Progress

　　Irena’s POV

　　After weeks of planning, scheming, and fighting, and after years of waiting I was finally completely rid of the witch of bloodville.

　　Another player had been taken off the board and we were one step away from ridding ourselves of this nuisance. And now that Alexey knew about my being a vampire and I was free from the lies, fighting this war would feel just that bit easier. And thanks to him lending us his home, everything was efficient. He had everything we needed.

　　All that was left now was the defiler and his pet monsters.

　　Victims of his experiments.

　　We had people working round the clock tracking patterns and events that mirror the causative effects of the kind of black arts that he practiced.

　　We were looking for children found dead and missing body parts among other things, but so far we turned up empty.

　　It was as though his pattern had completely changed, or like there was no trace of him on the planet.

　　The Defiler was involved in the attacks on me and the rest of the world. I knew he was, but how could I prove it?

　　The human deaths had suddenly stopped, apparently being caused by the Bloodville Witch, and as a result, most of the council were convinced that the war had been won and what was left was the world to be put back to normal.

　　But I knew better, the defiler was out there somewhere and he was planning something.

　　Most of the council members had pulled their vampires from the search efforts to direct their forces to something else.

　　The armada was getting more and more blatant, their ranks grew daily, and there were no signs of them slowing down at all.

　　I understood well enough why certain council members would need the extra manpower for their protection or why they would attempt to take the fight to the armada in an attempt to quell their forces, but this was not the fight that we should've been focusing on.

　　The defiler was out there, roaming free with all his toys and resources, he was planning something, building something and we had to stop him.

　　We had to intercept his efforts before he could get a chance to execute whatever sinister plans he was setting in place.

　　But I couldn't convince the council, even after everything I had done those jealous, bitter, old fucks still refused to listen to me.

　　I had to show them somehow.

　　I needed proof, and that's exactly what I would get.

　　After the eradication of the Daughters Of Bloodville cult, Magnus had returned to his duties as the captain of a squad of vampires that attempted to police the armada and keep them at bay, which proved incredibly difficult seeing how much the armada had grown.

　　Magnus and his squad tracked an armada squadron to a location where they suspected the armada might have found an actual vampire; they were all in for a very rude awakening.

　　The creature that revealed itself was no human, but it was no vampire either.

　　It was one of the defiler’s experiments, much like Fabian Ruiz, every trace of humanity had been wiped from this poor creature, and according to Magnus’s reports, the creature attacked and they didn't stand a chance of fighting the creature.

　　First, it tore its way through the armada squadron and then it set its sights on the vampires who were better opponents but ultimately didn't stand a chance against the creature, whose fingers and teeth were made from obsidian, the unprepared vampires fought back but were ultimately defeated with Magnus the sole survivor because he was knocked away by the monster with so much force that he found himself a good distance from the fighting and after his broken bones and wounds healed he rushed back to find that his entire squad had been wiped out and the creature was gone.

　　And while this was all very terrible news that Magnus shared with the council, I couldn't help fighting back a smile because now everyone would see that I was right.

　　This is where we should direct our strengths and efforts.

　　If we could track and successfully catch this rogue creature then that would be a step in the right direction towards figuring out what the defiler was up to, finding him, and finally stopping him and truly ending this war once and for all.

　　We had to track down the creature and catch it, we had to bring it back alive, this wouldn't be easy at all, but it was a necessity if we wanted to beat Babatunde The Defiler at his own game.

　　We gathered our forces into multiple hunting parties and started at the location of the massacre, it was a gruesome sight.

　　The men were in pieces, body parts littered all over and all the vampire ashes had already been blown away by the wind.

　　We made our analysis of what the monster was doing and where it was headed and after dividing ourselves properly, we split up into our different parties and went on the hunt.

　　I lead a party of fifteen vampires, composed of the usual suspects, Magnus, Carlos, August, Rita, Pablo, and a few extras for insurance.

　　We made our way through the woods looking out for signs that the creature had been through these parts.

　　Rita led the way, she was the only true hunter amongst us.

　　She tracked prints, broken branches, and stomped shrubbery where the creature had run through, she even tracked the faint smell of dark arts that the creature had left a trail of as it ran through the area.

　　“The creature was injured in the fight with your squadron, it's hurt and hobbling on all fours, it doesn't seem to be healing as it goes along, it's possible that it can't heal, it's left a trail of blood, but it's still moving pretty fast, perhaps, it has a destination, somewhere it's headed that it'll feel safe,” Rita explained, impressively, she had gotten all of that from blood-stained dirt and broken branches, I had procured another very impressive young vampire.

　　“At least the squadron got a few hits in before they were killed, tough bastards until the end,” Carlos commented as he peered his head up from the screen of the device he had designed to pick up the frequencies of dark arts, the thing the rest of us vampires knew as the stench, Carlos could apparently track it using radio waves or something, the boy is a genius and he proves it every time, the device does make a very annoying beeping sound the higher the stench of the dark arts though, he had stated that there was nothing he could do about that because that's how he knew exactly how much of the dark arts were in the area.

　　But I'm certain he just liked the weird beeping noise, he could have just as easily made a silent indicator.

　　“Are we there yet?” Magnus inquired, and not for the first time since we've been on this exhibition,

　　He grabbed his flask and drank some more alcohol. He tried his best to hide it from the others but I could tell he had a chip on his shoulder.

　　He felt like he had let his squadron die like if he had been there he could've protected them, I had told him earlier that I had no doubt of that but that the outcome that took shape in his absence was not his fault.

　　They had been ill-prepared and caught off guard in an ambush and he had been incapacitated early in the fight and by the time he recovered everything had already played out.

　　There was nothing more he could have done given the situation.

　　I hoped he would believe me and stop beating himself up.

　　“Oi, senor Magnus, can I get a sip of that goodness you got going on over there?” Pablo inquired of Magnus who could barely understand a word he said due to how thick his Mexican accent was.

　　“No, get your own can of liquid courage bitch!” Magnus responded clutching his flask tighter and placing it against his chest, Magnus may not have understood Pablo, but he understood when someone was trying to take a drink from him and he was very protective of his drinks.

　　“Who are you calling a puta, cono, you wanna go?” Paolo reacted as he opened his arms in that signature Mexican threatening stance.

　　“Alright boys that's enough, you're distracting our tracker,” I commanded as I gestured towards Rita who at this point had lost all her concentration and had stood at a spot to watch Magnus and Pablo pointlessly argue over some gin, she had her frustration plastered across her face.

　　August, as usual, said nothing, she simply watched the banter and giggled silently to herself, but in the moment of silence, we heard her giggle, this drew everyone's attention to her, and then suddenly, the whole part burst out into laughter there and then.

　　Just another very important reminder that even in the worst situations, make room for fun and laughter, life isn't that deep, even though we're in the middle of the woods tracking a very powerful inhuman creature fully equipped with tools to kill any vampire and we had to find it, catch it and bring it back alive to track down its maker so that we could put an end to a vicious war that could end all of life on the planet as we know it.

　　The laughter slowly subsided and it was time to get back on track, we followed closely behind Rita as she plotted a path following the traces that the creature had left behind.

　　It still hadn't healed from its wounds it seemed and at this point, Rita was convinced that it just couldn't do so.

　　It constantly traveled on all fours making it a different kind of experimental monster from Fabian Ruiz who was completely bipedal, and definitely different from the weaker minions we had to fight during our search for Magnus and Alexey.

　　I hadn't thought of Alexey in a while, even though we were in his house most of the time. I was so busy coordinating efforts to save the world, but he knew about my vampirism and everything seemed okay.

　　He didn't seem to have any problems with the fact.

　　He did have a lot of stupid and annoying questions about the possibility of other creatures existing though.

　　He asked about, werewolves, zombies, merfolk, and the lot, but the stupidest and cutest question he asked was, ‘what about unicorns’, apparently he has always been a huge fan of unicorns and would find it so cool if they existed, the thought of that made me laugh out loud, for a little but I quickly stifle my laughter before anyone noticed.

　　“Are we there yet?” Magnus asked again in a whiney sing-song tone and Rita who had stopped in her tracks just in front of us shushed him and proceeded to go into a battle-ready stance.

　　Just then Carlos’s device started to beep uncontrollably as he tried frantically to shut it up.

　　Magnus got his answer, we were most definitely there.

　　The creature revealed itself crawling out of the shadows to stand in front of us, it paced back and forth, revealing a large gash on its side where its entrails hung from, but that didn't seem to bother it.

　　It showed us its black teeth and snarled at us in a low grumbling tone, it was threatening us.

　　“No sudden movements people, we have to catch it alive and get out of here all in one piece,” I instructed as we all instinctively crouched low and got into our fighting stances.

　　But that's when Magnus, who had a grudge against the creature rushed at it and pushed it into a nearby tree which broke and fell at the force of their impact, moments later, Magnus was sent flying backward and landed on the floor just in front of my feet, the creature revealed itself.

　　It took in a deep breath and let out a huge roar.

　　And then suddenly we were surrounded by more of its kind.

　　There was a whole pack of them and they looked hungry.

　　And now suddenly it seemed that the hunters had become prey.