Chapter 13
"Marco, Robert, charge head on and attract 'em. Alan, Lily and Miranda, shove 'em into their faces from the flanks."
"Yes, boss."
The Black Panthers split up in their usual formation, Marco and Robert were known for their physical strength and their fearless gut to face up with the vampires. The masses did not have a complex thinking and often went for the frontrunners. The common routine would involve Marco slamming his giant axe down onto the unfortunate ones who approached them the earliest, as well as producing wild swings to cleave the other vampires out of the way. Robert would then cover for him with his shotgun, capable of dealing heavy damage with the perfect range, blasting away any wretched vermin which Marco had missed.
This allowed the more agile members to move around with greater space. Alan was quite a traditional fighter, prompting the usage of medieval swords even when guns were already available for quite some time. He's very skilled at it, coupled with his quick feet, he could be described as dancing around his foes as he hacked them into pieces.
On the other hand, Lily was purely a ranged fighter, armed with twin pistols loaded with silver bullets, she was a prolific shooter with a terrifying aim. While possessing a good pace, she mostly utilized it to keep herself a good measure of distance from harm.
In comparison to those two, Miranda was perceived as a mix in between, as she was adept in both close and ranged combat. Not neglecting her training, her strength, speed and accuracy improved throughout the year. Her dagger could now pierce through three vampires and take them out at the same time. She was also feeling more confident about charging forward into the enemy lines and wiped them off with some impressive knifework.
All in all, their individual skills were decent enough to be on their own, and with some strategy added in, the ratio between gains and losses could be achieved at the best possible rate.
That is, if there's nothing unusual going on.
However, things did not go as planned that night.
"Ufufufu… still doing great, I see."
That voice!?
"Who's there?" Barto cried out after listening to a mysterious voice, which stood out so much due to the fact that their usual foes did not have the capability to speak, and he had already recognized all the voices of his teammates by heart.
Manifesting herself in the middle of the brainless, lesser beings, her presence alone froze all the ghouls in place. Sensing this irregularity, the Black Panthers rallied together around their leader, bracing themselves against this new enemy.
She was someone Miranda knew too well, her healed right shoulder stinging again slightly to remind her, cold sweat began to drip from her forehead. Her teammates noticed Miranda losing her composure, and immediately tightened their guard. The fact that their coolest and most powerful member would also cower would only spell trouble – this was no ordinary foe.
"Re… Remilia…" Miranda's voice trembled, the sickening images of Randell returned to her once again. She thought she had put it all behind her, this new life with her new friends too beautiful that it's most soothing. Has she come to take everything away again!?
"Ufufufu… thank you for remembering me, my dear Miranda Rose, is my presence so terrifying?" Remilia easily read through Miranda from her facial and body movements, "I said before, didn't I? I will take away everything you hold dear."
Miranda was stunned for a moment, the feeling that the events of Randell would just reoccur began to build inside her. "I don't understand! Why are you doing this!?"
"Your fate had already been sealed from the very moment we met." With a clench of fist, all the ghouls below her were crushed into a pulp instantly, their black blood twisting in a typhoon as they gradually morphed into a swarm of black bats. Using her new minions, Remilia directed them into the unguarded town of Rudoore.
"No!" Alan quickly grasped the severity of the situation. With the Black Panthers all out here to battle the ghouls, there weren't any who specialized in vampire hunting left in town to protect the people. An attack inside town had never happened before, as the ghouls would only attack from one place, and they would easily dispatch them outside town.
"The town!" Lily rushed back towards the direction of Rudoore, however Remilia did not allow it, materializing right in front of her, blocking her way.
"Where do you think you are going?" The Scarlet Devil replied with an intimidating smirk. Lily was forced to fall back to her comrades as they watched helplessly at the town being attacked.
"Who are you!?" Barto asked as he gritted his teeth, pulling out his silver knuckles and slammed them together to pump himself and his teammates up. The rest of the Black Panthers also readied their weapons as they were left with only one choice – take down the lady vampire standing in their way.
"A vampire. A genuine one." Remilia replied mockingly, "what you had been fighting all these years weren't actually true vampires, but lowly ghouls, merely weaklings and puppets for my personal entertainment. Ufufufu…" she proceeded to amuse herself by enjoying the looks of disbelief from the vampire hunters.
"Head's up, guys. She's the real deal." Miranda affirmed Remilia's words, a drip of cold sweat wiped off from her chin. She had to believe her for now, there wasn't any way around it, nothing could be said to deny the Scarlet Devil's claims. Up until today, everything they knew from those "vampires" were merely compilations of information from the past experiences, there wasn't anything to ascertain what they believed was the truth.
All the while they were battling against lies, achieving a false sense of peace and glory. This was it, the moment of truth slapped right into their faces.
Miranda swallowed hard, those dreaded scenes when she first met Remilia kept lingering in her mind. There was one major difference between them and now, however, the Black Panthers were now alongside her.
Maybe she could win this time, perhaps the great sense of invulnerability that oozes out from Remilia was merely her imagination. She pulled several daggers out and gripped them tight, "I do not fear you," she said, trying to exert some confidence to pull herself and the team together, as well as unnerve the opposing foe.
"Oh?" Remilia merely chuckled, her hand covering her mouth, "so, with friends who can fight alongside you, you believe you can beat me."
"Yes."
"Take the lead, Miranda," signaled Barto, the rest of the vampire hunters were also ready for battle.
"Understood."
Taking the initiative, Miranda flung a dagger towards Remilia, triggering the start of the confrontation. "You've improved." Remilia dodged it easily by dashing to the side. After the first attack, the rest of the Black Panthers charged in for a collective attack.
None of the attempts connected however, despite how skilled they were, the Black Panthers were soon served a humble pie as they quickly realized the difference in strength between them and this new foe.
She tried to hack her down, gun her down with her daggers, yet everything seemed… useless. The outcome looked totally unchanged as compared to Randell's. Miranda couldn't believe she was unable to close in the gap between the difference of their abilities, her attacks gradually becoming more and more reckless as she resorted to melee attacks more than ranged ones, cutting ruthlessly with all her might and speed. Regrettably, they only managed to cut through air.
"Playtime's over."
"Argggghhhhh!" Alan called out as the very center of his body was penetrated by sharp claws. Remilia pulled out her bloodied hand and savored the blood that followed, laughing maniacally during the process.
"Y… you!" Marco was the most affected by Alan's premature death. It was so swift, so merciless, as Alan's eyes were still left open, his frozen face appears the same of a shocked person. Marco waved desperately his axe, his attacks totally uncoordinated, and futile, as Remilia would go on and smashed the bladed part of the axe into pieces with her brute force, giving Marco the utmost shocking revelation of defeat.
Grabbing his face and held him up high, Remilia instantly crushed Marco's head into a bloody mess, right in front of his onlooking teammates.
"Marcoooooo!" Robert had always been close to him, as he was always covering for him during missions. He covered his distance between Remilia and spammed on the trigger, unfortunately, none of the pellets hit the target.
Remilia, with a brief chuckle, rushed onwards and tore his body into half, feasting upon one half and leaving the other half still standing for moment before collapsing lifelessly.
"How dare you!" Barto, grief-stricken with the loss of his three loyal members in such a short time, took the decision to charge in and unleash a series of combos onto the blood-stained enemy. Remilia decided not to dodge any of his attacks this time, instead catching them all effortlessly with her bare hands.
"Had enough?" Remilia taunted as Barto had reached the end of his favorite combination attack, which was so easily stopped. He couldn't believe what just happened, he had never seen anyone best him in such a humiliating manner, as he was touted to be one of the best martial artist in the land. His body soon gave up on fighting as they went into a state of total paralysis from the sole feeling of fear.
Remilia licked the edge of her lips as she used her claws to shred Barto into mincemeat, her claws going through flesh so easily and quickly that within seconds, the corpse of their leader was no longer recognizable.
"No! NOOOO!" Lily was the most emotional in the group, such a grueling sight was terrible to bear as she succumbed herself to the ground, having lost every notion to fight back. Miranda could not believe her eyes as she witnessed one by one, her supposedly competent teammates were taken down so easily. What is the meaning of this!? Everyone just… went down like it's nothing to her!
Remilia, having pretty much satisfied with her deeds, walked leisurely onto the numbed Miranda and crying Lily. She reached her hand and put Lily's face intimately close to hers. "Lily! No! STOOOOOP!" Ignoring Miranda's pleas, Remilia proceeded to kiss Lily's lips, at the same time sucking her life force out of her body. Once she was finished, all that's left was a wilted corpse.
Miranda's tears had finally fallen at the sight of losing her newly made best friend. Mouth trembling without a word coming out from it, it all happened again to her: everything dear to her was taken away.
And again, Remilia decided to spare her, chuckling with utmost satisfaction as she turned away and looked towards the doomed town of Rudoore.
"Look," Remilia asked Miranda to look at the town, as she raised a hand to summon a powerful magic, the very same red cross that appeared in Randell before, destroying the town and robbed of all its life from it instantly. Miranda looked on, misery and guilt filling up in her mind as she was unable to change a single thing that had happened before.
"Why? Why are you doing this?"
"The answer is simple," during this instant Remilia dashed in unbelievable speed into Miranda's face, easing her way to her ear, the Scarlet Devil whispered, "I want everything of you."
What Remilia had just proposed had yet to be digested by Miranda, yet the sharp claws of the vampire had already made their mark onto Miranda's unguarded back, carving deep and memorable wounds.
"Argggggghhhhhh!" Immediately reduced to her knees, blood beginning to force their way of Miranda's mouth. The pain much more unbearable than the one she was inflicted on the shoulder by the same opponent.
Remilia stopped behind her and unleashed the loudest laughter one could ever hear. "Too slow… too slow…!" Not waiting for her prey to get back up, she proceeded to plant more scars onto Miranda. Every yell released became a great source of pleasure to the sadistic Scarlet Devil, thoroughly enjoying the entire ordeal.
Once again, Miranda was spared, as the vampire still intended to keep her alive. "That's all for now." Leaving the totally battered girl lying in her own pool of blood, Remilia gradually walked away.
"Why!? Why didn't you kill me!?" Miranda retorted, seemingly more willing to accept death this very moment. The pain suffered from her physical wounds were the most extreme this time, but the damning sensation of losing everything again took the lion's share of her sorrow and despair.
"Not yet."
"!"
"I still haven't gotten everything from you."
"What!?" Everything the vampire said until now still barely made any sense, what did she mean by 'trying to take everything dear away'? 'Fate had already been sealed from the very moment we met'? 'I want everything of you'? Every word she said was just a load of baffling riddles to her, putting forth more confusions into her head.
The one thing she was absolutely certain was that, Remilia would return someday and haunt her.
Her vision gradually blurred, consciousness wading as her blood lost got the better of her. She did hear one last thing before going totally whited out, "we will meet again."