One by one, the goblins fell.
Screams echoed through the stone corridor, followed by the sickening crunch of bones and tearing of flesh. Blood splattered across the walls in wide, violent arcs. Limbs flew. Heads rolled. Even those armed with enchanted blades or blessed rounds stood no chance. The vampire was a blur a nightmare draped in crimson.
Gore-soaked, he danced through them like a reaper through wheat.
Within seconds, the last goblin collapsed with a guttural cry, throat ripped out, eyes frozen in terror.
Silence.
Only three remained.
Drake stood breathing heavily, drenched in blood that wasn't his own. His trembling hands gripped his axe tighter, but even he knew there was no winning this fight.
Azrael was on the ground, still choking, barely able to move. His veins pulsed black, spreading from the bite on his neck like a web of death.
And the girl the one who started it all lay gasping in her own blood, her golden eyes now dull glass, flickering with the last embers of life.
Drake's voice cracked as he screamed, "STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"
He stepped in front of Azrael, body tense, teeth gritted. His instincts screamed at him to run. But he couldn't.
Not while his friend was dying behind him.
Not while this thing wore the blood of his fallen comrades like a crown.
The vampire stopped a few meters away. Head tilted. Studying them.
"Still standing?" it rasped, voice low, mocking. "Good. I prefer when they struggle."
Drake didn't respond. He simply raised his axe. His muscles ached. His legs were unsteady. But if this was his last stand then so be it.
Behind him, Azrael convulsed. His fingers clawed at the ground, at his throat.
His voice came out as a whisper. "I… can't breathe…"
Drake's eyes flicked back, panic in his voice. "Hold on! I got you! Just just don't give up, dammit!"
The vampire moved forward, step by step. The air thickened with pressure, like gravity was being twisted by his presence.
Drake swung his axe it was fast and powerful.
The vampire caught the axe with one hand.
With a single flick, he sent Drake crashing into the wall. Stone cracked from the impact. Drake crumpled with a groan, his shoulder dislocated, blood dribbling from his mouth.
Now, only the dying remained.
Azrael, gasping and twitching, darkness leaking into his body like poison.
The girl, silent, save for the rattling breath escaping her throat.
The vampire approached slowly, savoring the moment.
Then Azrael's eyes snapped open.
fainting gold mixed with extreme white. his body felt different like it was No longer his own.
Something dangerous had stirred. Within him.
The skies above the Wildlands of Japan burned crimson as dusk fell over a battlefield soaked in blood and chaos. Gamma Squad took the frontlines steel meeting fang, claws rending through shields, powers colliding like elemental storms.
"Everybody, gather around quickly!" bellowed a commanding voice through the comms. "Gamma Squad to the frontlines! Delta Squad to support! All Variants defend! Ranged abilities cover Gamma from the flanks! We must not let them pass through! Do you understand?!"
"YEAH!!"
"For Japan!" someone roared.
For Japan…
The Wildlands erupted into an all-out war Vampires vs Variants, as explosions of elemental power and sharpened fangs carved the land apart. Amid the chaos, a strange phenomenon repeated again and again. Whenever a Gamma Squad member fell man, woman, or boy a shadowy figure clad in black would dart forward, steal the body away, and vanish into the smoke, leaving the vampire in a momentary confusion.
That moment was enough.
Enough for death.
Heads rolled. Hearts stopped. Screams were filled in milliseconds as the war raged on like flames vultures waited patiently to feast on the aftermath of the war.
Above the battlefield, three figures floated one by one, piercing through the haze of war like gods descending from myth.
Arnold Evercrest stood balanced atop an ethereal, floating greatsword ice crystals dancing around his feet, forming wings of frost with each motion. His eyes, cold as glacial caverns, burned with fury.
Beside him, Ronald Moonfrost flickered in and out of visibility using powerful wind bursts beneath his feet like rocket boosters. He hovered weightless, his form shimmering with hundreds of overlapping illusions, each a warped version of himself with blood-soaked daggers.
Above them loomed the enemy a towering vampire with skin like obsidian, crimson veins pulsating beneath the surface. His wings unfurled in the twilight like a curtain of despair. The Dracula.
A cold silence fell as the three stared at each other mid-air. The battle below slowed, as if the war itself held its breath.
Then the Dracula's voice echoed across the sky like thunder:
"Why do you insist on defending that trash? That girl is a curse to our origin. Hand her over. Let us stop this facade. There are threats even you humans cannot comprehend… creatures that make me look like a child. War serves no one now."
Arnold responded calmly, yet each word seethed with frost:
"Oh please. If we had her, she could have been yours. But I won't let innocent lives be sacrificed. I avoid unnecessary wars because they help no one."
The Dracula prepared to reply but was cut off by Ronald's cocky grin and sharp tongue.
"Oh, give it a rest. I came here to fight, not listen to a Dracula cry about his bedtime stories. You're just the boss fight before I get back to my games."
With a burst of light, Ronald vanished.
The Dracula flinched and was immediately assaulted from every angle. Ronald reappeared as dozens of illusory clones, each stabbing with curved daggers laced with hallucinogenic energy. Every clone slashed the Dracula's wings, neck, and eyes each hit spreading confusion as illusion and reality blurred.
The Dracula roared and swept a dark wave of blood magic, vaporizing half the clones instantly.
Arnold moved.
With a calm breath, he raised his hand a divine sword larger than a truck spiraled above him and descended like a guillotine from the heavens.
"Sword God Style: Eternal Judgement!"
The Dracula blocked with his bare hands, the force splitting the clouds and cracking the battlefield below. As the sword clashed against Dracula's arms, ice spread from the impact freezing his skin and slowing his regeneration.
But Dracula responded with raw power, backhanding Arnold into the air. The Sword God spun mid-flight, summoned another blade of ice, and sliced through Dracula's ribs, sending dark blood pouring into the clouds.
Cameras whirred in the distance.
Drones hovered near the battle broadcasting the legendary clash worldwide. On every screen from Times Square to neon-lit billboards in Seoul people watched as two of Japan's most powerful guild leaders fought Dracula in real-time.
The sky turned into a canvas of chaos.
Ronald, laughing like a maniac, activated his final technique:
"Ultimate Assassin Art: Night of a Thousand Knives!"
The world dimmed.
From every direction, phantom daggers rained from invisible voids. The Dracula, despite his strength, was pierced repeatedly, blinded by illusions, unable to locate the real Ronald amidst the storm.
Arnold joined again his entire body cloaked in ice armor fused with sword runes. His hands formed a sigil in the air, then raised toward the heavens.
"Ice King's Wrath: Glacial Dominion!"
The atmosphere shattered. A colossal glacier crashed from the sky, crushing the Dracula under its titanic weight. Frost erupted outward, freezing even the air itself, as Dracula's screams echoed like ancient bells.
The creature burst free but not without cost.
His left wing was torn off. His lower jaw hung by threads. His regeneration slowed, and blood poured like a river.
He lunged at Arnold who was exhausted, barely able to lift his sword only for Ronald to intercept.
The assassin grinned, blood leaking from his ears and mouth.
"You're finished."
He stabbed a dagger into the Dracula's chest not steel, but shadow.
A phantom blade crafted from every illusion the Dracula had ever ignored.
The Dracula howled and Arnold struck the final blow.
His sword turned black, infused with ultimate frost and divine vengeance. With a cry of defiance, he pierced through the vampire's back, freezing his heart from within.
The Dracula's body cracked like a sculpture then shattered into a thousand frozen shards.
Silence and then a deafening cheer from the drones.
Worldwide, people screamed with joy. Their heroes had slain the Dracula. Japan was safe for now.
But the cost was great thier mana pools were depleted.
Arnold fell from the sky his armor disintegrating, skin pale and frostbitten, one eye frozen shut, the other red with blood. Ronald collapsed beside him, unconscious, his heartbeat dangerously slow.
Medics rushed to the scene lifting them up and running off to thier small camp Squad's survivors gathered in awe. Do everything you can to ease thier pain and replenish thier mana pool now they must survive or a terrible civil war will begin and we cant allow that.
The war wasn't over. But the leaders had dealth with thier biggest threat it was now up to them to clear the field from the leaderless vampire knights.
And somewhere, in the shadows, the girl they fought to protect watched with trembling hands. Eyes wide. Lips parted. Why are these two willing to die for me she cried watching the battle between Azrael and Drake vs the mad scientist