Fusion wasn’t something to take lightly. A strong fusion could send a hero soaring, making it so much easier to get the rest of their shards. A weak fusion could have no impact at all. And a bad fusion could be the end of one’s life.

  Zehra Hansorita had, for as long as she could remember, been fascinated with the Fortress. It was so unlike the other dungeons. She had trained outside of it when she was young, and it had been the first dungeon she had entered. Those first few floors were still some of her favorites.

  But now, she stood at the bottom of the stairs to the 7th floor. She was giddy with excitement. A wizard fused with a vampire lord would be unstoppable. Or so, she hoped. It had been ten years of training, ten years of preparation to lead to her moment on the 7th floor.

  She adjusted her helmet, refastened the straps on her bracers, and hiked up the stairs. A shiver passed through as she entered the void nexus.

  Fortress Dungeon

  Seventh Floor

  Two Shards Active

  A lobby appeared before her, as if she had simply stepped into a lord’s manor. Zehra grabbed her flail and let it hang by her leg, jingling a little as she shifted her grip. Her mother used to say a wizard shouldn’t use weapons. Back when she was still working as a career hero, her mother had relied entirely on her spells and her familiar.

  Zehra never understood that idea. A wizard should rely on anything at their disposal. Her mother had never been a Shard Hero, and Zehra was well on her way to getting her third.

  “A visitor?” a beautiful man walked down a grand staircase on the far end of the lobby. “May I have your name?” He wore some of the nicest clothes she had ever seen, but he was still dressed as a butler. Yellow eyes. A mostly human appearance. A lesser vampire, surely.

  Fortress Mob

  Arintak Takaneta

  Lesser Vampire

  Level 65

  “Zehra Hansorita.” She bowed her head.

  “Would you like tea?”

  Enemies could be lurking anywhere in the manor. It was particularly dangerous to enter a room without the proper preparations. Mimics, specters, and even other vampires could be lurking anywhere.

  Truly anywhere.

  “That would be lovely.”

  Arintak smiled without showing teeth. He walked to the door on her left, opened it, and gestured inside.

  She had Summon Familiar and Tame Specter ready to cast at any time. Franso would arrive ready to launch an Arcane Barrage at anything he didn’t recognize.

  Zehra moved past Arintak, forcing herself to avoid flinching at the proximity to the vampire. His thirst was palpable in the air, a power that would surely draw him in if she lingered too close.

  Three smaller vampires with more bat-like features were already present in the sitting room. One carried trays, another a teapot, and the last set the teacups nicely on a center table between two sofas. Sunlight drifted in nicely through the curtained windows, giving the room a calming glow.

  Zehra knew if she looked out the windows, she would see shrubs, fountains, trimmed hedges, and even workers tending to the gardens, and . . . none of it was real. If there was a way outside the manor, she was unaware of it. The boundary wall was the wall. Still, the sunlight was appreciated.

  One smaller vampire gestured for her to sit. The other two lingered nearby, waiting to serve her. They shifted around her as they moved, careful to avoid the sunlight dappling the carpet.

  Zehra watched the sofa for any movement. A mimic’s mouth could simply open as she sat and swallow her whole. Or if a possessor was inside any of the teacups or one of the small forks, she could be blinded before she even knew she had been tricked.

  What were the small ones? She pressed her fingers into the cushion as she sat, feeling the fabric give naturally. As she slumped the rest of the way, she tensed. She relaxed and leaned back upon realizing the sofa wasn’t going to be the death of her. Not this one, at least.

  Vampire bairn? She stared at the little thing’s bat-like snub nose. It had a pair of wings folded close to its back, flush against its jacket, that were far too small to fly. They surely weren’t even strong enough to propel the vampire anywhere.

  Arintak closed the door, walked into the room, and sat across from her. A bairn moved to pour tea and provide a saucer before Arintak was even fully settled. The vampire picked up the cup and sniffed loudly. “A lovely blend.”

  “I am sure it is.” Zehra looked at the murky water. She wasn’t a tea drinker and wasn’t sure what any of it entailed. What made it good or what was blended together was all a mystery to her.

  He watched her with black eyes over the rim of the ornate ivory cup. She lifted the cup to her lips and sipped. The tea tasted fine. Nothing she was going to crave again.

  All three bairns lingered nearby, watching Arintak.

  Apparently, she had misjudged the hierarchy in the manor. Arintak wasn’t a butler. He was a member of the household.

  “Is the head of your household here?” It felt like an odd question to ask in a dungeon. The mobs couldn’t vanish. Even that goblin she had heard about was probably just some short hero or someone dumb enough to fuse with a goblin.

  “Yes.” Arintak leaned forward and set the saucer and cup on the table between them. “I cannot permit you to visit.”

  Zehra carefully set her teacup down. “I figured.”

  The room shook as two shards lifted from Zehra’s shoulder.

  “Guests are not permitted anywhere but the sitting room, you see.”

  “I see.” Zehra kept an eye on the bairns as they spread out.

  None of the mobs, outside of bosses, would have visible shards. Not like a hero. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t have increased levels and attributes to match Zehra.

  A red haze appeared around Arintak causing his jacket sleeves to move like a sudden wind whipped through the room. The teacups clattered on the saucers. Tea splashed onto the table and dripped onto the carpet.

  “I think I’ll be going now,” Zehra said. As soon as her muscles tensed to stand, Arintak vanished.

  Deep arcane purple flashed in the room as a goo-like ball formed, dropped, and splashed against the carpet. A short snake-headed creature with a human body landed on his feet with a staff in hand. Franso hissed as both shards immediately lifted from the familiar’s shoulder.

  Franso, as expected, immediately sent an Arcane Barrage flying through the room. The spell spread out, hitting all three bairns before they could attack, which gave Zehra more than enough time to prepare for Arintak.

  The lesser vampire vanished and reappeared in less than a second, but Zehra, with her spells ready, had acted just as fast. Franso had appeared to cover her flank in about a half second, and in that time, she had already stood and kicked the sofa, sending it flying just as Arintak reappeared in a red haze.

  Black eyes widened as the entire sofa, flipping through the air, smashed into the vampire’s face. He crashed back and smashed his head on the wall.

  Zehra wasn’t foolish enough to think something like that would kill an enemy. Especially not when it had been strengthened to match her two shards. A lesser vampire was strong all the time. A lesser vampire three times strengthened by shards was a true threat. Shard heroes couldn’t take things lightly.

  Franso had killed one bairn and was fighting viciously to keep the other two at bay. A wizard wasn’t the best counter to a vampire, but there weren’t any specific weaknesses. An arcane wizard like Zehra could use spells freely. Franso, using Zehra’s spells, was more than enough to handle two lowly bairns.

  Arintak smashed the sofa and bared his fangs. His jaw hung open as he glared back at Zehra. “I will consume you!”

  Zehra tilted her head, barely revealing the skin of her neck. “Try.”

  Arintak blurred red as he dashed forward. Zehra had already cast Arcane Enhance, which she focused into the spiked flail hanging at her side. As soon as the vampire moved, Zehra swung. Her strength was high for a wizard, but far from high enough to truly combat a strength mob in melee.

  With the Arcane Enhance boost, the flail strike was more than enough to send Arintak into the wall when it smashed into his cheek. The vampire flipped once before hitting the bricks and twitched as he fell to the carpeted floor.

  Franso blasted the head off the last bairn and quickly appeared at Zehra’s side. “Plan one or two?”

  “Two,” Zehra said. She passed thoughts of spells to Franso, hoping the familiar was actually preparing to cast each one.

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

  “Lair? Okay.” Franso pointed his staff and channeled arcane magic into the end.

  Arintak was back on his feet using his long-nailed hands to adjust his neck back into place. His bones had surely broken from the hit, but vampire regeneration was an entirely different beast.

  A fire wizard could burn a vampire to dust by exhausting their mana through regeneration. Zehra had no such luck, which was entirely her own fault. At no point in leveling did she ever consider taking a fire spell. Arcane was consistent, dependable, and hit like a berserker’s punch.

  “Arcane Blast,” Zehra said, sending a purple ball sailing across the room. Franso echoed the spell, sending his own, slightly smaller, spell. Both arcane attacks hit Arintak, one after the other, before the lesser vampire could fully right himself.

  Franso sent another blast, keeping the vampire down, until Zehra closed the gap and smashed her flail down on top of Arintak’s head. She stepped back, letting dark blood drip from the spikes.

  “You are staining my carpet,” Arintak said weakly. He lifted his head. One eye was still open, but it was bulging, nearly popping out of his head. The other had burst when the top of his skull collapsed.

  The carpet was already stained from the three dead bairns, and bits were burnt from Franso’s earlier arcane attacks. The new stains, though dark on the light carpet, were the least of Arintak’s concerns.

  His body was trying to reconstitute, but his mana had to be nearing its end. A lesser vampire couldn’t sustain itself as long. If Arintak managed to drink some blood, that would change.

  He pressed a pale hand into the wall and pushed himself up, shaking the whole time. His skull knitted, cracking as it snapped into place, but his mana ran dry before his eye could be restored.

  “You’re empty,” Zehra said.

  A red cloak blazed like fire around him. A vampire’s ultimate move. Blood Authority. She wasn’t sure if a mob actually had any stolen blood to burn, but it hardly mattered. Clearly, Arintak was able to use the move, and that was all she needed to focus on. Red bubbles popped in the air as the power burned off.

  Zehra dropped the flail and thrust both hands out. “Arcane Outbreak!” A wall of purple spheres erupted from her outstretched arms.

  Arintak vanished, leaving a faint red haze.

  Zehra thrust her arms out, and with Franso’s help, rapidly spun the hundreds of arcane spheres in a full column around them. When Arintak reappeared and lunged forward, the spheres battered his arm. The vampire stumbled back, and before he could recover, she stopped the cycling, gathered the spheres just before Arintak, and launched them forward. The spheres hit with concussive force, driving Arintak across the room until he crashed into the opposite brick wall. She halted the attack, letting the vampire rebound off the wall, before forcing it forward once again.

  Arintak collapsed, broken and twisted, as his body failed to regenerate. The vampire reached out, bloody fingers with broken nails clawing at the carpet, staining it with blood. Zehra walked forward and kicked. Her steel-toed boots cracked whatever bones were still in Arintak’s face before the vampire finally died.

  2.000 Experience

  “How many items do we have for Power 6?” she asked.

  “Eight more, I think,” Franso said. “Should we save them for the bosses?”

  “The boss of this floor is who I’ll be fusing with.” She wiped the last of Arintak’s blood off her flail, staining more of the carpet. “Prepare the knife, next. I think we’re going to see his master before long.”

  Franso reached into his own bag and pulled out a knife that was far too long. Zehra would have considered it a sword, but bladed weapons weren’t her specialty.

  “Keep it close,” she said.

  Franso stored his staff and gripped the long knife in both hands. “I will.”

  The knife itself was a powerful weapon, but she didn’t enjoy the proximity. A flail helped her keep the distance she needed to cast her spells, and a Power 6 spell would be infinitely more beneficial than the knife.

  She walked through the sitting room, checking each of the bairns to see if they were truly dead or not. While they were significantly weaker than a lesser vampire, they were still vampires and the regeneration was dangerous to overlook.

  “I killed them,” Franso said. He kicked a bairn with his bare foot. “I destroyed their heads twice.”

  “Just as I taught you.”

  Franso nodded.

  “Good, good. Keep close, okay?”

  “I’m close and ready.”

  She could sense through her familiar connection that he was, indeed, ready. Their mana regenerated steadily. It wasn’t so sluggish that they needed to avoid fighting, but it was still slow enough to necessitate a pause between major fights if she wanted to use her full strength.

  Franso himself used no mana once he was summoned, but he pulled from her mana every time he used a spell. The familiar had his own favorite spells ready to cast and his eyes were always watching for any surprises. The snake head, and long snake neck, helped keep watch, but if she went back in time, back to fifteen, she would give her familiar an eagle’s head to really help its eyesight. At least snake’s had incredible reaction times.

  Zehra exited back into the lobby and surveyed the area. A door opposite her remained closed. It was another sitting room, but most heroes would insist on exploring it. Different passages could appear hidden in any room. There was possibly even an entrance in the room she just left, but she wasn’t looking to take any shortcuts or avoid any mobs. She needed the floor clear before she tried fusing, otherwise she would be vulnerable to even the weakest mobs. Dying from an imp or a bairn would be humiliating. Not that she would be alive to be humiliated, but . . .

  “Where are we going?” Franso asked.

  “Up the stairs.” Zehra took a few steps toward the ornate staircase. “We should check that room, shouldn’t we?”

  “We don’t want to watch our backs.”

  “Right, right.” She walked over and pushed open the door.

  A lone figure sat inside holding a glass of whiskey. Pointed ears stuck out from his straight white hair. Before even opening her index, Zehra already knew she was looking at a greater vampire. The yellow eyes. The drained, dead flesh. The aura.

  And an elf to top it off. She watched Zehra over the rim of the glass.

  As much as she wanted to Examine the creature, opening the index could be her death. Smarter mobs would take any advantage to attack, and impairing her own vision would be that exact kind of opening.

  Zehra stayed in the doorway, not daring to take a step farther. Franso was tense behind her, hissing as he held the knife.

  “It is rude to stare,” the woman said.

  “You’re not supposed to be here.” Zehra averted her eyes.

  “I’m not? And where am I supposed to be?” She set the whiskey glass on the table before her. “Am I not allowed to occupy my family’s house?”

  “No, I—”

  Part of the wall opened, revealing one of the secret passages. A single yellow eye shone in the dark. Zehra sucked in air and snapped her mouth shut. Her thoughts poured into Franso, practically screaming.

  Now! Use it now!

  The one-eyed woman stepped out from the passage, adjusting the frilled cuffs of her sleeves. She wore a three piece suit with faint white stripes. Faded blood stains dotted the yellow fabric on her breast. Her left eye was a pit with maggots clinging to the flesh.

  “Who is this?” the new woman said.

  “A guest, apparently.”

  “Now?” Franso asked.

  A red cloak blazed around the new woman. Red bubbles filled the room, each releasing intense energy when they popped.

  Energy rumbled in Zehra’s chest as Franso sacrificed the gauntlet. The magic transferred straight to her, welling up in her chest.

  “Arcane Assault!” Deep purple arcane energy exploded out from Zehra, causing the doors to the sitting room to shatter off the hinges and fly, tumbling through the lobby.

  The elf was standing as the sofa she had been sitting on was shredded to wood chips. Neither vampire moved, though red energy continued bubbling around the one-eyed woman.

  Zehra wasn’t ready. Not yet. The vampire lord should have been at the end of the floor, deeper into the manor. They sometimes moved, but to be right at the floor’s entrance was unheard of. Or just unheard of because no heroes who encountered the lord this early survived.

  “Is that all you have?” the one-eyed woman asked.

  Zehra knew her eyes shone with arcane energy as she glared at the vampire lord. The one she would fuse with. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  Both vampires vanished.

  Zehra thrust her arms out, sending a horizontal ring of arcane magic exploding in all directions. It passed right over Franso’s head and caught both vampire’s in the waist. The elf was cut in two, but the one-eyed woman ripped through the magic and charged in.

  “Kill the greater vampire,” Zehra said breathlessly, hoping the message at least passed into Franso’s mind. The elf was cut in half, but would easily be able to reattach itself and regenerate.

  A palm strike from the one-eyed woman sent Zehra straight into a window in the sitting room. If it had been real glass, it would have shattered, and she would be tumbling through the gardens. Since it wasn’t real, she hit and bounced off. Boundary walls couldn’t break, no matter how hard one hit them, or was hit into them.

  Her collar bone snapped from the impact, but an injury like that wasn’t nearly enough to stop a 2 Shard Hero.

  With Blood Authority activated, the vampire lord was going to be a real challenge. Any mistakes and she was dead. The plan had been to start the fusion before the vampire lord could power up. It was too late to think of plans anymore.

  Purple beams snaked out of Zehra’s body, flying like whips toward the vampire. The one-eyed woman blocked the arcane attacks with her blood-cloaked hands as she advanced slowly. Each arcane whip was powerful, causing the whole floor to rumble with each strike, and yet, the vampire lord advanced calmly.

  Franso fell through the doorway, headless.

  The elf walked in, holding Franso’s limp snake head. She held it up, letting blood pour onto the carpet. A group of bairns gathered in the lobby, crowding the blood-soaked ground behind the elf.

  Zehra took a deep breath, gathering the full power of Arcane Assault into her chest. “Arcane Enhance.” Strength moved through her arms, into the flail.

  The one-eyed woman stopped a few paces away. “You will be delicious.”

  As soon as she vanished, Zehra pivoted and swung the flail as hard as she could manage. She predicted the vampire’s movements and smashed the spiked ball into her head. Bones cracked and her body slumped as she smashed into the wall. As soon as the swing finished, Zehra dropped the weapon and thrust both palms forward. All of Arcane Assault swirled, dampening the aura as the energy gathered and burst into a solid beam.

  Blood red bubbles popped in Zehra’s face as the one-eyed woman vanished just before the beam struck. Arcane energy wanted to run wild. If she let it, the energy for the Power 6 spell would ravage everything nearby. But she needed that power.

  Zehra snapped her hands shut, forming tight fists to contain the arcane energy. Zehra expected another strike, but a touch to her neck calmed her, forcing her to relax her muscles. Her fingers opened, allowing the arcane energy to open and flash. Whips and rings of energy erupted, destroying the remaining furniture in the sitting room. Arcane Assault faded, the energy gone.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but the one-eyed woman’s lips were already on her neck. Fangs sunk deep into flesh and Zehra, despite the horror in her mind, liked it. She wanted more. She wanted a feast.

  Zehra gasped. She was charmed. The fog over her mind washed away in an instant.

  “Shield!” A shining bubble formed around Zehra, pushing the vampire lord away. Zehra stumbled and fell into the wall. She pressed her palm against the bite on her neck, trying to stem the steady flow of blood. All of her health potions were in her backpack, but she couldn’t reach. Her right arm was limp and numb. Even the pain from her broken collarbone was gone.

  The one-eyed woman licked the dark blood from her lips. As soon as she swallowed, the red aura flared brighter. The mere presence of the energy pressed Zehra against the wall.

  “Arcane Blast!” Zehra pointed her left hand and launched the spell.

  It smashed against the vampire’s nose and tossed her head back. It vanished before doing any further damage.

  Sharp nails flashed out, shattering the shield in a single hit. The one-eyed woman was immediately close again. Her fingers brushed the open, swollen part of Zehra’s neck.

  Breath caught. Her heart pounded.

  The vampire moved Zehra’s shoulder straps, letting her backpack fall to the ground. Lips closed with another bite. Zehra’s eyes drifted closed. She felt herself fall against the wall and slide down, trailing blood on the curtains.