Chapter 35

It took half an hour to reach the greedy captain's campsite. 

As we approached the iron gate, i clearly felt something was wrong.

The stench of battle was over the place. 

"Stop there!"

Kenneth, the big black-bearded polearm guard was standing behind the gate, with 50 skill-bearers behind him.

I could see they had skills, but all of them was around level 1-3, and judgeing by their health, my spear-units greatly outmatched them all.

Rolf moved forward. "Relax Kenneth, it's us."

"Prove it! We have been attacked by our own one time allready!" Kenneth didn't look as if he was joking around.

"How do you want us to prove it? What happened here?" Rolf wanted to know.

"Some of our personal and recently awakened skill users has turned rabid. Like a disease it turned a lot of the common people, who didn't want to touch the portals to get a skill, into bloodthirsty maniacs!"

"Well we are not bloodthirsty or maniacs. The outpost is safe and we just came from there." Rolf walked closer to the gate.

I felt protective, so i followed close behind him. 

Looking through the gate, the camp seemed strangely at peace. Considering Kenneth just told us that there had been a battle amongst themselves.

More than a thousand people moved around inside, doing chores. Mostly common people without skills. And i guessed there where even more inside the government building in the far end.

"Look at me i'm completely fine!" Rolf said, standing face to face with Kenneth. Only the iron bars of the gate between them.

I had an odd feeling when Kenneth opened the gate for us.

"Allright, you all seem good to enter. But again, tell those strange humans to drop their shields and spears."

I didn't tell them. And the gate was open now.

"Attack! Kill them all!" I yelled.

Rolf, Chioma and Magnus all looked at me, with shock apparent on their faces, as my fifty spear-units started to charge.

"Frey what the hell are you doing!" Chioma yelled at me, clearly frustrated.

But before i could answer, i had to jump in between her and Kenneth, blocking his polearm from killing her.

Kenneths body had slightly changed. His eyes had turned red, and two large fangs grew from the upper part of his mouth, as his skin turned brighter, like that of a bloodless corpse.

"They are vampires! Watch out!" I yelled. 

Rolf instantly entangled Kenneth, while my spear unit's clashed with the low level vampires behind him.

"HAHAHA! How did you know? I'm impressed" Kenneth's grin was unmistakeable savage, as he tore himself free from the entanglement.

"The captain and the others didn't suspect a thing when i returned from the blue bridge portal! It was easy to turn this camp into my masters followers!" Kenneth was laughing like a maniac as he spoke.

But i didn't wait around. 

Reaching him with only a few fast steps, i cut his right arm off in one swing with my sword, the next sword swing followed immidiately after the first, removing his head from his shoulders.

"Be carefull who you attack inside! Most of them are still human!" I yelled as we all ran inside the gate where my units had engaged the next wave of vampires.

Chaos had broken out in the camp. Thousands of people was running around in panic and fear. Some tried to hide while most was running towards the holes in the wall, trying to escape. 

It was clear that the vampires had only turned a few hundred. They had captured the rest like cattle in a fence.

"Frey!" Rolf called out over the battle. "Go to the building! Calf is in there. He is the only one who can gather these people now!"

I didn't reply as i dodged a vampire that tried to bite my neck.

They were fast! How could they be so fast at level 3?

"I wish i could see their attributes!" I talked to myself while killing the vampire. They didn't have high health, indicating low stamina. But their speed spoke of a high agility attribute. I had around fifty agility, so camparing my own movements, i thought the vampires had around twenty or thirty agility.

I jumped over a broken old wagon as i ran towards the building. Vampires was chasing everyone. Running past a tent, i saw a vampire biting the neck of a young woman.

"Are you okay!?" I had allready killed the vampire.

But she didn't aswer as she cried, just stopped her own tears. Her face changed as fangs started to appear.

She lunged at me, but i just put my sword forward, piercing her heart.

"Hahaha! You think that will kill me? If you want to penetrate me, why don't you use something else?" The woman was not human anymore. She grabbed my sword and pulled herself closer to me. Sitting on my lap she moved her hips in slow, but firm, circular movements.

"I know you want me. Just take me, i'm a virgin!" She sensually moved her hands on my face, slowly grabbing my hair and turning my head.

As she was about to bite, i used my other sword to remove her head.

They must have some kind of charm skill, i thought, as i continued my run towards the building.

I killed five vampires on the stairway to the doors. Making sure to aim for their heads from now on.

The large hall was empty. But i could feel that there were people, down both the left and right side hallway.

I wen't to the right side. Walking past open and empty rooms, before i reached the last door.

I opened it and saw an iron cage in the end. Calf was inside, beaten up badly. A Vampire had Calfs arm in his hands between the iron cages bars. It was sucking his blood with an addicted ferocity.

Three other vampires turned around to me. They were dead before they even reached me. My dual-sword mastery had risen to C-rank, allowing me much better and fluent swordmanship.

"Don't make the mistake of underestimating me. I'm not the same as i was the last time." A growling voice came from the vampire, as he let go of Calfs drained wrist.

As the pale vampire stood up, covered with blood around his mouth, dripping to the floor. I saw the tattoo of a skull on his chest.

"So it's you who have done all this. You're the reason so many are dead!" I took a firm grip of my swords as i questioned him.

"No... I was simply turned from the master himself. That night, when you killed my brother. I ran. The master found me. He healed my broken jaw and gave me a choice. Live and serve, or die. It was an easy choice. I swore to serve. I would get strong so that i could find you, and revenge my brother!"

The skull kicked to the cage with Calf. "This one is different. The elf blood has evolved my skills. It's delicious!"

"Now die!"

Blood started to flow from the dead vampires, forming a ball of blood before the skull vampire.

Name: Vojislav Stojanovic. Level 9

Health: 175. Mana: 185. Fatigue: 245.

Class: Vampire

Skill: Blood crafting. Charm. Sword mastery (E-Rank). Blood regeneration. Dash. Magic resistance.

A ball of blood was now flowing above his head. He lifted his right arm and touched it, withdrawing a bloodred sword from the pool.

"I'm going to drink you dry!" He dashed, appearing next to me with a crasy smile. But i was prepared and our swords clashed.

He was fast as i exchanged blows with him. Dashing to me, i blocked. His general attributed was lower than mine, as he realised. If he didn't use dash to retreat and attack i would have won by now.

But he had a magic skill aswell. Utilising the blood flowing above him, i had to evade several small blood knifes beeing thrown at me.

While parrying just such a blade, he dashed behind me. His kick made me fly through the wall into the hallway. 

Our exchange of blows continues. Thrashing everything in our way.

Soon he started to wear down, he couldn't keep up with my attributes.

"Fuck you!" He screamed with a horrified face, as i slashed both my swords at him. My swords met in the middle of his stomach, splitting his body in two.

I though it was over as his upper body fell to the floor, but it never touched down. Strings of blood had grapped it from the blood orb. Pulling it back into place, completely recovering him.

I was taken aback, his bloodsword allready deep in my own stomack.

"HAHAHA I got you, you prick!"

I dropped to my knees, unable to move.

"What is..." All my strenght was fading.

"Ohh haha, well you see." The skull looked at me with his red, predatory eyes, his facial expression clearly stating that he was enjoying himself. "This sword isen't a normal sword. It is my personal bloodsword. It will drain all life, mana and fatigue from anything it touches! Totally overpowered right?!" He continued to laugh like a crasy psycopath.

"But i won't let it eat all of you." He withdraw his sword, all my stats was down to 10% and i collapsed unto my knees. 

Walking behind me, he squatted down and put his face close to my neck. "I'm going to enjoy this, just let go now."

I closed my eyes. Aya, i failed you.

SMASH

I thought i was gone for, but as he was about to bite me, Chioma had appeared. None of us had noticed her as she had snuck near. 

She had punched is head away, and had now removed his head from the body.

"Atleast he got to see this crasy bitch in his final moments!" She smiled at me as she kicked his head away.

Rolf and Magnus came inside.

"We have chased them away outside, but we need more of your units Frey, to keep the rest safe. Come hel.... What happened?" Rolf ran to me.

"I'm fine. Just had an encounter with our old friend over there." I pointed to the body of the dead skull.

"I see, well pull yourself together." 

I drank a health potion and a mana potion. My health was still low, so i drank another health potion. But it didn't heal me. Mo body started to tremble and i threw up.

"What the hell?" I spit.

"I forgot to tell you! We can only consume any two potions every hour. My alchemy profession made that very clear." Rolf and Magnus laughed at me.