Book 6: Chapter 2

Book 6: Chapter 2

The scrambling, maddened vampyr scraped at Cindy’s armor, desperately trying to pull itself closer to sink it’s fangs into her neck. The one hand she had pressed against its forehead was the only thing keeping it from tearing out her throat. Her nails were sinking into it’s skin with the force of how hard she was pushing to keep it off of her, drawing sickly ichor instead of blood from the tiny abrasions. Doing her best to keep calm Cindy drew one of her sidearms from the bandoleer on her chest and shoved the pistol’s barrel into the gaping maw of the vampyr. In a scene directly out of a movie she blew the brains out of the monster and it slumped on top of her.

Gagging, Cindy tossed the dead vampyr off of her and struggled to her feet. The battle around her was dying down as she looked. Here and there the Sentinels accompanying her cut down one of the stragglers, but most of the attacking vampyr were dead on the ground and Avalon’s forces were cleaning up the mess. Panting slightly, Cindy pulled back the mechanism of her pistol, clearing the spent shell as she scanned the environment for more threats. There was only one vampyr she could see that was still moving, a legless torso dragging itself across the grass with it’s mouth wide open and it fangs dripping with toxic saliva. It inched closer and closer to the nearest source of blood, a nearby adventurer that was beheading the vampyr he’d just killed. With a dull thud sound it’s head exploded.

Cindy finished reloading her pistol almost absentmindedly as she shared a quick nod with one of her trainees. Not that they were trainees anymore, but the first wave of people she’d trained up into getting gun related Classes were still arguing about what to call themselves. That group had approached her en mass after she’d gained her title and had informed her that they were going to be her version of Kay’s Blood Guard, her bodyguards and personal troops. With Colen’s, her personal butler who’d just shown up one day before the Shatterplate War and told her he wanted to serve her, help she’d managed to talk them down a little. They were still going to be her personal troops, since practically everyone was telling her she had to have some, but they weren’t suited to be bodyguards. They’d agreed after some convincing, and the settled right in to arguing over what they should be called as a group. “Arquebusier” was currently winning, against Cindy’s strong objections. They didn’t carry arquebuses dammit!

Her soldier, since she didn’t have a better term yet, looked around for threats, his hand against the butt of a pistol. With single shot weapons it was definitely faster to switch to a pistol over reloading, even if they could reload in a matter of seconds. Everything was clear, so he pulled his rifle around and started reloading, and Cindy did the same. After slinging her long gun over her shoulder she looked down at herself and sighed. She was covered in sweat, muck, blood, and the ichor that vampyr bled instead of blood. It felt incredibly gross to be standing there in her own skin, but she wasn’t going to be able to clean off for a few hours at least. Her group didn’t have any Water Mages or Manipulators and there was still work to be done.

The vampyr bodies were piled up and burned, the wounded were healed or sent back home with a light escort, there hadn’t been any infections thank goodness, and then they were off, continuing their patrols along the edge of Avalon’s territory, searching for packs of vampyr. The most animalistic of the vampyr were chasing refugees from Nelam and the surrounding areas hundreds of miles in mindlessly dedicated hunts. The flood of refugees and escaped slaves that had gushed into Avalon, and into Tumbling Rapids to a lesser extent, had slowed to a dirty, exhausted trickle. But the vampyr were still coming.

Cindy’s grip on her gun tightened. They were coming, but they wouldn’t be allowed a single step further into Avalon.

The civil war that had sprung up had wrent Nelam into pieces, and the vampyr attack tore those already fragile shards into tiny shreds. It was like they came out of nowhere, spreading waves of bloodshed and madness that just appeared in the midst of the fighting. Small cities and nations on Nelam’s borders that had invaded, looking for a bigger piece of the pie or vengeance for Nelam meddling in their lives were hit first, with vampyr popping up in the middle of their attacks on villages and towns. Days later a score of vampyr attacked a fortified outpost between two of the warring factions of nobles that had both proclaimed that they were the true inheritors of Nelam. Then one of the groups fighting to reclaim their conquered nation had gone silent. No battles, no messages, nothing. Then vampyr had erupted from their fortifications, hundreds of their soldiers and leaders turned into monsters and now terrorizing the countryside. The chaotic mess only continued to devolve from there.

People had stepped up even as death and terror destroyed everything in sight. Adventurers, soldiers, and leaders had all set aside their enmities and wars to protect the innocent. Many died in heroic last stands letting people escape the oncoming vampyr. The smugglers and abolitionists that had helped slaves escape Nelam became guides to safety for hundreds instead of handfuls, using their knowledge of safe paths and monster territories to bring entire villages out of the vampyr infested east. People opened their homes to others, donated or gave away supplies and foodstuffs, and gathered stragglers and orphans into their own groups and families as they ran for safety. Tens of thousands of people managed to make their way to freedom and escape the imminent threat of death or turning. Hundreds of thousands had died, or were still trapped, holding out as best they could against the vampyr that besieged them.

Amanda’s secret position as the shadowy leader of many anti-slavery groups that worked in Nelam was out in the open now. There was no point in keeping it hidden any more. Originally Amanda had kept it a secret to protect herself and her people from Nelamian attacks. After becoming Prime Minister of Avalon and Kay’s right hand woman they’d continued to keep it a secret, at least publicly, to keep Avalon from being dragged into a war with Nelam. It became something of a moot point when they ended up at war with Nelam anyways, and now it mattered even less. Nelam was gone. Every report they could get their hands on said that King Glowl was dead and everything else that remained were tiny outposts and fortified towns surrounded by a sea of hungry vampyr.

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“Is it important? We’re heading back after tomorrow’s patrol anyway, so if it can wait a day...”

“The Royal Avalon docked two days ago and a messenger made it to Avalon City yesterday. His Majesty King Kay has returned.”

Cindy sagged in place, her eyes closing. “Thank goodness.” She took a deep breath and pulled herself together. Straightening up she resumed the persona Colen as helping her build, one worthy of a Duchess of Avalon. “If we leave tomorrow as planned will we beat Kay back?”

butlers name smiled at her with no small amount of pride before slipping back into his own professional mien. “It’s possible, but unlikely, especially since his majesty will likely be moving quickly as well. We’d probably get back the day after him.”

“A messenger made it here in a day.” Cindy pointed out.

“One person with Classes and Skills built around moving quickly to deliver a message did.” Colen replied.

“Good point. Actually, the messenger doing alright?”

“They’re fine, milady. Tired, but eating and resting.”

“Good. Alright, grab the command staff and let’s let them know what’s happening. We’ll prep everyone as best we can to be ready without me, since reinforcements to replace me aren’t going to be here until tomorrow afternoon.”

“Of course, milady.”