You dare?

A lamia and a vampire walked side by side in Wallachia. They looked around, trying to pick what they could use against the vampires and this pesky alliance. They still oozed the black miasma, except that it was really minute, almost unnoticeable.

"Gruke, don't you think we can kill the two crowned vampires and use that to cause infighting within the alliance?"

"That was exactly my thought. The death of the newly assigned ruler would cause a revolution."

They whispered to each other as they sneaked towards the castle. The defense they put up was negligible, and they could pass it quite easily. Both of them snuck into the castle and were looking to assassinate the new rulers. They continued walking for minutes until they realized that something was wrong.

The two of them stopped and looked around, but nothing seemed different. Isima's eyes glowed, and she spoke, "We've been trapped."

Gruke's face became a bit unsightly as he did not notice when they were trapped; even now he had not noticed.

"Why don't you come out? You definitely know we are here, so just do us the favor of facing us," Isima said.

A resounding laughter echoed around the entire hall, and Vladimir materialized in their presence with a smile, but that smile immediately became a face of rage.

"YOU DARE BARGE INTO THE CASTLE OF THE VAMPIRES, SHADOW BEINGS?" Vlad sneered

"Oh? How did you know we were of the shadows?" Isima asked in a coquettish tone; it seemed like she was not afraid.

"That putrid miasma you exude stinks so bad I could smell it several kilometers away," Vlad said patiently.

"Well, now that you have found us, what are you going to do?" Isima spoke like a little girl that was caught stealing cookies, while Gruke had a sombre expression. He was not as strong as Isima, so he felt this would be a tough fight, but he felt better seeing Vlad was alone.

'Let's attack him before he attacks us' Gruke spoke to Isima telepathically.

'If you move, you die. Wait for my signal' Isima responded.

Vlad just stood there like he had no care in the world. He finally shook his head and started to approach them.

'NOW' Isima signaled

Isima and Gruke both bolted at Vlad with their strongest melee attacks. The tip of Isima's tail had a blade embedded in it that was poisoned, while Gruke's nails elongated into claws. Vlad looked at their attacks and did not even bother blocking. The attacks pierced flesh, and Isima and Gruke were overjoyed, thinking their attacks worked. They heard Vlad laugh and were shocked.

"Is that all?"

They noticed that, though their attacks broke through his skin, they barely went deep. Alarm bells rang in their heads as they tried to escape. Isima succeeded with a bit of a sacrifice; her tail was sliced from the tip to the quarter, while Gruke was not so lucky. His head was held in Vlad's palm.

He struggled, punching and kicking Vlad, but nothing happened.

SQUASH

Gruke's head burst like a watermelon in the hands of Vlad. The shadow shrieked and tried to escape, but it was unsuccessful. Vlad's shadow covered the escaping shadow of Gruke, and then nothing

Isima saw this, and her hair stood on end.

"You're the lord of darkness, The Dracula, Vladmir."

"Well, obviously, who did you think I was? Obama?"

"I heard you killed a lot of our kind since your unique abilities let you not only drink blood but also consume darkness, or beings made of darkness."

"I love facing you shadow beings the most. You all think you're strong, but you are actually fucking weak and cowardly. You cannot escape, so just enter my belly." Vlad's shadow started to increase. Isima made a run for it, but as soon as she turned around, she saw Vlad right in front of her. He swung his palm like it was a sword, and Isima's head from her upper jaw upwards was sliced. He swallowed her shadow and rummaged through their memories. His shadow-eating abilities allowed him to integrate the shadow beings into his person, allowing them to become part of him and essentially giving him their memories.

Vlad stood for a few minutes as he digested the memories of both Isima and Gruke. After he was done, he looked to the shadow and spoke.

"It looks like we'd have to visit the centaur and succubus clans to ensure these shadow races don't mess with the balance."

Anastasia walked out of the shadows and nodded. She was present when Isima and Gruke tried to escape, and if they had successfully escaped from Vlad, she would have been there to stop them.

Vlad started to slowly transform, and what stood before Anastasia was a 3-meter figure with gigantic pointed ears and enormous fangs. It had red eyes as it stared at Anastasia. If it were any other person, they would have probably crapped their pants, but Anastasia stared at Vlad with love despite him looking hideous. He smiled at Anastasia with a terrifying grin, and a pair of wings were on display as he was about to fly. They were about 5 meters long, and in a moment, he was off.

Shockingly, a sonic boom resounded from just a flap of his wing. He broke the sound barrier in no time and was no longer in sight. Blood wings also formed behind Anastasia, and she disappeared in flight too.

There were two types of vampires: changelings and bleedlings. Since Tenebrea was the progenitor of the vampires, she had both of those bloodlines, which is why she was able to fully transform and also control blood. Vladimir was a changeling, which meant his control over blood was miniscule, but he was blessed with increased physical capabilities, and lucky for him, he also had shadow abilities, while Anastasia and Scarlet were bleedlings, and their control over blood was incredible. Bleedlings were like the mages of the vampires, while changelings were the warriors.

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Meanwhile, in the centaur tribe, the chief of the centaurs, Chiron, stared at a 4-meter-tall man made of bark. Chron was already 3 meters tall, with dirty blonde hair and black, shining eyes. He had scars all over his chest, and his face was stoic and chiseled. The treeman was from the shadows and went by the name Sleik. He and Verthan were told to come to both the Succubi and Centaur tribes, so they decided to split up.

Right now, the centaurs chose to take a neutral stance, but Sleik was not having it, so he had threatened the centaur tribe.