CRACK! Arad fell to the ground, his body cooling down after Vlad left. The vampire king's power was indisposed blood control. If you have it, he owns it. He's a being over mortals with shackles on their very life.
Arad's vampire side shut down before the kind, losing its free will. But the draconic side was an arrogant, unbending monster of pride.
Just as a human's body drops its blood pressure when suffering a wound, Arad's body reacts. But on the other side.
The muscle walls of his veins tightened, forcing the blood to remain trapped in his circulatory system, resulting in his blood pressure rising.
Arad's heart started beating faster and faster, activating his fight or flight response and beating the blood into submission, forcing it to course through the veins.
But that shouldn't have been enough to withstand the king's dominion. Something else in Arad's blood stirred. The Lycanthropic blood stood fast, resisting his will.
Alcott had the lycanthropic blood but not the draconic blood. So he couldn't resist it. Nina's tarrasque blood was powerful. More than anything else, it got her the furthest, but a single blood never stood a chance.
Arad's blood pressure dropped, and his body started to cool down. They were lucky this time. If Vlad pushed for another few seconds, he could have wiped them out.
The blood king already got his objective, so he had no reason to stay besides having fun, but Arad's resistance spooked him, and he left out of caution.
An hour passed, and Arad finally recovered enough to stand. "Who was that?" He growled.
"He's my father," Ginger replied, "Vlad the impaler, the king of all vampires."
"A monster that has absolute control over blood." Alcott replied, "As long as we rely on blood to be alive, we can't fight him."
Merlin stared at Arad, "And before you ask, we can't use Alcott's holy sword. That thing shattered years ago. Vlad shouldn't know that."
"What could even shatter a holy sword? That should be durable, right?" Arad sighed.
"Holy swords are divine objects created for a purpose. They shatter after that, so we can't abuse their power." Alcott sighed, "The holy sword I had was meant to stop a dracolich that tried to raise a race of undead dragons to rule the world. I defeated them, so the sword shattered."
"Now, with Vlad back, won't another holy sword appear?" Arad asked again, looking at Alcott and Merlin.
"It won't," Nina replied, "Vlad isn't a threat to the other races."
Alcott sighed, "Humanoids will survive under Vlad just as cattle survive under humans."
"We aren't the only race that has a rightful slice of the world. Humans, elves, dwarves, vampires, and even monsters." Merlin stared at Arad, "You can hear and speak with animals. You should understand it better than anyone."
"Survival for the fittest," Nina looked at Arad, "Humanoids have no natural predator except vampires and lycanthropes. In the same way, the gods will never drop a holy sword to stop lions from hunting deer, or to stop humans from slaughtering cattle. They won't drop a holy sword to stop Vlad."
Arad lifted his hand, and two large crystal spheres flew from the city toward him. One had Merida, and the other had the unconscious blacksmith.
"Arad! What's happening?" Merida cried. Even with how weak she was, she still woke up.
"My barrier protected them." He said.
"Since he was targeting a lot of people, like bowing at ants. That is far different to what he will use against someone in a fight." Merlin replied, "Your barrier only worked for that reason. He wasn't putting any effort behind it."
Thud! Arad put Merida down and then the blacksmith, who didn't move an inch. Even though she was inside his barrier, Arad could see red spots on her skin.
He pulled a healing potion and poured it inside the blacksmith's mouth, waking her up. "How are you feeling?"
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She creamed, "Blood! Blood everywhere!" She started crying.
"Calm down, it's over," Arad tried to calm her down, but he wasn't good at it, just standing there, confused. "It was just blood, take a deep breath,"
"Let me handle it," Merlin pointed a finger at the blacksmith's forehead, [Calm]
She started to calm down, but her hands and legs still kept shaking.
"What happened?" She cried.
"Vampire king Vlad attacked out of nowhere," Alcott said in the back, "He ate everyone in the city in the blink of an eye."
"Vampires drink blood and use blood magic," Alcott sighed, scratching his head, "Out of them, he has an unparalleled dominion over blood. He took control of everyone's blood, killed them with it, then ordered it to fly toward him. And drank it all."
"An undwarven monster," She growled.
"He's a vampire, what did you expect? He's an absolute monster to all things with blood." Alcott growled, "My head is starting to hurt just trying to think of a way to deal with him without a decent weapon," He stood, "Me and Ginger will set on a trip to find some people who could help, Merlin and Nina stay in the city to protect it."
"I can form a barrier with enough time to protect the people," Merlin smiled.
Arad stood, "We should go back to Alina," He then looked at the walls. And the shriveled soldiers on the ground.
"Can't leave them , can we?" He looked at Merlin.
"We better give them a proper burial. The city had a graveyard to the west." Merlin replied.
"Wait here," Arad flew to the middle of the city and stood in the plaza. [Void Expansion]
For a split second, he expanded his void to locate one thing. He immediately got it. It's a map of the city.
[Void Expansion] In the second one, he sniffed all the corpses no matter where they were hidden and marked their locations. He also marked them so their place of death could still be located.
^Doma, I need help with this.^
At the last one, he sucked all the corpses into his stomach alongside everything around them, excluding structures. This left the houses empty as if they were never furnished or lived in before.
Everything got organized inside his stomach the way they were. The families remained together with all their belongings.
"It's useful, isn't it?" Arad mumbled, "To have a storage magic that can extend for such a range."
[Who are you talking with?]
"Myself," Arad replied. Remembering when Alcott told him about the red dragon that burned a whole city. "This is...the first time so many people died, even though they were behind my back." He looked down.
[At least we can give them a proper burial. Let's head to Alina. They will figure out how to deal with this.]