The Den of Blood Closed

It had only been a day or so since the dragons had attacked the city. Lance had woken up after falling to the ground with a new abundance of magical power. He still wasn't used to the new magic and almost leveled a building when he first woke up. He wasn't the only one though, Aila and Yue also seemed to have given new power as well. Though most the town was preparing for the assault of the great one Lance wanted to get his new found power under control. Moki wasn't feeling well after the blast of magical energy, it didn't seem to be sitting right with him, so he was back at home resting. Lance had received a letter from the mayor asking for his help again. Mr. Alanders seemed to have returned and was kidnapping townspeople. A police group had gone down into a tunnel that they saw some of Mr. Alanders men drag a young woman into. Lance had sent word to both Aila and Yue to meet him at the tunnel's entrance and the three of them would get to the bottom of it.

Lance was approaching the tunnel's location, it was a rougher area of town that seemed to have been almost burned down from the dragons rampage but the sewer tunnel entrance was still standing. There was a grate over it but with his new found strength Lance was able to pop it right off. Now he just needed to wait for the other two to make their appearance.

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The cold stone stone walkway, the ash filled air, and the random voices of the villagers. Aila's eyes drifted open groggily. "Where..." her sore head turned from one side to the other taking in the sights. The area was seared up pretty badly... Aila scrambled to her feet and spun in place. The vision of various dragons pulsed through her head. They were burning the village down... Aila, Lance and Yue were fighting them off... Her head burst into pain as she tried to recall the next event. "We chased them..." Her head was pounding, and the rest of her body wasn't in much better shape.

Her favorite cloak was covered in black ash, the cape was tattered and the outfit beneath it was riddled with scorch marks. Her spear, luckily, appeared to be intact. Her hand gripped the spear and fed it a bit of magic. The spear burst into an array of bright sparks, startling the people that had come to clean up the damage. Aila withdrew her hand in shock. "What the...?" Was the spear more damaged than it looked? She hovered her hand near the spear and attempted to pull it into her pocket dimension. It disappeared in another flash of bright light.

"I'll have to contact Tsoru and get this repaired..." She pumped some magic through her cloak and kicked off of the ground. Eh...? She seemed to be flying for a rather long time. The people below her looked like little dolls peering up at her. As the jump reached its peak Aila remembered that little rule about things that go up... She began to plummet towards the ground. In her fear she forced more magic through the cloak in order to glide. However the bad luck continued and she flew forward far faster than she intended. She barely had time to blink before she had reached the forest and ran face first into a tree.

What was going on!? Her hand gingerly rubbed her injured nose. She had opted out of wearing her cloaks for now out of fear that she would damage them even worse. She placed her head to the table of the small diner. Being on the outskirts of town it had avoided much of the carnage the dragons had brought with them. However, it was now packed with refugees, being used as a makeshift meeting place.

"Big Sis!" Two voices called from a nearby crowd.

"Hm?" the voices sounded familiar... Thud! yep the tackles felt familiar too. "Karu? Haru? What in the world are you two doing here?"

"We had to flee town" another familiar voice chimed in "All of the Lamia Scale mages were on requests during the dragon attack... we got hit hard"

Aila's eyes drifted up and met her older brother's. He paced forward and placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair. "We were also pretty worried". Aila jumped up and hugged him. They informed each other about the various happenings, and Aila attempted to have her brother repair her equipment. However he told her that it was her magic that was overcharging it. Apparently the explosion had given her a little boost. He smiled and offered her a new cloak and pitch black sword.

"You're not the only one to get something awesome from the dragons." Tsoru smiled as he spoke "I managed to take one down and make some new gear from its hide. This is all I managed to complete before we had to run. Ah we also found this."

He handed her a letter from Lance about the vampire clan using the recent disaster for their own underhanded deeds. She clenched her teeth and grabbed the new equipment. "Sorry", she said "Meet me at my place later" She tossed him a set of keys and walked out of the diner. She stopped somewhere to try on the new equipment. It was amazing! Her body felt even lighter than with the Angel Shroud, and she felt stronger too. She quickly slung the sword over her back and made her way to the meeting place.

"Lance!" she shouted as she arrived. "Is it Mr.Alanders again?". She was a little caught off guard by the overwhelming aura radiating from the dragon slayer. It seemed as though the explosion had given him a boost as well.

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As Lance stood there he could feel Aila's presence before he could even smell her. She had grown strong too, as she arrived and greeted Lance he could sense that their magical power was close, so the gap between them remained the same. He was glad, Aila would be a strong ally to have in the future. [color=blue]"Aila! You seem to have gotten alot stronger since the dragon fighting. Yea they think its him again, I'll wait for Yue to arrive before I give the full details.

They didn't have to wait long for Yue to show up, he too seemed to have gotten alot stronger since the battle. His magical power was leaking out of him, just like Aila, and himself. None of them were really used to the magical power that they possessed, this request could be dangerous if they weren't able to fully control their power. This might be a good time for them to practice their magic before the great ones came.

"Ok guys heres the deal. Mr. Alanders, a vampire like creature that me and Aila dealt with before, may have possibly returned. There have been a dramatic increase in kidnappings. A police squad followed a group of the kidnappers down to the tunnel but never returned. We need to go down there and find out whats going on."

Lance entered the dark abyss of a tunnel. He held out his hand creating five small orbs at his finger tips. "Follow me so we don't get lost." The orbs allowed the tunnel to be illuminated for a few few so that they could see inside. The tunnel's floor was covered in puddles of water so their steps were anything but quiet. Lance's sense of smell was slightly dulled from the smell of sewage, he could smell Aila and Yue but that was because they were so close to him, if an enemy wanted to sneak up on them he wouldn't be able to smell them at all.

Lance had dressed for this mission though. Instead of his normal designer wear of a designer white suit, with a light purple shirt, and white pants to match along with a tie that was white and complemented with light purple designs in it. Now he wore blue jeans, with black boots, a light purple t shirt and a black jacket over top. The had wore cloths that he was prepared to get dirty on this job and didn't want his more expensive clothing to get ruined.

Lance wasn't too comfortable heading into a completely dark tunnel. Being the light dragon slayer dark places could weaken him if he was left there for weeks on end. His magic wouldn't be as strong as it could be above ground, but it would still be strong enough. If the people they faced down here were anything like the vampires before their magic will be based on shadow and blood, he could deal with blood magic easy but shadow magic would be stronger down here and he would be weaker against it. Lance might be nervous coming down here but he wasn't going to show it the others were counting on him, he couldn't be stricken down with fear during something like this.

Word count=797
Magic=295
Spells used:

Spoiler:

The group traveled through the dank, dark tunnels at a safe pace. they all appeared to be a little on edge due to their new abilities. The young requip mage in particular was a little antsy. After the laser light show that took place when she grabbed her spear; she was a little wary of her new strength. Lance had activated one of his light skills illuminating their portion of the tunnel. The light didn't stretch far but, Aila's eyes had more than adjusted to the dark. No, it felt odd, as though she was one with the darkness itself. She felt as though she could see everything in an area that was a little too dark for bats.

She reached up to rub her eyes, thinking that they may be playing tricks on her, however the clarity remained constant. The new cloak had to be the answer. Her brother truly was an amazing craftsman. She smiled and picked up the pace until she was ahead of Lance. Even in the blackness of this tunnel she could still see his face. She knew he was out of his element in a place like this. No only was it a closed area, but it was also darker than night.

"I'll lead the way ok?"

It was the safest choice after all, she could see in all of this and she was a close ranged fighter. The apprehension from before was beginning to fade. Now she was a little excited to see the extent of her new abilities. To see just how much she had improved, how many more people she could save. The great dragons were returning, she needed to know that she could help in the fight. Fate had decided to give her a chance.

The tunnels they were walking through soon opened up into a dome-like room with 4 different paths. Within this room were 4 guards, similar to the ones they had encountered back at the party. On both sides of each path there were lit torches. The flames hurt her eyes at first as they slowly readjusted to light. It appeared as though the guards had yet to notice them. Night vision doesn't help much if you don't actually look down the tunnels after all. She made a small signal to her friends and paced forward, slowly. Her hand gripped the handle of her sword and a burst of magic flowed through her. Immediately, a tendril made of magically enhanced shadows burst from the tunnel and pierced through the nearest guard. Aila reveled in this new ability and sent it forward again to wrap around another guard and drag him into the tunnel. However, the others had heard the commotion and were prepared to dodge her attack.

Equipment effects:

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Yue seemed to be more nervous of the dark than Lance was. His voice seemed a bit timid and nervous. It was understandable though a dark, smelly tunnel was not a place that Lance liked to find himself. "Don't worry I'll keep the path lit for us, I'm not about to find myself in complete darkness." Lance kept his hand raised out keeping a 30 foot radius of light around the group. It wasn't too much but it allowed them to see what was coming up.

The tunnel itself was rather small, it was large enough for one person to walk single file through at a time, the ceiling was getting narrower and narrower as they continued their walk. It reeked of sewage and blood, there was defiantly something bad going on down here. The fact that he could smell blood before he could even smell his own allies that were only inches from him told him that. There were a few rats here and there, he couldn't see them but the echo of their paws running across the ground allowed them to know their presence. The rats were naturally afraid of humans, but they were in their turf after all he would be surprised if a few decided to try make a move against them.

As the three trenched down the dark tunnel, Aila insistent on lead, something Lance didn't mind at all really. Up ahead their seemed to be a light. The tunnel also seemed to start to get wider than it had been. The three came up onto a dimly lit room where three pale looking men stood. Their smell was masked by the sewage from the tunnel so Lance wasn't able to sense them before. Aila was able to take out one of the guards before any of them noticed that they had arrived. Yue seemed quick to respond as well, by the guards reaction to Yue's presence they didn't expect Aila to have company with her. Lance quickly slid past Aila and charged one of the guards.

As Lance approached the man let out a noise similar to a cat's hiss, showing his fangs to Lance. The pale man held up his hand creating a magic circle in front of him. A blast of shadow energy shot out from the magic circle aiming right at Lance. The blast came quick but Lance's reflexes were ready to counter it and hopefully kill the guard in the process. As the shadow energy came hurling at Lance he quickly lowered his body getting closer to the ground as the blast flew over top him. As he kept charging two magic circles appeared. His claws appeared on his finger tips.

He quickly slashed the man across the chest immobilizing his movements. He brought himself up bringing his claws to spear through the pale man's throat up into the mans mouth. As Lance brought his claws out from the man's throat he could see and hear the blood sizzling on the claws. The man started to cough up blood, choaking on his own blood. The man fell to ground lifeless, a pool of blood leaked out from his mouth. Lance stood over top the man his claws near his chest. ”Don't worry about killing these lesser guards, we have one target in mind, and that is Mr. Alanders.” Yue was still dealing with his guard but Lance had complete faith it the summoning mage's skill.

Lance was nervous about how the three would need to handle things down here, if they got too reckless they could cause the ground above them to collapse right on top of them. All three would have to hold back on using some of their more destructive spells. They would really have to focus to keep their new abilities in check, if he let himself go all out it could be more harmful than helpful.


Word Count:1447
Magic:270
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Spoiler:

Aila smiled as her blade cut through her opponents spell like it was made of butter. She kicked forward and ran into a wall. Her eyes blurred a bit as tears welled in her eyes and a thin line of blood leaked from her forehead. It was still a little tough to control this power, what felt like a small burst of magic turned out to be a lot more. Another shadow blast approached and she stepped to the side allowing it to strike the wall she had run into.

'Ok how about the shadow thing again' she thought as her mind focused on the flickering shadow around the flaming torches. This had worked before, so all she had to do was repeat what she did last time. The shadow rippled and jumped towards the opponent, however he side stepped and the attack jumped towards Yue! Aila tried forcing it to stop, to turn to do anything but it simply continued forward.

“Yue!” she shouted, leaping in front of her own attack. It struck her sword and knocked her on to her back with ease. It then continued forward ignoring the calls of its fallen master. She scrambled to get back to her feet but she tripped and fell back down. “No!”

Aila panicked and forced more magic through it, forcing it upward where it stabbed into the ceiling. She then rolled to the left dodging another shadow blast. Her hand grazed the floor as she opted instead to run forward towards her opponent. The man easily jumped out of the way of her sword. She bit her lip in thought; she knew she wouldn't be able to beat this guy if she was forced to be cautious like this but... Her eyes darted towards Yue, she also couldn't be reckless and injure her friends. The vampire launched an attack with his claws causing the girl to smirk. She stepped to the side, grabbed his arm and pulled it over her shoulder, slamming him into the floor hard. The man let out a gasp before the impact and went limp.

She gasped for breath; her body was still shaking from fear. It was a familiar feeling, the same feeling that arose within her when her magic first manifested itself. The feeling that she couldn’t control her power, that she would end up hurting people and be unable to stop it. But, what scared her even more was the excitement; the feeling of cutting through that guy’s magic so effortlessly was still strong in her mind. She was strong now.

She bounced on her heels, it was a method her brother had taught her when he first taught her. By alternating the magic you used in each jump you could quickly get used to the enchantments in new items. She watched her two companions closely, ready to jump in if they needed help. They had received new powers in the attack as well, so anything could happen at this point.


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Magic Points 190/250
*30 Mp for summoning Creature
*30 Mp for Shadow Spikes

Grimore:

Shadow Spikes:

Aila had disappeared into the tunnel to deal with her vampire so he couldn't see what see was fully doing. Yue though seemed to pull out a powerful, new creature. It's body seemed to be made up of shadows and the vampires shadow blast, that judging from the dent in the wall from his own vampire, could probably break a bone or two if it landed. His summoning seemed to just suck it right up, and had it's own shadow attack in return. Yue had gotten alot stronger since the dragon fights just like Aila, and himself. Aila seemed to be struck by her own attack forcing her to be blown to the ground. She was able to gather herself up and kill a vampire quickly by slamming it into the ground. The two took care of the other vampires and the three were alone again. Their bodies reeked and filled the room up, their bodies were already rotting quicker than normal humans, but that was to be expected since they were dead to begin with. There were four paths that they could take to complete their journey.

Each tunnel was as dark as the next and each looked exactly the same. Lance now regretted killing all of the vampires, they could have used one to learn where to go next. It wasn't a problem though they would root out the vampires one way or another. Lance began to walk into the first tunnel, he held out his hand trying to illuminate as much as he could with twinkling stars but couldn't see anything. He tried to smell as much as he could about the tunnel, the first one mainly smelled mainly of raw sewage. He walked over to the second tunnel taking another long sniff, again just the smell of raw sewage. Lance headed to the third tunnel and again like the past two times took a long inhale. The smell of sewage was overwhelming but there was something else there. It was blood, clear as day blood. Lance crouched to the ground keeping his hand over the ground illuminating it and sure enough there was red smears along the floor and the wall. This tunnel had to be the right path.

" I'm not sure if this is the right runnel but there's the smell of blood down it unlike the other two. Plus there's some blood on the ground."Lance remembered seeing Aila getting knocked to the ground, he wasn't sure if she was injured at all during the process or not. If she was though he wanted to tend to it now rather than in the middle of a fight. They couldn't afford to loose someone as strong as Alia. "Aila did you get hurt at all when you fell?"


Word Count: 1910
Magic Total:265
Spells Used:

Spoiler:

"N-no I'm fine" the small girl said, waving her hands in a nervous fashion. She looked to the summoning mage "How about you Yue? Are you ok?"

Aila touched her forehead softly. She couldn't exactly tell them that she had run into a wall while fighting, so for now it was just a battle wound. She continued to bounce as she walked, slowly but surely she was getting used to the feeling of the new enchantments. She was sure she looked silly to her companions, but this was a very important ritual for when one acquires a new enchant, and while the enhanced agility enchant wasn't exactly "new"; she had never had one of this level before.

Placing the blade back in its sheath she stopped bouncing and started following the other two. She decided to watch their back this time rather than taking the lead. Just in case they had taken the wrong tunnel and were walking into a trap.

As her eyes once again grew accustomed to the darkness she noticed something odd. It was too dark. The darkness that surrounded them was suffocating in its blackness. Even with her enchantment her vision was fading as they moved away from the flickering flames of the center room. Soon even Lance's orbs appeared to lose their glow, only revealing the area a few feet in front of them. Darker and darker it became until Aila couldn't even see Lance anymore, despite him being right in front of Yue, a mere 6 feet away. She wondered how Lance would handle this... after all his magic revolved around light and this area felt as though the light was sucked right out of it. She briefly looked back, attempting to focus and catch sight of the torch-lit room from before, but it was useless.

When she turned back around... Yue was gone! She ran forward thinking they had simply walked farther ahead than she had realized, but there was nothing. Just as she prepared to call out from them a burst of shadow magic struck her in the head and she hit the tunnel wall hard. Her vision blurred but she could barely make out the silhouettes of two vampires appearing from a small side tunnel, their fangs glinting despite the darkness.

"Looks like another one for the pit" He said with a chuckle

"Hmm? You think the boss'd get mad if I had a little taste now" The second one said with a hungry look at the girl below.

"Haha that glutton? You know he has dibs on all the little girlies"


Aila's hand shot up to the handle of her sword but before she could do anything a shadowy fist struck her again. Again the world began to spin.

"Ah ah ah you can't beat a vampire in the darkness girl." The taller of the two said "I'm sure your friends are learning that riiight about now."

No time to be afraid. If she continued to be so careful with her new powers she would end up dead. Then who would help Yue and Lance? She forced some magic through her cloak triggering its enchantments. When the vampire moved in for a punch, she was ready. Her hand instantly grabbed his and pulled, slamming it into the tunnel wall. When her rebounded in pain she took the opportunity and grabbed hold of her sword.

Before the man could recollect himself she had already cut him. The taller vampire fell to the ground in a heap, his partner attempted to manipulate the darkness and hide himself. However, he wasn't the only one who could do so. With a burst of magic she tore through his veil of shadows and pierced him with her blade. As he coughed and took in his last breath he looked further down the tunnel.

Realization struck instantly, they had friends that were going after her friends! She dashed forward. "Lance! Yue!" she shouted desperately. She hoped she wouldn't arrive too late.

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The three ventured into the tunnel that Lance could smell the blood coming from. He took the lead while Yue followed him an Aila brought up the rear. As they continued down the tunnel every instinct in Lance screamed to run, to get out of this tunnel and make for the open sky. Everything about this place made Lance nervous. Even his lights couldn't penetrate the dark coroners of the tunnel. It seemed darker and more evil than the first tunnel, it was tainted with dark magic that these vampires must be working. His sense of smell had become almost more of a burden as the smell of blood and sewage seemed to become thicker in the air. He was close to gagging before he lifted hist shirt up to cover his nose.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until Yue pipped in noting that Aila was no longer following the two. At this Lance spun around to only see that even Yue had disappeared. How both of them could be ambushed without him knowing was shocking. The tunnel's smell had blocked his ability to smell incoming enemies but he should have heard them unless they were skilled in the dark, which was highly likely. ”Yue?! Aila?! Where are you guys! I'm coming!” Lance started to run back in the other direction until the force of someone grabbing his shirt's collar stopped him. Before he had the time to react his skull was smashed into the wall beside him, that was the last he remembered of the tunnel.

The vampire started to drag Lance's limp body down the tunnel. There was a large gash in Lance's head that was close to a third degree concussion, Lance wouldn't be waking up for some time. As he was unconscious his mind wandered to the distant past. It was shortly after Luxscanti had left him and Moki had yet to hatch from his egg. Lance had just entered a new town, something that couldn't be found on the map, and if it could be travelers would go out of their way to avoid it. As he approached the town several young men had jumped him, a few with knives. It didn't matter that he was still a small child, all that mattered was his wallet of money.

After the group of men, beat Lance near to death, ripped his cloths and took everything expect Moki's egg did they try to kill him. The knife of one of the men cut deep into Lance's stomach. The pain jolted Lance awake. He woke to find himself in a dark tunnel with a few others grouped together in what looked like a pig pen. He could feel the wound on his head, but there was another it seemed, two puncture wounds on the side of his neck. He had no idea how long he had been knocked out nor did he have any idea of where he was. The blood had dried slightly so some time must have passed.

Lance attempted to gather his magical power but was too exhausted. The dark energy around the room seemed to play a part in the problem with him not being able to call on his light magic. Ever since coming into this tunnel he could feel it being weaken. Being the light dragon slayer dark confined places always made it a bit harder on his magic, but this place was tainted in sin and evil making his magic even harder to control. He seemed to be dangerously low on blood. He could hardly even lift his arms, he needed help. He could make out the silhouette of a larger muscular man standing near the edge of the gate. His blood red eyes were locked on Lance. ”Looks like the little mage is awake. I almost completely drained you, had to stop myself, your blood tasted so good. What are you a light magic user? Because I could taste the sunshine in your blood you know. Brought back some memories of the old days. Well the boss will want some of you, so I'll let you live a bit longer. My buddies should be here soon with your friends, so I'll get another meal still.”

The man could have continued talking for all Lance knew, he wasn't able to keep awake any longer and feel back into his unconscious state. If Aila and Yue didn't get to him soon, it might be too late. The vampire had taken Lance to the room where all the other humans seemed to end up at. There were several bodies, some alive while most were dead, fully drained of blood. The room was dark just like the tunnel but a few torches were lit along the wall. The vampire guard was not yet aware that his brother-an had failed in their attempts to get Yue and Aila. If the two were smart and carefully they would be able to get the jump on the man and save Lance. The blood from Lance's wound had left a clear path to the area on the ground of the tunnel, the amount of blood alone showed that Lance was in a critical state. The two would need to hurry and treat his wounds, so he could at least gather his magical power to take care of the wounds.

Word Count: 2802
Magic: 265

Through spinning vision Aila ran forward. Her hand slid along the wall as an added security should she begin to fall. Most of the darkness seemed to have faded and her eyes began to pick up a glittering green light amidst the shadows. She smiled, recognizing the familiar face of Yue as she approached. However the relief came with the side effect of sapping her adrenaline. After a few more steps she fell to her knees and steadied herself with her hands. Slowly but surely her vision corrected itself though the sharp pain in her head remained. ‘Lance should be able to fix that though’ she thought with a smile. She stood once more and walked to Yue.

“Glad to see you’re ok” she said with a smile as she stepped over the vampires Yue had defeated. Through the dim light she was able to see that the surprise and worry on the boy’s face. It seemed as though his fear of the dark was showing itself. The adorable little fairy fluttered around him lighting the area as if to ease her master’s worries “You are ok right?”. Her eyes looked ahead of him searching for the dragon slayer that had been leading them; however… she didn’t see him. “Is Lance scouting out ahead?” she muttered as she walked off ahead of him. The requip mage gestured for her friend to follow, and together they continued down the tunnel hoping to find their friend and a couple of defeated vampires.

Fate had far darker plans. Soon they came upon a trail of blood leading deeper into the tunnel. Aila bit her lip and placed her hand on her sword as she searched the nearby area. She noted that there was a small side tunnel similar to the one that her assailants had come through. However the blood trail led down the one they had been following. Perhaps the darkness had more negative effects than she had expected… After all Lance wasn’t exactly weak. These vampires shouldn’t have given him too much trouble under normal circumstances. Of course, an ambush wasn’t really a fair fight. She grabbed hold of Yue’s hand and started to run down the tunnel searching for their friend. Her fear grew with every step they took. Lance had lost a lot of blood. He couldn’t be in good shape right now. Her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness and before long she noticed a large pit down one of the side paths. She unsheathed her sword and gestured silently for Yue to follow.

”Looks like the little mage is awake. I almost completely drained you, had to stop myself, your blood tasted so good. What are you a light magic user? Because I could taste the sunshine in your blood you know. Brought back some memories of the old days. Well the boss will want some of you, so I'll let you live a bit longer. My buddies should be here soon with your friends, so I'll get another meal still.”

Aila’s grip tightened around her sword as she approached the exit of the tunnel. So they had bitten him… To treat a human being like a meal, these guys were monsters. She crept forward, the tunnel emptied into a large circular room with a deep pit in the middle. The voices were coming from there. A guard paced around the upper area periodically taking a glance down the tunnel. As he approached the entrance Aila sent a shadow forward. It wrapped around the vampires head, preventing him from calling out to his friends below. The shadow then pulled the vampire into the tunnel where Aila finished him.

She took a deep breath and continued forward and looked into the pit. She was forced to step back and stifle a gag. The smell of death had been strong ever since they entered the tunnel, however within the pit the stench seemed to triple. After a few breaths she decided to pull her cloak up and over her face. It covered up the stench a bit, hopefully it would be enough. She glanced back at Yue and pointed down into the pit. With a small jump she landed a kick to one of the pit guards heads. Her blade seemed to glide upward to cut through one of the vampires spells. She kicked forward and attempted to take out another guard, however the vampire was far too fast and dodged. Aila held her sword before her, there were three guards and only two of them. All at once they shot a burst of shadow energy at her. She immediately kicked forward and slid under the incoming spells. She managed to land a blow on one of the vampire’s legs and finish him with a swing of her sword. The other two leapt out of range.

Her eyes drifted towards Lance. He looked pale from all of the blood he had lost. They had to wrap this up quickly in order to rescue him. The stage was all set for Yue to appear and finish the job. The vampires didn’t seem to know that there were more of them.

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As Aila, and Yue made their way through the dark tunnel Lance's mind wondered throughout his mind. Instead of the dark, underground tunnels filled with vampire, Lance was running through a thick forest in the dead of night. His parents and him had been separated a few hours ago when the three were hiking, he was only five years old at the time. He had been running through the forest screaming their names, which he couldn't even remember anymore, when a bright light could be seen coming from the mountain top near him. As Lance made his way up to the mountain the night became even darker and soon he was not able to see his own hand in front of him. The night seemed to be moonless and the stars where hidden from him by the tree tops.

The light coming from the mountain seemed to be brighter and brighter the closer he got to it. As he came to a wall of rock mixed in with the forest he could see a bright light from up above. The light reminded him of a lighthouse he had seen a few months ago when his family went to the ocean for vacation. He would need to find another way up to the light, so he began to walk around the area until he found a path leading up to the top.

He was able to make his way through the forest to finally reach the bright light. The creature producing the light was immense, and the light was near blinding. There seemed to be fireflies, foxes, and dear though all nestled up together near the beast. It was something Lance had never before seen in his life. The creature was asleep but as Lance coward behind a tree he saw her eye's opening. The creature seemed to lock eyes with Lance, and for the time it seemed like the two were the only ones there.

The creature stood up showing it's full size. She was beautiful, but scary. Lance began to run away from the beast fearing for his life. The light seemed to follow him as he ran away though. He made his way to a large clearing, it seemed that the light radiating from the beast did not follow him too far. In the clearing though was a young woman with long white hair that seemed to flow in the night. She had a glow around herself though. ”Hello there child. What are you doing out in the forest in the dead of night? Are you all alone? I'm Luxscanti, I can help you if you need it.” She held out her hand and from it a brighter glow appeared enveloping the whole forest around them.

It was around this point in the dream when Lance woke up to a small creature floating in front of him summoning a spell made of light. The lights almost instinctively went into Lance's mouth, from there you could watch the orbs follow the path down Lance's throat until they came to his stomach where they seemed to grow in intensity. Lance's eyes rolled back into his head, he could feel his strength returning. The aura around him seem to crackle with power. Lance was back, and pissed.

A blast of white magical energy exploded around him. He could feel his wounds begin to regenerate, his eyes rolled back to the front where his normal light purple color to a gold iris. He could see everybody, and everything in the area. He could see his friends fighting to save his life, and he could see the creatures that were trying to end it. Yue seemed to be fighting the vampire who put his fangs in Lance and drained him of his blood. He would be the first to pay. Without giving a warning Lance was gone.

In an instant he was behind the vampire attacking Yue. The vampire's obvioulsy were not expecting the near death corpse to be putting up a fight but they had yet to meet Lance. Before the vampire had time to turn around and block the attack Lance gave a fast, powerful karate chop to the vampire's neck causing him to fly a few feet away on the ground. Lance was fast from the boost of power. He slammed his foot on the vampires chest before it was able to move from the ground. ”Listen here fucker. You have some of my blood, I'll be taking it back.” At that Lance brought up his right leg as high as he could. His curb stopped the vampire right in the face crushing it's skull and ending its pathetic life. The blood had splattered onto Lance's shoes and pant legs. He rubbed his boots on the dead vampire's stomach trying to get off as much blood as possible. ”Trash.” Lance's voice was full of spite, and anger.

Lance looked up to the battlefield to see Aila dealing with a few guards, and Yue's shadow summoning dealing with the others. Even with the low dim lights in here, the eyes of the light dragon could see anything that light touched. He let out a primal like roar, similar to that of a dragon, while the white energy pulsated out of him. He was just getting started in killing these vampires. He saw that Yue was injured, something he would need to attend to before the three were done in here. Lance would make sure that none of these creatures would leave these tunnels alive.

His eyes locked onto two guards other guards that entered the tunnel. He began to spirit full speed at them, he was looking for blood. Something about his was craving to kill, every cell in his body seemed to be screaming out for him to kill these creatures. Everything about them was opposite of Lance. They were creatures of the night, while he was the child of light. They were mortal enemies. As he approached the two guards he dropped to the ground attempting to grab the guard to his right leg's and bring him to the ground.

Word Count: 3823
Magic Total: 265+10-40-20=215
Spells Used:

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Aila smiled as Lance accepted Yue’s meal. However, her opponents didn’t let up for even a second. In a flash one jumped forward and slashed at her face with his claws. His partner, a tall female vampire leapt from behind him attempting to bring her heel down on the young requip mage’s head. Aila immediately jumped to the side and rolled along the floor; as soon as her foot hit the ground again she dove forward and slid under the male vampire’s legs. As she turned back she witnessed the woman’s heel creating a deep crater in the ground. She quickly side-stepped a vertical swipe from the man once again and brought her sword up to block a magically enhanced kick.

Together the two vampires charged their spell and it burst forward in the form of a black demonic looking face. Rather than dodge right away Aila ran towards the beam. Just as the attack was to hit her she jumped over it allowing the two beams to clash in a black explosion that shook the room. She landed and swung her blade at the male vampire, however he had recovered far faster than she had expected. With a simple leap he jumped over her sword swipe. In his shadow was his partner who burst forward and landed a powerful punch to Aila’s face, sending her reeling back a few feet. The male vampire flipped through the air and attempted a heel drop on Aila’s head once more.

Their synchronization was amazing. Aila could hardly find an opening, and their speed definitely wasn’t helping her situation. The small girl drew in a deep breath as she stared into their blood red eyes. In a one on one match she would be in trouble… She looked back, noticing that Lance and Yue were busy with their own fights. Sensing her minor lapse in attention the two vampires burst forward and attempted to cast their spells at point blank range. However, she was prepared for such a tactic and quickly jumped to the side. As she did so she felt her magic spike. A plan was forming in her head. The new set allowed her to manipulate shadows right? So why was she outnumbered? She looked back at Yue’s summoned creature, such a being shouldn't be completely out of Aila’s grasp if she used this ability correctly.

She attempted to focus on her magic, however, her full attention was needed just to continue dodging these attacks. With a quick swing of her blade she met an incoming blow and sent the male vampire’s clawed hand back. Right on cue his partner appeared and attempted to swipe at her. Using the weight from her previous swing she allowed herself to spin backwards a bit before bringing her foot up and striking the woman in her side. This sent her back a few feet and gave Aila the breathing room needed to dodge an incoming attack from her partner. As soon as her feet met the ground again she spiked some magic through her cloak once more. Immediately everything went dark, as her body was shrouded in blackness. As the man attempted a follow up attack a black blade cut through the air. He had managed to dodge it.

However… The tides would soon turn. The blackened outline of Aila walked forward, leaving the original behind with a smile on her face. Shadow Aila mirrored her master’s stance in every way, was roughly the same height and looked downright spooky in the darkness of the pit that they were in. The vampires looked amazed at the small roster change that had taken place. The match had gone from 2-on-1 to 2-on-2 in less than 5 minutes. Aila nodded to her shadowy doppelganger and together the two ran forward. As they approached the enemy shadow Aila seemed to fade into the darkness of the room leaving Aila alone dashing towards the male vampire. As she swung her blade at the man he immediately jumped back and into an exact duplicate of her blade. Shadow Aila had hidden in the darkness and pierced through the man as attempted to dodge.

The female vampire cried out in a fit of rage as she witnessed her partner’s defeat. Her rage, however, was the end of her. It was their calculated and focused attacks that had allowed them to survive against the girl for so long. Rushing in as the woman did was a death wish. Aila didn't even need her copy to finish the woman. She ducked under a horizontal claw attack, hearing the swipe as it cut through the air, and forced her blade forward piercing the woman’s stomach. The woman let out a angry noise and attempted to bring her clawed hand down on Aila’s neck, however her copy appeared and with one swing removed both her hand and her head.

As Aila sheathed her blade her shadow form burst into a wispy cloud of darkness. She immediately turned and ran back towards her friends, ready to help should the two of them need it. Her head was still pounding from the many hits she had taken, but now wasn't the time to worry about things like that. Her friends were in danger!

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250/300 magic
4208 words

(Sorry Yue I skipped but its been awhile and I messaged you a few days ago about this =/)

Lance was able to grab the guards leg forcing it's body up and slammed it to the one beside him. The magical energy pulsating out of him made it where the two weren't able to move as quickly when near him and allowed him to move quicker than normal. Even if these creatures were nimble and fast on their own and had the advantage in this dark room he would still be able to slaughter every last on of them. The bodies of young naked men and women, including children, were in the area all around them. Some he sensed moving with his vision, others he presumed dead. These creatures were terrible and had to be stopped at all cost. He wouldn't let them ever get the chance to leave this tunnel.

The two bodies collided knocking the vampire to the ground, though no real damage to him at least, the other though had hit his head pretty hard but nothing to bad, the battle with these two had just begun. His hand still hand a tight grip on the vampire so he went ahead and followed through with a quick swing to the wall beside him, followed by a hard bash to the ground. As the vampire hit the wall he seemed to loose conscious and a lot of blood, while being slammed into the ground cracked the skull fully open allowing them to even see brain tissue poking out. Well that was one dead, on to the next one.

He seemed to be getting up from the fall to the ground, but was still in shock at the now dead corpse of his friend laying at Lance's feet. That was two of his friends dead within a minute now, he looked like he was close to peeing himself, the look in his eyes arsed
Lance. Something about the fear and despair in the man's eyes made Lance feel like he had power, power over someones life. He was able to quickly erase two souls from this world in a few short seconds, this man clearly saw the gap in the two's power. This was Lance's time, this was his turn to be the bully, it was his turn to tell people what to do.

"So, wheres Alanders? Or do you need a bit more convincing to tell us?" Lance's voice still held a dominating factor do to the magical boost but he was also trying to inspire a bit more fear into the vampire as well could help them get some helpful information, and be a bit of fun at the same time. After being treated like shit and drained of his blood he did not mind having a bit of fun with these guys. It was time for them to see what it was like to be on the other side of a battle of power, normally they would attack innocent non mages who have no way to defend themselves. But now, now they were fighting the Light Dragon Slayer, a person who is going to make them remember why they fear the sun.

Lance waited for the vampire to answer his question but it seemed like he did not have any intention to tell them anything. Lance cracked his neck side to side, he noticed that Aila and Yue seemed to be just standing back watching him and the last guard. The guard also noticed that he was the last he desperately looked around him looking for a way to escape, but there was none, even the tunnel behind him wouldn't help with Lance at this speed and he knew it. Every other way seemed to be blocked off, he was trapped like a rat. His eyes finally locked back to Lance's He was out of options at this point, there didn't seem to be any back up coming and all other options led to death, cooperation was the only thing he could do.

"Well? If you aren't going to speak I guess I'll have to end your life."


The vampire's doe eye looked snapped away. Now were a look that he had accepted death, making a quick movements with his wrist and hands he sliced open long gashes along each forearm.

"Fuck off and just die!"

The blood dripped out allowing him to channel his magical power making blood shoot out at Lance. A move that was easy to dodge it was like child's play with Lance's speed. He moved quick in an instant he was leaping over the blood and making his way to the vampire.

His first move to the vampire was a quick jab to the vampire's gut causing him to have the wind knocked out of him and even some spit to come out of his mouth. As Lance held his fist there a smirk crossed his face.

"So fanger, where the hell in this sewer is Mr. Alanders?"

The vampire was able to gather his composure rather quickly from the quick strike to the gut. Both arms grabbed Lance's right arm keeping him there. His claw's slicing into Lance's wrist and forearm.

"I'm drag you to the grave mage. I'm drain your little body dry and then I'm kill your two friends there, starting with the girl. She looks fun to slice open, maybe I'll start at her cute little navel and make my way up to he chin. How does that sound?"

Lance was ready for this though, he was hoping that the vampire would fight back.He wanted it to feel absolutely helpless against him, he wanted to break each attack again and again beating down the vampire until he was nothing more than a husk on the ground. The vampire's grip on Lance was tight he was going to have to break his arms to release it. His left arm was still free and though he wasn't a main melee style person, though White Drive's speed boost and overall natural power boost would give him a great powerful edge to the attack.

He brought his left arm up focusing the magical power into it until it felt like a beating heart itself. The power was overwhelming and actually started to make the bones in Lance's arm ache in pain, they felt close to breaking from the sheer power themselves. He brought down the arm on the vampire's wrist both were in his hands path and both where struck hard. He could feel the wrists give out under his hand indicating that his attack did the trick and did break them, making the vampire's hands useless and the overall threat greatly lowered.

Once the wrist were broken it only took a simple tug of his right arm to remove it from the vampire's clutches. He backed away from Lance winching in pain. He tucked his wrist close to his chest and tight. He knew going into the fight he was going to loose but now he knew that he would go down without even hurting his enemy.

"Damn you mages. One day you'll get your own we will make sure of it."

The vampire dropped to his knees and bowed his head to the ground. He was admitting defeat it seemed. He wasn't going to let them know anything about Mr. Alanders or anything. It must be something about vampires, loyal to their own kind, or to the ones stronger to them at least. Lance's eyes and entire face took on a look of pity. He walked over to the vampires and made a swift upper kick to the vampire's neck snapping it instantly and ending his life. As his body fell to the ground Lance turned around to face his two friends.

"You guys ok? Thanks for saving me."

The power was still radiating out from Lance there was no way he was going to let his guard down now. He wanted to watch the area around them closely, no more surprise visitors, plus it put his mind more at easy being like this. Made the idea of being in a dark, closed area like this less never racking. He wasn't meant to be locked up away from the open sky for so long. He was just ready to get this request over with.

Word Count: 5199
Magic Total:195
Spells Used:

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