He didn't bother to draw his sword.
Against such an opponent, Vlad saw no need to do so.
Not yet.
Perhaps if the man proved a challenge, he would be worth feeling the sharp edge of Vlad's blade. But, given Mihail was armed with a simple knife, he would treat him like the peasant he was.
By beating him with his open hand.
"Tch!" Mihail shocked Vlad by bringing up his arm and blocking the first attack.
It was lucky for him that Vlad hadn't put much strength behind it, or he was sure every bone in the man's forearm would have shattered.
Still, the impact was enough to force Mihail to slide back half a step in the muddy ground.
"Cowardly bastard!" Mihail snarled. "How dare you use a sneak attack!"
"Ridiculous," Vlad snorted back. "If I had used a sneak attack, you wouldn't have seen me coming. I was right in front of you all the time. Are you stupid?"
Someone snickered again.
Mihail craned his neck to find whoever it was and nearly lost his jaw as Vlad aimed a casual swipe with the back of his hand and forced the man to throw himself down. He sprang back with the agility of a cat and Vlad let him go.
"So, you fight dirty!"
"This is not a fight," Vlad said calmly. "You are not qualified to fight me. This is a beating. If you get on your knees and accept my blow, I might let you keep both your arms."
"Bullshit!" Mihail pounced, his eyes wide with hate.
The knife swished.
Then slashed up as Vlad skirted out of range.
The blade cut the air in front of the vampire's nose.
He was quick for a mortal, Vlad thought.
A little too quick.
His suspicion was stronger when Mihail's arm streaked towards Vlad's belly. The speed was one thing. But the power behind it was another. It was beyond what a mortal should be able to achieve.
The blade missed as Vlad was able to slide away from it without much trouble.
But the situation disturbed him.
He brought his arm up in a blur, the back of his hand connecting with Mihail's cheek. The blow should have shattered the man's bone. Perhaps even turned his head to mist.
Instead, it rocked him back.
Stumbling, Mihail fixed the vampire with a wrathful gaze and reached up to touch his cheek. Blood slithered down his skin from flesh torn by the force of Vlad's knuckles.
But the bone was intact.
"Intriguing," Vlad said. "You are not human. And you are not one of those Turkish dogs. What are you?"
"What bullshit are you talking?"
"Never mind," Vlad said. "I will simply look at your corpse."
"Such arrogance," Mihail hissed, and dived. The knife thrust, jabbing at Vlad's vitals.
Vlad watched the man's attack with a critical eye.
It was clumsy.
Untrained.
It was the kind of method that would work in a tavern brawl, or out on the road against unarmed merchants, but not the sort of thing you would want to use against a soldier. Especially one with many mortal lifetimes worth of experience.
"Your shoulder is too low," Vlad said.
Lunge!
"Damn you!"
"You need to ground yourself correctly. Your weight is not evenly dispersed."
Slash!
"Shut up!"
"Is this a technique you invented?" Vlad asked calmly. "It is a very shitty one."
"Go to Hell!"
Vlad sighed.
The man was of no use to him. There was nothing wrong with arrogance in Vlad's opinion. He recognised his own arrogance as a weakness.
But one shouldn't allow their arrogance to emerge until they had the skills to back it up.
Until then, one should be humble and willing to learn from mistakes.
Mihail was not learning.
He slashed at Vlad with the same energetic but ultimately pointless movements.
"Crude."
"I'll kill you!" Mihail roared, slashing blindly. "I will… Kill you!"
"Use your special move!" Varkis shrieked. "You have him, Mihail!"
Mihail's eyes set in determination. As they did, Vlad caught a soft yellow shimmer in the deep recess of his pupils.
Ah.
Now it all made sense.
Mihail was a dhampir. Not strong enough for it to be obvious. Vlad guessed he was, perhaps, an ancestor of a dhampir instead.
Perhaps three or four generations behind.
Originally, a vampire may have spent some time with a mortal female. Long enough to produce a child. These children could bear some of the strengths of a vampire. Durable bodies. Enhanced physicality. Some might even be able to use simple blood energy techniques.
The dim yellow glow revealed Mihail might be able to, but it would need to be a very poor technique.
This was proven right as the man pivoted on his heel in an absurd imitation of a blade attack the Black Dragon Court's spy network had created. Where had he learnt it?
It didn't matter.
He didn't have enough blood energy in his body to do more than make his fist crackle with pitifully small sparks of red lightning.
"Taste your death!"
Vlad raised an eyebrow at Mihail's sheer bloody arrogance.
And caught his wrist between thumb and forefinger.
It took nothing more than that to halt the incoming strike.
Mihail's eyes bulged as he stared down at his trapped arm.
Then, slowly, he dragged his gaze up to Vlad's cunning grin.
And whimpered.
"Please…"
Gently, Vlad prised the heavy knife from the bigger man's grip. Studying the ugly chipped blade he shook his head. "How can you use such a thing as a weapon? Have you no pride?"
"My wrist… It's breaking…"
"Ah," Vlad glanced down. "Well, we can't have that."
Slash!
Blood sprayed. It spurted in a long arc that splashed in front of Varkis.
Who gawped stupidly at them. "Mihail!"
Mihail stumbled back, looking down at a point just a few inches below his shoulder. There was nothing of his arm after that.
Vlad, still holding his severed arm by the wrist, smiled wider.
"Where do you think you're going, dhampir-spawn?"
Shrieking, Mihail backpedalled as fast as he could, but Vlad gave him only enough time to recognise his approaching death. The knife flashed once more and buried itself in his chest.
"You can't…" Blood bubbled over his lips. "I'm… I'm… Baba promised…"
Mihail dropped without a sound, his body splashing into the mud as the light flickered and died in his eyes.
"Mihail!" Varkis screamed, darting forward. "That bastard killed Mihail! Kill him!"
He got two steps before realising no one else was following him.
One more step brought him in range of Vlad's arm.
He felt those cold fingers wrap tight around his neck. Then he was lifted up as though he weighed nothing at all. His legs kicking, he tried to get loose. "Gak!"
"Insignificant," Vlad sighed. He grabbed hold of one of Varkis' arms. "If you want to act like a worm, then I will make you one."
"No! Please!"
It was Lucy who screamed in horror as Vlad wrenched.
Varkis felt bone rip from his shoulder.
Then flesh tore.
He watched in disbelief as his own arm was tossed over the vampire's shoulder with casual disinterest.
Then the agony slammed into his brain and he shrieked.
Again and again, until he felt Vlad's fingers curl around his other arm.
"Stop!"
Vlad ignored his squeal.
And threw his other arm over his shoulder. It landed with a wet thump.
While Lucy dropped to her hands and knees and started vomiting, Mina lifted a knowing finger to the sky without opening her eyes. "I told you!"
Tossing Varkis to the ground, Vlad turned to the remaining men.
His crimson eyes flared brightly as he considered just diving in among them and tearing them to pieces. A part of him wanted to do it. Wanted to ride the unquenched desire their blood promised.
He could drink to his heart's content if he wanted to!
Only one thing stopped him.
Pointing at the big man who'd argued with Varkis, the vampire growled; "Is it true you are Dragonbound?"
Sandu lifted his eyes from Varkis, who writhed in agony near Vlad's foot.
He did well to hide his fear.
Slowly, he nodded. "Aye. We're the Dragonbound Clan."
"And you thought to take the mountain from the Black Dragon Court?"
"No," Sandu shook his head. "Those were Mihail's words."
"He said your Cunning Woman told you to come here."
"Not to take the land," Sandu said, holding his arms out wide. "Our clan has suffered. We have withered to a fraction of what we were. We are persecuted wherever we go for our ancient ties to the Court."
Vlad scowled. "The Dragonbound serve the Black Dragon Court," he growled back. "It sounds like you abandoned your oath."
"We didn't abandon nothing!" One of the others, a young one, found his spine and snarled the words angrily. "You were supposed to protect us! You left us to be slaughtered!"
"Peace, Matei."
Vlad's brow twitched. "Explain."
"Isn't it common knowledge?"
"Not to me."
"Then it was not us who abandoned the Court," Sandu said calmly. "It was the Court which abandoned us. Our grandfathers speak of a time when we were chased off the mountain by the Count himself."
Vlad fixed the man with a murderous glare. "If you are lying…"
"I dare not!" Sandu held up his hands. "By your garb, I expect you are still a fledgling? This may be a matter for your elders to speak of. But I swear we kept to our oath. Even as we were hunted across all of the world, we were true in our heart! It is why we returned. Our Cunning Woman said it was time. Time to remember the oath we'd made. And to speak to the elders again! She said the Court would listen this time. Some… Some didn't believe it would be true. Mihail was one of them."
"Help… me…" Varkis mewed like a wounded kitten.
Vlad looked down at him.
Drew his sword.
And with one quick movement sent the man's head rolling.
Then he slitted his eyes at the Romani clan members and shook his head slowly. "Kneel. Or die."
As one, they knelt.
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