Vampire hunting is a simple job. Train rigorously with a senior, subject your body and mind to ruthless experiments, receive a random armament from an ever-loving God and start killing vampires. Of course, that’s just the summary of the job. Vampire hunters kill vampires, yes, but the gang’s patrols and small requests aren’t the only place they get to practice their craft. Expeditions are a rare, but important aspect of the Hunt, where vampire hunters and support army band together to reclaim lost land from the crimson-eyed freaks. From large forests to barren wastelands, expeditions are held to expand humanity’s reach to outer villages and clear vampire cults torturing the weak. Of course, no one now’s what vampire horror the hunters may face, so it is only reasonable that the elite of the elite can join. The hardest hunters, seasoned from years of fighting, reaching the distinguished rank of senior, risking their lives in the worst of conditions-
Shroud: WHO OF YA’ FUCKS FINISHED MY DAMNED RUM???
In the fields of outer Landen, the grey sky complimenting the wavy, naked trees, a large camp hosts the hunters currently on an expedition to search for any troubling cult behind the occurrences in the city. One of the main figures, the hulking senior that guides Aaron and Url, Shroud, shouts as the scared soldiers try to find his lost rum…In the sides, a slender man with black hair, adorned with silver hunter armour (dark blue leggings, silver plating, black shirt), sits with his legs crossed and rested on a small wooden table, sighing at the mess in front of him…
Man: Shroud, could you be less…beast and more man? It’s three in the afternoon.
Shroud: Oh, I’m sorry, Luca your highness!! I forgot yer ass still has sticks up to it!! Loosen up, wil’ ya’?
The man Shroud addresses to is Luca. A senior hunter, he is renowned for sending dozens of vampires to their graves along with Shroud during their tenure as hunters. Well respected by their peers, no one intervenes on their discussion…
Luca: Until Saturday, just hold until Saturday, and I’ll be back home sipping tea far far away from your stinking breath…
Shroud: Hell ya’ talking ‘bout? We gonna be binging them barrels at Aaron’s place the minit’ we are back!!!!
Luca: Haven’t you tortured the kid enough??? Sending him people to take care of when you know he hates taking responsibilities that aren’t his.
Shroud: Kid needs ta learn that life ain’t all ‘bout ‘scaping work and killing time slacking off!!! What would his mother say?
Luca: “Shroud leave my kid alone”
Shroud: Doesn’t mean anything, I’m still right!! I would reward myself with a sip, but Imma outa luck here…
Luca: Speaking of Aaron, how’s the kid faring?
Shroud: Great, higher-ups couldn’t be happier! Two bats dead and one captive!!! Even the bird boy got out ta play!!!
Luca: Three vampires down… Makes our expedition seem useless…
Shroud: And the rookies seem to be most behind this. I knew bringing a Lecourt would shake things up!
Luca: What about the prince from A.E.? Read in the reports he’s fighting pretty good…
Shroud: Hah!! My other best decision!! Kid is starting to make Aaron see this whole “leader” thingy pretty great! He’s got moves, he listens…
As Shroud goes on, he flashes back to a time where he was reading Suiga’s file… a large, red word can be seen on the second page: CLASSIFIED : HOLY ARMAMENT. Holy armaments are a hunter’s extension, his personal weapon against the bats. It is a long, customary etiquette to not pry on a hunter’s armament, especially if releasing info could reach the vampires…
Luca: That’s it? Finally, the brain got shut…
Shroud: (I can’t tell you that, Aaron boy. Ya gonna have ta see this yerself…)
….
Back to Landen then. The shock of last night’s revelation took no time to spread and lay chaos among the people. With the head of the top rail manufacturing industry out and shunned as a vampire, the tramway system quickly found itself shut until the Wutsworth family can negotiate for a new head, of course after the vampire hunting association rules them out as human… The death of a vampire doesn’t always bring peace in a human’s mind these days.
The group, worried with Wutsworth’s interrogation, try to match the dots in the vampiric plan afoot, around the grand table of the inn…
Url : Alright, let’s get this straight : A vampire named Jack, COINCIDENTALLY I hope named like the Ripper, has send members of his cult to 1)gather bones for a ritual 2) steal hunter patrol schemes to figure out when and where to do the ritual and 3) use humans to perform it. The ritual consists of turning a vampire into a 4 feet tall hulk capable of chewing metal like gum…
Aaron: Sounds about right. Not really freaky when you summarize it like that.
Lau: Why would a bum like the Ripper come back after 10 years?
Suiga seems confused. Being an Asian, he has missed a few events key to Landen’s recent history…
Aaron: Oh, we should explain to Suiga, he probably doesn’t know the details to the incident…
Lau: Uuughhh, don’t they have newspapers in Asia?
Suiga: I use them to smash insects. Could really use one right one with you.
Aaron: Cool it. Ten years ago, the Ripper was a creep serial killer that killed off random people in the street and gutted them off for…well we don’t know.
Suiga: Hence the name “Ripper” …
Aaron: Yep. Guy had a killing streak, and no one could find him because there was no evidence, no witnesses and he could fit any description when the cops took testimonies. Anyways, suddenly, he left a message saying he left us a goodbye gift and vanished of the face of Landen.
Url: You could say heee… ripped himself of the face of Landen!
No one gives attention to Url’s awful attempt at lightening the mood…
Aaron: The goodbye gift: A giant hole through the walls of Salazar Prison Centre. Every shitty vampire we had for questioning just managed to take off and start picking humans for snack.
Lau: My own father, who rarely leaves Pirout alone, chose to take his vanguard and help out with the assault. He said it was a disgusting sight…
Suiga remains calm, despite the clear horror in his face…
Suiga: I heard of the incident, but I never thought that it was such a tragedy…
Aaron: Well, that’s why this situation’s so risky. So, what do we do? We are looking for a guy without even knowing how he looks like. Worst of all, trains are down, so no moving around the city like kings…
Lau: Your understanding of royal leisure is either pitiful or condescending…Why don’t we just go torture that head the doctor here captured last time?
Url: A coincidence really, we were asked to go interrogate him! A real peach, he offered to cough up a few stuffs on his cult in exchange for killing him…
Suiga: (Considering that freak was screaming the entire time, death sounds more pleasing than sir Url’s torture)…
Aaron: You really are a psychopath, Url, but that’s what we love about you. We go together or do we split?
Url: We split. We three stay here, you go.
Lau: Huh?
Aaron: Excuse me?
Url: Yes, I forgot to tell you. He apparently will only speak to my chief…
Suiga: Sir Aaron, an opportunity arises to cement yourself as leader of this ragtag group. You must at all-
Aaron: I ain’t no freaking leader!!! Ugh, fine, since I have to.
Url : Oh and pass by the VHC first, Patricia has your access slip.
Aaron: (Work,work,work) Yeah sure, I’ll leave now so I can join you on the patrol early…
Url: Great. I’ll show the lads where we patrol today. Make sure you get as much info on our killer as possible.
Suiga: Good luck, Aaron. We will be waiting.
Lau: Sad that I won’t be partaking in the interrogation, but I guess rookies need a few tries too…
Aaron leaves immediately, walking towards the VHC. Suiga quickly asks a question…
Suiga: May I ask something? Aaron is clearly the head during our missions, why does he deny his leadership all the time?
Lau: Watch it, fangirl!! I bow to no one, especially that brute. But yes, his lack of spine considering leadership role does seem like a sign of weakness…
Url: Umm, before Lau starts badmouthing his whole existence, Aaron is… well he slacks a lot. A LOT.
Suiga: I find it hard to believe.
Url: Believe me, you two being here has given him a sort of…drive. However, it’s his very nature to deny responsibility, he just finds it-
Cut to Aaron and Patricia talking…
Aaron: Tiring!!!! Every day I have topknot chanting anthems like he’s giving a charity concert. Url’s experiments are getting out of hand, and now I have to deal with a Lecourt snob that can’t ride tramways!!!
Patricia: Boohoo, the well chiselled and hot Aaron HAS friends.
Aaron: I don’t know why Shroud wants me to lead a group or whatnot. I hate having people on my back.
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Patricia: Doesn’t sound like it. I think you are happy with more people. You’d be complaining about their skills or how they mess up fights if you were really pissed off…
Aaron: Uuhh… I just want a break… My sword’s be feeling heavier ever since this whole thing with “you-know-who” started…
Suddenly, a cloaked figure approaches them. Standing silent, it lays on the table a pouch of coins…
Patricia: Uuuhh…can I help you???
Figure: Access slip. Salazar. I was called for an interrogation…
Patricia: And while this pile of cash does seem interesting, I just need your information to get you one.
Aaron: (They goin’ to Salazar too? Huh, might interrogate along with them).
Figure: Hunter number: MT87
Patricia ducks and looks around the files under her desk. She pulls out two paper slips, indicating access to Salazar…
Patricia: You lucky individuals just won a free trip to Landen’s most depressing tourist sight!!!Yayyyy!!!
The figure just exits the building with no comment or salutation…
Aaron: Well, they’re rude!
Patricia: Uuuhhhh, he’s an outer city hunter. He recently came in and every time he completes a mission, he just barges in and throws vampire heads on our desks. We told him a thousand times, you call support!!! Nothing…
Aaron: Damn, I wish my partners had his silence…
Patricia: Aaron, zip it, you have it too good! Stuck with those Adonises 24/7 and a Lecourt princess…
Aaron: Don’t you have a job to do instead of drooling all over us? Anyways, I’m off, hope that bat starts talking quick…
Patricia: Be careful, we don’t know what the cult might pull now that transport is out of order…
VHC ordered a carriage for our hunter since Salazar is on the sea crossing the borders of the city. As mentioned, many times by our characters, Salazar Prison Centre is Landen’s most feared tourist attraction… mostly because it is not an attraction anymore. Created by Hunter Association President Bane Salazar, he re-innovated the 415ft large, destroyed lighthouse into a spacious, impenetrable prison to detain vampires with information to cults. Standing tall and separated from the land by a large bridge, the tower’s most distinctive trait is the large hole left by Jack the Ripper when he chose to end his killing streak by abandoning Landen, leaving behind a prison break of hundreds of tortured vampires, bathing the city in blood for one horrid night.
Aaron gazes upon the wall from his carriage’s window. A mellow feeling of sadness fills his eyes as images of the night flash through his mind. Small kids running for their lives, men and women torn to shreds as starving vampires run amok, sinking their teeth in every bare neck they can find. Blood spilling everywhere, sidewalks covered by corpses, the hunters barely made it that night. Aaron remembers Shroud and Luca hiding him in the bar’s cellar. He screams for them to let him come, worried that they won’t be back the next morning. The hunters reassure him that they will make it and lock the cellar door shut. The prison break lasted until the morning, when Pirout’s back up arrived to even the odds against the raging bats.
The hunter clenches his fist. An indication of willpower, or a burst of hatred? When it comes to Aaron, it’s probably both. As the carriage arrives through the prison gates, he descends and is greeted by the guards. As he gazes the prison lobby, he notices a second carriage, and the figure from before exiting the vehicle. He can hear the hunter’s deep voice as he communicates with the other guards. The sudden call them to approach…
Aaron: Hello, I’m here for a prisoner named Jack? He’s a… vampire head…
Guard 1: Aaaah, yes, the talking blob of flesh you brought us. Who the hell did that to him??
Aaron: My partner messed him up. He’s a peach, but his mood turns awry when he’s pissed off with someone…
Guard 1: Remind me to never get on his nerves. Damn bat really chooses death right now. I would keep him like this, but he’s got info on this “cult” that’s been killing Landen the past weeks.
The guard signals the others to open the gates. He takes the two hunters and leads them to the interrogation room. As they cross the prison halls, numerous vampires are seen grasping the silver bars on their cells, regardless of the burn on their flesh as they hold onto them. They’ve been tortured a lot more than that… Despite the slurs and screams, the two hunters rest unfazed.
Guard 1: So, since this bastard’s going to die anyways, you guys can give him any treatment, any tactic you want. Go nuts, the guards could take a hint or two.
They arrive in the interrogation room. Jack, resting on a tall stool, gazes upon the hunters, anxious to start.
Guard 1: I’ll leave you three alone…
Aaron: So, pal, are ya going first or…?
Figure: I shall start the interrogation. I will call upon you should require any assistance.
Aaron: (Call upon me, what the hell?) Ah, yeah sure…
The figure approaches the vampire. Taking off her cloak, she appears to be a red hair woman, sporting a large braid down her waist. Wearing typical black huntress gear, she stares coldly down the head…
Jack: Who the hell are you, now? I’ll only speak to the bird face’s leader.
Figure: Pick your words carefully, vampire. SHE is not one you’d like to expand upon your already prolonged torture.
Jack: Who is she?
Figure: You shall find out soon enough. Now, to our questions. Where is your Lord?
Jack: I already told you. I have no idea on that matter. He made sure of that.
Figure: Quite secretive for someone who wanted to confess in exchange for death.
Jack: I can only tell you what I know of. It’s not my fault if you’re asking the wrong questions.
Figure: Maybe you’re right. Let me ask this another way: Why are you the only vampire who knows nothing of your Lord’s hideout in the city?
Jack rests confused. A smear of shock distorts his grimace. Aaron is somehow impressed.
Jack: Your bluffs fall short, Huntress. There is no way-
Figure: I followed one of your comrades the other day. I beheaded her as quickly as she noticed me. She was trying to enter a sewer vault in the north part of the city. She was shouting for your Lord before I took her life.
Jack: I…have no idea about the sewer…
Figure: So, either your Lord abandoned you like trash, or you are hiding something from us.
She takes out a silver knife from her belt, and stabs the blob of flesh barely holding the bat together…Jack writhes in a surge of pain…
Figure: Tell me how to open the vault. I tried twice, it wouldn’t budge.
Jack: I don’t know…
She plunges her knife down the blob once again.
Jack: Spell craft!! Only my Lord can open that gate!! But there’s a hidden passageway we made for the imps. If you can dig your way through, you can enter the vault, he won’t notice!!!
She cleans and sheaths her knife. Aaron remains impressed by the girl’s quick interrogation and ruthlessness.
Figure: For creatures boasting superiority, you are quite the lap dogs.
Jack: Screw you, huntress!! You think now that you know where to strike, you’ll manage to kill my Lord?
Figure: I don’t just know, bat! I WILL kill him.
Aaron: (Shit, forget what Patricia said. I want her on my team. She’s smart, she’s tough, she only talks when she needs to. Only weird thing is this way she talks, I wonder why.)
Jack: Who the hell do you think you are?
She starts posing. Aaron’s smug of excitement slowly turns into a frown of confusion and a hint of despair…
Jack: What are you-
Cassandra: The Huntress under the Moonlight Sky, the Slayer of all Vampires, The Black Warhorse of Landen, Incarnation of Van Helsing, the one and only, Nightingale!!! Cassandra Mergrove!!!
Aaron’s expression reaches the depths of despair and disappointment. The delusions of a perfect partner shatter before him as the woman dares to continue and pose in front of him.
Jack: …
Cassandra: Now, my questions are over. This signals your imminent death. Prepare to die.
Jack: Anything other than this clear torture…
Aaron: HOLD UP, I HAVEN’T FINISHED YET!!!
Aaron approaches the bat. Cassandra, confused, backs off.
Jack: So, you are the bird freak’s leader.
Aaron: Partner. If you want to complain about your situation, you shouldn’t have turned a poor woman into your blood bag.
Jack: She should’ve been glad. I gave her a role in her mundane life.
Aaron: Sounds like something your chief would say.
Jack: If you are saying that my Lord discarded me, you are most wrong, Hunter.
Aaron: Seems like it. His vampires are getting chopped left and right before his big event, and he doesn’t pick his ass up to save them.
Jack: Watch your words, brat!!
Cassandra: (What is he doing?)
Aaron: I’m just saying what I see in front of me. And you keep lying for him like some early-stage dependent.
Jack: I told you what I know-
Aaron: You lied about the sewer vault. God, even in your last minutes, you’ll still suck his dick, won’t you?
Jack: Shut up, Hunter!!!
Aaron: Then tell me!! Why is that fucker back? Didn’t he put Landen through enough? Why does he want to destroy Landen?
Jack: Terror!!
Aaron startles. His ranting stops.
Aaron: What-
Jack: Terror, bloodshed, despair. There’s nothing in Landen for my Lord other than humans that deserve to be eaten and slaughtered. He will kill because he wants to, he will destroy Landen just because he wants to. And if playing bait is what I have to do for this man’s desire to become true…I might as well even use my last painful minutes on this planet…
Aaron: You freaks…You think we’ll-
Cassandra: Halt, hunter. I sense a trap in his speech.
Aaron: What?
Jack: She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
Cassandra: You said you must be a bait for your Lord.
Aaron: Can’t see him be any type of bait looking like that.
Cassandra: We could be baited. In the search for information, we focus our gaze on a miserable head while a plot is afoot.
Jack: …
Aaron: What did you do?
Jack starts smirking. Aaron plunges his fist into the blob of flesh, writhing the bat in immeasurable pain once again…
Jack: (What is this strength!!! Her knife hurt a lot less!!!)
Aaron: Tell me what you did. Or I’ll start tearing this mush apart piece by piece!!
Jack: My last gift to the Ripper’s design. Two hunters baited to Salazar, the rest baited to the open vault…
Aaron realizes. There was nothing left for them to discover. His comrades are being led to the Ripper’s lair without him. Should something go wrong, Landen might be left without hunters…
Aaron: You shithead.
Cassandra suddenly shrugs Aaron, and sits the vampire’s throat, leaving him to bleed to death.
Cassandra : You shall pay for your crimes. Not even your death will be a peaceful one, freak.
Aaron: What did you-
Cassandra: No time for questions. Any more interrogating would be useless. Patrols have started hours ago.
She pulls out a small map. An X is crossed on what seems to be a large sewer pipe close to Salazar’s bridge.
Cassandra: Thankfully the gate’s close. We can only hope the hunters haven’t reached deep into the sewer.
Aaron: North…
Cassandra: Excuse me?
Aaron: I saw it on Url’s file today…They were stationed north…
Aaron grabs Cassandra’s shoulders firmly…
Cassandra: Huuh???
Aaron: Look, you might have some screws lose, but you know where the gate is. Can you help me? My comrades are-
Cassandra quickly backs off and wipes her clothes, slightly blushing from embarrassment…
Cassandra: Ahem. The nightingale usually rides alone, but she shall never ignore a call to arms by a fellow hunter. SHE shall assist you in this sudden search and rescue.
Aaron: I’m not calling you nightingale or SHE, or whatever those names were. Is Cassie good?
Cassie: … Cassie’s ok.
Aaron: Great, let’s go.
Cassie: Wait, not so fast!!!
The ride to the sewer gate is short. Upon the emergency, the carriage rider orders the horses to gallop rapidly through the streets. However, once they reach the rusty, old sewer gate, the notice two twin female vampires scoffing at the two hunters.
Twin1: They really thought it would be that easy to enter. Wait ‘till they find out how we shut the imp gate with rocks.
Twin2: Oh, sister, watch your tone. They might have not heard you.
Cassie: I suggest you make this easy for all of us and open the gates before we slaughter you two.
Twin2: Oh, a lively one, I see. I sure love hunters who think they stand a chance.
Twin1: Oh, like that samurai earlier. He really entered the vault all gusto and macho. I wonder if there’s any left of him now.
Aaron: Shit, they’re inside.
The twins get up and spread their wings. They each fly and spin in different directions, to disorient the hunters…
Aaron: Great, this is going to take forever.
Cassie: Do not underestimate the nightingale with cheap parlor tricks, freaks.
Cassie pulls out a locket, similar to Aaron’s. Only this one, a silver bow is connected to the chain. She begins to pray.
“Oh Lord of all that is holy, gift your humble servant with strength and lend upon me your judgemental arrows. Come forth, Nightingale”.
The locket turns into a silver war bow with blade edges, a single black jewel on the centre of the handle.
Aaron: (She named herself after her fucking weapon??!!!)
The vampires prepare to attack by slowly teasing the defensive hunters. Cassie spreads her palm. Out of nowhere, two silver arrows start to conjure on it as her eyes glow white. She swiftly draws one with her bow and shoots it at one of the incoming vampires, stopping her right in front of Aaron.
Cassie: Now, kill her!!
Aaron quickly slashes the stunned vampire in two. The other twin, in her rage, starts flying rapidly around Cassie, in an attempt to hinder her focus. As she dives in for an attack, Cassie takes her arrow off her bow and stabs the vampire in the eye, then sidesteps to topple her with her bow. She finishes the bat with three strikes from her bow edge in the face.
Aaron rests impressed by the girl’s efficiency with targets.
Aaron: Nice shooting!
Cassie: A mild challenge for the Nightingale, my arrows never miss, swift as an eagle, steel as-
Aaron: Stop talking, we are losing time!!!
Before the duo starts searching the hidden passage, the vault suddenly opens. To the alarmed duo’s surprise, no one is behind the door.
Aaron: Huh, guess the host approved of our arrival.
Cassie: Why would he just open the gate?
Aaron: There’s him wanting to leave Landen unguarded, it could also be because he has a trap ready…but…
Cassie: Hmm?
Aaron: He just wants to play. He’s either that sure he’ll win, either that itching to fight, or both.
Cassie: Can we really enter? What about the city?
Aaron: Support knows about the emergency, so they’ll be on guard. And VHC knows we are here, so they’ll send back up to storm the place once the patrols are over…and…
Cassie: Hmm?
Aaron: We won’t need any of it. We’ll get in, we’ll rescue everyone, we’ll butcher the Ripper ‘till he cries for help and get out by sunlight.