Dracula in Bob, the Slaughtering Forest, Part 2

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In the depth of the forest, something was awakening. It had always been chaotic without a master, without someone to point and direct it, but a thousand years after the defeat of said master, very little remained of it. The slumber had even taken away the names by which it had been known. However, enough of "It" remained to recognize that someone had entered its forest.

Someone familiar.

Someone powerful.

Someone who was awakening it merely by walking within. "It" was very interested in whoever that person or creature might be. Perhaps if it devoured them to the bone, it could return to its former self. Or at least be halfway there. After so long with nothing, it wouldn't notice the difference. It could settle for something, even if it was just a little. That was a sensible creature.

The possibility of being defeated didn't even cross its mind. It had been a long time since it had been involved in a fight, after all. In a fight, there were winners and losers. In a meal, there were only the plates and those who emptied them. That was what it did.

"It" was a Devourer by nature.

Maybe it didn't remember much of what it had devoured over the centuries, but it had survived for so long. For so long, it had managed to keep its stomach full. That was proof enough, and it wouldn't change today. Not even if it managed to become the same again. Nothing would have changed, only returned to normal.

***

Dracula remained lost. Hopelessly.

"This is not funny, Bob. Just give me your piece of the medallion. I know you still have it. I highly doubt anyone managed to steal it from you, and if they did, well, you could tell me, jerk. Come on, give it to me, and I promise I won't set you on fire. Okay? This is boring."

Silence.

More and more silence. Well, it wasn't true in the strictest sense of the word, but finding true silence was almost impossible. An absolute silence, deathly quiet. Now, he could still hear the wind rustling the tree branches, that is, the fingers of Bob's many arms.

Who wouldn't remain his friend or servant, no matter how much he insisted on annoying him this way.

He had never been famous for his patience, what could he say? By the way, what was the point of patience? Anyone would want whatever they desired as soon as possible, and what was wrong with that?

Patience was stupid.

Anyway, the true show of patience was interacting with the damned average human without regretting all that about being a practically immortal creature.

"Bob, you piece of dried-up shit, just give me...," Dracula fell silent. He had been lost, yes, but in the end, he had managed to find the right way. It must be because of that, as two creatures came out to meet him. Gigantic, mutated, and horribly deformed creatures, but he could still recognize the base.

A beetle man and a human centipede (what the hell).

He guessed calling them guardians was saying too much. They had simply mutated and sought to survive at any cost in this hostile environment. If they had survived to find him stealing food from Bob, they must be strong. Even surviving on Bob's leftovers required great strength.

Nothing compared to him, of course.

The important thing was that there were enemies in his path, so he was surely heading in the right direction.

"I don't like bugs. Not even squashing them myself; they are even more disgusting when they are in pieces everywhere... like you will be soon."

The monsters didn't respond. They had grown and even acquired the ability to stand on two legs, but talking was beyond them. Yet, if it was possible for them to ever develop that, he supposed it was. It didn't take more than a glance to see that they had long ceased to be simple animals.

In any case, they didn't respond; they just lunged at him.

The beetle reached him first. He had seen it coming, how could he not, aided by the momentum of its small wings? It pounced on him. The beetle's pincers closed around his neck, pushing him against the trunk of a tree with the force of the movement.

Killing itself in the process. Okay, maybe they were relatively strong, but they were damn stupid like the animals they had once been. All he had to do to defeat it was lift the sword and wait for it to impale itself on it like a suicide.

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The beetle's pincers hadn't even drawn blood. Dracula spat on the corpse of the defeated enemy. Then he turned to...

Where the hell was the centipede?

He looked up. Oh, the elusive bastard had climbed up the tree branches and was now about to fall on him. Dracula had time to react, turning into smoke, so that abomination only crashed onto the ground, bouncing, even breaking one of its huge teeth. Because yes, the centipede had a strangely human face and teeth too large.

He didn't know how it had mutated that way, why it had strayed so far from being a centipede and acquiring humanoid elements. In any case, he didn't care. All he wanted was for it to disappear from this world, sooner the better.

So Dracula snapped his fingers and made it explode so thoroughly that nothing of the creature remained to splatter him.

"That's better. I wouldn't be able to sleep soundly if I had let that thing escape."

But he hadn't achieved what he wanted, what he had come for. He had only killed a couple of enemies who had never had a chance against him. That was it, so it was hard to feel satisfied.

But at least he had dealt with the human centipede. Too grotesque for him. He might be the prince of darkness, but no way did he want that thing in his ranks... Well, maybe if he could send it far away and never see it again. Maybe. But probably not. It wasn't worth it.

In any case, he resumed his march and soon reached a clearing.

In the middle of the clearing was the fragment of the medallion.

"Oh, finally." He approached and bent down to pick it up. One of the branches stretched and shot out, piercing him in the shoulder. "Damn it, Bob. You're supposed to protect your piece of the medallion from others, not me. Despite your silence, I thought you recognized me because at least you hadn't attacked me. I've been too kind, I guess. It must be what happens when you've slept for a thousand years or so. I haven't fully woken up yet. That's my excuse, anyway."

The next branch stabbed him in the other shoulder.

The next one in a knee as he tried to stand up, with the medallion fragment firmly clenched in his fist.

"If you were sane, you wouldn't even attempt this," Dracula declared simply.

Because it was that simple. It was the plain truth.

A flock of bats flew out of the darkness, tearing the thick branches from inside his body, ripping them apart with bites. Dracula was free again. He moved his sword as if he were drawing lines in the water.

"Let's play, Bob. I'm afraid I'll be the only one enjoying it, though."

***

Alex lowered her sword, splitting the last enemy that had come their way – a gigantic ant-human hybrid. She didn't understand what was happening, and even less how it could have happened. It wasn't a giant moving forest; instead, it had mutated some of the animals that inhabited it to act as its bodyguards, it seemed.

How much time had the wizard responsible for this taken?

How was it possible that they had done this right under the noses of the Watchtower and the Sacred Church?

She would say it was impossible, deny it with all her might if she wasn't experiencing it. It made no sense, but it was a reality, so it was time to suck it up and deal with it. Time to figure out how the hell they could solve this before it reached a population center, large or small, and the carefully constructed charade crumbled irreversibly, plunging the world into chaos.

"Do you think we're getting closer to the source of this disaster?" They had already fought with more than a dozen monsters. Surely more would be waiting for them if anything was abundant in a forest (aside from vegetation), it was animals. So she had to take advantage of this moment of peace before it broke.

"I think... I haven't had time to think," Daniela replied.

Alex chuckled. "Okay, fair enough."

"We'll do what we can," Daniela continued. "No one can ask for more than that from anyone."

"Couldn't agree more."

She didn't seem very sure. Even now that they had faced the guardians of this infernal forest and emerged victorious time and again. But it's not like she had a confidence issue.

In many ways, her companion was the opposite of her, although they got along perfectly.

She had never heard her boast about her victory before she was a hundred percent sure, that is, when everything was over. She was always professional and cautious. Many said Alex could benefit from learning from her. Alex herself agreed as well.

But...

Living the life they led, constantly facing countless and indescribable nightmares, it wasn't a bad thing to be a little cocky. It was like a crutch to help you keep going and not lose your mind. If you were too rational, you'd end up feeling paralyzed, painfully aware that the job of your life was a war you were losing.

If you weren't killed first, of course.

That's why Alex always tried to get Daniela to relax a bit, while Daniela tried to make her more like her. A tangled chain that kept them together like sisters, a bond based on love and concern for each other.

It might be a shitty job, but some things made it worthwhile.

Daniela was a good part of the reason Alex hadn't stopped fighting yet. As much as she tried not to take things too seriously all the time, it didn't mean she succeeded.

Maybe she would eventually quit, but not today. This forest wasn't a good place to die. If she fell here, not even her bones would remain, and at least she deserved a decent burial like any other person.

They would survive. They had to.

They would survive to fight another day.

***

"Have you not had enough?"

Dracula was in the middle of the clearing that had become a battlefield. He had returned the first fragment of the medallion to his waist, where it would wait for the other three.

Dozens of broken and burned branches surrounded him. Bob had given everything to kill him, but he didn't have what it took. Still, he wouldn't give up. Deep down, he had known this would happen even before taking a step into the forest. Maybe it had to end like this from the beginning.

He devoured whatever came his way; he had no other purpose or will. Transformed into a massive forest, he had inevitably lost himself. And now it was too late to turn back.

Perhaps he was only awake because he too had woken up in this era. Because his blood had called him.

"I warned you," he said, even though he couldn't hear him. "Now it's my responsibility to free you from your suffering."

Thousands more branches crawled out of the darkness like tentacles. He had no chance of victory, but if he were conscious enough to recognize that, there wouldn't have been a need to fight in the first place.

Like tentacles, like spears, they shot towards him once again. Dracula had closed his eyes amid the forest's silence. Now he opened them abruptly and started moving.

Dracula in Bob, the Slaughtering Forest, Part 2: FIN