Road to Shadowfen Marsh cut through a stretch of forest where the trees grew too close together and the shadows never quite lifted, even at midday.
Dante had been walking for six hours when he felt it, the familiar prickle at the base of his skull that meant someone was watching him.
[Predator's Instinct Activated]
[Hostile Intent Detected: 40 meters ahead]
[Threat Assessment: Analyzing...]
He didn't break stride. His hand drifted to the dagger hidden in his sleeve, fingers brushing the cold metal as he rounded a bend in the road.
A man stood in the middle of the path.
He was young; maybe twenty-five, with the kind of angular features and perfectly styled hair that suggested someone who spent more time in front of mirrors than in actual danger. His robes were expensive, dyed in deep purple with silver threading that marked him as a mage of some standing. A staff carved from white oak rested across his shoulders, and he wore it like a fashion statement rather than a tool.
"Finally," the mage said, his voice carrying the lazy drawl of someone used to being obeyed. "I was beginning to think the rumors were exaggerated. The 'Shadow Hunter' who walks the demon roads alone. The mysterious stranger who appears, kills, and vanishes." He tilted his head, studying Dante with obvious amusement. "You don't look like much."
Dante stopped ten meters away. His eyes flicked past the mage, scanning the treeline.
[Blood Sense Activated]
[Targets Detected: 1 (hostile) + 1 (observer, concealed, 85 meters northwest)]
Someone else is watching, he noted. Staying hidden. Not moving to assist.
"Move aside," Dante said flatly. "I don't have time for this."
The mage laughed. "You don't have time? Do you know who I am? I'm Lukas von Eisenberg, Third Circle Mage of the Imperial Academy. I've studied under Archmagus Falken himself. And I've mastered elemental conjuration that would make most court mages weep with envy."
"Congratulations." Dante started walking again, angling to pass the mage on the left.
"I'm not finished talking!" Magic flared around Lukas's hands, crackling sparks of lightning dancing between his fingers. "I've been following your trail for three weeks. Tracking the bodies you leave behind. Demons, monsters, magical creatures; all eliminated with techniques that aren't in any academy textbook. No record of your existence before ten years ago."
Dante stopped. "And?"
"And I want to know how." Lukas's eyes gleamed with something that might have been curiosity or might have been greed. "What magic are you using? What school? What tradition? I've analyzed the residue at your kill sites. It's not elemental. It's not divine. It's something else entirely. Something old ."
"Not your concern."
"Everything on this continent is my concern! I'm a researcher, a scholar of the arcane arts. If there's a new form of magic being practiced, I have a right to study it. To understand it. To—"
"To steal it," Dante finished quietly. "That's what this is about. You think I have some secret technique you can add to your collection."
Lukas's smile sharpened. "I'm offering you a fair exchange. Demonstrate your abilities for me, let me examine your mana structure, and I'll make it worth your while. The Imperial Academy has resources you can't imagine. Access to ancient texts, magical artifacts, research grants—"
"No."
The word hung in the air like a blade.
Lukas's expression darkened. "You're making a mistake. I'm giving you an opportunity here. A chance to be part of something greater than your lonely little crusade against remnant demons. Don't be a fool."
Dante turned away. "This conversation is over."
"I don't think so."
The attack came fast; a bolt of compressed lightning that would have killed a normal man instantly. It screamed through the air, ionizing the atmosphere, the crack of thunder following a split-second later.
Dante's body blurred.
[Shadow Step Activated]
He reappeared five meters to the left, the lightning bolt scorching the ground where he'd been standing. Smoke rose from the charred earth.
"There it is!" Lukas crowed, already gathering more magic. "That's not a spell. What is that?" Flames erupted around his staff. "Show me more! Let me see what you can really do!"
Fire roared toward Dante in a wave of superheated air.
This time, he didn't dodge.
[Skill Activated: Crimson Domain]
The flames hit an invisible barrier three meters from Dante's body and simply... stopped. They swirled against it, confused, their heat dissipating into nothing. A faint red shimmer appeared in the air; like looking through heat haze, but colder. Darker.
Lukas's eyes widened. "What... that's not a barrier spell. That's not—"
"Last warning," Dante said, his voice carrying across the distance between them. "Walk away."
But he could already see it in the mage's eyes. The fascination. The hunger. The absolute certainty that he could take what he wanted because he was talented, educated, powerful. Because the world had always given him what he demanded.
"I don't think you understand your position," Lukas said, his voice dropping into something colder. More dangerous. "I'm a Third Circle Mage. I've killed demons and fought in border skirmishes. I'm not some merchant you can intimidate with mysterious powers and dark looks. So either you cooperate willingly, or—"
He raised his staff.
Dante moved.
The distance between them vanished in less than a heartbeat. Lukas barely had time to register the movement before Dante's hand was around his throat, lifting him off the ground with casual, terrible strength.
The mage's staff clattered to the dirt.
"You had your chance," Dante said quietly.
Lukas gasped, his hands scrabbling at Dante's wrist. He tried to speak, tried to cast, but nothing came. His eyes bulged with sudden, primal fear; the kind that came from realizing you'd made a fatal miscalculation.
"Please—" he choked out. "I didn't—I was just—"
[Skill Activated: Blood Claws]
Crimson energy solidified around Dante's free hand, five curved claws of crystallized blood that gleamed like red glass in the filtered sunlight.
"You attacked first," Dante said, his voice empty of emotion. "You made your choice."
The claws drove through Lukas's chest with surgical precision, piercing the heart before the mage could draw breath to scream. His body jerked once, then went still.
Dante held him there for a moment, watching the light fade from those arrogant eyes. Then he opened his hand and let the corpse fall.
[Human Mage Eliminated]
[+12,400 XP]
[Warning: Human kill detected. This action may have consequences.]
[Blood Bank: 2.1 / 8.0 Liters (No change - feeding not initiated)]
Dante dismissed the notifications without reading them. He looked down at the body, at the expensive robes now soaked with blood, at the staff lying useless in the dirt.
"Self-defense," he said to no one in particular. "You attacked first."
But the justification felt hollow.
Twenty-five years. Twenty-five years of walking this world, of maintaining his humanity, of refusing to cross certain lines.
And now a human was dead by his hand.
He gave you no choice, Dante told himself. He attacked and wouldn't stop. It was him or you.
The argument was sound. But it didn't make the weight in his chest any lighter.
He turned away from the body and started walking. Behind him, the forest was silent. Even the birds had stopped singing.
[Predator's Instinct Update: Observer still present. No hostile intent detected. Maintaining distance.]
Dante paused, his eyes scanning the treeline where his senses told him someone was hiding.
"If you're going to kill me for this," he called out, "now would be the time."
Silence.
Then, from somewhere in the shadows between the trees, a voice; young, female, almost amused.
"Why would I do that? He attacked you first. It was his own fault for being weak."
Dante's eyes narrowed, trying to pierce the gloom. He caught a glimpse of movement; a silhouette, slender and small, watching from a safe distance.
"Who are you?" he asked.
A pause. Then: "Just someone passing through. Like you."
"You were following him?"
"Following you , actually. For the last three days." The voice was closer now, moving through the trees with practiced ease. "I wanted to see if the rumors were true. The hunter who kills demons but never claims bounties. Who saves villages but never stays for the gratitude. Who walks through sunlight but smells like death."
Dante tensed. "If you're looking for a fight—"
"I'm not." The voice carried a hint of laughter. "I already saw what I needed to see. You're interesting. Efficient. You didn't hesitate when he attacked. Didn't try to reason with him after he made his intentions clear. I respect that."
The presence in the trees shifted again, moving away now.
"Wait," Dante called. "Who are you?"
"Someone who understands that sometimes, cutting is necessary." A final pause. "We might meet again, Shadow Hunter. The world is smaller than you think."
And then she was gone, vanished into the forest like she'd never been there at all.
Dante stood alone on the road, a corpse cooling at his feet, and the weight of a broken rule pressing down on his shoulders.
[Statistics Updated:]
[Humans Killed: 1]
He looked at the notification for a long moment, then dismissed it and kept walking.
The Shadowfen Marsh was still two days away.
And somewhere in the forest behind him, a girl with dark hair and knowing eyes smiled to herself as she watched the vampire disappear into the distance.