"My name is Richard Crimson, son of Markus Crimson and the grandson of Leonidas Crimson. You lot killed my grandfather, and for that, no one will leave this place alive," Richard declared with a chilling tone of absolute confidence.
"Hahahaha! You are just a young vampire acting tough for your elders. I can kill you with my bare hands," the lizardman boasted, cracking his massive, scaled fists as he prepared to take the young vampire's life.
Richard completely ignored the lizardman's posturing and walked calmly over to where Dante lay broken against the concrete. "Are you alright? Can you move?"
Dante struggled to pull himself together, bowing his head despite the agony wracking his frame. "Yes, young master. This one can still move."
"Then take your family and leave this place immediately. I have already killed most of the enemies waiting outside, so you should be safe for the moment," Richard commanded.
Dante looked at his wife and then back at the young master with a look of torn loyalty. "Young master, I cannot possibly leave you here alone to fight that monster."
"Do not worry about me. If I die here, it simply means I am not worthy of the surname Crimson. Knight Dante, your family is also mine, so we must protect each other. You will only hold me back if you stay here in your condition. If you leave now, perhaps you can find a way to send someone back to assist me."
"My lord… I… I…"
"There is no more time to talk, Knight Dante. Take your family and escape while the path is clear."
Dante looked at Richard, fighting back the tears that were trying to escape from his eyes. He gave a sharp, respectful nod and went to his wife's side. Alice made brief eye contact with Richard, her gratitude shining through her fear.
"Thank you, young master," Alice said, bowing her head low.
Dante and his wife finally fled the castle through the exit door, leaving Richard standing alone in the dim hallway with the towering lizardman.
"Hehehe, you know you are going to die right here, little leech."
"Yeah, yeah, let us just see who is the one who will die first," Richard replied, nonchalantly rolling his shoulders in preparation for the clash.
The young vampire and the lizardman stood opposite each other in the wreckage of the hallway. The beast looked down at the young vampire and grinned evilly. "I cannot wait to see the look on the face of your father when I show off your severed head as a prize. He will be devastated."
"Well, I personally cannot wait to remove your head and place it on my wall as a trophy. I am sure that would make my father proud to see such a pathetic lizard mounted there," Richard countered with a cold smirk.
"Then let us not waste each other's time any longer. Now die!"
The lizardman suddenly unleashed a vicious and blinding punch. The strike was so incredibly fast that the vampire did not have any time to dodge the incoming mountain of muscle. The young vampire was quick enough to block the attack with his arms, but the raw force was so overwhelming that Richard was sent hurling through the reinforced concrete wall.
"How is that, you little punk?" the monster roared.
Richard lay on the ground inside the adjacent room, surrounded by jagged rubble and clouds of grey debris. "Fuck, that actually hurt. It is no wonder Knight Dante was in such a pitiful state after a few hits; this guy is crazy strong," he muttered to himself.
The lizardman stepped through the massive hole he had punched into the wall, surveying the damage. He saw that Richard was in the middle of the room, still grounded among the stones. "Sorry about that, punk. I used a bit too much of my strength, did I not?"
Richard did not dignify the comment with an answer as he struggled against the debris. He slowly pushed himself up from the wreckage, his breath coming in ragged hitches as he dusted the grey concrete powder from his ruined clothes with a defiant look. He was clearly feeling the weight of the blow, but his eyes never left his opponent.
The anger of the lizardman surged once more, his reptilian expression twisting into a savage snarl. "You know, I heard you have a little brother. After I finish with you, I will find him and sever his head so I can drink from his skull. How does that sound to you?"
The air in the room suddenly started to become heavy and oppressive as Richard's hair began to rise slightly from a surge of internal power. His eyes glowed a fierce, predatory crimson red. "You know, lizard, I was thinking of simply taking your leg and letting you go, but now I have completely changed my mind. Your biggest mistake was threatening the life of my little brother. Let me show you a technique that I have not been able to master just yet, but I am sure it will satisfy your taste buds."
The pale right arm of Richard started to glow with a malevolent red light.
"That Blood Punch you did earlier is not going to work twice on me, punk!" The lizardman focused his own spirit force, funneling it into his massive right arm until the scales seemed to harden like steel. "Let us see which one of us is truly stronger."
"It seems that you were not listening to me at all, lizard."
As Richard walked slowly toward the lizardman, his right arm started to turn a deep and incandescent red like heated metal fresh from a forge. Fuck, my right arm hurts like hell. This is the agony I have to endure whenever I fuse the technique of the Blood Punch with the clan's Hell Flame ability, he thought, gritting his teeth hard against the searing pain of his own power.
The confidence of the lizardman only grew as he stepped closer to meet the challenge, a predatory and wide grin spreading across his face. "This is exciting! Let us find out who is truly the stronger one between us!"
Both the vampire and the lizardman reared back their arms with their muscles coiled like tight and dangerous springs before they unleashed two powerful punches. Their fists collided with a thunderous impact that sent a visible shockwave rippling through the air of the room. For a brief and tense moment, it seemed as though their powers were perfectly equal, locked in a brutal and unmoving stalemate. Their fists pressed hard against one another and neither warrior was willing to yield an inch of ground.
"It seems that we are at an impasse," the lizardman said while grinding his sharp and pointed teeth together. Thick veins bulged from his forehead as he struggled with every ounce of his strength to overpower the young vampire.
Richard only smirked at the effort. "It looks like it but let me show you the true power of the Crimsons."
"Burning Blood Punch!" Richard screamed, twisting his fist with a violent motion as he released a tremendous and concentrated amount of energy.
The force blasted through the arm of the lizardman, a shockwave of raw power erupting from the point of impact. The punch continued its devastating journey, tearing through the right shoulder and the chest of the lizardman before creating a massive hole in the concrete wall behind him. Blood gushed from the wound of the beast, spilling like a dark and heavy waterfall, and his yellow eyes widened in a state of pure shock.
"What power…" he gasped, struggling to even comprehend the level of strength possessed by his young opponent.
The sheer force of the attack had left the lizardman completely weakened, and his legs could no longer support his massive frame. Falling heavily to his knees, he pressed his left hand against the gaping wound on his right shoulder, staring at the thick blood staining his palm. He lifted his head to see that Richard was still standing before him, his right arm still glowing a deep and blood red.
"State your name, lizard," Richard asked the warrior who was now humbled on both knees.
The lizardman did not want to die just yet, but he knew in his heart that this was the only possible outcome when he had agreed to join the assault on one of the most well known vampire clans in the world. Closing his eyes, he finally accepted the grim truth of his situation. "My name is…"
The lizardman dropped to the ground and went silent before he could give the young vampire his name. Richard looked down at the lifeless body of his enemy with a cold gaze. "I will collect your head for that trophy when this is all over," he muttered, his voice carrying a heavy mix of triumph and sorrow for the fallen.
As he looked down at his own right hand, Richard felt a grim and heavy realization wash over his mind. The intense and blood red glow that had incinerated the lizardman began to fade into a dull and lifeless grey. Because he had not yet mastered the volatile fusion of the Hell Flame, the supernatural heat had petrified his own flesh. Slowly, the limb started to harden into a cold and grey stone, the surface cracking like brittle glass under the strain of a power it was never meant to contain.
"Fuck, all I can feel is the pain," he groaned out loud, clenching his teeth together until they ground against one another in a desperate attempt to ignore the agony.
The remnants of his stone-like right arm suddenly crumbled away in a cloud of fine dust, falling apart like the grey ashes of a dying ember. The limb did not bleed; it simply disintegrated into nothingness, leaving only a searing, phantom heat behind where the shoulder met the torso. Richard reached over with his remaining hand and gripped the empty space, his fingers digging into his clothes as he grounded himself against the shock of the loss.
"It looks like we both lost a right arm, huh?" he murmured to the corpse lying at his feet. A bitter and hollow smile started to creep across his pale face as he stood there in the wreckage, a one-armed vampire in a kingdom that was still under a brutal siege.
====
Cassandra and Emma continued to fight through the endless hordes of enemies alongside their fellow vampire brethren. Emma was currently engaged in a lethal dance against a female mercenary, holding her heavy sword with both hands as she parried every jagged attack that came her way.
"Blood Step!"
Emma moved at a breakneck speed, appearing like a ghost behind the enemy warrior. "Coming here was your biggest mistake, little girl." With a swift and powerful swing of her sword, she cleaved the body of the female mercenary in half. The two severed pieces of the human collapsed to the ground with a sickening and heavy thud. Emma did not waste any time as she scoured the room for more targets to cut down. Just then, she felt a sharp and burning sting in her back. She spun around to see an archer standing at a distance, poised and focused as he drew another arrow from his leather quiver. "I am going to drink every drop of your blood, human!" she snarled, charging directly at him.
She rushed toward the archer with lethal intent, but the man quickly grabbed a small object from within his pouch and threw it at her. Reacting instinctively, Emma slashed at the projectile with her sword, causing the glass to burst open. The clear liquid within the vessel splattered all over her face and chest.
"Aaaah!" Emma screamed, dropping to her knees in pure agony as a searing and holy pain coursed through her entire body.
"Hahahaha! How is that, you stupid bitch? Why don't you drink some holy water for a change?" The laughter of the archer echoed in the air, cruel and mocking as he watched the vampire suffer.
The skin of Emma began to bubble and blister instantly as if it had come into contact with a concentrated acid. Half of her face became horribly disfigured as the flesh sloughed off and her left eye literally melted away into a hollow socket.
"Hehehe," she chuckled bitterly despite the horrific suffering. "What would Markus say if he saw me in such a pitiful state? To think that I was actually outsmarted by a lowly and pathetic human." Her remaining eye locked onto the archer, a storm of dark fury brewing within her soul.
She looked at the man with a gaze of pure hatred, her spirit blazing with a new determination. Gritting her teeth against the chemical burn, she picked up the sword she had dropped and slowly stood up. Her body was still wracked with the pulsing pain from the holy water, but she refused to fall. The archer had already cocked his next arrow back in the bow and was ready to fire.
"Now stand still, you ugly little thing," the archer sneered, closing one eye as he aimed the tip of the arrow directly for the heart of Emma.
Emma took a deep and ragged breath as she pulled her arm back with the heavy sword in her hand. Her right eye glowed a fierce and predatory red while her scorched muscles tightened, readying her for the final moment. In one fluid and desperate motion, she pulled her arm back, feeling the true weight of the steel in her grip, and then released the weapon with all of her remaining might.
At the exact same time, the archer loosed his arrow. The projectile sliced through the air with a deadly precision, aimed straight for the heart of Emma. But the inherent agility of a vampire was not to be underestimated even in a broken state. With a swift and agonizing sidestep, she dodged the arrow, feeling the rush of cold air as it whizzed past her ribs.
However, the sword she had thrown spun through the air with a sharp and whistling whoosh. With a tremendous amount of force, the blade embedded itself deep into the chest of the archer. The impact was brutal enough to send the man crashing backward against the solid concrete wall with a sickening and heavy thud. Thick blood began to ooze down the grey surface as the sword held the dying archer pinned in place like a gruesome insect.
"Hehe, bullseye," Emma chuckled darkly, a sense of grim and bloody satisfaction washing over her soul.
Emma did not get a single chance to catch her breath as she was immediately assaulted by two other mercenary men. However, Cassandra and a loyal vampire knight decided to intervene before the wounded woman could be overwhelmed.
"Do not worry, Lady Cassandra. I will handle the human on the left," declared the knight, his voice steady and resolute.
"Many thanks, knight. Then I will take care of the human on the right," Cassandra replied with a cold and focused tone.
Emma managed to dodge every frantic sword attack from the mercenary in front of her, but she did not have to wait long until Cassandra arrived to assist.
"I do not need your assistance, sister," Emma said, deflecting another strike with a swift and practiced parry.
Cassandra ignored the protest and rushed toward the mercenary. "Blood Step."
The mercenary man did not have any time to respond to the sudden blur of movement. He barely had a second to react before Cassandra moved with a blinding speed, her own blade slicing through the stale air. In a heartbeat, she severed the head of the man cleanly from his shoulders, and his headless body collapsed to the ground in a heap.
Cassandra looked at the disfigured face of Emma. "I know you did not need help."
Emma smiled through the pain. She touched her own ruined face and when she looked at her hand, it was still stained with the clear liquid, a grim reminder of the lingering effects of the holy water. Her regenerative abilities were severely hampered, keeping her from healing as swiftly as she needed to close the weeping wounds.
"Come, sister. There are still many enemies left in these halls, and our children are waiting for us," Cassandra said as she picked up the fallen sword of the dead mercenary. She handed the weapon to Emma, who accepted it with a silent nod of gratitude.
"You are right, sister. Let us continue fighting for the Crimson family," Emma replied, her resolve strengthening as she gripped the new sword tightly.
They both suddenly looked up as they heard a huge and thunderous rumbling coming from the floors above them. "I wonder if that is the doing of Zeno," Cassandra speculated, her eyes scanning the ceiling.
"No, I am certain it is Markus," Emma replied, her heart quickening at the thought of her husband.