Horse meat

"Do you think you measly shadows are a match for the power of my centaur clansmen?" Chiron said patiently like he wasn't just threatened.

A raspy voice came out of the mouth of Sleik: "We will find out if you should be afraid if you don't choose to join our side against the vampires."

The centaurs already had spears pointing at Sleik and were ready to strike with a command from Chiron.

Hahaha!" Chiron stood up, facing the treeman. His hooves clacked slowly as his bottom half trodded forward. He held his huge spear as he finally arrived in front of Sleik.

He sneered at the treeman and said, "Do your worst, but remember, you will die like pigs."

Sleik grinned, and all of a sudden, vines penetrated through all the bodies of the current centaur members in the chief's tent. They died unaware of what happened. Chiron was not targeted and paled in surprise, but as an experienced veteran of battle, he immediately swung his spear for an attack. The treeman, Sleik, retaliated with a swing, parrying the attack.

He smiled and said, "I am not the strongest, nor am I the weakest. You should be very afraid."

His body started to shrink until he was about the same size as Chiron. His arms changed to blades, and he bolted forward.

He thrust his sword-like arm for an attack. Chiron dodged it and grabbed the upper arm of Sleik. With the spear in his other hand, he flung Sheik out of the tent. The centaurs around them were shocked to see someone fly out of the chief's tent.

"Ready your weapons, but don't kill him. He is mine." Chiron ran out of the tent, throwing the spear, which pierced into the shoulder of Sleik, who seemed unbothered by the spear that stuck out of his arm. It looked like he did not even feel it.

The spear was absorbed into his body, and what was spat out was only the metal shard that was once the blade. Chiron immediately collected another spear from one of his clansmen and moved forward to attack. Two giant clubs with thorns formed in Sleik's hands, and he attacked too. Chiron thrust and slashed, while Sleik swung and bashed. After they had exchanged over a hundred attacks, they stopped. Chiron's left arm was broken, and he had several puncture wounds on his body, while Sleik's body had several cutmarks. Chiron's body kept on spurting blood, while Sleik's body had stopped oozing green liquid and was now healing. Chiron knelt down, as he had lost a lot of blood. He knew he might die right here.

He looked at his clansmen and said, "Run and hide. Leave me"

The centaurs that were about to attack paused and looked at their chief with sadness, but they did not move or run. Sleik laughed, and a wooden dome started to form around the entire tribe.

"There is no escaping now. Hahaha" Sleik felt like he had the lives of these centaurs in his hands.

The centaurs felt their life force being slowly absorbed into the wooden dome around their clan. They all started to fall on their knees weakly. Sleik just had a perverted evil smile on his face of bark while Chiron had despair and regret written on his face. He was about to surrender and give up to the treant when he heard a voice.

"A mere plant dares be so domineering? That is laughable." The voice boomed all around. Everyone looked for where the voice came from, and they noticed a man standing in between the crowd of centaurs. They were shocked because they had not noticed him before he spoke. Sleik narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"Who are you?" His guard was up because he felt invincible within this dome, but he had not felt the presence of this man, which means he was very strong or had a powerful concealing skill.

"I am guessing you are Sleik. Isima's memory of you was quite spot-on. extremely arrogant despite being so weak." The man spoke. This man was Vladimir, who had left the vampire castle and now appeared here. He appeared in time to see the dome being erected, so he increased his speed and snuck in.

"Isima? Who exactly are you?" Sleik was enraged as soon as he heard that. He knew he was not the strongest, but he felt he could still beat that worm called Isima easily.

"I am your death." Vlad smiled as he dashed at Sleik. Sleik saw Vlad dash at him with incredible speed and stretched his two arms forward. The branches in his arms started to grow and multiply, forming web-like spears directly in front of Vlad. Vlad just harrumphed and slashed his hands, causing the branches to break like twigs.

Sleik was astonished because that attack could injure a gold-rank being, yet it was easily destroyed by Vladimir.

"Nature's Spore" A giant mist of green poured out of Sleik's mouth towards Vladimir. Vladimir did not stop and was enveloped by the mist. Some unfortunate centaurs also came into contact with the mist, and their bodies started to balloon and branches started to tear out of their bodies. They died as they became trees. Sleik smiled in victory as he saw Vlad fly out of the mist with branches already tearing through his body. Vlad exploded into several bloody bits, and a red tree stood where he had previously been. Sleik laughed

"Now who's too arrogant despite being weak?"

The centaurs who had gained hope were now crestfallen to see that their only hope had died. The bloody bits were slowly being absorbed by the red tree, but no one noticed. Sleik focused on the centaurs and said, "Surrender now, and no one will have to die."

"That was a surprising attack; I actually died." Vlad's voice resounded from the tree.

"Uhhh? Impossible" Sleik was terrified as he heard Vlad's voice. He looked at the tree but saw that it was unmoving. He also looked at the centaurs and noticed they were confused, so he was sure he was not hearing things. Vlad had actually spoken, but how?

"Don't be confused. Your attack actually succeeded, and I died becoming a tree. I was too careless; I felt invincible. I commend you for making me realize I am not my queen, but the mistake was that I didn't become a normal tree. I became a blood tree. Hahaha, I was careless but also lucky. The blood tree is a tree that went extinct over a millennium ago. It was known to grow from the blood of several slaughters and genocides, and the person who ate the single fruit from it would become a being of strength and blood, basically a vampire but probably even more powerful."

The tree started to squirm like it was made of mercury; it slowly reduced and reshaped itself till it became human-shaped. It looked like Vlad but was made of blood; even his facial features were not visible.

The blood color soon started to fade, and what stood before them was Vladimir, uninjured and with a smile. His pupils were red, and with that smile, it looked menacing.

"I have to thank you, Sleik. I was a bit too arrogant, but now let's see." He stretched his hand, and it became like a wave of blood that rushed to Sleik.

Sleik's face was distorted with fear. He shouted, "Anger of the forest."

The dome that was around the centaur clan started to shoot out branches that shielded Sleik from the blood wave. It also released spears and arrows made of sharpened branches.

Vladimir's face lost its smile. He waved his hand, and an umbrella of blood formed around the centaurs, protecting them from the falling spears. Vlad also moved, dodging the spears and arrows as he closed the distance between him and Sleik.

"Transform"

He transformed into the giant man-bat form as his speed increased. There were streaks of blood running across his body now. He arrived in front of Sleik's mini dome protection, and giant blood blades formed from his hands. He started slashing as well as dodging the spears falling from above, and wherever he slashed, it grew back immediately. Sleik was inside, and if he could sweat, he'd be sweating buckets right now.

"I can't believe I'd have to run away from this fool. Master would be so pissed, but my life is more important." He decided that he would retreat. He started to retreat into the ground like a tree that was being sucked back by nature.

Vladimir sensed Sleik was retreating and sneered, "Not on my watch. He stopped slashing, and he moved back quite a distance. He then started flying at full speed, his body parallel to the ground, and started spinning like a corkscrew. Some spears landed on his body, but he did not stop; he tore through the dome and grabbed the retreating Sleik, who was astonished. His claws pierced through the neck of Sleik, and blood started to flood his body. Red blood started to pour out of his eyes and mouth, and he soon exploded. The shadow in him tried to escape, but Vladimir was faster. His shadow covered Sleik's and devoured it quite quickly.

The huge dome started to collapse, causing damage all over the centaur tribe, but the umbrella of blood protected them. The falling wreckage only damaged their huts and buildings, but that could be easily fixed.

Vladimir's injuries slowly healed, and by the time he reached Chiron, he was fully healed. He stood before the leader of the centaur tribe and touched his head. Chiron noticed his injuries started to heal faster than they normally would, and before he knew it, there were only scabs left.

Vladimir manipulated the blood in Chiron's body, causing a faster healing process than normal.

"My name is Vladimir, the current king of Wallachia and the ruler of the vampires."

Chiron and the others already figured he was a vampire, but they did not know it was the person that was ranked 12th on the list of most dangerous people on the Daemon continent, and that was the old list. Vladimir was probably now the most powerful person on the continent except Licht and Tenebrea, and of course he did not know about the leader of the shadows.

"We have heard of the Wallachian alliance, and prior to this, we planned on staying neutral, but because of the bold attack on our tribe, we choose to join the Wallachian alliance and hope it'll become the strongest power on this continent." Chiron, who did not concede to Sleik immediately, actually chose to become part of the alliance without Vladimir asking. He was a bit surprised, but also pleased. The centaurs were known to be strong warriors, and Vladimir felt good about himself. He wondered how Anastasia was doing.