Bart thought of the screech. It was an archaic form of communication of his people, but it did have meaning behind it in most cases. Although it was not as complex and could not communicate as much as the language they now used, he thought that he may be able to decipher the meaning. But, no matter how hard he listened and tried to pick up peculiarities, all he could tell was that it was an incoherent result of anger.
Creeping into the hall, a figure quite similar to the Bloodsuckers who live in the village crawls out of an entrance from a side corridor. The first to notice it was Epim, who called the group’s attention to it.
Although it did look similar, there were a few stark differences. The more expressive, human-like face was now more like the beast they originated from. Curled lips revealed dark fangs, the wings they all had were torn from top to bottom. The arms and legs of the creature were far, far more muscular than any they had seen in the village. Fur covered its body in entirety, apparent that there was never any attempt to groom it. Its ears twitched back and forth, one forward and one backwards. While it was not the most glaring difference, the eyes of the bat were white, not the black beady kind of the Bloodsuckers in the village. It was stanced with its forelimbs against the ground, its claws glistening.
Epim looks over, sizing it up with his eyes. He turns to Bart, whispering. “Bart, have you ever seen anything like this?” At the whisper, the creature looks over to the group, snarling, but not approaching.
Bart shook his head. “No, there's none in my village who even come close to what this thing looks like. But it must be a Bloodsucker, there’s no question about it. But what could have happened to it?”
Prose waits in the air, examining the thing. He comes to a conclusion, after staring at the beasts eyes for quite a while. “It’s blind.” He whispers again. “It might not know-”
“SCREEEEEEEE” The savage Bloodsucker cries, the sound bouncing off the walls, the pillars, and the entirety of the hall. Then the returning screams rebound again, this time sounding quite angrier and more pronounced than before.
The Bloodsucker in their immediate presence lunges forwards, taking advantage of its refined muscles, barreling towards the group. Its claws sink into the marble floor, and its mouth hangs open, salivating over its incoming meal.
Once it shortens the distance to an extent it considers acceptable, it lunges into the air at a considerable height, its target now clearly Bart. Bart feels an intense fear, never having even thought for a second that he might fall victim to one of his own.
He wouldn’t, for a suit of armor slams into the side of the beast while it was in the air. The armor breaks against it, and the force is more than enough to slam it into the opposing wall. It lets out a whimper, pain coursing through its body. It stands back up, though its posture is wobbly and it is clearly dazed.
“Let’s decide now, Pacifism and death or responding with force? This isn’t the only one.” Prose spoke to the group quickly, for the footsteps were getting closer.
Bart is the first to respond. “If it’s us or them, I’d rather it be us, though I’m sorry I won’t be of much help.” Fear overtook him, but his true feelings were terribly more complicated.
The group stays closely knit, and Epim nods in assent to Bart’s decision. The Shade takes a more offensive posture, and before the Bloodsucker that had just attacked could regain its sense, it felt itself become a living pin cushion as the ornamental weapons that were previously on the ground stabbed themselves into him. Swords, spears, axes, anything with a blade Prose could find was directed towards the thing and launched with telekinetic force. It fell over in death, and the footsteps around them stopped.
In the hall now were a dozen feral Bloodsuckers. Each of them carried the same savage disposition as the first. Some stuck to the walls, some stuck to the ceilings, others crowded around the corridors, and finally there was one in particular that stayed at the very end of the hall. Its frame was smaller than the others, and its muscles while still developed were far leaner. Unlike the others, it was not blind, though its eyes still differed from those in the village. A yellow glow captured in its eyes, it lifted its hand forwards, and let out a shriek.
With that screech, the Bloodsuckers on the ceiling launched downwards. One was pierced against the ceiling before it had the chance, Prose using the same weapons he used to kill the first. Two more of the beasts shot through the air, both aiming for Bart. Although there was no sight in their eyes, they still looked with unbelievable hostility.
Epim swung his scythe, cutting one in half horizontally. The bottom half fell to the ground, but the top half still lived and it switched its target at the last moment. It aimed with its fangs and tried to pivot in the air to latch onto Epim’s throat. At the same time, the other landed to Epim’s right, and aimed its claws towards his body.
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Epim chose to defend against the one still intact, and dispelled his scythe from his hand. Quickly retreating his right hand and grabbing the inside of his cloak, he raised it in defense of himself. This left him even more open to the approaching Bloodsucker he had cut in half, but before it could sink its teeth in its head was grabbed by one of the retractable arms of the Shade. The hand clenched, and effortlessly crushed the thing's skull, its body falling limp.
The claws of the other cut into the cloak slightly, but not deep enough to cut through to Epim’s flesh. Pushing his knee forward into the face of the confused creature, and then following up with a kick into the stomach. Epim did not hesitate a moment, raising both his hands above his head and conjuring his scythe in the same instance. This time, he cut down vertically through the beast, killing it instantly. Nine Bloodsuckers remained.
Although they were blind, they seemed to have an understanding of the situation. The one in the back giving off occasional screeches. The weapons from the ceiling shot down towards it, but it clearly had a level of perception above the rest, for it instantly took notice and deftly dodged away from the rain of weapons.
Though most weapons missed, two swords were aimed at the Bloodsuckers closest to them on the walls. They hit their targets perfectly, the blades sinking into their necks. They fell to the ground, twitching momentarily and then going completely still. Seven remained.
“Scree! Scree!” The limber one shouted out orders, Its eyes stuck on Prose, noticing his slight movements in conjunction with the weapons direction. Each of the Bloodsuckers except the leader charged forward, their new target in mind.
Quickly the position of the group changed, Prose taking a stance behind the Shade who took the front. Epim stood to his right, scythe in hand. Bart stood behind as well,his eyes moving quickly in quick thought.
The six charged forwards, intending to overwhelm the group with pure momentum. The Shade stood still, its eyes scanning quickly and looking for a moment of weakness. Closer they grew, until they were a step away.
At that moment, Bart’s own screech echoed out. Though much unlike the previous song-like one before, it was an amateurish mimicry of the seeming leader of the feral ones. The six charging stopped in confusion, instantly caught off guard by their apparent leader's orders.
The Shade did not hesitate to take advantage of this moment. Slamming down a fist onto the forefront beast, it died in an explosion of viscera as the Shade showed no restraint.
Feeling a tug of the scythe in his hands, Epim let it go, and through Prose’s manipulation it flew through to the Bloodsuckers, decapitating three and then disappearing once more. In the momentary chaos Epim plunged his knife into the head of a Bloodsucker, twisting it as it entered to ensure fatality. The remaining Bloodsucker regained its senses and lept toward him with its mouth open.
Its mouth was instantly filled with the shaft of the scythe, Epim having it called it forward once more with ease. It had no moment to react, as the extra appendages of the Shade stabbed into it and picked it apart with ease. One Bloodsucker remained.
Quickly they looked for the remaining one, but in the commotion it had scurried away back into a corridor. This set the group on a slight edge, knowing that its intelligence made it quite more of a threat than the mindless ones that had rushed them. They did not panic and scour the castle however, for they were more focused on the original goal at hand.
Silence filled the hall, and the smell of blood was ever present. Epim retrieved his knife, and dispelled his scythe, knowing that for the moment there was no danger. He sighed, looking around him. It did his heart no good to see the damage he caused.
Prose also let out a sigh, though his was much more out of exhaustion than relief. Sweat ran down his face, and his wings flapped slower than usual. He moved over to the shoulder of the Shade and sat down on it. “That was quite a bit. Precision work is quite a challenge.” He wipes the sweat off his face with his sleeve, clearly not caring at all about the carnage.
The Shade still stood on guard, though it had clearly laxed itself quite a bit. Prose turned back to Bart. “If my exhaustion is the most of our worries then I’d say we came out pretty well. Nicely done with the scream Bart, I hadn’t expected that out of you.” Prose turns to Bart with a smile, though it leaves his face as he notices Bart’s intense examination of the countless corpses.
“What happened to them… I can’t imagine.” His voice is but a wisp, the distraught running through his body was quite significant. It filled him with fear, the way they took aim at him. It disgusted him, their malignantly twisted bodies, and above all an intense anxiety, at the idea that the one giving them commands was intelligent. “Did they have a reason to reject us with as much ferocity as they did?” Bart was shaking, his resolve slightly tested.
“They were trying to kill us Bart, same as the mercenaries.” Epim spoke coldly. “There isn’t an answer, not here.” He looks deep into the hall, and at the countless corridors of the castle. “It’ll lie deeper within. Where your lord waits.” A hint of disdain emanates from him, as the word lord leaves his lips. What he knew of Alucire did not fit with these mindless beasts. If he really were still alive, what kind of lord would allow such monstrosities to roam his castle?
Prose nodded. “Epim’s quite right. There is a time for introspection, and a time for action. We are in the latter. We can give meaning to their deaths by finding out the cause.”
Bart looked around again, and nodded. Although his heart felt no better, he knew their words weren’t wrong. And he knew that they were not violent without reason, he knew that the beasts had aimed at him and if it were not for them, he’d be dead. He knew all this, and still he wavered. He felt pity for himself, and he felt resent for himself that aside from his scream he could truly take no responsibility for what had occurred. He wished he could stand beside them instead of behind. Staring at Prose, a thought popped up into his head.
He went around to pick up the weapons, seven spears, four swords, and two axes. He attached them to his back with cloth, intending to keep an armory for Prose’s needs. “I hope they’ll come into use, I don’t know the peculiarities of your ability, but you used them with such precision before.” Bart didn’t have the physical acuity to compete with the feral beasts, and the weapons weighed heavy on his back. But he would not turn and leave the castle interior, not until they met Alucire.
“Of course, thank you Bart. Trust me, I will only use them if there is no other choice. I don’t wish to cause you any more undue pain.” Once again, Prose lets out a surprising degree of empathy for someone so aloof as he was.
Reaching a consensus, the group moved forward. Their goal was deeper inside the castle, and not a single one of them was interested in any place within the castle beyond that.
The castle that had not been entered in five hundred years had now been bloodied by the hands of three wanderers, and deep within it, eyes of gray took notice.