Several of the vampires lunged, and their jaws split in half.
Their faces warped grotesquely, teeth stretching sideways like insect mandibles.
Even their tongues had changed, now barbed and forked, writhing like serpents. From deep within their throats, long tubular mouthparts shot out.
One hissed violently, its tongue splitting in two.
Dozens of these tongue-like appendages lashed through the air, darting straight toward Blade.
"Shit!" Blade growled, eyes wide.
He tried to dodge, but his body wouldn't respond fast enough. He could see it death by tongues was a heartbeat away.
"Poppy!"
A crack of wind and magic tore through the battlefield.
Soren raised his hand, fingers slicing through the air as a wind blade erupted from his palm.
The invisible edge howled as it cut through the air with surgical precision, severing every last mouthpart before they could pierce Blade's flesh.
"Hissss!"
The vampires shrieked in pain as the ends of their tongues splattered to the ground, oozing thick red-black pus, mixed with something that sizzled like acid.
Their faces convulsed. Mandibles snapped closed in agony as they writhed, mouths foaming, throats retching and heaving as if trying to regrow what had just been sliced away.
"Ugh... you disgusting freaks." Blade grunted, pulling himself up. Blood still seeped from his chest wound, but his eyes burned with fury.
"Soren, I owe you one."
"You owe me a steak dinner." Soren replied coolly, not even looking at him as he retrieved the floating particles of silver sand with a sweep of his hand.
"Rare. No garlic."
Blade snorted. "Sure."
"These aren't normal." Soren muttered, his eyes scanning the battlefield.
"They've evolved. Silver doesn't burn them. Their bodies are adapting."
"Yeah, I noticed." Blade grunted. "Freakin' insects in vampire skin."
Around them, the remaining creatures had gone berserk.
Soren's earlier counterattack had killed several, their blood still steaming on the stone, but the survivors were more feral now.
Bloodlust consumed them.
They rushed in again, faster, harder, with no care for their own survival.
"They're just animals now."
"They're gonna tear us apart if we don't even the odds." Blade said, flicking his wrist.
A small cylindrical bomb snapped into his palm. He glanced down at it, one of Weissler's ultraviolet grenades, designed for close-range mass extermination.
"Not sure if these'll work on bug-mouths."
"But I'll take a bet over a bloodbath."
He flipped the fuse switch with his thumb. The grenade let out a high-pitched whine, counting down.
Soren raised an eyebrow. "Throw it now."
Blade hurled it into the thickest cluster of vampires charging them.
The bomb hit the ground, bounced once, then detonated with a blinding flash of ultraviolet light.
BOOOOOOM
"SCREEEEE!"
The ultraviolet bomb detonated in a radiant flash of purple-white fury. The vampires caught in the center didn't even have time to scream, they were vaporized instantly, reduced to drifting motes of ash before their forms even hit the floor.
Those farther from the blast shrieked and convulsed as their flesh blackened and split beneath the scorching light. Wherever the rays touched, skin blistered and bubbled like wax on fire.
"HIIIISSS~ AARGH!!"
The mutant vampires staggered, clutching their sizzling faces and chests.
Despite their grotesque transformations, they still possessed enough instinct to recognize death when it stood this close.
Blade's eyes lit up. "They're scared."
He pulled out another handful of ultraviolet grenades from his belt. "Let's turn this into a light show."
He tossed three into the air. The bombs arced gracefully, then burst mid-flight in synchronized eruptions of ultraviolet brilliance, flooding the hall in waves of purifying flame.
KRAK-KOOOM!
Vampires screamed… and then fell silent.
When the light faded, the entire hall was still. Charred husks collapsed into piles of ash. Not a single creature remained.
A thin haze drifted through the air, glowing faintly purple under the flickering torches.
Blade let out a low whistle. "Not bad for a 'last resort.'"
"Impressive." Soren admitted. "Efficient too. Far better than wasting mana on each one."
He glanced across the scorched battlefield. "The fool who made these mutants must be furious right now. Months of work, fried in sixty seconds," Blade grinned.
But Soren's smile quickly faded.
Soren's Perception flared like a radar in his mind a disturbance.
"...Freyja."
He felt her aura flickering. Her usual strength was being pressed, wounded.
Worse, something else was rising near her, a presence pulsing with raw, unrelenting power.
Soren's jaw tightened. "She's in trouble."
Blade blinked. "Wait—what?"
Soren didn't answer.
Whoosh!
A blast of wind followed as he vanished from Blade's side, his figure slicing through the air.
Left behind in a haze of dust and ash, Blade winced as he clutched his side. "...Could've warned me first."
Soren moved like a force of nature, crashing through the shadowy castle without hesitation.
A massive stone wall loomed ahead.
He didn't slow down.
"BOOM!"
One punch, a glowing sigil briefly flickered across his arm, and the wall exploded into rubble, revealing a dark corridor behind it.
The black magic suffusing the castle walls distorted teleportation; Soren could feel it.
So instead of wasting time trying to navigate or warp, he did the next best thing: break everything in his path.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Room after room collapsed under his relentless advance.
Finaly.
Final wall.
Final crash.
BOOM!
Soren burst through, landing in the heart of a vast, ominous hall.
What he saw stopped him cold.
There stood Freyja, visibly trembling. Her eyes locked on a figure across from her, but her breathing was shallow.
A trickle of blood ran from the corner of her lip. Her armor was dented. Her hands usually steady were shaking.
And her opponent…
Lorelai.