Darren closed his eyes and a few minutes passed. He opened his eyes and snapped his fingers, he said to Mr. Crepsley "Try this." He called out numbers and more numbers. When he finished the lock opened easily. I slapped Darren on the back and said "Well, that took you long enough." Alice scoffed "Oh please, you didn't know the answer." Mr. Crepsley looked at Alice and said "On the contrary." She raised an eyebrow. Mr. Crepsley carried on "She knows what will happen, speaking of which, is anything significant going to happen in this battle?" I thought to myself 'yup, a whole lot!' I nodded and said "Yes." Mr. Crepsley asked "Can you tell us?" I shook my head and said "You know I can't." He smiled understandingly.
It was time to enter the hall. I grabbed for my knives, a smaller, lighter one in my injured hand. Mr. Crepsley arranged an order for us to go in. Before we went in I bent down and said to Misty "Now, I want you to be very careful and to stay with me, I will protect you as much as I can." She nodded. I gave her a massive hug.
We entered the dim cavern, as I walked in I caught the scent of vampaneze straight away and by the looks of it so did Misty. I looked around the room but there were about a million shadows that anyone could hide in. We walked to the centre of the hall before I heard a voice, filled with insanity. We spun around and saw R.V. I growled and so did Misty. Before he had any time to say anything Darren yelled "Where's Debbie, you monster?!" He tried to shove past Mr. Crepsley but he restrained Darren from doing anything stupid. R.V made an offer, Darren's life for Debbie's. Darren whispered "No." R.V smiled evilly and said "Speak up." Darren threw a knife and yelled "NO!"I scowled the whole time at R.V. I turned around and saw Alice, she looked like a ghost. She asked shakily "Was that one of them." I nodded and Vancha chirped "Yup, that's one of those monsters alright." She whimpered "Are they all like that?" Vancha smiled and said "Nope." She let out a breath. "Most are far worse!" She gulped and grabbed her knife shakily. We headed down the tunnel.
It was a long tunnel. When we got to the next cavern it was man-made with a very high ceiling. There were three massive chandeliers hanging, each one had a hundred or so candles on them. I smiled, well, now there would be enough fire for me. It was an oval shaped cavern that had completely smooth walls. In the middle of the cavern there was a platform raised on high silver pillars. As we walked over we saw that under the platform was a massive pit, filled with thick, pointy stakes. There was a rope hanging over the edge of the platform nearest us and on the other side was a plank leading to a hole in the wall, which, apart from the doors we just came through was the only way out.
Vancha decided to test the platform and rope. He said that we will go one at a time, that way, if anything happens then only one person will die. As he was on the platform Alice shouted out "Hey!" she then pointed up to the tunnel entrance over the platform. Everyone's eyes darted up to where the figure was. I stayed still and looked around the hall. I whispered to Misty "Keep an eye on the rest of the hall." She nodded and looked around the hall. I turned around and saw Steve. Vancha saw Steve and growled like a dog before crawling at a faster pace over the plank. Steve laughed and said "We meet again." He then casually lit a match and threw it into the pit, making more fire for me to play with. I smiled into the flames; this was going to be fun. The fire completely consumed Vancha and the rope.
Vancha appeared not a moment later, patting out the fire on his hair and clothes. I laughed and said to Steve "It's takes a lot more than fire to get rid of a vampire." Steve frowned. Vancha roared and tried to climb back up the rope. Steve pulled out a very big and heavy sword and tapped it against the rope. I think Vancha got the message because he stopped trying to climb but instead sent a shuriken flying at Steve. Steve did nothing as the silver throwing star lodged into the underside of the steel platform. Steve laughed dryly and said "You can't hit me, no matter what, the angles off." I growled and sent some fire at Steve. He flinched as it hit his arm. I laughed as I said "I guess I just have a better aim than you thought." He scowled.
Vancha slid down the rope and came back to us. He laughed maniacally and whistled three long, loud whistles. Misty barked. I turned around and saw panels being removed from the walls and ceiling. Vampaneze and vampets climbed through and stood with their weapons. I growled at the men around the hall, there had to be at least fifty. Darren said "Ummm." I followed his gaze to the plank connecting to the platform. The lord of the vampaneze and Gannen stood there. I felt my hands ball into fists. The fire raged as if provoked. Vancha groaned when he saw his brother and then his gaze travelled to the lord of the vampaneze. He narrowed his eyes and hissed "What do we do?" Mr. Crepsley shrugged and suggested "Die?" I sniggered and said "Maybe later." Darren smiled back and then frowned as he realised what danger we were in.
Vancha asked why the vampaneze and vampets hadn't attacked yet. Gannen said it was because they were afraid to kill us in the heat of battle because according to Desmond Tiny only the vampaneze lord could kill the hunters, that made me worried, I was allowed to be killed by anyone in here.
Vancha asked if they would defend themselves if we attacked. I turned to Vancha and said sarcastically "No, because they bought all these people down here so that we could kill them." He rolled his eyes and said "Alright, alright, I get it." I turned back to Gannen who shouted "Lower away R.V!" I looked up as I saw someone being hung by a rope, it was around her waist, she was bound and gagged. It was Debbie. I smiled and mouthed the words "It'll be okay." She nodded but she had tears in her eyes. She looked broken, her eyes were dull, she was stained with blood, her clothes were slashed and she looked ready to pass out any moment. I looked over at Darren; he looked almost as terrified of Debbie. I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled as he looked over at me.
Debbie's gag was taken off and she yelled at us to get out straight away. Steve told her to shut up and tapped the rope tied around her with his sword, if he cut the rope, she would head straight into the fiery pit of stakes. She chewed her lip and tried to stay quiet.
Gannen spoke again, he said that the non-hunters could leave and save their lives but the hunters would stay. He asked if we would give our lives for the vampire clan. Harkat said he would and I calmly said "My loyalty lies with the vampires, especially these three." Gannen smiled but his smile was sincere. Gannen told us that the hunters had to surrender and leave their weapons and then Debbie, Harkat, Alice and I would be able to leave with our lives. As soon as Gannen finished Vancha shouted out "No way! I haven't given up before and it's worked out so far!" Mr. Crepsley said sourly "Nor shall I agree to such a deal." Darren was trying to decide between letting us die with honest deaths, or for him to die pitifully along with him. He looked around at us and finally said grimly "No, we fight and we die, all for one and one for all." I smiled at him, letting him know that he had made the tight choice.
Gannen shrugged as if it didn't matter that we refused. He said "What about this?" He then went on to explain that it was the same deal as before but this time Darren would get to duel, two on one, with Steve and the lord, and Debbie, Alice, Harkat and I would all get to live. If Darren wins then we get to live but if he loses then Mr. Crepsley, Vancha and Darren would all be executed. None of us knew what to do. Mr. Crepsley looked studied me to see any sign of what we should do, after he found nothing he turned and said "It is up to Darren." Vancha, Harkat and I agreed. Darren agreed to the challenge, Gannen said it would be fine as long we didn't harm anyone.
R.V then entered with Debbie, he was dragging her by her hair. Vancha said "We will drop our weapons and surrender if he loses fairly, you have my word." Gannen nodded. Darren whispered "Will you really surrender?" Vancha nodded and said "I gave my word." I added on the end, smiling slightly "Plus, he said we would drop our weapons and surrender, he said nothing about picking them back up or letting them keep us." Darren smirked. R.V chucked Debbie; Darren caught her before she hit the ground. He steadied her to her feet but she seemed incapable of being able to stand on her own. I smiled at Darren and said "I got her." He smiled thankfully as I put her arm over my shoulders, supporting most of her weight.
Debbie, Harkat and I insisted that we were saying but Darren said to us with worry "What if they go on a rampage if I win?" he stressed the word 'if'. I nodded and said "Fine." A vampet called Morgan James walked over. Morgan had helped Darren escape from prison because he had been posing as a police officer, Morgan was truly evil. He poked Alice in the ribs, she hissed that she was going to track him down and make a brutal end of him. She bent down to tie her laces next to Vancha, I saw them murmuring, but just barely and had to hide a smile as I realised what they were talking about. She stood up and narrowed her eyes at Morgan; he pushed her with his gun.
We went to go and leave. Misty followed close behind. I had my hands around Debbie as she sobbed sorrowfully. The vampaneze and vampets parted, leaving a path for us to walk down. We walked until we were almost at the end of the cavern when Alice looked over her shoulder at Morgan. He told us to hurry up because we were behind her. Morgan sniggered and looked back at us. Suddenly Alice tackled Morgan to the ground and grabbed his rifle. Morgan tried to grab the gun back, one of them must had accidently pulled the trigger because there was a loud roar, I closed my eyes and when I opened them I saw Morgan, wailing pitifully on the ground, cradling the remains of the side of his face. Alice had completely blown off the side of his face. It was a bloody mess, shredded to ribbons.
He climbed to is feet but Alice wacked the side of his head with the gun, he fell to the floor once more but this time he was unconscious. As vampaneze and vampets stampeded towards her she pulled down the trigger and aimed at the platform. Bullets went flying at the platform, holding Gannen, Steve and the lord of the vampaneze.
One of the bullets hit the vampaneze lord in the shoulder, making him yelp in pain. At that sound almost everyone in the hall ran at Alice, the only problem was that between Alice and them, it was Debbie, Harkat, Misty and I. Misty was sure to get crushed. I flattened my bracelet into a disk and barked at her. I stood on the disk, so did Misty. I lifted us high in the air and made us go towards the end of the cavern. Alice was holding her own and Harkat was dragging Debbie by her hand away from the ruckus. I looked over at Darren, Mr. Crepsley and Vancha. Mr. Crepsley was climbing the rope. It was time.
I floated back down to the ground as the vampires and vampets realised that heir lord was in danger. They spotted Darren and Vancha and surged towards them. I hopped off the disk and formed it into a bracelet and slipped it onto the top of my arm. I un-furled my tail so I had better balance and took off my hair-band. Alice gasped. Harkat said "You get used to it." She nodded and wiped some blood from her face. I took out my knives and ran towards the crowd. The vampaneze and vampets were so tightly packed, trying to get to Darren and Vancha that they were confused. I could see that Darren and Vancha were picking them out from the crowd and killing them. Debbie stayed at the back of the cavern, so she could, you know, not die. Alice, Harkat and I picked them off from the back and killed them. Harkat beheaded many with his axe, Alice managed to get a lot of head shots in and I made sure that my enemies knew I was there, rather than killing them from the back, it was the vampire way to fight openly and not kill from the back, so that's what I did.
I saw Mr. Crepsley climbing the rope, but Gannen was walking over, with a knife in his hands. I shouted at Alice "ALICE! LOOK!" Her head shot round and she fired. Gannen rolled back and away from the rope.
I saw a vampet heading towards Debbie. I grabbed a short sword from the vampaneze I had just killed and ran over to Debbie, I gave her the sword, she was going to say thank you but she got stopped because the vampet had raised his gun. She ran over and stabbed him, blood poured out of the wound, she threw up a little in her mouth. I smiled and said "You get used to it." She smiled back and said "I don't think I ever will." For once we had no enemies coming at us. She asked me "When was the first time you every killed?" I thought and said "When I was about twenty, I have been able to fight since I was thirteen, Mr. Crepsley taught me." She smiled and said "What is Mr. Crepsley to you?" I smiled and said "He started off as a teacher, then a guardian, and now, I've never said this to him, he is one of my best friends, he is someone who I rely on." She smiled at my expression before shouting "Look!" I turned around and saw a massive vampaneze running at me with his sword outstretched. I pushed Debbie out of the way, ducked underneath the sword, grabbed the vampaneze's arm, dragged him down to the floor, pulled his arm back, and waited until I heard a snap, finally let him get up before stabbing him in the chest with my knife.
Debbie looked at me with her jaw dropped and complimented "You are really good at that." I smiled and said "Thanks." before running back to the wall of enemies. I saw that Debbie, Alice and Harkat had the back covered so I called Misty, who had blood splattered on her fur. I quickly asked her "Have you swallowed any?" She shook her head and said "I make sure to spit it out; I don't fancy the idea of going crazy and dying." I smiled and made my bracelet back into a disk. Misty and I hopped on. I said to her "Duck down low." We ducked down low and went directly over the enemies head's. The reason I ducked was to not get hit, he bottom of the disk got shot by one vampet but Harkat buried an axe in his head. I dropped down next to Darren and Vancha. I started fighting from where they were fighting.
I was fighting when Darren yelled "Vix!" I whipped around and saw an axe go through the rope Mr. Crepsley was on. It didn't cut clean through so it would hold Mr. Crepsley's weight but the problem was that he was going to swing through the fire. I closed my eyes and made the flames die down long enough for Mr. Crepsley to swing through and back.
I felt a burning pain consume my back. I turned around and there was a grinning unarmed vampaneze. I growled and stabbed him in the stomach. His smile disappeared as he slid to the ground. I stood there until Darren said "Um, Vix?" I raised an eyebrow. "You need a look at your back. I growled "After we kill all these scum." I managed to slash down another three vampaneze before the pain in my back flared again. I made a disk, hopped on with Misty and went to the back of the hall. I got off and asked misty "What is it?" She said worriedly "You have three really deep gashes going across your back." I growled "Damn." I ripped the bottom of my top off so it ended at my mid-section and took the bandages off of my pretty much healed wrist. I wrapped them around my stomach and back to soak up the blood that was dripping. I walked over to help Debbie. She took one look at me and said "What happened?" I shrugged and said "Just a small scratch." She smiled and said "Okay then." We mowed down about five vampaneze when suddenly everything stopped.
I hopped on a disk with Misty and went over to where Darren was. I looked up. Mr. Crepsley was on the platform.