“Well crap.”

“W-what?”

“A vampire just spotted us.”

“What? How khan you be certain?”

“I’m not, but a dot in the sky just appeared way over there. It must have come into view right as we dashed through that clearing. I’ve been watching it for a minute now, and it’s definitely getting bigger fast. Looks like it’s making a beeline for us.”

“Khould be a khoincidence.” She peered in the same direction, then hissed something in her own language. “No, it is not.” She rattled off some more harsh syllables.

Two more dots appeared, then two more. “Oh. It m-must be pretty sure to bring help. How long do you think we h-have?”

Squinting, Gloe considered. “Well, they can be overhead pretty quick, but I doubt they have enough fliers left to take us by themselves, and I really doubt they want to engage Emokha in the air again.” A long hissing laugh interrupted her cursing. “So they’ll have to wait for ground troops. Vampires are fast, but if they’re in a search pattern…an hour? Ish? Maybe two on the outside?”

“D-damn. Not long enough to g-grow anything good.”

“You got any of those spears you used on the leader left?”

“T-two. And a s-single flame spear. Haven’t had t-time.”

“Well it’s something. Maybe you can give him invasive arboreal surgery again.”

“No, I doubt we will see him unless we have been inkhapacitated. I hadn’t takhen a khlass on the subject before they came for us, but I rekhall my instrukhtors talkhing about vampires one day. I don’t remember the details, but it was something about the higher ones hating having to regenerate. I do not think he’ll riskh it happening again.”

“P-probably couldn’t do that again anyway. We g-got lucky before.”

“Mmm.” After a moment Emokha’s mandibles pulled into a savage smile. “Most likhely we lose tonight, but given the time we have perhaps we khan takhe a number with us. If so, we khan force them to khill us.”

“I’m always down for dying, especially in such good company.”

...

“W-well, I guess we could take it as a compliment.”

“Yes. I suppose we khould. That is a lot of low-level vampires.”

“Think about how much experience that would be if these assholes gave any. Really, I think that’s the most frustrating part of this!”

“More than d-dying or being turned?”

“Oh c’mon Oresus, everyone dies. Emokha’s practically making a habit of it, aren’t you?”

“I suspekht I am not alone in that.”

“Yeah, and d-didn’t you half-die every other week at Tranche?”

“Old news” Gloe said airily.

“Hmph. Just remember the plan, and die as well as you khan.”

“As l-long as we manage to die. I don’t w-want to become one of those things.”

Gloe thumped him heartily on the back. “No worries. Worse-case scenario I’ll take care of it before I go myself.”

“Thanks, I g-guess.”

“What’re friends for? See ya’ll next time around, eh?” The three took up positions in a loose triangle, back to back to back. The vampire horde washed over them like a wave.

Except…waves don’t really care if you slam them with cut-down sledgehammers. Gloe discovered, to his delight, that the same could not be said for vampire thralls. They really seemed to dislike the entire experience, which oddly enough was fairly inverse to Gloe’s own sentiments. For a long time his focus narrowed.

Just Emokha, Oresus and vampires all around. Emokha was fine despite her fatigue. Her ability was sustaining her, for now, and she was able to lash out with multiple attacks at any foe that came near. Even her natural weapons gave her slight reach advantage over them, while her scimitars gave her a couple feet. Gloe was a bit concerned she’d eventually hit the limits of even her ability and simply pass out on her feet, but the vampires didn’t know that. All they knew was that getting too close to her led to being savaged. Understandably they were less than eager to vector in on her side.

By contrast Oresus was wavering a bit. He was tired. Unlike the other two all he had to rely on was general enhancement. His ability wasn’t helping him at all, so he was drooping. For the moment the reach advantage of his spear was allowing him to keep the vampires at bay, but that was pretty much it. Emokha was stretching to her right a bit, protecting his left side, and Gloe was doing the same on the other side. It was keeping him alive for now, but the vampires could see he was weakening and they piled in as they could.

The strength of the attack on Gloe was somewhere in the middle. He wasn’t anywhere near as deadly as Emokha but he was vigorously defending himself, so he wasn’t taking much damage except for when he over-extended to protect Oresus. His shortened sledgehammers couldn’t one-shot the vampires but he was able to knock them down and batter their shroud pretty regularly. They weren’t exactly lining up to experience that, but it was better than facing Emokha.

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And so it went. On and on and on, for hours. Oresus collapsed several times, but each time they managed to get him back to his feet before getting rolled over, although they took a fair bit of damage doing it. Emokha was starting to micro-sleep again, which probably meant she was approaching the limits of her ability to keep her in the fight.

Gloe was still pretty okay. If it had only been thralls he could have just kept going indefinitely. Not necessarily winning, but he could have held out until daylight. Unfortunately there were a couple of elites present as well, and presumably their leader was present somewhere nearby too. Gloe already knew he couldn’t win that fight by himself.

Still a couple hours till dawn too. The light-haters would probably have to leave at least an hour early to make certain they made it to shelter, but that still gave them plenty of time. The same could not be said for the trio.

“We havvvve…to do it now” Emokha slurred. “I khannot hang on…much longer. It is slipping…away.”

“Alright. It’s been an honor. I’ll try to hold them a sec. Both of you get as angry as you can.” He gauged for a minute, then reluctantly dropped a hammer to reach over and slap Oresus across the face. “KILL!” he screamed, right in his ear. Then he rolled forward, picking back up the hammer and charging.

It was a peculiar assault though. He ran around in circles, bouncing and sliding, using imbue to let him leap at peculiar curving angles. He wasn’t attacking the vampires as such, he was running interference for the other two, counter-charging every vampire that came in. He couldn’t catch them all, but for a brief period, before the attackers realized what he was doing and adapted, he could keep his comrades somewhat clear.

At a price of course. It left him horribly vulnerable and the vampires ripped into him. He’d been relatively intact when he launched the attack, now he was dripping blood everywhere. His regeneration would hold off exsanguination for a bit, but not indefinitely, and that assumed the vampires didn’t manage to just tear him to pieces before that.

He couldn’t hold much longer. Emokha was furious, Oresus…less so. Too tired probably. It would have to do. He flipped back towards them, dropping both hammers and grabbing Oresus in both arms. Emokha flew straight up and Gloe ran.

None of the vampires were eager to face her in the air, and Gloe was trailing blood as he went. They followed him. They were faster, but even injured he was still more maneuverable, and he used that as much as he could, zig-zagging like a madman. Of course he couldn’t imbue Oresus to him, which limited him to fairly conventional evasions. They were not only catching up but slowly enveloping him. And closing in.

The blood sold it. Intellectually the vampires had to know he was regenerating. The way they’d been fighting him showed it clearly. His bleeding would have been fatal for a normal human, but that simply wasn’t the case for him. On some level they had to know that, but blood had too strong an effect on them, and they just couldn’t think all that clearly. (It probably didn’t hurt that their fear was being eaten while their hunger was being left alone.)

If they had been able to think without impediment they might have wondered why Gloe was carrying Oresus. After all, the latter was tired, not crippled. Running for his life might have woken him up. They also might have considered why you would run from foes you knew were faster than you. Of course Gloe could have been panicking, desperate to preserve Oresus’ life, but that wasn’t really in character for him based on the way he’d fought last time. Vampires weren’t exactly analytical in nature, but obviously they’d discussed the way the last fight had gone, so they should have noticed something was off.

If they had, they might have looked more carefully at where Gloe’s ‘random’ evasions took him, and where he ended up being cornered. As the vampires encircled him, all ground avenues cut off, Gloe flickered eating Emokha and Oresus’ emotions. For just a few seconds they felt the full force of their overflowing anger, pain and fear, then they were back to more manageable feelings. That’d wake them up. There was nowhere to go but up, so Gloe leapt.

Hanging in the air, no way to maneuver. Dead meat. The vampires leapt for the kill.

Oresus kicked clear. Hard. Their remaining shroud held, but Gloe and Oresus went flying off in opposite directions. The vampires were either still on the ground or in mid-air, so the duo were temporarily in the clear. A momentary setback, but as Oresus flew he threw his sole flame spear. And, coincidentally, the ground just vacated happened to full of dried-out coniferous needles and wood. Almost as if someone had carefully piled them there.

Gloe switched from eating fear to eating hunger, and the vampires reacted. Only some of them were low enough on shroud that the fire bursting to life all around them was an immediate threat, but all of them had an innate fear of fire. It was one of the few conventional things that could seriously hurt or even kill them, so they reacted instinctively, leaping clear. For a moment their circumstances mirrored those of Gloe and Oresus just prior, but they weren’t carrying someone to kick off of. Just flying through the air with minimal control.

Emokha was abruptly there, in a frenzy. Ripping, slashing, tearing. The lack of blood made it almost surreal as wounded vampires (and vampire pieces) fell back to earth. Into the waiting fire.

She couldn’t get them all of course, but they were so close together and such was her fury that she was able to slaughter quite a few. It was pure chaos. One of the elites rushed up, desperate to salvage the situation. The moment it left the ground a small tree trunk slammed into it, knocking it back to earth. As the tree touched the ground Gloe imbued the two together, pinning the vampire. It pushed frantically, trying to break free. The tree began to creak under its immense strength, but shroud was far more resistant to steady pressure than strikes, and it held for a bit.

Meanwhile Oresus stood over the immobilized vampire, driving his spear down in a two-handed blow. It didn’t penetrate, so he did it again. And again. And again. The vampire began to panic, thrashing and hammering blows in all directions, but both Oresus and Gloe were just out of reach.

Finally the restraining trunk shattered. As the vampire scrambled to its feet Gloe tackled it, slamming it into a nearby tree. Presented with a neck so near by the vampire couldn’t resist beginning to feed. That’s when Oresus’ spear came in under Gloe’s left armpit, coating itself in his dripping blood as it passed. The tip just barely penetrated the vampire’s shroud, lightly imbedding itself in its chest. Just like its master the vampire reacted dramatically, its head flying back as it screamed. Oresus was able to push the spear the rest of the way in, and before long wooden tendrils erupted from every orifice.

The vampires were in complete disarray. Now was the moment of doom. The three defenders had done what they could, but now the master would show himself. He would have to in order to rally his forces. The trio’s plan ended here. They would do their best, but realistically they wouldn’t be able to beat him. All they could do was force him to kill rather than turn them. If necessary they’d throw themselves into the still-burning fire. They’d resigned themselves to this ending. They were ready.

And then…he didn’t show up. Overwhelmed by fear the remaining vampires fled, completely oblivious to the fact that their foes were more or less finished. Oresus fell on his face, sending up a puff of vampire elite dust. Emokha plummeted out of the sky, crashing to earth only a few perilous feet from the still-raging fire.

Gloe watched the receding vampires, then put his hands on his hips and surveyed the battlefield. His allies collapsed and unconscious, a roaring fire giving away their position, their weapons broken or fallen all around. “Well” he said to no one in particular,” I think that went about as well as could be expected.”