“This is a clear viotion of our agreement,” Henry said. As he stayed in his true form, his words rang firm. The air also seemed to shake when he spoke.

  “I know not of the details of the agreement made between you and Her Majesty. I’m only here by her orders. Whatever you think I’m doing, it is a misunderstanding.”

  “Are you saying that I’m misunderstanding your intent to bring the princess to your mistress?”

  “That is no misunderstanding.”

  “Then, there is no misunderstanding at all. Your mistress promised to leave the princess alone.”

  “Perhaps she did, but as you can see, things have taken a drastic turn.”

  “I don’t care about your reason or your mistress’ own. She’s supposed to leave the princess to us. Given your mistress’ intent and goals, I can’t let you take the princess. She will be coming with us. Now, let her go.”

  “I can’t do that, Lord Henry. Her Majesty’s orders above all else.”

  “...Violence it is,” Henry sighed. “Yu.”

  “On it,” Yu responded with a cheerful smile.

  The vampire looked at Yu oddly. Something was happening but she couldn’t quite figure out what— until she felt movements beneath her feet. She gazed down and saw her own shadow whirling and shivering. She immediately leapt out of the way just as spikes of darkness erupted from where she stood. The spikes then turned into tendrils that chased after her. She manifested a pair of blood-moulded swords and sliced at the tendrils coming for her.

  “Your Highness, please come with us,” Ani approached the princess in the meantime and pleaded. “I do not know what she had told you but know this, they do not mean you well.”

  “She saved my life,” Lucianna answered. Though she harboured some suspicions, she wasn’t entirely doubtful of Aqui’s intentions. She wasn’t so foolish as to assume Aqui saved her out of charity but she didn’t assume there was outright malice in the vampire’s actions. “I’m aware this is no charity but I don’t believe there is any malice.”

  “Your Highness, your ancestors are the ones who betrayed and sealed away the vampire’s queen. Do you think they are a forgiving bunch?”

  Lucianna could only widen her eyes in shock. It was a huge surprise but as she thought about it, it shouldn’t be that big a surprise. After all, why else would the kingdom be suddenly attacked and terrorised by a vampire? The vampire who initially attacked them was no feral beast but an intelligent being. There was a proper reason behind those attacks and now she knew.

  “Do you still want to go with her after knowing that?” Ani asked.

  “I-I…” The most reasonable answer would be a ‘no’, but she felt there was more to it than just vengeance. If Aqui had ill intentions, there would have been easier ways to bring her back to their queen.

  As the princess was struggling with an answer, Aqui was fighting for her life. The shadows were like a swarm of swords in a raging whirlpool. The shadow itself was frail but when there was a mass of them, their frailty meant nothing. A drop of water was as useless as the absence of water. However, it would be a massive difference if there were a pool of water or an ocean of water. That was how the shadows felt to Aqui. No matter how much she fended off, they just kept coming. Not to mention, there was Lord Henry she needed to be worried about. She knew what he was capable of, which made her curious as to why she was still drawing breath instead of lying on the ground as a pile of ash and dust.

  “You must be wondering why I haven’t already reduced you into ashes, no?” Henry said.

  The shadows stopped chasing Aqui but they didn’t back off. They surrounded her but they stayed on their grounds. Though she was a vampire, she was not an undead like how the stories often depicted them to be. She still needed to breathe and she could finally take a breather. “Her Majesty tells me you're merciful.”

  “Do you think I’m merciful?”

  “You are simply being pragmatic. My death will only serve to invite Her Majesty’s wrath. You don’t want that and I certainly have no death wish, unless Her Majesty asks of me.”

  “If you do not wish to die, then back off. If your mistress wishes to speak with the princess, I will allow it but not in Verugo. It will be the middle point between Ulrum and Verugo.”

  “...You are very protective of the princess, Lord Henry.”

  “She’s a valuable asset.”

  “I would love to leave and keep my life but Her Majesty had given the orders. Her Majesty’s orders above all else.”

  Henry sighed. “Then, there is nothing more for us to say—”

  The ground trembled violently out of nowhere.

  Henry expanded his senses, reaching as far as five miles, and what he sensed sent shivers down his spine. “Oh fuck,” he muttered.

  “Henry, what was that?” Yu asked. She nearly fell as a result of the tremor but her shadows kept her upright.

  “Enemies. They have located us. And they’re coming at us fast. They’ll be here in no time at all.”

  “I don’t see them.” They were on a vast pin. Yu squinted her eyes and gazed into the far distance, but she saw nothing.

  “They’re underground.”

  As soon as Henry said that, something gigantic burst out of the ground. It was a worm but one with a maw for a mouth with rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  Henry didn’t waste a second and immediately unleashed Firebreath on the gigantic worm. The humongous monster screeched and filed around violently as it was engulfed in fmes. As it filed around, something was flung out of its mouth. That something went flying in the air before dropping straight to the ground.

  “What the hell?” Henry blurted out.

  That something suddenly stood up on its feet.

  “It’s a Syer!” Yu yelled in surprise but she didn’t hesitate in her action. She immediately shredded the Syer into pieces with her shadows.

  Henry looked at the filing worm. He had a premonition and it was soon proved to be true. As the worm finally succumbed to the fmes and colpsed to the ground, all the Syers in its mouth were spilt out. All of the Syers rose to their feet at the same time.

  “Very clever,” Aqui muttered. “Terribly efficient but very unsightly.”

  Henry wasted not another moment and drowned the Syers in his fmes. Most of the Syers perished but a few were fast enough to dey their demise for only a handful of seconds.

  After the fmes, the Syers were met with tides of darkness. The shadows were not even half as destructive as the fmes but they moved significantly faster than the fmes. No matter how the Syers manoeuvred, the shadows eventually sliced and diced them all up.

  “Whoa,” Yu gasped in delight. “This is exhirating. It’s like finally having enough space to swing my arms around and get my legs moving.”

  “Don’t celebrate just yet,” Henry warned. “There’s more.”

  Right on cue, more worms emerged from underneath the ground in a ruinous fashion. Thankfully, there was nothing in the pins for miles on end.

  Henry immediately doused the worms with fire but the worms themselves served as decent insutors against the heat of the bzes, enough time for them to regurgitate the Syers in their bodies before passing on to the next life within an inferno. He had hoped to take care of the Syers before they were spat out. It was easier to deal with them when they were still all clumped together. Now that they had been spat out, things got trickier. As if learning from the deaths of their peers, the Syers immediately spread out as they rose.

  “Seems like this is right up my alley,” Yu cheered. Shadow tendrils surged towards the Syers. There were barbs and thorns. Once caught, it was difficult for a Syer to escape. The shadow tendrils filed and twirled. As if the Syers had been thrown into a paper shredder and a meat grinder, there was nothing the Syers could do to escape their fate. “This is too easy.”

  “That’s just the beginning,” Henry said.

  From amidst the pile of destroyed Syers, a few rose from the metal graveyard. Unlike its peers, these Syers were drenched completely in bck as if darkness had seeped into their very core and fibre, the Dark Syers.

  “Fuck these bitches,” Yu scoffed and commanded her shadows to swallow them into the darkness but these Syers moved faster than her shadows.

  Henry assumed his humanoid dragon form and confronted two Dark Syers who were rushing towards the princess. Given how agile Dark Syers were, his original size would be far too inefficient. He closed in on the Syers and cast Gravity, but only one of the two was caught in the spell. They learned. One had acted as a bait and the other had used the bait as a stepping stone to leap over the range of Gravity’s effect. Henry crushed the bait and gave chase to the one that escaped.

  While Henry was busy on his end, Yu wasn’t idle. She had four Dark Syers coming at her. “Four? Are you kidding me?” Yu compined. Though she was gd that the enemy seemed to evaluate her highly, it was also unnerving to be fighting four Dark Syers at once when she could barely manage one. Regardless, she wasn’t about to just roll over and show her belly. In this pin, there was basically an infinite amount of space for her to let loose without worrying about terrain colteral. The Dark Syers came at her like the ninjas she remembered seeing on tv. It was quite comical at that time but less so when it was performed by actual killing machines.

  The Dark Syers were faster than the shadows but that disadvantage could be overcome with sheer numbers and volume. The shadows were not just a few strands but a number that could easily form a tsunami and that was what Yu did. The Dark Syers tried to escape but they were inevitably caught. The barbs on the shadows restricted much of their movements once they were struck. However, they were relentless above all else. They didn’t hesitate to abandon the part of their bodies that were caught or hooked. Most shocking of all, the parts they abandoned did not cease to function. They continued to struggle independently of their main bodies.

  “Persistent buggers.”

  Even with the onsught of her shadows, the Syers remained unperturbed in their advances. With each damage they suffered, they became more and more adept at dodging her shadows. Still, Yu had made sure to be as far away as possible. She retreated a few steps with every assault she unched. Distance was the key here. As long as she remained out of the Syer’s range, she would be the one at an advantage.

  Even when all of their limbs had been destroyed, they persisted in their endeavours, crawling across the ground using just their heads.

  “Die!” Yu shouted and crushed the remnants of the four Syers that confronted her. She also didn’t forget to destroy the bodies that they had abandoned. Once she was sure the four were utterly eliminated, she fell to her knees. The fight might have looked simple to any onlookers. It was anything but simple. It took a lot out of her to keep the four at bay. One wrong move and she would have been dead. The terrain also helped tremendously in her victory. She could let her shadows go wild without worrying about any backsh. If the fight was in an enclosed space, she would have inadvertently brought the whole roof down on her.

  This was the most she had used her powers for an offence. As much as she liked to continue to rest, the fight wasn’t over. There were still six other Dark Syers to take care of and all six of them were lunging towards the princess.