Fate's Reluctant Heroes

A Fight With A Vampire - Acacius

Acacius was sweating. His hands were wrapped tightly around the hilt of his sword, and the white of his knuckles could be seen. Nero and Nicolas were standing to his left, while Alphonsus was standing to his right. Only Nicolas appeared to be as worried as he was.

Acacius had all sorts of thoughts running through his head: What if I die here? What if my powers don’t work when I need them to? What if I mess up and someone else gets killed?

He looked at Alphonsus who looked back at him and gave him a relaxing smile. He seemed to know Acacius was stressed.

            Looking off into the distance as night fell, they could see outlines of people walking over. They were not shambling nor broken, but looked like strong people, brandished clubs and tools. Their faces were horrid, as they looked like the skin was falling off.

These must be the corpses the vampire uses, thought Acacius. The corpses started running towards the group of 4 with their weapons in hand.

            Nero shot off as a shadow into the woods behind the corpses, and Alphonsus ran to the right to get a more defensive stance. Nicolas activated his equipment and flew a few feet off the ground, racing towards the corpses. Acacius was the last to go, and he ran forward.

The first wave of corpses approached and the closest one struck out with a club at Acacius. Acacius blocked with his sword but felt his knees buckle.

These corpses are strong! Thought Acacius.

One corpse got around him and swung an ax at his back. Acacius empowered his hand and forearm with light and grabbed the handle of the ax, snapping it in half. The corpse looked confused just before it got a solid punch to the face and its head exploded.

Acacius was surprised at the power of his punch and threw another one at the corpse with the club. Its chest caved in as his fist made contact, and the corpse was tossed a few feet back. Two down, many to go he thought as more corpses came near.

            Acacius focused and willed a light ball to appear in his hand. He shot it forward and it pounded into a corpse, setting it on fire and launching it back twenty feet. Acacius shot a couple more light balls out at the nearest corpses and then started to feel exhausted.

He slew several more, but realized that using his powers in battle quickly made him tired. He looked around and saw Alphonsus cutting down corpses left and right. Nicolas was gliding over the corpses and was cutting off their heads as he flew over, his arm was bleeding from a cut he received. Nero was nowhere to be found.

            Suddenly, the remaining corpses in their sight retreated, and Nicolas, Alphonsus, and Acacius remained wary. A man came appeared, wearing red armor and a devilish grin.

“Bravo, gents! You all seem to be a powerful bunch.”

He was of average height and had a handsome but somewhat pale face. He had jet black hair that was cut short, and his pupils in his eyes were red. He was slowly walking forward, looking around him at the standing and fallen corpses.

“Huh, I thought I had more corpses here, oh well.” He spoke aloud. He stared at the three guys with an intensity to him. “My name is Seth, or, as everyone else calls me, a vampire. I intended to devour this village, but it looks like I have an extra treat here as well.”

He gave a wicked smile and shot off incredibly fast towards Acacius. Acacius only had time to throw a quick empowered punch towards the vampire, but the vampire grabbed his fist with one hand, stopping it dead in its tracks.

“Is that your best?” Seth mocked as he threw a light punch at his gut. Acacius flew back ten feet and started retching on the ground. He looked up and saw the vampire begin to walk towards him. “

STOP!!” called Nicolas, as he came shooting over. Nicolas dropped some of the blood from his arm onto the blade, and the blade appeared to have red veins running through it. He swung the sword at the vampire, aiming to cut off his head. Seth the vampire sneered and grabbed Nicolas’s arm, shouldering his body and quickly disarming him. Nicolas was thrown by Acacius and spat out some blood.

            “This is a very nice blade,” Said Seth. “It has a very strong blood power running through it. I wonder who made it?” Seth then looked at Nicolas, “Your ability to control this sword is lacking. I think I will keep it for now.”

Seth then cut his arm and dropped his blood on it, making the entire sword glow red. He laughed and slowly walked towards the boys, as if relishing the hunt.

All of a sudden, a glowing blue sword flung towards him. Seth moved to dodge it but received a cut on his cheek from it.

Alphonsus went to stand in front of the boys and said, “Don’t worry boys, I still have one trump card left.”

Acacius was almost in shock as these series of events were happening in quick succession. Now Alphonsus was glowing a silvery blue, and his eyes glowed glowing with starlight. He charged forward and clashed with the vampire head-on. The vampire grimaced and appeared to get serious.

The pair clashed their swords with violent ambition, rocking the air around them. Alphonsus slowly seemed to be getting the upper hand and was cutting up the vampire’s body. b****y, Seth retreated, jumping back thirty feet. He looked at the three and laughed, “Hahaha!! You are good! However, I am not quite strong enough yet, so I will be seeing you again another time.”

Seth gave an evil and b****y smile and ran into the woods, commanding his corpses to charge the three outside the walls to cover his escape. Alphonsus cut them all down within a few seconds, but the vampire had already vanished into the depth of night.

            After cutting down the last corpse, Alphonsus took a deep breath and immediately passed out. The blue glow that surrounded his body faded, and he slumped to the ground face first.

Sergeant Alex was watching the whole battle from the top of the wall, and quickly ordered the farmers to open the gate and bring Alphonsus inside.

 Acacius shouted, “Nicolas! Where is Nero?”

Nicolas looked back at him in surprise and his eyes widened, “Didn’t he go off into the woods? Acacius, let’s go quickly!”

Acacius nodded and the pair ran off into the woods, despite their injuries. They ran a good distance until they got a whiff of a horrible smell. They looked at each other and ran faster until they came upon a clearing. They stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes wide and their mouths open in shock. Nero was sitting calmly on a log, in his usual resting pose. Around him were hundreds of corpses, all stabbed, and ripped to shreds.

Nero looked up at them, “Let’s go back. I was waiting a while for you guys to finish and take care of that weakling vampire. You both need a lot more experience with more powerful enemies. Especially you, Acacius.”

Nero looked at them both with disappoint before heading back to the village. Nicolas and Acacius soon followed, still in shock. 

Ch 19: Gathering Materials - Mary

Mary smiled to herself as the sweat dripped down her brow and she held up a wicked-sharp sword. Her skill had drastically improved, and she was very excited to continue learning.

She also received payment by Risus, and it was quite a generous sum too. She had bought Brutus a helmet and also a heavy and large piece of armor that fit tightly around his chest. He was so happy that he started jumping up and down, shaking the whole building.

Risus walked into the forge and saw Mary with her finished blade. He smiled brightly as well, he was so proud of Mary for improving so fast.

“Well done, Mary! I think you are ready for the next step!”

Mary brightened up “Are we going to try forging a magic weapon?”

Risus smiled and nodded.

            “Since it is your first time forging a magic weapon, we will need very good materials. I can impart part of my magic forging skill on you, and you can then improve it on your own. But first, what kind of weapon would you want?”

Mary pondered this for a while. She had the magic dagger that gave her incredible skill, but she wasn’t very comfortable getting that close to someone. She liked the range of a spear, but didn’t appreciate it’s lack of versatility.

“I  want to make a staff for my weapon,” Mary said firmly.

Risus raised his eyebrows. “That’s an interesting choice, but that can definitely work! May I make a recommendation for its abilities?”

Mary nodded excitedly.

“I would add three abilities to the staff: one to make it very light, the second to make it harder than steel, and the third to give the weapon a powerful strength. That way you can wield the staff with ease, but everyone else will feel like the staff weighs the same as a mountain. It will also feel like a mountain whenever you strike your opponent.” Risus chuckled, “I would definitely not want to be your opponent with that weapon!”

             “What materials should I use?”

Risus thought for a minute and then said, “for this, we should gather the materials ourselves. We can use the wood of a black iron tree, and some metal from the mountain up north. A secret to making really good weapons is gathering materials from very magical creatures.” Risus smiled in a way that made Mary think he knew something she didn’t. “There is a very powerful magical ape that lives in the same mountain up north. I think he would make a very good magical core!”

Mary grew very nervous when Risus mentioned hunting powerful creatures, “You’ll come with me? Right?”

Risus shrugged, “I’m not as powerful as I once was, but Brutus seems to have a minor power of strength. You could probably use his help. Do you know what the materials look like and where they are?”

Mary nodded as Risus made her memorize all the locations for the materials.

“Great!” shouted Risus. “Take Brutus and go get your materials then. Once you get back, I will help you make your awesome sounding staff!”

Risus got shivers, he was so excited.

            She called for Brutus and he came without hesitation, wearing his oversized helmet and armor. He was smiling and hugged Mary as soon as he saw her.

“Mary is so nice! Brutus will follow you anywhere!”

Mary felt her heart warm from that statement and patted him on the shoulder, “Let’s go, buddy. I need your help defeating a magical beast”

Brutus smiled a huge smile and nodded and the two were off. They waved to Pulchra and Risus as the pair stood at the door waving them off.

            Mary moved through the city with Brutus. Eventually came to a forest they had to travel through before they could go to the mountain.

Mary sighed to herself. She had so many thoughts running through her head, and now she had time to actually think about them.

Risus explained many things to her about powers, weapons, abilities and how there were so many things and creatures in this world that she only heard about through him. Risus said that the majority of the population didn’t know about these things due to an extremely powerful and evil being. This being placed fear and ignorance in people’s minds. His purpose was to keep people’s eyes closed to the things went on around them.

That evil being hated the world, and wanted to see it torn down, but no one had seen this being for a very long time. Mary had been slightly frightened, because Risus had a look of disgust and anger when he talked about this very evil creature. She had never seen Risus with that look before.

            Risus explained that ignorance allowed powerful beings or creatures causing destruction to be written off as natural disasters or military conquests in people’s minds. Unless they saw the creatures or were told directly about the abnormalities of the world, most people would not believe in the supernatural beings.

Mary had so many questions. How did Risus know about all of this? How do powers and creatures exist in this world at all? What does that mean for her?” She pondered this and was left with a headache.

            Suddenly, a raggedy figure popped out from behind some trees. Mary screeched in surprise and Brutus stepped forward.

This raggedy figure appeared as a boy with brown hair and brown eyes. He looked like a skeleton with torn, loose clothing all around his body. He was very obviously beaten and hurt with bruises and cuts.

He looked up at Mary with a blank expression and proceeded to pass out in front of them. Mary stood in shock for a minute and then ran up to the boy and kneeled down beside him.

Luckily, Risus had given her a medicinal elixir that quickly healed the body. She gave it to the boy now. He unconsciously drank but did not wake up.

 A minute later, a group of men came materialized in the trees. One held a whip and had a short, fat body. There were three other men that were large and ripped with muscle. The short fat one spoke,

“That there boy is my property, missy, so if you have any wits about ya, then I would suggest returning him to me!”

Mary angrily shouted back, “What have you done to this boy?! He looks like he is on death’s doorstep!”

“It shouldn’t matter at all to you. You shouldn’t be involved with other people’s property!” He stepped forward as if to harm Mary and the boy.

Brutus did not like anything about the man, and seeing him move towards Mary made him angry. He stood up to his full height and moved towards the fat man.

The fat man looked terrified as a fist the size of a boulder moved towards him. The fat man was launched back into a tree. His body was a mangled pile of bones and skin that was horrible to look at. Mary looked away from that gruesome scene, nearly puking from hearing the crunch of the body.

The three other men were mortified looking at this giant in front of them and ran off back into the woods.

Mary sighed with relief and stared at this boy next to her, wondering what happened to him.