“Do you smell that?” I asked, shifting at the uncomfortable feeling coursing through me.

“Smell what? This carriage is enchanted with the smell of lavender if I remember correctly.” Zena replied, sniffing the air. “Now you mention it-”

Her words were interrupted by possibly the loudest sound I ever heard, something so primal it swallowed all else for a serene moment before chaos erupted. The carriage violently jerked to one side, the sheer force of whatever made that sound throwing me against the finely crafted walls. I and Zena hit the right side of the carriage hard enough to almost put me to sleep as the left side began to crumple under the strain of whatever had hit us.

I sighed in relief knowing Qixi’s diary was still firmly grasped in my hand before feeling a rough hand bat my head away.

“What in the name of Fall was that?” She said, raising herself up.

The carriage was obviously brought to a stop as the sounds of chaos and shouting outside resounded around us. The left windows had shattered, letting the glow of moonlight shine in and causing me to huff in relief. If it had been day, we would’ve died in an instant.

“Are we being attacked?” I queried, staying moot on the ground as Zena moved closer to where the carriage crumpled in on itself. It happened that the left side was also where the only door out resided.

“If we were in the Crevice that wouldn’t be possible but I have a feeling we exited from an exit point on route to another entry not too long ago.”

“So we couldn’t be attacked in this Crevice, but we left it for some reason during transit and now we're under attack.” I clarified, having no idea what the Crevice was.

“Yes but the-”

Another frighteningly potent shockwave crashed behind us throwing me to the side of the carriage while Zena managed to steady herself; Show off. She visibly grew tenser with each loud bang that went off and the rustle resounding around us.

“-The Crevice doesn’t follow the same pattern as Kur, even a Ruptured Glance wouldn’t let someone see where we would be.”

I had little idea about the majority of the words that came out of her mouth and even less about what they might mean for me. Would people protect us if we were in danger, or would we have to fight for ourselves? The mere idea of fighting made me feel sick even if my blood burned with excitement. All I wanted was to sleep, eat and then hopefully figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

Zena didn’t seem to share my sentiment and kicked the door open, drawing a finely crafted blade from Sol knows where. There was clearing some form of battle going on outside and she carelessly jumped into the combat with her longsword.

“Let Ichor flow into your broach if you need a weapon.” Were her parting words as she swung the door behind her shut, leaving me to only guess from the sound what was going on.

Was I supposed to follow her? I didn’t really feel a need to. I’d had probably three conversations with her at most and all of them were filled with constant aggression on her side. The Zelkren clan itself and the other members fighting outside didn’t draw any sympathy from me either. Qixi had told me that a fledgling felt a sort of kinship similar to a coven with their clan but nothing like that bothered me. The only real problem with staying inside was that I’d have no idea what was going on and in the event, our “Side” lost, I’d die. Even just Zena was more than strong enough to kill me, so I couldn’t imagine the strength of someone who could outclass a full-fledged vampire from the Zelkren clan, let alone the multiple accompanying us.

At the very least if I go outside I can run away.

As bad as it sounded in my head, that was the kicker for what pushed me to get up and open the door. Wiring sounds fire off in my ears the moment I step outside, already ringing from the previous shockwaves. The air smelled crisp like something was burning; which with a short glance, I could identify.

We were in a forest… no it’d be more accurate to call it a jungle. With trees so high they obscured the sky above, leaves coloured with a warm shade of green while the mountainous trunks and branches were a light brown that slowly morphed into a dark green the higher up they got. Though I could see in the night just fine, my eyes reflected the flickers of fire greedily consuming the jungle and rampant foliage around us. It was an oddly bewitching scene to watch the flickering shadows cast by the trees dance and blend with the raging blight of fire.

Looking to my left and right I found the remnants of the first shockwave was a piece of scorched dirt path that burned into the ground so deep it looked molten like the mountains of Grimagor. Instinctively I took a step to my right as a flaming piece of vine broke off from the tree above and almost fell on me.

It unsettled me that being in such a place of apparent chaos made me feel at home.

Ahead, two.

I ducked down thanks to the words bounding through my mind, watching two creatures leap towards me with mouths full of fangs. Just managing to slide under them as they smashed into the carriage instead of me I got a look at my attackers. Oddly enough, I felt neither quicker nor stronger than I had been as a Fangless; I felt weaker.

…What the?

Two hounds that looked so close to wolves had they not been about a quarter bigger and striped with patchy brown and green fur. Their ears were noticeably bigger and peaked up to expose the creamy pink within, snouts slightly longer on the top than the bottom to give them a sort of overbite. Claws longer and thicker than any wolf's father had ever brought home, made for something other than just rending flesh.

A Karnja.

What the hell are we doing in the Gwendra forest… scratch that, why in Sol’s name would vampires come to elven territory.

The left one snarled in annoyance at the missed prey while the right was calmer, watching me with a nasty glint. My body trembled a little seeing such large and ferocious creatures go for my neck. The fighting from what I could hear started towards where we had come from instead of where we were going. In fact, there wasn’t anyone I could see past our carriage despite the convoy having many more carriages ahead. Did that mean they’d quelled the ones coming forward, or that we weren’t the intended target?

My answer for the moment was that it didn’t matter, these animals took precedence.

Running would expose my back to a swift claw so that wasn’t an option nor was calling for help. I had to kill these things. Touching the broach pinned to my dark red shirt, I used my Arcana for the first time since waking to push Ichor into it. Like my blood, it neatly slipped into the carved symbols, rippling the space in front of my eyes to the point that it blurred my eyesight.

Against my own hesitation, I seeped my hand into the space as quickly as possible, pulling out a steel shortsword. The left Karnja a little bigger than the right leapt towards me, swinging its claws towards my neck. Its attack was deadly but also very animalistic, enough so for someone as amateur as me to exploit the wide swing and little balance. I stepped to the right just enough to skim under the claws, taking a few nicks to my sword hand as the Karnja gracefully fell onto my outstretched blade, thrust forward into its thick pelt than the muscle beneath.

The thing growled in pain as my blade went straight through his midsection. With a pulse of Arcana pulling my Ichor together closer into my body I tried to rip right through the Karnja’s chest and shoulder with enhancement magic. Only… nothing happened. I felt a slight increase but all that sudden boost in ability I normally got remained inert.

Did I break something, shit!

I thought, catching claws to the leg which lightly grazed me as I staggered back. The Karnja looked to have a prideful smile on its rigid jaw, leaping towards me once again now that I was weaponless while the other also capitalized on the opportunity its ally had created. Two jaws filled with teeth flew towards me, ready to bite my neck off as I searched desperately for a solution.

Blood, you fool. Your power rests in your blood.

…

With Grisile I lacked the sense and the forethought to use my focal point properly. I had simply summoned the element in its raw form, inflicting damage on both myself and my opponent. Now was a better time than any to figure out if my ability ended there, or if I could use it as a regular focal point for a spell sequence.

Focusing my Arcana till it burned in pain I tried in what was possibly my last chance to secure other Arcanes around my blood, the spell sequence's origin. I used what I perceived as the Arcanes for forward, together and motion; roughly jamming them into each other before Alighting my blood Arcane for fire with Ichor. It took all my concentration just to form and keep the other Arcanes stable, crude and not nearly as clearly defined as they could’ve been. I had no idea what to expect pulling on the dirt beneath me to maybe get myself up in case nothing happened.

Except, for the first time in a while, things went better than I could have ever imagined.

The tips of my fingers started to singe with heat as scarlet burst forth in a jet of flames, colliding together to form a ray of fire. Both Karnja took a direct hit from the impromptu spell while I struggled to maintain it, pouring nearly all my concentration into keeping the flames from losing force. Both whimpered back rolling on the ground in front of me as the greedy fire streaked over their bodies.

The heathens had caught alight like a candle wick.

“Better you than me, sorry,” I mumbled, wrenching the shortsword out of the Karnja midsection before thrusting it through the creature's shaking skull.

It gave a few moments of resistance, squirming towards me trying to bite my shins before it fell limp, eyes yellow like mine rolling back. The second one, still burning, looked towards me in fear before shuffling to its feet and scuffling into the underbrush that extended from both sides of the road that were not cleared.

“Huuhh… is this what living feels like?” I wondered, taking strong tired breaths as I let myself fall onto one knee, resting there for a bit.

Killing an animal didn’t feel good nor was it as easy as my father's siblings made it out to be. These things may not have been as civilised but they were still alive. They still squirmed and screamed when you hurt them, still ran when they thought you might snuff out the one life they had. I felt indifferent about killing Grisile, his death leaving at most a bad taste in my mouth, but somehow hurting these things still made me sorrowful. The only bonus was that unlike the humans I had drunk from, I couldn’t see the faces of my previous victims on theirs while they were still alive.

Bar that, the sinking feeling in my gut that signalled how despicable I was remained.

By Sol, I need to stop thinking so much about things like this. Stay on the big picture Vannis, it’s life or death. Little details don’t matter.

Agreed.

Get out of my head!

My face went from weary to scrunched in annoyance having the imposter impose his opinion upon me. I could have sworn at one point I had told him I didn’t need his guidance, yet the thing continued to pester me. Getting up I intended to search towards where the shouting, clanging of metal and large blasts originated from by the back of the long convoy but something peculiar happened first.

I smelled prey.

The smell of prey wasn’t one that I could specify as a single scent. It was more a multitude of factors and odours all piled into one. Hormones, flesh, blood, sweat, fear. All things my body gravitated towards. What struck me as odd was that the scent was… close, remarkably so.

My head snapped in the direction it blew from, finding two figures scampering across the carriages ahead, covered in black cloaks with a large rucksack each. As I watched them move from the road to the underbrush and the forest to fervent and agitated to perceive me blending into the black carriage, I was suddenly stuck between what to do.

Because I smelled four scents, not two.