1. Macabre Marmalade (COMPLETED; EDITING)

XLVII (20.2)

Todor rushed through it, spreading his magic senses in front while glancing at his mechanical readings from time to time. But space was morbidly quite, without even sounds of disturbed city intruding. That should have worried Todor but he had only thing on his mind. Get to Cassandra before anything bad could happen to her. If she hadn't got involved with him none of this would have played out like this. He cursed almost missing a slight movement detected by the sensors. A moment later his eye caught the warning and he jumped sideways evading a spear thrust.

The wielder of the weapon was a vampire woman with sides of her head shaved and the rest of her hair on top gathered into a warriors knot. A moment later the second vampire with the same hairstyle sprouted from somewhere, followed by two more. Todor glanced back and saw three more behind him. He was surrounded and growled at the interruption of his search. He threw away his sword which bumbled for a second midair before starting to twirl on its own.

"I have no beef with you. I am looking for my girl and your boos. Nothing more."

The vampire women said nothing advancing slowly with their spears aimed at him.

"Fine," he spat and gathered mana into his palms before releasing a swarm of blood red ice needles at the four spearwomen in front of him trusting Ezezu to guard his back with a sword.

The assault slowed their advance but didn't stop them. His eyes searched wildly as he summoned an ice palisade conjuring a deadly wall of spikes. He then grasped the magical construct, still pulsing with transforming mana and pushed with his mind. That surprised the vampires and they started retreating from an advancing spiked wall. One of them barked something and charged, briefly walking on the stone wall using her momentum before jumping over Todors construct. He cursed hastily summoning ice shield and blocking the trust of the spear. The shield burst into the mist of tiny ice shards before Todor grasped the remaining mana with an inhaling breath and exhaling it as frigid air. That slowed zealous vampire before freezing her completely.

Todor reached for the thin layer of ice that covered the vampire and realized he could still control it. He spread his open right palm and clenched it into the fist which made ice crumble and with it the vampire warrior woman beneth. He glanced back seeing two vampire attackers on the floor and third one running away from his flying sword. Ezezu caught her in the back, severing her spine before sword flew back into his sheath.

He turned back where last three spearwomen were slowly climbing over Todors improvised ice barricade. But once they saw the rest of their comrades were dead they roared and jumped at him directly, throwing any shred of caution out of the window. Todor reacted reflexively by grabbing his sword and sending a tiny amount of mana into it. The blade started to glow slightly with a red fog emanating from its edge. He let the first charging woman lend a thrust, his shield activated blocking the angry blow. The weapon exploded from the impact living the woman stunned, easy prey to his sword. He danced to his left evading the next trust, cutting the shaft of the spear in the middle before using the momentum of the cut to land a nasty slash across his attackers face. The woman screamed dropping the remains of her weapon and clutching her face which let Todor walk closer and lop her head of together with palms at her face.

The last remaining attacker dropped her weapon and rose her arms.

"I never liked Midnight Breeze, anyway," she said.

"Than go outside and find Dark Shadow. Join his cabal," Todor said trying his best not to growl. Vampire woman nodded and run past him, her frenzied escape making resounding echo through the empty hallway.

Todor looked at the ice wall he made and with a nudge replenish a slight amount of mana. The rest that wanted to be used right away got expelled with his breath.