In the mass chaos, Aldrin rushed for the only way out, the stairs leading up to the bar area. The only bad thing about that was the crowd of bodies also trying to get up the stairs. On top of that, the Minotaurs were rampaging and were getting closer. It was only a matter of time before their slaughterfest caught up with him. The first Minotaur, the one with the gold-capped horn, grabbed a Hobgoblin and stuck him in its mouth with a wet crunch. It set the tone for the rest of the Ash Vultures to move from defensive to offensive measures. Skills fired off, indiscriminate of whom they targeted as the need for survival dominated their thoughts.

"Moira! Evie!" Aldrin shouted amidst the chaos, weaving through fighting combatants. A stray sword swung there, a missed arrow here, a striking dagger, and the occasional spell flung, forcing Aldrin to stay on high alert. It was too cramped for anyone to spread out, let alone differentiate friend from foe. His Sense Sphere was beginning to overwhelm him as he tried to focus on too many things at once that would cause more annoyance than harm.

A roar shook him from his thoughts, and he looked to see his Ghoul Baron wrestling with a Minotaur, crashing through tables and people alike. "Fuck!" Aldrin hissed before his hand snapped out behind him instinctively, grabbing a Goblin by its neck when it tried to sneak up on him from behind. Aldrin whipped his head around to come face to face with the Goblin that was trying and failing to stick his dagger into his arm. "Would you stop!" he growled.

"Never!" The Goblin growled back and tried to stab him with more fervor. Aldrin rolled his eyes before flinging the Goblin away. He didn't watch to see where he went.

Another thunderous boom rocked the ground beneath them, forcing some to lose their balance, and that was a mistake as monsters, specifically the smaller creatures that resembled rats the size of ponies, swarmed over them, tearing the fallen ones to pieces. Aldrin shivered when he saw that, but when the rats turned their attention to him, they simply scattered, leaving bloody messes.

Of course, to add more to the mix, the fireball from earlier had engulfed the far corner of the underground in flames. The smoke was building, and the fire inched ever closer.

Through the Servant Bond he searched for Evie. "Where are you?!" He panicked through their bond.

"On the stairs in the middle. Almost at the top. Moira is with me." A quick reply came from her.

Aldrin felt relief and looked around, nearly missing three arrows in quick succession soar overhead. He quickly turned into fog when his Sense Sphere warned him of a stampeding Minotaur. It rushed right through him, and Aldrin wasted no time using his form to float up towards the ceiling and to the stairs to get out.

Below him, he saw everyone pushing each other to get out. It was a slow process not because of how narrow the stairs were but because once they stepped out into the open above, into the open bar, Aldrin saw why.

Half the bar had been blown open with another bomb type Skill, taking the entire front half with it. He saw the Ash Vultures, who wore little to no armor, and the Iron Reavers, the ones in mismatched plate and leather tearing into each other both inside of what remained of the bar and out into the streets. Bodies littered everywhere, more so the Ash Vultures as the Iron Reavers were more coordinated in their assault.

Aldrin reformed at the top of the stairs, grabbing people to throw them out of the way to make room for Moira and Evie to climb their way up. They took in the scene along with Aldrin, seeing the gang war break out. Skills were being ruthlessly unleashed on one another as they moved through the new battleground. However, their time to maneuver didn't last long when the Ghoul Baron crashed through the floor from the underground, followed by a Minotaur that jumped after him.

"Since when can they jump that high?!" Moira panicked at seeing the mass muscles able to clear the jump as easily as it breathed.

Aldrin grimaced. "Don't know, but we gotta get the fuck outta here now!"

The Minotaur looked around, bellowing in rage that called forth the other Minotaurs to jump through the hole. The gold-capped horned one was the last to jump up and together, the five Minotaurs created a fearsome image, an image that drew the ire of both gangs. The sudden shock and awe wore off as the others continued to batter into each other and the Minotaurs joined the fray, using their own bodies as weapons as they trudged their way to the front. Aldrin guided Moira and Evie back to a wall and out of the way as they tried to stay undetectable.

All Aldrin had to do was bide his time until the sun, which was almost gone, finally went behind the horizon and his powers would be at their full strength. "Evie, I need time. Get us out of here!" Aldrin called to her over the sounds of the battle raging around them.

Evie only nodded and took out one of her runes that blazed reddish-orange. She threw it far away from them, blowing up anything nearby in the process and adding more to the chaotic crackpot of the battle. The sudden explosion rocked the earth, but it still didn't deter the combatants from killing each other. A stray lightning bolt crackled overhead, colliding with a Minotaur that was sent back in a sizzling pile of smoke. It didn't stir, literally shocked numb from the blow. The other Minotaurs saw their fallen comrade, and the gold-capped horned one grunted, and two of the Minotaurs rushed over, trampling any that got in their way over to their brethren.

The gold-capped horned one searched for the attacker and found a madly cackling beardless Dwarf preparing another lightning bolt. He weaved the lightning bolt between dancing hands before unleashing it. The lightning bolt flew through the air, striking and arching over anyone that got in its path before colliding with the gold-capped horned Minotaur. To his surprise, and everyone else's, the Minotaur ‌opened its mouth and ate it. It took in the energy, power bristling through its musclebound form, enhancing it to a degree that shot a spike of fear into everyone around it. It roared, and quicker than anyone expected, it flashed forward, the smell of ozone lingering behind as it smashed into the surprised lightning slinging Dwarf.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The other Minotaur picked up a table and slung it, crashing against the sea of Ash Vultures and Iron Reavers. Aldrin grabbed the table closest to them and flipped it over on its side, giving them a small degree of cover. He peaked his head out to see how chaotic the street was and was mildly unenthused to see that the street was running red and cluttered with bodies of the fallen. The Iron Reavers were too coordinated against the Ash Vultures, who swarmed to have any semblance of a defense.

One Iron Reaver, another Dwarf, beardless like the lightning-slinging Dwarf that was currently being mauled to death by the gold-capped Minotaur, stood in reserve with another 50 Iron Reavers. He undid his faceless helmet and plucked it off, tucking it underneath his arm. His gaze was cool and unbothered as he took in the surrounding battle. "Skarra!" He called over the battlefield and from a nearby alleyway, three bodies of Iron Reavers flew out into the street in front of the Dwarf.

Aldrin finally saw Skarra as she stepped out from the alleyway, backed by two of her own gang members, who were bloodied and held gleeful grins. One even took it a step further by licking blood off his double-sided battleaxe. Red Giantese marked her, as did her tawny skin and dark raven-black hair. Her coal-black eyes scanned around, a grin splitting her face.

"Hey…Evie… What are red Giantese tattoos?" Aldrin hesitated when he turned back to them.

"What?" Evie frowned as they all ducked their heads at the nearest boom.

"Skarra, she's got red Giantese tattoos? Is that a Fire Giant?" Aldrin asked, glimpsing up and over to Skarra and the Iron Reaver Dwarf.

Evie swore under her breath as she too peaked out around the table, her eyes quickly finding Skarra through the mass of bodies that were desperately trying to kill each other. "What the fuck is a Fire Giant doing away from their homeland?" she asked more to herself.

"Ah, so it's not a good thing. Jared and Pierre aren't going to like this at all then," Aldrin stated, grimacing all the more when he realized the implications of what Fire Giants mean to them.

Aldrin watched Skarra getting into a boxer's stance, her runic gauntlets ablaze and thrumming with power as she took two quick jabs to get them fired up. Her red Giantese tattoos shimmered as her size slightly increased, including her muscle mass. The Iron Reaver Dwarf smirked and slotted on his helmet again, pulling out a jaggedly formed hammer and a buckler that he quickly strapped to his left wrist.

"For killin' mah kin, I've come to repay it with yer head!" The Dwarf's distorted voice called from across the battlefield.

Skarra shook her head. "I didn't kill him! Some- something else did!" she called back, but the Dwarf didn't hear any of it as he led the charge against her.

"Ash Vultures! To me!" Skarra echoed his war-cry, calling for her allies that could disengage with their battles and swarmed to her side as the two opposing forces clashed in a flurry of Skills and Magic.

To add more flames to the fire, the monsters and freed prisoners from below started clawing and climbing their way up the stairs and the newly created hole. Dog-like beasts the size of lions were the first to sink their fangs into the nearest person. The rats the size of ponies skittered out of the hole, chittering en masse, crawling over the downed gang members of both sides, rapidly consuming, leaving only bits and scraps of flesh.

Worst of all, there was a chimeric beast, the body of some type of large lizard, the head of a frog, with the serpentine tail a fish edged its way up the stairs, lashing out its frog tongue that stuck to a screaming Ash Vulture that dragged him back into its maw.

"This is getting out of hand and fast!" Aldrin said before the Ghoul Baron roared its challenge, throwing itself against the nearby beast in a mass of limbs. That was also the time the now ghoulified Bohr made his appearance. It was as gaunt and grey-looking as the Ghoul Baron, except it still retained the features of how he looked when he was alive, but they changed into the same green ones as the Ghoul Baron.

"We are pinned on both sides!" Moria finally said. "I don't see any way out of this without fighting our way out."

Aldrin looked to the sky, seeing the sun's rays diminishing by the minute. His choices were limited to only two options: waiting or acting. Jared, Pierre, and Buramog would take too long to rouse the Orcs from their hidden encampment. The Ghoul Baron was on a rampage, a perfect distraction amid the ongoing battle royale between the two gangs. He also didn't want to risk the lives of Moira and Evie, and while he knew Evie could easily take care of herself, Moira had placed a trust in him, and here they were throwing themselves into something Aldrin underestimated.

Aldrin slumped back against the table, realizing fate had given him no choice to keep hiding any longer. "No more… they will all bow before a greater threat or become steps for my ascension."

Moira whipped her head to Aldrin, her eyes wide with an unknowable fear, realizing he intended to join the battle as the monster the Ash Vultures whispered about. "Don't…"

When the sun's rays finally receded and the shadows raced to cover the area they were in, Aldrin felt his power awaken beneath his skin. No longer did Daywalker's effects weaken him, freeing him from the shackles that constrained his true self. His mind reached out to the Ghoul Baron that won the bout with a nearby beast. "Turn as many as you can. Make me an army. No longer do we hide in the shadows." Aldrin then reached out to Jared and Pierre. "Gather the Orcs and the Duskmaw riders, converge on my location. We are ending this gang war."

Without waiting for a response, Aldrin nudged his armor to grow over him, and he placed his Circlet of Authority on top of his head from his Inventory. He summoned Sin-Screamer and called for his cloak, Delena's Veil, to come to him. Sin-Screamer's purple runes flared to life, sensing its master's intent. Then Aldrin stood from behind the table, letting his vampiric features mask his human guise, turning him into the myth made real.

The Vampire Progenitor had arrived once more to subjugate the lesser beings and conquer those who didn't submit. Ebira's false sense of security would be shattered.

"I am with you, Aldrin," he heard Evie's affirmation as she felt his desire through the Servant Bond.

He nodded once and shifted into a bat swarm, flying upwards into the night sky. Those close saw it but were quickly cut down by those lost in the heat of battle and induced rage. Unaware of what was about to transpire, the two gangs continued to fight as death loomed overhead.

Moira frantically looked at Evie. "Stay close and stay out of his way," Evie told her grimly as she kept a watchful eye on the Minotaurs that began charging their way towards the street where Skarra and her gang faced off against the Iron Reavers and their Dwarf leader. She knew that tonight, both gangs would witness a change in their future, one that was not heralded as a good thing.

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