Blood pooled around the messy mess that was once a Wulf’n Vampiress. Body parts in a pile, slight twitching and spasms. Around the works were the mystified. A stunned trio of Vampire Knights, all shook with confusion and awe. Above a bunch of cultists in denial, all stumbling against themselves on the occasion yet mostly solid like statues. Even the hook wielding leader, a leader with hooks in hand ready to rip some throats out, was holding place without so much as a flicker of muscle- only the drops of sweat momentarily present.
Her eyes shimmered up, locking upon the stunned solid Maja. The Vampiress’s teeth gritted, her eyes firing up all at once with an instant change of stance. Around the way the cultists, mortals that they still were, had begun to back themselves up.
“Little brat,” Maja growled.
“Auuuuuuuuuuugh, auuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaahhhhhh!! M-my organs, I-I can feel my organs spilling!” Sereena wailed out, her head squirming alongside the quiver of her severed pieces.
“Sereena, hold it together!” Maja barked.
“Fucking easy for you to say you fucking bitch, I’m in agony over here! I’m lying in a pile of myself!”
“Tch-”
“H-hey Maja, look out!”
Through the air Elise soared, her sword flipped round and held out, ready to swing forward with that glistening white glow. Her form echoed in front of Maja for just a split moment, coat flapping with the winds, one leg arched from the single leap.
“Hrgh!”
CLANG!!
Sparks flew as the sword slashed against the hooks, the grind of metal like nails to a chalk board. Their views intertwined for a moment, arms quivering as the sheer force of both howled against the other.
“M-Maah… ha-” Sereena croaked out, her form falling limp to the ground.
“I feel disgusted even calling you Vampires when you’re as weak as you are. Your reliance on your immortality has dulled your commitment to the real potential your blood holds. And that’s why this fight is already over!”
The roar of an engine, that is what best could describe it. Maja’s sights widened far and wide as the eruption of brilliant snow white wept forth. The crinkle, the crackle, the snap- SHLINK!!
“Maja!” a subordinate cried from above.
“Guh-” she croaked, spitting a spray of blood.
A single slash from right to left upon her torso, spewing out blood as Elise passed on by. The clatter of broken hooks on top of one another as they hit the barky ground. Maja spun off, her body leaving the platform, her face turning. Elise stepped down, sword flickering back over to her dominant side following the swing, focus shifting.
“Damn, not deep enough-” she muttered.
“Hrk- {This is bad! She’s using her energy to increase both her speed and her cutting power.}”
A single flip through the air and Maja stepped down on the next branch down, her arms spread apart, her attention continuing to be kept on Elise with a huff.
“{No no, calm down calm down. It isn’t that she cut through my hooks, no. That snap, they had to have had a fracture already, perhaps from that last battle?}” Maja thought as her arms lowered, “{She definitely got through Sereena though, that I can’t ignore. Without a weapon, a single strike from her could prove to be my undoing. Even still… heh, damn. Guess that’s it then.} …. We’re retreating!”
“Huah?!”
“Maja!”
A simple blink followed from Elise herself, weapon now lowered.
“This prey is beyond our ability to capture as is, and I don’t feel like throwing away all of our undead trying to kill it.”
“You honestly believe I would allow you to get away? It’s in our best interest to cut you down Maja,” Elise spoke, “You’re not innocent like Rao’s group, you people kill for shits and giggles.”
“Perhaps by allowing us to go, you might see your three friends again,” Maja continued.
“Here’s the other thing that’s wrong with your thinking. You three were so confident that we were beneath you- yet you now see that you have it backwards, because we led you to that conclusion. Admittedly it came as a surprise to us just the same. So let me ask you this- do you believe that there is actually some form of disparity in their abilities as opposed to ours? Given that we are of the same group?
The click, the quiver, the dilated call back, the rearing back. A single skid of a lone foot against the bark, twitching.
“We’ve been played-”
The crash of racing rocks, pounding bricks upon the sands practically. The figure of Dante launching himself backwards through the air and evading the swing of metal. The huge blade slamming through into the grounds with the massive grunt of the hulking wielder of the weapon, the step of the man and his own jump, the sword being wrenched up and out as it was attached to him by his own arm.
One more heave and a ho, swung like a bat straight out and into the trunk of the tree before him. Yet again Dante had taken the dodging initiative, rolling off to the side.
“Shieet man, you’re quick on your feet. I don’t think I can catch you with my sword here; though you seem to be reacting a little slower each time,” Rengard chuckled.
“Ya well you friggen try dodgin’ a bloody freight train swingin’ at your damn head ‘nd see how tired you get, oof,” Dante grumbled, standing up tall once again.
Both stood, squared up across from one another. Neither armed, neither in combative stance. A simple standoff, exhaustion plaguing a single side of the conflict only.
“Dante, we’re done here!” echoed the voice of Elise from afar.
Both heads perked up, and both turned towards the direction of the shout. Aside from the sounds of battle further ahead, it was a calm drifting silence between the two for only a brief period.
“Heh, ‘bout friggen time,” Dante spoke, a grin forming up at once.
“Done here? The heck does that mean?” Rengard mumbled allowed.
“It means that our game of tag is about ta hit its climax,” Dante replied, turning back to the Vampire now, “Means that she thinks we don’t need ta hide our true power anymore, she’s learned what she can.”
“Hell, to think that she was holding back while you were putting in work. Isn’t that something? Heck, you two are something.”
“Heh. I still dunno how you beat Blake’s group but lemme tell ya somethin’ right quick, I’m not much of a plan guy- I prefer the ol’ fashion approach of beatin’ some sense into my enemies- but I respect ‘er feats enough to play along with whatever she comes up wit’. And if’n she’s done playin, then we’re done ‘ere.”
“Heh heh, have to say… I’m really starting to like you guys,” Rengard spoke, ripping his sword from the bark as he spoke, “Course, I don’t see your victory here Dante. How are you going to contend with my immortality? Your blades are ineffective at best.”
“Oh, I have some ideas. Whatsayoo that we make this the end?”
“Final clash? Ha! Fine by me Dante, give it your best!”
Both broke from their positions and began a charge to one another. Rengard with his broadsword trailing behind him and his dash, whilst Dante came forth with a make-shift spear in hand, left hand reaching into his coat pocket. His right arm flung forward and from it flew the spear. The nails of Rengard’s hand changed to claws immediately, a single swat forward.
The spear fell to pieces in that single instance as he continued to run, all the while Dante continued on himself- his right and middle pointer fingers pointing out whilst the rest bent back. His hand shot up, the two fingers pointed up. A slight rumble followed, the ground in front of Rengard breaking and launching up.
SHWWWWWWING
The crumbling crackle of rock as the earth broke way from that lone swing of Rengards, his momentum halting as his body twisted round to heave the mighty blade. The rock spilling to the ground, just enough to reveal Dante right before him. A grunt escaped from Ren, his free hand swinging out with the claws. Dante shot in at an arm’s length, whirling to the right, his left hand ripping from his pocket.
The spray of scarlet rained upon the ground, followed swiftly by a thunk and a thud. Dante hit the ground to the right of Rengard and rolled, blood painting the ground as he spun off. A few crashes transpired before he finally came to a halt on the ground, his face blooded- a large gash in his shoulder. Rengard grinned, lowering his arm and his sword.
“Looks as though…” Rengard began, glancing down.
“Heh… yeah-” Dante grunted, huffing as he pressed against the ground in a bid to hoist himself up some.
Smoke drifted around Rengard, his grin locked in place as he cast a look down- a look to the dagger sticking from his chest, smoke bellowing out of the handle.
“Well played Dante. Well play-”
An immediate spark and a ball of fire followed, quick to engulf Rengard- just as quickly replaced by a cloud of smoke mere milliseconds after. The sound of an exceptionally loud gun shot rang out, the echo of thunder rumbling through the trees as the flash went. A shower of red and slush roared down onto the grounds, splashing down for a brief few seconds before there was pause.
Smoked bellowed out from the blast point, that being the bloodied sack of flesh laying a distance away from the initial flash. The chest ripped open and left vacant aside from the dripping pieces left within the cavity.
Maja’s breathing had become a huff here and a puff there. Elise stood in front of her now, sword held out. The Vampiress’s back stood in hold against the very trunk of the tree the two had battled upon. The flicker of her eyes from Elise to her subordinates, retreating high above and down below. Below the undead had begun to sink into the grounds of the forest itself, and the subordinates of the living variety were vanishing from sight.
A low growl radiated outward, “This… is far from over Little Elise. If you think you are going to escape this wretched forest alive, you are certainly dead wrong. We have legions that remain, legions that will overpower you in no time.”
“You’re prattling about as bad as the other one. Perhaps you shall receive a similar fate?”
“Hrmph, I think not-” she grumbled.
Her back pressed itself hard against the bark behind her, the back of her head doing just the same. As if made of grass or feathers, the bark parted, blood dripping out and over Maja’s shoulders. Elise’s eyes flickered to life at once, her feet slamming down. She dove forward, thrusting her sword at Maja’s chest.
Maja’s form fell back, phasing through the bark. Her face was the last thing seen as she vanished, swallowed just as the sound of the jab against the wood raced out. A low growl escaped Elise as she looked at what was no more than a simple tree, the trace of Maja now gone.
“She got away,” she grumbled, stepping back and ripping her sword’s tip from the tree, lowering it, “Transportation through the trees… that has to be linked to the Eternal Hollow itself. So that’s-”
“Hey, Sereena’s body is gone! She got swept away too!” came a shout from below.
Elise turned, looking out over the clearing. As far as the eye could tell, cultists were gone and hidden by the trees whilst the corpses continued to vanish beneath the very soil itself. She turned a quarter step and looked out, gazing up at the canopy that was the Hollow.
“This about wraps it all up then.”
