Beryl welcomes the two rookies in his assigned chamber...
Aaron: And that’s how stuff rolled out...
Suiga: I’m getting worried. This definitely sounds like a trap...
Beryl: This is most definitely a trap, prince. This whole thing smells conspiracy and unfortunately, unless lives are thrown we can’t be for sure...Nevertheless, that does not mean we are going to fail this mission. I trust that both of you can handle yourselves at least, right?
The two rookies raise their eyebrows at his last statement, in a stray of confusion...and annoyance?
Aaron: Eh...excuse me?
Suiga: Is sir Beryl practicing reverse psychology? Enhance our potential performance by engaging our need for approval with feelings of distrust and underestimation?
Aaron: Or in slang words, are you looking down on us?
Suiga: Not exactly what I said, but yes.
Beryl: Of course not! I’m just worried this mission might not be easy, and you might not be up for it! There’s no shame in backing out! I can probably handle this on my own.
Aaron: Screw you, asshat! Suiga, let’s move! The next bat that comes in here is gonna get fucked!
Suiga: The word use might be dirty, but yes, they have no idea what’s coming for them.
Beryl: I’ll be wishing for your success!!!
Aaron and Suiga: Yeah, right!!!
The hunters leave. Beryl smiles while gazing at their backs, proud of his rookies and their motivation...He turns away to look at the ornated chest, standing on a marble podium in plain sight...Black scaly coating, golden handles, and an insignia of a pair of glasses. He tries to crack it open, but nothing budges the chest...
Beryl: What could it be...Sir Huckleberry’s studies have shown nothing yet. And no one remembers where the chest was found...What could the vampires have hidden in here...
Back to the boulevard...Wearing the silver mask, Shaka dances around the young girl’s strikes with ease, using the butt of his spear to outmaneuver her with mocking somersaults and spinning dodges. Luca liberates the remaining survivors of their attackers.
The chief can barely walk, kneeling from the gushing pain of his current wounds. Citizens close to him help him up, a quintet of able men for one large wardrobe of a man. One man though stands out from the crowd, slowly cleaning a battered silver blade on his tattered white clothes from the corpse of a soldier…
Luca: Everyone, listen to me!! Me and my junior are going to take care of the bat. Run as fast as you can to the VHC and take shelter.
Eliakim: Like hell I’m leaving you two alone! This bitch’s a-
Luca: Sir, you can barely walk! And that gun barely has any ammunition left, you’ll just be a burden!
Eliakim: Who the fuck are you callin’ a-aAaah!!
Holding the hun downwards to the ground like a cane, it’s the only thing protecting his head from crashing to the old pavement…The men and the soldiers who came with Luca took to the stands
Luca: You guys. Make sure he’s at the hospital wing the minute he steps foot in the VHC.
Soldiers: Sir, yes sir!
Lone man:…Like they’ll help with anything…
The lone man obscurely observes the silver blade. Moving his head upwards, he then stares at the small vampire clashing with the young hunter…
Luca: Hey, you good? You have to leave now.
Lone man: Why should we listen to you…
The words barely come out of his mouth, and his bloodshot eyes are ready to pop out from looking at the ongoing fight…
Luca: Look, dude, you can either stay here and die or-
Lone man: I’d rather die a human fighting against those freaks than wait in a corner and die while you fail to keep us safe!!
Luca: Huh? Hey, buddy –
Lone man: Shut up! Look at all this! Blood everywhere!! Guts are spilling from that kid’s clothes!! Do you know how many died in this festival tonight?! Me neither!! Cause I only got 10 fucking fingers to count, and their deaths are triple that!!
He approaches the chief hunter. No fear runs through his head, despite the swordancer’s fame for his skills and aggression!
Lone man: Fuck you! The moment a hunter stepped into this feast everything went to shit! Shit!! You drew them here! And you couldn’t even put in the effort to save us!! Half the festival is dead because the hunters are shit at their jobs. But guess that’s expected when their top head is a useless crippl-
Luca’s sword blinks from its hilt in the back to the neck of the shouting man, halting his rant in a flash…Their eyes meet, both bloodshot from rage …
Luca: The only reason you’re still able to say this is because he risked his ass for you, you ungrateful piece of shit!
Eliakim: Luca!! Stand down!!
The hunter sheaths his blade. The vampire listens to the argument and ditches Shaka to go hunt the human …
Luca: Look out!
Lone man: Shit! Die, you fucking monster!!
Erylis quick reflexes kick the blade out of his hand. Opened, she tries to plunge her arm inside his chest. But she soon views the limb chopped and sent flying, by the swordancer’s draw…
She flies back after sensing Shaka’s footsteps approaching for a chance stab with his spear…Her hand sprouts back as fast as it was cut…
Shaka: Shit! Not fast enough!
Luca: You still need practice, kiddo. Now, let’s keep her busy while the rest of them get out of here. Including you chief!!!
Eliakim: Shit…You come back dead, and I’m pissing on both of your corpses!!
Shaka: That really sounds inspiring…
The group leaves along with the frightened man, who scurries as quickly as possible…
Erylis: As happy as that was, I can’t actually let them leave…
She claps her hands. Four, monstrous hulks bust out of the nearby buildings and into the boulevard. Without a moment’s waste, they hurry to the survivors…
Luca: Shaka, I’ll take care of them, you keep her busy until I arrive!
Shaka: Got it!!
The sword dancer runs to taunt the hulks…Shaka prepares to clash once again with the girl…
Erylis: (The spear doesn’t seem to have any special trick…If he can predict my attacks, it must be because of that weird mask…)
Shaka: (If I keep this up, she’ll pull out a Virtue…I should lock in and see what she’s gonna do…)
To Shaka’s eyes, the world has two views. The normal one, the bloody battlefield left over the vampire’s rampage. The dissected corpses, the smashed bones, the crying children and women trying to escape the hulks. The other is through his mask…A flashback to earlier times…
Shaka and Beryl are talking to each other in the VHC corridors. Young hunters, just starting out. Clearly, their arms and hides haven’t yet met the blood of a vampire…
Beryl: Man, Heavy Hitter is really annoying. I never get what I want, so I always have to scrap my way into fights.
Shaka: Hey, at least you HAVE a weapon! I just prance around in this beauty mask. Who the hell is intimidated by THIS!?
Beryl: Now that you brought it up, I never really got how this thing works? You like, see everything that’s gonna happen?
Shaka: Hmm, no. I wish. The mask shows me what vampires are going to do next. It feeds off vampire magicka inside their bodies and uses it to create trajectories of their movements… On a good day, I can see what’s going to attack me from behind…
Beryl: Shut up!! That’s way too overpowered!! Why are you complaining!!
Shaka: Because it’s just a damn silver mask!! How will the girls I save notice my clean mug if it’s covered by this!!
Beryl: Well, one solution would be to just wear it all the time, that way everyone will only know you like this.
Shaka: Shut up, asshole…
The Doku Mask. Named from the Mad Tactician Doku, his mask was a congratulatory trinket for saving Afreeka from a vampire dictator. Renowned for his mad but genius tactical skill and his “premonitions” guiding him through enemy attacks, the Lord decides to preserve this skill for the generations to come…
The mask uses the light to see through magicka inside a vampire. Translating its fluctuations, it creates a visual representation of its trajectories, thus allowing the owner of the mask to view vampiric movement during and before it happens…Back to the fight…
Erylis: Human.
Shaka: Hm?
Erylis: You fight exceptionally well for a hunter. Your name.
Shaka: (She’s praising me?) Shaka Doku.
Erylis: Doku…That crazy human that shook off Marquess Lilith in the Afreeka peninsula…
Shaka: Generations, a lot of generations after, but yeah. Why does that matter?
Erylis: I have a proposition. How about instead of Doku, you become Grey?
Shaka’s rejection sits on the tip of his tongue. But letting the bat spout her nonsense leaves him enough time to wait for Luca to finish up, or find out what the bat’s planning…
Shaka: You joking?
Erylis: Let us be honest, there’s nothing left in the boulevard for you to save. My associates are probably finished from the depository, and your allies might or might not be hanging by the walls with their guts spilled all over the floor, as we speak…If you ask me, that does not seem enough to risk a fight with me…
She opens her mouth and licks her fangs, wiping off the pale green, gene altering fluid dropping off the tips of her teeth…
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Erylis: Join me now as my soldier, and I promise you only victories to come ahead.
Shaka: Nice offer. But If I’m laying down my life for a woman it will either be the Saintess or Lady Sarah. I don’t just quit for any random offer…
Erylis's smile slowly fades as the hunter rejects her pompous proposal…
Shaka: And like hell my pals are gonna die from this. My partner is probably kicking ass on the other side of the boulevard, and my buddy in the bank is probably tying up your friends for Salazar.
After a few spins, he points the silver spear towards his opponent…
Shaka: So like hell, I’m giving up now that everyone’s heated as hell!!
Erylis: (Scissors wasn’t wrong…hunters are too stubborn for their own good…) You just dug your won grave, Doku…
The girl lunges at him once again. The specters in his mask show him every move she plans to make. Her left hooks, the upwards spinning kicks, the real attacks hidden behind the feints, the left and right sidesteps she takes to outmaneuver him. The hunter dances around her attacks. With his classy, black-tie attire, onlookers could think he’s waltzing with Erylis…
Spinning his spear right after finding himself behind her, back wide open, he pushes forward and strikes for the first time in the fight.
Erylis: Your defense might be impeccable…
To his surprise, the spear doesn’t just remain outside her skin, it bounces off as if it hit a brick wall, staggering him from the recoil…
Shaka: Huh?!
Erylis: But when it comes to attack, you will find yourself lacking.
Floating quickly, she approaches his open torso and hits him multiple times before he even reacts. The hunter gasps for air and lets out sighs of pain as the vampire’s hard fists smash around his body. She finishes her combo by jumping, grappling his head with her feet, then using her wings to spin mid-air and send the hunter flying to a nearby stand, crushing it along with him…
Delicately landing, she dusts off her dress and slowly steps towards the rebounding hunter…
Shaka: What the fuck…How tough is she…
Erylis: Spears and blades won’t be enough to kill me, Doku. This is the benefit of being a Grey noble…
Shaka: If you are still pitching for your house, I’m not interested.
As she approaches slowly, he tries to scan every single thing on her. Hair, clothes, eyes, mouth, arms and legs…What made the hunter fail that simple strike…Even for a noble, how is a small vampire girl like her able to take on a spear...
Shaka: (There must be something like armor under that dress…But she must have done this on purpose, letting me strike her so I can see for myself that she’s not going to fall down quick…no…that she’s not losing…) That said…
Shooting a stimulant, he rebounds and goes for the offensive. Erylis does not have the same advantage as our hunter, but her vampiric body grants her the reflexes to avoid most of Shaka’s swipes and forward stabs, no matter the boy’s impressive speed and maneuver…
Erylis: (Scissors undersold him, he’s faring well for a human. His use of this spear is immaculate, like spinning one’s own arms and legs around. Footwork is great, he’s visibly fit, and that mask is too troublesome. I can’t land even one strike now that he went on the offensive…)
One of his downward strikes lands on her torso, bouncing off once again…
Erylis: No matter…
Diving in, she tries to assault him again, this time preparing her fangs and strengthening her limbs to deliver a much more fatal combination. However, her attempt to grapple the hunter by his shirt is foreseen. He pulls out his smaller spear, smashes his foot down to stand ground, and pierces the girl’s forearm. Like a stake, the spear goes all the way through her arm…He tries to pull it out, but the woman puts in all her strength and spins the hunter around throwing him away, using the spear as a hook. She takes it out and quickly recovers…
Erylis: (A feint…He did that on purpose…)
Shaka: Guess you forgot to cover your arms with whatever armor you have on, huh?
Erylis: Matters not…It’s not my arm that shall get me killed, now is it…
Shaka: No, but it’s a start…
Smuggingly smiling, the girl brings her palms together. Whispering, she chants something in vampiric…
Shaka: Huh?
Erylis : (Cover my carcass, keep me from the light away, your blood crystal carapace...)
The upper part of her dress slowly tears away, while her body is covered in a dark, cherry-colored crystal carapace, from the torso to the arms, legs, and chin, leaving only her face and hair intact. Despite its thickness, her stretching reveals she can freely move around her arms without restrictions…
Erylis: Shaka Doku…refusing my offer shall be the last mistake you’ll ever make…
Shaka: You really can’t handle rejection, huh?
While Luca tries to kill the hulks chasing the surviving humans, Shaka engages Erylis in combat once again…
In the other part of the boulevard, Cassie and Samuel face off the two vampires sending their army of imps and dependents to destroy Philomena’s large Shield. Vampires trying to fly over her are shot down by Finn’s Sear incantations…
Cassie: What were these bullets? They destroyed my arrows in seconds!
Samuel: Guess we are about to find out. Cover!
Oscar prepares to shoot. His musket is a horror for every unlucky eye on the road. Ominous, dark colors of the flesh canister, the evil-looking, sharp, iron extremities on the handles and supports. As if the maker had butchered humans and animals alike to create this blood-dripping monstrosity…
Oscar: Let’s go for the archer first…
After a bright flash of red energy flows from the chamber up to the tip, two ominous, flesh bullets fly out of the canister at high speeds aiming for Cassie. Samuel quickly orders his blob to cover Cassie as a hardened silver shield…
Ezra: Hey, don’t go having all the fun now!!
After breathing in, the vampire lets out a harrowing scream. But unlike the other bats, her scream has a lower pitch, and a monstrous tone, rather than the high-pitched scream they use to stun humans. The force of it sends out a sound blast that knocks Samuel back…
Cassie: Sir Huckleberry!!
Samuel: Fuck! Don’t worry I’m fine. Keep your eyes on them all the time!! We can’t let them pass through!!
Oscar: The fact you think you can achieve that is concerning…
Cassie: Shut up, creep!! One that uses flesh arms in a fight is much more concerning!!
Oscar: Use what you can find, right? Now that you reminded me though…
He reaches out for one of the victims still breathing on the staging ground…Slashes it open, blood still flowing out like a flood…Opening his chamber he slams in pieces of flesh and organs from the body, all while the man lies down and watches…
Cassie: What the-leave him alone!!!
Oscar: Like he’s complaining. One foot in the grave, he can’t even scream in pain…
Cassie shoots two silver arrows, but the vampire just floats away and avoids them. He prepares to shoot…
Oscar: Stomach bullet V2…
The bullets fly at a distance of a few meters in between. The blob takes on a bullet, but the crash releases a bizarre liquid on its coating, slowly tearing a hole in the blob, that the second bullet passes through and hits Cassie’s shoulder. Likewise, the acidic liquid burns her clothes and skin…
Cassie: Fuck! What is this?!
Oscar: Never heard of stomach acid, weirdo? This is floating around in your belly.
Quickly administering a stimulant, she heals the vile wound. Ezra on the other hand, tries to attack with another sound blast, but Samuel’s blob reacts faster than earlier. Larger in size and more buoyant, the sound blast disperses inside the blob through violent vibrations…
Cassie: Huh?
Samuel: Made sure the impact of the physical air attack just disperses inside a proper surface. But this isn’t suited for battle now, is it…
Ejecting a few more syringes, the blob starts transforming into a humanoid, faceless, muscular doll.
Samuel: “Fighter”. This should keep them busy. Cassie, could you follow my lead, we are gonna put these folks to rest and give Philomena a break…
Cassie: The nightingale is at the ready!
The doll attacks Oscar. Changing quickly from buoyant to hardened and buoyant again, he bounces to the stage and has Oscar on the defensive with the same techniques he showed his two students days ago.
Oscar: This crapbag copies our moves…Stomach bullet V2
The bullets fly and tear through the blob, but this time, it regenerates twice as fast as the wound opens…
Samuel: (Fascinating…He uses human body parts to create bullets with effects. I wonder what other stuff he can use…)
Oscar carries a long backpack with him. From it he pulls out fingers, that he feeds the musket with…
Oscar: Finger Bullet V7
Gathering a red aura to the tip of the horror musket, the bullets fly at higher speeds, almost the same as the chief’s machine gun. With their velocity, they restrict the doll from approaching, while Ezra flies and lands a continuous sound wave from above. With the blob vibrating but stunned, Oscar pulls a leg from his backpack and feeds it to the musket, watching it getting devoured in pieces by the abomination…
Oscar: Leg Bullet V1
The musket prepares to shoot a large bullet, enough to destroy the blob now that its defenses are weak. However, Samuel orders the blob to clap its hands. The vibrations travel to the tip of the blob’s arms. The concentrated force sends out a piece of its silver body shooting at Oscar before he pulls a killer move. Cassandra shoots Ezra away before she dodges one of her retaliation blasts.
Oscar: You damn …Erza, take the girl! I’ll handle glasses!
Ezra: Fine! I’ll stick those arrows up her ass!
Cassie: You gonna have to come closer for that!!
Samuel: That was not a good response, Cassie…
The nightingale shoots small speed arrows like a maniac, barely letting the girl approach her as they separate from the other two…
Cassie: And that, I won’t let you do!
Oscar: (These arrows are a lot faster. She must be changing their foundation every time she casts one. And that blob…Glasses gives it new powers with every syringe and potion. But there must be a limit…)
Oscar prepares to shoot while Samuel regathers the humanoid doll. His leg bullet is powerful enough to push back the vampire and have Samuel turn the blob into another shield, that is easily destroyed, thus turning the blob even smaller…
Oscar: Let’s see how you’ll fight with a baby over there…
Samuel: Shit…
A flurry of arrows along with blasts of sound exchange around the battlefield. The girl struggles to approach the huntress without receiving less than five arrows in her limbs. Even from above, from behind, Cassandra manages to shoot her artillery fire quicker than the vampire can react.
While it seems alright, Cassandra knows she can’t land a good shot while dodging Ezra’s disastrous sound blasts. Stronger than what Samuel took on, they crush the pavement with ease. Cassie’s body could receive quite the damage if she took it head-on, no matter the enhancements of a hunter…
Cassie: I could keep shredding away with the speed arrows, but she will just restore everything in a second. And the more I drag this on the faster I’ll collapse…
Ezra: This bitch…I’m sick and tired of screaming at you!!!
Cassie: Then let me silence you once and for all!
Fear all over the streets. Survivors running with their hands on the neck, blood gushing out of busted arteries and open wounds. Soldiers running around like idiots trying to fix the newest vampire mess hall. Nuns outside the VHC are ready to accept any lucky human to not collapse or turn on the gate. The city center is in chaos…The cries of human victims are heard all the way down south…
Shroud: Of all the fucking days…We made sure no feasts were goin’ on today!!!
The south border gates. Large, grey stone walls cover the city from the rest of the dense forest expanding to the edges of Outer Landen, hiding away villages, ruins, and other nearly forgotten constructions…
Url: Apparently this was a last-minute decision, but without the chief handling paperwork, nothing was reported in VHC.
Lau: This is truly a disaster, the bats have probably killed everyone before the others have arrived! WW should be there to help them!!
Shroud: The others are just fine. The chief can handle himself for a few minutes and Philo’s a huntress. With Sam and Luca, I think we gave them too much firepower already…
Lau: What about the three in the bank? Grut seems like a good fellow, but the two dolts won’t be too much of a help for him!!
Shroud hits the noble in the head with a chop…
Shroud: Zip it, shrimp. If you don’t have faith in yer comrades, how’re ya’ gonna finish up what’s in front of ya’ right now?
With Lau calming herself, they have a chance to notice what lies in front of the extended, large iron gates guarding the south border from the rest of the dense, forest region. Separated by a large open grass field, Shroud looks onward to the large group led by Lady Sarah.
Shroud: Guess they’re there. Now why the hell can’t they just-
Moving his hand forward, the cyclone spares no second. It starts violently shredding the Titan’s arm from the top of his flesh and slowly but painfully aiming for the bone…
The hulk pulls his hand away before the cyclone chops it off…
Lau: (This…We would’ve been chopped to mince meat if it wasn’t for my wind wall!! How strong is this guy?!)
Shroud: Now I get why Sarah can’t move her ass over here…
Lau: This…this Scissors…Drunkard, let me have at him!!!
Shroud: Did I hit ya too hard? The hell you talkin’ ‘bout?!
Lau: This creep slaughtered an entire factory because he just had nothing to do!! I’ll avenge the victims I failed to save and restore my honor as a noble here and now!!
Shroud notices the noblegirl’s hand shaking in fear while attempting to draw her sword…Lau’s mind plays the scene of Scissors flying around the corpses of his wake, toying with Shaka and Suiga with just his fingers…and her clash with him…the unhinged stare he gave her as he was maniacally chasing for her sword…
Shroud: Tch…I chose the worst huntress to follow me around…Let’s do this, shrimp!
Url: While I admire your motivation, entering that cyclone will probably result in our heads flying around like sliced watermelons. If you could just allow me some seconds…I think I still have some…
Lau: What you got cooking there, doc?
Url: If that’s really a vampire behind the cyclone, I have something that will stop him…