Chapter 1779: The great attack. The fighting between the Red Vampires had reached a high point. These vampires had a strong sense of pride in their belief that they were ready to risk their lives for their cause. And this only made the situation worse because they had no qualms about fighting their own kind. Nearly all of the vampires had skill training every day to achieve their goal, and now they were fighting each other. Red aura was going off in all directions, buildings were getting destroyed in seconds, and people were dying every second from slashes and weapons. A lot of the fighting had also reached the rooftops of the houses as there was inadequate space outside the lab. One could only describe the whole situation as chaotic as even the attacks from those on the same side hit each other. Some didn't even know if they were fighting against those who disagreed with them or were trying to beat someone on their own side as they continued to punch, claw and slash anyone who attempted to attack them. The only one getting quite a bit of support was Ashley, as they knew he needed help to take on the guardians against him. He was huffing and panting. The claw marks on his face and wounds over his body were healing much slower than before. "Is this what you wanted?!" The Guardian shouted. "Well done, thank you for causing the uprising that will have destroyed the Red Vampires and, in turn, the whole vampire race. You damned fake!" Fake was a term used by many of the Red Vampires among each other. And they never used it in a good way. Rather, it was a derogatory term for vampires who weren't originally vampires and were the ones that were turned. However, the Vampires rarely used this word because it was considered very demeaning, and even the vampires aligned with Laxmus's ideal didn't agree with it wholly. After all, the one who saved the vampires before and had done so much for them, Quinn Talen, was also a Turned. "Just let us through and let us speak to Laxmus!" Ashley shouted. At that moment, an energy blast was shot through the lab ceiling. It had just about reached the underground town's ceiling but stopped right before hitting the top. Even if the fighting had gotten intense, it looked like Laxmus was careful not to destroy the very settlement he had built. Although the underground cave structure was built using carefully chosen material from the different planets to withstand powerful attacks, an attack of Laxmus's calibre could shake the foundations of the underground settlement, which was the last thing he wanted. The leaders' fight continued, but most of the action on the ground halted when they saw Layla and Laxmus fighting against each other, confirming their suspicions that the two leaders were having some sort of disagreement. However, as Vampires stared at what was to happen, a resounding message rang throughout their minds. And they heard someone's voice in their heads. "Everyone, the Dhampirs have arrived. They are attacking the base. They have entered from the east side!" Every single person at this point had stopped fighting and turned their heads, Immediately, they gripped their weapons and headed to the east side for possibly one of the most brutal battles they would ever have. Ashley was frozen when everyone moved, including the Guardian Ashley was going toe to toe with. "Why now of all times..." Ashley felt frustrated as he looked at his wounds, and some vampires, with most of their armour destroyed, who were heading into battle against their archnemesis. In fact, the whole ground was littered with corpses, but the vampires ignored everything and ran to the new battlefield. "This is the worst time for an attack. We're tired and have been fighting each other. This would have been a hard fight in the first place, but now." *** *** *** At the same time, Xander, along with his son and daughter, who were fighting relentlessly with the other guardians, had all received the message as well. "It looks like there are bigger problems to deal with instead of the nest crystal!" One of the Guardians spoke as he halted his attacks. In the next moment, all the guardians used their Shadow Travel to teleport and headed for the new battlefield, against the Dhampirs! Seeing no one else around them, Xander decided to cancel his mist powers, and now the three of them could be seen standing on the rooftop. And just then, Kev fell to his knees. "We survived... man, I was so worried," He was tired. "That was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, and all we were doing was defending." "Well, it was against the Guardians," June replied, looking in a bit better condition than Kev. It was hard to tell whether she was just trying to hide her nerves or tiredness, but Xander could only guess that she was also worn out. "What should we do now? Do we continue our escape, or go back and... help?" "We can't go back," Xander replied. Although he was unaware of the large fight outside the lab, he felt the power during the scuffle and honestly didn't want to know how it was going. "We can't help, and no matter what, we must complete our task. Let's focus on getting out of this place." "Wait!" Kev said, standing up. "You mean we aren't going to help them fight off the Dhampirs? You're a Guardian, dad." "Your job is to protect the vampires. If you don't help them, many of them will die!" "Was a Guardian." Xander corrected his son. "What do you expect us to do? Even if we help them fight the dhampirs and somehow win the battle, do you think they will suddenly forgive us for what we have done?" "The battle against Dhampirs would have tired us even more, making it harder for us to escape." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 "So right now, we are just focusing on escaping alive, you understand? And I don't want one of you to say anything else." Kev kicked a rock as if he was sulking. They were brought up here and had made many friends in the settlement, many of whom they had grown up with. So it was harder for them to leave them to die. It didn't feel right. However, they had been told from a young age what they needed to do and what might happen to them. Knowing how her brother felt, June placed her hand over his shoulder to comfort him. They had enough strength a Red Vampire would need to survive this. Staring at their backs, Xander's heart pained as well. "You think Layla and I didn't make friends during this time? Colleagues who were loyal to us and helped us." "I want to help them to... But, I'm just choosing the best option, and this situation is the worst for us." "The one thing we must do is avoid the dhampirs from finding us. They grow stronger based on how many vampires there are near them." "The urge in their bodies rises, which is why fighting against them in small groups or one-on-one is more suitable." "There is no way the Red Vampires can make it out of this, especially if the Dhampir Queen and her strongest have come." Since he had made the decision, Xander took the two, and they started to run through the streets. They headed away from the east side where the Dhampirs had broken through. Although it was the main entrance to the place, it wasn't the only exit. There were several tunnels spread around that gave them enough chance to escape from the Dhampirs. Xander knew the vampires very well. They will not run away and will choose to fight till the end. And even though his heart wanted to turn and rush to the war, he had to think about everything with his head. That's how he concluded that the best course of action was to escape from this settlement. The three of them ran as fast as they could, through the empty houses, alleyways and buildings. Finally, a large wall appeared in sight, but still, it at least a mile away before they could reach it. Kev was running the fastest in front of his sister, glanced back, and said aloud. "Hey, sis, you didn't look tired before. So I guess you were just trying to act cool, huh?" Shaking his head, Xander ignored this banter. He could never stop the competitive nature of these two, but then again, it was what had allowed them to get so strong, so quickly. Suddenly, Xander's smile vanished as he pushed forward, running past June and grabbing Kev by the back of his collar before throwing him back. At that moment, a large strike of yellow Aura came through the building on the side and cut through the ground. It had missed Xander by an inch and continued heading through the other houses. "It looks like we have a few people trying to escape. I never thought the proud Red Vampires would do this." Turning their heads to where the voice was coming from, they could see a female on the roof. She wore light clothing and white armour. It matched her long blonde hair well. "Flora? Damn, of all the people to come here, Erin is probably the only one that's worse than her!" Xander cursed his luck. Besides Erin, everyone counted Flora amongst the prominent figureheads of the Dhampirs. She made the most public appearances. Thus, she was a well known figure and was even at the Chained wedding. And this was not just because she was a pretty face but because she had the skills to back it up as well. Honestly, Xander was wondering if he should just tell June and Kev to run or hand over Vincent's body to one and give the nest Crystal to the other because he didn't believe that the three of them could defeat Flora. "Kids!" Xander shouted. "AHHHH" Interrupted by his words, he could hear a particular cry coming from above, and looking up, suddenly something had crashed and landed directly in front of Xander. The impact created dust smoke, making it hard to see who or what it was. "Damn it, what is wrong with that guy? Why wouldn't he let me smash through instead of using his powers? Now, look what's happened." All four at the scene heard a voice coming from the dust. And as the dust started clearing up, Xander had to blink several times to ensure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.