FAMILY ABOVE ALL: BATTLING AGAINST GODS

"Old fool...are you looking to die?"

Lord Cromwell gazed at the figure above him with a stunned look, her words echoing in his mind endlessly.

As his mind finally registered the shocked gasps around him, his stun gave way to humiliation which soon turned to anger.

"Little wench, I will kill you!" The old Lord bellowed in anger. He felt so stifled to the point that he felt his heart might burst any moment. But despite, his anger, what greeted him was a pale fist and before he knew it, his brain shut down, this time for several more breaths. The sickening sound of bones breaking resounded in the area, as Lord Cromwell's face caved in, his nose broken and his lips burst in blood.

The old Lord felt his anger rise to a level he had never thought possible. However, he had learned his lesson. Instead of lashing out, he moved to change to a favorable position. With a blur, his body disappeared from the ground and appeared a few feet from Evangeline, his wound having healed within that short moment.

However, he wasn't happy...

Looking around, he saw the people present had wisely shifted further away from their fight, their heads lowered to the ground, none daring to meet his gaze. But he didn't need to see their faces to know how they felt.

They were shaken...

Especially the members of his clan.

Even Count Cromwell wasn't an exception.

Taking a deep breath, Lord Cromwell shifted his head back to Evangeline and was about to voice out how he would take his time to crush and humiliate her, as he tried to salvage the situation. However, his eyes contracted into pins when he saw what greeted him.

An arrow streaked toward him with great speed, and before he knew it, it appeared right before his chest. Lord Cromwell was quick to react though, his hand turning into a swift blur that caught hold of the arrow shaft with an iron grip. While he successfully stopped the arrow in its path, the force still knocked him several feet back, shocking him to the core.

'How does she possess such strength?' Several whooshing sounds drifted into his sharp ears in just the split second that he was lost in his thought.

Discarding the useless thoughts, Lord Cromwell focused on the fast-approaching arrows that seemed to easily pierce through air and space to arrive at their target. He allowed his eyes to shift to the source of the arrows and couldn't help but be mesmerized for a moment. At some point, which he guessed to be when he had escaped from beneath her, Evangeline had summoned her soul artifact and transformed it into a heavy bow. Several arrows flashed from the spatial ring in her hand, before lining up orderly behind her. With quick movements, the arrows flew into her right hand, and with fluid and graceful motions, she nocked and fired with a straight posture, her face placid, but her ruby eyes bore into his mind.

Her hand turned into a blur, and before Lord Cromwell knew it, ten more arrows joined the previous six that were about to arrive before him. A strange thought appeared in his mind at that moment.

'Now, I know why she was called a weapon master.'

However, he quickly crushed the feeling of admiration welling within him and focused on his opponent. The vampires were a race that respected strength, and Lord Cromwell was no exception. But he knew what was at stake at this moment...his honor. He couldn't humiliate himself any further, if not his clan's glory would fall to rock bottom. While the Protectors didn't care about such worldly affairs and didn't interfere with clan matters, his pride wouldn't allow him to disappoint his followers. They were all bearing his name after all, down to their leader, the Count.

With a low growl, he invoked his vampiric transformation, an ability his clan had inherited from him.

His arms morphed, and grew larger, with dark scale-like armor covering his flesh. His hands now possessed three fingers instead of five, with three sharp claws protruding from their ends. Since they weren't alone and were also in the middle of the academy, they had to keep their fight strictly physical, in order to minimize the damage.

Quickly raising his arms, Lord Cromwell protected himself from the first arrow. Unlike before, his body stood like a mountain, while the dark arrow exploded into iron splinters. But Lord Cromwell didn't pay it any attention.

'Five more!' He knew that ten more arrows were already flying toward him, but he had already determined he would have a few seconds' gap between both attacks. Seconds he planned to use to close the gap between them and launch a devastating attack.

Just like he had expected, five more arrows impacted into his arms without any result. Lord Cromwell quickly raised his head and was about to dash out, however...

"What?" his eyes widened when he saw the first of the other ten arrows already before him.

'How?'

Left with no choice, Lord Cromwell stood his ground and braced the attack.

The first arrow knocked into him, the result was no different from the former...

The second arrow followed a split second later, without any result...

Then, the third...

The fourth...

Fifth....

Sixth....

Seventh...

Eight...

Ninth...Lord Cromwell grunted as he was finally pushed back from the impacting blows. A stinging pain spread from his transformed hands but he gritted his teeth and bore through the annoyance, his mind not even caring about the pain.

The tenth soon rammed into him, this time throwing him into the air. But he didn't care...His body pulled forward ready to dash out once his feet touched the ground when...

*Clang!*

Another arrow pushed him back once he returned to the ground.

Grunting under the pushing force, Lord Cromwell shifted his eyes to his attacker but what he saw almost made his eyes burst out from their sockets.

Evangeline's right hand couldn't be seen and what remained at its spot was a blur....

A magical scene played out before his eyes...

Arrows continued to fly out in his direction, and as if controlled by an invisible hand, they lined up orderly as they continued on their paths, landing into him with a cacophony of clanging sounds.

This allowed them to impact the same point on Lord Cromwell's transformed arms, and as his body was pushed back by each successive arrow, his well-protected arms were finally pierced through and before he knew it, a fountain of blood spurted into the air.

They were moving so fast that their fight appeared to have taken long, but the truth was that not even ten breaths had passed since Evangeline shot the first arrow. Most of those present couldn't even keep track of what was happening.

*****

AN: Thanks to all those who are following the novel.