Three chapters in three days. Man, I haven't had that pace since the first chapters. You're welcome Silvertongue. You all wanted more, so HERE! Leave a comment or better yet, a good rating. I've calculated I need approximately 35 more good ratings to get into the top 50. ALso, here's the link to my new fiction, Splinter. So leave a comment!

The burned vampire lay in the crater created by the skill Moonlight Barrage. As Abrum walked forward, his wings began to reappear, and this caused a look of relief to pass through the vampires eyes.

“Angaellis, my story is not one of joy and happiness. But I beg of you, listen so the story and plight of my people may be heard.” He asked with a pleading look in his eyes.

Abrum sat at the edge of the crater, with his elbows on his knees and hands supporting his chin. He did not regard the vampire coldly or disdainfully, the look in his eyes was one of honesty curiosity.

“Guardians, get your units some food, I suspect we may be here for a while.”

“What about you? What if he tries to attack again?” Asked Bothir in a concerned voice

“Then I’ll have no choice but to finish him off; however, I highly doubt he will attack. Ugothir, you’ll stay with me.” Replied Abrum.

Ugothir padded to him and lay down, putting his head at the edge of the crater, looking at the vampire. He let out a slight snarl that conveyed the warning of what would happen if Vlad betrayed Abrum’s trust.

However, Vlad just smiled at this and nodded.

“Where to begin… where to begin… I guess I’ll explain how we got into our plight.” Said Vlad as he sat up and leaned his back against one of the slopes of the crater.

“Our plight started when the leaders of our race, the King of Night, became greedy and decided to side with the demons in the second Darkness War, forsaking the side of light. Our race, the species of night, is often wrongly related to darkness. Even in night, there is light.”

“Second Darkness War? Do you mean the Great Darkness?”

“AH, I forgot that you humans do not have record of the first Darkness War. However, that’s not important to my story and I have no time to give you a history lesson. The fact is, Darkness lost the Second war. As punishment our race was condemned to prison for 100 years to atone for our mistakes. In charge of us was a hero from the war. However, in his time from fighting the darkness, he had been tainted by the darkness. He didn’t release us as promised. No, on the day we were scheduled to be released, he stood up and gave us a grand speech, condemning our actions as treason to the highest order of light. Thus, by his orders, we were sentenced to imprisonment indefinitely.”

“How did you escape?”

“Through the sacrifices of my people, I was able to get out, along with our people’s treasure, Tsuki... However… Warden… Why can’t I remember?” said Vlad as he looked at his hands. His eyes looked empty and a bit broken.

Abrum activated his aura sense to see if Vlad was putting on an act, and his eyes saw something extremely interesting.

The outline of his aura was, indeed, the color of confusion. The base of his aura was much lighter than he had previously thought. It was a light grey. Abrum had expected someone with the title of Ripper to be a lot darker. There was a string of darkness that he had previously not seen. It was connected to the back of Vlad the Ripper’s head.

Abrum stood up quickly and jumped into the crater and sliced the air right besides Vlad’s head. The black line that was connected to Vlad was cleanly and his last portion of his health bar disappeared.

“Warden… Finally gone…Save my people Guardian… our Queen….” Said the vampire frantically as he started to dematerialize. “And thank you……” Vlad’s head slumped forward as his body became immaterial and shattered into shards of light.

All that was left of the poor vampire was a single scroll and two books. Abrum reached out and grabbed the things of the deceased vampire. However, before he was able to observe them carefully, he heard an ominous creaking above him.

Looking up quickly, he realized his blunder. While the Moonlight Barrage had finished off the undead, it had also caused extensive damage to the surrounding area. Abrum had never given Vlad the chance to move away from the tower, and thus, the tower had suffered heavy damage from the destructive spears of light. The foundation of the tower had become unstable due to the extensive damage caused by the spears of light. The base was nearly gone, and the displaced air from Abrum’s strike had to go somewhere. Thus, these circumstances combined caused the situation that Abrum was now trembling at.

“RUN UGOTHIR!” Abrum ordered. His order was met by obedience as the tower fell at an agonizingly slow speed. The guardian ran from the falling tower, however, Abrum just stood there with an inexplicable smile upon his face.

Ugothir reached the edge of the clearing and turned. As the dust settled, Ugothir was able to see Abrum standing atop the rubble with a crazy smile on his face.

“HAHA! The first form works on buildings!” Yes, Abrum, instead of running had invoked the first form of the Moon Steps. The other guardians gathered in the clearing, drawn by the sound of the tower crashing to the ground.

Orthir was the first one to arrive, even though she was carrying a massive deer in her mouth.

“What happened?”

“An experiment that succeeded. No need to worry. Get the other guardians. After we eat, we are mobilizing.” Abrum said with a fearless smile upon his face. “The shadow line came from the direction of the capital. I’d like it if we’d mobilize as quickly as possible.”

Orthir noddd and ran off to tell the others. And Abrum sat with Ugothir and examined the items from Vlad. The scroll was of no interest to Abrum. It was a crafting schematic, and thus, held no importance in the immediate future. One of the books had a worn black leather cover. After reading the first page, Abrum realized that this was the journal that Vlad had kept. The item that really caught his eye was the third book.

It gave off an aura, unlike the other books. It had a solid red cover that seemed to shift as one looked at it from different angles. Along the spine were flowing letter sewn in gold with sharp angles at times. To Abrum, this was a language completely unknown to him. Wondering what mysteries the book would hold, he opened it carelessly without thinking.

The book glowed red for an instant, obscuring the pages, and then, the strange aura around the book was gone. Abrum looked across the pages and then started to flip through them frantically. Every single one of the pages was blank.

‘Darn. I thought this was going to be something good.’ Right after he had completed this thought, a message box appeared in front of him.

Passive Skill Gained: Dominating Shadow

Abrum read through the skill information. There was no way to level up the skill, and it served to protect the owner. The protection parameters were intentionally vague, which made Abrum a tad bit worried. Usually, when game designers made a description intentionally vague, there was a little surprise accompanying the item. It didn’t specify the activation parameters either, which also made Abrum nervous.

In time, the guardians came back with their food and Abrum had the task of cooking the food. The smoke from the fire and the delicious smell wafted up into the air. A separate pillar of smoke wafted up into the night sky, a memorial for the wolf that gave its life in the fight against the vampire.

The morning came and they set out. As they walked, they noted that the foliage upon the trees was returning at a startling rate. With the absence of the vampire, the forest was slowly recovering.

Abrum rode upon Ugothir, discussing with the guardians the placement of the units.

“Since most of the forest life ran off when the madness spread, there is really no need for 12 guardians until the forest returns to its normal state. In all honesty, it probably will only need a single one of our units to safeguard its recovery.” Orthir commented as she walked along besides Ugothir.

“Are you sure it’s okay to leave only a single guardian behind with only 20 wolves? Aren’t multiple guardians like a symbol of security?” asked Abrum

“Pffff. As if. In this stupid slaver country, most of the people were more focused upon catching us and subjugating us than being grateful for us protecting the forest. The only people that would actually miss us would be the elves. Their realm is to the west of Sefica.” Replied Bothir

“They are a bit stuck up though. Last time we visited, they only gave us cold thank yous.”

“They even tried to say that Gandol wasn’t their fault!”

“Bunch of arrogant *insert colorful word*” muttered Bula

“Tsk, tsk. Language Bula.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who are they?”

“Trying to change the subject? Not happening.”

“No, she’s right, who are those people?”

Abrum looked in front of him as they were coming out of the forest. In the distance, he saw three cloaked people traveling in the distance.

“Guardians. Take your units and create a perimeter, but hide yourselves in the foliage. I want to greet these travelers myself… Be prepared to fire off your ranged attacks.” Said Abrum.

His orders were carried out swiftly and quietly. They disappeared into the recovering forest and he sat along the road the travelers were bound to pass. He hid Tsuki in the bushes besides him and waited for the cloaked travelers to pass.

‘A good opportunity to test out the extent of the Dominating Shadow.’ He wiped off the smile that was creeping across his face as he sensed the figures approaching.

As they approached, Abrum was able to hear their conversation; however, they were speaking in a different language.

Abrum was able to look up at their face while sitting there. Even though their conversation only consisted of brief exchanges of an unknown dialect, Abrum realized the amount of information being conveyed was vastly disproportionate to the amount of words exchanged.

And then, they passed in front of Abrum. Abrum stretched out a hand and croaked out a single word.

“W-water.”

The three travels looked down upon him with their startling cold green eyes.

“Fla Morti Bog.” Said the one in the middle.

“E-excuse me?” Abrum asked politely

Apparently, the traveler was done talking. With disdain in her eyes, he kicked Abrum in the side, sending him sprawling. Abrum’s body was extremely sturdy, however, she had managed to leave a sizable bruise. Abrum winced at this, but would have dismissed it if the next words hadn’t come out of her mouth.

“Foolish human. How dare you stand in the way of the three Swords of the Elvish nation.”

“Out of our way human.”

“Trash.”

The shadow that was cast behind Abrum began to squirm and wriggle. Now, Abrum was a very patient man, and would have forgiven the three elven beauties that stood before him; unfortunately, his shadow did not share that trait.