An alleyway in the city of Draquerth
Night time
"What? A knight? Come to think of it how did he catch that knife? What the hell is going on here and why couldn't I sense any mana flactuations coming from him?" thought Meriel as the man in black approached them, little did she know that Neel was already that fast without the use of magic to boost his speed.
"Where is my wife?!" shouted Neel, seemingly unafraid of the implications of their current situation.
"A knight? Pfft, more like a dunce. Can't he see the situation we're in? Maybe I can use him as a decoy and escape when I get the chance." thought Meriel.
"I don't know who your wife is but worry not. We will search for her after all this is over." said the leader of the assassins as he threw even more knives conjured from darkness at Neel.
Neel simply caught them once more. Each time a knife was caught it dissipated back into the darkness.
"Hmm. You're quite fast for a second order knight. Could it be that you're just cloaking your mana core in order to reduce the mana flactuations?" said the leader as he formed a scythe from the darkness around him.
"Well from what I can tell you're a third order knight at best. You probably have a few magical artifacts to help boost your power." said the man as the group dressed in black pounced on Meriel and Neel at high speeds. The fact that they could manipulate darkness made their movements impossible to detect.
"Shit!" thought Meriel.
A few minutes earlier when Neel entered the tavern
"Don't worry little one, your papa will be out in a second. He just went in to get a mage to see if there's anything wrong with you. No need to be upset." Lillian said to Arya, more to comfort herself than to comfort the baby.
*Swish*
Lillian heard someone move in the darkness. "Who is there? I don't have any money. Please leave me alone." Lillian said into the darkness.
She couldn't sense anyone in the darkness but her instincts told her she was being watched. She subconsciously pulled Arya even closer.
"What is this uneasy feeling. Am I scared?" thought Arya as he watched from his mothers arms.
"Mmmmm.... what bountiful life force." said a voice from the darkness. "Seems today we shall have a feast." said another voice from the darkness.
In the blink of an eye two figures appeared in front of Lillian smiling from ear to ear.
"Vampires!" thought Arya and Lillian in unison. "What are vampires doing in Draquerth? I could take care of one easily without magic but I can't risk hurting Arya while fighting two. And Arya's just a baby. He can't handle my frost aura." she thought to herself.
"Hmm interesting aren't you scared human? This is usually the part where you turn and run and I then rip your heart out. It's no fun if you don't show any fear. Well it matters not. I will have both your life forces. I don't know what that thing you're holding is, but it looks pretty tas-." the taller vampire tried to say when Lillian punched him in the stomach sending him crashing into a wall.
She took that as her chance to run away.
Although she was moving considerably fast. Vampires are naturally fast beings, so fast most humans wouldn't even be able to follow their movements. Adding the fact that vampires are masters in dark magic, made their already unfathomable speed increase 3 fold as they manipulated the darkness around them to augment their body.
"You're probably the fastest human I've ever seen. I've never had to use dark magic to catch up to a human before." said a vampire innocently as she caught up to the side of Lillian. Now that they were under the moonlight Lillian could see that she was a female. The vampire looked quite young, about 13 years old with blood red eyes and black hair. She had a very small stature but a domineering presence.
"You've pissed me off woman. I was going to give you a painless death but now I'll make sure to savor your screams." said the taller male vampire as he lunged for Lillian at full speed.
Although he used the darkness to camouflage his movements. Lillian's instincts allowed her to dodge the life threatening attack and make it out with just a scratch on her arm.
"Stop struggling. I infused my claws with dark magic. Even if you were a life mage it would take you hours to cleanse you're body. And by that time your body wouldn't even be able to move a muscle." said the male vampire smiling.
"I can't fight them while holding Arya. I need to get Neel to help me." thought Lillian to herself.
"What the hell is going on here? First magic then super fast humans, now vampires? And why do I feel cold?" thought Arya as he felt the pressure being emitted by the two beings. If not for Lillian covering him with a bit of her own aura he would have passed out. "Wait, are they any elves here?" thought Arya excitedly as he remembered all the elven smut he had read back on Earth. "Not the time or the age to be thinking of such." Arya scolded himself.
Current time
Neel
The man with a scythe brought down his weapon in an attempt to slice Neel in half. Neel caught the tip of the blade with his index and middle finger. As he caught the blade is turned into a flail whose tip went past Neels hand and went for his face.
Neel then let go of the flail and tried to step back quickly. Just as he was about to step back another figure appeared from the dark with twin blades in his hand. One was aimed at Neels throat while the other at his chest. Neel tried to catch the figure by the arms but went through him instead. "Illusionary magic. And I can't use my senses to determine who is real and who is fake because they are all shrouded by darkness." he thought to himself.
"Seems I'm going to have to get a bit serious." he thought to himself as a white glow appeared behind him.
"Producat in lucem." chanted Meriel behind him as the area around her was filled with light. "Did you idiots forget that I'm a life mage."
As the light touched their weapons they became more ethereal. All the illusions disappeared and the 12 man were left exposed.
"Last chance. Where is my wife?" Neel said as he approached the leader.
As he was about to reach the leader, "In lucem edere." chanted a few people behind the leader then the light was suddenly engulfed by darkness.
"There are mages among them! Deal with them first. I can't use my magic with them counter-acting it." said Meriel as sweat began forming on her face.
The assassin leader did hand gestures to his men and several of them disappeared into the darkness.