Screaming. Running. Fighting. Dying. The sounds of all four filed the streets of the village, but not of villagers anymore, instead, the sounds of belonged to soldiers who only minutes earlier, had caused the innocent lives of this village to feel this fear, panic and despair. The creature that was causing all this carnage? A blood warden, a beast from ancient tales known to be used by the first dark lord, thousands of years ago, thought to have gone extinct but now, one was rampaging through this mighty army like they were merely minor obstacles in the way of an unstoppable force of nature.
“RAAAAAAAAOOOOOOWH!” The sound pierced the air like an arrow through mortal flesh, the Lizardfolk and Orc’s that had moved in knew that call, and despite not knowing what the sound belonged to, they understood it was the signal to fall back out of the village. So instead of finishing what they were doing, they turned and fled the lands back into the treeline.
For a few moments, there was a tranquil confusion, like the silence after a small storm but right before the beginning of a much larger and terrifying one that the smaller one dared not to stand in the way of and the victims clueless of what was to come. Then, it made its presence known.
The huge beast, the Blood Knight, charged forward through the streets with an inherited hate and a burning determination that wouldn’t be satisfied until it had achieved it’s goals.
“What the hell is that thing?!” One screamed, soon crushed under its foot.
“Shoot it! Shoot it, damn it!” Another yelled, before being slammed by its shield into a wall and breaking every bone in his body on the initial impact of the shield.
“I didn’t sign up for this!” A soldier said, turning foot in an attempt to flee, he made it perhaps five whole steps before getting cut in half by its blade like his body was nothing but bread to be sliced by the bread knife.
For those who tried to hide, they perhaps had it the worst. The creatures lust for blood snuffed each of them out between it’s rampaging before eating them with it’s broken, crooked and damaged yet powerful teeth. Although the beast was large and seemingly incapable of proper speech, seemed to be quite intelligent to, as the soldiers moved behind the team of archers, they believed themselves safe.
“Shoot it! Shoot that damn thing!” A commander said, standing behind the team who already had their bows arched and ready to fire.
“But sir, some of our own are still there! We can’t do it without hitting them too!” The leader of the archers pleaded, not wanting to kill their own men. “You either shoot it or we’re all dead! Would you like that?! Do as you're told and open fire!” He remained quiet, struggling for a moment before speaking. “Archers! Aim!...Fire!” The Arrows flew into the sky and back down like rain in a thunderstorm.
The soldiers who didn’t return in time died almost instantly as their bodies became imbedded with many arrows, even the one with the least had enough to kill nine normal people without appropriate protection like shields or armour. The blood knight, however? It held it’s shield up, protecting it’s body from the flurry of the archers wrath, most of which bounced off his shield, a few did however manage to imbed themselves into the tough material.
Once the dust had settled, they watched the monster with one movement of its sword, swat off each of the arrows from the shield, where they would rest on the floor. The soldiers would stare at the creature in horror, wondering what it would do next with a cold tension they couldn’t explain. The beast let out a few powerful breaths before lifting it’s hand to its head, one of the arrows had actually hit the monster. It pulled the small thin wood out and stared at it, crushing the item like a splinter and dropping it to the floor with all the others that either missed or bounced off the shields. The blood knight slowly looked up, it’s blood red eyes looking directly at the archers with what was anger.
“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOWH!!” The beast yelled out, a cry not of pain but pure, unadulterated, unfiltered, primordial, uncontrolled rage, all the invading warriors stared with horror, too scared to move for a few seconds, not because they didn’t try but their brains refused to let them like if they did, they would die instantly.
They didn’t hurt undead monster before them, they had only enraged it further, perhaps killing their own just earlier wasn’t saving themselves but rather a mercy onto their own allies, so that they may not have suffered agonising terror like they knew they soon would. This was a beast that none of them were qualified to fight, a beast that had the freedom to kill everything it saw, and now? They had made it even more mad than it was just earlier.
“I wonder…should I have used another undead summon? Maybe a Ghoul King…or a Rage Revenant…maybe even go overkill and use an angel of undeath.” Zerinia thought to herself as she walked down the abandoned streets, her face hidden under a black and white mask of a neutral face with red eyes. She observed the bodies of the massacred warriors, noting their deceased forms laying about. “Hm, could Blood Knight’s in this world eventually evolve into ‘Blood Emperors’ like they did in the game? If I'm correct though, I should have one in the castle…but that would be something.” The thought circulated her mind, a question that could hopefully be revealed sooner rather than later.
Eventually, a man in official clothes and minimal armour arrived on a white horse, his face was stone cold, and his blue eyes seemed to pierce the very soul “What’s going on here?! How hard is it to wipe out some village?!” He demanded, a group of powerful high mages following after him. “General Selark, thank goodness you’re here! Everything was going just fine until we were attacked, and now, there’s some kind of beast killing our men like minor inconveniences, we can’t even hurt the creature!” The commander pleaded, clearly terrified for his very life.
In the distance, multiple troops came running towards them in absolute terror, and behind them, the Blood Knight following closely picking them all off one by one. “There it is! It is like the ‘Blood Beast of Kandul!” He cried out, running behind the general, who’s face clearly sours at his subordinates actions. “Get off me, you fool! He is dead and you, you are a Commander for the ‘Solmara Theocracy’, act like it!” He yelled, shoving the terrified commander off him before turning to his associates with a serious expression.
“Fourth High Inquisition! Summon Angels for that thing! Angel Knight!” He yelled, summoning an angel while all the others followed suite, all of them moved against the beast, flying around it like bees around a wasp. Swings and slashes seemed to be unavoidable. With superior speed, co-ordination and flight, each of them dealt great damage to the monster until eventually, the Blood Knight was killed, its body fell to the ground dead while the General Selark smiled. “You see? Not that much of an issue to angelic might!” The commander lit up and hugged him.
“YES! Thank you, General Selark! Your might is truly unrivalled! Hahahaha!” The other soldiers cheered too, pleased about their superior saving them from the dangerous beast.
“You know, it’s not nice to kill someone’s undead servant…quite rude actually.” Zerinia said, walking into view, stepping past the extremely quickly rotting corpse of the Blood Knight and stopping a few feet after, watching them or rather, the General who was clearly in charge, her sinister undead vampiric aura radiating off her like heat from a fire.
“I should have suspected it was a creature like you created such a thing, kill her!” He demanded, looking at the angels who flew quickly towards her.
She lifted her hand and spoke, “Aura of Death!” the sound radiated out, all the creatures dissipated into light almost immediately, General Selark raised both his hands and yelled out.
“Watch me as I summon your Holy Light to crush my enemies! Angelic Warden!” He said as a white light slowly appeared, a new angel appeared. This one was bigger and with a lot more armour and a few extra wings. “Wooooah!”, “This is the power of the leader of the fourth inquisition?!” The soldiers stared in awe while Zerinia watched it too. “So, this is your trump card?”
“Exactly so! Tremble in fear at the power of the highest angelic might!”
“I’ve seen stronger looking angels…”
“Smite my enemies with your Holy Power!”
The angels helmet gem lit up as a beam shot down from the sky, engulfing the vampires form. “HA…no form of undeath can survive this kind of holy power.”
“Hahaha, so, this is the feeling of pain, what a fascination feeling.” She said, not an ounce of fear or pain in her voice. The light soon dissipated and the figure of the woman was all the same. She raised her hand and moved her mask slightly, her crimson eye looking directly into General Selarks with a natural intensity he had never seen from a creature before. "You hurt me...you actually managed to hurt me...I was going to let you to your afterlife quickly, but for that offence. I think not...I think I'll just have to enjoy myself." She said as her body morphed and changed in an instant.
Her skin now like armour, now black as the night sky with crimson edges and huge wings on her back that looked enough to help her fly. The warriors stared at her in horror, this wasn’t any vampire, it was one of the nine true. Best known as ‘the Five Blood Lords’. “You…you are no vampire…”
She remained silent, where her chin is, where her mouth would normally be, opened up unnaturally, parting like a flower with fangs on the inside and likely strong enough to rip through steel. “You…are one of the nine warlords.”
And then, screaming, bodies falling as Zerinia started ripping them all to pieces one by one. The green grass tainted crimson red. As for Selark, for the first time in his life, he knew he was going to die, he had met a monster so greater than him, it was almost laughable to believe he could have survived.
“Alright, how do I do this…do I bite and suck…or does it do it automatically? I uhhh…well, let’s just try and see, as people from the old world used to say, ‘only one way to find out’.” Zerinia said, biting into one of the humans, drinking more and more of his liquids of life until he was nearly nothing but a husk of who he used to be. The general, a man who had won battles for his home, became a man feared for his strategic mind and magic capabilities, now at the complete mercy of a naturally sworn enemy of his nation.