"Hey, hey! Wake up! This is not the perfect place to take a nap, Amar! Wake up!"
"…What…?" He asked in a sleepy tone.
"Get up. We're putting ourselves in danger."
Then, a figure of a woman appeared at the Safe Point's door.
"Told you!" He screamed, pulling the sliding block of his Desert Eagle.
"No! Don't! I mean no harm!" She said, with an almost screaming tone.
Later, she went in the place both A-01 and Amar Ma'aruf were hiding.
"Just who are you anyways?"
"I'm Arcueid Brunsteud."
"A…rcu…eid…" He mumbled in a somewhat low tone.
"Hey dude, you're okay?"
"Really… don't worry about me…"
Arcueid took Amar Ma'aruf, and she lifted him to her back. She was worried for no reason apparently.
"Why are you two here?"
"We are finding a person by the name Kaname. She was a wind sorceress and she led us here with the rest of our comrades." A-01 bluffed.
"Don't bluff. You're looking for Dracula, right?"
A-01 sighed in defeat.
"Okay, you win. I'm lying all right. But the Kaname part was true actually."
Arcueid stopped walking.
"Well, is Ma'aruf-chan is doing alright?"
"He's never be- hey, wait a minute! You know him?"
"I know him much longer than you do, Amar-kun."
"Hah?! How did you know my name?"
After a while, Arcueid explained that she was Ma'aruf-chan's mentor. Ma'aruf-chan clawing attacks like Crissaegrim Slice, Muramasa's Blades, Gurthang Cutter and Vorpal Vortex was few of the end products.
"So, that's how did he learnt to do those attacks, instead of the standard Iron Reaver Soul Stealer and Blades of Blood."
"That was his attack's variant."
Clock Tower
Meanwhile, at the topmost section of the clock tower, Chris had just defeated the Giant Bat, the boss of the area. As he went to the Castle Keep, he ignored the stairs, and he chose to drop down to the Royal Chapel. There he met a figure he knew so well.
"Alucard!"
Alucard had just finished the Chapel's Hippogryph, and he was standing there, resting after the 10-minute battle.
"What are doing here, Alucard?"
"I was just about to ask you the same question, Christopher Belmont."
Then, he had received news from Alucard.
"You mean you came all the way back here because Dracula was finding a new body?"
The dhampir nodded.
"There are two possibilities. One was the man in a strange white clothing with a small demon and a human girl following him."
Sesshomaru.
"And the other was a young boy, about the same age as you."
That's… that's Amar Ma'aruf…"You haven't noticed this earlier, Belmont?"
"No… I knew them so well that I don't know what's happening…"
Chris sighed in defeat. He didn't want to argue with Alucard who now is hundreds of years older than him. Alucard then puts his hand on Chris' shoulder.
"Your friend still could be saved but I just can't let him fall into my father's hands, and if he did, it'll be all over."
Chris stared at the ground, speechless.
"Belmont!" Alucard snapped.
"Y-yes?"
"Look lively, and don't forget, he's still your friend even though he's my father's candidate. If he falls into Dracula's possession, he'll be your enemy forever or worse, for all eternity."
"I understand."
"We will see each other again."
Alucard bids a temporary goodbye, and then he moved on to the Castle Keep.
I hope that hanyou will be all right. Hang in there, Amar Ma'aruf.Coliseum
Back at the Coliseum, a Werewolf and a Minotaur at the Arena ambushed Arcueid, A-01 and Amar Ma'aruf. To make things worse, they don't give time for A-01 to reload, and the arena was giving the Minotaur and the Werewolf much more advantage rather that being a neutral and fair fight.
"Damn it!" A-01 yelled in anger. He pulled out his knives and then he screamed… "Here goes! Arcueid! Cover me!"
"Right!"
When the Werewolf started throwing punches, A-01 too throws his punches at it; with the third hit was a charged fist. That made the half human wolf thrown to the other end of the arena.
"Gotcha!"
The standing bull now was taken off guard, and Arcueid uses her Crissaegrim Slice on the Minotaur. Later, she used the Gurthang Cutter, with the shed blood of the half bull healing her previous injuries. The boss was defeated with a charged punch and the Werewolf was killed with the Minotaur's axe, courtesy of A-01.
"Well that was fun. In a really sick, terrible, not-fun-at-all way!" A-01 exclaimed. He then saw Arcueid crouching on the Arena's floor. "You're okay, Arcueid?"
"Blood… I hate blood…must…wash them…"
A-01 took his bottle of water, and he poured some on his palm, and he washed the blood on Arcueid's face. When he's done with it, Arcueid started crying.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"My weakness was blood. I can't stand the sight of it, and if I do, I usually faint or go beserk… I'm a vampire that hates blood, if you know what I mean."
"I know what you mean, but doesn't if feel… well… pretty weird? I mean a vampire who hates blood? Now that's a news."
Now, A-01 gave a piggyback ride on Amar Ma'aruf, and they started towards the other entrance of the Coliseum. That's when all three of them bumped into Chris.
"Chris!"
"Huh?"
Upon hearing A-01, Chris stepped away from the pillar he's leaning on a while ago, and he ran towards them.
"You're okay? You seem to be in a daze."
"I'm fine, really."
A-01 rolled his eyes. "That's what he said." A-01 said, referring to the now unconscious Ma'aruf-chan on his back.
"There's something I want to tell you, about Amar Ma'aruf, that is."
"Repeat that in a way that could understand, please."
"A while ago, I met Alucard by coincidence, and he told me that Dracula is finding a new body, and the candidates are Sesshomaru and Amar Ma'aruf. It seems to me that Sesshomaru is rejected prematurely, and Amar Ma'aruf was chosen as the replacement. We have to save him before he becomes Dracula, or else…"
"I'd rather do a saving mission than scouting the area. What do you think of that, Arcueid?"
"I'll do the honors for saving him from that evil lord of Wallachia."
Underground Waterways
At the Underground Waterways (or rather Underground River) Inuyasha and his friends managed to beat up a Scylla, with Miroku almost getting caught by her 'beauty'. As they got back to the place where they encountered Scylla Wyrm two cave rooms below, they saw Kaname.
"So you've made it this far."
"You again!" Inuyasha yelled, pulling Tetsusaiga out of its sheath.
"Remember, time is running out. Soon, that boy will be ours for good…" She said that before she disappears into the thin air.
Kagome stood steadfast and she exclaimed… "What she meant was Ma'aruf-chan is in danger guys. If we don't hurry, he'll theirs, as in Amar Ma'aruf will become their master!"
As they was about to pass the wooden bridge that crosses over a pothole that leads to the Abandoned Mine, they met Arcueid, A-01, Chris and Amar Ma'aruf, Kagome stopped and she warned them not to step on the rotten bridge, but it was too late. When all four of them put their weight on it, they fell into the dark abyss below.
"We'll be there soon, just stay there!"
Abandoned Mine
Arcueid woke up from the downfall, and she felt she fell on someone. It was A-01, who was overwhelmed under the weight of the vampire woman. He's now unconscious on the mine's floor.
He's so handsome…A-01 woke up, and that's when Arcueid gave him a kiss.
"Hey, thanks for the kiss." He said that.
Arcueid went red. He had waked up at the moment she kissed his lips!
"You know, you look so… different… when you passed out a while ago."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now get off my stomach, please."
Kirara later descended down the big pothole, with Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Shippo and finally followed by Inuyasha.
"You're okay?"
"Fine."
"Where's the other two?"
"Right here! I found a door here, maybe enough for the cat to get in!"
Chris was referring to Kirara in her other form, her bigger form, of course.
Deeper into the mine, Chris encounters a Cerberus, the three-headed dog. However, he was cut off from the rest, so he has to fight the dog, on his own.
"Well, someone have to kill it."
The Cerberus howled, spitting fireballs. When Chris jumped on a platform above the three-headed dog, the Cerberus sat down like a pet canine, before spewing a stream of three-colored fire diagonally!
He avoided the fire by jumping down the platform to the Cerberus' back, throwing vials of acidic water on it. Later, he whipped the Cerberus multiple times until it jumps away from him. The dog also took a chance to fire a projectile that made the floor of the room covered in flames.
Chris jumped up to another platform in time before he got burned to death. He threw a dagger he found on the platform he's crouching on, which hit the demon's paw, and later a rusty sword he found on the platform. Once it was down, Chris kept whipping it until the Cerberus howled to death.
"Yes!"
Chris picked up the energy ball, and he clutches it until the door that cuts him from the rest of the team lowers.
"I'm glad that HE'S safe." A-01 sarcastically welcomed him.
"What?"
"I'm missing all the fun that we were supposed to get!"
"It's not my fault. The door slammed behind me. I don't know how to break the boulder, and if I do, maybe I had become the three-headed dog's meal."
"You got a point." Arcueid said that after a while.
The energy ball floats from Chris' hands and later; it went into Shippo's body.
"What's next?"
Chris reads an inscription on a door separating the room to another area below.
"Up next, the catacombs."
They jumped down the solid stairs made out of the cave's stone, until they arrived to the area where the catacombs lie.
Catacombs
"This looks like… a grave…" Miroku exclaimed.
"Yes it is, Miroku. Did you know that European castles like this had graves underneath their castles?"
"No."
"What about Malaysian ones?"
"Royal families is buried underground, but open space like cemetery for their subjects. The usual Muslim cemetery."
"Oh, I see."
Later, after exploring the catacombs, Inuyasha sensed a scent of corpses.
"There." He pointed, to a large room where there were a number of skeletons, as one by one dropped down to the floor of the large room, a big ball of corpses, Grandfaloon (or Legion in some Castlevania games) emerged out of piles of skulls, ribs and bones. Strange enough, the bad smell had subsided.
"Kirara, Sango, Arcueid, go to the ledge on the opposite side there. Inuyasha, Miroku, Shippo, Chris, stay here. Help me to get on that platform with him."
"Okay."
Inuyasha lifted both Amars to the ledge where they first entered the room, and after getting them both in position he jumped back down.
"Now! Finish them!" A-01 gave orders for them to start attacking.
Chris throws his Grand Cross on one side of the Grandfaloon, followed by his whip which struck the same side two times.
"Miroku, remember not to suck these guys up with your Wind Tunnel, God knows what'll to you if you do so!"
"I understand."
Setting up his Minimi Para, he loaded chain-fed ammo into the miniscule-sized GPMG. As he told the others to get away from the firing range, he started to fire away.
He did that until the topmost side of the Grandfaloon breaks off. Chris jumped up to the air, as he stopped A-01 from firing, and then he sliced through the big ball of corpses with his Slice Dash.
"Not a minute too soon, Chris."
The leftmost and rightmost part, along with the center part of the corpse ball broke off, giving a chance for maximum damage.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango throws her giant boomerang to the center part of the big boss.
"Vorpal Vortex!" Arcueid claws violently with her claws, creating a vortex blade every time she swings her hand.
"Grand Cross!" Chris uses his Item Crash on the Grandfaloon.
"Out of the way! WIND SCAR!"
Inuyasha's Wind Scar totaled the Grandfaloon. The center part that was left behind burns on air but then, something goes wrong. As the part explodes, a bright flash followed it, which knocked them over for six.
Kaname appeared at the center of the room. She took Amar Ma'aruf away while saying… "I'll take our new master with me."
The others couldn't protest, as they all were unconscious.
A/N: Ah ha! Now there's the catch! Though the Grandfaloon is done for, Kaname had used this opportunity from the monster's death to an advantage. She now had Amar Ma'aruf and starting that point, the clock is ticking for the others. So there'll be more remaining chapters, so wait and read. Don't forget to review. I stopped doing Castlevania's Pursuit for a while and concentrated on other works as well. So anyone who waits, his or her wait now ends.