The sun had just set.

I woke up thanks to Chloe's stirring.

"Did I wake you up? Sorry about that. We need to get ready though." She said softly into my ears.

"It's okay, I would have woken up soon anyway. Let's get ready. Shall we?" I responded to her. I knew we were attacking the enemy's lair tonight, but I was non-pulsed.

*I wonder why that is?

Logically, I could justify it by Chloe's competency and power. But if I was honest with myself, the fact that I couldn't die was so hammered into my very psyche, that I couldn't bring it in me to worry about the ifs and maybes.

Of course, I would have still been slightly worried normally as my teammates didn't share my immunity to death. But they were monsters, each one of them. I mean, looking at our lineup, we had:

Someone with the potential to become as powerful as the first vampire ever created.

A shaman bounded with a creepy force of nature.

The vampire, creator of blood magic

A mage with a unique profession and insight.

And Twins with unequaled savagery (or so I heard)

An Ex-faerie-prince with potential not any less than the aforementioned vampire.

As such, yesterday when I shared my worries about our numbers, it was for the others I was worried about. Not me.

Before, I would have stressed and thought about every single thing that could go wrong. It would certainly have been impossible to sleep as well as I did.

I could only conclude that when my death became a non-factor, the dangers inherent to the act of living were mitigated. Or at least, the worries, I would have, were drastically muted.

While thinking about the change in my life outlook and general behavior, I helped Chloe bathe. She soon reciprocated. The atmosphere heated up and this simple bath almost turned into a full 'thing'. Thankfully, rationality reasserted itself before we went at it.

*It seems that ever since restarting my sex life with Stella, I now have an incredible sexual drive. I always seem to be ready to go at it. I wonder if there's a relation?

Who was I kidding? as if having sex with a lust demon, albeit, half of one wouldn't have repercussions besides extreme sexual gratification.

"Earth to Samsara, are you coming?" Choe broke me out of my musings.

"Yes, I am coming." I seemed to have zoned out for quite a few minutes. She had already dried herself and was stepping out of the bathroom.

I dressed in a generic black shirt and cropped-fitting jeans. I looked at Chloe who had been staring at me for a moment now.

"What? Do you want to have a quickie before we leave?" I spoke teasingly. She laughed and shook her head.

"I was wondering if the fit was right." She said cryptically before pulling a case from under the bed. Inside there were two long black jackets.

As she spread them on the bed, I noticed that one was smaller than the other one. I looked at her in askance.

"These are our group's uniforms. Well, they are the Crimsons' uniforms but as we are technically an affiliated squad, we have the right to wear them." She answered before throwing the larger one at me.

I caught it with ease and admired the piece of clothing.

The leather felt weird as I didn't believe any regular animal skin could produce such derivatives. It was black. the type of black that absorbed 99,99% of light. I believed it's called venta black.

I tried wearing it and it felt unusually comfortable. None of my movements were impaired. I also suddenly felt incredibly light. The reflections of light on the forearms of the jacket revealed dragon-shaped blood prints.

"You can see it as a magic armor of sort. My father asked an enchanter he knew to make them. They can block up to 25% of magic and physical damage. Also, they give the wearer an added stealth. I am glad that it suits you. I asked for it when I asked you to come here."

"I like it very much." I swept her off her feet and gave her a long kiss.

"Ok, ok, I believe you. You like it." She chuckled and broke our kiss two minutes later.

____________

We were currently inside a black van driving on a deserted road. One of the twins Liye was driving and her sister was sitting next to her.

The rest of us were in the back of the vehicle. We were seated on benches set up on the sides. The ride was silent. Naturally, it wasn't a fearful silence but a focused one.

Like usual, Lorn was polishing his sword.

*I wonder where he pulls it from?

Kelia had one leg crossed upon the other and her eyes were closed. Uncharacteristically, Prince Eric was expressionless, he almost looked like a copy of Kelia. Expression-wise of course.

The giant Arum was reciting something. Although we were all in an enclosed space, I couldn't make out the words pouring out of his lips.

Liye took a turn and we were ended up on an uneven road passing through abandoned fields. Bad weeds here, were almost as tall as my waist.

__________

After a few more bumps and circles, we came upon an old factory.

From the outside, it looked completely abandoned. At least that's what it would look like to a regular human. I could already sense the various presences of supernaturals.

Thankfully Lorn had clocked our car. They hadn't picked up on our intrusion, yet. We weren't trying for a discreet and quick slaughter.

We just needed to maintain the veil of secrecy for a few more minutes. Yesterday, we had discussed there rudiments of a plan after my bouts with Arum.

Calling it a plan was an overstatement. Since Chloe wanted a complete wipeout of the place with if possible some intel about the rest of this organization, we needed to block our enemy's way out.

That's when we had the idea to erect a barrier to keep them in. Now, the issue was:

How to create a Ward that could stand against tens, maybe hundreds of sups fleeing for their lives?

Kelia had a workable solution for our dilemma. She could use blood magic to anchor that ward to us. As such, so long as one of us was alive the barrier would resist.

Lorn applauded the genius of her idea and concurred. He would be in charge of building the ward and she would cast the spell to maintain it.

We could have arrived quicker but we lost time circling the place. This was for the sole purpose to allow Lorn to build a massive ward 5km around the enemy's lair. Naturally, discretion was needed, hence the cloaking spell.

Now we only waited for Kelia and we were good to go.

She had opened her eyes at one point and locked two of her fingers together. In front of her, there was a bowl containing our blood.

We had given it to her earlier. She needed it to complete the linking spell.

The crimson liquid started boiling, then turned into mist. Flash of red lights sometimes could be seen inside. Finally, she clapped her palm, and the mist spread in all directions. It went through the car before vanishing in the distance.

"So when we will know if it worked?" I asked.

"Should be any time...NOW," she said

Indeed, I couldn't miss it. I felt vertigo and my ears popped. Then goosebumps rose upon my skin. Finally, the van shook slightly.

One of the reasons we opted for a frontal clash was that even if we tried to be stealthy, the locking of the ward would've alerted them.

Just like now.

Every single guard had their eyes turned toward us.

*We are busted, it seems