Yhaoli turned its eyes from Caleb to Eira, then back. It was stuck: Eira was its target, and considering the Imperial army was almost destroyed, killing her would end it all, but Caleb was a Cruorem, a high vampire. Given enough time, with the amount of blood at his disposal, the aged vampire could turn the entire war back into the Empire’s interests.

It was a risk, and Yhaoli eventually grinned at its choice. It had only burst up the ranks like a comet due to its risky choices, due to its luck, and there was no way it would lose that now. Roaring while shooting its arms to the side like a slingshot, Yhaoli charged towards Eira. Sure, its path was filled with living obstacles, but in its eyes, they were nothing but meat sponges.

****

A hundred metres away, disintegrating through his enemies, Kasib watched the Yhaoli begin its charge. As much as he was cautious of Eira and her army, she was a far better choice for human stability than the king of monsters. Seeing his chance come as most of the monsters turned towards the newly entered vampires, Kasib disappeared, reappearing tens of metres away. Still, he pushed himself and teleported again and again, until he was following Yhaoli as it hunted Eira.

*****

From his vantage, Caleb looked down derisively. He had long ago spotted his unruly daughter and the Zakari she had matched with, but he had likewise long ago shoved them out of his mind – he could deal with both of them later, when he would punish both for their sins. Even though Eira was here, Caleb doubted the Imperial General would have the power or the forces to stop him at that point.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t like he and she were on different sides. In fact, best case scenario would be her triumphantly destroying all her enemies, maintaining the Empire as her job description called for. But that was unlikely, or at least it was without his help.

Breathing in the musky, sickly odour of blood seeping up from the battlefields, Caleb shook his head wildly. While it was all low quality, most likely mixed with murky alcohol and mud, the quantity overpowered him and made his instincts flare up like a fever.

“Go,” he whispered. While his voice sounded seethingly cold to others, it was because he had bit down to take rein of his urges. Unlike other vampires, he rarely let loose with indulging himself, in fact he hadn’t in years now. And suddenly to receive a lavish feast like this, it really tested his self-control.

As his underlings flew and climbed down to the plateau, Caleb paced forward and leapt off the cliffs. He struck the ground so hard his bones shook, and yet in the next second there was blood swirling around him like fairy orbs. He broke through the weaklings as if they were puppets, draining them as he swept past. His eyes were stuck heavy on Eira, or more specifically, Yhaoli.

****

Even as Orion locked eyes with Eira, he knew he had support from Kora as the enemies that charged him in the corner of his eyes fell before making contact. Her smile unsettled him, and even more, it upset him. How dare that bitch smile at him sweetly after what she had done to his family?! Her own family!

As she broke from his stare, he came back to reality. Scouring around, he saw the giant that was Yhaoli pummelling down Tribe lines as if they were playthings. He could see the bald Seeker not far behind, his arresting eyes the very image of focus and conviction. Further on, he could see Caleb, the Cruorems head, moving haphazardly, zigzagging from foe to foe as blood rose and joined the putrid sphere of crimson floating above his head.

Orion realised he was a hand’s breadth away from his revenge, and he knew that meant he could act recklessly now. If anything, he would have to act recklessly to reach his end goal. Crouching to place both his palms onto the sloppy mud, he focused on his waves and his ice, feeling them merge after several seconds. Growling, he released the energy built up in his body.

The surrounding ground iced over, the change happening fast as it passed over man and monster, freezing their bodies over into beautiful and horrific statues. The spread of ice stopped several metres away from him, and here, he slammed his arm to the ground. As he released waves, the entire frozen boundary hopped into the air, most structures shattering under the pressure. Then, with intense control, he willed all the ice forwards at deadly speeds.

Without surprise, this cleared out much of the space between him and Kora, the alive struck down like ragdolls. Still, he didn’t stop here, instead going further as in front of him grew ice, growing so tall it was viewable from any corner of the battlefield. His structure was half as tall as Yhaoli and looked like an oversized puppet due to its simple legs and arms.

Climbing up to his puppet’s head, Orion waited till Kora joined him to set his machine in motion. It clumsily ran forward, dragging up swathes of dirt as it kicked and crushed its way forward. There were several mages who saw his construction and shot fireballs at it, biting of flesh and even the right arm. Regardless, the machine closed the distance between Orion and Eira, only stopping as it was a few metres from her.

It hadn’t stopped by chance or by Orion’s order, instead it straight up refused any orders. Turning towards his cousin, he watched her as she closed her outstretched hand. Simultaneously, he felt an overpowering force crushing down on his creation.

But before it could crumble down, Yhaoli burst into the circle, booting away the Metoles who had tried to stop it. It slammed its fists down to Eira as she struggled in a mental battle with Orion. In shock, she hopped back, and at that moment Orion regained his machine. He ordered it to move forward and punt her.

Instinctively, she erected an ice barrier but this proved too weak as the foot burst through it and smashed against her body, sending her flying.

In the next second, Yhaoli was roaring from pain. Flicking his head over, Orion saw Kasib tearing through the monster’s heel. But before he could see what happened next, a comet struck against his ice machine, toppling it to the ground. As it crumbled, he and Kora escaped unscathed, only to see a group of ten Metoles between them and Eira.

Orion recognised the one in the centre, a metallic and wizened man who had so many scars across his skin it looked like someone had scraped it too hard. This man was the leader of the Metoles, Lucifer, and likely the comet he had felt. Just as Orion was about to attack, another enemy landed, only this one with smoky hair and blood covering his entire monstrous body.

“Finally,” Lucifer said.

“Try to drag your own weight,” Caleb said, before turning to face Kora. “Bian, stand down immediately,”

Before she could even reply, Orion struck out in rage, ice spurting out from below his enemies like a fountain, tearing through their defences before they hopped away. “Out of my way,” Orion grated in a strained voice.

Seeing as her partner had made his choice, Kora joined him. The blood sphere above her expanded, wind filling its stomach as it turned and toiled, speeding up as it grew into a tornado. The blood that outlined it sliced at anything in its proximity, and the tornado rushed towards Caleb and Lucifer.

Still, alike daughter was father as he repeated her Blood art, an even larger tornado forming and clashing into hers. The wind from the clash pushed anyone nearby off their feet and into the air, including Orion and Lucifer. This was enough for the Metole leader as he used the wind to rush forward, taking Orion by surprise as he gripped his arm with the force of a bear.

His arm would have been torn off in the next second had Orion not hastily placed his left palm on the man’s skin, tearing through the defences the Metoles were acclaimed for. The cracks propagated quickly, forcing Lucifer to vomit blood. Still, the old man managed a strike on Orion before he fell to the ground.

Before anyone could even react, Orion was blasting towards Caleb. The aged vampire had enough of a gauge of Orion’s ability from Lucifer’s misfortune to know what to do. He immediately backed off and used his Blood arts, the same way he would have dealt with Reion or Regnar, Orion’s father and uncle.

Yet, the vampire still underestimated him as ropes of ice exploded out of the ground, ten times as thick as the tendrils Orion had formed for the Metole in the Black forest. These ropes moved fast like dragons and latched around Caleb’s ankles and arms like snakes, biting into his skin hard. As he was constrained, Kora blasted into him, kicking her father and teacher in the stomach, sending the old man flying and gasping for breath.

Orion could tell she had done this as much as to disable Caleb as to save him from Orion. While Kasib had been right in his judgement of Orion at the Seeker’s Summit, he had changed a lot since then and could no longer be compared to the other Houses, after all, the Zakaris were the greatest. Either way, he didn’t care for Kora’s reason as he turned towards Eira, who had locked Yhaoli in a cage of ice and sustained it as Kasib slowly tore away the monster’s flesh.

Seeing his chance, Orion blasted several crystals at Eira, forcing her focus to him. At this moment, Yhaoli cracked his cage and smashed through, although heavily damaged. Orion wasn’t over, however, as he firmly put his arms down and felt the earth’s pulse. His used his energy to source waves through the ground, centred on Eira as the ground under her began to topple.

She must have anticipated this as her arms came down simultaneously. On her face were fear and regret, after all, she could have created earthquakes right after killing the strongest Tribe members. Yet she hadn’t as the armies had been too mixed by then, and her losses would have been just as large as her gains. But now her cousin had started, she couldn’t let him succeed. Her waves were far stronger than his and boosted the destructive nature of his, sending tremors down the land.

Cracks spread across the wet ground in milliseconds and the fragments toppled over like icebergs in water in the next moment, the entire battlefield falling to ruin as piece after piece fell and crushed. This revealed the caverns below the battlefield, and seconds after, it was the two Zakaris’ turns as they too fell, plummeting down.

Their fragment crashed and sent them sprawling across the cavern floor. Above, terrifying masses of land fell like missiles, destroying the floor.