The sounds of the screaming and violence lead us back to our rendezvous point in the middle of town. As we burst into the square, we finally caught sight of what had befallen the town, or at least what was left of the poor villagers. The monsters, like the horde from my first day, resembled the townspeople who used to live here, but now, their skin was incredibly pale. The fingers on their hands were disfigured into sharp looking claws, with their nails extending an inch or more from their fingertips. They were all barefoot and their feet had been transformed in a similar fashion, with high arches and toes that curled into talons. They were screeching and wailing as they attacked, teeth sharp and eyes hungry.

There were about a dozen of them attacking the few soldiers who were attempting to stand their ground. With everyone split up, the ambush had caught us with reduced numbers. One soldier already lay on the ground, bleeding out from a large tear in his neck, his body quivering and spasming as the last of his life ebbed from him. The remaining three weren’t fairing much better.

Where are Duncan and that stupid prince when you need them?!

Kit was immediately ready to join the fray, despite the poor odds. “I guess they were hiding behind the second door!” He immediately jumped to assist a soldier fending off two of the vampires as three others had pounced on his partner that had been watching his back. As he lay on the ground screaming, one vampire had latched itself at his throat and was drinking deeply. The soldier slowly lost the will to fight, and he went limp as the other two ripped an arm and leg from his body to feed.

Kit took advantage of their distraction and moved swiftly enough to almost blink across the field. Within mere moments, he had decapitated one, thrown three of his wrist knives into the feeding face of another, and had leapt on the back of the third drinking from the soldier. With an effortless grace, he buried his dagger to the hilt in the top of its skull. He had no time to savor his kills however, as two more vamps realized there was new food at the table.

The vampires galloped towards him on all fours with an inhuman speed, galloping towards Kit, who was still confirming the three he had dispatched were down for the count. Everything on the field was moving so fast. I’d only been able to unsheathe Lily, and already there were dead on the ground. Ash took a defensive stance in front of me, staff extended and starting to glow.

I wasn’t as anxious as Kit to join the fray, as even with the three he had killed, we were still outnumbered. And against these inhuman monsters, we faced even poorer odds, a fact we were swiftly reminded of as another one of the soldiers lost sight of one of his predators. The vampire jumped on his back, unhinged its jaw and closed its mouth around the top of his head. I turned away as I heard the crunching and ripping sounds of his head being bitten in two.

“Ash! Amelia! Stay put and back-to-back! Don’t pick a fight unless one comes to you!” Dorian yelled. He was already shooting at anything he could get a clear shot at, his current targets the two vampires sprinting towards Kit. They were so fast that he was barely able to clip them with each arrow he loosed, his arrows just narrowly missing or getting lodged ineffectively in a shoulder. Dorian was an amazing shot, and to see him barely wing a speeding villager in the leg or shoulder was unnerving.

Where the hell is Duncan!

Just then, a vampire vaulted away from one of Dorian’s shots and dug it’s claws into the side of a building, clinging to it. It roared in anger at Dorian, only to spot Ash and me in our defensive position in the rear. Spying what it believed to be easier prey, it pounced from roof to roof in our direction.

“Steady, Amelia! I got this!” Ash grit his teeth and the moonstone atop his staff glowed a bit brighter.

“We’ll take it together, Ash! I’m with you!” I was terrified but determined. It was the horde all over again, Ash and I facing down yet another terror together, only this time I didn’t want to be saved. I was probably even less capable of defending myself now, but I hated how helpless I had felt then. I refused to back down here.

I swallowed some of the bile that had crawled up my throat as the vampire made its last leap towards us, snarling in midair. Ash thrust the point of his staff towards it as it fell and suddenly a beam of light shot out from the tip! It pierced the villager in its chest and shot through it cleanly, filling the air with an acrid burning ozone smell. The vampire continued to fall and collapsed next to us, still screaming but now in pain and agony. Ash had side stepped the vampire’s landing and shoved his staff’s end into its back, pinning the writhing thing to the ground.

“Now, Amelia!”

Without hesitation, I copied Kit’s movement of mounting it and plunged Lily directly into the side of the vamp’s face. Despite lacking Kit’s strength, the blade still slid easily into pale flesh, offering little resistance as the vampire ceased its movement. I got up off it as Ash released his pin on the limp form and he grinned at me, panting a little at the spell’s exertion. “See? Easy-peasy!”

I gave him a snort with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah. Four down, eight more to go. It’s almost one on one!” I sarcastically mocked.

Ash laughed, despite the danger, “It’s dead, we’re not. What more do you want?”

Ask, and you shall receive.

Suddenly a roar bellowed from a side street, and Duncan and company spilled out into the opening, Minerva spinning in his hands. The cavalry had arrived, and I pointed in the direction of our rescuers, “That!”

Duncan roared again as he swung Minerva side armed with one hand, and cleaved through the neck of the nearest villager, its head spinning off like a top. Chad and Julius were right behind him, Chad with his sword drawn and Julius with a gloved hand aflame. They plunged into the thick of the remaining vampires, the other soldiers right behind them.

Despite the inhuman speed and strength our adversaries possessed, we now outnumbered them and had flipped the element of surprise. Duncan, with Minerva in his hands, was a monster in his own right. His friend in Torzoa had made some adjustments and she was now a reinforced permanent double headed axe. He swung her with calculated swipes, cleaving through limbs and torsos, taking out another three of the remaining barely half dozen foes. Despite not connecting with killing headshots as he had advised, they were now crippled and much less threatening. He kept moving, a whirlwind of steel, as the soldiers behind him finished off what was left of the vamps left in his wake.

I tore my vision away from Duncan’s trail of destruction to check on Kit and Dorian. Kit was reverse gripping a dagger in his left hand and, with his other dagger still lodged in the skull of his previous kill, had donned some knuckledusters with menacing looking silver spikes on them in his right. His vampire kept attempting to get in arms reach of him, but Kit was matching it, move for move and speed with speed. I had no idea how he was able to keep up with each attack. His anticipation of what the hungry fiend was going to do next must have been part skill, part luck.

The vampire lunged with an extended clawed hand, only to have Kit thrust his dagger into the outreached arm. Using his dagger as an anchor, he yanked back and pulled the monster towards him. The vamp snapped its jaws greedily, finally closing the distance with its food, only to have Kit smash it square in the face with his weaponized fist. The monster’s skull caved in, and body slumped limply to the ground.

Brandishing his sword, Dorian was not playing with his adversary nearly as much as Kit. He was aware of the physical mismatch between them and was more than content to stay out of arm’s reach, staying in a defensive position rather than engaging. Ash and I both rushed over to flank the hungry vampire. I reverse gripped Lily in preparation while Ash grunted as he charged up his staff again.

The vampire stopped advancing on Dorian and realized it was now surrounded. It whirled from me to Ash, wincing as it did from the glow of light emanating from the moonstone. It snarled as it shielded its eyes, and then jumped away from our circle, landing on a nearby roof. Chad and Julius had rushed over to join us and Julius extended his fingertips, shooting a jet of flame across the space. The vampire howled again and leapt away and out of sight behind the building as the flames licked at its disfigured feet.

“Everyone alright?” Chad asked between gasps. He and Julius both were panting for air, finally able to take a moment and catch their breath.

“You’re late, pretty boy!” Kit called out. He was lovingly cleaning his freshly removed dagger while kicking over the vampire corpses he had dispatched. I couldn’t tell if he was morbidly admiring his handiwork or looking for something. Chad ignored him and rushed over to me, grabbed my arms, and looked me over intently, eyes wide with… was that terror?

“Are you ok?”

I didn’t know how to answer him. His level of concern confused me and, despite the danger, his face being this close to mine had me reliving our kiss we had yet to discuss. Being unable to focus on anything but the shine of his lips, I just stood there dumbly and blinked hard at him.

He seemed to take this as an acknowledgement that I was fine, while simultaneously realizing how close we were. He hurriedly let me go and awkwardly coughed into his hand. He then rubbed the back of his neck and was unable to make eye contact with me as he stared at nothing in particular.

“Yes, well… It appears we got here just in time to prevent you coming to any harm, if a bit late to save the lives of our other fallen comrades.” he finally managed to say.

Dorian raised an eyebrow at his odd behavior, hands planted on his hips. Julius held a thoughtful pose, studying the awkward interaction, but also keeping his thoughts to himself. We weren’t so lucky with Kit.

Sliding up to us, his kills completely forgotten, he stood between the both of us and glanced back and forth at us.

“…..What was that??” he asked, a wide grin on his stupid face.

Chad’s ears were turning red, and you could almost see steam coming off them as he stammered out, “I was concerned for the lady’s well-being! It’s the gentlemanly thing to do in a situation like this, with nothing out of place about it at all! Why aren’t you also not concerned for her? Because you’re a louse, that’s why!” At that he stomped away, leaving me as the lone center of their curious attention.

Fantastic! Fat lot of help you are!

All the boys turned to look back at me, and I realized I had to think fast if I didn’t want more uncomfortable prying questions. I had no hoodie to hide behind now. I needed a distraction and decided to throw Kit under the bus. He was used to being the center of attention anyway. I cleared my throat and redirected to Kit, “Well we may not have found pie, but we sprung the trap anyway.”

He smiled at my recognition of our inside joke, “Indeed we did, Kitten. Indeed, we did.” He sauntered back over to one of our kills and began looking it over. “I’ve killed a lot o’ things in my day in the pits. Weren’t always humans. The bigger an’ nastier the opponent, the larger the crowd an’ the higher the bets. Elves, goblins, even the occasional orc.”

His eyes glossed over a bit as he remembered… what? Glory days? Terrors and horrors beyond our imagination? I wondered if he remembered the pits with any fondness. After all, he had just recently made his offhanded comment to me about how life was easier in the pits in some ways. Had even used the term “missed.” Was he reliving a favorite kill in his mind?

He shook his head to bring himself back to us and continued, “Nothin’ like this though. Human, but not.” He reached down and used a thumb to peel back the lips and gums of the vampire at his feet, revealing the sharp teeth, and long deadly canines. “Not even the undead act like this, with this unparalleled blind lust for food. And their speed?” He stood back up. “Duncan was right. Nothin’ in any texts woulda prepared us for this kinda foe.” He finally acknowledged our dead amongst the rest. “It’s a miracle we came outta this with minimal losses.”

Duncan had gotten within ear shot of the last of it and added to our conversation. “Agreed. I am glad to see the rest of you are safe. We came as quickly as we could when we heard the screams. We lost some good men today.”

Dorian was also mulling over a dead vampire at his feet, “This attack must be considered a good thing though, yes? This is the kind of lead the Crown was looking for: vampires have returned!” He spun in a full circle, making broad gestures at all of it. “They wiped out a full village with what appears to be very little effort. They either invaded swiftly and efficiently so the town itself was spared collateral damage,” he shuddered as he completed his rotation and faced us once more, “or they were able to prey slowly on the entire town covertly so as not to rouse suspicion. Either prospect bodes ill.”

Duncan stood tweaking and pulling at the end of his mustache in thought. Eventually he spoke, “Indeed. I am not convinced this is all the proof we need, however. These were mindless thralls, easy to turn. A vampire needs very little power to turn a human and point it in a destructive direction. This is not enough evidence to prove a resurgence in their power. Had these managed to bite and turn any of you, the results would have been the same: a violent and bloodthirsty monster. The prospect is horrifying and dangerous, yes. But not something the Crown would consider a threat to the kingdom at large.”

I cringed a little as I thought of the one that got away from us. “Should we try and follow the survivor?” I asked.

Duncan just shook his head. “No. One of the rules of this engagement remember? We don’t chase, only defend ourselves. Is it unfortunate that it lives to endanger others? Yes. But I prefer not to endanger the lives I can control by chasing it back to its own den. Going underground was not part of our plan.”

I nodded somberly and Ash rubbed a hand on my back. He didn’t like it either, but we understood. While we discussed our theories on what this attack had meant, the surviving soldiers had gathered around us. We had lost four members of our group. Duncan ordered them beheaded, if their heads were still attached to their bodies, to not risk them turning when night fell. It was gruesome and borderline disrespectful to their memories, but a necessary evil. We also set about beheading any vampires who still had them attached as well and piled the corpses outside of town before lighting them ablaze. The fallen were included in the bonfire and we stood in silence as we watched them all burn, reflecting on the dangerous events of the day and what it may mean for the future.