A vampire.

A fallen vampire, to be specific. As Rin recalled, the strength of an undead enemy was often dictated by how close the creature was to their original lives. In the case of vampires, the longer these creatures went without consuming the blood of living humanoid beings, the more monstrous their bodies would become. However, their bestial appearance was directly proportional to how weak they were.

That meant that the vampire in front of them was starved, weak, and mindless. And yet, Cara had emphasized to them in class a few times that despite all of that, they should be careful when they fight these things for one simple reason.

If a vampire bit someone, there was a high chance that person would contract vampirism. A disease that would kill them and resurrect them as, well, a vampire. That was an outcome Rin preferred to avoid.

"Focus up," Rin said as she took a step back and put her fists up. As the vampire slowly got onto its feet, Eve gulped.

"R-Right! We'll be fine!"

Ignoring the nerves in Eve's voice, which were about as subtle as a pile of bricks falling from the sky, Rin simply breathed in and kept her eyes on the vampire ahead.

[With my Spirit Flame, and Eve's range, we should have all the tools we need for this. Granted, this is my first time fighting a vampire, so I have no clue what it does, but... Like Maria said. There's nothing in this ruin we can't take out.]

She was putting a lot of stock into those words. Because of this, Rin maintained a reasonable level of confidence as the vampire finally let out a screech and dashed forward, toward the two adventurers. Eve reacted by flying up into the air and tossing out spheres of flame at the vampire. The two she launched out missed, however, and in an instant, the vampire was right in front of Rin.

[Okay, let's-]

Her thoughts were cut off as the vampire slammed one of its hands on the side of Rin's head. The raven-haired girl was launched in the opposite direction. She rolled to a stop and quickly felt blood trickling down her face as the room turned blurry for a moment.

[... That thing is strong,] Rin thought as she staggered up to her feet while the vampire rushed to her position. It would have reached her before Rin could get up too, but Eve's [Fireballs] prevented it from doing so, as Eve purposefully aimed them between the two parties.

Rin closed her left eye as blood threatened to seep into it, and she put her fists up again. The vampire was distracted, though. It looked up at Eve instead of Rin, before then stretching the small wings on its back and trying to fly up to the fairy.

Rin wasn't about to let that happen, though. As the vampire hovered up, Rin leaped above it. With a spinning kick aimed at its midsection, she intercepted the vampire and sent it to the left, making the undead crash below.

It looked up with wild, feral, eyes, as though insulted that Rin had even thought of doing that.

Still, with one eye closed, Rin maintained her fighting stance. It let out a screech and hunched over a little, looking like it was going to try running forward, but a [Fireball] splashed onto its back before it could do that.

"Aaaaeeergh!" The sound that the vampire let out felt like it could make Rin's ears bleed. She stopped it when she walked forward and threw a punch that the vampire only managed to react to at the last second, leaning out of the way and pulling a leg up to kick Rin with it. The adventurer didn't see it coming. The vampire's foot landed on her stomach and knocked Rin back a few steps, briefly taking the wind out of her lungs.

[It's quick, too,] Rin acknowledged as the vampire turned its attention up at Eve again, trying to dodge the projectiles the fairy sent out. [It only saw my fist coming toward it for half a second and still managed to dodge in time.]

The vampire did something that neither Eve nor Rin saw coming. It inhaled sharply and then aimed its mouth up at Eve before producing a wave of air sent straight at the fairy. Because Eve hadn't anticipated, this strange spell struck her body, and the fairy was knocked right out of the air.

The vampire's eyes moved down with Eve's body, and Rin understood that it was going to try to snatch her out of the air. She moved before that could happen, interrupting the monster and launching a flurry of punches toward it.

The way it moved to dodge them all, Rin wondered just how mindless this creature actually was. At the very least, it seemed to have the survival instincts necessary to want to avoid the flames wrapped around Rin's arms. And, unfortunately, it also had the speed to do that. Eventually, the vampire hopped back, putting enough distance between itself and Rin to make the adventurer pause for a second. She snuck a glance to the right to make sure Eve was okay and saw the fairy struggling to get up before she cast a healing spell on herself.

Nodding to herself, Rin looked ahead just in time to see the vampire about to do the exact same technique to her, inhaling sharply and aiming its mouth forward.

It sent out a wave of air that Rin dodged by leaning her head to the side. As that technique missed, Rin charged forward and tried again to land a hit.

But, the moment she did, the vampire lunged forward and bit down on Rin's shoulder, just above where her Spirit Flame started.

The adventurer froze, just staring at the monster as its fangs pierced her skin.

"Agh!"

Rin tried to pull away, but she quickly found that she couldn't move at all.

[Hm... That's not good.]

---

{Eve}

[Ahh... What kind of move was that?] Eve wondered as she finished healing herself. She stood up slowly, feeling soreness in her body as she looked around to see how the fight was going. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of Rin's current situation.

She was unmoving, standing perfectly still as the vampire ahead of her bit down on her arm.

Instinctively, Eve flew up and drew an upwards arrow in the air before aiming her right hand at the vampire. The creature appeared to have been so starved for blood that it completely missed the fact that Eve was casting a spell at it, which allowed the sphere to strike the vampire's left shoulder.

"Aaaaahhhh!" The vampire let out a monstrous shriek as it took its fangs out of Rin. The woman collapsed to the ground as the flame spread throughout the vampire's body.

However, unlike the other enemies, the vampire didn't disintegrate as soon as the fire reached it. Instead, its skin was left in a darkened, almost charred, state, but it was still alive. Its head snapped up. Its eyes fixed furiously on Eve's figure, and the fairy felt chills go down her arms.

Then, the vampire leaped up, and instantly, Eve noticed a substantial increase in speed. She flew away and the vampire chased after her, using those wings on its back. Eve shot another [Fireball] at it that the monster dipped out of the way of. The vampire tried to retaliate with a swipe of its massive claws that Eve dodged by flying over the creature, and this exchange began a pursuit throughout the entire room that had Eve flying from one place to another frantically.

Spells and animalistic roars filled the air before, finally, Eve messed up and the creature reached her. She went to throw out another [Fireball] but quickly realized that she'd made a mistake as the monster went to take her head off before she even finished drawing the spellsign.

With only a split second to react, Eve made a tactical choice then and purposefully interrupted her spellweaving, causing the Essence within her to backfire. This resulted in a minor explosion of Essence happening in front of her that, although it hurt, managed to push the two parties away from each other.

Eve, who had been closer to the back of the room than she thought, landed against the wall and fell to the ground.

"Ahhh..." Eve let out a small hiss as she got up to her feet and looked ahead. The vampire was already on its way toward her.

She put a hand up, preparing to try to cast another [Fireball], but something happened that made it so that she wouldn't have to.

Rin stepped in between them. The other adventurer blocked the vampire's path with her arms still covered in that white flame. The vampire appeared to believe that with this newfound strength it could take her on, and the monster went to fight her directly. This would prove to be a mistake on its part as Rin dodged out of the way of a swipe of its claws and retaliated with a punch to the monster's midsection. Not only did she send it flying in the opposite direction, but the vampire's body caught fire in midair.

That strange fire spread all throughout its body, just as Eve's flame had. Only, this one seemed to hurt quite a lot more as, this time, the vampire outright screamed.

Eve disregarded the monster however and quickly looked up at Rin, whose arms were shaking as she took her fighting stance.

"Um, Rin?" She asked. "A-Are you okay!?"

"I..." Rin replied, looking back at Eve. Her amber eyes had taken a slightly darker hue. "I feel strange. Never mind that, though. We have a vampire to fight."

"... Right," Eve replied as she flew up above her friend. Ahead, the vampire slowly got up. Rin and Eve quickly got to work and moved forward, looking to attack it while its guard was down. The vampire saw them and leaped up to avoid Rin.

Eve launched a [Fireball] its way from afar and the projectile struck the enemy squarely in the chest. It descended a short distance due to this, and Rin capitalized. She jumped up, stuck a leg out, and flipped forward, slashing at the vampire's body with a kick that took it down fully before landing gracefully just ahead of it.

The monster quickly scurried to its feet. Rin was in front of it before it could even register what was happening.

Eve then watched as Rin pulled a hand back, lowered it, and then thrust it forward in a punch that carried so much power behind it that the instant it connected with the vampire's chest, its ribcage exploded out through its back. The wall behind the vampire was covered in red-black blood and the monster froze up.

Almost as though it slowly realized that it had just been killed, the vampire's hands dropped and the monster flopped to the side, falling limply onto the ground.

Rin kept that fist outstretched, her arm shaking as she remained in that pose for a few more seconds before she finally let it drop to her side.

As Eve realized the fight was over, she flew down and went to hug Rin from behind.

"WOW! That was amazing!" She praised her friend.

However, as she embraced her, she noticed the other adventurer was trembling.

"Um..." Eve said as she didn't get a response. "Rin?"

The raven-haired girl turned toward her. There was a darkness in her eyes that Eve noticed immediately. However, that darkness lightened up just a little as their eyes met.

Rin gulped and said:

"I... I think we should get out of here," she stated.

The adventurer turned her ethereal flames off and gestured at her arm. There was a deep bite mark on her wrist that was slowly healing on its own.

"A-Are you alright, though?" Eve asked. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good," Rin said, taking a deep breath. "Just... My head feels a little bit cloudy, all of a sudden. I think it's best if we just cancel this and have Maria check me out, though. Just to be safe."

"Uh, yeah, agreed," Eve quickly replied. "Let's go."

---

Soon, the two of them were walking out of the ruins and emerging back out into the fresh air of the woodlands. Maria was sitting just a few meters away from the doors, meditating, when she looked toward them.

"Uh... T-Teach'," Rin greeted her. "Something happened in there."

"Hm?" Maria tilted her head before both girls moved up to her and Rin showed her the bite on her arm. With a sigh, Maria nodded. "Well, I had anticipated that this might happen. Did you manage to defeat the vampire, however, or did you run away?" She asked.

"I killed it," Rin stated.

"Good. I'll consider the mission a success, then."

"Um," Rin said, looking down at her arm, "I feel really strange. Am I going to be okay?"

"Hm? Yeah, as long as we get you some help soon. If not, then, no," Maria responded, shaking her head. "You contracted vampirism."

Both Rin and Eve's eyes widened.

"Oh."