Chapter 25: Confronting Dracula
Alucard struck first.
He lifted his sword and charged. Dracula caught the end of the sword before it could penetrate his chest, but Alucard still pushed him and slammed him into the wall. A sizable dent was made in the wall, cracking running out of it in all directions. Several books were knocked off of their shelves. The portrait of Lisa also fell from the wall.
Alucard grunted and pushed harder.
But Dracula merely pushed back and calmly walked forward, forcing his son to back-up. He let go of the sword as Alucard withdrew it, and the proceeded to dodge every slash his son aimed at him. Then Dracula caught his wrist. He waited a second or so before punching his son into the fireplace. Self-preservation was what had Alucard quickly yanking his head out.
Dracula then turned to the other two. He hadn't seen the fourth member of their attack party, but the Belmont charged himself while the Speaker lifted her hands. There was something in the way she did it though. It was on the tip of his tongue. But Dracula discarded it in favour of dealing with the Belmont.
Dracula pounced. The Belmont, like his ancestors, was quicker than most humans. He realised what was about to hit him, but had no time to do anything about it. Well, almost. He did manage to guard himself well enough to keep his ribcage intact as Dracula knocked him out of the study and into the hallway outside.
As soon as he let him go, the Belmont collapsed forward and coughed up blood. Stronger than average (the result of a spell Leon Belmont had placed on his bloodline) or not, he was still human. Dracula was just in the process of figuring out what way to kill him when light behind him caught his eye and he turned only to find himself having to defend against a constant stream of fire.
He was steadily forced away from the Belmont by the Speaker. Oh, that was right. Isaac had said something about a woman who stunk of magic. 'Speaker Magician!'
The Speaker's eyes kept darting down to Belmont in a way Dracula recognised, even as the human tried to recover. Belmonts were bad enough when they were only competent at magic. If this level of magic was introduced into the bloodline (because of all people, of course the Belmonts would survive), they would quickly become a much bigger problem than they had been before.
He moved to attack her, but he was struck.
And he was struck hard. Dracula went flying through the air and slammed hard into the ground, tearing up the stone. Looking up, he was shocked to see who was standing between himself, and the Speaker Magician and the Belmont. In 300 years, she'd barely changed at all. The same golden pendant even hung around her neck.
'Yvette Belmont,' he growled. 'Slayer daughter of Leon Belmont. You should be long dead.'
'So speaks the vampire,' she shot back.
Of course, it made sense. Only a Slayer would be able to hit that hard; only a Slayer would have any hope. It was Yvette who'd done it last time. Not her father and not her brother, but Yvette. That was one of the reasons he remembered her name when so many other Belmonts had slipped from his mind entirely.
Dracula attacked again.
He slashed at the Belmont Slayer first, only for her to leap out of the way. Then the Speaker Magician had tried to use ice to protect herself. He slashed right through it and sent her flying. The flesh of her upper arm had torn under his claws and she hit the ground, hard. Dracula advanced on her.
Yvette sent a blade spinning at him, but he easily deflected it.
'Sypha!' The younger Belmont came running at him again, and, like quite a few of his ancestors before him, swung a few punches into Dracula's face.
Dracula, of course, barely felt it. 'You must be the Belmont.' Of course he already knew that.
Belmont ignored him and tried again. Dracula sucker punched him and then grabbed him around the throat. The Belmont glared at him even as he tried, futilely to pry Dracula's hand off of his throat.
'The end of your line,' Dracula declared, getting ready to kill him.
Then Yvette was there, stabbing Dracula through the wrist. Dracula snarled and reflexively let go of her indirect descendant. She withdrew the blade and flicked his blood off of it as her distant relative staggered back. Dracula slashed at her, only for her to block the attack, grab his wrist and yank him down, driving her knee up into his ribcage. At the same moment, a sword shot into his side, piercing both of his lungs.
Dracula hacked.
Then the Speaker Magician was there, throwing fire into his face, forcing him back. She withdrew, but he didn't know what for. He just had both Alucard and Yvette coming at him, slashing and stabbing as they forced him back. The rage inside of him boiled up more and more. He lashed out with considerable strength and he felt (and heard) Yvette Belmont take the hit and go flying up and through several of the barriers between the rooms.
But Alucard was still there.
Dracula knocked him back. But, as he turned, he saw the Belmont had a stake and he was then driving it straight in. That would be a potential death to a normal vampire, but Dracula was far from a normal vampire. Behind Belmont, Dracula saw the Speaker Magician tear her sleeve away and searing her wound closed. It only confirmed his suspicions.
Not only was the Belmont attracted to her, but she would slot into the Belmont lifestyle very nicely.
And the Belmonts could not gain that sort of power.
Dracula lashed out at him again, but this time the Belmont was ready. His evasive movements suggested that he was accustomed to fighting someone of Dracula's calibre. Where would he have learned that except from his ancestor? It was clear now that the only reason this Belmont survived was because of Yvette.
Behind him, he noticed the Speaker Magician getting ready to fire again, so he quickly seized the Belmont's arm and sent him flying at her. It cut off their attack but then Alucard was coming at him again. He slammed him into a wall. Dracula immediately lifted his hands, clenched together, above his head. He brought them down and the ground cracked underneath them.
Alucard grunted in pain and then knocked his father's arms aside before striking him in the throat. Dracula knocked him aside as he nursed his neck. With a grunt, the Speaker Magician spiked his leg with icicles. Then the Slayer's descendant struck him in the face with his weapon. The sharp sting and the explosion told Dracula exactly what he'd been hit by. He collapsed to his hands and knees.
Then Dracula pushed himself up. 'The Morning Star whip. Well played, Belmont. But I am no ordinary vampire, to be killed by your human magics. I am Vlad Dracula Tepes,' he raised his voice to shout, 'and I have had enough!'
Trevor's eyes widened as he saw the molten ball heading for them.
Sypha moved forward and put her hands up, trying to stop it with her magic. It certainly slowed it down, but it did not stop it entirely. The molten ball just kept coming at them. Sypha's effort only had her pushed back. There wasn't a lot Trevor could do in this situation, but he could think of the one thing he could do. He pushed his own back against hers and braced himself.
She glanced back at him for a moment before refocusing on what she was trying to do.
Then Alucard shot to the front. He lifted his hand and his sword flew into it. Thrusting his sword forward, Alucard charged at the ball of molten rock. It finally stopped. He pushed harder. They struggled for a moment. Then Sypha gave one final hard push, and Alucard shoved the whole thing right back where it'd come from.
Trevor imagined the thing that stopped it was Dracula himself. Alucard leveraged his sword. Then, with a grunt of effort, he punctured the molten ball and part of it vaporised. There was a loud explosion and, for a moment, Trevor wondered if Dracula was dead. He also found himself worrying that Alucard may be dead as well.
But there was a massive hole in the wall in front of them.
'Trevor.' Sypha's hand grasped his. 'Are they...?'
'One way to know for sure.'
With that statement, Trevor led her after them.
Yvette finally came to a stop.
She'd sustained quite a few injuries on her unexpected trek up through the castle's levels. She'd forgotten quite how hard Dracula could hit. Of course, it had been three hundred years. When she finally hit the ceiling that didn't break and slammed into the ground, she let herself lie there. She felt her body already repairing the damage. She began to count in her mind.
Un...deux...trois...Huh?
Something wet was touching her fingertips. Yvette opened her eyes and looked up. She blinked at what she was seeing, but there could be no denying it. Apart from a few select details, it looked completely normal. It wasn't at all what she'd expect one of those to do. She turned her hand over and let the animal sniff her palm.
It did so, much like a living one of its kind would do.
'A puppy?'
Just a regular...albeit undead puppy.