We last read Chapter 41, in which Mavis Ladair a.k.a. Red Fang, her husband Garson, Lily Ladair, Theo Ladair, and their companion the Talking Skull successfully escaped from Prince Boripedes's underground island base mere moments before it succumbed to a massive blaze and crumbled into ruins, with Boripedes, his associate Virulis, and his older brother Lord Balfort Ladair still inside. Believing Balfort is dead, Red Fang collapses onto the sand outside and sobs for him, with Garson doing all he can to support her......and Lily, Theo, and the Talking Skull joining in as well, talking about how great of a ruler Balfort was and all the accommodations and sacrifices he made for the well-being of the Vermillion Enclave. The party of four—technically five—then try to depart the island entirely to return to the vampiric sanctuary......but are stopped by a barely-alive, horribly burned Prince Boripedes, who stumbles out of the temple ruins above his base and hysterically demands that Red Fang and co. give them "his" Bloodstone back, to which they obviously refuse. Their spat is followed up by multiple revelations at once; Virulis also survived the hideout's collapse and promptly shows up to back Boripedes up......but Lady Amber Ladair, Balfort's wife, also arrives at the island in the nick of time with the full might of the Vermillion Enclave's forces behind her; from the average guard, to Agnes and her steward, to even Cristian and Alina Dumitru, the former of which Red Fang had actually saved from committing suicide at the beginning of the adventure.
Boripedes tries to greet Amber amicably, but Amber reveals that Balfort has already told her everything about Boripedes's complex revenge scheme against the vampires, as well as his plans to drag the innocent humans of Cluj-Napoca into the mix via the OVX pandemic. Boripedes tries to blame Balfort's death on the lord himself, pointing out how Balfort resorted to magic spells and other underhanded tactics to win Amber over and exile him under completely fabricated circumstances, but Amber counters with the fact that Balfort was a genuinely good husband to her and a good father to his children, even citing his adoption of Lily following the war against the Dark Stake. Now feeling nothing but anger and hatred towards the woman whom he perceives as having "used" him to get to Balfort, Boripedes has Virulis split into a vast army of humanoid blood soldiers with tridents to prepare to fight the Vermillion Enclave's forces, while the treasure construct Wealthusian is also revived by the magic of the Bloodstone and joins the fight, too.
Lastly, to Boripedes's shock—and the relief of his family—Lord Balfort Ladair is revealed to have survived Boripedes's assassination attempt against him, with the stake having been harmlessly inserted into his left underarm instead of his heart. After throwing the stake back at Boripedes such that it lands mere millimeters away from him in order to scare him, Balfort gives the order for the factions to charge.
This time, the battle gets underway......
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The massive conflict on Prince Boripedes's island consisted of two main factions: Prince Boripedes, the blood warriors all constituting Virulis, and Wealthusian versus the royal family of the Vermillion Enclave, its guards, some other vampires, and the human allies Garson, Cristian Dumitru, and Alina Dumitru.
As the two sides collided and violence burst out all around the island, Lily Ladair, Theo Ladair, and the Talking Skull quickly found themselves going on the defensive as they were practically swarmed by completely identical humanoid blood warriors—with congealed blood bodies, perfectly circular mouths, and sharp teeth—which were all technically extensions of Virulis's consciousness. Lily tried her best to swat her flute such that the warriors' bodies would make contact with the splashing nickel droplets, but no matter how many she seemed to incapacitate, even more appeared to take their place.
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Red Fang II
Vampire~PARAGON CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: PHASE 3, BOOK 3~ *This novel serves as the 3rd novel of Phase 3 and a sequel to "Red Fang".* "My brother was weak. He favored optimism over realism.....when deep down, he KNEW that wasn't how the world worked. Am I suppo...
