The search for the vampires has come to fruition! And the battle has begun...and could possibly go a bit better.
So sorry for the delays...both this and OC have been killing me, along with work and so many IRL things. My spoons are so in debt I'm gonna go bankrupt at this rate, /sigh. But I hope that you all enjoy this and all the fun little hints laid in the chapter!
Making their way through the dark hallways towards the vampires had been mildly challenging, but nothing the party couldn't handle. A few more shadows, ghouls, a ghast all interrupted but were quickly dispatched. Then they ran into the first thralls of the vampires…a trio of half-drained humanoids (Izuku was not sure if they were human or something else by this point), running at them screaming, blood dripping from their mouths like they were the ones biting things.
Unfortunately, running blindly towards skilled warriors was not a sound strategy, and Tenya, a glint in his eye, strode forward without waiting for the rest to strike. Blocking a blow with his shield, he parried it with so much force the one thrall was thrown across the hallway, crashing into the wall. Lightning quick, his spear jabbed out, impaling the center one, before retracting as he spun it in his hand, the bottom of the shaft smashing into the remaining one and stunning him, long enough for Tenya to run him through with his spear. As the final one began to rise, Tenya spun about, flipping his grip on the spear and launching it, running clean through the thrall's throat and ending its half-life.
Silently, Tenya strode over and pulled the spear out, his face twisted as he turned back to the staring party, even Shoto blinking at his unexpected viciousness. Tenya met their gazes for a moment, before his shoulders slumped ever so slightly and he turned back around. His voice was quiet as he spoke. "I do not enjoy striking down those who are cursed to perform such evil deeds at the hands of these vampires. Let's find them swiftly."
"...right," Izuku replied, nodding at his party member. It wasn't hard to see that the noble knight that put such stock in propriety and righteousness took issue with the way the vampires were controlling and using people as sacrificial pawns in their games. He didn't want to make Tenya dwell on it further, so he began to scout forward once more, deciding to sacrifice perfection for speed…their rest in Li's lair did help with the corruption issue, but he could see the strain keeping the barrier up was having on Shoto and Tsuyu, and was determined to finish this quicker.
Unfortunately, the vampires, while not far, had plenty of guards it seemed. They had to have waded through two dozen thralls already, including an incredibly terrifying minotaur thrall that had nearly broken Izuku's arm when he tried to block its blow with his sword. The sword held…his arm, not as much. Tsuyu was able to heal him slightly, but now his sword arm ached something fierce and he was very concerned now.
But as they approached, even with the hurry Izuku felt they were in, the group slowed. At least three thralls had escaped, which meant the vampires knew they were coming. This also left Izuku with a dilemma…Li had said they would not be interested in negotiation, and they were technically the target of their quest…but could they convince them to leave? Would that be wrong, considering they were murdering people and enslaving them? But they were thinking beings…
A hand on his shoulder had him turn his head to meet the chocolate brown gaze from Ochako. She tilted her head to the side in a question, Izuku feeling a small flush on his cheeks at how cute she looked…even covered in dust and with sweat tracks down her face, he couldn't help but appreciate the sight of her, her hesitant smile brightening the dark corridor and warming him in a way no magic could.
He shook his head to clear it, returning a reassuring smile back to her to hopefully assuage her worries. He knew he was being silly. Not only did he trust Li (a statement he never thought he'd say about a Lich), but the simple fact was letting the vampires go meant they would hurt other people somewhere down the line. They had to be stopped. Perhaps this would free their souls to travel beyond and hopefully have a better end than they had in this life…for now, they had no choice.
And now they faced an ornate door, beyond which they knew the vampires made their lair…a door where when they opened it, the vampires would be ready for them. Izuku turned back to look at his allies, the group preparing as best they could…the pink glow of Ochako's magic shimmering across her hammer, the blue-white lines of energy that suffused Tenya's spear and shield, wrapping about his legs visibly. Shoto's hands were raised, ready to unleash a wave of magic, as Tsuyu stood in the back, prepared to support as best she could until she saw an opportunity to strike.
Izuku let his magic fill him, the green sparks that indicated his power was active skittering across his skin like a comforting blanket. Blade in hand, he rolled his shoulder and lifted one leg up, wanting to give as little warning as possible…as he kicked the door open, the old metal hinges ripped from the wall and sent the door flying.
A blaze of dark magic came screaming towards him, melting through the flying door and heading directly for his face, but a spear of ice rocketed over his shoulder and slammed into the magic, the two powers canceling each other out. Izuku bolted into the room and dodged to the left, Ochako rolling to the right, as Tenya ran forward, shield up to keep anyone from sneaking behind him to strike at the mages.
This gave Izuku his first glance into the room, his mind calculating as quickly as he could what they were dealing with. A half dozen thralls were heading towards them, with two pale, fanged humanoids who moved with a disturbing grace following behind them. Vampires, his mind helpfully supplied, the yellow glow of their eyes visible in the darkened room. The room they were in was massive, what must have been a meeting room or temple of some kind before, the ceiling a good dozen meters high with various emblems and symbols carved into the six pillars scattered equidistantly about the room.
Across the back wall, a black crystalline tomb stood, spikes of obsidian-like rock spiraled out of it, embedded into the wall like some sort of weird web of obsidian. Faint pulses of red energy seemed to trail out of the tomb, pulsing in a slow, steady rhythm, almost like a heartbeat. He couldn't see into the tomb, but at his best guess he had to assume that was what the vampires were 'protecting', especially since he saw another two vampires standing by it, hands raised as they weaved magical energy to be launched towards his group.
He dismissed them for the moment, trusting Shoto and Tsuyu to handle them until he could get around the foot soldiers in his way. Most importantly, he had to keep track of where all the enemies were…which meant now he looked up. And as he suspected, he could now see the creature he assumed was the leader, considering how fancy his garb was. A deep black robe, with red lining it, short brown hair and piercing golden-brown eyes glaring down at them as he floated above them. The oddest part of his outfit was the gold trimmed plague doctor's mask over his face, blocking his expression…but the eyes told Izuku enough. As did the raised hand, one finger pointed in his direction.
Izuku's magic flared, kicking up to over thirty percent as he rocketed himself out of the way of the green ray that shot from the leader's finger, watching wide-eyed as the marble floor he'd been standing on vanished like it had been gouged out the ground by massive claws. He rebounded off one of the pillars, leaping to another one to send himself higher into the air, a third jump getting him high enough to launch himself at the leader. This was apparently unexpected, as the vampire's eyes went wide and he threw himself to the side, Izuku's blade grazing his cheek just enough to leave a red line across his face.
Izuku slammed his sword into the wall, skidding along it for a moment, and hung from it, half pressed against the wall as he turned to glare back at the vampiric leader. "Why don't you come down and fight, coward?" He shouted, hoping the wound would aggravate the leader enough to fall for his taunt.
"Silence, foolish mortal! You're nothing but pathetic cattle! Your only purpose is our food! Now lay down like a good dog and let us slaughter you!" the vampire replied with a snarl, his hands waving in another spell as Izuku grit his teeth and prepared to launch himself once more.
"Heads up Izuku!" Tsuyu's voice interrupted him, Izuku glancing down to see a massive hand of water reaching up for him. His eyes went wide in concern, but he glanced past the hand to see Tsuyu's staff glowing softly and realized this was her doing. His eyes quickly took in the rest of the fight…Ochako and Tenya had already brought down the thralls, and while Tenya spun about in a deadly dance with the two vampires wielding blades, Ochako had launched herself at the two casters in the back. One of them was running from her, eyes wide with fear as her hammer blazed with flame, while the other was dueling Shoto with magics, the pressure and recoil from their massive blasts forcing everyone around them to give them a wide berth, the very room echoing with the force of their duel.
With a grin, he dropped off the wall, falling backwards into the watery hand and finding himself cradled almost gently by it as it wound up and threw him back at the vampire leader. The leader snarled once more as his spell finished, Izuku bringing his blade up to try and deflect whatever came at him…only to realize he wasn't aIming it at him…but at the floor beneath Tsuyu.
Izuku ran his blade through the leader at that very second, but found himself unable to strike once more as the floor exploded, sending everyone, living and undead, flying across the room. Spikes rocketed up, impaling two of the vampires through their abdomens as Izuku watched, horrified, as one of the spikes went through Tsuyu's leg, making the druidess scream in pain as she collapsed. Another spike was barely deflected by Tenya's armor, but the armor bent nearly in half, the sudden cough of blood from Tenya's mouth making it obvious something had broken. Shoto barely avoided the spikes, but his head cracked into the wall, the mage not unconscious but dazed. And Ochako…her body was flung into the obsidian tomb, the sound of a snap erupting from her arm as she cried out, dropping her hammer from her nerveless fingers.
Izuku's thrust had not been true, the silver lined blade hissing as it burned the chest of the vampire's leader, but it had not struck the heart and so he lived. As the two tumbled from the air and slammed into the ground, Izuku was shaken loose by the berserk strength of the monster, the vampire bolting away from him with an unnatural grace. As Izuku tried to clamber to his feet, his balance a little shaken by the fall from above, his eyes cleared just in time to see the other vampires pulling themselves off the spikes with bloody grins…and to see the vampire leaders hand clenched around Ochako's throat, holding her squirming form off the ground with his mask finally removed, revealing the elongated fangs and long, squirming tongue. His golden gaze turned back to glare at Izuku, a loud cackle erupting from him even as blood dripped from the stab wound Izuku had inflicted.
"Oh how the tables have turned, cattle! Thank you oh so much for bringing us such delicious snacks. Enjoy the last time seeing her alive!"
The vampire moved in slow motion to Izuku's widened eyes. Leaning forward, jaw inhumanely wide, little drops of saliva dripped from his lips as he came closer and closer to Ochako's pale skin. The blacksmith's eyes wide and fearful, her unbroken arm trying to reach up to grab the hand about her throat but the vampire's other arm had snapped out to grip her wrist and refused to let her touch him to activate her magic.
Izuku could see it out of the corner of his eyes…Shoto, unsteadily climbing to his feet and trying to bring his staff to bear as one of the vampires launched herself at him…Tenya, barely holding off strikes from the now recovered vampiric swordsman who had been fighting her before…Tsuyu, the other two vampires creeping towards her as she brought her staff up, calling upon a desperate magical barrier to give herself just one second…
His friends were in danger, Ochako was in danger, danger danger dangerdangerdangerdanger, words repeating in his head more rapidly and fearful, everything in him reaching a fever pitch as emotions boiled in his breast…fear, concern, despair, but most of all…rage. Rage at these monsters, at them daring to hurt his friends, at the arrogance and dismissal, at the hand on Ochako's neck how dare he touch HER!?
Izuku let out an inhuman roar, one hand reaching up instinctively, feeling a pressure welling up from within him that just begged to be released…and he obliged. His eyes flared with an emerald light, lighting the entire room up as his body glowed for just one second…before everything was smothered beneath massive black tendrils of pure arcane energy, ripping from his arms and back and speeding out from him, quick as lightning.
None of the vampires had a chance to react, the tendrils slamming into the ones approaching Shoto, Tenya, and Tsu, sending them flying away and smashing them into the walls with sickening cracks. The leader, though, found a tendril wrapped about him, and one about Ochako, albeit they acted very differently. The one around Ochako was almost gentle, soothing, her eyes wide as it pulled her away from the leader, while the one around the previously masked monster instead began to crush him in its grasp, the sound of his ribs cracking audible to all.
Izuku swayed as he got to his feet, his teeth bared in a snarl as he held one arm up, pointing towards the monster, the tendrils arching painfully from his arm. His arm was bleeding, body aching, but he did not care anymore. This thing had to die.
With but a thought, Ochako was brought to Izuku's side, a trio of tendrils also wrapping about Tenya, Tsuyu, and Shoto, the three wide-eyed as they were dragged back to Izuku's side with careful speed. Izuku took a step forward, focusing on this weird black energy and its grip about the monster, eyes narrowed as he hissed at him. "Do not…touch…my…friends!" he roared, reaching back and rocketing his arm forward once more, the tendril following his actions as it slammed the vampire leader into the obsidian tomb, once, twice, thrice, over and over again.
Izuku's mind was filled with rage, with sheer unadulterated hatred, his vision tinting red as the green glow about his body began to flicker with a red energy. This bastard, this creature, needed to pay for trying to hurt his friends. For all the people he had hurt in the past, all the thralls he'd made, all the people he'd drained and slain over the centuries. This was a monster, a hellish undead being who cared for nothing but itself, and Izuku would bring justice down upon its head!
He could not see it, nor could Tsuyu, Shoto, or Tenya, behind him as they were, but the black tendril had brought Ochako right next to him, and after she managed to catch her breath and look up in wonder at Izuku, her wonder quickly turned to worry and horror…red sparks were flickering from his form, slowly overtaking the green, but the most concerning thing to her was the red that was slowly overtaking his emerald orbs. Not blood in his eyes, but something else, his eyes slowly shifting colors…and she did not like what she was seeing.
She began to reach up to grab his shoulder, to try and shake him out of whatever was holding him hostage, whatever was affecting him…but a loud crack had everyones eyes turn back to the broken, half squished form of the vampire leader…and what was behind him. The black obsidian tomb, with its soft red pulses…was now pulsing faster. A single crack was visible within the center, a single mark on its unblemished surface…that after a brief moment, grew. Splintered. Crackled and shifted, the enchantment on it beginning to falter.
"Izuku's magic…the Destruction magic…its…its interfering with the protective enchantments," Shoto murmured, blinking rapidly at the sight. "It…dispelled it, somehow. The seal is broken."
A flash of light aligned with Shoto's words, everyone in the room having to shield themselves from the brilliant flare of bright red light. The obsidian tomb shattered, shards flying out in all directions, making the gathered party duck. Izuku's black tendrils whipped up and began to deflect the particles, the red sparks reverting back into green as his focus shifted from attacking to protecting his friends, the tendrils retreating enough to let loose the vampire leader who began to scramble away from the tomb in fear.
As the red light faded, a soft, steady breathing was audible in the suddenly silent room. Izuku blinked the blindness from his gaze, unsteadily pulling himself to his feet, his entire body screaming in pain as the black tendrils began to slowly seep back into his body, leaving bloody streaks in his skin. He glanced over to the tomb, finally able to see what rested within it…
A feminine form with blonde hair, tangled and messy, a pale-skinned body with barely visible fangs from between her lips, eyes closed and seemingly asleep, her chest rising and falling steadily. Her body was curled on its side, as if wrapped protectively about something…a smaller form, in a dirty white dress, long silver hair barely visible between the arms wrapped about her tightly.
The red pulses visible in the remnants of the tomb, still steadily going through the extended crystalline pieces, suddenly cut out. In the stillness of the room…amber eyes snapped open.