The voices of the students roared from the top seats of the Nelxus Academy arena to the seats at the very bottom.
Over three hundred students were watching the fight taking place on the arena floor, almost all of them screaming in excitement.
Given the current atmosphere of the arena, one would think that there was an interesting fight going on. However, what the students happened to be enjoying was a completely one-sided beating.
A clearly unfair battle that shouldn't even be happening to begin with.
On the left side of the arena was Axel Melborn, a young fairy with short brown hair and blue eyes.
However, nothing could clearly be made out of his face as he had blood streaming down from his head on both sides of his face.
His left hand seemed to be broken, given the way it was freely dangling sideways, and his whole attire was covered in dirt.
Despite all that, Axel was still standing on both feet, at this point, it was just his grit and determination keeping him going as he had no intention of backing down.
His legs were shaking from exhaustion but he had his soles firmly planted on the ground to prevent himself from falling.
"This bastard! What will it take to get you to back down for good?"
That voice came from the other side of the arena, from another young fairy.
He had short dark hair and his brown eyes were filled with anguishing hatred as he stared at Axel, biting deep into his lower lip.
"This is frustrating." He grumbled as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.
Right at that moment, a chant began to resound in the arena.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Ivan charged straight toward Axel at full speed, kicking up quite a lot of dust behind him.
He got to him in no time and before Axel could react, he slammed his palm on his chest and sent him flying back.
Axel slammed his back against the wall forcing out a sharp groan from him and forcing out the blood in his mouth.
With a hit that powerful, Axel could no longer hold himself up, but before he could slump down to the ground, Ivan was in front of him once again.
His sword suddenly lit up, its light temporarily blinding Axel.
Unfortunately, Axel never got the chance to open his eyes again because before he could, the sword pierced through his chest from one side to the other, pinning him on the wall.
The expression on Ivan's face was quite a vicious one, a mixture of cruelty and satisfaction. He tried to hide the subtle smile on his face but it was obvious that he enjoyed what he had just done.
"If you get a chance at a next life." He said as he twisted the sword.
"Arghhh!!!" Axel screamed in pain.
This was something he had not done since the start of the fight despite all the beaten he had taken.
The spectators were a bit taken aback causing some of them to go quiet.
"Make sure you know your place!"
The smile on his face was now quite evident; Ivan pulled out the sword, causing some of Axel's blood to spill on his face.
The light on his sword was now gone and all that was left was blood.
With the sword gone, Axel slowly slumped down on the ground, his body now lifeless.
The sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds before the sky roared out two consecutive times.
In no time, raindrops slowly began to descend, washing off all the blood in the premises.
The students watching the fight were all still there, but they all seemed to have gone silent.
They were the ones screaming to kill, yet when it actually happened, they didn't know how to feel about it.
Ivan, on the other hand, had no hint of remorse or regret on his face as he slowly walked away.
In no time, the students slowly began to vacate the arena, leaving Axel's body there to be thoroughly soaked by the rain.
His body might have lost its life force but there was still a glimmer of his consciousness hanging around, and it had just one thing to say about himself.
'What a worthless life.'
__________ _________
The rain lasted for quite a while with the sky constantly crackling with thunder.
When it finally stopped and the clouds cleared, the sun was almost completely gone from the sky and the darkness of the night was soon to set in.
By this time, any of the students who had gone out during the day were expected to return or they were going to answer for it.
The gates of the Academy were left open for those returning from outside.
It was at that moment that a young female vampire walked in through the gate.
She had her body properly covered with a black coat and had a hood on to cover the top of her silver hair which brushed back and forth on her chest as she moved.
Her emerald green eyes were quite bright matching the gleeful smile she had on her face as she stared at the sheathed dagger she was holding.
"With this, he won't have to…."
She wasn't able to finish that statement as her ears soundly caught wind of something.
One of the advantages of a vampire was as long as she wanted to, she could clearly hear everything happening around her.
Those words seemed to have come from two girls whispering by the side of the road.
In no time, the vampire was suddenly in front of them, the wind from her fast movement sending a chill down their spine.
"What were you two talking about?" She asked.
The anxiousness in her voice was something that came across as cold and threatening to the fairies.
"It's just a fight that happened this afternoon." One of the fairies stuttered. It looked like she was going to pee herself at any moment.
"They said a fairy was killed." The other one said.
"What fairy?" She asked abruptly, pushing closer to them while they retreated back.
"They said his name was Axel or something." The second fairy stuttered. "That's all we know."
She grabbed her friend's hand after that and quickly ran off.
The vampire didn't even notice them run off as she was left dumbfounded trying to process what she just heard.
"Axel." She muttered as the dagger she was holding slowly fell off her hand.
________ ________
Having been confirmed dead, Axel's body was left at the school's infirmary for now, where it was currently covered with a white cloth.
There was no one there beside his sister, Elena Melborn who was just standing there staring at his lifeless body, her face weirdly expressionless.
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard from the door and just as she turned around, she saw the door come crashing down to reveal a panting vampire.
She kept on telling herself that everything she heard was nonsense and nothing happened to Axel, but seeing the white cloth covering a body and Elena standing there, her eyes sunk in deep.
Her steps seemed devoid of strength as he slowly walked past Elena to get to Axel.
Reaching out to the cloth, he prayed hard that it would be another person's body, but as reality would have it, her prayer wasn't answered as she saw Axel's body lying there after pulling off the cloth.
She slowly closed her eyes and scrunched her face as she bit into her lower lip.
"I can't sense any life from him." Her voice cracked as tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. "He's really dead."
"Vesper," Elena called after letting out a soft sigh.
She had her eyes closed for a while as tears streamed down and when she opened them again, they were glowing red.
At that moment, Elena suddenly felt a murderous chill run past her.
"Oh no." She gasped.
"Who did it?" She asked as she slowly turned to Elena. She seemed suddenly from sad and miserable to cold and murderous.
"Calm down, Vesper."
That did nothing as the next moment, Vesper was right in front of her, her fangs fully elongated.
"Just answer the question." She grumbled.
Elena had no intention of keeping the information from her; she just didn't want her to act recklessly, but now it looked like nothing she would say or do was going to stop her.
'You must have saved the world in your last life, Axel.'
"It was Ivan." She said,
"The fairy?"
"Yes." She nodded.
Getting that confirmation, Vesper was suddenly covered by a smoke of shadow and soon Elena could no longer sense her presence in the room.
"He has it coming."
_________ ________
It was fully nighttime now, but the sky seemed to have gotten covered by dark clouds once again as neither the stars nor the moon could be seen. Instead, there were constant flashes of lightning.
Ivan, who was in his room at the moment, had just slipped into a soft brown robe and was about to go to bed when the candles in his room suddenly went out, blown out by the passing wind.
Well, it seemed that way until they lit up again the next second.
"Huh?"
Ivan was left confused and scratching his head; he thought it was strange, and not being able to make sense of it after a while, he brushed it off as nothing.
He turned to his bed and was about to take a step toward it when he suddenly felt a presence behind him.
He quickly grabbed his sword, which was sitting beside his bed, and turned around to find Vesper standing, a sudden flash of lightning illuminating her face for a moment.
"Oh, your highness." He let out a soft sigh as he slowly put down his sword.
Unfortunately, that was the wrong move for him.
"Can I do….."
Before he could finish that statement, Vesper pulled out a dagger from her side.
The dagger's blade suddenly received a deep red glow before she slashed it toward him, releasing a red crescent slash.
That was a skill unique to vampires, blood slash. It wasn't as deadly as other skills, as it was something any vampire could use, but it was enough to do serious damage if used well.
"Huh?" Ivan let out a gasp.
Quickly switching his sword to his left hand, he released a crescent slash with his right hand.
However, unlike Vesper, his was of the light element which was unique to fairies.
The two attacks met in the middle, cancelling each other out.
Unfortunately for Ivan, Vesper didn't plan to just use a blood slash and go home.
Relentless about what she wanted to do tonight, she dashed forward, her body getting covered by smoke of shadow the moment she leapt.
That was a skill called shadow step, another skill unique to vampires.
The next moment, she was right in front of Ivan, her fist covered in lightning.
Ivan had no time to react and could only brace himself as she slammed her fist on his body to send him flying back, and while he was still flying back, she sent out three consecutive blood slashes toward him.
With his sword infused with the light element, Ivan was able to block all three attacks as he crashed into the wall.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked, his breathing speed increasing rapidly.
"You'll have to die first if you want to find out."