The vampire noticed ice spears and darkness bolts materializing near his opponent. The ground spun underneath Lith's feet in a grand vortex, ready to swallow his enemy.

'Turtle up as much as you want. It takes more than a few hits to injure me, I still have a lot of juice.' Zarran thought while he shot downwards like a bullet.

His blood core empowered his new form to the point that its movements were almost a blur even to Lith's enhanced vision.

Almost.

The moment Zarran turned his back to the array, Lith dispelled Silverwing's Hexagram. His mind was no longer burdened by the need to be in perfect sync with every element that composed the world energy.

All of his spells crackled with new energy as their master's undivided focus flowed into them. The sand exploded upwards, covering the vampire's field of vision and making him slow down for a split second because of the sudden updraft filling his wings.

It was all the time Lith needed to pinpoint Zarran's position long enough to Switch their positions. Lith appeared in mid air while the vampire's momentum made him crash against the ground like a meteor.

Stunned by the impact, Zarran failed to react to the point blank Checkmate Spears and Plague Arrows converging on him from all sides. While the low tier spells pierced the membranous wings and ravaged the vampire's life force, Lith activated the tier five War Mage Burial Ground spell.

Several pillars erupted from the sand and surrounded Zarran while he was still stunned from his many injuries. The pillars grew in height by the second as countless stone spikes emerged from them, moving in every direction.

Some stabbed the vampire, while the spikes which connected to each other would form new pillars, that in turn generated more spikes.

The spell was a hybrid of earth and darkness magic. The stone was a conduit for the dark energies, so even standing close to it was enough to sap its victim's life force. Count Xolver went pale, praying to any G.o.d from above or below to spare the champion's life and his own.

Kaelan jumped out of his armchair, swearing so much to put a sailor at shame. Unluckily, the Lich couldn't hear him above the noise of his own laughter. The whole Dawn Court was astonished.

The fight had lasted less than a minute. A human less than half a century old had defeated a vampire who was twice his age before being turned with apparent ease. Being an Awakened wasn't enough to explain how the unlife of someone who had spent twenty years mastering his vampiric powers could be snuffed out so fast.

"Apparent ease" were the key words.

Lith had used Invigoration multiple times during that minute, channeling so much mana non stop that his body was aching in places he wasn't even aware could hurt. The mental and physical exertion he had just gone through left him with a splitting headache.

Yet he returned nonchalantly to the ground, wearing the same serial killer frown he had at the start of the match.

'I don't care how close Manohar is. I need at least an hour's sleep or the next time I use Invigoration might be the last one which has any effect on me.' Lith sneered at the undead crowd.

No one was smiling anymore.

"Female and male sc.u.m, whatever you are, we have a winner!" Inxialot raised his hands, dispelling the barrier and giving Count Xolver an excruciating death by black flames of unknown nature.

As the Lich beckoned with his finger, Kaelan floated toward him from across the room until he was in the middle of the arena.

"A deal is a deal. Now you better start talking, because if I'm forced to stay here one more minute or I'll make sure Othre's Night Court goes extinct."

***

Hessie's Mansion. Now.

The Carpenters had stopped rus.h.i.+ng forward once they noticed that none of their attacks or spells seemed to hurt the shadow monster or its master. The Death Ruler's vampiric touch would heal any injury inflicted on Manohar's body.

Manohar dispelled the Death Ruler as soon as he cleared enough s.p.a.ce around him to handle the closest enemies. Balkor's spell consumed a lot of mana, even by the Mad Professor's standards, and stopped the caster from weaving new spells or even using delayed ones.

Several Carpenters each unleashed a tier four spell to cover their companions advance while those in the back row pushed their vortexes to the limit and overloaded their mana cores.

If even the combined a.s.sault failed, their master had ordered them to perform a suicidal attack with the aim of burying Manohar under tons of rubble. Luckily for the Professor, Death Ruler had allowed him to retain both his focus and the spells he had ready.

He chanted his next spell while activating the tier five "Talk to the Hand" light magic. Giant hands materialized in front of the charging Carpenters, grabbing and using them as literal meat s.h.i.+elds against the incoming spells.

Before the middle row enemies could reorganize, the hands of light adjusted their grip. They now wielded the captured creatures by their legs and swung them at their companions like living maces.

'That's what I call fighting fire with fire.' He inwardly laughed.

Meanwhile, in her throne room, Hessie had reached her true body. It was in suspended animation, inside a capsule made of metal, gla.s.s, and mana crystals placed right behind her royal seat.

The body was floating in a purple liquid which was constantly pumped into the capsule through a series of tubes. Each tube was connected to a member of her court, who were exact replicas of the body inside the capsule.

She sat on her throne and activated her tier five light magic Life Flow. A stream of life force flowed from Hessie to the body in the capsule. When the transfer was completed, only a small amount of the original Hessie's life force remained.

Just enough to keep the body alive in a vegetative state. Thrud Griffon, daughter of Arthan the Mad King, opened her silver eyes. Her body was back to its early twenties and had reached a new pinnacle.

She had improved her father's procedure countless times, yet there were still so many problems to fix before it could be considered perfect. The arrogant Night Court had provided her the means to spread her puppies among Othre's population.

All she had to do was to take over the body of one of their Va.s.sals and use him as a strawman to introduce a new kind of alchemical drug in the back market. It was a wonderful product which gave a great high and had no adverse reactions.

Except it was no drug, it was just cough potion mixed with a few of her cells. They were enough to create a small vortex which sucked in the world energy, inducing a sense of euphoria and might.

Only in the right subjects did the cells manage to develop and grow, until they turned their victim into a clone of Thrud. The clones were perfect donors, their life force and mana identical to her own.

Thanks to her "court", even though Thrud had yet to crack the secret of Awakening, she had obtained the next best thing along with eternal youth.