The sky above the Crucible was still cracked and steaming from Ziraiah’s devastating impact when a familiar voice erupted like a thunderclap across the entire arena.

  > “Gooooooood mooooorning, BLOODSPORT LOVERS!”

  Balling’s voice sang, booming like a rock concert over the ruined arenas.

  > “Ahhhh, what a GLORIOUS day in the Crucible! Did you feel that? Did you see that? KA-BOOOOM! Oh yes, my little murder muffins, our dazzling Ziraiah Delindor just redecorated the place — craters for miles! So chic. So destructive. I call it… ‘post-apocalyptic chic!’

  > And—ohhh—so many of you poor little challengers just… popped like grapes! Like, squish-squish-splat! Mmm. Juicy.

  > She’s not taking it too well, though. Probably crying over the Valphraxsis she just smooshed. Tragic!

  > Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Balling, how do you even know her name out of all these thousands of sweaty little death-seekers?’ WELL… it’s because I make it my business to remember the names of the pretty ones!”

  He cackled suddenly, then added with absolute seriousness:

  > “Also, I have a really good memory. And excellent hair. But mostly the memory thing.”

  > “Delicious! A moment of silence for the fallen—”

  He hummed a faux-somber note for two seconds.

  > “—aaand that’s enough. Back to the carnage!”

  The challengers across the arenas could almost see his grin.

  > “Mmmm, I’m enjoying everything right now. Watching you all try to tear each other apart? It warms my heart. It makes me think of the old days in Mazorik… ahhh, Mazorik. Good times. Good friends. Great bloodbaths.”

  He began humming some off-key tune, then broke into a weird, bouncy little song mid-announcement:

  > “? When you fight and die, and I watch from on high… it makes Balling’s heart go BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! ?”

  He laughed at his own lyrics.

  > “Ahhh, I’m so good. Someone write that down. That’s going in the album.”

  Balling’s voice boomed again, dripping with energy.

  > “Ahhh, look at you all, slicing and smashing and popping each other like melons! Ohhhh, I wish I had a hundred eyes so I could see all these beautiful little death dances at once. Mmmm. Wouldn’t that be lovely?”

  He chuckled lowly.

  > “But alas, I only have two. Two gorgeous, fabulous, sexy eyes. Tragic.”

  And then, without warning, he broke into song.

  > “? Ohhh women, women, women… all shapes, all sizes, all divine surprises… ?”

  He started snapping his fingers.

  > “Tall and fierce like that Valphraxsis beauty! Ohhh—look at her, gutting her opponent like a fish. Elegant. Deadly. And over there! Ohhhh-ho-hooo! Look at little number 2204, flipping that ogre like a pancake! Gorgeous form, darling!”

  He hummed and continued, his voice a lazy purr:

  > “? Curvy, small, big or tall… honey, Balling loves you all… but personally… personally…”

  He paused dramatically.

  > “I like them without makeup. Mmmm. Natural. Raw. Like my fights.”

  He barked out a wild laugh that echoed through every arena.

  > “Don’t judge me! Balling likes to see the truth in a woman’s face. And in the way she breaks bones.”

  A loud explosion went off in one of the distant arenas, and Balling gasped like he’d just seen a work of art.

  > “OH YES! YES, WHOEVER JUST BLEW UP HALF THE LIGHTNING ARENA — YOU’RE MY NEW FAVORITE.”

  He giggled, then sang again, this time in an improvised jazzy hum:

  > “? Death and beauty, hand in hand… you make the Crucible so grand… ?”

  Then his tone sharpened, filled with excitement:

  > “Keep it up, little monsters! Dance, slash, bleed — I am living for this!”

  ---

  > “Ooooh, look at this one! Who’s that guy again? Tall, dark, and sharp teeth? No idea. Whatever. He’s got the vampire thing going on. And the other one — uhh… Jav something, Jovial? Whatever your name is, darling, try not to get turned into a juice box.”

  Balling’s voice carried across the Crucible like a drunken carnival barker as two figures faced off in the dense, shifting fog of the Mist Valley.

  The vampire stood like a nightmare given flesh: 11 feet tall, pale skin glistening faintly in the mist, blood-red eyes glowing like burning coals. A long blade dripped from his hand — not steel, but blood hardened into a razor edge, throbbing faintly with a life of its own.

  Juvian, his coat torn and dusty, raised his hands slowly. Stone encased his limbs and torso like living armor, jagged plates locking into place. His eyes never left the vampire.

  “You people are always so tense,” the vampire said casually, his voice silken, almost amused. “Don’t worry. It will be quick.”

  “Funny,” Juvian said, his voice low, unshaken. “That’s exactly what I was about to tell you.”

  > “YAAAS!” Balling screeched into the ether. “HIT HIM AGAIN! RIP HIS PRETTY FACE OFF!”

  And then, with zero warning:

  > “? Bite me once, bite me twice, vampires never play nice… but they look so good when they FIIIIGHT! ?”

  Steel clashed against conjured stone.

  The vampire lunged — a blur of pale death in the mist. His blade came down in a vicious arc, carving into Juvian’s rocky armor with a shower of sparks.

  Juvian gritted his teeth, pushing his hands forward.

  “Terra Spire.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  BOOM.

  The ground beneath the vampire erupted. A massive stone pillar shot upward like a spear.

  The vampire twisted midair, landing lightly on its side before vaulting off, spinning his blood-sword in a tight arc to deflect the next volley.

  Juvian wasn’t done. He swept his arm sideways.

  Five more stone pillars exploded from the mist, each one swinging in arcing trajectories like enormous battering rams.

  The vampire blurred between them, moving with speed unnatural for his size. He carved two to pieces, vaulted over a third, and let the last two crash into each other with a smirk.

  “You’re fun,” the vampire said. “Let’s make this interesting.”

  His blade melted into liquid blood, swirling around his arms before reshaping into a long, jagged whip.

  CRACK!

  The whip lashed across the arena, wrapping around Juvian’s torso. The vampire yanked.

  Juvian staggered forward.

  The vampire darted in — a red blur.

  “Not so fast,” Juvian muttered.

  He stomped the ground.

  The earth turned to mud in a heartbeat.

  The vampire’s footing gave way as his legs sank up to his knees.

  “Clever,” the vampire hissed, twisting his body unnaturally to fling the whip off Juvian and leap back just as the mud solidified like quick-drying cement.

  But Juvian didn’t let up.

  “Terra Cyclone.”

  The ground erupted again, a spiraling tornado of jagged stone shards spinning violently, howling through the mist like a living storm.

  The vampire’s eyes narrowed.

  “Earth magic, nice trick you've got there.”

  He blurred sideways, leaping from stone to stone, his whip-sword slashing through the cyclone’s edges — but even at his speed, the storm chased him, cutting deep grooves into the ground wherever it passed.

  > “? WHOOO! Get him, rocky boy! Spin those stones! Make him feel like a smoothie! ?”

  Balling’s voice sang gleefully in the background, his tone more fit for a festival than a death match.

  “Stay still,” Juvian growled, thrusting his hand forward.

  Dozens of stone spears shot from the mist, closing in on the vampire like a swarm of angry wasps.

  The vampire’s blade shifted again, this time forming a broad shield of hardened blood. The spears shattered against it in rapid succession, the force pushing him back.

  “Persistent,” the vampire said. “But predictable.”

  Then he vanished.

  Juvian barely had time to register the blur before—

  CRASH.

  The vampire was behind him, his whip-sword slashing diagonally across his back.

  Juvian grunted, the impact cracking his stone armor but not breaking through fully.

  “Armored?” The vampire chuckled darkly. “Cute. Let’s see how long it lasts.”

  He blurred again.

  CRACK. CRASH. SLASH.

  Juvian felt each blow — his armor splintering with each strike, his body screaming from the shockwaves. He staggered, raising wall after wall of stone, but the vampire shredded them like paper.

  “You can’t run forever,” the vampire taunted.

  Juvian didn’t respond.

  Instead — he raised both hands high.

  The ground rumbled.

  A massive hand of jagged earth burst upward, the size of a house, grabbing the vampire mid-leap and crushing him like a toy.

  “Got you,” Juvian whispered.

  He slammed his palms down.

  The hand dragged the vampire into the ground, burying him beneath layers of stone.

  The Mist Valley went silent.

  > “Oooooh!” Balling crooned. “Rock boy might actually have some teeth! How DELICIOUSLY unexpected!”

  Juvian exhaled heavily, his armor crumbling off in chunks.

  And then—

  BOOOOM.

  The ground erupted.

  BOOOOOOM.

  A crimson blur shot from the smoking crater like a living spear.

  Blood — thick, black-red streams — came rushing from every direction. It seeped from the cracks in the broken battlefield, dripped from corpses hidden in the mist, from other arenas and pooled from the shallow cuts Juvian had inflicted earlier. Every droplet floated unnaturally, suspended midair before snaking toward the vampire like strands of living silk.

  It gathered at his mouth in perfect lines. He drank greedily, head tilted slightly back, his throat working as the crimson poured between his fangs.

  “Mmmm,” the vampire purred, his voice a silken whisper, shuddering as if savoring the taste of a rare delicacy. “This battlefield is drenched with blood. So much pain. So much history. That little snack just made me stronger.”

  Juvian’s armor-clad chest heaved as he stood his ground, holding his side. He narrowed his eyes, stone plating crawling higher over his shoulders like jagged spikes. “What are you? I’ve never heard of a race that drinks blood like that.”

  The vampire’s grin spread wider, fangs glinting in the mist. “That’s because you haven’t been everywhere.” He tilted his head, crimson dribbling down his chin. “I am a Vampire.”

  The word felt heavy — like a curse dragged out of some forgotten nightmare.

  The mist pressed in tighter, swirling violently around them as if the arena itself sensed the bloodlust about to explode.

  > “? Bite me once, bite me twice, tear him down before he thinks twice! Darling, don’t DIIIEEE! ?”

  Balling’s ridiculous song echoed over the Crucible, clapping his hands to his own rhythm as if he wasn’t gleefully commentating on a life-or-death battle.

  Juvian ignored him.

  He had no room to think of anything but survival.

  ---

  The blood flowing into the vampire twisted midair.

  With a single thought, he shaped it.

  SSSSHHHHHK.

  Dozens of blood-spears formed in a circle around him, each one a jagged crimson lance humming with killing intent.

  At the same time, the blood in his hand solidified, shaping into a massive two-handed axe — a monstrosity of hardened gore, taller than Juvian himself. The weapon pulsed like it had a heartbeat.

  “Let’s end this charade,” the vampire said softly, spinning the axe with terrifying ease.

  ---

  Juvian raised his hand sharply. “Stone Wall!”

  An earthen bulwark shot up in front of him, thick and unyielding.

  The vampire didn’t even flinch.

  He thrust his hand forward.

  WHOOSH.

  The spears shot out at once, streaking through the fog like a swarm of blood-red meteors.

  CRASH! CRACK!

  The first few impaled the wall, punching through the stone as though it were paper.

  Juvian grit his teeth, stomping the ground. “Reinforce!”

  The wall thickened, a second layer of stone growing over the first, but the spears kept coming, punching through with brutal precision.

  A dozen spears made it through.

  Juvian raised his other arm. A translucent mana barrier flared to life, catching the rest with a series of deafening, metallic clangs.

  He had no time to breathe.

  ---

  The vampire vanished.

  A crimson blur — too fast for Juvian’s eyes to follow.

  Instinct screamed.

  Juvian spun — but too late.

  The vampire appeared behind him, fanged smile splitting his face. “time to die”

  The massive axe came down in a single brutal swing.

  Juvian layered shields over himself in an instant — earthen plates reinforced with dense mana fields.

  It wasn’t enough.

  CRRRRRACK!

  The axe ripped through his defenses like rotten cloth. The impact exploded across his side, cutting through armor, stone, and flesh.

  “AAARGHHHH!”

  Pain seared through his body.

  The blow hurled him like a ragdoll, carving a trench through the ground for dozens of meters before he slammed into a boulder, the stone crumbling under the impact.

  ---

  Juvian coughed, blood spilling from his lips. His vision swam as he clutched his side, feeling the deep wound that carved across his ribs.

  If I hadn’t layered shields… I’d be dead.

  He struggled to his feet, stone armor reassembling across his body, jagged and uneven.

  The vampire approached at a leisurely pace, each step deliberate, his monstrous axe dragging behind him with a harsh metallic screech that echoed through the mist.

  “You’re tough,” he said, voice smooth and almost mocking, his crimson eyes glinting with dark amusement. “But you can’t keep up. That’s the biggest flaw you casters have—slow reaction speed, and weak defense.”

  He twirled the axe with frightening ease, resting it across his shoulders as though it were weightless. “We Vampires are casters too… but blessed with bodies far beyond yours. Strength, speed, instincts… It is inevitable that you lose. You are an inferior race, after all.”

  Juvian wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, his breath sharp and ragged. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his hands again, mana flaring around him as the ground beneath his feet trembled.

  “Inferior, huh?” His voice was low, steady, and cutting. “Let’s see who walks away from this in one piece.”

  To Be Continued...

  ---