The Fallen Vampire

Taira let his eyes drift toward the bridge where the members of the Drifting Snowfall Sect were possibly mere moments away from dying.

'Time to see how good my control is...'

Taira closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could on the foxfire within his body.

He hadn't gotten a whole lot of chances to study this new power of his yet, but from what he had observed so far he knew that his fox fire was more like another extension of his body than his other elements.

Therefore, it was a fair bit easier for him to use than his other powers and made what he was about to attempt seem like a much less daunting task.

But still, this would be a pretty crazy thing to attempt for the first time with no prior practice.

Expanding his mind to it's absolute most functionality, he put together the schematics for the spell he had in mind piece by piece.

When it was done, he was extremely proud of himself.

"Arcane Foxfire : Avenger's Guided Arrow."

The blue flames surrounding Taira and the girls started to flicker chaotically like a light show.

Bits of them began to peel off of his body, and formed one hundred arrows made from bright blue flame.

Taira let out a thoughtful breath as a sort of 'barrier' within his mind was broken through, and his aura increased in refinement.

'Second Star...'

"How... did you just do that?" Enyo asked with an open mouth.

"It took me years to reach second star... but you've done it after only a couple months of study...!" Lucia gasped.

In his monstrous form, Taira smiled as he waived away the surprise of the girls.

"You girls are jumping the gun a bit. Can't you wait till I actually show you what my spell does before you become impressed?"

After giving a simple mental command, the arrows floating above Taira shot towards the bridge with small sonic booms.

The projectiles rained down onto the bridge like homing missiles, seeking out only the members of the snowfall sect and sailing directly into their bodies.

Upon being struck, the girls felt themselves becoming warmer instantly, and the mortal danger they were facing appeared to have been staved off.

Coincidentally, there were a few members of Duncan's army who saw the way that their enemy forces were warming up and regaining color in their faces, and they became greedy.

They lunged to either tackle the women who were engulfed in flames or snatch one of the arrows out of the sky.

But upon coming into contact with the blue flames, they learned that instead of receiving warmth they were plagued with abysmal heat instead.

It was so drastic that they were beginning to melt within seconds, and they they found no reprieve or any sort of relief anywhere.

Abbess Setsuka looked around at the wondrous blue flames that had sprung up around her and she smiled in appreciation.

"Now isn't this something.... Such a seemingly dark man with an overwhelmingly beautiful power."

"YOU!!"

A loud roar shook the entire cavern, and Setsuka covered her ears while making an annoyed expression.

Just like how Setsuka was taking in the scene of the battlefield, so too was Duncan.

But he looked a little different at present.

His spell, Avatar of Winter's Wrath had caused a suit of pure and icey armor that resembled that of a classic samurai from fourth century Japan, complete with a demonic helmet and crystallized wings like that of a western dragon.

Duncan was not only interested in the technicalities of this new spell, but he was also interested in it's source.

His eyes traveled towards the Sect compound, where he found a large nightmarish fox with eight swaying tails wrapped in a storm of cobalt blue flames.

But more surprising than that, there was a woman standing right next to the beast while looking very chilly.

He had only seen her once before, but she was every bit as infuriatingly pretty as she was on the day of her selection ceremony.

That day, he had been a bit upset that she hadn't chosen him, and instead opted for baby face Vance instead.

He hated that guy almost as much as he hated the first hero.

And back then, he hated the fact that a girl as pretty as Vermeil was choosing Vance over him!

He was way more accomplished than that guy!

And yet he was the one she was ogling?!

Because he was a bloody cultivator?!

Why the fuck did that matter?!

To make matters worse, it would come out a few weeks later that the young girl was a monster lover, and had betrayed every one of the races of light to run off and join the damn animals in the zoo!

No wonder she was here!

"We should have guessed that you'd be in some place like this! Slinking around with the fallen like a maggot crawling through shit!"

Vermeil felt her hands start to tremble s she backed away into Taira's fur.

Reflexively, he wrapped one of his tails around her and pulled her as close to him as he could for protection, and growled at the rambling human menacingly.

Not only him, even Keran and Enyo stood in front of Vermeil protectively; the sight of which only added to what Duncan already found to be an absurd situation.

Addled with rage, Duncan waved his hand and a sword as long as his body appeared in his hand.

"You have no idea just how bad they want your head... They'll respect me more when I bring it to them..!"

This would show them all!

He didn't need that cultivator nonsense, in this world Arcane Arts were the true school that stood above all!

As he materialized sharp, thorny blades of ice to launch at Vermeil from his position in the air, the familiar voice of an old woman played in his ear.

"How rude. You already have a dance partner."

BOOOMMM!

Setsuka appeared overhead in a gust of wind, and swung her cane like a battering ram towards the head of the icy samurai.

Surprisingly, Duncans reaction time was not near as terrible as before, and he raised his katana to block the blunt attack with ease.

"I haven't forgotten you at all, you old bat... You are going to help me prove once and for all that cultivation is inferior to Arcane Arts..!"

"What a silly debate to have. Children these days truly have nothing better to do."

"You bitch!"

Duncan and Abess Setsuka started to exchange blow after blow that shook the walls of the cavern around them.

Truthfully, the Abbess was rather surprised to see that her adversary had seemed to receive a notable degree of training that made him quite adept at swordsmanship.

But that wasn't the real problem with her opponent.

Whatever the spell he used from earlier was, it did a lot more than just give him this fancy new suit of armor.

It strengthened his physical body beyond what could be considered a normal degree, and it was as if his entire body were now like a glacier.

A sturdy, powerful mass of ice that could only be melted by the hottest of temperatures.

In addition, every exchanged attack with him was transmitting cold qi over from his weapon to hers; chilling her right to the bone.

To affect even a sovereign realm cultivator as only a four star mage... these heroes were frighteningly talented indeed.

'So much hate fuels this kind of spell... Who have you devised this for, boy? Who could have possibly slighted you so terribly?'

Abess Setsuka had actually begun to pity her opponent just a bit, but it did nothing to change the fact that she was going to win this battle.

'I guess I've warmed up these old bones of mine enough. These martial arts take so much more out of me than they used to...'

Setsuka broke the deadlock she had been locked in with Duncan and kicked him hard in the chest, forcing a separation.

Suddenly, the simple wooden cane that Setsuka had been twirling around changed into a wooden staff with no flaws or blemishes.

"Elusive Wind Staff : Gentle Surge."

Duncan gritted his teeth as he watched his hated adversary pull another disappearing act in this annoying confrontation.

He figured she would try to attack him from above once again since that clearly seemed to be her favorite method, but nothing like that ever occurred.

Instead, she reappeared in front of him as plain as day and as defenseless as a regular old lady.

He almost wanted to walk up to her defenselessly as if she were his very own grandma and ask her for cookies and a long story about the time in high school where a boy from 'the bad side of town' asked her to the school dance.

You know, harmless grandma things.

He didn't even think to question this sudden tranquil feeling of familiarity and easiness, and completely dropped his guard without realizing it.

Smiling harmlessly, Setsuka Brough her staff to his head and tapped him a single time like she was knocking on a door.

Thunk.

BOOOMM!!!

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