A few miles away from the now completely leveled safehouse, a small team of six were flying through the air towards the site of the safehouse. They were informed about what happened, and they were on their way as reinforcement to the current location of the team that were trying to capture those who escaped from the safehouse.

“Mr. Durbin, I assume you are well…, um well fed?” a female mage in a white cloak with golden linings asked an old man in a dirty, broken brown cloak.

“I think Bloodsucker King Gerald there is well fed.” the old man in a dirty old brown cloak had a wooden staff in his right hand while holding a fresh severed human head in his left hand like a floating magical orb - some kind of silvery blue liquid was slowly seeping out from the eye sockets on the human head, and his left hand was absorbing it : “Me - I can hardly be fed or satisfied. Which is why these characters we’re hunting down better be worth the trouble - ”

“Ms. Summers said they must be kept alive, until she meets with them.” a man in a red coat who is riding on a flying vehicle with a chain blade in his pocket licked his lips and said: “I guess they could still spill some blood - I just hope they’re not virgins.”

“Why NOT virgins?” a man flying behind the old man and wearing a red and white half-faced mask and a suit of armor made with scales and shells from some kind of animal scoffed: “I thought you Vamps like virgins?”

“Some do and some don’t. I in particular loathe them because of the lack of flavor and taste. Some youngling chasing twerps just keep giving us a bad name.” the man in a red coat scratched his very much human-like teeth with his fingernails: “And I for one, like blood with a touch of spark and taste - like that of accomplished mages, fighters, knights like our targets we’re tasked with capturing - or, something like some of my favorite youths in the community cooked up, livestocks pumped with different chemicals and special narcotics right before serving.”

“So you’re into drugs?” the man with a half-faced masked asked.

“Don’t compare me to street junkies who can’t even keep a clear mind. No human made narcotics or psychedelics work on me.” the man in a red cloak said: “But they do leave some interesting residuals inside of human’s bloodstream, it’s like what you humans do with your special meat steaks right? Like aging, marinating and - ”

“Hello, please pause for a minute.” just this moment, a slightly chubby Chinese man appeared right in front of the team, and said to them in a bizarrely clear but weak voice: “I have something to ask of you.”

The team did not intend to stop at all, but somehow they felt like they kinda had to. And so they did.

“Who are you?” the female mage in a white cloak asked: “What do you want?”

“My name is Lun Wang, but it’s not that important.” the chubby Chinese man looked weak and tormented and he coughed like he had some respiratory disease as he spoke: “And I am here because I am a little … concerned.”

“Oh, and how does that make it our concern?” the man in a red coat took out his chain blade and started slowly caressing the pieces of blades on the chain: “And if you’re smart, you’d get out of our way.”

“You look powerful.” the old man in a broken brown cloak smiled and said as he played with the: “Your spirit must be tasty. Do you mind cutting off your head for me? You know - as a token of apology for stopping us in the middle of our way like that?”

“Tim. I know about you.” the Chinese man smiled and reached to the back of his waist with his right hand, and slowly drew a meat cleaver: “Formerly a knight, renowned scholar of life and light magic. Then you became a necromancer, and became known for your mastery of necromancy. And I would hate to be apprehended by you.”

“The last one who dared call me Tim, I locked his soul inside of a burning skull for a month, and kept him alive the whole time. ” the old man in a broken brown cloak spoke through his teeth, while raising both his hands into the air. The sky grew grimmer and the air became colder around him, and the shadowy energy released from his body slowly formed into the shadow of a huge humanoid skeleton monster with a sword.

The other members of the team backed off in awe and caution, it seemed that they knew what was about to come.

“I am sorry.” the Chinese man readied his meat cleaver as if he was holding an actual sword and got into a battle position: “But I DO intend to offend you. You could have sent your young students or disciples, and it would have been fair game. But you coming yourself? Now you’re just being a loathsome bully.”

Timothy Durbin laughed out loud with rage, his laughter gradually became deep and echoey as the shadow of the skeleton monster became more and more solidified: “I don’t know why you crave death so much. But I am just glad you are here.”

Before Lun Wang could respond, Timothy Durbin swung his wooden staff down, and the shadow skeleton monster behind him swung its sword downwards with him. One could hear countless screeching and deafening cries and moans full of torture and anguish as the shadow sword sliced through the air. Some of the teammates of Timothy Durbin could even see illusions of crying and screaming faces made of fog surrounding the blade.

Lun Wang’s figure blurred as the shadow sword came down at him - he instantly moved to his left and evaded the blade by mere inches. His left hand jabbed right in a finger strike, and his right hand flung upward unleashing a slash from his lower left to his upper right.

The shadow sword cracked and shattered, just like a hardened metal would when struck with highly concentrated impact. On the other hand, the upward slash attack from the meat cleaver sliced through Timothy Durbin’s body, from his right hip to his left shoulder.

The cut was clean, but the residual energy from the slash from it still burst - sharp tiny energy blades coursed through the two chunks of Timothy Durbin’s body, the shadow skeleton monster, and another unfortunate teammate of his behind him, slicing them up from inside into thousands of pieces.

All the remaining members of the team froze and utter shock and fear - even though they could see that Lun Wang’s body had already started turning into dust and cinder after delivering this blow.

“That’s too bad.” Lun Wang coughed while his face was slowly cracking up and turning into dust: “Flesh bound mortality scapegoat?”

No one answered him - not in time anyway. His body was already gone just after a few seconds.

A shining drop of blood floated in the air where Timothy Durbin was, after a short while it started expanding, growing, and eventually growing into the shape of a human. Bones and organs appeared from within the floating blob of blood, then the nerves, then the eyes, then the skin and hair.

Timothy Durbin gasped and coughed in blood when he came to - he was naked and severely weakened, his artifacts were almost all destroyed.

“Who was that?”