The Battlefield

Year 2850 | Month 12 | Day 27

General Herald of the Collective Kingdom’s Eighth Legion shouts with more than a little irritation in his voice, “Get every magician you can to break past that barrier! We need to capture this fortress as soon as we possibly can to gain a foothold!”

“Yes, sir!” One soldier after another declares while running around like rabbits to follow his orders.

The general has been in a detestable mood ever since he was assigned to attack this territory. Particularly because this was the territory that none of the others wanted. A territory led by one of the nobles of the Kingdom of the Fallen that actually had nothing against asking for assistance from the other nobles.

He almost scoffs at the Kingdom of the Fallen’s idiocy. Fighting even at a time like this.

Despite word of their truce getting to the various attacking nations, every one of the nations has seen at least some conflict amongst the nobles even after the treaty. Leaving the territories with the most internal strife the most popular territories for the generals to target.

And yet, General Herald was assigned this territory due to the other generals having seniority over him. That in addition to the general’s status as the only Class B magician amongst the otherwise Class A magician generals.

So what can he do but take it out on his men?

There’s no one better for him to take his anger out on after all.

Other than the lightning spells he’s lobbing over at the barrier, occasionally managing to sneak one in to strike at the enemy soldiers within, that is.

But after several hours into the assault, something strange comes up.

At first he blows it off, executing the soldier who reported it to him under the accusation of him becoming mentally compromised. Since there was no way the report held any sort of truth to it.

There was no way it could.

After all, even if there was a vampire running through the forces with swords while casting spells, there is no way it would be able to regrow its head.

Then he started getting more and more similar reports about the same sort of thing.

A vampire wielding two swords throwing around fire spells while regrowing his arms.

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A vampire wielding two swords throwing around death spells while recovering completely in seconds from being burnt to ashes.

A vampire wielding two swords throwing around black flames reappearing after being completely annihilated from a Tier 4 spell.

And after executing three dozen soldiers and imprisoning another half a dozen, he finally begins to believe that either the enemy is purposefully altering the memories of his forces, or there truly is a vampire running through the battlefield.

So the general jumps out of the ship and heads personally towards the battlefield to check it out.

And when he arrives, the first thing he sees is exactly what his soldiers reported.

The general’s mouth parts open in silence as he watches a man with short and wavy brown hair, glowing crimson eyes, and black veins running across his face charging around with two swords in hand slicing apart the general’s men. And if that weren’t enough, the man is also occasionally casting spells, both of fire and death magic, at his forces. Occasionally using some sort of strange black flames.

But the strangest thing of everything he’s seen so far is that no matter how many times the man is injured, he just shrugs it off as the injury reverts. Almost as if time was being rewound on his body and the injured parts.

While most people would feel fear at this sight, the general feels something entirely different.

He feels greed.

The mere sight of this man and his immense regenerative prowess, and if his soldiers’ reports are correct, potential immortality drives the general’s mind towards the possible experiments he can conduct on the man to give himself those powers.

So the general does the first thing he can think of in a situation like this, his responsibility as a general losing out to his greed as a magician.

He shouts at his soldiers, “Capture the vampire!!!”

And immediately after hearing his order, all of the soldiers change their targets to the vampire, overwhelming him within moments.

But no matter what they do to him, he simply shrugs their attacks off. Even when he is completely captured, he simply self-destructs, taking a number of the general’s soldiers with him before he reemerges without a scratch on him. And naked, until he puts on clothes from a storage device he has on him, using the other soldiers’ shock and the smoke as a cover to do so.

After watching this pitiful display repeat itself several times, the general loses his patience and begins to march straight up towards the vampire while casting several spells at once. One of which creates a powerful barrier of lightning around him that blocks all of the bullets and spells being sent his way, and another that tosses a large web of lightning around the vampire. Followed by several bolts of lightning and an entire storm that quickly begins to strike anything near the vampire.

No matter what he does, though, he doesn’t stop marching towards his prize.

Because that’s all he cares about now. Not the war, not his soldiers, and not any benefits he can be given by the Collective Kingdoms.

He wants his path to immortality.

The same thing all magicians want.

And once he finally reaches his lightning web covering the vampire, he simply grins and turns towards his soldiers after seeing the man’s cold and emotionless eyes gazing up at him. No doubt unable to break out of a constriction spell as powerful as his.

But mere seconds after he turns around, the general feels pain blossoming from his chest along with a sense of warmth. So he looks down, just to see a sword sticking out of his armor.

An Arcadian Metal sword.

The general tries to turn his head, only to feel his strength leave him as his legs give way and he falls head-first into the sand.

Dead.