In the darkness of night,there lit a man made flame boiling with warm,incircled by stones,and the burning wood it consumed,around the camp were three groups one female,and two male lead groups each consisting of three members.
They now rested relaxing without armor,while others kept watch but still standing near the fire,after sometime at the camps edge two darkened figures outlined themselves.
The lookout almost drew their blades but then calmed down as one member patted the lookouts shoulder," Its alright Eims,their the ones we were expecting",Edward Kinsley said in a slick gentle but authoritative manner.
" My brothers in arms have you done the deed",Edward asked with a smile on his face," Yes",klien replied," but ofcourse just like you said we had no hand in directly killing him,we just ruffed him up,and chained him to the below a lake we found".
" A lake I see that was a bit unexpected on my part,but this just proves your loyalty,and what honorable fellows you are distinguishing yourself from evil,only then could our groups join forces without being looked down upon by others",Kinsley said so then smirked at the end.
"Come,and sit",he added,klien,and Casper nodded their heads as they were introduced to the rest of the members.
Casper added," for a distinguished gentleman such as yourself,I barely recognized you under that brown hooded coat of yours,its so modest".
Edward replied," are you implying I'm not modest".
"No no ",Casper said,"not at all",Edward grinned," Everyone has a humble side you know,but in all seriousness we've been running trying our best to avoid this creature that seems to be hunting all in sight,those we found were in terrible conditions".
" I expected as much from these trials,Iron Claw has never been the kindest to us,thankfully our physicals aren't dependent on his tutelage",klien replied.
" Yes we've been placed here by a monster,in the midst of monsters how hilarious".Edward replied.
In his mind Edward grinned," My plans went on smoothly,papa was right leveraging my higher noble status even amongst nobles is such a gold mine idea,now with three groups essentially assimilated into my own,this whole ordeal will be much easier as I sweep the rewards with minimal effort,and the females well theres always a shot".
"Convincing these stuck up jerks during the beginning stages was so easy too,what the hell do I care if somethings sinful,everything wrong with this world is what doesn't benefit me".
Right then Casper spoke again," So did you just leave all those injured nobles are they dead".
Edward felt annoyed at the question being kicked of his own thoughts felt a bit rude,klien touched Caspers shoulders indicating he may of crossed the line.
Edward replied," well our medics did their best but we arrived they were still breathing atleast,we were able to gather that some unseen third party seemed to step in or some unknown light,everytime the death blow was near,the knowledge of such a creature alone set us packing".
When Edward said these words the surrounding party members hung their heads low,Edward sighed," These beautiful women over there,experienced it first hand,their faces were pummeled before we came,and healed them".
The girls whos faces had already seemed out of source traumatized from the start,shortest out of three started crying,while the other who held her sincerely thanked,Edward.
"Thank you,for your kindness,thank you".
Seeing the girls gratitude Casper felt a bit ashamed,and gulped some filtered water from a cup.
Edward smiled,as his internal grin increased," Well I think the true nature of this Test is to recreate ancient times survival of the fittest,type nonsense,sometimes well have to Claw over the bodies of our own countrymen to survive,and unfortunately we'll have to put our interest first,its such a shame but these seem to be the laws of the game".
Edward said dramatically while whiping away crocodile tears,the tone of his voice alone sold his performance,and the fact he looked nobody in the eyes throughout seemed to tell its own story of regret.
But in truth he feared being caught.
Klien shook his head," unfortunately those were my exact thoughts,I'll never forget your kindness granting us the opportunity,and the means to shackle,that bastard,and prove ourselves loyal to the country".
Casper spoke again," one final question,why do you own beastmen as servants arent those frowned upon too".
" Bitch!,whats with the questions",Edward thought in his mind.
" The beast tribe have been our allies for over 70years now,the grudges of many may run deep but that is simply the fact, I believe in the power of the individual,one persons race,upbringing nay even their ancestory cannot determine how we treat them their benefit to the cause is what matters".
Edward said so patriotically beating his chest,while saying in his head," obviously its my cause".
"Besides my maids ancestory have been taken care of by my family even before the norn wars,but at that time they were bred for a much what can I say Oral purpose,so its a bit unfair to compare them to the ruffeins that breached our borders".
" Have you suddenly grown a conscious,do you feel sad for what you did".
"Ofcourse not!",Casper replied.
"If so dont you worry I can confirm with my benediction given to me by the priest himself thqt you've done the lords work".
"Anyway I doubt that bastard actually died he is a child of the sea after all".
"My main point is this,to survive this nightmare we may have to spill some blood".
Beneath the lake,surrounded by water,and gagged,coughed,tied with chains to underwater,Caspian kicked,and gasped for air meanwhile.
A thrasher fist came by it had the appearance of a crocodile but completely smooth skin its face,Its mouth looked like a fangtooth fish.
It toyed with Caspians body knocking him around as it incircled him,while moving like a Torpedo.
Caspians hair was down,as he cursed, his lunges losing oxygen as he used his mana to create more this time not being ofguard.
"I hate this blood,this blood of mine its the reason Im in this mess,why,why! did I have you for a father,this blood ties us together,Im going to rip you apart".
The chains shook with the stress as,the rock pillars holding the chains,shook.
He had been beaten up badly he could not break free.
Suddenly he unleashed majority of his mana creating an explosion just before the thrasher fist came in for a serious chomp.
In other areas Siegfrieds group were in the Asura monkeys base,Both he,and yulang observed simons body shake,and tremble with a fever.
Yulang looked at Siegfried with a serious face,and said ,"Must of been your medicine".
"Then why arent you trembling",Siegfried replied.
" My semi devine constitution ofcourse",yulang replied with a serious face while dusting himself off.
Siegfried tsked," It must be the electric nature of his opponent his nerves,brainwaves were targeted".
"What does that mean",Yulang asked.
"He might die by tomorrow",Siegfried said in a worried manner while biting his thumb,shaking his legs as he stood cross legged.
Yulang was in shock,but then smiled," he'll be fine,isnt that what life is,its our blood to fight,struggle then die,isn't that whats the symbolism behind the goddess".
" but I can feel that he still has more stories to give this world".
Moments later green levitated from the ground to Yulang,and Siegfrieds surprise entering simons body.
Edmond laughed as he ordered Sanders,and Clive to tread on,the laughter alone forced Clive,and Sanders to experience a new wave of embarrassement,and self loathing,one they had yet to experience in their noble existence.
Because of this embarrassment they quickly developed an inferiority complex,a mutual parasitic subordinate relationship taking form from the corpse of what had come before it.
They had finally reached their destination a small land locked cliff stood above a giant sink hole,inside this more than 5 kilometer wide crater were the skulls of many large monsters,Completely devoid of skin but oozing with blood.
Below these skulls,and skeletal remains was a pool of clear stagnant blood,that covered everything in sight.
" My blood compas says what were looking for is in there".
" you two go down first",Edmond said as he pushed both Clive,and Sanders ahead.
The moment they reached the edge they instantly froze,as their veins popped out from them,and they began experiencing paralysis.
"Thats it huh,bloody dominion,it seems a class evolution is taking place this is such an opportun time or is it an unfortunate time".
Edmond touched the backs of both Sanders,and Clive relieving them from the auras effects.
He chuckled,"that was bloody dominion,a creature with strong blood manipulation can set it up,where once its mana simply makes contact with the opponent it gives off such an effect".
" The air in this place is filled with it".
Sanders tsked," So what do we do",Edmond replied," firstly you need to know our enemy,it's a blood fiend swarm,rare blood insects,the living plague they suck the blood out of their victims,and turn their poison turns flesh to blood,they gather,and collect that same blood sustaining it with mana,and chemicals they release using it to birth more larva,and when they die they turn back to blood feeding the cycle".
"A unique little feedback loop,don't you think".
Clive chimed in," so are you telling me, that pool potential has billions of eggs,and or larva in it".
" No,more so in the trillions,there's a reason they were hunted down,worst of all if I'm not wrong a chieftain queen is in the process of being formed,and if it does".
"You may likely die".
Clive trembled," I have a plan,I'll place a spell on you,and all you two useless runts,have to do is run around,distract the swarm,and the rest will be taken care of".
Sanders clenched his fists in protest before forcing himself to stand up.
Runic arrays formed above Edmunds palms he then placed them,on Clive,and Sanders forcing the mark to appear on their foreheads.
Seconds later both experienced a kick to the gut less than second,between themSanders opened his eyes as if some sort of betrayal had occured.
He quickly regained focused using man's to strengthen himself landing on his feet,but Moments later a huge swarm.
These insects were obsidian black in color with pure red eyes,and blood red webbed wings,that look as though they constantly reflected the blood moon.
Their appearance were similar to locusts,and mosquitos having a purely dark red blood sack for a bottom,including multilayer wings.
Clive looked at the swarm,and ran immediately as if he had harnessed super speed,Meanwhile Sanders was shouting for him to wait.
Edmond jumped down landing on his feet,touching the ground made of stagnant blood beneath hid feet then spawning a huge array.
At the centre of the area was huge carcass being lifted up into the air by the swarm,as it was disected,and sucked dry,Above all that was a bigger than average blood fiend that had a light blue glow.
It was constantly being fed,and surrounded.
Sanders,and Clive got surrounded,the swarm engulfed them then an causing an explosion of blood eminated from out of their bodies,the fiends drank this blood rapidly,and enjoyed,the taste forcing them into a drunken state.
After having their fill they quickly flew ,to the queen.
Sanders,and Clive looked drained almost as if a part of them had gone missing," Get up fools,stop whining I only took 1/4 of your overall blood supply ".
Both Sanders,and Clive could not talk.
Edmund smirked,taking the two boys,and jumping out of the hole,"let's wait for an hour".
The two boys eventually regained some strength using rejuvenation pills,Clive had taken out from a scroll he possesed.
" was that all for nothing!",Sanders stood up in rage clenching at Edmonds collar.
Edmond smacked him with an extreme speed sending sanders tumbling to tge ground," I don't expect such imputence from my slave,Its seems after this I'll have to make you both learn the hard way",he said with a demonic smile.
" Now we wait".
An hour passed by,then something shook from within the pool of stagnant blood," hatchlings",Edmond said as he smiled.
" Vampires,and all creatures of the night have been hunted urightfully so for more than a century by my Van helsing family for someone with such a name".
" This all too childish".
Edmond struck pose his wide arms open,then flailing his arms about as if he was the conductor,conducting an entire Orchestra.
The intense noise rustling from below reached a crescendo,as a swarm of blood fiends burst from down under," Blood manipulation orchestral dance".
This was a technique that allowed temporary forced physical control of anybody who injested,the users blood a lesser spell recorded,and logged by the van helsings who had grown to have some specialisations in all things dark as they fought the creatures of the night.
Edmond recited a chant in his mind,as he walked right into the swarm," There is no defeating the dark,there is only excepting its embrace then owning it ".
Sanders was in shock,and in fear as the swarm surrounded,and pulled Edmond within the hole,Clive was distraught," Is he crazy!!".
Sanders then gradually regained his composure," he's not dead,he was too calm,I've seen the eyes of things about to die a horrible death,and that's not it, or atleast,that's not human".
In another area at the craters centre,was a glowing,blue blood fiend,Edmonds new pets dropped him off right where he wanted to be.
The blood fiend swarm beneath it immediately wanted to attack,but it was checkmate,Edmonds hand twitched.
And the swarm charging towards Edmond were immediately braught to a stop,by the Queens psychic cries,or whales for help.
Edmond grinned with a psychotic smirk,congratulating the genuise that he is.
" I can't control an entire swarm,right now it seems that 10 000 of you unintelligent insects is all I can do,and with much effort at that fighting your queens influence".
As Edmond was saying this veins began to pop out of his head,and hands,showing the strain he placed on himself.
" Infact if I had tried to control her highness now it would of been too much,and I would of lost to her highnesses higher mental resistances,but you fell for the bait drinking too much blood,who needs to control you when I cant just threaten you,and keep you captive".
" normally magic blood is distinguishable from normal blood so the fiends would never consume it but mixing those frauds ones truly sent them into a frenzy".
Edmond walked forward slowly step by step,the swarm parted for him as if welcoming their king.
The queen descended slowly,it's blue glow still high,it's blue glow was intensifying,and dimming as it tried to speed up its transformation into a chieftain but it was no use.
In less than 20metres away the enslavement had already begun, runes appeared around Edmonds wrist glowing red, then one ring appeared surrounding the queens neck.
The swarm quickly became a Tornado around the two as they imitated,the famous painting the creation of Adam.
Edmond spoke," I know your pleasure,and just like you,I too understand the true meaning of blood,blood is life,it connects us,it sustains our being,it determines relationships,our potential,and our survival,it is the proof of all our struggles,what we bleed when protecting a loved one,and the greatest payment for those found guilty of sin,by the sentence of death,it is the key to deaths gates,and the pleasure of the undead,how can one blame you for loving such a precious thing".
"Be mine,and we shall feast together ".