When we got to the second floor, both Josh and I took Jessica's hands and she used a free Mass Scribe spell. Instead of the ten feet it normally would have covered, it went out a hundred feet. There was a shout from the room the teenagers were in and a short scream from outside.
“Both of us was too much!” I said and ran to the closest window. “I've got the one outside!”
Nearly all of them watched as I jumped out through the window. Maylia ran into the room and I saw her fire her bow and kill the single teenager that had the vampire name over their head. I ran around the corner of the building with Mana Presence Run and saw across the street. A woman was unconscious on the ground and a man stood over her with Vampire, Underling over his head. He had a shocked look on his face and I didn't give him time to react as I ran over and jabbed my mother's Light sword through his chest and his heart.
There were a couple of people down the street who screamed at the sight and they stared at me. I turned off the Light sword and the body dropped to the ground. I looked at the woman on the ground next to the body and she had Housewife, Human above her head.
“I'm sorry, miss.” I said and looked at the two women down the street. They were both human and I waved to them to come closer. They were startled at first and looked about ready to run, then they slowly came over to me. “I don't know if he was attacking her or if she was just scared of who he was.” I pointed to the man and one woman gasped and the other let out a little scream.
“Wh-who are you?” The woman who gasped asked me and the other woman just stared at the vampire.
“Hunter, personal vassal of Queen Celestina.” I said and touched the gold badge with the kingdom emblem on my chest. “We are here to clear out the vampires.”
“You should have told the people!” The woman snapped.
“The vampires would run.” I said and she looked at me with wide eyes. “We only found out last night that they were here.”
“How many...”
“No idea.” I said, to their surprise, then to their amazement I stuffed the body into the bag of holding with the others. “This is the tenth one we've killed so far.”
“T-t-t-tenth?” The woman who had let out a little scream asked.
“Eight last night and two today.” I said. “We hunted down where they should have been all morning, then found it empty.”
“Oh, no.” The other woman said.
“Exactly.” I said. “Can you look after this woman for me? I need to get back to the others.”
“You're just going to leave her here?” One of them asked, incredulous.
“Only until I have the others come over and see if she needs healing.” I said.
Both women nodded and I ran back over to the building I had left and went inside and up the stairs. When I entered the room with the teenagers, they were kicking the dead vampire that used to be their friend. Everyone else stood there and watched.
“Filthy beast.” One of the teenagers said and kicked the body in the face.
“Some friend you are!” Another said and kicked the legs.
“You took my first kiss!” One of them said, and I looked closely to see that it was a girl, despite her being dressed similarly to the others. She was the most vicious in her assault of the body.
“Now I see why you're all just standing here.” I said.
“Lots of frustration to work out.” Viri said, her face both angry and sad. “It's understandable.”
“I've got an unconscious woman around the corner and across the street that needs to be looked after.” I said.
“I've got it.” Diofra said. “Allirynn, Imiryl.”
The three of them left at a fast walk and the rest of us watched the teenagers tire themselves out. When they were done, the girl had dropped to her knees and her face was covered in tears. The other teenagers couldn't look at her or the body, so they were staring at the walls and ceiling.
“Maylia.” I said and the two of us walked slowly over. She knelt by the girl and gave her a hug, and the girl wailed and cried. With her distracted, I quickly shoved the body into the bag of holding. I stood and looked at who I thought was the head of the group.
“I'm not saying nothing.” The boy said.
I smiled and was about to comment that he just did, then turned to the boy next to him. “Any chance you can tell me who he was and where I can find his family?”
“It was a monster.” The boy said, his face angry.
“Yeah, and I want to know if he ate the people who used to be his family.”
The boy's face drained of color. “Sally.”
“We're hunting vampires and we need to know where his family is.”
“I... I'll take you there.” The boy said. None of the others said anything, so I motioned for him to go ahead. I took Afyne's hand and nodded to Evus and Jessica. They came with us and we left the building. As we moved, the boy went from a fast walk to a jog, and then broke into a run. We easily kept up with him and followed him out to a street with a bunch of houses on it. The boy was out of breath when he finally stopped and pointed to the house.
Jessica took my hand and spoke the chant to cast the Mass Scribe spell and it went thirty feet and covered the house. I could see the two parents and the daughter, Sally, and the words Vampire, Underling appeared over their heads. I sighed and the boy dropped to his knees, tears in his eyes. I walked over to the house and went inside, and before they knew what hit them, I had cut through their hearts and shoved them into the bag of holding. I did a quick search and didn't find anything, so I went back outside.
“I'm sorry.” I said to the boy and he looked up at me.
“Was... was it quick?” He asked.
“They didn't even know what hit them.” I said and he nodded. “Let's get you back to your friends.”
I helped him stand and we walked back into the main part of the city and to the building. He took over holding the girl who was still crying softly, and Maylia came over to me. We gave each other and Afyne a hug and stayed there for a couple of minutes.
“We need to do a systematic cleansing.” Josh said. “We can get the spell to a hundred feet, so we position the rest to take out any vampires within that area and cast the spell.”
“I agree. We need to be careful about it.” I said. “Combat fighters in the middle range, and bows on the outskirts.”
“What if we modify the spell and add a mana barrier?” Jessica asked.
“No, a Holy mana barrier.” Josh said, thinking about it. “Can we combine the Mass Scribe and Mass Holy Light spells with a barrier?”
“Maybe.” Jessica said. “It'll take me some time to work it out.”
“Do you need to be stationary to work on it?” I asked.
“I... maybe?” Jessica said, unsure.
“We'll limit ourselves to a smaller spell area and start clearing out individual houses.” I said. “Less people to deal with and more chance that the vampires revealed won't get away.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Josh said and looked at the teenagers. “What about them?”
“Lets bring everyone to the mayor's building.” I said. “We can go to healers next and check them for vampires, then bring some back to deal with the fallout.”
“This is going to ruin a lot of lives, isn't it?” Jessica asked, concern in her voice.
“A lot more than we think it's going to.” I said and looked at the boy who had lost his love and the girl who had lost hers. They clung to each other and didn't look like they were going to let each other go anytime soon. We told the teenagers what we were going to do, and they came along. We met up with Diofra, Allirynn and Imiryl, then picked up the unconscious woman and the other two women that had watched her. They were still shaken by the revelation of vampires among them and came along willingly.
We set everyone up at the mayor's place in the large meeting room and went to the healers. After a quick check, three of them turned out to be vampires that we killed without letting them react, and the healers had to work on themselves to deal with the trauma of having years-old friends turn out to be vampires. Of course, now that they knew what it was like, they were the best suited to deal with the others. We took them over to the mayor's place and they got to work on the victims.
We got to work as well.
With my plan to clear the houses first, we split into three teams and went through the residential areas much faster than any of us thought possible. Most houses didn't have a vampire. Some had one and we dealt with it and sent the other house occupants to the mayor's office, and some had all vampires in them. Those were the easiest to deal with, since there was no chance of collateral damage, and by evening, we had worked our way to the edge of the main part of the city.
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Since it was the end of the work day, we positioned ourselves and waited for groups of people returning to their homes. They were easily checked and the occasional vampire had to be removed, then the surrounding people were sent to the mayor's office to be treated for trauma. It was a time consuming process to do hunting this way, mainly waiting for them to show up, then we moved into the city proper and had to come together and use bigger spells. Jessica had finally managed to construct a proper spell that combined three spells into one, and we gathered as many people as we could into smaller areas and Josh and I helped her cast the spell.
The glowing white dome of a Holy barrier appeared around the group and six of the thirty-four people inside screamed and tried to block out the Holy light and were revealed as vampires. The normal people screamed and tried to get away from them and I concentrated on the closest vampire and used Presence to crush its heart. It dropped to the ground and I walked around the barrier and did the same to the remaining five vampires. The people seemed to calm down after the last vampire was dealt with, and Jessica dismissed the Holy barrier.
“We're sorry about that everyone.” Josh said in a consoling tone. “Please proceed to the mayor's office to be looked after.”
The people were sent to the healers that had been working all day doing the same thing, trying to help people deal with the trauma of living around vampires and not knowing it. Some people were depressed about it and most were angry that they had been lied to. That seemed to be the common response and a lot of them wanted to fight.
I had been doubtful about including the townspeople at first, then Josh sorted through the ones that had actual combat experience and had some of us hand over half of our bottles of Holy water, a third of our arrows, and a couple of the large lawn darts. I was a bit proud that he didn't gut our combat capability to bend to the peoples demands and also that he hadn't completely ignored them, either.
The ones he had to leave behind, he gave them a couple of bottles of Holy water to reassure them, in case vampires managed to get by everyone that would be fighting, and we left some of the townspeople there to guard the building and divided the others among the three teams and increased our numbers. We kept working our way along the city and finding more people to keep safe and more vampires that had been hiding in plain sight.
Even though night had fallen, we couldn't stop once we started, so any magic users we came across, we had them cast energy boost spells on those that needed it and kept going. Our forces expanded and worked throughout the night and we didn't finish until late the next morning. We all walked back to the mayor's office to check on everyone, then mine and Kara's groups went back to the inn and into the dining room to sit down.
“I'm... really glad... I'm not... an adventurer!” Viri panted. “This is... exhausting!”
I used a bit of Presence on her forehead to give her brain a jolt and exhilarated her.
“AH!” Viri gasped and I saw the tingle go through her. “What was that?”
“Oh? That's not in my skill list?” I asked her and smiled as her face flushed red.
“When did you know?”
“I started to suspect when you giggled like a schoolgirl before I used levitation on you.” I said. “I knew for sure when I jumped out of the two storey building's window and you didn't react with surprise like everyone else did.”
“Please don't be angry.” Viri said. “After what happened with the mayor, I... I've read everyone I've met since then.”
“It's not a drain on your mana to do that?” I asked, curious.
“It's a skill for me and not a spell.” Viri said, and that got everyone's attention.
“You're a seer?” Jessica asked, surprised.
“Not quite.” Viri said. “I can't distance view like that.”
“What else can you do?” Josh asked from the next table.
“Hold on.” I said and put a hand up. “This isn't an interrogation.” I looked at Viri. “Should I ask what my skill list looks like?”
“Like a colander.” Viri said with disappointment and her words were met with a lot of confused faces.
I knew what it was because I could cook. “It's a large metal bowl full of small holes to let water drip out when washing vegetables.”
“Unlike everyone I've ever met, you're still developing your skills.” Viri said. “How old are you?”
I chuckled. “It depends on when you start counting.”
Viri's eyebrows rose and she just stared at me.
“I think the problem is that my body was altered to come here to use mana, so technically I'm only a couple of months old.”
“That could explain things.” Viri said and ducked her head a little and looked like she was thinking hard. “Most people don't have fully developed skill sets until they are at least a couple of years old.” She said. “It takes that long for their bodies to adapt and accept their flow of mana.”
“I can't wait that long.” I said and knew I was going to have to devote some serious time to full meditation and not the partial sessions I've been doing all along. “I'm too vulnerable in this state.”
“Okay, I've let the queen know what happened and how things turned out.” Diofra said and a medium-sized ball of light zoomed off. “Of course, we don't really know what's going to happen with so many... ah... people... turning out to be vampires.”
“Did you give her the new spells?” I asked, and she nodded. “Magic users across the kingdom are going to be busy for a while.”
Everyone nodded solemnly and the waitress came over. We all ordered a quick and easy breakfast and ate our food. Once that was done, we all decided to go to bed. As we all left the dining room, Viri touched my arm and pulled me aside, which meant Maylia and Afyne went with us.
“What is it?” I asked in a whisper and used Presence to block everyone but us from hearing.
“Thank you for not being angry about reading you, and about stopping them from asking questions.” Viri said and looked around briefly. “My other skills are pretty ordinary, but...” She blinked her eyes and looked back at me. “Even though I'm not a seer, I can locate anyone.”
My eyes widened, as did Maylia's. “You don't need a personal item or anything?”
“It can help if I have something of theirs; but, all I need is a name. Even if it's fake, it's still theirs and they've used it.” Viri said.
“No wonder you've kept this quiet.” I said. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You're searching for someone.” Viri said. “Either for yourself or someone else.”
I was quiet for a moment. “You know we are going to kill them, don't you?”
“Yes.” Viri said. “You wouldn't be going after them if they didn't do something bad.”
“You're very smart.” I said and it made her smile. “You'd be okay with finding someone for us to kill?”
“Normally, I would avoid getting involved.” Viri said.
“Then don't now.” I advised her. “Once you have that on your conscience...”
“Even if you use the knowledge to kill, I'm okay with that.”
“I don't need to ask you why.” I said and she looked at me expectantly. “You saw how we treated everyone.”
“Yes.” Viri said and her hand touched mine. “You're not like a lot of the other adventurers, or even like some of those emissaries.” She said and squeezed my hand. “You care about how your actions affect people. You're not dismissive and you don't ignore those, that by fate or happenstance, are far below you in power and abilities.”
I was about to argue that when she smiled. “You know I want to argue that below me part.”
Viri let her smile grow wider and nodded.
“Have you used a mana crystal before?” I asked, and she nodded again. “Then come with me.”
I absorbed the Presence I was using and led Viri, Maylia, and Afyne through the lobby and up the stairs to Allirynn and Imiryl's room. I knocked and waited for a moment, and Allirynn opened the door.
“What's wrong?” Allirynn asked.
“It's time we dealt with your little snake problem.” I said and took out a charged mana crystal. Allirynn knew what I meant and grinned as he stepped back to wave us into the room. We passed by and he shut the door, then he went to the table in the room and took out the torn rags that Steven had given him weeks ago.
“There's almost no residue on these.” Viri said.
“That's what we've been worried about.” I said. “I didn't want to take the chance of trying to locate the owner until I was sure we were going to find her.”
“The only thing would be a restoration spell and you would have to hope that the residue would increase and not be used up.” Viri said.
“I'm glad we didn't try, then.” I said and put the mana crystal on top of the rags. “Viri, I need to attune the crystal to you so we can use it.”
“You mean like this?” Viri asked and put her hand on the crystal. It glowed a little brighter for a second and I saw the energy shift to accept her.
“You did that as fast as I can.” I said, surprised.
“Mana crystals let me use some of my skills better.” Viri said. “What's the person's name?”
“The lamia's name is Siada.” Allirynn said, his voice flat with a touch of anger.
“A lamia?” Viri asked with wide eyes. “I didn't think there were any of them in First Sothen Kingdom.”
“We were coming here as a full party when she betrayed us and our friends were killed.”
“They almost were as well.” I added. “If it wasn't for some last minute healing and then a long journey to the capital, they both would have died.”
“Then I have no problem finding her for...” Viri stopped when I put my hand on hers and the crystal. “What are you doing?”
“I told you. We're going to kill her.” I said and Viri looked at me with an open mouth. I used a fingertip to close it and formed a connection to her with Presence. “Use your skill, please.”
“O-o-okay.” Viri said and looked down at the crystal. She put her hand on the rags and started to say a chant. I felt her small amount of mana flow into the crystal, so I added mine to it. “OH!” She yelled as the mana burned through her hand, then she gasped.
Instead of the slightly see-through green bubble that we normally saw, a five foot wide crystal clear orb appeared above the mana crystal. It didn't just show a map, though. It showed the actual planet they were on. It turned inside the orb, and then it zoomed in to the First Sothen Kingdom and showed a dot. Then it zoomed in again, showed a thick forested area for a moment, then it showed a lamia as it slithered quickly through the underbrush. We could actually hear the leaves being crushed under her muscular body.
“Siada.” Allirynn said angrily.
The lamia jumped from being startled. She turned around frantically and moved in circles as she looked for him.
“I told you I would find you.” Allirynn said and nodded to me.
I used the minimum amount of power that I could, the same as I did when I did this to the green-robed man, and bolts of Mana Presence Lightning shot out of my fingertips and went right into Siada. I found that I could direct them much easier through the crystal orb, so I directed them through her head and her heart, with no wasted energy. As an experiment, I created a giant Mana Presence Hand inside the crystal orb and dug up a huge pile of earth, slipped the body inside, then covered it with dirt. I did my best to use Presence to erase her scent from the area and to disguise it.
“It should be safe until we get there, assuming those raccoon-like carnivores don't dig it up.” I said and felt the crystal lurch. “Maylia, an empty bag of holding, please.”
Maylia took one out and handed it to me, and I moved Viri's hand. The crystal orb faded and the mana crystal shook again. I dropped it inside the bag of holding and waited, then I relaxed when nothing happened.
“Whew! Okay. Remind me to dump that where it's safe.” I said and everyone looked at me. “What? It's a spacial bag. Everything that goes in seems to stay in the same state it went in, until you take it back out.”
“What gave you that idea?” Maylia asked.
“The restaurant food we ate on the way from the capital.” I said with a smile. “It had been in the bag for a day and was the same temperature as when I put it in there.”
“I'm glad it worked, because I was looking for a window for you to throw it, then realized we were in the middle of the city.” Maylia said and chuckled.
“Hunter.” Allirynn said and I turned to look at him. “Thank you.”
“At this point, there was no way we were going to catch her physically.” I said. “I'm just glad it worked.”
“You... you killed... really killed... through a locate spell.” Viri stared at the spot above the table where the crystal orb used to be.
“That's not in my skill list either, huh?” I asked, and she shook her head.
“I don't know if such a skill exists.” Viri said. “I... I need a few minutes to...”
“I suggest not telling anyone.” I said. “If they knew I could do this, well...”
“Y-yes, everyone would want you to do it.” Viri said.
“Do you?” I asked, and her face flushed red. “You know how much mana crystals cost?”
Viri nodded and looked at the spot above the table. “You lose a mana crystal each time you do it?”
I nodded back. “It's definitely expensive.”
“You have my word. I won't say anything.” Viri said.
“Good.” I said and didn't feel the Presence waver. “Now I'm heading to my room for a nice long bath.”
“I... okay. I'll...” Viri started to walk, then stopped and looked at the table, then started to walk again and stopped. “Um...”
“Go home and rest for now. Meet us here tonight for supper.” I said.
“Okay.” Viri said and walked to the door. She gave one more glance to the table where the crystal orb was, then left the room.