Nevin stood in the middle of the ruined village, and his hands were curled into tight fists and he trembled with barely suppressed rage. Around him, he could see massive tracks where some enormous beast had charged through the streets. But this was no straight charge from one end to another, as a normal animal charge would be - no, the tracks went back and forth, and from where he stood the blood mage could see where the monstrosity had crashed into different buildings, breaking down walls. But that was not the worst part of what he was seeing - in fact, the damage to the structures would be missed by almost everyone who saw the true devastation.

Lying scattered everywhere about the empty village were bodies. A sight that, sadly, would be seen often by those who traveled, as they came across a village that had been raided by bandits, or monsters, or what have you. But no, the thing that stood out here, that made this terrifying, was the fact that all of the bodies were dry, withered husks that had been completely drained of all their blood and vital fluids. It was easy to see even from here that everyone had suffered the same fate - corpses lay hanging from the ruined walls, some had been partially trampled after they were drained, others were just sitting, empty, in chairs. Another person might have thought that this village had been brought to complete and utter ruin by a horde of vampires, feeding wildly from everyone in sight. But - but Nevin was not another person.

Nevin saw what others might overlook. There were no fang marks on the necks, biceps, or thighs - the places where vampires would normally feed from to drain a victim dry. Instead there were strange abrasions upon the bodies, in random places, where it looks like a rope had been drawn far too tight. If there was any blood left in the bodies, it would have been leaking from these unnatural wounds. The problem for Nevin, was that he recognized the wounds. He had seen them before, but just once, on a terrible, terrible night he would rather never remember. That these same marks were here.... was not possible. It shouldn't, couldn't be possible - but the evidence lay scattered around him. And worse. This was the third village that he had come across while following these tracks, the third site of utter ruin.

Somewhere, something, had somehow become infected by the accursed Scarlet threads. And whatever they had infested this time did not have the strength of will to throw off their control - that, or this infestation was somehow working differently from what his own had done. He swallowed, and gripped his whip tightly as he resumed his hunt. The bleeding weapon would be terribly effective against the blood gorged beast he was pursuing. Out of the devastated he went, heading into the woods to follow its gruesome trail. Even as he left, he was finding bodies that had been discarded - presumably the beast had taken victims that hadn't yet been fully bled dry, and had scattered them as it finished its meals. Nevin just hoped he could find this abomination before it found another village.