Damon’s mind raced. He quickly tried activating the teleportation skill, but it was already greyed out. Blood Gate takes about a minute to get set up. Blink and Shadowstep were useless as it would become a game of tag, which he would be on the losing end.
There was no other way. He was going to have to face whatever was coming at him. Right now.
In the distance, a powerful aura erupted. An intense shockwave spread from the tall mountain outward.
The shockwave ripped through the miasma-choked battlefield like a tidal wave, shredding the toxic fog and scattering it into thin, useless wisps. The ground beneath his feet cracked in jagged lines. The trees didn’t just fall, they exploded into splinters under the sheer weight of the force, their trunks snapping like brittle bones.
Waves and waves of corrupted beasts exploded into blood and gore. Damon’s [Miasmic Dominion] shuddered under the pressure and dissipated. Before Damon had a chance to erect a blood shield, a huge presence loomed over him.
It had only taken the beast a fraction of a second to move from there to here!
The creature’s shadow fell over him, blotting out what little light remained in the miasma-thinned sky. A stench rolled off it, thick and acrid, making the back of his throat burn as though he’d swallowed molten poison.
The miasma around it cleared, and Damon was finally able to get a good glimpse of the big creature.
A massive serpentine body coiled and uncoiled with deliberate menace, thick emerald scales refracting pale light like shards of polished jade, each one edged in a frost-white outline that made them gleam unnaturally in the gloom.
The creature’s body alone stretched far beyond what his eyes could track, serpentine loops fading into the haze, while its long, muscular neck arched forward, ending in a head crowned with white, antler-like horns.
Its eyes, a piercing mix of glacial blue and venom green, locked onto him, and in that gaze, Damon felt the weight of a predator that had ruled this place long before he’d set foot in it. How was he supposed to face a creature like this?
It might as well be the god that ruled this world!
And he was the foolish mortal who vainly thought that he could slay a god!
Damon’s entire body trembled in fear from top to bottom. Maybe if he knelt down and prostrated himself in front of the beast, he would be granted mercy? Maybe if he completely submitted to this venerable God, then it would see him as too insignificant to bother killing.
That treacherous thought slithered through his mind unbidden, a poisonous whisper urging surrender.
His knees bent slightly without him meaning to, his instincts screaming at him to submit. The sheer pressure radiating from the creature was primal, suffocating, an ancient dominance that reached into the marrow of his bones and commanded obedience.
But then, something else stirred within him. Deep. Dark. Hungry. The predator that had grown inside him since the day he’d awakened as a vampire surged up in defiance, baring its fangs at the idea of kneeling to anything.
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