https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TG8ypw1y9k

“He’s here.” Calipso mused as she turned to their backlines, watching as enraged Lycans now freed from their cages and shackles ran rampant. Amongst them, a group of human mercenaries tread through the chaos, and at their lead there he was engulfed in shadows.

Kailu’s magic sowed destruction into the ghoul lines like no other, a wave of darkness bashing into them and engulfing the formations of soldiers whole, devouring them.

Calipso delved headfirst into that darkness, her wings of dark magic spreading it aside like a ship bashing through the waves. She landed amongst her dead soldiers, unfazed by their fall, her eyes only searched for one man.

“So, we finally meet.” Said a voice, as Calipso turned to be faced with a simple human man.

“Where is he.” She asked, her eyes narrowing.

Rain shrugged, “That’s why I’m here, we’ve come too far, to let you ruin it all.” He told her.

“What do you-” Calipso began to ask, as suddenly Rain rushed forth all too quick for a common human to be able to.

His form, changing as he approached her.

Claws, fangs, fur, the Lycan that was Rain revealed himself as he stepped to the Vampire.

Immediately Calipso sent forth her wings of shadow, piercing blades of black ooze which Rain bashed aside in his charge.

Killing intent filling his eyes and sensing his strength which he had been hiding, Calipso retreated back. Only to glance back and notice that their formations had been completely broken, their soldiers struggling against the two waves of raw Lycan power which came at them from both sides.

She caught a glance of her sister Vern clashing with the goliath that was Draar, and then…Meeting his eyes, Calipso saw Kailu standing over Celis’s dissipating corpse.

A sight cut-off early as a small form dug its claws into her back while she lay distracted, twisting and turning mid-air, Calipso threw the young Lycan off her back before turning to face the fierce cub. A small lanky body, almost sickly, yet the little Lycan’s eyes glowed with anger.

A sight flashed into her mind, the sight of the little one trying to dig its fangs into her neck.

Too close.

She thought.

That was too close.

But she didn’t have the heart to kill it, a being so young, she couldn’t bare to-

Vern’s form appeared behind the youngling, her waves of blood bashing the cub aside and into the clashing warriors. “What are you waiting for sister!? Aid me! Let us bring down this giant and end it all! Once and for all!” Vern exclaimed, yet Calipso simply gazed off, searching for the poor cub.

“Vernialis you little…” Calipso hissed, but snapped herself out of it, “Yes, you’re right.” She then grumbled, turning to Draar as he loomed over the rest of his warriors, calmly approaching the two Blood Lords.

Draar charged, the very ground shaking with each of his steps as he clashed with a wall of blood Vern had raised, his bare fists tearing the barrier apart he loomed over the vampire with fangs bared.

Draar roared, and Calipso sent her wings forth, spikes of darkness descending down into the beast and pushing him back and away from Vern with each strike.

Seeing her opening, Vern raised more and more tendrils of blood, shackling Draar down.

Barely able to move, no matter how much Draar struggled, Vern turned to her sister.

“End it!” Vern exclaimed, and Calipso willed into existence more wings of shadow.

But before she could strike, a small figure leaned against the pillar of blood which held Draar and…Suddenly the blood began to drain away.

Draar’s restraints fully gone, the young cub was revealed absorbing the blood into himself, glancing up at Calipso she noticed his eyes were now blood red.

“I-Impossible…A…Bloodmancer? How!?” Vern exclaimed, “Calipso, I’ll hold off the beast, you kill the child!” She exclaimed, willing forth more waves of blood to drown out Draar.

“I-” Eyes wide, Calipso was stunted at her sister’s order. Hovering midair, she could only stare down at the child who snarled back.

Raising her right arm forth, her wings took a spiral form and took aim down at him. “I…I w-” Turning her arm towards Vern then, so did her wings turn.

Yet she was cut off, as a heavy weight grasped onto her back, and a set of vicious fangs dug into her neck.

A light shone out of Rain’s fangs as Calipso’s blood filled his snout, both falling to the ground.

Both their strengths leaving them, Calipso’s hand reached out to the sky as her skin began to grow older.

Her gaze, befalling upon a shadow that was approaching them.

So did her hand then, reaching out towards Kailu as he gazed at the both of them.

Panic taking over him, Kailu rushed to her side but, it was too late.

Calipso’s eyes turned pale white as her body went limp, the life literally disappearing out from her.

Kailu froze, rage and agony filling him at the same time, he turned to Vern only to watch Draar bite down into her waste too. Just as quickly as her sister, Vern’s body went limp dead.

And just like Rain, Draar fell to the ground, struggling to keep himself up.

Kailu turned to Rain then, hands shaking with fury, he approaching the dying Lycan.

Seeing the human he knew within the bestial appearance, Kailu kneeled down next to Rain.

Fury, Agony, Sadness, they filled him, they took over him as for the very first time in his entire life…

Kailu cried, ugly tears streamed down his dark skin. “Why?” Was all he could manage, as his love lay dead behind him, and his best friend lay dying before him.

Rain chuckled, “Why what? Why did never tell you I wasn’t human? Why did I follow you in the first place? Maybe why I fell for you? Nah, I didn’t.” Rain joked, coughing blood then, both Calipso’s and his own. Turning his head, he then looked on at her, “I killed her for you, for your own good. Because I knew, if no one did not, you could not either. And she…She would never leave her coven, abandoning her brother would be a death sentence for the both of you, wouldn’t it?”

Kailu could only nod, as his face morphed and stretched with the pain, taking a shape it had never taken before.

“You love her, I knew that. I knew that if you two met here, today, neither of you could kill the other. In the end, you’d join her again, you’d give up on your own pride and join her.” Rain whispered out, his voice growing weaker with each word he spoke. “That is why, I had to. A Lycan’s fangs to a Vampire’s blood, and both shall fall. A law of this world as old as the world itself.” He chuckled once again, his voice exasperated.

Kailu had no words, he wanted to say so much, but he didn’t know what to even say.

Instead, his body’s strength left him. He lay there kneeling, weeping, just as the young Lycan cub was beside a dying Draar.

As the battle settled all around them, Lycan warriors coming to surround the four, gazing at their brothers’ last breaths.

“I…only wanted…” Rain managed as his final words, “For you to…remain, you.”

Kailu watched through the tears as the life left Rain’s eyes as well.

Moments passed…

Turned to minutes…

He did not know how much timed passed, but as night fell and as the moon rose.

Kailu felt a small hand lay itself onto his arm, as the young boy kneeled down next to him.

“T-They are…with the ancestors, now.” The cub said, as both their tears had settled, cold and drying against their faces.

“Who are you?” The cub asked, and Kailu stood up and away, turning to gaze at Calipso’s body.

“A stronger man than I was before.” Kailu said, willing his mana into a kind of magic he hadn’t used since he first learned it.

Kailu raised his hood over his head, and then lay his palm ahead of his face, willing out his mana and giving it shape.

Dark red energy poured out, forming into flesh and bone and taking shape to his will.

“I am-”

---

Erika opened her eyes, waking up with a panicked start as she found herself on the ground, staring up at Gray who stood over her filled with worry.

“No…” She whispered, quickly rising back to her feet, she picked up her sword and set it onto her back. “No no no!”

“Oh shit, you’re awake, uh did you hear-” Gray began to ask.

“No! God damnit no!” Erika exclaimed, immediately rushing off.

Confused, Gray stood there for a moment, “Oh, okay. WAIT-” Rushing after her right then. “You’ve been out for two hours! What happened!? Where are you going!?” He asked, putting in his all to reach her as she trashed through the bushes and past the trees with abandon.

Trudging behind her, Gray heard the sound, the clashing of bodies and the cries of battle.

They were headed straight of it, the sound of muskets blasting forth a rain of lead alongside something much more horrifying.

Erika realised the same when she broke through the forest and into the plains of mud and grass. Before her battle raged, Lycans pushing through the rain of lead with defensive Lycanthropy giving their approach some cover, powers similar to Thorn’s.

And just like the battle against Draar, the army of blood dared not push beyond the river, instead they took formation off its shores. Gunmen took aim from behind lines of lowered shields, taking a shot before switching places with the two lines of men behind them, reloading while another formation took aim, and a second waited their turn in the middle.

Scattered amongst them were armoured wagons pushed on by demonic beasts, large contraptions laying upon the wagons’ backs, the cannons were preparing their second volley.

And keeping it all at bay were large goliath sized Lycans with massive shields of metal held ahead of themselves, slowly trudging through the river of mud. Behind them, more Lycans were willing the powers of nature to rise up to their call. Water, wind and ice, even vines rose to aid the shield-wielders.

And as the cannons fired, out of the muddy river rose pillars of blood, blocking each and every cannon ball and letting it drop into the water.

Zarkon walked amongst his men, standing behind the moving wall of shields, blood trickling down his arms and into the water beneath him.

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e7iYmRpq-g

---

“Today my friends, my brothers and sisters! Today it ends! Whether we die or they do, today we end it all!” He bellowed out, and a half-hearted roar followed.

Erika could tell, no matter how many Lycans pushed onwards, they were sorely outnumbered even without the monstrous demons moving up to replace the ghoul marksmen.

Gray said it best as he caught up with her, gazing at the nearing armies, “That’s…that’s suicide.”

“No, not with what Zarkon knows. Not with…who he has under his damn sleeve.” Erika mused, “I have to be there, I have to…I have to find him.”

“Find who?” Gray asked back, but he received no answer, as she rushed out of the forest and into the fields.

Running through the grass as mud flew back with each step she took, Erika roared out, draconic energy fuelling her voice.

Gray groaned, slapping himself before running after her. “God damnit! We running in!? Okay! We running in then!”

And as they approached the formation of retreating marksmen from the flank, many kneeled down and took aim.

Gray paled at the sight, saying his prayers, he saw death coming at him several feet a second in the form of lead.

Until a lumbering beast came into the volley’s way, the Draem’s hard scales deflecting the shot off with great ease. The Draem roared, and with it so did the two dozen other beasts that rushed out of the forest’s edge behind them, catching up to them within moments. Gray now found himself running along a herd of monstrosities, as one lowered its tusk for him to grab on.

He did so, sluggishly climbing up onto the monster’s head, he saw Erika riding the one at the lead.

“Let us show them, my brethren!” The Erika growled to the Draem, “That you are no Demons! Take your stand! Choose your fate! Ride with me!” She exclaimed, her voice taking over the fields and forest, reaching far and wide and then beyond.

With her the Draem roared, fuelled by her words and conviction, their charge gained in speed. A terrifying stampede approaching the now scrambling Ghouls and Demons.

As more then came from the forest…

From the hills.

From the mountain.

Draem swarmed out in twos and threes, hearing the call, hearing the roars, the Draconic demons came from everywhere.

And Erika’s charge then hit.

Massive beasts of scale and fur trashing through Ghoul flesh and demonic carapace like rotten fruit.

“Onwards! With our cousins of the forest! Down with the Blood Lords!” Zarkon then bellowed, and the Lycans were renewed with vigour, roaring out in a unified quake of voices. The wall of shields charged forth, crashing into the lines of demons that found themselves in between them and the stampede of Draem.

“Turn! Face them!” Erika ordered and the Draem who had crushed the third and fourth lines of Ghouls, turned to face the fifth and onwards, whilst the Lycans decimated the first and second. “Hold.” Erika simply said, and she stared on with cold eyes.

As figures climbed up the Draem’s thick legs like trees, figures which abandoned their shields, and grew in form.

Morphed out fully, the Lycan goliaths leapt off the Draem and rained down upon the enemy, as from amongst the Draem’s feet came the casters who began raining down hell upon the hellspawn beyond. Followed by the rangers who climbed up and took post upon the Draem’s backs, like a wall of muscle ready for them to use as higher ground.

Then, the sound of something roaring alive filled the battlefield, as caravans beyond the tenth formation were uncovered from their cloths. Ghouls took their stations, rotating the odd cannons towards the Draem beyond, as a chain of ammunition began crawling up into their side.

Flurries of lead flew out, crashing into the Draem, not quite penetrating their scales but the sound of them impacting was enough to tell Erika that moving any closer would be a death sentence for the beasts.

“Stand your ground!” Erika said, glancing back at Gray, “Follow the scamp’s orders.” She said, as she and Gray’s eyes met.

No words were needed, as he nodded back in understanding.

Erika leapt off the Dream and onto the ground below, landing amongst their feet which rose like trees around her. Up above, Gray kept his gaze upon the caravans equipped with the lead spraying cannons, ready to pull the Draem back if they approached any closer.

Walking out from the formation of Draem, Erika gazed at the Lycan lines clashing with the pit fiends and hell hounds, spawns of the dark abyss that was hell.

“Damn it all…” Erika growled, glancing about, she saw Kei, she saw Zarkon…She even saw her comrades from the recruit division.

But she did not see him at all.

“Damn it all.” She reached back for her sword, grasping the grip with one hand and pulling it, the weapon tilted to the side as it lay clinging to her backstrap.

“Damn that fox.” She sighed, pulling on her sword further, it came off its hinge and dropped to the ground with a crash.

With her other hand, Erika snapped off the sheath’s clamps allowing the blade to come out freely.

With one hand, she dragged the weapon out, bringing it to lay on the ground before her, slightly raised as she held it.

Grasping it fully with both hands then, Erika poured in her mana, and suddenly the weapon’s weight became nullified.

With ease she now lifted it, raising it to her side and taking aim as she took a readied stance.

One leg back, steady in the ground as her support.

One leg forth, the spring with which she charged ahead like a lightning strike as energy surged all around her.

Suddenly appearing amongst the Lycans, Erika’s blade tip sunk deep into a fiend as its body suddenly became cleaved in half.

Then it came, following her charge, thunder roared through the clashing armies as tendrils of electricity ran through her body, zapping off into the ground or nearby metal.

Her blue hair long and trailing freely with the wind, her fierce golden eyes rising to meet the demons before her.

Both changed, as trails of gold filled her hair.

And blue light glowed amongst her eyes.

The energy which came out of her too changed, as the sparks and tendrils of electricity turned blue.

Erika closed her eyes.

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y-RmfB4hY4

---

“Durendal.” She chanted, and her weapon’s blade then shattered, forming a whirlwind of edges and a single shield whirling all around her, forcing even her allies to back away.

Opening her eyes, they were now fully blue as she stepped forth holding the hilt with one hand.

The whirling of blades reformed, taking the shape of an all too long mess of blade shards along her hilt, all but the shield which hovered right over her other hand’s wrist.

The shattered blade spanned half the length of the two formations, separating Lycan and Demon as she stepped forth.

Her blades, buzzing, radiating energy as she approached the Demons and they scrambled back and away.

But she wouldn’t let them escape.

Suddenly Erika blinked forward, her form seemingly fading and reappearing ahead.

She slashed widely with her hilt, the shards of metal following her every movement, even going through the ground underneath her to mimic the attacks she made.

Each strike too quick for any demon to react to, not before their bodies lay slashed up or torn to shreds.

Blood rained outside her attack range, splattering across the demons which dared not approach beyond the corpses.

Erika did not stop, she charged in head first into the army of demons and ghouls. Her blades cutting down any in her path of attack and her shield drifting out of her wrist to deflect any shot fired in her direction, as if having a will of its own. Spinning and whirling in the air around her.

Until, her blade shards were stopped mid-slash.

Standing before her was a pale man with long silver hair, blood red eyes glaring widely at her and fangs half-bared. His palm lay open to his side, as tendrils of blood exited his fingertips, forming into a barrier and solidifying, completely blocking the shards from slashing in further.

“Are you one of those Blood Lords I’ve heard so much about then?” Erika asked, but the man simply smiled giving no answer. Seeing her attacks having stopped, the demons continued to pour in right then with animalistic abandon.

Erika grasped her hilt with both hands, and turned her body, making a wide circular slash all around her, decimating any demon that rushed in, into two halves that fell dead to the ground.

Her attack though, was once more blocked by a second shield of solidified blood, the man having raised up his other arm to meet it.

“Are you the leader of all this then?” Erika asked, her tail rising from behind her and clenching itself around the hilt too.

“Me? Oh no, I could never compare to cousin Eris. No, he watches comfortably ahead.” The vampire mused.

“Oh, good.” Erika added, “Then I there’s nothing left to say here.” Suddenly pulling her weapon back, with both hands and tail she took aim before lunging back in.

The vampire chuckled, closing his hands, the two shields melted back and formed up ahead of him as he put his fists together. Opening both his hands then, a third shield twice the size of the first two solidified.

But no impact came, as all around the vampire blades soared in, a whirlwind of glimmering death forming all around him.

Before suddenly, it all converged down on him, a ball of blades trickling out a pool of blood that once was a man.

“Come out…” Erika growled, the blades returning to surrounding her and leaving behind a slashed up husk. “Come out…” She hissed, walking forth as the army of Demons and Ghouls separated, opening up in fear of standing in her way. “COME OUT!” Erika bellowed, sending many, enemy and ally falling back onto their ass from the sheer force of her voice.

The army spread out further, as from the very back of the demons and ghouls one figure walked out.

“Interesting.” Said Eris, as he came to stand ahead of his armada, a shadowy pale being drenched head to toe in blood. “But it is too late.” He mused, looking up at the moon as it lay alone, the sun fully disappearing into the horizon then.

The stars finally showed themselves, and as they did, the blood covering Eris sank into his skin. Closing his eyes, the vampire took in a deep breath. “Night has fallen. Blood has been spilled a’plenty.” He chuckled, a wickedly cold laugh that seeped itself into Erika’s bones.

She shuddered the feeling away, suddenly finding Eris standing inches from her whirlwind of blades, waving his arm aside, Durendal too was sent aside. Ending the whirling of shards, they rained down to the side, unmoving.

Panic took hold of Erika as she realized she’d bitten off more than she can chew, raising her hilt up defensively, her shield too rose to protect her.

As Eris’s form blinked forward, disappearing briefly before coming to be before her, pressing his flat palm into the shield.

As if with mere touch, the shield bashed into the hilt, and then Erika, sending her twirling back through the air and crashing into many a Lycan.

The crash losing her of her senses for a few moments, Erika came back groaning, finding herself amongst three passed out warriors.

She instead pulled herself up to her feet, only to wince, feeling raw agony rush through her right arm.

Broken…

She thought, feeling the broken bone within wailing with pain. Glancing about, she saw none of her shards, not even the shield, only her hilt laying several feet ahead of her.

“Confidence is a beautiful thing to have, little one.” Eris mused, his form rising as tendrils of blood lifted him off the ground. “But if you cannot back it up, well, it is simply shameful.”

Tendrils rose and fell, pushing him up and forward, Eris loomed over them all, his cold gaze settling upon Erika. “Who are you, and why do you stand for these bastard dogs who defy my lord’s will?” Eris demanded, a voice which echoed through the land.

Met with, a voice equally vast.

As with the passing of a breeze, a figure appeared amongst the Lycans.

Holding his blood-red wolf’s mask, Lano’s silver eyes settled upon Eris.

“She, is Erika Draconia, next in line to the throne of the Draconia Empire. Daughter, of Erikathyr, the Guardian, the Destroyer. And…My charge.” Lano removed his mask, then lowered his hood.

Revealing pure white locks of hair, falling long over his back.

His eyes, turning from silver to bright golden slits.

“And I will not allow you to lay another hand on her.” Kailu said, scales of gold formed along his skin…And tail, slithering out from underneath his cloak, a cloak which was then torn apart.

As his wings bore out and spread out wide, limbs of gold with pure white netting.

Just like Makaela.

The Dragon Elf gazed up at the Vampire Lord.