Rooms full of bookshelves, dusty almanacs, surgery tables, bloody scalpels, alchemy flasks hosting all kinds of fluids and experimental concoctions…
Such is the atmosphere of the research wing. Filled with intellectuals who couldn’t bear the intense life of the Hunt, neither as hunter nor as support soldier, but were dedicated enough to the cause, the wing houses dozens of scientists experimenting on vampiric phenomena.
“Searching for vampirification cures? Discovering new Holy Armaments? Leading the encryption of vampiric artifacts and scribes? The research wing will do it for you!” written on many posters around town…
So how did the progeny of a plague doctor end up as a hunter? That is the question of every resident as they see Url marching down to the heavy door before Huckleberry’s office and laboratory.
Unlike before, Url walks around the halls without his signature mask. That one rests on his utility belt. The sight of the raven-haired model draws the attention of passing researchers, hesitant to look even more.
For a plague doctor who wears his mask day and night, who adores nothing else more than dipping his cleavers on vampire skin, and testing out his dangerous concoctions on them without remorse for his morality, such a nice-looking face is not expected. Blue eyes, raven hair, facial features that would make a sculptor’s jaw fall to the floor…
The hunter knocks on the heavy wooden door with its golden handle. A few seconds later, it slowly opens by itself.
Url: Ugh…Sir Samuel!! I’m here!!
Url enters the office. The door abruptly shuts itself. Inside, a spacious room full of dusty encyclopedias, tables, flasks, and severed vampire limbs, all around an elevated oval office desk on the right wall, where the senior is patiently sitting on his red swirling leather chair. Behind him, a giant painting of an orange-haired man in armor…
Url: Seems like the decorations are untouched.
Samuel: Like I’d dare to remove Van Helsing from the VHC’s walls. Chief would kill me…
The man stands up and moves to greet Url. Spiky, onyx hair, glasses ornated with small golden palettes. A slim, tall man wearing a white coat with the association’s initials written in big red letters…
Samuel: Oh, my sweet student it’s been a while!!
He touches his face and body, without any regard for the young man’s borders.
Samuel: Are you hurt!? Are there still any scars?! Are you still seeing hallucinations since last time?!
Url: No, and some room would be perfectly fine, too, thank you.
He backs off quickly, awkwardly rubbing off the dust from both of their cloaks…
The senior Samuel Huckleberry. Youngest senior hunter in the association, smartest human alive (self-proclaimed), a leading figure in the technical advancement of the Hunt, responsible for a lot of improvements on cures, weapons, fighting strategies, and the list goes on…But also, neurotic, obsessed, and quirky. Rumors run around that his recluse in the research wing wasn’t exactly a solitary decision…
Samuel: So, how’s the outside world? How was the Ripper hunt for you?
Url: It was…intense. I’m glad you guys asked for other rookies to join us.
Samuel: Well, it sure wasn’t easy. Hunters are already a rare sight, and get two noble clans to leave their scions to us? I still don’t get how we pulled it off…
Url: We still haven’t found the Ripper yet. Luca says he wants something from the city’s deposit.
Samuel: Yes, we did speak about that. Considering the chaotic pattern this whole plot has chosen to take, the Ripper could be trying to steal some artifact under our noses…
The scientist starts picking up a bunch of files, prepping and placing them in a leather satchel hanging on his office chair…He then picks the bag up…
Samuel: Oh well, we got a whole week to worry about that. Today, we have bigger problems to attend to…
Url: Problem at the lab? Vampire body too complex to dissect? A new concoction to try out on rats? Bring it to me!!
A small, gentle bell ring chimes in the office…Samuel starts heading for the door, urging Url to follow…
Samuel: No, you have to help me with my class today…
Url: Huh?!
Hasting through the corridors, ignoring assistants and officials, they head for a grand, grey wooden door to the auditorium for the hunting classes…
Url: Wait a minute, everyone gets to run around town killing vampires, and I have to help you clean up your job’s messes?
Samuel: First of all, there’s no mess! Teacher of the month 3 TIMES STRAIGHT!! Secondly, this assignment is just as exciting and important as whatever Luca and Shroud have got going!!
Url looks fixedly at the golden tablet next to the door: “Vampire 101” engraved on the plaque…
Url: And teaching a bunch of teenagers about vampire guts is the same as killing them?
Samuel: Please, you know they won’t allow me to get out until the end of the week…
Url: Ugh, fine…What are we doing then?
Samuel: We aren’t teaching anyone…Today’s the division entrance exams…
Url: And you screwed them over with some impossible test that you’ve barely prepared them for. Aah, my youth…
Samuel: Teacher of the year!! The problem with these classes is that most of these guys wanna join the research wing or the church wing. The exam is divided into two parts, theoretical for the administrator, research and church wings, all allocated to suit each wing's requirements and practical for the hunting division. Guess which one everyone picked…
Url: Can’t see the problem. Who would want to be a hunter when studying and sitting in an office is their dream job?
Samuel: Everyone…except two of my students. They want to become hunters.
Url: Well, it is the vampire hunter school. I still don’t-
Samuel: Could you please stop it with the bland sarcasm!! This school project only recently started, and barely anyone’s come out as a hunter. If these two fail the exam, the whole teacher’s lounge is going to be reprimanded and punished.
Url: Honestly, other than your “timeout”-
Samuel: Temporary suspension.
Url: Because you were annoying the other seniors with your experiments-
Samuel: Difference in professional opinions and methodology.
Url: I can’t figure out anything worse.
The senior hunter pulls out a letter from his satchel. Engraved with the official seal of the VHC, Url takes a detailed look at it…
Url: “In light of recent events, and after revision of last year’s graduation statistics, the administration wing has come to the conclusion that the educational team has put no effort in encouraging or preparing students for the prospects of the hunting department. As such, it has been decided that :
1. Should, during this year’s wing entrance exams, be noted that none of the 30 current students has chosen the hunting division exam, the educational team shall receive a month’s suspension in all other VHC-related activities.
2. Should, during this year’s hunting division entrance exams, none of the candidates pass, the educational team shall receive the aforementioned punishment, extended to 2 years, with an additional obligation of fulfilling sir Luca Cearrach’s paperwork during the said suspension.
Url carefully rolls the paper. He hands it over to Samuel, whose glasses cover the tears ready to fall from his eyes down the cheeks…
Samuel: The punishment-
Url: They made it specifically for you, yeah.
Samuel: The previous teacher was a wad. Thank God these two stuck to their desires and chose to take the exam. But I need to make sure these guys pass, or I’ll be stuck in my office until the end of the Hunt!!! Please Url, you gotta-
After shaking the junior back and forth, Url breaks free of his master’s hands and consoles him…
Url: Do you have a plan?
Samuel: Yeah, I do…Fortunately, I have complete control of how the exam’s gonna rule out…I just need you to help out with one tiny detail…
Url: What is it…
Samuel:…Surprise for when the time comes…
They enter the auditorium. As expected, small but spacious enough to hold a class of 30, with oak wood seats in the center surrounded by dusty bookcases and paintings. Two students are sitting in the front row seats... Vic and Maya…
Samuel: Fellas!! How are we doing?
Maya: Good morning, professor. When is the test going to start?
Samuel: Right to the point, huh? I still have some stuff to prepare. Now tell me, anxious?
Maya: Of course not. I know I’ll succeed in this without any effort.
Vic has drifted off to a nearby window, staring outside in the courtyard, a nice, grassy square circled by mossy stone fences…
Samuel: For Vic to have drifted off, means he’s not stressed…So, since VHC STILL doesn’t believe I’ve managed to gather not one, but two students for the hunter wing exam, I’m obliged to ask: Why do you want to join the hunter’s wing anyways?
Vic’s attention is drawn towards the talking group. The two students are confused by the teacher’s question. Url silently stands by, listening…
Maya: Is it any less obvious? To kill vampires, sir.
Vic: Yeah, is it that weird?
Samuel’s kind smile fades away, to a bland, mundane expression at the sound of these answers. He turns back and slowly paces around the room between the professor’s desk and the class seats. Url remains still…
The mad scientist stops walking. After quickly picking at his lips, he asks…
Samuel: Let me tell you guys something about the hunting division…48 of this year’s students chose to avoid this exam. 20 are trying for the administrator’s wing, hoping to help as either an official or join the support army. 16 have chosen to join the church wing and help with the dependent healing program or whatnot. 12 will try their luck with the research wing. When they were asked why they did it, what do you think were their answers?
He slowly paces again, only now managing to retain his students’ gazes…
Samuel: “Sounds better than dying from a bat”. Most of the answers round-up at that. None of the other students had anything with the division. But no one had the mood to join in. And who could blame them? Hunters die left and right. And if they don’t, they’ll definitely lose a limb, get pummeled, shredded, bitten, or end up as a toy for some vampire’s playtime until they do. Who’ll say no to the research wing's safety behind walls when they hear stories of hunters going to the woods and never coming back…alive or whole…
Maya: Is this…supposed to encourage us…
Samuel: Thing is, Maya…There’s a saying about hunters. No one ends up in this division unless they have a death wish, they’re revenge-driven nuts or complete basket cases. That goes for me, it goes for my junior over here, it goes for every hunter you’ll ever meet…and it must go for you two…
Maya: I…I don’t have any…
Samuel’s cold, focused look manages to break Maya’s guard. It is obvious to the teacher that she has an agenda, and she definitely can’t hide it any longer…
Maya:…Mother…My mother died as a support soldier during the Salazar break-in…
Url’s raised eyebrows show his diverted attention to the girl’s tragic origin story…He focuses on her words…
Maya: I saw the vampire who killed her. Right in front of me. She had just pushed me inside the escape carriage that drifted to the south of the city. Before she even looked back…It pinned her down from behind…And sunk its bare teeth inside her neck…The last thing I saw was her kicking and screaming for help…Her team arrived too late…
She stands up, puts her palm up on her chest, stares directly at the teacher’s intrigued eyes…
Maya: If it's revenge that drives me to the Hunt, then so be it…I don’t care what they say, I’ll avenge my mother and continue her work.
Url : (Revenge driven, huh. Most of us are like that…)
Samuel lightly nods his head…Appalled by the girl’s surprising openness and her clear bravery, he moves on to Vic…
Samuel: Vic, you gonna follow up?
Vic: Hmm…No, I don’t feel like it.
Samuel: Understandable, it’s gonna be a hard day, skip it off champ.
Vic: Thanks, sir.
Maya: Huh?! No fair!!
Samuel: Hahah, just wanted to see your resolve, Maya, that’s all! Vic barely ever tells us anything credible about himself, so I’ll just write down “family obligation” anyway.
Vic stares down for a moment…
Vic: Wait..; If I don’t pile in, the geek won’t shut up in the exam…
Samuel and Maya: I’m not a geek!!
Url: I don’t think he meant you, sir.
Samuel: Sorry, force of habit. What’s up, Vic?
Vic:…I don’t care about the rumors, which wing is better, or any of that crap. The longer these bats fly around at night, the more my sister and my grandpops aren’t at home. Might as well give a hand in planting those creeps to the ground, if it means my family are safe and sound…
Url: ( He’s got family in the division? Wonder if I met’em…Thing is…)
Url’s eyes twitch at the sight of Vic. He stares at his lazy posture, his sleepy, uninterested eyes. His tilted head rested on the support of his fist. His barely raised voice, the minimum effort he puts in joining the conversation…
Url: (That little shit reminds me of Aaron too much…)
Samuel: Anything to add, Url?
Url: Nothing at all!!
Maya: And what test have you prepared for us, sir?
Samuel: Hmm…normally candidates were tasked with killing an original vampire on their own, for the senior to judge if they’re ready to start hunting solo…But with the break-in, that’s gonna be hard to prepare now…
He moves towards his junior, and grabs him tight by the shoulder, puffing his chest out with gusto…
Samuel: That’s where Url comes in!!!
Url: Please tell me I’m not the vampire…
Samuel: Hahah! A good idea for next time, but today I have cooked up something for our two juniors…Follow me to the courtyard!!!
Arriving in the courtyard, Samuel makes some distance between his students and himself. He pulls out from his pocket, a silver amulet with an embezzled blue jewel in the center…
Samuel:
Oh Holy Lord. Bestow upon your soldier thy essence and strength. Drop your silver tear for him to taste. Give me the mold to create weapons that will slay the god of bats…
Alongside Samuel’s prayer, droplets of thick silver drop to the ground. Pouring more and more, they amass into a large, wobbly blob of liquid silver…
Samuel: My beauty, “Idea of Silver”!!!
Url: I thought the weapon’s name was “Unknown Silver Entity 11X19”.
Vic: What “weapon”, that thing looks like it holds peace summits.
Maya: My apologies sir, but that thing looks sad and disgusting. Is it alive? Are sure it’s not suffering now?
Url: Anything with a pulse and a conscience would suffer if it knew it looked like that. Sir, for the exam’s smooth running, I propose you get rid of it and we never speak of it again-
Samuel: SHUT UP YOU ASSHOLES!!! IT’S BEAUTIFUL!!! AND IT’S “IDEA OF SILVER”!!!
Url: You mean “Unknown Silver Enti-
Samuel: “IDEA OF SILV”- Nevermind…
The grudging professor pulls out two strange vials from his satchel. On Url’s further inspection, he notices a bordeau, thick liquid inside the two vials…
Url: (Blood? No, that’s…)
Samuel: Stupid students, calling my weapon sad and disgusting…
Despite his mood, Samuel pours the liquid all over the blob. The red color is quickly absorbed…
Twitch. Left and right. The blob starts vibrating, and twitches in all directions in shock…Stretching up, it starts taking form. Sprouting limbs, teeth, eyes, and a pair of luscious silver hair…
Before the students, the blob took the form of a generic, slender vampire, teeth and all…
Maya: Sir…I thought experimentation on vampire cloning was the reason you were put on a timeo-
Samuel: Temporary suspension!!! And this isn’t a vampire!!! Behold my armament’s ability, to change its properties based on what I mix it with. I toyed around with dependent blood and managed to make this makeshift vampire DNA copy. It’s not anything like the real deal, but the essence should be enough for 11X19 to absorb the essential information, and… tada!!!
Url: We really are playing with VHC regulations here, are we…
Samuel: It’s ingenious!! The blob doesn’t have a mind of its own, so logically you’ll be fighting “me”. Now, for the exam…
Once again from his satchel bag, the teacher pulls out a checklist on a notepad with Vic and Maya’s names divided into two polls…
Samuel: The exam is pretty simple. Fight the doll. Assessment is based on time taken, combat performance, and application of theory learned during the class.
Vic: Shouldn’t combat advisors be here for this?
Samuel: Sir Luca and Shroud are too busy cleaning the city of escapees. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure my notes pass from their eyes during correction…Now, each one gets one turn. Who’s going to start?
Maya: We chose beforehand, I’ll start…
Samuel: Great. Let’s get started then!! Pick a weapon from the stack I’ve laid out to the left…
Maya moves to the weapon rack. Observing her choices, she returns to the doll empty-handed…
Samuel: Uuh..
Maya: I’ll fight with incantations. I don’t need the silver…
Url: (Huh, bold…That’s interesting…)
Samuel: Your funeral…Ready? Go!!
The doll sprouts a pair of wings and floats aggressively towards Maya. The young girl dashes to bait the doll in attacking her, but ducks and slides right under it in the last minute. Spinning around, she points her palm to the doll’s back and casts “Blow”. The resulting wind blast pushes back the construction and knocks it off the air and onto the floor. She gets up, brushes herself off, and takes three deep breaths. The doll rushes again in a zig-zag pattern to confuse the girl’s aim…Attacking from the right, Maya waits till the last moment to raise a “Shield” and manages to parry the blow. She then turns to the staggered vampire doll and points her two fingers at it…
Maya: “Sear”
A blast of light pierces the doll. She shouts “Sear” three more times. Like bullets, the light shreds through all over its body.
Maya: That should be enough…Now, to hit it hard…
The young girl pushes forward and tries to touch the downed doll…Fast as lightning, it tightly grabs the girl’s forearm as the wound holes close…Its grip is strong, hurting her the more she pulls away…
Url: (The biggest problem with vampires is their regeneration…You can’t hope to go all out on a bat right at the start of the fight, no matter how good you are…)
It lifts the girl in the air, then pounds her gut with its palm, sending her meters back to the ground…
Maya: Aah…
The doll sprouts its wings and uses the flap to jump high, then dive right on top of the girl. Maya notices and quickly rolls away, barely escaping the hit…
She rebounds, takes 3 quick breaths, and rushes towards the doll. It covers itself with the wings, then opens them back to push the girl…
Instead, it finds Maya pointing at it…
Maya: “Sear”
She shoots again. Light flashes violently as the lasers shred the doll’s torso full of holes. Maya pushes forward with every shot, and manages to touch the doll in the punctured chest before it closes…
Vic: (Is she dumb? He’ll just grab her again!! “Disintegrate won’t work in time-)
Maya is grappled by the doll. But before it even acts…
Maya: “Blow”!!!
The violent blast of wind blows both of them back, but its force is enough to destroy the punctured torso to pieces, dismantling the doll in the process…
Url and Vic’s eyes grow with surprise, while Samuel stays unfazed…
Url : (Smart… “Disintegrate” takes longer to set up and start. And it works easier with weaker vampires not accustomed to pain…” Blow” is a faster incantation, and she tricked Samuel by setting up for “Disintegrate”…She’s got smarts on her…)
Rebounding, Maya repeatedly breathes in and out…Samuel approaches, handing her a flask of water…
Samuel: Nice job…Vic, you’re up!!
Maya sits beside Url as he checks her for injuries…Vic picks out a shortsword and a 5-bullet pistol from the rack. Samuel fixes up the doll again…
Samuel: Ready? Go!!
Closing in, the vampire tries to surprise Vic and floats right up. The boy plunges his blade on the vampire’s thigh, and in mid-air, points his pistol right to his face. He shoots two times, the bullets smash through the head and have the vampire flying around…The blade slides out of the flesh, throwing Vic to the ground…
The wounds close quickly, and the vampire jumps him, engaging in close-quarters combat. Its large swipes and risky haymakers have the boy put on the spot. He slices through the clear openings, but the wounds close as fast as he cuts them. The bat doll grabs his shirt in one of his attacks and pulls him close. He knees him in the gut, then a few punches left and right to send him packing to the ground…
Vic: Damn it!! You don’t pull any punches, do you…
He rebounds, but the vampire engages him again…
Url: (He’s good. He’s got the technique right, but he’s too aggressive…)
The boy grabs his revolver tight and whispers the word “Empower”. The silver gun glows with light…
He investigates every move. He carefully steps aside every haymaker, every kick, every attempt to bite. Samuel takes note and makes the doll suddenly duck down, preparing a devastating uppercut…
Url: (He’s finished…)
Vic notices flips his sword in the air to grab it like a knife, and starts plunging it down the vampire’s face. Stunning the doll, he jumps over it and cuts out one of its wings before the doll recuperates and pushes him back…
Url: (He knew about the uppercut?)
Vic: (Wings, eyes. These are the two weak points of a vampire. Wings don’t regenerate easily when cut from the root, and eyes cause an ugly stagger to normal bats when hit…) And now that he can’t fly…
The boy engages the bat. Without the full aid of his wings, he’s grounded and unable to outmaneuver the kid with its mid-air movements. Vic’s attacks land more easily. Enough deep slashes through the doll’s attacks to start wearing down its defenses. Vic notices the sluggish wounds. Tricking the doll, he sidesteps on one of his punches, turns to its back, slices his hamstrings, and pulls out the wing…
Maya: (He wore it down…)
Vic turns to the front again and places the revolver up to the bat’s forehead…
Vic: Eat this!!
Once to the head, twice to the heart…He waits for the smoke to appear…To his surprise, the bat lunges forward, wounds still fresh. Vic falls down, but plunges his sword to its torso, pushes it to the side, and plunges it down multiple times until the bat stops moving…
Samuel: Guess that does it…Nice one, Vic, take a breather!!
Url tends to his wounds…After a while, the two hunters greet the students goodbye for the end of the exam, outside the VHC gates…
Samuel: That was good from both of you…Unfortunately, I’ll have to run this by my colleagues, so I can’t really give you any answers. But, stuff seems pretty positive for now…
Vic: Whatever, can we go now? My pops is in town and I haven’t seen him in a while!
Maya: Regardless of my classmate’s disinterest, I must bolt too. Sir Samuel, do you have any remarks for today?
Samuel: Hmm…well, Maya, your choice of incantation-style fighting surprised me today. Didn’t have you for a nun, I’ll be honest. Just look out for mental fatigue after multiple uses, a lot of hunters have met their end for that…
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
His eyes then meet Vic’s…
Samuel: As for you. Aggression is great in vampire combat but remember: It’s because they are reckless and aggressive that we get to find openings. You don’t wanna lose your only advantage as a human.
Vic: Yeah…I’ll keep that in mind…
Samuel: Other than that, nothing. Url’s gonna help me correct this and the theoretical. For now, take a breather, and relax. I’ll have your results in…4-5 days.
The students leave to their own devices…Samuel takes a long gasp and stares up to the sky…
Samuel: Man, it’s been a while since I’ve “fought” …Sure takes a lot out of you…
Url: Believe me, after this week, fighting’s the last thing I want to do…
The teacher looks at Url, but stays silent…Something in the boy’s words seems to bother him…
Samuel:…Url…I wanted to talk to you about the report you’ve brought…
Url: If it’s about how we got beat up by Danno, I don’t need the consoling, the nuns already provided-
Samuel: His subordinate…The one you killed…
Url’s eyes grow with shock. Remembering the awful ordeal, hearing echoes of the vampire’s taunts, his hands tremble in fear…
Samuel: Is this why you haven’t worn your mask today?
Url: Sir…I…
Samuel: If you don’t want to talk about it…I’m good. But honestly, you should never be ashamed of what you are…You did what you had to do…even if you had to result in taking that mask off…
Url: I could have just killed him…I could have just fixed a cure…instead I…tortured him…I let myself become like…like those-
His teacher slaps him. Url is too shocked to react. He just raises his hand to caress his red cheek, while staring at his senior in confusion…
Samuel:…Aaron said it…Shroud said it, I said it…and if we ask them, I’m sure your friends will tell you the same thing…
Grabbing the young man by his shoulders, he stares into his eyes intensively…
Samuel: You are not like them…The good you’ve done, the people you’ve helped ever since you picked that table up…You are not like those vampires…especially the Barelan…
Taking his arms off him, he turns again, spinning them around to stretch…
Samuel: Anyways, that psychopathic outbreak of yours might be needed today (hopefully not)…
Url: Seems a bit too much for an evaluation, doesn’t it?
Samuel: Exam’s not over, Url…Let’s go prepare…We’ll meet the kids at night…
Url: Huh? What are you-
Samuel turns around and closes Url’s lips with his finger…
Samuel: Questions are to be withdrawn until the end of the presentation…
Url:...Some...boundaries, PLEASE!!!!!!!
While the clouds remain stagnant and still, the bright sun sets in Landen, leaving its seat for the grand moon to shine throughout the city streets…
Midnight is closing in, and everyone’s preparing for sleep. Only the hunters patrolling the rooftops of Landen remain, while the rest of the folks jump in their gowns and hug their fluffy pillows as their bodies are consumed by the deep mattresses of their beds…The windows turn from yellow to black with every lamp turned off, every candle blown, every blinder set.
No citizen would ever dare stay out late. If a vampire comes close to killing them, it should at least be in the comfort of their own home…Well, not everyone thinks that way…
Maya: Are you insane?! We are going to get in trouble for this!!!
Vic: Lord, you are annoying, why are you even here?! It’s not like I called you!!
Maya: Your stupid actions will affect the jury’s opinion on getting new hunters from the school. You doing THIS means I don’t get to enter the hunting division!!
Vic: And you not getting any action against a real bat will get you dead…
The two students parade around the central district, close to the grand depository… A rather large, square building, contrary to its neighbors. It resembles an ancient temple, with its eggshell columns holding the large, pyramid-shaped bronze rooftop and its beautiful goat-themed tops. The metopes of the building depict the history of Landen from right to left: The birth of Dracula, his advent as the vampire king, his terrifying reign, the birth of Abraham Van Helsing, his first kill as a hunter, his creation of a small city away from the Dracula’s clutches, a safe haven for those willing to go against the abomination’s wishes to enslave the human race, and turn it to its livestock for all eternity. The story ends with a scheme of Van Helsing shouting “Landen” in front of a miniature, shining town, symbolizing its very foundation…
Maya: Never had you for the historian…
Vic: I don’t give two shits about the paintings on the wall. I’m here for something else…Come on, let’s go…
The boy walks up the white marble stairs. Approaching the steel fence gate, he notices a dent between two bars…He sneaks inside…
Vic: Get in.
Maya: This is trespassing. You do realize you are also getting in trouble with the police-
Vic: Look, I’ll ignore the nagging ‘cause you surely get why I’m doing this. Huckleberry went soft on us today. He probably just wanted to have us pass so the teachers wouldn’t get it from the higher-ups.
Maya:…Well, that doesn’t mean-
Vic: We are going to fight vampires. REAL ones. If I’m going to be putting my life on the line every night, I should at least know what I’m facing. Now you with me or not?
Maya:…And what do you plan to do in the depository? It’s probably full of hunters and soldiers…
Vic: Get in and I’ll tell ya.
Reluctantly, the young girl goes through the dent. Walking through a large corridor, Maya is amazed by the marble floor, the clean white walls with the bronze beams holding the building together, the golden statues and encased jewels set for decoration…The depository was really the place of all wealth in Landen…
Vic: My pops came into town today. Before he left, he told me that some vampires had been hounding this place ever since the Salazar event.
Maya: All the more reason to put a bunch of hunters in here.
Vic: That’s the funny thing. This place is empty.
Maya: Huh?
Vic: They are gonna lay some trap and they need the bats to think this place is unprotected. That dent we went through? It wasn’t there this morning…
Maya: So to summarize…You put us inside Landen’s largest safety box, which has been the target AND CURRENTLY victim of break-ins by thirsty vampire prisoners, without ANY vampire hunter to help us?
The boy turns to her, with the most assured, brave, confident, straight face one could ever hope to pull…
Vic: Yes.
Maya: I’ll kill you!!! I’ll kill you before the bat does!!!
Vic: Calm down will ya’? We won’t fight that thing, all I need is to see it up close…
Maya: Hope you do!! We don’t even have Armaments yet!!
They hear a sudden sound like an object fell over its counter. Hiding behind a statue, Vic tries to stare over the corner leading to another corridor, but his eyes don’t catch anything…
Maya: Vic, this is nuts! You remember these guys are bats right? They probably already know we are here!
Vic: And why haven’t they sucked us dry already? Bats ain’t gonna use echolocation 24/7. They don’t even know we are here!
Vampire: Actually, I’ve known about you two ever since you stopped outside the building.
Blood freezes. Their eyes are ready to gouge out of their sockets. Slowly turning their heads to the back, they stumble upon a young-looking vampire. The pale skin accentuates his strange, camo-coloured tattoos drawn around the eyes like teeth and claws...His cyan, long messy hair and yellow tips differ from what is normally expected of a vampire. That and the vampiric black and purple attire, resembling some sort of illusionist playing parlor tricks…
Both parties scream, the kids in fear, the vampire in laughs…
They back off to get some distance in between, but their adversary calmly stands up and moves to the center of the corridor…
Vampire: Humans and their hospitality really. They won’t open their services to you, they won’t tell you where they left your stuff, and they scream right in your face…
Maya: You satisfied? Did you take a good look at him? This might be your last!
Vampire: You should listen to the girl, kid. You’re probably dead from this point on anyway, so you might as well get a good look at the goods…
Vic: Hell are ya’ searching here, dirtbag?
Vampire: Hey, hey dirtbag sounds a little too much? My name’s Leuto. Use this instead of insulting the otherwise superior, would you?
The two students are stunned. Numerous courses, stories of hunters encountering vampires barely muttering words from their hunger, biting and clawing away at their flesh until they can sate their bellies with human blood…
And yet, before them stands the same species, joking around and insulting them like some regular Joe. But maybe that’s the source of their fear…That the monster they’ve built in their heads is finally standing a few meters away…
And he calmly states that he’ll kill them tonight.
Leuto: Look. Let’s be less like…well, you guys, and try to be reasonable here. You can’t kill me. I already know that you came sneaking here without any weapons, and even if you did, I fail to see how two 15-year-olds would come at me and hope to live to tell the tale.
Vic: Well, we can surprise you…
Maya: Don’t…get too cocky…
The cyan-haired vampire tries to hold his laughs…He takes a deep breath, then lets out a shriek that travels through the floor. Slowly, a swarm of black bats starts gathering from the other side of the corner, surrounding the kids and floating around their summoner…The kids try to fight, but the swarm covers them and has them bound and afloat in front of their foe…
Leuto: Alright, look. I would waste no second in ripping off your shirts and sinking my teeth inside your vibrant, young arteries, sucking anything I can get my mouth in until I finish it off with a bite on your fresh shoulder, then moving on to the still-beating chest, and keeping the limbs for rations. But I’m already sated, and I need to work here…
Maya: (Work…He’s under orders?)
Leuto: I’m not telling anything about my benefactors, but let’s just say they need something from this vault, and they need it now. So, you guys got two choices :
1. You refuse to help out, I kill you, cut you in half, hang your bottoms over the marble pillars, and use the top half to feed and nest my babies.
2. Or, you act logically, help me out, and you live. Cause there’s no way in hell you’d even understand what I’m planning.
As Vic prepares to answer crudely, Maya blurbs off her response…
Maya: We’ll help!! Don’t listen to my comrade!!
Vic: Maya are you serious?!
She throws him a strange look. Anyone would think Maya is scared to her bones, falling for her captor’s terrifying threats…But Vic understood. Maya’s too dedicated to the Hunt to be afraid now. She wants information…
Leuto: Honestly, dude, you need to appreciate your friend’s brains…So, I’m looking for a trinket some of my ancestors left here some hundreds of years ago…
Maya: Trinket…but…this is a human-
Leuto: If you guys think your security’s that tight, think of tonight. Anyways, this thing is supposed to hold something important to my benefactor, but I can’t find it anywhere in this goddamn labyrinth…
Maya: What does he need the chest for?
Leuto: Huh? I just told you, I have no idea!
Maya: But if we knew what it’s used for, we could find where they hid it…
Leuto: Some sort of ritual, that’s all he’s spatting on about. Said it’s going to be “revolutionary” for our kind…
Maya: Anything else? What’s inside? Did it belong to a big figure? Is there any-
The bats holding Maya start biting her all over her body, slightly munching away at her skin...The vampire brings her closer to him and squeezes her cheeks as he looks her right in the eyes with his scarlet pupils…
Leuto: You think I’m dumb, girl?! Like I’d spill my plans to a hunter!!
He slaps her, sending out blood from her mouth and tears from her eyes that she tries to pull back…
Leuto: Are you gonna tell me where’s the chest or do I have to start biting myself?
Vic: Stop!!... What does the chest look like?
Leuto: You cruising for a beating too?
Vic: No, you dumbass!! How are we gonna help you if we don’t know what the chest looks like?! Now leave her alone!!
Leuto: I’ll decide who’s left alone or not! Hmm…
Maya spits out the rest of the droplets. Breathing non-stop, Vic stares at her in guilt…
Vic: Shit…I’m sorry…
Leuto: Yep! I remember. Black, gold ornated, with glasses and bat wings symbol in the front. It’s a small one, like a loaf of bread…
Maya, through her painful gasps, tries to figure out what is running around Vic’s head…
Vic:…Have you tried the bottom floor? All the ancient trinkets are stored there, but no one ever goes down…
Shocked, she coughs. The boy is telling the truth…
Leuto: Hah, the girl’s gasping means you’re right!
Maya: Vic, you idiot!! What are you-
Vic: Door’s closed though. No one knows what’s down there, so only bankers and the trinkets’ owners have a key…
Leuto: No problem. I’ll just smash the door-
Vic: And get sliced and diced by hundreds of silver traps the hunter has on display? You’ll get turned to the next exhibition for when the hunters come tomorrow…
Leuto: And what do you suggest we do? I wait for your backup and ask them nicely…
Vic looks over to Maya once again…
Vic: Let my friend go…I have a key for the vault.
Leuto: Heh?
Maya: Vic don’t!
Vic: I’ll open the gate for you…just let her go…
The vampire princes around…He suddenly claps his hands. The bats scatter and drop the kids on the ground, then retreat like flies under the caster’s coat…
Leuto: How do I know you’re not lying?
Vic: Here’s the key dumbass!! And why would I think of tricking you, you’d kill me in a hurry anyway…Just let her go…
Leuto: You don’t care about yourself? I could do whatever I wanted after I got the chest…
Vic: Are you gonna keep talking or are we going over there?! Let’s get this over with…
The beast ponders the chances. What would entail trusting the young boy and letting the girl go as a reward…Without uttering a word, he steps in front of the girl…
Leuto: You have a deal…
He grabs her hair, clears out her neck, and prepares his fangs to sink in. The teeth emit a bizarre green substance dropping onto her neck…
Vic: What are you doing?!
Leuto: Just in case she doesn’t alert any silver bastard. Thankfully I’m a royal, so this should be done pretty quickly…
Vic tries to stop him, but he effortlessly pushes him away, then sends another swarm of bats from his cloak to restrain him to a wall…
Leuto: Should have prepared, boy! Now, let’s dig in…
The girl tries to attack the vampire’s neck, but he holds back her hand…
Leuto: Leave it alone, girl. It’s a cruel world we live in…
Maya: Tss…you’re right…”Blow”!
Having opened her palm and targeted his neck at point-blank range, the incantation’s holy wind blast sends the vampire and Maya back before he manages to bite her…
She breathes, gets up, and dusts off her clothes, then rushes to Vic’s aid. To no avail, she tries to get rid of the bats…
Vic: Maya, go!! He’s gonna get up!!! Go hit the alarms!!
Maya: Like I’d leave you here with that thing!!!
Leuto: I said my name is Leuto!!!
To their surprise, the vampire has stood up. Slowly reattaching his head, the missing flesh rebirths anew as veins, arteries, and skin grow and reattach to rebuild the hole…
Leuto: I knew humans were impossible to bargain with…Now, since you managed to piss me off, how would you like to die?!
Maya: That didn’t even…But I put all my strength into that “Blow”.
Leuto : (The girl’s obviously skilled with the Light Lord’s incantational power. She probably can’t hold it for long, though…)
He calls the bats off of Vic and gathers them around him…
Leuto: New plan! I’ll kill you both, take the key, retrieve the chest, and mutilate your corpses for the other to look at…Great? Let’s get this over with.
Vic: Maya, look out!
Flying at high speeds like missiles, the bats try to attack the defenseless girl. She prepares to cast Shield and repel most of them. Right before the bats encircle her, each one is impaled and killed by silver spikes passing through the huntress.
Maya: Huh?...
Vic: Who’s that?
Samuel: Evidently that was me! Do you even read about your seniors?
Arriving from the darkness, Url and Samuel approach the battlefield. The spikes meltdown and gather back to the entity following Samuel…
Samuel: Atom reconstruction fluid, High heat coefficient, Iron supplement, a bit of stretching, and tada!! Silver spikes for bat missiles…
Leuto: My babies…
Samuel: Had to be careful with my aim though, or else our poor Maya would be shish kebab…or Maya kebab, am I right?!
Url: Please stop…
Maya: Sir Huckleberry!!
Vic: Sir Samuel…
Samuel: That’s right! Your beloved teacher, sir Samuel Huckleberry to the rescue, along with my “IDEA OF SILV-
Url: It’s an awful name and you know it!
Leuto: Who the hell are you two?! And how did you find us here?!
Samuel pulls a small notebook out of his satchel…He opens it and starts reading out loud its contents…
Samuel: “Day 115: While my two candidates excel in class, I’m afraid Vic might be planning some scheme to get first-hand experience in vampire hunting…Knowing Maya’s concern for Vic hidden by her cynical nature, she’ll follow suit, so I might have to keep an eye out on both of them after the exams…”
Vic: He knew?…
Samuel: I’m a teacher Vic, and the smartest hunter to ever exist…Of course, I knew…
Leuto: Smartest is kinda farfetched. Smart people would avoid coming here-
Samuel: Before we start kicking your ass, maybe you should withhold talking between me and my students, thank you? Kids, gather around!!
Leuto sends out another swarm of bats to the running kids. Url rushes in the front and throws down a flask, realizing a strange gas in the air. Then, he casts Shield, trapping the bats in the cloud before they pass through…The wing flapping slows down, their eyes drift off, and they fall to the ground asleep…No matter the whistling and shrieks, the bats don’t comply…
Samuel: Leave it alone. That gas is enough to knock out a cluster of imps. My student makes the best concoctions…
Kneeling, he looks over the kid’s injuries, bringing out supplies from his satchel bag…
Vic: Sir, it’s all my fault, I-
Maya: No, sir, I’m to blame, I didn’t stop him and I gave in to
Samuel: Both of you can zip it. If you knew what me and my comrades did at your age, you’d be stunned. I have a friend who spent 2 years keeping an eye on Salazar inmates as training. And it’s my fault I didn’t arrive sooner…
Maya: We’ll be fine, sir Samuel. Can’t you just go help the poor hunter?
Samuel: No. Truth is, I need you guys to do one last thing for your exams…
Vic and Maya: Huh?!
Samuel: The boy I’ve sent out. Watch him fight. From start to finish…
Maya: The plague doctor? But…can he even fight?...
They turn around. Url and Leuto slowly walk in circles, waiting for a chance to engage in combat. The vampire has his bats surrounding him, while Url tends to his saw blades…
Leuto: And who are you supposed to be?
Url: Url Schellinger. The guy who’ll see you in half today…
Leuto: How can such a beautiful face be wasted on a human…It’s a miracle trash could breed this sort of magnificent…
Managing to divert his attention from Url’s well-built face, his eyes are drawn to the bird mask hanging from his belt…
Leuto: Wait a minute…No…I know that mask. You’re a plague doctor. You’re one of those heretics in Barelan!
Url: I wouldn’t call us heretics…
Leuto: I thought you all went kaboom when my kind turned the town into a livestock stable!!
Url: Some of us managed to escape, I guess…
Leuto: Really? I remember the story. Some dumbass leader of the docs’ chose to bring in a vampire without knowing it, and after 2 years of research, the vampire turned everyone into their spawns and had them massacre the town and blow it to the ground!
Vic: Is what he’s saying true?
Maya: Obviously you’ve been sleeping in modern history class… Barelan was decimated by one strange vampire that blew itself up along with the city…
Leuto: Damn, never had it for my kind to do mediocre work…Oh well, that aside, I do remember something good about you guys…
Url: And that is?...
The bats simmer down as the vampire’s excitement arises along with his smile…
Leuto: Is it true plague doctors are fucking basket cases?! They’d come up with the worst of tortures for my kind?
The bats pull back as if they are mounted on a slingshot, and a strange red pentagram glows in the back…
Leuto: I’d love to avenge some of my kindred spirits…
Five bats, sending them off in every direction imaginable towards Url, the boy barely dodges the hits. The bats crash onto the walls and blow up in small explosions…
Url: (Bat bombs?)
The vampire takes off his gloves, revealing the rest of the tattoo in his eyes is spread to other parts of his body. The claws and teeth glow in a strange camo light…
Leuto: This is a Virtue, bird doctor. I can control bats as I please…
Url: A little stereotypical don’t you think?
Leuto: There’s a difference between taking care of a pet…
Spreading his arms and cloak, dozens of small bats come out and fill the corridor. Samuel stabs the entity with some syringes and covers himself and the kids in a transparent sphere…
Leuto: And breeding my children…My Virtue, “Breeder” transmits my DNA inside every bat I spawn, so it can control them like my own arms.
Url: (God what’s up with naming today…) So, something like an ant queen. But I’ve never heard of a queen sending her children to death…
Leuto: Any death to my name is a death worth doing…
15 batlings glow a blue pentagram to their backs. Their bites manage to stun Url for a full ten seconds. Enough for Leuto to order more exploding bats on the clear target. Url receives the blows and falls back…
Url: (Shit…Some of these bats have ritual signs on their back so he can use them as weapons…I have to be careful…However, that also means that most of these guys are normal…He must have prepared the spell bats in advance. Thankfully, I’ve also come prepared…)
He pulls out another, yellow flask. He runs around the vampire, prompting him to send out another wave of bats. Url stays on the defensive and tries to shave them off. Watching his successful dodges, the vampire sends out even more of his bats, remaining with only four big ones that encircle him like a ring…
Even though Url is surrounded by them, he doesn’t budge. He throws the flask upwards, then points his two fingers at it like a pistol.
Url: “Sear”!
Blasting the flask, it releases a large yellow cloud. The bats move around for a bit but remain in the air. However, their ritual signs start glowing, each their respective color, with an ounce of white…
Url : (Holy Light-induced reaction gas…The table allows me to pour enough holy light into the gas used for clearing out vampire glyphs. It reacts with the magicka in the ritual signs, and reveals hidden traps…)
Counting the bats, he sees many spell-prepared creatures in the mix…
Url: That’s all you got for me?! (Now for the other thing…)
Leuto: Heh, it’s enough to kill you!!!
He makes the bat spiral around him, closing in more and more…
Maya: Url…
Vic: He’s not gonna make it out of-
The more the bats close in on the hunter, the more blood spews out, the more explosions set off, the more spells fire out…The laughing Leuto sends out two of his 4 bats to finish off the hunter inside the debris cloud…
Leuto: You’re finished, brat-
The cloud dissipates. Standing on and covered in bat gore, he’s found sinking his saw blades onto one of the bats, while the other is impaled by two large, sharp edges of silver…Url takes his blades and dissects the crying bat, unfazed by its shrieks…
Leuto: What!? How?!
Url: Did you forget?! I have my senior with me!
Samuel: I sent out half of the transparent entity to Url before he got decimated by that cluster. I turned it to two sharp edges and had it spin around him like a shield…
The entity dissipates and returns as liquid to its original blob...
Leuto: You cheater…
Url: Who are you calling a cheater!? You’re fighting with your family!
Leuto: Shut up, hunter. How about you stop being a coward and come fight me face to face?!
Url: If you ever take the step front, yeah sure…
Taunting the vampire, he rushes towards it. Engaging in combat, Leuto combines a vampire’s typical risky strikes with follow-ups from his last remaining bats. Url gets outmaneuvered and receives a beatdown. Every kick he tries to dodge, he gets punished with a bat bite. Every time he tries to strike, a bat either holds his hands back or takes the hit. And even if he lands a hit, the vampire’s royal blood is enough to get him back up and running…
He takes out a pale green syringe and tries to impale his foe, but Leuto’s noble physique manages to block the needle from even entering the skin…
Grabbing his chance, he kicks Url to the shin, kneels him, and orders his bats to hold him. He playfully whales on him with slaps…
Leuto: Come on!! Where’s the freak show!!? Where’s the plague doctor that had vampires hiding in holes?!
Maya: Sir Samuel, we have to
Samuel: No…Watch…
Refusing to open the shield, they helplessly watch as Url is taunted and tortured…
Leuto: I heard about your kind. Nuts even for humans. No one would even touch them unless they were bitten by us. How does it feel, bird doc?! Huh!? How does it feel having to hide your psychotic face from your friends under that mask?!
Vic: What is he talking about? Url was so kind to us in the exam…He could never what that freak was calling him…
Samuel: You probably weren’t born that period…Some plague doctors had to become hunters to find out what was causing the vampirification and find the cure…But given their “bizarre” nature…They would end up torturing vampires during fights…
Making signs with his hand, Leuto’s attention turns to Url’s fingers. He grabs them violently…
Leuto: Trying another trick, huh? How about I break one or two fingers, huh? Will the psycho come out if I do that?
Url: Probably…”Flash”
A bright flash blinds Leuto for a moment but sends the bats in disarray. Pulling out another green flask, he cries out to Samuel :
Url: Sir, now!!
Samuel drops his shield, and sends the entity to dash to the vampire… Url throws the flask and blasts it with "Sear" in front of the blinded bat, releasing a pale green cloud…The entity arrives and covers Leuto in a transparent, smaller sphere…
Leuto: Sniff, sniff…what the hell is this?! Where am I?
Url closes in, and smacks on the sphere a couple times with his blades…
Leuto: I warn you, hunter! This cage won’t hold me back!
He smacks again and again…
Leuto: Stop it!! What is this? Who’s inside ?! Where are you!!! I can’t see a damn thing!!!
Catching some eye contact, Url makes a move, as if he’ll attack the vampire. From Leuto’s point of view, Url is meters bigger, and is ready to lay his giant blade onto his miniscule body…
Leuto: Leave me alone, you trash!!!
He starts sending out bats, more than the sphere can hold, to counter the "attack". The bats inhale some of the gas…They slowly start to panic too, and like the spiral before, start attacking each other, shredding through Leuto’s skin in the process…
Url: A little gift from your friend the Ripper...( I couldn't manage to replicate the whole illusion-swapping technique, but I can recreate the intense hallucinations that got me hitting thin air against that bat in the sewers...)
Leuto is too anxious to control the bats, and hits on the sphere begging for the torture to stop…
Leuto: Let me out!!! They’re killing me!!! Please!!!
Url: You said you wanted to see if the psycho will come out…
Placing his palm on the sphere, he ducks to see the vampire straight in the eye. His piercing, cold blue eyes, against the terrified, twitching red eyes of his adversary…
Url: Well, here he is.
Samuel: Doctors would sometimes go overboard…That’s when they made a pact. When a plague doctor over-tortures his vampire opponent…He’ll take off his mask. Because they’ve surpassed even the limits of their creed…
Cries of excruciating pain make the kids shudder in fear…But what ticks their needs the most isn’t the painful torture that no hunter would ever dare to come up with. It’s the torturer’s cold-blooded expression. His open irises unstuck from the victim’s cage and the trial he released upon him. The riled bats eat through his regenerating skin over and over, while he hits the floors and walls, begging for release, he watches it all, as some sort of…art…a sculpture he just made…even for the younger hunters, it is a gruesome sight
Maya: (Is…this what a hunter has to do?...Are vampires that dangerous?...)
Url: He’s too strong to take him on right now. Let him in there for 5 minutes and then release him. We can question him-
Url backs off and tries to approach the group. Samuel notices vibrations from inside the moving bubble…
Samuel: He’s trying to make the bubble blow up with more bats!! Url, back off I can’t hold it for any lon-
Bursting from the bubble, hundreds of bats swarm the room…Then, like a hurricane before the storm, the amass around the injured vampire, who’s holding his palms together and chanting in vampiric…
The same spell as Wutsworth. The bat flesh molds with each other and starts to morph into a strange, large, beast resembling a bat…Starting to recuperate, the beast picks Leuto up and puts him on its back…
Leuto: I’ll kill you, hunter!! This will take you out!! You think your cheap illusions are gonna work on a noble!!!
Url : (Thought so…guess the table’s not enough to go against the noble’s defenses…)
Vic: Url, get out of there!!! He’s gonna kill you!!!
Url: Like hell, I’ll let this monster walk out of here! Not after what he’s done!!
The kids beg Url to run…However, the hunter remains to his ground, preparing his saw blades…Before the beast's fangs decimate him, Samuel’s entity manages to form into large spikes to hold back the beast…
Samuel: That’s my last straw!! Fall back, or your precious baby gets kebab’d right here!!!
The more Leuto urges it to push forward, the more the spikes enter through its body…
Leuto: Shit…Shit, shit, shit!!!! I’ll be back, hunters!!! You can bet on that!!!
He backs off…The beast turns into large clouds of black smoke along with Leuto, and they both disappear from the corridor…
Url kneels. He breathes in and out like crazy…His teacher and the students rush to his aid…
A few hours later, after handing in their report to the support soldiers, Samuel walks everyone to the VHC…
Samuel: Phew! That was a close one!!
Vic: Sir; why didn’t you pound him with that blob!! You could create everything you want!!
Maya: It did seem like you were holding back, professor…
Samuel: I was out of vials to turn 11X19 into something more combat-oriented. I never imagined there would be a noble. Even with 11X19 pinning him down, I could feel he would still fight back…
Url: It‘s my fault… I should have finished him before he made that creature…But his attacks…that was coordinated…thought out…trained…I couldn’t even deal decent damage…
Vic and Maya slap him…
Vic: Are you kidding me? You had him in the gutter for a while there! He was begging for help!!
Maya: Strength aside, you did manage to outsmart him…
Url: It was also thanks to Sir Samuel…I didn’t think I would have survived some of that without him…
The smug doctor smirks and raises his glasses…
Samuel: Well, how about we let Url cool down for a bit? Url, go back to the bar. I bet your friends are worried about you…
Url: Oh yes, I should…Oh well-
Samuel: And hey!... Try and keep the mask on that belt for a while huh? They deserve to know…
He smiles at his teacher’s remark. Saluting everyone, he departs…
Vic: Sir, if we fail, I want to say that Maya doesn’t deserve to
Maya: Now, we went together, we’ll fail together.
Samuel: Both of you passed.
Vic: Huh?
Samuel: Kids, when you saw Url fight, what did you notice?...
Maya:…He’s smart…He’s a good fighter despite being a doctor…and…
Pictures of the hunter’s cold gaze and merciless torture come to mind…
Vic: He was vicious…almost nuts…
Samuel: A lot of people will say that Url’s a hidden psychopath. And they are right. But what did I tell you this morning?
Maya: Only revenge-driven nuts and basketcases make it out in this wing…
Samuel: You can be smart, you can be prepared, you can be brave, you can be a fighting god…But there’s one thing my friend had said that stands correct even now, for every hunter…”The most important thing in the Hunt…is grit.”
Samuel: I normally thought I would just find you inside the bank because rumors have been going around of the ongoing investigation. I would ambush you in there and have Url play the role of a vampire…But once I heard your cries, we rushed in as fast as we could…But now, now that you’ve seen how a hunter should fight…no backing out, no fear…no remorse for what these monsters deserve to get…Do you still want to join the hunter’s wing?
Looking at each other, they both agree to follow the path of a hunter…