That was all the banter we exchanged. Then it was on. She launched herself at me, fangs bared and fingers and nails morphed into monstrous claws. With anyone else I would have been wondering if they were suicidal. Not with her though. I knew from experience just how deadly this bloodsucking monster could be without any weapons. These fangs could tear apart my throat, at least in theory, and I had seen these claws twist and tear steel. Despite this she didn't get far though.

I in turn raised both my shield and my glaive to meet her charger with a counterattack of my own. My jab barely grazed her though. Worse she even tried to push my weapon aside while the shallow cut I had inflicted already closed up again. Without the strength granted to me by the Auroch's Strength spell she would have succeeded as well. She might even have knocked my weapon from my hands. As things were, my grip remained firm though.

Still, she was too close now for me to properly use the glaive against her. Well, I still had other means at hand to deal with her. Cat's grace allowed me to put forth a burst of speed that would have otherwise been beyond me. I made use of this ability to smash my shield into her face as she just kept coming at me. I didn't hold anything back and was rewarded with a sickening crunch as the artistically engraved front of my shield met first her nose and then the rest of her face.

The vampire stumbled back after that. She wasn't dazed. She wasn't even really maimed as the bones of her face started righting themselves again in a sickening display almost right away. She was hurt though. Yes, this quite obviously had hurt. Damn it. Just watching the damage come undone again, as her regeneration went to work was painful.

I wanted to be sick but I didn't have time for anything like that. I had to seize the moment! Painfully aware of the limited room I had to maneuver I sidestepped to increase the distance in between us a little without getting any closer to the edge of the platform again.

The vampire took this chance to wail again. Or at least it tried to. Its face was still too much of a mess to produce anything but a spray of blood and a pained hiss.

I was just glad I was far enough away, so none of the blood hit me. I didn't give her a chance to recover either. Instead I jammed the blade of my glaive into her mouth before it could heal properly. The look on her face as she peered down onto the shaft of the polearm buried in her face was worth gold. That was the least she deserved for relying on her regeneration instead of casting some proper defensive spells. She didn't even try to dodge! As more blood splattered on the ground my confidence started to rise.

My opponent wasn't done for yet though. She pulled herself off the blade of my weapon, spitting more blood on the ground in the process. Then her body turned into a dark bloody mess that began to seep into the ground.

I knew that move. It was how she had gotten away time and again so far. Not this time though! I channeled Mana into the dispelling enchantment of my weapon. Not as much as I had during my training in the Hearth Forge but enough to be confident that I would successfully counter her spell. As I triggered the enchantment I was proven right. The vampire's body reformed in the spot where she had tried to seep in between the glowing stones of the ziggurat. I growled. “Not this time. You are done with running away. One way or another this ends here!”

Although the vampire was obviously hurt she was still furious. She bared her fangs at me again as she pulled herself up into a crouching position. “Fine! Then I'll end it!” Her words dripped with malice. She was still spraying blood everywhere with every word but that didn't stop her. Quite the opposite was true. She flung herself at me like a rabid animal. This time she evaded the blade of my weapon, using its shaft to propel her forward even faster.

Within the blink of an eye she was upon me. Her nails tore into the padded clothing I wore under the scale mail as she tried to pry away my gorget so she could sink her fangs into my neck. While some of the padded spidersilk tore the metal of the titanium gorget protecting my throat and neck didn't give in the slightest.

I had some trouble staying on my feet though. I was larger and heaver than the accursed bloodsucker but the way she clung to my neck, bracing herself against my chest with her feet, put me off balance. It put a considerable strain on my neck muscles as well. That idiot vampire might have even been able to break my neck if she weren't so obsessed with drinking my blood. Just as well.

As she leaned back, straining even more to tear away the piece of armor in her way, I brought up my shield. I didn't just smash her in the face this time though. Instead I drove the edge of it into her jaw from below. I felt her jaw bones break, again, almost right away. That wasn't all though. She lost part of her tongue, only just barely healed at all after eating the blade of my glaive, as well.

Now that must have really hurt. It certainly was bad enough to prompt her to let go of me so she could clutch at her mouth. Before she could drop to the ground I let go of my weapon to grab her instead. I closed my fingers around her throat like a vice.

Maybe it was better to keep her close instead of letting her get away so she could pounce me again? For a moment I was tempted to just fling her off the ziggurat, but a fall like that would probably only have mildly inconvenienced her. Damn almost immortal monster. Then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and another idea came to me.

Gash'zur had made her way closer to us while the vampire had been distracted and activated the enchantment of her weapon. It was glowing red hot and wreathed in flames.

Our eyes met and I knew what I had to do. I squeezed the vampire's neck even harder until I could feel some of her vertebrae give. Even that wasn't enough to kill the damned thing but it put an end to her struggle at least briefly. As the giantess sped up to deliver the most devastating blow she possibly could I flung the now limp monster into the air in between us.

For the briefest of moments I could see the vampire's eyes widen as she realized what was about to happen. Then the enchanted hammer connected and as it connected it released a fiery explosion into the monsters body, launching it even higher into the air. High enough actually to make her smack into what had solidified into a kind of impossible black egg above the center of the ziggurat.

For a moment there was silence. Gash'zur looked at me with wide eyes. “Is this it? Is it over?” The giantess sounded uncertain.

I could relate. This felt too easy. Then realization hit. The vampires body hadn't smacked back down. I whipped around to stare back up at the heart piece of the ritual the accursed creature had been performing. The egg, I would think of it as that for a lack of a better term, was sucking the weakly struggling abomination in even as I watched. My stomach fell as I beheld it and my voice was shaking. “No … no, I'm afraid this isn't over just yet.”

The giantess followed my gaze and paled. Then, even as I still scrambled to pick my weapon back up she started charging the enchantment of her hammer again. “Maybe we can just break it before whatever is inside hatches? Yes?” She sounded as desperate as I felt.