Chapter 23

We were in a pretty terrible situation but there had to be a way out. Surrounded on all sides by vampires and their minions. We had never been in a situation that seemed so bleak. Isabella spoke. “Come quietly. We will treat you well until the ritual is complete. We will be using the two of you as the main fixtures in the ritual. We are going to summon the vampire lord Marcelis. He has been slumbering for millennia but he will finally be returned to us and we can once again show ourselves to humanity and not have to live in fear any longer.” Well that added many more levels of complication to this whole thing. Not only were they kidnapping villagers they wanted to sacrifice them to summon this vampire lord. This was a lot more than a couple of bronze ranked adventurers were supposed to handle. Though we were the only ones here. No one was coming to save us. We hadn’t sent word back to the guild about the vampires. Now I was thinking we should have at least told them what was going on so that they would know to come and investigate if we didn’t report back. The only way out that I could see now was to fight our way out and hope that we could retreat. There was no more need to talk. We knew that we were dead if they captured us one way or the other. So we had to take them out or at the very least buy us enough time to get to the surface where we could get some help fighting them.

These vampires had cooked up this crazy scheme and the only people standing in the way of them and success was Sora and I. Without another word I nodded to Sora and we threw our fireballs at the group of vampires in front of us. They were caught off guard at the use of magic. We had even managed to catch two of them in the blast. Isabella had made her exit and left her henchmen to handle us. Probably to avoid getting caught up in the carnage. The other vampires in the room took a step back and ordered the humans into melee range. They didn’t seem to like our fireball spell. Before we could get completely surrounded by the humans we managed to launch a few more fireballs into the crowd catching both human and vampire alike in the blast. I felt no sympathy for these humans who had turned their backs on their own kind just to try to get more power. A human male charged at me. He was not very skilled. Even worse than the man from the woods. I cut him down with ease. One slash across his chest was enough to end his miserable life. Another was right behind him to take his place.

There was one good part to fighting back to back and that was I didn’t have to worry about being attacked from the rear. Sora was doing well holding her own against the humans that kept attacking. Another few slashes and the next one was down. After this one fell I threw another fireball into the crowd to try to keep them back. It worked a little so I decided to throw a few more. I managed to catch a few of them in one blast that set a few of the humans on fire as well as singing one of the vampires. Sora had been doing much the same thing. She would cut a human down and then launch a few fireballs. It was a solid strategy and it seemed to be working. We were slowly grinding down the number of humans in the room. There was still a large number of vampires left and that was concerning. Most of them had been able to avoid the fire. They were a lot faster than the humans around them and I could tell they had nearly had enough of fleeing from us. Not long after that the first group of vampires charged at us. They were so fast that I could barely deflect the first strike. One cut followed another and I was soon overwhelmed by just one vampire. I couldn’t concentrate on casting magic while also fighting with my sword so my biggest advantage against them had gone away. I was still trying to hold my own but I had started to take small injuries.

Things were going about as bad for me as it had the last time I had fought a vampire. The vampires were just too fast. I had learned a spell to try to bridge the gap between us but it just couldn’t make up for the sheer physical advantage they had over me. Sora was faring much better than me. Being a Kitsune made her faster and she also had better reflexes than a normal human. She was hacking and slashing at the vampires almost as fast as they were. She was definitely holding her own. She even managed to throw a fireball at one of them at point blank range. Even with me not being trained in combat I had managed to keep the vampire from just outright killing me. Though it did seem like a little bit of a foregone conclusion. The vampires almost seemed to be playing with us. They weren’t going in for the kill and didn’t seem to mind the deaths of their comrades. That was when it dawned on me. That's exactly what they were trying to do. They wanted to wear us out and then capture us to use us in their crazy ritual. We really needed to try and escape but the exit was being blocked and there were a lot of enemies between us and the door. We need some kind of plan that would open up a path to the exit.

I would need some help from Kalastrovax. He would need to communicate my plan to Sora the same way he had when I was fighting the first vampire. We needed some kind of distraction or overwhelming power to buy us the time to escape. I didn’t feel right leaving the villagers behind but we were not going to be any help to them if we were caught or killed. I told Kalastrovax my plan. Which was for each of us to fire off two fireballs apiece. This should cause enough mayhem to possibly buy us some time. This really was the best plan I could come up with. No one else was coming up with any better plans and we really didn't have the power or the skill to do anything more complicated. I saw Sora tense up for a second and then relax. It was important to mention that this whole time we were being bombarded on all sides by vampires and humans alike. We had each taken various wounds and were not in too good of shape to continue for long. Swords and fists came our way with reckless abandon. There was no more time left to waste. We had to act now.

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Sora and I both fought for space away from our enemies. We needed a little space so that we didn’t get caught up in our own blast. Fireballs sprang to life in our hands. We made them a lot bigger than what we would have normally done. As soon as we thought we were far enough away we shot them towards the crowd of enemies. The explosion that followed was tremendous. The whole world felt like it was shaking. It felt as if the entire cavern could fall in on us at any moment. We made our move to escape. They had been caught completely off guard by our attack and were now on the back foot. We made for the door and rushed out into the hall. Surprisingly it was completely empty. I had no time to consider why they would have left the room unguarded. I only knew that this was our best chance to escape. We ran through the hall as fast as we could. We threw open the door to the hall with all of the doors and once again we saw no one. We kept running but our injuries were taking their toll on us. We were starting to lag but we couldn’t let the vampires that I could now hear following us catch us. So we ran even harder. On and on we ran. Into the room that was used by the guards. That was when things changed.

I had been wondering why no one had been there to stop us. The answer stood right in front of us. Isabella stood with a group of vampires blocking our path. I could also hear the group that had been following us catching up very quickly. We were in no shape for another fight. We really had no other option but to throw everything we had at them and hope that it worked. Once again while surrounded by enemies we raised our swords and hands covered in fire. “Now now. No more of that.” Isabella said. “You two have done enough damage for now. It will take years for us to replenish the numbers we have lost here today. I would offer you a place amongst us if I didn’t already know what your answer would be. We won’t be letting you kill anymore of us.” With that being said she raised her hand and green smoke rushed towards us. I didn’t even have time to put up a struggle. My sword fell from my hand and I slumped towards the floor. I could see the same thing happening to Sora right next to me. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Isabella staring down at me while I was unable to put up any kind of struggle.

Darkness enveloped my vision. The familiar figure of Kalastrovax appeared before me. “Boy you have really gotten yourself into a bad situation now.” The dragon almost seemed to be chuckling. He seemed amused by my plight. “How you continue to find yourself in these situations is beyond me. Before you ask, no I don’t have any way to free you from the vampires. I wish there was something that I could do to help but it is beyond my current abilities to help right now. It will be up to your own abilities to escape.” I thought for a bit and said. “Well you can’t help but can you at least offer some advice on how to get out of this predicament.” He huffed and replied. “Nothing that I can add at the moment. Once you have a better grasp of your situation I may be able to offer a bit of insight. We can’t allow them to complete this ritual. In the past they almost succeeded in this and it was the reason the vampires were brought to the point of ruin that we see today.” Well that didn’t help much but at least he could offer advice as things progressed. “Also I can now communicate with you telepathically. We have been around each other for long enough that we have established something of a bond with each other. For now you should sleep. When you wake up, take stock of your situation and maybe I'll have something to add.” With that he disappeared into the darkness and I was left alone and fell into a deep sleep.

Slowly I woke up. Things were just as bad as I had assumed. The very cages that we had seen earlier with all of the villagers in it was now where we were kept. A wave of despair washed over me. I had no idea how we were going to make it out of here. Nothing I had learned so far as an adventurer had prepared me for this situation. The only bright spot in all of this was that Sora was in the same cage as me. She hadn’t woken up yet. The cages were set up with a few in each cage but they must not have wanted us to be able to plan with the rest of the villagers because they had set us well apart from the rest of the people in cages. I went over to the bars of the cage to feel the construction and felt a jolt of electricity course through my hand. I hadn’t realized the cages were trapped so that the captives couldn’t make any attempt to escape. I paced around the cage trying to think of anything that could help us escape. The voice of Kalastrovax boomed in my head. “For now there is nothing that I can add to help you. I have seen cages like this in the past and only the specific key for the cell can let you out. Don’t try any magic to try to break out because I know you were thinking of trying that. These cages dampen magic abilities making that plan useless. Your best chance to escape is if someone comes to let you out for that ritual. That will probably be your one and only opportunity. They've taken your weapons so the only thing that you have at hand is your magic. They will be expecting that. Let me think for a while and I will let you know what I come up with. I may even have more magic to teach you. For now rest and regain your strength. You’re going to need it.”

I sat down in the cage and tried to think of a way out. I still came up with nothing. Sora started moving around and I went over to check on her. “How are you doing?” She looked up at me in a daze for a second and then realization came over her face. “I am fine, all things considered. I suppose they managed to capture us?” “Yes, the woman Isabella cast some kind of spell on us to put us to sleep. Don’t try to use magic. It won’t work. Kalastrovax is working on a plan to help us escape. For now we need to bide our time and wait for them to try to sacrifice us in their ritual. They have also taken all of our gear. So there isn’t much for us to do except wait.” So we sat down in silence and tried to think of a way to escape this terrible situation.