Midnight-Day Eight of The Bountiful Month, Year 1589 AA. Steedsborn City Outskirts of the greater WUE.
Durand stepped out of the bar. His robes ruffled at the sleeves as the metal bracelets and shackles he wore began to charge with power and shift on his skin.
The Knight-Hunter put his helmet back on and spared at glance at the old round-bodied man. "Metallurgy Manifestation? That's not bad, Durand."
"Neither is your Glacial-Accent Manifestation."
"Thank Majus." The Knight-Hunter said as they stepped into the cold night air.
"Savor the Hunt." Durand replied.
It was night. Dark. The moon sat high in the sky. Or at least what was left of it. It hovered in space in three rings surrounded by lunar shards charged by starlight that glimmered madly.
It made nights brighter. Bluer. But dark all the same.
In the distance, Steedsborn city rose up with stone and steel high-rises and glass cathedrals surrounded by guardian walls of hexed forestry.
Closer by in the faint woodland splitting them off from Steedsborn, shapes shouted in the shadows.
They were mindless, moving like a horde in a hallway as they trampled over eachother and clawed and bit to reach the two Hunters outside the bar.
They stepped into the light. Pale skinned. Once human— ages ago. Left to twist and transform as they fed on other beasts and mutated due to the magical enzymes and viruses coursing through them.
Red-Goblins were not goblins. The name was slightly incorrect.
Red-Goblins were thralls of an ancient Vampire-Lord. A Vampire-Lord of a unique breed of vampirism.
Lord Drakhu.
His followers roamed the wilds all over as misshapen husks of his former glory.
The Red-Goblins stood at eight feet tall. No eyes. Just smooth pale skin and massive mouthes full of endless rows of teeth. Some seemed to be attempting to grow wings which was visible due to the sight of appendages and new bones pushing against the skin of their backs.
The midnight winds blew, carrying the scents of old blood and ale inside the bar towards the fiends.
Durand and the Knight-Hunter could feel their hunger rise.
Veins bulged beneath their skin, glowing red like burning metals. The magic of their gifted curse was entering into overdrive.
They were like piranhas on land.
And nothing could stop them once they smelled blood.
They charged—
"NO!"
The Red-Goblins stopped dead in their tracks.
Durand's eyes widened.
"KNEEL!"
The Red-Goblins kneeled.
In the distance— up above the trees, something flew on bat-wings.
Under the star-sharded moon-hollows, the creature grew more visible as it neared.
He.
He was the most beautiful man either of them had ever seen. Perfectly symmetrical. Sharp jutting cheekbones on an angular—almost androgynous, face with full lips and soft brown eyes. His hair was golden silk that sauntered around his broad shoulders in the wind. His body was sculpted stone given human tone. He was naked, wielding only a scythe of red metals and wearing only a crown of shaped blood. Everchanging portions of it materialized into iron before returning to blood-flows.
"All of you kneel." He whispered.
Durand felt his stomach twist. "The only being who can control Red-Goblins is their creator….. Lord Drakhu…."
"Or Vampire-Lords of similar power." The Knight-Hunter replied.
"Or that…."
"You won't listen…." He said between sonic wing-beats. His eyes brightened, going from brown to gold to pink and eventually red.
He raised his scythe and swung in a flash. The weapon extended hundreds of feet in a flash and cleaved the Knight-Hunter in half right beside Durand.
The creature turned his gaze onto Durand, "If you won't listen, then you will leave….. this world…. In pieces."
Durand blinked twice before turning and re-entering the bar.
"Sally! You've got com….pany." Durand trailed off as he came inside and faced a bar absent of Salazar. The only evidence of him ever being inside— aside from the beaten Hunters, was the Knighter's Glacier-blade and a spinning bottle.
It came to a stop pointing at Durand.
He smiled to himself. "Of course….. you already heard him."
He turned as the doors shut just in time to see Salazar reappear outside of the bar— manifesting out of dark energy spirals and dust-trails of sparkling shadow.
He was less disheveled than before, now wearing his two-tone overcoat, hooded dark-cloak and left pauldron.
But most importantly, he held his trademark tonfa-blades, Solus and Lune.
The Red-Goblins quivered at his emmergence.
The shadows slithered towards the Shade-Eater.
The beautiful creature looked him up and down before asking, "And who are you?"
Salazar answered in truth, "Close your eyes."