The air itself seemed to tear apart as the girl lunged forward with an explosive, feral dash.
Her movements were entirely devoid of human hesitation, driven by the raw, predatory instincts of a cornered beast.
The crude, heavy blade was aimed directly at Lucius’s neck, carrying enough murderous force that even he knew he would instantly die if it were ever to connect in that fleeting moment.
So, he acted right away.
Relying heavily on his innate agility, he was somehow slowly getting accustomed to the sudden, incredibly fast reflexes his new vampire physiology granted him.
His muscles coiled with an unnatural, fluid tension, and he managed to throw his weight and roll sharply to the side, yet again, dodging another lethal attack from the wild girl.
The heavy blade whistled past his ear, stabbing deeply into the dirt ground exactly where he once was standing.
Without waiting for her to yank the weapon free from the earth, he scrambled to his feet and ran forward.
His boots slipped against the wet grass as he began sliding down the small, treacherous hill, the loose rocks tearing at his clothes just as they had during his initial fall from the castle.
He threw himself into the thick foliage, crashing through the underbrush until he found cover, hiding right behind the massive trunk of a damp tree.
’Fucking hell, what kind of monster is that? Can one even consider her to be human?’ he wondered in his head as he hid.
His chest heaved as he tried to quiet his rapid breathing. He pressed his back flat against the rough bark, listening intently to the rustling leaves and the snapping of twigs above him. He could smell the sharp scent of unwashed skin and stale mud, letting him know she was still dangerously close.
Slowly, carefully, he turned his head, peeping from behind the tree to assess the situation.
He could see the strange woman on all fours at the top of the hill, her posture entirely animalistic.
She was dressed in rugged, stitched animal skin, her red dirty hair scattered wildly on her head, and her face completely filled with smeared dirt and mud.
She was waiting there, completely still, and sniffing the air as though trying to smell his exact location out.
After a long, agonizing while, her tense muscles seemed to relax. She sat down right there at the edge of the drop, the heavy blade resting casually in her hand, silently waiting and watching the land before her.
Lucius sighed with profound relief, letting his head fall back against the tree trunk.
’Oh good she didnt see me. Okay. now i just have to wait for her to leave and then i can go make a home out of that hole i saw,’ he planned internally.
His mind flashed back to the small space he had spotted earlier from the cliff, a hollowed-out hole right in the base of a huge tree with a cold fireplace sitting outside.
It was the perfect shelter, provided the feral woman eventually gave up her hunt.
Or so he thought.
He settled down into the damp earth, crossing his legs and leaning against the wood. He waited patiently for her to leave.
The forest was a symphony of unnerving sounds.
The croaking of swamp frogs and the rustling of nocturnal predators filled the silence. The cold, biting wind of the night slowly began to seep into his bones.
He kept his glowing red eyes fixed on the silhouette of the woman at the top of the hill, determined to outlast her.
But the sheer exhaustion of the day’s events, from his brutal summoning to his violent exile, finally caught up to his new body.
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, and before either of them knew it, they had both fallen asleep exactly where they were.
The oppressive darkness of the night gradually gave way to the pale light of dawn, being greeted by the warm morning sun that was now kissing their faces through the canopy of leaves.
Lucius slowly opened his heavy eyes, his vision adjusting to the bright daylight.
The smell of morning dew and stagnant swamp water filled his nose. He shifted his weight, realizing he was still seated comfortably on the ground, right next to the tree he was supposedly hiding in.
’Shit!’ his mind screamed in sudden panic.
Upon realizing that he had foolishly fallen asleep in a hostile environment, he immediately tried to turn around and check if the barbaric woman was still waiting at the top of the hill.
He went to push himself off the dirt, only for him to feel a tight, unyielding resistance binding his wrists together. He looked down to see that his hands had been tied up entirely by strong, thick sea weeds.
Looking at his securely tied hands, a deeply confused look played on his pale face. He pulled against the green vines, testing their strength, wondering how he could have possibly gotten tied up like that without his enhanced vampire senses waking him up.
Then, from out of nowhere, a familiar, raspy voice echoed through the quiet clearing.
"Good morning, human male."
Following the sound of the voice, Lucius snapped his head up. He noticed that the vicious woman he was supposed to be hiding from was no longer at the top of the hill.
Instead, she was sitting cross-legged right in front of him, staring at him intensely, with the exact same heavy blade aimed directly at his chest.
Immediately Lucius noticed the woman, he forced his racing heart to settle and stayed perfectly calm.
His calculating mind ran through the possibilities. He was already understanding that if she truly wanted him dead, she would have simply killed him while he was sleeping defenselessly against the tree.
The fact that he was tied up and currently awake meant she wanted something else.
"What do you want?" he asked right away, keeping his voice entirely level while still seated on the ground.
He stared directly into her feral eyes, making sure not to show even an inkling of fear to her, at least not yet.
The girl frowned a bit at his complete lack of panic, her messy red eyebrows drawing together as she pointed the blade a bit closer to him.
"What kind of question is that? You were the one that showed yourself in my spot. And you’re human, so i know you’re up to no good," she accused, her voice dripping with untamed suspicion.
"Vampire actually," Lucius corrected smoothly, his expression deadpan.
"What?" she blinked, the heavy blade wavering slightly in her grip as confusion washed over her dirt-streaked face.
"Listen." Lucius slowly stood up from the ground, ignoring the weapon pointed at his chest. He brushed some of the loose dirt from his ruined clothes. "I appreciate you not killing me in my sleep, you have my word i mean no harm. I didnt know this part of the forest belonged to you,i will be on my way."
He did not want to waste his time fighting a wild woman over a hollowed-out tree trunk. He needed to find civilization, a way to earn money, and a steady supply of blood to survive this world.
Just as Lucius wanted to take a confident step forward to focus on his next step and leave the clearing, the woman reached out quickly and grabbed him by the hand, stopping him dead in his path.
"Wait, dont go yet," she voiced out, her previously hostile tone now laced with a bit of genuine concern.
Lucius stopped. He turned his crimson gaze back over his shoulder to look at her, analyzing her sudden shift in demeanor.
"Is there a problem?" he asked coldly.
"Ah-" The woman seemed hesitant at first, shifting her weight from foot to foot as her eyes darted away from his. Then she finally uttered, "Stay, I know the forest better than you, been here my whole life."
Lucius sighed heavily at her comment, the sound escaping his lips in a long, tired breath.
He knew absolutely nothing about the local geography or the monsters that lived in these woods, making her localized knowledge incredibly valuable for his immediate survival.
Slowly, giving in to the logic of the situation, he turned around and sat back down on the ground, glancing back at her with a bit of heavy hesitation on his face.
Then, he uttered his primary question.
"You’re saying you want to help me?"
"I guess so," she mumbled, lowering the heavy blade to her side. "There is something i want in return, so i guess we can consider this a truce, since i did try to kill you."
Lucius glared at her, his red eyes narrowing sharply. "What made you change your mind?"
She did not answer immediately. Instead, she lifted her hand and pointed toward the side, directing his attention back up the hill.
Lucius followed her finger. There, resting at the top of the rocky cliff, he could see the remains of his first mindless blood, the undead witch he had commanded to leave the dungeon.
But she was no longer a rotting corpse leaking dark mana. The witch was currently being burnt to a crisp, her body reduced to smoking, blackened ash.
"When i woke up, i tried to attack it, and noticed the moment the sunlight touched it, it began to spark up in flames, it died by itslef," the wild girl explained, her voice carrying a hint of awe.
"So i figured, you and your friends were suffering form an illness or so, and I should not have attacked if you were seeking help."
In that exact moment, most of what the feral girl was speaking about simply echoed in the back of Lucius’s head, entirely drowned out by a massive realization.
’My mindless blood are weak to sunlight, but I am not? The system didt tell me any of this,’ he thought rapidly, his mind connecting the missing pieces. ’But the sun was out duing its creation.’
Then it finally hit him with the force of a physical blow.
It was not the bright morning sun back when he had first created his mindless blood in the dungeon cell, but rather it was nearing the cool, evening sunset.
Which meant, in all its terrifying truth, any vampire servant he creates through his system would instantly burst out in violent flames the exact moment the morning sun touches their unnatural form.
A slow, highly calculated smile seized the side of his pale lips.
"No way, this is better than i thought," he murmured to himself.
His undead army had a fatal flaw, yes, but it was also the ultimate clean-up mechanic. If he left a trail of mindless bloods behind him after a battle, the morning sun would simply incinerate the evidence, leaving no trace of his necromantic abilities for the kingdom’s knights to track.
"What is?" The woman chimed in, interrupting his dark thoughts as she tilted her head to the side a bit like a confused puppy.
Lucius looked away from the burning ash and focused his gaze back at her.
"Nothing," he dismissed smoothly. "If you want to help me as you claim, then i neeed you to show me where i can get food, i am starving."
"Food? Oh i know a place, come with me," she offered immediately, her previous hostility completely replaced by eager energy.
The girl lifted herself up from the ground with surprising grace, a somewhat grand, genuine smile breaking through the mud on her face as she turned around, fully ready to lead him into the depths of the forest.
Then suddenly, Lucius asked a strategic question that forced her to pause in her tracks.
"What is your name?"