Of the Night IC

Spoiler:

"Fire!" The arrows streaked through the air, and this was Sir John's que. He was bedecked in shining silver armor and brandished Celsus, his sparkling silver blade. For this battle only, John had pulled out his old close helm. The helmet wasn't quite as polished as his armor or roundshield (which was as reflective as a mirror). On his back was a red cape with a silver stripe trailing down the center of it. At either side of John's horse was a white werewolf, and to his left was Orthus, his two-headed Bull Mastiff. All four of them looked up at the streaking fireballs that trailed across the sky and exchanged glances.

"All-powerful Lord God!" John cried out, his sword held high in the air "Give me the strength to conquer the forces of evil in your name!" John had already taken a strength potion that for thirty minutes would give him near-vampiric strength and durability, but this time he wasn't going after any normal vamp. This was a master vampyre, no less than seven-hundred years old. He was confident, though, and actually smiled as the wolf to his left, the Alpha Wolf of the Lunae pack, howled. All around the old castle, wolves charged in pairs. They stormed the guards, slaughtering them mercilessly, and converged on the castle gates with the rest of Gerald's party. John finished his prayer and reared his horse heroically. He cried out "FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!" and charged. Both wolves soon overtook his horse, and Orthus trailed behind, snarling viciously. The Alpha at his left and Alastair at his right, John felt invincible. With his left hand (the one his shield was strapped on), he grabbed a small black bomb-like device and threw it at the gate. The bomb stuck and exploded, drenching the wooden gates in green fire and adding to the inferno supplied by the arrows. One of the guards ran with his halberd high and swung at John's horse, but Alastair caught him by the chain mail and tore his throat out. John turned to his left and slashed at another guard from the saddle, splitting his head open and killing him almost instantly. Soon all eleven Lunae wolves were present at the door, next to John and Lord Gerald's men. John had absolutely insisted that the wolves accompany him despite everyone's clear aversion to them. After years of fighting, John learned that these wolves were the finest band of warriors he had ever had the privilege of meeting. No knights of the round table or band of merry men could eclipse their sheer cunning and ruthlessness.

Meanwhile, in the Black Marsh...

Spoiler:

"Fair is foul and fowl is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air!" -Macbeth Act I, William Shakespeare.


The cauldron bubbled and hissed like the roar of a steam engine. The liquid in this cauldron was thick and olive green like pea soup, and a massive wooden spoon slowly stirred it. The wooden spoon was held by none other than Grinda, the Witch of the Black Marsh. The room she was in was at the base of her enormous wooden hideout. The walls were covered in shelves that neatly held hundred of potion ingredients. The witch herself was hideous, but yet enticing, ugly, but yet at the same time beautiful. Her green skin glowed in the light of the green oil lanterns that hung in the room, and her enormous snake tail gracefully wrapped around the fire at the bottom of the cauldron, warming itself. Her black hair trailed down her back and across her breasts. She wore no clothing as usual, and her toothy grin was stretched wide across her face as she added ingredients to the brew. The ingredients were grabbed by her harpy servants and brought to her, where she poured in the required measurement for the potion. Each ingredient was held in glass vials, and Grinda measured them with a set of silver measuring cups. Dry ingredients, she stretched out and cut with her scythe-like tail that lazily hung over the edge of the cauldron and hovered just above the brew. With each ingredient, Grinda said it's name aloud in a high, snakelike voice, as if her voice was the same as the snake that enticed Eve in the Garden all those years ago.

"Clipping from an orange tree! Stinger of a killer bee!" The ingredients were always added in rhyming couplets, in the ancient tradition of witches. She dropped in a sprig from a tree on which a few shriveled oranges hung and a large black stinger. "Venom of a boomslang snake! In the cauldron, boil and bake!" A large green snake hung down from the rafters and sprayed in a teaspoon of milky-colored venom. The cauldron hissed and began to shift from green to orange.

"Clipping of a vampire's wing! Skin of toad, and doxy's sting! Carcass of a locust bug, slimetrail of a burning slug!" In order, she dropped into the potion a piece of leathery black bat wing, the full dry skin of a desert toad, a very small set of jaws, a dead locust, and a teaspoon of black liquid that appeared to be on fire. The cauldron hissed, and the brew turned scarlet red. It was nearly finished. There were six ingredients left.

"Sprig of rosemary, silver dust, fairy's skull and iron's rust! Add body with enchanted rice, cool it with some arctic ice. Now the potion's good and done, and Lord Satan's songs be sung!" She dropped in a sprig of rosemary, some silvery dust, a very small skull and a tablespoon of rust. She dropped in two cups of green rice, and finally a large chunk of ice from the North Pole, which she kept in a special magic cooler. The potion bubbled all the more as she stirred it quickly. After a few moments, it cooled and turned neon orange. The brew was complete. An ugly mottled bird with oily brown wings and a human woman's head fluttered through one of the four high windows in the potion room. It was about four feet tall when standing on it's double-jointed birdlike legs, and had claws on its wings like a bat's. The creature was incredibly ugly, with a leathery face and long green hair tied in a ponytail. It folded its wings and legs, and let it's mottled tail feathers hang out of the window.

"Mistress, of Satan begot, what hellbroth burns within your pot?" The harpy screeched with a voice like a parrot. Grinda's harpies always spoke in rhymes. Grinda cackled and patted the harpy on the head affectionately.

"This, my pretty, is a potion that will come in handy someday. It is Essence of Sunlight. In gaseous form, it will prevent vampires from transforming into fog. Now go gather your sisters and use the thuribles to sprinkle this brew around the marsh!"

"The vampires shall all be slain, yes my mistress, I shall obey!"

"Good bird." Grinda said, patting it on the head "Now off you pop!" The harpy fluttered out of the window again and called out with a song like a screech owl's. Two more harpies fluttered down from the trees and grabbed the golden thuribles from a storage room at the top of the gigantic dead tree. Grinda slithered away as they flew into the potions room and began to ladle the potion into the thuribles. The rest of the potion, they would place into flasks and store in a room near the top of the tree, where all of the defensive potions were kept.

"I sssssssshall watch over them, misssssstressssss." a large Indian Rock Python said, rearing up to shoulder height of Grinda. Grinda patted it on the head, and descended down the wooden stairs that headed below the surface of the water. Down on the next floor was her scrying pond, a circular pond about four feet in diameter that was charmed to be perfectly flat. She closed the door behind her gently when she entered the room, and drew her green jade wand from where she had held it in her hair. She pointed it at the pond, and the water began to glow green.

"Scrying pond, set on the floor, show me the one whom I adore." She locked both doors in the room and made sure that no one else was inside. On the pond's surface appeared an image of the battle currently raging at the castle of the vampire. John was in combat, his silver armor shining in the morning light. She sighed and smiled. John was one of the few creatures that Grinda didn't want to kill. You could say that she had a crush on him, but if you did, she'd tear your throat out. Her love for him was secret, and at least a dozen snakes had died because they spied on her scrying sessions. He was still alive entirely because of her crush, as he, quite frankly, was easy for her to kill. She hugged herself around her chest and sighed happily. There was a clattering from up above, and the screech of harpies. There was a knocking at the door.

"Misssssstresssssss." the python said "Agatha dropped a flasssssssk of your potion, and hassssssss been blinded." Grinda hissed with anger and dashed the pond with her tail, causing the image to disappear.

"Those bird-brained idiots!" Grinda hissed with rage "I'm coming, Mustafa!" She slithered towards the door and threw it open. The potion room was filled with blinding light. Grinda sighed angrily and blasted the brightly glowing potion with her wand. It turned an inky black and the bright light stopped. They just couldn't let her be happy, could they?

Far away from the destruction of war, a cheery song could be heard by the strongest of ears. Deep within the forest, one that was almost impossible to traverse without a guide, a small flute was being played. The player of the instrument had no need to fight a war she had no part in, and had almost no worries at all. As the guardian of this neck of the woods her only goal, her only direction, was to keep it safe. Both the plants and the animals were almost like family to her, and so her life's destiny came without a surprise to her. And so she continued to play her flute as she skipped her way through the thick underbrush. She never found herself stuck or lost, as if the forest itself was bending and changing to allow her passage. The soft clopping of hooves acted like a time keeper to the guardian, allowing her music to go along as she did. The song was almost like a marching song, one someone might hear as an army passes through town. However the girl trailed no army, instead flowers bloomed in her wake and animals exited their burrows with excitement. As a satyr two things came remarkably easy to the girl, playing music and living within nature.

The girl stopped upon a rock, her hooved feet clopping softly on the hard surface. Her eyes remained shut as she played, allowing her fingers to do as they wished and play what they wished. Despite this song being made up as she went, the notes never went too flat or sharp. The only time she ever truly felt at peace with herself was when she played her music, however The satyr knew her song must end eventually. She had work to be done as part of her daily duties and works to the forest she loved so dearly. Her fingers began to slow, her breathing becoming softer and softer as the notes she was playing began to fade into the trees around her. As the last note finally left her flute the girl opened up her eyes, slowly taking in the scene around her, lowering her flute from her lips. It always made her heart swell, seeing so many different animals of the forest gathering around her to hear her play. She never understood why, but she loved it.

Gathered around her were all sorts of different animals, birds perched up in trees and in her hair, squirrels and mice swarming around her feet, behind her in a river fish leapt out of the water in dazzling shows, and several timid deer stood near the tree line, ready to dash away if something bad was to begin. The girl laughed, standing up and bowing at the hip. "Thank you! Thank you! Your queen, Vesta, is proud to play her music to such a lovely group of animals!" Vesta often joked to the creatures of the forest that she was a queen, while in reality she was more like an overseer to several different kingdoms. All animals had their own societies, she just made sure everyone stayed in check. She hopped down from the rock, being careful to avoid any animals that might be circling her hooves. She scooped up several mice, allowing them to sit on her shoulders. They spoke of how well their families were doing, gathering food and creating warm burrows. Vesta congratulated them with a soft pat on the head and some kind words as they climbed down her legs, back into the deep forest. The squirrels shared a quick concern with one of the trees in the forest, saying it was not well. Vesta nodded, promising to take care of it. The deer were rather soft spoken, never complaining. Vesta gave each of them a soft stroke on the chin, her thoughts suddenly cut off by a bird chirping in her ear. "What's that?" Vesta said, allowing the bird to perch on her finger. "You say there were some weird sounding birds near the marsh?" Vesta grinned, knowing well who the birds belonged to. "Don't worry." She said, allowing the bird to take off. "I'll check it out."

Vesta knew the way to the marsh rather well, and the way to her 'friend' Grinda even better. She could smell the marsh from miles away and hear the squawking the groans of her strange animals even further. As she walked she advised the animals not to follow her, as the marsh was rather unpredictable. And the animals that lived there even so. Vesta couldn't say that she liked what Grinda had done to the animals there, it was hard to talk to them or even get them to listen, but Vesta had no say in the matter. The two of them established borders and that was that. Vesta made her way towards Grinda's house, trying her hardest to avoid rousing the snakes and alligators that lived there. "Hey Grinny!" Vesta called out when she felt she was close enough to be out of harms way. Vesta almost laughed at her given nickname, she rarely saw Grinda smile. "Yo Grinda! I've come to have a visit!"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Grinda facepalmed when she heard Vesta. That stupid satyr simply could not comprehend the words "come to my house again and I'll tear you limb from limb and devour your heart". For some reason, Vesta always showed up to visit no matter how hard Grinda tried to kill her. It was an almost cartoonish occurrence where Grinda tried to murder Vesta and Vesta dodged every hit and talked about things like boys and new potion ingredients. For some reason, Grinda could simply never get rid of the annoying goat, and so was forced to deal with her uninvited meetings and try more things to kill her.

"Aello, Podarge, please kill her before she gives me another migraine!" The two birds screeched like owls and dove out of the window at Vesta with claws extended. The third harpy, Celaeno, was still blinded and so stumbled around the potions room drunkenly, crashing into things and knocking down a row of potions ingredients. Eyeballs and octopus tentacles drenched in different liquids spilled across the floor, and Grinda growled angrily. She pointed her green jade wand at Celaeno and blasted her with an arc of electricity. The bird jumped out of one of the four windows, her tail feathers on fire, and fell onto a moss-covered log floating in the marsh. Celaeno screeched loudly and jumped into the water. The crocodiles and snakes rolled their eyes and moved away from her, as they knew not to eat the ugly bird. They were still traumatized from when one of the larger nile crocodiles had eaten Ocypete and was vomiting for weeks. Grinda grabbed a tonic from the top shelf of one of her potion shelves and took a drink of it. Hopefully Alecto would show up soon to tear this goat-thing to shreds.

Vesta gave and smile and a wave as she heard Grinda's voice emerge from her house. And while she didn't sound all that excited to see her, Vesta found it fun to bother her. But at the same time she pitied her, being surrounded by all this icky marsh all the time must be draining on the emotions. Vesta watched, unfliching, as the two birds dove down at her. Vesta had been in this position many times, by now she practiaclly knew the birds on a first name basis. She was able to nimbly dodge the first one, allowing the second to scrape her along the arm before she jumped back, never fighting the strange birds herself. "Oh you poor things." Vesta muttered, loud enough for the birds to hear. She scooped up one of them out of the air, much like any skilled bird handler. "Your feathers are in such a bad shape, you could use a wash." She scratched the bird lightly on the base of her neck before tossing her softly up into the air, encouraging it to fly off. All awhile trying to dodge the other bird, feeling a few stray, stinging, scrapes along her arms. She tried not to care too much about the pain, she would heal over time.

She then heard the splashing of the third bird, flailing awkwardly in the water. Vesta frowned, skillfully maneuvering her way over towards the injured creature. She scooped it out of the water stroking its head and back in a comforting, almost motherly, way. She quietly examined the burn in its tail, wondering if she had anything on her that would help. "Ya know Grinny" Vesta started, trying to hold the struggling bird while digging though the bag on her hip. "I worry about you sometimes. You're becoming rather antisocial!" She hopped out of the way of a swooping bird. "You and I need a girl night! We can do our hair and nails and talk about that guy you love so much!" Vesta was kinda taking a shot in the dark, she had no idea if she liked a guy or not. Vesta decided if she outright denied it, it was true.

"What part of 'keep out or I'll tear you limb from limb' don't you get?!" Grinda yelled, the tonic obviously not working. She grabbed her wand again and came to the window. She blasted an arc of lightning at Vesta, hoping to knock her into the water to be crocodile food. Then Grinda froze. She knew about John. Anyone who knew about her crush on John had an immediate death sentence. The lightning arced harmlessly past Vesta as she hopped and hit Aello, knocking her out of the air and onto the back of a nile crocodile. The other two harpies flew off, knowing that Grinda was about to get extremely angry. The snakes slithered away and the crocodiles descended into the water. Mustafa quickly found something upstairs to polish and slithered away up the spiral staircase that ran around the edge of the tree just inside the bark.

"What did you just say?" Grinda said in an extremely calm voice that resonated with suppressed rage.

Vesta watched as the birds flew off, wishing she could have been there to wash their feathers and trim their over grown nails. She would have to come back again. She watched with a bit of concern as the last bird tumbled into the water, but she trusted it would be safe on the back of the crocodile. "Oh come on Grinny, you know you wouldn't ever rip me apart, I'm your only company!" She yelped quietly as Grinda shot a bolt of lightning at her. Well that was a new one. Grinda was fun, she was always thinking of fun new ways to try and drive her out of her house. Vesta absentmindedly bent over, a lighting bold narrowly missing her, petting the snot of a crocodile. She straightened back up when she heard Grinda's voice again, not reregistering that she she sounded rather mad. Vesta tapped a finger on her chin, thinking. She counted on her fingers what she had said in the last new minutes.

"Um...you're being antisocial, we need a girl night to do our hair and nails and talk about the boys we like!"

A large black reptilian creature stirred in its cave. Morlach had been sleeping, and now awoke again, hungry. He stirred, a trace of smoke escaping from his nostrils, and stood up on all fours. He approached the edge of his cave, his orange eyes surveying the world below. I think I shall deer today he thought as he took off, spreading his wings as he flew down the mountain.

He glided over the forest, casting an ominous shadow on the ground. A family of deer, alarmed by his presence, bolted below him. He swooped down, grabbing one of them. He settled onto the ground, tearing through the meat and devouring it greedily.

"We've been over this before, Vesta!" Grinda yelled "We are NOT having a girl's night! What will it take for me to make you realize that I don't like you?!" Grinda swished her wand and four Nile crocodiles surrounded Vesta. They began to grown murderously, and one of them lunged at her leg, hoping to pull her into the water and have a nice snack. Several snakes slithered around Vesta, their fangs dripping with venom. A few of them struck at her heels to poison her and make her easier to eat. The harpies flew back up to the potions room and finished filling the thuribles. They then flew through the air with the devices hanging from their claws on chains. The gaseous potion soon filled the marsh. It would last for a few days and would then need to be replaced.

The room was rather dark. It was lit only be a dim fireplace and a few old candles embellishing the room. A figure laid relaxed in a wooden chair. Her legs were hung over one of the arms. Her elegant black cloak fell onto the floor from her legs. Her long black hair dangled as her head laid back relaxed. But sitting in several chairs in front of her were creatures not so relaxed.

Children. Gray and dead. Their forms rapidly losing color as the life was sucked out of them. Asyla was breathing in deeply as a strange white mist flowed through her lips and into her lungs. Some of the spots of age on her began to evaporate. She at first looked like a woman in her forties. Now she was a woman in her twenties.

She got up as she noticed the youth in the air was gone. She tapped on each of the children, configuring that they were dead. Then she picked each up and dragged them outside where she laid them in a pile in the yard. She sighed as she waved her hands. Nothing happened. At least not visibly. But it had removed all of her signs of murder. Scruff marks, rope burns, things so much as finger prints even vanished from them. The bodies began to move. They rolled across the ground, but avoiding certain points that Asyla knew were traps. Then they simply moved away into the woods and were gone. She'd sent them off to rot in the forest. Authorities would eventually find them. But she moved them to a point far enough to keep them from questioning her as the nearest persona around.

She then went back inside and closed the door behind her. Her black cat, Midnight was sitting in her rocking chair. She sat down with the cat and began to stroke him as she rocked back and forth, sighing gently as he purred. She seemed tired, even after having sucked the youth from children. It was hard work. The potion was extremely hard to master and took years of experience and learning to finally manage to make it properly. Since she'd been doing it for almost two centuries, she figured herself pretty good.

John dismounted at Lord Abescu's arrival and prepared to enter the building. Alastair stood at his side, towering over the rest of the group. John turned to Candidus, the alpha of the Lunae pack, and said "Candidus, strategy nineteen!" The massive wolf nodded and let out several guttural grunts and barks. Five of the wolves, Candidus included, ran off to search for other entrances into the estate. Once they found entrances, they would enter and set up a defensive perimeter. The rest of the wolves save Alastair would stay at the main entrance to prevent the vampire's passage. Normally this would not be required as John would usually sneak into vampire castles, but this fight seemed to be more about shock and awe than anything else. Abescu wanted to punish these vampires, not just kill them. John lifted his visor, a show of respect to nobility. Alastair looked around, his high vantage point above the others allowing him to scan the area. He was looking for Draco van Seigfreid, a well-renowned slayer that, while rather rude, would be of great help here.

"Sir John." Alastair said in a deep Scottish voice "Have you seen Draco?"

"Can't say I have, mate." John replied "I'm pretty sure he accompanied us here." Alastair nodded and continued to look around. It was fun being a wolf sometimes, especially when everyone else looked so small and weak. Still, the den of a master vampire was no safe haven, and Alastair knew that they would need all the help they could get if they wanted to bring this vampire down.

"On your mark, Lord Abescu." John said, lowering his visor.

Vesta frowned, only for a moment, before returning to her normally cheery self. She watched as the animals began to gather around her, not too worried. Normally she would have been able to pacify them, but because of their hypnosis it was a bit tougher to calm them down. She nimbly avoided the bites of the snakes and crocodiles. She found herself almost tripping to avoid stepping on a snake, balancing herself on the snout of a crocodile. She quickly scooped up a snake, holding it like well trained snake owner would. Vesta began to stoke the animal, carefully avoiding its jaws. "Oh come on Ginny." Vesta said, a small amount of sadness in her voice. "We are just a pair lonely gals out here! Why don't we be lonely together!" She set down the snake softly, patting its head. "We are a lot more alike then you think." Vesta said with a grin.

Having finished the deer carcass, Morlach lifted his head and looked around. Normally he would return to his cave, but today he felt like doing something different. He decided to explore the forest, and perhaps find something valuable. Perhaps some traveler is carrying some gold, or silver. I would settle for adding some silver-laden swords to my collection he thought to himself.
With that, he stretched is wings and took off. He climbed until he was several hundred feet off the ground, gliding above the forest, and searching for something of interest.

Grinda sighed and laid back against the wall, her face in her hands. Why was it that she was completely unable to kill that damned satyr?! She grabbed more of the tonic (which she may have developed a minor addiction to) and decided to do something which she believed would be the dumbest thing she'd ever done. She slithered to the window, and called off the animals, who all swam back into the muddy depths of the water.

"Fine." Grinda said, sighing dramatically loudly "If I let you in do to your "girls night" thing, will you leave me alone after that?!" There was a hind of desperation in Grinda's voice as she motioned for the harpies to open the doors to her lair. A very deep-down part of Grinda liked the fact that she was doing this, but the Grinda on the surface crushed this nice Grinda into slightly radioactive dust and swallowed it whole. She slithered down to the scrying pool room, which was one floor above the foyer. The foyer was filled with shelves lined with skulls and stuffed animal heads which served to deliver the message to "keep out". Grinda sat down on a flat rock covered in animal skins that served as a chair and tried to look as unhappy as possible.

Vesta watched, with a hint of disappointment, as the animals went off on their own ways. She wanted to spend more time with them, hoping to get a better understanding of how their minds and actions functioned under Grinda's strange powers. It was strange having animals she wasn't able to understand, every creature in her woods she could identify by face and name. But these strange birds, snakes and crocodiles were out of her borders and out of her understanding. But that was kinda part of the fun challenge of trying to be friends with the witch in the marsh.

All hints of disappointment faded when Grinda invited her inside, which was a first. Vesta had invited herself in before, much to Grinda's disliking. But this was the first time she had ever been let inside without a fight or sneaking. Vesta skipped to Grinda's door, giving a bow to the Harpes holding open the door for her. She decided not to promise anything to Grinda, knowing that she would come around and enjoy the Satyrs company. Vesta grinned, skipping and twirling around the room. And while she disliked the dead animals and furs, and well the whole of the interior decorating, there wasn't anything she could do to stop it. She just kept it in her mind to avoid looking at the beady little eyes of the stuffed animals. "Oh man Grinny this is great!" She stood infront of her, hands on her furry hips. "What do you want to do first! We can do make overs and eat food and talk about boys!" Vesta was getting more and more excited as she went on, her face showing it. This was her first official 'girls night' as she called it, most animals in her forest not having hair to braid an boys to talk about.

Grinda tried to look at least slightly pleased. At least the satyr hadn't attacked her for the animal heads yet. She was mostly faking her pseudo-smile, however, as she rose and began to slither around the room. She snapped her fingers and her hair turned into a nest of angry black snakes with blood red eyes. They whispered things in an unknown tongue in Grinda's ear.

"Firstly, Vesta," Grinda said, slithering around the room "we need to lay some ground rules. Rule number One: don't touch the hair. It bites. Rule number Two: if you put makeup on my face, I will bite you. Rule number Three: enter my room at your own risk. I have a spitting cobra guarding it and in case you didn't know, spitting cobra venom will burn your eyes out. Now then, what do you goat-creatures do for fun?" Grinda faked a smiled again and hissed like a snake to punctuate her sentence.

Spoiler:

Together Abescu and John entered, with Alastair right behind them. John wouldn't go anywhere without the wolf, and especially not into the keep of a master vampire without him. John nodded to Abescu, already knowing how to find the entrance to the vampire's stronghold. John sheathed his sword and raised his visor to get a good look at the room he was in. He produced a candle and a flintlock pistol from his belt and held the gun up to the candle wick. He tapped the trigger and a small tongue of flame, just big enough to ignite the candle, emanated from the gun. He holstered it and, holding the candle in the same hand as his shield, drew his sword once more. Alastair sniffed through the room on all fours, rummaging in cabinets and wardrobes with his nose and sniffing for that distinguishing smell of death. He had night vision, of course, and so saw perfectly in the dim room. Finally he arrived at a wardrobe that wrecked of death.

"This is it." Alastair whispered to John "This thing wreaks. Go get Abescu." John nodded and made his way through a few rooms and to where Abescu was.

"Alastair's found it." John said "The master vampire is this way." John walked back to the wardrobe and, sword in hand, opened the doors. At the back of the wardrobe was a long stone passage just high enough for Alastair to half-crouch in.

"I'll lead the way down." he whispered.

Spoiler:

Alastair was rushed by the vampiress and struggled to scamper away from her as she attacked. He felt her sharp claws slicing his flesh and snarled with pain. He pulled his legs up to his chest and kicked her away from him far enough so that he could get a safe distance from her. John was right behind him coming down the steps. He was well-prepared for an ambush. While walking down the steps, John had switched weapons, and he now had his flintlock pistol pointed at the vampiress. He pulled the trigger and scarlet flames burst forth from the gun, drenching the vampiress in fire. He threw the gun across the room in the direction of Alastair and drew his sword. He rolled to the center of the room and took up a defensive position, his shield between himself and the presumably-burning vampire. Alastair scampered over to join him with claws at the ready to slash at the vampiress. The strength potion still flowed through John's veins, and with his armor, his blade, and Alastair at his side, the playing field was leveled between himself and his combatant. Now it was all down to who strikes the killer blow first.