We arrived at Rivenwood after some running. The villagers were out of their houses, gathered at the center of the village. The villagers’ eyes darted nervously, and uneasy silence settled over the crowd as fidgeting hands and whispered exchanges betrayed their anxiety as the tension was apparent.

  “We don’t know what’s coming ,but we should get ready to defend the village.” It seemed like they had been discussing the current situation until now.

  “No, we should escape!!”another argued, his hands curling into a fist “Nobody here knows how to fight and since adventurers stopped coming to this village, there is no way we could defend the village”

  A few murmurs of disagreement stirred, but quickly died down.

  None of the villagers seemed to have noticed that we had arrived. Bett cleared her throat as if to signal we were here.

  The villagers turned toward us, the tense expressions on their faces subduing a little by our appearance.

  “Oh Gale, thank goodness to see that you and your family are safe” said one of my fathers’ colleagues in the farm, letting out a sigh of relief, “We thought something had happened too you guys since the screams were coming from the direction of your house.”

  “We are safe for now, but I’m not sure how much time until the vampires arrive here” answered my father

  “Vam…..pires?” said the farmer, his eyes along with everyone present widening and looking at my father in disbelief.

  “It seems that the estimated time we predicted for the start of the invasion was very off. We had just been attacked by some vampires at the house-probably scouts. As we talk right now, the main army must be heading here” explained Bett.

  “….”

  The crowd fell into a stunned silence, their eyes breaking their gaze with Bett.

  “Damn, so we can’t survive, huh?” said one person with an almost broken voice.

  “Losing a fight before it began, huh? Well, I am also not sure if we could beat them as they outnumber us, but at least try to save your families and yourselves and get out of Rivenwood as fast as possible.”

  “……”

  Silence again.

  A hand was thrown up, followed by a hesitant voice, “I have around five carriages. There are around a hundred people here, so assuming five or six people on one carriage, we need about fifteen more carriages.”

  After a brief silence, others started speaking up.

  “I have two”

  “I have two as well”

  “I have one”

  In no time, we had twenty carriages. If we wanted to survive, this should be the best course of action, right?

  “Ok, everybody start getting ready with the needed necessities. Mount two horses on each carriage, that will give us more speed. Until then, we will try to hold the vampires off.” Even though she was in her late twenties, Bett was clearly a natural leader.

  “Gale, Kael, Trix, come with me.”

  ________

  After a little walk, the four of us arrived to the entrance of Rivenwood’s main village.

  “Gale, I need you to put up a tall wall at the entrance. I am not sure why the vampires haven’t arrived yet, even though the sounds are getting closer, but that works for us. Since they can fly over and change their entrance, make it as high and wide as you can.” She rummaged through a small bag, taking out something and threw it to my dad.

  “Here take this, it will boost your mana.” She went inside the bag again and took out two things, “You too kiddo” she said, keeping one for herself and throwing the other one to Trix.

  “Oh a high-level mana potion, these are rare. This will probably double my mana.” My father gulped down the potion, so did Trix and Bett. I understood why she didn’t give me one, it wouldn’t do anything to me.

  “Ok, Trix, Kael, we will take down any scouts that may come our way, be alert! We don’t want them to relay information to their allies, do we?” her voice was calm and composed, but it was sharp.

  We both nodded, readying for a battle that never came.

  My father worked and finished the wall but no vampires came. The sounds had also stopped for some time. It was very weird that they still hadn’t arrived, but, that would give us more time so it was a great win for us.

  We returned to the village center which was only two minutes away. The wall my dad has made stood tall, clearly visible.

  Everyone was ready and my mom was giving out blankets to people. It was probably her way of helping.

  “Alright everyone, good job, but, we aren’t done yet. We still have to escape. Since the vampires had stopped moving, we should use that time to escape.” Said Bett.

  The tension that had been felt when we first arrived couldn’t be really felt right now. The villagers had gained hope to survive and with Bett commanding us, I think we will. And, seeing how she took care of two vampires before, I thought she may take on more than a dozen or even more with our help.

  Almost every person in the village had already gotten on a carriage and we were the only one’s left. The carriage was too tall for my own good so my father had entered first to help. He first helped my mother in and as I was about to enter-

  “Oh good, you have not yet separated. This works in my favor. I will just kill you all painlessly” said a figure—no, a vampire—standing on the wall, closing opened wings that stuck out his back.

  “What the, we couldn’t hear the sound of their marches and flapping. I didn’t also feel anything. How did they get up there without me sensing them?” Bett turned around looking at the vampire.

  Everyone gaped and watched the figure with horror in their eyes, including me.

  The vampire, standing there looked down at us, his eyes sharp and dangerous. My father shouted, “Kael get in!!!” but I couldn’t. My legs were stuck, this was fear, the first ever feeling I had felt, it came back at me. This guy was dangerous.

  He then turned his attention to the carriages, “Oho, so, you are trying to escape.” He smirked raising his right hand, pointing his index finger towards us, ”Don’t dream of it. Squadron 1…….attack”

  This guy seemed like a maniac and he was surely the leader of the vampires. At his command, a few dozen vampires started flying towards us exuding a lustful killing intent. The horse probably sensing the vampires killing intent, panicked. They turned around and started running out of the village.

  Although that was the plan, we had been left here and if the vampires got them, this would have all been for nothing.

  I could only watch as my parents and every other villager left me, Trix and Bett to fight of these vampires.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Damn it…… I won’t let you through” shouted Bett.

  Even though I couldn’t sense mana, I could see it materialize and I knew a big move was coming.

  She didn’t do any footwork and just added magic to her sword. She used two types: Wind and fire magic. Then she boosted herself with wind magic to increase her speed and did some swift footwork from the fire style then-

  “IGNITE!!!”

  Her sword ignited with fire and on with the wind magic acting upon it, it was set ablaze. I could feel the heat on my skin from where I was standing. I could feel sweat forming on my face and I could see sweat on Trix’s head as well.

  “Kael!! Wear the cape that your father got you and cover yourself and Trix. This is gonna be hot” she shouted.

  I jumped over to Trix, covering the two of us with my cape.

  I couldn’t see anything but could hear a lot of slashes and fire burns. And a few moments later Bett told us to stand up.

  “It’s safe now, get up”

  We got up and the sight in front of me was unbelievable.

  Most of the vampires have been burned while the others had been cut in half. It was incredible—a one-sided massacre of fifty vampires.

  The vampire that was up opened his wings and started descending slowly clapping his hands.

  “Wow, you really are strong. You might have made it to the rank of a jade one day. But sorry to tell you that you will die by the hands of one today”

  “One of the Jades?” said Trix with a soft hesitant voice.

  Yeah, it was surprising, he was one of the ten strongest people in the world.

  “Let me introduce myself. Vampire general and fifth in the jades ranking: Drazor Velyx, at your service” he said, bowing down as if he had just finished a show.

  If he was telling the truth, we were doomed.

  “Damn… to think I would fight one of the ten jades. I have to go all out or I will lose” said Bett, smiling but gritting her teeth.

  “Oh, you think you will win, how interesting”

  I wanted to help in this fight, but considering her opponent, I would probably be more of a nuisance than help. Trix should know that as well or else she would have charged in by now. Damn it, all we can do is watch.

  “Ok then. Entertain me, human. Don’t let this end fast if you don’t want your friends that just escaped and those kids over there die faster.” He spoke with a lazy grin on his face. It was as if the idea of killing us all was just a game to him.

  With a click of a tongue, Bett was on the move ” Here I come.”

  She did the fire strikes form footwork and released five flames on the vampire. Some smoke built up but when it cleared-

  “Is that all you have. I though you were strong to kill most of the squadron’s soldier” Drazor was unscathed and he yawned, clearing the left smoke with his hands.

  I could see Betts’ eye brows furry. Maybe she was thinking that she would lose here. It was plausible against this opponent but we have to find a way to escape from this guy.

  Damn, if only I could share my ability with her. She could probably be able to damage him if she used ignite with his weak point. So where is it?

  I activated my ability and looked at Drazor. There were three points I could see. Two greens and one yellow. Next to red, the yellow one was the most critical one but still, I wasn’t sure if anything other than red can inflict damage to this guy with our attack power right now.

  “Master, I am not sure if you will believe me but, strike him near his waist.”

  She seemed confused, but I pointed at my eyes and she seemed to understand.

  “What’cha doing there?” asked Drazor, as if amused by what I was doing.

  He zoomed up to me and said, “Oh interesting eyes you got there, what do they do?”

  He was staring right into my eyes and I felt a lump in my throat, I was afraid of him, again.

  I stumbled back and landed on the ground.

  “Hey, I’m your opponent here” shouted Bett as she swung at Drazor, separating his gaze from mine.

  She continued, ”Kael, Trix, get out of here.”

  I wasn’t sure why or where she wanted us to go but there was probably a good reason for that.

  “Let’s get away from here Trix” I said, holding her hand.

  She wouldn’t move looked at me dumbfounded.

  “Huh?, what do you mean get away? How could you leave your master and aunt alone to fight a monster like this” she shouted pointing at Drazor.

  Huh? Yeah, what was I thinking? If we go away now, she would die. We may die together anyways but maybe we can help even a little bit. But still…. Ahhhh, damn it ok we have to stay. I won’t be losing someone I care about. But this kid... she thinks like an adult, doesn’t she?

  “Sorry master, but we can’t leave you” it was a little stiff but this was the best I could say if we wanted to stay.

  There was a little frustration on her face but she couldn’t do anything, we had made up our minds already.

  With a sharp inhale, she charged at Drazor once more, her sword blazing with magic. But again, he didn’t even move. No dodge, no flinch. He simply raised his hand, his expression bored.

  Every one of Bett’s strikes met with his index finger, each attack effortlessly parried. He wasn’t just winning—he was toying with her.

  “I’m bored, maybe I should just kill you all.” said Drazor

  “Damn…” Bett said. She started attacking again and again. She was getting desperate.The only thing that can probably inflict high damage on him is attacking his waist using ignite. There were other moves in the fire style that may have been able to damage him a lot as well but the amount of mana she need for that is very high.

  As I was thinking about this, I could hear the sounds of a horse. It was coming from behind us. I turned around and saw a horse and a figure on it. The figure started being more visible and the figure was my dad.

  “Kael, are you okay?” said my father mounting off his horse and approaching me.

  “Yeah, I am fine but I don’t know for how long we are safe” I replied implying him to see Bett.

  She was still desperately attacking and Drazor was effortlessly blocking.

  “What the-, even Bett can’t do anything to that guy. Who is he?” asked my father a little composed for the situation.

  “Drazor, from the Ten jades” I replied

  “TEN JADES!!!???……If that’s the case, I’m not sure that even if all of us helped we would win.” said my father who was clearly very surprised. Even though he was very scared when he heard about the vampires before, it seems that he got calm but still, some sweat come down from his face, reminding me that the situation was very bad.

  Well, we have to get out of here,” my father said, his voice low and tinged with a chilling calm. His eyes flickered briefly toward Bett, locked in her desperate stand against Drazor, and for a heartbeat, I wondered if he was already weighing the cost of leaving her behind.

  Trix’s voice sliced through the tension, sharp and unyielding. “No way are we abandoning Master to fight alone!”

  I nodded fiercely, words rising in my throat to back her up—but before I could speak, Bett’s voice rang out, steady and deliberate. “Hold on, Drazor.”

  The vampire cocked his head, his lips curling into a faint, mocking grin. “Oh? What’s this now?”

  “You’re here for a show, aren’t you?” Bett said, her gaze narrowing as she measured him. “I’ll give you one—everything I’ve got, one last strike. Just give me a moment to prepare.”

  Drazor chuckled, a low, amused sound that sent a shiver down my spine. “A final gambit? I’m not fond of desperate ploys, but if you’re offering your full strength…” He shrugged, his dark wings twitching. “Fine. Five minutes. Impress me.”

  “Thank you,” Bett replied, her tone clipped and resolute. She turned to us, her eyes finding Trix and me in an instant. “Trix, Kael—I didn’t want it to end like this, but…”

  “Wait, what do you mean—” Trix started, but Bett was already moving. In a flash, she slipped behind Trix and brought her hand down in a swift, precise chop to the neck. Trix’s protest died mid-sentence as she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

  “Bett!” my father barked, stepping forward, his face a storm of shock and dread.

  “Get them out of here,” Bett said, her voice firm but threaded with a quiet ache. “I’ll hold him off as long as I can.”

  Her words crashed into me like a tidal wave. She was giving herself up—for us. “No!” I choked out, shaking my head. “We’re not leaving you!”

  Bett turned to me, her expression softening into something tender and pained. “Kael…” She hesitated, her hand hovering near my shoulder before falling away. “I’m sorry this happened right before your birthday. I’d planned to find you something special tomorrow—a real gift. But since I won’t make it…” Her voice faltered, just for a fraction of a second.

  She pressed her palm to her chest, and her armor shimmered, retracting like liquid metal folding inward. It gathered into a small, ornate orb, its surface etched with faint, glowing runes. She held it out to me, her fingers trembling ever so slightly. “This is a magical implement from my partner. I told you you’d meet him someday—well, that day’s now. Take this to the Bell Kingdom. Show it to any knight, and they’ll take you to him.”

  I stared at the orb, its weight heavier than it should have been in my hands. My chest tightened as I looked up at her. “Bett, I can’t—”

  “Happy birthday, Kael,” she cut in, her smile warm yet heartbreakingly fleeting. For a moment, I felt my guard slip, lulled by the kindness in her eyes—but I snapped it back, tensing my neck against what I knew was coming.

  She turned to my father, unclipping a small leather pouch from her belt and tossing it to him. “Thanks for letting me borrow this. There’s about thirty gold pieces inside—enough to get you by.”

  He caught it, his fingers closing around it as a sad, wistful smile crossed his face. “You kept it all this time, huh? Ten years.”

  “Yeah,” Bett said softly, a faint echo of fondness in her voice. “And don’t come looking for me. I’ll burn it all—myself included. Just… take care of the kids.”

  Before I could brace myself fully, her hand struck—a quick, merciful blow to my neck. The world faded to black.

  I woke to the rhythmic thud of hooves against packed earth, my body swaying gently with the motion of the horse. My father’s voice, tense but steady, cut through the fog in my mind. "You were out for about three minutes, Kael."

  Blinking against the haze, I realized we were riding away from Rivenwood, the village shrinking in the distance. Trix lay slumped against my father’s back, still unconscious, her small frame limp like a ragdoll. I twisted in the saddle, my gaze drawn to the horizon where thick plumes of smoke clawed at the sky, and flames danced wildly from what had once been our home.

  Bett had done it—she’d set the village ablaze, just as she’d promised. And that meant… she was gone.

  The weight of it settled over me like a lead cloak, pressing the air from my lungs. I tried to speak, to ask if there was any chance she’d made it out, but the words tangled in my throat. My father’s silence mirrored my own, heavy and unbroken, as we rode toward the distant flicker of lanterns where the villagers had gathered.

  When we arrived, the air was thick with grief and disbelief. My father dismounted first, gently lifting Trix’s still form and carrying her to the carriage where my mother waited, her face pale and drawn. I slid down from the horse, my legs unsteady beneath me, and wandered away from the murmurs of the crowd. I couldn’t bear to hear the questions, the condolences—not yet.

  I found a spot on the edge of the camp, where the ground sloped just enough to offer a clear view of Rivenwood’s smoldering remains. The sun was beginning to rise, its pale light spilling over the horizon, but it did nothing to warm the chill that had seeped into my bones. The fire raged on, fiercer now, as if fueled by the loss it had claimed.

  I sat there, staring at the flames, my mind replaying Bett’s last words, her warm smile, the weight of the orb she’d pressed into my hands. My fingers tightened around it, the runes cool against my skin. She’d given me a path forward, even in her final moments—but it didn’t make the ache any less suffocating.

  Footsteps crunched softly behind me, and Trix lowered herself to the ground beside me, her eyes red-rimmed and glistening. For a long while, neither of us spoke, the silence thick with shared sorrow.

  Finally, Trix broke it, her voice small and raw. “I just heard from your dad. She’s really gone, isn’t she?”

  I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat making it difficult to breathe. Bett had been more than just a mentor to Trix—she’d been her savior, her anchor. And now, she was ash on the wind.

  “Yeah,” I managed, my voice sounding distant, almost detached. It felt wrong, too casual for the gravity of the moment, but I didn’t know how else to respond. This was the first time I’d lost someone I truly cared about in this life-no, in both lifes, and the ache was sharper than I’d expected.

  Silence stretched between us again, thick and oppressive. Beneath the grief, something darker stirred inside me—rage, hot and unrelenting, curling like smoke in my chest. I clenched my fists, the urge to scream, to lash out, nearly overwhelming.

  “I’m going to kill him,” Trix said suddenly, her voice icy and resolute, cutting through the quiet like a blade.

  I’d been thinking the same thing, the thought circling my mind like a vulture. It struck me then that in all my years—both in this life and the one before—I’d never sworn off killing. Now, I was glad I hadn’t. Some debts demanded blood.

  “Me too,” I said, my voice hardening. “But…”

  “We need to get stronger first,” Trix finished, her gaze locked on the burning village. “I know.”

  For a moment, our shared resolve hung in the air, fierce and unbreakable. We were of one mind, bound by the same purpose: Drazor would pay, no matter how long it took.

  Trix shifted beside me, her voice softening. “Oh, and… happy birthday, Kael. I’m sorry it had to be like this.”

  She stood abruptly, her back to me as she walked away, but not before I caught the glint of tears on her cheeks. She didn’t want me to see her cry, didn’t want to show weakness—not now, not when the path ahead demanded strength.

  I stayed where I was, staring at the flames until they blurred through the tears that slipped down my own face. Bett had been my master, my aunt, my family. And now, she was gone. But I wouldn’t let her death be in vain. Drazor—no, every vampire who’d dared to invade our lives—would answer for this.

  I’d make sure of it.