The Fallen Vampire

Taira's mind was in a state of constant wonder as he flew through the air in the form of a giant nightmarish fox.

As always, the girls were sitting atop his back and resting before the mission would get underway.

Inhaling the somewhat stale and bleak air of the permanently dark Tethys, he allowed his mind to think about Lucia just a bit.

For the most part, Taira doesn't tell any of his wives no.

It just hasn't been something he's had to do very much, since they almost never ask for things that would make him uncomfortable, or for something he would not be willing to do for them.

But, when Lucia told him to drop her off in Tethys and let her travel to a different destination from theirs on her own, he immediately denied her request.

Not because he didn't want her to discover whatever this secret inheritance was that was left for her.

But because he didn't want her to travel through an unknown continent alone without one of them beside her.

Tethys was a barren region full of mountains and huge open fields of nothing but gravel.

The sky was permanently grey and dreary-like, and it was populated by not only undead, but dwarves as well.

And despite their size, the little buggers are just like the rest of the races of light and hold a very large hatred for everything that they consider to be unclean or dirty.

He didn't doubt his wife's ability in the slightest, but Taira almost never stopped living with an assassin's mentality for every moment of his life.

And besides the task at hand, an assassin is almost always thinking about any variables that could prop up in the midst of a job.

The fact that he was unable to pinpoint and plan for all of the variables Lucia might be about to run into made him very, very nervous.

"You're insulting her, you know?"

Taira felt a familiar bottom suddenly sit on top of his forehead, and he closed his newly grown third eye so that she could stretch her legs.

"I didn't say anything."

"You hardly had to. Everyone on board knows what's on your mind right now." Enyo said sleepily. "Even the unconscious human."

Taira looked at his large furry back and found that Vance was still gagged and chained.

However, Vermeil was being decidedly mischievous as she drew dicks all over his face with a piece of charcoal.

Coincidentally, Aveena was behind her watching and seemed like she wanted to join in, but everyone already knew from all of her previous attempts that she couldn't draw to save her life.

Keran was a few feet away- meditating to conserve her strength for what was about to come when they arrived at their destination.

"They seem to have their minds focused on other things, my love."

"Be that as it may, we still know our husband and how he reacts to certain things. We have all trained just as hard as you over the last half a century. You have to trust the fact that we can all take care of ourselves individually, and not just be dependent on your support."

"...I see." he said quietly.

"Try not to be so worried, okay? You'll feel silly when she comes back without a scratch on her." Enyo comforted.

"I would welcome that. There is little that would bring me greater joy."

Taira suddenly stopped flying in midair when he realized he had happened upon this destination without even realizing it.

"We're here."

In an instant, Vermeil, Keran, and Aveena all stood up and gave their husband their attention.

Taira changed back into his normal appearance and the five of them began to float upwards in the air- with Aveena holding their prisoner by the back of the neck.

"So? How do you want to do this, husband?" Keran asked.

Taira felt the gears within his mind starting to turn as he scoped out the surroundings compound bellow.

It was no surprise to anyone assembled that it took him no more than a few seconds to establish a solid plan.

-

Before coming to another world, Vincent Abernathy was a simple 32 year old science teacher for an elementary school who had no prior knowledge of eastern fantasy tropes and only vaguely grasped the concept of reincarnation.

All of his time before coming to Tayar had been spent working in a thankless dead end job that was slowly driving him towards suicide.

I mean, have you ever tried to teach a class full of fourth graders who all have unrestricted access to 'TikTok'?

It was a miracle he never hung himself during their lunch break.

Because of everything that Vincent went through on earth, it could not be said that he actually liked kids.

And every day that he had to spend around them felt like it took decades off his life.

One night, he fell asleep on his couch watching a simple sitcom and when he awoke, he was staring up into the face of a room full of old men in robes.

When they told him some words about being a hero chosen by the great god of surging lightning, he thought they were pulling his leg.

Then he sneezed and electricity came out of his nostrils and some other places and.. yea. It was kind of hard to deny the reality of everything around him after that.

This life brought him face to face with numerous challenges, overbearing obstacles, and untold peril at every corner, but it was worth it.

He had more money than he could ever dream of!

He had respect!

Power!

And a body that people on Earth would kill for!

But there was very little that he got to experience that could compare to moments like this.

Standing in the middle of a dusty training ground was a man in resplendent purple armor.

He had a neat and short haircut, accompanied by a goatee and vibrant yellow eyes.

His olive colored skin was much healthier looking than back when he was a teacher, although spending most of his days in the sun instead of at home probably had a lot to do with that.

In his hands, he held a set of five gleaming silver daggers.

The smile on his face was that of a true showman, mixed with a slight amount of madness that came from the cursed art gifted by immortals.

"Alright, everyone! Which one's next?!"

Sitting in the surrounding stands like an entertained audience were the devoted members of his own personal army.

Their attention was drawn to three children tied up in the corner opposite Hero Vincent.

Or more specifically, three fallen children.

"The zombie brat first!"

"No, the banshee girl!"

"I'm not hearing any votes for the wight boy! You know how good their healing is?! That will make things a lot more entertaining!"

Vincent listened to the cries of all of his men and nodded slowly as if he were thinking about something.

"Alright, alright. I've heard all of your pleas! But since I'm terrible at making choices how about we pick... All at once?!"

Applause erupted from the crowd that was greater than any that they had shown before, and Vincent knew immediately that he had his answer.

Smiling, his body stared to course with electricity as he manipulated the daggers to float around in his magnetic field.

Just as he picked out the right trajectory to bring down all of the children at once, the doors to the stage were kicked open loudly.

Stopping dead in his tracks, Vincent showed no small amount of surprise to see one of his fellow heroes standing here, looking surprisingly irate and like he was bordering on an outburst.

"Vance? Is there a reason your baby face ass is running in here like-"

Unfortunately, Vincent's words were cut short when the fist of his comrade sailed directly into his teeth; knocking him on his butt.