chapter 11

Night started to fall as we walked through the empty planes. Thankfully Aster knew roughly where we were, and we started the long march towards the city of Taryln. In my arms lily had not moved nor stirred, and yet her body temperature was slowly rising as sweat began to form on her brow. Aster would not tell me what was wrong, but she told me it was my fault. All she would tell me is that Lotus would know what to do. Lotus was hundreds of miles away though, back in the sect. All I could do for now was co minus to carry her. And if I got the chance, I would feed her some essence.

Aster implied that it was alright if I had to feed her my own essence as the damage was already done, but I would rather avoid that if possible as it would just deplete my own supply. We had yet to dine any living g creatures, and hunger began to gnaw at my stomach. I was doing a lot better than Aster, however. Her face was deathly pale, and each step seemed to be a struggle for her.

I found a relatively safe place and stopped for the night. My crossbow had been damaged beyond repair in the melee earlier, but we had managed to retrieve a few arrows from Asters bow. I had received no formal training. But after having Aster show me the ropes a little, I pretty much had the hang of it. Taking g, her bow I left the two to find some food.

The night was quiet, I had not seen any undead ever since the destruction of the horde, but that did not mean they were none. I stayed vigilant as I crept through the darkness, an arrow knocked in the bow as I slowly spiraled around the camp.

I progressed this way for over an hour before I caught a faint rustle to my left. A small feline beast was crouched there, a much larger version of it lay half decomposed in front of them. The kitten appeared to be black in color, while its deceased mother was tan. And resembled the lion I had encountered earlier.

FUCK. This is not what I needed. I slowly backed away from the kitten, if its father was who I suspected it was then we needed to move as far away from hear as possible. I sprinted back to the camp. I roused Aster and we quickly cleaned up camp before I picked up Lily and we set out again. Unbeknownst to us a small black kitten followed cautiously behind.

We walked halfway through the night before Aster signaled me to stop. Ahead of us were a group of undead. 5 of them. They seemed to have something cornered and were shambling towards it. I focused my site and the silhouette of a deer like beast with a single bladelike horn on its head could be seen. An undead dove at it, only to be beheaded with a thrust of the deer's head.

Five arrows shot out like lightning as I was watching the scene, the first four took out the undead, while the last pierced through the eye of the deer. It fell to the floor twitching, and Aster quickly dashed towards the beast, an arrow in hand as she pierced the Deer's neck. Pressing her mouth to the sound she began to gorge herself on the blood until color returned to her cheeks.

After her fill she gestured me over, telling me to feed Lily. As she was unconscious, I could think of only one way to feed her. And just like that my first kids in this world had been stolen by an unconscious girl. The blood flowed from lips into hers. Thankfully, or unthankfully as I would soon find out. She was able to swallow on her own.

The moment the warm blood entered her stomach it came rushing back out, projecting all over me as I was about to feed her more. To the side Aster couldn't help but let out a startled cry followed by laughter. It took her several minutes to calm down, and by then the beast was truly dead, its blood no longer of any use to us.

"It's worse than I feared." The soberness of her voice contradicted her earlier laughter. "It seems like until she can be cured the only essence, she can have been yours. But I'd it's already at this state the consequences will be severe. " her eyes seemed to have a look in them, but it was not pity that I could see. "Well get to it, you don't want your little girlfriend to starve, do you?"

What followed was a repeat of the last time she had fed from me, minus the throwing. I could feel my essence quickly declining as she absorbed it, but I still had some time until I starved. Unfortunately, I hadn't absorbed any essence from the beast or undead.

I eyed the bladelike horn protruding from the head of the beast. "If you can get the horn off it will make for a good blade when we get back to the sect, a good gift for Lotus if she is to help you. The horn of a bladicorn is said to bring good luck to its wielder. And is more durable and light weight than steel. And before you think about it don't attempt to use it yourself. It's far to precious for you to break the next time you go berserk.

I tried for an hour to remove the horn to no avail, however after some thought I simple removed the entire head, Lotus would be able to figure it out. Carrying lily in one arm and the head in the other we proceeded forward, as dawn approached, we saw bonfires in the distance. We had finally found the reinforcements.

A happy sigh escaped my lips as we headed down the small hill towards the blazing fires in front of us. This horrible journey that had claimed almost half of our lives was finally coming to an end. Soon we would be able to head back to the sect.

There were no surprises as we entered the camp. Skye had managed to gather around 100 men to help clear out the zombie horde. When we reported who we were a guard was quickly dispatched to fetch her and verify our identities. Skye received a quick rundown of the activities over the last few days and was slightly surprised by the lack of bodies of the two but did not delve too far into it. After all a horde of this size was a new experience for everyone.

She did not take our words however of the hordes demise and decided the group would investigate the site and draw conclusions from there. We could rest for a couple hours before we began the March back to the previous location of the horde. The soldiers were rather nice and allowed the unconscious Lily to lay on a cart. I was rather relieved at the sudden loss of the extra weight but felt a sort of emptiness as well. I was given a change of clothes, into which I quickly changed. I used the remnants of torn pair to make a makeshift bag for the head of the bladicorn and hung it from my waist.

We arrived at the battlefield, or rather graveyard now, by midafternoon. Large vulture like birds could be seen throughout the field, feasting on the decaying flesh of the undead. There were a few murmurs from the soldiers about the amount of bodies, as well as their advanced state of decay. They of course did not know that my vampiric aura was the cause of this.

I received several words of praise from the soldiers, they dared not approach me, stating that they felt suddenly I'll if they got too close. They may not know the reason, but I did. Aster received her fair share of praises and fist bumps from the soldiers, knowing she had taken part in this massacre. Even more than she received odd stairs and whispers behind her back about both her red hair and eyes, as well as her not being affected by my presence. Eventually this whispers far outnumbered the praises and the soldiers began to avoid us like the plague. They even went as far as to stay away from the cart that Lily was in, though no one had dared request that we move her yet.

Aster acted as if this was normal. I did not have much experience outside of the Undying legion. But the girls had told me that most view them as a taboo existence, so this kind of treatment was normal for Aster.

Word eventually got out about my connection to the undying legion, and a mix of jealousy and fear entered the eyes of the soldiers. They no longer approached the cart that Lily was laying on, they had even gone as far as to remove all the supplies from the cart moving it to another cart. Even in their fear they still had a little decency as they left a blanket for her behind. They also left the Cow like demonic beast that pulled the cart. Aster was forced to drive, as the beast's essence would be devoured by my aura if I attempted. Thus, I walked behind the cart with a bow and a couple quivers of arrows that I had been gifted before our identities were made public.

The only person to approach us as we looked over the battlefield was Skye, which was to lead a beast she had bottom. In town to us to drain some blood from. The beast was a domesticated low-grade beast that had a high amount of vitality, it looked like one of those small pigs that never got to full size, except it was a sky blue in color. We could draw enough blood from it once a day to keep the three of us fed. It truly was a great beast to have, but from the pained look on sky's face it was rather expensive. "Her name is Violet, and the cost of her will be deducted from the pay you would have received from this mission. That is for all three of you. You will be lucky to get half of the pay this mission provided, that's even with the bonus from the horde being three times what it was reported as."

She continued as her eyes surveyed the battlefield that was utterly devoid of life other than the giant vultures. "We will camp here for the night. The soldiers have gifted you the cart, however the beast will need to be returned once we arrive at the sect. There is a barracks there that we can drop it off at. They will be leaving in the morning, while we will be headed back to the sect."

With all the soldiers around we did not have to stand watch tonight, and Aster and I curled up on either side of Lily. Her skin was radiating heat as I laid next to her. She was obviously unwell, but the only solution we had was hundreds of miles away at the sect. I just hoped she could hold on that long.

I was interrupted in my sleep by a soft ball of fluff rubbing against my face. Soft purring could be heard as I opened my eyes. I was greeted by the sight of a black kitten with white stripes, it was no bigger than my hand. I closed my eyes as the kitten curled up next to my face, its soft purring lulling me back into slumber.

Moments later shouting could be heard from the army encampments. My eyes burst open as I quickly sat up. The camp was in chaos. From the flickering of the bonfires a large predatory cat, the size of a car, could be seen, blood pouring from its mouth as it tossed the body of a soldier to the side. Its eyes surveying the camp, as if attempting to look for something.