vampire fight

       "They come in the cold winter nights, they come for the tax that they call a tithe. Their caravan of steel plated wagons make their way through the mountain paths to our villages being pulled by armored horses with men wearing full armor and horned skull adorned helmets; although we know they have motorized vehicles. They do this to intimidate us and other mountain villages. Usually we only have to surrender a sheep or two, perhaps some chickens; but some years they want more; our sons and daughters, sometimes some of the elderly. They call it culling; such a disgusting word. We know they don't need anything or anyone they take from us. These riders are not some pack of bandits or mountain cave dwelling wraiths or revenants. We know, as some of our neighbors saw them leaving from that place; they come from the great boarder city. They take from us, they take away our livestock and family members; and yet they come from the mega city along the edge of the world. We know this is alot to ask, but the law states any vampires outside the fences are fair game to any hunter. So please, we know this year they want us to surrender four women who have just come of age; their messenger relayed this. I know the guild took a while to respond but...please, if you can at least take them out and..."

   The old man stops watching the young woman with long white hair yet a youthful face beneath her large white witch's hat sitting across from him at the oaken table, beside her a large man in black coat and black wide brim hat, "Did...did the guild only send you two?"

   The young woman speaks, "The guild posts jobs, with time limits to take them before they are taken down. We took the job. I assure you sir I am an accomplished witch and my friend here is a master swordsman. However the job said bandits were forcing your villages to give payments for their protection. While I appreciate your straight forwardness in telling us the truth most adventurers would leave immediatly after being told the target is a caravan of vampires from a mega city. However, as you say, this is not their territory, they may actually be an isolated group terrorizing you that is not part of the mega city government. If you had reported rogue vampires were terrorizing your village the guild could have forwarded the information to the hunter's guild who specialize in vampiric creatures and other night fiends. The adventurers' guild are more jack of all trades odd jobs and monsters. However that said we have experience with vampires. I assure you it will not be a problem."

  She pauses a moment waiting to see if the man will speak again, he fumbles a little and looks over at some village men at another table so the young woman speaks again, "However the job was listed over a month ago, how often do they come each year and when do you expect them next?"

  "Oh, well," says the man, "this is awkward but, about now. We wanted someone to show up and be prepared for them. Honestly I'm surprised you didn't pass them on the way up here...did you? Well...we expect them any day now. In fact they well,"

   He looks nervously at the men at the other table, "they should be showing up in two maybe three days.

  "We did not pass anyone matching your description," says the young woman, "we will wait four days then. The job posting was near experation. I suggest in the future if you have a time sensative job to report the specific date help is needed by."

   With that the man bids them goodbye and heads out the door, the men from the other table follow him leaving only the young woman, her companion, and the bar/inn keeper behind.

   ******

   Outside the man speaks to the other men, "we are saved,"

 "Saved?" hisses one of the men, "they showed up at the last second, and only two of them. You know damned well Count Dracus will take FOUR people no matter what, so which two of our women are we supposed to try and haggle from them?"

  The man has a solemn look, "head over to the town hall now, tell them we have two adventurers to trade; we have to take what we can get...save who we can save."


   ******

   -less than thirty minutes later-

   "That was fast," remarks the woman in the white witch costume as she and the man in black stand by the table in the empty bar of the inn, the inn keeper himself had even stepped through a door in the back a moment before; as three men in grey and black armor with a red bat symbol on their chests come through the door and step aside as the man who is clearly their captain steps through. Behind them a short distance away is the man who had spoken to them not long before this encounter.

   Behind the skull like helmet this captain's eyes flash red. The woman in white flashes her eyes an icy blue and the man in black's eyes flash a light green. The man with the skull helmet looks around and asks, "Pardon us ma'am were there any others in this wretched establishment?"

  "No," says the woman, "I take it you are the bandits listed on the guild flyer?"

  "I see," says the captain with a slight pause, "my apologies no human bandits for you to feed on here."

  He turns, "Jarvis was it? Come here!"

 The man nervously comes forward, "Y, yes sir."

 The captain indicates the two in the bar, "Are these the human adventurers you are trying to trade for your tithe?"

  "Uh, y, yes sir."

   The captain chuckles, "Did you know some vampires will take up jobs to remove problamatic humans endangering their livestock? Like bandits. Your scheme has backfired human."

  "V, vampires?" asks the man looking at them, "b, but, they arrived in day time and..."

  The captain's eyes glow bright red and Jarvis shuts up.

  The captain takes from a pocket in his uniform a wrist device and taps on it. A screen comes up and he reads it, "The woman is a Northern Vampire, mostly immune to daylight, only slightly bothered by after prolonged exposure, complex turning ritual, most victims are turned to snow and ice when killed leaving no bodies behind, can only be killed by silver being stabbed through the heart followed by decapitation and the head set on fire while the body is submerged in water...sheesh...huh...does not apply to vampire queen/king form...lava required to kill."

  He looks up, "Huh, well ma'am you are a far way out of your territory according to this; but this is neutral land we are on."

  He turns back to the device, "and the gentleman there is not a Northern Vampire, but an...never even heard of this, Fruit Vampire, empowered by sunlight, gradually loses strength in darkness, feeds on the fluids of plants; gains temporary S class power from feeding on even a few drops of the fluids of sapient magical plant beings such as Alraune and Dryads...weak to fire...arn't we all...and iron blessed by a shaman."

   The captain pauses, "My apologies, that was a tad rude, we got this off the vampire hunters this village hired to kill us ten years ago. Since then we have taken a few citizens to help diversify the population in our city, put them up working here and there as needed, supply them with food and shelter. Nice and healthy lot here, we found some here whose blood may even make for nice blood drop candies, even have the contracts made up and everything. We arn't murderous bandits."

  "Your weaknesses," says the woman in white, "Sunlight can kill you, enough physical damage will kill you, weak to silver as a violent allergic reaction, and oddly enough tomatoes along with garlic can ward you off and even harm you if injested. I recognize your scent as Moroii."

   She forms a crystal sword.

  "Now, now," says the man, "these villagers,"

 "Were going to feed adventurers to you," says the woman, "in exchange for their citizens. You imply you don't kill them; but what about the adventurers from the guild? Planning to set an example? Kill them? Torture them? You think it fun? Taking a little vacation outside your city?"

   Her eyes glow an intense blue, "You know what I am, I can't let that information spread to the city."

  A blur of blue mists and screams and its over, the four Moroii are dead. Jarvis stands back in astonishment and fear as the pair walk out of the inn. Her eyes glow and the man feels tired, his memories of the last few minuted growing fuzzy and leaving his mind completly. The pair make their way to the wagon. The man wrenches the heavy padlock and chain off with one hand and four women are helped out. Jarvis suddenly screams, "What happened here!"

  The woman in white leading the women around the wagon says, "We took care of the rogue vampires, just as your requested. Not as many as you made it sound. Here your citizens are free."

  The man in black lifts up the dead Moroii and chucks them into the back of the wagon.

  "Wh, what are you doing?" asks Jarvis.

  "Taking them back to their mega city," replies the woman, "rogue vampire protocol. We will send an invoice from the guild."

  She summons a small glowing sigil and closes it, "I have now reported the mission complete to the guild. However we need to insure the job is completly done and report these rogues to their city of origin, perhaps make a note of your village as outside the city's territory so they can better police their own people."

   With that the pair are on their way leaving behind confused conspirators, happy they got their daughters back, but confused.

   ******

   Down the mountain out of sight of the villages they stop the wagon.

  "Your majesty," speaks the normally silent man, "if you take these bodies to the mega city you will be exposed."

   She summons mist to cut the reins from the horse and pulls their blinders off, "We are not going there,"

 The man leaps down. The woman stretches her arms out before her summoning two large icy blue sigils and whispers, "Crystal Barrage," a practical blizzard of sharp crystals bombard the wagon, shredding it to pieces along with the bodies inside.

  "Scavengers should do the rest," she says, "as far as any others from that city will be concerned this wagon was attacked by fiends or else if this scheme was known to any other culling bands in the area think the hired adventurers got the better of them with an ambush well outside the town. This after all is what they should expect trying to make examples of adventurers."