ULTRAMagic Interlude

Chapter 5

Blood-Wraith woke up incredibly early the next morning. He was groggy, his eyes were irritated, and he fumbled about as he tried to wake himself up. Looking at the clock, it was five in the morning and everyone was still asleep. Something was off. He kept yawning as he watched the television up until eight in the morning. This is when Aurelous and Vexation came walking down the stairs. They were surprised to see Blood-Wraith slouched and grumpy on the couch.

"Blood? What's the matter?" Vexation asked.

"I didn't sleep well..." He grunted.

Aureolus sat beside him. "Aw, that sucks. Have a bad dream?"

"No, I just had this bout of anxiety I couldn't shake..."

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of faint commotion in the distance. It had to be close given that they could hear it in the first place. The three rushed out to find a group of grotesque, shadowy constructs in the street. Blood-Wraith was growing more and more annoyed the longer he looked at them. There was a sneaking suspicion on who had sent them. Taking the form of Verdant Might, Blood-Wraith got to work slamming each one to the ground. None of them stood a chance.

"So that's what woke me up... Hey, what happened to the Ravagers?"

Aureolus hurried over. "Corentin said he sent them over to Shadowland to assist King Sten..." The two then heard a beast roaring in the distance. "Blood, I'm going to go check on dad!"

As his friend raced off, Blood-Wraith was starting to notice more of the constructs. Guardsmen were fighting them everywhere in the district. After asking Vexation to guard the house, Blood-Wraith switched over to Indigo Wolf and began looking for the biggest concentration of the intruders. They seemed to be focused at the lift station, so he went there. Radovan, Desislav, Vlastimir, Dragoslava, and members of the royal guard were also present. The enemy constructs wanted to get up to the tower, but the duke was not about to let that happen.

Dragoslava had just piledrived one of the constructs with her metal skin fully covering her. She saw Blood-Wraith approach as she got up. "Blood! Pardon the mess..."

"Sister! What's going on?" he questioned as he shifted back to Verdant Might.

"Looks like Milosh sent some of his goons to give us... argh, trouble" She replied as one began to smother her in black slime. She then yanked its head off in retaliation. "Go for the head, it's their weak point."

Blood-Wraith punched one so hard it fell over and went limp. "What even are these things?!" Black slime coated his fist.

"Good lord, I hate these things... Don't let that stuff fully cover you. It'll turn you into one of them..."

Vlastimir flew over, cackling all the way as he cleaved several constructs sneaking up on them. "Cheap, dirty magic, HA! Just wait until my dad hears about this. He'll blow a gasket over how bad these are, haha!"

This caused Blood-Wraith to remember the encounter he and Aureolus had with Milosh's "seal" that he had used to protect his research. "I take it that low quality magic is a recurring theme with Mr. Proch?"

Dragoslava nodded as she wiped herself off and caught her breath. "Yup, that's what dad's told me."

A guardsman fully coated in slime with a glowing red eye on his face shambled up to them. He was trying to stop himself from attacking his allies. Vlastimir took his sword and slashed the eye, causing the slime to bubble up and burst off of the man. "Pathetic..."

"Haha! Thanks for that!" said the guardsmen. "HAVE AT THEE!" He shouted as he ran off to fight more.

Blood-Wraith was a bit unsettled by that. "So how long has this been going on for?"