"Once a vampyr latched on to you, it would never let go until it either died or you ran out of blood for it to suck. Some people had even resorted to immolating parts of themselves just to get these buggers off them. Their ability to burrow under the ground and strike from ambush just makes things worse.

Worst of all is their stench, however. Being stuck in the desert, drenched in vampyr blood and guts, reeking worse than outhouses and latrines for weeks on end was the most horrible thing in my life, and I have been through a lot in that life." - Serida Dowfrey, veteran adventurer from the Elmaiya Empire.

It was at night, just as they were finishing up their dinner and snacking on some fruits, that the attack came. Kino was the first to notice, the half therian bard's large ears flicked as if she heard something, though she was unsure of the nature of the odd noise she heard.

She was looking around while her hand absentmindedly peeled a banana when a particularly large vampyr - easily half again the size of the one they saw earlier in the day - burst out from the ground and leapt for her from behind.

"Watch out!" Dan yelled in warning around the same time the vampyr burst out. He was seated across from the bard and saw it first.

Everyone else jumped from where they sat with weapons in hand. Leila and Sidonie, who were closest to Kino, were just about to move to her aid, when the bard took care of the situation herself, in a way that made them look askance.

With an annoyed sigh, Kino just channeled her magic, and the banana in her hand was suddenly covered by a jet-black layer of pure void that extended a bit off it like a black tentacle of some sort. One nonchalant swing of her hand had that extension lash like a whip at the vampyr jumping her, while she herself leapt off to the side.

With good reason it turned out, as the vampyr fell exactly where she had seated herself just moments ago, in several pieces, as the tendril of void sliced through its body like a hot knife through butter.

"There's more of them around. All over the place," she said as she dispelled the void magic and took a bite off the peeled banana, her other hand pinching her nose at the same time as the stench of the vampyr's blood started to waft, at least until an orb of void consumed the whole thing along with a chunk of the sandy soil it was on.

As if to punctuate her words, another half dozen or so of the critters emerged, while others behind them also forwent concealment, openly running towards the camp the group had set en masse. None of them got that good a count since the creatures were all around them, but Cal estimated there to be at least eighty, maybe a hundred or so of the critters. Most around the size of the one they say in the morning, but at least five of them notably larger.

Cal swatted away two of the critters with her halberd as she backed up. Their party had naturally formed a circle with Dan in the middle. Their half goblin guide contributed with well placed sling pellets, but clearly not too keen on close combat with the critters.

Elaina and Leila had taken one side, Leila throwing globs of lava that forced the critters to change their paths into a straight line which allowed Elaina to strike with a bolt of lightning that went through and fried several of the critters at once. Several of the critters were too slow to dodge Leila completely, and at least one was enveloped by a glob of molten rock and burned while it screamed shrilly.

Sidonie worked together with Ying Xiao on the other side. The half elven girl's lightning bolts weren't as powerful as her sister's, and thus weren't fatal for the critters, but each time they struck one, they branched to another in the original target's vicinity, the electric shock momentarily paralyzing the critters.

Ying Xiao then dispatched those paralyzed critters with her halberd. That naturally necessitates her to close in with the creatures, and more than once, one of them successfully latched onto her with its lamprey-like mouth, its sharp teeth penetrating her skin and flesh in an attempt to suck out her blood.

Only to get nothing. The blood in Ying Xiao's body refused and rejected the suction of the creature, and before it could even try to understand its mistake, the girl's hand had grabbed its proboscis, roughly tore it away from her body, resulting in several loose teeth embedded in her flesh, then threw the vampyr bodily at another one, causing them both to fall into a heap, before her halberd descended and eviscerated both creatures.

The other two sides were handled by Cal and Kino respectively. Due to how badly the creatures had stunk, Cal didn't cleave or hammer through them. Instead, she batted them away with the flat side of her halberd or its shaft, sending them flying back where they came from, with multiple broken bones and ruptured organs.

On Kino's side, it was far eerier, as orbs of void kept soundlessly manifesting into reality and consumed everything it covered before disappearing. The instant one of the creatures got too close, multiple orbs of void would suddenly appear where its body was, and vanish along with whatever they covered, until there was no sign of the creature's existence left behind at all.

Many of the smaller creatures were drawing back and no longer charging eagerly by now, but the larger ones screeched and screamed at them, and eventually led the charge themselves.

Cal directly beheaded the one that went her way, the keen mithril edge of her halberd slicing through the creature's slim neck with ease. The sight of their leader's - if that was what the larger vampyr was - head flying back their way made the smaller ones stop in their tracks, turn tail, and run away.

The one that went for Kino just met the exact same fate as its smaller brethren, and it's death also sent its pack running. On Elaina and Leila's side, apparently a lightning bolt from the former wasn't strong enough to kill the larger creature, but it still staggered and paralyzed it.

A wave of molten rock conjured by Leila enveloped it while it was paralyzed, its body sizzling and burning under the magma even as its horrid screams of agony were muffled within. It was too much a sight for its pack to take, clearly, as they too routed and ran away.

The only side Cal was slightly worried about was Sidonie and Ying Xiao's side, as there were two of the larger creatures there. When she turned though, she saw Ying Xiao, quite thoroughly drenched in vampyr blood and guts, putting down the last of the creatures just as Sidonie stabbed it from behind, distracting it.

Both girls were relatively uninjured - in Ying Xiao's case, what injuries she had taken were inconsequential enough - though unlike the others, they were quite drenched in the stinky blood, and from Sidonie's disgusted look, knew it all too well.