Redux: Lineage

As much as I hated to say it, the meal with Svea by our campsite was possibly the most interesting thing that happened for the next week. Since all we had to do was wait for any kind of report to come back from Angela, there was not a single thing we could do to speed up our efforts against the Vampires. They could've been in the process of stitching the arms back on their God by day three while we were sat washing clothes.

I hated waiting, doubly so whenever there was a time limit involved. So I passed the days as fast as I could, training with Annerose and Zane, hiking and walking with Grael, and merely sitting around with Svea. I barely saw anything of Verella and Cassandra over that week, as she was often locked away in some kind of strategy meeting with her aunt and my father. Hours were spent discussing every piece of information that could be relevant to tracking down and stopping Celana, even if it seemed insignificant and worthless, it was added to a tome of notes to be accessed at a moment's notice.

It was agonising, making me itch from head to toe as I thought about every horrific outcome there could be. What if we all died in the next minute because the Vampire God had been resurrected? What if they kicked down the door in the next three seconds and enslaved us all? It kept me up at night pondering every doomsday there was to ponder that could come without a moment to prepare.

But finally, and I mean finally, a break came in the form of a letter from Angela delivered by a hawk. Shining read the letter aloud to us all, explaining that a hunter's guild to the far north, because of course they were in the ice and snow, had found a coven of Vampires that were conducting some kind of ritual under the light of the moon. Knowing that this was never a good thing, we decided that we'd head to the location specified, an abandoned fort in the mountains of a country known as Gamlrfoll, and put a stop to them.

I'd never dressed myself so quickly before in my life, throwing on pants, boots, shirt, gambeson, bracers, sword, and shield in a matter of minutes, bouncing between my heels in anticipation for finding these Vampires and finally fucking doing something after days of sitting around and waiting.

"You need to calm down before you have a heart attack," Annerose commented, crossing her arms as we filed into the room where the rest of us were waiting.

Zane had dressed in his chain-and-plate jacket, Annerose had donned a black coat of plates with a long cloak over her shoulders, presumably for the weather, Grael had been fitted with basic leather armour, and Svea was... well... Svea.

"You're tagging along too?" Annerose asked the dragoness.

"Of course... Richter did tell you I was being made part of the group, didn't he?" she asked the others.

I felt all eyes in the room fall onto me, burning holes into the back of my head, front of my head, and pretty much everything else I had.

"I had a lot on my mind," I squeaked.

"It's been a fucking week, you stupid cunt!" Annerose snapped.

"It's been a thought-provoking week, alright?"

"I'll show you something thought-provoking when you start wondering how to pull a sword out of your arse!" she hollered, ready to throttle me once again.

"Now, now, children," Svea said, putting herself in between the two of us and giving a calming hug... which basically involved shoving each of us into either one of her tits, a practice Anne found infinitely less relaxing than I did. "Let's not bicker. We have more important things to do."

"Svea's right," my father said as he walked into the room.

We all turned to him, Anne still frozen solid at the sheer amount of tittage she was staring into, as he walked over to Svea, offering to shake her hand.

"Sorry I've been missing for the whole week, but it's nice to meet you," he said with a smile.

"The pleasure is mine, sir," Svea said, shaking his hand and bowing her head. "I must say, now that I've gotten a good look at you, I can definitely see the family resemblance."

"Damn," Shining sighed. "Do I look like a massive pussy too?"

"Oh, a fucking comedian, are we?" I asked in a joking tone.

"Only because you're so easy to laugh at," he said with a smile as he patted me on the head before turning back to the group. "Right, we've all been briefed on the situation. Does anyone have any other questions?"

"Yes, can you repeat the bit where you said all the stuff about the things?" I asked, raising a finger. "I was a little distracted at the time."

"Why?" he asked me.

I didn't respond vocally, merely instead darting my eyes to Svea's bust repeatedly, even going so far as to gently tilt my head towards the dragons very generous pair of hungolomghononoloughongous. My father caught my drift, followed my eyes right onto Svea's breasts and glared at me furiously. Svea, catching the gawking, cocked her eyebrow and inquired about it.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm not really comfortable with you going into battle against dangerous opponents wearing nothing more than a summer dress," he pointed out. "Are you sure you don't want something more protective? Chain mail or even basic fencing gear?"

"I appreciate the sentiment, good sir, but I shall be more than fine," she chuckled. "I've placed enough wards on my human form to prevent harm from most sources and, if all else fails, I can merely revert to my dragon form while in combat to reacquire my defensive scales."

"What if the room's too small?" Anne asked with a wave of her hand. "Won't you get crushed to death?"

"If that is an issue, I can simply adopt a halfway point between my human and dragon form," she reassured.

Ow. Right in the fetish.

"So... I don't have to worry about you getting skewered?" Shining asked.

"Not at all, sir," she said with a cute smile.

"Perfect," Shining said in a relieved manner, then turning to the other three. "Do you we have any other questions?"

"Where did Krieger go?" I asked, once again noticing the absence of the dragon Matriarch.

"She got sick of human portion sizes and returned to the Citadel," Svea explained.

"But I never asked her how to use my shield properly," I pointed out.

"Worry not, I'll tell you when you need to know," she smiled.

"Is the primary duty Constant Practice or the Current Objective?" Zane asked, focusing the topic again.

"The latter," Shining responded.

"Then yes; infiltrate the old fort, kill the Vampires, secure whatever it is they're working on and either destroy it or recover it for further examination, report back to the west wall, set off a Flare Crystal, and wait for Twilight to teleport us out," Grael relayed.

"What's the Constant Practice?" I asked, never having heard that term used in the group.

"Keeping you from getting fucked up," Annerose answered. "As you can probably tell, we've got our work cut out for us."

"I can fire you, you know?" I asked her in a bemused expression.

"You can also kiss my arse, you know?" she snapped in an angered manner.

"Shit, alright," I shrugged. "Take off your pants and let's get fucking nasty."

"Focus, you two," Zane said, saving Annerose from having her bluff called and getting our attention back on Shining. "What's the plan for the rest of you? Verella and her aunt?"

"They'll stay here and keep doing what they've been doing. There will come a time where their power is needed, but it's not now," Shining explained. "You guys are going to be more than strong enough to handle a few Vampires."

"Richter's not," Anne commented. "He's shit."

"Fuck you," I growled.

"Right, are we ready to party?" I heard Twilight exclaim from behind us.

We turned around to see the purple mage standing in nothing more than her pyjamas and clutching a small teddy bear at her side.

"Why aren't you dressed?" Shining asked.

"I'm on a low-effort assignment today," she shrugged. "But I shall still do it to the best of my ability."

"Are you going to break my organs again?" I asked.

"Of course not, you silly goose," she giggled. "I've spent the whole week retesting and perfecting my teleportation method on larger groups of organic subjects, and I've now got a perfect reassembly rate of one hundred percent out of over four hundred tests under different circumstances."

"She did what last week?" Grael asked in a wary tone.

"Have fun, guys!" Twilight beamed, snapping her fingers and teleporting us all to the long fort without much more of a warning.

Our boots hit the ground in a torrential snowstorm, feeling the temperature around us being without doubt far below freezing and with visibility almost to nothing.

"I'm so fucking sick of snow," I sighed, holding my hands up to my face to try and block the snow from tunnelling through my eyes due to how harsh the winds throwing it were.

"Oh Gods Above, it's fucking cold," Annerose snapped, her teeth immediately chattering before she even finished the sentence.

"Hold on a moment," Svea said, waving a hand and casting what appeared to be some kind of barrier that not only kept the snow at bay for quite a wide radius, it also acted as some kind of heater too, warming us all through to the core once again.

"Goddesses, I don't know how we ever got by without you beforehand," Grael said, shaking the snow and water off his fur as we began to move forwards.

"Thank you, friend," Svea smiled, petting Grael as she walked. "Now... where did Twilight say the door was going to be again?"

"She said she saw it about thirty metres to the right of this location when she was scrying," Annerose recalled, looking to the right and seeing nothing more than a black abyss of wind, snow, and cold. "Think we can trust her judgement?"

"Moreso than he bedside manner," I nodded, pushing towards the wall and placing a hand to it, Svea and the rest following behind with the barrier up and pulsing.

"D'you think they'll have sentries?" Annerose asked.

"Unlikely," Zane answered. "The best defence against unwanted trespassers is to make them think the place is empty and trap them when they're inside. If you've got guards and defences up everywhere, it'll just give away your position and make even more people inquisitive."

"Think they've got traps set up for us?" I asked.

"Oh yeah," Zane grinned. "It's gonna be an adventure on its own just getting to these fuckers. I'm quite looking forward to it."

"Dungeon crawling is always enjoyable," Grael smirked.

"Just so long as I don't end up in a fucking scorpion pit again," Anne hissed.

"Oh, hush. They weren't even poisonous," I said, rolling my eyes as her continuing to whinge about that.

"They were big enough to fucking eat me!" she snarled.

"Yeah, but did you die though?" I asked her.

"Shut up, you prick," she said, shaking her head and falling quiet.

"Yeah, I thought so," I said, my hand running across a wooden door and soon a door handle. "Guys, I think I've found it."

I pulled down the handle, hearing the door itself click and soon begin to swing open. I looked back to the others, nodding in confirmation as I took point, drawing my sword and shield, before entering the room.

It went to shit immediately.

I stepped on a rune of some kind, no idea what it said, and was immediately teleported somewhere else in the fort. I spun around, seeing no trace of light, an exit, or assistance before hearing a sound similar to that of ancient, rusted metal moving. My head whipped around to the source of the noise, staring off into the darkness. The sound continued to grow louder, then was accompanied by the sound of heavy foot steps and then... snorting of some kind.

Then, in a nearly blinding fashion, giant chandeliers of fire, torch sconces, and pyres of all shapes and sizes lit up the entire room, revealing that I was not only trapped inside some kind of circular arena, but also trapped in there with what appeared to be... a minotaur. A big one.

An angry one.

It was covered from head to toe in heavy-looking armour, clutching a large axe in both hands and glaring at me with a furious expression. I tightened my grip around my sword and raised my shield out in front of me, readying myself for a fight. A singular minotaur wasn't that bad, I'd fought worse on my own beforehand. I just needed to keep behind it, aim for its hooves and joints, and try my best to avoid its giant axe. They were strong and sturdy, but big, slow, and stupid. Just needed to use that to my advantage and this fight was as good as won.

And then the bastard's armour, eyes, and weapon set on fucking fire.

"Alright then..." I nodded. "Now that's just unfair."

There was then the sound of teleportation, somewhere up and to the right of where I was. I wasn't willing to take my eyes off the minotaur, knowing it would be my first and last mistake in this fight if I did, so I kept my eyes locked on but used my ears to pick up any other sounds.

"My, my... a stronger looking one than last time," a male voice said in a cocky manner. "Hope it provides some challenge for the old ghost."

"Richter, are you alright?!" Grael asked in a panicked and furious expression.

"I'm fine... for now," I said, readying myself for combat. "But you might wanna hurry up and get here before I get sliced and melted."

"We're on our way!" he roared, ending the connection and leaving me by myself for now.

"Try not to get sliced by the first swing, dear boy," the voice requested of me. "It's so rare anyone actually falls for that trap, and it takes a good bit of effort to come down here. Be a sweetheart and give somewhat of a good performance, yes? Thank you... right. Get him, Venunya."

With that, the minotaur roared in a deep and hollow tone, charging towards me with its axe and slashing at my chest with a quick and surprisingly well-trained move. I leaped backwards, noting the lack of an overswing from the creature and all the other traits of the bigger, stupider creatures. I wasn't in any mood to risk seeing its reaction time, knowing that poking at this thing, even with my shield in front of me, would probably cost me an arm and then some.

So I was on the backfoot until I cracked its code. It swung mightily another three times, each time getting closer and closer. It was adapting to my dodges, trying to find out exactly where I put myself and where to aim next time to be within reach to follow up. It did just that on the third strike, stepping forward and slamming the shaft of the axe into me, knocking me flat on my arse, sliding the axe around in its grip and lifting it for an overhead strike.

I had no time to move, no time to dodge, and no time to unleash any kind of quick counter-attack, so I did the only other thing I could think of: deflect the attack off my shield. Yeah, blocking it outright would stop the attack in its tracks... if the transference of force from the axe head to my arms didn't snap them like a wishbone and just cave my chest in afterwards. The axe came down and I mostly slapped it aside with my shield, causing it to slam off the floor and send some vicious hand shock through the minotaur's arms, a fact it was not happy with.

With it in pain and not attacking for a moment, I rolled away, getting to my feet and cleaving my sword down on its wrists, trying to slice through them, only to have some kind of aura around the minotaur, one that had been invisible to this point, rebound the attack and give me my own surprise. I ducked backwards as it cleaved upwards, putting some space between it and myself and being forced to glance another strike from my shield once again.

The block was infinitely more sloppy and terribly placed, having the full might of the strike slam into the shield and knock me back on my ass again, skidding several feet and sending a bad shock through my lower body. I pushed myself back onto my feet, not ready to let a bit of red arse stop me from winning. I looked down at my shield instinctively, wanting to check the damage on it, only to realise that the centre of it was starting to glow a dull red colour.

"What?" I asked, only then remembering what Krieger had said about it.

It had the ability to absorb magic... so it seemed to be eating the fire from the axe head and using it to charge itself. That meant all I needed to do was get it to full power and see if I could completely incinerate this thing, or at least burn a hole through the stone and escape. That was great, that was perfect, only one issue:

I had no fucking clue how to unleash the stored magic because I never got around to asking Krieger about it.

"It's always fucking something, isn't it?" I growled, readying myself for another clash with the minotaur.

I decided that my sword was going to be useless here, so I sheathed it over my back and chose to two-hand my shield, wanting the extra support it would give.

"A strange strategy," the man in the darkness commented. "But an interesting one nonetheless. Let's see where it goes."

I had to play defensively. Every time this bastard raised his axe, it was squared feet, leaning forward, and arms ready to take the brunt of the shot. It worked amazingly, with each swing being glanced off the face of the shield, and each swing slowly charging the power stored inside it more and more. I hoped that the axe was running on some kind of crystal enchanment, which meant if I stole enough of its power, then it would eventually die out and become a regular weapon.

It would still be a ball ache and a half to deal with, but at least I didn't have to worry about getting diced and burned all at once. This minotaur was extremely well-trained, fighting more like a coliseum gladiator than the simple beastman I expected it to be. Now that I looked at it again, its fur was much better maintained, its horns were clean and pristine, and its armour was much more complex than the usual bent steel plates their kind often smithed up.

So either it was somebody's prized pet... or a whole other bag of worms I was not ready to open yet, namely one featuring a higher species of minotaur. I shook my head, focusing on defeating it before dissecting it, once again glancing a strike off my shield, this time dropping low beforehand and lifting it up with my knees, tossing it higher than I'd done before. It created an open and a plan formed right between my eyes. I spotted fur poking up through the knee joint in the leg, meaning that flesh had to be somewhere close to the surface too.

I ducked forwards, getting under the much bigger creature's torso and, with a mighty heave, plunged the sharpened base of my pentagonal shield right into the gap in the armour, rending the metal, piercing the skin, shredding the muscle, and tearing the bone. The beast bellowed in a furious manner, even louder as I twisted the shield sideways, almost definitely tearing its shin bone out of the socket. I ducked under a vicious swipe, removed the shield, and stabbed it right in the eye after it collapsed to its only good knee.

The beast's pained bellow came louder as I blinded its eye, then doing something that confused me even more. I held open its palm... and fired a bolt of lightning at me. It was a weaker blast, did nothing more than briefly stun and fling me backwards some distance... but minotaur couldn't use magic. The flames on the armour were clearly enchantments, I could see that from the lack of the charge-up... but first the eyes and now the lightning.

Then the talking?

"Bastard..." it snarled, staggering away from me as I tried to get my muscles to cooperate. "Tiny little bastard... I'll kill him... I'll fucking kill him."

"Juniper, fall back," the voice in the shadows. "I'll handle this."

I turned up to the shadows, seeing the faint outline of a man in darkened steel armour, then turned back to see the Minotaur... slowly transform into a woman. She had long, blonde hair, tanned skin, and green eyes. She appeared to be thralled, that much I could tell. The eyes, the strange voice, and the devotion to who I presumed was her master gave that away.

"We'll handle him together!" Juniper barked, trying to rush at me only to have her knee spurt more blood and cause her to scream in pain.

The armoured man soon teleported down to her, cradling her in his arms as he gently shushed her, lulling her to sleep with some kind of magic before laying her down on the floor. Now that he was in good lighting, I got a proper look at him. His blackened armour was a dark shade of grey, a flowing green cape at his shoulders that matched his fine, flowing green locks. His skin was as pale as snow and his eyes glowed a deep, emerald green. The armour, the weapons, and the attitude gave away exactly what House this guy came from.

"A member of the House Kaine..." I commented, beginning to circle him. "I'm ticking off quite the roster in my travels."

"You're familiar with our name?" he asked, crossing his arms and cocking his head, matching my circling movements. "I must say, you are full of surprises. I would be more than eager to share a drink and hear a few stories... if I didn't have to murder you for what you did to my dear Juniper."

"Maybe try telling her to pick on someone who can't defend themselves next time," I shrugged, pointing at her unconscious form. "Seems to be all she's good for anyway."

I hit a nerve with that one, his eyes locking onto me and a vicious snarl covering his face. Thanks to my training with his kind, I picked up the smoke trails forming at his feet, meaning he was about to use one of their more useful abilities. For a few brief seconds, they could transform into clouds of dark energy and cross great distances. Knowing that they often liked to impale their prey, he was either going to aim for the front or the back.

I stepped to the side just as he poofed, moving out of the way as he reappeared, lunging forward with a jewelled sword only to realise I was no longer there. Since I had the upper hand here, but sadly wasn't holding my sword, all I could do was punch. I hooked him straight in the jaw, his over-extended thrust already putting him on bad footing, and the powerful blow sent him tumbling to the floor. He landed on his hands and face, soon whipping around with fury in his eyes and clutching his sword with both hands.

"I'll encourage you to be careful here, friend," I said, smirking confidently as I continued to circle him. "We may be noble and noble, but there's a very clear gap in our sword skill."

He lunged at me again, easily telegraphing his move with an overly-large swing that I caught on my shield, glancing the attack off and smacking him in the teeth once again, sending him tumbling to the floor. He rolled over backwards, landing on his knees afterwards and looked at me with the realest hatred. Deciding not to get too cocky against him, I drew my sword, the once faint light now a blazing torch and the almost-inaudible hum of the sword was now a loud buzz, bringing a tranquil feeling over myself and terror over the face of the Vampire of Kaine.

"I see you're educated enough to know exactly what this is," I grinned, holding my sword in a defensive position in front of my shield, ready to catch, block, parry, or riposte anything he threw at me. "But if you were really smart, you'd leave now with your little girlfriend... and try to bring someone a little more impressive next time."

He looked at me, trembling in fear and hatred, before his eyes fell down onto Juniper. He gently touched her face, then balling a fist as his eyes burned a hole through me once again.

"You'll regret this..." he spat. "I promise you."'

"No, let me tell you something right now," I spat. "I'm in a merciful mood today. Take your sword, take your woman, and go hide in a shed until your High Queen, your God, and all the other idiots bowing to a fake idol are cut down and dead in the mud. Then, come back out of your hidey-hole, play nice with the winners, and maybe we'll let you live. But if I ever see you, or her, again before this war is over, I will kill you."

I stepped forward, pointing the tip of my sword mere centimetres before his head.

"I promise you," I snarled, putting on the deepest, growliest voice I had that wasn't laughable to really hit home the terror of my threat.

With that, he disappeared in the same way he'd entered, leaving me alone in the arena to look for a way out. I decided to keep my sword and shield ready, as the Goddesses only knew what the hell I was going to run into on my way out of here to find the others.