Tonight under the faint Luna light, Eleanora and Chris managed to reach a different area in the middle of the black marsh, the swampy and muddy land was no more and only stable dirt under their feet, further through the dense bushes some hills can be seen here and there, Eleanora spots a cave entrance hidden under verdurous cover, camouflaged along with the rest of the area, that must be the rebels hideout, because there were many humans roaming the area ahead of it that Eleanora and Chris need to go past them before they reach the hidden cave.
Chris, doubting his ability to get past them undiscovered turns to Eleaora and whispers to her.
"Hey, you see all those patrols? I dont think I can get any further undiscovered unlike you... with your outfit as a vampire hunter I bet you can just walk and they wont stop you... at least not for preventing you from going forward, but you can also use your vampire powers to go undiscovered right? Like turning int a bat and flying high above everything right?"
Eleanora shakes her head.
"That is not realistic thinking Chris, while some vampires can do what you said its powers only can be used by powerful vampires, I am not even one year old since my turning... but I have an idea, listen to me, see that green hill all the way there?"
Chris squint his eyes as he traces where she were pointing.
"Yes I see it barely, but what should I see exactly?"
Chris asks in confusion, for him he can not notice the hidden entrance from all the way where they are hiding like her, but she went on with explaining her plan to him.
"That hill is where we are heading, first off we will walk casually through them I will pretend to be a vampire hunter and you will just act normal, my little brother, alright? Just leave most of the talking to me."
Chris nods
"Thats the first part of the plan, then when we reach that hill, which is there hideout by the way, I will enter and you stay outside and count to 5 in your head, after you reach 5 I want you to run inside thinking of that bad vampire as if he was chasing you, and yell as loud as you can that there is a vampire outside okay?"
Eleanora adds and chris smiles
"Oh I get it! Its like how we used to distract shop keepers! However I will need to look scared so they can actually believe me..."
Chris shivers as he snaps out of his deep thought for a moment.
"Just thinking of that vampire who I met actually makes me scared, I think this will go well, you are smart as always Rory!"
She turns staring at Chris as she remembered she never told him about her new name yet, Eleanora.
"Chris I... nevermind..."
Chris tilts his head curiously
"What is it?"
"I will tell you when we are done with this job okay? Anyway is there something you want to know about the plan before we move out?"
Chris nods positively
"Yes I do actually, since you are a vampire and all, dont you like, have to kill all of the people here? I mean, they are human and all yes, but we always just took care of ourselves so I dont actually care about them, what I am thinking is, wont fighting all of them be a problem for you even if you are powerful? You are one and this is a whole group of men and women dedicated to kill vampires and trained to do so... I am worried about you."
Eleanora smiles sadly at him, knowing very much that what he said is true, she is a vampire who have only couple spells and nothing more, she is pretty weak by vampire standers at the moment, she is a mere fledgling, nothing more, and above all that... she needs to make sure Chris doesnt get hurt.
"Dont worry, my job here is to kill their leader, nothing more, they did tell me to kill as many rebels I can in my way but just as you said I cant take care all of them, not to mention I have no intend to start a slaughter. After they find out the strongest among them and the one who they followed died they will fell into dispair and panic, their movements wont be organised anymore and most will just run into hiding and stop thinking about actually attacking the city for a long while... all those people here have more despair in them than hope Chris, the actual rebellion was utterly crushed about a year ago, thats when we used to always see men coming back broken and filled with fear, 'as if they saw ghosts' just like how you put it before, that was the actual rebellion... now those few survivors who simply fled into the march when they saw the massacre far ahead and run back, those who actually fought are already all dead, the Oberon guards showed no mercy. Me and you dont actually belong to neither of the sides of this, we just want to live our lives no matter what, thats why we will work for the victorious side, for now; to insure our safety."
After a small stop she speak more.
"My plan here distracts them at the wrong direction, outside, while I sneak in and kill the leader of what is left of the rebellion, he will not try and head out to take care of the vampire probably will just wait until things calm down or in worst case he will escape via another exist, but I will be able to track him, 'The Duke' is a tricky fleeting man as I have been told so I made sure to harness my tracking skills and prepare. While you tell them that there is a vampire outside if anyone asked you where is the vampire huntress -me- just tell them I head out already... now here."
She hands him her waterskin.
"Drink all you want, I dont actually need to drink water."
Chris takes the waterskin but then he realised something, Eleanora is a vampire now, she doesnt need to actually eat normal food or drink water, but she needs to drink blood, and all this time he have been with her he didnt saw here drink any...
"Wh-what about blood? I heard vampires become weaker if they didnt drink blood in a while, and I... will, I didnt see you drink any... will you really be okay?"
She smile, patting his head.
"I am glad you are becoming smarter and fast to catch up with things, indeed its true I need to drink blood every now and then, but worry not, I am not hungry at the moment, and I can just drink the blood of that duke guy anyway, drink up now because we are going to head out now."
Chris nods as he smiled back at her, he drinks some and then he hands it back to her, they go out walking casually into the area, some of the nearby guard patrols notice them, most of them ignored their presence after they took a look at Eleanora and her gear, they suspect nothing so far.
Soon after more walking, a small group approaches them, Eleanora stops and Chris kind of just stand behind her.
"Greetings honorable huntress, may I speak to you for a moment?"
The taller man talks, he seems to be the type of person who takes actions for his team, behind him was two men clad in armor just like him and a woman in white robes. Eleanora nods with a smile.
"I do not mind at all." She said to them.
Then the man relaxes a bit.
"Would you by any chance give us some advices? We dont have any actual experience with vampires really, but we want to be ready and prepared!"
The woman from behind steps up and speaks.
"Mind my brother bad manners, let me introduce ourselves first, I am Medea, a sorceress under training, my brother name is Hermes he is a warrior with good raw strength, and this man by his side is Roland, the team brains... but he is not much of a talker, and you two?"
Eleanora lowers her head slightly.
"It is good to meet aspiring people like you around, I am Eleanora, and this is my little brother Bernard."
Chris looks up to her but she puts her hand above his head and moves it across his head, then he understands, she made nicknames for both of them, he smiles at the team of rebels.
"I thought he was a kid you freed or saved, you dont look alike at all..." Hermes states.
"We are not blood related, we grew up together among others, we are orphans, thats why we dont look alike."
Eleanora answers.
"Oh, I am sorry, I shouldnt ask, the fight between vampires and humans tore apart endless number of families for us humans and alot of kids end up homeless hiding from place to another... and most eventually die, I am glad you two made it through." Hermes shows his genuine sympathy, and so does Medea. "I am sorry if my brother mad you two uncomfortable..."
"No its fine, everyone have their own suffering... their own struggles to survive, this is the nature of the world we live in."
...
Roland speaks up all of a sudden, changing the topic.
"How many vampires did you actually manage to take out so far?"
"I took three out, they are all inexperienced thats probably how I managed them so far but its better than nothing, my forth one was worse than them however, I almost thought I was going to die but I noticed that he was hungry so I kept fighting and delivered him a true death in the end."
As Eleanora spoke, Roland was simply listening while crossing his arms, Hermes was visibly excited while Medea was calm and collected.
"Hmmm, hunting out new vampires and exhausted ones is a good strategy indeed, rising both chances at surviving and killing them." Roland nods agreeing with what Eleanora said.
"Man I wish I was hunter instead of a simple guard... I would be actually able to fight those damned creatures!" Hermes says
"But I prefer to stay as a guard and learn as much as I can instead of diving head first and end up a dry dead body or worse." Medea replied to Hermes who then looked down and scratched his head. "Yeah... you are right sis... I have alot to learn before actually being good enough to go out for a real fight, but hey! Lady Eleanora you can teach me a thing or two right?"
"How about you start by telling us how do you find or track inexperienced vampires or exhausted ones?"
Roland cuts in with his question.
Eleanora casually puts her hand behind her head.
"Well, the last hungry vampire I fought was actually an accident, he came across me trying to kill me, he was rather strong... but for inexperienced vampires its actually simple to find them, lore them or ambush them if you know what to do, the new vampires still hold into their humanity, you can use that, but those who managed to get rid of their humanity are the tough ones... I have actually been gathering informations you see, the new vampires usually go into some exploring through the marsh, if you planned some traps and testaments in an area close enough to the Lychway city you can actually manage to lore one, sometimes I just take off some of my gear and put them inside the water of the river close to the city and pretend to be a vulnerable woman by the river, a newly turned male vampire seeing this will surely fall to his lust and will come walking like he owns the place, not knowing a swift strike of my silver sword is waiting for him! The surprise can be used after to land more hits, its a risky tactic but if we are not brave enough to risk anything then we will just continue to hid for the rest of our lives..."
Chris was confused on how much information Eleanora was casually giving to them, for a second Chris himself forgot she was a vampire.
The rebel team takes in the informations, Roland seems to be in deep thought, Hermes seems to actually understand what she said, Medea on the other hand seemed to be nervous and not so sure of this idea.
"In more simple words new vampires are just somewhat strong humans, but their emotions can still take control over them, huh? Thank you for this priceless informations huntress, I appreciate it." Roland nods while in deep thought.
Hermes was about to talk but Eleanora casually pat his shoulder, making a metal rattles a bit because of his armor then she speaks.
"Well, I have to go and talk to The Duke about something important, I will come and teach you more afterwards, see you soon."
Eleanora starts walking away holding Chris hand, Hermes waves to her but both Medea and Roland were busy with thinking to actually wave or say bye and ended up simply nodding.
After some walking they were almost close to the hideout entrance, Chris looks around and see it is the best moment to ask about what she talked to the rebels.
"Hey... about what you said earlier, why did you actually help them?"
"I actually made all that up, some may sound true and some is true to some extend, but do not worry much about it, they dont pose any threat if they can not even figure out my cover to start with."
Chris nods with a smile, happy just to see her confirming again how smart she is, in his eyes she was the most clever person he knew... but as they say, there is always someone better.
As they stood infront of the hidden entrance, a guard who was sitting on the floor stands up, it look like he was there to prevent someone from sneaking.
"What do you two want?" The big sized man spoke in a rough angry voice.
"I am Eleanora, I have some informations to tell them to the Duke directly, its important... this kid is my brother Bernard, he is not coming inside with me however, he will stay here outside."
The man stares with a frown for a moment towering over them, then he speaks.
"I see, then follow me, while you kid go over there in that grassy area, we usually train there so you can find a cool looking wooden sword there, go and train up little champ so you can be like your sister here alright?"
Chris nods with a smile, and then he goes over to the empty area, Eleanora stares at him going off...
"Hey you, lady, what are you waiting for? Follow me!" The big man shouts as he already went inside the entrance behind all the plants covering it up.
"O-oh yes!" She snaps out and follow him.
1 second
2 seconds
3 seconds
Eleanora was a bit insode walking behind the big armored man who is not doubting anything, infront of him she sees nothing but a long path to the inside, some sheets covering up crates, weapons and armors are probably what are inside those, some may have ingredients for potions or potions however.
4 seconds
Eleanora notices a long rectangle crate half open that seems empty, and in that split second Eleanora swiftly jumps into the big man back from behind, covering his mouth with her hand and stabs him with her sword through the open area in his armor from above at his chest, and the man couldnt even have time to resist while he was shocked at the sudden betrayal.
5 seconds
Chris who have finished counting stares at the dense trees nearby for a moment, imagining the scene of seeing an actual aggressive vampire, he closes his eyes and take a deep breath then he start running frantically to the direction of the entrance of the cave, e shouts and yell just as planned pointing at the forest not far away behind him.
"HELP! HELP! I SAW ONE!! I SAW A VAMPIRE STARING AT US THERE! HURRY!"
The people all caught the attention of his yells in this silent area have started to frantically pick their swords and gears and head into the forest direction, while funny enough, some just threw whatever in their hands and run at the opposite direction.
Meanwhile Eleanora hearing his yells faintly from inside the cave she hurry up putting the man body inside the empty rectangle shaped box, the man was nothing but a dry body by now and some blood was still on her chin and libs. She hid in the shadows between some crates, her vampiric powers help her to hide pretty well in dark areas and her undead body makes no noise of breathing nor a beating heart.
Chris run inside the cave yelling the same words frantically scared, it seems he believed his own lie, the first step into becoming a great liar, some well armored rebels came rushing from inside and followed Chris directions.
Soon enough there was nothing but silence here in the cave so Eleanora starts moving inside again.
"I have to make this quick before some get restless and hit Chris because they dont believe him or something... also the rat I am after might already be in his way out from another exist..."
She dashes inside with unnatural running speed, in the end of the tunnel she found a metal door, she kicks it down and walk inside, but to her surprise there was a small room that have another door in its back end, but two women stood in her way.
"See, I told you we must stay here."
"No, if we rushed out we could have found her on the way outside, so either way it doesnt make a difference!"
The women were similar, twins, both with a dark tone and white long curly hair and golden accecories, the one bragging was wearing green robes with golden lines and the other who stated it made no differance if they stayed or left was wearing red robes with golden lines, Eleanora swiftly draw her sword again without any intention of speaking this one through, time wasnt in her side, this mission must be done quickly or they may be consequences.
The two women seemed to be used on fights and are not fazed by Eleanora, both without weapons face her and each one raises an open hand palm... they were witches! A blazing fire shot fly into Eleanora from the red witch and a translucent white barrier from the green witch blocked the way to them, Eleanora jumps to the left side dodging the fire shot gracefully and gathered pure magic energy and casted a simple magic missile at them, the barrier blocked it but it was immediately filled visible cracks right where the spell landed, the witches stare at it frowning.
"Hey cant you make a strong barrier for a change?!"
The red witch yelled at her sister.
"Listen, it may not look much, but thats because I dont want to waste my mana here, what if she was just a whimpy fledgling? Wanted me to cast the strongest shit I have from the start?! And you too casted some weak shity fire spell anyway!"
The green witch yelled at her sister.
"So they were testing me huh? Good think that I didnt go all out... but I need to tread this not only swiftly but carefully too... tricky." Eleanora thought to herself, then she gathered more magic into her empty palm and shot two more magic missiles together aiming for the same spot with high accuracy, the green witch however, managed to fix the cracks already.
CRACK! CRUNCH!!
The barrier even though was fixed, tinkled all over the ground in a split second, Eleanora raised the power of her magic missles and the first one cracked a large spot of the barrier managed to let the second crunch it down with ease, The red witch quickly moves both hands swiftly and casted a flame wall blocking not only the way between them and Eleanora but also blocking her view, Eleanora confused by the blunder she made, simply shot couple magic missiles at where they were standing and where she think they will move to, after the magic balls moved through the flame it wasnt long before the fire wall started spitting fireballs rapidly in all directions, Eleanora frowned at this scene, she had no time to play neither 'hide and seek' nor guessing games... Eleanora dashed forward dodging fireballs then she jumped through the flame walls using her arms to cover her face!
The only defensive spell she know was the mending spell called "primordial mend" that Mirals taught her. It heals wounds and increase body power but doesnt block anything, so taking some damage from the fire wall directly and get past it will safe both time and effort from withstanding the fireballs barrage. Eleanora withstanding the small burn as she jumps lands to see the red witch down on one knee, her hand fiercely griping magic fire in her hand which is probably how she controls the firewall spell, her sister, the green witch was crouching over her, casting magic on her probably some heal magic maybe one of Eleanora magic shots got her earlier after the firewall, The green witch turns shocked by Eleanora's dramatic entry, she rises her other hand casting a translucent green ball shaped barrier over her and her sister who is barely maintaining her consciousness, with a visible frown on Eleanora's face she marchs forward near the barrier.
"I guess this is a good chance to finally try the second spell I learnt from my father... Rebels and scum like you who dont discriminate before they kill are the ones who took him away from me after all, its only fair to try it on you two."
The green witch face twitches between nervous and anger, she is incapable of doing anything other than making this barrier and keep healing her sister, the red witch, who can actually fight back.
"Cmon now sis! Dont you dare die first! ...and leave me behind..." the green witch said as she tried her best to shake her sister back into reality.
"On pain thou grow, and from thy hunger thou fades, cometh forth blood, and obey thee commands. Blood Siphon" Eleanora chanted her primordial spell with no mercy as she aimed her open palm at the red witch. Soon enough, the red witch started coughing roughly and spitting blood along, soon blood started floating from her libs and with a sudden spike the blood gets extracted roughly out of the red witch wound, causing her to shout in pain, the blood draws away from her and then with amazing speed goes back to Eleanora, this speed and the nature of the green witch barrier cause it to break apart as the blood hit from inside like a needle popping a balloon, her green barrier is a spell designed to block incoming hits and not out going attacks.
The red witch falls down on her back with her eyes staring into the ceiling, dead and out of blood. Her sister didnt gaze long at her before she turned to stare with fear at Eleanora who was simply consuming the blood she just got, she never saw such spell that extracts the blood directly out of the human body. Eleanora grabs the still alive witch by the neck with one hand and slightly rising her up from the floor and stared deadly into her eyes, the small burn mark on Eleanora's face only made her stare look more frightening.
"I get by now that your sister is the one who knows the offensive spells and you only know protective and supporting spells, am I wrong?"
The witch trembles and twitches under her tight grip, but she manages to mutter a "correct" out of her libs, Eleanora nods.
"Then I advise you to submit now and tell me where the duke is, and then I will swiftly send you to your sister without any pain."
The witch with no choice in it really rises her hand and pointed at the iron door in the back of this room, with eyes filled with tears, she frowned for the last time before Eleanora swiftly beheading her with the silver sword, then used her magic to gather the blood and fill it in couble bottles she had with her. Eleanora stood before the door, and healed her wounds from the fire before she carefully proceed inside.
As she entered the room it was clear that someone else was here, she was able to smell a new human smell filling the room but she couldnt detect if that person left anywhere, the room was empty and with no other exist, yet she was still able to feel a presence, she looked around, there was a wooden throne and a long table covered in golden coin piles and few papers, the rock wall was clean and so was the floor, someone takes care of this room, there is bags which is presumably filled with coins as well, couple chests here and there, with no doubt this is the room of a leader.
Flickering...
BURST!!
Before Eleanora managed to fully turn to see what was theat flickering, all what she managed to see is a glimpse of a huge fireball exploding right in front her, she was knocked all the was to the back breaking the table and the wooden throne, she wasnt able to see clearly due the sudden bright but she heard a voice of a man laughing.
"Naive Fledgling, you didnt even notice that I was using an invisibility spell! I, the Duke, will turn you into ashes myself!!"
Another fireball roared as it was approaching Eleanora, she swiftly kicked the biggest part of the broken table into it making it explode before reaching her and giving her a chance to get back on her feet, she looked around after her vision came back to normal... but there was no trace to the man, she didnt waste time and started to cast her mending spell to heal the wounds she suffered from this sudden attack.
Flickering...
"Did you really think I will let you heal up now?"
She cancel her spell and jump to the side avoiding the spell coming from behind her, but yet again flickering noise can be heard from behind her.
"You have no hope of winning against me kid."
A fireball was right behind her head, a man with a sleeveless shirt and a red scarf around his neck was standing behind her, his hair and the scarf were moving from the air caused by the heat of the fireball charging at the end of his extended arm, with smirk on his face and gold earring shining brightly on his ear, he released the bright blazing fireball at her.
"This is my den, and you walked right into my trap!"