Chapter 104: Chapter 103 - Strength at the Cost of Freedom
Morning came, frozen and silent.
The Frosted Ram still slept peacefully behind shuttered windows, its warmth trapped inside while the world outside remained buried under the cold snow.
White mist clung to the ground throughout the whole village, drifting around and giving off a mystical feeling. The chimneys breathed thin trails of smoke, and the mountains loomed beyond the village.
The peace was broken by the tavern door opening and a lobe man stepped outside in to the frozen land.
It was Teclos.
His breath fogged faintly in front of him, a testament of hoe cold it was, but his body gave no other reaction to the cold. The wind brushed over his armor, tugged at the wolf fur on his shoulders, and slipped beneath the edges of his cloak, but he did not shiver or barely feel the cold at all.
He crossed the village road in silence, boots crunching softly over the frozen snow. A few guards at the edge of the village noticed him leaving and straightened up, more out of fear than discipline. None of them called out to him or stoped him.
They simply watched as the red-eyed stranger from the tavern walked toward the tree line and dissapeared.
Teclos once he crossed the village boundary and the guards had seen him clearly, shith those precautions in place he felt that it was safe to disappear.
One moment, he was walking beneath the pale morning mist, the next, he was gone.
—
A shadow beneath a pine tree one and a half kilometers away took shape.
The shadow rose from a frost lynx that was crouching right there, its white-blue fur blended perfectly with the snow around it. Teclos saw that the beast was been stalking a rabbit trail, low to the ground, ears twitching, body coiled and ready to pounce should it see one.
But it never sensed teclos, even though he was litteraly standing behind it.
His hand closed around its neck before the lynx could even turn. Its white eyes widened for half a heartbeat, confusion flashing through them, and then its light vanished.
With a crack he broke its neck and the beast went limp.
Teclos lowered it into the snow without a sound. Then he drew his knife with a calm expression and cut away the fur around its neck. The blood was still hot and fresh, full of rich with mana and nutrients for him.
He leaned down and drank from it.
The lynx’s body began to shrivel up almost immediately. The thick muscles it had dried up and lost volume, its fur lost its shine as well.
Teclos pulled the blood and mana out together and drank greedily, his eyes started to shine and he looked like a mad man. The warmth pulsed through him, spreading across his whole body, and sank into the circles within him.
It nourished his whole veing with power.
When the lynx had nothing left to give, Teclos rose and moved on.
The forest did not remain quiet for long.
A horned snow boar died beneath a dark spike when it was eating tree bark. A dire wolf was mid run when Teclos to appeared beneath its shadow and tore its throat open. A blizzard elk, larger than any horse and armored in thick plates of ice across its hide, was calling for a mate and making noise when suddenly its head slid off its neck.
It made it one more step before it just collapsed.
Teclos stepped closer and made a basin out of darknes where the blood was spilling, he couldnt dirrectly bite it because of its ice armor plates, then drank it like it was fine liquor or wine.
In normal circumstances, any one of these beasts would have been difficult prey. Hunters would have needed traps, numbers, and luck. A careless man would have died screaming in fear and agony.
To Teclos, they were just mildly annoying now.
One of the biggest boons of being a vampire—although he was just a lowly thrall right now—was his new ability to absorb power through the blood he drank, quickly gaining strenght.
And his senses sharpened so much that he didnt need to be still to meditate anymore, he could just walk during meditation now.
Every step through the forest became part of the process of getting stronger. His breathing remained even and steady, as he looked for other prey.
Eventually, he stopped drinking the blood of the beasts.
He was no longer hungry, but it would be a waste to return already. So Instead, he raised one hand, and the blood gathered above his hand.
A dark red orb was formed when the blood from the beasts gathered above it. It was a smooth and glistening orb, suspended in the air by his mana. The blood and power from the beasts was being preserved inside of it. It followed Teclos, floating silently next to him like a small crimson moon.
He glanced toward the mountain again and sensed the wyvern, still sleeping and bolivious to the threat down below.
He could see its shadow, even from here.
The beast was too strong to face today. He would need at least a week in this forest before he thought of challenging it. A week of hunting, feeding, refining, and preparing. Perhaps less, if he was lucky.
When he thought about the mission, Luther came to into his mind and teclos expression darkened slightly.
That bastard had called it easy. Oh just kill a wyvern, no biggie...sure. not only that, he would also need to transport the heart back to him. That meant having to slowly travel across the whole northern part of the kingdom, while he encased the heart in his mana to try and prevent the hearts mana from dissipating.
Easy.
Nothing involving Luther was ever truly simple or easy, but he sure as hell could be a grand pain in the ass with his whimsical orders.
After the little rant in his head, Teclos moved discreetly through the forest, well... if one ignored the shriveled corpses he left behind.
His body remained wrapped in dark mana, and he never left the cover of the darkness for long, because he did not want the wyvern to notice him. If it noticed a predator like teclos moving through its territory, it might come down from the mountain and hunt him before he was ready.
But for now, it slept peacefully and he was safe.
His gaze lingered on the distant peak, and another memory surfaced.
Kolma.
He had visited it after becoming a thrall. Once, during those two years when Luther had sent him across the continent for errands, and training. There he could sense the orcs still battling the humans for possesion of the land, amd rage boild in his heart again when he saw them.
But killing orcs wasnt the mission, so he couldnt kill any unless they came too close to him.
He had to scout the area and write down usefull information about the fauna.
There he felt it, the presence on the mountain.
The manticore.
That thing had been monstrous, its presence was so overwhelming that even as a thrall and from a distance, he shivered in. It was a true guardian of the continent. Luther himself had said it was as strong as a dragon, and one of the four great beasts that protected the continent.
The wyvern above him right now was just a lesser being.
It was the offspring of one of the guardians, the Emperor of the Snowy Peaks. Because it was not needed for the protection of the continent, Luther had decided that its heart would make a pleasant snack.
Teclos hated that most of all, because the heart would make Luther stronger.
Since all Vampires could extract mana and blood from the living and make it their own. A dead heart would provide less than a living one, but Teclos could preserve most of its power.
Having thralls was truly nice.
He would do the work, killing the beast and taking the risk of being killed by it.
And Luther would feast.
—
By the time the sun began to sink behind the clouds, the forest had grown still around him. The beasts retreated into their burrows and caves, preparing to survive another bitterly cold night.
That was his signal that it was enough hunting for today.
The wyvern didnt wake up and was still oblivious to the parasite near its mountains, and he still gathered alot of blood and mana.
All in all a fruitfull day.
Teclos turned back toward the village and stepped through a shadow of a dead pine that was closest to the gates. From there, he walked openly, letting the guards see him approach like any other traveler returning from the forest.
The guards that stood near the gate, wrapped in thick cloaks and spears resting against their shoulders, noticed him quickly.
They exchanged a glance when Teclos approached. And thought they could foolishly excercise their Authoroty of being a guard on him
The fragile illusion of it.
"Halt," one of them said, stepping into his path.
Teclos stopped.
The guard swallowed, then lifted his chin. "We need to search you before you enter."
The other guard shifted beside him, alert and trying to look stern.
Teclos just looked at them in silence and for a brief moment, he imagined their heads leaving their shoulders.
They had no idea how lucky they were that he was far enough from Luther.
If this had happened near his master, if someone had dared touch or delay one of Vaelthor’s hounds without permission, Luther would have considered it an insult. Vampires were proud creatures, much like dragons or elves in this world. Proud of their bloodline. Proud of their heritage to the point of arrogance.
And Teclos, whether he liked it or not, now carried their mark.
But here, in the north, with Luther far away and only the frozen land before him, Teclos merely sighed through his nose.
"Then do it quickly," he said.
The guards searched him.
Or tried to.
They found nothing worth mentioning, as he litteraly just wore his cloak, armor and sword around. The rest was in his dark dimension, along with a new blood orb he created for a late night snack.
When they were done, the first guard stepped aside.
"You may enter."
Teclos walked past without another word.
Behind him, both guards exhaled and smiled excitedly...they could brag in the tavern now, after their shift was over.
—
The Frosted Ram grew quiet the moment he stepped through the door.
Again.
It was almost amusing.
Teclos ignored the staring eyes that followed his every move, and took the same table as before. A warm meal was brought to him quickly.
Steam curled from the bowl of a thick meat stew, rich with tender chunks of beef, herbs, and dark gravy, while a loaf of freshly baked bread sat beside it, its crust was still warm enough to crackle under his fingers.
He was thoroughly enjoying and savouring the flavour. It made him feel human again.
Later, Selma brought water for another bath, though this time she kept her eyes firmly forward and closed the door fully when she left. She currently couldnt look teclos into the eyes without turning red as a strawberry.
He foud it amusing.
The warm water soothed his body and soul again. He could have easily remained in the forest through the night. Slaughtering everything alive in that forest, and returned only when the wyvern itself descended.
But he did not. Instead he ate, bathed and slept like a normal man.
He quite liked this change of pace.
Just a peacefull night, above a roudy tavern without the order to kill anything.
This full week of just hunting, eating and sleeping until he was ready, felt like a vacation. And for the first time in those two atrocious years where he nearly lost his mind and gave up, he smiled in his bed.
Until the wyvern’s heart belonged to him this pace would continue.
And then, unfortunately, he had to go back to Luther.
