Baldric of House Florens, third son of a first son, was no fool.

Although his body was locked in furious combat with an actual fool, senses captured by a relic of the past and raging about, at his core he kept cool. Like the countless, impossibly deep roots of a flower, his mind stretched into winding fibers beyond number.

All of them told him that this entire situation had been carefully curated by the beast holding Liora and the other kids hostage. Oh, they may have only been hobbled with chain and shackle, but at the level he and the beast were operating at, he knew that was just show. With how close the children were to it, it would only take a few moments thought to tear out their throats.

He knew it, the creature knew it, and even this damn fool of a Loyalist General would have probably known it.

If he was anything more than a blustering beast right now, that was.

Still, there was a reason the civilized people of Vereden people were cautious of beasts.

Just because they were feral, didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous.

Baldric had always assumed he would be the one that ended up dealing with Longstripe, when this campaign drew to a close. From last reports, the two of them were fairly close in level, with him only being around fifty or so higher than the Herztalian man. On a good day, he would have said that a match-up between them would come down to a test of pure martial skill, a veritable coin toss. That was one of the areas he specialized in, of course, but the fact remained. However…

This wasn’t a good day.

For the General, that is.

Longstripe wasn’t demonstrating any of his normally reported skill. He was swinging and clawing like a wild animal, uncaring about collateral damage. At the very least, Baldric was proud that his Agents had the idea to keep the civilians out of the line of fire, after those first few moments when he was speared out of the air.

Enough innocent blood had been spilled this day.

Baldric hesitated to call Longstripe ‘innocent’ though, after the man had massacred so many of his people last night, but…

At the very least, he deserved to die with his mind clear.

After all, Baldric could have ended this anytime in the last few moments of battle. He had just been considering all angles, while the mind-controlled human raged at him.

It hadn’t escaped his notice that the entire damned palace courtyard had been turned into a ritual site at a gesture from the bloodsucking monster. It sure as hells hadn’t when it seemed to grow stronger with every drop of blood that stained the bedrock.

He momentarily considered trying to disrupt the ritual itself. Maybe if he could attack what this creature was after, it could be stopped in its infancy.

But no. A half second of spared observation at the glowing runes told him they were protected. It would take considerable effort to break through the amorphous barriers of sinister feeling Aether they were covered in. Even then, just breaking one rune wouldn't be enough, for a ritual of this size. As complex as it looked, there had to be redundancies built into it

Baldric had dealt with more than his share of cultist nonsense in the past to recognize that.

It didn’t take a damned genius to see what that thing wanted, from his battle with Longstripe. If it had carefully orchestrated this entire scenario, Baldric would guess that the she-beast didn’t even care which of them actually shed blood. Only that one of them did.

You…picked up a thing or two about forbidden Magic, in his profession.

Well, if the bitch wanted blood, then obviously she couldn’t get it.

Mind made up, Baldric rapidly crafted a simple battle plan while his body dodged Longstripe’s wild swings on the outside. Normally, he wouldn’t have expected a canny warrior like the General to fall for something as simple as this. But, well.

He didn’t have his wits about him.

The next time Longstripe swung at him, Baldric activated the higher tier of his physical enhancement Skill.

Corrente D’Acciaio.

And…

Ducked.

Well, it was really more like he slid through the open legs of the taller human man, and then used his right hooked dagger as a pivot point to pop up behind the General. But ducked worked just as well. Now behind Longstripe, and moving much quicker now, all Baldric had to do was lash out with nearly his entire power with the butt of his dagger. The pommel impacted the back of the human’s head with enough strength behind it to utterly crush the skull of most people. Hell, it could probably do the same to even someone with an equivalent to his level.

But no. Instead, the ursine man just staggered from the blow. While he was reeling, Baldric hit him a few more times, until the General had fallen face-first into the blood-soaked courtyard, beaten unconscious.

Baldric stared down at the prone form of Longstripe for a moment, disappointed for a few reasons. The first was, that had been one of the most flaccid duels he’d had in decades, especially considering their heightened levels. He’d almost been anticipating a real fight with the human, when he was planning this campaign.

The second?

Well, he had really wanted to kill the man, after his little two-pronged ambush on both the SED meeting, and the warehouse.

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There were a lot of good Agents that needed to be avenged, after all.

It seemed he was going to have to wait another day, however.

The courtyard had stilled at his easy victory over the puppet General. By this point, his Agents and the Loyalist soldiers had cottoned on to the fact that something else was going on. They were working together to corral and guard the remaining civilians on the far end of the courtyard. The fighting between their respective factions had completely died down, and all eyes were either on him or Longstripe’s prone form.

Possibly the creature at his back, up on the balcony as well.

Speaking of…

Balric raised his head to stare up at the thing, standing above him.

At his gaze, ‘Rhiannon’ heaved a great, put-upon sigh and laid the back of one taloned hand on her forehead. “Why oh why do the cattle never do what I want?” She moaned exaggeratedly. After a second, she lowered her hand and shrugged. “Oh well. I’ll just have to do the dirty work myself.” Barely sparing a glance at the still chained and bound forms of the four youths she had been guarding, the Vampire abandoned them to hop down into the courtyard with a flex of her four wings.

She landed with a slight splash on the blood-soaked bedrock, not far from Baldric. The only thing between the two of them was the comatose, twitching form of the mind-controlled General.

The Vampiress spared her defeated pawn a disgusted glance. “You had one job, fool,” She said, sounding like a disappointed schoolmarm. She actually wagged a taloned finger at the man, even though he could neither hear her words or see her gesture. “Naughty naughty. I’ll have to punish you later.” In contrast to her tone, she nonchalantly kicked the spasmodic body of Longstripe out of her way.

It hadn’t looked like the blow had much power behind it, but the form of Longstripe sailed through the air nonetheless. It impacted the far wall of the courtyard, cracking the immaculately carved limestone. Several Loyalist soldiers hurried to attend to the man, but neither Baldric nor ‘Rhiannon’ paid them any mind.

Instead, they started circling each other on the gore-splattered stone, as if they were hounds fighting over the last scrap of meat.

Baldric broke the stalemate first. “You know,” He said casually, twisting his blades into different angles and approaches as he spoke. He was trying to gauge the skill level of the creature apart from him, as how she reacted to his movements would tell him plenty. At the level they were operating at, fights could be decided in a single exchange, so it was often necessary.

This wasn’t a spell battle, after all. This would be decided by blade and claw.

Unfortunately, she met and countered them each time, unfazed by his maneuvering. Any possible opening visible on her monstrous stance was countered and reciprocated in an instant. “We haven’t had to deal with one of your kind in a long, long time. I think the last Vampire hunt happened when I was still a boy. My father told me about it, since the bloodsucker was found in Principality lands. I think their name was…Valstrix?” He said promptingly.

To his very slight surprise, the beast perked up slightly at that. “That blowhard poked his head out of a hole and got it chopped off? Good!” She laughed delightedly, rubbing her talons together. They grated on each other with the sound of steel on steel. She leaned forward conspiratorially. “I never liked him, you know. Always boasting, always so arrogant. I don’t even think my mistress liked him very much, to tell you the truth,” She said with a wink.

Baldric took it in stride, as he saw movement behind the creature up on the balcony. He had long since mastered all of his tells, so he gave absolutely nothing away as he saw Crook creeping along the roof above the balcony. He made sure to stop the circling, though, so the beast couldn’t see her as well. “And what’s your name, creature?” He said promptingly. “Or are you going to continue pretending it's ‘Rhiannon’? I wonder…does the Calonawr Archmage even know you’re puppeting around his dead daughter's corpse, and flaunting her name as you do so?”

Normally, he wouldn’t expect this kind of dialogue to work on an actually rational opponent. But one of the well-documented, few weaknesses of the Vampyr was their tendency to…talk.

And talk and talk and talk.

Better for him. That just gave one of his few surviving senior Agents time to rescue the kids.

‘Rhiannon’ shrugged delicately. “I don’t actually know,” She said, audibly amused. “I’ve seen the man a few times now, and you would expect someone of his power to be able to sus me out. But…I think he doesn’t even care,” She gasped, almost as if she was scandalized, before tittering. “All that matters to him is that his dear, sweet daughter will hug and call him papa. I think he’s really quite broken inside, if you ask me.” She winked. “Something to do with his dead wife, I’m guessing.”

Baldric didn’t let the disgust her words caused in him to show on his face, even as he felt an unexpected surge of pity for Daffyd of the Thunderhearts.

He…knew what it was like, to lose the love of his life.

“But…as for my name,” ‘Rhiannon’ said, tapping one taloned finger against her lips, before shrugging. “I suppose it doesn’t matter at this point. You’re all going to be dead soon, anyway.” She said casually. Taking a small step backward, the monster who had been masquerading as a woman swept out into a curtsey, grasping the hem of her ghastly dress. “I…am Nerexxa, fourth daughter of the Goddess of Rot. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Baldric of House Florens.”

“I’m not,” Baldric said bluntly. Behind ‘Nerexxa’, he saw Crook had bodily picked up all four of the reluctant-to-leave children and thrown them over her broad shoulders. He was grateful that he’d gotten past his misgivings, those years ago, when he had accepted the Strength invested Magi into the Nocturne Division. It had paid off time and again.

Most importantly now, when she was retreating with who he thought were four of the most important youths in Herztal.

He could breathe easier, and finally get to the business of monster slaying.

He angled himself into position for a lunge.

Nerexxa noticed but didn’t seem to care. “Oh?” She said mildly. “Is it finally time to stop stalling, now that the children are safely out of my grasp?”

Baldric snorted. “Guess you can’t put one over a demon,” He said, coating his daggers in razor-sharp winds. “Did you ever even care about holding them?”

The Vampire shrugged. “No, not really,” She admitted freely, before smiling sharply at him. “They were only ever bait, after all. And the baited came when the trap was set. Thank you for attending this grand occasion, oh disgraced lord of House Florens.”

Baldric paused, startled a little despite himself. “What?” He asked, baffled despite himself. “Are you saying…all of this was just to bait out me?”

What the hell could this thing have wanted with him?

“Well,” Nerexxa drawled. “Not just you. After all, I would have taken Greycton, or even that woman Honoka. I only needed the blood of someone strong, spilled in pitched battle. It didn’t matter who came, only that someone did.” She sighed, rolling her eyes. “If only Longstripe hadn’t failed, I wouldn’t have had to sully my hands like this.”

The master of the Nocturne Division took a deep breath at that. “Liora for me, Nathan or Sylvia for Greycton and Honoka,” He said quietly in realization. “But…why take Thirty-Two as well?”

Nerexxa winked at him. “Well, I needed an after-party snack, now didn’t I?” She said mischievously. “After all, it’s not every day you get to dine on the blood of one of the old royal lines.”

Ah…so she did know who the girl was.

Shit.

Baldric shook it off, though, and refocused on the fight to come. He didn’t know if he could take this creature, but he sure as hell was going to try. It didn’t matter if this entire trap had been about drawing him out so she could drain his blood for some ritual.

The only thing that mattered…was that Liora had gotten away.

Gods, he hoped that fool girl didn’t come back for him.

Baldric raised his blades again, possibly for the last time, and blurred into a lunge at the wide-open neck of the Vampire.

She blocked his razor-sharp, wind-coated dagger with one taloned finger, entirely unfazed. Meeting his eyes, the creature smiled slightly, exposing her fangs.

Baldric set his features in a grim cast.

And tried again.