The vampyre and Damecus stood staring at each other. The vampyre screeching while Damecus emitted a low growl in response… he didn’t look angry… he seemed more irritated… as if he had simply been inconvenienced by somebody interrupting his cooking.

  Meanwhile, we all looked at him with concern. Feiffer lunged forward and bit the vampyre on the leg, and as he did, Damecus lunged and smashed the vampyre into the ground before repeatedly smashing its head in with his club. Kiyui went to move towards Damecus but was stopped by Nomius.

  Nomius: (Signing) “Look… hunt… group.”

  Kiyui: “I don’t understand, I thought vampires were just like us but with pointy teeth.”

  Dwynfel: “You are thinking of vampires with an I. These are vampyres with a y. These are where the infection originated.”

  Kiyui: “But Damecus was bitten!”

  Tadwick: “He’s gonna change!”

  Dwynfel: “He’ll be fine… they have to fully exsanguinate you to turn you.”

  Tadwick: “Eggs and quin… what?”

  Dwynfel: “Drain all your blood.”

  I am so incredibly glad that we are back to dealing with creatures that I have actually read about before. Suddenly another two vampyres jumped down from the trees in the middle of camp. Nomius disappeared to try to attack them but vampyres can see through tricks like invisibility and one of them dived on him.

  Phoenix threw a fireball at it, but it dived off him at just the right time. Nomius reappeared, he had been slightly clawed but was otherwise fine. The other one lunged for Flora. She impaled it on one of her tendrils but it was unfazed. It kept trying to claw at her. Pushing itself further and further down her tendril.

  Flora: “Not dying… why?”

  Flora tilted her head as if she was thinking. She was still completely and utterly calm, despite the creature thrashing and clawing inches away from her face.

  Dwynfel: “You need to drive wood through its heart!”

  Tadwick: “Or kick it in the balls!”

  Dwynfel: “What?”

  Tadwick: “Mister Cook said that if somebody attacks you, kick ‘em in the balls and run.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Dwynfel: “That’s for if you are being kidnapped or bullied, not vampyres.”

  Flora pierced one of the vampyre’s testicles with one of her tendrils. It screeched but otherwise continued trying to claw at her.

  Flora: “Testicular trauma… ineffective.”

  Phoenix threw a fireball at the impaled vampyre. It caught fire and began to screech and scream.

  Phoenix: “Fire works.”

  Nomius: (Signing) “Head… off.”

  Damecus: “Or just smash its head in until it no longer has one.”

  The remaining vampyre made a move for Kiyui. I ran over and pushed Kiyui out of the way. It barged right into me and smashed me against a tree. Then out of nowhere a fourth vampyre appeared. It grabbed Tadwick and made off into the trees.

  Kiyui: “Tadwick!”

  Kiyui instantly ran off after Tadwick… swiftly followed by Nomius and Feiffer. Damecus ran over to my aid. He grabbed the vampyre by the neck and flung it towards the centre of the camp. Phoenix set it alight with another fireball and it ran off screeching into the forest.

  The one that had been attacking Flora had eventually gone limp and stopped thrashing, so Flora withdrew her tendril and it flopped to the ground.

  Damecus: “Phoenix, Flora, guard the camp.”

  Damecus and I went running as fast as we could to catch up to the others. By the time we caught up to them, Nomius was standing over the body of the vampyre… an axe was sticking out of the ground where the creature’s neck should have been. Kiyui was kneeling on the ground with Tadwick in his arms, both of them were in floods of tears… Tadwick’s shoulders had been shredded by the vampyre’s claws.

  Nomius: (Signing) “Boy… hurt.”

  Damecus: “Nomius, get him to Flora… now!”

  Nomius immediately ran over, picked Tadwick out of Kiyui’s arms and ran him straight back to the camp. We could hear Tadwick screaming in pain as he was being carried off at full speed. Even when carrying a child, Nomius can be incredibly fast.

  We got back to camp a few minutes after Nomius did. When we arrived, Flora had wrapped Tadwick’s entire top half in some kind of large red flower. I say his entire top half… his head was poking out of a hole at the top. He had stopped screaming, so I assume it had some kind of numbing effect. Kiyui was still crying.

  Kiyui: “Is he going to be okay?”

  Flora: “Child heal… take time… not move.”

  Tadwick: “Bit it’s all tickly.”

  Flora: “Not move.”

  Unfamiliar voice: “No fucking way!”