First Blood

Alex

Roaring thunder filled the sky. Alex turned his head in confusion.

"The sky is clear..."

"Stay focused."

"Right."

Alex turned back towards the task at hand. He activated his armament, and his eyes began glowing red. He and Stella were sitting on the top of a tall building, looking down at the road beneath them. He pointed at one of the cars.

"The driver's weak point is his heart; the passenger's is his neck. There's a human in the back." He leaned over, looking closer. "Her heart is still beating."

"Save the girl, let her run away, and then start fighting them." She stood up and stretched. "They'll realize they're no match for you and retreat. I'll snag one of them when they start running."

"Got it."

Alex stood up and jumped off the roof. Right before he hit the ground he turned into smoke, damaging neither himself nor the ground. He rushed forward, catching up with the car in an instant. He summoned his second armament, a simple sword made of blood. He cut through the car, making sure to sever the back wheel. His sword cleaved through the metal like butter. He slashed the back of the car two more times, creating enough of an opening for his smoke to pass through. Once he was inside, he slashed the car thirty times, then dismissed his armament. He picked up the girl and ran out of the front of the car. The vehicle collapsed into dozens of small pieces and Alex shot out the front. The entire process took a fraction of a second. He came to a stop and gently set the girl on her feet. He looked her in the eyes.

"Run."

"Ok." She said shakily, running to the sidewalk and out of sight.

Alex turned back to the two vampires, who had rolled along the ground after their ride had fallen apart beneath them. They stood up and brushed themselves off.

"The hell?"

"This guy's bad news." The other said, pointing at Alex.

"We'll take him at the same time."

They both rushed towards him. He activated his first armament again, and his vision changed. Red traces appeared in his line of sight, previewing the trajectories of his opponent's attacks. He slugged one in the face, beating him to the punch. He turned and grabbed the other's arm, swinging him around into the first. They landed on top of each other.

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"He has an armament." Once they stood up, they looked and each other. "We have to tell boss."

"No need for that." Alex said as he stepped forward and summoned his sword. "I have other plans."

The two panicked and jumped straight up, trying to leap onto the roof. As the vampires rose above the edge of the building a red appendage swung around and wrapped up one of them. Stella swung her whip and slammed her prey into the side of a building. She detatched the portion ensnaring him and swung the whip multiple times, slicing him into pieces. Then, she latched the whip onto the wall above him and yanked, launching herself toward him. Her leg pierced his heart, and he screamed in pain. The other watched this quick exchange, and tried to run the other way, but stopped just in time. Alex was standing fifteen feet away and had extended the blade to slash at him.

"What the hell are you two?"

Alex turned into smoke and rushed him, severing his arms and legs, then lopped of his head, killing him instantly. The other vampire landed a few feet away from him, still tangled up in Stella's bloodwhip, followed by the lady herself. Her prey was struggling against his bindings.

"I won't talk! You won't get a single word out of me!"

"Why did you leave him alive?"

"Too much work. You do it."

Alex sighed and activated his third armament. A five-foot tentacle extended out of his hand and pierced the torso of the vampire he'd killed. He shriveled up and made awful squelching and cracking noises as the armament sucked him up like a straw. The other vampire froze, his eyes wide in fear. Alex walked over and crouched down next to him.

"How many people have you killed, Will?"

"N- nine..." His eyes widened after he answered. "How did you-?"

"He killed eleven. When I devoured him, I gained his memories."

"No- no!" He frantically started trying to crawl away.

"It doesn't matter whether or not you'll talk. I will punish you for the lives you've taken." He pierced the vampire, who screamed as he was crushed.

"You're kinda scary."

"Good. They should be afraid. They've lived free of consequence for far too long." He deactivated his armaments.

"That straw is pretty effective. I'm impressed you managed to only use up five percent of your armament. What weakness did you give it?"

"If anyone attacks it, I'll take ten times as much damage. I'm more surprised about the eyes. I can basically see the future and it only takes fifteen percent."

"Well, most eye armaments do more than see. If you optimized more, you could use it to create weak points, instead of just finding them."

"It's good enough for now. The one you fought saw our target a few minutes ago. Their boss Dawson bailed them out of a fight with some monster hunters."

"Hunters? Which ones did they send?"

"The strongest looking one, who the others called 'captain' was an old man with a scar on his face."

"Hmm." Stella pulled out her phone and showed him a picture. "This guy?"

"Yep."

"Heh, they sent the best hunter in the world to deal with that guy. Dawson might already be dead. Any idea if he has an armament?"

"He has one, but I don't know what it is. Apparently, he did a pretty good job hiding it." He turned to her. "Maybe this 'best hunter in the world' knows what it is? We can ask if Dawson's already dead too."

"Good plan. How do we find them?"

"I can tell where they were from his memories, we can track them down from there."

"Alright. Let's get moving."