The ride down the river had been rough, the creatures seemed to be some kind of vampire, as I had expected. However, they are not normal vampires. They indeed wore dark clothes, along with the cape it has a black and red side. That is probably where the similarities end. They had normal boots. However, their head is that of a bird. A purple bird head with a sharp beak. They all looked different, but their eyes were all red.

They made weird whistling sounds as they chased us. Some of them had spears, others had swords, and a lot of them had bows. While making our way down the river, I got shot with an arrow in my back, blood had dripped to the ground and one of the bird vampires had jumped on top of me. It had very sharp fangs and wanted to bite me on my neck. Lory had grabbed the bird vampire by his throat and ripped a chunk of flesh out of the bird vampire, then I jumped back on Lory’s back as she ran towards the clearing.

I panted as Lory ran into the clearing. I held up my sword as Lory slid to a stop and turned around. “They are coming, Lory, are you ready?”

“Yes, I am, just try not to get hit by those arrows anymore, I fear they might be poisoned. We can see if we have some herbs for your wound later.”

“Thanks,” we saw the bird vampires ran into the clearing. Lory growled at them as they came closer. The first bird vampire jumped on top of Lory, he had a sword and swung it down at me. I blocked the incoming blow, it made an outraged bird sound. We started trading blows and Lory dodged aside from incoming blows while shooting energy beams at them. I dodged aside from a sword blow and I thrust my sword deep into his heart.

It looked at me as blood dripped out of the purple bird vampire. I pulled out my sword, it did not seem to bother too much, but it was surprised. Then I swung my sword with a lot of power while infusing it, it hit his neck and it went halfway through. I grunted and pulled it out, then I chopped again, and his head rolled off. I kicked the bird vampire away. Lory seemed to play mostly dodgeball, while I handled the bird vampire. Lory grunted, “there are too many of them, Steve! I cannot keep dodging them forever!”

When I looked at Lory, she had some scratch wounds from swords. One of the bird vampires shot dark energy at me, I threw my sword into the air and launched a silver beam to deflect it. Lory got hit by another beam, and we launched over the ground.

I saw Lory get up, “I need to transform back, Steve! Guard me!” I ran over to her while dodging arrows, swords and what not. One of the vampire birds stood close to her, I slashed my sword at its neck, it took three blows to chop off its head. Lory had transformed back and had put on her underwear. She grabbed two swords. We stood back to back and started trading blows. We kept chopping off heads. Lory panted, “There are too many of them.”

I grunted as I blocked a sword that chopped into my arm and blood splattered everywhere. “Just keep pushing, Lory, some of them are already retreating. The sun is coming up soon. We just need to hold our ground.”

Lory looked up as I felt her block an incoming arrow. “You are right, the sun, they come out at night, that must be why they are retreating.”

A brute of a vampire bird charged at me, he is easily three heads bigger than I am. I tried making an energy shield and raised my sword. It crashed into me and I rolled over the ground, and it launched towards me with a spear pointed down, I barely managed to roll aside in time. The vampire bird put his boot on my chest, it came down and opened its beak and sharp fangs came towards my neck. I lifted my sword and pushed it against him to push him away. Slowly he came closer. “Lory?”

“One moment, I have a lot of those vampire birds here!”

The vampire bird hissed at me, “Your blood will be mine.”

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I chuckled, “just don’t tell me I will turn into a vampire if you bite me.”

The vampire bird hissed, “No, you fool, I am going to drain you empty!”

“Oh, well, in that case, fuck you.” I pushed back harder, and he kept on pushing back.

While the burly vampire bird came closer, I yelled out, “Lory, any help?” I saw her get launched against a tree and fall down on one knee next to me. She shot two energy beams, one at the vampire bird chasing her, and one at the one on top of me. He easily deflected it.

Lory panted, “Steve, it is almost time for sunrise, can you hold on for a little longer?”

I infused myself with energy and pushed back. The vampire bird gasped, “I never thought of that.” He infused himself with his energy.

His beak opened, and he bit down on my neck. “Get off me, you sun burned vampire!” Lory ran my way and jumped on top of the huge vampire bird and pulled him away. This must look very strange.

Agent spoke up inside me, “Come on, let me help you already, this is quite a problem you find yourself in!”

Suddenly, I heard gunshots, the vampire bird got hit, right in his brain, a few times, actually. Lory rolled him off me, I got my sword ready and decapitated him. I heard swords clinging in the distance. I just panted and looked up, suddenly Abby stood above me. “Hey mate, need some help getting up?” She stretched her hand out, I grabbed it, and she pulled me up. Then she helped Lory up.

Haley and Funk were trading blows with some bird vampires. More of them retreated as the sun came up. I looked at Lory, she nodded, we screamed, “Charge!” We ran into the fray and started decapitating many bird vampires.

I ended up back to back with Funk. “Hey buddy, it seems you guys came after us.”

Funk chuckled as we both decapitated another bird vampire. He spoke up, “Your daughter came after you and persuaded us to follow her.”

I looked at Haley going totally apeshit on at least nine of the vampire birds. She seemed to be doing much better than I am, not only does she have two arms, she had infused herself with a lot of energy. I smiled, “Did she do well?”

Funk nodded, “She did, there is something you must know, though.”

“One moment Funk,” I saw Lory struggle in the distance. “Haley, step up!”

I ran towards her, and she bent forward while dodging a sword. I jumped on her back, then I launched myself into the air and jumped down and decapitated the vampire bird that Lory struggled with. She panted, she was completely spent. Just like me.

The sun started shining on the clearing we were in. One of the vampire birds tried to hit Abby, she just stood there and took the blow. Abby looked at me, I nodded. She punched the vampire bird, and it flew very far away. I laughed, “He had that coming.” I ran after him and jumped on him with my elbow down, and something cracked inside the vampire bird. Then I decapitated him with a few heavy swings.

One of them tried to ambush me and Funk shot a dark energy beam. Haley swirled her sword in the air and some kind of disc formed energy appeared. I ran towards the vampire bird and held him tight while ducking. The energy disc decapitated the vampire bird. The remainder of the bird vampires started retreating.

Haley started firing her gun, one of the vampire birds got hit in his leg, As the sun hit the vampire bird, he turned into ash. As I finally caught a breather, I noticed a lot of blood streaming down my clothes. Lory had plenty of sword cuts, and even three arrows sticking out of her. I slowly walked over to Lory. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, you know, I think I am leaking a lot of blood.”

Funk walked over, “It seems you could use our help after all.”

Haley walked over towards me. “Hey dad, thanks for leaving the tracks.”

Lory looked at me, “How dare you?”

I scratched my head, “I am sorry.”

Haley hugged me, and Lory joined. “You idiots, going away without me.”

I sighed, “We need to have a private chat, Haley, can we set up camp first near the river?”

Lory tried to nod, “I can set up a barrier after I have replenished some energy.”

Funk sighed, “I am just glad we caught up with you guys.”

I walked over to Funk and hugged him, “We would have gotten out of that pickle, but thank you so much for the save, you too Haley.”