With inhuman speed I traversed the plains towards the palace. Before I had left, I tracked a messenger down and let him know to rile reinforcement and send them towards the palace, also to the superiors know. At first he had looked at me like I was insane, thinking how the hell was I to make it back to the palace in time to help if the enemy had such a head start.

I convinced him otherwise that I was quite speedy.

Seeing the palace in view, I could already tell that it was under attack and in disarray if the smoke and screams of people were any indication. Wooden ladders splattered the premise walls of the palace gates and enemy soldiers both mortal and immortal scaled them with little to no ease. The surprise of an infiltration had flabbergasted the palace guards and occupants so much so that they were in a state of shock and disarray of unity. What little power that they could muster was looking inferior to the advancing attackers.

Gripping the glaive I had picked up randomly form the battlefield so harshly that I could feel divots forming on the cold metal of the staff, I felt my rage flare.

How dare they attack the palace? I fumed.

Letting my mind go I rushed passed the palace's thrown open gates and went on my own slaughtering spree of enemies.

I don't even know what happened or how it happened, but soon all the enemies that had penetrated the palace were laying dead on the ground. The mortals all slain with bodies decapitated one way or another, all with glazed over looks in their eyes and mortified expressions paralyzed from death. The ones that were immortals all disintegrated into ash from the glow of my sword. At one point in time during the fight I had snapped the glaive cleanly from all the clashing and drew my sword instead.

Sensing no more enemies nearby I dashed straight for the inner palace where the princess was. Breaking through the heavy doors I found Yifan holding his own with the enemies. He glance swiftly at my direction, acknowledging my presence before he stabbed swiftly at his enemy and ending his life.

"Hurry Yiyun!" He shouted. "I'm sorry; I lost the Princess just a while back. Enemy soldiers ran after her. I'm so sorry!"

I bared my teeth in a growl, "Damn straight you're sorry!"

His eyes flashed briefly in shame. But there was no time for pity as another surge of attackers came at him.

"Go!" He yelled. "I'll hold them off! Protect the Princess!"

Of course I will.

I nodded at him before making my way through the corridors to where I sensed the Princess was located. She was in the courtyard where we frequently occupied.

Unfortunately, she was not alone. I sensed six others and they were not mortal attackers. Quickening my pace I made it in time to see the one thing that made all my rage explode like a pent up volcano.

Soojung, frightened to tears was on the floor, her dress half torn revealing her milky skin and an ugly slash mark across her shoulder to her collarbone marring her unblemished skin.

"Yiyun....." She hiccupped silently. "You promised you would come back to me! Where are you when I need you?"

 The enemy were smirking lasciviously in glee, their lips at the delicious sight before them. A poor princess at their mercy and fresh spewing blood so sweet it made honey and wine pale in comparison.

"Oh, we are going to have such good fun, Princess." One said, baring his teeth in a disgusting smile.

One could already see what was running through his mind.

His comrade joined in and salaciously touch himself in anticipation. "I call first dibs. I always wanted to have a screaming Princess at my mercy."

The next perpetrator took it a step further and raked his dirty fingers through Soojung's hair and sniffed it. "So Sweet...." The others around him cackled in glee.

In a bout of courage, Soojung swatted the offensive hand away with a steeled glare worthy of an Ice Princess and spat at the enemy in the face.

That stopped the cackling quick. The look of the enemy she spat on turned from giddy mockery to enraged. He back handed her sending her flying into a stone Buddha statute, making Soojung gasp for air and soon a small trail of blood leaked from her hairline to her chin.

"! How dare you!" The enemy bellowed. "I'll show you how to be submissive! It's time you know how the feel of a man!"

With that, the six enemies transformed and displayed their real nature. The blood red eyes that rivaled the deepest Vermilion ore, the elongated fangs that mimicked the fangs of a predatorial tiger - the signs of a real monster.

They advanced forward like a pack of hungry wolves ready to devour their prey.

In a last ditch effort, Soojung scrambled back and tried to shuffle her dress's fabric out of her way, in an attempt to find something. When she found what she was looking for she grasped it and pulled it out from her dress.

It was a dagger.

She held it out, pointing at the advancing men in terror. Her hands trembled but she was trying her best to steel her features, but her eyes gave it away. She looked like a meek fawn on trembling feet like the first day they were born.

"Wha - what....what are you?!" She trembled out. "Stay away from me!!"

"Now, now Princess, be a good little girl." The enemy on the left spoke, his fangs. "You really think a measly dagger is going to hurt us?"

"W are immortals." One chimed in.

"We just want to treat you properly."

Lies.

"Stay away! I mean it!" Soojung yelled out.

I could feel the rapid palpitations of Soojung's heart hammering in her chest and her anxiety raising from the approaching enemy.

The enemy on the far right shrugged in amusement. "Well if you can't entertain us correctly, then I guess you'll just have to suffice as a delicious meal."

Bastards!

He was about to lunge at when I launched myself from the side of the wall, springing forward with all the compressed momentum built up in my legs and violently ed my sword through his supposed heart.

"Ugh....!" He spluttered in shock, grasping at where my blade perturbed from his chest. In a fit of rage, I twisted the sword satisfyingly listening for that wonderful cracking sound of his ribs as the blade parted them like butter.

I leaned down and whispered menacingly in his ear. "Now who's the one being submissive?" I taunted.

I didn't let him say - pretty sure he couldn't say - before I lifted him on my sword and threw him clear over the wall of the courtyard, watching as his body began to glow lightly and then demise from the inside out until he was nothing more than a husk and blown specks in the wind.

The remain five enemies looked on in shock and a hint of fear, unsure of what happened in a span of a second. They snapped their head towards my direction and stared at me. Standing between them and their prize of Soojung, I brandished my sword with my eyes closed before I opened them with a release of a breath of air. I glared at them with unbridled animosity; I let my mask slip and donned the same trait as they sported. My own blood red eyes and fangs barred at them ready to fight.

"Say your prayers to whatever deity you believe in because you will not leave here alive." I snarled.

Relinquished from their shocked phase the enemies snorted, brandishing their own weapons.

"As if you can take us on. You're only one, doesn't matter if you are like us. Quantity trumps all. You look nothing but like a freshling." They taunted.

"Really?" I taunted back. "I believe the saying is quality over quantity. Or so you shall see soon enough."

Weapons clashed as we engaged in a five on one battle; the Princess completely ignored as our frenzy continued. I was on the defense for the most part, but being a superior soldier and having years of experience honing my demonic skill trumped their lack of understanding in their new found powers as monsters. A wrong cost one of the enemies his life as I arced upward severing him in half from under his left armpit to his right clavicle. A parry and another enemy found himself wide open for me to jab contently at his open chest, decimating him into nothingness. Three enemies left standing.

By that point, I had ceded my more humane control to my beastly demonic side; the side I swore I would not let get out of control. However, seeing the bastards harm Soojung, wanting to defile her, make her a meal - well, I basically lost it. Seeing them all die before me by my own hands sent a sensation of something I never felt before. Something impure and dark that lurked behind the shadows of my mind. I felt jubilant, ecstatic and out worldly like nothing could stop me; the carnage fueled that glee and my desire for it to never cease.

To put it lightly, I was losing myself.

That humanity I so carefully developed and kept up soon became nothing but a flickering light about to be replaced and caged where the beast once laid dormant inside me. The horror was being unleashed without limitations and there was nothing I could do about it because I let it happen.

I assented without so much as a fight.

I was starting to cackle like a maniac, abandoning my sword and instead fighting with my bare hands, enjoying the more primitive fighting style. If they were to die by my hands then I will oblige and literally obliterate them with my two hands.

 A dodge there, a kick here. Fighting without a weapon was so much more thrilling. Intercepting a slash from one enemy and grasping his wrist, twisting until the familiar sound of bones and flesh snapping and tearing could be echoed through the courtyard. A grab to his shoulder and the next limb to be seceded from his body was his arm. The agony that was etched in the enemy's face was prevalent; the screaming only made me more sadistically happy. Deciding to end his misery I grabbed him by the neck and forced his head to lull to one side until it laid flat on his shoulder and his whole neck was exposed to me and the high heavens.

"Let me give you a taste of what you oh-so gracious offered the Princess." I mocked before I sank my fanged harshly into his neck and ripping his jugular out with my teeth, and then casting him to the side like trash.

"Who wants to be next?" I taunted like a seductress wiping my lips with my fingers, sauntering towards the remaining two enemies.

Both twitched in fear and held their weapons in front of them like it would create a sufficient barrier to prevent them from death.  No such luck on their part unfortunately. I was unhinged and psychotic with a rampant high for slaughter.

"No volunteers? Too bad, I guess I'll just kill you both at the same time."

The enemies could hardly put up a defensive stance before they felt their necks snap and then ripped clean off; their bodies dropping to the stone tiled floor with a soft thud even before their heads joined them on the ground a few seconds later. I swiftly ended their lives before they even had time to blink. All six enemies neutralized by yours truly in the m