“..Live to fight another day.”

I’ve only been running, dodging, and fighting skeletons for a minute but it felt like 2 years.

With my newly made short sword I could still slice through the regular skeletons quite easy, it was just..

“Fwooom Fwoooom Fwoooom”

Large stalagmite like spikes rose out of the ground coming at me. The lich was finally using transmutation on the ground, and I’m quite sure this is light work for him.

‘Fuck, maybe I should’ve took Layla’s offer and stayed for a year....’

This is stressful, I can’t even exchange strikes with him because of his mana blade.

‘....No, there’s a solution for everything even this.’

I know how I need to kill him, but I need a good distraction...

As soon as I finished those words I escaped the dense marsh foliage and the city came into view.

There was a wall, not as huge as Maso City’s but it looked sturdy enough to last a long siege. Black spikes were also coming out of the grey stone wall all over. The castle that towered over this domain was made out of what looked like black metal standing around 40-50 stories high.

I ran towards it without giving it much thought, as far I knew I’d rather deal with regular guards than an Elder Lich.

I reached what looked like an abandoned village right outside the castle walls. Now just like the trees before, the abandoned huts were shooting out spikes from Luther’s Transmutation skill.

“Ssk ssk puchh”
“Fuck! Man!”

At this point I’m getting mentally tired, my body is of course full of energy but I’m still not used to prolonged fights like these, escapes were quicker back on earth.

I’ve taken a few punctures here and there but nothing too crazy. Now I was closing in on the city gate, I didn’t know what to expect.

“Halt, who are you!”
“Stay right there!”

Both of the guards raised their voices and tensed up reaching for the weapon on their waist.

All of a sudden my body locked up and I fell over as if I was in stasis.

“Shit, arch human you need to leave right now!!”

“It’s too late, he’s trapped they’ll be here soon..”

Both of the guards seemed to have arch human like bodies but they called to me as if we were different.

Luther appeared beside me. I could see his black skeleton feet on the ground, worse view ever created.

‘I can’t even move, what the hell is this?’

I could only breathe, and move my eyes to look around, that’s it.

“Thank you for catching my prey leeches.”

The gate was still in my view so I could now see the guards with there unsheathed swords.

‘Wait... leeches... human bodies. Ohhh nahh Vampires?! How many species does this planet have?’

“You show disrespect coming to my city?”

“Fucking toothpick.”

A woman and a young boy were now floating above the gate.

‘Damn, she just let her son curse like that... crazy.’

The pale woman was far away, I could only see her ridiculously long black hair floating with the current breeze. She wore a black dress with the stylish thigh opening to show off her long legs.

The young boy on the other hand looked to be wearing something similar to me, long sleeve shirt, pants, and some boots.

Luther turned his gaze towards the two floating.

“I’m not against having a baby death knight.”

After he said that everybody charged at each other. While he charged there was flying pieces of armor going towards him latching on to his skeleton frame, he looked like a death knight now.

Over a hundred skeletons and a lich versus four Vampires.

‘The Vampires aren’t even flinching, even the weaker guards.’

The pale woman swung her hand in a slight arc motion.

Pure darkness fell, even I could hardly see with Deva Oculi activated.

Sounds of a huge battle surrounded me, I even felt the occasional skeleton stepping on my back.

It went on for another 10-20 minutes or so. Trapped in darkness, in complete stasis, with what sounded like a war going on right next to me.

But of course..

“Ssssuk”
‘KUUUKKK, FUUUCK!!’

Transmutations and random abilities were going off in this shrouded space and a stalagmite pierced straight through my left arm.

‘....I think I lost my entire left forearm... shit’

The most crazy thing about this injury is that I didn’t even feel like I was losing blood, no throbbing, only pain.

Another 10 minutes later and I could see the shroud fading away.

Looking up I could see the boy pushed into the giant grey wall nearly skewered by one of its spikes.

The pale woman showed no emotion towards it and only looked ahead towards Luther. His armor showed large gaps in it caused by some type of weapon.

Luther’s armor soon started to mend itself, eventually looking brand new.

“We both know this could go on for months Solana. I’m only here for the boy on the ground.”

Luther pointed at me while shouldering his greatsword.

Solana scoffed and crossed her arms under her chest.

“Ha, I’m here because I smelled him as soon as he entered that cave. It’s been some years since I had arch human blood, why would I let this chance pass me by.”

Luther held his hand up like he was telling her to stop.

“No, no, no, I need his blood to create a suitable weapon for him, otherwise he’ll be useless as a death knight!! I can’t have you draining him dry.”

What was happening in front of me only solidified my assumptions of this world, your physical power is everything especially when you want to force your will.

Only after they fought did they actually take the time to speak to one another. The weak have no seat at the table.

‘But how the hell can that boy use mana, I clearly saw him floating.’

Then I remembered Eiichi’s words in the carriage.

[- the exertion of mana isn’t possible until the age of 18 for us Arch humans, which is a time of extreme vulnerability.]

‘So Arch humans main weakness is this need to awaken? So other beings may have other weaknesses.’

Vampires obviously have the fire and sun as there glaring weaknesses, so none exist with Red mana types?

While I was thinking about the nuisances of each race, my body floated upright. The torn and mangled half of my arm floated right next to it’s rightful place still unattached.

Solana walked up to my floating body that was positioned like I was on a crucifix.

I was shook at what I saw.