Marvel: Death Knight

The vampire strike force, originally trained to counter Blade, was led by Captain Reinhardt. He arrived near the slaughterhouse with hundreds of elite vampire warriors.

As he saw the swarm of mutated vampires, his expression darkened. The numbers approached a thousand—had the entire vampire population of New York been transformed? Why hadn't they received any intelligence about this?

If these monsters turned to attack their headquarters, they wouldn't last long. The battle he had witnessed earlier was still vivid in his memory.

Hearing the commotion outside, Blade's face grew grim.

"Hehehe! Blade, my forces are here. You're finished," Chadnoma taunted. He didn't believe Blade and his allies could hold out against his army. If not for the strange flaming skull earlier, he might have already won.

"Master, another group has arrived outside," Garus's Shadow Eye alerted him.

The Shadow Eye, also known as the Eye of Naxxramas, was a summoned undead entity created through sacrificial altars for reconnaissance. Intangible and silent, it was the perfect scout.

Garus connected his consciousness to his summon and saw hundreds of fully armed individuals hiding in the shadows. If not for the overwhelming scent of blood on them, he might have mistaken them for government operatives.

Eavesdropping on their conversations, he realized they were agents of the Vampire Empire, and they had come for his Blood God Crystal.

I'll deal with you later.

The mutated vampires swarmed through the narrow passages toward the interior. Even Ghost Rider struggled to hold them off. His fiery chains snared one after another, reducing them to ash, but the relentless onslaught pressed on.

The Hellfire on Ghost Rider burned fiercer than ever, but the monsters seemed numb to pain. Even when half their bodies were reduced to ashes, they continued fighting. Gradually, he began to falter.

Garus couldn't sense any soul fluctuations from the monsters. They were like puppets, entirely under their leader's control.

The three of them fought their way outside, only to be greeted by a massive horde of mindless vampires. They stopped in their tracks.

Surrounded by his minions, Chadnoma sneered at Blade, feeling secure in his position.

"Blade, we didn't have to be enemies. We share some common foes. But now, I think I'll see if I can turn you into one of my servants. And that flaming skeleton too. Let's see how you handle all these mutated vampires."

"Did you forget about me?" Garus stepped forward, weapon in hand.

He had waited until the monsters were fully deployed to strike, intending to wipe them out in one sweep. And now, it seemed, the time was right.

"You? Just a lowly vampire hunter." Chadnoma didn't recognize Garus and dismissed him outright.

"Hisssss!" The once-human vampires split open the scars along their jaws, revealing rows of serrated teeth. They emitted guttural, inhuman sounds and charged at Garus and his companions.

Desecrated Ground.

A pale, gray energy spread across the ground, and translucent Death's Hands emerged, pulling the mutated vampires to the ground.

Mass Death Coil.

Enhanced necromantic magic formed black spheres that shot toward the monsters.

"Ssssss!" The smell of rotting flesh and decay spread as Chadnoma barely dodged the attack, rolling aside in desperation. His instincts screamed that those small black spheres were deadly threats.

The Death Coil corroded their bodies, leaving many vampires with half their torsos dissolved. Dozens fell silent in an instant, their low magic resistance unable to withstand even moderate death magic.

Ghost Rider wasn't idle either. His fiery chains whipped through the air, binding and incinerating enemies over great distances.

The stench of burning flesh and decaying corpses filled the air, mingling with the sickly green haze around the slaughterhouse. Dozens of mutated vampires fell, and those still alive could only crawl toward Garus in vain.

The vampires in this world weren't particularly strong. Aside from the Blood God, who was somewhat formidable, most were only slightly superior to ordinary humans. The mutated vampires' regenerative abilities made them tougher, but to Garus, they were little more than cannon fodder.

"Damn it! Everyone, attack!" Chadnoma barked, rallying his forces to swarm from all directions.

Plague Strike.

A single blow infected the leading vampire with a virulent plague. It stumbled a few steps before collapsing.

Garus raised his hand, summoning a dark light that struck the plagued vampire.

In an instant, everything within a hundred-meter radius—save for Garus and his two allies—succumbed to the plague. Even rats hiding in the corners were infected, dying in droves.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The corpses of the mutated vampires began exploding, scattering flesh and blood within meters. One after another, the bodies burst, releasing clouds of toxic green plague gas.

"You two should leave," Garus said. Ghost Rider might endure, but Blade wouldn't survive the plague. The toxic gas was already spreading dangerously close.

Blade hesitated, then nodded. He chose a path free of the mist and departed, trusting Garus to handle whatever remained.

Ghost Rider summoned his motorcycle, which roared to his side, and rode off in a trail of smoke and fire.

Chadnoma was still alive, but he felt weaker than ever. The air's pestilence made him feel as though his insides were rotting. His forces were decimated, with only a few survivors who barely managed to flee—only to be cut down by Garus's blade.

Who is this man? Staring at the seemingly harmless human youth, Chadnoma felt a deep madness creeping into his mind.

He couldn't stay. If he didn't escape, he was doomed.

But before he could act, he felt an invisible force grip him tightly, dragging him toward his enemy.

"Captain, something's not right!"

"No kidding! I can see that!" Reinhardt barked, smacking the back of his subordinate's head as he watched from afar.

He had expected the mutated vampires to win outright. Yet, inexplicably, they had fallen, exploding into clouds of green mist.

"We're leaving," Reinhardt ordered. Completing this mission was impossible now. He'd rather face punishment than lose his entire squad here.

Suddenly, he felt the gaze of a predator—cold sweat ran down his back.

Have we been spotted?

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