“I can practically hear the Organ playing.” I couldn’t help but say.
“What?” Riary hissed at me.
“Nothing.”
We were all ready for a fight. Tyler had his sword and shield out, marching forward determinedly. Riary had her hand at her sides, fires starting to just spontaneously come into existence around her. Konahara spun her staff around in her hands, and then tightened her grip on it.
As for me, well… I was surprisingly not doing nothing.
I still was the equivalent of a civilian being brought into a fight against, well, at this point probably a bunch of specials ops vs a T-rex but my instincts were calling to me. Alien ones. My tail flexed and flicked out, stretching and slashing the air behind me. My wings extended, bursting out of my shirt and ruining it, and my claws appeared on my hands.
We were as ready as we would ever be I suppose.
We approached the suits of armor, when I was asked a question.
“Derek, how strong are the suits of armor?” Konahara said.
I blinked, partially shocked, partially angry. Oh, so you’re willing to listen to me now, but not when I say you’re about to fight something you can’t beat and drag me along with you? Great.
“Weaker than me.”
That was apparently all the words Riary needed as two circles seemed to appear above each of the guards, before pouring down what looked more like a beam of red flames than anything else. The armor didn’t move till the very end, just melting into a puddle, till I felt their presence weaken to nothing.
I considered saying they were ‘dead’ but it was magical armor, being thorough was no issue. When the beam like flames were finally done, there were just superheated, red hot metal puddles on the ground.
“Let’s go.” Tyler said. He walked forward, between the two puddles, and shield bashed the gate. They must not have been locked because they slammed open and to the sides, cracking the wall a bit and letting out a horrible ringing noise.
We marched forward, me in the back. We made our way to the door and before Tyler could shield bash it down, the two great wooden doors seemed to open by themselves. Everyone seemed to just ignore that and keep walking in.
The doors slammed shut behind us and I had to roll my eyes at the melodrama. It was a cool effect though, I had to admit.
The view in front of me was much less so.
I’d never been in a mansion before, but the entrance seemed like what I’d seen in movies. There was a grand entrance, with two stairways that combined down to one and touched the first floor. That was normal. What wasn’t was the line of maids that flanked both sides of those stairs. They were wearing black and dark blue gothic maid dresses. I’d have thought they were cosplaying maids more than anything.
They looked, pale. Nervous. Having brittle smiles on their faces, and despair in their eyes. Also hope. I had seen those looks before.
“Well, we found the missing villagers.”
“It seems you have.” Came a new voice. We all turned, looking up at the top of the staircase.
A woman had started walking down it.
If I had any expectations, they were shattered to pieces. Not the fact that it was a woman, I could understand that. It was her looks that caught me off guard.
First off, she was beautiful. Utterly, incredibly, destructively beautiful. I felt my heart beating faster just by looking at her. But it wasn’t just that, she was beautiful in a way I hadn’t at all expected. I had, well, expected a man. Secondly, if it had been a woman, I’d have expected a dress to go along with everything.
She looked more like a professional boxer.
She was wearing jeans. Straight up jeans. Skinny jeans or something that had their appearance at least. She wore a crop top around her chest, that covered her breasts and that was it. It looked more like someone had taken the idea of wrapping bandages around your chest, and made it into an actual piece of clothing. It showed off her stomach, and god, she had abs of steel. And I didn’t miss the definition in her arms or her tanned skin.
She looked like someone had fused a valkyrie with a mai thai female fighter and then enhanced even that. Her entire appearance from the neck down screamed female fist fighter and tomboy.
From the neck up, she looked wild. Her hair was long and thick, falling down and around her shoulders. It didn’t look uncared for, just well, wild. Like she was fine to let it go however it wanted. It only enhanced the look of a valkyrie. She had forest green eyes that practically glowed and a fierce grin so wide that I felt she would hop down right now and beat me to death.
Her face was beautiful, as if crafted by a Goddess of War and Beauty with a penchant for tomboys. That feeling only grew stronger, that she was too beautiful to be a simple mortal, as I kept looking at her. Her eyes never left us, as she continued to walk down the stairs. It was… malicious grace. Every step there was a thud, clearly a result of her practically stomping down the stairs, and yet it looked like she was just going for a casual walk.
It was an intimidation factor, or just showing off. Probably both. Especially as the booms from her simple steps grew louder and louder till I felt like my body was shaking.
My eyes felt like they had lost all control, as they couldn’t stop roaming her body. Her beautiful lips, her cute nose, her ample chest, her long legs, her fangs-
Her Fangs.
My eyes shook, my heartbeat sped up, my throat couldn’t swallow. No, no way.
“A Vampire?!”
I couldn’t help but shout out.
All eyes turned towards me. And then all back to her. Her grin had only gotten wider at this point, the ferocious look and aura of a fighter radiating off her. And I could see, everyone could see, four extra sharp teeth in front of her canines.
“Oh no.” Konahora said, despair laden so heavy with her voice that I briefly thought another person had shown up.
“Welcome Visitors and Guests. I do oh so love company. May I have the pleasure of knowing why the local Heroes decided to pay little ole me a visit?”
“Tyler-” Konahora tried to speak up but it was too late.
“We’re here to take the villagers back.” Tyler said, non-literal fire in his eyes.
“Cute. So cute. In fact, all of you have been the cutest thing I’ve seen in at least a century. You know, I was annoyed at first, when a dirty peasant village decided to show up one day and ruin the local scenery. But I’ve always been the pragmatic sort, seeing opportunities in cretins. And what an opportunity it was! I finally could have some local maids and blood sources. Stocking up always required such annoying travel.”
“And now!”
She let out deep, content sigh, her smile becoming gentle.
“And now, I’ve been delivered something so entertaining. And so adorable.”
Tyler frowned. An ugly expression on his face. At least I assumed so from my place in the back, seeing as his whole body seemed to go rigid.
“Then why try to destroy it?” His voice was firm like steel.
“Destroy it? That little thing? They would have survived, most of them anyway. And besides, I had such good reasons to summon the local cockroaches. And I got exactly what I so desired. But before we continue our little conversation, you’ve all been quite rude. It’s only proper to bow and kneel before the host.”
I got my tail and claws ready… only to feel like a giant had stepped on me. Suddenly, the weight of the world threatened to flatten me and I found myself on my knees.
I quickly looked towards the others, only to find the same thing. Konahora and then Tyler went down last, but they still fell.
I tried to move, but a new problem showed up. I couldn’t move. The weight hadn’t left, but it felt like I was now also slamming into forcefields around my arms, hands, legs, etc. It was like I was trapped in an invisible suit of armor.
Horrifyingly, I wasn’t the only one. Everyone else seemed to be the same. Riary however, wasn’t having it. Instantly, a dozen massive fireballs appeared, ready to incarnate the vampire to ash… only to be instantly snuffed out.
The host didn’t even frown, just smiled wider.
“Ah. Don’t worry my dear little mage. They’ll be time for fire later. Right now, let’s relax and continue our conversation. After all,”
Her eyes literally lit up this time, her forest green eyes glowing, her grin practically splitting her face.
“It’s all about you.”
Heads turned, to see Riary’s confused and enraged face.
Riary might have been confused, but she was also pissed. She didn’t stop making fire, stop trying to summon and attack the vampire, struggling to break out. Everyone was. My tail flicked around, trying to slash the forcefields, I could hear Tyler’s muscles groaning, and Konahora was rapidly exploring where the actual forcefields were as best as possible.
“Tsk.” The vampire clicked her tongue and walked over to Riary. She reached down, putting her hand on her face.
And the fires stopped.
My eyes went wide, seeing Riary’s flames snuffed out.
“Riary!” Tyler yelled.
“Now, let’s have that conversation shall we? After all, we haven’t even introduced ourselves!”
“I am Vanessa Vilconoff. It is such a pleasure to meet you all.”
She practically moaned out those last words, while staring directly down at Riary. My heart nearly shattered from shock, because I easily recognized that emotion on Vanessa’s face. You’d have to be blind not to.
Lust…
And Love.
“I can practically hear the Organ playing.” I couldn’t help but say.
“What?” Riary hissed at me.
“Nothing.”
We were all ready for a fight. Tyler had his sword and shield out, marching forward determinedly. Riary had her hand at her sides, fires starting to just spontaneously come into existence around her. Konahara spun her staff around in her hands, and then tightened her grip on it.
As for me, well… I was surprisingly not doing nothing.
I still was the equivalent of a civilian being brought into a fight against, well, at this point probably a bunch of specials ops vs a T-rex but my instincts were calling to me. Alien ones. My tail flexed and flicked out, stretching and slashing the air behind me. My wings extended, bursting out of my shirt and ruining it, and my claws appeared on my hands.
We were as ready as we would ever be I suppose.
We approached the suits of armor, when I was asked a question.
“Derek, how strong are the suits of armor?” Konahara said.
I blinked, partially shocked, partially angry. Oh, so you’re willing to listen to me now, but not when I say you’re about to fight something you can’t beat and drag me along with you? Great.
“Weaker than me.”
That was apparently all the words Riary needed as two circles seemed to appear above each of the guards, before pouring down what looked more like a beam of red flames than anything else. The armor didn’t move till the very end, just melting into a puddle, till I felt their presence weaken to nothing.
I considered saying they were ‘dead’ but it was magical armor, being thorough was no issue. When the beam like flames were finally done, there were just superheated, red hot metal puddles on the ground.
“Let’s go.” Tyler said. He walked forward, between the two puddles, and shield bashed the gate. They must not have been locked because they slammed open and to the sides, cracking the wall a bit and letting out a horrible ringing noise.
We marched forward, me in the back. We made our way to the door and before Tyler could shield bash it down, the two great wooden doors seemed to open by themselves. Everyone seemed to just ignore that and keep walking in.
The doors slammed shut behind us and I had to roll my eyes at the melodrama. It was a cool effect though, I had to admit.
The view in front of me was much less so.
I’d never been in a mansion before, but the entrance seemed like what I’d seen in movies. There was a grand entrance, with two stairways that combined down to one and touched the first floor. That was normal. What wasn’t was the line of maids that flanked both sides of those stairs. They were wearing black and dark blue gothic maid dresses. I’d have thought they were cosplaying maids more than anything.
They looked, pale. Nervous. Having brittle smiles on their faces, and despair in their eyes. Also hope. I had seen those looks before.
“Well, we found the missing villagers.”
“It seems you have.” Came a new voice. We all turned, looking up at the top of the staircase.
A woman had started walking down it.
If I had any expectations, they were shattered to pieces. Not the fact that it was a woman, I could understand that. It was her looks that caught me off guard.
First off, she was beautiful. Utterly, incredibly, destructively beautiful. I felt my heart beating faster just by looking at her. But it wasn’t just that, she was beautiful in a way I hadn’t at all expected. I had, well, expected a man. Secondly, if it had been a woman, I’d have expected a dress to go along with everything.
She looked more like a professional boxer.
She was wearing jeans. Straight up jeans. Skinny jeans or something that had their appearance at least. She wore a crop top around her chest, that covered her breasts and that was it. It looked more like someone had taken the idea of wrapping bandages around your chest, and made it into an actual piece of clothing. It showed off her stomach, and god, she had abs of steel. And I didn’t miss the definition in her arms or her tanned skin.
She looked like someone had fused a valkyrie with a mai thai female fighter and then enhanced even that. Her entire appearance from the neck down screamed female fist fighter and tomboy.
From the neck up, she looked wild. Her hair was long and thick, falling down and around her shoulders. It didn’t look uncared for, just well, wild. Like she was fine to let it go however it wanted. It only enhanced the look of a valkyrie. She had forest green eyes that practically glowed and a fierce grin so wide that I felt she would hop down right now and beat me to death.
Her face was beautiful, as if crafted by a Goddess of War and Beauty with a penchant for tomboys. That feeling only grew stronger, that she was too beautiful to be a simple mortal, as I kept looking at her. Her eyes never left us, as she continued to walk down the stairs. It was… malicious grace. Every step there was a thud, clearly a result of her practically stomping down the stairs, and yet it looked like she was just going for a casual walk.
It was an intimidation factor, or just showing off. Probably both. Especially as the booms from her simple steps grew louder and louder till I felt like my body was shaking.
My eyes felt like they had lost all control, as they couldn’t stop roaming her body. Her beautiful lips, her cute nose, her ample chest, her long legs, her fangs-
Her Fangs.
My eyes shook, my heartbeat sped up, my throat couldn’t swallow. No, no way.
“A Vampire?!”
I couldn’t help but shout out.
All eyes turned towards me. And then all back to her. Her grin had only gotten wider at this point, the ferocious look and aura of a fighter radiating off her. And I could see, everyone could see, four extra sharp teeth in front of her canines.
“Oh no.” Konahora said, despair laden so heavy with her voice that I briefly thought another person had shown up.
“Welcome Visitors and Guests. I do oh so love company. May I have the pleasure of knowing why the local Heroes decided to pay little ole me a visit?”
“Tyler-” Konahora tried to speak up but it was too late.
“We’re here to take the villagers back.” Tyler said, non-literal fire in his eyes.
“Cute. So cute. In fact, all of you have been the cutest thing I’ve seen in at least a century. You know, I was annoyed at first, when a dirty peasant village decided to show up one day and ruin the local scenery. But I’ve always been the pragmatic sort, seeing opportunities in cretins. And what an opportunity it was! I finally could have some local maids and blood sources. Stocking up always required such annoying travel.”
“And now!”
She let out deep, content sigh, her smile becoming gentle.
“And now, I’ve been delivered something so entertaining. And so adorable.”
Tyler frowned. An ugly expression on his face. At least I assumed so from my place in the back, seeing as his whole body seemed to go rigid.
“Then why try to destroy it?” His voice was firm like steel.
“Destroy it? That little thing? They would have survived, most of them anyway. And besides, I had such good reasons to summon the local cockroaches. And I got exactly what I so desired. But before we continue our little conversation, you’ve all been quite rude. It’s only proper to bow and kneel before the host.”
I got my tail and claws ready… only to feel like a giant had stepped on me. Suddenly, the weight of the world threatened to flatten me and I found myself on my knees.
I quickly looked towards the others, only to find the same thing. Konahora and then Tyler went down last, but they still fell.
I tried to move, but a new problem showed up. I couldn’t move. The weight hadn’t left, but it felt like I was now also slamming into forcefields around my arms, hands, legs, etc. It was like I was trapped in an invisible suit of armor.
Horrifyingly, I wasn’t the only one. Everyone else seemed to be the same. Riary however, wasn’t having it. Instantly, a dozen massive fireballs appeared, ready to incarnate the vampire to ash… only to be instantly snuffed out.
The host didn’t even frown, just smiled wider.
“Ah. Don’t worry my dear little mage. They’ll be time for fire later. Right now, let’s relax and continue our conversation. After all,”
Her eyes literally lit up this time, her forest green eyes glowing, her grin practically splitting her face.
“It’s all about you.”
Heads turned, to see Riary’s confused and enraged face.
Riary might have been confused, but she was also pissed. She didn’t stop making fire, stop trying to summon and attack the vampire, struggling to break out. Everyone was. My tail flicked around, trying to slash the forcefields, I could hear Tyler’s muscles groaning, and Konahora was rapidly exploring where the actual forcefields were as best as possible.
“Tsk.” The vampire clicked her tongue and walked over to Riary. She reached down, putting her hand on her face.
And the fires stopped.
My eyes went wide, seeing Riary’s flames snuffed out.
“Riary!” Tyler yelled.
“Now, let’s have that conversation shall we? After all, we haven’t even introduced ourselves!”
“I am Vanessa Vilconoff. It is such a pleasure to meet you all.”
She practically moaned out those last words, while staring directly down at Riary. My heart nearly shattered from shock, because I easily recognized that emotion on Vanessa’s face. You’d have to be blind not to.
Lust…
And Love.
