Corrupted blood lord

By the time morning arrived, they had nearly reached the Tessanian valley where the borders of Alvar and Tessania met.

Teclos stopped halfway down the ridge.

The dark chain around Axel’s neck snapped taut, forcing the old man to catch himself before he tumbled forward. He looked past Teclos and toward the trees below.

The forest had fallen silent.

No birds called between the branches. Even the wind seemed to have weakened, leaving the leaves unnaturally still.

A roar rolled through the forest.

Whatever had made it was close.

Teclos smiled.

It was time for breakfast.

Axel noticed his expression and immediately understood what he was thinking.

"Whatever that is, we should avoid it."

Teclos tightened his grip around the dark chain.

Before Axel could say anything else, Teclos stepped into the nearest shadow and vanished.

The chain shot forward with him.

Axel was torn from his feet and dragged down the slope, bouncing across roots and stones as Teclos moved through the forest without the slightest concern for his captive.

Branches struck Axel’s shoulders and tore at his clothes.

"Slow down, you damned lunatic!"

Teclos ignored him.

The heat grew stronger with every passing moment. Smoke drifted between the trees, carrying the smell of scorched earth and burning bark.

They soon reached a wide clearing.

A massive bear stood at its center.

It was nearly twice the size of an ordinary beast, its shoulders high enough to meet a mounted warrior. Thick black fur covered most of its body, but streams of orange light pulsed beneath its skin like molten veins.

Flames poured from its mouth with every breath.

Several trees around it were already burning.

The creature turned toward them, its eyes glowing like heated iron.

Teclos flicked his wrist.

Darkness wrapped around a nearby tree and bound Axel tightly against its trunk before he could move.

"You stay there."

The firebear roared.

Flames erupted from its jaws and swept across the clearing.

Teclos vanished before the inferno reached him.

The fire rolled past, narrowly missing Axel before consuming the trees behind him. Leaves and branches disappeared into ash within seconds.

Teclos emerged from the firebear’s shadow.

A blade of darkness formed in his hand.

He stepped forward and swung once.

The firebear twisted away, but not quickly enough. The dark blade tore through its shoulder, cutting deep into flesh and bone as burning blood splashed across the scorched ground.

The creature roared and lashed out with one enormous paw.

Teclos did not move.

He raised one hand and caught the strike.

The ground cracked beneath his boots, but his arm did not bend.

The firebear pushed against him with all its weight. Flames surged across its fur, and the muscles in its foreleg bulged beneath the strain.

Teclos remained exactly where he stood.

Axel stared at him from across the clearing.

Teclos tightened his fingers around the beast’s paw.

Bone shattered in his grip.

The firebear released a pained roar, but Teclos dragged it forward and drove his knee into its jaw.

The impact lifted the enormous creature from the ground and sent it crashing onto its back.

Teclos stood over it, his dark blade hanging loosely at his side.

"Is that all?"

Driven by rage rather than reason, the firebear scrambled back onto its feet and charged again.

Each step shook the clearing.

Teclos smiled.

He waited until the creature was almost upon him before sinking into the darkness beneath his feet.

The firebear tore through the place where he had been standing and slammed into the remains of a broken tree.

Dark tendrils erupted around its legs.

They twisted around the beast and pulled in opposite directions.

The firebear roared as flames surged across its body. Several tendrils burned away, but more rose from the shadows to replace them.

Teclos appeared on its back.

He drove his dark blade between its shoulders.

The firebear bucked violently and threw him aside, but the weapon remained buried inside its body.

Teclos landed on one knee.

He closed his fist.

The blade expanded.

Darkness burst outward from within the beast.

The firebear released one final roar before collapsing onto the scorched earth.

Flames continued crawling across its fur for several moments.

Then they slowly faded.

Teclos approached the corpse and placed one hand against its side.

At first, nothing happened.

Then pale streams of mana began to rise from the dead creature.

The energy twisted through the air before flowing into Teclos’s palm. Darkness stirred around him as the beast’s remaining power poured into his body.

Axel’s expression changed.

Teclos’s mana was growing.

Not gradually.

Not through meditation, training, or the slow formation of another circle.

It swelled in real time.

The pressure surrounding him became heavier with every passing second. His aura expanded across the clearing before settling back inside him.

Teclos opened his eyes.

They shone more brightly than before.

Axel stared at him in disbelief.

"So that is how you do it."

Teclos looked toward him.

"How I do what?"

"How you grow so quickly." Axel pulled against the darkness binding him to the tree. "You take mana directly from the dead."

Teclos said nothing.

Axel let out a bitter laugh.

"Hah! What an unfair ability."

Teclos walked toward him.

"Jealous?"

"Anyone with sense would be."

The tendrils released Axel from the tree, only for the dark chain to reform around his neck.

Teclos glanced back at the dead firebear.

It had given him far more mana than an ordinary beast or soldier ever could.

Tessania was already proving useful.

—

They continued west through the forest.

Axel spoke less after witnessing the absorption.

Teclos could feel the old man watching him whenever they passed the remains of an animal or sensed mana somewhere in the distance.

The firebear had answered several of Axel’s questions.

It had also given him many more.

He now understood why Teclos sought strong opponents.

Every corpse brought him another step closer to Luther.

Every monster became another fragment of power added to his own.

Near midday, the forest gave way to a rocky stretch of land covered in tall grass.

A shadow passed over them.

Teclos looked up.

A griffon circled above the valley.

Its wings stretched wider than the branches of the largest trees. Golden feathers covered its upper body, while its rear half resembled a powerful lion, with long black claws extending from each paw.

The creature released a sharp cry and folded its wings.

It descended directly toward them.

Axel looked at Teclos.

"Do not."

Teclos unwound the chain from around his wrist, though the darkness remained secured around Axel’s neck.

"Stay low."

The griffon struck the ground.

Dust and stones exploded outward.

Teclos slipped aside as its claws tore through the earth where he had been standing.

The griffon beat its wings, releasing a violent gust that tore across the grass. Axel was thrown onto his back, while Teclos slid several meters before stopping himself.

The beast rose into the air again.

"It controls the wind!" Axel shouted.

Teclos extended one hand.

Dark tendrils shot upward.

The griffon twisted between them, severing several with the sharp edges of its wings before climbing higher into the sky.

It released another cry.

Compressed air descended like invisible blades.

The ground split around Teclos.

One of the attacks cut across his shoulder, tearing through his cloak and opening the flesh beneath.

Teclos glanced at the wound.

Then he looked back at the griffon.

Darkness spread outward from beneath his feet.

The shadows under the grass deepened and expanded until half the field had turned unnaturally black.

The griffon folded its wings and descended again.

This time, Teclos waited.

Its claws stretched toward him.

He disappeared.

The griffon struck nothing.

Teclos emerged from the creature’s own shadow as it passed overhead and seized one of its rear legs.

The griffon screeched and beat its wings, carrying both of them higher into the air.

Axel watched from below.

"You truly have no sense of self-preservation!"

Teclos ignored him.

Darkness wound itself around the griffon’s body. Tendrils tightened across its wings, preventing them from opening fully.

The creature lost control.

They fell.

Teclos released it moments before impact and disappeared into a shadow below.

The griffon crashed into the field.

Earth erupted around its body.

One of its wings folded awkwardly beneath it.

The beast tried to rise, but dark tendrils pinned its legs and neck against the ground.

Teclos emerged beside its head.

The griffon snapped its beak toward him.

A dark blade pierced through the roof of its mouth.

The beast shuddered.

Then it became still.

Teclos rested one hand against its golden feathers.

Mana flowed from the corpse.

The griffon possessed less raw power than the firebear, but its energy felt sharper and more refined. It rushed through Teclos’s channels, pressing against the circles within his body.

Axel felt the increase again.

Teclos’s presence grew heavier.

For a brief moment, the grass around him bent beneath the pressure of his mana.

Then the sensation disappeared.

Teclos exhaled slowly.

"You look pleased," Axel said.

"I am."

"You killed two beasts, and your mana has already grown noticeably."

"Imagine what I could gain from something stronger."

Axel’s expression darkened.

"That thought should frighten you."

"It does not."

"I know. That is the problem."

Teclos pulled the chain.

Axel stumbled forward.

They left the griffon behind and continued west.

—

They encountered the mercenaries late that afternoon.

Teclos sensed them before he saw them.

Several weak mana signatures moved slowly along a dirt road ahead. None felt particularly dangerous.

One person was limping badly.

Another could barely maintain the reinforcement spell around his body.

Teclos raised a hand, bringing Axel to a stop.

Voices carried through the trees.

"Just keep moving."

"We need to rest."

"If we stop here, those things might catch our scent again."

Teclos approached the edge of the road.

Nine mercenaries were heading west.

All of them looked exhausted.

Their armor was dented, torn, or covered in dried blood. Several carried broken weapons, while one man had wrapped an entire side of his torso in filthy bandages.

Three chained slaves walked among them.

Two were men.

The third was a young woman with short dark hair and bruises covering one side of her face.

None of the three looked healthy enough to run.

Axel opened his mouth.

A tendril immediately wrapped around his face and forced a strip of darkness between his teeth.

He glared at Teclos.

Teclos pulled up his hood and stepped onto the road.

The mercenaries noticed him immediately.

Despite their condition, they drew their weapons.

"Stop there," the man at the front commanded.

He carried a chipped longsword and wore the battered remains of what had once been expensive plate armor.

Teclos raised his hands slightly.

"I am not looking for a fight."

The mercenary captain studied him.

His gaze shifted toward Axel, the dark chain, and the gag covering his mouth.

"He your prisoner?"

"My servant."

Axel made an angry sound behind the gag.

Teclos tightened the chain.

"He complains often."

Several of the mercenaries exchanged glances.

None of them seemed interested in questioning the situation.

Tessania was filled with slaves, prisoners, debt servants, and criminals forced into labor. A chained old man was hardly an unusual sight.

"Where are you heading?" the captain asked.

"West."

"That is not an answer."

"It is the only one you need."

The mercenaries tightened their grips on their weapons.

Teclos looked over their injuries.

"You lost people recently."

The captain’s expression hardened.

"What makes you say that?"

"You are carrying enough supplies for more than nine."

A broken shield was strapped to one of the packhorses. Several empty saddles hung beside it.

Blood stained the harnesses.

The captain slowly lowered his sword.

"Werewolves."

Axel stopped struggling.

"We were hired by Count Veyron to clear a nest near the eastern forests," the captain continued. "The report said there were six."

"How many were there?"

"More than thirty."

A mercenary near the back gave a bitter laugh.

"Our whole company went into those woods. These are all who came back."

Teclos studied them again.

There had likely been several strong fighters among the dead.

Mana he had missed.

"Where is this count’s territory?"

"Closest noble territory to the Alvarian border. Two days west once we pass the frontier road."

Teclos glanced toward the chained slaves.

"And them?"

"Payment," the captain said. "We took them from a bandit settlement before the werewolf contract. We sell them, recover whatever coin we can, and pray the count does not fine us for failing."

The female slave looked toward Teclos before quickly lowering her eyes.

Axel tried to speak through the gag again.

Teclos ignored him.

"You know the roads," he said.

The captain nodded cautiously.

"We do."

"I will travel with you."

"That was not an invitation."

Teclos met his gaze.

The captain held it for several seconds.

Then something in Teclos’s expression convinced him that continuing the argument would be unwise.

"You keep control of your servant," he said. "And you provide your own food."

"Agreed."

The mercenaries began moving again.

Teclos joined them near the rear while Axel followed behind him.

Once enough distance had opened between them and the captain, Teclos loosened the gag slightly.

Axel immediately whispered, "You are joining slave traders?"

"They know the road."

"That does not answer my question."

Teclos glanced toward the prisoners.

"I have not decided what to do with them yet."

Axel stared at him.

"That almost sounded like the old you."

Teclos tightened the gag again.

They continued until sunset.

The mercenaries spoke little. Exhaustion weighed heavily upon them, and every noise from the surrounding wilderness sent their hands toward their weapons.

Teclos listened as they discussed Count Veyron’s lands.

The count controlled the nearest fortified territory inside Tessania. His domain included several villages, mining settlements, and a large town built around an old fortress.

More importantly, his lands bordered valleys overrun with monsters.

Werewolves were only one of the threats found there.

Ogres, wyverns, corrupted beasts, and rogue mages regularly appeared beyond the settled roads.

Teclos smiled beneath his hood.

It sounded perfect.

As darkness settled across the land, the road climbed toward a line of watchtowers built between two hills.

Torchlight burned along a wooden palisade.

Tessanian banners moved above the gate.

The mercenary captain stopped and released a tired breath.

"There it is," he said. "The border of Count Veyron’s territory."

The survivors behind him visibly relaxed.

Even the slaves lifted their heads.

Teclos studied the walls.

Beyond them waited settlements, mercenaries, nobles, monsters, and countless sources of power.

His first true hunting ground in Tessania.

The gate slowly opened.

Teclos pulled Axel’s chain and followed the battered company forward.