352 Rescue Op IV : Hard Choice

I shot forward towards the first Dark guard, ducking under his wild swing as I slammed my shield backwards. There was a loud clang as my shield blasted his helmet off, throwing it back towards the corner we just came out from, straight for Tiberius's head. He ducked down just in time for the helmet/head to slam into the wall and get completely crushed like a soda can. The Dark guard stumbled a bit and fell to it's knees as black smoke began to billow out of it's armored body.

I ignored it for the moment, keeping my momentum going as I was already shifting my attention to the final guard.I swung my sword forward, intercepting a strike from the Gothic and cursed lookinghalberd this strange creature of black magic and death was holding.

*clang!*

There was a shower of sparks where my sword met his halberd, but I was not controlling my strength, so the Dark guard was thrown backwards, flaying through the hall as his body became stuck in the wall at the other end. At this point barely seconds had passed after I used the shield to smack the head of the first Dark Guard off, and it seems it would take a whole lot more than just destroying their armor like body to get them to stop. The first dark guard disappeared from it's position, using a form of teleportation to move.

It swung it's great sword at my chest, hoping to cleave me in half, but I took a step back, dodging the strike with a few inches between me and the great sword. Or so I thought. Whatever energy the black cloud that's hovering around them is made from, it was extremely refined. The dark guard was able to sharpen the energy into a sharp aura that coated his sword, giving it an extra reach as it scared across my armor, releasing a screeching sound and sparks as the force behind it also pushed me backwards down the hall.

I stuck my feet firmly on the ground, releasing squeaking noise as the tiles beneath me seemed to have burn marks from my movements. At that point Asha had swung her blood coated axe at the chest of the third Dark guard, using the flat side of the axe rather than the edge, to give her axe crushing power rather than cutting ability. The dark guard was thrown into a room, a room that was at the moment occupied by a group of women and children.I didn'ttime to warn Xaseah to be careful, because those people could be innocent and Tiberius's wife might be in there with them, she should drag the fight elsewhere.

The headless dark guard, and the stuck dark guard disappeared from their positions, appearing in front and behind me as they swung their sword and halberd respectively, hoping to catch me off guard and separate my body into three different parts. There's no way I was letting that happen, so I move forward and twisted my body in the air, the great sword and halberd flying over and under me as also teleported, coming up behind the headless dark guard and swing my sword upwards from his crotch.

Just to be on the safe side, I made sure to coat my sword with a combination of my aura and my soul energy, creating a volatile enough mix that completely negated whatever defensive power the dark guard had. I split him in half, with both sides falling to the left and right, and the darkness heavily wrapped around it's body slowly moving back towards the dark guard with the halberd.I looked at what remained of the severed guard, and say a black heart sliced in half, this seems to be the only living organ within its body.

However the fight was not over as the halberd wielding dark guard thrust it's halberd at my chest. I raised my shield up, defending against the thrust, and the subsequent blast of dark energy that pushed me back a bit. I twirled my sword, slashing it against as limb of darkness that seemed to stretch towards me from the guard. Sire this fight might have been really fast pace, but I was running g out of time, I really didn't want to lose the bet I had with Xaseah.

From the seams of the Dark Guard's armor, limbs made of smoky blackness waved around; like multiple extra limbs. I charged just as the limbs began flaying at me, I dodged and twisted myself in between the limbs, relying on both my vampire and dragon side's extraordinary agility and flexibility. I moved used my shield when I needed to, keeping the dark limbs ways from my body. When I got close enough, the Dark guard sent his halberd towards my body, using a sweeping maneuver.

I know very well that his weapon was reinforced by his dark energy, so it was stronger, more powerful and had a longer reach than it might seem. I reinforced my shield with my Aura and defended against the attack. I teleported behind the Dark guard and sliced through it's armor, but it moved forward in time, evading most of the strike, escaping with only superficial damage done to it's armor, the black heart inside it's body still very much beating.

This was beginning to get really annoying, I only had like fifteen seconds left, and this bloody thing was making it really difficult.

And this was just becauseI chose restrict myself and not cause too much damage, no more! I point my sword as the Dark guard and the suddenly threw my shield at it. It swung it's halberd to deflect the shield, but the force behind the throw still pushed it back a few steps, but when it had finally regained its footing, I had already teleported close to it and pointed a gun at it's chest.

"it was fun while it lasted, nice meeting you weirdo, but now I have to call it a night."

*Bang!*

What ever was left of the hall behind me was completely destroyed as the wall at it's end was blasted open and left exposed to theoutside world. I'm pretty sure reinforcements would be heading down here soon enough. As for the dark guard, the only thing left of him was a rapidly cooling metal, the heart that it drew it's power from had completely evaporated.

As soon as the fight was over Tiberius poked his head out of the corner, looking around carefully before walking over to me, avoiding the chaos I had caused with just one shot from my gun. And that's why I never really like using it in the first place, the damage this damn thing causes is so damn uncontrolled and unfocused that I could actually hurt an ally of mine if I'm not careful enough. But if I wanted to end a fight fast enough, I had no other choice but to pull it out and pull it's trigger.

Tiberius was barely halfway across the hall when a suit of armor flew out a room completely crushed to crumpled ball, black blood leaking out of it, and black fog slowly evaporating form it. Tiberius had crouched, almost crushed by the remains of the armor. He looked up at the culprit, his eyes widened as he saw Xaseah walk out of the room with a bloody gash on her forehead, the wound was so deep that even her skull could be seen under all that blood.

That might actually be my fault, it seems that if one was killed, it's energy would go to the next, empowering the dark guard. And I killed both of mine before Xaseah, which means the guard she just killed was three times stronger than normal, not to mention she was clearly holding back so as not to harm the women and children within the room where she was fighting the guard.

Her wound healed almost immediately as she nonchalantly walked towards me, with Tiberius following close behind her. After checking to see that they were both okay, we turned our attention to the final room on this floor, a room that if I might mention had a door that was glowing gold with a spell circle the defended it from a lot of damage.

"Looks like wither your wife is really important to your brother, or he's in there himself, or there's a secret within that needs to be protected." Xaseah said to Tiberius as we looked at the door.

I moved forward and smashed my leg against the obvious golden barrier on the door, the rune for (BREAK) was etched under my armored boot. There was a loud sound as cracks appeared on the surface of the barrier withstanding both my rune and strength combined. I was a little surprised by that outcome, but none the less I was still going to break it down. I sent Bother kick to the door, and blasted apart, chunks of gold and iron flying into the brightly lit room.

At first when you looked at the room you would think it was typical noble's room, with the tapestry, silk bedsheets, the king sized if not more sized bed, and the of course the bleeding and slowly dying woman laying on the bed. But aside of that, on the left side of the room was a lab, with three dead people strapped to a chair, their clothes missing as the hole in their chest where their heart once was, laid exposed to the air. I only needed to take one sniff to know that all three very dead people were vampires.

The three dark guards we fought must have been made from their heart, and the darkness within it. The very same darkness that's responsible for the vampire gene. Whoever was responsible, he was one sick fellow because it only took a glance to know that he was actually trying to replicate vampirism, or at the very least create a way to control and weaponize people with it, AKA vampires.

This was disgusting, but it was not the end, as behind the dead vampires was a massive canister almost six meters tall and four wide that was filled with souls, werewolf souls. And right behind the canister were multiple operating tables, holding the mutilated bodies of the dead werewolves. This was barbaric and inhumane. It's bloody terrible!

"Please help me! She's dying!" Tiberius's voice broke through my rage filled glory as he cradled the still conscious woman with an ornately created blade sticking out of her chest.

There was a painting pushed aside at the other end of the room, and a secret passage was revealed. Whoever was in that room just left, and he made sure he left this woman fatal injured, but alive long enough that Tiberius could watch her die and be unable to do anything about it. I moved towards the bed and pulled out the knife in one swift motion, blood spurting out of the wound and onto my face, forcing my fangs out of my mouth as the sound of human blood almost drove me hungry.

I ignored the hunger and just pointed my hands to the woman and used the rune (HEAL). To my shock another rune flew out and negated my attempts to heal her with weaving. It was a seal that prevented the effects of other runes, and based on how powerful it was, I knew that it was a soul rune. This would be tricky to break, not to mention it would take too long and she would dead before then. I looked as Xaseah and signaled her with my head to go after the person who just escaped from the room.

She nodded and disappeared in a flurry of black crows and starlight, teleporting away and into the secret passage at the end of the room. With her going after the person responsible, Tiberius might have a chance at closure should his wife dead.

Either way there was only one option left that could save his wife, because contrary to how fantasticShearath is, if you don't have a strong enough healing factor, not miracle health potion can save you from a wound like that, not fast enough at least.

"Tiberius I can't save her." As soon as I said that, I watched his eyes dim a bit as he seemed to have lost all hope.

"But there's a way, however this way would change her and without a doubt it would also change the baby growing inside of her. But there's no guarantee that either one of them would survive the change, so you need to think hard on this and make your...." He didn't even let me finish as he looked at me with fierce eyes and said to me with steel in his voice.

"Do it!"

He was a decisive man; I really respect and admire that. We didn't really have a choice in this matter, definitely no one on this estate would be willing to help her, and even there's someone willing to do so, I doubt that we would be able to get to the in time, leaving us with only one option with a fifty percent chance to either succeed or fail. I had to turn her, make her into a vampire.