Two male vampires had perished, and only one male and one woman remained. The two of them sensed their situation wasn’t any good, and they would most likely end like these two. Therefore, they opted to surrender.
“Please, don’t kill u-” the male vampire muttered, but Arthur ignored him, and cut his body in half.
The others from his squad that were hidden behind the tree came out, seeing that the fight was already over, and they did nothing to help. Arthur’s strength was more than enough to deal with those vampires.
“Now, you will tell me everything.”
Arthur did not kill the remaining vampire instantly, but first tried his best to get more information from it, saying that he would let it live if she provided decent information.
Obviously, it was a lie, and he killed her right after getting the answers he needed. Only someone stupid would let the enemy live, especially being inside their kingdom.
What he got from her was decent. Apparently, the Dragon Scale Empire did not have that many dark creatures living in it. After the war broke out, and the humans fled after losing, the dark races returned to the dark lands to also recover.
That did not mean the Dragon Scale Empire was empty. It was the contrary. According to what the vampire said, the number of dark creatures was extraordinary, and even Arthur wondered how could they have so many.
“Perhaps they were increasing their numbers of centuries before trying something? That would explain their numbers and also the fact they did not attack someone in a long time.”
The dark creatures were silent for a long time, locked in their territory without getting into contact with others. It made everyone else forget about them, but then they returned suddenly, destroying an entire empire.
“All right, let’s keep moving, and leave this damned place for good.” Arthur said.
There was no time to stop and chill, and they kept without resting for one more day.
During this time, they came across some magical beasts such as types of wolves, foxes, and even a giant squid jumped out of the river to attack them, but no member of the dark races appeared.
They also fell into illusions three more times, but now they knew how to get out of it, and that was allowed Arthur to cast a tier 7 spell and destroy the illusion, therefore these did not pose a threat to any of them.
It was not a pleasant sensation to travel inside that place without having the time to rest. All of them knew the only reason for them to come out alive was because of Arthur, or else they could not break out of the first illusion they came across.
While they were feeling grateful to him, he was analyzing them carefully, looking for the culprit behind the previous poisoning, but sadly, it wasn’t being fruitful.
None of them looked suspicious anymore. Could Jassin have eaten a poisonous fruit without knowing it? Before, the thought of it was unlikely, but now Arthur was believing it.
“I will look more into it after this mission is over. For the time being, I should focus on completing this.” Arthur thought.
~~~~
When they left the Fairy Mountains safely, all of them dropped to the ground out of exhaustion and begged Arthur for a quick stop for them to rest.
They said it would be a quick stop, but Arthur knew it would not be. A huge campfire near a muddy road, and a few tents that weren’t the most luxurious place to sleep, but it was better than being in the open.
Arthur had tossed a few beasts inside his magical pouch, the ones they killed inside the Fairy Mountains, therefore they already had some food to cook, and did not need to go out and hunt.
These beasts were ugly, but tasted good, so Arthur found no problem in butchering them and cooking in the campfire. He was not that tired as the others, but it felt nice to just stop and chill for a bit.
The time was around 6 pm, but everyone went to sleep after eating a delicious wolf meat. Arthur did not sleep, but did so just to be normal once.
A night that looked completely normal, just like all the other nights he had with his squad, turned out to be slightly different.
Arthur woke up during the night because of a strange noise. At first he felt it wasn’t something he should worry about, but someone had walked out of their tents and did not move away from the camp, but stayed in it, gazing at Arthur’s tent.
He did not know how, but he could somehow sense the murder intent directed at him, which made him uncomfortable, even though he was sure whoever it was could never kill him.
“Is he trying to attack me while I’m sleeping? I should just fake it and then grab him.”
It was the first idea that came to his mind, and one that would surely work. Arthur remained in the same position, ‘sleeping’ like a rock, and even making roaring sounds.
Whoever was gazing at his tent stood there for a while, presumably making sure Arthur was truly sleeping, and then he stepped in.
That person had a knife in hands, and slowly went closer to Arthur with apparent intentions.
A sharp knife came directly at Arthur’s throat, but before it could hit it, a hand grabbed the arm of the mysterious person, snapping it.
The arm that hold the knife broke, and the knife fell to the ground, as the user had no strength to hold it.
Arthur quickly got up from his bed, grabbed the person by the neck, and said, “who are you?”
One hand held the neck, while the other moved towards the hood, putting it down to show the face of the culprit.
From all the suspects Arthur had, the person behind that hood wasn’t the one he had suspicions about.
“Jassin?”