it's good to be back!
.................
Greem and Mary didn't even take ten steps when the former discovered that they had pursuers.
It turned out his display had made him a high priority target for the enemy. The feedback from his various drones and sensory abilities told him that the dragons and Third Grade Dragon Knights Willis commanded were headed for him at their fastest speed.
They would reach their little group of First Grades in seconds. How they'd fare against five Third Grade and two Second Grade beings was obvious enough that it did not need to be said.
"Mary. We need to hurry," he said, his voice nearly a whisper, conveying the bulk of the details about the sudden development through their spiritual connection.
To her credit, Mary didn't display much shock. She just squeezed her face into an intense frown that somehow conveyed "I fucking knew this was going to happen" as she relayed new orders to her knights.
One of them left his position and joined her and Greem on the latter's other side, supporting him there with an arm around the shoulder. Right after that, five pairs of bat wings burst in existence with flashes of red and those they were attached took to the air.
By now even Mary and her knights could sense the mass of overwhelming auras closing on them like a thick prickly blanket, the hair on the napes standing on end.
"Isaac, full speed ahead. The rest of you, behind me. Keep the idiots away," the agitated vampire barked out orders to her thralls, the unsaid words and their deeper meanings conveyed perfectly through their blood connection.
Things quickly changed as her commands were executed. The four guarding knights flashed behind the conjoined trio and they all turned into blurs with a bowel loosening number of determined dragons gaining on them.
At the halfway distance to the camp, a dragon and its knight drew close enough. The latter stood on his partner and his sword turned into a bright white beam, the dense energy arcing off it with a swing.
Perhaps under Mary's direction or from his own initiative, the thrall holding on to the chained radiant knight slowed down right as the blinding crescent twice his size sliced towards their group.
He spun twice to generate enough momentum and simply let his cargo go, tossing the dying knight at the energy beam fired by his own superior.
A bright explosion of white ensued, the knight reduced to nothing and the ensuing shockwaves destabilizing the movements of the fleeing group and slowing them down a tad.
As the one responsible for this and the one nearest to ground zero, the vampire knight got hit with the brunt of the attack and fell behind as a result, the distance between him and compatriots widening and the one between him and the enemy shortening.
Another light crescent shot out, this time aimed for him. Despite his concentration faltering due to the intense shockwaves ravaging his insides earlier, he managed to sense the attack and react in time.
Right before the runic energy slash hit him, he transformed into a group of bats and the attack sailed through the gaps… or should've.
In the very center of his fragmented form, the light crescent lost its shape and erupted.
A second sun lit up briefly and consumed him, a dragon flying through the smoke and after effects with a roar and the violent rush of wind, dispersing both like it and the vampire never existed.
The fleeing group were not far from the camp and the defensive line in front of it. They'd arrive in five seconds tops. Unluckily for them, the dragons and their riders grew even more motivated when they saw their destination.
They'd get to kill more of the pesky invaders.
Drawing close to Greem and co again, the dragon chose to attack this time, unleashing a far reaching stream of noxious green venom that shot towards their backs like a jet.
A vampire knight jumped right into its path, intercepting the attack with his body. Unfortunately, slowing it was all he could do, the breath attack of a Second Grade dragon too much for his mere First Grade physique and abilities to withstand.
He fell to the ground as a rapidly evaporating pool of green smudge and the jet resumed. Another of the blood knights jumped into its path and met the same fate, but right as he succumbed, another was there to take his place.
Mary and Greem, even with their gazes forward, sensed everything going behind them and grimaced at the sights, the vampire in particular grinding her teeth and her eyes dripping blood.
Greem wanted to apologise, but he knew this wasn't the time. If he had the booster still strapped to his back, this wouldn't have happened. He'd have arrived in the camp and no time, and Mary and her thralls would've wisely split in different directions.
But, because he didn't want to reveal his true capabilities. Because he wanted the clan to think the booster was damaged or out of energy, he'd put it away and now they were paying for it.
'Fuck the clan. Fuck Adept culture, and fuck me.'
By the time they arrived and crashed into the camp, Mary had lost the four knights supposed to guard her and Greem. Their group had sustained injuries as well, the last knight's sacrifice occurring too close to them.
Smoke rose from each of their backs, the stray splatter of the venom eating through their armor and leaving holes of varying size, all of them refusing to close and a few of them that were see-through.
The three of them—Isaac, Mary, and Greem—stumbled into the tower alongside their fellow Adepts, the two clan Third Grades passing by them and giving them pointed glances on the way out.
Being Mary's subordinate and programmed with a single mindedness towards her safety, Isaac had no opinion on this. Neither did his mistress. Only Greem met the gazes of their superiors and took time to consider the implications of them joining the battlefield.
Due to the inherent weaknesses of the knight path compared to the Adepts', one on one battles between the same grades were lopsided in the Adepts' favor.
By joining hands too or through some unique means like Greem just showed, it was possible for the First Grades to confront and even kill the Second grade knights.
Now that actual Third Grade Adepts were joining the fight, it meant the radiant knights were done. The Third Grades would also not be able to run around so easily.
'I'm willing to bet even the Third Grades won't be that difficult. And when Willis sees that, he'll join the battle himself and Lord Sarubo will move.'
Unable to find the strength to smile at his desires getting so close to being fulfilled, Greem let his lover and her knight help to the tower's second floor and into a room Fügen directed them to.
They sat him on the bed and he and Mary looked at each other, the latter looking at him with worry despite the pain and rage trying and failing to overtake her features.
"I'm sorry," Greem said with a sigh, his gaze going sullen and massive shoulders slumping. "I didn't know they would react like that, and you paid the price. I'm sorry."
"What are you talking about?" Confusion temporarily took the place of rage on Mary's features. "I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at them," she said, transitioning to spiritual whisper and bringing quiet to the room, "the clan. They're the ones who sent us to fight Second and Third Grades while they had their own just sitting around watching."
Greem's eyebrow rose in equal confusion, unable to read his lover properly for the first time. "But… your knights…"
Mary closed her eyes and shook her head, smiling. "I'm angry about that too. It's my power that has been stripped away. All that work, the blood essence… gone. But I don't blame you, because that would be stupid. You gave me the power in the first place, and even though it hurts to lose it, I'm also glad I got to help you like you've been helping me."
"I…don—" Greem remained stumped for a good moment before finding words. "I'll make sure you don't regret it. I swear I'll make it up to you ten times over."
"I know you will. Now please. Drink your potions or do that healing thing you do. I can see through the holes in your stomach."
Greem chuckled and looked down at his pockmarked and perforated midsection, tinges of green spreading from the wounds. He'd managed to lock down and isolate the venom in them, but they were tricky to get rid of.
They were from an attack of a Second Grade creature. Even with his copious life energies, it would take him sometime to exhaust the poison elementium in the wounds and finally close them up.
Or he could cut or burn the affected pieces of flesh away and let his body heal. Allerdyce came to mind immediately, but why go that messy route when he could simply ingest a detoxification potion.
'I haven't needed potions in a while.'
Aware of the scrutiny of the resident Sixth Grade, he kept any method healing shenanigans on hold and downed potion after potion, letting them do the work of putting him back together.
To the clan, he'd taken a severe beating in the fight against the radiant knight and during the escape from the dragons and their riders. He had to play the part.
As he, Mary and Isaac sat in the silence and healed with their preferred methods, a knock sounded on the door. He waved the two vampires to focus on their healing and stood up with a groan.
The door swung open under the direction of his Spirit and a familiar chill washed over him.
"Lord Fügen."
A loud clang reminiscent of metal reverberated through the room as the ice Adept waved his hand and dropped a block of ice in its center. He then twisted his head from side to side, gazing at Mary, Isaac and then back at him.
"This is yours now. You can use it to appease her. Maybe she'll forgive you," the Second grade Adept said with a rare smile as he turned and walked away.
Greem cocked an eyebrow and peeked his head out of the room to look at the retreating Adept's back, feeling Mary's head join his below. They twisted their heads and locked eyes before focusing back on him.
"What the hell was that?"
"I guess… he liked my performance?"
Both of them doubtful that that was the case, looked a little longer before shutting the door and returning their attention to the room and what he left behind.
They both drew close to the refrigerator sized block of ice, Mary in particular circling it with hungry eyes, her fangs extending past her lips.
If Greem had fangs, they too would be exposed and be eager to sink into the ice block's content. Though in his case, the lust would be for knowledge not blood like his lover.
He lost the Veritas Scanner, the radiant knight, and all that juicy information about the runic energy and life force merging when the first knight threw him to intercept the Third Grade's attack.
He wasn't really bothered that much since he could recreate the scanner easily and would soon be chasing down the list of names. Him losing the knight and the secrets in his body like this was like losing a few pieces of the puzzle when he knew that an entire duplicate set was located in another place.
Still, having even a few pieces was nice and even beneficial in some ways. It told him a lot about what to expect and improved the ideas and preparations he had for the entire picture.
So when he gazed into the crystal blue block and saw the Radiant knight within it stuck in a seemingly calm, eternal sleep, his eyes brightened and his mouth stretched into a wide smile.