THE GOMAN EMPIRE

Solca streaked through the trees heading towards the center of the forest. This was the darkest and loneliest part of the forest. Here, there would be no collateral casualties. It would be only him and the vampire. Another reason as to why he was luring the vampire to a secluded spot was the lack of any audience. His fights tended to get a little messy and for others it could get into their nerves. Once while he had been fighting a giant orc, several human children happened to witness the full fight. The next day they had all been declared mentally unstable from PTSD.

From then on, he had adopted his policy, no witnesses.

Finally, he was in the forest center. He turned fast and hurled his battle axe at the vampire but it sidestepped the projectile. It caught his jacket and hurled him against a pine tree leaving him dazed. He had probably broken a few ribs too. The vampire was stronger than he had thought. From the looks of it the vampire was an Original. However, there was no going back. Solca leapt into the air hoping to land a kick on its head. The vampire however had anticipated the move. It flapped it's bat wings and Rose into the air. As a result, Solca missed and before he could make another move, it grabbed him from behind. It pinned his hands at his side trapping him. Solca tried to free his hands but the vampire's grip was unyielding. He felt its warm vile breath on his neck as it sniffed his carotid artery. Solca had never felt so violated as it sunk its dirty fangs into his flesh. The damn thing was draining him and he was too weak to stop it in his human form. Solca knew what would happen next. The vampire would drink its fill and leave just enough to make him remain alive. The turning would happen in less than four hours and he would become a wild vampire cursed to never walk under the sun and an outcast in the vampire kingdom.

The thought of it drove Solca mad. He could no longer take it. He could feel the darkness creeping in on him and with it came this feeling of pure piece. He shook his head, closed his eyes and mustered all his will to summon his wolf. He had not shifted in a hundred years. He had sworn never to do it when he had accidentally killed his younger sister after failing to control the animal inside him in his first shifting experience. He had withdrawn from everything and caged his animal form inside him until it went dormant. Now that he desperately needed its help, he get it loose. It fluttered to life inside him and came out with the rage of a hundred years of being caged.

His bones snapped and twisted into new shapes. His teeth sharpened and grew into these three inch canines. His fingers clawed and silver fur grew all over his body. His muscles tightened and bulged as the eyes darkened into two fiery embers. The vampire had simply not expected this. When the three inch canines sunk into its shoulder, it let out a shuddering screech that echoed throughout the forest. Solca's rage was murderous. He jammed his claws into the vampire's belly and pulled out its intestines. Before it could react, Solca grabbed it, slammed it on the forest floor and pinned it under his feet. He brought down his jaws and tore the wings off the vampire's back. He was so enraged that by the time the adrenaline rush was spent, there was no vampire anymore. At least not a live one. The only thing that remained was a few scattered pieces of flesh and the torn wings.

Even though he had managed to free himself from the vampire's fangs, Solca knew that he was running out of time. The bite would soon turn him if he did not treat it in time. The hallucinations would come first followed by the turning. He fumbled through his backpack with trembling hands until he found what he was looking for. The vial containing a Genera dose. It was a regeneration drug used by royals when injured. It accelerated the self healing process in their bodies. It would help as an antivampire venom drug. It would counter the venom effects and prevent the turning. However, Genera only worked on werewolves. A vampire bite on a human was fatal. There was no cure.

Tired after injecting himself with the drug, Solca leaned into a huge pine tree and struggled to calm his racing heartbeat. This had become a routine for him. Boredom had forced him into a monster hunter. Not that he was so strong but the fighting and near death experiences allowed him to feel alive. Solca came from a prominent and ancient line of werewolves. His elder brother was the alpha of the Goman empire. That meant that Solca was a beta. A title he did not like being associated with. Not that he didn't not like power but the title prevented him from living his risky life. He had been gone from Goma for almost four months now. He never stayed in one place for long. He loved moving around the world in his Suzuki dirt bike looking for the next monster to slay. In the four months, he had visited the faeries of Oclem where he had slayed a marauding grizzly bear. Next he had visited the human realm of Russo where he had helped them capture a wild werewolf. Finally, he had come to the Elves of Tera where he had fought an original killer vampire. Since he was a seasoned monster hunter, the was occasionally contracted to get rid of vicious monsters from different empires.

It was never about the money for Solca. In fact, he never accepted any bounty on any of his kills. Instead, he did it for the fun. The adrenaline rush made him forget his problems. His payment was in form of favours. He would do you a favour and owe you one in return. One could never tell when these favours would come in handy. Because of this, he made allies and friends everywhere he went.

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