Plague doctors were famous for a while around Landen. Originating from a nearby city called Barelan, their craft consisted of using unorthodox methods to treat illnesses and diseases of all sorts. There is even a myth that a plague doctor was the one who found the cure for early and weak cases of vampirification, even if it has never been proven. A scary but necessary trade indeed.
Ironically enough, Barelan was destroyed ages ago in a disaster involving one of Dracula’s descendants. The bat was never slayed, the city was ruined, and it’s a story old enough for any detailed archive to exist. Of course, nearly every plague doctor was slaughtered that day. Well, nearly everyone…
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Jack: Honestly, I never knew plague doctors still existed.
Url: My parents managed to escape your feast. Sadly, they are dead and won’t be taking any revenge tonight.
Jack: My non-sincere at all apologies, bird. Your creed wanted to play gods and mess with our dependants. The destruction was inevitable.
Url: And wiping the town off the face of the Earth was your course of action?
Jack: Cry me a river, bird, you’d do the same in their place…Hmm, should I tell you how it happened, perhaps?
Url: Wouldn’t change the outcome. You’re still monsters, and we’ll still kill you.
Jack: And here I was hoping to make light conversation with the trashcan…
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One of the bats lashes at Url. Saws in hand, he slashes the attacker, only for it to dissipate in mist…
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Url: Illusions, really? The fight is THAT cliché?
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The bats start lashing out in turns. Url slashes the illusions away. One of them escapes though. He tries to give chase but instead stops.
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Url: (Wait.)
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He patiently waits. Suddenly, he slashes backward. His sawblade hits a bat’s head. Not an illusion, Url continues to slash it in the face before it manages to counter. The corpse falling, the hunter breathes heavily…
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Url: (No…)
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A surprise attack. One more dropkicks him, sending him onto one of the shelves. The bat then hides away.
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Url: (Not just illusions, but clones too?)
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A hand comes out of the shelves, pushing stuff away to grab Url by the throat. As he chokes, he drops his blades and tries to pull away the strangling hand. Another Jack appears, slowly walking towards him…
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Jack: Do not underestimate illusory tactics, doctor. They can prove quite a hard tumor to get rid of…
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He taunts the hunter. He prepares his hand to send it through his guts. Url struggles more and more to stay conscious and escape…
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Jack: No. I love watching my victims cry in despair. Before I spill your blood all over the floor, let me see that face…
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Url finally retaliates. He calls out one of his blades and tries to chop the hand holding him. To his shock, the hand dissipates into mist before the blade even touches him. He falls from the confusion. As he raises his head, the other vampire is nowhere near him.
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Url: What? How real were those illusions? Had that hand stayed there, I would have chopped my face off…
He gets up, picking up his saws.
Jack: Honestly hunter, I heard what you did to that vampire. Even your teammate stood afraid of you, torturing that freak like you weren’t one and the same.
Url: The hell are you talking about?
Jack: I know how you felt, plague doctor. Acting all nice and distinguished to your pals, because if they knew what passes from your mind every time you see a bat, they would toss you out like trash!!
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Url stays silent and walks around the library…
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Jack: How dare you act like a savior of humans, when your methods even compare to those you treat as enemies! Hypocrite!!!
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Two bats jump from the top of the shelves. Url backsteps and attacks one. An illusion, the other one pushes him onto the shelf and tries to bite him. It dissipates again.
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Jack: Tell me, hunter…or should I call you, bat?
Url: ENOUGH!!!
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Url slashes around the shelves, throwing stuff on the ground…In his anger, he fails to notice the vampire behind him kicking him away and fleeing.
Url: (Calm down, Url. FOCUS. He’s only trying to get in your head)
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He gets up. Slowly, other vampires arrive to circle him.
Url: (Think. None of the illusions are actually real, but some take longer to disappear, and they even manage to attack me…)
Two illusions lunge at him. He dodges the attacks and slashes them, turning them into mist.
Url: (Considering the illusions started when I entered the room, the vampire’s technique must be an area of effect type)
One lashes again. This one is real. He punches the blocking Url around the shelves
Url: (No spellcraft around, I would have felt the effect. That means one thing)
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Before the bat tries to strike again, Url throws a bandage around his leg and topples him. He follows up and bashes his head. The others disappear. The one he killed follows suit.
Url: (I must have ingested something. But my mask eliminates all foreign entities. How did he manage to)
Url flashes back to the first assault. The mist scattered around…He quickly notices that the room is entirely filled with mist.
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Url: (The mist. It must have managed to bypass my defenses. I should use my stimulant to…Or not.
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Two vampires appear from the back. He disengages, but the bats give chase. As he evades them, he takes a syringe and pulls out some of his own blood. He throws another long bandage and pulls down one of the shelves, stalling the bats. He quickly casts out his Apothecary’s Table and starts creating a concoction with his blood. The bats try to stop him, but he gives in to the illusions and throws stuff at them. They start dissipating, and the ones who persist fall quickly from his slashes.
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Url: Exactly. They’ll disappear once I manage to land an “attack”.
Url finishes his concoction, in the form of a syringe. The table disappears once again. He calls out the bat.
Url: Hey, I figured out your parlor trick!!
Jack: Nonsense, there’s no cure against vampiric spellcraft.
Url: Don’t underestimate a plague doctor, nay, plague hunter!!
Vampires appear once again. He skillfully rids off the illusions, except for one. That one, he throws an item from the shelf. The illusion persists, and Url quickly throws the syringe at him. Pumping his chest with strange liquid, the bat throws the syringe away. Url stays put…
Jack: So, what’s your plan, bird. The mist persists, and my illusions still torment you!
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Another number of illusions start to appear, watching carefully at the duo.
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Url: You know, I’ve been thinking, you might be right. I am a bit deranged as an individual. My friends will freak out once they find out what I thought to get rid of you.
He slowly walks forward…
Url: And that’s why my thoughts are only for myself. How did your sorry excuse manage to find out what I was thinking? How do your illusions manage to be tangible and intangible at your command?
The illusions stay put…
Url: Your mist sure is potent. You used spellcraft to cast out a few illusions and spread enough mist on the first attacks to pass through my filters, and then all you had to do was swap places with your illusions every time I chose to attack you relentlessly.
Jack: Nicely done, bird. You understood vampling magic.
Url: Thank you. And for this beautiful lesson, I’ll send you off with a gift.
Jack calls out to his illusions to assault Url all at once. However, they start gazing at him instead.
Jack: What?
Url: Yeah, I could make an antidote and resistance in less than a minute thanks to my table. But, as you would say, where’s the fun in that?
The optic tricks start descending and approaching the bat. Jack shoves them off, filling himself with his own mist.
Jack: Fool! You’d really think I would fall from a vampiric spell? You must be more of an imbecile than I thought!!
Url: You wouldn’t fall…You WILL fall…
Url lashes out at the vampire. The latter somersaults and then swipes the hunter with his leg. To his shock, he dissipates into mist…
Jack: What!! The syringe, what did he-
Url: You told me I was no different than you freaks. Well, deranged freak as I am…
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Multiple Urls assault the bat. Some of them disappear with a single strike, and others manage to bash the bat before he rids them. One of the Urls entangles Jack’s hand with his bandage from the other side of a shelf and pulls him to it. Another falls from the top to chop him, but it disappears as the bat screams against the falling blades. He gets up, bandages nowhere near his hand.
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Jack: Did he really reverse my spell?
Url: Yep!
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Sounds of items crashing down scare the bat. He tries to bust the door to the hallway down, but his punches seem futile. The door barely moves…
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Url: Deranged as I am, at least I’m good at heart. You don’t see me planning to raise a city just because I woke up feeling nasty.
Jack: Don’t talk about…my ambitions like that, brat!!
Url: Stutter. Guess you are not the Jack we are looking for.
Jack: I am Jack: I am the Ripper!! And you are not in any way coming out of this alive, boy!! I’ll spill your guts to the floor, and I’ll smash your mask to smithereens, the same way your ancestors were dealt with!!
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Another flock of Urls starts surrounding the vampire. He desperately tries to take out all of them at once, hoping his strikes might knock out the real Url. Suddenly, one of his arms is chopped off, knocking him off balance.
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Jack: Damn you!!
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He gets up, but an Url kicks him down once again. They swarm at him and hold him tightly. Despite his natural strength, the vampire can’t seem to escape.
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Jack: What’s this! His syringe is more potent. All the illusions feel real…All of these people are real…
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His voice quivers as the Urls start swarming him. They bash him with the sawblades bit by bit. He screams in agony and begs for mercy.
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Url: Call me a freak, call me a lunatic for being such a psycho…
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One of the Urls takes out his mask. A normal, 19-year-old boy. Bowl-cut black hair, blue eyes, and beautiful bone structure show a mixture of androgynous nature. Anyone would fall for such a kind, handsome face staring down at them…if it was accompanied by the most creepy, defiling, deranged smile human nor vampire has ever gazed upon.
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Url: But don’t you ever dare call me one of you, filth.
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He chops and chops and chops until the vampire's screams come to an abrupt end. The mist dissipates. The illusions are long gone. A messy room, a dead vampire, and a bloody Url calming himself down.
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Url: Phew. Had I not figured that the poison was inside the mist, I wouldn’t have replicated it in silver agents and stuck it to the bat.
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Apothecary’s table has a strange armament. Belonging to the first alchemist to ever counter the vampires with Van Helsing, the table was blessed by the Lord to help any user with the skills and knowledge to forge potions beyond human comprehension.
Using holy light to manipulate the contraption, the user can make more potent creations than the common alchemist. But, the table doesn’t stop there. With enough knowledge, the user can create new concoctions with the most varying effects, from essences alluring to imps to gene-altering liquids. Of course, along with the usual armament drawback, the more complex the concoction, the more the resources, the more the holy light toll.
Url wipes away the blood. He stares down his opponent, deep in thought.
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Url: My creed might have been ominous, but they only did everything to protect their kind. Barelan and my parents never deserved your shitshow…
He starts to leave. To find his teammates…
Url: And I’ll never let that happen to Landen, no matter what I have to do…