A Cautious Moment

The strange silence of the mage world shattered in a flash of claws.

A violent hiss tore through the air, and before anyone could react, a vampire not a mage, but pure, unblended darkness leapt from the trees and slammed its jagged claws into Hagel’s head.

He dropped to his knees, vision blurring, blood dripping down the side of his face. Ava screamed his name, pulling her blaster from its holster, but the creature vanished into the shadows, its job done to warn.

The others Liam, Kenji, and the two scouts stood frozen in horror. They had tracked too close, and now… they’d been marked.

“What the hell was that?” Ava whispered, her eyes wide.

Hagel pushed himself up, groaning. “A pure vampire. No mage... no beast traits. That thing was bred for blood. And it just delivered a message.”

They had been hunting mage vampire types who were once humans, animals, or beasts, now fused by dark energy into unpredictable hybrids. But this was something else. Something born from shadow and hatred.

“We need to contact the real world,” Hagel said through gritted teeth. “The Elders must be warned. If a vampire is protecting the mages, we’re already too late.”

He and Ava took the dark route a dangerous path twisting between cracked earth and whispering trees, where beasts with glowing eyes spoke in riddles and air shimmered like glass.

“Stay close,” Hagel warned. “If the mage speaks to you... don’t answer.”

As they moved, strange creatures stirred Wolf-birds with bronze feathers, serpents with three tongues, beasts that should not exist but could talk, often luring hunters to madness.

But Hagel knew this world. He had trained here. This was his battlefield.

By nightfall, they reached the outskirts of Contra Sague's house, the last stronghold before the Rift. But something was wrong.

Smoke curled from the thatched roof. The house was too still.

And then, a vampire mage stepped into the light tall, robed in human skin, its claws glinting with blood. In its arms, it held Mia.

Her limp body dangled, eyes wide in horror, lips trembling as she tried to scream.

“No!” Ava shouted, raising her weapon.

“Don’t!” Hagel growled, grabbing her arm.

The creature spoke its voice layered like a thousand whispers: “You want to know our powers? You want to track us? Very well.”

It slammed Mia to the ground, claws hovering over her chest.

“Here is your choice,” the vampire mage sneered. “Stop your hunt now, and we’ll let you keep your little lives. Keep hunting... and we will devour one hundred humans. Every. Single. Day.”

Gasps erupted from behind Hagel. Even Ava wavered, face pale.

Then gone.

The vampire mage vanished in a shimmer of darkness, leaving behind Mia’s bloodied form and a choice that could shatter nations.

Hagel clenched his fists, his mind spiraling. How many more like Mia would they take? How many innocents had already been claimed?

“They’re not just protecting themselves anymore,” Ava said shakily. “They’re fighting back.”

“No,” Hagel murmured. “They’re declaring war.”

And he would answer.

With fire.

With steel.

With the wrath of every soul lost to the mage.