Our group has managed to get out of the sewers. Suiga has recuperated, and stares left and right, trying to figure out what happened…
Url: Rise and shine, samurai.
Lau: Is he going to curse at us and attack?! Should we chain him?
Cassie: A hostile hunter? A vampirification perhaps. Will disposal be necessary then?
Url: No disposals needed, nightingale.
Suiga : What…what happened…
His first reflex is to check his right arm. Long, red burn scars fill out his palm. He struggles to move his fingers…
Suiga: (It calmed down…But I won’t be able to use it for a few days…)
Looking at his palm, the previous events flash before his eyes. Insulting his comrades, toyed around by Danno, only saved by his leader’s quick reflexes. He bites his lips in anger…
Url ducks down, and rests his palm on the samurai’s shoulder…
Url: Calm down, Suiga. You did well. Me and Lau would be dead if it weren’t for you taking him head-on…
Lau: Huh? I didn’t rely on topknot at all!! Stop lying!!!
As Lau assaults Url with light-hearted punches, the samurai’s face slightly brightens. His failure against the blade now seems unimportant, next to his comrades' safety guaranteed…
Suiga: I have to ask…who is the huntress accompanying us?
Url: I barely have any idea. She just came to help us along with Aaron.
Cassandra poses once again, surprising the gang…
Cassie: The Huntress under the Moonlight Sky, the Slayer of all Vampires, The Black Warhorse of Landen, Incarnation of Van Helsing, the one and only, Nightingale!!! Cassandra Mergrove!!!
Lau: I was right, she’s crazy.
Suiga: I had no idea Landen had such an esteemed huntress within its ranks!!
Url: Believe me Url, the most esteemed hunters in our ranks are drunkards our sarcastic swearers.
Cassie: I have taken upon the role of bossman’s temporary partner for this search and rescue mission. While my duties can be considered “done”, I feel a raging sensation to remain alongside you to observe the rest of this story’s plot unfold.
Url: Uuh…I guess you can?... (What’s with her language?)
Suiga: We’d be lucky to have you. Thank you for helping our chief and escorting us…
Suiga slowly stands up…
Suiga: But I believe we should re-enter. We can’t let Aaron take this one by himself, no matter his physical advantage.
Lau: You heard that? How long were you really asleep?
Url: Was I carrying you for nothing?
Suiga: None the matter, you should return and prepare for the assault. I’ll go fetch our captain.
Url: You must be nuts if you think you’ll go. Especially after your surprise with the blight.
Hearing that last word, the samurai freezes in fear…
Url: You think I’d let that slide?...
He approaches the hunter. Suiga’s pulse rises higher and higher. He wants to react, and defend himself should the plague doctor try to hurt him. But his guilt holds down all movement…
Url: I won’t let you go die with that muscle freak while we stay here like chickens. I’ll go.
Suiga’s body calms down as he relieves himself of any worries. Url starts coughing blood out of his mask…
Lau: None of you weaklings will go search the brute. I’ll fetch the brute. And I’ll take out that vampire while I’m-
A sudden crack in her knee makes her fall down, in an attempt to walk forward. A result of continuous running and dodging…
Suiga: Seems the shrimp can’t back up her words. How would you be of use to our captain?
Lau: Shut up!! He’s not my captain!!
Url: You did defend him when Danno was insulting him, though…
Suiga: Explain that, shrimp…
Cassandra smiles as she observes the group’s light-hearted argument…
Cassie: You’d be a foul to not worry about a group like them…
She approaches the crowd…
Cassie: As this temporary group’s sole healthy warrior, I’ll take on this secondary rescue mission! I’m sure there’ll be no shortcomings in my way…
A few moments pass after Cassandra’s departure. The group helped Url prepare for treatment. Their heads turn as they notice a struggling Cassandra trying to pull Aaron’s bloodied body from the floor. The face is red, and her eyes and veins are almost ready to pop out from the excess pressure…
Cassie: Help…me…
Suiga rushes to her aid…
Url: And to think she’s lucky Eisenwald was called out…
Suiga: Good Lord!!! He’s a heavy lad, ain’t he?
Url: Bring him over here, on top of the blanket.
They rush him onto the blanket. Having taken out his table, Url begins treating Aaron’s wounds. A few stitches to the pierced limbs, a few ointments on to the bruises, and a lot of syringes full of stimulants. Work that would take doctors days to finish, Url does it in a matter of minutes. His precision, his swiftness, and efficiency manage to grasp his teammate’s amazement…
As Url finishes, Aaron’s eyelids start to flutter. He slowly wakes up. He stares quietly as his comrades welcome him back to the waking world…
Suiga: Captain!!!! You are (snotty sobbing) back!!
Lau: You’re back, you brute? I’m hoping you killed the bat before taking your sweet nap!
Url: How many times have I told you to not overdo it with the steroid blast?! How am I going to explain this to Shroud?!
Cassie: For a young man, your weight has managed to even fall the nightingale…
His teammates continue to shout with excitement. Their beloved chief has finally returned. Nonetheless…
Aaron: Will you guys ever SHUT UP!!???
Up and about like he slept a hundred naps, he starts chastising his worrying teammates, who care not for the screams as long as they come out of their comrade’s alive body…
Cassie: While this reunion is indeed a blessing, I believe we must hurry for Salazar. The ritual sites are still intact, and the Ripper is still at large.
Aaron: Damn it!! I forgot!! Guys, we have to
A large burst is heard from Salazar’s walls. Having a good view of the tower, they don’t notice any strange phenomena. Nonetheless, their worries are enough to have them pack up and leave immediately.
Coursing with all their might through the city streets, they notice people out of their windows, shouting and staring over at the prison. Citizens in the streets run in the opposite direction, but no one seems particularly worried. A second break-in Salazar might be afoot, and yet the Landenians take this like another daily vampire hunt?
The group arrives at the start of the bridge. To their surprise, vampires have broken out. Hulks are running amok throughout the bridge. However…
Shroud: Ya motherfucker’s better be ready!!!
The expedition team has arrived at the scene. The support army has set a few swivel guns to shoot down escaping vampires in mid-air. In the center of the bridge, a group of hunters are chopping the hulk left and right. Shroud swings around his ginormous axe, adorned with a drawn-on teething smiling face. The axe’s blade forcefully chops the hulk’s limbs like butter. Not even one manages to touch Shroud.
A few steps further, Luca dances. He dances through dozens of vampire attacks, complementing his recital with sets of slashes from two swords, both fashioned like silver crosses. Limbs, blood, and gore fly up and away in his path.
Behind them, three younger hunters are fighting a hulk. Around the ages of 25-27, the group consists of a large man, dressed in black army clothes, using a set of silver knuckles with ingots attached to them, hitting hard on the Hulk’s legs. The other, a white-haired, slender individual, wearing what seems to be a set of pajamas, throws silver cards at the monster. He manages to strike the eyes, blinding the bat.
The third, dark-skinned, with long black hair, dressed like an official in the admin wing, with a charismatic black suit, waived around a silver spear. He jumps on top of the hulk through his staggered limbs and pierces his neck multiple times over. The hulk falls. The first guy climbs on top of him, and finishes the beast with a series of hard punches…
Our group remains stunned. A disaster they risked their lives to prevent, is now dealt with within a matter of minutes…
Suiga: Who are these people…
Cassie: I see Sir Shroud and Sir Luca. An honor for the nightingale to partake in this hunt with them…
Url: The expedition must have finished early.
Lau: I can’t believe we rushed over here for nothing. We need to go for the other sites!!
A support soldier approaches them…
Soldier: That won’t be necessary. The expedition team has sent people over, this is the last site.
Lau: WHAT!?
Url: Hey, at least we took out Danno, right?
Aaron remains silent. He watches his seniors destroy the vampires and along with that Danno’s dreams of destruction…
Aaron: Took ya long enough, dumbass…
Shroud turns around and notices his student observing the fight…
Shroud: Dammit, Aaron, I didn’t bring ya the kids so ya could slack even more!!!
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Aaron: Shut up!!!
The hunters finish up with the bridge…The fight is finally over. Years of planning, setting, waiting, down the drain. Landen cheers away as the hunters march to VHC, gloating in all the glory…
A few days pass…Back at the bar, our hunters take a much longer, needed rest. Their wounds still healing, and they take advantage of the expedition team’s return to recuperate and strategize over the next steps.
Shroud chooses to keep a cool head after weeks of drinking, opting for only anything his flask has. Luca drinks his tea, chastising the hulk for his poor choices.
The group talks around the grand table…
Shroud: And then, bam!! Eisenwal’ falls out of his hands and almost kills Luca!!
Lau: He was that weak?!
Shroud: Telling ya’, I told him “Grip hard!!”, I don’t know what that kid was hearing.
Luca: Maybe if you weren’t shouting over my advice, he’d be better at it.
Cassie: These stories are pretty entertaining, indeed.
Suiga: Little Aaron, Little Aaron, Little-
Aaron: Enough about me, aren’t we supposed to talk about what you guys found out in the ruins?
Shroud: Pooper.
Luca: Well, since you filled us in, it’s time we told you of our misadventures.
Luca pulls out maps, drawings, and small trinkets from a large bag next to his chair.
Luca: Apparently, Danno being a noble was legitimate info. The cult he led was residing inside the ruins we found. They must have left when they heard of Danno’s prison break.
Url: I suppose the Ripper had set up this reunion. But to think of Danno, an aristocrat…
Shroud: Ya stood lucky he was a weak one, Aaron. He didn’t even know he had a Virtue before the Ripper told ‘im.
On one of the papers laid by Luca, a description of aristocratic vampires is written in detail.
Aristocrats are direct descendants of the vampire “Dracula”. Other than superior traits to the commoners, an aristocrat has what they call a “Virtue”. The lore indicates that in an almost fatal battle with a human, the weak Dracula was gifted by Camazotz, the god of bats, a spell that only he could ever use and master. His fabled “hemomancy”, is in fact his Virtue, a primordial spell unique for each aristocrat. A counterpart to a hunter’s Holy Armament, but the Virtue differs in the fact that vampires have no drawbacks in using them. An extension of their selves, using a Virtue can sound the death for a lot of opposing hunters, if the aristocrat is strong of course.
Luca: But we haven’t seen aristocrats inside Landen for years…How come one just popped up and happened to work with the Ripper too?
Url: That does not sound like a coincidence, sir. I also don’t believe the Ripper is over. He wasn’t trying to relieve his glory days. He must have an agenda…
Shroud: We got a plan put in place to lure ‘im in. We haven’t worked out the small stuff, but we’ll tell ya when the time’s good.
Shroud gets up, and stretches his large arms…
Shroud: Now’s the time for bed. G’night, everyone!
Luca: Jesus, Shroud it’s still evening!
Shroud: And in a little bit it’ll be night. Who says more sleep is bad?
They notice Cassandra packing away her affairs…
Shroud: Hey, Mergrove gal!! Where ya’ headin’?
Cassie: Considering my mission as the bossman’s, or now Aaron’s, partner is fulfilled, the nightingale shall follow her solitary path down the Hunt. My master would be most unpleased if she heard I dilly-dally with my brethren instead of focusing on the mission at hand.
Shroud rests confused hearing Cassie’s complex speech…
Cassie: I salute you, my comrades. Aaron, your partnership was most interesting. I shall always cherish my brief torture of carrying your heavy carcass out the sewers, your constant witty sarcasm, your reckless nature, your brutish-
Aaron: Goodbye weirdo, you won’t be missed.
Cassie: And thus, the nightingale, DEPARTS!!
Cassie slowly walks towards the door. Real slowly. The group stares awkwardly as she approaches the door in slow motion…
Aaron: Could you be more quick with this? Suiga might start telling you to stay.
Suiga: It’s true, I do love meeting new people.
Aaron: Come on, on with it!!
Cassie: Aaron, you fool! A departure such as this requires great mental fortitude!! It is only logical for me to find this separation so tiring and difficult!!
Aaron: WE’VE ONLY KNOWN YOU FOR THREE DAYS!!!
Url: She did stay with us in the bar though.
Lau: Don’t you know me and topknot for around the same time?
Aaron: Stop talking!! We don’t need another weirdo in this bunch!!
Cassie: I helped you. I picked you up at your lowest-
Aaron: I’m not fat.
Cassie: I saved your friends. I allowed you a front-row seat in the nightingale’s misadventures. A slight trial in allowing me to stay as a courtesy is not a problem at all.
Aaron: I DON’T WANT YOU HERE!!!
Aaron tries to kick her out. Still weakened he struggles to push her out the door. Cassandra blushes as she struggles herself to push through the hunter’s torso to get back in…
Cassie: I’ll be a most valuable asset!! I’m flexible, I’m oriented, a team player-
Aaron: Whatever happened to the “solitary path”?
Cassie: Solitude amounts to nothing against rotisserie chicken!!
Aaron: LIKE HELL YOU ARE TAKING THAT AWAY FROM ME!!!
Cassie: Please let me in!!!
Luca stares at the ridiculous fight, deep in thought…
Luca: Shroud?
Shroud: Huh?
Luca: Isn’t the Mergrove girl Sarah’s student?
Shroud: Yep.
Luca: Didn’t Sarah send us a letter a few nights ago, telling us that her student has to join some sort of hunter group to comply with VHC protocol? Because she was “badly adjusted” to the hunting community’s new standards?
Shroud: …Dammit. Aaron boy, stop!!
As soon as Shroud explains the situation, Aaron’s lips form a most sulking frown of despair. Cassandra hops around from enjoyment, hugging everyone in the room and rushing to her bedroom to set her stuff away…
Aaron: Not just any weirdo…the queen of weirdos…my chicken rotisserie…
Lau: Crazy lady’s right, watching Aaron sulk is indeed a beautiful sight.
Suiga: No worries, Aaron. With the nightingale on our side, your ragtag group is sure to achieve the greatest of heights! I shall prepare new morning hymns for her addition to the team.
Url: A sharpshooter in our midst wouldn’t be so bad. And she seems to like Aaron, which rarely happens.
Aaron: You fucks really are messing with me…
Cassandra reappears…
Cassie: Bossman, The Huntress under the Moonlight Sky, the Slayer of all Vampires, The Black Warhorse of Landen, Incarnation of Van Helsing, the one and only, Nightingale!!! Cassandra Mergrove!!! At your service!!! Under my master’s orders, I shall aid you in the Hunt, as your new teammate.
Suiga: Lady Cassandra, may I partake in your name-calling habit of our captain as “bossman”? He seems to reject my other titles.
Cassie: Of course you can, my foreign friend!! Let us admire our bossman together!!
Aaron: Continue with the bossman routine, and the nightingale will sleep in the trash today.
As the group gathers around to congratulate Cassandra’s addition to the team, Shroud and Luca look in awe….
Shroud: Do ya remember when Aaron’s pop first told us we’ll be going along with him?
Luca: How could I forget. Only at the time, we were the ones that didn’t want to be with him.
Through Aaron’s annoyed expressions, his raised eyebrows, his shouting, and brief seconds of him smiling are noticed by the veterans, at the sight of his teammates talking around him…
Luca: But we came around. We ended up almost dying for that guy.
Shroud: Too bad the tables were turned…He’d be happy to see this…
Luca: Let’s be honest, he’d be right there with them, pissing the hell off our boy…
Shroud: Heh…So, time for lights out. Guess we start with the plans tomorrow. Let them have their fun for now.
Luca: They really aren’t ready for this…
The veterans leave. One by one, the members of the bar depart for their chambers. Before Suiga enters his room, he glances at his captain for a moment. As their eyes meet, Aaron immediately realizes what Suiga could be thinking.
Aaron: Don’t worry. I hate my sword too. You did well, Suiga.
He smiles in relief. Quite the corridor. The night passes away. The returning hunters jump from rooftop to rooftop, slaying escaping vampires and disposing of imps. After days full of blood and fighting, our hunters get to have a full night’s rest…
The next morning, everyone wakes up to a nice surprise. Shroud and Luca are waiting for the youth with news of the VHC’s new strategy…
Luca: Rise and shine, rookies. Time for a morning debrief on the situation.
Aaron: Oh, come on aren’t we over this whole Ripper situation? He hasn’t pulled a move for three days, who are we to-
Shroud ejects a pebble on the young hunter’s forehead, leaving scrubbing the area in tears…
Luca: As I was saying, the Ripper is still at large. For the last three days, your seniors have been cleaning the streets of escapees non-stop. Some of them, for reasons unknown, chose to head for Landen’s Third Monetary Safehouse.
Url: The bank? What would a vampire want from there?
Suiga: Well, considering it’s a safe house, items of value such as vampiric artifacts could be hidden…
Lau: Why would anyone put a vampire trinket in the bank?
Cassie: I’ll have to agree, every trinket is registered to the VHC.
Luca: Not if no one knew the trinket’s magic…
From his bag, he pulls out large schematics of the bank’s interior. Written in old paper, the bank appears to have a multitude of layers going downwards…The last one is marked in red circles…
Luca: This is the last floor. Every trinket dating back to Dracula’s era, human and non-human is there. If these vampires are searching for something, it must be there.
Aaron: Great, let’s set up a trap and-
Shroud: Hold it there, boy! There’s still more.
Luca: We will be setting traps. Hunter Beril will be on guard duty at the end of the week, and we will let the bats enter on purpose to see what they could be planning…
Shroud: So, yer plan for the week is ta’ follow us seniors around and pick up whatever mess the escapees have left, while we concentrate on the heist.
Aaron: Didn’t Beryl and the others already finish with the escapes?
Luca: A lot of bats managed to get out of Salazar. The Ripper must have planned this out, with Danno coordinating them. Some of them are still hiding inside the city.
Shroud: We’ll assign ya’ wit the mid-rankers. Wit mor’ hunters in tha’ city, mor’ ground are covered!
Suiga: Sirs!! I wish to partner up with Aaron!! As runner-up in the team, it is ideal for me to spend more time with my captain!!
Aaron: Oh, yeah, Suiga-wait, runner-what now?
Luca: While I really was expecting to see you two together in a fight, I’ll be taking Suiga with me. He needs a senior yet, and I want to look at that blight blade while I’m at it.
Suiga: The Blade dancer? My senior? I’m honoured!!
Suiga clenches his fist, now healed from the burning wounds the flames had brought on in their rampage…
Aaron: Huh, that’s ok. So it’s Url-
Shroud: Speakin’ of seniors: Url! Ya’ goin’ to Huckleberry’s for the week!
Url: Excuse me?
Luca: Yeah, we tried negotiating, but apparently our new findings have “titillated his entire existence” and he believes sharing this with you might be training enough. Plus, he’s head of the research department and your legal senior, so-
Lau: Bird Doc’s senior is the research head!? No wonder he’s that good of a doctor.
Url: Don’t flatter me. The man’s a creep.
Lau: You’re really not allowed to say that.
Aaron: Especially since you join him willingly in the first few seconds you enter the department. Huh, I never thought I’d say this, but Lau-
Luca: And Lecourt, I’ll assign you to…
Lau: Do not bother! The only senior I’d ever follow is Florence Willheart!!
Suiga and Cassie hear the name and glance at Aaron, who shares the same surname as the renowned deceased huntress
Luca: And I’m sure she’d be willing to reject you if she was still alive. You’re with me and Suiga. Shroud is too keen on napping to even join us.
Shroud: (Dozing off) Wait, who?
Aaron: Wait, then that means…
The boy stares next to the smiling, excited, creeping Mergrove…
Aaron: (To what extent did I anger Him…)
Shroud: You and the Mergrove girl are wit’ me! We’ll go help Beryl wit’ som’ of his stuff!
Aaron: Well, with Beryl around, Cassie might become sufferable…
Shroud: Great! Everyone’s happy with the picking?!
Aaron: No.
Shroud: Glad everyone’s on board! We start right now!!
Aaron: What, I haven’t even-
Shroud punches Aaron in the gut. The hulk then grabs the half-incapacitated boy and picks him up. Looking over the Mergrove huntress with a terrifying glare, she trembles and follows him like a duckling out of the building…
Suiga: Sir Shroud is not a man of words, huh?
Luca: Not even his grunting can be considered literate. Come on you two,
Url: Well then, guess I should be on my way to see my senior…
Luca: Say hi to Sammy for me!!
Everyone leaves, each taking a different direction towards the city’s numerous parts. As Url marches towards VHC, Luca and the two rookies make their way for the intersection to the right, leading to the eastern part of the city. Shroud and his group begin for the western part.