Time around me seems appears to slow down along with the incoming vampire but, I still find his movements hard to follow. The memories from the knight kicks in almost instinctively and I raise my sword to block his. The vampire leader lashes out with his sword again after I block his strike and our swords lock togetherjust long enough for me to see black cutlass in his right which is inscribed with a strange pattern all along the center of the blade.

Maybe I will be need that escape plan after all, which is basically a strategic retreat. Sadly enough I am surrounded, so that plan appears to be no longer viable.

He strikes with his sword again and our blades connect together once more. My entire body feels fill with power as I think of what I should do to get out of this situation alive. Well not alive since I am technically dead but you know what I mean.

I can use the reverse repair spell, and simply just make the bastard vanish. Though, it would certainly take some time to form the spell and he would need to be stationary for the spell to actually work to its fullest effect. It is already hard and dangerous enough to heal a moving target whih would make it impossible to make one vanish. If this vampire is their leader, then he would be faster than Isabella, and most likely even faster than the vampire I just killed.

What strikes me the most is that the man to actually look like an old version of Dracula.

I start to form a repair, stop, bone, and stitch thread. I combine them to form a weaving, that becomes the healing spell. The only problem with weaving a spell is that it takes a lot of focus. I am sure most mages would find it beyond their ability to both cast a spell, and guard against attacks from a sword.

Time is still slower than I am use to it being, or maybe I am just that fast, and everyone else is slow. Another slash comes from the cutlass to the right, and it is barely deflected it with my khopesh.

A kick from the right, which I someone did not see, sends me sliding to the left. But, just before the impact, I am able to brace myself which prevents me from falling over. The kick was strong, and luckily, thanks to the dry dirt on the ground, it made me slide away from the man. I am still able to maintain the weaving, and none of my bones are broken.

The problem with being pushed away by the kick, is that it leaves openings in my stance. These openings are currently now about be exploited.

The man dashes forward to me, his hands flailing behind him, I find his movements odd, though it does make his strikes harder to predict. It reminds me of a ninja, and it makes his next strike almost unpredictable, until it’s already coming for you. Due to his hands waving, the cutlass in his hand, also waves just as much, and it looks as though it could drop from his hand any second. It would be very anticlimactic if he did.

I lean back, curving my dead body so I can press one hand onto the gravel. I cannot form a proper block in time, so I my only choice is to dodge like my life depended on it, because it did. The cutlass passes directly above me; it would have surely cut through my cloak, and break my bones. The Ancient vampire, reverses his cutlass, as he let out a grunt. He swings again, this time for my legs. I swiftly do a cartwheel with one hand, just before the sword passed inches away from my skull. The swing is so powerful, that I can hear the wind it makes as his blade swipes by, and see the dust it raises.

I feel pride in my quick thinking, as I come down on my feet. But my pride quickly fades, as I see the gleam of the cutlass coming at me again. I raise my khopesh this time to block his cutlass.

Our blades connect and I push against his cutlass with one hand on the dull side of my khopesh. He stumbles back, and I strike at him.

Sparks erupt from the blades, unfortunately, my khopesh is block by his cutlass. And, both our blades recoiled from the powerful impact. He takes a step back, then dashes forward towards me again. I charge towards him this time, I will not let him think that I am weak. We clash once again in a dance of sword strikes.

I am amazed by how fast I am. I expected the great vampire lord to be more swift. Isabella is already beyond human speed when we fought, and the vampire whose soul I sucked in was even quicker than her. If this is the leader, then he should be even faster. Why is he moving at the speed of a normal human? Maybe it has something to do with this warped sense of time.

I swing at him with my khopesh, aiming for the vampire’s head this time. He blocks my sword, and throws a punch at my face. I lift my left hand, and block the blow. I return a punch of my own at his face. Let’s see how he likes it.

The punch connects directly on the man’s jaw, and I am actually surprise that worked. The punch sends the vampire reeling back till he falls on the ground.

I must have gotten stronger. I do not remember my punches being this strong back on Earth. The vampires in the circle begin to whisper in disbelief.

The vampire yells in frustration. I notice the dark burgundy color of the vampire’s mana, brighten suddenly. I took several steps backwards. If there is one thing I know in this world, you have to be weary of the unknown. Of course, since I know almost nothing, I’m weary of everything.

He takes his time to get off the ground. I mentally kick myself, that would have been a great chance to attack him.

“I have underestimated you. That mistake will not happen again.” The vampire boss said, then he spits out blood onto the dry earth. He spoke calmly, but I sensed the resentment in his tone.

I charge forward. It is time to go on the offense. Our swords meet with sparks once again. He launches a kick towards my face. The power of the kick pushes me to the side, but I grab onto his arm as I am pushed away.

With great anticipation, I unleash the healing spell that I have been holding all this time.

I can feel his skin blister, and turn flame hot, but the Ancient vampire quickly pulls his arm away before my healing spell could fully cover his entire body. However, his arm is already crackling with fire.

I hoped he would have screamed. It would have helped to demoralize the surrounding vampires, which would have made becoming their new leader much easier.

His hand begins to break apart, and eventually falls off like the end of a cigarette. His shatters on the ground, and caused a small dust cloud after.

He appears to have very little care for the loss of a hand. Does he also have the same ability as Isabella? I suppose a hand, or any limb in general would be of little concern to him. Especially if he can simply grow them back from drinking blood.

He slides the cutlass back into its scabbard. I am still wondering why I am not being mob right now. The vampire mentioned something about broken laws. Laws for vampires? Never have I played any game, or read any book, where vampires had laws.

He advances towards me again, his movements are quicker than before. He starts to make what looks to be symbols, with his one free hand. Whatever, he is doing made his burgundy glow brighter, and it looks almost sanguine in color now. He moves his hand near his mouth, and continues to make the weird symbols with his fingers.

The vampire boss jumps high into the air, and his jump reaches almost fifteen feet. At the height of his jump, he sucks in all the air that his lungs would allow.

Then, looking down at me, fire burst forth from his mouth. The flames shoot towards me in a spiral stream.

Isabella watches the spectacle before her. She is inside the room of a rundown building opposite the warehouse. She has never seen a fight between two Ancients before. To even consider that she had actually fought with an Ancient, and survived, is more than she had ever hope to achieve at such a young age. The man had called himself a gift. A gift of change. Isabella wonders what change he could bring. The man could have easily killed her. Isabella wraps her arms around herself, so she can squeeze and hugs herself as she wiggles.

She sighs, just the thought of him breaking all her bones, made her a bit wet. Isabella found the new Ancient to be more interesting than Vicktor. Well, as interesting as an Ancient could be, she thought. They are after all at least hundreds of years old. Vicktor was even part of the royal bloodline of Talon—before it was ultimately conquered by Almeria— he was the prince at the time, and would have been king as well, but he was given the gift by an immortal.

Victor is still angry about the goblin wars. One hundred, and fifty years is a long time to hold a grudge, even for a five-hundred-year-old vampire.

She didn’t like Vicktor, he is such a prune.

Ever since he had waken — about two months ago — all he ever did is tell us what to do without explaining why. It is his right, we all descend from Vicktor, so he is like our father in a way, she thought.

Isabella fears that she is the only one who had these thoughts. She knows Vicktor executes those he could not control, or those who would not obey.

Isabella is scared she would die. She had been told Vicktor could read thoughts. Fear of death is what led her to choose this life to begin with. She had never felt real genuine fear in a long time. Pain is always the cause of her fear, but because of her gift, she has nothing to fear.

Not even Vicktor had hurt her the way the Ancient with the skeleton mask did. Vicktor had punched, or stabbed her a couple of times, but never had she felt pain, Isabella thought. Sometimes Isabella thinks the reasons she gained her ability to not feel pain, is because of her fear of it.

The cloaked, and masked Ancient had burnt her. Just the thought of the pain he made her feel with a simple touch made her fear him. She wonders why he did not just do that in the first place. Maybe he was toying with me, or just testing me.

If it was a test Isabella hoped she didn't fail. Watching him fight now made her feel like a child before a giant. He is even able to keep up with Vicktor, she thought.

At first Isabella thought he was just a mage. But, she had suspected something was wrong when she stabbed him, and nothing happened. Her hearing is almost the worst of all the vampires in her syndicate, so Isabella had to get close to check his heartbeat. Most vampires are able to guess how old another vampire is by their heartbeat. The further apart the beats, the older the vampire. He had no heartbeat. There are two things Isabella knows that does not have a heartbeat, a corpse and an Ancient.

It looks like the battle is coming to an end. Vicktor likes to burn people he does not like. He burns them till nothing but bone remains, Isabella thought. Isabella knows Vicktor is just being extra careful to make sure the cloaked Ancient is gone for good. And, of course to show the others that no one can stop him.

It is expected that the new Ancient would lose, Vicktor has the strongest Venture blood of us all, because he is a direct descendant of an Immortal. Each generation after him would be weaker, and to Isabella, nothing is worse than a weak vampire.

Isabella watches as the fire consumes the cloaked Ancient. He tries to escape the flames that blazes down upon him by and rolling out of the way. But Vicktor keeps the ray of flame on him as he stands above the new Ancient.

The ray of flames spraying forth from Vicktor’s mouth, is so thick and bright, that Isabella could not even see the cloaked ancient hidden within. Vicktor presses the flames more onto the Ancient, that is now sprawled out on the ground, and must be long dead by now.

Finally, Isabella sees the remains of the Ancient, but all that is left are bones. His clothing is completely burnt away, and nothing but his skeleton remains. The ground around the remains is blackened, and most of the Ancient’s bones were blackened by the fire.

For a moment Isabella, dared to even hope the Ancient would kill Vicktor. But that hope is shattered when she sees the remains. She just hopes, the day Vicktor choose to read her mind would never come.

“It would seem that I need to remind some of you, who I am. I am Vicktor Clarence Enel, let this dead fool be a reminder of my power. I am your master.” Isabella hears Vicktor shout at the circle of vampires. He lifts his sword in victory, and turns his back to the remains of the dead Ancient.

Isabella gasps.

She watches as the skull of the Ancient turns upwards, then pushes itself up. The skeleton Ancient dashes towards Vicktor with the same blinding speed it did when it was alive. The skeleton grabs Vicktor by his head.

This is the first-time Isabella has seen a fearful expression on Victor’s face. He tries to get away, but the blackened skeleton pulls on his cloak, restricting Vicktor’s movements. Isabella watched as he tried to stab the skeleton in the side. But, his strikes do not deter the skeleton, even though one of its blackened rib crack and fall off from Vicktor’s strike.

Vicktor’s head begins to turn from pale to the yellow color, then red. She knew from her own experience what is happening. Vicktor’s head then explodes in a blast of smoke and ash. The eruption sounds like a giant had just clapped, and is so large that it covers the entire front yard of the warehouse.

`Alive or dead? That’s not possible, he is...well, he is Vicktor, she thought. The smoke finally clears, after what seems to her like hours. What Isabella is looking at is no longer a skeleton. Well, he was not a skeleton, but not by much.

Isabella watched the Ancient, he looks even thinner than Vicktor. It looks as though he is healing, since his eyes have empty sockets, filled with a strange blue light. He is pale, and bald, and very naked.

Isabella can tell that this Ancient is very different from Vicktor. She knew that there exist other bloodlines, but this is the first she has ever seen of another species of her kind. Vicktor’s death will cause chaos among both the first, and second generation.

Just as she is about to leave the building to get a closer look, she felt a sharp object against her neck. Isabella’s eyes shift to look at what is by her neck, and she sees a long black dagger, that is glowing a bright blue.

The man who called himself Vicktor, is dead. Despite, his soul being the most delicious soul that I have ever eaten, I am not happy.

My clothes were burnt, and my gauntlets are nothing but ashes. If that is not already bad enough, I am naked, and being gazed at by elven vampires. All of their mouths are opened to varying degrees of shock.

I suppose it is not all bad. The guy is dead, and I think that is sufficient punishment for anyone who crosses the line. I chuckle at my own joke. I am surprised to see I could actually laugh now. I laughed again out loud. God, I missed laughing.

I look down at myself, to see that I now have flesh and skin. Though, I still look a far cry from being human. At least I look more human now, despite looking like a mummy. I suppose since I can laugh now, I have lungs as well.

How did I suddenly grow a body, though? I will have to add that to the list of things that I currently cannot explain. Despite my weakling appearance, I feel so strong now. This must be from absorbing Vicktor’s soul. It feels as though I could burst with mana at any second. Sadly, I know this feeling will eventually end.

The problem is my mana drains fairly quickly. Not surprising, if this is a spell keeping me tied to this skeleton, then it would be a power-hungry spell. This has to be something related to magic, it just is not natural.

I need something to wear. I could not care less if anyone sees me naked, however, I have been wearing clothes for all my life. And even though it appears

Thankfully, Vicktor left his clothes, though I have to shake out the dust and ashes. I particularly like his black and gold robes, and sliding it around my figure made victory taste even sweeter. I decide to try on his black leather pants as well, and it fits perfectly. Well, of course it would fit, though, the belt greatly helps to stop it from sliding off my waist. I will leave the shirt for now, since it had been partially burnt. He also had a triple buckle boots that is fill with ash. I shake the ash out of the boots, and slide them onto my feet, and buckling it tightly afterwards.

I need to replace my gauntlets, since I have none now. I remember the vampire I first killed. He did have a pretty good gauntlet. I look around through the heap of clothes, and quickly locate the gauntlet.

I smile, mostly to see if I can smile, and is pleased to see know that I could. It takes some effort, though. But, I also smiled because the metal gauntlets look perfect. It did take some time to fully strap on, and secure, but it worth it. I must look truly terrifying now.

“The master is dead! Attack! Revenge for the master!” The voice of a female vampire shouts. I pay no concern to her, that is up until she decides to advance on me, and cross the line.

I grab the bitch by the neck before her blade can even reach me. If there is a word to describe her it would be slow. Her movements are like a snail. I actually had time to brush off the ash on the robe, before I take hold of her. Her sword drops from her hand, and she claws at my arm. I start weaving another healing spell.

The vampire burst into ashes only two seconds later. Strange, I did not know I can make weavings so fast. I am certain now that this must be related to absorbing high amounts of mana.

The first vampire I absorbed, was like sucking in the souls of two dozen men. The high amount of mana that I currently possess, somehow made me move faster, and become stronger. It also apparently made weaving spells quicker. Though even now I can tell that such a state consumes mana at an alarming rate, and would not last long.

It would also explain my speed, and strength during the battle where I awakened.

Combined with Vicktor’s soul, it is almost overkill.

I command the dead woman’s soul to come to me with a thought. The soul obeys, and comes towards my hand. I suck the soul dry, and regain the mana lost.

Two more vampires charge towards me. I expect them to be smarter than this. They are already too late if they think they can stop me at this point. If they want to feed me, then I will gladly munch on their souls.

I look around for my sword, I had forgotten to pick it up because of all the chaos. The khopesh is still on the ground, where I was burnt. Well, I will have to do this without a sword, and I should make of my power up, while it last.

I kick the first one who approaches me, square on his face. I may have kicked a little too hard because the man’s head rips off his body. The sound is skin crawling, like paper being torn, only that it is flesh and bone. However, the head does not come off, instead it hangs from the body by a small strip of flesh. The body is also thrown back to where the man was originally standing,

I excepted him to be to still be alive, though unable to move until he gets blood. However, I notice the vampire’s soul move out of his body, a sign that he has died. So, they can die like that. Basically, like zombies, their head seems to be important to their undead life. Which is similar to me in a way. I wonder if there is a connection to whatever I am, and the vampires.

I sidestep around the second vampire. He takes too long to notice that I am now behind him. I grab onto his head, then I wrap my arm around his head to in a headlock with one arm. I use my other arm to hold onto his shoulder, then I pull. I feel his flesh and bone tip and tear as his head comes off.

I am having problems adjusting my strength it would seem. I pull the man’s head off easy enough. However, his spine also tags along with his head. I throw the man’s head back to where he was standing in the circle of vampires.

No one else tries to attack me. The remaining vampires did not even move from their spot in the circle. That is good, all the stupid ones are dead, I rather not be the boss of morons.

I command the two dead souls to come to me, then I absorb them through my hand. If I want to truly take over this gang, or syndicate, whatever they call themselves. Then, I will need to sway them with words, because fear alone would not be enough.

My concentration is broken by the presence of a familiar figure who enters the front yard of the warehouse. It is Isabella, but someone is behind her, and holding a glowing blue knife to her throat. Who could threaten a vampire that could not feel pain?

“I apologize for interrupting you my lord,” The voice behind Isabella said. I recognize the voice immediately, it is Jax’s voice.

“I know you did not want to be followed, but I cannot leave you unprotected. If I have offended you, then I accept any punishment given.” Jax said, he then pushes Isabella towards the circle of vampires. She quickly joins the circle of vampires, more than happy to be away from Jax. I nod at Jax, I did not expect him at all. More so, I did not expect him to help with this. Then again I know so very little about him, and this religion of his. I cast the speech weaving that I've been holding. The weaving, made from my mana, floats in front of my face, transparent and bright blue. And, just like a piece of cloth, the threads are interlaced.

“I am Laoch!” I said through the speech spell. I start to form another speech spell.

“I bring death, and I bring life!”

“But, most of all I bring change!”

“I am the master!”

“Kneel, and obey!” I cast my last speech spell. The spells were almost too easy to form and cast. Mainly because of my current mana buildup.

No one kneels, instead they keep on looking at me with both wonder and confusion. Will I have to kill all of them now?

“Yes master.” Isabella said aloud, then she went to one knee. The others look at her then I hear the sound of shuffling clothes as each, and every one of the vampires drops to one knee before me.

“Yes master.” The vampires echo Isabella’s words, and even Jax goes to one knee. I smile, the outcome is better than I had expected.

Suddenly, I begin to feel heavy. My head began to pound, and the world spins. It feels like the worst headache I have ever had. My last thoughts are falling to the ground as darkness consumes my sight.