(4/4) Gece Saldırısı

– “Night Attack”, yo its the big finisher between Vlad and Mehmed!

One day, Mehmed was back in his new palace at Konstantiniyye. He was in the war room with his Grand Vizier Mahmud Angelovic Pasha (a Serb related to the Byzantine Imperial family), Mara Brankovic, Radu Draculesti, Zaganos who is now a navy admiral, and his Greek wife Gulbahar. Gulbahar served him food while Mara advised him from behind. Angelovic and Zaganos were planning war with him while Radu just watched. Mehmed had a map of the Balkans before him. Before Angelovic was a pile of papers which on top listed their money from Wallachia. Wallachia has not sent any form of tribute since Vlad became Voivode. My brother. 

“So we must attack Wallachia with a simple occupational force. We will fill the garrisons and continue attacking Hungary. Radu you can be voivode,” said Angelovic. 

Mehmed hesitated and then said, “Radu you wouldn’t betray me, correct?”

“No of course not, I’ll always serve you.”

And you’re Muslim so their religion has no impact on you anyway. “My father and his father before him couldn’t ever conquer Wallachia but it seems the cycle will end with me. The trading of the buffers between us and Hungary. With them out of the way, one of us will have to commit a direct attack but we don’t have to deal with Hunyadi anymore.” 

Mara added, “you can’t let Vlad escapes he’ll bother you as long as he lives. And any Danesti must die. They must stop hiding in Hungary.”

Zaganos said, “you should just send Hamza to Wallachia, it’ll be easy. And this might cause a major war but Moldavia should be simultaneously taken off the map. Stefan is Vlad’s bestie and will just recover him. Then the cycle will continue.”

“Wallachia will be hard enough, Hamza will not accomplish all of this,” Mehemd said. “Actually we have to find a way to goad Stefan into a vassal ship. Moldavia too has a family feud but a temporary thing with him will delay things….”

One day, Mehmed sailed over himself to Moldavia and talked to Stefan. “Put your weapons down, this isn’t an attack.”

“You’re a Turkish fiend, everything you do is an attack,” answered Stefan.

They were in his bedroom, Stefan in his pj’s, while Mehemd’s giant wolf stood in the hole it made in the wall. Mehemed said, “your friend, Vlad, what’s wrong with him? We’ve sent him letters asking for tribute but he sends nothing back. Not even a lie that he is tributing Hungary who I know don’t like him.”

“What’s wrong? Nothing’s wrong. He’s not a monster, not possessed by a devil.”

Mehmed sighed. “Okay hypothetically, if he was these things.”

“HE IS A MONSTER POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL!” Stefan fell to his knees and covered his eyes as he started to cry. “He did the wretched succession ritual of your people with Turkish witches who must’ve let a devil possess him. When he came back he was so much worse of a person than ever before. He even went so far as to kill the Hunyadi in order to put Hungary in civil war.” Stefan kept sobbing. Mehmed looked over at a mistress dressed skimpy with her jaw dropped. Then Stefan continued, “Now that I think about it, because we stole the dragon for the ritual, Hunyadi died fighting you. He would have fared better with it.”

 “I understand.” Mehmed remembered that according to Tengriism, performing the blood ritual you aren’t familiar with may corrupt the person. He thought the dragon could’ve made him more evil, possessed by a djin. But…wait a second!? Why is that family called ‘dragon’ if Hunyadi used it all the time? What is their connection to it? Mehmed turned around to the still sobbing Stefan getting consoled by the mistress. “Stefan, don’t you want to come with me and cure Vlad of his insanity? There should be a way to exercise him but he needs to be defeated. Let’s save your best friend and my step-brother.” 

“OKAY!” 

Radu was asleep when he was suddenly woken up. Vlad floated there as a ghost, “be afraid brother.”

“Big brother…what is this?”

“So you guys are really planning war for me? Just for acting as an independent ruler. What’s wrong with you? Convince him to attack Karaman or something.”

“Just pay your tribute.”

“No, the fuck? Literally one of the richest countries in the world and you need some measly pennies from me.”

“If they are measly pennies-”

“It’s the principle. Come back home with me and he can’t attack. Actually, this is just my disembodied soul. Follow me on the raven and be my brother again.”

“Did we change parents all of the sudden?” Vlad groaned in annoyance. “Let me ask you, what is the end of this? You impaling merchants and disrupting Hungary. What can you hope to achieve?”

“Dominance. I am a conqueror, I feel it deep in my soul. And you know our father was supposed to be a great man if Hunyadi didn’t kill him. I’m gonna be tsar soon, it’d be better if you were on the right side of history. I don’t even care about your religion, you’re my brother.”

“I don’t know that Mehmed will kill you but allow me the freedom to be where I am. Remain in peace by paying us and garrisoning Ottomans. Hungary nor Poland can attack you then. Now I would like to return to sleep.”

“Fine…”

Hamza, Bey of Nikopol, came blasting into Wallachia. He was a giant strong man carrying two flame cannons, one under each arm. He wore just black pants. Behind him were two soldiers that pulled the levers blasting the landscape with fire. Behind him was an army of more artillery guarded by calvary on the wings. “Boom Hamza boom,” he cheered. The ravens watched overhead and Vlad thought that is NOT an occupational force. This man is one of Genghis’ soldiers. This man is a reincarnated Timur. There will be nothing left.

Switching places with the raven from his palace, he landed in front of the Ottoman army. They were in the fields just before Tirgostive. Vlad fired Despica and Hamza shouted for everyone to jump. Most did meanwhile all of the canons got cut in half. “Holy shit I thought I was the villain but you guys are obliterating my country,” Vlad said. Then he made his hands into finger guns and rapid fired Taia thus taking off limbs and heads with easy slices. They could not dodge as they were falling. When they hit the ground, Vlad raised a middle finger saying, “fuck you” and Teapa raised pikes from the ground stabbing then. Hamza broke out of his and blasted his two flame canons at Vlad. “Pitsilízei” doused the fire with water. Then Vlad summoned a pike from the ground and quickly flew at Hamza. “I made it real tall since you’re the bey,” he stabbed through Hamza’s head and then stuck the pike in the ground. “But I guess a position needs to be filled in Nikopol, hahaha.”

Flying over to Nikopol, he landed in secret and disguised himself as a Turkish soldier. The guards let him in and from inside, he blew up the entire damn place. His troops came in on ravens and helped him occupy the fortress. They then spread out through the Bulgarian region, razing towns and killing soldiers and civilians alike. “The King can’t be too busy” Vlad commented so he sent a raven to Matyas Hunyadi that said “my liege I have killed everyone, we stopped finding people to kill. From the Tolcu to Vidin, everyone is on pikes, some escaped to Serbia or Thrace but I might as well kill them too. Anyways, you are at war with the sultan.” Matyas immediately called for a diet. Vlad could’ve occupied Bulgaria for conquest but they returned home.

The next day, Mehmed and his armies invaded Wallachia while Moldavia invaded from the north. Maytas readied his troops in Transylvania. Vlad saw all of this from his ravens and sent most of his troops to defend the Moldavian border. The elite troops were sent to slow down the sultan. But Vlad was now dealing with disapprovement from his civilians who broke into the palace. “We don’t want you to rule over us anymore” and “we hate Draculesti” they shouted. Vlad was defenestrated and they threw onions, olives, and garlic at him, all good things that ward off bad spirits. But there were none that possessed Vlad. He sunk into the shadows. 

At sunset, Mehmed was able to surround Tirgostive and occupy the rest of the country. Stefan returned home with a promise from Mehmed that Vlad would be exercised. Radu met the boyars who weren’t happy that he was Draculesti but, “he is much closer to the Ottomans and we will be much safer.” Mehmed slept in a camp near the hills surrounded by his high guard. He slept with chills as he had terrifying nightmares. A thick fog covered the entire country. Some people started to just collapse and anyone else who was asleep had the worst nightmares. Some soldiers at the Ottoman camp began attacking strangers. They’d put their pikes on the ground and then jump on the points head first. The captains and generals got worried but then they would be lured by naked Turkish girls belly dancing. As soon as they walked over, their heads flew off. Radu awoke but then paralyzed when he noticed Mircea’s decaying body hanging from the ceiling. Completely freaked out, he couldn’t blink, he just froze. Mehmed woke up and saw his father. 

“Be afraid, son.”

“F-father!? What is going on?”

“The Angel of Death and Conqueror of all Worlds have come for you.” Murad picked up a scythe and swung but Mehmed fired “Kataigída” blowing up the tent with a pillar of lightning. Ravens caught Mehmed and Vlad and flew them over to the Bucegi hills north of the capital. There wasn’t as much fog here. The 30 year old Qayser Mehmed “Fatih” II Osman and the 33 year old Voivode Vlad “Tepes” III Draculesti landed on different hills. 

“Sultan,” Vlad said, smirking.

Mehmed started, “I remember the day your father visited the city and how horribly he felt. And then you were the furthest away from your country than you ever thought possible and your father was helpless to save you. I remember the prayers they chanted when they fought that time. And now I remember the day you went your way and I went mine. Now I see what you have become. I am sorry that this is your life.”

“I’m sorry you practiced that speech for me to blank out in the middle of it. You know what we are here for isn’t some yapping. Empires. Let’s bet them. You lose this duel, I get the entire Sublime State. If I lose then you can take Wallachia. But I die hard.”

“I keep fighting underdogs who are stubborn to the last breath…but your people don’t even like you.”

“Shut up, I am the Prince of all Wallachians. The Saxons blame me for the danger you put them in. But all my father wanted was to let these people be left alone. I myself am competing against you since a I dearly hate you.”

“Hate me? Why, we are brothers?”

“Ew! You stole mine but that doesn’t make us brothers.”

“But we shared Mara as a shared mother. She was strict with you but I am sure she loves me as much as she loves you.”

“What are you TALKING about? I literally bullied you all of your childhood. I discredited your attack plans and governance. Did you think that was love from me? You’re delusional.”

“I thought you were playing devil’s advocate and used those words so I could better myself. You were a good big brother that way.” Vlad vomited. “Well I still have kindness for you despite the monster you’ve become.”

“Oh all the impaling? Yeah that spell goes hard, anyone would spam it. It’s not even my preferred way of execution but its in the grimoire, so I gotta use it.” he says while never using a Turkish spell. 

Mehmed sighed. “I am fine betting the empire. I am the Qayser-i-Rum, the successor to Constantine. My ambition includes a reunion with the Mediterranean like China, India, and Iran reunite. If all goes right, we will last a good 500 years. But things will fall at some point, I have no control over that. And as brothers, here, we will kill each other.”

“Oh the Raised by Wolves bullshit again. Jesus Christ, God Almighty, Mary and Joseph, shut the fuck up.”

Vlad sped at Mehmed who threw lightning at his direction. Vlad caught it and redirected it at Mehmed which surprised him. But Mehmed negated it with a copper wire tied around a wooden log. Mehmed then jumped off that hilltop as Vlad landed on it and then Vlad kept flying. But Mehmed had the Winged Sandals of Hermes. So he flew out of the way. A raven crashed into him from behind and he flew toward Vlad who dunked him down into the ground. Vlad crashed down and Mehmed jumped back. Vlad caught up, equipping a knife in each hand and started swiping away at Mehmed who was quick to avoid them. But he wanted to and did land a punch. He kept landing punches which let Vlad slash at his face. 

“Nyeh heheheh, you’ll end up real ugly like this. You have three sons right? Bayezid, Mustafa, and Cem? But Cem’s just two, they’ll kill him real quick. Then between the 12 year old and 15 year old, I’ll cheer for the underdog Mustafa. But I’ll kill them all anyway!”

“Anatináxei” caused a shockwave blast to explode the two of them. Vlad flew into a rock wall while Mehmed quickly recovered with a vitality potion. His wounds would close faster. Vlad spelled Despica which Mehmed flew over and it cut through a series of hills easily. Vlad then fired Strapunge while Mehmed fired Kápsei. Mehmed was struck through his chest and fell to the ground. Vlad burst into flames and screamed loudly in pain before splashing himself. The two returned to hilltops. 

Mehmed brandished the Sword of Osman. Vlad brandished his Dragon Tooth. “This pike’s special. At the tip is a tooth of that dragon. Practically indestructible that way.”

“Speaking of that dragon, why did you pick that to do the ritual with?”

“How would you know? Oh cause you stole Stefan too, you’re kind of a slut. But it could be any animal right? I asked the Karaman who use wolves as well but then they told me the Turkoman tribes in Iran use sheep. So I just went with the stronkgest one, a fucking dragon.”

“No, you need a strong connection to the specific animal. It can’t just be any random bug!”

“Buddy, relax, I do have a strong connection. In the Order of the Dragon, new members eat a scale from the dragon. Crazy but my father was the youngest member when they started so his body had a weird reaction to it. Anyways, all the order members have a little bit of the dragon in them including their offspring, obvi.”

“Then you haven’t even been corrupted!”

“Are you listening to me like ever? I’m evil, I commit nefarious deeds,” and Vlad flew at Mehmed.

Mehmed jumped back, blocking Vlad’s first thrust. Then they landed on a flat valley and started dancing with their blades. Of course, Vlad had more reach with his pike while Mehmed’s swings had a greater effect on the environment. Fire, ice, wind, and water spawned from his swings that Vlad had to narrowly avoid with his dark magic. But getting stabbed with the spear sometimes ruined Mehmed’s vision and other times he felt it poison him. Mehmed swung to the left which Vlad pulled back from. Mehmed stepped forward and swung to the right and Vlad swung his pike the other way causing the weapons to hit each other off their hands. The weapons fell to the ground and their fists punched each other’s faces. They both crashed into rock walls demolishing them.

Mehmed called upon his sword and then looked on to see a swirling tower of black smoke leave Vlad’s body. “Speaking of the dragon, let’s use some of my new vampire magic.” Mehmed looked up to see a terrible storm circle above them. The clouds roared with thunder and lightning danced across the sky. It started to rain and hail at random at Bucegi. A hailstone hit Mehmed hard, stunning him for a moment. Vlad said, “I don’t know the lightning spell but here goes nothing!” He pressed his hands at Mehmed’s direction and a collection of lighting bolts stepped down the sky like an angry father. Mehmed was blasted with the hot electricity that even chipped at the rocks nearby. Vlad flew over in a conspiracy of ravens which were flamboiled by “kırmızı banyo” from the Sword. Vlad blew away the smoke and Mehmed jumped at him. One eye was closed and he was all charred. He stabbed through Vlad. Then Mehmed landed on a rock and looked back. “No this is just my disembodied spirit, you can’t really touch it.” The spirit was then sucked back into his body. Vlad rose out of the shadows behind the unaware Mehmed. He summoned a series of knives to fall upon the sultan. Mehmed realized and turned around swinging all the knives away accurately. Then Vlad flew in with the Dragoon Tooth and stabbed through the distracted Mehmed. Mehmed screamed as his eyes met with Vlad. Suddenly he fell into a nightmare. 

Child Mehmed spiraled down into a field where many a dragon stalked him. He was naked and ran away into a door that took him to the Enderun school. Everyone laughed at him and pushed around and he looked down to not find his penis. Then ravens grabbed him by his arms and carried him over Konstantiniyye. A giant Drageses rose out of the water and ate him. He screamed waking up to Vlad burning him with hot rods. He pushed Vlad off of him and teleported away. 

Quickly, Mehmed double-checked that he indeed had a penis. It was still raining and hailing. He called on his sword and blew some of the clouds away. There was a full moon. Vlad found him on the peak of Bucegi. “My vampire powers go kind of hard right? They’re definitely tsar level.” The moon shone down on Mehmed. “You said we were brothers, well I agree to be Cain and you be Abel, you piece of shit.”

“Truly this empire will be Raised By Wolves,” Mehmed announced before falling on his hands. Suddenly he started shaking and growling. The earth shook and he grew more and more hair. 

“The fuck? Taia,” Vlad fired but it only hit Mehmed’s head wrapping thus unraveling it. A large stock of hair descended. “YOU GUYS HIDE HAIR IN THERE!?”

Mehmed started barking for real as his body became entirely covered in grey fur. His canine teeth increased in length and he grew claws on his hands. Finally he howled, completing the transformation. His previous wounds were healed. Mehmed opened his glowing yellow eyes and said, “you Europeans call this lycanthropy. Well it’s an ancient practice in Asia since the time of Troy.”

“So you’re a fucking werewolf. I’m a vampire. Scissors beat paper.” Vlad sped at Mehmed.

Mehmed said, “Cain does kill Abel and Romulus kills Remus. So Mehmed kills Vlad.”

Then Mehmed dashed at Vlad. Much faster than Vlad. Then ran by each other and then stopped at the edge of the summit. Vlad froze. He didn’t want to turn around or know what to do. But then he heard Mehmed dashed at him and realized “so no one’s ever pushed an Ottoman sultan to go wolf? I am the peak!”

He turned around using three despicas that didn’t hit Mehmed because he was already in front of Vlad. Mehmed was right there and landed a high speed knee to Vlad’s face sending him down the mountain through several rocks. Mehmed was not even teleporting as his wolf form gave him the speed to immediately catch up to Vlad down there. Vlad flew up as he noticed Hermes fell off Mehmed’s feet. Vlad flew around and then summoned ravens to dive with while a heavy wave of hailstones fell with him. Mehmed jumped off several rocks and crashed into Vlad in the air. They bounced off each other and then the ravens started pecking and biting at Mehmed. Vlad fired Raia cutting off Mehmed’s arm but Mehmed immediately reattached it with “Episkevásei”. Then Mehmed spun around cutting the birds to feathers. Vlad dropkicked Mehmed into the mountain. The two returned to the summit at opposite sides and then dashed at each other at their top speeds. 

BOOM! The fists colliding each other eviscerated the summit below them. Some of the rocks shot up, cutting at Vlad and Mehmed or knocking them. The two landed in the crater on their backs. They caught their breaths. Then they rose and called upon their weapons. Sword of Osman flew back to Mehmed while a raven brought the Dragon Tooth. They let their weapons touch.

“Neither of us have too many wounds,” Mehmed pointed.

“Yeah well, this shit ain’t nothing to me man. I move differently. I’m sick in the head. Step the wrong way and you will perish.”

“I mean to say we both have high vitality. It will have to be a one-shot to kill each other. From now on, my attacks will be 100%”

Shit if I run out of blood I’ll stop instantly healing instantly. “Ask me if I care about that cause I don’t give a shit. If I had a ducat for every shit I ever gave, I’d be broke you piece of shit.”

“You…don’t you want to love? Don’t you want to feel? I do remember in childhood, you were reckless, uptight, but real. And I didn’t mind but now I feel like I’m watching calvary crash.”

“Heh heh, all I know is you ain’t no damn dragon slayer. Everyone’s asking me to calm, down but I say ‘let there be war on Earth’.”

“Then let this Heavenly wolf slay your Earthly dragon! Goodbye Tsar Vlad Dracula.”

“You’ll slay me if you stop loving me like a brother. Goodbye Qaysar Mehmed Osmanoglu.”

They clashed at high speeds. Vlad adapted to being faster by using more blood magic. The storm dissipated and the fog left Wallachia. For hours more they fought in the ring. Mehmed would say “I will never live like you” while Vlad responded “I will never love like you”.

Eventually, Vlad was too low on blood to fight and they had better progressed at carving the mountain. Vlad extended his arm punching the sword out of Mehmed’s hands. Then he grit his teeth and enveloped the Dragon Tooth in some much darkness that it turned black. Then he reached and leaned back before chunking the pike at high speeds, “Ţăpa Dragonului”. Still, the sword returned to Mehmed hands instantly as he raised them above his hand. He broguht down the 4 elemental slash, “Altın Gökyüzü”. Vlad found himself cut in half and Mehmed himself gutted.

Well, the Ottomans were successful at running Tepes away from Wallachia. Wallachia would be Turkish once more. Due to the intensity of their battle, hikers have found weirdly shaped rocks at Bucegi. Mehmed returned down the mountain and found forests of impaled Turks and Greeks. A large contingent of troops he brought had been killed by Vlad last night. Mehmed fell to his knees in great fear while he heard the crying of Radu from afar. Mentally, Mehmed could not continue into Hungary for now so King Matyas “Corvus” Hunyadi was at peace with him.

In Brasov, Vlad woke up in Castle Bran. Corvus was sitting on top of him. Vlad noticed his three witches captured in the corner. Corvus’ hands had a dark aura surrounding them. Then Vlad felt the pain catch up with him as Corvus had been punching him. “Dracula, you’re awake. Not to be petty but bleh bleh! Bleh bleh! You lost to the sultan, you lost your big gamble. You fucking retarded evil piece of shit.” Corvus punched Vlad a couple more times. “How does it feel to be on the end of a bully?”

“You Hunyadi get so haughty about my family, it’s actually concerning. Like our beef is not that deep, we’re both Vlachs.”

Corvus punched Vlad again, “shut up until the King let’s you speak.” Then Corvus rose but Vlad was wrapped in chains so he couldn’t move. “I’m keeping you here until I want Wallachia to be mine again. Have you been in the dungeons in Bran before? They are well creepy. But understand you’re just a pawn! A tool used by greater men like me. You’ll never be a tsar.” Vlad nodded wondering who the fuck replaced Corvus as he left with an evil snicker. 

“Girls, stop crying. Like the sun, I will rise again. The life force of a Vlach vampire, my life force is a menace…”

Dracula will return in possibly another story!