767 A three spike

The shelter was placed in the centre of a jungle and surrounded by large towering trees, but this wasn't like a regular shelter. They were able to make use of the large trees, creating platforms filled with houses and shops high up off the ground. Connecting each of these platforms they used bridges.

Leading all of this was a middle aged woman named Ruby, she was currently staying at the highest platform which allowed her to look down at the whole shelter. Originally, the planet was classified as an orange portal planet, but later turned into a red one.

The people there thought they had been abandoned by the military. However, since the start of the civil war, portal use had been unregulated and there had been more visitors. Before there welcoming would be…well, unwelcoming.

Anyone who appeared would be greeted by an army full of spears, but then, there were those that appeared that looked frightened, hurt and injured from the war. Seeing people like this, they couldn't help but allow them to stay at the shelter.

So since then, the shelter had been growing day by day, and this was what Ruby was looking at from below. The improvements made by the shelter. They would have been considered a tier five shelter before. The bottom of the barrel, but now with all the improvements, they were quickly improving and it looked like they would soon reach the third tier.

They were certainly now big enough to be considered a second tier shelter, the only thing that was letting them down was their current equipment and technology used in the shelter itself. They only had old equipment left behind, or what they could make from scratch. Not opening up to the other planets, they were unable to trade with other shelters.

However, Ruby was not to do this, until she consulted with a particular person. Turning around, she walked towards a large building that had been built on the platform she was standing on. It was the only building on the platform, and basking in the sunlight, was a figure standing tall just in front of it.

"Arthur, when will you return?" Ruby said as she looked at the figure and started to brush her fingers down its body. The figure seemed just like a real person, felt like one to, but she knew it wasn't him.

Before Arthur left, not wanting to leave them defenceless, she had seen him create another one of himself out of shadows. Apparently, if there were any beast attacks they couldn't handle, then the shadow copy of himself would handle it, and if the shadow copy couldn't, he would be able to travel to it when he wished.

"I wish you were here." She said to herself, looking down at the ground.

Ruby's face had gone bright red, she knew that this was now the real Arthur she was speaking to, as the clone was unable to speak. She had to quickly disregard her embarrassment, as she could see something was wrong with him.

"Does this planet always have to be so sunny?" Arthur said, and before he knew it, he had collapsed on the floor.

When he next opened his eyes, he could see the rustic looking roof above him, made from wood. Most of the houses were made from a mixture of earth and wood. Slowly getting up, Arthur was recalling what had happened.

"Those Dalki, were a bit of a harder fight than I thought they would be, still I managed to get rid of them all. But the human race has been going up against them this whole time? How did they survive, how many of them are there that are that strong?"

His natural king and leader-like instincts were kicking in, as he was already planning in his head, the things he needed to know and what would be the best course of action to take, but he soon stopped himself.

'That isn't my job anymore.'

Thinking back to the fight, the reason for his unstable condition wasn't because of the fight itself, it was because of resisting the urge. Arthur was used to resisting the blood of humans. He had learnt to control himself long ago, and he restricted himself from using blood abilities because of it.

The more a vampire would use blood abilities, the hungrier they would get, and that power would need to be restored. However, during the fight, Arthur found himself resisting against something else, it was the green blood.

He found it strange that the blood from the Dalki was able to power his blood weapon. Since blood weapons were made from blood crystals inside of vampires, they needed one thing to activate them. Human blood.

What he didn't expect, was the green blood to actually have a stronger effect, and the smell to be more alluring. In the end, resisting against a taste of the green blood while fighting was what had tired out Arthur the most.

When Ruby returned, she had given Arthur an update on the planets and shelters situation. She avoided asking what he had been up to this whole time. He could see how she was thinking, worrying about the shelter's future, but he couldn't agree to them opening up the planet to others just yet.

"Just give me a week or so before you do that," Arthur replied. "There is something I still need to check out."

The planet they were on, was the planet Arthur and the punishers had moved to, choosing to live underground and away from the council and all its troubles. What he didn't want, was new people to go exploring this sacred place of his and for more reasons than one.

So before they would open up the place, he thought he would head down there to see if he could find anything, any clues about what had happened to his people just one more time. He would also set up some counter measures if certain people would try to venture their way down there, and he could always place some people as guards.

The people at the shelter were very loyal to him after what he had done for them.

Entering the underground city, a wave of emotions and memories had hit him, he hadn't really searched this place thoroughly since he had left, it was almost as if he was avoiding it. There were multiple destroyed houses made out of the black material, but the black tower could be seen standing strong and tall, shining bright from the blue crystals.

Arthur searched and searched the area but just like before, there really was nothing that gave any sort of hint at what happened. Other than a sign of a battle.

'A note, a book, a monologue about what happened here. Wasn't anything left behind?'

Of course it wouldn't be that easy though. Walking towards the tower, he thought maybe in the tower itself there was something. At that moment, when he had entered the front open area, something surprising had caught his eye.

Stepping out of the very tower he once stepped out of, were two people. Two people wasn't the right word, because he knew exactly what they were with their dragon like features. For he had just fought off a bunch of them.

'The Dalki, what are they doing here?'

These Dalki also looked slightly different to the ones he had faced. For both of them had small wings sticking out of their back. Something the other Dalki did not have and, they also had three spikes.

The highest Dalki Arthur fought with at the fortress, was a two spiked Dalki. This was going to be a tough fight.

When they exited from the tower, they simply went to the side and stood there straight. There was no communication, and they weren't wild like the others he had faced. They carried on standing there as if they were waiting for something.

That's when Arthur could hear the sound of footsteps. Another person was also coming out of the tower. These footsteps were a lot lighter than the Dalkis, making the person smaller, a normal sized human.

'No, no human should know about this place or the tower.' Arthur thought.

"What a surprise," The voice from inside the tower said. "I came all this way hoping to awaken you from your slumber, and then I find that you are already awake. I never expected to step out of this tower and for you to return here yourself. I hope that doesn't get the two of us off on the wrong foot. I have longed to see you, Arthur."

******

If you want to support you can on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jksmanga

For MVS artwork and updates follow on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga