Light and darkness danced with each other through the small spaces between the buildings. Heavy sounds such as explosions and the ground and walls being demolished could be heard as two individuals, moving at high speed, clashed with each other.

Light accommodated by an explosion rang out on the paved street. Smoke and dust gathered at the sight.

A shadow shot out from the smoke with a dash. The light not too far behind chased after the shadow. They ran along the rim of the street with the light slowly catching up.

The light, Thomas closed the distance and swung his sword that was covered with holy mana. The incarnation of Mia, the vampire, jumped to the side, barely avoiding the attack.

Thomas pressed forward, not giving the vampire a chance to get up. He drove his foot down at Mia’s face.

She rolled to the side, avoiding the attack. Thomas's boot crashed into the stone, making a cracking sound. He tried again, but Mia just kept rolling to avoid being crushed underfoot.

A snort came out of Thomas's mouth as he changed from stomps to a kick. He landed a powerful kick on Mia's side-- powerful enough to have broken bones.

She flew, and her back crashed into a brick wall. She fell to her arms and knees, coughing blood.

Crashes and injuries did not matter. She did not feel any pain from it. What did were the blows themselves. They hurt much more than the memories of pain she had. She was sure that feeling pain as a vampire hurt much more than as a human.

She immediately got up and moved as arrows of light landed on where her body was.

So, this was the pain of holy magic. The magic that could destroy the undead. This was what it was like to fight an 'Order knight.'

Mia grinned as she felt excitement to experience battle—her vampire instincts at work.

Thomas appeared next to her and swung his sword. He was trying to decapitate her. She grabbed his armor and pulled. Her hand sizzled and burned, but she ignored the pain.

Because her body was much lighter than his, she was the one who moved. She collided with Thomas, making the effective range of his weapon useless.

Smoke came out from her body at the contact. She clenched her teeth as she tried to pierce his throat with her sharp claws. He knocked her hand away--- but it was fine since she didn’t intend to go through with the attack. She put her feet on his chest and jumped away, causing him to stumble.

With that time of breathing room, she turned and ran. She needed a weapon to fight with. Her hands were simply not cutting it against an ‘order knight.'

Thomas moved, and he was over her again.

Fast! Mia thought as she dodged the sword strike.

It was clear that Thomas had been faster in this battle. The only thing that was saving Mia was that she couldn’t get tired.

She dug her foot into the ground and made a sharp turn. She escaped into a small alleyway. Thomas followed without a problem, chasing behind her.

Coming out of the alley, she ran straight for the house opposite them. She dived straight into the window, shattering the glass.

Thomas, with slight hesitation, followed. He dived in and rolled to his knee. A table came flying at him.

He stood up and sliced the furniture in half before it could even touch him.

What sort of game was this vampire playing? Thomas thought as his right knee suddenly fell under him.

He landed on his knee.

Turning his head, the vampire stood there with a broken piece of wood, having hit his leg with it.

What the---

She swung her makeshift club at his head. Thomas blocked with the flat part of the blade. He redirected it to the side and kicked her feet under her.

She fell but caught herself with her free hand. With that said hand, she launched herself, opening up some space between them.

"Cheap trick; I thought weapons and the like were useless to your people?" Thomas said as he got to his feet.

“Hmph, I do not share such idiotic thinking, and besides, you're carrying a weapon yourself, are you not?”

Thomas frowned.

Why was she still talking like that? he thought they'd already established that she wasn’t Mia. Was this part of her ploy? Was that why she wasn’t using her innate abilities against him? That she was still trying to trick him into believing she was Mia?

Thomas snorted as he extended his hand, showing her his open palm.

"But my lady, if I did not, how can I hope to match up to your might." He said sarcastically as multiple arrows of light appeared around him. They shot out with speed no less comparable to real arrows.

Mia defended with her club, dispelling most of them, however.

“Hnnnn!”

A pained growl escaped from Mia's mouth. Some arrows had made it through, piercing her shoulder and stomach.

She stumbled back, almost collapsing from the pain.

Thomas closed the gap and thrust his blade towards her heart. Mia dodged to the side, but that put her exactly in the line of Thomas’s leg. A kick landed straight on her sternum, sending her flying toward the kitchen.

She landed on the shelf. Cracks and shattering resounded in the room as wood and tableware broke.

As she hit the ground, sitting against the wall, she dropped her weapon.

She looked up to find Thomas already over her, swinging down. She moved out of the way but wasn’t fast enough.

Her left arm, from the shoulder down, dropped to the ground. She gritted her teeth as she tried to not let the pain affect her movements.

Mia pulled back her leg and landed it on the knight’s gut, pushing him back.

Air left his lungs as he stumbled back, but that wasn’t enough to get him even on his knee.

Thomas narrowed his eyes.

Was that all you got? A master vampire could hit harder.

He moved forward, but Mia was already on her feet and moving. She ran to the stairs and started climbing up them. Thomas pursued.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

He caught up as they reached the upstairs corridor and attacked—but quickly found that to be difficult.

The space was too narrow to wield his sword.

Mia took the opportunity and landed a kick on Thomas’ side—smashing him against a wall. The knight groaned in pain but didn't have time to dally. He moved to the side, dodging a small, delicate fist that came at his chest.

The wooden wall shattered into splinters at the impact of Mia’s fist, sending the pieces flying everywhere.

She turned and pressed Thomas with kicks and punches aimed at everywhere except his face. Though she had one arm, her attacks were fierce. He handled the attacks with some difficulty because of his sword and what must have been a broken rib from the earlier kick.

She seemed to be aware of the properties of 'holy magic,' which was why she was avoiding skin-to-skin contact—but, considering she knew about their personal lives and seemed to be familiar with fighting ‘Order knights’--- that much was to be expected. Her strength and power also increased, as that kick had easily gone through his 'mana coat' and his armor—but the situation didn't feel like she had suddenly stopped holding back but had improved instead.

Thomas dropped the sword as it was a hindrance.

At first, he had found it odd that she was moving and fighting like a new recruit that had just gotten their first enhancement but had chucked it up to the vampire trying to mock him—but now he had his doubts. First, why was she fighting like a human? Shouldn't she have taken advantage of her vampiric traits, like her claws and innate abilities? Second, her over-extensions and amateurish use of her explosive power—Any vampire that was at least a few years old should have learned how to move at super speeds. Maybe he was a fool, but he doubted that anyone could fake being an amateur like this—was she a newborn?

Thomas was now no longer burdened by his sword--- moved from defense to offense. He dominated hand-to-hand, showing when it came to fighting other humans—Thomas was unmatched.

He pushed the vampire back, landing heavy blows each time. Though this amount of damage would have made anyone call it quits--- to a vampire, damage not made by their weakness was only something trivial.

Thomas focused all the power Liz gave to him into his right arm- he intended to take the creature's head off with this punch.

He threw the blow. Mia dodged by moving her head---apparently, having gotten faster than before.

She jumped back, trying to get some space. Thomas pressured, not giving her time to think.

He threw another fist. She slapped it away as she made a dash for the bedroom door next to them.

She slipped under him as he failed to grab her. She smashed open the door and entered inside. He went after her, going through the door frame that barely had its hinges.

A bed, like a feather caught in the wind—flew towards Thomas with tremendous speed. He ducked, managing to keep his head, but the relief didn't last for long as a cabinet came flying next. He leaped to the side, avoiding the thing. His eyes landed on the vampire that looked like Mia, standing at the end of the room.

He rushed her, manifesting a sword of light as he did.

They had been in an open space, which meant that the knight would have no problem coordinating his attack with a sword.

Mia looked surprised for a moment---but quickly went back to glaring at him as she snorted. She stepped forward, evading a sword swipe and landing a punch on the side of his torso.

The knight flew and crashed into the wall--- going through it and ending up in the corridor again.

Mia smiled at having been able to do consistent damage to the knight. She rebelled in the joy that she was able to adapt to her body's movements but also found a good enough fighting technique from her memories. A fighting style that was complimentary to her inhuman strength and speed. She was able to finally wield that strength that was throwing her around everywhere without stop.

Her hand hurt, along with every place that had come in contact with Thomas. The wounds that were made by 'holy mana' or by silver all had the same effect—they produced a burning-like feeling that was hard to heal. They were especially worse when they were combined---they could replicate a steak when stabbed in the heart or create a wound that normal vampires would find impossible to heal.

Mia looked at her shoulder—that was yet to grow back her arm.

It will heal. Mia reassured herself.

She’d had been trying to figure out how to heal herself while she fought, but because of her lack of knowledge about how to use her abilities—she couldn't even make a stump grow.

No, this wasn’t something to focus on. If her mind wasn’t fully on the battle—she was going to lose more than just limbs.

Staring at the hole in the wall, she watched as the order knight stood to his feet—dusting the rubble off of him.

[Ahh! I had forgotten about our arm--- And the old guy is getting up again! Hey, can you still fight with only one arm? Can’t you heal it?]

A panicked voice rang out in Mia’s head—a distraction that she did not want to deal with at the moment.

The high spirit that called itself Leo-- that had decided to possess her for whatever reason. He had claimed himself servant to a god of chaos, and that ‘said god’ was said to be responsible for her creation. When she heard all of that, she found it hard to believe at first, but she slowly came to accept it as--it made sense.

A vampire could never be possessed or affected by any type of mind control—the only exception was necromancy, but even then, it would take an exceptional necromancer to control a lesser vampire at best.

Her and Leo's situation was similar to possession, but also ‘not’ at the same time. It was like how ‘Leo’ explained--- they shared similarities to a body and soul arrangement. This absurdity was the reason she believed him because only a god could accomplish such an impossible feat of giving an undead a soul.

[No, I cannot, and it won't be the only thing that needs to heal if you don’t control your emotions. Your fear is disturbing my focus,] She grumbled in annoyance.

Though she believed him on the matter of him being related to the gods, that still didn’t mean she liked him. For a supposed divine being, he was completely useless---he almost had them killed a couple of times throughout this battle.

[I ahhh—sorry, I’m not doing it on purpose.]

[I do not care if it's deliberate or not—make it stop.]

At Mia’s reprimand, Leo went quiet to try and calm his emotions but ultimately failed.

Mia sighed. She should have expected something like this the moment Leo told her that he was a human teenager—asking someone who was that young to calm himself during a battle of life and death was too much. She needed to focus his mind on something else if she was going to keep a clear mind.

[hmm….. Leo, I need you to focus on healing our arm--- I can’t sit down and do it myself in this situation—I just don’t have the time, and I can’t keep on fighting with one hand short. So, I need you to focus on healing our wounds while I fight—can you do that?]

[ I ahh… I-I’m not sure. I don’t even know how w-we healing--]

[Figure it out! I'm certain it couldn't be any harder than manipulating one's gender.]

[I…. I-I'll try,] Leo said, sounding somewhat resolved.

Mia sighed in relief as the irritating emotion faded away.

Now, let's hope that the spikes of pain from the mana and silver won't be enough to bring back his fear again. Mia thought as she rushed towards Thomas.

She jumped through the hole, closing the distance between her and the order knight.

Thomas threw a fist, and she dodged it, taking advantage of her small size compared to him. She got under him and landed a devastating palm strike to his stomach. His armor bent, and he got sent flying backward to the stairs.

She ran, caught him while he was in the air, and dragged him across the wall and stair rails on the way down.

He gritted his teeth, barely holding back a scream, as the pain came from his back and head.

As they reached halfway down the stairs. Thomas grabbed onto the arm that was holding his chest plate. He pulled it away from himself and twisted his body, throwing Mia.

She flew down the rest of the stairs, landing on the stone floor. The knight wasn’t far behind as he jumped down and landed on Mia with a 'cracking' sound.

He straddled her and punched her in the face. She took a few blows, her body sizzling everywhere Thomas touched. He grabbed her neck and took hold of his mana, preparing to transfer it to her.

She kneed him in the butt to try and get him off. He extended his hand forward, stabilizing himself. He punched her again, but she caught that arm. He grabbed her arm with his second hand as he stood up, lifting Mia halfway off the ground.

He looked at her down below and smiled.

"You--" She growled but couldn't finish her sentence as she was smashed across the wooden wall.

He heard a loud crack followed by a sicking snap of bones.

She coughed out blood, along with it coming out from every orifice on her head. He grabbed the rest of her body, lifting her over his head before throwing her to the ground. A thud and a splatter sounded as blood flew out from her body, and she lay strung on the stone floor.

Thomas stepped forward and sunk his boot into her chest.

“Alright then, you’re going to tell me everything I want to hear.” He pressed harder on her chest, causing her to retch up blood. “What group are you associated with? What was your goal in this town?”

Mia struggled under him--- snarls and growls escaping from her lips.

She grabbed his leg and kicked the other one--- trying to make him lose his balance.

Thomas shifted his weight to the foot on her chest and moved the other one. Her kick missed, but she used the change in weight to get the boot off of her.

Mia twisted her body, letting the silver boot land by her side. Thomas immediately retreated---not giving her the chance to attack.

“Well? Are you going to answer me?”

Mia didn't answer but just gave Thomas a death glare as she slowly stood up. Her naked body, which displayed beautiful porcelain white skin, was now covered in burn marks, dried-up blood, and dirt that was mixed with the blood. Her hair was no different. It was a mess of tangled strands, covered with dust and grime, appearing dark-reddish from its silver luster. All of this helped to give her the appearance of a feral animal.

Fresh blood flowed from her newly opened wounds after being used as a ragdoll. The tears in her skin and broken bones healed however--a result of her fast regeneration.

Though it hurt her pride that she was struggling this much against a human, she had to remember that this was an order knight---their compatibility in a battle was not in her favor—even if he was only just a 4th-rank knight.

The knight and vampire stood there glaring at each other when, all of a sudden, blood erupted from Mia's left shoulder.

Blood spurted out of her severed arm, but instead of splashing on the ground, it hung in the air as if time had frozen. The blood droplets quivered and then began to merge, forming different shapes. The first shape was a series of red rods that connected to her shoulder. They were the bones of her left arm, reconstructed from the blood. Then, more blood flowed over the bones, creating blood vessels, tissues, muscles, nerves, and skin. Within seconds, the blood had transformed into a new arm, identical to the one she had lost.

Mia and Thomas froze, both looking dumbfounded but for different reasons.

The knight was somewhat surprised as to why it took so long, but the major thing that made him drop his jaw was how her arm regenerated.

Blood that transforms into flesh—I never thought I'd see that one before. Thomas thought as he looked at the vampire—that seemed to be zoned out, with more vigilance.

He frowned as he scoffed in his head about the vampire's brazen attitude. Was she so confident in herself that she would space out in the middle of combat!?

Thomas clenched his teeth at this, his anger running at an all-time high, and yet—he didn’t attack. He didn’t take the opportunity that was clearly lying in front of him, calling for him. Why was that? Why couldn’t he kill the creature of darkness that he was looking at?

It couldn’t have been that hard—all he had to do was immobilize that monster with ‘Miraculum’ and finish it off with ‘Astra’--he could have done this from the start—why was he playing around with an enemy that was clearly getting stronger!?

The knight bit his lips in shame for his hesitation to carry out his duty as an 'order knight.'

Mia, on the other hand—while Thomas was busy contemplating his contradictory emotions—was having a conversation with her soul, Leo—surprised that he was able to do something she couldn't.

[What was that!?]

[Ehhh...... regeneration? ---you told me to try and regenerate our arm while you were fighting.]

Leo answered. His tone was confused as to what Mia was surprised about.

I mean, it's not like this was the first time for us to heal a wound. Leo thought as he waited for Mia’s response.

[Hmm… you know what? It doesn't matter---keep it up!]

She said with glee, as she felt reassured.

They had been losing the battle since the very start, and even when they had managed to make Thomas lose his sword---Mia still couldn't find a way to win. She had considered running, but it was far too late because of the presence of morning coming.

But maybe with this! She thought as she formulated a winning strategy in mind.

If Leo could do that healing more than once, then she would have no problem digging fingers through Thomas’ throat. The 'holy mana' that did semi-permanent damage to the undead wouldn't be a problem for them if Leo could heal it off!

[But just to be certain—can you heal us again if we were to get damaged?]

[Ehhhh…. Yeah?]

Leo said uncertainly, but not at the question, but at Mia’s excitement.

It seemed that she had misjudged the high spirit's usefulness—because of him, they were going to survive this night.

Mia concentrated on the knight, who had an expressionless look on his face. She slowly raised her hands in a fighting stance that helped her compete with Thomas.

“Don’t start speaking as though you are already the victor. This fight has only just begun.” Mia said haughtily.

Ordinum Pugna? Thomas thought as he saw Mia take up the stance that was taught by the church.

Ohhhhh, now he understood why he felt like he was fighting a rooky.

He also raised an eyebrow at her words.

"Is it? I think the difference between you and me is quite obvious. If you still haven't figured it out yet, ‘I'm going easy on you.' I want answers, and you're going to give them to me. Either willingly or while you're baking in the sun."

“Hmph.” She only scoffed and said no more.