AHARA AMARIS withdrew her belt-sword from the hairy chest of the werewolf lying before her she had just slayed. The mark on his neck said it all.
He was an Alpha Rogue—one of the many residents of her world that had decided to invade the human world and attack its beings.
Being a vampire herself, she wasn't supposed to be mingling in the human world, but as one of the warriors helping save humanity in this war against her mad kind, she had no choice.
She had to sacrifice her royal livelihood for a short while—at least until the Numen was ready to fight the leader of this rebellious army of savages.
They had taken everything she cherished away from her, her peaceful childhood, her young dreams, her home, and her family. Her father and mother had died in the war ten years ago trying to save humanity from the danger their people posed to them.
Now she was following in their footsteps and saving humanity; which was also a desperate attempt to save the only family she had left—her uncle, his wife, and their three-year-old son, Damien—a cute baby whose intelligence showed in his eyes before he could even talk properly.
She adored him very much and wanted him to have the future she had always dreamed about but never got to see because of the war.
If only that is how the world worked.
The Rogue King had ordered his Corvus—as was the name his playthings called themselves—to do a mass attack on the human world a few days ago.
This led to the quick dispatch of warriors from Ahara's world—Gibbous—all around the human world as they tried to save the few people they could, at least until the Numen had finally tracked the brains behind this massacre.
She was a part of the war, and she had already killed a few of these beasts, including this jet-black-haired alpha lying on the ground with blood oozing out of his chest.
"Fucking piece of shit," Ahara hissed, swishing her sword to her side and making the metal slap on the debris lying on the ground from the fight she just had like a whip.
At the gesture, the metal hissed, sucking in all the blood coated around it before returning to its rigid sword-like form using the magical magnetic force the sword forger had infused in it.
The sword was her special weapon, unique in its magical creation, it was a gift she got from her mother before her passing, and she carried it around her waist as a belt.
Yes, it was a bit uncomfortable to walk around in, but for her safety and that of the humans crying in the distance, she had to keep it on.
Angrily tucking a strand of her white curly hair that had come off her tight bun, she withdrew the poisonous daggers from the side pockets on her trousers, gray eyes glaring at the dead werewolf's tamed beast—a bloody ten-meter serpent that was as thick as her.
Not everyone had a war beast because they were hard to tame. But if one did manage to tame a beast, their victory was almost guaranteed, because the beast shared essence with their master.
More like a soul if you asked Ahara. It made both master and pet twice as strong whenever battle called, but there was a villainous perk to it all.
If one of them died, the strength of the survivor would weaken.
Normally, she was told to back away from beast tamers because of their massive strength, but when she saw the werewolf grabbing onto a child's neck, about to split the poor girl in half, she couldn't back away.
So she attacked, hoping with all her might that she would win.
Win she did, but only because she managed to distract the werewolf from summoning his beast throughout their fight. However, in his last moments of living, he must have mustered all the magic in his body and called it, and the beast answered.
Now it stood before her, huffing cold breath all over with its fangs barred at her, ready to attack.
Black skin, black tongue, and black eyes, a beast sent from hell itself. She had read about this beast a thousand times in school—a Dramba.
Ahara knew she had one chance to strike or she and the small girl crying and shivering behind her were going to end up as lunch in the belly of the serpent.
Leaning low with daggers in her hand, she drew in a deep breath. The stench of blood immediately filled her lungs, making her want to gag. But this was no time to be disgusted.
With a sharp roar, the serpent lowered its head with a loud thud on the ground, sending rubble and a cloud of dust flying all around Ahara.
Then it attacked with super charged thunderbolt speed in her direction, its teeth bared out, aimed at her.
In the blink of an eye, the fang that had been but a blurry sight a few seconds ago was a now few meters away from Ahara's face, ready to inject its deadly poison into her. She threw the daggers in its mouth, but that wasn't enough to stop it.
In one swift move, Ahara pirouetted, dashing toward the small girl who couldn't have been older than eight. Snatching her away from the snake's trajectory at a speed much greater than the serpents, she flipped them midair, landing a few feet away from the snake's impact point.
After all, she was the best in her class throughout her time at Gibforge in terms of prowess. Not even the most athletic boys in her class were able to tame her.
The snake sped past her and the girl as they spun out of its way, sending a strong gust of wind and rubble in the air. Hitting the three-story edifice in front of it with a ginormous smash, the building dropped to the ground like it was made of sticks, exploding as it sent another layer of rubble all over the place.
"Mommy," the small girl in Ahara's arms sobbed, "I want mommy."
Doing her best not to cry along with her, Ahara hid her fangs from the little girl and looked her in the eyes. "What's your name, honey?"
"Amala," she sobbed, bloodied hands shaking as she covered her face, "I want mommy."
"Don't worry, I'm taking you to her now," Ahara lied.
Judging from the damage the Rogue had done to the place before she arrived, she was sure Amala's mother had been killed already. But she couldn't tell the child that her mother was dead.
That would just be too cruel.
"Can you hold on to me a little bit more tightly, dear? We're going to fly high up in the sky until we meet your mother, okay?"
The small girl looked at her for a moment with uncertainty before slowly nodding and gripping Ahara's black coat tightly, too tightly for a small child. She could sense the fear radiating from her.
It made her angry seeing the young girl be this distressed. It reminded her of the gruesome day she found out her parents had died. They were supposed to have gone training with her that night.
Thinkingabout the pastwillonlymakeyouweak, Ahara.
Shaking her head and concentrating, she angled herself on the ground, well enough to land on the rooftop of the hauntingly distorted four-story building in front of her.
Covering the small girl's ears and drawing all the strength her lower body could muster, Ahara pounced in the air, leaving a trail of dust behind from her takeoff impact.
The brittle wind whistled in her ears as she flew in midair, and when her eyes momentarily looked below her, she grit her teeth.
The view below was bloody and depressing. Buildings had fallen, bodies massacred and laying all over like litter, and the tear-jerking stench up here was nothing but clean.
If she were a human, she probably would have been choking to death by now.
Landing on the rooftop like a cat, Ahara covered the small girl's eyes and nose with one of her hands.
WhenwastheNumengoingtoshowup?
She knew he was fighting somewhere in the world right now, moving from portal to portal and trying to find his nemesis's location, but she felt he had neglected the people of this place.
This bloody war had just reached its peak, and the warriors were getting tired after fighting for an entire fortnight without rest.
"This is so depressing—ah, my ears." A loud irritating sound echoed in the depths of her eardrums, reaching her brain and affecting her eyesight altogether.
Telepathy!
She wasn't used to it yet, but oh was she glad it was finally happening. Ahara wasn't as strong as any of the army chief commanders for her to be officially receiving direct orders from the Numen, but sharing the same blood with him had its perks.
The Numen was none other than her godfather and uncle—Henry Amaris
"Can everyone hear me?" Came the familiar deep voice in her head. "I have located Thanatos and his men in the small district of Avondale, Harare. Every warrior located there is to evacuate immediately. We don't know when he will attack, so you might as well do it now. Oh, and Ahara, if you're listening, I'd like you to meet me at home right now. Everyone's dismissed."
Ahara couldn't answer back using telepathy like the commanders, but that was the least of her concerns right now.
She was standing in the middle of fucking Avondale, the exact same location her uncle had just warned about!
Immediately withdrawing her sword, she whipped it to her side. The metal hissed, the large chunks that were glued together a while ago separating from each other as they formed a large circle mid-air, a blue flash of lightning created by the magnets illuminating the entire space and booming loudly like thunder.
Pink hues of light filled the middle space as a portal large enough to fit a dragon opened before Ahara. A violent gust of wind immediately started around her when the portal began working its magic, sucking in the bits of loose rubble lying around.
"Sorry, Amala, but you're coming with me."
The child opened her eyes wide, ready to fight her kidnapper, but Ahara worked fast. In one swift move that passed like the wind, she hit her neck gently, making the child flop in her arms.
Bending and projecting all her strength to her legs again, she took one final leap of faith toward safety.
But just as she was about to enter the portal, a sharp pain coursed through her leg from her heel.
Glancing below, she saw the serpent from earlier biting into the heel of her boot, a loud hiss that sounded like a roar coming out from its massive mouth.
It'sawake!
Throwing Amala inside the portal, Ahara grabbed the hilt of her sword and withdrew the portal. The booming thunder immediately stopped, but the blade was still hot. Using that to her advantage, she sliced off the snake's fangs, falling to the ground with speed so great, that it tore apart when she landed.
The Dramba hissed in pain, growing back its fangs in an instant and turning back to its attacker—eyes darker than death itself boring into Ahara's.
She shivered when their eyes made contact, gripping her sword and gritting her teeth. It wasn't like her to get scared during battle, but the stakes in this one were greater than ever before.
One wrong move and she might not be able to make it home after all, or better yet, the Devil King and his men might appear whilst she is fighting the Dramba and shred her to pieces.
This was a kill-or-be-killed battle, and she was ready to go all out.
"Come at me you little shit," Ahara glared at the serpent, "I'll show you what I'm made of."