Redux: Lineage

"You have experience with Vampires?" I asked Zane as the two of us sat on a high wall overlooking an emptying market.

"Experience of having you tell me about them," he said with a shrug. "Never had the honour of fighting one, though. They got anything special I need to be aware of?"

"Magic blasts at close range," I answered. "Besides that, they usually stick to swordplay or whatever their weapon of choice is."

"You ever fought them before, or is this all just theory?" Zane asked.

"I've had a few battles with them every now and again, usually when training with Luna," I nodded. "She ended up taking me to a den of them as a trial by fire sort of thing. She was right behind me, literally, if anything went wrong, but I managed to handle myself against them. They were obviously blood-starved and were much stupider than they were meant to be... but the experience was enough to say I've fought Vampires without being a liar."

"How much smarter do they get when fed?"

"Depends on how educated they are as people," I said, surveying the market with a cold gaze, waiting to see any suspicious movements or signs of a fight breaking out. "Because they're basically just dead humans that are still walking."

"Like zombies?"

"If zombies were pretty," I chuckled. "And that's really putting it in basic terms."

"So you just need to cut them into enough pieces until they stop getting up?" he asked me.

"Sure. Let's go with that and see how it turns out for us," I laughed. "See anything yet?"

That question was answered by the sound of crackling energy followed by a bolt of lightning shooting from the hands of a cloaked figure.

"That's not Vampire magic," I said, bolting up to my feet and rushing towards the market.

I leaped over the high wall, rolling to break the impact on the stone floor, and got up just in time to see several stalls being splintered by a bolt of red magic, covered in the swirls of dark energy.

"That is!" I yelled, tearing my sword out of my sheath over my shoulder and rushing towards the caster.

There was a crowd of four of them, all attacking the lightning mage. They were definitely N'Vadi, as even in the low light, I could make out their dark skin and House clothing, as well as their iron medallions swinging. I made a move for the one closest to me, only to have a member of what appeared to be house Hollander leap at me with a war hammer. I parried the blow off the flat of my played, spinning away from the attack and squaring my stance.

These two were supposed to be enemies. What the hell was going here? I barely managed to dodge another blast of that dark magic from behind me, causing it to blast into the member of House Hollander that had attacked me onto his back. I heard a mighty growl from Zane as he entered the fray, bringing down the blade of his zweihander on the Vampire's neck and cleaving straight through it. He placed himself at my back, the two of us keeping an eye on the opponents we could see approaching.

I cast my eyes to the lightning mage just in time to see their flimsy iron dagger be slapped aside and their stomach be punched through by a large member of House Hollander, clutching two war hammers and hiding their eyes behind an enormous, deer-shaped helmet. They turned around, focusing on us as the others began to circle.

"Plan of attack?" Zane asked through gritted teeth.

"Split up and try to draw their fire, but try not to get pinned down!" I barked, pushing away from him and charging at the crowd of four Vampires from House N'Vadi. Thanks to their lack of armour and apparent lack of strength with the magical arts, it was easy to duck around their magical blasts and cut through limbs, crippling them before dispatching them each with a heavy slice to the neck, breaking their spines and severing the stem from their brains.

Zane was having a much harder time than I was, by the sounds of it, having to resort to 'half-swording' his zweihander against the enormous armoured opponent as well as five other Vampires, three other Hollanders and two Venvier... the two houses we'd seen evidence of fighting each other moments before coming here. What the hell was going on here? Were we being tricked? Had the Vampires planned this on purpose? Was the Empress setting a trap?

Or... or was the civil war not just House again House, but instead member against members? What the fuck had gone on inside the chambers of their court for Houses themselves to be at war with one another? If that was even what was happening? It would explain why this entire ordeal seemed to be nothing more than a vicious scrap than an orchestrated war effort. Were the Houses so fragmented by whatever had shattered them that even they couldn't stand together against each other?

I shook my head, moving towards Zane and helping fend off some of the other Vampires while he managed our big friend. The House of Venvier were a joke to take care off, having no kind of defence against swords, or even melee weapons in general, and as such were hacked through like a scythe hacks through ripe barley. The Hollander vampires appeared to be a little more trouble, each requiring a clash of some kind before I got through their defence, using the gaps in their armour as puncture points that I took advantage of with the tip of my sword.

They were dispatched one after another, but their numbers never seemed to get any smaller, even as the bodies around me piled up. They continued to come, again and again, some appearing from thin air, while others charged around corners, more influxes of brown, black, and purple from every direction. It took naught more than a lucky shot from one of the Venvier Vampires to knock me off guard, the magical bolt sending me spinning briefly, just long enough to catch a slice to my left arm, thankfully not my sword arm.

I righted myself, clashing blade on blade with the Vampire that went for a shot to the neck, before staggering backwards. I could feel the pain spread up by arm just as the blood flooded down it. The muscle fibre had been cut, rendering the arm as nothing more than dead weight with no ability to move. Gods Above, the pain was immense. I whirled my head around just in time to see Zane finally topple the steel giant he'd been battling, using that zweihander to effortlessly cleave through the hordes of Venvier that were surrounding him, using his great speed and his great size to decimate the attackers, only for the ranged mages to finally hit him enough time to bring him down.

With my other arm gone, gapping enemies became infinitely more difficult due to the lack of precision a single lunge gave me, and without my half-swording technique, I was in trouble against these guys. I back-peddled, knowing that a longsword would do nothing against plate armour, trying to cut my way to Zane, only for more of the Venvier and Hollander Vampires to swarm the plaza.

This didn't match up with what we'd been told. We weren't looking at a small force of Vampires, battling in the streets. These seemed to be an entire combat unit, flooding the streets with their Vampiric might. Why? After so long in the shadows and barely making a war effort, what had caused them to come out in such force tonight? It couldn't have been me. There was no way they'd known I was here, and even then, what use was I to them? A bargaining chip? Bargaining for what? I gritted my teeth, fending off two strikes from the approaching Venvier guards, completely surrounded and more than outnumbered, gritting my teeth and dispatching as many of these bastards as I could.

I was overwhelmed eventually, having a second cut hit me on the wrist, severing the muscle and causing me to drop my sword without anything else I could do, another cut to the leg bringing me down to my knees before a vicious boot to the face knocked me straight onto my back, cutting the entirety of my forehead open and causing stars to dance before my eyes. I was dazed, stunned, and on death's door, staring up at the man that hiked his blade above his head, ready to end me, before his helmet was pierced by a glowing blue, almost-ethereal arrow, causing him to stagger, drop his blade, and fall over dead.

This was then followed up by another volley of arrows, each one piercing through event the most heavily-armoured of the Hollander Vampires, before we were surrounded by nothing more than a pile of twitching, dying Vampires. There was another flash of light as a woman, skin like porcelain and jet black hair, crouched down beside me, her eyes covered by a stylised silver domino mask and her body covered in silver plate armour.

She reached a hand out to me, using what felt like healing magic to staunch the blood flow, heal my wounds, and enable me to move my damaged limbs again. She then sprinted over to Zane, doing the same to him, before pulling us both to our feet with magic.

"Who..." I panted. "Who are you?"

"No time!" she said, grabbing hold of my sword and handing it to me before using her magic to give Zane's zweihander back.

"What the hell is going-" I began, only to be cut off by the sound of a large portal opening several metres away from us.

Even underneath the mask, I could see the fear on the woman's face, nearly bursting into tears immediately as the figure stepped forward from the portal.

It was another woman with porcelain skin, with long, thick blonde hair flowing down over her back, dressed in red and grey plate armour. She had a long cloak flowing over her back, a crown of what looked like fangs sitting on her head, and the most piercing, red eyes that exuded a sense of both tired disinterest and burning hatred all at the same time. It was safe to say that merely look at this woman sent shivers down my spine as even I, someone who couldn't sense magic, felt that her power was something not to trifle with.

"Ellanora, sweetie," the blonde woman said as she walked towards her. "You are a fool. You're a fool for resisting, you're a fool for running, and you're a fool for revealing yourself... what would your father say if he saw his daughter consciously act like such a damnable idiot?"

"You... you won't get away with this!" the woman, I presumed Ellanora barked.

"Once again, something only a fool would believe," she sighed pinching her brow and snapping her fingers, this causing the air itself to explode in front of Ellanora, something that sent her flying backwards with enough force to kill another human.

Without waiting a moment, Zane and I moved to defensive positions, squaring our stances next to each other and raising our weapons, ready to fight. The woman studied the two of us, red eyes moving back and forth between Zane and I, before shaking her head. Her gauntlet-clad hands came to rest of her hips, flicking her hair back over her shoulder as she spoke in a cold, confident tone.

"As impressed as I am that you boys have the stones to stand up to me, that response will soon fade away and be replaced by anger if I have to deal with you," she said. "So do us all a favour, and stand aside. My quarrel isn't with you, and nor do I wish to make it, and I've grown tired of the bloodshed caused by her and my ungrateful daughter. I have many a great things to attend to, none of which can afford to wait for me to deal with you. So please... move."

Zane and I looked at one another, eyes narrowing and nerves steeling as he kept our weapons where they were, ready to defend our saviour. The woman closed her eyes once more, her shoulders rising and falling with a heavy sigh, before she conjured up a red and gold longsword, tearing her cloak from her shoulders, and tossing it aside.

"And people wonder why people are driven to kill when idiots like you refuse to accept the peaceful option," she muttered, shaking her head as she walked towards us. "Don't dare say I didn't warn you."

With that, Zane rushed towards her, swinging his mighty zweihander at her, only to have the blade be caught not just on the flat of the smaller blade, but with a single hand being used to support it. The woman had blocked the blow as easily as one picks up an apple, and didn't even seem to strain in pushing Zane's mighty form away from her. I rushed forward, not willing to stand there and watch my friend lose his advantage, stabbing for a gap in her armour, only to have this woman use the side of her knee to knock my blade aside, and then lashing forward with it to knee me straight in the face, shattering my nose and sending me flying back.

Blinding pain surged through my entire body, the bones in my nose destroyed and the skin split and bleeding. I tried to push myself back up to my feet, mentally screaming at myself to get back up, but that single blow had knocked all sense of control out of me, and I could do nothing more than watch Zane clash with this woman over and over, trying his best to get past her defence, only to shut down time and time again. She eventually seemed to tire of the game, using her off-hand to snatch Zane's sword away in its entirety, throw hers up into the air, snap the zweihander over her knee, and catch the hilt of her own blade as she dropped the pieces of the two-handed sword, pressing the point against Zane's throat with a cocked eyebrow.

"I offered you a chance to live," she snarled. "I gave you the opportunity to not involve yourself with a fight that was never yours to begin with. And as your life force drains away, I want you to think of nothing but that fact."

She readied herself to lunge forward, about to pierce Zane's throat, only for a vicious war cry to get her attention. She turned on her heel, using nothing resembling effort to block the slashes from a new fighter, a young woman bearing the same smooth, alabaster skin as the other two, with fiery red hair and emerald eyes. Her features were quite similar to the woman with blonde hair, clearly having some kind of family resemblance. Sadly, what they didn't share was a similar level of power, as while the red-headed woman started off strong, she was soon duelled backwards and disarmed by the larger woman, tumbling onto her back and staring up at her in fear.

"Verella, sweetie, you know it doesn't have to be this way," she said, offering her a gauntlet-covered hand with a gentle smile. "I still love you, and hold no grudge against you for this foolishness. I want us to be family together more than anything, but that cannot happen so long as you keep up this foolhardy crusade of yours. Come home with me and we can end all of this, right now."

"You're going to get us all killed!" the redhead snapped. "This plan of yours shall accomplish nothing more than exposing every House to the fury and wrath of those we've worked so hard to hide from!"

"When my plan succeeds, they will have not the power nor the will to face us, Verella," the blonde woman said in a soft tone. "You and I are proof of Her Holiness, we are cured of the plague that has kept out kind down for so long. How can you call my mission to save our kind pointless when you yourself have started a war between us all? If there is anyone here who possesses hands soaked with the blood of our kind, it's you. But that's okay. Come home with me now, and I will make sure no harm comes to you."

"You..." she snarled, staring her aggressor down with pure vitriol. "You're insane."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, the blonde woman's smile slowly fading from her face as her open hand balled into a fist, lowering back to her side as she prepared her sword to strike.

"You leave me no choice," she sighed, readying her attack. "I shall always love you, but I cannot allow you to jeopardise the future I have worked so hard to build."

She unleashed the strike, but her blade was knocked out of her hand by another one of those ethereal arrows, fired from a conjured bow that Ellanora held in her hands.

"Get away from her," Ellanora snarled, blood trickling from her chest and mouth as she stood hunched over and panting.

The blonde woman turned towards her, slowly making her way over to where she stood, all the while Ellanora continued to fire arrow after arrow at her, only for the much more powerful woman to slap them aside as if they were nothing, closing the gap entirely, grabbing hold of one of the ethereal arrows in mid-flight, and ramming it straight through Ellanora's chest, piercing her heart and sealing her fate.

"No!" Verella screamed, scrambling to her feet and gripping her sword, reading it to strike against the blonde woman only for something to teleport behind her and make her disappear.

The blonde woman looked around in confusion, wondering exactly what had transpired, all the while taking a crystal off her belt and holding it in front of Ellanora's face, whispering a quiet enchantment and seemingly draining the soul out of the dying woman's body. Once Ellanora's eyes had faded to black and her breath had stopped, the armoured woman threw her corpse aside like a doll and turned to face Zane, who was then teleported away by a shape neither of us could make out properly.

It was only as that shape came for me that it took its true form, a second woman bearing a perfect resemblance to Ellanora appeared behind me, grabbing hold of the scruff of my shirt and glaring furiously at the blonde woman who merely cocked her head.

"Cassandra," she said in a heavy, disappointed tone. "Has my entire family turned traitor?"

"You'll pay for this!" the woman spat in a furious manner.

"Believe me, dear sister..." she sighed, looking down at the ground with a forlorn expression. "I already am."

With that, the woman holding me teleported the two of us away, the world turning black for the longest second of my life as I tried to process exactly what had just transpired.