The avatar of the vampire took a step back. As she did, lightning crackled around Saxon’s arm, as he flared his wings. Saxon was making a declaration that running away wasn’t an option; if the avatar of the vampire did attempt to retreat, Saxon could chase after her, and shock her out of the sky.

In truth, that declaration was a half-bluff. Saxon could only muster 1 more bolt of lightning before he’d begin draining himself dry. What’s more, Icarus’ wings were about to expire soon as well.

The avatar of the vampire stopped in her tracks. It seemed Saxon had managed to convince her fighting was her only option.

Still, that didn’t solve any of Saxon’s problems. The vials of blood allowed his opponent to regenerate, which enabled her to outlast the remaining duration on Saxon’s wings.

However, Saxon didn’t have much more time to ponder, as the avatar of the vampire came lunging after him. Her fingernails extended into claws, as she raced toward Saxon.

Saxon knew a physical confrontation would take too long, so for now he would focus on defense. Summoning a shield using the mythos of King Leonidas, Saxon assumed a defensive position.

Once the avatar of the vampire had closed the gap between them, she leaped toward Saxon, her claws outstretched to tear open his torso. Instinctively, Saxon threw up his shield. However, the avatar of the vampire had a trick up her sleeve.

She had purposely leaped toward Saxon to deceive him. Traditionally, keeping your feet grounded in a fight is ideal. Once your feet leave the ground, you lose control of your movement.

It’s for this reason that Saxon had thrown up his shield so quickly. Yet, the avatar of the vampire’s flight allowed her to maneuver even in mid-air. Although Saxon was aware of her ability to fly, he was acting instinctively.

Just before her claw made contact with the shield, the avatar of the vampire flew forward just enough to grab the edge of it. Once she did, she pulled herself toward Saxon. In an instant, the two were face to face.

Saxon watched as two extended fangs threatened to sink into his neck. At the last second, Saxon managed to wrestle the shield out of the avatar of the vampire’s grasp and transfer it to his other hand. Right as the fangs were about to pierce into Saxon’s neck, they rebounded off the shield.

The avatar of the vampire pulled away and flew back up into the sky. Saxon looked up to see her silhouetted by the moon. That’s when he got an idea.

Saxon flew upwards to meet her in the sky. “Any chance we can talk this out?”

“I’d be happy to chat,” she replied, “but you’d need to come a little closer.”

“Think I’m good where I am,” Saxon said.

“Guess I’ll just have to come to you,” she replied.

The avatar of the vampire dashed forward, claws outstretched. Once again, Saxon threw up his shield, this time ready for her to alter her course mid strike using her flight; unfortunately for Saxon, the avatar of the vampire had another way to circumvent his defenses.

As she was mere inches from Saxon, she transformed herself into mist. Her momentum caused the mist to rush past Saxon sending a chill through his whole body.

Saxon put his other hand behind his back and transferred the shield to it, in order to prevent his upper body from being struck. A sharp pain shot through Saxon’s Achilles heel, as the avatar of the vampire, apparated from the mist, and struck at his foot.

Saxon spun around and put his shield in the way of another claw that was poised to strike at his lower back. The avatar of the vampire noticed Saxon’s defense, and dismissed her flight, allowing gravity to take over.

As she began to fall, her claw’s target dropped from Saxon’s mid-section, down toward his knee which was left unguarded. The claw sunk into Saxon’s kneecap, nearly tearing it out of socket. Saxon clenched his teeth to muffle the sounds of his pain.

He looked down to where the avatar of the vampire had fallen but she was nowhere in sight. Rising out from Saxon’s blind spot, the avatar of the vampire raked her claws along Saxon’s back.

The air briefly left Saxon’s lungs. He needed to bear the pain if he had any hope of taking her down before his wings ran out.

Saxon constructed a spear using the mythos of King Leonidas.

“Still have some fight left in you?” the avatar of the vampire remarked, rushing towards Saxon. “Let’s fix that.”

Just before she entered striking distance, she stopped. Saxon didn’t know the reason, but this was the best opportunity he would get to land a clean hit. He looked her directly in the eyes and invoked the mythos of Medusa.

The momentary paralysis gave Saxon the window of opportunity to get in range and strike out with his spear. Saxon felt it drive into the abdomen of the avatar of the vampire. Ice-cold blood splattered across his arm.

He looked to see the effect his attack had had, but the world began to warp. The eyes Saxon had looked into when using Medusa, were not the same eyes that he had been fighting all this time. The irises were replaced with hypnotic blood-red spirals.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Ah!” the avatar of the vampire exclaimed, as she pulled herself free from Saxon’s spear. “And that’s checkmate.”

She had afflicted Saxon with a form of hypnosis.

Saxon could no longer tell up from down. Being in mid-air made him feel like he was constantly falling. Everything solid appeared to move like liquid for Saxon. Deep down he knew none of this was real, but his perception of reality was ruined.

Saxon saw the avatar of the vampire lunge to attack him, but it wasn’t just her. There were multiple versions of her, each one coming from a different direction.

Without any ability to discern which was the real one, Saxon had no choice but to endure the pain, as his shoulder was ripped open.

This onslaught of hallucinations continued to ravage Saxon. He tried to fly in erratic patterns, but the sense of vertigo from the hypnosis had warped his spatial awareness too much. Every time Saxon moved it felt like he would collide with the sky itself, or plummet to the ground beneath him.

Saxon’s blood cascaded from the sky onto the streets of Backwater, as the avatar of the vampire ripped him apart.

Eventually, Saxon’s body stopped moving. At this point, he was near the brink of death. Icarus’ wings kept him suspended in mid-air.

The avatar of the vampire finally ceased her assault. She stopped to catch her breath and examined her abdominal wound. It had grown worse due to her constant movement.

She pulled back her cloak to reveal several vials of blood strapped to her waist. As she reached down to grab one, every single vial shattered into pieces, as a spear flew straight through them.

The avatar of the vampire turned her head to see Saxon standing, his arm outstretched, and his body fully healed.

Saxon knew from the start that he needed to remove those vials of blood to win. He also realized that doing so while the avatar of the vampire was on guard wouldn’t be possible. As a result, the only option left was to catch her off-guard.

At the start of the fight, Saxon had devised a 3-step plan to destroy the vials.

Step one, injure the avatar of the vampire so that she would have to reveal where her vials of blood were hidden.

Step two, believably lose the fight. Once he was at death’s door, the avatar of the vampire would no longer consider Saxon a threat.

Step three, use the mythos of Baron Samedi to fully recover from any wounds sustained--luckily, it also cured Saxon’s hypnosis. Then once the avatar of the vampire made an attempt to regenerate, in the split second her vials of blood were exposed, Saxon would shatter them.

This plan wasn’t without its downsides, however. Mainly, Baron Samedi had drained much of Saxon’s stamina. Saxon could no longer launch another bolt of lightning using Raijin, meaning if Icarus’ wings ran out he’d have no way to chase the avatar of the vampire.

Moreover, although Saxon was healed, he wouldn’t be able to win a physical confrontation with how drained he was. However, he wouldn’t need to.

Saxon had primarily used the mythos of Loki for its shape-changing purposes, yet he knew there was more the god of mischief had to offer.

Recently, Saxon had met with the avatar of Loki--a rare opportunity. During this, Saxon inquired about Loki’s illusory capabilities.

The avatar of Loki explained to Saxon that Loki’s illusions didn’t take place in the mind of his targets. They were visible for all to see. In essence, Loki’s illusions were a manipulation of light.

Creating illusions required manipulating several factors of light, including its magnitude, frequency, direction, and color among others. Through practice and continued conversation, Saxon learned to do each of these individually, yet putting it all together still evaded him.

Fortunately, Saxon wasn’t trying to create illusions. A vampire’s most famous weakness was of course sunlight. It being night Saxon had disregarded trying to leverage this vulnerability.

However, as Saxon gazed upon the moon, he realized something. Moonlight is simply reflected sunlight. If he could amplify the brightness of the moonlight, then it should theoretically act like sunlight.

Before the avatar of the vampire could move, Saxon invoked the mythos of Loki to amplify the moonlight around her. A spotlight shone down on the avatar of the vampire, as her body began to burn.

Blinded by the brightness of the light, and incapacitated by the pain, the avatar of the vampire was rendered unable to act. Now all Saxon needed to do was continue this until she fell unconscious from the pain.

However, fate had other plans, as Saxon felt himself begin to fall. Icarus’ wings had melted away. Saxon tried to resummon them, but the time limit had run out.

Saxon crashed into the rooftop, falling flat on his back, and cracking the concrete. The air was ripped from his lungs. His entire nervous system lit up with pain, enough to make him lose concentration on brightening the moonlight.

By the time Saxon stumbled to his feet, the avatar of the vampire had already flown away.

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Saxon gave chase, but the gap between them was large.

Saxon tried to summon a single lightning bolt, but his body was too exhausted. The distance between them only grew larger, and larger.

Suddenly, blood shot out from the side of the avatar of the vampire. Saxon stopped dead in his tracks. He looked around, but there was nobody to be found.

The avatar of the vampire began tumbling out of the sky. Unable to regain control, she took her hand and dragged it across the blood that had splattered on her clothes when Saxon shattered the vials.

Forcing herself not to gag, she licked her blood-soaked hand. Her wounds began to heal, as she dropped into an alleyway, and out of sight.

Saxon didn’t hear any crash, meaning she must have caught herself before she hit the ground. Without a moment to the waist, Saxon used Schrödinger's cat to teleport to the edge of the rooftop, just above the alleyway she fell into.

Gazing down into the alley below, Saxon saw the avatar of the vampire laying still on the ground. Immediately he attempted to use Schrödinger's cat to teleport into the alleyway, but the activation failed. Someone was watching Saxon or the alley.

Saxon looked around, but it was dark enough that nobody should be able to see him or into the alley. Once again, he tried to use Schrödinger's cat, and this time it worked.

Appearing in the alleyway, Saxon rushed over to the avatar of the vampire. The body was lifeless. Strangely, there were no injuries nor signs of struggle.

Saxon searched the body for the files but found nothing. Somebody had killed her and taken the files. Saxon speculated that they were the same person who had shot her down, or was working with whoever did.

Whatever the case may be, this wasn’t Saxon’s top priority. That would be his partner, who was currently fighting a werewolf. He only hoped she was doing better than him.