Paul observed as four wolves charged into the line of ferals. The lesser vampires were not entirely defenseless, especially the ones that were not newly turned or at the brink of blood hunger. The recently fed and more experienced ones possessed heightened senses, strength, and speed, although not on par with the werewolves. Additionally, many vampires could wield weapons with notable proficiency.
In the midst of the chaotic battle, the second vampire leader focused on exploiting vulnerable positions of the wolves while the main leader issued commands to the remaining forces.
The wolves' primary tactic involved slashing at the upper chest, neck, and face of the ferals. While effective, any wounds below decapitation could be regenerated by all but the weakest vampires. The wolves operated with speed and strength, their attacks more primal and less strategic. After slashing one foe, they swiftly moved on to the next, oblivious to the fact that leaving the fallen to heal could prolong the fight. The leader of the vampires seemed to have a spell that accelerating the recovery process of the ferals it targeted.
As the skirmish unfolded, one of the wolves succumbed to the onslaught, while another was gravely wounded, struggling to remain upright. The vampires suffered losses as well, with all but five ferals meeting their demise. The second-in-command, despite its earlier effective sneak attacks, overplayed its hand and was thrown into a large tree by a werewolf, bones audibly cracking upon impact. The main vampire entered the fray, swiftly dispatching the severely injured wolf and turning the tide to a two-on-two plus five minions battle.
Lo and behold the tree that the Stirogi vampire crashed into was the same one hiding two humans. They both learned something they'd probably rather not know, that both breaking and mending bone is incredibly loud. That is how they knew that the fallen vampire was broken, but also that he was healing back together.
Amidst this insight, Trevor looked at Paul, "No, this is not our fight", Paul answered back. Due to his skepticism regarding Travis leadership, he struggled to accept that the wolves were loosely allied with them. He had not witnessed any of the semi-civil interactions between him and the wolf mage. To him, it seemed like two adversaries engaged in mutual destruction, which gave them a chance to finish off whoever was left barely standing.
"They are our allies, Paul," Trevor responded, perhaps a bit too loudly. The vampire on the opposite side of the tree growled deeply, demanding to know who was there.
Paul shot Trevor a glare, but if nothing else, Paul was a pragmatist. There was no chance that the vampires would treat them kindly, but it at least remained a possibility that the wolves would. He signaled Trevor to move on three. "1, 2, 3," they dashed out, Trevor wielding his new dueling sword, and Paul brandishing his dual daggers. Catching the injured vampire off guard, they proceeded to mercilessly stab it.
Witnessing the assault on his companion, the main vampire realized he needed to intervene swiftly, ensuring his subordinate remained within an inch of life was vital. Then it would him to bring it back to full strength in a relatively short time.
Even though he and his companion were not 'newborn' they were also not what you would call seasoned. If he was more experienced, then he'd have known you need to constantly be moving in fights against supernatural beings. As it was, he hesitated while pondering his next move. Which gave a wolf a chance to seize him by the neck, applying immense pressure until a gruesome cracking sound signaled the separation of the vampire's head from his body.
The two humans stood over the vampire, blades dripping with blood. When a wolf, distinguished by dark gray markings on its face, yelled over to the humans in a voice even more monstrous than the vampire's, "Cut its head off!"
Trevor and Paul, eager to comply, quickly decapitated the vampire. Observing their efficiency, a few kobolds approached. Paul and Trevor tensed, unsure of what was about to transpire.
As it turned out, the wolves, much like many authoritarian species, had underlings for menial tasks they found beneath them. The lizard like creatures began dragging the vampire bodies into a pile, seemingly indifferent to the detached body parts.
Uncertain about their next move, Paul and Trevor occupied themselves by cleaning their weapons. Paul also checked his journal and was pleased to see that he had started and completed a mission related to the vampire coven. While there were various ways to fulfill the mission, the most lucrative option involved killing all the vampires, but Paul had only managed to eliminate the leadership, which offered the second-best reward. Paul also wasn't sure how he knew but he felt on the verge of ranking up to level 7, which would allow him to pick a class.
Reconsidering the incomplete mission though, Paul assumed there were more vampires inside the cave. He contemplated informing the wolf when he sensed a presence. Looking up, he saw the large grey-bearded wolf standing next to him. Despite their immense size, the wolves moved with surprising grace.
"Where is your leader?" the wolf inquired.
Paul, aiming for calmness, answered, "He is on a mission. They came upon one vampire which they killed and are searching for more." It was a lie; he didn't want to admit that their leader, Travis, was absent for an unknown duration.
"You did well finding this place, human," the wolf said, gesturing to the pile now holding all the vampire bodies and body parts. "They must be burned, or they come back to life. Do you have fire? Stupid kobold did not bring it."
Paul nodded and reached into his bag to retrieve a lighter. As he began walking toward the pile, the wolf grabbed his arm—not forcefully, but not gently either. Paul handed him the lighter.
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"Tell your leader, Traaavis, to come see Master Torak when he comes back. You may go now," the wolf commanded.
Paul looked as if he wanted to retort, but Trevor stepped forward, "Thank you for helping us, uh, what's your name?"
The wolf ignored him and walked away. Trevor gave Paul a look as if to say, "Let's go, man." They complied and left the scene.
---
Travis and Clyde decided to bring the five prisoners from the fight with the cult to the village. Maybe there was a prison in the large tower. Since they had to go there anyway, and it was the only option besides killing them that seemed feasible.
During the relatively short walk, Clyde questioned the beaten men. Although none of them seemed keen on trying to escape, they still walked in a tight formation with Travis and Clyde on either side. Omar walked slightly ahead, scouting out the situation.
Most of the cult members were unresponsive, but two of them were coaxed into talking. Travis had learned in Syria that there were two ways to get prisoners to talk. Torture was not one of them, which surprised Clyde somewhat. He didn't want to torture anyone, but he worried that Travis might have considered it an option.
One of the methods was the threat of torture, as once the torture started, people would say anything to make it stop. They might include the truth if that's what the captors wanted to hear. The problem was when the truth wasn't what the captors wanted, the prisoners would make up information to end the torture.
The other, more effective method was to create a sense of trust with the prisoners. Give them food and offer comforting words—this was what Travis told Clyde to do. Clyde was the obvious choice, considering they had witnessed Travis as a killing machine, and trust might not come easily.
Surprisingly, it worked. They learned a lot about the cult's inner workings and its leader. Though when one cultist started revealing the main base's location, he was interrupted by the angriest-looking cult member, the man tried to intimidate him into stopping. Without hesitation, Travis punched the guy in the face, displaying zero tolerance for such insolence.
Clyde continued his coaxing and separated the two talkative cultists from the rest. That's when he gathered all the information they needed about the location and size of the Cult of David. Once the location was learned, Travis and Clyde's journals were flooded with missions, each one related to this cult in one way or the other.
The most interesting part of the discussion was when Clyde tried to convince them that their leader wasn't that special. There had been hundreds of people who received journals on or around the day the changes started. At first, they didn't believe it, and a few still didn't. However, it became clear to anyone not fully indoctrinated that they had been manipulated.
Even before the changes, that type of manipulation was prevalent. A group or, more likely, a person would come on the scene, saying and doing things that a section of the people wanted to hear. They would promise the world and claim that the "other" group was lying and couldn't be trusted.
When it inevitably came out that this person wasn't what they claimed, and most if not all of their promises fell flat, the people were so invested that they either didn't believe it or didn't care. That type of grift had been happening since people formed groups and chose leaders. It was much easier to do now, though, in this world full of changes, danger and mysteries.
As they approached the Sheriff's village, Clyde had made good headway with two of the cult members. They had broken down, talking about the things they were made to do. Normally, Clyde wouldn't be so quick to buy into the sob story, but Travis's perception ability seemed to improve by the day. He could now tell if most people were being honest or not, especially those with less innate wisdom or intelligence. There would be other underlying factors as he used his skills on higher-level enemies.
As a repeat of a previous encounter, Rich came galloping out of the village to intercept them. When he saw it was Travis, he got off his horse.
"Who do you have there, Mr. Porter?"
"Technically, it's Major Porter," Clyde blurted out.
Rich looked at him, unsure what to make of the comment when Travis spoke up, "these are cultists that we intercepted; they were on their way to some other village looking for spoils."
"Well, I'm sure the Sheriff will be happy to hear you stopped them, but why bring them here?"
"Honestly, Rich, and I mean no offense, but no need to have this conversation twice. Why don't you go get the Sheriff, and we can all have a chat?" Travis's tone didn't leave room for debate.
"Yes, si… yes, Major. Wait here, please."
The Sheriff was walking out before Rich rode back, and they all met up for that chat.
"Look at you, Major, taking down the baddies Rich tells me. But the question does remain, why bring them here?" The sheriff sounded as jovial as ever.
“Good to see you, Sheriff. I was hoping you had some sort of confinement until we figure out what to do with those we take alive. By 'we,' I mean as a society. I don't think anyone wants to go back to imprisoning huge swaths of our population, but we can't just kill every crook.”
Clyde chimed in with what he thought was an important point, “just so you are aware, this was option one. Option two was executing these men.”
The one cultist that stopped the other from talking had been looking suspect. Travis sensed it a while back, but anyone paying attention could tell he was looking to make a break for it. Maybe he thought with someone called ‘the Sheriff’ around that he wouldn't be shot in the back while running. How wrong was he.
The man had backed up so that he was at the end of the group and just a few feet from Omar, the smallest person there. His plan was to grab Omar and threaten to kill him if they didn't back off, but right before he made his move, Travis yelled out for Omar to run.
Since the kid didn't scare easily, Travis bet he wouldn't startle or freeze, and he was right. But the man did. He was left standing there with no recourse but to stay put or run and run he did.
Things seemed to slow down as the man attempted his escape. Clyde looked at Travis apprehensively, the Sheriff looked at him expectantly, and Rich just kind of looked at the man running with a dumb look on his face.
He was on a horse and could have caught him pretty easily, but then he'd have to fight to restrain him. Travis had not moved his gaze from the spot where the man had been when he started running.
As things seemed to go back to normal speed and people felt like something had to happen one way or another, Travis pulled out his gun and blind-fired. The bullet hit the cultist in the upper back, felling him to the ground.
Clyde winced but only a little; the sheriff smiled. Travis looked at him, “so what about a place for these prisoners. It's only going to be two now, right Clyde?”
Clyde wasn't paying attention and jumped when he heard his name, “what's that?” he asked.
“You want to rehabilitate these two, correct? You think we can salvage them into productive citizens and members of our faction?”
“Well, I didn't carry the thought that far, but yes, I do. Maybe we should lock them up separately until we do our business here though, then bring them with us.”
Travis nodded and looked at the Sheriff. “Sure, I think we can hold those two until we figure out what to do with them. Let's go inside and talk.”