Love's Labors, Part 10
In that single split-second of furious analysis, you decide that the vampire is the priority target.
Nevati can wait. This new, aggressive undead is the true threat, both to you and your prey. Not just in terms of the immediate physical danger, but also her connection to this "mistress" that she serves. You want to know more about what's going on here, and you want any potential adversaries to be kept in the dark for as long as possible.
Ceriss is already moving, weaving magic with her wand as she sprints after the running battle between the vampire and the fire elemental. You give chase as well, threading between the pillars, analyzing every move the combatants make. You're searching for just the right moment to intervene. This enemy is clearly a formidable opponent just on skill alone, and her vampiric powers will make her especially difficult to contain.
She darts backward, twisting and flipping with acrobatic grace through the winding slashes and streams of flame. The two of them look evenly matched... but with your incredible perception you can tell that that's not truly the case. The vampire is controlling every moment of the fight, setting the elemental up while she waits for the perfect opening. This fight has already drawn Nevati out of her protective wards, forcing the wizard to improvise rather than acting from within an established plan.
And this undead warrior wants to capitalize on that.
The vampire ducks under another whip of fire... then suddenly goes on the offensive, slamming the hilt of her sword into Kaili's stomach. The blow jackknifes the fire elemental's body and sends her hurtling backward with inhuman force, just as Nevati is rounding one of the pillars. The two collide, Nevati reflexively trying to catch her familiar. This interrupts the spell Nevati had been preparing, as the two of them tumble end-over-end. Not wasting a moment, the vampire hurls herself toward the fallen pair, her huge sword raised high.
But before she can reach her target, Ceriss completes her own incantation with an angry cry. And then your entire field of vision explodes into furious, consuming flame.
Huge, serpentine columns of fire in the shapes of coiling dragons roar toward Nevati's attacker, melting the stone beneath them as they hurtle toward their target. The vampire's eyes go wide, and she twists in midair, stabbing her sword down into the stone to launch herself up toward the vaulted ceiling in a frantic, last-second change of course.
The blazing flame constructs howl past beneath her... but then Ceriss flicks her wand again, and they curve back in a rising arc for another try, twisting sinuously around each other as they track the airborne vampire's path.
Once again, the vampire bursts into a swarm of bats, swooping off in another mid-air dodge. This time, the flame from the dragon constructs' passing singes some of the bats' wings as the fire roars past. And even with the miss they just circle around yet again, faster than the small bats can fly.
Just before they catch up, the vampire returns to her humanoid form and kicks off a pillar she just barely manages to reach. The kick sends her rocketing away again on a radically different angle, hurtling earthward to land in a crouch as the dragon-flames rage just overhead. She lands with a force that cracks the stone beneath her, then immediately launches herself toward Nevati again.
But now Ceriss is standing between the young wizard and her attacker, flames raging around her as she takes a fierce protective stance, allowing Nevati and Kaili the chance to get back to their feet. Nevati in particular looks shocked. Hope, awe, and uncertain disbelief all struggle against each other in the gnome's expression, as she sees her worshiped-crush-turned-traitor nevertheless still interpose herself between her and the threat.
The vampire races toward them, undeterred. But the flame dragons are still active, and Ceriss brings them crashing down from above in a thunderous conflagration. The vampire veers to the left... only to have several rapid-fire gusts of wind slam into her as Aila zips past with astonishing speed. It doesn't do much damage—and what little it does do is easily healed by the vampire's regeneration—but it throws off her timing. Putting her on the defensive, and nearly allowing Tala to tag her with an enormous stone projectile.
By now Nevati is back on her feet, unsure of what to say given the situation. There's a great deal you could say, but you decide to shift the focus back to the matter you've chosen to prioritize.
You've taken your opponent's measure now. And you realize that if you want to capture her you'll need to act fast. She's highly skilled, and her supernatural defensive abilities are allowing her to hold on... but she's not anywhere near a match for two heroines at once. Especially now that any advantage of surprise is gone, making it even more difficult for her to take advantage of her superiority in close-quarters combat.
Once that realization outweighs her stubbornness, she'll likely cut her losses and flee.
"That shapeshifting is her most tricky ability," you say in a confident, commanding voice. "Do either of you have anything that could suppress it? Stop her from turning into those bats?"
Nevati hesitates, glancing over to where her water elemental has now joined the three-pronged assault on the vampire, hurling twisting waves that wash through the immense chamber to strike from different angles. The trio are holding their own... but they're unable to do any lasting harm, and it's still dangerous even with the numbers advantage. A single slip could mean disaster for one of them, even with the numerical advantage.
She turns back to you. "I... I d-do know a spell that can block transmutation..." she says. You can see her normal anxieties fade a bit, as she focuses instead on the needs of the moment "But I'd need to touch her to cast it."
"Let us worry about that," you say. "Just get the spell ready, and stay close to Ceriss." With that you unfurl your wings and take to the air, putting pressure on the vampire from above. Not that you can do much in direct combat... but she doesn't know that. Which means—at least for a few crucial seconds—you're giving her yet one more threat that she has to balance.
She's darting back and forth below, sword blurring in a series of parries as Tala gets right in her face, the earth elemental swinging her hardened arms in punch after punch, while Aila and the water elemental harry her from either side. You study their movements, making utmost use of your newly-enhanced analytical ability as you read the positioning across the entire battlefield. You can see where the flow of combat is taking the fighters. And you can visualize what it will take to get them where you want them to go.
Nevati is running toward the heart of the battle, her staff at the ready, her fingers tracing complex runes in the air with astonishing speed. You swoop in low, veering left and right as you follow the raging fight. You have only one direct contribution you can make, and the element of surprise will be crucial to it having any effect against a warrior as powerful as this one.
Kaili and Ceriss rejoin the fray as well, turning up the heat. You can tell from the vampire's expression that she knows she doesn't have a prayer against a combined offensive like that, that she's preparing to flee.
And right in that moment of indecision—timing it to the very best of your tactical analysis—you snap your fingers.
A summoning portal opens behind the vampire, disgorging a slavering tentacle monster through it. Unlike the elementals you tried this trick on, however, the vampire is too skilled for it to take her by surprise. She senses the unexpected attack, twisting her body to slide under the mindless demon's grasp and then spinning to bring her sword up and bisect the ungainly creature in less than a second.
Unfortunately for her... you were counting on that.
One single tentacle monster wasn't intended to subdue a warrior of her caliber on its own. But you timed it just right. Reading Tala's pattern of attacks. Provoking the vampire's reflexive reaction to the unexpected attack from behind at just the wrong time. The distraction allows the earth elemental to finally land a solid blow, crashing into the vampire from the side with a bone-crunching impact and flinging her into the air.
"Aila! Send her back to Nevati!" you shout. The eager air elemental rushes to comply, ratcheting her speed up to even more incredible heights. She shoots up to intercept the reeling undead, the air currents swirling around her, enveloping both of them as she draws deep on the reserves of her strength, focusing her power into a single strike. Then she thrusts out her hand, and the vampire is hurled earthward with cyclonic force, the winds hammering her flat into a shallow crater directly in front of her mistress.
Already the battered vampire is regenerating, and you know the opening you've created won't last longer than a few seconds. But when deposited right in front of a prepared heroine, an opening of a few seconds is far, far too long. Nevati places her small hand on the undead's body, completing her incantation, and a glowing rune forms on the vampire's skin at the point of contact. She screams in rage, trying to disperse into bats again and make her escape... but all that accomplishes is making the rune glow brighter as Nevati's spell suppresses the ability.
Ceriss immediately follows that up with her own magic, binding the vampire hand and foot with glowing purple chains of force. She screams and curses, kicking and thrashing as best she can... but she's clearly your prisoner now.
You spend some time ensuring that the vampire is secure, but once you're confident in that, you look back up at Nevati. "Thank you," you say. "We couldn't have pulled that off without you."
The young gnome's eyes widen. Now that the adrenaline of the immediate combat is fading, she's remembering the threat that you pose, irrespective of your (momentary) alliance. She starts to back away from you, licking her lips as she tries to figure out what will happen next.
"Please, Nevati..." Aila floats down to join you as well, her voice heartbreakingly plaintive in its simple, guileless desperation. "Please don't be mad at us. Just... just let him show you, and I promise you'll understand..."
"I..." Nevati continues to stumble backward. She looks from you, to the vampire, to Ceriss, to her beloved familiars, and then back to you again, her expression more lost than ever. "I... I... I... I n-need to... I need to think! Kaili! Muli!"
With that she turns, and straight-up flees deeper into the crypt, like the hounds of hell are at her heels. Her fire and water elementals follow close behind her, though they do both glance back over their shoulders, staring at their fellow elementals in incomprehension. Aila and Tala, for their parts, just look back sadly.
Part of you wants to chase after them, but you know they can take care of themselves. The vampire is still the most pressing danger, all things considered. Studying Nevati's spell, you determine that it should last for a full day, allowing you to keep this undead contained for at least that long. The vampire in question is still struggling, but by now it seems to be more out of frustration and shame at her failure than any serious expectation of freeing herself.
Kneeling down in front of her, you look with amusement as she fixes you with a venomous glare, those glowing red eyes seething as she twists her neck to look up at you. "What's your name?" you ask calmly. "I know we got off on a bad foot... but now that you're not trying to attack us, maybe we can talk about this."
The vampire does not look impressed. "Do your worst, hellspawn," she spits. "I will not betray my liege, no matter what tortures you inflict on me."
You raise an eyebrow. "Your liege?" you echo, curious. "You spoke of a 'mistress' before, but... do you serve the Witch Queen as well? Because if so, you should have no quarrel with us. We are here on her orders."
The look of contempt on the vampire's face does not falter. "I serve my Witch Queen, hellspawn," she fires back defiantly as she continues to strain against her magical bonds. "And nothing will ever change that loyalty. Not even death itself!"
The emphasis on her Witch Queen causes your eyes widen slightly, as you put all the pieces together. "You're talking about your progenitor..." you murmur, finally understanding. "Your 'mistress' is the vampire who created you. A vampire raised from the corpse of one of the former Witch Queens."
The prisoner looks slightly surprised for a brief moment, and you realize she must have been assuming that you already knew who the true ruler of this immense subterranean crypt was. But she rallies quickly. "Your Witch Queen may rule every other part of Kovora now..." she says bitterly. "But this one refuge is my mistress' domain. And I will not allow it to be violated by intruders and despoilers. Not even under the command of those that have taken her place!"
Your mind whirls as you take this new information into account. A vampire Witch Queen. How powerful would such a creature be? How long ago did it happen? How much of her living strength would she still retain in that form? And how much have vampiric powers added? What are her goals, and how will they interact with your own plans, both for Nevati and for Kovora as a whole?
It's impossible to say. Your only lead, for the moment, is her vampiric "child" here. But how to follow up on that lead?
Actually killing a vampire is notoriously tricky. The two accepted methods are to either expose them to direct sunlight, or to drive a wooden stake through their heart while they are resting within their coffin. Most other measures would be temporary solutions at best. And if you did take her back to the surface, that would leave Nevati on her own for quite some time... as well as probably provoking her more powerful progenitor to an extreme extent.
So while it technically is something you could do, it has some pretty huge downsides for relatively little gain.
That said, even just destroying the body in front of you would at least put her out of commission for full day, as her body re-forms wherever she has her coffin hidden away. If you think conflict with her mistress is inevitable, that alone could give you a leg up, without taking the time to drag her back to the surface.
Of course, she could still be very useful to you. You could work on corrupting her, tempting her over to your cause, which could also give you extra insight into the powerful player you've just learned about. Her extreme loyalty, combined with her vampiric resistances, might mean that it takes a little longer than usual to fully bring her around... but you're confident that you could make some serious progress right now, enough to at least significantly sway her emotions in your direction, even if not completely.
Or if you didn't want to outright fuck her yet, you could tease and molest her, driving her to the edge of pleasure while not letting her go over. That approach would be enticing her with what you aren't giving her, instead of what you are. Both approaches could work, given your skills; it's simply a matter of which you find the better fit.
And if you didn't think the time was right to make any moves, you could just leave her unmolested for the time being. The most boring of approaches, to be sure, but it is technically an option if you really felt it necessary.
Finally, there's the question of your next step.
Nevati has fled to try and collect herself, to try and figure out what to do now that even more of her trusted supports have gone over to your side. You could continue to chase after her, devoting all your efforts to bringing her over to your side as quickly as possible. That, of course, would mean that the ruler of this place would be making her own moves without you being able to learn about or interfere.
On the other hand, you could let Nevati continue on her current course for now, and try to head off the threat of the more powerful vampire before it can become a greater problem. Either by trying to reason with her—if she turns out to be amenable to that—or by finding a way to take her on directly.