Chapter 65: A Team Building Exercise

Chapter 65: A Team Building Exercise

Two moons beamed down on a small castle stood atop a hill. The state of it showed that it had been neglected for some time, but the makeshift barricades, wooden pikes topped with severed heads, and blood stained sheets of cloth decorating which made it clear that it had been occupied by new owners. Those same owners were in a skirmish with two people they could only call intruders.

Damn it, Amy! Harper cursed as she blocked an extraordinarily vicious attack with her staff. The attacker was a very pale and thin man who seemed to be far stronger than one mightve thought. That was most likely due to the fact that he was a vampire. In fact, the whole castle was filled with vampires. Harper and Amy were currently on what they thought was an A- ranked job.

The reality of the situation was the information given to them was either outdated or blatantly wrong. The description of the job said the castle was a suspected of holding several vampires who had been attacking people recently. It turned out that those several vampires had grown into more than a dozen.

The Mercenaries Union couldnt be blamed though, after the Red Moon and Golden Aurora, things changed drastically. While the Golden Aurora helped just about everyone, there were some races unaffected by it. The Red Moon, on the other hand, stirred up the dormant potential in Lycanthropes, Vampires, Beast People, and Dark Elves.

The more immediate concern was the vampires. Under the Dark Elves rule, they only consumed the blood of animals, and some had bloodlines so diluted they didnt need to consume blood at all. Those with already strong bloodlines had drastically improved after the Red Moon and fled the rule of the Dark Elves, leading to nests slowly popping up all over the continent. It could be considered bad luck that Harper and Amy stumbled upon one. As to who it was bad for? That remained to be seen.

Harper kicked the vampire in his stomach before slamming her staff down on his head. He fell onto his back and wasnt able to recover as Harper stomped her foot down on his neck, crushing it completely. It was a common misconception that Vampires could only be killed by piercing their heart. Another common misconception was that they were immortal. Only the ancient bloodlines could boast of immortality and they had long since faded away.

Amy! What the fuck are you doing?! Harper turned around to yell at Amy who was on the ground behind her.

Amy look stupefied as the little girl in front of her cursed. The reason for Harpers anger was Amys lack of attention when handling the Vampires.

Why the hell did you stop attacking him?! Harper huffed in frustration. To Harper, Amy was completely weak, but since Ira wanted them to work together she put up with it.

H-He said that the vampires were holding his family captive and they were forcing him to fight. Amy said as if she had been wrong.

He is the vampire you dumbass! Even if he wasntWho fucking cares about his family?! Harper kicked the dead body repeatedly.

Harper and Amy had been taking jobs from Samantha ever since Ira left and in that time, Harper had started to pick up cursing from the people they fought and it was clear she was a fan of it. If it continued she was well on her way to becoming quite the foul-mouthed little girl.

Sorry. Amy said in a low voice. It was hard to blame Amy since she had traumatic memories regarding family. The scene of her own mother getting killed and Benjamin, who she regarded as a little brother, still felt fresh in her mind.

Harper sighed as she shortened her staff and placed it on her hip. She kneeled down toward the corpse and opened its mouth before yanking the fangs out.

Alright. Your turn. Harper said as she placed the fangs in a pouch that began to swell.

Amy nodded as she raised her metal arm over the corpse. Green flames rushed out of her metal palm and covered the corpse completely, burning away its flesh until nothing was left except bones. Amys control over the Demon Flames had grown a lot, especially since Harper was around to provide a large of amount of things for it to consume.

Something feels...weird. Amy said in a near whisper.

Hold on! Amy yelled to the captives who served as human cattle. The fire in the stables had begun to spread rapidly and was completely out of her control. She found the ropes and untied them while holding on so that the strung up captives didnt fall too rapidly.

Amy ran over only to see that they weren't in the condition to walk. Smoke and flame had begun to fill the stable causing Amy to panic. First, she opened the stable door to release some of the smoke, before she ran back to the captives and began to drag them out. Amy wasnt as strong as Harper and attempting to drag several people at once was way harder than she expected.

Harper! Amy yelled as she dragged the captives. At that time, burning pieces of the stable fell and the entire structured creaked as it threatened to fall.

Harper! I need some help! Amy cried out as she pulled the captives. Sweat dripped down her face and she looked to be in pain, but she continued to pull the captives along. Harper! Amy continued to shout.

What? The familiar voice of a little girl answered her. Harper stood in front of the stables while her Phantom stood behind her holding two unconscious vampires.

Harper! Amy shouted in relief. I need help getting them out.

Harper looked at her Phantom who dropped the unconscious pair of vampires and then went to grab the rope from Amy. The Phantom pulled the captives to safety without much effort, allowing Amy to finally catch her breath.

Harper looked at the burning stable and nodded. I killed fifteen in that castle, plus the six lookouts and the one that almost killed you. How many did you kill, Amy?

Five...I think. Amy coughed as she began to feel pain in her lungs. Shouldnt we...move the civilians away from the smoke?

Eh? Most of them are going to die before we make it back to the next town anyway. Plus, you left your spear and the fangs in that stable. Harper said as she directed her Phantom into the inferno to recover everything.

What? Amy just realized she didnt bring her spear with her because she was too busy trying to recover the captives.

Five bodies covered in burns were placed at Amys feet, along with a spear.

It really was five. Harper said with a look of surprise as she went to pull the fangs out of the corpses and loaded them into her pouch that was about to burst. Amy, youre up.

Amy moved over to consume the corpses with the Demon Flame. She burned away the remaining parts of the corpse before felt a surge of energy rush up to her head. A splitting headache shook her conscious causing her to faint.

...Shit. Harper cursed as she looked around. There was a wooden cart nearby but there were no horses, not that she had the skill to guide one anyway.

Your turn. Harper said to her Phantom. Even though it didnt have a will of its own or even a face to express emotion, it somehow seemed unwilling as it moved to grab the pulling bars on the cart.

Harper placed the wounded civilians and Amy inside of the cart, while the two unconscious vampires were tied to the back to be dragged along. Harper took her place on her Phantom's shoulders.

Lets go. Harper said. Under her orders, the Phantom pulled the cart along without much of a choice.