After meeting with their other friends, the five newcomers walked straight towards the war room. It was almost 2 in the morning already and the explosions they heard from outside was a clear indicator that something very ominous was definitely going on inside.

The knocked and a few seconds later, the door opened and Seohyun pulled them all in.

Instead of the familiar entrance to the simulation area they went inside a make shift tunnel. It was dark, very narrow and low that Kris had to crouch down a few inches.

            “ouch!” Kris yelled when his head hit a protruding boulder.

            “your curse for being so tall.” Lay sniggered.

Jieun didn’t find the joke amusing as she was too puzzled by what she was seeing. She reached out and tapped Xiumin’s shoulder.

            “do you have any idea what’s going on?” she asked but Xiumin shook his head.

            “clueless as an infant.”

            “don’t worry, you will find out soon.” Seohyun’s usual cheerful voice now had a hint of mischief.

It was Lay’s turn to whisper in Xiumin’s ear.

            “do you think noona has spent too much time with Changmin and Kyuhyun hyung?”

the door at the end of the tunnel appeared and as Seohyun opened it, they could hear thunder and loud roars along with the explosions they’ve heard from outside.

Suho stepped inside first and the blood drained from his face. Curious, Kris followed and his usual expressionless face now showed a look of horror. The last 3 stepped out directly into the viewing deck and they could all feel their hearts stopping.

A gigantic silver dragon was stomping its way across the now active simulation room. They were now in a huge deep gorge all trying their hardest to complete their training. The Council and the 5 newcomers was a few hundred feet above ground but looking down they saw Yonghwa’s team with half of Sunggyu’s team fighting the dragon. 5 majae were also with them and Jieun could only recognize Hyorin and Hyosung. Yonghwa and his team were all on their own pegasus and he and Jungshin flew up and tried to confuse the beast. Jonghyun and Minhyuk worked together to incapacitate its wings while the majae casted frost along its mouth. Sunggyu, Sungyeol, and Hoya were on largons, one of the results Yesung’s brilliant cross-genetic breeding centuries ago. Largons are huge bat-like creatures, strong rubbery wings, and sharp deadly talons. Its body was covered with black, hair-like spikes, from the neck all way to the base of the tail, that’s why riders had to wear protective clothing. Their brilliant yellow eyes made it easy for them to see in the dark and their elongated heads made them look reptilian.

Sunggyu held on to his largon’s antenna like extensions, which sprouted from its brow and controlled its direction. All of the warriors looked very worn out and all sported various degrees of injuries.

As Jonghyun managed to break on of its wings, the dragon roared in supreme fury and stomped its feet causing the ground to tremble and break. The majae all fell from their feet and hurriedly casted a shield bubble as they stood. The dragon’s tail flicked midair as Jungshin flew towards its back. The tail hit him directly in his chest knocking the breath out of him and flew backwards hitting the wall. A protective bubble caught him and the newcomers saw Taeyeon raising her arm looking blasé, which shocked them.

Jungshin’s unconscious body then appeared on the floor of the observation deck and Saemi and Sunny walked towards him and checked for any serious injury. They found none and SaeMi put her hands on the side of Jungshin’s head and murmured a spell. In an instant, Jungshin gasped awake and sat up but immediately hissed and put a hand on his side.

            “don’t move too quickly, your kidney is slightly bruised and you’ve punctured a lung, a few of your ribs are fractured too. Rest for a while till they complete the training.” SaeMi patted his shoulder and stood up and Sunny came forward and gave him a cup of water.

Jieun hurriedly walked towards her friend and crouched down.

            “I am not gonna ask since it is obvious you don’t look ok.” Jieun said wincing at the huge cut at the side of his shoulder and because of his ruptured lung, Jungshin had a hard time breathing.

            “it is vicious out there. Hssst!” he hissed and clutched his side again.

            “yeah, we saw.” Jieun grimaced knowing it will be her turn with the other soon. “good thing you’re a vampire and can heal fast.”

the gash on Jungshin’s shoulder had already stopped bleeding but it wasn’t healing as fast as it should be. The vampire saw Jieun’s befuddled expression and let out a painful chuckle.

            “ they’ve enchanted the simulation room before this training started that all mage not to heal as quickly as they should as to learn not to get complacent about healing quickly and be careless in missions.” He hissed again. “you got to admit they have a point.”

Another bubble appeared beside Jungshin, Dasom and Sungyeol now lay unconscious on the floor. Sungyeol had a huge wound around his stomach and was bleeding profusely. SaeMi ran forwards and started chanting a spell with Sunny pouring a translucent purple liquid around the wound and it stopped bleeding immediately.

After Sungyeol was brought back to consciousness he sat up but Lay knelt in front of him and pushed him back down.

            “don’t sit up yet, noona didn’t fully heal your wound. She just stopped the bleeding.” Lay gave the deep cut on the other vampire’s torso and his face gave a slight painful expression.

            “I need to get back in there!” he yelled painfully and tried to sit back up with a hand pressing down on his wound.

            “don’t be ridiculous, Sungyeol-ah! If you go back in there you will only do more harm than good.” Lay reprimanded and pushed the vampire back down for the second time.

This time he didn’t protest. He just let out a groan and put a hand on his face. Jieun looked over at Dasom who had no major injuries, but just had exhausted her powers.

Jieun stood up again and walked towards the viewing deck.

            “do we have to do that too?” Jieun silently asked Kris whose face was in concentration observing the dragon’s every move trying to spot its weakness. He had already though there was no use of others trying to cut off its wings, as it was slightly smaller than its body; it probably couldn’t even fly at all.

            “yes, but probably with a different creature.” He replied not tearing his eyes away from the battle.

            “what do you mean? Weren’t they all fighting the same creature just now?” Jieun asked but inside she felt she was asking a very stupid question.

            “didn’t you notice the injuries of the other teams?” he asked but Jieun was silent with her brows slightly twitching indicating that she had, but Kris continued on. “That bite on Onew’s leg couldn’t be from that dragon or any kind of dragon or he would’ve not been able to walk at all.”

Jieun looked at the fight below and she also notice bruising on Minhwan’s arm, like it had been constricted thus the dislocation of his shoulder.

            “they probably fought with hydravanes.” Xiumin said grimly. Jieun gave him a perplexed look but Kris just kept his eyes on the fight.

            “hydra…vanes?”

            “yes. Those are like the cousins of the hydra in Greece, but as those were already extinct centuries ago, hydravanes still exist but only a very small population of it is left.”

            “let me guess, it’s here on Mt. Shia?”

Xiumin looked at her and gave her a very grim smile. Jieun just groaned. She knew that her 7 years living in Mt.Shia that there are still parts of the place that she has never seen or been to before. Yesung also have been breeding and keeping all the creatures and it will only answer to him, at least the dangerous ones. The pegasi, largons and orfins, a dolphin-like water creatures, are friendly towards people and can get pretty attached.

            “what does it look like? Those hydravanes.” Jieun asked again.

            “it looks just like a hydra but with three heads and a lot smaller, maybe like a Hummer or a small tank.” Xiumin explained but paused to flinch as the dragon threw Jonghyun off from his pegasus after cutting off the other wing. Hyosung caught Jonghyun and managed to cushion his fall.

            “so what makes it so dangerous?”

            “a hydravane, has all of the nasty attitude of all the hydra’s heads put together” Jieun grimaced. “they are also like dragons but they don’t spout fire, each head spout something different. The head on the its right spits electricity, the middle on spits black acid, and the third a poisonous gas.”

            “sounds very nasty.” Jieun commented making a face.

            “I’m not finished yet. Those creatures have something in common with its cousin.”

            “what? their heads multiply too?”

            “not exactly. Instead of multiply their bodies can split itself turning into 3 giant snakes, when this happens they are called serpent-vanes. What’s worse is that they all look alike and you can’t tell which head spouts which.”

            “ugh! No wonder they all looked like they went through hell.” She muttered and looked back down on the battle.

The two leaders flew their creatures at the dragon; its mouth now frozen shut. The majae’s combined spells had managed shutting its mouth after much effort. Yonghwa and Sunggyu both put up their right arms with palms wide open, knowing what they wanted, Hyosung and Hyorin casted long platinum spears. As soon as both had grabbed the weapon they plunged it deep in the dragons chest, directly over its heart.

The dragon flailed in pain the ice on its mouth broke as it roared. Hyorin, Hyosung, Soyu and Sunhwa all hurriedly ran away from its dangerous flinging tail. The vampires on their creatures dove from above to save the majae. Jonghyun on his pegasus, grabbed Hyosung by her waist and pulled her to the winged horse while Yonghwa pulled Hyorin on his. Holding tight onto their largons’ antennae, both Sunggyu and Hoya stood on its back and reached their hands towards the remaining majae. Sunggyu grabbed Soyu while Hoya grabbed Sunhwa. Both majae stood behind the vampires and held on tight around their waist.

The warriors flew up higher away from the dragon’s reach as it continued to flail.

            “Hyorin, Sunhwa! Plunged the spears deeper!” commanded Yonghwa and both majae obeyed immediately and as the spear went deeper, the dragon gave out a final choked roar before it finally fell defeated.

All the warriors sighed as they descended, each patting their creatures for a job well done.

The deep gorge faded and vanished and they were now in the familiar simulation room with metal walls and the Council descended towards them leaving the 5 newcomers in the viewing deck even the injured members were down there.

            “they seem to be telling them of their mistakes and giving them advice.” Xiumin observed. All of them could not hear the conversation happening below.

            “your dad doesn’t look very happy.” Lay said but Kris didn’t respond.

            “he didn’t like how the two magi leaders failed to work together at the beginning.” He said.

            “he’s right.” Suho agreed. “both of them tried to do things as they usually would. If they put their heads together at the beginning it wouldn’t have taken them this long to defeat the dragon.”

Jieun remained silent. She didn’t have the decades of experience that the vampires in room have and what’s more they were trained in leadership and observation.

            “then I was right that that dragon is a desert dragon?” Lay said. Both leaders and Xiumin nodded.

            “Desert dragons can’t fly and need the constant sand storms in the desert to fly. They glide with the winds, that’s the only use they have for their wings. of course the ice was clever but they should’ve used water before the ice first, would’ve been quicker to finish.”

            “with these in our minds can we actually do well than them?” Jieun asked eyes Minhyuk who was visibly limping and Soyu who had a broken ankle and was now supported by Sunggyu.

The spent warriors all started to exit the simulation room and the Council now started to come back up leaving Yesung and Rin as they both led the pegasi and largons out of the room.

Leeteuk was the first one to face them and they all bowed in greeting.

            “well, I clearly don’t need to explain what you guys need to do here tomorrow right?” he gave them a grim smile.

            “yes, sir.” They all responded alertly.

            “for team assignments.” Hangeng stepped forward. “YiFan, you will be with your usual team with Jieun, Krystal and Min; Suho, same team and with Suzy, Sulli and Bora. Any questions?”

Lay raised a hand.

            “yes, Lay?” Leeteuk looked at him.

            “we wont be doing this together with Suho’s team?”

            “no.” Heechul answered this time. “we don’t think we need to merge two teams for tomorrow’s training.” Somehow the grin Heechul had on his face gave them an even more ominous feeling about what was coming to them.

            “any more questions?” Leeteuk asked and when both teams shook their heads they dismissed them.

Lay, Suho and Jieun turned to leave but Kris stayed from where he stood with Xiumin. Lay turned back to his teammates.

            “aren’t you two coming?”

            “no, you go on ahead.” Kris motioned. If he was confused, Lay didn’t show it and just turned around and walked out with the other 2.

            “I assume you have something for us that’s why you stayed?” Kris’ father, Hangeng guessed.

            “yes, sir. It’s about something we found out in Shanghai.” Kris was so grim and Xiumin looking angry and disgusted at the same time.

The rest of the Council looked at each other now slightly fearing that the team might have come across something that they should not have…or at least not yet.

---

the next evening Jieun, Min and Krystal walked together towards the simulation room. They were all dressed in their training clothes but if what they were to face might need them to change into something more durable, they will just use magic to change.

Min had already witnessed a bit of the training after she reported to the Council about an investigation she did with Suzy in one of the camps in Pyongyang.

            “who did you see train there again?” Krystal asked.

            “it was that newly formed Yin team and the new majae.” Min snapped her fingers trying to remember the names. “ah right! the majae are Ailee and YeRim, both Yangs and I can’t really remember all the names of the new team but I think their leader’s name is CAP?”

both Krystal and Jieun raised their eyebrows.

            “yeah I know weird right?” she laughed. “but I don’t think we should be at all surprised, I heard he was TOP oppa’s prodigy or something.”

Jieun laughed too this time, knowing why he changed his original name to that. All magi and majae are allowed to change their names once they reach of-age but once they change it they can’t change it. Kris’ name was more like of a nickname rather than his actual chosen new name.

            “so how did they do?” Krystal asked as they finally entered the training grounds.

            “well, comparing to what Jieun saw the others fight last night I think they had it easy since they were only qualified 2-3 months ago.” Min shrugged and continued on. “they faced this huge tiger, or I think it looked like a tiger, anyway, but it looked like it was made of something liquid and metallic. Everything they slashed it with didn’t work.”

            “sounds complicated.” Jieun muttered.           

            “it was more on a battle of brains actually and since the vampires are Yins they couldn’t immediately assess how they could defeat the creature.”

Krystal and Jieun immediately gave Min a disgusted and offended look and the other raised her hands.

            “oh how you praise us with your words, Min.” Krystal said sarcastically flipping her hair.

            “I didn’t mean it like that, I meant that they were still inexperienced Yins.”

Krystal rolled her eyes at her friend.

            “so how did they defeat it?” Jieun asked.

            “simple. They buried it in sand.”

            “excuse me?” Krystal responded.

            “they figured out that since it was made of liquid and that it might probably be living in the waters, it might absorb sand. They had the majae conjure up sand and herded the beast into it. Took me only 10 minutes to figure it out, they did it in more than an hour.”

            “they don’t have your experience, Min.” a voice responded and looking up they saw Tao hanging in one of the beams.

            “hi Tao.” They replied lazily and walked straight on ahead. They heard Tao land and ran after them. He slung his arm over Min’s shoulder and started to sway her as they walk.

            “you seem pumped up today.” Jieun noticed.

            “of course! Damn right I’ve been looking forward to a difficult training. Wonder what I’ll get to embowel tonight!”

Min pushed his arm and gave him a revolted look.

            “that is seriously disgusting.” She spat and hurriedly walked forward.

Tao was unfazed and as they rounded a corner they were met with the rest of the vampires waiting outside the closed simulation room. They were all dressed in their usual black garb, Xiumin, Tao and Lay wore black wife beaters and sweat pants. Chen wore a white wife beater under a black leather jacket and jeans, Luhan wore a simple black shirt and loose pants while Kris a long-sleeved v-neck tee and he pulled the sleeves up to his elbows also in black loose pants.

            “Suho’s team still not done?” Krystal asked.

            “no, it’s been almost 45 minutes now.” Luhan said checking his watch.

Kris was leaning on the parapet with a serious expression; his blonde hair slightly covered his eyes making him look colder. Jieun remembered what he told her the previous evening and decided to ask him about it.

            “hey, YiFan…” she called as she walked up to him.

The concentrated look on his face vanished as he looked up and saw Jieun walking towards him. He knew why she came to him and put a finger up and made a circling gesture, which Jieun took to mean to cast a blocking spell around them so their conversation won’t be heard.

She easily complied and when she nodded to him that it was done he stood straight up and crossed his arm.

            “we encountered something quite disturbing in Shanghai.” He began grimly.

            “what is it?” Jieun was also alert now and listening intently.

            “you’ve read in the report that there have been missing people around city and strange deaths.” It wasn’t a question but Jieun nodded. “we found those missing people but they weren’t dead as we expected. They were the ones responsible for those mysterious deaths.”

Jieun gave a look of surprise.

            “what do you mean? How could they have caused those deaths? There were no records of any crimes committed by any of those missing persons.”

            “that’s what made us think too.” Kris looked up and snuck a glance towards his teammates. “Lay, Chen and Tao just found out on our way back, we didn’t want to tell them before we reported to the Council but they encountered them too.”

            “ok, I’m getting confused here, can you explain it clearly please?”

Kris exhaled and stared Jieun straight in the eyes.

            “those people attacked us when we called them out. They were acting like wild animals. Of course, we tried not to kill them but we had no choice, there were innocent people.” He sighed again. “I was the first to kill one; I cut its head off.”

Jieun noticed the discomforted look on his face and knew this was the part that was mystifying the team leader.

            “I’m assuming something was wrong from then?” Kris gave a curt nod.

            “The blood smelled really off like it was tainted, smelled like acid; it stung our noses. It smelled human, but at the same time it didn’t. I didn’t stop to think then and went on to fight the next one. Luhan got attacked from behind and the woman had fangs; she almost bit into Luhan too but he had managed to snap her head.”

            “fangs? You mean fangs like yours?” she pointed Kris but then stopped to think again. “wait, you said a woman with fangs?” Kris pursed his lips.

            “yes, when we finally finished them all off that’s when we really started to investigate the scene. Their blood really smelled bad but then Xiumin noticed bite marks along their bodies, their wrists, necks and thighs.”

Jieun was silent again, she knew it couldn’t be possible at all, but by looking at Kris she knew what his conclusion of the mystery was.

            “you can’t be serious! It’s not possible!”

            “I know it’s not, that’s why it took us so long to leave. I figured the acidic smell was magic, but it’s not the kind of magic that the majae use. I don’t know how to explain it, I’ve been around majae magic and the magic that exists in Mt.Shia but it’s nothing that I’ve ever smelled before.”

            “so you’re saying the rogues found a way to cheat the physiological design of the magi and managed to…create vampires? By using a different kind of magic?” Jieun said but even coming from , the idea was ridiculous.

            “possibly.” Kris replied seriously.

Jieun opened again but the door to the training room and Suho’s team walked out exhausted. Jieun removed the spell and met them at the door. But before she could reach it she heard Min let out an audible gasp and Luhan yelled in surprise.

Kris and Jieun hurriedly walked towards the other and what she saw made her pull back the bile that threatened to come out.

Sehun had a huge burn from the right side of his neck extending down to his left hip. Suho supported him up from his left careful not to touch the burn and Baekhyun was on the other side. He was weak and barely conscious that Luhan had to slap his face to keep him awake.

            “what happened to him?” he demanded. Sehun was like a brother to him and ever since Sehun lost his parents to a couple of rogues when he was 4, Luhan had become a brother to him and took care of him.

            “we had a swarm of those car-sized octopuses with acid tentacles. Sehun got caught while trying to avoid one.” Baekhyun answered trying to support the youngest of the vampires. He also had a burn on his hand and cuts on his face and arms but other than that he was fine.

            “anyone else seriously injured?” Kris asked eyeing Kyungsoo who was snapping a few dislocated fingers back in place and cursing at the cuts on his torso.

            “Kai got caught in the leg.” Suho gestured Kai who leaned on the wall panting from the pain holding on to his left leg.

Jieun came closer and true enough there was a large, angry, red burn around it.

            “can’t you change into a wolf to heal? You’re outside the simulation room now.” Jieun asked but Kai just shook his head.

            “once you leave the room a spell will be cast on the vampires preventing them to change for an hour.”

            “so you guys have to endure this pain for an hour!?” Krystal exclaimed in shock. the vampires just nodded.

            “at least no broken bones this time, you’re very lucky.” Min said.

            “speak for yourself.” Chanyeol’s deep voice mumbled from a corner and all of the looked at him; he looked dangerously green.

            “what’s wrong with you?” Lay raised an eyebrow but then Chanyeol ran towards the edge of the balustrade and puked his guts out.

            “errr…we were on a ship.” Suho explained. “he didn’t agree well with the waves.”

All the other vampires and witches laughed, even the half conscious Sehun managed a pained chuckle.

            “At least you girls didn’t have much injuries.” Jieun said looking at the majae who all have cuts and small burns.

            “we were just lucky to have magic to help us. we need to be careful as they need us to support them.” Bora replied. “Chanyeol is luckiest tonight, he has the least injuries.”

            “say I’m lucky again and I swear--.” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as his head disappeared again. When his head finally reappeared, he glared angrily at Bora. “never again will I ever set foot on a ing boat!” he spat using the sleeve of his already ruined shirt to wipe his mouth.

The door to the simulation room opened and Seohyun’s head popped out motioning for the next team to enter. Kris and his team bid the others goodbye while Suho’s team wished them good luck.

            “all of you go through that way until you reach a door, go through it and stay in the middle of the room.” She instructed. They all nodded and started walking towards the direction she pointed.

Seohyun walked off to the familiar passage they used the night before and disappeared into the darkness.

            “this is it, guys. Let’s all put our heads and work as a team.” Kris said and opened the door.

They filed in to the familiar metal-walled simulation room and stood at the center and looked up to the viewing deck where all of the Council members and senior instructors stood. Yunho moved forwards for their instructions.

            “all of you will now start your training. Keep in mind that this is not the usual training that you have ever received. Do not take everything that you will encounter lightly. Use you brains to think and most importantly, all of you MUST work as a team and cover each other’s backs. Understand?”

            “YES, SIR!” they yelled alertly.

            “reminders, majae CAN use their magic however they want but remember to use it wisely and not use magic that will exhaust your energy unless you have to. Magi are not allowed to change into wolves to heal. If any of you gets any serious injuries you will be pulled out of training. Clear?” Ara added to the team,

            “CLEAR!”

            “You will be given 30 seconds to adjust…make use of it.” Kyuhyun raised the control button and started the countdown. In 3, 2, 1…”

It was as if all lights were turned off; darkness surrounded them and within 3 seconds moonlight broke through trees. Within 5 seconds it hit them that they were in a forest. All 3 majae casted a spell for all of them and changed their combat garments Jieun for Kris and Luhan, Min for Lay and Tao and Krystal for Xiumin and Chen. Weapons also appeared, Xiumin with his sai, Lay with his bladed whips, Luhan with his lethal bow and arrow, Tao now changed his weapon to two short swords, Chen with two circular blades, which stuck right at the back of his hands and Kris with his trusty katana. The majae also equipped themselves with weapons, Krystal with two 9mm platinum glocs on her holster, Min with throwing knives and Jieun with her katana.

            “spread out.” Kris commanded which meant go with your partners.

Luhan, Kris and Jieun moved forward north, Tao, Lay and Min east and Chen, Xiumin and Krystal south. Kris kept a vigilant eye on the west, as did Xiumin. All their weapons, raised ready to fight.

Flapping wings broke the silence and all their attention was brought from above them. Red dots appeared all over the tree branches; it was starting.

            “they’re eyes.” Jieun whispered enough for all of the vampires to hear.

A loud caw directly in front of Kris made the latter hiss, his fangs bared. The rest of the vampires started to hiss as well. It was dark but the majae knew they could all see what they were up against.

Jieun looked up and stared at one of the red-eyed creature directly from above her. She squinted and realized it was a human-sized crow. She immediately took a step back, magic surging through her hands, ready to explode.

            “what are these things?” Min wondered allowed.

            “I might have an idea but it is impossible and I am still hoping it’s not what I think it is.” Luhan said in a constrained voice.

The majae looked at each other confused, Jieun looked at Kris who seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Luhan. A loud squawk made Jieun look up just in time for her to dodge and aim a fireball to the crow that suddenly attacked her.

It fell to the ground with a thump. She expected it to be burned to a crisp but there was nothing wrong with the bird. It just stood up and shook off sparkling ash from the magic of the fireball. The majae froze some of the vampires stood in shock. The sound of a twig snapping turned their attention back to the west.

Two figures appeared, they looked human men wearing only loincloths. But there were something slightly animalistic with them, their fingers and toes looked very thin and sharp, closely resembling talons. They also have long, sleek black hair, black tattooed marking around their bodies, their faces also slim and quite pointy.

As the 2 newcomers stepped out from the shadows, the warriors went on full alert. Both of them suddenly looked up, their black eyes turned scarlet red, their lips formed into menacing smirk before it elongated into large crow beaks.

            “what are those things!” Krystal exclaimed.

            “Dire crows.” Kris growled and leaned forward ready to attack. Jieun snapped her head towards him.

            “what?! that’s impossible all of the dire kind are extinct!”

            “that’s why I said it’s impossible. But either that’s just made for training or the Council found a surviving tribe.” Luhan replied three arrows were already ready on his bow. The dire crows’ legs in front of them already started form into crow legs and growing talons.

            “just great!” Chen snapped bitterly. “these things are really hard to kill.” He looked around them and saw about a dozen more on the trees.

            “we have other problems to worry about.” Xiumin said grimly as the crows on the trees started landing onto the ground.

            “what is it?” Lay asked.

            “they’re resistant to all magic.” Kris said.

            “oh .” Jieun managed to say before all hell broke lose.