The Nightmare (Part 3)

Terrifying red eyes glowed visibly among the mist that was beginning to settle in the forest, the figure of the man to whom those eyes belonged was not entirely visible due to the lack of light and poor visibility. However, this only increased the unease in the hearts of the people who were looking at the figure that had introduced itself as a vampire.

Osmar was a skilled warrior who carried a tomahawk and shield on his back. In general, he was a stocky man who would cause some uneasiness in anyone who looked at him, although at that moment a person like him was feeling a chill run down his spine as he observed the silhouette that spoke to them calmly.

—What is a vampire doing in these lands?! —Osmar spat aloud, trying to get rid of the deep anxiety that he was beginning to feel — What you are doing is an act of war, you know?

"Act of war?" —a calm voice resounded through the mist with a somewhat mocking tone —Excuse me, but I don't think leading the cattle to their corral is an act of war, don't you think the same, human?

-Cattle? —Osmar perfectly understood what had been said, what was difficult for him was processing the meaning without bothering —I advise you to take your people with you before our king finds out about this —he made a tentative move to gauge the opponent's reaction. Actually, he had nothing to lose at that point and bragging a little wasn't going to change things for the worse than they looked. "I suppose neither you nor your lord want a war with the humans, do they?"

"Don't provoke him anymore, Osmar," Selina said as she placed herself in a nearby place just behind Osmar's back as she prepared her twin daggers for a possible attack. "Humans have nothing to do against vampires," Selina whispered, making sure that only Osmar could hear her.

—Hahahaha —the vampire smiled satisfied with a slight laugh —You should listen to the lady and give up —the vampire suggested, an action that surprised the nervous adventurers who looked at him suspiciously —I know, I'll tell you something good. Even if your king found out about this, he wouldn't do anything.

-What are you taking about?

—The fertility of your land depends on the power of our progenitor, in exchange for that we harvest some human villages to replenish our food reserves. This is something that their rulers understand and accept, you know? For that reason, even assuming you escape from me and report it, absolutely nothing would happen, do you understand now?

Osmar hated that the vampire used a condescending tone as if he were talking to a child, he felt that he was being treated like an idiot and his opponent didn't even bother to hide it. Even so, that story sounded too unrealistic to accept.

"Even if that's true, it's something I can find out after I kill you." Osmar allowed himself to be consumed by the anger of the moment.

"Uhm... I guess that's a lot of information for a mere human, too bad." The vampire shrugged with visible disappointment. "How about you just give up and save me from damaging the merchandise?" I mean, breaking their arms and legs to take them with me will only reduce their selling price…

"Do you think it will be that easy, damn you?!" Osmar roared back.

"Stop teasing him, idiot." Selina needed her partner to calm down. Of course she didn't do that for fun; she did it because she knew how terrifying vampires are in combat —We have to escape, this is not a battle we can win, let alone if that guy is a vampire lord —Selina no longer tried to lower her voice, since she realized that the The vampire would listen to her whether she did or not.

—It seems that the lady over there has some brains.

"My lord, you would let me go in exchange for handing these people over to you." The old man suddenly broke the tension with a cutting and treacherous phrase. Evidently both Osmar and Selina stared at him in disbelief.

—Hahahaha, I like your old attitude. However, it is not that simple. To begin with, I came here not to leave witnesses and correct the mistake of one of my subordinates, although I didn't expect to find merchandise like the one sleeping there —He explained calmly —Even if I said that reporting it won't cause trouble, it would be annoying if the cattle find out that it is nothing more than merchandise, don't you think the same? That's why it's better for people to think that the village was destroyed by bandits. Sadly, that will not happen if you are releasing things that should not be out there... And that is why those that do not serve as merchandise will have to die.

With those last words, the figure vanished from sight, leaving only the reddish trail of its eyes in sight, and the next thing that was heard was a grotesque sound of flesh being pierced. Immediately Osmar and Selina's attention was focused on the sound, what they found was the old man's body slightly raised from the ground with a hand decorated with small claws piercing his chest.

"Don't worry, I'm not a picky person, so I won't make an ugly eye out of your blood," the vampire announced before lifting the old man's dying body with one hand so that the fatal wound he had caused spilled a little. of blood in his mouth.

Both Selina and Osmar were stunned watching the macabre scene, until the vampire got tired of eating and discarded the man's body to one side as if it were nothing more than rubbish.

"This isn't happening…" Selina told herself in disbelief.

-Do you undesrstand now? Just give up humans." The vampire continued his impersonation.

The situation was at a standstill, Osmar did not want to endanger the lives of his companions and even when he was furious inside and wanted to attack, it could be said that his hands were tied. On her side, Selina was planning a way to escape at full speed, listing the usefulness of the objects she carried in her bag. The main problem she had was none other than the still unconscious Glasia, no matter what her situation was, she would have to abandon her mate to escape from her.

It was at that moment that Glasia's heavy eyelids finally began to peel away, revealing the precarious situation that surrounded her.

"Mom..." he whispered before noticing the defensive posture of his classmates and the vampire that was threatening them. "What's wrong?" he asked hastily. Probably the confusing situation made him momentarily forget the pain he had felt not long ago.

"What an inopportune time to wake up." The vampire complained that his work had increased.

-Shit! Shit! Shit!!! —Roared Osmar to shake off the anxiety he felt — Selina escapes with Glasia, I'll buy them some time! he yelled before charging at the vampire with his hatchet raised. "Aaaaaah!" His fighting spirit was incomparable to any that had been released before when he charged.

"Useless piece of meat," the vampire whispered before calmly taking the monstrous blow of the ax with a thin rapier that had come from somewhere at his waist.

"Run Glazia!"

Selina didn't waste a single second escaping, she was very fond of her partner, but as an adventurer she couldn't allow her effort to be in vain. It was not uncommon to abandon companions in the adventuring world, it was just natural. You couldn't always emerge victorious from any situation, everyone in the office understood this and that was why Selina didn't even bother to look behind her when he took Glasia's hand to take her with her as fast as he could.

"We can't abandon him!" Glasia yelled as her body was practically dragged along at the monstrous speed that Selina could reach if she really worked her ass off to escape.

-Shut up, moron! I don't have time for your spoiled girl nonsense, now what matters is escaping from that thing," Selina mentioned with a tone that admits no discussion.

Selina's acute hearing advanced to perceive in the distance that the clash of metal on metal had stopped being replaced by a light masculine groan. Somehow she sensed that her partner had left and her turn would soon come, some tears of sadness for her precious partner began to accumulate in her eyes when she remembered something very important.

She had heard stories that vampires could see through heat signals and this was also why they hated the day. The heat of the day made low-ranking vampires blind, and so they avoided daylight.

That said, that wasn't a weakness a vampire lord had. However, among her items she had a choice that slowed down her heartbeat and lowered her body temperature enough to be perceived as easily passed as a corpse. Leaving aside its use to prevent the poison from spreading too quickly through the bloodstream or passing through a corpse on a battlefield, this time said potion would help them by a miracle so that the vampire would not be able to see them when will reach them in the near future.

With that in mind Selina stopped dead and let Glasia fall heavily after stumbling as she was barely able to keep up with Selina's running pace. In a split second Selina pulled out of her bag a small vial with a slimy looking purple option inside of it.

"Selina, we must go back…. —Glasia's sentence was interrupted by Selina's abrupt gesture putting the contents of that jar in her open mouth, then she knocked her down forcing her to drink half of the contents of the jar, to finally drink the other half while Glasia had a hard time getting stuck and coughing because of the suddenness of what happened —What are you doing?! — She complained annoyedly before S of hers covered her mouth and forced her to hide in a small hole in the ground covered by a large tree root.

Just as Selina thought, the vampire hadn't taken long to catch up with them. However, she seemed to find it difficult to search for them. She knew that whoever hunted them was nearby, she heard her quiet footsteps perfectly.

"Get out!" I'm not going to hurt them! —The vampire yelled —I know they're around here, so I just have to wait a while to find them, don't you think the same? It's not like I'm in a rush or anything," he said mockingly.

The vampire seemed to search the vicinity calmly as he spoke occasionally, until Selina was finally unable to hear the vampire's footsteps and only then allowed herself to remove her hand from Glasia's mouth.

"Listen to me Glasia," he said hastily in an extremely low tone, "Try to escape when you think it's safe... I heard that the vampires took your mother, so if you want to find her, you could find out something about the vampire kingdom, right?" you listened? You have to live, I know I'm always mean to you, but at least I want you to know that deep down... deep down I consider you my little sister. Remember, your mother is alive and she will be taken somewhere in the vampire realm.

-That's true? —Glasia desperately held back the tears that were fighting to fall from her eyes.

—Yes, I heard it from a survivor of your town while you were unconscious.

"Thank God my mother is still alive..." she let out a little sigh. "But we can still escape together..." Glasia tried to suggest before Selina's index finger blocked her lips.

"I still have to go back for that fool..." Selina had a slight wry smile as she said it. "I can't abandon him like this." Besides, you're still young and you have a long way to go...

"I hope that's not the case because I've gotten tired of looking for them, you know?"

He mentioned a voice that was interrupting the girls' conversation as he stuck his head out from the top of the tree root that provided them with shelter.

Selina didn't even doubt it or was surprised, her first reaction was to attack with her dagger aiming an accurate and deadly thrust at the vampire's eye.

"Ahhhh!!!" My eye!!! —She screamed in pain —You're a cursed!

"So you can't see us, can you?" —Selina was on the warpath as she desperately tried to intimidate her attacker —Run Glasia! I'll take care of this bastard! She," she yelled as she waved her hand at her mate not to move.

"What kind of magic did they use to hide from me?" the sore vampire asked.

"As if I was going to tell you," Selina mentioned before running in the direction Osmar should be facing.

Initially the vampire didn't follow her and instead listened intently for a long while. Galsia was extremely silent, she covered her mouth and thanks to the potion her heartbeat did not give away her position either, forcing the vampire to follow the direction of the only target he had after he injured her eye. will heal completely.

"What a bother..." he said. "Do you hear me, little one?" —She yelled as loud as she could —If you don't want to see your companions suffer beyond what words can describe, come to me for good! —Then she began to walk with an already characteristic calm step —I'll be waiting for you! Only if you want to see your friends and your mother again, of course! —She was his last words before continuing on his way in complete silence.

Unknowingly, the Vampire had given Glasia a little hope, the problem was that to reach that hope, she had to pass over that powerful vampire. Not to mention that not only did she not have the strength, but she was unaware that there was more than one vampire in the forest.

As he racked his brain for some course of action, he felt something out of place in the mage robe he was wearing, something slightly heavy. It was that black candle that he had taken out of his house without realizing it, so it seemed his companions had placed the object between his clothes at some point.

She was about to burst into tears at her impotence when she remembered the stories her mother told her as a child. Her hope recomposed her and the slight possibility that those stories were true of hers helped her recover enough to go to that place in search of a way to save her companions and her mother.

It was simple desperation that moved her, but it was still better than standing trembling in a corner helplessly.