Franklin Wutsworth has been called a lot of things in his life : Leader, entrepreneur, visionary, evolutionary, Revolutionary. But one title had stuck with his persona: Eccentric. Ever since he took over the family business, Wutsworth had been nothing but a saint for his employees, a large deviation from his predecessors. Helping their families, organizing feasts, even working in the warehouses from time to time… His factory was full of old, tired, and smudgy smiles whenever he entered the room. No complaints, strikes, or early retirements on his watch.
This could be the reason no one suspected him. Why would our boss order a feast during a crisis? No one pondered the question, their heads, the boss just wanted to cheer them up. Because he loved them.
That delusion quickly crumbled. The laughs, the crazy stories, the reminiscing of the victims, all stopped once everyone caught a glimpse of Wutsworth silently, but non-discreetly, ravaging the neck of one of the missing worker’s women. No one could speak, or move. One could say that even their thoughts had come to a stop, as Wutsworth suddenly stops, dropped his victim’s now dried-out, bitten corpse, as he hastily wipes the murky blood of his mouth and says :
Wutsworth : Oh, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.
No words. But now everyone starts to tremble silently…
Wutsworth : Oh, so no comments on… well this… I guess I can now explain myself.
A woman breaks the silence with a harrowing shout. Wutsworth swiftly grabs her by the shoulder and pierces through her sternum with his hand, holding all sorts of gore from the other side as the woman silently coughs out blood like a faulty faucet. He throws her body down, shrugs off the gore and continues monologuing.
Wutsworth : Now that there’s an example of what could happen shall you interrupt me, I should explain myself. My dear employees...friends, comrades, teammates or whatever other nonsense I spouted the last few years… In the ten years of my tenure, and the multiple years of each and everyone’s service in this factory, we shall embark on a brand-new project. Something that will collectively give everyone here a new, correct sense of purpose.
Worker : Tell me this is a lie…
Wutsworth: Quite not, my friend!! I will admit, that it has been unpleasant working with humans for the past decade. Working next to food, hungry as a wolf, and not being able to take a bite…
Woman: Mister Wutsworth, please stop…
Wutsworth: A nuisance, I say!! Smelling your sweat, watching you struggle every day for a bit of coin, drink yourselves to stupor for the pettiest of reasons. Humans truly are the lowest trash in the bin. But alas, my redemption arrived. A vampire called Jack approached me one day, right before the Salazar Prison Break. Like an angel from the heavens, a devil from Hell, a knight in shining armor, he offered my tormented soul a chance at liberation from the shackles of the human body. One bite, an eternal life of glory under his command… Not a bad deal, right?
Wutsworth continues his monologue while calmly walking among the frozen attendees. Only faint cries of children can be heard, but Wutsworth pays them no attention as he continues talking…
Wutsworth: Now, for our grand finale, your early retirement as I would say…
He claps his hands. From the shadows, around 14 new vampires appear to surround the victims. The faces, they sure are familiar to the crowd…
Woman: DAAAAVIIIIIDD!!!!
The woman breaks into tears and throws herself onto her husband, now a vampire under Wutsworth’s command. The bat, stone like a statue, pays no attention to the wallowing woman grabbing him and claiming to be his wife…
Wutsworth: Uuuh, don’t bother. David was my first. He was such a caring man, always talking about finally affording a place in the inner city to take care of you and whatever blasted kid you’d ever sprout out. Thankfully, my vision allowed me to see the grim future in store for him, and the potential that would be wasted had I not bit him on the way home…
Another woman just tries to shake her brother to his senses. But vampires have much more force than a mere human…
Wutsworth: Oh, Hernest… Always punctual, always on point, always perfect. This industry wouldn’t have reached this point had it not been for your perfectionism, and the skills to back it up… After years of watching you, I always wondered what was holding you back. And in the end, it was the human body dragging us down both…
The crowd slowly starts panicking. Their minds now deep in fear for their lives, they lay waste on the emotions of their former saint, now the vampire that’s about to kill them…They shout, they scream, they try to pass through, but the dependents make sure they stay put. Wutsworth lays out a harrowing screech, silencing the crowd…
Wutsworth: All of this, I did it for us. For our future, for our progress. Humanity is not an option, my poor friends. But Jack has a plan. If this works, we shall embark on a brand-new era!!
Wutsworth spreads his wings and quickly flies above the crowd.
Wutsworth: However there is some bad news I have to announce. Since the company’s undergoing a restructuring, I will have to lay some of you off. My dependents are quite hungry after all…
The dependents slowly approach the crowd…
Wutsworth: And that’s how I’m standing on this pile!!!
The hunters, arms in hand, try to process the information laid on them. In a matter of minutes, a feast full of smiles became a site of horror and blood for 15 vampires…
Aaron: You damn bastard… What the fuck???!!!
Wutsworth: Uuuh, your use of foul language irritates my ears. My lord cusses better…
Lau: These people trusted you… YOUR people trusted-
Wutsworth: And I delivered. I handpicked my best, and the rest can now help me proceed with the next phase of my plan…
The vampires lay out some bones, the bones from the graveyard, in a large circular scheme around the hunters and Wutsworth…
Suiga: What are you planning?!
Wutsworth: I won’t enter into a lot of details, don’t want to spoil the fun! We need to test out an old spell from our beloved Dracula, and this is the perfect testing site.
Lau: Like we’ll let you desecrate this place any longer!! You won’t even clap your hands before we-
Wutsworth: Exactly why you are here!!! I needed guinea pigs to see if we’ll need any more materials for a stronger effect. However, you only ARRIVED at the testing site. You are going to have to fill out the application for participating…
Wutsworth orders his vampires on the hunters…
Aaron: Alright, Lau, you and Su-
Lau: I have this in the bag, brute!!!
Lau ignores her teammate’s pleas and dashes to the vampires…
Lecourts are some of the best vampire hunters in the human race. Trained from a young age, they specify in swordsmanship and have a reputation for being ruthless against vampires, yet elegant while fighting.
So it’s not a surprise Lau would rush in a fight, effortlessly swinging her silver rapier around, this time with a form so sound, controlled, and elegant, she manages to pierce through 3 of the vampires’ tendons without receiving even a strike. The vampires stumble and fall, but quickly rise once they regenerate. Their rebound is however short-lived, as Aaron's large greatsword cleaves their torsos apart while they remain in confusion… 3 vampires are down…
Aaron: Damn it, Lecourt, don’t run off like that!!
Lau: I don’t need any help, brute!! Watch out!!
Two vampires try to attack Aaron. Lau engages the right, swiftly knocking him off his feet with a leg swipe. He stands back up and tries to rush her. However, full of openings, Lau makes quick work of him as she pierces his body all over with her rapier, ending her flurry with a slash in the neck that knocks the bat dead.
Aaron chooses a more simple approach, and slightly ducks to push the vampire in the chest with his palm. As the bat folds back, he simply lifts the sword over his body, dropping its sheer weight onto the opponent and slashing his left side clean.
Aaron: Damn, I thought your workers were better than this. You are a bad boss!!
Wutsworth: These weren’t even my best…
Suiga takes on Hernest and David. The vampires prove a better batch, as they manage to confuse the hunter with a quick combo of jabs. He loses his posture, and takes a few blows that throw him to the wall of the warehouse…
Lau: Your Holy Armament, dumbass!!!
Suiga gets up, as the vampires slowly approach him, silently laughing at him. Almost unconsciously, he raises his right arm to the side. He quickly notices and retakes his kendo posture…
Suiga: (No… not this one)
The vampires try out the combo once more. To their surprise, Suiga drops three small pellets to the ground, casting a smoke cloud that disorients the duo…
Lau: Is he dumb? They can hear him, they’re bats!!!
The vampires, descendants of bats, easily process his footsteps and follow him to a pile of metal that he tries to hide. To their surprise though once again, he’s not there. He had hit a shard of steel on the pile to confuse the vampires. He swiftly appears from behind and cuts down David limb to limb before he makes a move. Hernest floats back with his wings. He picks up two shards of metal from another pile and throws them at high speed onto the samurai. He manages to dodge, but the shard does not graze him enough. The vampire floats still and uses his speed to quickly throw shards at Suiga from different positions. Shards fly through the air like bullets, some manage to strike him. Theo still managing with the other vampires, chooses to pull out two small silver kunais. He pulls through the assault, enough to bait Hernest into attacking him head-first with a bite. He throws one kunai, managing to send one to his left eye and stop him in his tracks for a few seconds. With enough force, he grabs his sword like a machete, backward and jumps on the vampire that tries to float away; His weight is enough to stall his flight. He pulls out another kunai, and starts violently stabbing the vampire, despite it biting the hunter to no avail… Hernest falls, and Suiga manages to stand back up. He takes out one of Url’s vials, a small healing agent that manages to restore some of his wounds and put him back in the fight.
Aaron, even though busy himself, is still amazed by his teammates. Lau might be disobedient, but her swift swordsmanship lets her lay waste to the vampires trying to level her with every blunt object they can grab at first sight, without a scratch. Suiga’s perseverance inspires him, along with the skills to back it. However, his question regarding the samurai’s armament remains…
As they clear the vampires, they gather in front of the grand pile, in front of the vampire boss…
Lau: Your persistence in not using your armament confuses me…
Suiga: I choose to hide my weapons for the right occasion…
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Aaron: Well, you better pull it out now, I don’t think this one’s going to be fodder…
Wutsworth: You did well…you earned your seats in the trial…
Wutsworth stands up and claps his hands. The bones in the exterior start to glow red and tremble. A violent tornado starts to surround the vampire, covering him and a glowing mass of bones, gore, and blood. The hunters cover themselves as Wutsworth loses himself in the chaos…
Wutsworth: Witness… Lord Dracula’s Marvel!!!!!
After the storm, a grotesque, malformed Wutsworth appears. A hulking brute, Only his facial features remain slightly unchanged from the spell.
Aaron: So you ravaged Landen for 4 weeks just so you can get yourself a makeover??
Suiga: He just sacrificed his entire staff…His dependents too…
Lau: Truly a vampire…
Wutsworth (altered voice): This, is our legacy, spanning over a thousand years!! My Lord Jack can now rest assured that this spell shall help him with his plan.
Aaron: Not that we are letting any of this happen, but what is Jack the Ripper planning to do with a damn beast? The hunters are gonna make quick work of anything like this!!
Wutsworth: Unfortunately, I am tasked with disposing of you before you warn anyone. And don’t try to sound the alarms… The electrician’s layed off…
Wutsworth tries to jump on Suiga with a downward punch. Suiga dodges, but the vampire’s size is enough to break the ground, forcing the group to scatter.
Aaron: This one’s going to be a hard fight. Lau, go ri-
Lau: LEFT!!
Lau disobeys her teammate once more, shortening his fuse. She tries to impale the vampire’s leg with a flurry of stabs, but his enhanced flesh is thick enough to withstand the strong silver blade. Unfazed, he swipes Lau over to a nearby Lau with his left arm.
Aaron : Damn it Lecourt!!!
Wutsworth approaches Aaron slowly, his mind racing with excitement and curiosity for his new form…
Wutsworth: Pitiful leader. Your subordinates can’t even hear your orders…
Aaron: At least I don’t sacrifice them to turn into a monster. Ten years of trust, all thrown into the garbage bin!!
Wutsworth: You keep saying this…
Wutsworth grunts and rushes Aaron, trying to step on the hero with his enlarged leg. As Aaron sidesteps to dodge, he follows with a series of slow, but heavy fists. He manages to play a feint and land a hit on the hunter. Aaron’s reflexes hit quickly because he lays his sword on the left side to block the hit. To the bat’s surprise, Aaron isn’t thrown to a wall but rather brushed off a few steps.
Wutsworth: You are tougher than I thought!
Aaron: Then those muscles must have fixed your head too!!
Aaron rushes, following with a series of slow slashes himself. Wutsworth playfully dodges, confident the sword won’t hit. He gets tired, so he attempts to stop the sword with his hand. But to his surprise again, Aaron strengthens his grip, and violently swings his claymore, managing to pierce his flesh and slash off some of his fingers. Wutsworth, shocked, tries to grab Aaron, but the hunter quickly reacts by swinging his blade once more, timed just enough to cut the bat’s hand at the moment his balance is shaken.
Aaron: Suiga! Go!
The samurai, forgotten by the vampire, quickly rushes and climbs onto the bat’s arm. Suiga tries to slash off as much of his neck as possible, but Aaron notices the bat’s fingers have regenerated at a fast pace, so he warns Suiga to abandon. Suiga swiftly jumps off the hulk, but not without slashing his eyes before the hulk tries to grab him off his shoulder. Wutsworth is dazed, but he quickly regenerates his lost pupils. He takes a look and notices the group trying to help the fallen Lau. Staring at them with a menacing smile, he grabs a fallen metal pipe nearby and chews it whole like gum. Mouthful of metal, he forcefully spits out a shower of shards onto the group.
Aaron: FUCK!!
The shower is enough to raise dust from the field. Once clear, Wutsworth gazes upon a beaten Aaron, shaking from the number of shards covering his body as he shields his teammates from most of the bullets.
Wutsworth: Tough…but foolish leader…
Suiga : AARON!!!
Aaron: Suiga…
Lau stares at the shaking hunter in disbelief. As she feels a hint of shame for her actions…
Wutsworth: I would just throw one of my workers in front! This is why I hate humanity. Too foolish and attached to notice the true potential you could reach; But relations, friendships, camaraderie that will only last a decade, how can these be more important for you!!??? TELL ME!!!
Aaron: And you are a boss… Don’t make me laugh.
Aaron shakes off some of the shards that couldn’t fully pierce his flesh. As he talks, he lifts his sword on his shoulders, pointing at Wutsworth…
Aaron: Ten years of trust, and you threw it down the drain so you can be better fodder for the Ripper! Those guys loved you!! They couldn’t stop talking about you!!! That’s what I hate about bat freaks!! It’s your shitty nature to see other people as tools!! I would rather die than use my teammates to live!!!
Suiga and Lau stare at the bloody hunter with amazement, carefully listening to his speech…
Wutsworth: Then a corpse you can be. Allow me to help you with that…
Wutsworth rushes to them, preparing a smash with his two hands. Suiga quickly gets up and throws two more of his pellets to the ground, creating a black smokecloud. He grabs Lau and with Aaron, attempts to hide inside the warehouse. Wutsworth tries to detect them, but Suiga throws all of his last kunai and some blunt objects on the metal machines, blocking their footsteps and covering their tracks. The hunters assess the situation, using a speech incantation to avoid the bat’s echolocation by covering their voices.
Aaron: Shit. Suiga you got any of those stimulants Url gave you?
Suiga passes one to Aaron. The hunter drinks it and has some of the wounds healed.
Aaron: Much better…
Suiga: That was my last, I gave the other to Lau.
Aaron: Hey, shrimp! Mind explaining why you can’t hear a word I shout to you!!
Lau: I told you, peasant! I don’t need your-
Aaron: You got sent to the wall like a fly!! I thought Lecourts knew how to fight…
Lau: Take that back…
Lau instinctively raises her rapier on Aaron’s neck. Suiga tries to stop her, but Aaron halts him. He grabs the rapier, further bleeding in his hand…
Lau: What are you-
Aaron: I don’t give two shits if you want to act like a brat if you hate my clothes, my eyes, or whatnot! But you ain’t going to die on my watch!!
Lau starts to lessen her grip…
Aaron: You wanna prove to your father you are Lecourt material?? You better stay alive to do it, cause corpses can’t talk!!
Lau finally puts away her weapon…
Lau:…You are right…I’m sorry…
Suiga sighs out of relief…
Lau: This vampire…He just… pisses me off!!
Aaron: And I’m sure there’s a good reason behind that, but character development can wait. We need a plan, this guy is strong and dumb enough to raise the whole factory to kill us.
Suiga: I don’t think so. He’ll probably search around quietly, too much noise could alert nearby support from VHC…
Lau: So, he won’t find us fast, but we have no backup. Great!
Aaron: We don’t need backup. Look, his skin’s probably too thick for your swords to cut. He regenerates too fast to drag out a fight, and he’s as tough as those machines smashing metal. We have to take him out with stronger stuff…
Lau: You mean, our armaments?
Suiga flinches, but the duo doesn’t notice…
Aaron: Yes. It puts a strain, but it’s time.
Lau: My rapier can make me control the winds, but not in like hurricanes and stuff…
Aaron: Good. You and Suiga are faster than me, you can try to give me an opening so I can chop him off. My claymore can charge with light. It gets heavier, but the next “move” I make turns stronger. I have to charge every time though, so you’ll have to cover me…
Suiga slightly trembles…
Suiga: I… my…
Lau: Finally!!
Aaron: Suiga can’t use it!!! He used it Tuesday and he still has drawbacks from it.
Suiga stays shocked by his leader’s cover. He smiles as he’s assured his partner trusts him.
Lau:, topknot, you could just admit from the start that you were weak!!!
Suiga: Watch it, shrimp. I don’t need an armament to lay waste upon you!!
Aaron: Great everyone’s back to their game.
Lau: Just for the record, I don’t admit you guys are better now or acknowledge you and stuff!!!
Suiga: You shall respect sir Aaron with all your might, Lecourt!!! He is our senior, our lead-
Aaron: A little too relaxed, I see…
The gang gets out of the hideout. Wutsworth is still searching the warehouse, lifting machines and rails to look underneath…
Lau: Is he… dumb? There are like 30 rooms in here alone!!!
Suiga: You know, his movements are getting a little brutish, and his combat style reminds me more of a giant rather than a vampire… Could it be the transformation rendered his mind moot…
Aaron: I wish. He can still speak, and use combos… This is arrogance. And we are going to use it.
Wutsworth notices the group staring at him, arms at hand, ready for a second attempt to take his head…
Wutsworth: Aaaahhh, there you are!! Are you ready to learn why you are such a weak leader, or hunter??
Aaron: I’m no one’s leader. But I don’t mind showing you why you are a freak boss before I cut your head off.
Wutsworth: Do not make me laugh. I’ll turn your horrid flesh to dog food, and use your weapons as decorations for the office before you even reach my head.
Aaron: Don’t underestimate us. But before I reach your head, you’re gonna tell me what the hell you are planning with a hulk-turning spell…
The hulking bat wonders for a moment…
Wutsworth: Foolish human. If you want to know that badly…
Wutsworth picks up a large rail. He throws it and smashes it mid-air with his kick, sending large shards all over the group.
Wutsworth: Then you better come closer and find out…
Aaron: SCATTER!!!
The gang scatters and dodges the shards. Suiga and Lau engage the bat from his two sides. Suiga sidesteps to the vampire’s thick fists and grabs, and tries to slash his way to his hamstrings. But the bat’s thick skin still prevails….
Lau holds her sword in her two hands. As she prays, a gust of turquoise wind lightly engulfs her…
Lau :
My Lord. Hear your child’s prayers. Bestow upon your humble servant the blessings of your winds and guide me through battle. Winds of Pirout
Lau, now engulfed by an aura of wind, engages the vampire. Wutsworth tries to trap her by feigning a combo on Suiga, but to his surprise, the huntress does not rest trapped in his grasp. Lau appears behind him and taunts him verbally. The vampire starts focusing on Lau, whose winds have made her a fast sprite, appearing and disappearing into thin air. Once she disorients him enough to make him misstep, leaving a huge opening to his hamstring, Lau lays another flurry of stabs, only this time, she hastily stabs him more than 20 times, with the final one strong enough to open a tear to the leg and stagger him. Suiga follows and slices the weakened leg off. In his glorious feeling, he misses Wutsworth's fast regeneration and gets pushed back by his sprouting limb. Lau manages to stop his fall. They re-engage him, now trying to stall enough time by dodging his attacks as Aaron slowly prays…
Aaron dips his sword to the ground…
Holy Lord. Hear my prayer. Release your blade’s mighty howl upon your foes and guide me to battle. Wolf’s Bane
The greatsword slowly vibrates, glowing with white light as the ground beneath it starts to crack from the rising weight…
Aaron: I’ll show you who’s boss now…
Aaron slowly walks towards the fight. The bat has picked up a metal rail and tries to squash the hunters, to no avail. Lau’s winds guide her through the attacks leaving her unscathed and free to slash and stab. Suiga acrobatically dodges his swipes. They notice their teammate arriving determined, so they drive the vampire closer to him. As Wutsworth angrily rushes them, he fails to see Aaron, who parries his last strike, staggering him. Before the bat recuperates and rushes the boy, Aaron uses the momentum from the parry to grab Eisenwald, blessed by the Lord and now heavier and charged with holy light, with his two hands…
Aaron: From the Industries new Union… FUCK YOU!!!
He slams the sword to the ground with all his might. A downward slash, so clean and strong that cleaves through the monster’s thick skin like imp flesh, slicing him into two lumps of flesh, leaving one side with the head intact. The force is enough to even smash the ground and scatter the body parts away. The other two hunters stare in awe, seeing their teammate slashing clean the same hulk they couldn’t even graze without giving it their all…
Aaron: …Huh…You…fucks GET HIS HEAD BEFORE HE REGENERATES!!!
Vampire regeneration is quite a hurdle to pass. Hunters count on the silver to slash through the vampire’s skin, but they can’t do a lot for their regenerative capacities. To kill a vampire, one must make sure he deals enough damage to stop his regenerative factor….
Lau and Suiga quickly cut away the head before Wutsworth regenerates the rest of his body. The group gathers around, as they threaten Wutsworth unless he pauses his sprouting limbs and talks…
Wutsworth: Fine, Fine!!! My master wants to burst a hole through Salazar…
Aaron: AGAIN???
Suiga: The Ripper has done this before?!
Lau: Salazar Prison Break, 10 years ago. Even my father came to Landen with help…
Wutsworth: I do not know the specifics, but he will unleash the behemoths inside the city as a distraction before the expedition team returns. He will then re-open a hole in Salazar.
Lau: Pretty ironic of you, though to betray your boss at the last moment. Not even a hint of respect to your employees…
Wutsworth: Do not make a fool out of me, brat!!! The only reason I’m telling you this is because there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop him. And don’t talk of my employees like you knew them…
Suiga: We know they trusted you. And you destroyed their lives.
Wutsworth: They didn’t know!!! They preferred to walk around with the putrid hide that is human flesh, ignoring their true purpose!!! They served me right, my master!!!! How could a bunch of humans ever think of-
Lau and Suiga slash his head, ending the bat’s rumble and ending the fight…
Lau: Rot in bat hell, you bastard…
Aaron, looks at them proudly, smirking as the sunrise arrives…
Aaron: We got a lot of work to prepare for… But there’s one thing I have to tell you
Suiga: Praise from Aaron!!?? My chief, I-
Lau: Of course you do. Apologize for ever speaking against my better, superior judgment, bru-
Aaron: YOU FUCKERS KILLED HIM, WE ARE SUPPOSED TO HOLD HIM FOR SALAZAR ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!