Chapter 26: The Awaited Duel

Luckily for us, the nearest assassin’s stronghold was quite near us. It only took a few hours to get there. The stronghold was located inside an old, worn out house. Of course, such a small cabin couldn’t house a faction of assassins. No, the real base was located underground. I walked up to the door, and knocked. The door was opened by an old grumpy man.

“What are two kids doing here?” The man said his coarse voice, looking at us curiously. I looked up to the old man.

“We heard that there is an assassin base here.” I said. The man moved like a shadow and grabbed me by the throat and held a knife to it. He was about to slice it, but before he could, I stopped him.

“Wait, we’re here to join, not to fight.” I said hurriedly. The old man relaxed his grip a bit.

“Join us? Don’t kid yourself, you’re just kids.” The man said, still not letting me go.

“We’re not just kids, we’re vampires. We were turned when we were kids, so we still look like children.” I said. The assassins all knew about vampires, since they were all under the blood bond, so it was safe to tell him. The man instantly let go of me, then backed a few steps back.

“You’re vampires? I’ve never seen a child vampire before, no scratch that, I’ve only seen a vampire once before, and it was long ago. But you came here to become an assassin? Wouldn’t you go to that Sanguine Regis or whatever, where most of the vampires reside, and there is an assassin branch as well?” The old man asked, still a bit sceptic.

“No, we’ve never been there before. We were turned outside the castle, here in the human world, and our master died a while ago. We’re still young, so we came here to see if we could work. We’ve only met one other vampire; our master, but before she died, she told us about Sanguine Regis, the other vampires, and also that all the assassins are ruled by the vampires.” I told him our story, fabricated from my elaborate plan.

“I see. Well then, come on down, and I’ll bring you to the leader around here. This place is relatively small, and we don’t have any vampires, so this might heighten our status.” The old man said, before pulling a lever, which revealed a well-hidden trapdoor. We followed the old man down the hole and arrived in a cave system that looked like a mix between a cave, and a fortress. Some areas were just the normal cave stone, while others were built out of brick and wood. The old man took us through some corridors and pathways, until he stopped in front of a door. He knocked on the door, and waited for a reply. After a voice allowed him to enter, he opened the door, and walked in, with us in tow.

Inside the room, sat a middle aged man, behind a wooden desk. On the desk, there was pile of paper, and the room was decorated with bookcases, containing files and rarely, books. The man looked up.

“Master, there are new recruits. They’re vampires, so I brought them here.” The old man said. The eyes of the man behind the desk widened.

“You can leave now. You two, come sit here.” The man said. We complied and sat opposite him, on the two chairs that were conveniently placed there.

“You’re really vampires? Well, the complexion is right. If you’re really vampires, then why did you come here?” The man asked.

“We aren’t part of Sanguine Regis, or the Coldbloods. Well, we are, but we weren’t made wherever that castle is. Our master made us outside, in a village. Recently, our master died, so we decided to come here to work, since we need money and a place to stay.” I said. The man sat with his eyes closed for a while.

“I see. Alright then, from now on you are part of our group. This is also good news for us. Even though we are in charge of all assassination going on in Fenlai Prefecture, we don’t have any vampires here, even though Fenlai is where the Coldbloods originate from. I’ll have two rooms prepared. By the way, how old, and how strong are you?” He said.

“We’re not very old, we were just turned a few years ago. And with our strength combined, we should be able to handle an early B ranker. And one room is enough.” I said.

“I see. I’ll register you as Peak C rankers, and as an early B group.” He said. He took out a piece of paper then started writing.

“What are your names?” He asked. “I’m Abel, and this is Katy.” I said. I didn’t want to use my real name, so I made a fake one.

“Abel and Katy it is.” The man said, then continued writing. After he was finished, he put the paper into a file, then told someone to get us a room. Soon after, we were in a small room, with a single bed; big enough for two people, a desk and a wardrobe. Since it was getting late, or rather, early, we went to bed. The next day, some random guy woke us up, and told us to go see the boss. After we got dressed, we immediately went to see him.

“I have your initiation missions ready. There are two people that need to be killed, one for each of you. They’re both in the same city, which is the one nearby here. You probably came from there, so finding the way back shouldn’t be a problem. All the details you need to know are in these files.” He said, then handed us two files. Inside, there was a detailed description of the man I needed to kill. He was a nobleman and had apparently wronged somebody, so he was marked for death. He lived in a large mansion in the city, and had some business there, unrelated to the Coldbloods, so killing him was no big deal. After we read the files, we set off for the city, once more.

1st person, Isaac; Sanguine Regis.

I had just been told of the latest actions of Little Isaac. Apparently that kid joined the assassins group in charge of Fenlai, with that new girlfriend of his. I wonder how that’ll be. Well, he shouldn’t get in any danger, since he’s much stronger than anyone else there. Even finding someone capable of killing him in this kingdom is hard. His strength should be comparable with someone at the A rank middle stage. Well, if he does get into any danger, then we have those life slips we made. They work just like the ones the Royal Family uses to see if everyone is still alive, just with more features added. Everyone important to the Coldbloods has one bound to them, so if they die, their life slip will break. If they’re heavily injured, then it will crack, and it is able to tell what state they are in. If they are healthy and fine, then it’s green, but if they start fighting, then it turns orange. If the fight is not in their favour, and their life is threatened, then it turns red. If they’re asleep, then it turns blue. Quite handy. We have all the life slips gathered in the Anima Hall. There is constant surveillance there, checking the state of the life slips. If the slips turn red, then we will be notified immediately, via voice transmission. It’s also able to tell the location, so we’ll be able to send someone over there using portals. Only thing is, we can only get teleport to the closest portal point. The person dispatched to help has to rush to the location of the one in danger. If the target is too far away from the closest portal point, and they are important enough, then I, or some other peak expert can go.

Anyways, for now I didn’t have time to think about Little Isaac, or the life slips, for there was a very important event incoming. It was time for Valen and me to have our duel. We were out in a very open area, surrounded by thousands of people. Everyone important was there, and even a lot of the townspeople came out to see the duel. Valen also brought all the important people of the organization with him, to bear witness. If I won this duel, then I would be their new leader.

“Isaac, the time has finally come. I brought all the leaders of my Shadowblade Organization with me here, to bear witness to this event. In the coming duel, should you, Isaac Coldblood win, then you shall be the new leader of our organization. But, if I win, then you have to serve me for the next one hundred years! Do you accept these terms?” Valen announced in a booming voice. Everyone present could hear him, even though many didn’t even know what this was about. They just knew that it was something important, and that two of the strongest people on the continent were about to fight. I looked at him, and the large crowd surrounding us with a smile.

“I most certainly do!” I said, my voice just as loud and thunderous as his. Then a deathly silence reigned all around, as we stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, then finally drew our blades. The very moment our swords escaped their sheaths, we flew towards each other at frightening speeds. Our swords clashed, causing shockwaves and strong winds to spread all around our battlefield. By the time the wind reached the spectators it had mostly calmed down, but they could still clearly feel the strength of each strike. Just the first strike was enough to break down the defensive wall of a large city, like the Royal Capital. After the first strike, we kept sending barrage after barrage at each other, constantly striking, constantly blocking, constantly parrying. In just a few moments we had struck thousands of times, yet we hadn’t hit each other a single time. Then I decided to mix things up a bit, and channelled some mana into my sword, causing huge flames to clash against Valen’s sword. Valen had no choice but to retreat, so I also leaped backwards.

“That wasn’t normal magic! Did you get an enchanted sword?” Valen asked. I looked at him smugly. Enchanted weaponry was very rare, and finding an enchanted weapon of such calibre was practically impossible, at least on this continent.

“I found it in the Tomb of Palazar. There’s a lot of cool stuff there, you should go check it out sometime. After all, Palazar was an SSS ranked mage.” I said with a laugh.

“He was SSS ranked? Really?” Valen said, before charging at me again with a sword strike, but this time he mixed it up as well. Before the sword struck, he plummeted down to the ground, and pounded his hand on the floor. I could see that he channelled a lot of mana into the ground, and just a fraction of a second later, hundreds of shadowy hands came out of the ground trying to grasp onto me. I tried jumping up, but those arms had an insane reach and were ridiculously fast, so they still managed to grab me, and drag me back to the ground. When I was bound by his arms, he struck at me with his sword. In the nick of time, I managed to block him with my own sword, but the hands didn’t disappear, and he kept striking at me. After a few strikes, he managed to hit me in the shoulder, although he just nicked it. I decided that I had had enough of those shadowy hands, so I pointed a finger at the ground, then sent channel after channel of mana into it. Then, like a shrapnel explosion, millions of small mana spikes exploded out of the ground, destroying those pesky hands. The mana spikes were strong enough to deal with the shadow arms, but it couldn’t hurt Valen in the slightest.

“That magic of yours really is rather interesting. Too bad I would have to spend most of my remaining life to even hope of learning it.” He said with a sigh. I straightened myself and dusted off my clothes, then looked into his eyes.

“Actually, I have something that can help with that.” I said, before charging back at him, but I stopped a few dozen meters in front of him, then pointed my sword towards him. I started channelling mana through the sword again, but this time I led the swords magic outside, using mana manipulation. Flames started flowing out of the sword, but this time, instead of being connected to the sword, the flames disconnected and formed a huge divine flame sword, or at least it looked divine. The flame sword slashed down at Valen. The sword was enormous, and was traveling so fast Valen couldn’t flee or dodge and had to take it head on. He made various dark sword and spear like objects appear, then had them strike the flaming inferno sword, while he also struck it with his own sword. He was able to negate most of the sword’s flames, but there was still a bit of damage that got through. His clothes were in pieces, and half his upper body was revealed. There were also small burn marks on his body.

“That was quite the attack. I guess it’s time for me to show my worth.” Valen said with a smirk, then pointed his hand at me. Suddenly thousands of dark orbs were formed, in the blink of an eye, and they all flew right at me. In response, I slashed my sword at the dark orbs, throwing a wall of flames at the orbs. The flames were able to destroy most of the orbs, but a few managed to get past, but none were able to hit me. Then I noticed that Valen was gone. I immediately struck upwards as fast as i could with my sword, and felt it clash against a metal object. As soon as the swords clashed, Valen then twisted his body and threw a hard kick at me while in the air, which managed to connect on my right temple. The kick managed to send me flying a hundred meters sliding across the ground. Good thing that all the spectators were a good distance away.

“Those senses of yours truly are far and beyond normal. You didn’t even look at me before you struck at me with your sword.” Valen said with a laugh. I stood back up and dusted off my clothes, which were a bit torn from sliding across the ground.

“My senses might be better, but you’re still better in the field of experience.” I said back at him. Before he could respond, I charged at him, and jumped in the air. While I was in the air, I clasped my hands, and channelled some mana into them. In my hands, a rough rod shape made of mana appeared. The rod shaped into a blue shining mana spear, that was twice as long as my body, and as thick as an arm, except for the spot i was holding onto, which was like a handle. I threw the huge spear at Valen, then continued to charge at him. Valen was able to dodge the spear by a hair’s breath, but when the spear struck, only half a meter next to him, it exploded. The explosion caught Valen of guard and sent him flying towards me. Using every ounce of my strength, I charged next to him, and struck him with my sword. Valen barely managed to spin around, and make my sword hit his own, sending him flying in the other direction, but also making his sword slash into his chest, wounding him.

I landed back on the ground, and stood waiting for him. I didn’t bother chasing, since he was flying through the air faster than I could chase. Valen eventually crashed into the ground, almost two kilometres away. It took him a few seconds until he managed to get back on his legs. When he got back up, he stood there for a while, then rushed to meet me.

“Damn it Isaac, I felt that one. I didn’t expect the spear to explode, and at that magnitude!” He said. There was a big wound on his chest, and his clothes were bloodied. It wasn't fatal, but it did hurt and would decrease his agility a slight bit.

“That’s the thing with pure mana. Mana is an extremely unstable thing, which is why you normally use the elements to control it, but with my method I’m using pure mana and nothing else, other than the Natural Energies of the earth, although they can’t be used for combat, not yet at least. By using pure mana, I can do anything with it. I can make it burn like a flame, I can make it solid like earth, I can make it flow like liquid, or I can make it explode like a raging volcano.” I said, while showing various examples in my hand, like making small swords or making mana flames.

“That is quite the magic that’s for sure. But I think it’s time to end this.” Valen said, then got into a stance. I followed and got into a sword stance as well. Suddenly everything went dark. Valen had made hundreds of blocks, made of pure darkness. The blocks were semi solid, so I couldn’t move well, and I couldn’t see anything, but it only lasted for a fraction of a second, then I could see as well, but it was too late. Valen stood behind me, and I could feel his sword pierce into my back. As I saw the sword go out through my chest, I coughed up a lot of blood.

“Isaac, give up, this is my win. My sword is right next to your heart. If you move then you’ll die, and if I move it, then you die.” He said in serious tone, stressing for me to surrender. All I could respond with was laughter, hysterical laughter.

“Give up?” I said, and before he could respond, I turned my body around, making the sword cut through half of my chest, including slicing my heart and lungs in half. Before he could react, I punched him with all my strength and might, enhanced by pure mana. My punch slightly pierced into his abdomen, and sent him flying in a trail of blood. He landed almost a hundred meters away from me. While he was staggering to stand up, I grabbed my shirt with my hand, and tore it off, completely revealing my upper body, and the horrible wound, which would kill any mortal man. Half my chest was cut open, from back to front. Valen looked at me in complete horror.

“Valen my friend, I’m afraid it’ll take a lot more than that to kill me. Now, since you showed me your ultimate attack, I shall show you one of mine, just be careful. You might die.” I said, as I walked slowly towards the horrified man. No one should be able to survive something like that. Even an SS ranker would eventually die from such a mortal wound. Even a SSS ranker would be heavily wounded.

The red in my eyes was shining a scarlet red, as I slowly walked towards Valen. Then I stopped. As I looked Valen in the eyes i saw a horrified mortal, I sheathed my sword. I raised my hand in Valen’s direction, then opened my palm. On the top of my palm, an orb of pure, blue mana appeared. I moved my hand back behind the orb, then with the flick of my fingers i shot the orb. The orb flew at unimaginable speeds, but it wasn’t going towards Valen, it was going to his side. The orb stopped over a hundred metres next to Valen, then started expanding. Valen panicked and tried to run away as fast as he could, but the orb was expanding too quickly. His arm was caught by the orb before it stopped expanding, like an unstoppable explosion. Valen screamed in pain, and fell to his knees, grabbing his arm. The armed had been burned severely, being charred black at some places. If Valen had been caught in that attack, he might not die immediately, but he would be injured beyond recognition and would perish later on. While he was holding his arm, screaming, I started walking up to him. I held my sword up to his throat right under his chin and said.

“So, do you admit your defeat?” I asked him, nonchalantly. Valen looked up at me that horrified expression still present in his eyes.

“What are you?” He asked, his voice almost quivering.

“First you admit your defeat, then I’ll tell you.” I responded to him. Valen looked down in defeat, then got back on his feet. He looked at me once again, then showed a defeated expression.

“Fine, I admit it’s your win. If I’d been fully caught in that attack, I’d been done for. Good thing you aimed away from me.” Valen said, still a bit moody.

“Good. If you hadn’t given up, I might have had to use my special progenitor attacks. You see, I’m actually the progenitor of all vampires, and many of the people here are vampires.” I said. Valen just stared at me in a blank expression.

“You’re what?” He said in disbelief. He thought he might have misheard. Vampires? Since when did they exist?

“I’m the vampire progenitor. You know, like the king of all vampires, the first one, the one who created all the others? Remember before, when I said I had something that could help you learn that Energy Manipulation Magic? I was referring to vampires. If I make you a vampire, you will become immortal, and also get increased talent, and you’ll be able to surpass the bounds of S rank. If you want to, I’ll make you into a vampire, but not yet. If I turn you now, you’ll become too strong, although you won’t actually be able to hurt me in any way” I explained to him. Valen listened to me with wide eyes. This was all news to him. He knew vampires existed at one point, since there were a few history books mentioning them, like most people, but he never thought that they would still be around.

“Actually, that explains why you haven’t aged even a little bit since I first met you. And as for this offer, I think I’ll take you up on it, just don’t make me wait too long. I only have a bit over two hundred years of lifespan left.” He said, slightly worried. He knew what being a vampire would most likely bring with it, like a weakness to the sun, and having to drink blood, but for a man like him, immortality was just too eye catching, as well as the ability to reach further ranks.

“Don’t worry. If it takes too long, you can drink some vampire blood regularly. That will prolong your life by quite a bit.” I said. After we finished our talk, we had a healer tend to Valens arm. The damage would leave a permanent scar all across his lowed arm, but there wasn’t any permanent damage, other than that. Thus I became the new leader of the Shadowblade Organization, which was renamed the Coldblood Organization.

1st person, Little Isaac.

We had finally arrived back at the city. We were going to split apart, to deal with our targets. I told Katy to be careful, and take her time, and use her vampire abilities to her fullest. Katy then went in one direction, while I went the other. After a short walk, I arrived outside a large mansion. I walked straight in, right past the guards. The guards didn’t even notice me, since I was using my hypnosis on them. Using hypnosis, I waltzed through the mansion, looking for that ugly noble. After a while, I arrived inside a room, which contained a man that fit the description I was given. I sat on a chair opposite him, staring at him for a while, pondering how I should kill him. Then an idea struck me! Why kill him myself, when I could have someone else do it? Thus I revealed my presence to the man, who was immediately shocked.

“How did you get in here?!” He said, as he stood up, about to call the guards. Before he could do anything, I made him calm down. I looked him straight into his eyes, my eyes shining with an unstoppable persuasive power.

“I have a task for you. I want you to try and rape me, with all your power. Kill anyone that tries to stop you.” I said, with a big grin on my face. The noble immediately stood up and tore off his pants, including underwear, then tried to grab me, but before he could, I jumped out the window. The man furiously chased me out into the streets. There were a few people walking there, but no guards were present.

“Help!” I screamed as loudly as I could. Well it was nowhere near as loudly as I could, but it was as loud as a twelve year old could. The people present all looked at me, then saw a half-naked man chasing me. Three men and a woman immediately came to my help, but before they could do anything, the noble took out a short sword, and struck them all down, killing them. The men tried to fight back, but they didn’t have any weapons, and they were just normal civilians. The noble was an E ranked warrior, so he easily killed them. After my ‘saviours’ were dead, the noble grabbed me. Even though I was far stronger than him, I acted as if I couldn’t fight back, since I was supposed to be a twelve year old child. The noble tried to take off my pants, while I was kicking around, and screaming. Only a moment later, a group of guards came from around a corner, as they had heard the screams.

“Stop right there!” The guards shouted at the man, as they surrounded him. The noble looked around him, anger very present in his expression.

“Do you know who I am?!” The noble spat at them, while waving his short sword around. The guards looked at him in disgust.

“We do, but even a noble like you can’t escape the law. Murder of four people, attempted rape on a child, and resisting arrest with a weapon, this all gives us authority to kill you on the spot!” One of the guards spat back at him, then the guards all charged at him with their spears. Even though the noble was an E ranker, he didn’t stand a chance against six guards. All six of the spears pierced his body, spilling his blood. He immediately lost his strength and let me go. I fell to the ground, pretending to be weak. The noble wasn’t dead yet, but there were six spears lodged in his body, so it only took a few seconds before he fell limp to the ground. The guards immediately rushed over to me.

“Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” One of the guards said, as he pulled my pants back up, and dried my tears. I looked up at the guard, letting out even more tears.

“N-no, he never got that far…” I said with a weak voice, then started crying. The guards looked at me pitifully.

“Where do you live? I’ll take you back home.” The guard said, as he lifted me up to my feet. I looked at him again.

“It’s fine, I live close to here.” I said weakly. “Alright then. It’s safe now, since the bad guy is dead. Go along then, such a place isn’t appropriate for a child.” The guard said. I nodded, then thanked them and ran along. When I got out of sight, my I jumped up to the rooms in a flash, hurrying over to where Katy was. By the time I got ever there, Katy jumped out of a window, then jumped up to the roofs. I jumped over to her roof and appeared right in front of her.

“AHHH!” She screamed as I appeared. I couldn’t help but laugh at her. “Oh, it’s you. You scared the shit out of me!” She screamed at me. I still couldn’t stop laughing.

“So, hehe, how did it go?” I asked, still laughing a bit. Katy looked at me, annoyed. “It went good. Luckily the guy was a pervert, so he took me into his bedroom, but before he ever got to taste my body, I killed him. It was pretty hard though. This was the first time I killed someone, except from when you made me into a vampire, so I hesitated a bit. Luckily I was much stronger than him, and could easily hold him down. The hypnosis also helped” She said. For some reason, Kay had gotten her hypnosis early, and it was more powerful than normal, just like mine was. It was probably because of my bloodline. After we were finished, we left the city for the assassin stronghold.

3rd person.

Meanwhile, in a forest hidden in the wilderness that separated one half of this continent with the other, there was a large serpentine monster, sitting on a rock. This serpent creature had two arms and legs, and looked like a lizard. It was a Lesser Land Drake. This Drake was the ruler of this part of the wilderness, which was bordering the four kingdoms of the southern half of the continent. Suddenly a lion with wings landed in front of the drake. It was a lesser flying lion, one of the rare magical creatures that were on this continent.

“Lord, it has reached my ears that the war between the two kingdoms of Tabarut and Kalderon have stopped fighting and entered an alliance. Tabarut also hasn’t acquired the Dragon Gem yet.” The lion said. The drake opened two of the three slits on its head, revealing two deep yellow eyes that gave a menacing glow. The third slit, located on his forehead, opened last, revealing a hole shaped like a jewel.

“They betrayed their promise to obtain the gem!?” The drake said in a deep, menacing voice, which thundered through the heavens shaking the mountains and land around the Drake. The Drake stood up and revealed a heavy, menacing aura, even stronger than the one Valen and Isaac released. The aura of someone infinitely close the middle stage of rank S.

End of chapter 26.