First Demonic Dragon

Chapter 1254: Belt to A**

Radu Tepes had seen the damage that his mentor’s weapon could cause. He had heard the unsavory sound of ripping flesh and the screams that arose from his enemies when they were subjected to it.

There had been rumors that those who were killed by the weapon did not reach the afterlife. Their souls were shredded along with their flesh.

Radu would not allow himself to be subjected to such a fate. If it required his dying breath, he would fight, claw, and struggle to survive with a ferociousness that trumped over that of any demon.

“Whether you’re a ghost or not… I’ll never allow you to come back here and knock me out of my seat…! There’s a new vampire king reigning over the earth, and he has given me his blessing!”

Radu roared monstrously and grabbed hold of Mateo’s weapon. Careful to avoid the obsidian points, he held it with the flat sides of his palms before flinging it away.

The weapon became lodged in a nearby support column, making the room rumble.

Radu Tepes was a somewhat wiry, albeit extremely handsome man who favored his grandfather immensely. His long, dark brown hair was nearly black in color. His eyes were as golden as a dragon’s lair.

Usually, they held a calculated intelligence and some semblance of patience.

But now, there was almost none.

His eyes were bloodshot. His handsome face was becoming more bat-like, with elongated ears and fangs sharper than diamonds.

His limbs lengthened, expanding his reach until his claws were nearly scraping the floor. The man had practically become feral.

“Don’t hide from me, Mateo! Come out and face me, and prove you aren’t just some cowa-”

A hard smack sent Radu flying out the window. For a moment, his body did not register that it had been struck, and the pain was slow to come.

It arrived just as Radu crashed through the window of another high-rise building.

He couldn’t stop his body as it barreled through walls, bounced off the ground, and was thrown clear into another building.

His journey only ended when he landed in an indoor pool.

Disoriented, Radu raised his head above the waters and tried to stop the room from spinning.

“I thought so much more of you than this… You were supposed to be better. You were supposed to prove that your family’s cruelty was not something that had to be passed down. but the moment I take my eyes off you… You go and do something like this.”

When clarity returned to Radu’s vision, he saw an accursed figure standing over him, eyes filled with contempt and betrayal.

That look alone was enough to remind Radu of exactly why he had been fighting so hard in the first place.

“You don’t get to come back in and judge me, you filthy, fucking wretch..! I am living the way vampires are supposed to! I have made this domain my palace of blood under his direction!

Look around! The End War has already commenced! There are no longer any rules! No more do we have to be the ones who hide in the shadows! Now it is the humans who will learn their proper place beneath us!”

The water in the pool turned to jagged spears of ice. Their sharp points spread out in every direction and pierced the ceiling, concrete, and drywall equally.

But not Mateo.

Any ice that came near him merely shattered on contact, merely eliciting a scowl.

Mateo raised his arm and swiped it out in front of him.

Every shard of ice in the room shattered all at once, creating an almost beautiful crystal shower. But through the broken ice, Radu lunged out with his claws fully extended.

As Mateo stared at him, he couldn’t help but become the tiniest bit sentimental.

He had been the one to practically raise Radu. He had tried his best to keep him on the correct path of the vampire, while learning to appreciate the gifts and opportunities that it provided.

The glory of being a nosferatu was not the power to engage in fruitless violence. Nor was it the ability to lull weak minds into a thoughtless lust.

It was the gift of a unique perspective. Through the ages, as men build, live, and die during the day, vampires walk through the night to wander at the marvels of what god’s favored race had wrought.

Certainly, there were issues. And many times, Mateo had considered intervening himself. But watching the humans get up, crawl, and learn to figure things out on their own was much better for their development.

Yes, vampires were hunters. But they were not predators. There was a certain nobility in who they were and their diet.

Vampires alone carry the blood of the ages within them. It nourishes them, gives them clarity and strength, yes. But more than that, it allows them to carry around a small piece of all of those whom they have drunk.

When vampires understand this aspect of feeding, their minds are expanded. They learn to see things from many different perspectives outside of their own.

In this regard, it could be said that vampires are not intended to be the enemies of humanity. Rather, they are supposed to be the one force closest to them that helps humanity to understand itself.

Mateo had tried to explain all of this to Radu, and he thought his protege had understood, even if there were instances where he seemed to view them in the same light that Abaddon did.

Evidently, it seemed as though Mateo had only been fooling himself. At the first taste of power, Radu had flipped over everything that he had tried to teach him.

And now, it was Mateo’s responsibility to put him down and avenge the souls tortured at his hands.

“This… breaks my heart, mijo.”

Mateo’s hand lashed out and grabbed Radu by both of his wrists.

Yanking him forward, Mateo drove his knee into the stomach of his apprentice.

Radu’s eyes bulged as the wind rushed out of his body. He tried to break free of Mateo’s grip, but it was useless. The first vampire had hands like a steel vice.

Mteo elbowed Radu hard in the back of the head. The force of which sent the younger vampire crashing through the floor.

He landed atop a pool table in a casino hall. A tidal wave of water fell after him, adding further insult to injury.

Mateo floated down after the water, his hands in his pockets and his ancient weapon hovering over his head.

“As I said… I take no pleasure in this. But I will not shirk away from my responsibilities either.”

Radu rolled his body off the pool table as he coughed up excess water and blood.

“You… You’re fucked, you know that..? You won’t get away with this!”

Radu ripped apart his pale skin and emerged as a fully-formed monster. A half-man, half-bat monster with glowing red eyes and wings nearly twenty feet long.

The creature released a shrill shriek.

The sound was so high-pitched and so deadly that it not only destroyed every piece of glass in the room, but it stripped the carpet as well.

Vampires had sensitive hearing, so this sonic attack did make Mateo a bit uncomfortable. However, he didn’t show any trace of discomfort aside from a deep frown.

He held out two fingers and pointed them toward the bat.

His macuahuitl responded in kind, rushing toward Radu like a rocket.

It instantly pierced the creature’s stomach and thrust him out of the building once more.

There was a deep rumble on the streets as a cloud of dust was kicked up.

While lying on the ground, Radu blinked slowly as he looked up at the bright red sky. He thought he was hallucinating. It certainly would have made the most sense.

Pain flooded his stomach. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t even use his powers.

He could feel the weapon draining his strength and energy. But it was not killing him. Rather, it seemed to be trying to incapacitate him.

An effort that was clearly bearing some results. He couldn’t even hear anything happening around him. The world was like a soft cloud that he was sinking deeper into with every passing moment.

As Radu blinked slowly, he saw a shadowy figure descending from the sky.

Perhaps it was his hate that further awoke him. But as his eyes regained bits of clarity, so too did his ears begin to process sound once more.

He finally heard the screams. He smelled the blood and the smoke.

His people… they were dying. And everything he had worked for was going up in flames.

As Mateo hovered just above him, Radu stared into his crimson-colored eyes, as ominous as the sky they sat under.

“…Anything left to say?”

Radu smiled monstrously in his bat-like form.

“…You’re.. so dead. I’m a made man now… I have a backer… someone who’ll never let you go for all that you’ve done to me.”

That piqued Mateo’s interest quite a bit.

He landed on the ground beside Radu, his brow raised. “Oh? Do tell.”

“….Sarcastic.. prick.” Radu spat. “You’ve been gone too long… the gods may fight in the sky… but down here, it is the Vovin’s Chosen who rule the land.”

Mateo blinked slowly. Vovin.

Only one being in creation was given that epithet. And yet, Mateo still believed that Radu was talking about something else.

Until Radu cackled obnoxiously.

“There… that’s the look I wanted to see… How does it feel to know that the Black Dragon has abandoned you in favor of new lapdogs?”

Mateo blinked slowly, backing away from Radu.

He turned his gaze towards the burning city and reached out with his mind.

’I need you to drop whatever you’re doing, you need to hear this… Yes, you’re going to be mad.’