The Red Claws were assembled.
All fifty members of the elite werewolf warrior group, the best fighters in Mount Diros and the King's personal bodyguards assembled in their eye catching red knight like armors, armed with their shields and spear ready for instructions from Xitraq, who stood in front of them as their commander and Huntus, right beside her leading his own squad of guards.
"Half of you will follow me into battle alongside our King. The other twenty five I want you to remain on high alert, aid our guards in their patrols tonight. We have reports of a Blood Knight. Our goal is to subdue him, interrogate him. If that's not possible, you have my authority to kill him."
"Yes Xitraq!" The troops roared in unison.
Xitraq proceeded towards the back end of the hallway while her troops prepared. Xitraq entered the armory, finding Woxlife being armored up by the werewolf blacksmith, Feroz. Woxlife was in his wolf form, a large variety of different scars and bruises, covering his body, visible even through his thick werewolf fur.
Xitraq knew of Woxlife's battles, even following beside him for many of them. Despite that...every time she looked at those scars on the King, she can't help but feel her heart aching for him. The massive dents in the sides of his back and chest, the deep stitched up scars, any man would have retired long ago from all these injuries.
"Woxlife...you should sit this one out." Xitraq suggests.
Woxlife remained silent, putting on his full King War Armor, decked out in full black iron with treads of gold and silver lining up ancient patterns across each armor plating. Woxlife looked at Xitraq, well aware of her concerns. "The first Blood Knight appearance in a decade. You remembered what happened the last time the King's Rage wasn't available in a battle with a Blood Knight."
"You said it yourself. A decade has passed. We have been way more prepared since then."
"So did they. We definitely aren't the only ones who prepared." Woxlife corrects her.
"Feroz, are you not gonna say anything?" Xitraq turns to the blacksmith who sighed. "What can I possibly say? Protocol must be followed. When a Blood Knight appears, either ten Red Claws or fifty warrior class wolves must be present or the King himself. I see no harm in bringing more than that to ensure quick and certain victory."
"I have the strength of five Red Claws myself. We are more than enough."
"Xitraq. When have I ever been wrong?" Woxlife asks her.
"That's exactly what I'm worried about. Your visions are dangerous. You are the type of person that sees the future for the rest of us, but never for yourself. That's what I'm worried about." Xitraq tells him. Woxlife sighs, knowing that she was right but even so...he needed to do what he has to.
"I'm not going to die soon. The visions have confirmed it."
"Okay..." Xitraq reluctantly accepts.
"Bring ten archers with us as well. Piers and Huntus shall join us." Woxlife tells Xitraq as just at the right moment, Piers reported in full battle armor alongside a worried Vansel. Vansel hesitated, on one hand he knew that the wolves were clearly in combat mode, ready to fight off something dangerous but on the other hand...his heart was in a rapid worry.
He didn't know how long Demi had left.
If he was lucky, he had a week. But he wasn't...was this a risk he was willing to make?
"Vansel. I understand your concern. Xitraq, deploy two Red Claws with him to the airport." Woxlife commands, seemingly reading Vansel's mind. Vansel nods:" Thank you. If you don't mind I really wish to leave soon. I hope you understand my concerns and hopefully...I don't inconvenient you guys too much."
"Yeah...I can live with that. I don't wanna see you here anyway." Xitraq agreed.
"I can escort him." Piers volunteered when Xitraq stopped him. "You always wanted to be a Red Claw right? You are going to join us in this battle, we will evaluate your combat skills and determine if you can join our ranks." Xitraq offered. Vansel gave Piers a thumbs up, knowing that he was after all just a young adult trying to prove himself, a position anyone would be in at some point in their lives.
"Okay." Piers agreed.
"Let's go." Woxlife announces.
Vansel walked away from the main group, led by Grandyll as he watched the main door of Mount Diros open, Woxlife leading his small army of wolves out into the evening sunset. Xitraq leading twenty five Red Claws, Huntus leading ten archers and Piers, all going out into battle. "You're probably very confused about everything that is going on. Hopefully when you get your son here, we'll give him the Solar Leaf and that will be the end of your adventure here." Grandyll tells him.
"I hope so too." Vansel answered.
"Alicia, Rex. You two shall bring him to the airport." Grandyll turns to the Red Claws as the two of the werewolves reported to him. Alicia, a she wolf with a long ponytail, armed with a thin, long sword in her red armor and Rex, another Red Claw in full armor armed with a silver shield and long spear. "Alright dude, let's go I guess." Alicia tells Vansel.
"Wait, wait, hold on. If you guys don't mind let me call my wi-...my son's mother. It'll be easier to explain everything here and get him over to the airport than vice versa." Vansel tells the two Red Claws. Rex handed him his phone as Vansel thanked the elite warrior, phoning in Amy's number.
"Hello?" Vansel spoke to Amy for the first time in days.
"You remembered us." Amy didn't sound happy.
"Listen to me...I know I've been gone for awhile. But I found it...a potential cure. It sounds stupid, it's a really crazy and long story that I will explain to you eventually but for now, I need you to do exactly as I say okay? How is he?" Vansel blurted out sentence after sentence.
"Cure? What did you find?"
"A herb. One that is high up in the mountains. There is a...community here, willing to help us out. At this stage Amy, we might as well try. There's nothing left to lose." Vansel convinces her. Vansel could her Amy taking deep breaths from the other side of the phone, trying to control her emotions." He's...very weak. He can barely walk, I had to bring him out on a wheelchair these past few days for him to get some fresh air. Also...we don't have any money left."
"I know. I need you to discharge him. Bring him to North Carolina Airport. I will meet you there."
"Vansel...we have no money. For air tickets." Amy reminds him.
Vansel paused as he looked around, spotting Grandyll just a few feet away from him. "Alright...just hang on a moment." Vansel tells Amy as he walked up to the veteran werewolf. "Sorry Grandyll...this is really embarrassing but...do you happen to have some money you can borrow? I can't afford plane tickets to get them here."
Grandyll faced him, sensing the desperation in his voice.
"Oh...I don't have anything on me at the moment. None of us do I mean, there is no currency in the mountain. However, there's a bank several kilometers from the mountain. The teller is...one of us. Just let him know I sent you, take the amount you need. Rex and Alicia both know how to do things from there so just let them guide you." Grandyll offered.
"I'll repay you some day. I promise." Vansel tells Grandyll who whispered to himself:" We know."
"Okay, I have a little money with me here. Just enough to get you two over here. In about a few hours just get him discharged, they shouldn't have any problems with letting him go home. I'll be heading down to the nearest bank in my area to transfer you the money." Vansel returned back to the call. Amy paused for a moment:" What about...okay you know what. Demi is our priority, any problems after that, we'll deal with when he is healthy again."
"Follow us. There should be a car or two for us to rent at the village." Rex adds.
"Okay. Lead the way." Vansel agreed.
Vansel soon found himself at the foot of the mountain once more where Alicia had successfully gotten rent for a black truck for them to use for the day. Both werewolves returned to their human forms as Vansel nervously looked at his freshly recharged phone, messages he missed for the past few days poured in. Amy's texts, flooding his phone, worried about his lack of updates.
"It's okay man, you're doing something about it right? The bank is only half an hour away." Alicia turns to Vansel, making sure he was okay. "Yeah...yeah I hope so." Vansel answered her.
The sky was going from orange to blue.
The evening light would not last for long and knowing the vampires who attacked him just in the morning, if they could be active during a cloudy day, how active would they be at night? Is this why the wolves refuse to leave the mountain after sundown?
"Alicia and Rex right?" Vansel asks the two Red Claws.
"Yeah?" Alicia responds.
"If these vampires are so dangerous, why haven't the human population here done anything about it? Or move out of here?"
"Because we are here. Some of the native locals know about us and have helped kept our existence a secret. After all we stopped The Blood Lord a decade ago from completely wiping out all humans in North Carolina and we have killed a huge percentage of vampires back then. In fact vampires had only ever appeared in ones or twos for many years until this morning." Rex explains.
"But no one knows why they suddenly reappeared?"
"Isn't that what all of us are worried about?" Rex asks.
The trio arrived at the town of Lexington shortly after.
The sun was now barely visible, creating a dark purple hue in the sky. The bank was a small building the size of a petrol station. Two bankers were working and as expected, the bank was relatively empty with only two customers inside. Vansel looked around, the town itself was also not that populated with only a few civilians walking around. Rex entered in first, waving to one of the bankers who recognized them.
"Is this the guy? The intruder?" The banker asks the two Red Claws.
"Intruder? Oh yeah yeah that's the guy." Alicia answered.
"I got the call for Grandyll already. Enough money for two plane tickets right? What's your account number?" The banker asks. Vansel looked at his name tag: Ronnie. Vansel gave the details Ronnie needed and was given five thousand dollars within a few minutes, transferring the money towards Amy's account quickly.
Transferred already. Is he discharged? Vansel messaged Amy.
The hospital is getting the paperwork done. I should be able to get him out by tomorrow morning. I'll start booking the tickets soon.
Okay. See you soon. Vansel finished the conversation.
"Your money? Has it been all spent on your son?" Alicia noticed how broke Vansel was. "Yeah...he always had medical conditions, this was just the one time it became this bad. Medical insurance gave up on him a long time ago and...treatment in our country isn't exactly cheap. I spent the last of my money flying over to Mount Diros in search of the Solar Leaf."
"You are a good father man. I believe you can save him." Rex comments.
"We should head back to Mount Diros first since your son is only gonna reach earliest by tomorrow morning. Let's hope that everything with Woxlife is going well also. Have you tried our food options Vansel? We have a ton of variety." Alicia offered.
"Yeah, Piers led me around and showed me your food court."
"Oh we have more than just that, there's a cafe and bar as well." Rex adds in when another customer opened the bank's door, entering in. A short lady in her middle 30s, a long braid of charcoal black hair flowing down her back, freakishly long heels and her eyes, seemingly glowing gold. Alicia and Rex both paused, their faces drained from emotion as they locked eyes, confirming something with one another.
"What do we have here?" The lady smiled.
Rex pulled out a baton, similar to that of Xitraq's but instead of an axe, his baton extended into a spear four meters long, thrusting it at the lady who caught it with her hand, resisting the strength of Rex as she looked up, blood dripping down from her teeth:" Impressive reflex. You must be a Red Claw."
Alicia pulled down a sword's hilt from her belt as well, extending it to a long sword the size of street sign, swinging it at the lady who jumped through the bank's window and onto the street behind her. Alicia's weapon slammed into the ground, cracking open the flooring of the bank. Ronnie turned to his bank co-worker, the customers and Vansel:" The rest of you! Get out of here now!"
Vansel stood his ground:" I can fight too."
"No you can't. That's no ordinary vampire." Ronnie begged.
"You should really run. That's a Blood Knight." Rex tells Vansel who noticed the lady's clothes starting to morph from a typical office wear to a creepy armor with skeletal like pieces of metal hanging on her body, a flowing black robe down her waist and her hair, starting to emit some kind of black smoke. Her eyes, glowing red against the dark purple hue of the sky. There was a glowing tattoo on her forearm as well: V.
Roman numeral five.
Vansel took several steps back, contemplating his next move when the vampire's hand began glowing red as well, blood dripping down rapidly off her arm, blood that was illuminated strawberry red and in an instant, the blood solidified into a whip of sorts. "Vansel run!" Alicia says as the vampire swung her blood whip, bringing it down onto the bank and slicing a corner out of the building like butter.
Alicia and Rex both jumped out of the way, Rex deploying a shield from his forearm armor and charged towards the Blood Knight, aiming his spear and determined to impale the vampire in front of him.
The vampire smiled, swinging her whip once more as her weapon went through Rex.
Alicia, Ronnie and Vansel watched in horror as Rex's body split in half, his weapon, armor, all falling apart in an instant and Rex, reduced to chunks of meat on the ground without any warning. Alicia and Ronnie both stepped forward, transforming into their werewolf forms, Ronnie ripping the bank's counter and chucking it towards the vampire who sliced it in half, providing a split second of cover as Alicia slammed her shield into the whip wielder, knocking the vampire back a little.
Vansel charged forward, determined to help in battle by doing something, anything at all if it means helping his allies out but it was too late.
The vampire hissed, shooting her whip forward and in the blink of an eye, the whip pierced through Alicia's heart, killing her in an instant.
"Alicia!" Ronni ran forward, ripping a stop sign out of the street ground and swung at the Blood Knight but without even realizing it, the vampire was already behind him, grabbing him by the head and slitting his throat with her a solidified blood red knife.
"Weak! HA!" The vampire gloated, kicking Ronnie's corpse onto the ground.
Vansel couldn't move. He didn't know if this was a response out of fear...or if he was horrified by the Blood Knight's power...or he simply didn't know what to do. The vampire turned towards him with a freaky smile across her face:" You didn't run? What are you? A weird scent led me here and it definitely didn't come from those three."
Vansel glared at her, his fists clenched and his mind made up.
"You're definitely not normal." The vampire deduced.
Vansel jumped at her, throwing a punch that the vampire easily avoided, kicking Vansel in his ribs and sending him flying uncontrollably into the side of a building, smashing apart a wall of bricks before collapsing onto the street below in pain. The former marine looked up, a swelling pain spreading through his torso when he took a good look at the bodies of the wolves who were kind enough to follow him here...
"I'm gonna tear you apart." Vansel growled as he leapt forward, fist raised, summoning all of his inner rage to bring out the wolf. Vansel transformed into his werewolf form mid air, his punch connecting with the Blood Knight, catching the vampire off guard with his speed and pummeling her across the ground, sending her crashing into the side of a car.
The vampire found herself spilling blood from her mouth as she looked up at the werewolf that was looming above her, fangs bared and claws extended.
"You are indeed special. This is going to be fun."
Vansel could feel himself being in more control than before. He was looking through the wolf's eyes but this time, he could feel himself having a little restrain on his werewolf body. Vansel recalled what Xitraq had told him before: Neutral. The more he is feeling neutral the better control he would have on his body.
Clear your head. Take a deep breath.
"Who...are...you..." Vansel managed.
"You don't know who I am? You must be a new wolf. I am Lyca, Blood Knight Five."
Blood Knight Five...Piers mentioned something like this before. Six Blood Knights, the highest ranking warriors of the vampires. Piers had told him that the Blood Knights were on another level of power and judging on how she just killed the three werewolves with such ease...
Lyca roared, bursting into the air and slashing her whip at Vansel who quickly rolled aside. Vansel quickly noted that her power was nothing like he had ever seen before. Her whip, able to cut through almost anything with a terrifying explosive power. Anyone who was caught up in the attacks had virtually no chance of survival at all. "You're faster than the normal wolf. What are you? Royal blood?"
Vansel didn't know what she was talking about. All he knew was that he was the only thing standing between her and the entire town being completely massacred.
The wild nature of his body was starting to blend with his thoughts, he could feel everything his werewolf body was. Things around him were moving slower than normal, he could hear...everything. Dozens of screams, people tumbling and running away, each footstep was clearly heard. He could smell the heavy scent of blood coming from Lyca and above all, he felt released, like an energy was within him begging to be released.
He felt powerful. He can fight.
"You know what? It doesn't matter who you are. None of you are strong enough to stop us anyway." Lyca swung her blood whip forward which Vansel easily dodged, digging his feet into the soil on the ground and launching himself at her with blinding speeds, unleashing a slash that Lyca barely avoided, forcing the vampire to jump back completely horrified by his speed.
Lyca looked towards the werewolf's direction only to realize Vansel was no longer in front of her, turning around to narrowly duck under the werewolf's punch, the force of which sent blasts of wind emerging from his fist even without connecting with anything.
Lyca jumped back in fear as more blood shot out of her hand, solidifying into a solid red axe and chucked it at Vansel who was struck with the weapon.
The wolf was stopped from charging, the weapon sinking into his shoulder.
A sharp pain shot could be felt by Vansel, even in his wolf form as he observed his opponent. The blood that was coming out of her...she was using it to form weapons, literally manipulating the blood into whatever she wanted. Lyca was clearly on another league of power but if he doesn't defeat her here...
There was no other option. He had to defeat her right here.
Lyca jumped into the air, more blood pouring out of her arms and in seconds, solidifying the blood into a gigantic sledgehammer the length of a bus, bringing the hammer down onto Vansel with all her strength. Vansel quickly raised his arms, catching the hammer as the weight of the massive sledgehammer hit the werewolf.
The ground beneath his feet cracked open, the roads erupting with cracks as Vansel grit his teeth, surprised that he could resist such a weight with relative ease.
"How?!" Lyca herself was surprised as well, landing on the ground, lifting the sledgehammer off Vansel, using her body weight to spin the hammer and swinging it at full force towards Vansel, smacking the werewolf like a golf ball into the air, sending him tumbling right into the side of a building and crashing right into a random apartment, scaring the living hell out of an elderly couple.
Neutral! Control the wolf....I can do this. Vansel tells himself.
"Run...away..." Vansel's wolf spoke.
The elderly couple didn't hesitate, doing as he said and getting out through their front door when Vansel noticed Lyca from the corner of his eye at the first floor's road, solidifying a crossbow with her blood. Vansel quickly jumped behind cover as solid blood arrows, each a meter long started piercing through the walls of the apartment, Lyca firing shot after shot mercilessly at him.
"Come on out!" Lyca screamed.
Vansel jumped out of the apartment, fist raised and shot it towards Lyca who quickly solidified another batch of blood into a shield that she used to tank the punch. Lyca's shield cracked instantly as Vansel threw another punch that smashed the shield apart, grabbing Lyca by the neck and choke slamming her into the ground.
Lyca kicked Vansel away, giving herself just enough time to escape his claws as she created three more blood whips, slashing them towards Vansel who found himself caught off guard, the only thing he could do was to raise his arms to try and minimize the damage.
The pain shot through his arms, the slashes leaving deep cuts across his forearms and before he could retaliate, Lyca shot her whip out, prepared to pierce his heart right out when Vansel grabbed the sharp weapon with his hand, cutting open his palm. " I don't know what crazy freaks Woxlife has been hiding. Wolves of your power? You must be a weapon that we didn't know about? But it doesn't matter, at the end of the day when you meet the Lord, you'll still be dead."
The Lord...? Dracula?
Vansel took a step back, trying to get through the pain.
"You think you stand a chance? All of you, thinking that you can ever hope to stop us for good. Just because your King managed to use all of his power to temporarily hold back ours? No matter how many Red Claws you have trained, no matter how many werewolves you send. I will slash them apart, all of them will be nothing like the trash I've just disposed off."
"Trash...?" Vansel snarled.
Rage was boiling within him. The disrespect...the disgust...
"Now die for me will ya?" Lyca said, readying her whip for an attack.
Vansel jumped aside, grabbing a car from the side of the road and used it like a shield, blocking the next few slashes and closing the distance between Lyca and him. Lyca jumped back, trying to avoid whatever Vansel was planning only to hear a loud burst, followed by a gush of wind beside her. Lyca turned around to see Vansel's fist...inches away from her face.
You called the people who protected me trash?! Vansel could feel it, the violently burning sensation in his heart.
Everything I have...in this one...punch.
Vansel shot his fist forward with every last ounce of power he had in him at the moment, landing the attack and striking Lyca across her jaw, blood spilling out uncontrollably. Vansel could feel it, the overwhelming power that is flowing through him and now, unleashing it onto the Blood Knight. He could feel Lyca's jaw cracking apart, the force of his punch sending her exploding into the ground beneath him.
The streets literally caved in as Vansel landed punch after punch, striking the vampire with powerful blows that shook the earth, each strike felt by the entire town, shattering windows and producing violent blasts of wind.
Before he knew it, Vansel found himself standing over the motionless vampire, his arms covered in blood, his heart pounding uncontrollably...
Lyca was defeated.
Next Chapter- The Lord's Arrival