Dragon Gods Reign

[High order territory]

When Alorick and the others arrived at the walled-off castle that served as the seats headquarter, they witnessed a shocking sight.

Staring at the street, they froze in horror as their gaze wandered across the refinements of the massacre that had occurred. Dismembered bodies of both soldiers and civilians alike blanketed the ground, with there only occasionally being a survivor amidst the carnage.

Forced to endure the screams and whimpers of the wounded, they needed to force themselves to continue their pursuit. Silently promising the people around them revenge as they maneuvered along the body-covered street, they pushed their grief back by focusing on their rage.

After walking down the street for only a few minutes, they started hearing the sounds of fighting in the distance. Turning towards it, their gloomy mood turned slightly more hopeful as they realized that there were at least some defenders still remaining.

“Alorick?” Somir asked.

“Already on it.”

Answering directly, Alorick didn't need long before a magic circle shimmered to life below each of them. Now that their destination was a stationary location and not a person, he could teleport them without the risk of losing their target.

And with it now being unobstructed by the city's wall, his spell was completed in a handful of seconds.

Disappearing from the blood-covered street, they arrived directly in the chaos of the slaughter. With practically no moment to reorient themselves, their group was forced to split up and dodge to the sides as a stray beam of fire shot came at them.

“What the-” Somir shouted, his words getting stuck in his throat when he looked at the scene before him.

Amidst easily a hundred aura users, mages, and bloodline sorcerers were two vampires who, despite being outnumbered by a massive margin, didn't seem pressured at all. Weaving around between their enemies, the two cut down multiple defenders every minute.

Despite this there came a continuous stream of reinforcements out of the castle, all joining in the hopes of protecting the civilians that were using it as shelter.

The two vampires didn't seem to be interested in this and instead reveled in the chaos they were causing.

After a couple of moments, Alorick managed to shake off his shock and stepped forward. Launching a beam made of hundreds of small lightning bolts, he surprised the female vampire who didn't expect any retaliation.

Before she even noticed it, the beam struck her in the side and unloaded a surge of electricity. As it bore into her side between her hips and ribs, arcs of electricity flew out from her skin and latched onto whatever they could.

“Aargh!”

Screaming in pain as her intestines were burned to a crisp, the woman's muscles started to spasm as she froze in place. Within a second smoke started rising from her body, with more and more singed holes forming on her skin from where the electricity escaped.

It took her another seconds before she managed to react. Lifting her arm into the way of the lightning, she shot out a concentrated beam of blood that pushed back against it.

Just as her thoughts cleared somewhat, she noticed the nearby mages moving to join in on the attack. The aura users that previously served as her shield were hastily backing off in fear of the lightning arcs latching onto the metal parts of their armor, freeing a clear line of fire onto her.

Reacting instantly, she stretched out her free arm to release even more blood. Forming it into a dome to protect her, she winced in grief as a series of spells impacted it and forced her to spend even more of her blood reserves.

Looking down to inspect her wounds, she gnashed her teeth as she saw their full extent.

'Dare to act up just because you've managed to reach the third order? Seems like I have to crush your feeble hope.' She thought, her eyes glowing red from rage.

While she was waiting for her wounds to heal, Alorick stopped his spell after having quickly realized that it would be futile to try and break through the dome.

“Keep her in place and watch out.” He ordered the other mages before looking around to find the rest of his team.

Initially following his words out of reflex, they simultaneously looked around to find who had ordered them. When they spotted him, their eyes went wide in surprise as they noticed that he was a stage above the strongest of them, something they thought impossible as no recorded mage had ever reached the peak of the third rank.

Nodding enthusiastically, they put their full focus on keeping a constant stream of attack on the dome of blood.

A couple seconds later a massive pillar of flames shot up tens of meters into the air, prompting Alorick to turn his head in its direction.

Finding Goddard, Somir, Feron, and Myra together with around fifty defenders fighting against the male vampire, he wasn't entirely sure whether to help them or guard the female vampire.

Coming to a decision after a couple of seconds, he remained in place and refocused his attention on the other vampire for when she managed to recover.

Part of the reason for this decision was the situation with them at that moment.

Standing in front of the rest of their team, Myra was rather successfully holding back the vampire thanks to the aid of a handful of other aura users. Acting in tandem under her command, the group consisting of the most heavily armored men and women amongst the defenders were constantly pressuring their opponent from all sides.

At the same time, he always found one of them standing in the way of any retaliatory strikes he attempted, with claws and blood both bouncing off of their aura-reinforced shields. This made them a major annoyance in his eyes, despite their strikes being irregular and rarely dangerous.

Darting in and out of this loose encirclement and blocking him whenever he tried to outrun them were Somir and Feron along with most of the remaining aura users. At each opening he showed, they would descend on him like vultures, striking at him from all angles before retreating back behind the safety of their vanguard.

The last group of opponents he had to deal with were the mages, bloodline users, and a very small number of archers. The former were constantly layering new enhancement spells onto their allies, with a few occasionally joining the latter two in their task of bombarding him from a distance whenever possible.

Under their combined assault his patience was slowly being worn down, though its physical effect wasn't as great. Nearly every wound the vampire suffered would be healed in under a second, with only those inflicted by phoenix fire taking longer. But compared to the others they were far less substantial, with the few bloodline sorcerers that were present not having the room to launch stronger attacks without also striking their allies.

This stalemate continued for some time, with the vampire launching increasingly frustrated attempts to flip the situation. Their repeated failure had led the ranged fighters to feel safe enough that by the time the dome of blood around the other vampire suddenly erupted, they had lowered their vigilance.

Not prepared for this, the small clumps of blood that shot in all directions struck their formation with devastating consequences.

As soon as they struck, the mages that were hit cried out in pain. Hearing their comrade's screams, the rest of the formation quickly devolved into chaos.

Personal shields flared up, archers manifested aura armors and people scrambled in all directions. With it, the support they provided the other defenders in stopping the vampire completely fell apart.

Using this chance, he rushed at the nearest aura user as soon as he felt the disappearance of some of the spells that were weakening him. The reverse was happening to his target who was too shocked by the sudden difference in speed to react in time.

Walking past the man who was moving in slow motion from his perspective, the vampire didn't have much trouble thrusting his clawed fingers into the small gap at the former's neck.

With his victim collapsing behind him, he moved on to the next target. Making his way towards the mages with fast steps, he grabbed the nearest by the throat and ripped it out.

Dashing towards one of the archers, he again went for the neck. Just as his claws were about to tear through his flesh, the archer suddenly shifted a few centimeters to the side which resulted in his swipe barely missing.

Catching himself, he spun around only to find the suffocating feeling of weakening spells returning. With his strength and other physical aspects getting lowered drastically, it felt as if the air around him drastically increased in density.

Looking away from his target and trying to find the source of this, he managed to trace the spells back to Alorick. Before he could calculate his next action with this knowledge in mind, he was forced to jump back as a pillar of fire formed below him.

Continuing without pause, Goddard pinned him in place to give Alorick the freedom of only having to worry about the female vampire.

As soon as he saw this, he stopped putting much focus on the other one, only keeping his spells active. A moment later he struck out at the female one once more, though this time with more power than he could previously spare.

Firing a small bolt of lightning at her, he took her by surprise when it split before hitting her and forming a ring of crackling electricity around her.

Following this up, he called down a single thunderbolt from the skies. Landing on the ground where the woman had stood just a second ago, it cracked the ground and caused a small explosion of concussive force.

This flung her away, causing her to fly through the ring of electricity. Giving her only a weak electric shock, at least relative to what she could endure, the ring lost its stability and turned into a rope-like state.

Catching herself, the vampire didn't immediately rush at Alorick and instead turned to attack a nearby mage. Striking at him with her claws, her eyes widened in surprise when they met an invisible wall.

Twitching only slightly from the pain of having her fingers broken, she spun around and targeted another mage. But just like before, she was met with an invisible wall that stopped her from reaching her target, though this one already blocked her at about halfway to him.

“Ugh-” Exhaling loudly as the sudden impact knocked the air out of her lungs, she tumbled slightly backward.

Before she could catch herself, she was thrown into the air as gravity suddenly reversed. Thrashing around wildly from the rapid series of disorienting changes, she got lucky as she managed to stabilize her fall to land on her feet.

Cushioning the impact with her knees, she didn't even have time to get back up when she saw a woman approaching. Holding the two shortswords in reverse grip, she aimed at the vampire's neck as she thrust down with them.

Jumping forward to keep them from striking there, the vampire slashed her arm upward and drew it across the aura user's body. Sinking into the latter’s abdomen before cutting through her flesh up her ribs, the vampire's eyes suddenly widened in shock.

“AAARGH!” Screaming in pain, she stumbled back while clutching the stump where her missing left hand was.

“Vika!” The male vampire shouted upon hearing it.

Disregarding the risk of doing so, he flared some of his mana to get rid of the spells that were weakening him and rushed to her side.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the lightning rope and pulled on it in an attempt to rip it apart. But instead of doing as he had expected, his eyes widened as it cut into his fingers.

“Stop you lowlife.” Vika shouted as the ropes also dug deeper into her flesh.

Without care for the lightning singing her skin, she slowly rose to her feet while seething in rage. Focusing for a moment, she tensed up her muscles and let her power surge out. Taking the form of a red hue around her, it shattered her restraints and sent sparks flying in all directions.

Holding out her hand before her, she smiled viciously as a sword made out of blood formed in her grip.

Swinging it only lightly, she already caused a tidal wave of power to wash over her surroundings, forcing the weaker individuals to take a step back.

“I wanted to hide this so that I could take Lucius by surprise, so what follows is entirely on you.” She said, her voice causing a few defenders to shiver.

With speeds greater than even Alorick could fully follow, she disappeared from her position before appearing before a bloodline user, her sword embedded in his chest. And to the shock of all persons present, she started absorbing his blood through it without even wincing in discomfort.

Goddard, who stood close to her victim, was the first to react to this. Moving back to bring some distance between them, he launched a wave of fire from his hands.

Watching it encase both Vika and the bloodline sorcerer completely, the defenders breathed a sigh of relief. Only a few experienced fighters didn't immediately relax, instead rushing at the other vampire.

But before the first one reached him, the sound of laughter echoed out of the flames. Freezing up in shock, they turned around to see Vika walking out of the flames mostly unharmed. Only her left arm was burned, but even it was already healing at a visible pace.

“Ah, how refreshing it is when I no longer need to hold back and let these pathetic flames hurt me.” She said with a smile.

Letting her gaze pan across the defenders, she shook her head in dismissal. Simply turning around and walking towards the castle, she left as they were too stunned to act.

It took multiple seconds for the first few to get their act together, with a small group of aura users sprinting at her.

Myra was the first among these to reach her, swinging her sword with a shout. In response, Vika took a leisurely step to the side before spinning around and pushing her back with one hand.

Sailing past the other attackers, Myra crashed to the ground nearly thirty meters away. Despite coughing up blood, she tried to stand back up, only for her arm to give in under her. Groaning as she lay there, she smiled softly as she could hear the other defenders moving just before her consciousness drifted away.

At the same time, Vika was already fighting off two of the three other aura users who had run after her. Catching the first one's sword with her hand, she effortlessly dispatched of him by landing a direct punch to his face. Having his head whipped back by the force of it, he sank to the ground and stayed there motionless.

The second one was attempting to use the distraction he provided to strike Vika in the back, only to miss her as she disappeared in a blur of speed.

Moving behind him and grabbing him by the armor, she spun around and through him at the last approaching aura user. And with both being thrown to the ground by the collision, she lifted her gaze slightly to look at the approaching horde.

Lifting her arm, she pointed her palm at them and made a pushing motion. As she did this, a powerful blast of wind emerged from it and struck the unprepared aura users, leaving most in no state to continue fighting.

“What?!” Exclaiming in confusion, the mages were no less shocked by the development.

“Boyan, make sure that they stay where they are.” Vika ordered.

Getting no response, she looked at the other vampire and found him staring at her with defiant eyes.

“And leave the prize to you alone? Not a chance.” He said with a light laugh, also starting to walk towards the castle.

Looking at him in silent fury, Vika made a quick twisting motion with her hand.

Clutching his chest in pain, Boyan fell to his knees before he had even taken five steps. Lifting his head to look at her, he saw her staring at him with glowing red eyes.

“Do as I said or face the consequences.” She warned him.

To drive the point home, she made a leisurely swiping motion with her arm that caused a whip of blood to slash out and cut a deep line into the ground. The defenders directly behind this line scurried back in fright, or at least those that still could.

“And as a small incentive, once I become a vampire lord I'll think about letting you serve me. After all, that was what your flattering was about, wasn't it?” She said.

Though he grimaced at her words, when he noticed the mages launching a volley of spells at her, he rushed forward and formed a barrier to intercept them.

“At least I have a few victims to vent my frustration.” He muttered, staring at the mages with hateful eyes.

Forming spears of blood that hovered around him, he sent them against the mages. And while they were busy intercepting them, he rushed toward them without care for the aura users scattered across the ground.

Crushing whatever limb he stepped on, he simply ran through them while gathering blood from the dead ones. But unlike Vika, he couldn't absorb it without preparation and thus settled on forming it into hardened spikes that shot at the mages.

Impacting their shields, the spikes mostly shattered upon impact. And even of the few that didn't only a handful managed to fully penetrate. Striking two mages, they bore into their target's body at multiple spots, with one being lucky enough to survive.

Continuing on, Boyan dashed towards Alorick. Feeling the mana around him shifting, he jumped to the side just before a bolt of lightning struck where he would have been.

Scoffing, he made a quick upward motion with his fingers and formed a few large spikes of blood out of the puddles covering the ground. Targeting all mages except Alorick, he used them to deal a little bit more damage and distract them.

Using the short moment of focus this took, Alorick shot a single large bolt of lightning at him. Twisting around itself as it tore through the air, the bolt with the diameter of a human head quickly reached its target.

Striking a shield of blood that Boyan managed to conjure up in time, the lightning was momentarily stopped. Continuously feeding it more mana, Alorick tried to overpower Boyan's shield.

With his power radiating off of him in waves, he kept pushing himself more and more until the shield started buckling under the force. Exerting himself to the limit for one last push, Alorick's lightning finally shattered the blood shield after over a minute of clashing.

Falling to his knees while panting, Alorick lifted his head to make sure Boyan was dead. As soon as he did, he saw the vampire's upper body sailing through the air and towards him, arm drawn back and ready to strike him down.

Lifting his arm in a futile effort to conjure up a defense, he nonetheless stared back in defiance. Already accepting his imminent demise, he hoped that it would at least not be for nothing.

As Boyan was already falling towards him, a roar suddenly echoed through the street. Before either of the two could process it, the vampire's body suddenly disappeared, shortly followed by a mass of blood and flesh impacting the ground two or three hundred meters away.

Still looking at the same spot and blinking in disbelief, Alorick stayed frozen. The other mages didn't react differently, with the spells they were conjuring up slowly fading away as they stared on in confusion.

For a few seconds, they continued staring, with a wave of cheers going becoming audible as they slowly processed what had happened.

Their voices also brought Alorick back to the present, slowly rising to his feet as a smile of happiness formed on his lips. But just as quickly it died down again, replaced by the realization that Vika was currently in the undefended castle.

Jumping up in a panic, he froze when he saw a massive black dragon landing before the gates.

“Alicia.” He whispered, unsure whether to be glad or worried.

Before he could follow his line of thought, he saw a magic circle flaring to life next to him.

“Stop, don't fire!” He shouted at his fellow mages.

Looking at him in confusion, their eyes were asking him whether he was sure about that. Reaffirming it, he managed to calm them enough that they dispersed their spells.

Alicia was meanwhile completely ignoring them. Instead, she punched through the wall of the main building before grabbing it and prying it open until she created a hole large enough for her to fit through.

Looking into the main hall during the process, she stared down at the stunned Vika.