Heirot

"Two back, three front. So many, because we have a lot of people come and go," the priest told Vlad. "Where is Lady Raider?"

Tenele fought off, along with Stalker any that came close. And they were doing pretty good until demons got in on it.

One, wasn't vampire, nor werewolf. He was an all-together different breed. His skin was pitch black, and his eyes solid white. he had teeth that were filed to points. He grinned... and suddenly split into three separate versions of himself.

"Three, that's easy," she told him with a laugh.

Three became six.

"Shit," she cursed her big mouth.

Vlad scanned the room full of worried faces. His own expression didn't offer much in return. There was no way he and Tenele were going to fight in five directions and still keep them safe. "Well, I have some good news and some bad for you, your holiness," he advised. "The good is that the enemy forces won't get in here. The bad is, I'm going to more or less wreck your hallway."

To his surprise, the priest nodded slowly. He expected a lot from the man, but trust was not one of them. "Alright then," he smirked, porting past the guards at the door into the hallway beyond. "Back up," he directed the men waiting awkwardly half-prepared outside the sanctuary doors. They obeyed, shrinking back as close to the door as possible. Vlad took a few steps back, and brought the walls down across the hallway. The pile of rubble would not be an easily crossed obstacle. It would keep the refugees and clergy safe (albeit trapped) and out of the way while they focused on the threat outside.

Stalker launched at one of the black forms and wound up tangling with two of them. The thing stood like a human, but its fighting was much closer to stalker's style. Its movements and reflexes were pure wolf. The hellhound dove viciously at the enemy, trading gashes with the demon.

Vlad appeared at the top of the wall, or what was left of it, and looked down at the fallen ogre on the ground. He grinned. Tenele had been busy. Then he turned toward what looked like a mob storming the front gates.

Tenele went back and forth with the demons, trading one foe for the other. The key was figuring out which was the original. In theory she felt that if she could find him, his replications would go away. She found him, on accident at that. It was no decoding or skill. Pure luck... Which didn't happen often for Tenele.

The replications disappeared, and his body fell dead to the ground. She didn't have a break, and more soldiers came. She was well aware of the fact that she and Stalker, no matter how powerful he was, could not keep this up forever... And she wasn't sure how many soldiers and demons lurked in these woods.

Stalker leapt forward in front of Tenele, engaging a group of demonic wolves. He was obviously the largest and strongest among them, but he was also outnumbered. They scored small points against him, wounding and biting him and he ripped their throats out one at a time. He was a strong being, but not as strong as his master, and without the ability to heal, he gradually weakened under the continuous battle. It showed very little in his behavior; the hound didn't have the instinct to display pain or weakness.

Vlad surveyed the scope of what was going on and knew just getting down on the battlefield wouldn't fix the problem. The situation called for something extreme.

And he knew how to be extreme.

He crossed his arms over his chest and incanted a spell so dark that the men around him only heard blackness. A swarm of bats or a mega wolf would not be sufficient for this task. He'd need a more imposing form. Something to instill fear, even in other demons and monsters. His shape twisted and tore apart, his legs and arms splitting with a gurgling crunch of bone and sinew.

He grew in size, first as a black shadow, then with enormous clawed hands and horns taking shape from the mass. The men backed away in terror as leathery wings spread out over half the size of the compound. He was a huge, black, lizardlike creature, with a blunt, toothy skull and hard obsidian scales that armored him neck to tail. The wall beneath him shuddered as he launched into the air and descended on the army below him.

It was a lot of power. He knew he was taking a risk. With the amount of blood in his system, even if he snacked along the way, he could withstand the drain of the spell for... five minutes. Maybe six.

So he didn't waste time. He descended on the forces below him with a heaving, fiery breath that sent them screaming for cover.

Tenele was trying to regain her breath between opponents. They were working her away from the wall and towards the forest. She tried to keep watch over Stalker as the wolves went for him... It hurt her to watch them bite into his skin or rip chunks of his flesh away.

So while concentrating on him, she also fought off a few human soldiers. They were easy compared to the Ishtassy soldier that she'd happened upon now. They danced around one another, slicing, lunging. While the humans had been all about the heaviness in their attacks, this one concentrated on the finesse. He was smooth, calculated. Not a mindless soldier, but she didn't expect that from Ishtass. They were born and bread for war, like the J'ra of Ighten. This was their opposite kin, the ones who had chose to worship Verin instead of Thar.

His skin was a charcoal black, and his hair white. His eyes were red, and reminded her very much of Vlad's eyes.

Tenele ran, running up the length of a tree until she propelled herself up and over the soldier. She swung at his back, but he just rolled out of the way.

And then it came from the sky. A huge dragon. Tenele's heart stopped. They had a dragon too?!

Well, that's not fair at all.

Fire. That's all Tenele needed to see. She didn't even wait to see who it was directed at. She just ran. She'd seen one of Shea's dragons before, and knew what sort of damage it could do.

She ran from the flames, feeling the heat even from the distance she was at. She looked, and the Ishtassy soldier was on her heals. They fought in intervals of running from the dragon. The snow grew deeper, and harder to run in. From the corner of her eye she saw another wolf.

The Ishtassy launched himself at Tenele, and they tumbled down snowy incline. He reared back, holding a row of spikes in his hand. He put them to her neck slowly. Then, a wolf... the wolf she'd seen. It flew over, snatching the Ishtassy off. It ripped into his throat until the soldier was dead.

When it was through it slowly turned for Tenele. Green eyes glared into her, and it took a slow step forward. Tenele drew her sword back to her and waited for it.

But, after watching her a little longer the wolf turned and ran.

Stalker froze in his path and looked back over his shoulder, sensing the immense presence of his master. His instinct to follow that darkness was so intense that he almost lost track of Tenele. When he returned his attention to the girl, another canine form was disappearing into the brush. He trotted to her and seized her sleeve authoritatively, pulling her directly away from the power that was attracting him so strongly. This was not safe for any mortal.

Vlad threw a huge, clawed hand down on a cluster of soldiers. Slings and arrows fired at him from every direction as he became the center of attention. The weapons lodged like unimportant splinters in his enormous form. A wide sweep of his wing hurled an entire squadron to the ground, forcing the rest to back off. The vampire hurled fire at the army surrounding him, rotating to be sure they all got a turn. His tail swung unceremoniously into the burned and screaming around him.

Demons began jumping onto his back and making slightly more intelligent attempts to carve at his neck, some using magic and others using inhuman claws and weapons. Vlad ignored them because he didn't have time, and they weren't good enough to bring him down before his own body did the job for them. He jutted his head down at the largest groups of men, snapping at them and swallowing entire people whole. Men began deserting the fight, running off into the woods to nurse their wounds. Captains barked warnings to their men to stay and fight.

Vlad roared into the sky, taking in the victory and scaring off still more. He walked like an earthquake to the gates of the compound and fought at the few still focusing on getting inside. He wanted all eyes on him until the attackers admitted defeat.

He drew a deep breath, gathering fire in his lungs.

And then real fire seemed to boil up inside him. His long neck arched with startled pain. His legs went numb and he barely stayed on his feet as the too-familiar ache burned through him.

"Hey, it's wounded!" someone shouted. "Attack it, now!"

Tenele looked back as Stalker led her away. "Wait somethings wrong, they're attacking it!" She pulled harder on her sleeve. "Stalker wait, is that... Vlad?" Panic reached up and grabbed her like a vice. He would get surrounded, over taken? "We can't let him get over powered. He's your master, help him!" Tenele pointed towards Vlad, knowing that if she sent Stalker in he wouldn't be much against and army, but he would be something. It was the only thing she could think to do.

Tenele grabbed up a bow and quivers from a fallen soldier and took a knee. She started firing at them, picking them off one at a time until she was out. She scurried closer to the next body, going for more.

Stalker just froze and stared at her. He was torn between her orders to help Vlad and his master's clear instructions to defend Tenele. He ultimately lowered his head decisively and stayed at her side, watching for attackers who might spot a lone archer firing into their ranks.

Vlad fought for control of his own thoughts. He kept flashing back to that time he'd spent in the dungeon with his creator, his body raging with the poison he'd drunk. The protective pendant the priest had given him scalded from where it lay embedded deep in his body, next to his heart. He could throw his talons into his own chest and rip the damned thing out.

But then the monks watching him from the tower would know beyond a doubt that he was a monster, if this form hadn't proven that already. He would never marry Tenele.

The thought of his raised his resolve, just as the episode wore off. The burning went dormant once again, and he found himself stiffly reassessing the overconfident mob that had once again swarmed around him. A demon with impossibly long daggers for hands stabbed its blades into his windpipe. Vlad peered down at him in irritation. An arrow flew from nearby and went straight into the creature, dropping him at Vlad's enormous feet. Vlad looked up where the arrow had flown from, and he spotted her. If Dragons could smile, that was what he did. Then he heaved a fiery breath over the crowd. Smaller shafts of flame sprayed from the holes the demon had made in his throat. The vampire was rather pleased with the effect as it kept the closest soldiers at bay.

"It was faking it! It's playing with us!" someone screamed.

Men began fleeing again. Vlad didn't let them run. He chased them down with fierce shifts of his wings and blasted flame far across the open terrain.

Tenele stood up slowly when Vlad seemed to regain control of whatever was wrong with him. She waved with a smile. An arrow plowed through her leather armored corset and into her side. She crouched down, gritting her teeth. "Grreeeaat!" She jumped up on her feet again as a soldier came whisking by with a net trimmed in metal barbs. She deflected his attack and plunged her sword into him. Then fought off another and another.

The soldiers retreated from Vlad in fear, and some just happened to choose her way.

She reached down in between soldiers to break the shaft of the arrow off and get it out of her way.

It wasn't long before they were clear of most of the soldiers save a few stragglers.

Stalker snarled and launched in to defend his wounded charge. His keen nose sensed her blood, and it drove the fierce excitement glowing in his eyes as he fought the nearby soldiers hard enough that he and Tenele created a scene all their own. Before long, the receding forces were forking to avoid them too.

Vlad didn't let up in his attacks. All but a few stragglers had high-tailed it for the hills, if they were able to move for all their burns. The air hung thick with smoke and the smell of burnt meat. The vampire could feel his body counting down, warning that the spell couldn't hold any longer. It didn't look like the army had enough living or enough combined courage to dare try to regroup, but he blew a few more blazing plumes at the retreating men just to be sure.

Stalker. Get Tenele back to the compound, he ordered.

The wolf bit at a soldier's heels and then circled back to Tenele. He growled and posed next to her, offering his back for support or transportation if she needed it.

Tenele looked back to Vlad, but the way Stalker acted she knew exactly what he was wanting her to do. She moved back to the busted gate, hovering a hand over her wounded side. She moved slowly back into the courtyard, but didn't move any further than that. She waited for him, and no amount of arguing could get her to go back inside until she saw him again. Tenele put her hand on top of Stalkers head and stroked him gently behind his ears. "Is he okay?" she asked the hell hound, though she knew he couldn't tell her.

Vlad was drawing on his limit as he saw his wounded fiance finally make it to the gate and his familiar standing there waiting for him as well. He blew a wave of fire directly into the grass beneath him, sending up a cloud of smoke. The vampire shuddered and in a heaving crunch of bones and muscles reformulating and collapsing, his body collapsed to its proper dimensions. His clothes were perforated with holes and soaked in blood. His body didn't look too badly mutilated, but his eyes were dull and brown as he turned toward the compound and walked invisibly through the smoky mess he'd created.

His sluggish limbs barely followed his instructions to move. He wanted to drink. He NEEDED to drink. But it was more important that no single enemy soldier saw the limitations and tricks behind his little rampage. "Stalker," he ordered hoarsely. The wolf bounded away from Tenele and stopped at his master's side, unaffected by the fire. Vlad grasped the huge wolf's shoulder and leaned on it. The wolf moved patiently as its master made his way back to the gates as quickly as he could manage. He let go of the beast as he reached the threshold and Tenele, reminding the creature he was not expected to tread onto holy ground.

Vlad stared at Tenele, smelling her blood more keenly that he'd ever smelled anything. "You're a hard woman to kill" he murmured, forcing his legs to hold him.

Tenele stood numb as she watched him emerged ragged and tired from the smoke. She took a few steps forward, unsure what to do.

"You're a hard woman to kill," he muttered.

She moved faster then, running to him. She put a hand on his chest, and one around his waist. "Vlad," she muttered. "You need blood..." She looked around quickly, and found no body, no soldier wounded inside the walls. "Take some of mine. Quickly, before you lose yourself... At least enough to steady your hunger."

Vlad smirked at the dizzy thought of how much blood he'd need to kill this particular hangover. "I said...you're hard to kill...not that I want to try," he muttered, resting his forehead against hers and taking in the scent of her wounds. He thought about the clergymen's hypothetical reactions to a so-called reformed vampire biting his fiance right after she'd been wounded in battle. "You need to be patched, not punctured." He turned his attention to his right, too slowly, as he sensed people in his peripheral vision - sub-human reflexes - and found a number of monks rushing into the area to find them.

They looked excited, like boys after their first battle. Probably astonished they weren't dead. "Lady Tenele, are you hurt?" one of them asked as they rushed to their two-man security squad.

Tenele cupped Vlad's cheek. "I can spare some," she muttered. "I don't think pouncing a monk is going to help our case of marriage any."

Tenele heard the monks coming just as surely as Vlad could smell them. "We're well considering," she told them. She looked down at the brown leather with the inch long remnant of the arrow shaft protruding from her and the small trickle of blood staining the leather. "How good are you stitching?" she asked Vlad with a smirk. "You're probably not the best one to ask that question right now." She frowned. "You need to drink. I won't take no for an answer, or have you nibbling on any nuns necks while I'm not looking. So either you drink from me, or I go and drag you a soldier kicking and screaming from the battlefield. So do you want to do this here, or somewhere more private?"