CHAPTER NINE: The Masked Man

In the eastern side of Divini Divine kingdom.

Ralmond eyes glanced through the humans who stood in front of him like they were pieces of meat to him, his smirk not leaving his face for a minute as he made out all the things he could do with the rewards the King will bestow on them after returning what he had sent them to do. If he could also bring the Hakira along then the rewards would be better than the original one and his greed was already taking over him as he almost released a laugh at all he planned.

His people stood around him with some having the same type of smile he had while others just looking bored.

"When will she come am bored." Sarah one of the female vampire lamented as she released a fake yawn.

"It might take a little time if she decides to do something drastic." Mole, the one who had first reported to Ralmond before spoke with a cheesy smile looking at the yellow maize farm ahead.

"Hmmm that could cost us." Sarah spoke again.

"Inde...." Orbec another of the vampires could not finish his words as a dagger went into his head busting through his brain killing him in an instant shocking all the others at the audacity and strength of the person.

"Who dares." Ralmond shouted as he turned to look at the intruder dodging a dagger that was thrown at his head.

The person responsible was clothed with a black cloak covering the entire body only leaving out a small part of the legs, a sword in his right hand and three daggers hanged around his left hand fingers. He wore a completely black mask which covered the whole face and moved towards them in strides.

"Don't you dare come closer if you don't want them died." Ralmond commanded pointing to the people behind him as the other vampires readied to attack the offender.

However his words did not stop the man as he kept on moving forward.

"Foolish one." Ralmond gritted the words out as he turned to his men. "What are you waiting for, bring me his head."

Two of the vampires, Sarah and Mole dashed forward moving in a speed almost impossible for a normal human to see as they attacked the offender head on throwing out their hands in swipes aiming to finish him quickly. To their surprise however, at the last second when their attacks were just about to hit him, he bent his body sliding downwards passing through them and getting up immediately.

The both of them on seeing this did not rush in again instead they started walking around him in a circle, Sarah on his left and Mole on his right. He stood still looking at them in intervals, his knees a little bent with his sword stretched out pointing to the floor ready for anything they were about to do.

Circling him for a while, the both of them had suddenly stopped and the man's hold on the sword's handle tightened as immediately both of them moved at him at the same time their sharp fingers moving towards him in a force that could tear him apart but he had jumped up going backwards evading their strike.

However the moment he landed just in the blink of a second, he moved his body slightly trying to evade the another strike but wasn't fast enough causing the other person to slash at the side of his belly drawing out blood.

Seeing this, he immediately moved speedily out of their reach but had no time to rest as another person moved at him with another slash aiming at his back which he evaded narrowly sending out a slash of his blade at which the vampire evaded going back.

Not stopping for a moment, he threw out a straight kick forward towards the air for a one of the vampires to appear and get hit sending him flying backwards. Moving again, he raised his sword slashing it as it moved and connected to the forehand of Mole taking him backwards.

At last, both parties withdrew as the masked man could finally breath a little, the would in his side bringing out blood. The vampires who had attacked him stood in front of him, Sarah, Mole and Eidan the last one who had a older appearance among all of them. The remaining two, Ralmond and the other woman who sat on a boulder, her eyes closed through out not minding what was going on. The humans being guarded by them.

Both parties seemed ready to go at it again and just when the vampires were ready to attack the masked man did something they did not expect.

He threw his sword on the floor and stood straight not moving.

"What is he doing?" Was the question on all three's minds as they cautiously moved towards him, Mole and Sarah going to his left and right.

The masked man just stood up straight just looking forward waiting and then they moved.

All at once, Mole and Sarah moved speedily attacking him where he stood but instead of their fists and attacks connecting, they were surprised as the masked man bent his body evaded both their attacks and threw out both of his fist punching them both, the force so much that a crack sound was heard and the both of them were flunged to the opposite side.

Ralmond frown deepened at this sight. "This is no ordinary person,this could be a problem." He thought.

"Eidan take of this, don't hold back." Ralmond commanded.

"You have chosen a bad way to die, child." Eidan spoke as something started to curl around his right hand like a snake. Looking at it closer, it was actually a chain which had small thorns attached to it. It end was connected to a circular ball object which glowed red. The chain continued moving around his hand as if it was alive. Eidan looked at the man calmly as the other vampires also fought with him.

Seeing what Eidan was about to do as the chain started going down his hand until it touched the ground with Eidan holding the handle, the two vampires moved out of the way confusing the masked man as Eidan threw out the chain which got longer as it reached the man.

The masked man however saw it coming at him early and immediately rolled out of the way moving and picking his sword from the ground raising it to hold the chain which had turned to attack him mid air. With the chain stuck in the sword, the both of them struggled to gain victory over the other as they pushed trying to break the other's weapon away from him. The red ball on the end of the chain started to glow as it pointed towards the masked man face and he could also sense that one of the other was to attack him from the side so having no choice, he let go of the sword diverting the strange red blast that had come out of the red ball, rolling backwards and then doing a back flip successfully evading the other vampire's attack.

Upon landing, the man threw out some daggers towards the three, the daggers moving in a speed that seemed hard for even the vampires to dodge in time making them move out of the way. The ones which Eidan dodged moved forward going towards the humans but strangely before it reached, all the daggers stopped and then moved back to the masked man hands.

Again he threw them at the vampires with them barely dodging once again. This time however they didn't go back to the man instead moving his fingers, the daggers diverted and swinging his hands the dagger went for all three attacking them non stop. The vampires with difficulty were able to dodge the strikes but with the way it was going, they were likely going to get hit or even killed.

Behind the fight, Ralmond gritted his teeth as he watched the battle turn from their favor to them almost being massacred.

He looked at the woman who still had her eyes closed sitting and not doing anything. She was a very special one to him and one he had no interest in seeing fighting once again. The red pearl in his hand gave a faint glow and his gaze went to it wondering what it wanted to do. All of a sudden he felt a little jolt and his eyes glowed red showing him what truly was going on ahead.

"I see." A smirk appeared once more on his lips as he came to know what the masked man was doing. "An invisible thread."

Truly the masked man had not invisible but very thin transparent threads which was attached to the end of the handle of the daggers and with moving his fingers using the threads, he could move the daggers however he liked.

"This one is really good." Ralmond lamented inside him.

"Slash the air on the spots where the daggers are." Ralmond shouted to their hearing.

Hearing him, Mole immediatelyqslashed at the line it followed only for his attack to bounce in the air confirming that there was really something there. Eidan followed afterwards using his chain in striking all the lines that the daggers moved past and the sounds of hard thread cutting was heard and soon the daggers all felt to the ground.

"Bastard, you dare fight with dirty tricks." Sarah screamed at the masked man. " I will enjoy feasting of your blood."

As she finished speaking, she opened her palm wid, a glowing light appeared and out of nowhere something started to from slowly until a full spear appeared in her palm. It was made of a gold made rod connected a huge two edged bladeat the top. Mole also did the same thing but instead of a spear, his was a claw with two red blades, a red liquid dropping from the blades.

"Hmmm." The masked man voice came out for the first time. He looked at the torn cloak he wore and putting his hand on the shoulder, he tore of the cloak revealing a silver long coat which stopped just after his knee. The coat had around the waist region a belt which holded daggers all around it, a pair of swords on each side and a chained kunai on the right side was also being strapped to it. On his back was a long two edged sword which handle was made of a lion's head and then strong scales and the end was of the lion's tail. A pair of black gauntlets on his hands which had little silver lines connected from the top to the tips of the fingers which were also in silver and the black boots he wore having a glowing purple line beneath it.

The masked man took out the two swords at his sides holding them with them pointing backwards as he made a stance crouching a little with his right leg forward. The others also took their stance as both parties readied to strike. The masked man moved first, the purple glowing line getting brighter and in an instant he moved in a blur and striked with the sword at Eidan who managed to tilt his head but still got a huge cut in his cheek.

Everyone freezed. They had not even as seen him moving and in the next second, Eidan was already cut. If he hadn't followed his instincts, Eidan's head would have been rolling on the ground.

Quickly, he threw out a strike, his hand also becoming faster than before aiming to slash his head and just at the blow inches away from his face, the man had vanished and appeared behind him.

"Swoosh."

Blood spilled on the ground in an instant as Eidan coughed out a huge one out of his mouth. A stinging feeling came from his back and his eyes widened as he realized what it meant and his head turned slowly to witness the horror he didn't want to accept. Yet before his head could move fully,his body was alo falling apart. However before it finally did, the man striked again bringing his sword which he had raised above his head down in a clean straight swipe splitting the body once again in half.

In front of everyone's eyes, Eidan's body slumped to the ground cut like meat, dead.

Everywhere went silent only the sound of the wind moving being heard. There was one thought in the all the vampire's minds. "How did he become that fast."

However their time to think didn't last long as the man turned his head towards Mole and moved once again, thrusting the sword forward aiming for the heart to which Mole had blocked crossing his claws holding the sword in place. Sarah who had snapped out of the thought trance immediately moved thrusting her spear forward, her speed almost three times faster than before as her spear gave out a calm but terrific aura but the man had moved causing the spear to attack the air. Mole however immediately turned and slashed his left claw downwards at the man who had moved behind him causing him to counter the strike with his sword and then moving backwards as the red liquid sprayed out of the claw to which he avoided. He had just landed to see Sarah's spear a few inch from his face and quickly turned his body dodging the strike returning it with a kick in her belly sending her backwards and then he dashed at Mole who was also moving at him throwing a barrage of slashes to which he deflected with his swords and then when they got closer, deflecting one of the attacks with one sword, he struck slicing at the side of Moles belly as they moved past each other.

"Damn my injuries are not healing fast enough. What are in those swords." Mole thought, anger showing well in his expression.

Vampires usually had fast healing and as long as they weren't cut into two or their heads were not cut off, whatever injuries they sustained was quickly healed and back to normal but for some strange reason, the swords were making it slower than usual.

The masked man turned once again sending out another attack, his movement becoming faster to which Mole had blocked with a lot of difficulty and moved backwards giving way for Sarah who moved forward, as moving her spear in various attacks with trained and honed skills continuously striking at the man who dodged, blocked and deflected the attacks with mid difficulty. Mole joined her, both of them attacking with their bests and they seemed to be succeeding with their attacks becoming faster and slowly having the chances of hitting the man.

The masked man on his own was faring well fending off their attacks not giving attacks of his own as he waited for something. After a while, he saw what he was waiting for as immediately he moved faster than before as he dodged and grabbed the spear while at the same time thrusting the sword on his other hand stabbing Mole at the same place he had cut him a few moments ago. Pulling the spear towards him, the man sent a very powerful kick at Sarah's making her cough out blood sending her flying backwards hitting the ground with a thud.

Mole with difficulty had moved backwards, the sword coming out of his body while he also slashed at the man to make sure he didn't attack him while he retreated.

Ralmond who had been watching from behind them was sure his teeth might fall of from how much he gritted them in anger. He had gotten enough, turning his head to look at the last vampire sitting on the boulder still closing her eyes, he could only grit his teeth harder at what he was about to do.

"Damn this, get yourself over there now!! Maltida!!!!!."

The masked man moved again aiming to finish of Mole before the other regained her composure only for his sword to be forcefully knocked out of way as his eyes came in contact with the red eyed woman who had punched his strike aside.

"Mal....Al...Al...Maltida."

"Finally, I get to have fun once again."