146 A Monster

THE BLACK DISTRICT

TELUNA

I think the things I hate the most right now were dogs. I mean I hated them already considering I've been chased by werewolves for a significant part of my childhood, but who's keeping count.

The lava wolves of the black district were fearsome in their attacks, relentless and strong in their defense, and you had to go through a significant amount of skin, and a lava producing membrane underneath their skin to get to their blood.

It was quite a hassle, which meant hunting these monsters for blood did not pay much. It was why we decided to move on to the next area, but the way forward was through a territory of this wolves, and they had the path blocked.

For now, we've not been able to explore the entire black district properly, but from what we've seen, we understood that it was completely unlike the other districts.

The black district was one big, and immense valley, or you could say it was more like a basin. The towers in the black district were hardly ever found whole,and they were very few and placed precariously all over the place.

The easier path from one end of the district to the other was to go straight, going through the sides will have you scaling literal mountain passes and even other hidden valleys.

The black district's size encompasses all of the other districts with plenty of room to spare, and till now we have no idea how deep it goes. It was a literal kingdom of monsters.

Our path forward has led us towards a canyon, going through the canyon would probably take us to the next zone and past the territory of the lava wolves, but the overgrown dogs made of stone and fire were adamant about stopping us.

But I'm thankful that the vampires Asare had trained were doing really great. They each had a shield, and a variety of really good one handed weapons, though most of the weapons looked rather crude, they were still sturdy enough to cause damage and withstand the onslaught of the monsters.

We'll be having better weapons soon, Dwayne was back, and he brought a lot of things that would serve and help us, if Kael can drag his sorry ass away from unsealing people for a minute and take care of the tower and dungeon.

But he's been so busy that he hardly has time to even feed himself. I was worried for him, and I was impressed too, Who knew the fearless leader could be such a work horse.

"Shield Wall!" BANG!"Heave!" "Strike!"

I was almost unneeded. They worked well together. The seventy of them were placed in a line of seven with ten rows in all.

Their shields protected them from every direction, creating two layers of tactics. The outward layer which uses the shield to defend and push back the attacking wolves are made of the most physically fit of the vampires, and the second layer was made up of the fastest attackers.

After every three rounds of locking their shields together and pushing the wolves back, the second layer would attack through an opening created by the first layer, laying waste to the wolves, and then the formation would be shuffled, and the next two lines behind will take over.

In the process of their shuffling, the middle line would run around the entire formation, banging their shields and causing a distraction to the wolves so that the formation can be shuffled without any problem. Mine, Kodak's and Magellan's job, was to take care of any stragglers that would cause any problem to the formation.

But even with that we were given explicit instructions to let the soldiers work for the victory, and let them try to get stronger on their own. We were also to encourage Individual combat when the monsters were less clustered, that way they each can build up combat experiences of their own.

This was so not my thing, I don't baby sit, and it would have taken me lesser time than they needed for me to slaughter a lot of them. But still Asare was particular in his orders to me.

'Keep a cool head kid, and follow the plan' what the hell is that supposed to mean. I'm not that hot headed anyway, I just didn't play well with people. The last wolf from this wave of Lava wolves fell down with a thud, with a few stragglers around.

The formation broke up and the soldiers each picked an opponent from the remaining wolves, it should be an easy job for them. Wolves no matter which kind were pack creatures, and the lava wolves in the black district have proven to be a tight knit pack.

As a team they're quite formidable, even going as far as using formations of their own to fight us, but without their pack mates supporting them, they were all really weak and unable to withstand the attacks we dish on them.

Ten of the soldiers pulled back, and started pulling the blood out of the hundreds of corpses on the ground, and from the ground itself. Every round the ten who move the blood change, but this was actually a good arrangement.

Every vampire past the BloodChild rank is capable of controlling blood to varying degrees, I don't see the need for it, considering I'm doing just fine controlling the darkness to my whims. Blood just seemed a little too complicated.

Anyway the blood was slowly being gathered and placed into huge tanks made from earth, courtesy of Nisi, who was probably playing about somewhere with Lowen. I should probably find them soon before.....

HOWWLLLLL

Before something went wrong. From the entrance of the canyon, a massive wolf, equal to the size of that giant mama rat we killed weeks ago, appeared. And it's entire body was on fire.

There was no time to waste, not with the rookie vampires all over the place killing the scattered wolves that were rapidly gathering together, shit! It was all a freaking trap. This damn monster waited until we had brought down our guard to launch an attack, it was a freaking ambush, and it was executed brilliantly.

Before I could make a move, the giant wolf snapped up one of the soldiers in his jaw, as he shook his head from side to side, shaking the person like a ragdoll. The others were stunned, but Kodak quickly took command.

"Gather up! Now!"

I ignored everything else as I shot towards the wolf, I jumped into the shadow realm, and moved faster than normal and appeared in front of the wolf, where I proceeded to slam my knuckles underneath it's jaw.

The poor vampire was dislodged, and I could see an arm was missing. Magellan appeared, grabbed the vampire and disappeared back into the formation, Kodak was corralling the attacking wolves, leaving me with the big flaming wolf.

"How dare you filth invade my lands!"

The entire battle came to a standstill at that. I was so shocked I could not hold my body up in the air, as I fell down to ground in surprise. It was talking, it was actually talking. How the hell was that possible?

"You can talk? Why did you attack us?" I asked him back with a menacing voice. But coming from an eleven year old, I doubted I looked menacing enough to shake him.

"Attack you? You savages came into my territory and wantonly slaughtered my family and took their blood. You ate my children! And you ask me why I attack you. Are you stupid or something?"

I was getting angry, we wanted to avoid any conflict with the wolves in the first place, but they just kept attacking. What were we supposed to do, just stand still and let them chew and burn the flesh off our bodies.

And now we're being blamed for what's not entirely our fault. I was about to start speaking when I heard Magellan call out my name in a warning tone, he was probably telling me to calm down, but I was way past the point of listening.

"So what! You guys are monsters, you're not even worthy to be considered our food, which was why we tried to avoid you in the first place. But your stupid children kept coming, and far be it from us to reject free food, would you do so? If you want to blame anybody, why don't you blame yourself for being so incapable and weak that you couldn't protect you own children. Besides why should I care, you're nothing more than just food that can talk."

"Teluna!"

I shuddered, that voice, what was he doing here. I turned and there was Asare standing on literal flames. My mom was behind him, standing on a platform made from ice. There was a worried look in her eyes, but it's what I saw in Asare's eyes that shook me. I've not seen eyes like that before, but I just knew what it meant. Disappointment. And I felt like crap for it.

"is that what you see me as? Food that can talk?" Asare asked me as he walked closer.

"No! I wasn't talking about you, it's the wolf that....." I couldn't say anything, he was standing right in front of me, and not just disappointed he was angry.

"what's the difference, I'm human. And vampires have been feeding on humans for hundreds of thousands of years like they were cattle. That's why they were imprisoned in the first place, because they felt entitled and everything else below them was food. You're a vampire that's never been sealed, so the darkness in you has never been curbed. You killed his children, and when the father comes out, and you realize that he's not just a monster, but someone with feelings you try to kill him too. Let me ask you Teluna is that right?"

How could that be right. Maybe my reaction was a little extreme, but I was not going to let any enemy remain standing so that he can come and attack me later. I rather face them all and wipe them out at once, the strength I have accords me such an option. I shook my head to answer Asare's question.

"I'm not just teaching you to be strong, I'm teaching you to be smart, to be moral, not good, but not bad either. I'm teaching you to not to be like what the entire world says you are, to not be monsters. Because only a monster will see a perfectly conscious being as food. Teluna do not cultivate death, and destruction unless it's absolutely necessary, you have to have faith in everything that lives, from humans to even the ants on the ground. Because while you can destroy and eat them, you could achieve so much more if you trust and learn from them. What goes around comes around, because if you see someone as nothing but food, then eventually a being will come that will see you as food too. Fight your enemies with all you've got, but remember it takes greater strength to show mercy and to understand the reason why your enemies fight."

Then he turned to the giant wolf and gave a deep bow, then he raised his right hand and brought down a pillar of fire that completely obliterated the wolf. I was shocked, not just the fact that he killed a fire wolf with fire, but the fact he still killed it after everything he just said. He turned to me and said.

"I want you to be a good person, a kind person, a better vampire than your ancestors. To show mercy when it's required, but I don't want you to be stupid. Be ruthless when you have to, as for the wolf, he would not have let you go, after all, you killed his kids. That should be a lesson for you, if you kill a family member in front another, especially a monster that's conscious. You better make sure you kill it, because no parent will ever let go of their children's killer. There would have been no talking him down, especially after you provoked him. Now let's get going, we're the leaving the hunters on their own for the next two days."

I nodded my head as I turned to follow him. He might not be saying it but he was still disappointed. His words struck a chord inside of me, it made me remember words humans had said to me and my mom on different occasions. They called us monsters, and each time I wanted so badly to prove them wrong, but now, maybe, it seems they were right.