------

The sharp claws of the vampire woman slashed towards Karna’s throat as the rather alluring woman crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Before they reached her though, they crashed against a glowing barrier. The barrier was not strong enough to withstand the blow, as it cracked and crumbled under the power of the attack. However, it was enough to buy a few precious seconds. "Don't think your little turtle shell is enough to save you, little girl!" The vampire shouted gleefully, bloodlust radiating from her eyes. Something about Karna roused a thirst inside the vampire, the sort of thirst only a few beings could. The girl likely had a powerful bloodline!

Karna didn’t waste time in replying. Magical beings had a ranking of their own, aside from any abilities they gained as mages or warriors, and the magical beings could grow in power and rankings just by growing older and learning to use their abilities better. Karna could tell from the blow against the barrier that the vampire was at the eighth rank, and not someone that had recently reached that rank either. After reaching the sixth rank, no matter if you were a magical being or a mage, the difficulty increased exponentially, and the differences between different beings of the same rank became more pronounced. She knew that a direct confrontation of strength with a vampire of that rank would end badly for her despite her powerful Aura and Titan bloodline.

In a flash of white flames, Karna assumed the form of a Phoenix that had grown to the size of a human, and seemed to disappear in a burst of sparks and lightning. “Oh no you won’t!” The vampire cursed, and suddenly a field preventing spatial magic locked the area down. She had not wanted to do this, because using the field was effectively announcing her presence to everyone in the palace as every skilled magician could follow the magic creating the field to the creator. Her time had grown very limited suddenly, but it was better than allowing her prey to escape.

Karna’s Shift had been interrupted midway, and she materialized in the sky above the palace. She had managed to create distance, but she had not managed to escape fully. As she glanced down, she could see the vampire woman flying towards her. Dozens of other high-ranking vampires were assaulting the palace at the same time and hundreds of low-ranking vampires and thralls kept most of the guards busy for the time being. It seemed the vampires had been planning some kind of attack for a long time, but Karna’s appearance had forced their hand and moved their plans forward. They obviously didn’t know exactly what kind of artifact she was creating. This attack would not end well for the vampires, but it might take a bit of time for help to arrive.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a barrage of what looked a lot like giant thorns were launched at her by the female vampire. She easily dodged them in the air with her speed and agility, but the barrage showed no signs of abating. “Toreadors!” She scoffed at the vampire, loud enough to be heard. “Always so dramatic and flashy, but without substance.” She suddenly started flying away from the approaching vampire, creating further distance between them. The speed of a Phoenix was really something to behold, as she darted around the projectiles fired in her direction.

“I would’ve been surprised by the fact that you know the name of our clan, if I had not seen the Thaumaturgic runes protecting the workshop. You should call out your teacher little girl. You’re not going to survive otherwise.” The vampire called out. The vampire wasn’t slow either, and unlike Karna, she could fly in a straight line.

“On the contrary. I think I’m surviving just fine.” Karna taunted as she flew around above the palace. The elves would be fine. Despite the presence of dozens of high-ranking vampires, this was the capital of the elven court. The mountains around them were filled with dragons, and many of the elite of the elves were in the city, including the Queen. Although notably, the most battle-hardened veterans were absent. Curious. Still, the vampires had no chance in a direct confrontation, and Karna very much doubted that was the point of this attack. They were here for something else, and the attack was just meant to buy time and work as a distraction. And the vampire after her was just here to make sure her artifact would not be able to track any surviving vampires after the attack. Thus, Karna simply needed to buy time.

Suddenly a flash of sword ki reached the flying vampire, knocking her off her trajectory and causing the irate vampire to crash into one of the spires of the palace. The sword ki had moved so quickly that even Karna had to nod in appreciation. Prince Cendirion used his own powers to fly up to the sky and he hovered protectively between Karna and the vampire. “The only way you’ll lay a hand on her, vampire, is over my dead body.”

“A bad choice of words little prince.” The vampire appeared from the hole her crash had created in the spire. “Just because you managed to catch me by surprise, that doesn’t mean you’re my match. I think my master would like it if I brought the corpse of a prince back with me, along with the flaming and sparkly chicken behind you.”

Karna cursed silently. She had been hoping that this vampire was the strongest of the bunch, but of course she wouldn't be. And now that the prince had gotten involved, she couldn't just fly around to buy time either. She didn't really owe anything to the prince, but it would be a bit too much to just leave him to die after he'd come to 'rescue' her. The only good thing was that the clan the vampire belonged to was not a combat-oriented one, so she hoped the 'master' was of the same clan and was busy elsewhere.

A giant eye seemed to open in the empty air above the vampire, and a beam of deadly red energy shot towards the prince. Cendirion prepared to meet the attack head-on, but was shocked when a huge pillar of some dark crystalline stone seemed to materialize out of a magic circle, right on the path of the attack. The attack seemed to easily smash the stone, sending debris falling down towards the palace grounds, but the impact also shifted the direction of the attack enough to cause it to miss the prince.

“You really shouldn’t take attacks from a vampire like that. Even if you manage to block the attack, the Toreador are known for their ability to affect the minds of their targets, and their attacks also carry that trait. A single attack might not be enough to affect you, but it stacks up.” Karna explained as she flew next to the prince.

“In that case, I’ll have to thank you. Though…I would’ve preferred if you had chosen another method.” Cendirion muttered as the debris fell on the palace gardens, doing quite a bit of damage to the flower beds and trees. He had decided not to comment on Karna’s appearance, but it explained some things in his mind.

“Eh, the plants will recover with the help of a decent druid, which I doubt the elves lack. You won’t if you get yourself killed." Karna stated, and dodged another attack aimed at her this time. To her annoyance, the arrow-shaped energy only looped around and retargeted towards her, showing that the attack was of the homing type.

“Do the two of you think you really have time to flirt?” The vampire huffed in annoyance. As much as she had boasted earlier, she knew that the prince likely had enough skill and experience to stretch the fight out if given the opportunity. Especially with the aid of the annoying girl that seemed to know too much. She had to hurry.

A blood-red aura suddenly surrounded the woman and an apparition created from a combination of Aura and mana materialized behind her. The apparition looked like a forest of bloody roses, and the petals all seemed to be as sharp as razor blades. Millions of petals suddenly detached from the roses and seemed to come together to form a tidal wave of death and danger as they flew towards the prince. At the same time, she launched several more of the homing attacks towards Karna from the eye floating above her, as well as sending a smaller portion of the petals to attack her. Apparently, the eye allowed her to eschew the need for chants and empowered the spells, while also aiding in her control over the petals.

The prince released several bursts of powerful sword energy to scatter the petals aiming towards him, while dodging the rest with relative ease, but the problem was that he only managed to buy time with his actions, as the destroyed petals regenerated and reformed into smaller waves of danger and reached towards him. That didn’t leave him much time to attack the vampire. In the meantime, Karna flew around the swarm of attacks aimed towards her. The attacks were not strong enough to truly hurt her, but they were strong enough that it would be bad if one hit, as that would disrupt her enough to allow the others to hit as well. And that would definitely hurt her. Defying the expectations of both Cendirion and the vampire, she flew directly at the bloodsucker hovering in place.

The eyes of the vampire narrowed as she realized Karna's intent. Clearly, the girl wanted to use the vampire herself as a shield against the attacks. With most of her power directed towards the petals attacking the prince, it would not be safe for her to take her own attacks either. Assuming she was foolish enough to allow her own spells to hit her. “Fine. Have it your way then.” The vampire growled and flew to meet Karna midway. The moment they reached each other, several things happened.

The vampire slashed at Karna's fiery form with her claws, though her slash only met empty air as Karna's form had suddenly turned into a burst of flames that seemed to flow around the vampire. The vampire had expected something like that. "Did you think I was dumb enough to be struck by my own attack?!" She growled and canceled the projectiles and slashed behind her where she could sense the girl retaking her form. To her shock, the vampire found that what she slashed at wasn't in the form of a fiery and somewhat intangible bird anymore, but a large and solid angelic-looking being with golden armor, holding a large golden shield in place.

“No. I caught you.” The girl that had returned to her original form retorted as she appeared from behind what must have been some sort of spirit, her hand glowing with ominous black glow. The vampire could sense the wild and deadly power and shuddered as she identified the power of the True Dark element. She tried to dodge but couldn't at this range as a lance of darkness punched through her resistance against most magic and pushed straight into her torso. She did manage to retaliate though, and just like her, the girl was unable to dodge at the range as a blood-red arrow of magic pierced the girl's abdomen, though only barely for some reason.

For any weaker being, an attack like this would've been fatal, but vampires had great fortitude, and despite being the most dangerous element, the attack made of Dhar didn’t quite have the power to kill her in one strike. The vampire was shocked by her injury but managed to recover enough to turn her body into a swarm of bats that scattered in all directions. "She's all yours prince." Karna coughed out, and a rain of sword ki suddenly fell on the fleeing bats, cutting them all down. The petals had lost cohesion as soon as the vampire had been seriously wounded, leaving Cendirion free to strike as well.

Karna grimaced a bit as Gem carried her to the ground. The wound in her abdomen wasn’t too bad, but she was disappointed she’d taken the wound in the first place. The whole thing should’ve been much easier, but the vampire had been stronger than she’d expected. If the vampire had also been more skilled and experienced in battle, then the whole thing could’ve been actually dangerous. Despite the situation being somewhat against her, she’d underestimated the danger and taken an unnecessary risk with her last strike. She’d have to take things more seriously to avoid such problems in the future. She had prepared certain surprises earlier in case the situation turned truly desperate, but the presence of the prince and the fact that they were above the palace had stopped her from using most of them. It would be bad for diplomacy if she accidentally harmed the prince or burned a chunk of the palace.

“I should’ve gone with an attack instead of just holding up a shield," Gem muttered. "I got distracted by the fact that the situation was so similar to the one we faced during the tournament and prioritized protection over attacking. In the end, I didn't even manage to prevent the vampire's last attack.” Despite her strength, Gem still had to work with the confines of the power Karna supplied her, and that meant most of her most useful abilities were still unusable.

“Are you alright?” The prince landed next to Gem, who was still holding Karna. His voice was genuinely concerned. Even if his presence had drawn away most of the vampire’s powers, Karna and the spirit holding her had done most of the work against the much higher-ranked being.

“I’ll be fine. Go help your family. I know you’re worried.” Karna waved away his concern. Gem was already using the angelic powers that came with her current form to heal the wound in Karna’s abdomen.

“Fine. But we need to talk after this is over.” The prince said firmly.

“What about?” Karna grunted. Maybe avoidance was the wrong path after all. She had hoped to ignore the issue, but it seemed the prince wanted a clear response. While understandable, it was also what Karna had wanted to avoid with going out anonymously that night.

“You know.” The prince said firmly.

“I’m quite sure I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now go.” Karna waved the prince away. She still had an artifact to create, and the current situation was only more reason to make one. Drama could wait.

------

“This is a disaster!” Amaranthine fumed as she cleaved another vampire in half with the glowing blade extending out from the top of her staff. “How in the scourges did they manage to sabotage the defensive formations of the palace?” She asked angrily from the captain of the palace guard.

The rank nine warrior grimaced at the rather deserved rebuke. “I’m ashamed to admit that the pair of guards we caught during the party were not the only ones affected by the vampires. Or in this case, I should say their allies. Several guards that were definitely not vampires or even their thralls attacked the core holding the formations. They managed to catch us by surprise as we were too secure in the expectation that only vampires or their thralls would do something like that. They didn’t manage to destroy the core, but they did disable it for long enough to allow this mess to occur.”

“Report! I want to know who we lost, and what was taken! I also want to know if my family and our guests are ok!” The Queen shouted as the last of the vampires fell. She’d already gotten word of the rest escaping. “Divines forbid if something happened to Arjuna’s daughter. He’s going to kill me. She was supposed to be safe here.” She muttered. How did the plan go awry in such a spectacular way?

The guards were relaying information back and forth with magical means, and no one spoke for a moment. Amaranthine could sense the defensive formations coming back to full power, and she could see several of the dragon princes flying above the palace. That was one of the downsides of relying on dragons as a major part of your military might. The powerful beings were excellent when it came to wars and battles between armies, but they weren't exactly at their best when it came to delicate fights inside something like the palace or the city. It also took precious minutes to call the dragon princes back to the palace, and it’s not like the dragons could use their full power without destroying the palace in the process. Infiltrators like the vampires were the best way to attack the elven capital, especially when backed up by traitors.

‘We’re going to have to pay more attention to personal training of warriors and mages from this point on.’ She decided. It wasn’t like the elves didn’t have powerful individuals, but those individuals were mostly under the command of the noble Houses and thus scattered all around the elven lands. Or they had been sent out to give the vampires the impression that the palace was vulnerable. Which turned out to be more true than it should’ve been.

“My Queen, we have news.” The Guard captain reported. “The losses among the guards are relatively minor considering the sudden nature of the attack and the power of the enemies. The guards may not have done the best of jobs in spotting the threat, but they did do a good job in the battle itself, and most of the vampires are dead. The royal family seems to be safe. The vampires didn’t go for them, and the only member of the family to even be involved in the battle was prince Cendirion. He and the girl known as Karna defeated one of the high-ranked vampires together. The guard who ran into Cendirion mentioned that the girl was injured, but not badly. Apparently, her spirit is already taking care of it. Anaire tried to get involved, but the guards stopped her.”

“Good.” The Queen said firmly. Anaire getting herself involved in the battle and possibly taken as a hostage would’ve been a real problem. “We owe the girl an apology. We were supposed to keep her safe as we sprung the trap, and look at this disaster!”

“Speaking of disasters, I have bad news. Some of the vampires managed to force their way into the treasury. They didn’t have much time inside before the spells protecting the place forced them out, but it seems they knew what they were looking for. A handful of items went missing, and among them are two items that fell down from the Divine Planes.” The guard captain reported.

“Which ones?” Amaranthine rubbed her forehead in frustration. This was supposed to be a trap, and traps didn’t work like this. The vampires had come prepared and with a plan, albeit a hasty one. Whoever led them was obviously gifted tactically.

“The Chalice of Bathori, and the Scepter of Dominance.” The guard captain reported. “The other items were also powerful and significant, but not on the same scale.”

“The Chalice I understand, as it can help the vampires in turning powerful individuals, but the Scepter…” Amaranthine narrowed her eyes in suspicion. The Scepter would be of little use to the vampires. Their allies on the other hand… “Who were the guards that attacked the core?”

“The reports are not complete on that front, but apparently they were from various Houses from the Old Gods faction.” The answer wasn’t one Amaranthine had wanted, but it was what she had suspected.

“The Scepter was taken as payment. It seems we might have an internal struggle on our hands. The Chalice the bloodsuckers can keep, as it likely means they’ll find another place to make their home. Pursuing them won’t be worth the continuous trouble if they keep returning to get the Chalice.” The Queen speculated. Now that the vampires had gotten what they wanted, they no longer needed to risk staying in the elven lands where they were going to be hunted with renewed vigor. While the vampires had been a problem before, they had not been a big enough one to warrant the mobilization of all the elven forces. With the attack on the palace, that had changed. “The Scepter we’ll need to reclaim though.”

“I do have some good news." The guard captain suddenly stated. "The guards we sent to safeguard Karna and the workshop mentioned something. Apparently, the girl can make the artifact a lot more powerful now that she got blood from the high-ranking vampire that attacked her and the prince. According to what she told the guards, the artifact might be able to track down the vampire’s master as well.”

“That is good news. I want you to gather some of the Dragon Princes we can trust absolutely. It is likely that the vampires are hiding among the noble Houses. Once the artifact leads us to our quarry, I want the whole area quarantined. If they surrender, great. If not, I want the whole place burnt down with dragon fire. We need to make an example of what happens to Houses that think we've grown soft." The Queen declared. She also planned on calling up her personal guard for this operation, as she needed troops she could rely on absolutely. The palace guards were generally loyal, but they were also politically motivated much of the time. And if she ordered them to eradicate a noble House? Well, that could be a problem. Sometimes she hated elven politics.