Dracula in Bob, the Slaughtering Forest, Part 4

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Dracula halted his flight by thrusting the sword into one of the trees as he passed. It was painful, as if his arms were about to be ripped off, and he would have lost them after such an abrupt and sudden stop if he were a normal human.

Recovering, he placed his feet on the ground, straightening up and extracting the sword. Of course, the forest had no intention of leaving him in peace for even a second. The branches came for him again, endlessly, without rest. He was forced to admit that this was not a battle he could win, not in this way at least, not with his power reduced to this extent. He would have to change tactics, whether he liked it or not. And the answer was quite clear.

He didn't like it one bit.

As a consolation, Bob had long run out of smoke. Not that he would tell anyone, and even if he did, he could always come back to crush him definitively once he became stronger. Oh, right, he thought. There are also those vampire hunters.

They were foolish or lacked education enough not to recognize Count Dracula when they had him right in front of them. A shame for vampire hunters that probably none of their peers took seriously. But they were human, and amidst all their nonsense, they might let slip some truth. That truth could reach the right ears, and then he would be screwed.

Even in his weakened state, it should be child's play to deal with two vampire hunters, especially if they were as incompetent as they seemed so far. But maybe he wouldn't even have to do it himself. They were in the forest like him. They had only come this far because Bob had been focused on killing him. Once he left, these two would become nothing more than food for the cannibal forest. Bob wouldn't even leave their bones. Not even small bloodstains as a last trace.

That would work, surely. An incredibly efficient plan, allowing him to escape and get rid of the evidence at the same time. Before that, however, he would leave them one last little gift, an additional obstacle. Dracula couldn't open his wings yet. He was too weak, much to his irritation. What he could do was run along the trunk of any remaining tree and take a leap.

At the apex of the jump, he began firing the energy beam from his mouth in all directions, reaching as many areas as possible before falling too low. The massive forest fire was a lesser danger than the cannibal forest itself. Besides, he couldn't care less about human lives. There were millions of those creatures; he had plenty of food reserves.

He landed well this time, even though the branches had pursued him all the while. He burned the nearest ones and took off running. The vampire hunters would have to deal with Bob and the forest fire. Some of the flames were close, and the rest would soon catch up with him as the fire consumed everything.

There was no way a pair of humans, naive enough not to recognize the most famous vampire of all time, could survive this, let alone win. Dracula had what he wanted, and the cleanup would be done as soon as he left, without having to lift a finger, just the way he liked it. Perfect, there was only...

He found them quickly, not far from there, as preoccupied with the forest as he had been all this time. Plus, they were inferior.

"Enjoy your descent into hell."

Laughing like a maniac, still closely pursued by the thousands of branches, he finally set off to get out of there. He reached blinding speed right away, cutting through the dense forest like a shadow. Meanwhile, behind him, the wall of fire grew gigantic. The flames seemed to be rising to the heart of the sky.

***

"Sometimes I feel like I'm daydreaming," Daniela said.

"Yeah, tell me about it. A guy calling himself Dracula (since when do vampires have wings?) just mocked us before taking off. Like a kid."

With an energy discharge, Daniela got rid of the branches that were pulling at her sword, trying to rip it from her hands.

"If we survive this, I'll seriously consider retiring," she said.

"If we survive this."

"That's what I said."

Probably, I'd leave with you, thought Alex. Or maybe I wouldn't be able to. Maybe I take things more seriously than I say and want, because I'm stupid.

What was truly stupid was thinking about these things when they had such a huge problem on their hands.

"I don't think we can do this. We have to run."

"What?" said Daniela. "Of course! But against this monster, even running with our tails between our legs isn't so easy."

Yeah, it was common sense. They should never have come here, but they had been too confident after an endless list of successes. After hearing many people refer to them as "young prodigies."

She couldn't, however, admit that it was too late to correct their mistakes. That this place would become their graveyard. It would be too cruel; this forest would devour them without even leaving their bones. How long would it take for them to miss them? To wonder if they had fallen in battle, instead of being on a secret mission or something?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Probably not too long, but just thinking about it terrified her. And that's why she couldn't stop thinking while defending against the hungry branches and... She should have saved the word "hungry" for what she saw now, a few trunks opening, forming a sinister mouth.

This is a damn nightmare.

Looking back, her life had been from the start. Nothing like this, but she had seen nightmare creatures all the time. Would the branches drag her? Would the jaws of the forest devour her?

They were managing against the branches, and meanwhile, they moved toward the exit, of course, but it was a very large forest. Could they cover a few kilometers at this rate, with the concentration and energy it took to defend? When occasionally, seeing that they could no longer, they gathered and spent energy on a magical barrier to catch their breath, even if it only withstood four or five hits?

She didn't want to admit it, but the odds were against them. Everything was against them. Not to mention the forest fire. The flames were still far away; luckily, they had that. But it wouldn't be nice.

"If I had known..." She quickly fell silent because she couldn't think of anything.

If she had known this would be her last day on earth, what would she have done differently? Aside from the obvious. She couldn't think of anything. Not a last meal, not a place to visit. Unfinished business.

She simply...

Didn't want to die.

Alex frowned. She couldn't cry now. She couldn't cry, or she would collapse. She still had a heavy burden on her shoulders, a fight to fight. She wasn't going to die now.

She concentrated truly.

Daniela and Alex had been forced to take cover again under a magical barrier to catch their breath. That ensured they would survive the next four or five hits. It seemed like a blank check, but it wasn't that convenient. For starters, at this rate, they would run out of magical energy sooner rather than later. For the barrier to be strong enough, both had to raise it.

Secondly, they couldn't move while the barrier was up.

The same thing that kept the branches of this infernal forest away also kept them in place. They couldn't simply move the barrier with them while running. Even if they could, it wouldn't be a great way to catch their breath.

Another impact. The barrier trembled, and cracks expanded.

Alex was a warrior at heart. Even in such a short amount of time, she had perfected the analysis of the enemy's patterns. That's why she knew the barrier wouldn't withstand a single hit more. She knew it was the moment. And she was ready to react as soon as it shattered.

Not by standing in front of her companion and best friend, telling her to run. Clearly, the forest had no problem dividing its attention. Her heroic last stand would end up being just a tasteless joke, with both of them dying brutally anyway.

No, instead, Alex raised the shield and the sword.

She growled with a voice that could scare crows away from a battlefield while attacking. If she were alone, maybe she would have given up by now. But she wasn't alone. Daniela had to survive.

Both would survive, and this nightmare would become a distant memory.

Another tree's mouth opened, but that wasn't all. A flock of bats emerged from within, flying towards them, hungry, biting all over their bodies. As if they didn't have enough already. Tears welled up in Alex's eyes. Had she stopped dreaming of victory a long time ago, but was there really no chance of survival?

The branches were like snakes. Even if she barely dodged them, they could change their trajectory in the air to come back at her. Alex and Daniela had dealt with vampires, trolls, genies, werewolves, the list was endless. And after all that, years of suffering, would they be defeated by some branches?

Not even funny.

Alex threw her shield. The edges were sharp and cut a few branches as it spun through the air, but the bigger effect it had was the following: purely by chance, not intended, it ended up in the mouth of one of the trees. Swallowing it shut its mouth and kept it closed.

She had said a big effect, not important.

The only thing left to throw at the mouths of the trees was her sword, and then she would die immediately, even if closing the mouth of one more tree meant something.

She could throw herself, that would be a quicker and more direct death.

She laughed hysterically.

And her clothes. She could throw her clothes, but this infernal forest wouldn't give her time to undress.

Daniela looked at her with wide eyes as she laughed.

She couldn't blame her.

She couldn't explain it, not when every second of laughter consumed oxygen in her lungs faster. But she couldn't stop either.

***

Darío saw a man enter the police station, as he was manning the reception. The young man had dilated pupils and a face covered in sweat, but he wasn't red; rather, he looked pale. It was a cold sweat. In short, he seemed scared out of his mind or high on some drug.

Darío knew from personal experience that both could very well be true.

The man approached the desk, resting his arms on the reception table, noticing that his hands were trembling slightly. Looking at him more closely, Darío concluded that he hadn't injected anything; the pupils were dilated out of pure and simple fear, whatever had happened or been witnessed. It was a natural dilation, not the effect of some drug. He would bet on it.

"What's going on?" he asked in a low, soothing voice. Or so he hoped, at least.

"My name is Justin. I...," he fell silent, quickly closing his mouth, and seemed even more frightened. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Darío had never seen anyone so scared.

Perhaps the source of his fear wasn't something done to him or a crime he had accidentally witnessed but something he had done with his own hands. Yet, he still had enough awareness to come here and confess.

"Listen, Justin. We all make mistakes. If you did something by accident, it's not the same as..."

"It's not about that," he seemed genuinely offended.

Darío considered himself good at judging people. So he wasn't pretending to be offended; that expression was real.

"Alright. But if you don't tell me what's happening, I can't get you help. Even if you don't talk to me, you have to talk to someone."

"I... I was mugged."

He had imagined worse things, but that made sense too.

"And a man... he saved me," he continued before Darío could interject.

"I understand. Do you want to report the mugger?"

He opened his mouth and closed it like four times in quick succession.

"Justin. We can't help you..."

"I know. I know."

"If you don't let us help you."

Justin turned around, shaking his head, and left the way he had come. Darío swore he had seen tears in his eyes.

***

Justin rejoined his friends and the unfortunate Joachim, whose only mistake had been opening a pizzeria near his neighborhood, and even that wouldn't have led to anything if Dracula hadn't chosen Justin from all the people in the city.

He had to admit he harbored some hope that the others had fared better than him, but just looking at their faces told him they had checked the same thing he had.

Dracula hadn't lied.

Now that he had turned them into vampires, they couldn't turn against their Creator. They couldn't even report him to the police, let alone intentionally harm him.

Even though none of them could contend with that monster anyway.

Now we are all monsters, he thought. And said:

"What do we do?"

No one had an answer.

Dracula in Bob, the Slaughtering Forest, Part 4: FIN