40 – Bloodbath
The group of ten dropped from the trees surrounding Vixen in a circle.
'I can tell by the smell of them that they're vampires,' she thought.
One of the vampires came out from the circle into the center to greet Vixen, he was tall with broad shoulders slicked back black hair with shiny red eyes. The aura around this man made her hair stand on end. He smelled differently too.
"Why hello," the man said casually with a deep charming voice. "You must be the other progenitor. We were on our way to greet you within your territory. I didn't realize that you'd come to mine."
Vixen's eyebrow raised, she felt really on guard, "Other progenitor? You're one of the other two?"
"Ah how very rude of me, I am Cassius Veritrini and you are?"
"Vixen."
"How fitting a name. My purpose for coming to meet you was to form a no trespass treaty with you. It looks like you're going to deny my proposal."
"I'll cause you no trouble, but I do have personal business that's imperative that I take care of."
"Any chance you'll tell me what YOUR business is in MY territory?"
"Any chance a no will suffice?"
A haughty laughter can flashing teeth came from Cassius. "No I suppose not."
"So we are at an impass. What's next then?"
Cassius stepped back and Vixen unsheathed her swords, the man snapped and the forest erupted into combat.
They all swarmed her at once, she turned into a bat swarm and flew behind the first group that approached her and decapitated one of them as she spun in the air to reorient herself never taking an eye of Cassius.
She could tell Cassius was getting a feel for her power and combat efficiency. When the enemy's head flew she used blood control from the deceased body to create a blood shield that covered her back. Just in time for an arrow to hit in and drop in its tracks.
'They all have matching bracelets. I know they're all part of the same faction but that seems a little excessive,' she thought as the light from the moon reflected off the groups bracelets which distracted her momentarily.
That distraction was all Cassius needed as he joined the fight, her blade blocking an attack of elongated claws from the progenitor. From behind Cassius a portal opened up and a giant wolf that looked to be made out of rock emerged from it.
'DAMN. His familiar, at least I know which progenitor I'm fighting, Umbran!!' Umbran emerged from Vixen's shadow and immediately engaged with Cassius' familiar.
Vixen used the blood from her shield to shoot machine gun blood bullet hitting only one of the enemies approaching from her back, it blew out its shoulder. The man she hit with the blood bullet was crying on the ground screaming in pain and it wasn't healing.
'Some of these guys aren't vampires?'
Vixen kicked Cassius away during their engagement and used blood to make a circular scythe that would cut anyone in twine from the waist if they didn't move out of the way. Only one person got cut and his legs separated from his torso.
She used shroud to get better oriented with her escape.
"Rain of light shine upon the shadows. Illuminate!" An enemy chanted and a massive magic circle appeared in the sky raining little light down. Vixen's body became visible again.
"Don't want you running away now do I," mocked Cassius.
Another arrow came hurtling towards Vixen but she recalled the blood she shot to refortify the shield breaking the arrow. Umbran and the other familiar were tossling on the ground and it seemed Umbran was the stronger of the two.
Now that she couldn't use her stealth skill that worked well for her till this point she had to rely on her knight training. She twisted and cut, stabbed and pirouetted, flipped and dodged. Soon all the enemies appeared to be down. Cassius and her stared off at each other groans of pain from the dying breaking the silence.
[Meteor] Vixen shot forward kneeing Cassius in the stomach, smoke billowed off his body.
"Damn holy magic. What the hell kinda vampire can wield holy magic."
Cassius was far more cautious now she would approach using her holy magic and attack with swords forcing him to dodge. He was much older and stronger than her but the holy magic weakened him more than he'd like to admit.
They continued to exchange blows, Cassius gave her a strong strike across her abdomen ripping the leather. Her blood dropped to the floor in large quantities, but just as quickly sealed back up.
"That may be the fastest regeneration I've ever seen in a vampire," complimented Cassius.
"It was a hard learned lesson for sure," she responded.
They exchanged again Vixen using her blood to shoot more blood bullets except she controlled the blood into spikes. The holes in his body created by this attack refused to heal, "Damn I'll need blood," Cassius said to himself as she siphoned some of her blood from the floor.
The blood scaled his throat and he began to bleed from it.
'What the hell is up with this blood. What kind of vampire has poison blood? That must be her ability. Formidable indeed,' thought Cassius.
He took blood from one of the corpses on the ground and once he drank it, his wounds finally started to heal.
Umbran and the other familiar were leaving collateral in their wake. The rock wolf familiar was durable and had an advantage when it came to defense. It could make earth spires shoot up out of the ground that would leave Umbran bloody by him narrowly dodging. Umbran was larger and had a strength advantage with both his size and his attribute. Shadows were plentiful at night and could pierce the wolf's defenses.
Earth and shadow were so versatile it made it difficult for either to gain advantage over the other and both had the power of a progenitor. They tussled with each other back and forth Umbran biting the back of the wolf's neck before disappearing into the shadows to dodge another earth spike. The moment Umbran revealed himself from the shadow more spike sprang from the wolf's body as it slammed into Umbran causing him to roar in pain.
Umbran stretched all the shadows in the vicinity to prepare for his ultimate move. He kicked the wolf away when hundreds of shadows turned into speared chains.
[Chained Imprisonment]
The wolf was not only pinned but skewered. The wolf familiar coughed up some blood and glared at Umbran. It broke down and flew towards the fighting vampires, Umbran had caught a glimpse of shiny metal in the moonlight.
Vixen was winning, she was practically out of mana but with the clever use of her blood, she wore down a vampire much stronger than her due to the radiant and holy magic intrinsic to her.
Cassius was in rough shape and was currently on the ground with Vixen on top of him. A large spear made of holy magic in her hand.
"This is the end. Goodbye Cassius," Vixen said as she brought the spear down.
At that moment, rocks flew by her and she felt something cold and metallic clasp around her neck instantly dissipating the holy spear.
"Hahahaha," Cassius started laughing, "I win. Get off me."
Vixen got up off him, 'what the hell is going on?' She thought as she could tell that Umbran returned to her shadow and her flow of mana had been cut off.
"My class is slavemaster my pet. I'll be sure to give you a proper welcome."