To Hunt A Vampire; I First Things First

Wearing her green-and-gold outfit and wearing her Argent Gloves and Adaptable Armor with backpack and Silver Longsword, Leona arrived in front of a hunting lodge, a fairly large one-story wooden house that was starting to look a little decrepit. "Decrepit" was being generous.

The front door had a few quarter-sized holes in it and two of the glass windows on the side of the house had panes missing from the bottom. The stairs leading up to the front door looked rotten and unsafe to step on. Part of the roof was missing shingles and the gutters were clogged with leaves and other accumulated detritus. All in all the place had seen better days.

Leona was here to help an old order of vampire hunters known as the Order of The Silver Blade. They had run into a problem with a new breed of vampire who was killing members left and right; traditional methods of vampire repelling or destruction like garlic charms and stake launchers were ineffective against this "new breed" of vampire. As a result of the sudden drop in membership, they were forced to call for outside help against this new menace. Leona, hoping to get some books on vampires as well as firsthand information on fighting vampires that she could take back to her guild, answered the call.

Leona had only been standing around a minute when a blonde young woman dressed in a green outfit that was not the usual attire for a vampire hunter exited the lodge while flanked by seven other hunters armed with stakes, garlic, and silver swords. She looked surprised to see Leona... she probably did not expect a Wizard Saint to answer the call for help. The young woman had blonde hair that reached to her lower back and brown eyes that seemed to pierce into Leona's mind.

"I'm Miranda Melbont, the leader of the Order of The Silver Blade. As you can see, we really need the help. We're down to eight members, myself included." She introduced herself before discussing the problem without any further preamble.

"For centuries we've relied on an encyclopedia that has all the information our members need to deal with creatures of the night. However, it doesn't cover what we've been facing lately. Nothing we use seems to faze it in the slightest, so we've been reduced to hiding and hoping that someone would help us." Miranda explained to Leona, who took a glance at the remaining hunters. They looked determined to fight to the end. They also showed concern that the end was going to come sooner than they would like it to. It was up to Leona to help pull them back from the brink and put them on solid ground.

"We've located a codex that could help us learn how to fight this new breed, but there's a big problem. We can't quite get to it." Miranda explained to Leona.

Miranda Melbont:

[Word Count: 500]
[Total Word Count: 500/3,500]

"What's keeping you from getting to the codex?" Leona asked Miranda. The blonde vampire hunter took a deep breath.

"There's a magical barrier placed in front of the house where's its kept. People who aren't mages can't get through it. Our order's composed exclusively of normal humans, so the codex is so far out of our reach that it might as well be in the middle of Desierto." Miranda lamented. Leona was mildly amused by that remark because Desierto did have a lot of remote and hard-to-reach places. Most of the desert was unexplored precisely because it was so remote.

"And you want me to go in and get the codex, right?" Leona asked. She saw where this was going. She would go inside, brave the perils of the house, and bring back the codex so that the Order of The Silver Blade could get back on its feet. Leona was up for the challenge because she stood to gain from taking this job. Maybe Miranda would help out by having the codex copied and giving (or selling) a copy to the Silver Wolf Guild Master.

"Right. But it won't be easy. You'll have to get past ghosts and who knows what else. Since we can't go in with you, you'll have to go in on your own." Miranda answered, warning of what Leona would face in the House of Lost Souls. The blonde mage was used to being on her own, so she was not daunted by the prospect of yet another solo mission. Going alone into places of danger was what she did. It was how she became the Wizard Saint of Courage.

"OK. Anything else I need to know about this House of Lost Souls?" Leona inquired.

"It used to be the home of a deceased member of our order who died of natural causes. He was a crafty guy who had a paranoid streak, so I'd watch for traps in addition to the ghosts and other enemies that might be wandering about." Miranda warned. Leona would have to remember that warning.

"I'd also carry a silver weapon with me. Ghosts aren't harmed by normal weapons." Miranda suggested. Leona wordlessly drew her Silver Longsword and presented it as proof that she had a silver weapon.

"All right then. If you're ready to go, I can tell you where the house is." Miranda said. Leona put away the sword and walked over to the vampire hunter to hear what she had to say.

-The House of Lost Souls, one hour later-

Leona had to hike through some spooky woods and take several left turns, but she made it to the house intact and without a fight. What was not intact was the house itself. It was so dilapidated that it made the Order of The Silver Blade lodge look like the sultan's palace.

The front door was slightly hanging off of the hinges and the doorknob was missing, leaving a hole where a knob went. The front stairs were rotten and broken in the middle and the railing was gone, leaving only the posts where it would have went. The front windows had either fallen out or had been smashed out. The House of Lost Souls looked less like a house and more like a hovel on the brink of collapsing on itself. It looked like it had changed management since the previous occupant died.

Leona bypassed the stairs completely and simply climbed onto the front doorstep of the house, pulling herself up and walking over to the door. Since it did not have a knob, all she had to do was give it a gentle push and the door opened to a foyer that was surprisingly well-maintained when compared to the exterior of the house. It even had a coat rack in the left corner next to the door. Not fooled by the appearance of normality, Leona drew her Silver Longsword and stepped into the house.

-Inside the House of Lost Souls-

Leona stepped into the foyer and focused on what was down the hallway. There were several closed doors and pieces of furniture lining the hallway, but she also spotted spectral people gathering up ahead. She had unpleasant flashbacks to running from the ghost army under the Abandoned Cabin with Order Knight Jessica and their narrow escape from the underground lab. Leona pushed ahead anyway because she had a codex to retrieve and not all the time in the world to retrieve it in. The Order of The Silver Blade was living on borrowed time.

"What are you doing here?" A whisper asked Leona.

"Why are you here?" Another whisper echoed the first. Leona recalled the experience at the Haunted Guild with the demonic whispering urging her to kill Order Cleric Amanda to claim the lore of the library for herself. The blonde mage had to tune out the whispering to focus on dealing with the team of six ghosts gathered up ahead.

"Are you doing this for the Order of The Silver Blade?" A third whisper asked.

"You are wasting your time and your effort. That order of simpletons is doomed to extinction. Their order will soon be no more." Another one barged into the "conversation" as Leona approached the ghosts with her weapon raised. They began to float towards her and her silver blade went into action. She carved through a ghost with a single downward chop, then brought up the blade and cut through another one with no resistance. A third ghost reached out and grasped her left shoulder, making the blonde shudder and feel a drop in magical energy before she cut through another one reaching for her throat with both hands. There were only three ghosts left.

Leona spun around and cut in half the ghost that had touched her left shoulder, then stabbed backwards and "killed" another specter that had approached from behind with the intention of touching the back of her neck. She faced the last ghost and cut through it with a two-handed downward chop as it raised its hands to its face in an attempt to protect itself. Now that this batch of ghosts was gone, the exploration of the house could continue.

Leona turned to the door in front of her and tried to open it to no avail. It was firmly locked and she was not inclined to go look for the key, so she walked down the hall to another door and tried to open it. It too did not open, so she tried a third door that was right next to the foyer. It was locked. Leona simply turned around and went to a wooden chest of drawers that she had seen earlier in the hallway.

The blonde rummaged through the drawers and found nothing but air. Undaunted, she continued to search the drawers while whispering sounded in her ear.

"You waste your time. You will find nothing to help you in there. There is only one way forward." A voice whispered into her ear. Leona was keeping calm so far, but the whispering was starting to creep her out a little. She continued to look, opening all of the drawers and finding nothing, not even a scrap of paper. Leona pushed the drawers back in and walked back to where she had "killed" the ghosts earlier. She looked to the left and spotted more doors and another group of nine ghosts staring in her direction with empty eye sockets.

The whisper was right. There was only one way forward and that way led through the ghosts gathering in her way. Leona would not keep them waiting for too much longer. She brought her weapon into a ready position and strode to meet them as they floated towards her.

[Word Count: 1,325]
[Total Word Count: 1,825/3,500]

Leona cut through the first ghost to bar her path with a one-handed diagonal slash. Another ghost moved to get in her way and she cut through it with a one-handed downward chop. Two of them rushed Leona at once; she stabbed one in the chest and sent it to the world beyond but the second got to her and touched the right cheek of her face, sending a chill throughout her body and draining a little more of her magical power. The blonde dispatched it next, leaving her with five more ghosts to deal with before this encounter was over.

A ghost floated towards her with its hands outstretched. Leona cut off its left hand before stabbing it. It vanished in a puff of blue vapor as she carved another one in half at the hip with a horizontal swing. The remaining three ghosts began to slowly back away because they recognized that their opponent wielded a weapon capable of harming them. Leona was not going to let them get away; she ran towards them and dissipated them with a series of quick sword slashes that sent them to the great beyond.

Now that the ghosts had been dealt with, Leona looked down the hallway and noticed that this hallway had rooms with doors that had been removed. That was not a good sign. She would have to proceed with caution because more spectral residents might be waiting for her behind where the doors would have been. There was no dresser to inspect in the halls but plenty of picture frames hanging at odd angles. In them were pictures too old and too faded to make out the subjects.

"Do you wish to die with the Order of The Silver Blades?" A whisper asked while the mage crept down the hallway.

"It does not have to be this way. There is no glory in fighting for the losing side. That path will only lead to death." Another whisper tried to warn her.

Leona carefully peered into the first room with no door. It was a small room the size of a typical bedroom had green wallpaper that was starting to peel off the walls. It was empty except for old moth-eaten clothing that was haphazardly tossed onto the floor and a mostly intact window that let in the moonlight. She walked by and kept going towards the second room. She glanced inside and saw another room with green wallpaper that was starting to peel off and a pile of broken wooden picture frames lying on the floor. The window was completely intact and letting moonlight shine on the broken picture frames.

The blonde moved on and continued forward until she stopped in front of a third room and peered inside. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a well-dressed human figure with pointy ears standing in front of the window!

Leona jumped back and readied her weapon, but the figure continued to stand in front of the window without a single reaction to her presence. Leona took a few breaths and worked up the courage to approach it. She slowly and carefully approached until she was within arm's reach of the person, then tapped it twice on the shoulder with her sword. It did not move.

Leona tapped it on the shoulder more forcefully another two times. It wobbled a little but otherwise did not move. The impatient blonde grabbed it shoulder and spun it around to find herself face-to-face with a monocled vampire!

Leona screamed and turned to run from the room but tripped over her own feet, sending her sword flying into the hallway and her sprawling into the ground. She inelegantly scrambled past it on all fours and almost hit her head on the doorframe as she scrambled to her feet. She yanked her sword off of the ground and lifted it with he right hand, waiting for the vampire to make its move.

It stood facing her in the room where she had left it. It did not chase after her even though it could have caught her with almost no effort. The adrenaline-fueled mage risked taking another glance at it and noticed two important things. First, it already had a stake in its heart. Second, it was just a dummy because stuffing was hanging out of its chest where it had been staked.

The flustered blonde was so glad that no one was around to see her embarrassment at freaking out over encountering a training dummy. She took a series of rapid, shallow breaths as she examined it. It was lifelike and was dressed in old clothing that had an aristocratic look. It even had a monocle with a gold rim sitting on its face. Leona poked it to make sure that it was really a dummy, then left it behind and walked back into the main hallway.

After recovering from the heart attack, she looked down the hall and noticed a set of large wooden double doors that were too elegant for the house. They could not have been part of the original floor plan. Leona slowly approached them with her weapon ready and did not encounter any resistance on the way to the doors.

"This is your chance to join the winning side." One voice whispered.

"Take this chance and become part of the winning side. Join it and you will feast on humanity forevermore." A second whisper tried to tempt her.

"Your flesh will be proof against all blades and all magic. You will be an unstoppable creature of the night." A third offered. Leona was not the smartest mage, but even she was not dumb enough to fall for that. Sunlight could still kill vampires. Leona would much rather stay a normal human and not have to worry about staying out too late.

"Consider what you are doing." A fourth whisper said as she put her left hand on the double doors and pushed them in. Inside was a chapel with a book on a wooden podium with a gold cross hanging on the wall. Also inside the chapel was another well-dressed vampire clad in black clothing with gold trim. This one was real; his eyes glowed red as he gave a small bow to her.

"I see you have come for the codex on behalf of that cowardly order." He said to her. His hands glowed red as she entered the chapel and stood between the two rows of wooden pews.

"I'm here for the codex and I'm not leaving without it." Leona calmly stated. The vampire smiled wide enough to expose his fangs.

"Then you will not leave here at all!" He threatened while raising his hands above his head. Needles of blood rained from the ceiling. Leona used Ruby Dome to shield herself from the attack as the room was saturated in the crimson needles. They rained down with enough force to damage the wooden pews and knock dime-sized holes into them.

"Impressive. You are no ordinary hunter." The vampire complimented Leona.

[Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 3,025/3,500]

The vampire raised his arm and pointed towards her, firing a beam of blood that hit her in the right shoulder and inflicted mild harm on her. He glowed red and he gave off a brief afterimage that floated up as he smiled. He then ran at her with superhuman speed. Leona ducked under an attempt to grab her throat and stabbed into its stomach.

"You foolish girl! Your weapons are worthless against me!" He bellowed, drawing back his white-gloved hand and backhanding her across the face. He casually tossed Leona her sword back as the wound instantly closed itself up. Leona landed on her back and took the sword, putting it away because it was indeed worthless against this opponent. She retaliated by firing a Wind Bullet that struck him in the chest, sending it flying backwards and slamming into the wall next to the golden cross mounted on the wall.

Leona rushed over to the codex and snatched it off the podium just as the vampire recovered and lunged for her. She felt his bony fingers brush against the back of her neck as she ran from the podium and sprinted out of the chapel. She needed to get out of here.

"You cannot run from me!" The vampire asserted while giving chase. His speed was almost the same as Leona's and he was doing a good job of keeping up with her. Leona tried to slow him down with a Fast Ball spell, but he jumped over it and landed without missing a step. She decided to just keep running.

Leona made it down the hallway and turned to the right, where the open door was waiting for her. The vampire jumped and landed in front of her, raising his hands to block her path. She stopped and used a Zephyr Charge to knock him down, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Leona ran by him and had to jump to avoid her left ankle being grabbed. The blonde kept running and did not stop even after she reached the door.

-Outside the House of Lost Souls-

Leona jumped off the front doorstep and cleared the stairs, landing in the grass. The vampire burst through the doorframe looking for blood. Leona fired a Wind Blast and staggered him long enough to run beyond the front yard, the place where the barrier stopped. The vampire sprinted up to the barrier and put a hand on it like he was leaning against it, then faced her and frowned.

"You have won tonight, but your efforts are wasted. The Order of The Silver Blade is doomed to extinction. You will follow them to the grave!" He vowed before spinning around on his heels and walking back to the cabin. Only the magic barrier that kept Silver Blade members out had kept Leona from becoming vampire food. Leona wasted no time in getting back to the Silver Blade lodge.

-At the Silver Blade lodge, one hour later-

"You made it! And you have the codex!" Miranda exclaimed. As the other Silver Blade members watched, she walked over to Leona and took the codex into her shaking hands. The blonde vampire hunter looked into Leona's eyes and smiled.

"You've just given us a new lease on life. We're not out of this mess yet, but this will help us turn things around. Thank you for recovering this book for us!" Miranda thanked Leona profusely. The other vampires hunters looked relieved that the mission was a success.

"I encountered one of those new vampires in the house. My Silver Longsword was about as much use against him as a butter knife." Leona informed Miranda and the others of her "fight" with the vampire guarding the codex.

"Now you see what we're up against. But they won't rule the night for much longer. Thanks to you we may have a way to kill it." Miranda said to her. A male hunter brought over a bag of Jewels that he handed Leona.

"Thanks kid." He said laconically before turning around and walking away.

"We'll start studying this right away. We won't waste this chance you've given us. We'll need your help, so be ready!" Miranda said before she and the other hunters went back into their lodge to begin studying the codex. Leona pocketed the bag of Jewels and called upon her Winged Lion summon. She climbed onto his back and started the flight for home.

[Word Count: 752]
[Total Word Count: 3,777/3,500]