The Envoy

A loud yawn sounded throughout the woods surrounding a simple dirt path, not quiet enough to go fully unnoticed but far from loud enough to invoke any sort of reaction from the creatures of the forest.

The owner of that yawn frowned as he stepped into a deserted village, his attention not on the city up ahead but on the hand he had placed right in front of his mouth as he yawned.

The man seemed aggravated by something, he shook his head and focused on his destination.

'Where are they?' he wondered, the moon was partly covered but its soft glow still illuminated his figure.

His skin was deathly pale, his eyes blood red and livid, both of those features in stark contrast of his behavior, which was expressive and lively.

He was dressed up like any other typical person one would find in the area, he still wouldn't go unnoticed however.

He looked around multiple times, even walking up to the back of the abandoned houses, expecting the two monsters supposed to give their report to him to show up.

They never did.

He couldn't wait all night and began approaching the gates on his own, expecting to find the two idiots fast asleep somewhere.

He had picked up on the faint smell of blood ever since he had gotten close to the city, it was only natural for his kind to be able to, even if his own prowesses displeased the man.

Although somewhat subpar, after he pushed the gates open with some effort and moved deeper inside the town, he was able to notice that something was off.

The smell of blood didn't alarm him, he was well aware of the two's tendencies to snack on some townspeople and spilling blood on the ground.

However, once he moved closer to the center of the town, he quickly realised that there wasn't just the smell of human blood, in fact, the human blood was barely noticeable, the blood he had been sensing since the beginning was that of at least one monster!

'Surely, they didn't fight and hurt each other?' his first thought was to blame them, they weren't very bright, even by their species standards, despite being able to make all of the sounds needed, they failed to form correct sentences all of the time.

Not for a second did he consider a rebellion, fully convinced that none would dare rise up against her majesty, the Obsidian Queen.

He then found their remains, the traces of decay apparent and most of their soft tissues having been scavenged by birds and rats.

Even his amateurish eyes were able to dicern that they hadn't been killed by an angry mob of townsfolk, it looked more like they had been slayed by people that knew what they were doing.

'Some adventurers? The people should be able to tell me more...' he was shocked but not worried much, the two could be easily replaced in a jiffy, the two hadn't been strong enough that it came as a surprise that they could have been killed.

He retained his cool and prepared to go back to inform his superior of what had happened, though he would be visiting houses beforehand, he couldn't just come back like this when he still had plenty of time to investigate on his own.

He would perhaps even be able to take care of those rogue adventurers himself.

Then, he turned his head to the right and then to the left, deciding on which house he would first visit.

"Mmh?" in his peripheral vision, he noticed something unmoving that hadn't been there before.

He instinctively backed off after realising that it was definitely shaped like a person.

'What am I doing? I am a proud vampire, I can't be startled by someone in the night, that's my job...' he gave himself a quick pep talk, convincing himself that they had sneaked up there only because he hadn't paid attention.

Which was true, he hadn't been vigilant about an attack.

"You're here just at the right time, tell me what happened to those two" he spoke firmly as he pointed down at the remains.

Instead of answering, the dark figure, began taking slow steps forward.

Doing his best to remain dignified and not let his voice crack at the frightening display, the vampire raised one hand on front of him, his palm facing the unknown shadowy person.

"Just answer human, lest I turn you into a bloo- Huh?" he let out a sound of surprise, his vision had darkened for a moment and suddenly, the person had been gone!

"..." his mouth was only agape and no noise came out as he noticed that something else was off.

He didn't think about turning around to check, he was more focused on the fact that his outstretched arm was missing.

He thought his vision was tricking him and waved his other arm through empty space.

Then, he looked down at his shoulder and grasp the stump left there with an expression riddled with shock and fear.

His entire right arm had been cleanly sliced off, the stump wasn't bleeding, it seemed like it had been cauterised.

He finally turned around to bear witness to the shadowy silhouette holding his severed arm.

"I thought you were a vampire, but you're pretty weak, huh?" spoke the shape, now easier to make out as the glow of the moon illuminated her from the front.

Superstes stared straight at the monster in front of her, making him recoil a bit.

"Silence! I... I am a vampire! Who the hell are you? Are you the one who killed them?! You are dealing with a force you can't take on!" he was deeply afraid but even more offended, nothing was more of a subject of contention to him than his true species.

He prided himself upon being a vampire but the reality was that he was barely one, he was an undead and couldn't feel pain, hence why it took him so long to realise his arm was gone, however, apart from that, he had very little, to no true vampiric abilities.

He didn't even have the fangs!

Superstes didn't respond to him but he didn't care, he rapidly grabbed a small vial of blood from inside his pockets, not bothering to open it up, cracking the vial in between his teeth.

"You're dead!" he tried to say but it only came out as distorted roar as he entered a blood rage.

Even Superstes, who didn't know all that much about monsters could tell that a vampire that went berserk upon drinking even a little bit of blood was quite pathetic.

Still, she got ready for the incoming monster.