She heard the screeching coming from all directions; it seemed to be moving very quickly, trying to confuse her...
Just for a second she bent over her knees and grabbed a rock that fit nicely in her palm, gripping it with the material of her gloves and held it poised as she closed her eyes and concentrated again. The screeching was far away at the moment, she waited until it became closer; it would be at an easier range to target if it were closer.
Shifting the rock in her hand, the noise was coming closer; it seemed as if it were zipping around her body...up and down, and in circular motions. She waited until it would come close to her left side to fire, and when it did, her arm whipped out as she threw the rock in the direction, leaving her arm out like it was, as if she were frozen waiting to hear if she hit the source.
Alucard tried purposely to steer the bat out of the hit, just for more practice, but Seras had allowed for wind direction timing and the hit was dead-on, winging it deep in the left side. He mused that she was able to do that already, though, he thought that she could have been slightly quicker.
Far in the distance, she heard her master's voice.
"Hmmmm...Nicely done, let's work on eyesight. In front of you, you should start to see something moving only a little." He appeared behind her as his bats flew down towards the ground around her; she did not notice Alucard was behind her, as he just watched her.
She opened her eyes and lowered her arm into her lap, and she looked ahead, peering out; it wasn't far away from her at all, but it took only an extra second than it should have to notice the little bit of movement in the unidentified object...or thing.
He saw the way she was watching its movements and decided to make it just a tiny bit harder for her. He half-smiled heartily, his dark eyes making contact with the bats; he gave them more instructions to fly farther back, and surround the area as a mass...anything that may be used to help her zone-in on the lone bat.
Alucard spoke, but still made his voice sound distant as to not distract her that much, he knew she would probably cramp up knowing that he was directly behind her.
"This time, Seras, you will not only have to find that bat, but hit it with the rock. With this one, you will have to feel the shot before throwing, or you will have a good chance of missing."
Seras whispered to herself, reaching down and grabbing another nice-sized rock in her palm.
"Feel the shot..." She looked ahead again and saw it as she did before; she was unsure if it would move when she threw. She had to be quicker than it would be...
She held up the rock in her hand like she did before, poised and ready and stared at the bat ahead of her. Having no idea what she was doing, she felt like it was a good time to throw it, and she drew back her arm and pelted the rock at the bat. He watched, a little further, and the bat did start to descend as if to avoid the shot.
However, it was too slow, and instead of missing the blood, it took a direct hit on the head and fell slightly from the sky and flew backwards, retreating. Apparently, it did not feel like being pelted anymore with rocks.
Alucard, amused as the bat's slow travel back, had the strangest feeling that they were not alone. As she threw the rock, then gleamed in her success, he looked to the side. This, he felt, was not a part of her training.
"I have just noticed something in the trees to our right, Seras..." Then it occurred to him and his red eyes glowed slightly. "Let's see if you can hit it, just a little new part of training; getting the attacker before it gets you."
Seras turned her head to the side, a little taken aback but drew up a rock from the ground anyway as she changed her seating position on the bench. She wondered; would a rock do the job? She didn't know, but she did so anyway, as it was still 'a part of her training.'
She leaned forward and clutched the bench's handle, sitting strangely poised on her knees and stared out, determined to find it quickly...or at least, quicker than before, and she heard movement coming from the top of a particularly close tree.
As one leaf fell, her arm snapped and she threw the rock again.
Alucard's keen eyes followed the rock's path, and heard faint whispers of 'Ow!' and other assorted curses of pain; he knew the only person who it could possibly be. He grinned evilly and plunged into the bushes, bent on finding him.
"Foolish priest...Didn't your father ever tell you not to sneak up on a vampire in training?" He came out of the woods, looking somewhat perturbed. He was holding up Alkanon by the scruff of his coat collar and in Alucard's grip he swirled around in semi-circles, swinging blindly at Alucard in the process. He only stared at him strangely, holding his arm out the entire length so he'd miss every punch he threw.
Seras nearly fell off the bench as her grip on the handle that was holding her up, slipped.
"Trying again to piss us off, I see."
Alkanon growled, gritting his teeth; his pale blue eyes stared at him.
"No, monster, I found it a suitable time that you die and go to the fiery pits of Hell!" In response, Alucard laughed at this heartily, as if the priest had just told a hysterical joke. He pulled Alkanon's long hair out of his eyes so he could continue being amused at the wannabe priest.
"And I know something that you do not, monster...heh..."
Seras leaned against the back of the bench, her hands holding the top and stared at them both, her eyes finished and rested on the priest. She raised an eyebrow.
"And what would that be?"
Alkanon stared at Seras now, the same loathing and anger in his eyes.
"Only the one thing that can kill you: HIM!" He pointed behind his suspended body over them into the blackness; there was the one person that they did not expect to see, the real priest, Alexander Andersong...
Alucard had only enough time form his grin from the corners of his mouth when Alexander immediately attacked him, what he had waited to do to him until now...He had absolutely no chance to move from the attack, as the older priest opened his coat to release a dozen or so sharp, blessed blades that flew into Alucard at all angles. The sheer force made him drop Alkanon, who landed unsteadily on his feet, and he himself fall to the ground. Alucard stared at Seras, silently pleading for her to do something, or get away...
Seras watched with widened eyes, gripping the bench; she remembered her invisibility training. She took in a quick, deep breath and held it, concentrating harder than before. Soon enough going out of sigh, she was still new at that kind of transformation, as it was only her second time using it.
She grinned, loving the idea that she could sneak up behind Alkanon and punch him in the back of the head hard and he wouldn't know it. And she did, she floated stealthily quiet behind him and threw a very good and hard punch in the back of his head, swinging her 'leg' around and kicking the soft spot on his side with the steel heel of her combat boot. Alkanon fell to his knees and touched his side, feeling the tender spot where he was kicked. He growled low and looked around, seeing absolutely nothing.
"That hurt...damn monster, you will pay!" With his scream he stood up and flooded the sky with more blessed blades, attacking everything in sight; not helping Seras' situation much as she was nothing more than the wind itself...
Alucard slumped over on the ground from the blood loss off the searing knives that stabbed him all over. Alexander stood over him, cackling insanely in triumph; Alucard was waiting for the perfect chance, bidding his time...just a little closer...
Alexander crossed his arms and situated the knives into a cross, one over the other.
"Aye, damn monster...In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation, AMEN!" He yelled as he leaned over Alucard, about to slice his head clean off. As he finished, the vampire's eyes opened and his hand thrust inside of his coat as he brought out his Jackal, grinning evilly as he always did.
Shoving the tip up into the bottom of Alexander's chin he pulled the trigger, and Alexander fell backwards as Alucard got up.
Seras cursed lowly as the blades flew in all directions; she couldn't really dodge them as easily as she would if she were visible. She ignored the sharp pain and burning sensations as the blessed knives cut her flesh as she flew at Alkanon, kicking him and stomping him into the ground. Her foot stomped his chest in and she lowered herself down, grabbing the sides of his face. The sudden jerk of his head surprised him, and she snarled. Staring at nothing as his opponent, it only made him angrier.
In about a half a second she let go and stood back up again, raising her foot above his head and let it come down hard upon his face. After that was done, she immediately wasted NO time and floated some distance away so she could see what he would do next...if he could move.
He growled and touched his face at the immense feeling of sharp pain in his chest from being repeatedly stomped on as well as his face.
"Shit..." He growled again as he stood up, but barely able to stand, and then caught himself as he almost fell over. He clung to himself, Seras thinking due to his pain, but really it was not so. Quicker than she would let it register to her, his funda swirled around him, forming linking chains that erupted from him, whipping the air and everything around him; searching desperately for Seras, he hit her once or twice, the funda chains grabbing one of her legs.
Alucard now stood over Alexander's body on the ground, still in quite a bit of pain; Alexander had shoved two knives through his neck and three in his head, knocking off his hat and glasses. Needless to say, if his glasses were gone, he was angry. He had more knives protruding from his arms and legs, even several through his heart.
He pulled out his other gun and pointed both at Andersong on the ground.
"Get up, you old fool...you're not dead yet...do not stop the game."
Moments later, Alexander was up again, the bullet shot up his chin cleared through his skull and up through the top of his head; a very bloody sight indeed, but as it was Andersong, it really did not make a difference.
"Aye, monster, it is time you paid for your evil." He said, grinning, with one hand held onto the handle of his big blade, the other hand had a set of sharp 'wolverine' claws. He lunged at Alucard, clawing at him and striking him, but Alucard only bent forward and backwards, side to side, never loosing his subtle, eerie grace he had, even with all of those knives...
He only missed a step when Andersong stepped backwards, his claw blades detaching from his fingers and flinging at Alucard, hitting him squarely in the eyes. Of course, this did hurt quite a bit, but he still managed to block the other sword with shooting his gun and continually moving.
Seras fought as the chains grabbed at her leg; she was determined for them to not get her anymore. This priest kid couldn't capture her so easily.
She grabbed the chains, and even though the blessing burned and seared her hands, she ripped them off of her and darted at him, her arms outstretched. She grabbed his throat with both hands and squeezed her fingers tighter and tighter on his windpipe. To add a nice touch to it all, she kicked him hard in the soft spot of his stomach with her steel toe; she was hurting immensely, but she paid no heed to any of it. She was way too preoccupied at the moment to care.
Alkanon's eyes bulged as he tried desperately to breath, gasping for air; he would have growled if he had the breath to, but could not after all. With the last of his effort he screamed.
"BITCH!" His eyes were fierce like a wild animal just let out of its cage, turning a shade of darker blue; if Seras did not know any better, she would have sworn that she saw a glint of red...
He wretched his head forward and slammed it against her forehead, and she felt her own blood trickle down from her scalp to her forehead and drip down her nose. This head motion practically strangled him to death, and this startled Seras. He ripped his hands from the depths of his coat and bit wildly at her hands, gnawing at them like a mad, rabid dog; she whipped her hands away from the vicious contact, turning her off of him. She fell backwards and landed on the ground beside him, kind of disoriented to what had just happened.
Alkanon took this to his advantage and yanked out all the daggers and blades he could hold; having heard her fall, he knew exactly where she landed from the dull thud of her body.
He plunged them all down on her in such a force that he himself was surprised and backed away, the blessed knives slicing clear through her body; many through her stomach, sides, thighs, chest, and other various places.
Seras lay pinned inevitably to the blood-soaked soil, burned and scorched to no end by the holy blessing on the damned swords, as her form returned to visibility from her flickering weakness that was overcoming her.
AN: As the battle continues, we have a rather unexpected (and yet, he was very expected on the other hand) visitor that always seems to be more than happy to serve the two...