“Did you really just quote, They Live?” Blade asked.

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “What? It's a classic…” Before he mumbled to himself, “Maybe I should have saved it in case the Skrulls tried to invade.”

Ezekiel quickly shook his head before he said, “What are you all standing around for, we have vampires to hunt. Kaecilius you're with me. Blade you group up with Mordo. Alexei and Melina are already a team, so that leaves Jarvis with...”

Ezekiel glanced at Sanhildr and the ten Valkyries she bought and asked, “Sanhildr will you partner up with Jarvis?”

Sanhildr nodded before she split up the other valkyrie’s into groups of two. As they finished more vampires rushed out of the stairwell. This time a few of them carried guns and immediately opened fire on the group. A magic shield flickered to life as the bullets slammed into it, saving the group. Ezekiel glanced at Kaecilius who nodded at him with one hand raised in the air.

Kaecilius then quickly chanted a spell and with his other hand a red colored whip appeared, which he swung at the group of vampires on the roof. The whip split them all in half at the waist but didn't kill them, so Ezekiel quickly moved towards them and shot a round through each of their hearts.

As all of them but one started dissolving away Ezekiel glanced at the man as he said, “Looks like he wasn’t a vampire.”

Blade walked close to the man’s body and lifted his hand up to show a tattoo. He glanced at it for just a moment before he showed it to everyone else and said, “This is a familiar mark. If you find normal humans running around inside, they’re most likely a vampire familiar. Don’t hesitate to kill them.”

“What if they aren’t running around? Or they look like a victim?” Jarvis asked.

“I would suggest not wasting time with anyone you think is a victim. Just knock them out and tie them up. We can sort them out after we deal with the vampires.” Blade said.

Ezekiel glanced at the group as he said, “Stay with your teammate and watch each other's backs. I’m going to head to the ground floor with Kaecilius and clear it out before going into the basement.”

Ezekiel glanced at Kaecilius and said, “Have a shield ready as I make the portal.”

Kaecilius nodded and created another shield before Ezekiel opened up a portal to the street below as Blade said, “Me and Mordo should join you. The basement will have a heavier concentration of vampires.”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Be my guest.”

Kaecilius moved through the portal with his shield up before Blade and Mordo followed behind him. As Ezekiel stepped through the portal he glanced back and said, “I’ll try not to bring down the building.”

After the portal snapped closed Jarvis asked, “That was a joke right?”

Down on the street below Ezekiel said, “Stay behind the shield, I’ll get the door.” He then sucked in a lot of air quickly as he made some hand signs before he breathed out as he said, “Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!”

Flames shot out of Ezekiel's mouth which formed a fireball about fifteen feet in diameter before it flew towards the main entrance of the building. As the other group on the roof moved towards the roof stairwell access Alexei patted Jarvis’s shoulder as he said, “It’s Ezekiel, he always jokes around.”

Everyone felt a substantial rush of heat before a massive explosion rocked the whole building and caused it to shake under their feet. Jarvis and the others looked at Alexei who rubbed the back of his head and said, “Okay, maybe not…”

Down on the street, Blade looked at the massive hole in the front of the building that went up to the third floor, along with the fire now surrounding it as he asked, “Was that magic too?”

Ezekiel flexed his right arm as he said, “That was all me, one hundred percent natural baby!”

Mordo and Kaecilius shared a look before they ignored Ezekiel and moved towards the hole in the front of the building. Blade decided to ignore Ezekiel also and moved to follow the others as Ezekiel asked, “What? It’s true!”

Mordo turned to Blade and said, “The Ancient One told us it’s best to ignore him when he gets like this. Otherwise it just encourages him to do it more.”

Kaecilius nodded his head in agreement as Blade asked, “Is The Ancient One the person Ezekiel calls master?”

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Ezekiel caught up to them and said, “Yup. And she likes to spoil my fun.”

As they closed in on the hole a couple vampires ran out of the building screaming since they were on fire. Blade didn’t hesitate and quickly shot them before he said, “That fire might be an issue if we don’t put it out.”

Mordo nodded in agreement before he said, “I’ll handle it.”

Kaecilius kept his shield up as the group stopped at the edge of the fire and Mordo started to cast a spell. As he chanted, all the fire started to pull back as it gathered together and within seconds it was just a small ball of flames before it winked out. Afterwards the group walked into the building through the hole and started to clear the first floor.

Up on the top floor Alexei acted as the group's vanguard with his shield as Melina shot anyone who had a gun. Since they had such a large group, instead of people splitting off and running ahead to other floors. Alexei and Melina stayed in the main hallway. While one of the groups would enter an apartment to clear it. It worked out pretty well since the valkyries had so many years of experience together. Jarvis and Sanhildr also worked well together and didn’t run into any issues.

The vampires in the building were split on what to do since they heard fighting from the top floor and the first floor. Most of them ended up moving lower towards the explosion, but at least a hundred moved towards the top floor. Alexei, who stood in the middle of the hallway, saw the influx of vampires coming into the hallway from the stairwell and ran his finger over a rune on the inside of his shield. The shield pulsed with magic energy before a magic shield popped open to cover the hallway directly in front of it.

As bullet fire slammed into the magic shield Alexei laughed as he said, “I love this shield!”

Melina, who stood next to Alexei, took aim and shot a couple vampires through the heart before she said, “I’m glad, but how about you help thin the herd?”

“Sorry my love.”Alexei said as he pulled out his own gun and sprayed it into the horde of vampires coming down the hallway.

“They're vampires, you need to aim you oaf.” Melina said in annoyance as she took out three more vampires with clean shots through their heads.

As the large swarm moved closer, Sanhildr and Jarvis exited the apartment they just cleared. Sanhildr noticed the group and smiled before she charged forward as she said, “Move! I'll take care of them!”

Alexei turned slightly so Sanhildr could run past and a moment later she slammed into the front of the incoming vampires horde with glee. Within moments she was in the thick of them as she laughed with abandoned and chopped off body parts with ease. As the others watched, Melina said, “And I thought that Madara guy was a battle maniac.”

Before anyone could reply two valkyries ran past them and joined the fray. Before long all of the women were laughing as they cut down the stream of vampires coming up the stairs. Within a few minutes all of the valkyries were in the cramped hallway killing vampires as they laughed with glee.

Alexei glanced at his wife and asked, “I don’t think we’re needed here…”

Melina nodded in agreement before Jarvis said, “How about we clear out the other apartments as they… Have fun?”

Back downstairs, Blade would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed with Ezekiel and the people he brought with him. They cleared out the first floor in minutes and were now fighting the swarm of vampires that flooded down from the floors above. Mordo and Kaecilius were together near the stairwell and acted as a funnel to help thin out the swarm as it moved towards Ezekiel.

Ezekiel stood alone in the middle of the hallway and only used the knife Blade gave him earlier. With quick and efficient moves he cut down every vampire that moved close to him. While Blade covered the other end of the hallway near the hole Ezekiel made as some vampires were jumping down from the second and third story of the building.

As they fought, Ezekiel asked Blade over the sound of battle, “Is this what normally happens when you attack a nest?”

“No! This is anything but normal. I’ve never seen vampires act like this before.” Blade said before he shot another vampire.

Mordo, who just sliced a vampire in half with a conjured sword said, “They are honestly acting more like zombies than vampires. It’s like their only concern is getting to us at any cost.”

Ezekiel killed a few more vampires before he asked, “What would be able to control vampires like this?”

Kaecilius crushed a group of vampires into paste with a spell before he said, “It could be a greater vampire, but with this amount of mindless vampire thralls… It’s most likely a vampire lord and it should be somewhere below this building.”

“Vampire lord? What the hell is that? I’ve only fought lesser vampires and greater vampires before.” Blade said.

“Vampire lords are powerful vampires who have lived for at least a thousand years or more. But their main threat is normally from the horde of vampires they use to protect themselves with. We should still be cautious when we face them though, since they are powerful in their own right.” Kaecilius said.

Ezekiel killed another vampire as he asked, “So should we wait for the others, once we finish here?”

Kaecilius shrugged as he conjured a sword and used it to slice down a vampire before he said, “We won’t really need them. Plus depending on where the lord is, we might have too many people to properly fight them.”

Blade moved closer to Ezekiel so he could reload as he asked, “Won’t a bullet to the heart kill them?”

“Possibly, but vampire lords can become immune to silver and garlic if they live long enough. The best thing to do is to restrain them and kill them with sunlight.” Kaecilius said.

After that they continued to fight off the vampires until the swarm trickled down to almost nothing. Then they went around and killed any vampire that didn’t dissolve. As they were almost finished, Sanhildr and the rest of the upstairs group joined them. While Alexei, Melina and Jarvis looked pretty much clean. Sanhildr and the other valkyries were completely covered in grime.

Ezekiel glanced at the women for a moment who were covered in blood, ash and dirt before he asked, “What the hell happened to you guys?”