RagNarok(Pr): Sorry guys for the late chapter. Two weeks ago on the 12th when Lord Martin sent the chapter to me so i can edit it, I told him we should either split the chapter into two different chapters or make a longer one. Not knowing Lord Martin would be extremely busy that following week and he had to study for the exams he would have the beginning of this week. The good news is the chapter is finally finished :D. Hope you enjoy

Chapter 27: The End or The Beginning?

The oversized lizard stared deep into the Flying Lion’s eyes, making the hair on its back rise. The lion was worried for its life, maybe the Drake would put the blame on him for some reason. The Drake opened its mouth to speak,

“This is bad. If I don’t get that gem soon, I’m afraid it will be too late. Listen here! Send someone over to the two neighbouring kingdoms and tell them to wage war against the other two. If they can defeat those two small kingdoms, and get me my jewel, then I shall reward them with riches. Hurry!” The drake shouted out orders, less than patient. A very long time ago, so long that the Drake didn’t even remember exactly how long, he had made a deal with Tabarut’s royal family.

Many years ago, when the Drake was just a baby, it had woken up in this very forest, on this very mountain, it had awoken. It neither knew where it was, or why; it didn’t even know what it was! It had been left there all alone, with only one message in its mind; “On peak of the Kalderon throne, there it lies. The Dragon’s Gem, only with that jewel shall your origin be revealed. Seek it and reclaim it, then join us once more!” Those words were deeply imbedded into his mind. Ever since that day, he had trained like no other. Eventually, he became the strongest creature in this wilderness, being the only creature at the S rank. But as the King of the Beasts, he couldn’t venture into the human territories to seek his legacy, lest the humans band together and destroy everything in these forests he holds so dear to him.

Thus, the Drake sought out the Tabarut kingdom and struck a deal. “Wage war against Kalderon, and reclaim my jewel, and I shall reward you with treasures beyond imagination!” But this was so long ago, the years measured in the thousands. What the Drake didn’t know, was that the promise was long forgotten. Stories of a Drake in these lands? Such a thing was unthinkable, since Drakes were only found much deeper inside this massive world. Therefore, the descendants of Tabarut had dismissed it as a fairy tale, and it had long been forgotten. But the damage was done, and war waged on, and an undisputable feud between the two kingdoms began. The war lasted for thousands of years, yet the Drake knew nothing. Unluckily for him, time was running out. He was reaching the end of his lifetime, and if he didn’t get the Dragon Gem, he would see no hope of prolonging it.

But if he ever got the Gem, his limits shall be lifted, his legacy revealed. The moment the Gem enters his body, he would instantly enter the middle stage of S rank, shedding the shells known as the lesser Drake. Then he would be able to reach SS rank in a few centuries, prolonging his life.

But now the war had ended, and the two kingdoms had joined forces. Any chance of him recovering the Dragon Gem was gone. But all hope was not yet lost. Therefore human slaves were immediately sent to the two other kingdoms, with promise of riches. The two kingdoms accepted heartily, immediately readying their armies. The continent which these kingdoms are on, is but a tiny peninsula of the huge supercontinent that is the true world. Towards the end of this peninsula, there is a large wilderness, separating these four kingdoms from the rest of the world. These four kingdoms are located in a line, parallel to the wilderness. The two kingdoms in the middle are Kalderon and Tabarut, and the other two, slightly stronger kingdoms are the Kingdom of Graywich and the Kingdom of Vasaal. These two kingdoms were stronger than Kalderon and Tabarut, but only by a bit. If they were to wage war, they would have large casualties. Partly because of this reason, they never showed interest in fighting their neighbouring kingdoms, and since there was too much distance between Graywich and Vasaal, they never waged war against each other.

The other reason they didn’t show interest in Kalderon and Tabarut, was because the region was too poor. They wouldn’t get much out of it, but now it was different. Now they were promised riches and treasures to conquer those lands, and reclaim the Dragon Gem. The two kingdoms immediately made a call to arms, then, using their best voice transmission technology available, they started planning an invasion.

Only a few months later, the armies marched. The Kingdom of Graywich marched for Kalderon, while Vasaal went for Tabarut. Under the element of surprise, the armies managed to quickly conquer the bordering cities, with minimal casualties, but after that, the Royal Families quickly discovered the actions of their neighbours. The Kings of Kalderon and Tabarut immediately organized their armies and sped for their borders. The two opposing armies then met close to the border in an empty field. Thus, the two Kings met. The king of Kalderon wanted to know what the meaning of this was. Kalderon and Graywich had never been enemies, in fact they had quite positive relations. But no matter what, the opposing king wouldn’t tell him what was going on. The king could only go back to his armies. On the side of Tabarut, the same thing conspired, but no results. Thus, the armies advanced, and the fighting began.

Meanwhile in Sanguine Regis. Isaac was walking through the halls, minding his own, when he met one of the men from the intelligence department.

“Oh, Lord Isaac, I was just about to go find you. I have major news for you!” the man said. Isaac looked at him wearily. It was not that often that the intelligence department came with ‘major news’. It was definitely something big, and something big usually meant something bad.

“Well, what is it?” Isaac said impatiently. The man immediately straightened his back and reported,

“War has broken out! The Kingdoms of Graywich and Vasaal have waged war against the alliance! The armies of the opposing kingdoms are currently fighting in the fields by the borders.” The man said with a worried look. Thinking about this matter, Isaac turned around and looked out the window, looking in the direction of the border to Graywich.

“Hmm, well this doesn’t have much to do with us. For now, we’ll let the humans handle their affairs themselves. We can consider it a test to see the worth of both Kalderon and Tabarut’s leadership . Anyways, dispatch a few elite men to spy and keep watch on the fighting, both here and in Tabarut. If either kingdom is losing, then report back to me, or if anything major happens. Every once in awhile, you can also send some vampires to help both fronts. It’s good to stretch your legs once in awhile, and fighting against an army is a good experience. Also have this reported to the other Purebloods and anyone important in general.” Isaac ordered the man.

“Yes sir! Then excuse me, I’ll go attend to it immediately.” The man said, then hurriedly left to go dispatch his spies. Then, since that matter was dealt with, Isaac continued his walk through the numerous halls of Sanguine Regis. He made a quick visit down to the deepest pits of the dungeon, to visit that prince. He had already forgotten his name, or maybe he just never cared to remember. The prince was still very alive, but he had aged. He looked like an old man, he had a long, white beard, and was as skinny as a skeleton. After toying with him for a while, Isaac left the dungeon.

Sometime later, at the Council. Around a round table, numerous men and women sat, discussing the war. It had already been awhile since the war started, and they had already lost a total of three cities. One of them belonged to Kalderon, while the other two belonged to Tabarut. In the middle of discussion, one of the nobles stood up. He had a pale look to him, and was visibly wounded. He had participated in one of the recent fights, where Kalderon’s side lost. Luckily he had managed to escape before death.

“Why aren’t we asking them, the Coldbloods to help us?! If we just use them, then this fight wouldn’t last long, after all, everyone one of them is abnormally strong!” The young noble said, the anxiety clearly apparent. With his recent near death experience, he was anxious. The king of Kalderon looked at him pitifully, as if he looked upon a child who had yet to see the world.

“Yes, if we did ask them, then the war would end quickly. But can we ask them?! They know very well that this war is going on, and they know very well that we could very well lose, yet they do nothing! Yet they are on our side! Then, why do you think they are doing nothing?” The king asked the young noble. The noble looked at the king, astonished.

“I, I don’t…” The noble said, but before he could finish, the king spoke once more. “They are testing us! They are seeing how long we can hold out, then when we are about to lose, that’s when they’ll strike!” The king said. Many of the nobles nodded in agreement, and the young noble just sat down in defeat.

“Anyways, we need to deal with the matters at hand. The reports show that the armies are marching from the city of Carto. We will meet them in Hallow’s Path, where we will swiftly defeat them! Lord Callahan, Lord Arnold, Lord Hannibal, you three shall march with your armies. Lord Callahan, you shall be the commander of this operation! The reports say that there are about five hundred thousand troops!” The king of Kalderon said, then looked at the other king next to him. He nodded, then rose, after the other sat down.

“Now for the Tabarut side. Reports say that the Vasaal forces are heading towards the city of Durlak. We shall meet them one hundred fifty kilometres north of the city. They don’t realize that we have portals available, so we shall use them to our advantage. Lord Musaali, Lord Alexander and Lady Arteshbod, you three shall head to meet the enemy. Lady Arteshbod, you are in charge. The army is of similar size to the one invading Kalderon.” The Tabarut king said. The three Lords and Lady all agreed. No one was against Lady Arteshbod leading the army, since she was renowned as the greatest general in the kingdom, and a great warrior. The meeting went on for another few hours, where they discussed tactics.

During the past months, there had already been several big fights between the opposing forces. Thousands of soldiers had died in them, fighting for the wellbeing of their fellow countrymen. Now, one such battle was about to take place. In the Commander's Tent, the three Lords, Callahan, Arnold and Hannibal were standing before the tactical table.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. In the front, we’ll have four battalions of infantry, ready to meet the enemy. Because of the terrain here, we’ll be able to hide a large force a good hundred meters away from the clashing point. There, we’ll have one battalion of elite cavalry. Lord Arnold, you’ll lead them, and charge when I give the go, to flank their left side. On the right flank, we’ll have two battalions of infantry, as well as the other cavalry force. The archers will be placed on the hills, behind the frontline infantry, and directly below them will be the mage force. Lord Hannibal, you are in command of the archers and mages.” Lord Callahan said. Lord Callahan was very pressured, since this was his first major battle in decades, but he couldn’t let it get to him. He had to win, if he didn’t, then he died. Thus, the deployments began. A few hours later, the battle finally began. Two huge forces of over half a million each, clashed on the battlefield. The battle lasted for several days, resulting in a huge number of casualties. As the battle began, the Elite Cavalry Force had been signaled and charged into the enemy’s left flank, killing thousands of unprepared troops. The right flank had also had a success, managing to kill a large portion of the opposing army, but there had been many casualties. After the success of the Elite Cavalry, they had prepared to charge once more, but unfortunately, they fell into a trap, and were bombarded by arrows and magic alike. Unfortunately, Lord Arnold perished in battle, but not before killing as many as he could.

After the battle ended, there was nothing but death, corpses as far as the eye could see with puddles of accumulated blood all around the hills of corpses. The sound of cawing crows, and vultures could be heard. This time, due to more experience, as well as the element of surprise and tactical advantage in terrain, the Kalderon forces had won. The enemy’s army had been routed, but around four hundred thousand soldiers died and another one hundred thousand were wounded in this battle alone. Kalderon had around six hundred fifty thousand soldiers going in, while the Graywich army had five hundred thousand, most of which had been either killed, taken captive or routed.

Meanwhile in Tabarut, their battle was just about to begin. They didn’t have much of an advantage in terrain on their battlefield, except a bit of higher grounds, so they could only try and overwhelm the enemy. They had managed to gather an army of eight hundred thousand troops to meet the enemies five hundred thousand. With such difference in size, they should be able to win, but there were no absolutes, so they practiced the most extreme of cautions. The fight was about to begin. They had stationed several battalions on the frontlines, while having an Elite Cavalry battalion on each flank, accompanied by Elite Horse Archers. The normal archers, as well as mages, were stationed behind the main army, on higher grounds. Half of the mages were preparing a large scale meteor shower spell, but as soon as they finished casting it, they would have no mana left, and have no choice, but to leave the battlefield.

Thus, when the enemy army arrived, and the meteor shower was finally cast. Immediately, tens of thousands of troops died from the meteors, and the four flanking battalions charged, as well as the frontline infantry and spearmen. The battle lasted for a couple of days. In the end, Tabarut had won, thanks to the element of surprise as well as a much larger army. The battle had been a relative easy win, since the meteor shower had caused chaos in the enemy lines, and the casualties of tabarut only amounted to around one hundred thousand dead and around fifty thousand wounded. But this was with luck on their side and almost twice as many troops. In future battles to come, there would be many more lives lost, and sometimes an entire army would be annihilated, but this time it had been a complete victory for both Kalderon and Tabarut.

As the years passed, many battles were fought, and many were lost. Usually, every other fight would result in a loss, but that didn’t mean the total annihilation of the army. Most of the times when an army lost, the commander would issue a retreat, sparing his soldiers. Sometimes, the army would also choose to surrender, if retreat was impossible, and defeat was imminent. Slaying surrendered foes was a war crime, and would result in execution, so the surrendering army would always be spared, but they would have to suffer a life of slavery. Actually, when the enemy army surrendered would be the best result, after all, these were times of war. A lot of people were being conscripted into the army, and the workforce was low. In such times, slaves were much needed to tend the farms, to ensure food for the army; for the kingdom.

It was the eighth year into the war. The forces of Graywich were marching towards the city of Tarlick, with a force of five million soldiers. Tarlick only had one million soldiers stationed, with no hope of reinforcement, since the enemy army already surrounded the city, but this was a siege. In the case of a siege, the invading army would need to far outnumber the city to even stand a hope of winning. Sadly for the city, the portal was malfunctioning, so they couldn’t even teleport more soldiers in, or out.

The siege lasted for two months, without any major fighting. This was because they wanted to starve the people in the city, but the enemy couldn’t wait any longer. They had received a report of a huge force marching towards them from the south. Thus the battle of Tarlick began. The enemy army began treading forwards with their siege weaponry. The incoming army was actually not the only reason why they began the battle just now. They had been constructing a battering ram and other siege equipment, with various magical enchantments on them. This battering ram would be able to pulverise the city gate. The only problem was that it was extremely heavy, and ridiculously expensive. Such an item was a onetime luxury. Pushing it to the gate, would take a very large number of soldiers, and they would be extremely vulnerable. They began pushing the huge battering ram, with an astonishing number of a thousand soldiers pushing it, but after only pushing it about a hundred meters, most of the soldiers died from the archers and mages barrage of arrows and spells. The next group immediately charged to the battering ram, to continue the charge, but after only ten meters, they lay dead. They had to push it for about a kilometre, so there was a long distance still to push. But eventually, they managed to do it, but not without casualties. In the end, over two hundred thousand troops died just by trying to push it. Every soldier that arrived at the battering ram would die, but even more that tried to get there would die, since the distance was long.

1st person, Citizen #20781

There it is. A huge number of soldiers were standing in front of the city gate. Behind the sound of the battering ram crashing against the gates, there was the sound of death. Countless people outside were dying. Around me were several other people, some I knew, some I didn’t. Then, there it is. The last crash, then the sound as the gates are blown to smithereens made all the civilians panick. The enemy soldiers are storming into the city, killing the troops guarding the gates. They are massively outnumbered at the moment, so the city guard is being slaughtered before my very eyes.

Oh shit, they are coming for us! “Run!” I shout, as I turn around, and start running. Everyone around me follows suit, with me in the front. But then I stepped on a rock, and slip, falling to the ground. I hurriedly get back up, but then I see it. My daughter, I can see my daughter not so far away, but, but… She’s being raped, they’re raping her! I start running towards her, screaming for them to stop. The enemy troops turn around to look at me, then they look back at my daughter. He throws her away, then swings his sword at her neck. Her head goes flying, as she stares me in the eyes. I scream, and start running at the soldier, mindlessly. Suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder! I look down, and see and arrow sticking out. The blood is pouring uncontrollably. Then again, the sharp pain. This time, there’s another arrow, sticking out through my chest. By this point I’m already soaked in blood, and my mind is going hazy.

“AAAHHHH!” I scream in pain, yet I don’t stop, and continue running at the guard, who’s just laughing at me. Then I feel another flash of pain, just for a moment, before everything starts fading to black, as I feel blood flowing down from my forehead…

3rd person.

The enemy soldiers stormed into the city, and killed anyone they came upon, be it soldier or citizen. After the gates were open, it didn’t take long to take the city, since they outnumbered the city greatly, but there were still heavy casualties. Just by storming towards the city charging for the gates, over a million soldiers had died. In total Graywich lost around two and a half million soldiers taking this city.

The war lasted for many years. Kalderon and Tabarut lost many men, and a few cities. The war was very taxing, but it was also extremely hard for the other side. They lost just as many men or more than Kalderon and Tabarut, and the allied side even managed to retake a few cities. But there were many problems faced during a war. Food was ever so scarce, since many farms were destroyed, many farmers were killed in the battle. Weaponry was also a very necessary supply, which was becoming increasingly hard to come by. Thousands of tons of iron and steel were used to forge the weapons, and it was very expensive, and several mines were bled dry. The two sides could only hope they would last, although so far, the war was going in the invading armies favour.

1st person, Isaac.

Thus twenty years passed. In these twenty years, the kingdoms had been fighting constantly. They were in a constant stalemate, neither kingdom being able to advance on the other. Even though Graywich and Vasaal were the stronger ones, Kalderon and Tabarut were far more experienced in war. Those two kingdoms had been in constant war for thousands of years, and if that wasn’t enough, they were located in the middle, right where the most beasts came from the wilderness to the north. The monsters of the wilderness didn’t go to the eastern and western side much, so they didn’t get nearly as many beasts to deal with. Therefore, the soldiers of Kalderon and Tabarut had far more experience in battle, and could deal with the opposing army. It seemed as if this war could go on for several hundred more years, neither side getting the advantage.

In these twenty years, our strength had improved marginally. Both Kato and I had reached the Middle Arcanist level, and Kato had mastered the basics of Energy Manipulation. A few others had learned it as well, so now we were finally teaching the rest of the Energy Manipulation Magic in the Academy as well. Most of the Purebloods had reached the Peak B rank as well, so now we had thirteen late A ranker equivalents, and with Erwin and Rommel, we had two peak A rankers. In the Crimson Order, there were about thirty A rankers now as well.

3rd person, Wilderness.

The lesser Drake was sitting on his normal stone throne. He was getting impatient. It had already been nearly twenty years since the war started, yet no progress had been made. After thinking about the matter for a while, he made his decision. He let out a thunderous roar, summoning his generals. Only moments later, four beasts arrived. One was the Flying Lion from before. Three of these beasts were at the peak A level, while one of them was at the early S rank. The Drake looked at these creatures.

“Send word to the humans that they are to gather their armies for one large push, and gather as many beasts as you can find in this forest. You have one year to amass an army of beasts!” The Drake ordered. The beast generals replied with a “Yes Lord!” then immediately got started. Human slaves were sent with a message for the invading kingdoms, while the beast generals amassed an army.

In the human world, the kings of Vasaal and Grawich had received the message to amass all their troops and began the largest advance since the war began. Kalderon and Tabarut could only respond by doing the same. Thus the four sides fought viciously for one whole year, still in a stalemate, but things were looking dark for Kalderon and Tabarut.

Meanwhile in Sanguine Regis, one of the Master Spies was rushing to Isaac’s office. He didn’t even knock, and immediately went right inside. Isaac looked at him in anger, about to punish him, but the Master Spy started talking before he got a chance.

“Lord, this is bad!” he shouted at Isaac, panic clearly evident on his face. “The beasts are descending the mountains! Huge hordes of beasts are descending from the wilderness to the north.” The Master Spy reported. Isaac had a worried look on his face, as he listened to the report. He sat still for a while, to think about his course of actions.

1st person, Isaac.

“Alright, listen well. Send messengers to Tabarut and Kalderon to send the strongest fighters they can spare, then gather all of the Crimson Order and the Novo Mages that can fight. Do it with due haste! I need them all gathered before the day is over!” I ordered him. The Master Spy immediately went to work, and sent messengers to the two kingdoms, then hurriedly gathered all our fighting forces. Only a few hours later, our fighting force was gathered outside the castle. Then we all teleported to the closest portal to where we would meet the beast horde. Getting all our forces out took a while, so only the next day, we were finally where we were planning to meet them. Our forces consisted of over seventy thousand B rankers, and fifty A rankers.

According to the reports of the Master Spy, there were four worrying individuals in the beast army. There were three Peak A rankers, and one who seemed even stronger. He was probably the leader of the group.

Apparently, he was a Flame Lion. Flame Lions are relatives to Flying Lions. They can’t fly, but they can spit out flames, and also cover themselves in it. I wasn’t worried about these guys at all, since we had eleven late A rankers, two peak A rankers and one S ranker, being me. The most worrying part was their numbers. I could already see the huge horde of beasts, and they saw us as well. The horde divided into three groups. Two of them went in opposite directions probably towards Kalderon and Tabarut’s frontline against the invading armies, and one stopped in their tracks. The group that stopped to meet us numbered around three hundred thousand, but their individual strength varied. We had no troops under the B rank, while they did. Most of the strong beasts had been sent to the other sides, so the remaining ones were generally at the D rank and C ranks, while some were B rankers, and around 50 A ranker beasts.

The beasts front line started charging towards us, but I ordered my troops to stay put, and advanced on my own. When I was a good distance away from them, I stopped. As I stood there, waiting for their charge, I raised a single hand. Out of my fingertips, a small amount of blood appeared. The blood started flying towards the enemy army. Suddenly, huge amounts of blood started flowing out of the charging beasts, making huge cyclones appear. The huge amounts of blood inside the cyclones began rotating so fast they began cutting everything into pieces, killing everything they could reach, dismembering tens of thousands of beasts. In only a moment, almost seventy thousand beasts had died.

After it was over, I could feel a deep stare on me, coming from deep within the beast horde. I immediately shifted my view towards the heavy stare. What I saw shocked me. A huge lizard was looking at me, a Drake. But the one who was truly shocked was the Drake. He was using magical means to observe me, but I was still able to notice him, and even look him in the eyes.

As the blood cyclones dispersed, the remaining beast horde started their charge. Yet most of the beasts felt fear while they charged as all around where their seventy thousand comrades were just moments before was now the scene of carnage, where thousands of unrecognisable corpses were everywhere with their limbs gone and half of their bodies seemed like they were eaten. Immediately, I ordered my men to charge the frightened beasts. We also had our mages cast a large scale spell over the battlefield, causing the sky to stay dark as long as the mages could supply it mana. Our sixty thousand B rankers charged at the two hundred thirty thousand beasts. Many on our side were vampires, so a few of them could equal an early A ranker, which gave us an advantage. Our people were also far more skilled and intelligent than those mindless beasts, so using tactics and barrages from the mages, we were able to handle them. The fighting went on for what felt like a whole day. Even though there weren’t as many B rankers as there were weaker beasts, they still numbered in the thousands. While the two forces were fighting, the A rankers all stood in the back observing. After the weaker forces fell into a stalemate, the beast generals ordered the A rankers to go help.

In response, I ordered the Crimson Knights to move to the front, as well as the few A rankers who were sent to us. This time, the fighting also went on for a whole day. Even though we were outnumbered, since the Purebloods didn’t join the fight, we still had the advantage. Those beasts were mostly early A rank, and some middle A rank, but our Crimson Knights were all vampires, and many of them were middle and late staged, so some of them even equalled a peak stage A ranker. After another full day of fighting, most of the beasts had fallen and the few survivors routed towards the position the four strong beasts and the drake were at. Most of the casualties on our side weren’t from Crimson Knights, since killing a vampire is no easy thing to do. Some were incapacitated and lost a few limbs, but those type of wounds would heal given a few days and some blood. So most of those who fell were B rankers and those who were still human.

Now, the beast generals were clearly panicking. There were only four of them, while there were thirteen Purebloods on our side. They were well aware that we were the strongest ones, since we didn’t participate in the fight so far. They also saw my might before. Even if they all banded together, they wouldn’t be able to kill seventy thousand beasts in one attack. But as our sides were readying ourselves for the final fight, a loud roar rang out. In front of the four beast generals, there appeared the Drake. The drake stood there proudly on its four legs, giving a majestic aura. It didn’t have any wings, meaning it was a Land Drake. I looked back to my group.

“I will deal with the Land Drake. Erwin, Rommel and Kato, you guys group up and deal with that Flame Lion that seems to be as strong as an S early stage ranker halfway to middle stage. It will be a hard fight, but if you work together, and coupled with your vampire strengths, you should be able to do it. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice an arm or leg if necessary, after all, it will grow back. The rest of you, deal with the three peak A stage beasts. And one last thing. Be careful.” I said, then immediately turned around. It was around four o’clock in the afternoon, even though the sky was dark. We started marching towards our enemies, while they did the same. When we were about fifty meters away from each other, we stopped.

3rd person, battle against the Flame Lion.

Kato, Erwin and Rommel stood opposite to the Flame Lion. The Lion stared at them in a majestic manner that seemed like he was a being far above them.

“Do the three of you really think you stand a chance against me, Three A rankers close to or at middle stage, don’t make me laugh, Hahaha...?” The Flame Lion roared at them. Erwin didn’t even listen as he began entering his fighting stance and looked dead serious, as he charged at the Lion, holding his sword high in the air. Rommel followed, and flanked the Flame Lion from the side, while Kato stood in the back and readied a spell. Soon, two heavy sword slashes shot out from the swords and struck at the Lion, while a large energy slash cleaved at him from the front. The Flame Lion jumped back, while breathing a wave of fire at the energy slash. The energy slash was easily dissipated, but they didn’t stop. Erwin and Rommel charged right back at him, and Kato readied and fired another spell. This time, they attacked repeatedly, not allowing the Lion time to rest, and Kato threw several quick spells at him. They managed to get a few hits in, slightly wounding the Lion. Suddenly, the Lion let out a furious roar, jumped a dozen meters back. Suddenly its body started blazing with flames. Erwin and Rommel looked at each other. If the body was covered in flames, it would be much harder for them to fight, since fire is their weak element. They both backed away to where Kato was standing.

“Do your thing!” Rommel said. Kato nodded, then pointed his hands at them, and channelled his mana as he cast two spells. Soon, a small translucent, blue layer appeared around both of them.

“This will keep the heat from the fire at bay, but it won’t protect you from physical attacks. If it did, then it would break way too soon.” Kato said. Erwin and Rommel nodded and said “thanks,” then charged back at the Lion. While the two were having their melee fight with the Lion, Kato started preparing his spell. He began gathering all the mana around him, as well as the element of water. Even though using pure mana would give far more destructive power, sometimes using the elements would be better, like when fighting a magical monster of the fire element. Using water magic against such a monster would do a lot of damage.

After Kato was finished preparing his spell, it suddenly started raining. But the rain wasn’t falling everywhere, it was gathering at one point, in front of Kato. All the rain water started forming into a huge ball of water. When the ball had grown to almost a hundred meters in size, it started compressing and shrinking, until it was much smaller, and swirling around in a constant motion. When he was finished, he finally sent the ball flying towards the Flame Lion. The water ball flew at insane speeds, and it only took a moment to reach them. Erwin and Rommel immediately backed away, just before the ball hit the Flame Lion. As it hit, the water ball also exploded, cutting the body of the Lion. As the water disappeared, the body of the Lion appeared again. It wasn’t dead, but there were a lot of small and large wounds all over his body.

The Flame Lion roared furiously and the fire around him burned even hotter, then he set his sights on Rommel, who was the nearest one to him. Rommel was shocked and was caught off guard by the insane charge and speed at which flame lion was traveling at. The lion shot it’s left paw towards Rommel’s chest while his sword instinctively traveled to meet and block it, though unsuccessful it managed to block most of the damage, but the lion’s mouth had also shot forward and was able to bite his left side. The flame lion managed to rip off most of Rommel’s left shoulder and arm off, then hit him once again with it’s tail as it spun around. Everything had happened in the span of seconds since his initial charge. As Rommel was flying through the air and while off balance he tumbled twenty meters across the ground, the Flame Lion started laughing like a maniac.

“HAHAHAHA, I KILLED HIM! You bastards wounded my body, so now I will kill all of you one by one!” He yelled out his lungs, but when he saw Rommel, he immediately quieted down. Rommel was standing back up from the ground. Rommel immediately charged towards one of the weaker monsters closest to him, like a crazed animal, he then drained it of it’s blood. Immediately, Rommel started healing. His wounds on his chest healed after only a moment after he was done, and from his left shoulder down his left arm began healing at a visible pace. It wasn’t as fast as Isaac could heal, but being an A ranked Pureblood, his healing speed was very quick.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” The Flame Lion roared. Rommel slowly walked back towards the fight with the lion.

“Erwin, let’s finish this.” He said. “Yes father.” Erwin replied as he too started walking slowly towards the Flame Lion. “So we are doing that, are we?” Kato said, then also started walking.

Suddenly, all three of them cut a wound on their hands. Blood started flowing out of them, while blood was flowed out of all the various corpses around them as well. Only a few moments later, three huge Blood Cyclones appeared. Then, the three Blood Cyclones started moving towards each other. In only moment, the three huge Blood Cyclones had combined, into one Colossal Blood Cyclone. The Blood Cyclone was surrounding the Flame Lion that was slightly panicked now. The Flame Lion tried to turn tail, and run out of the area of the Blood Cyclone, but when he touched the boundary of the Cyclone, his paw was torn to bits. The Lion let out a roar, then turned around to meet his enemies. But what he met was millions upon millions of various beasts and monsters, and even some humanoids, but they were all blood red, and tightly packed together. Suddenly the various blood beasts started charging towards the Flame Lion. He responded by sending waves after wave of flames at them, but he whenever he killed one, another would appear. Then, when they finally managed to arrive before him, they started surrounding him and began munching on him. The millions of blood monsters were all trying to tear him apart, and the weakest of them had the strength of a late B ranker. Even a monster with the strength of an early S ranker wouldn’t stand a chance against millions of A rankers. It didn’t take long before the Flame Lion was torn to pieces.

After the Colossal Blood Cyclone disappeared, Kato, Erwin and Rommel appeared where the center of the Cyclone was. They looked at each other, then started laughing, right before they collapsed on the ground, unconscious from the over exertion of mana and blood essence.

1st person, Isaac.

The Drake looked at me, while I looked at him. Then it began, All the purebloods and all the remaining generals and the drake charged at each other. I unsheathed my sword, and unleashed an energy slash. The slash was made out of pure mana, and unleashed like a wave at the enemy. The Drake was slightly surprised at the attack and nearly wasn’t able to dodge, after all, he had never seen such magic before. Before the Drake could react again, I unleashed another sword wave at him, but this time he again dodged to the side and opened his mouth, unleashing a furious wave of fire. This was exactly the reason why I chose to use the energy wave, instead of the powerful flame attack of my sword.

Being a Drake, he was naturally resistant to fire. Even though it wasn’t complete immunity, fire would still do very little damage against him. As I rolled away from the fire, the Drake instead pounced at me. Using his mouth, he tried to bite one of my arms off, but I jumped to the side, then unleashed a kick on its underside, causing the Drake to stumble back a bit. Taking advantage of his mishap, I charged right at him with my sword. But right as I was about to hit, the Drake disappeared. Like a flash, he had jumped far up above me. Using his leverage of height, he spawned a large fireball from his mouth, and flung it at me. I dashed to the side, avoiding the fireball, but as the fireball hit, a few dozen meters away from me, it resulted in a huge explosion. The explosion radius reached me, and sent me flying, while the Drake was only just now landing back on the ground. As a Land Drake, it didn’t have any wings, so it naturally couldn’t fly, so it would eventually have to fall back down to the ground.

“So you want to play with explosions, huh?” I asked. “I can roll with that.” As I was getting back up, I looked at the Drake with a smirk. The Drake looked at me confused. Suddenly two large bones stuck out from my back. Following the bones, a lot of blood flew out, forming a wing shape. After enough blood had come out to cover the bones, and shape two large wings, it started solidifying. In an instant, two large dark red wings filled with crimson looking feathers had sprouted out of my back. This was an ability I had gained not very long ago. It allowed me to make two large crimson wings, which in turn allowed me to fly.

Using my new wings, I soared into the sky, while the Drake looked at me in astonishment.

“What are you?! Humans don’t have wings!” the Drake furiously shouted. The Drake had been fighting under the pretence that we were humans, but now that he knew otherwise, a small sprout of worry seeded in his mind.

“Well, I’m not a human, that’s for sure.” I said, as I materialized three small blue orbs. Using my fingers, I flicked them at him. As the Drake saw the incoming orbs, he immediately fled at full speeds. As soon as the orbs hit the ground, they started expanding rapidly like an explosion, annihilating everything in their path. Even with the Drake’s abnormal speed, it couldn’t outrun the orbs, and was injured. Luckily the scales of a Drake is very tough, so it wasn’t injured too badly. The Drake, now furious, started making dozens of huge fireballs, and sent them towards me in the sky. I managed to dodge each of them, but as they flew past me, they immediately began detonated, sending me flying in all directions, one after the other. Before I could collect myself, the Drake jumped into the air, trying to bite me. Luckily it missed by just a foot, but then it sent another fire wave at me, burning me. My clothes and skin were badly burned, but I healed fast.

As I floated in the air, I formed a fist with my right hand. Around the fist, a formless energy appeared. After a fraction of a second, I punched my fist in the Drake’s direction, sending the formless energy right at him. The energy travelled extremely fast, and wrapped around the Drake in an instant. Suddenly the Drake felt an immense pressure on his back which sent him flying down and smashing into the ground heavily he then couldn't get up as he still felt this pressure.

“What is this?! It’s so heavy!” The Drake furiously shouted. The spell I used could be used to increase gravity. Depending on how much mana i used on the attack, would dictate how much heavier the target would feel. Before the Drake could straighten himself, I flew at him at full speed. With my sword, I landed a heavy attack on the back of his neck, but because the scales were too hard, I only managed to pierce slightly into the flesh.

Suddenly, a huge field of flames appeared around me, as the Drake roared in anger.

“You managed to pierce my scales. Good job, but now I have to get serious.” The Drake said. Suddenly the Drake disappeared even faster than before. The very instant after he disappeared, I felt myself flying in another direction. The Drake had smacked me with his right paw, he then furiously charged at me again. Suddenly the Drake jumped forward, and appeared right next to me, and bit me. My arm was torn off instantly, but as the bite stopped my momentum, I was able to kick myself upwards, into the skies.

“Hah, just give up, you’ve been heavily injured!” The Drake said degradingly.

“Says who?” I said, as my arm started regenerating. The Drake stared at me in astonishment, as my arm was growing back.

“You really aren’t human! This battle might be a bit trickier than I thought…” The drake said. But he wasn’t the only one shocked. Even though this drake was at the peak stage of early S rank his strength was that of a Middle stage S ranker! It seemed like he was able to transcend a stage. As it was now, it would be hard for me to win. The only thing I could do was wait for night time.

Thus we fought for hours on end. I would mostly stay at a range, attacking using magic, since Land Drakes were mostly renowned for their physical strength and not their ranged attacks. They had few magical abilities, but they were far better at using their immense strength. Thus the time I had been waiting for finally arrived. The sun was setting. As I saw the beautiful scenery of the sun setting, even though it was so dark, I couldn’t help but start laughing. While I was laughing, I slowly descended back down onto the earth, while the Drake was staring at me in surprise.

“Hahahaha, you should have ended this fight when you had the chance!” I said, then turned around to look at the moon as the night had come.

“Ego Dominus noctis tenebris princeps. Ruler of the Night!” I chanted, as the shadows started wrapping themselves around me, absorbing into me. Now I stood there as a shadow, in an ethereal form. This was the ultimate ability I had gained, only a few months ago. Once more I turned around, to face the Drake.

“What the hell is this?!” The Drake exclaimed, before charging right at me. In an instant, it appeared before me and tried to bit my head off, but much to his despair, his mouth just fell right through me. After the Drake fell next to me, I manifested my hand into a corporeal form and hit him with all my might, sending him flying. It wasn’t enough to hurt him, but the force from the blow still managed to blow him a few dozen meters back.

The Drake stared at me with wide eyes. He was shocked and confused. Being able to go ethereal was something beyond rare. It almost only happened in spirits. For a physical creature to be able to go into an ethereal form was something he’d never even heard of before.

“What are you?” The Drake asked wearily, as he slowly backed away. I looked at him, the shape of a smile discerned itself on my shadowy form as i showed him my fangs.

“Didn’t you listen? Ego Dominus noctis tenebris princeps. I am the Lord of the night, the ruler of the shadows. I am the Lord of Darkness! I am the progenitor, the first of all vampires!” I said, my eyes hinting a gleam of arrogance and pride. The Drake stared at me in shock, even shaking visibly.

“Impossible!” He shrieked, then turned around and started running with his tail between his legs. I could only respond by laughing, then stepped into a shadow. Immediately my body disappeared, then reappeared out of the Drake’s own shadows. Using the shadows, I could teleport into any shadow, as long as it wasn’t too far away. As I reappeared, my hand was lodged deep inside the drake, grabbing his heart. The Drake screamed, as I re-manifested my hand into a corporeal form. The Drake looked me in the eyes, a look of arrogance. He was ready to die, as it realized that he stood no chance against this monster.

“Before I kill you, tell me why you started this invasion.” I said. I was slightly curious and interested in knowing why a Land Drake was here, and why he used the humans to wage a war.

“You have defeated me, so I shall comply. Back when I was just an infant, I was left in this peninsula’s wilderness to the north. I was left with only one message, reclaim the Dragon Gem. But much to my demise, the Dragon Gem was held by the Kalderon Royal Family, deeply lodged into the top of the throne. I could not leave my home, lest the human kingdoms invade and kill everything, but one day, I was so lucky as to meet the king of Tabarut. I promised him many riches and treasures if he waged war against Kalderon, and reclaimed the Dragon Gem. But now, several thousand years later, they stopped fighting for some reason. As my remaining lifespan is short, I had no choice, but to make the other two neutral kingdoms fight them, and get me my Gem. As for what the Gem is for, all I know is that it will reveal my legacy, and also allow me to shed the bounds of a Lesser Land Drake, extending my life, and allowing me to enter the middle stage of S rank.” The Drake told his life story. When he was finished, I made my arm ethereal again and released the Drake.

“So that’s how it is. I am actually the reason why the war stopped. Using various threats and rewards, I put the two kingdoms under my control, so you could say it’s my fault that you didn’t get the Gem. Anyways, I have decided I will give you the gem on one condition. Swear loyalty to me, and drink my blood!” I said. The Drake was taken aback. He never expected to live after this, much less to get his Gem. But to swear loyalty, he didn’t know if he could do that. If it was only loyalty it wasn’t much, but the Drake wanted to leave this place, and finally reunite with his kin.

“Don’t worry, I won’t ask much of you. You can leave and go wherever you need. You only need to come help if I ever need it. By drinking my blood, the Blood Bond will form between us, and I’ll always know where you are.” I said. The Drake looked around for a while, thinking. After a short moment, he looked at me again.

“Fine, I’ll accept.” He said. I nodded, then manifested into my corporeal form once again, and cut a small wound on my arm.

“Drink.” I said, holding my bleeding arm to the Drake. The Drake opened its mouth, and drank the blood. Only a moment later, I felt the Bond form between us. Then, without another word, I turned around. Using voice transmission, I instructed the king to get the Dragon Gem ready, while the Drake, went to stop his forces. The other ones had finished fighting long ago. All four beast generals had died, while our side only suffered injuries, like severed arms and the like. I slowly walked to my group. Erwin, Rommel and Kato had also fallen unconscious after beating the Flame Lion.

“Everyone, there’s something I need to say.” I said, my voice weary and weak. Before, I had still sounded strong and majestic, but it was all an act. That attack, Ruler of the Night, was extremely taxing.

“After using that attack, I’m severely exhausted, but that’s not all. I can feel something, something changing inside me. I’m afraid that I’ll be going into some sort of hibernation soon, and it might last longer than any ever before. I won’t be joining you in Sanguine Regis.” I said, as I turned around. As I walked away from them, I flapped my wings, and soared into the skies. I flew deep into the wilderness, deep into the mountain ranges. Sometime later, I found a cave. I entered the cave, then collapsed the entrance, with some of the mana i had left i sent a spell to cover the cave and put an illusion around this mountain to keep anyone under S rank away. I slowly started walking deeper into the cave, until I reached a small chamber. I walked to the middle of the chamber, then stood still. Finally I let go, and let whatever was going on take-over. Suddenly, several strands of blood sprang out of my body, and wrapped around me. More and more blood poured out, and started forming around me. Eventually it covered me from head and toe, forming a cocoon around me. I floated in the cocoon for a few minutes, until I finally felt the darkness take over, as I fell into a deep slumber.

End of book 1.

Hey there! This chapter took a lot longer than usual, since I was very busy. I had a lot of work to do, and I also had my exams. My last exam was on Monday, and I managed to pass it, so that's nice.

And as you see, this is indeed the end of book 1. I've been thinking of making another novel, also about a vampire, but this time it would be in a more normal world, not high fantasy. The world would be very similar to ours, as in normal people don't know about magic and the supernatural, so secrecy will be more important. The MC won't be the progenitor either, but will be turned into a vampire, so the vampire world will already exist. It will be more about him rising in the ranks of the current vampire world, instead of establishing the world. He probably won't be as OP either, not in the beginning at least.

Tell me what you think, should I start writing that as well? In that world there will be more chance for a more modern segment as well. It will begin in a pretty early period, perhaps something similar to the classical antiquity era, which would be the time of Greece, Ancient Carthage and the Roman Kingdom etc.

So yeah, it will be more realistic I guess, monsters won't be all over, but there will still be some, like werewolves, demons and ghosts, but don't expect dragons and drakes.

So yeah, tell me what you think, and please rate and review, it would make me very happy!