Corrupted blood lord

Smoke started pouring from the entrance behind them. It smelled of burned corpses and alchemy. The fire tore through everything and burned all the evidence they had left behind, even some people who were still alive in the cages.

Dallion drew his daggers and started spinning them in his hands. He was getting excited by the upcoming battle and the chance to kill the Church dogs.

Tepesh also reached over his shoulder and drew the greatsword from his back. The blade was wide and heavy enough that most men would have needed both hands just to lift it. Tepesh, on the other hand, held it with one arm like its weight meant nothing.

"Only six of them?" Dallion said, smiling faintly. "We worried for nothing."

Teclos glanced at him. ’Idiot’

They were not some random thugs who had stumbled across the burning cave. They were properly trained, equipped, and blessed people who had one purpose: hunting monsters like them.

The only reason Teclos had sensed them so late was because something was interfering with his perception.

It made him cautious of his surroundings and forced him to look out for other inquisitors, not just the ones in front of them.

The six figures stepped through the trees. Their armor was not the polished ceremonial kind worn by priests in temples, but it still carried the unmistakable mark of the Church.

White-gray coats hung over chainmail and reinforced leather, sun symbols were stitched into the cloth, and blessed talismans swayed softly with every step.

Their weapons were drawn, and they were already prepared for battle.

A captain stood in the center of their formation with his round shield raised high, ready to block any frontal attack. He kept his longsword pointed toward the vampires above his shield. The man was imposing and tall like a tower.

Two frontline fighters in similar attire moved beside him. One carried a spear, and the other carried a heavy mace.

Behind them stood a priest with a short staff and several talismans hanging from his belt.

The last two were scouts. They flanked the formation with their bows already drawn and ready to loose their arrows.

A flat rune stone hung from one of their necks.

It gave off an unpleasant feeling and shrouded their presence even now.

’So that’s the annoying thing that’s blocking my senses.’ Teclos noted.

The captain looked past them at the smoke rising from the entrance.

His expression hardened. "We are too late," he said.

The priest’s jaw tightened. "The innocent?"

"Gone," the captain answered. His eyes returned to the three vampires. "But at least we will be able to avenge them."

Dallion stepped forward. "You should have brought more men for that."

The captain did not answer and simply maintained their formation.

The scouts released their first arrows.

The arrows crossed the distance with terrifying speed, and both were aimed at Teclos. He frowned. It looked like they could somehow tell that he actually had the least potent mana among the three.

Teclos tilted his head aside, and the arrows tore past his cheek. A thin line of pain burned across his skin before he even realized they had touched him. He thought he had dodged them completely. The other problem was that his wound hissed, and his regeneration was almost inactive.

Blessed weapons. This would be annoying.

The forest exploded into motion.

Dallion vanished, moving like a pale blur toward the scouts. The archers stepped back calmly, already drawing another arrow, while the priest slammed his staff into the ground. White runes expanded beneath him and encased the whole battlefield, significantly decreasing Dallion’s speed.

That nearly cost him his head.

The spear fighter lunged, his spear stabbing through the space where Dallion’s head had been. Dallion twisted aside, but the spearhead still scraped across his shoulder and burned through the armor with a hiss. He snarled and drove one dagger toward the man’s ribs, only for the captain to intercept it with his shield.

The impact rang like a gong and tore through the forest.

Tepesh moved a heartbeat later, and his greatsword came down like a falling wall, trying to behead the captain.

The mace fighter met it head-on with a two-handed swing, and the collision shook the ground beneath them. Sparks scattered across the leaves. The man’s boots slid back from the impact, but he stood firmly. His mace glowed with golden runes, and the moment Tepesh pressed forward, the captain stepped in from the side and slashed toward his knee.

Tepesh pulled back just enough to avoid losing his leg.

Teclos watched the exchanges.

They really were good.

The inquisitors did not fight like duelists. They fought like a team that had killed monsters together before. The priest locked down movement. The scouts punished every opening. The frontliners forced direct clashes. The captain filled the gaps and kept everyone alive.

A dark tendril shot out from Teclos’s hand toward one of the scout’s chests.

He saw it coming and rolled behind a tree. Of course, that did not stop the tendril. It tore the trunk open, but the scout was already moving again.

As he dodged Teclos’s tendril, he shot two arrows at Teclos in response, one aimed at his chest and one at his thigh.

Teclos sank into the shadow beneath him, making the arrows miss, and emerged from the darkness behind the scout with his sword already overhead and ready to decapitate him.

The scout reacted just in time.

A small disk flashed in his hand, and a burst of golden light exploded between them. Teclos’s darkness recoiled as pain tore across his face, but he swung his sword anyway. The blade cut cleanly through the scout’s bow, yet the man had already stepped back and drawn a short sword in the same motion.

Teclos’s vision returned a heartbeat later.

The scout lunged at him with a rune-saturated knife, but a dark tendril struck him before he could reach Teclos. It hurled him backward through a bush and slammed him into a tree hard enough to crack the trunk.

Teclos moved to finish him, but two arrows from the second scout forced him to stop.

At the same time, the captain shouted an order, and the priest’s staff struck the ground again.

Golden chains erupted from the earth.

They wrapped around Teclos’s leg, waist, and sword arm.

His body jerked to a full stop.

The scout coughed blood, lifted a hand, and hurled another disk at Teclos. It forced him to cover himself in a sphere of darkness just before the light detonated.

The blast tore his shield apart and flung him backward across the ground. He rolled once, dug his fingers into the soil, and stopped himself beside a burning patch of grass. His skin smoked where the light had touched him.

He was starting to understand why vampires hated the Church so much.

Nearby, Tepesh roared and finally broke the mace fighter’s guard. His greatsword cleaved through the man’s weapon, shoulder, and chest in one brutal diagonal strike. The inquisitor hit the ground in two pieces, but the victory cost Tepesh.

The captain’s sword carved across his ribs, and the spear fighter drove his weapon through Tepesh’s thigh.

Blessed enchantments were not easy to deal with and staggered Tepesh for a second.

Dallion tried to save Tepesh and simultaneously end the spear fighter. He appeared behind him like a cobra, daggers poised toward the man’s spine.

But like a well-oiled machine, the priest threw a talisman into the air, and a barrier snapped into existence between them. Dallion’s daggers struck it and bounced right off with a burst of sparks.

The spear fighter then turned, and his spear punched through Dallion’s stomach.

Dallion’s eyes widened. For the first time, he lost his cool and was actually shocked.

The injured scout reached for another arrow from the quiver at his back, trying to force Teclos back, but black hands erupted under his feet, grabbed his ankles, and yanked him off balance.

He fell down, and Teclos appeared above him. He drove his sword down toward his heart.

The scout twisted his body, and the blade missed his heart, but still punched through his shoulder. The man gritted his teeth and tried to activate a rune stone hanging from his neck. Teclos grabbed it first.

The stone burned his palm, but he crushed it anyway.

The disruption around his senses shattered like thin glass, and the whole forest suddenly became clearer.

The other scout loosed two more arrows toward Teclos’s back, but he casually bowed down and smiled at the injured one beneath his feet. "Bye bye."

The scout’s eyes widened as Teclos slammed his boot onto the man’s throat and pressed until the man’s spine cracked beneath his heel.

"Ah! Much better," he sighed with relief and started hunting the second scout.

Across the clearing, Dallion ripped himself free from the spear and lunged at the priest instead with a furious snarl.

The priest stepped back and raised his staff, but Dallion was faster. One dagger severed the man’s wrist, making him unable to hold the staff any longer, while he stabbed the other into the priest’s ribs.

Lightning crackled from his daggers.

The priest gasped for air as he was being shocked.

Dallion leaned close with a smile and whispered, "You should have stayed in your temple, disgusting filth."

The priest smiled through bloody teeth, and every talisman on his belt lit up.

Teclos sensed the danger and teleported back.

Dallion was not so lucky.

A pillar of golden fire swallowed them both.

The blast tore through the clearing, bending trees and scattering burning leaves into the air. Dallion screamed inside the light, a raw, ugly, monster-like sound that made even Tepesh glance over.

When the fire collapsed, the priest was nothing but ash, while Dallion had been burned to the bone in some places and was unable to move.

His regeneration fought to close the wounds, but the blessed fire clung to him like poison.

Teclos stared at him. *How unfortunate.*

He had hoped the priest would finish the job properly.

The captain and the spear fighter did not let the sacrifice go to waste. They attacked Tepesh together, forcing him back toward the burning cave entrance.

Tepesh was stronger than both of them. Every swing of his greatsword forced them to dodge instead of block, and every step he took shook the ground.

But strength was not everything.

The captain kept blocking and redirecting his attacks with excellent shield mastery, while the spear fighter punished every opening he gave them.

Again and again, the spear pierced Tepesh’s armor, opening wounds that did not heal. They were wearing him down piece by piece.

Teclos could have helped them if he really wanted, but under the guise of hunting the last scout, he chose not to.

Tepesh’s greatsword finally found the spear fighter.

The blade smashed through the man’s chest and sent him flying into a tree. The inquisitor collapsed and did not rise again.

Tepesh turned toward the captain, bleeding from a dozen wounds, his armor cracked and smoking.

But the captain stood alone now, as Teclos had made short work of the last scout.

His shield was dented, and his coat was torn. Blood ran down the side of his face. Still, his grip on the sword did not loosen.

He looked at the dead around him, then at the three vampires.

He showed no fear and was prepared to die for the cause.

Teclos looked at him with a sliver of respect.

The captain reached into his coat and pulled out a small silver flare crystal.

Tepesh’s eyes widened. "Stop him!"

But it was too late. He crushed the crystal, and a blinding silver flash illuminated the whole sky somewhere thirty meters above them.

He had called in reinforcements.

Dallion cursed and spat out more blood. He was barely healing anything.

Tepesh charged with a roar, and the captain met him head-on. Their weapons crashed together several times. After a minute of fearsome exchange between the two combatants, Tepesh’s raw strength broke through.

His greatsword decapitated the captain after a front kick opened him up.

The clearing fell silent except for the crackle of the burning facility behind them and Dallion’s ragged breathing.

Tepesh stared at the pale glow slowly disappearing from the sky.

"We need to get out of here. The bastard signaled them," Dallion barely managed to say as he trembled in excruciating pain.

Tepesh just growled, displeased at how things had gone.

Tepesh turned toward Teclos. "Why did you not help me sooner?"

Teclos looked back at him calmly. "I was busy killing the scouts and breaking the disruption stone. You were the one fighting him."

Tepesh wanted to retort but said nothing, as Teclos had technically helped them a lot in this fight.

Teclos almost smiled at the simpleton not realizing he was being played with.

The mission was a success. The facility was destroyed. The research was recovered, and the relic was secured. Even the inquisitors were dead.

They just had to escape from the pursuers now... somehow.

Both Tepesh and Dallion were in really bad shape, and those Church bastards would not let them escape so easily.

Tepesh looked toward the horses hidden farther down the slope. "We have to leave. Now!"

Dallion stumbled once before he was caught by Teclos and helped along.

This gesture surprised both of them, but they all had to hurry and try to escape quickly.

They also did not know that Teclos had gathered all of the flash bombs those inquisitors had, as well as the silver signal flares from the scouts.

He could kill them now if he wanted to, but he was afraid they had some sort of connection or item to Luther that could signal his betrayal, painting a target on his back. So he opted for a more discreet option and let the Church do it.