Corrupted blood lord

They rode quickly through the forest, but not nearly as fast as they would have liked.

Dallion was barely staying in the saddle. Half his body looked like burned kebab wrapped in tin foil, and every time the horse jolted, he spat out more blood.

Tepesh was in a better condition, but only by comparison. His armor was split in several places, his thigh still leaked blood, and the blessed wounds across his body refused to close properly.

Teclos could have left them behind. It was the first thought that actually came to his mind.

He could sink into the shadows and vanish, letting the Church finish what it had started. It would be clean, convenient, and very satisfying.

Sadly, it would also be risky.

If Tepesh or Dallion somehow survived and reported that he had abandoned them, Luther would kill him quickly and effortlessly.

So he stayed with them.

For now.

Trees whipped past as their horses tore through the narrow path.

Teclos tried to sense his surroundings, but once again, he felt that awful, unpleasant disruption scrape against his perception. It blurred everything around him, making it impossible to pinpoint his enemies properly.

It was like trying to look at the same image four times at once, each one slightly out of place.

He was really starting to hate those things.

"Go left," Tepesh yelled.

Teclos pulled the reins without a second thought.

The path bent sharply between two old trees, and a heartbeat later, a rain of golden arrows cut through the space where they would have been. They slammed into the ground and burst into circles of light, burning everything in sight.

Teclos glanced at Tepesh and frowned. The bastard had sensed them somehow.

Dallion coughed blood over his horse’s neck and pointed weakly toward a gap between the trees. "More on the right."

Despite looking like barbecued meat, he had sensed them too.

It annoyed Teclos. How were they able to sense them so clearly? It was not like they were overwhelmingly stronger than him.

They had an edge over him when it came to sensing through that disruption. Was it maybe experience? Maybe stronger vampire senses, like hearing? Maybe Luther had simply given his favorite little dogs better blood and training?

Whatever the reason, Teclos did not like it.

The forest opened for a short stretch, and the pursuers finally showed themselves.

Riders in white-gray coats burst through the trees behind them. Their horses were armored with enchanted war armor, and blessed talismans hung from the saddles.

’Damn... they really hate us.’

Every single one of them carried a short bow, shield, and lance.

The Church was hell-bent on catching them, it seemed, and their formation was spreading outward like a net.

Tepesh raised one hand without slowing his horse.

Lightning gathered around his arm with a violent crackle, and a blue-white dragon head appeared at the tips of his fingers. He released it, and the blast annihilated everything in its path, splitting trunks apart and maiming some of them even through that armor. It exploded somewhere behind them and sent both mount and rider that were in its path tumbling across the ground.

Dallion gave a weak laugh, relishing in their pain.

"Stay conscious," Tepesh growled.

Teclos stretched his hand toward the ground behind them.

Darkness spilled from the shadows of the trees and spread across the path like black oil. The leading horse stepped into it and screamed as its legs were yanked sideways. It crashed, throwing the rider and his mount into another one.

Other times, spikes appeared and impaled the horses’ legs, until a priest shrouded them all in light magic, rendering his darkness almost useless.

Still, Teclos smiled faintly as the front of their formation was disrupted. Being a nuisance was one of his better talents, after all.

A golden chain shot from the trees and wrapped around Tepesh’s horse’s neck.

Tepesh cursed and swung his greatsword with one hand. Lightning ran along the blade as it cut through the chain. The recoil burned the horse’s mane and nearly threw him from the saddle, but he managed to stay mounted.

Another arrow came for Dallion.

Teclos raised a wall of darkness beside him, and the arrow punched halfway through before stopping. The light inside it burned a hole through the barrier, but Dallion was safe.

Dallion looked at him, surprised.

Teclos shrugged. "Try not to die."

"How kind," Dallion scoffed.

"I am known for my kindness."

The chase dragged on.

They lost sight of the pursuers a few times.

The first time, Tepesh led them through a stream to hide their tracks. Teclos filled the forest behind them with a rolling cloud of darkness, swallowing the path and every shadow around it. For nearly a minute, they rode through silence.

Then a flare of golden light burst behind them, and arrows flew at them like the dark shroud from Teclos did not exist.

The second time, they abandoned the path entirely and forced the horses up a rocky slope. Tepesh blasted the lower trail with lightning, causing the stone and ground to collapse behind them.

But of course, the Church had an earth mage.

The third time, Teclos used darkness to form a thin, almost invisible line between the trees. Multiple riders crashed over it, and one even screamed as his horse flipped over him. Tepesh followed up with a lightning blast that tore the ground open.

Still, they could not shake them off, and they always stayed right behind them.

Teclos narrowed his eyes. He was suspicious at this point.

"How are they still following us?"

Tepesh did not answer and instead looked toward the mountain rising on their left, its dark shape cutting through the night sky. The glance was quick, but Teclos noticed it.

Then Tepesh looked at Dallion, and his fingers moved in a small, strange hand signal.

Dallion’s burned face twitched, and he nodded.

Teclos saw that too.

For a moment, he thought they were up to something... but he pushed the thought aside.

They would not use him as bait. They could not. Some of the research documents were inside his dark dimension, along with other materials he had gathered from the facility. If the Church captured him, they risked losing those files.

And that would directly oppose Luther’s commands.

He assumed that this would protect him from being thrown away.

He failed to see one crucial thing, which would soon bite him in the ass.

The forest path curved toward the base of the mountain, and the ground became rougher. The horses struggled to pass over the terrain.

Tepesh raised his sword.

Lightning gathered around him like a storm.

"Duck," he told Teclos.

Teclos lowered himself just as Tepesh unleashed his lightning.

A massive blast tore through the forest, brighter than the moon and loud enough to make people deaf for a few seconds. It ripped trees apart and sent charred dirt into the air.

Unsurprisingly, several pursuers were thrown off their horses. For a few beautiful seconds, the pursuit faltered and stopped.

Teclos was looking back at the aftermath when the betrayal came.

Tepesh suddenly kicked free from his stirrups and launched himself sideways from his horse.

Lightning exploded beneath his boots, and he crossed the distance in an instant like a thunderbolt.

His armored heel slammed into Teclos’s chest like a hammer striking iron. The impact tore him from the saddle and launched him off the path, through branches, and straight toward the lights of the Church pursuers.

For one stunned second, Teclos did not understand.

His body hit the ground and bounced twice before he dug a hand into the soil and stopped himself. Pain spread through his ribs. His horse screamed behind him as Tepesh landed on it, grabbed the reins, and continued to escape.

They did not even look back.

Tepesh turned to Dallion as he pushed the horse forward onto a mountain trail and shouted, "Move now, quickly!"

Then both vampires disappeared between the trees.

Teclos rose from the ground slowly.

Around him, Church warriors pulled their horses to a stop.

More and more figures stepped out from the tree line. Too many to cut down.

For a moment, Teclos stared after Tepesh and Dallion’s backs, genuinely shocked.

Had they just betrayed Luther?

Had they really thrown him to the Church while he was carrying research material in his dark dimension?

Then he felt the hostile stares aimed at him and understood that he had bigger problems right now.

"Well," he said, brushing dirt from his shoulder. "I’ll be damned."

The first row of paladins and inquisitors charged.

Teclos summoned dark tendrils around himself and drew his sword, looking for any opportunity to use his teleportation.

His sword flashed, meeting the first man’s blade head-on. The force threw him back, and Teclos followed up with a dark tendril, looking to snap his neck. Before he could finish him though, the next set of warriors were already upon him, and he had to abandon the idea of finishing him off.

Teclos twisted aside as a spear of light passed by his head, then kicked a third paladin in the chest hard enough to cave in his breastplate and send him flying too.

He got his small reprieve and tried to teleport out.

But just as he was about to sink into the shadows, golden light sprang from the ground.

An array flared to life underneath the whole battlefield.

Runes spread across the ground in a wide circle, and they ignited all at once. Lines of light interlocked together. Teclos’s mana froze once that happened, and his darkness vanished.

The tendrils dissolved.

The shadows refused to obey him any further.

Teclos stumbled as his strength was suddenly being sapped away.

The array did not only suppress his darkness, it also strengthened light and life mana.

"Of course," Teclos scoffed.

A massive presence entered the circle, and as Teclos turned around, he could only smile at his misfortune.

Regulus.

The Paladin Captain of Lupos looked exactly as Teclos remembered. Tall, broad, heavily armored, and exuding the kind of pressure that made Teclos reluctant to face him, even if he had his full strength.

His golden armor shone like a beacon of hope, and his already drawn enchanted claymore promised death.

His eyes settled on Teclos.

"So you are the vampire, filthy heathen..."

Teclos tightened his grip on his sword and focused on all of his senses.

Regulus disappeared.

Teclos barely blocked the first strike.

The claymore crashed against his sword and drove him back several steps, making his arms tremble from the sheer impact.

Without mana, Teclos was easy pickings, but even if he had been at full power, this fight would not have been easy against a monster like Regulus.

The follow-up strike came from the side. It was heavy and precise. Teclos ducked under it and slashed toward the gap beneath his arm, but his sword hit a wall of golden light instead.

Regulus’s knee smashed into his stomach at the same moment.

And the air left Teclos’s lungs.

Then a blessed gauntlet grabbed his face and hurled him into the ground.

He tried to summon darkness again.

But just like before, it did not respond.

Regulus stepped in before he got up and kicked his sword arm, cracking his bones.

Teclos gritted his teeth, switched hands, and stabbed upward.

Regulus caught the blade between his fingers and then twisted his hand violently.

The sword snapped, and Teclos blinked in disbelief.

"Oh come on! Do you have any idea how expensive that was?"

Regulus did not answer him and just uppercut his face.

Teclos was sent flying and hit the ground hard enough to split the earth beneath him.

Regulus planted one boot on his chest and pressed him flat against the glowing array.

Pain tore through Teclos’s whole body as he was pressed against the light, making his vision blurry.

The other soldiers closed in around them, weapons aimed at Teclos.

Teclos looked up at the sky and smiled self-deprecatingly.

Why had they left him?

Luther’s order was to bring back the research at all costs. It was to fight the Church if necessary. Yet Tepesh and Dallion had thrown him away without hesitation.

’Oh...’

Then the answer finally came.

They did not think he could betray Luther. To them, he was the perfect hostage...

If the Church tried to pry information from him, the slave pact would kill him. If he died, his dark dimension would collapse with him, and anything inside would be lost rather than fall into enemy hands. Their storage ring could be broken open, but Teclos had to willingly give up what he carried.

And they believed that was impossible.

He scoffed audibly.

’How stupid.’

Regulus stabbed the claymore a little deeper. "Do you find this amusing, heathen?"

Teclos looked up at the Paladin Captain and smiled through the pain.

"Can’t we just talk this out like civilized men?"