As the sun rose and morning came on the third day, Cassiel, having not slept, stood up from his meditation position and let out a hefty sigh, a sigh of mixed emotions.
After getting ready, Cassiel went to another room in the castle, his own private bathroom, so he could bathe. He hadn't had the chance since being released from his prison, and after all the meditation and cleansing, the impurities that had been drained were strewn across his body in black, sweaty streaks, giving off an awful stench.
After about half an hour had passed, Cassiel stepped out of the bath, got dressed, and left to grab Albus from his room, ready to take back Bagnion.
…..
…..
It had been two hours since the two left Kotor, and they had finally made it to the dead forest that Albus had mentioned three nights before.
The ground beneath them, as they stepped into the forest, quickly turned into a murky grey color, different from the usual pinkish grass that had covered Rampiel.
"My king, are you certain of this?" Albus said, visibly worried.
"Albus, the only creatures that wander the forest during this time are thralls, we will be fine." Cassiel said reassuringly.
…..
As they continue into the forest, minutes pass, which had felt like hours.
"Have you not felt it yet, Albus?" Cassiel says, stopping in his tracks as he stops to stare at him.
"...Felt what exactly, my king?" Albus responds, confused.
"The eyes, the bloodlust, their starvation. Thralls, Albus, they've been tracking us." Cassiel says, his usual blood red sword appearing in his right hand.
"You can take three hits, anymore than that and I'll leave you behind." Cassiel would say, shooting out a blood sphere with his left hand aimed straight at a thrall, leaving a hole in its side as it collapses dead, falling out of a nearby tree.
"Of course, my king." Albus says, giving his final response as he draws his sword.
With his eyes darting around from place to place, Albus, with barely a split second to spare, ducks down as a thrall is seen jumping right over him from behind.
As it hits the ground, it turns itself around almost as if it was drifting, so that it had the momentum to pounce right back towards Albus once more.
Albus, however, was ready this time, stabbing his sword forward as it drove straight through the thrall's mouth, exiting at the back of its skull.
"Good, now do that about ten more times." Cassiel says, emitting a strong enough mana from his body to keep the thralls away from him.
"Dammit... maybe I should have died during the last battle..." Albus mumbles to himself before he lets out a heavy sigh, readying his sword once more.
Briefly closing his eyes to focus, Albus swings his sword horizontally behind himself using both arms, cleaving a thrall clean in half, before he swings it over head to his right sight, slamming his sword straight into another thrall's skull, splitting it in two.
"Eight more." Cassiel says, as if mocking Albus.
Taking in what Cassiel said, Albus' eyes darted around once more, trying to find the remaining eight as three more appeared before him: two in the front and one to his left.
Preparing himself, Albus grips his sword tightly as he dashes forward, taking the two thralls by surprise.
Swinging his sword from his left side, he attempts to kill one now and deal with the last two later.
Moments before he cleaves the thrall however, he gets pounced on by the thrall that had been on his left side.
As the two fall to the ground, Albus sticks out his left arm to block the thrall from biting his neck.
While his arm his mauled on by the thrall, Albus instinctively grabs a dagger from out of his waistband, using it to stab and rip open the thrall's neck, just to then moments after roll to the side as another thrall jumped forward, ready to take the place of the now dead thrall.
As the two thralls go to circle around Albus, he quickly throws his dagger straight into the head of the one that had jumped at him, as he then dashes forward to grab his dropped sword, turning around in a mere second to swipe his sword at the other, cleaving its head in two from its eye to its cheek.
The second Albus gets a chance to catch his breath, the remaining five thralls come out, as if the others were just used to wear him down.
Surrounded on every side, Albus steadies his sword once more, ready to lay his life on the line to continue following Cassiel, understanding this is his way to power.
Waiting for them to make their first move, Albus stands, staring at the thrall directly in front of him.
As the sweat from his tired body drops to the ground, the thrall on his four o clock pounces straight towards him.
Albus, being ready, using only his right arm entirely, swings his sword straight down onto the thrall, cutting straight into its head, splitting its skull and killing it instantly.
But with no time to prepare for the next attack, another one lunges at him immediately after, taking Albus by surprise as he instinctively dodges the thrall, dashing to the side and cutting the thrall in the leg at the same time.
His only mistake, however, was him dashing straight into another thrall unbeknownst to him.
Without any cue, the thrall slashes Albus across the back, making four deep cuts straight across.
With a yelp of pain, Albus pushes through and slams the hilt of his blade into the thrall's neck, catching it off guard as he slices its head clean off.
Ready for more, Albus dashes backwards, now facing all three of the remaining thralls as they close in on him.
With the limping thrall on his right side, the other two thralls close in on him faster than the other, as they both lunge and pounce straight towards Albus, but without synergy they collide into each other, giving Albus the perfect opportunity to drive his sword straight into the heart of one of the thralls, killing it instantly.
As the other thrall gets up, it lets off an ear piercing screech, making Albus cover his ears, leaving him unguarded as the limping thrall takes the opportunity to bite down on Albus' leg, as if to enact revenge, which also makes Albus drop his sword.
Yelling out in pain, Albus punches the thrall, leaving it concussed from the ferocious strike.
As he lays against a tree, the last thrall crawls towards Albus slowly, before baring its fangs and jumping straight at Albus.
Without any time to think, Albus grabs the nearest thing to him, to then slam it through the thrall's head.
It was a stick, a stick is what saved his life.
As he lays against the tree in victory, he pants heavily, as Cassiel stops releasing his aura to walk up to Albus.
Picking up his sword on the way, Cassiel drives his sword into the unconscious thrall that Albus had struck earlier.
"You did well, Albus. You know, coming out through this forest alive was the final initiation trial for the average warrior back in the day." Cassiel said, smirking as he cuts open his own finger using Albus' blade.
"Take this drop of blood, you earned it." He says, his blood coming out through his finger in the form of a small sphere as the cuts regenerate instantaneously.
As the tiny sphere of blood goes into Albus' mouth, he gains a quick burst of energy as most of his cuts heal and scar up, leaving him completely patched up.
"My... king, why... why do the thrall's resemble us vampires..?" Albus questioned, worried and afraid.
"This forest... it was cursed by a royal family that was exiled a long time ago, the Aion family." Cassiel said, looking away as if to hide his emotions.
"The thralls look like us because they were us, or to reinstate, they were the soldiers that had been sent here for the finale of their initiation trials." Cassiel said, returning his face to look at Albus, showing the entire time he was smiling.
"T-Then if I died...?" Albus questioned again, in fear this time.
"Enough boy, we must continue, there's no time to waste." Cassiel says, turning around to walk once more.
Albus quickly gathers his sword, putting it back in his sheathe before grabbing his dagger to return it to his waistband, reassembling himself to return to following Cassiel, ready to leave the damned forest.
…..
…..
After what felt like another hour, they had finally left through the other side of the forest, finally greeted by the dull pink stained grass of Rampiel once more, and off to the distance laid Bagnion, letting off a strong stench of humans.
Cassiel, stopping, turns to Albus.
"Twenty ears, Albus. I want you to collect me twenty human ears from the kills you obtain from this battle. Twenty ears and I will officially deem you a title worth a thousand lives." Cassiel said, smirking as he walked off again, headed straight towards the city.