Reina, standing tall as she faced down the mage of the Storm Hornets, realized in an instant that the man was not as vulnerable as he appeared. Just as she gathered her strength to launch a devastating opening attack, a massive mercenary wielding a heavy claymore sword stepped forward from the surrounding smoke to block her path. Kilo had been thorough in his planning, instructing his mages before the battle to never engage without a swordsman at their side for protection and physical assistance. As Reina assessed the new arrival, she understood that this confrontation would be far more complicated than she had initially hoped. She was no longer hunting a lone caster; she was facing two coordinated opponents who covered each other's weaknesses.
"Are you so weak that you need somebody else to protect you?" Reina taunted, her voice dripping with pure, concentrated disdain. "Fight me like a man, you coward!" Her intention was clear. She sought to provoke the mage into a fit of blind rage, hoping that anger would cloud his tactical judgment and lead him to attack recklessly. She was a veteran of many brutal conflicts, and she knew the value of attacking an enemy's mind before ever engaging them physically.
However, the mage remained frustratingly unfazed. His expression hardened with professional contempt rather than the impulsive fury she had hoped for. "Humph, tough talk coming from an old hag," he retorted, a cold smirk playing on his thin lips as he adjusted his grip on his staff.
Reina smiled back, though it was a predatory expression that did not reach her eyes. "I am going to take my long, sweet time killing you, human." With that, she slowly cracked her fingers, the sharp and defiant sound echoing against the stone walls as she readied herself to advance.
But the swordsman, clearly lacking the mage's patience, did not wait for her to make the first move. He gripped the hilt of his massive claymore tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white, and swung the blade down vertically with all his considerable might.
Reina, however, was lightning quick on her feet. She moved with a fluid grace that made her appear almost weightless, dodging the crushing blow effortlessly. The enormous blade smashed into the stone where she had stood a millisecond before, sending sparks and stone chips flying into the air. The swordsman clicked his teeth in frustration, his jaw tight with the disappointment that this would not be the easy.
Keeping his furious focus locked on Reina, the mercenary screamed at the mage beside him. "Are you just going to watch, or are you going to help me kill this leech?"
"Fool! I was waiting for the right moment to strike," the mage declared, his voice filled with a sudden and sharp malice. He thrust his staff forward, pointing the tip directly toward Reina. The ornate orb attached to the top began to glow with an intense and sickly light. With a swift, guttural incantation, he conjured five sharply pointed rocks that rose from the ground, levitating menacingly above his head. They hung there for a heartbeat, poised and ready to be launched at his command like a volley of stone spears.
"Well, the fact that she dodged my attack so easily means that she is no ordinary vampire, and I don't want her to tire me out just yet," the swordsman admitted. He could feel the cold sweat dripping down his back, his muscles tense from the realization that his target was far more dangerous than she appeared.
Reina smiled, her tactical mind working with lethal efficiency as she read his hesitation. "You are correct. I am not an ordinary vampire."
Without another word, she surged forward with blinding speed. Her movements became a chaotic blur of motion as she closed the distance in a heartbeat.
"Razor Slash!" the swordsman shouted, desperation coloring his voice. He unleashed a horizontal, air-cutting strike aimed precisely where Reina had been a millisecond before. But the air met only air; she vanished from his line of sight, instantly reappearing at his left flank with terrifying precision. She was poised to deliver a decisive, killing strike that would have ended the swordsman right there, but at that exact moment, a sharp sense of incoming danger flared in the back of her mind.
The mage had seized his opportunity with cold, calculating timing. The five sharp pointed rocks cut through the air, whistling with tremendous speed as they converged on her position.
Shit, she cursed inwardly. She had intended to finish the swordsman in a single move, but she had not expected the mage to act with such haste and accuracy while his own ally was so close to the fray. As the stone projectiles sliced toward her, Reina twisted her body mid-air, her reflexes pushed to their absolute limit. She managed to narrowly dodge four of the jagged stones, but the fifth rock found its mark, piercing deep into her left shoulder. A sharp spike of pure agony shot through her nervous system, the force of the magical impact forcing her to abandon her lethal counterattack.
"Razor Thrust!" the swordsman roared, his eyes lighting up as he seized the opening. He lunged forward while Reina was momentarily staggered by the wound in her shoulder.
Reina saw the attack coming from a mile away. Even through the pain, a subtle and chilling smirk spread across her face. The swordsman aimed his blade directly for her heart, a move intended to end the fight instantly. However, Reina didn't try to dodge completely. Instead, she shifted her torso just enough to let the sword miss her vital organs, allowing the cold steel to pierce through the side of her chest instead.
"Die!" the swordsman shouted triumphantly, his voice filled with the thrill of a man who believed victory was finally within his grasp. He drove the weapon deep into her flesh, the sound of tearing fabric and skin echoing in the courtyard as blood began to drip from the tip of the blade protruding through her back.
"Hehehe, you should have aimed for the head," Reina taunted, her voice low and gravelly with a terrifying lack of pain. Before the swordsman could even register the words, her hand shot out, her grip tightening around his arm like a crushing iron vise.
The swordsman struggled violently, his muscles bulging as he tried to rip his blade from Reina's chest, but he quickly realized it was an impossible task. He looked down in terror to see her hand clamped like a crushing hydraulic press around his forearm, holding him in place as if he were a fly hopelessly tangled in the web of a black widow spider.
"So this was your plan all along, huh?" he breathed, a grim acceptance settling into his eyes. He was a veteran who had come prepared for death, fully aware of the lethal risks involved in facing a high ranking vampire of her caliber.
"Unfortunately, I had to let you believe you were going to win," Reina replied. Her voice was terrifyingly calm and measured, despite the jagged length of steel currently lodged in her chest. "It was the only way to lure you into my reach. With your body positioned directly between me and your ally, it will be impossible for him to strike without ending your life in the process."
As she spoke, her nails elongated, sharpening into deadly and obsidian like talons. "Now die, human."
To her surprise, the swordsman did not scream or beg. Instead, he began to chuckle, a low and sinister laugh that sent a sharp chill even down Reina's spine. "Hehehehe."
Reina raised an eyebrow, her gaze narrowing with suspicion. "Why are you laughing, human?"
"Well, you see, old hag," he spat, his voice bubbling with a mixture of blood and spite, "this was also part of our plan from the very beginning."
Reina was instantly startled. She shifted her focus behind him, her sharpened vision piercing the gloom to see that the mage had been busy. Floating high in the air was a gargantuan and sharply pointed rock, far larger and denser than the previous projectiles. It was a massive slab of enchanted stone, positioned at an angle that would allow it to pierce through both of their bodies simultaneously.
However, Reina quickly regained her composure. A fierce and predatory grin spread across her face, her fangs glistening. "This is no life-threatening matter for me, human. But I want to look deep into your eyes as you lose every shred of hope. You likely believe this suicide plot will have some grand meaning in this war, but it will all be in vain."
The swordsman's bravado finally shattered. Looking into her eyes, he did not see a woman facing death; he saw a predator who was merely waiting for the right moment to strike. A cold realization washed over him. She had a plan, a hidden card up her sleeve that he could not see, and if they did not act now, his death would be for nothing. Panic seized him as he realized their window of opportunity was closing. "Mage, kill us both quickly! Do it now! She is up to something!"
The mage, concentrating fiercely, poured a staggering amount of mana into the rock, imbuing the stone with both tremendous structural strength and lethal velocity. He leveled his staff at the pair, the orb on the tip glowing malevolently. With a final and silent command, the massive rock hurtled toward them, a blur of grey death ready to rip them both apart.
The swordsman twisted his head back one last time, seeing the projectile closing the distance in a heartbeat. He turned back to Reina, his voice cracking with a desperate and final triumph, trying to convince himself as much as her. "Yes! The rock is coming! It is too late for you to escape now!"
Reina maintained a calm expression, her demeanor completely unwavering even with the jagged length of steel buried in her chest. "I am not planning to escape," she replied coolly.
Sweat began to bead on the swordsman's forehead. He was close enough to see the lack of fear in her pupils, and he sensed that something was fundamentally amiss. "What are you planning, leech?" he demanded, anxiety tightening his chest until it was difficult to breathe.
He looked behind him again, the massive, enchanted rock now terrifyingly close. The sheer, crushing scale of the monolith filled his entire field of vision. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing his entire body for the impact that would surely end both their lives.
However, instead of the sound of stone crushing through flesh, he heard the sharp, rhythmic hiss of steel slicing through the air, followed by three explosive cracks of stone being pulverized. He snapped his eyes open, looking straight at Reina. Her face was no longer a mask of calm; it was now a mask of cold and fierce ecstasy.
"What the hell?!" The swordsman once again looked back over his shoulder. The massive boulder was gone, reduced to a cloud of falling gravel and dust.
"No, it is not possible!" the mage cried out from the distance, his voice cracking with disbelief. He could not wrap his mind around the fact that his ultimate killing blow had been dismantled so effortlessly.
Standing in the path where the rock had been the vampire knight Paul. He stood tall and immovable, his sword still humming from the speed of his strikes. He hadn't just blocked the attack; he had stepped directly in front of the hurtling mass and unleashed three blindingly fast slashes, cleaving the enchanted stone into harmless fragments before it could even touch his shield.
"Mage, you will die for this transgression," Paul declared, his voice ringing with a raw and ancient power as he leveled his blade toward the caster.
"No, no. This is not real!" The swordsman's face contorted in a mixture of disbelief and raw panic. As he turned his head, desperate for any way out, he was met with the fierce and burning gaze of another woman standing directly beside Reina.
It was Helen. Her eyes were burning with a lethal fury that seemed to radiate heat. "You planned to kill my sister," she accused. Her voice was steady and cold, the kind of tone that promised a slow and agonizing end.
Helen stood directly beside Reina, her light green eyes already bleeding into a fierce and predatory crimson. She was far beyond the point of patience; a raw and incandescent fury radiated from her as she looked at the man who was still holding his blade inside her sister's chest. Without waiting for a word from Reina or a signal to proceed, Helen moved with savage and decisive speed.
She gripped her sword and drove the heavy steel directly into the center of the man's face while he was still locked in Reina's iron grip. The blade shattered bone and teeth, burying itself deep. Before the mercenary could even let out a final gurgle of agony, Helen ripped the steel out horizontally with a bone crunching force that effectively tore his head apart. She did not even look at the mangled remains as they finally slumped away from Reina's body; her gaze was already fixed on the next target.
The mage, witnessing this swift and brutal execution, was seized by a frantic and animalistic survival instinct. He quickly conjured more sharply pointed rocks, launching them toward Paul in a desperate attempt to buy time. But the knight stood firm, blocking each projectile with his shield as he advanced toward his enemy with the relentless pace of an executioner. Shit, I am almost out of mana. I have to find a way to escape, the mage thought desperately, his mind racing through his dwindling options.
"Rock Wall!" the mage shouted, slamming his staff onto the ground to create a huge barrier of stone to block the vampire's field of vision. He used the split second of cover to sprint away, but as he rounded the edge of his own wall, he found Paul already standing directly in his path. Shit, how did he know? Terrified, the mage tried to turn around, only to bump straight into Reina. She was standing behind him like a ghost, her posture relaxed and the gruesome wound in her chest already knitting itself back together with unnatural speed.
"Oh my, look how the tables have turned," she said with a mocking and cruel smile. "It was two against one just a moment ago, but now it is three against one."
"Please, spare me," the mage begged for his life, his voice trembling uncontrollably as his staff clattered to the stones.
Reina stepped closer, wrapping her arms almost tenderly around his neck as she leaned in to whisper softly in his ear. "Shhh. You shot me through my shoulder, and it hurts. How are you going to make that up to me?"
"I will do anything you want, please do not hurt me," the mage said with a trembling voice.
Suddenly, a loud and booming voice, amplified as if by a massive microphone, echoed across the entire Crimson land, instantly silencing the localized fighting.
"Crimsons! Hear my voice! I have some grave news that I forgot to tell you all. Leonidas Crimson is dead! I killed him, more specifically, I poisoned him. Think about it: you all know he traveled with me a few weeks ago, but here I am, the cause of this war, and where is he? Your lord. It is because I sent him to hell. Long live the Flame King! Hahahahaha!"
Decker announced his victory from the heights of the castle, revelling in the moment. The expressions of shock and despair blooming on the faces of the Crimson family brought him immense joy.
Reina could hardly fathom the words she had just heard. "Is this true?" she demanded, her voice sharp and filled with immediate urgency, her victory over the mercenaries now completely forgotten.
The mage remained silent, paralyzed not by Reina's grip, but by fear of Decker's public announcement. In a swift motion, she grabbed the back of his head, her nails digging into his scalp. "Is this true?! Is our Lord Leonidas dead?"
"Un... Unfortunately, yes," the mage stammered. His voice was a pathetic, trembling wreck under the crushing force of her grip. "How did you kill him? How?!" Reina's eyes glowed with a fierce and incandescent crimson light, brimming with a volatile mixture of lethal fury and a sudden, terrible grief that threatened to consume her.
"Like Lord Decker said, he poisoned your lord with the concentrated venom of a werewolf lord, but I was not there. Our boss confirmed the details of the assassination," he explained, the desperation in his tone reaching a fever pitch as he realized his life was hanging by a thread. "I am sorr..."
Before the mage could finish his pathetic plea for forgiveness, Reina snapped his neck in a sudden and brutal fit of uncontrollable rage. The sickening sound of bone shattering echoed sharply in the tense and silent air of the courtyard. She let the body drop like a sack of unwanted refuse, her hands trembling as the adrenaline of the fight was replaced by the cold reality of the announcement.
"This is bad," she muttered to herself. Her gaze shifted toward the dark and imposing interior of the castle, the crushing weight of the news settling heavily upon her shoulders like a shroud of lead. The victory over the Storm Hornets felt meaningless now, overshadowed by the looming shadow of a future without their lord.