{Darisyn}
Like a thunderclap they collided with each other.
The vampire was forming weapons faster than it takes to breathe, only for them to be summarily destroyed.
Both were moving so fast that the air around them was rapidly heating, not that that effected them in the least bit.
The lord sought to eviscerate Darisyn by swing a blood hatchet at his belly, but Darisyn swiped it away, and punched his chest at full power.
The lord's entire upper body was blown apart, a fine mist of blood filled the air.
In the same split second he got blasted apart blood reformed his upper body, and solidified into flesh and armor.
His arm, which turned into a blood blade, swiped at Darisyn's neck.
Causing him to leap backwards out of danger.
"You held back against Eztli, you're way stronger than I thought you were."
The lord said as arm turned back to normal.
"Yes, I did."
Darisyn stretched.
"She wouldn't answer whether or not she was the monster lord, so I couldn't risk wasting my full power on her. You also were holding back, the level of your bloodmancy is beyond anything I've ever seen in vampires. Though I've heard wondrous things could be accomplished with it."
The vampire grinned.
"You have no idea."
The lord turned into a large blood mist cloud, and flew at Darisyn.
Darisyn shot a blast of light at the cloud, only for the cloud to seperate, and reform as a huge wolf.
The wolf snapped at Darisyn's throat, but received a blast of fire to the side.
Evaporating the blood that the vampire is made of.
The lord landed on the floor hard writhing in pain, before taking his true vampire form once more.
"Fire? You've never used fire for your entire battle in my dungeon!"
The lord stated, as he was rapidly healing.
"Everyone knows that vampires' main weakness is flame."
"You should have used a stronger flame then."
Grinning at Darisyn's mistake.
"A stronger flame might've killed you."
The Vampire lost his smirk.
"What kind of adventurer wouldn't wish to kill a monster lord?"
"I'm no adventurer, and I'm not here to kill you."
"That would be a mistake, seeing as I will,"
He finished healing, and threw a blood spear at Darisyn.
"KILL YOU!"
The spear barely missed Darisyn's eye as he dodged.
And just like that the vamp was also on him, forgoing weapons, and just slashing and biting at him like a beast.
Then, bladed blood tentacles burst from the lord's back, and slashing randomly.
Darisyn was quickly racking up injuries, and sensing weakness, the lord sped up his attacks.
Finally, he punched him in the chest, sending Darisyn flying through a pillar and into the wall.
The wall broke all the way up to the ceiling, showering him in rubble.
"Did you really think a weak human could beat ME?!"
The vampire yelled at him, while returning back to his normal form.
"But I while say one thing although,"
He regained his composure.
"you were my toughest battle in a long while. So, I think I'm going to make you into one of my vampires. In a millennia or two you might even get strong enough to challenge a dragon!"
He started walking towards the rubble when the rocks burst out at him.
He immediately made a shield out of blood.
When he was able to put the shield down, he saw Darisyn in his true demonic form.
"You...you're....you're no human! You're a..."
Darisyn shrugged.
"A demon, yes, I know. I was hoping that this form would be unnecessary."
This was dangerous! The vampire lord knew this in the very pit of his stomach.
The demon wasn't even aiming it at him, but he could feel the frigid oppression of the mana coming off of it.
He'd put one hundred per... No! One hundred and fifty percent in his next attack! He'd have to go above and beyond to survive.
He put all of his power in his right arm, swung i...
The demon was already at him lowering his leg, and the lord's right was... gone, just... gone!
Along with the entire wall behind him, Darisyn had kicked his arm gone.
The wall with enchanted stones that could handle an all out brawl between him and Eztli, and everything beyond that wall.
The outside was visible!
"That's why I hoped it would be unnecessary. I didn't want to destroy your castle, the wrath form is too strong."
Darisyn actually looked contrite about serverily damaging his home.
It wasn't too late, he could still survive if he kills him before he can react.
The vampire swiftly transformed his other arm into a blood mace, to catch him off guard.
Just soon as he formed it, it and another section of the castle was gone.
"Bloodmancy is truly amazing. All vampires are made completely out of blood - even your mana-hearts, allowing all of you to do a vast array of things, and as you age you just gather more and more blood. Because you regenerate using said blood, you are nigh unkillable once you reach old age. Although,"
Darisyn poked his torso with one finger, and he exploded because of the otherworldly force. Only to regenerate a second later.
"If someone were to use fire, or just keep injuring you until you use the entirety of your blood reserves, you will die."
Darisyn kept poking him to make him explode, let him regenerate, and started the cycle all over again.
"Do tell me before that happens. I'd rather not have to start the hunt for another monster lord."
It took Darisyn fourteen more pokes before he heard the words he was looking to hear.
"I... I... surrender."
"Oh, good."
What do you mean by that?
And?
Indeed I did.
Before Darisyn could respond to that, the vampire spoke.
"I assume that you now seek to magically enslave m..."
Darisyn held up his hand to cut him off.
"No need."
"What?! You came all this way, fought my top fighters, beat me, and you see no need to enslave me!"
"Yeah, that's what I said." Darisyn pulled him up to his feet.
"I didn't want to fight you in the first place. I just want to recruit some of your army for my mistress, and I see no need to steal your freedom for that."
"Dragomir."
"Hmm?"
"That is my name. You said you'd take it after you beat me."
He deadpanned.
"Well, then, Dragomir, how about you show me around? I'd like a fair gauge of what assistance you will be able to provide."
"Most of the vampires under me are fledglings."
Dragomir said, trying to dissuade him from wanting his fellow vampires.
"Then don't send them."
Darisyn responded without missing a beat.
"You wouldn't force me to send them?"
Darisyn shook his head, while he got Dragomir to lead him out of the destroyed room.
"You've got thousands of monsters here. I, myself, encountered dozens of different packs of weres in your forest alone. Which is why I want a consensus on the population here; I need a powerful enough strike force, but not at the expense of your ability to protect your territory."
"I... don't understand you. You could claim everything I own, you're more than strong enough."
"I came here to accomplish a goal of my mistress, but there's no need to make an enemy for no reason."
"Okay then, we should go get Eztli, she runs the day to day here."
Eztli - who was waiting in the throne room- joined them as they walked through the castle towards the dungeon (a prison type dungeon).
Dragomir also told Darisyn estimates of his monsters.
24,000 orcs
15,000 lizardmen
400 banewolves
10,000 weres
5 land dragons
30,000 imps
1 deathroller
800 ogres
200 vampires
5,000 .....
Even Darisyn was shocked, he had over a hundred thousand monsters.
"And this is my laboratory."
Dragomir said as they arrived at the dungeon. It is filled with monsters and humans in cages.
"Laboratory for what purpose?"
"To test the limitations of my existence."
He smiled.
"As most know, when a human becomes a vampire they become a completely new species with nothing left of their past selves except for their memories, but for a few rare cases they retain their special ability they had as a human."
"So, you are trying to get vampires to always retain their special ability?"
"Not only that."
He gestured to the cages.
"What if I'm able to not only turn humans into vampires, but monsters as well? And get rid of our weakness to fire and sunlight, which causes our precious mass to evaporate?"
"You seek to make your kind perfect?"
"We already are perfect. I just intend to not let the lesser beings close the gap."
Darisyn thought he sounded just like the elves, which made sense considering they were both made by vanity demons.
Possibly.
"But I digress, let me show my progress!"
They first stopped by a cage with an orc in it. Half of its body was melted into a puddle of blood goo, and its one remaining eye was staring at nothing, dry, and lifeless.
"Oh, this one is a failure. Eztli get rid of it, and replace it with another orc."
She just nodded. Implying that this was a normal occurrence.
The next cage held a Jadian.
"What's so special about him? Isn't he just a normal human?"
The human glared at Dragomir and the newcomer.
"No, all humans down here have exceptional amounts of mana, and act like they're a god's gift to everyone."
"If they're so exceptional, how did you capture them?"
"Stupidity."
He pointed at the Jadian.
"This one thought of fighting me like a game. He called me a field boss, whatever that means. He didn't properly prepare, I whooped his ass, and he became a test subject."
He then pointed to a brown haired guy with piercing brown eyes.
"That one, after being betrayed, went on a revenge filled rampage. Not quite caring about the innocent people he hurt along his path, the brother of one of his victims sacrificed his life tricking him here."
Next one up was what could only be called a pretty boy with bronze skin and roguish good looks.
"He has the power to brainwash the opposite sex. He cucked a lot of people, I mean... A lot of people including both genders. Those slighted people bound him, beat him, and threw him in here. Luckily for him, he was able to control a female ogre to protect him until I got there. Then again, that might have actually unlucky for him."
Then he gestured to a girl of Kashian descent.
"She also has power over the opposite sex, and tried to make me fall in love with her.
When I told her no thanks, she tried to insult me by asking if I was gay, and was truly pissed when I said yes I am.
I didn't expect it would make her angry enough to physically attack me with her weak ass, but here we are."
Next up a was a blonde girl.
"She powers I can't even fully explain, buts she's an idiot."
"How?"
He sighed, embarrassed for her.
"She came here saying how all humans are evil scum, that I'm just misunderstood, I'm really a good person inside, and that she'll take the first step of trust. I conked her over the head, and brought her here."
"Are all the rest the same?"
Darisyn asked, looking around himself at the many human filled cages.
"If you mean incredibly uninformed, unprepared, and unintelligent, then yes."
"HOW CAN YOU STAND THERE, AND DO NOTHING?! YOU'RE A HUMAN TOO!!!!"
The brown haired one screamed at Darisyn.
Dragomir was about to punish him, but Darisyn stopped him.
"Why should I? Don't you know that you deserve this?"
Both the humans, and Dragomir was shocked by Darisyn's answer.
"Wha..."
"You went on a murderous rampage, and I can bet that a few innocent people got killed too."
"Everyone I killed deserved it! Evil scum don't deserve a happy ending."
"And I bet the ones who hurt you thought you deserved it as well. Revenge isn't a precision type of weapon, it's a cudgel. When you kill someone it doesn't just affect his family, but an entire web of people connected to him. So, even if you didn't directly hurt an innocent - which I very much doubt, you certainly indirectly did. But forget all of that."
Darisyn glanced at all of the humans.
"You are all evil. You only selfishly thought of what was best for you, just like those who hurt all of you did."
He looked back at him.
"And what was it you just poetically said? Scum don't deserve a happy ending."
"I... we..."
Darisyn turned away from him to continue his conversation with Dragomir which was so rudely interrupted.
"If you are testing vampiric ability retention, why aren't they vampires yet?"
"Free will, it's always a problem when a creator seeks to make something new. Just ask any evil necromancer or summoner who gets an uppity creation who wants to be a hero."
That is truly an epidemic in the villain communities.
"I need to completely dominate their will first. Like so."
His eyes turbed blood red, and tendrils spread outward from his eyesockets.
The blonde girl started shivering, before completely thrashing about and shrieking her head.
"Eeeeeeiiiiiihhhh!"
She let out sounds no sane human should be able to.
"Stop asshole!"
Ignoring the Jadian, he kept going until she fainted.
"Almost, in time I will have it."
Darisyn clapped him on the shoulder.
"It is fine, you'll get it eventually if you keep trying. Anyway, I've seen enough. Let us leave."
They turned to leave, but the Jadian screamed at Darisyn.
"Don't you dare call yourself a human after this! You koshinuke*!"
*coward.
Darisyn turned back towards him.
"First of all, I don't know what that means. And why would I call myself human?"
He took on his demonic form.
"Do I look human to you?"
The kid flinched back.
"Demon lord!"
"Close, Duke actually."
With that they left.
___________
A day later, Darisyn, Dragomir, and Etzli were outside of the dungeon.
It is the dead of night, and Etzli just finished carving out a teleportation circle, and placed mana-hearts around it.
Etzli's attire is nearly the same as when she first met Darisyn, except for a poncho with a hood.
"As we agreed. You and Eztli will return to your mistress, and she will carve the teleportation circle to bring over the agreed upon amount of monsters."
"Are sure taking her with me is truly necessary? Not being able to travel in the day will hamper my speed."
"Don't worry, she won't slow you down. Before she was my right hand, she was a nomadic vampire from out west. She's over five hundred years old, so she can take the sunlight for longer than an average vampire. You'll only lose six hours a day tops. The true question is if you'll be able to keep up with her."
She spread her arms through the slits of the poncho, blood poured out of her skin, and formed blood bat wings on her arms.
"Okay, then."
He turned to fly, but stopped and turned back.
"By the way, I've seen your army, how did a Low-rank escape from your grasp?"
Dragomir sighed.
"He didn't. My underlings had killed him first and left him to rot near the entrance, but one of his comrades had an ability I'd kill to have tried to get!"
"What was the ability?"
"He turned mana into life energy itself! He died shortly afterwards, but not before reviving his friend. The said friend was then able to escape."
"That's unf..."
"Let's go, we're burning moonlight."
Etzli cut him off. Which was fine - they were supposed to be heading out, but she said it in a really squeaky voice.
"Wait, that's how you sound?"
"What's wrong with how I sound?"
"Nothing, it's just not how I expected you to sound like."
Instead of responding, she spread her wings, and took off into the night sky.
Darisyn quickly followed suit.