Chapter 6

After a quick dinner, Alberto and his newly recruited apprentice traveled by a hired caravan. When asked of the destination, Alberto merely said, "Randell, another one of those small towns." When asked whether there was a vampire attack, all the reply that Miranda got was a "yes".

Miranda still felt very uneasy beside her supposedly new master, he was a man with too few words, and it did very little help to melt the ice between the master and student. When she was with the Roses, every meal was heartwarming, with nice and idle chatter littered around. But with this man, there's no such thing, often times it was a perpetual silence despite how hard Miranda tried to break it. All she got was a very brief reply no longer than a sentence, and Alberto would often stop her from asking too many questions.

Because of this, the trip to Randell yielded very few words. Alberto preferred to cross his arms, eyes closed, and pondered deep about something Miranda hoped she knew. Having nothing better to do, she peeked out the caravan's window, but there's nothing much to see either, with much of the trip being in the middle of some forest.

The trip lasted around an hour, they stopped just outside the town, which was, a scene Miranda remembered too well, on blazes.

Why would he always come after the town is attacked? Not before? In some way, Miranda blamed Alberto for being too late to save her, else her adoptive parents would be spared. Tears began to exit her tear ducts as memories of that wretched night started to overflow her mind, the scene where Mrs. Rose grabbed her arm and run away leaving Mr. Rose to his demise; as well as the moment her mother was also grabbed in the arm, but by a vicious vampire which soon devoured her.

A large hand patted onto her small head, it was Alberto, "Come, we got work to do." That was all he said, the words he used may be cold, but his hand was warm, it was gloved, but Miranda could still feel the radiating warmness, and calmed down.

Leaving the caravan and the man manning it behind, they marched into town. Most of the people in the town were already dead, various parts of their bodies showed signs of being chewed and gnawed, many of them were missing a limb or two, some even became headless, perhaps some vampires had a bigger mouth and appetite. Not even women nor children were spared, the dreaded beings had no way to differentiate any of them, perhaps they could only identify their own kin, and anything that was living and moving would be categorized as food.

"Stay close to me all the time." That was the only instruction given by Alberto regarding this "job". Having said that, Miranda grabbed hold of her master's pants as they both advanced deeper into the destroyed town of Randell.

Peace did not last long, as they soon encountered the first vampire on sight, it was just like the ones Miranda saw in Lidoris, grey and wrinkled skin all over, foul odor of rotten corpse emanating from them, their facial features distorted, few strains of white and dry hair on top of their brainless head, eyes popping out and teeth rotten, their four limbs crooked and nails clipped off. They were capable of running, something which spooked Miranda as she quickly closed her eyes and brought herself closer to her master.

The ominous growl that was released from the attacking vampire soon died down as Alberto planted a dagger deep into its forehead. "Don't look away, watch." What Miranda did just now somehow displeased the vampire hunter, who expected his newly recruited apprentice to observe the entire ordeal. Miranda gulped, this was too different than practicing in the woods, these were vampires! Miranda tried to object, but realized that wasn't an option. Bracing herself, she followed her master closely as they resumed their hunt.

What was waiting for them next was no longer a solitary vampire, but a bunch, more like a dozen of them, as they gathered at the town's center and enjoying their feast of hapless humans. One of them was still alive, crying for help just moments before his predator sunk its teeth into his nape, forcing an excruciating cry from him.

Miranda looked at her master to see what he would do. Alberto pulled out six daggers like he did during training, and threw one onto the nearest vampire. This infuriated the others, seeing one of their comrades being taken down, as they launched a wild charge onto the opposing duo.

Alberto proceeded to released three more of his knives as projectiles, each of them landing accurately into the target's head or chest, stopping their tracks instantly. The remaining two daggers were held in each hand, serving as means of close combat as Alberto stood his ground and hacked down the onrushing vampires, black blood splattered all around, but Miranda did not receive any, being shielded by Alberto with his cloak.

It did not take too long before all of them were killed. "Did you witness the whole thing?" Miranda nodded. "Good. This is the reality now." Alberto finally spoke more, provided more answers for the questions Miranda had in her mind but had yet to bring them out into words.

"Vampires used to attack sporadically and alone, so each town would have two or three hunters stationed to get rid of them. All the while there's no problem. Until two months ago, something inside them changed, they started to gather, became more vicious, and attacked more often."

Miranda could not recall Mr. and Mrs. Rose telling her about the vampires until the very day she met them herself. Perhaps it wasn't really a big deal as they very rarely appears. In fact, Miranda could not remember any previous attacks in Lidoris until that fated day. She then began to tremble, realizing that those peaceful days were now under a constant threat. Nobody was safe anymore.

"Get stronger, Miranda." This was the first time Alberto called her name, and Miranda suddenly felt closer towards him, he became the only person Miranda could trust in such a dire state.

They resumed their purging of the town, the biggest bunch was taken down at the center, what remained was a handful of vampires scattered here and there, many of them taken down easily either by a pinpoint toss of a dagger, or just ruthlessly cut down from close range. After eradicating around thirty of them and roamed the town a little more, Alberto deemed their job was completed, and returned to the entrance where the caravan was waiting.