Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Valen sat in the penthouse apartment of the Wilis Building. He was having a great night so far. On his bed laid some stupid girl who had come to the city to make it big as an adventurer.

How easy it was to harvest such young blood with just some money. First, he could satisfy his carnal desires and then his hunger. Valen loved this day and age. It had become a lot easier to get his hands on fresh blood.

Back then there would have been a lot of people asking questions even when just some homeless vanished off the streets. It would take a lot of resources to make records vanish. Now? Nobody cared about one or two adventurers disappearing.

Surveillance had become almost zero and the police forces and guards already reached their limit taking care of the obvious crimes. An ancient vampire like him had an easy time making a living.

The only break in his heart was that someone else had gotten his hand on his grandfather's creation. If only the family was not so incompetent. Grandfather Tom had left so much behind for them in this building, that only needed the tower to be activated.

What Empire? What Demons? They could have taken control of Delta in the blink of an eye if one of their descendants had proven worthy. They had even gotten one of the entrance tokens into circulation to see whether somebody managed to get in the tower. It would not have been hard to get control back, once they were in.

But what happened? Some upstart had gotten lucky and stolen their key to glory. The vampire was still stumped about how that could have happened. The worst part was that this Seth was too smart for his own good.

Although he had turned out stronger than expected, there was no way for some random guy to compete with them. Even if they could not get their hand on the tower, they could not allow someone else to.

It was better to just get rid of him. A warm feeling filled his stomach when he thought of what he was going to do with this Seth and his friends. There were quite a few cute girls among his entourage.

The thought of defiling and breaking them in front of that smug guy's eyes satisfied his sadistic heart. And afterward, he would bring them into the room. He could not wait to see his face once he saw those girls follow him willingly.

Swirling the fresh blood in his wine glass he stepped onto the balcony and took a sip. The bathrobe that covered his chiseled body blew in the soft breeze of the city. The schemer's self-satisfied smile vanished when he heard an explosion from the lower floors.

Fire and wind magic struck the front of the building. The magic protections were able to block most of the damages but the glass façade was still smashed to pieces.

The guards stationed in the lobby rushed out to meet the attackers but were met by overwhelming force. The Willis forces could barely hold on against the attacker while the enemy casters were already firing the second volley.

The protections had a hard time withstanding the elemental attacks but held on. It was a concentrated beam of light that finally broke through. Part of the protective layers on the lower floors dissipated giving way for the magic attacks.

But this chance was gone. The guards and protection had bought enough time for the Willis' private parties to join the fray. They were the Family Members accompanies by their personal high-level parties. They easily outnumbered the attackers 3:1 but still had to exert themselves to bind their attacks.

Valen had not cared originally. The family had not only friends. Being attacked by others was nothing unusual. But seeing that their private forces were needed to deal with the threat he came over to the railing and watched.

He looked at the fight down on the street. It would have been hard for a regular human, but his vampire eyes were like those of an eagle. He immediately recognized the people that had original accompanied that upstart. They were even accompanied by a force of feral cat warriors.

But where was that annoyance? He could not find their leader among them. If he was not among them, had he entered alone through the elevator? It couldn't be that he planned to fight him alone.

The vampire couldn't help but snicker. Admittedly the man's armor was sturdy and his gear high-grade, but that was far from enough to stand up to him. What else could be that man's goal with this little charade?

Valen observed the enemy being pushed back and returned to his apartment to get dressed. If Seth was in the building, he would find him and kill him. The vampire saw it as a great chance. The leader had left the circle of his guard and entered the battlefield alone.

The bloodsucker took his private elevator to the ground floor. His prey would come from the lobby, it would be easier to start from there and work his way up. On the way down Valen fell a little stuffy. Was it getting warmer?

The moment Valen left the elevator and entered the lobby, Seth left the regular elevator on the floor right below the penthouse. Throwing balls of soul fire left and right he kept looking for the stairwell to the penthouse.

When he finally found his way up, he only found a dead girl on a bed, but no one else.

"Valen?!" he called out for the vampire but it seemed like a bloodsucker was out. Originally, Seth had wanted to taunt him a little before using "home call" to return to the church. Today was not the day for the vampire to die, Al'Zalsa was still on cool down.

Otherwise, he would have thrown the lich at the vampire and let the two old timers duke it out. Since nobody was home to receive guests Seth started setting fire to the place. He had already done so to the first ten floors of the building.

There was little that could stop the soul fire from devouring everything. Especially since he was still present to kept it going. He used the stairwell down and meticulously threw several fireballs and fire lances into each floor.

The building may have had a shield on the outside, but the inside burned like tinder. At this point, the fire he had lit on the lower floor would have spread to the mid of the high riser. He got not kill notification at all, was the whole building empty? Or were all residents above lv. 40 and simply ported out?

Seth had just lit the 20th floor from the top when he heard a wrathful roar shaking the building. As he was listening the volume of the roar became louder and the shaking stronger. It seemed like a very angry bat was closing in on him.

He heard a crash followed by the sound of ripping metal and shattering concrete. Accompanied by the elevator door that was launched into the hallway, a still burning Valen entered the stage.

The ugly giant bat that would even make a gargoyle look away in disgust was covered in burns and still burning patches of soul fire. The eyes of the creature looked wild and crazy from rage and pain.

Swinging its giant claws and thick muscular arms it charged at Seth like a bull. The blacksmith used the "Disruptor Boots" to disrupt the charge and <Lame One's Walk> to evade the brainless charge.

"Hey, did you lose your sanity? Taunting a brainless beast won't be fun at all..."

The only answer was an ear-shattering roar and a fast combo of claw swipes. Although the speed and power were impressive, there was no technique or skill used in these swings. Just rage. This old beast couldn't have fallen in a fit of rage, just because he set fire to his place, right?

This had to be a feint to draw him into a fight! But what if it wasn't? Seth decided to throw a lance of soul fire at the vampire. He could see the beast hesitate for just a moment before almost evading and taking the hit. The lance penetrated its shoulder and exploded.

The explosion collapsed the whole section of the corridor and filled it with a thick dust cloud. A huge dust cloud with a potentially dead and scheming monster inside. What to do?

Seth ran away from the cloud, as far as he could, and reach the other end of the hallway where it ended in a huge window. He equipped "Mind Decay" and took aim at the dust cloud. If this guy wanted to take some hits to bait him into a fight, he would make sure they were hits that hurt.

At this point, he needed to use his resources economically. He still needed his mana and mental energy.

"Goddammit. What is this fire!" finally the hulking figure of Valen came into view. It seemed like he had given up his act when he saw that Seth was not falling for it. The shoulder was completely missing and the arm was only hanging on by a strip of meat.

The wound was still burning and the healing factor of the vampire had a hard time offsetting the fire. This time Seth was not up for a conversation. An arrow shot from "Mind Decay" was lodged into the vampire's chest before he even finished his question. He screamed in pain for the first time.

"Wha-!?" another almost penetrated the left eyes but Valen was able to evade in the last moment. It only brushed his ear before vanishing into dust behind him.

"I see you-!" the third was barely blocked by an opaque blood shield. The vicious arrow had been aiming straight for the vampire's crotch.

"Bastard!" he evaded another arrow, but at this time the effects of the first arrow became obvious. Spreading from where the shaft stuck out from the chest a dark patch of necrotic flesh was expanding.

"You know, I didn't actually plan to kill you today.-Thunk- but maybe I actually have a chance." Seth kept shooting at the giant bat while talking.

"Grr!" he evaded the arrows and kept closing in on Seth.

Yes, think you can take me down. I just need you to stay and not run away Valen thought to himself. Once he was in range, he could kill Seth with his blood magic in one hit.

Another arrow came flying, Valen came another step closer. Just a little more! Just a little-

A giant hand suddenly broke through the wall to the right of Valen and grasped the bat's ugly head. Instinctively the vampire slashed at the arm with his claws but they could only slide across the surface of the iron hard muscles.

Next, an upper body and a terrifying three-faced doghead came into view as Cerberus leaned forward and the rest of him broke through the wall. Its red eyes were focused on the vampire as it lifted the creature off its feet.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the three-headed hellhound behind it.

Seth had wanted to get closer to capture the vampire's soul but Al warned him.

~ I told you not to get close to it. It can still cast the blood magic even in this situation. ~

Seth grimaced. What could he do? He really wanted the vampire's soul and there was no guarantee it would drop its soul voluntarily. But then it struck him. Cerberus could use the same skills as him. He had only thought of the crafting skill until now.

"Cerberus, keep beating it until you can use <Soul Capture>! I want that soul."

Valen's eyes widened in horror as the second fist started mincing his body.