The soldiers shuffled to the side and awaited attack, and possibly, inevitable death. Draven's opponents charged with a mighty cry and he dodged to the side in one fluid move. His enemy swiveled in his direction. His menacing eyes were blazing red and his silver armour made the rest of his features hard to ignore. His opponents thrust their swords forward, only to be met by the knight's sword. All the swords met in the air with a resounding 'clang'. I watched from the smoke screen. It was a bit hazy but from his movements I could say, that man was a master swordsman. After finishing all these bunch of bastards, I would make sure the cuffs stayed on his hands otherwise, I had doubts my head would be kept intact on my shoulders.

I swung my knife just in time before the commander's sword came down on my shoulder. He had lost nearly half of his men and his red teary eyes— caused by tear gas— and canines converged hot flames of rising anger. He was crafty and held great power in his arms that my hands felt tired by now. If only I could use my gun... 

Sweat coated my body and little gasps replaced my calm breathing but there were at least ten men I had yet to finish. It would not take long but I felt they had enormous amount of strength in their skin as well. In each cut I had to put extra effort to chop off their arms or legs or heads. What was their skin made of? Steel? They could be Superman's ancestors or vice versa. 

Their commander circled away from me, keeping his sword in motion and continually changing his guard and stance. He roared angrily and slashed down at my head. I countered by raising my sword high and striking horizontally. His blow offset mine, and the tip of his sword sliced cleanly across my face mask. Damn that Thanos's non existent son! 

"Hey! My mask is very expensive, you bull!" I angrily said and stepped back. He smirked wickedly. 

"I would have been glad if that was your neck," he said still circling and searching his opportunity to attack. 

My eyes fell on Draven again and found three of the soldiers were already dead and the remaining one was tired with a big wound on his abdomen. His hands shook and legs had weakened but the knight, his curled up lips that said he was having fun. 'If I am to die, I shall fight till my last breath,' his opponent shouted with renewed vigor, and slashed his blade back and forth. His wounds began bleeding openly. Draven dodged his attacks by sidestepping and his sword tore through the bleeding man's chest. He pulled out the sword which was heavily stained with blood of the dead soldier's and looked in our direction. 

His red eyes met mine. They were sharp, daunting and dangerous. His strong face now turned dark as if he was the prince of darkness. He took long strides and neared us while I noticed the slight movement from the corner of my eye and blocked the commander's attack. 

I pushed him back and swung my sword. He dodged it while my left hand moved to his stomach with the knife but he stepped back and held my hand. I elbowed him which made him groan and I punched his face with the sword's hilt and a cracking sound came from his nose. His nose started to bleed while he tried to gain his balance and I punched his face again and again and again, until his grip loosened on my left hand. 

"Arrr!" He roared and charged with his sword raising at me as I prepared my sword to take the hit. Then he stopped midway. My brows tied into a tight knot when his head came off from his shoulder and his body motionlessly hit the dirt. 

I narrowed my gaze at the silver knight who stood with his sword, blood dripping from it. The smoke was almost gone and now his face was clear with his red eyes gleaming and those sexy canines. He held his sword like he held his crown of battle and his dark look was fascinating to watch. I bit my lower lip. 

"You took your time," he said and threw the sword. 

I looked around and saw the remaining soldiers that were already dead. How fast was he? 

I coughed, "Yeah. Good things take time."

"That's mine." He pointed at my right hand where the giant sword was. 

"And why do you think I would give it to you?"

He took a step and I frowned. He wasn't going to start a fight, was he? Given in the situation, I was exhausted and he was a skilled warrior. It wouldn't take him a minute to kill me. My heart pounded in my ears and I tightened my grip on my weapons. 

"One soldier is missing," he informed. 

"What?"

"There were ten soldiers besides their commander and I've killed nine. He must've escaped."

"You count when you kill?" I asked. 

He shrugged, "old habit."

I nodded. "What was the largest number you've killed last?"

He gave me a sinister look with a smirk which gave me cold sweats. 

"Three..."

"Only three?" 

"...hundred."

A gape formed on my mouth and I tried to grope my wrist for my smartwatch. 

"What? Afraid?" He asked taking another step and I stepped back. 

"Wha-what? No! I don't get afraid!" I tried to find my confidence and finally found my wrist which was, to my surprise, was unblemished. 

"Then, why is your heart beating so loudly?" He took another step. 

My cheeks felt as if someone had roasted them. "My heart? Now you can hear it, can't you?"

"Our hearing is far superior than a human, that's what I've heard." A smirk played across his face while he took another step. 

I nodded. "Of course. Now you'll say you suck blood."

"I do." He stopped midway casting a questioning glance at me, I almost mirror his expression. 

"You... suck blood?"

"I don't suck blood. I drink blood."

The Newton's apple hit me hard. 

"You are a vampire?" I blurted out my question before I realized. I took in his appearance and he had red eyes, canines and pale skin. Definitely a vampire. I controlled my mouth from shouting 'Eureka' three times. "A real one?"

He narrowed his gaze and I regained my composure, "I... Of course, I know..." I let out a nervous chuckle, "I mean... I was just checking if you are-are a prince or a knight," I nodded. 

He narrowed his eyes a little more then he gave a sweet smile which clearly looked like a smiling tiger's, "Of course, a knight! What else would I be? I would not call myself a Prince."

"Yes! Exactly! You certainly don't look like a prince," I looked at his smooth skin and my unashamed eyes gaped at his sharp jaw, chin and high cheekbones. His eyes which turned into beautiful golden orbs glinted like the bright summer suns and his dark brows were actually perfectly shaped, but currently furrowed in a frown.

"You are... so... unmanly." His broad shoulders and bold thighs said otherwise. His raven hair and Adonis like face was carefully structured as if God had moulded him just to spoil these eyes. "Princes are supposed to look like... err... very handsome. But you are very, very ugly."

He snapped his head at me, "Ugly?"

"Yeah, why?" I crossed my hands over my chest, "nobody told you the truth before?"

His left eyebrow twitched and I bit my lip to stop myself from bursting out in laughter. He stomped away and headed towards Jinx while his armour clanked angrily with his movements. I followed him. 

He hopped on his furry friend's back and I, on the other hand, held his giant sword in my hand. It was damn heavy. 

"Try not to lose my sword," he said without looking at me. 

Ah, well. When your enemy had a big sword with them, you gotta snatch it away to save your ass. However, what didn't do justice for this matter was that the metal thing was heavier than my sniper rifle. 

Gotta save my ass, eh! 

I looked around, we were surrounded by only giant wild trees. Most of the trees seemed like the strange ones but none of them felt as if they were as strange as the Darkdelve Forest's. Still, I wasn't sure if we were in Darkdelve Forest or another one but I didn't have a clue of any routes. 

"So, how much time it'll take us to reach Darkdelve?" I asked. 

"One day. If we ride without stopping by anywhere but I'm thirsty."

"I'll find you water, " I tilted my head toward the dead bodies of the soldiers. 

"What I meant was, I want blood, not water." I looked at him. 

"Then there is plenty of blood here." I pointed at the pool of blood not far from us. 

"You are not serious! What I need is human blood."

"But isn't everyone's blood the same?"

He looked at me like I had asked something stupid. Well, I didn't know. 

"A vampire can't drink a vampire's blood. They go insane," he informed. I shrugged. "Fine! Let's get you find some human blood." His gaze fell on my neck, his gaze was enough to make a chill run down my spine. I quickly pulled up the fabric of my shirt over my neck.

"By human means not myself, by the way. Don't look at my neck." I tapped my smart watch and instantly his hands were cuffed. 

He grunted. 

*****

We headed south and I found I desperately needed a map or better, Zero. Dyson's artificial intelligence was amazing at scanning the areas and creating digital maps. But here, lack of WiFi and no network, disconnected my location thus Zero would not able to find me or contact me. 

I felt a gaze boring on the back of my head. 

"What?" I asked. 

"If you were hired, how come you didn't know that vampires can't drink their own blood?" He asked. 

"Err... I knew it, but I just forgot about that detail," I lied and he hummed, I could feel him bobbing his head.

"What had they promised instead of my head?" He asked and I looked up ahead to see the forest trail meeting with the village road.

I shrugged, "Um... Well, some bucks?" I wasn't sure who and what the hell he was talking about. But better go with the flow. 

"Of course, how much gold coins?" His question sounded strained, probably because of his clenched teeth.

In this historical place, their money wouldn't worth a penny but when it comes to gold, it worth a shot. 

"You wouldn't imagine." I tightened my hold on the reins. I could feel he was trying to juice out information from me but I had nothing to offer him. 

"I'll give you land with twice as much as Zedan had given you," he proposed. 

That's too tempting but I didn't need his money or land. Not now, at least. I needed Dyson. He probably was in danger and I got a sick feeling about whatever matters were going on around here.

"In this case, I don't need your land or anything else." No answer came from his side. 

"Have you taken an oath?" He asked. 

"Maybe. Who knows?" Oaths and I walked different paths from each other. I gave a poop to oaths. Those were just fake words with no meaning behind them. Besides, I was quite good at breaking them. 

My eyes moved at my left forearm and clenched my teeth as my mind played old sickening memories of the iron embedded tattoo that my father had given me. That was a long time ago. 

"Besides, why would Zedan hire a witch to fight against us?" He muttered, it sounded as if the question wasn't directed to me.

"What is it that he's promised you? I don't think only money can satisfy a witch. What else has he promised?" He asked and I felt his questions grating my nerves.

"Whatever he has promised me is my problem, okay? I'm not obliged to answer you." I snapped at him.

"But—"

"Enough talking. You're wasting your time as well as mine." There were two roads that led two different places. The forest was behind us. "I want you to show me the way of Darkdelve."

"Why Darkdelve?"

"Because I like that forest." I rolled my eyes, "just show me the way." I put extra effort on my words. 

He let out a sigh and asked, "You're not from Slithrot, are you?"

I bit my lip, "and why would you say that?"

"You don't know Darkdelve is in Slithrot."

"That's not the issue here. Just show me the way." He was indeed clever. 

"Fine. Let's get you to The Darkdelve forest."

One thing I learned from my missions and from my father was, never trust your enemy. Always stay one step ahead of them. It took several bullets, two grenades and probably hundred lashes to understand this simple thing. And this knight wasn't exactly saying he would help me. Why would he? It was his place, his era and I wasn't aware of anything.

I bit my lip in frustration. It was highly predictable that he would lead me to his troops and capture me. 

"Don't try to form plans so you can lead me to the wrong way." I said, hoarsely trying to stable my voice. He wasn't a simple knight. Taking his armour in consideration, he was pretty wealthy and if he was leading the troops that only meant he had some great brain in that pretty skull and also a good position in the military ranks.

"I wasn't going to." I could feel his scoff. "But, if we are going to The Darkdelve, then we're proclaiming our deaths."

I nodded, "And why's that?"

"Three reasons: it's in Slithrot- my enemy kingdom and the roads that leads to Darkdelve is full of enemy troops which is why it's impossible for us to enter as we are only two persons-" he took a breath. 

"And third?" 

"Oh! Why? You're from Slithrot, that means you must know the third reason." I could feel his smirk in his words. 

I clenched my fists and crossed my hands over my chest, "Fine! I'm not!"

"Assumed as much," he scoffed, "Third, it's vampires cannot enter the forest."

"Why?" I burrowed my brows. 

"The forest is infamous for witches and sorcerers. Though, we have already killed all of them, it's said The Darkdelve forest has dead witches' spirits so, it's cursed. Whoever went there never came back."

My hand supported my jaw while a thought crashed on me. That Lushberg general had said they had captured me from Darkdelve forest. Was he lying? If that forest was forbidden then what were the soldiers doing in it? Everything got clouded in my head. 

Only one thing could give me answers.

"Lead the way. We're going to The Darkdelve forest."

"You're not serious. Are you? We're dead if we enter that forest."

I scoffed, "You're dead, not me. I'm not a vampire."

"The Darkdelve forest... You are heading there for some reason, aren't you? Is there some sort of ritual or anything that is to be taken place there?" He asked, I raised my eyebrows as he started making theories now. 

"Maybe, who knows." I said and he fell silent.

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Edited by Sam8136 date: August 22, 2020)
(2610 words)
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