The vampire dashed through the air directly at Ray, only to have Josephine step into his path with a blindingly fast shuffle step. With the blade held out in front of her, she didn’t even have a chance to swing it as, with a surprised squeak, Vlad grabbed the blade and flung her across the cathedral. She smashed through a dozen pews before coming to a stop.
With a cackle, the mad undead whipped a spinning kick towards the blonde-haired apprentice. She ducked under the savage attack, only to have the wind from the strike blow her backward out of the building and into the street outside.
“Pathetic! And you wanted to recruit me?” Vlad snorted, dodging a concentrated effort by one of the three remaining apprentices and Ravia to strike him.
The apprentice swung her blade, an extended machete-like sword, in a complicated pattern while targeting his limbs. Ravia, meanwhile filled in the gaps perfectly by striking with her claws. The trio shredded the pews as Vlad dodged and weaved around the complex series of attacks. Their deadly dance smashed through pews, tore chunks out of the wall, and left deep gouges in the stone floor.
But they couldn’t touch him.
With a snort of derision, the vampire deflected the blade with his bare hand, the weapon not even scratching his steel-like skin. With a contemptuous ease, he slapped Rivea away while he grabbed the apprentice by the throat and lifted her into the air. The Drake slammed into an ornate stone pillar with such force she shattered a portion of it, her cry of pain echoing in the large building as she fell to the floor.
“You look tasty,” Vlad said licking his lips as the dark-haired apprentice struggled futilely to escape his grasp. “I think I will turn you first.”
He opened his mouth, fangs extending from his incisors as he leaned down to suck his victim dry… only to catch a bullet in the mouth. With a cough, Vlad dropped the apprentice, who scrambled away from the vampire with every ounce of speed she could muster.
“Grah! You, urk, what the nine hells!” he choked out, spitting the bullet out. As the lead exited his teeth it began to glow cherry red… right before exploding into a shower of shrapnel, blanketing the undead in lead chunks. Vlad screamed in fury and pain as his face was shredded by the attack.
“Hey, look at that Nyx. He isn’t even bulletproof,” Ray mocked right before unloading the pistol into the still-floating undead. Each bullet struck with the sound of a hammer striking steel, reinforcing that this particular undead was made of sterner stuff. Nevertheless, the bullets pierced his skin. Firing the last round, he triggered all of the bullets to go off at the same time.
The simultaneous detonation of sixteen bullets tore Vlad to pieces, splattering gore across the floor and pews. What was left of Vlad smashed into the floor with a hollow sound of flesh meeting stone.
Ray reloaded his gun, enchanting these bullets with ice and lightning. If the monster of a man was really as dangerous as Rivea claimed, he wouldn’t go down from something this easily and would account for the exploding rounds. Somehow these things never failed to find a way to be as annoying as possible to kill.
The Smog Snail came immediately to mind.
A groan from Rivea signaled that she was just fine, while the sounds of breaking wood heralded Josephine's return to the fight. They were just in time to see a mangled corpse rise to its feet, the scarred facial features twisted in a human mockery of fury.
“I’ve changed my mind,” the vampire gurgled, blood flowing out of the wounds to reform shattered bone and dress the damaged areas in unblemished skin like some kind of twisted costume. “I’m just going to kill you all and play with your bodies!”
A blast of fire from Rivea washed over Vlad, doing absolutely nothing to him. With a speed that caught everyone off guard, he flowed over to the Drake while leaving a river-like series of blurring afterimages behind him. Grabbing the surprised woman by the arm, he spun her sideways like a bludgeon… and smashed Josephine right out of the air using her ally as a weapon.
“You know what they say!” cackled Vlad. “One man's female companion is another man's hammer!”
“Your humor is horrible!” screeched Josephine as she went flying away, plowing through another row of pews.
“Almost as bad as your sense of style,” Rivea added, turning her head one-hundred and eighty degrees to face the very surprised looking undead. He was even more surprised when she opened her mouth and hit him with a blast of blue and purple lighting. Sending him hurtling across the cathedral, through the pulpit to smash into the wall just below the stained glass window.
The apprentices had regathered themselves from where they had been flung and arranged them into a semi-circle in front of Ray as Vlad extracted himself from the stone wall. Opening his mouth, the vampire was about to make a comment when an earth-shattering roar caused him to turn back to Rivea. She had transformed into her full Drake form and was in the process of swinging her tail at the vampire.
“Aw fuck,” he grunted as the meaty appendage slammed into him, smashing him into the wall and dragging him across the stone surface only to throw him to the opposite side of the cathedral.
With another roar Rivea unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts where he had landed, turning that area of the building’s floor into molten slag. “Horrible! Style!” she roared.
“Remind me to always dress well around her,” Ray muttered to the blonde apprentice. She nodded her head in abject agreement, not able to put much in words due to the profuse bleeding coming from her mouth. “Are you ok?” he asked her.
“Bith mah tunge,” she burbled out as he winced. Setting his hand on her back, he spent a few Power to close the wound in her mouth. “Thanks,” she muttered as he nodded.
An explosion of rock where Vlad had landed, showering the area with molten chips of immensely hot stone. The vampire was looking worse for the wear, his breastplate shattered and hanging in tatters from his body. Ray could see bare skin along most of his arms, while his leggings were practically rags.
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“Nine hells below Drake, that was rude. Do you know how long it took me to find those clothes?” Vlad complained, brushing some dirt off his forearms. “Seriously. This world has no style at all. None! I doubt I can find a replacement for the garb you destroyed.”
The only response he got was Josephine landing a flying axe kick on the vampire, sending him crashing into the ground once more. Ray couldn’t see what was going on, but he could certainly hear was what being said.
“Hey now wench, can we not talk about-“ Vlad said nervously before a blood-curdling scream erupted from where they had landed. That scream was followed by silence. Deep, foreboding silence. Josephine clambered over the pile of wooden pews and walked over to Ray.
He eyed the warrior nervously, noticing fresh blood dripping from her cherished blade. “What, uh, did you do to him?” he asked.
“Yes, please explain. I am also curious as to what could have shut that man up,” Nyx asked, curious as well.
“I cut his dick off,” Josephine said, wiping her blade on her pants as the others stared at her. She caught their incredulous looks. “What, My Lord? Was there something else that you wanted done?”
Ray swallowed as his throat went dry. Turning himself slightly away from the confused woman his thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling noise. It grew in intensity until it felt like the entire building was going to come down, turning the group ran for the doors, only for Vlad to smash his way through the concrete, blocking the exit.
Hauling himself up out of the ground, the torn-up and bloodied vampire glared at them. “Never, never, have I been so disrespected. So dishonored! You cut my pecker off! If I wasn’t capable of regeneration that would have been in! No tiny Vlad’s running around! It would have been a travesty! An overwhelming loss to the world I say.”
“What the fuck does it take to kill you, fuck man,” growled out Ray as they got ready for round two. But Vlad had other ideas.
Shaking his head, his wounds already regenerating, he wagged his finger at them as the gaping holes ever so slowly closed. “Oh no boys and girls. No. Not this time.” He raised both hands upwards as spikes erupted from the floor. “It is beyond time I demonstrate why they called me the Impaler!”
Several concrete spikes bisected Nyx without the companion being able to even so much as twitch out of the way. She vanished with a yelp and a pop of energy that dissipated into the air. The pale-haired disciple was struck by two spikes, which grew lifting her into the air. With a slight gasp, the woman went limp, dropping her weapon. Josephine shrieked in rage at the sight.
Ray threw himself sideways, narrowly dodging the three that sprang out of the floor seeking to run him through. Josephine and her remaining apprentices dodged successfully as well while Rivea took a spike through the wing and forearm.
“Bah, stop dodging and die with dignity,” growled Vlad as he brought his hands down to summon a second attack, but Ray didn't give him the chance to continue his assault.
Changing the rounds in his gun to explosive, he fired off every shot he had in the magazine. Several struck the vampire's torso, exploding on contact and ripping a hole out of his chest and exposing his organs. One smashed into his left arm, while the right was taken off at the shoulder. With a cry of surprise, Vlad fell to the ground. The wounds were already regenerating, but much more slowly this time.
Unfortunately for the immortal son of Dragons, a particularly infuriated Myrmidon dashed towards the recovering creature. Her blade glowing a deep purple, she sprang into the air and over the pews and craters in between her and her target. She landed with a grace that made Ray whistle, even as she brought the blade down in a devastating attack that separated Vlad’s head from his shoulders.
“Ah come on! I just grew that back!” the vampire's head yelled as it fell to the ground. His body, however, immediately stopped moving. “Oh. That’s… I could always move it before though. Hey, timeout? Ceasefire? Parl-“
Josephine booted the head out of the cathedral and into the sunlit street. Ray didn’t really know what he was expecting to happen, maybe for the head to burst into flame when it came into contact with the sunlight or something. What did happen was far less fun to watch, as Vlad’s head simply shattered into a thousand motes of light as it passed the door threshold.
The body that was left immediately dissolved as well, letting them all know that the fight was over for now.
Everyone was breathing heavily, and there were more than a few wounds to go around. Rivea was carefully extracting herself from the two spikes that had pierced her, while the apprentices and Josephine nursed their cuts and bruises. With a look around to ensure there were not any more threats that would pop out of the crevices of the cathedral-turned-mausoleum, Ray summoned Nyx back into existence.
“That was most unpleasant,” she chuffed, shaking her head and mane side to side vigorously. “I will assume from the fact that everyone is still alive that we won.”
Josephine sighed, “Not everyone is alive. Olivia perished. She was a mighty apprentice, but this enemy was well beyond her means.”
“For sure. This was not a fight that we could have won going into blind,” Ray said. “If we hadn’t had Nadia’s warning this could have been a lot worse. That thing could have jumped us or tricked us in some way to let our guard down. I’m sorry for your loss Josephine. It could have been worse though.”
The Myrmidon nodded even as Ray added the fallen apprentice's body to her inventory. The minute the corpse vanished he froze before slowly making eye contact with Josephine.
“I just got a message that her body is in ‘good’ condition and is eligible for resurrection,” he said quietly. “And that brings up a whole mess of other questions.”
Josephine simply went to one knee, along with her three remaining warriors, and muttered, “Redeemer.”
“Get up. Seriously. This is no time for bowing and scraping,” Ray said, more than a little annoyed at the entire spectacle. “What bugs me most about this situation though, is that it seems that I can bring back historical figures. Maybe I can bring back anyone we find remains for? This whole resurrection thing could still work. I need to check the Shop and talk with Argyle.”
Rivea walked over to them, having changed back into her human form while stretching her arms. “It is already fascinating that you can resurrect your minions and people. I haven’t heard of something like this happening anywhere else. However, some of what that Vlad guy said didn’t quite line up. He said stuff about this world like wasn’t from here, but you guys all knew about him. That’s pretty fucking weird.”
“Yeah, that is pretty weird. I wonder if he is another transplant?” Ray wondered aloud, puzzling through this newest mystery. Nyx padded away as he voiced his concern, “I really hope something nasty isn’t going on, I really don’t want to fight someone like Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great. They would wreck us.”
“Were they powerful warriors?” Rivea asked, the curiosity clear in her eyes.
Ray nodded. “Yeah. They were some serious bad-asses. Not to mention if we found the remains of some mythic hero like Hercules or Achilles? We would all die before we even knew we were dead.”
“Ray” Nyx interrupted, causing him to turn towards her. “I think something may have dropped from our opponent. In fact, it is readily apparent that something did, as I am staring at a very ornate chest over here.”
Curious he headed over to his companion, the others trailing in behind him. As he got closer, he saw a gold and silver inlaid chest roughly the size of a modest jewelry box. Picking it up, he eyed it for a moment.
“This better have something really, really, good in it,” he muttered.
Ray cracked open the box and stared at the single, small item inside. A system prompt popped in front of him, and as he read it his smile became wider and wider. The message was long, complex, and had some information in there that he wasn’t expecting. At the end of it, he dismissed the message and turned to the others, his grin near manic.
“Nadia may have been playing down what was here. This is what we needed, what we were looking for>
he whispered in near reverent tones.
“This is going to turn everything around.”