Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Darren was the local horde king in charge of the Tahoe area. And though he had seized a domain that was worthy for an undead of his status, aka a mid ranking Tier I Horde King, misfortune befell him shortly thereafter.

Eliza's territory had been the one connecting Darren with Bartholomew, in other words, she had stood in the way between him and his other siblings. This was fine while Eliza was around to control her domain.

Yet a few months ago she had perished at the hands of the Living. And with her death, her domain became gobbled up by those wretched insects known as humanity.

Without safe passage through her territory, Darren and his horde were quite literally trapped in the Tahoe area, forced to wait out the storm until one of his other siblings could deal with the human settlement founded upon the ruins of Eliza's former domain.

Sure Darren could have attacked Gravestone himself. But there were two primary reasons this was a bad idea. First and foremost, his power was roughly equal to Eliza's. So if the humans could take her out, they could do so to him as well.

The second reason behind Darren's isolation was the fact that the leader of Gravestone had been identified by his siblings as one of their own. A double agent hiding among the human population, and presumably with their mother in tow.

None of the Horde Kings dared to interfere with their mother's plans, and it was this misunderstanding that led them to leave Gravestone alone, despite its many transgressions against the undead and its leaders.

And while Darren could not make a move on Zane, that did not mean that Zane himself could not muster his forces to take Tahoe for himself. Which was exactly what he did. Perhaps if Elysium hadn't so shamelessly eyed what was essentially Zane's backyard, the man would have taken a measured approach to dealing with Tahoe.

But after learning about Elysium's intentions, it was now a race against time to see who inherited Tahoe, and with it the abundance of fresh water which supplied the entire area. If Elysium seized such a resource, the goddess would no doubt have used it to extort Gravestone, who had been deemed to be heretics, ones that followed a false idol.

But if Zane seized it, and held his ground, he could use it as a way of gaining favor with the other human settlements in the area. Providing a free and ready supply of fresh drinking water, which was something that some of the smaller settlements struggled to obtain.

Regardless, Darren was not privy to the machinations of the two human overlords, which sought to steal his domain away from him. He was aware, however, that two humans groups were indeed eying his territory.

Unfortunately for him, one of them was off limits as per the reasons mentioned previously, and the other he did not even know the identity of, let alone where they had come from. And thus he waited patiently for his end to come for him, knowing that he was already as good as dead.

Needless to say, Darren was not surprised when the residents of Gravestone deployed in full force to seize Tahoe for themselves, albeit quicker than he had initially anticipated. Alone, the guerillas of Gravestone were more than capable of taking the town. It might take them a few hours to do so. But it was an easy task.

Yet, with Zane's horde as a contributing factor, what should have taken four to six hours was quickly settled in less than two. And knowing that his end was near, Darren decided to ultimately reveal himself.

Ever a man for the theatrical, Darren chose to do so by shadow stepping into the middle of Zane's party, who were searching throughout a local carnival grounds for signs of his presence. Only to be shocked when the man announced himself to them all verbally after appearing out of thin air.

"My brother… Come join me in battle!"

Before Zane could even properly react to the presence of the local horde king, an attack had already been lashed out at him. If not for the fact that Madison had witnessed the Horde King's movements in advance, then Zane's guts would have been spilled on the floor then and there.

Instead, a pink force field surrounded Zane's person, causing Darren to stagger backward. He was clearly dismayed at the sight that his target had survived the attempt on his life. But before he could really make a comment about this, the man was flanked by Lily's arrows which pierced his back, dealing a small chunk of damage to him.

The horde King howled out in pain, and was about to revert his position to attack the wretch who dared to make him bleed, when he was quickly cut off by Madison, whose shield clashed with Darren's own weapon.

Darren had, like the other horde, kings manifested a weapon out of his blood. And while claws had been used by previous Horde Kings which Zane and the girls had fought. Darren was quite different. His blood crystallized itself into a long and thin rapier, one which was deflected from Madison's shield, setting him off balance as Elena moved in with her own attack.

Elena's Katana, which had been forged from Stygian Iron, moved in a diagonal slash directly towards the Horde King's torso, an attack that if landed correctly would bisect an ordinary man in twine.

But was a Horde King so easy to defeat? Darren smirked as he moved his rapier into a position to block Elena's attack, mocking the girl for her pitiful attempt to take his life.

"It's going to take more than such a petty trick to get rid of the likes of me, little girl!'

There was just one problem. A faint crimson light shone from the edge of Elena's weapon. And when Darren's own blade sought to intercept it, he was surprised by the fact that the Katana had passed right through his weapon, and had indeed hit its mark.

Cutting deep into the flesh of the undead monster, so much so that his rib cage was exposed as he gazed at his own open wound in shock and dismay.

But his thoughts did not have long to linger on the subject, because a terrifying storm of blue lightning had gathered in the sky above him. Giving him only the briefest moment to let a single thought escape his mouth before everything came crashing down around him.

"How?"

In the next moment, Olivia's tier V lightning struck Darren's skull, leaving only a pile of ash and a large golden blood crystal behind in its wake. The party instantly broke out into cheers as they collected the Blood Crystal.

They knew that this would grant one of them a second skill, and since Olivia had dealt the death blow, it was only fair that she received it.

However, she would have to wait for another time to consume it, because their celebrations were suddenly cut short by the sound of a horn being blown in the distance.

And when Zane and the girls looked in the direction of this curious sound, they found five thousand awakened soldiers, all clad in gilded armor, standing in the hills above looking down on their position.

With a grim expression on his face, Zane announced his thoughts aloud, and in doing so spread dread to all who heard them.

"The Crusaders of Elysium have finally come…."