimaced. “How repelling!”

Rib suddenly did a slight hand movement: he was calling back his disk.

“Oh no you don’t!” Zephyr jumped onto him with primal force, grabbing his injured leg; crushing it.

The vampire gasped. He couldn’t move. The disk was approaching. He tried to fly- it was useless. He chose to catch it, but Zephyr punched his vertebrae: his nerves were screaming, no longer complying with his brain… or his soul.

“NO!” The high-pitched scream echoed throughout the fallen city. The disk -his own plasma disk- stuck into his skull. The damage was too much.

‘The others’ll resuscitate me!’ It was impossible, not with the injury he had sustained. ‘They’ll save me. They’ll kill that reptoid!’ His brain fantasized as the oxygen level within his bloodstream plummeted.

The battle was lost; the victors had already been decided a few seconds ago.

“I… So this is how I die…” Rib’s body slowly burnt into ashes. A vampire’s death was agonizing.

The other combatants were either dead or on their deathbed like him. Zephyr’s army took no prisoners since the corpses were more useful to the wizards. Luckily, since Rib’s bones were cracked, he wouldn’t be resurrected into a monster.

There weren’t only fighters that died that day. Rib glanced at a baby right beside the street, in a park. Its skin was blue, its head crushed. The baby had died inside her mother's cold arms. Over five million citizens had perished: half of the city’s population.

A small portion had managed to escape the city during the fight. The rest were people who had already evacuated before the battle because of Stephen Cure’s warnings.

Rib spoke his last words, or he thought he did. He couldn’t hear his voice. “This is the end for us. Raphael Vanthorn, I hope I was a good enough assassin for you. I’m sorry I failed you. Only you could lead the Masked Vampires.”

“I didn’t even care for Gabriella’s rebellion.” He smiled. “It was a good run.”

The bloody battlefield turned into a sea of ashes. The vampires left no trace behind as they soared towards the sky- but there was a roof above the Obscure Guild. It took a few hours before a vent released them into the open air.

…

Zephyr stood up. He spat on the ground and adjusted his helmet. He looked at his wrist, at the armour’s digital screen. He called his wife.

Stana responded immediately. “Hi, dear.”

“I am done with the first city. It is time for you to make your way out.”

Stana was on a balcony, leisurely drinking a glass of wine. “Don’t worry, I’m finished on my side too. The other reptoids will be able to keep distracting the two armies long enough.”

“Then I guess the hostages hold no value anymore. Do what you want with them.”

“I’ll go kill them right now!” Stana said between her sharp teeth and foaming mouth. She was thrilled by the thought of killing Aaron and Ejiro, tormenting them one last time.