Wrote this after not touching CV:HD for months. Yep.

"Hrrrrraaahh!" Soma's battle cry echoed the halls of the ghoulish castle, as he plunged his whip sword into the chest of a lone minotaur. The blade extended deeper into the beast, piercing the heart and slaying the foe for good.

With an effortless pull, Soma yanked the weapon out of the slain beast. He stared at the beast for a solid minute before cursing under his breath.

"Nothing," he sighed in defeat. "I want some Minotaur souls, dang it!"

Soma had caught on that the Minotaur souls bolstered his natural strength. He went out of his way to slay any minotaur the group came across, even going as far as to split up from the others to find some that they missed.

However his luck, so to speak, was very low. As of now Soma only had two Minotaur souls within himself. He was still weaker than the dhampir that lead the group.

Walking into the next room, Soma encountered one of his vampire slaying allies. A boy roughly the same age as himself with a red coat. The younger teen was fighting what appeared to be a moving brown treasure chest with teeth.

"Need some help?" Soma declared rather than offered, as he rushed in with his sword in hand.

"It's under control!" the boy called out.

Soma stopped in his tracks and watched from a far enough distance to where he wouldn't attract the mimic's attention. The younger boy was running around the monster, lobbing grenades wildly at it. "Uhh... Jonathan? What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to build up my grenade usage!" Jonathan answered, throwing another explosive out. His aim was terrible, some grenades were lobbed too far and others failed to even reach the monster.

The mimic wasn't a particularly powerful monster. It could easily be slain with a couple attacks of any kind. However with the way Jonathan was handling the situation, it was anyone's guess at how long he had been fighting it.

Eventually the boy finally made a good throw. The grenade landed inside the Mimic's mouth as it closed shut. In a matter of seconds, the treasure chest exploded.

"Victory! Hahahaha!" Jonathan shouted in celebration.

Soma gave a half-hearted applause. "Not bad..." he said sheepishly. Suddenly he noticed a yellow glowing light rise from the remains of the Mimic. Within moments it shot into Soma's chest. "Whoa..."

The red coated teen looked over, oblivious to the soul absorbing. "What? What's up?"

"I got a new soul," Soma answered, "a Mimic soul. Never got it before."

"Oh, really? That's cool I guess. What's it do?"

"Uhh... I don't know." Soma shrugged. He searched inside himself for the answers... and then realized that wasn't doing anything.

Jonathan pondered for a moment as well, before reaching an idea. "Oh, it's called the Mimic right? Well... maybe you make some kinda clone!"

"Oh, that sounds cool! Let me give it a try!" Soma shut his eyes and began to concentrate, drawing out the power of the Mimic soul deep inside.

He was too busy soul searching to notice the presence of a lone ghost creeping up behind him. Thankfully the ghost was a weak leveled monster.

After a slight bump to the back, Soma opened his eyes to vanquish the foe. "Darn ghost. Broke my concentration."

"Hey you dropped some gold." Jonathan pointed to the boy's feet.

Soma blinked and looked down to see a dozen gold coins scattered around his feet. "Those aren't mine... I spent all my money buying a sword."

"Eh? But I saw them fall out of your coat. Don't lie to me!"

"I'm not lying!" Soma swore to the accusing point of the whip user. "Honest, I'm completely broke!"

Jonathan sighed and shook his head. "I know what I saw. As soon as that ghost hit you, you dropped your cash. Maybe you have some holes in your pockets or something?"

"I'm telling you I don't-wait, when the ghost hit me?"

Jonathan nodded. Rather then ask why he did nothing to stop the ghost from hurting Soma in the first place, the older boy went back to soul searching inside of himself.

Within moments he found the Mimic soul buried deep inside. Everything he needed to know about that particular soul came up in his head. "Oh!"

"Oh?"

"The Mimic soul creates gold whenever I get hurt!" Soma exclaimed happily. Within seconds his expression changed drastically. "Wait... that's it? That sucks."

Jonathan collected the gold around Soma's feet and pocketed them for himself. "Gold whenever you want? That's awesome!"

"How does Charlotte put up with your selective hearing? I said it only makes gold when I get hurt." Soma frowned. "...and that is NOT awesome."

"But look," Jonathan held out the handful of gold he collected off the floor. "All this from a little ghost tap! It didn't even hurt you, did it?"

Soma scratched the back of his head. "Well... no..."

"See? With your new soul, we could farm all the gold we want!"

Before Soma could protest, Jonathan decked him across the face with a hard punch. Picking himself up off the floor, the white clad teen glared daggers at the red one. "What's your problem!"

Jonathan instead had a smile on his face, pointing at the gold scattered around where Soma landed. "Look at all that gold!"

Even Soma had to admit it was a lot of gold. More than enough to fill his pockets. "Maybe you're on to something... but it still hurts!"

"Bear with it! Think of all the things we could buy from the shop once we farm up enough gold!" Jonathan immediately began thinking of having two master rings fitted around his fingers. His subweapons would gain full power in no time with those on. "Oh! You could even buy those soul eater ring thingies, right?"

Any objections Soma had up to this point vanished instantly. Soul eater rings. His soul collecting problems would be over with a pair of soul eater rings.

Soma gave a firm nod and braced himself. "Let's do it."

The halls of Castlevania echoed with maniacal laughter. Not of an evil vampire lord, grim reaper, or a lesser subordinate of evil... but of two young vampire hunters immersed in their greed.

Soma wiped the blood from his lip and clenched his teeth, receiving another punch to the face. Two more punches sent Soma to the floor for the sixth time now.

However the young boy smiled, a large pile of gold cushioning his fall. The room was quickly becoming filled with gold coins, and it had only been half an hour since the whole ordeal started.

"So what're you gonna buy with your half?" Jonathan asked as he kicked the down boy.

Even if Soma had answered, no one would hear it over the sound of coins scattering across the room.

Unbeknownst to the two hunters, a large fiend had flown into the room. An icy blue demon with the head of a shark approached silently, eyeing his prey carefully. The sea demon slowly rose higher, preparing to dive in and finish off the weakened hunter.

However a bolt of lighting struck the beast, destroying it instantly. From the next room appeared another vampire hunter, a remarkably beautiful woman with raven hair and intriguing tattoos on her body.

The woman known as Shanoa immediately spotted the two young boys, both of whom were blissfully unaware of the sea demon she had slain. She then noticed that the red coated boy was kicking the white clad one.

Stepping in, Shanoa pulled Jonathan back by the collar of his coat. "What are you doing?" she demanded with a slap to the boy's face.

Jonathan winced as he rubbed his cheek. "Ow... hey Shanoa.." the boy sheepishly replied while avoiding eye contact. Soma waved to her from the ground.

"Why are you hurting Soma?" she calmly queried. It was because of her lack of emotions that she didn't show concern for the situation.

Soma unsteadily picked himself off of the floor. "It's fine, Shanoa. We're making money."

Shanoa remained silent, but tilted her head slightly as a sign that she was confused.

"Here... let me show you," Jonathan eagerly said, continuing his treatment. "Like this!"

Unprepared, Soma took another hard punch and was knocked down again. A pained groan escaped his lips this time.

Jonathan laughed nervously and looked back to Shanoa, who didn't react. "See... whenever Soma gets hurt, gold appears."

The woman looked down at Soma, then Jonathan, and then back to Soma.

Jonathan waited for any type of reaction before continuing. "Well... I figured this was an easier way of getting a lot of money... so we could afford stuff from the shop."

Shanoa looked back up to the red clad boy. She remained ever silent in her response to his excuses.

"Ah... um... we could buy master rings with all this gold? I'll split half of it with you?" Jonathan shrugged.

Soma's eyes popped open at that last comment. "Hey! Half of this gold is mine!"

Shanoa stared at the wounded boy laying atop the pile of gold and shook her head. "I do not approve of continuing."

Jonathan sighed in defeat as he watched Shanoa kneel down to Soma. The woman held a super potion up to the boy's lips and helped him to drink the healing sustenance.

Within moments Soma was back on his feet, feeling as good as new. "How do you feel?"

"I feel great! Thanks a lot, Shanoa!"

Without even batting an eyelash, Shanoa flung her arm forward, materializing a large stone fist out of thin air to punch Soma. The boy went flying towards the opposite end of the room, leaving behind a large trail of coins.

Jonathan was surprised at the woman's sudden attack. "Sh...Shanoa?"

"I have need of master rings." the woman said simply, as she casually strolled over to the recovering Soma. Jonathan quickly followed as the Lapiste beatings began.

Elsewhere in the castle, a young man who was deceptively far older than he looked was busy fighting off several monsters. Armed with his heirloom sword and shield, he vanquished foe after foe with little to no effort.

Quickly making his way into the next room, the man found a young teenage girl fighting an agile harpy. The creature was wounded, but rather than deal the finishing blow, the young witch was biding her time.

The young dhampir waited patiently, aware of what the witch was trying to do. Eventually persistence paid off as the harpy's feather blades were successfully absorbed into the projected barrier of the witch's book.

Taking his cue, the man lunged in to deal a finishing blow with the special attack of his personal sword.

The young witch looked over in surprise, but nodded in acceptance of his presence. "Alucard."

He nodded in return, and immediately went to business. "Charlotte, have you seen Soma around?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No, I haven't seen him for awhile. Jonathan has gone missing as well, I haven't been able to find him."

"And Shanoa?" Alucard asked. He noticed the young girl's eye twitch at the mention of the woman's name.

"No... I haven't seen her." she said.

Alucard inwardly sighed. They were close to the boss room of the area, but proceeding without the others would be dangerous. "Let's turn back and find them."

It took twenty minutes worth of retracing their steps until they encountered the missing members of their team. The very sight was confusing to say the least. Shanoa and Jonathan appeared to be alone inside a room flooded with gold coins. The two hunters were sitting together, breathless and resting. Soma was nowhere to be seen.

The rustling of gold coins from Alucard's footsteps alerted the two to his presence. Shanoa nodded to the leader of the group. "Alucard."

"Hey," Jonathan happily waved to the man. His eyes slowly scanned over to spot the youngest member of the group standing at the doorway. "Oh uh... hi Char."

The young girl was rendered speechless at first, but quickly snapped back into her senses and stomped her way over to the two. She met her friend's less than enthusiastic greeting with a hard slap to the face. "What is this?"

"Why do you girls slap me and then ask what's wrong?" Jonathan winced at the burning strike.

Impatient and unsatisfied with his answer, she gave him another hard slap. "Is this the reason you snuck away from me? To be with Shanoa?"

"W-what? No! It didn't start out like that!" Jonathan said as he was met with a third slap. "Ow! I-I snuck away because I was bored!"

Shanoa seemed unphased by the scene, watching the young girl repeatedly slap the boy sitting next to her. Alucard watched silently, as he usually did in group conversations.

"Ow! I meant that sitting around while you absorbed spells in your book is so boring! I didn't think you'd notice if I left!" the boy shamelessly said as he took another slap. His face was beginning to burn as red as his coat.

The young witch's fury was unrelenting. "So you think Shanoa is more fun to be around than me?"

Alucard decided to step in in an effort to get things moving. "Jonathan, have you seen Soma?"

"Y-yeah... he's over there..." Jonathan pointed to a hand sticking out of the pile of gold.

Alucard pulled on Soma's hand enough to unbury him from his golden tomb. "Hi Alucard..."

Alucard blinked at the weakened boy, noticing his face was all bloody and a couple teeth were missing, but there was a weak smile on his features. "Soma, what is this?"

"I was hitting him!" Jonathan jumped to answer, walking over to the man.

The dhampir sighed. "Do I have to ask why?"

"For money! Soma got this new soul that makes gold appear out of nowhere, so I kinda hit him a little bit to make some money."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard." Charlotte commented.

"But its true! Look at all of the gold here!" Jonathan said, as though the room flooded with gold was unnoticeable. "I finally have enough to buy the rings!"

"Rings?" Alucard questioned.

Shanoa stood up and approached the group. "Jonathan promised to buy me a ring with all this gold."

"Sh-Shanoa! You didn't have to say it like that!" Jonathan said with a blush. Suddenly immense pain flooded through his body as he was grabbed by the ear and yanked down. "Owowow! Ch-Ch-Charlotte?"

The young witch smiled sweetly while crushing Jonathan's earlobe between her fingers. "Jonathan... we're going to have a looooong talk later tonight."

Alucard watched as Charlotte pulled a screaming Jonathan out of the room by his ear. He made a mental note to set aside one water of life to use on the ill-fated Morris. Shanoa gave one last courtesy nod to Alucard and left as well.

Soma, whom had finally pooled enough strength to prop himself up by his elbows, looked up at Alucard. "Guess he won't be taking all this gold after all, huh?"

Alucard shook his head. "Money is the least of his problems now."

"Good! It's all mine now!" Soma laughed victoriously before feeling Alucard's foot stomp onto his chest. "Ah! Alucard?"

"Forgive me Soma... but my miser rings need to be powered up." Alucard said in a heartless tone has he removed his heirloom sword.

Soma lost consciousness soon after.

Carlos the Sea Demon makes a cameo appearance!

R&R