Legend Blood [FINISHED, please lock/PG-13/IC] *remake*

[Merci]

"Clarice."

Before the vampire could reply, John stepped between them, a look mixed with so many expressions that it was hard to express in a single word. A bit of a fatherly bit here, a shocked look there, a heavily annoyed expression somewhere, all coated with a tiny smudge of anxiety, just barely, if it had to actually be put into words. As he stepped forward, a large amount of flames appeared out of nowhere straightaway, covering up and shielding his body from...something. It had come out of nowhere just in case she'd attempted to kill him right there and then.

"Stand down, and look at yourself. Though you may not be able to fully understand me, [size=2]in fact you never listen[/size], let me just tell you...right now, [i]you've become eviller than that Lord of Chaos woman."[/i] He told her, as clearly as possible, hoping that she would understand. "There is nobody in all of Lath whose speed surpasses yours, Black Lightning, and it would be highly advantageous for us to have you on our side...but pass this point, and I - the Phoenix- can guarantee your death as a traitor to the [i]humans."[/i]

The situation tense, the human soldiers couldn't help but shiver a bit and backed away. Presumably, the vampire soldiers would as well. The two famous titles 'Black Lightning' and 'Phoenix' stated clearly, it should be easy for these two human individuals to be recognized by all, if appearance alone hadn't set them off.

[Reinforce]

"I believe I can vouch for the vampires as well in this situation when I say that even if if you did pass that point and John somehow didn't kill you, the vampires would kill you for killing so many of our race. This I swear on my own name, that of Lyon von Mira." Seeming to relax after saying that, he sat back down in his earlier seat at the back of the room, his eyes resuming their normal colour. [i]If this ends up working and I do take the throne, this little bombshell of infomation may give me some leeway over Clarice, should I ever need it. Afterall, you never know when you'll need the help of a mercenary for hire, or need to take down a troublesome one that's working for an enemy.[/i] Shrugging to himself, he flicked his middle finger, causing the cork of the gourd he was carrying to melt and flow into the water that made up the contents of the gourd, giving him easy access to his supply of water should John get out of control and try to burn something.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

The old man glared right back at Clarice with a hatred burning in his eyes that made it clear he regarded the harlot in front of him as little more than a stain that needed to be rubbed out. In fact, with reflexes that gave testament to a life of military training, he had drawn his blade and was in a ready stance before John had gotten between them. That said, even as John went about unleashing the powers of his flaming magic and gave the woman what seemed to be a final warning. All that was on this particular vampire's mind was a desire to protect his people, and while Elnaer was the greater danger the creature before him was one that could be dealt with immediately.

Then Lyon said his thing about ensuring that if John didn't kill Clarice that the vampires would, and old man and rebels alike made their agreement with his statement known. Of course then those that had fired their weapons set about reloading them, the lot of them doing so quickly enough to make a proud smile cross the old man's face as he looked over them. Then, as if on cue, the door slid open and a robed figure stepped in.

Before there was much chance to react, the figure had shut the door behind himself and thrown the robe off to the side letting his distinctive armor and helm show. Alexi now allowed his glass green eyes to pass over the group gathered there and he simply nodded his approval of them. Then of course he noticed what seemed to be some sort of showdown in progress.

"Come on now what is this?" He began, not even attempting to hide the disgust in his voice, "We are allies are we not? If there's some feud that's risen amongst the ranks then let it be resolved once we've set a new king on the throne. In other words, curve the hostility that you're showing for each other right now towards the enemy!" The whole time he was speaking he was walking up to where Lyon, John, and Clarice were standing. He was currently unaware of what Clarice and her girls had done, so all he saw her as at this time was the woman with admirable blood lust that he had encountered not even a day ago. Eventually he came to a stop not far from John, a smile on his face hidden from view but not in his tone. "So, now you have an army. What exactly is the plan?"

[Merci]

"We storm the castle, once the rest of my forces have reached the warehouse." John stated at the Iron Dragon's arrival, quite clearly, and.glanced at the clock on the wall. "Right now, it's past five o'clock. I'm giving them five to six hours before we head off."

He wasn't sure how long it would take the rest. Steadily, the human troops disguised as vampires had grown from tens to thirties, but there was still quite a few missing. Although there wouldn't be any difference, not with this sudden influx of vampire soldiers, he wasn't about to abandon any of his human comrades. But still, he decided he may as well start the battle planning now. Before heading towards a table to stand upon, he shot a cold glance at Clarice and an anxious glance at the old vampire man, telling them both not tell Iron Dragon anything about the meat pies.

"The plan is this," he began, and with two free hands he began to draw fiery lines in the air. It was a simple drawing, a large rectangle that represented the castle palace, and a small circle that represented their warehouse. He traced three line from the warehouse to three castle fronts. "Currently, we possess an army of over five hundred, composed of mostly rebel vampires and what is left of the brave humans. The attack will be a sudden surprise, nobody will be expecting a force that powerful to pop out of nowhere."

Then he began making fiery dots all outside the castle and warehouse, theses represented the vampire guards, patrol or otherwise.

"As these are mostly grunts that rely on nothing more than brute force and metal swords, they won't compose of much of a threat. Although I admit...there's a lot of them. If you combine all the ones scattered across Nuevida, you have a force over thrice as big as ours." He continued. "They are our only threat outside the castle. Gaining entry to the castle itself won't be a problem, my human magicians are more than capable of knocking down solid steel gates. But once inside, however..."

Then he began to make more dots, this time within the castle.

"The [i]royal brigade force,[/i] as reported by my two spies, are composed of two hundred soldiers trained to loyally defend the Vampire Lords. Thus, they possess weapons not normally accessible to the public, all of them have a long-range weapon of some kind. Not only that, about a dozen bastard royal children have popped up over time as well, so some of them may be capable of a form of magic, if only weak." He continued on. "The royal brigade poses the greatest threat, but they will be disorganized if our attack is sudden. I trust in your abilities to fight them off."

Then, he further traced the three fiery lines by the castle inward.

"I had to make quick modifications when your vampire force arrived, changing it from an infiltration into a large-scale attack, but the success rate now is high. I must thank you for that. After that, it's pretty simple. Take over the whole castle, fight fight fight, and I will go up to engage Lord Elnaer in a one-on-one battle, while all the other talented fighters will fight his dangerous sister, Niasa." He concluded. "Any questions?"

[Reinforce]

Lyon smiled at the sight of all the vampires cheering for him, a sight he had not seen since his band of warriors was butchered by a small group of the royal brigade. "Not so much a question but a request, allow some of the better warriors to go with you, to prevent you from exausting yourself before your major battle. Also, let my mage students and I handle Niasa, and concentrate the majority of our forces on taking over the castle and dealing with the royal brigade." Lyon made his thoughts known without the slightest hesitation, having been in situations like this before in his time as a bounty hunter and mercenary. [i]If he allows my requests through, not only will he be able to remain fresh until he has to fight Elnaer, but the warriors will serve as a backup in case Elnaer does manage to best him. Besides, I am confident enough in my own abilities and those of my students that we will be able to best Niasa hopefully without any losses.[/i] "A high success rate is always a good thing, but we are dealing with a powerful vampire, so please do not be too reckless and think that we will win easily. Some of you assembled here will die in this mission, that much is a given, but we have the forces we need to win now, thanks to Iron and this resistance group that have agreed to help us."

[Love of Ghibli]

When John had made his line in the sand and decided to give Clarice a stair down with fire it was almost if she herself had powered-up to super saiyan levels at the mention of her own name and monicker. She stood there not saying anything as she was being threatened from all sides. Of course therein lies the problem. She wasn't saying anything she wasn't loudly proclaiming womendom or the downsides of being a man. She wasn't talking about John's blanket ineptitude or the fact that his whole plan really ends up being a suicide mission anyway because he intends to face the high vampire lord himself. This was simple only one thought was kill those vamps that shot at her girls. Oh and wouldn't stop there the sea of vampire blood flooding the streets once this raid is complete. If those soldiers are lucky they will die tonight if not they and their entire families are dead. Whether they become pies is one thing but they will be dead.

She still just stared at John the entire time and Lyon came forth with some nonsense about what he would do on his family name or something that she didn't fully comprehend. It didn't warrant her gaze. She only looked at John thinking that maybe if she struck fast and precise enough she could kill him before his flames activated or maybe his flames had a blind spot she never noticed before. Her bloodlust was no longer bloodlust it would be best described as murder rage very violent and deadly murder rage. She didn't utter a word to Lyon in reply to his statement just continued murderously staring at John.

It was then that this Iron fellow walked through the door. She did not sense murderous intent on this one so he did not warrant her to take his sight of John. It was then that John decided to talk to this fellow. [color=#ff8c00][i]A chance?[/i][/color] She thought as she gripped the gold dagger that was in her hand from cleaning her nails, but John shot her this glare. She didn't know what this glare was but her "I WILL KILL YOU" face hadn't changed since he first said her name. Finally No. 7 and Butch came and grabbed Clarice and [s]escorted[/s] dragged her back to her seat. Where she still hadn't blunk once just that her gaze shifted. [color=#006400]Its okay boss we're all fine[/color] said No.7 as they all managed to get Clarice to sit down. I[color=#b22222]t's too late she's gone[/color] Kid explained. And this was true while John was going over the details of this new plan and everyone was looking at his fire dots. Clarice was staring at this gun toting army. Did they know what they just unleashed? She looked at the old man this so called leader and she wondered if he had a family. Hopefully he didn't have a little girl because she would hate to do what she was going to do to a little girl. Nevertheless if this old man had a son did this old man know that he just sentenced his son to a painful death. The things that would be done to all of these soldiers children, the things that would be done to all of these soldiers wives, the things that these soldiers will be forced to watch and struggle effortless to stop all because they aimed their rifles at that wrong group of people.

Clarice was only developing images in her mind of the cruel acts and figuring out how to find out where these soldiers lived. This may take a while but after this revolution she will have some time on her hands followed by some innards and skulls, maybe even tears. She completely missed the whole speech, but luckily Ebony Thunder and the girls did a good job of listening. They were slightly scared though their leader didn't blink once she they were first shot and they could hear her light breaths as she was breathing through her nose looking at the vampires. [color=#4b0082]Well umm Clarice raided one of the castles armories when we were stationed there so maybe the royal guards might not have that much armor[/color] spoke No. 4. Clarice would have nodded in approval of this information but she was busy thinking about how well oiled was the meat grinder from that shop was and if it can handle live screaming babies. [color=#ff8c00][i]Hmmm I need to make sure sound cannot escape that room. [/i] [/color]She thought luckily the girls were able to subtly move her head so it looked like she was nodding. Needless to say Clarice didn't have any questions. If everything goes right between John, Lyon's students, those gun toting zombies (because in her eyes they're dead), and themselves that castle is going up in flames.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Of course Alexi was able to see John looking back and forth between the de facto leader of the resistance movement and the black woman with her Afro, whom it happened he had still yet to learn the name of and wanted to do so. After all, he had met more than a few soldiers whose blood lust turned them into highly effective killing machines on the battlefield. However, he did notice that Clarice was turning her murderous gaze about in the direction of the rebels themselves. Of course he took only a moment to notice this, and decide that she wouldn't be leaving his sight, so he managed to catch all of John's plan.

It was a good plan, and with Clarice, as one of the women obviously under her command had called her, having looted the castle armory that gave them an even greater advantage. That said, there was one small problem...

"John I can assure beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you try to fight Elnaer alone you will die. When I escaped from prison I was given the chance to briefly witness his power, and it blew a hole from the topmost down to the lowest level of the castle. You're going to need support going in to fight him, and I volunteer myself," his right hand came to his chest as he said the word "myself" only to then extend itself off towards the obviously enraged woman further away, "and furthermore I believe that Clarice, if I caught your name correctly milady, would be an invaluable asset in the battle as well."

He had a feeling that the prospect of being directly involved in the death of the king of all vampires would appeal to this particular woman. Then again, even if it didn't, she still took orders from John so if it was decided by her superior officer that she was going to do something the odds said that she would follow orders. At least he hoped that this last stand of the humans involved some actual military discipline, because if it didn't then it was entirely likely that only he and the rebels would be left standing at the end of this. Under armed and under armored or not, the royal guard was composed of candidates specially selected from the most elite units of Nuevida's military. Though he had heard things became more laxed when Elnaer took the throne, not that he was going to even consider operating under such an assumption.

[a bad post]

Niasa had been sitting on her bed for a long while waiting for Kaname, and had become bored. Niasa exited her room, but wasn't exactly wasn't what she could do, as technically she wasn't supposed to be here, but institutionalized, so Niasa stepped back into room wrote a quick note for Kaname in case he really did come into her room, and climbed out the window of her room. Niasa carefully descended from her room onto the uneven stones that jutted from the wall having done this to sneak out multiple times while there father was still alive, but stones that would normally have been there were moved slightly, or completely gone in general. A few more feet down, and one of the stones slid out from under her hand and Niasa fell several feet, shrieking all the way, until her hand again found purchase, ans she climbed the rest of the way down. Niasa dusted herself off and muttered [color=#ee82ee]I hope you all saw that, because I will not be doing it again. [/color]

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

[color=#000000]Shanna, in the meantime, was busy hunting down this Glan hybrid that took on the mighty Elnaer... and lost, as to be expected. She didn't find him anywhere, but she [i]did[/i] find that Kaname had returned; in a battle-suit that, [i]cosmetically[/i] speaking at least, wouldn't be out of place on a Terran Marine in Starcraft. Why Kaname would've taken the time to make this battle-suit when he was clearly meant to [i]be[/i] somewhere was anyone's guess, but I disgress.[/color]

[color=#ee82ee][i]'What's with the suit?'[/i] [/color][color=#000000]Shanna asked.[/color]

[color=#008080]"You'll see in due time,"[/color][color=#000000] Kaname replied, [/color][color=#008080]"For the moment, though, I need you to wait here... and [i]stay[/i] [/color][color=#008080]hidden."[/color]

[color=#000000]With that, he left again, off to find Niasa.[/color]

[Merci]

"Iron stranger, I am well aware of the Vampire Lord's prowess, but it is for that exact reason that I have chosen to face him solo in mortal combat." The Phoenix replied calmly but formally, still standing upon the table.

"The reason why I have chosen to face him is not because of my own selfishness, but for the sake of everyone else. There are many other talented combatants who have a bright future ahead of them after the Vampire Lord falls, and who can help tremendously in the restructuring of Lath's future. I will not let anyone else risk their own life facing Elnaer. With my own skills, I hold the best chance of defeating him one-on-one, and if anyone were to join me..."

He let the fiery map disappear, and then flames began to envelop his entire chest, arms, hair, all the way down to his knees. Any further down and the table would be set on fire. Then, all of a sudden, the flames began to take on a different color. Blue, then white. A powerful eye might be able to see that the color was actually violet. The heat of it was so much that it forced anyone near him to back away, and even then it was obvious that he was suppressing the full heat. Even then, Lyon might be having a hand in protecting everyone from burning up.

"...They will only be a hindrance, caught within the full heat of the Phoenix."

The display over and done with, the fires were extinguished immediately. It appeared as though John Alexander had mastered the magic art of flames to such an extent that he could heat up not only to blue fire, but to white fire, and all the while his own body was unaffected. Or so it seemed. A more experienced eye could probably tell that there had been a strain on his body that he expertly hid in full view in over five hundred fighters.

Mastering his style of combat in and of itself was difficult, since it's hard to control flames at will and even then they pose the danger that they might make contact with their own skin and burn themselves up. This is why the favored form of fire is to simply shoot fireballs, sending them far enough that they won't be of any harm. Fiery breath is also an option, though it still poses a gigantic risk if the winds are heavy. But once someone conquers the problem of burning themselves, fire suddenly becomes amazing, but even that has limits. One could wear a completely fireproof costume and fight the same way as John does, but the costume would hinder them, and if it were to tear without them knowing then they could easily die. Or one could try to 'draw' the flames away from their own body with their own mind, but this would require a very specific kind of understanding of the body and flames, and even then you would have to keep track of everything, something only a mind that had achieved enlightenment is capable of doing.

It is normally presumed that John has achieved that kind of enlightenment. But even then, surely blue flames, let alone white flames would pierce the skin-tight magical repelling barrier and destroy the human attempting it...so what he had done just now contradicted everything known about the art of fire magic. It's a feat comparable to swimming in lava. So how...?

His display done, having established his rank and true might among the forces, he stepped down from the table.

"Any more questions?" He asked.

--------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, servants of the Vampire Lord tiredly searched about the city and castle, all looking hopelessly for that one scientist- oh there he is.

"Sir Kaname." A girl servant said to him. He was in a strange battlesuit, but then again, all scientists had eccentric ways. "The Vampire Lord himself has requested an audience with you. He is in demand of your knowledge."

---------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the corpse of a certain hybrid that had once been known as Glan laid by the castle palace, lifeless. Apparently, he had died on the fall jumping from the window after his battle with the Vampire Lord. Immediately once the body was found, several royal soldiers approached it hesitantly, before bringing it back to Lord Elnaer as per his orders.

When he was presented the hybrid's dead body, a mad grin formed on his face that completely ignored the previous events, the meat pie and the secret entrance. A look of complete triumph. He rose from his throne and walked across the bloody grass that had absorbed parts of the blood. This was perfect. This was absolutely perfect beyond reason, beyond comprehension. This was this was this was this was simply truly amazing....!

[b]...With this, mankind shall be exterminated before the next sunrise will even begin.[/b]

He took a moment to look around the throne room. It was actually more like a cathedral, built as a single room within an even larger castle. The floor was made of marble, but defying logic grass as red as blood covered the whole ground, growing out of it. Actually, it wasn't that red, it was of a strange color, a mix between human blood and vampire blood. The blood of a hybrid. There were a few shattered windows, but that was okay.

In his hand was an elven bow, the elven bow of Feredir. And now, in his other hand was the head of a disgusting hybrid, ripped off the corpse. Large amounts of blood trickled down from the detached neck, spilling onto the bloodied grassland, and an emotionless dead gaze stared back at the insane vampire, who hated humans beyond reason.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alexi was damn well certain of one thing now. John had a death wish. Certainly now that his memory had returned he could recall tales of the Phoenix's prowess when it came to pyromancy, but the view before him brought to mind more than a few lessons regarding the subject that his professors at university had taught. Certainly even then there had been few vampires with enough of the royal blood in them to work magic, but he and a few members of the university faculty had been among them and thus various courses in magic had been made available to him, one of which was pyromancy. The central rule of pyromancy was to maintain constant control, and that the greater the intensity of the flames one summoned the more difficult they were to control. He knew without seeing the man's face that John had put quite a bit of strain into that particular display of power, and furthermore he knew that standing beside such a madman was almost suicidal due to the high risk of magic backlash.

"John you're a damned fool you know that?" He spoke plainly and directly towards the human, shaking his head while one hell of a grin crossed his face in the process. Even as he said this he was still wondering how in the hell he'd manage to keep an eye on Clarice, lest some sort of misfortune befall not only her but also his soldiers. He had the subtle feeling that this woman who lusted for the blood of the enemy would not put too much effort on the battlefield into distinguishing between friend and foe. "Still, you do have a point about having the best chance to handle Elnaer single handed. Furthermore, you know you're risking at least a level four feedback incident using pyromancy to that degree and I doubt I need explain what that means. I'd make some comment about being fireproof but concerning the intensity of the flames you intend to use I doubt that would be correct."

Then, there was another problem. If John were going to be taking the fight to Elnaer and that other vampire, Alexi hadn't caught his name, would be dealing with Niasa that left a question which needed to be addressed. What would the other members of note in this conflict be doing? For example, himself and Clarice were left without much more to do than subdue palace guards and that wasn't exactly the sort of thing that screamed heroism. "Though as for myself and Clarice, with the two biggest targets set to be dealt with what will we be handling? At the very least I'd suggest that we come along as insurance in the chance that you fail to weaken but not slay Elnaer. And don't be thinking you're able to rise from your own ashes, Phoenix." The once vampire now construct simply stood in his place for a moment, and then another thought came to mind.

"My name's Alexi by the way."

[Love of Ghibli]

Clarice finally blunk after constantly hearing her name being mentioned by some man stranger. What the hell could be so important that she gets to be volunteered without some consent? Sexist manocentric pie stuffing. Nevertheless she did bear witness to John's little fire show and she must say it was quite impressive, in her repeated bouts with John she never even forced him to get to blue flames let alone white ones. Of course he never made her reveal her maximum speed but that's beside the point the fact that he was capable of such feats made him slightly less boring. That and between this newly discovered inferno mode John and the zombies walking with guns surely all of the explosives will go off. Hopefully those soldiers will die an honorable death in combat if not they will simply watch their children and families suffer dishonorable deaths in their sleep. Pity all of this because they had itchy trigger fingers.

Clarice was slightly perturbed looked at her girls and gave a series of non-verbal communicative nods symbolizing her thirst for vampire vengeance of course they agreed because of loyalty and who really likes getting shot. Of course now that she is back in reality she is now cognisant of this new stranger, his army, and the constant stream of word vomit that somehow keeps involving her person. So naturally she had to let her opinion be known. [color=#ff8c00]Are you into me or something because you seem to keep talking about me as if I don't have my own mind or is that how vampires treat their women? Are we your handmaidens, put on this Earth simply to make your food and pop out your babies? Pfft no wonder the women didn't put up that much of a fight they were conditioned to servitude. Look we all knew that John was suicidal I guess you flew in right after that conversation so it doesn't matter. If you want to help so much just go ahead and follow him its not like the floating candle stick is going to actually fight you. [/color]She laughed as she was comfortable slinging insults at a time like this.[color=#ff8c00] I...seeing as I can speak for myself thank you very much...will be on the opposite end of the castle clearing an escape path just in case the overthrowing of a superpower doesn't go well. [/color]For a quick second she glance at the 500 [s]walking corpses[/s] vampires that dared to shoot at her. [color=#ff8c00]Besides I'm sure you don't want me near people who can't hold their own when I really get in the mood. [/color]

[Merci]

John smiled, a faint yet genuine smile. "I know." He replied to the Iron Dragon's question. As simple as that. Then he decided to answer the warrior's other question. "Well, there are others that may need to be taken care of. The royal brigade and the royal families aren't the only threat in the castle. There are also prison guards, they're not all that much better from the normal patrol guards, but their leader..."

He hesitated.

"According to my spies, the prison head's name is Adrian. He claims to be a descendent of the Dark Elves, is feared by every single person in the castle but Lord Elnaer himself, and supposedly..." The golden-clad warrior frowned a bit. "...The more human blood he drinks, the more powerful he becomes. How he obtained such an ability, I don't know, but he's bloodthirsty, even more so than the Vampire Lord himself. His very presence instills fear into the hearts of anyone near. Although, his job is to-"

Hold on.

"...Wait, Alexi, you said you escaped from the prison?" He remembered. "Then that means you must've seen him. He's not a warrior to be taken lightly. Anyway, as I was saying, his job is to watch over the prisoners but...there aren't any prisoners, aren't there? There is nothing preventing him from joining the battlefield, and if he does, then it's no stretch to believe that our invasion will collapse upon itself. The only people I can trust that are able to defeat him are you and Clarice."

A small amused smile appeared on his face.

"Adrian is to the vampires what Clarice is to us." John stated, which simplified everything.

Then he closed his eyes, thinking to himself.

"There's also this scientist, Kaname. Currently, my spy is working for him, although at......consequences, but I trust she'll join us in the invasion when the time comes. Kaname himself though, is a threat. One of the last things my other spy reported before her disappearance was that the Vampire Lord had been planning an audience with him...on the same date as today. So we can expect him to be within the castle during our attack, and who knows what that guy would do?"

After having answered Alexi's questions, John turned to Clarice.

"Good idea, Clarice. With your speed, it shouldn't take you too long to transition between clearing an escape path and joining the battlefield when needed." He complimented, ignoring her other comments. He knew that protesting of her feminism would make him sound like a masculinist.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

[color=#000000]Kaname wasn't really in the mood for any detours. He specifically wanted to get this rendezvous with Niasa over and done with, and now this... servant, insisted on trying to tell him that Elnaer sought an audiance, which in turn would require Kaname to abandon the meeting with Niasa altogether.[/color]

[color=#008080]"He'll have to wait,"[/color][color=#000000] Kaname told the servant coldly, [/color][color=#008080]"But [i]first[/i], I must seek an audience with Niasa. If you could help me locate her, things will be a lot easier."[/color]

[color=#000000]...[/color]

[color=#000000]Meanwhile, Shanna, having heard the servant start to converse with Kaname, began to scurry away as quietly as she possibly could... considering she was half-shark and on land. She considered going back to John and the others, and warning them about the brand spanking new battle-suit that Kaname decided to wear all of a sudden. At the moment though, not even [i]Shanna[/i] knew what exactly this suit was capable of just wait. A wiser idea would be to wait for a little demonstration.[/color]

[Merci]

"Oh, um, okay." Not wanting to return to the Vampire Lord only to report that Kaname had refused, he decided to help the scientist instead.

"Her room is right there." He pointed out, and walked towards a door nearby Kaname, before opening it without even knocking. It wasn't locked, and inside was a note...

In the vampire princess Niasa von Mira's handwriting herself, she described her feelings about how she wasn't safe in the castle, and that she had gone to the market just now. The note appeared to have been directed to Kaname. Nervously, he picked it up and showed it to the scientist in a marine suit, uncertain about how he might react. And hopefully, he can be successfully delivered to the Vampire Lord, lest Elnaer get frustrated and kill him...that is, the servant.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"Oh please. As if a human could bear even the slightest amount of attractive influence over me." Alexi waved his hand dismissively in response to Clarice's comment concerning being in to her. He hadn't slipped up in what he was saying, he just realized that it didn't bloody well matter concerning that a group of humans, vampires, and whatever you wanted to classify him as at that moment was about to be fighting together. "Furthermore, you were busy enjoying your little flash of blood lust concerning every living person around you so I felt I'd suggest that you be included in the final fight. Concerning your...particular distaste for vampires I got the feeling that you would want to drive a saber through Elnaer's neck. Not to mention that since it seems to be your time of the month you'd likely be doubly effective at doing so."

The construct didn't much bother replying any further to her, his attention turning back towards John and the matter of the other targets. He knew Kaname well enough to realize that the scientist was likely a wild card in this. "Concerning Kaname, we cannot rightly guarantee that he will join the fight alongside Elnaer. I won't go into details right now about how I know him but I do, and he doesn't exactly hold the most pleasant of feelings for the king in question." He allowed his mind to wander for a bit concerning what his colleague might bring to the table if he should happen to join the fray. He'd almost certainly bring along some sort of new rifle he'd developed, but now that he thought about it Kaname could have just about anything given that he had focused so intensely on general military tech development. An eye would have to be kept open for the good doctor.

"And about Adrian, yes he is quite a threat." He allowed his gaze to turn back towards Clarice, the smirk he wore on his face hidden by the helm upon his head. "And while I don't know much about you, Clarice, if you're our equivalent of the head of the prison guard then I'd say the two of you are a match made in hell for anyone that gets between you." He would have chuckled, but prevented himself from doing so given that he was probably egging her on more than would be liked. Also, if she were charged with taking down Adrian he likely wouldn't have to be troubled with keeping an eye on her. Not that he had the slightest intention of letting her out of his sight anyways.

[Love of Ghibli]

Clarice couldn't help but laugh as she was being insulted by an inferior man bat thing who commanded a slew of corpses with guns it was almost refreshing to hear almost like reality was slowly becoming normal. [color=#ff8c00]Oh look you made minstrel joke I would say I'm impressed, but such is to be expected if you are named in honor of a woman. Clearly your parents or however your kind is made...gutter magic maybe? Whatever the case they seemed to be hoping for a female but it doesn't matter you entertained you deserve a treat. I would offer you pie, but...let's just say I ran out before you got here. Pity really. [/color]She unlike Alexi didn't bother to hide her wicked smile as she knew she alluded to a taboo topic in the room. Not like it mattered though she wasn't going to say what the pies were made of and this was slightly his fault for antagonizing her anyway. These creatures should know better by now. She waved her hands and shook her head from side to side. [color=#ff8c00]Don't worry I didn't make them out of people[/color] she chuckled as that was clearly directed at Lyon's comment Vampires are people showing that she disagreed with that point of view.

Her squadron of girls could only hang their heads and facepalm as their fearless leader just antagonized all parties involved in this rebellion. Though out of the 3 targets she was insulting one of them was most likely going to die that night and its not like the other two would ever see her again. As Clarice rummaged through the recordings of voices in her head she kept recalling the mention of this Adrian fellow and some odd comparison to her. This was oddly offensive, but not in the regular male supremacist way more like it was some insult against her honor.[color=#ff8c00] First let me clear this up, I do not hate vampires, that would require way too much effort and energy, I don't have the time to care that much. It seems that you just came in at very bad time. Second this Adrian fellow, is it a woman? I mean surely only a female can be compared to the almighty me...no you say. Well I guess we have our match-ups then. Also what about shark girl? Not that me and aquas over there agree on much but I think we both agree that she's a traitor and should be turned to fish food, funny that was a double pun. Oh wait don't we have some other swordsman kid with us.[/color] She looks around in search of Ed. [color=#ff8c00]Yeah why is he not factored in these plans either? [/color]

Its not that Clarice really cared on whether or not these people were killed its just that all of these plans involving her zip around seem to leave her team unguarded and her natural maternal instinct would be to make sure they are all safe and sound first, hence clearing this escape route. Which she would have done if there wasn't this annoying warehouse rendezvous first.

[Gαr]

Ed only smiled when he was pushed back. [color=#800000]"True, that the quality doesn't matter very much, but you a reliable swordsman needs a reliable weapon. And you should take better care of your sword, they're people, too, you know." [/color]Ed merely whistled in exaggerated admiration as Adrian revealed his other swords and drew one of them. Before Ed could respond, Adrian dashed forward and tried to to slice him from the side. [color=#800000]"Sh*t!"[/color] was all Ed could say before he was severed. He hated to use it, but he had to. Ed used his superior vampire speed to dodge, but it was too little, too late, making him jump back at an awkward angle. Slicing through his clothes, Ed was cut, leaving a shallow, but long cut across his chest. Instinctively, Ed swung his sword in a linear direction creating an overflow of ice in the shape of a crescent, then sending the ice into the air in the form of spikes still connected the existing ice. Ed landed and stumbled backwards a couple of feet, but quickly regained his balanced.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

[color=#000000]Kaname shook his head in disgust. That was the [i]second[/i] time that Niasa suddenly decided to change location on him. Still, what could drive the poor princess away from her own castle? Something was amiss, and Kaname [i]had[/i] to get to the bottom of it at all costs. Even if that meant he got attacked by an angry Elnaer.[/color]

[color=#008080]"Tell Elnaer that I'll be with him within the hour,"[/color][color=#000000] Kaname told the servant, [/color][color=#008080]"I'll assume he has the patience to at least wait [i]that[/i] [/color][color=#008080]long..."[/color]

[color=#000000]Before the servant could so much as stutter a reply, Kaname left again, heading straight for the market, where the letter told him she could be found. Kaname couldn't care [i]less[/i] about the servant's fate right now; the more [i]important[/i] person on his mind was Niasa. If she wasn't there, there'd be trouble.[/color]

[a bad post]

Niasa had been in the market now for about the time of half an hour, and in this time had decided to change her clothing yet again. This time only, it was to remain more inconspicuous, as who wouldn't recognize the vampire princess. Niasa now had a dark midnight blue shroud on hiding her face successfully, and just for the sake of paranoia Niasa also had bought a new pitch black shirt and lifted the collar up so it cover the lower half of her face, a short purple skirt, and sandals that strongly resembled those that had been used by Roman soldiers, though she was still quiet effeminate in her choice of clothing, and it disguised quite well, she could still fight more effectively in combat, than she would have been able to in her palace dress. She had actually just finished, and now wondered into a restaurant, that was situated right near the market to wait for Kaname to appear.

[Reinforce]

Lyon frowned, annoyed at Clarice's comments about the pies, before speaking up himself. "As much as I hate to admit it, like really hate to admit it since I don't agree with nearly anything she says or does, I do agree with Clarissa on this one. I don't think Shanna is on our side anymore, and while I'm not sure we should really kill her, someone does have to take care of Kaname. Come to think of it, I think I might have met him, I saw a vampire near the camp when Shanna appeared yesterday, and he seemed to be quite comfortable that I wouldn't have any chance of stopping him. From what I could tell, if that was indeed Kaname, he seems very confident in his own abilities and that Shanna is under his control, so if someone is to encounter him, just be careful and don't underestimate him. Anyone with that much confidence is either very comfortable that they can back their claims, or a fool, and he did not seem like someone foolish."

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"No," Alexi began, turning towards Lyon as he began retelling the story of his encounter, "that sounds like Kaname. Whether you would have been able to defeat him or not doesn't much matter, you're already going to be handling the princess. Leave Doctor Gedozurai to me, I've business with him anyways." Then he remembered that Clarice had offered him a meat pie. Certainly she'd been wearing an expression that lead him to suspect her motives, but then again he wasn't exactly accustomed to such displays of generosity. Most of the upper echelons of vampiric society were far less than generous, and the proper side of his nature came out as he dipped his head briefly in a bow towards the woman.

"And thank you for your kind offer, but even if it were possible for me to accept I don't actually have a stomach. Makes eating a bit difficult you see." He couldn't help but chuckle at his own joke, and at the same time realize that no one else was finding anything he said or did even the slightest bit funny. He chose not to react to it though, understanding that if he were to be finding things out he ought to seem the fool. However something curious did come to his mind. Though the pies were gone, their smell (curious that he could detect scent, that would need to be written down at some point) was still in the air and it bore a sickening familiarity to it. He wasn't exactly certain what that scent was, and the dragon-head helm that he wore did a wonderful job of keeping any expression on his face hidden.

"And what is that rancid smell? It's almost like someone dragged a half-burnt corpse in here."

[Merci]

"The aftereffect of my using white flames." John answered, before anyone else - especially Clarice who would definitely give a straightforward honest answer that would make everything spiral further into utter chaos and destruction, no doubt - could answer, or any other foolish person who thought it would be a good idea to distract him from the true matter at hand by telling him that the pies had in fact been made of vampires. Kind of anyway, more or less. He was also a bit worried about Kaname, Lyon hadn't told him anything about meeting something a person which made him a little distrutful, but oh well.

"And by the way, I'm sure Shanna will side with us." He then stated firmly, directed at both Clarice and Lyon, both of whom he found annoying to certain extents. The former was chaotic and unreliable, while the latter was a vampire. Shanna had been his loyal spy even before he had begun advertising the last stand of the humans, and although she had been transformed into a half-shark... "She still has free will, despite what the scientist Kaname had done to her, and I'm certain that she will choose us over him when the time comes. She told me that she had been planning to collect more information in Nuevida."

He paused.

"I trust her, more than I trust any of you."

A vampire of royal blood, a feminist psychopath, an armored flyingmonsterdragonwhatever, hundreds of untrustworthy and unknown warriors most of which weren't human as well... He had been forced to play speed chess a lot with all these unexpected results. None of this had been planned. He had imagined a straightforward small army of courageous human warriors. How did it all come to this? And even then, the one person he was closest to, Shanna - the spy who reported directly to him and obeyed him faithfully, a reliable human that he could always depend upon to gain intel - had been captured and turned into a kind of fish. If his trust in [i]his own spy[/i] is lost, if even Shanna betrays him, then there would no longer be anything trustworthy. He wouldn't be able to trust anything anymore.

He had to put his face in the one last person he could personally depend upon.

Because right now, he was surrounded by tons of things that could go wrong at any moment. A wrong move, and everything would collapse. This alliance...was ridiculously fragile, put together under the simplistic concept of defeating the tyrant Vampire Lord. Although they had made it this far, nothing had gone right. For all he knew, everyone else was merely aiming to take the human last stand off guard and annihilate humanity's last hope, while Clarice herself would go frolicking about away from Nuevida without a care in the world but her own ideals.

He had to put his face in the one last person he could personally depend upon.

[Love of Ghibli]

Clarice nodded at John's response, why not? She wouldn't gain anything by telling the woman named vampire the actual truth and its not like his weak useless corpse squad actually had the backbone to do anything on their own. [color=#ff8c00][i]Surely they ride on their leaders sac like prostitutes.[/i][/color] She chuckles at her own inner thought. It was then that John had addressed the whole shark food issue. Well that was interesting in itself that he would dare hold her to such high esteem, and then that is when Clarice started to process some information about John.

[color=#ff8c00][i]Hmmm maybe John should die tonight.[/i][/color] She began her inner monologue.[i] [color=#ff8c00]I mean his life is practically meaningless is it not. Let's see I don't really see him having any friends. His whole human rebellion has pretty much become a vampire civil war. His second in command is this weak as water...ha double pun...softie who is a vampire which I guess its logical that he has lived this long just not seeing how. We have a swordsman missing in action...yep he's probably dead. He trust that clearly treasonous she-devil shark wench over all of us. Denial. I'm not helping out much in this situation and to top it all off he's a man. A lonely man at that, did he ever have a wife or anyone to tell him his life mattered? I don't think so. Yeah maybe that is why he is on this suicide mission. To die in a blaze of glory and luckily for me when he does so, he'll end up destroying the vast majority of the castle, these gunning toting shrivels of men, and hopefully a lot more things just because. Then if water water everywhere is still alive he can assume his mantle as king and I will sit back from the sidelines and watch him struggle to maintain power over a group of vamps who don't even know he exist. This is perfect...I wonder what I should name my pie shop? Maybe Ye' Olde Pie Shoppe just because[/color][/i][color=#ff8c00].[/color]

[Reinforce]

"Fine by me, I'd prefer to take down the princess anyway. Afterall, she might be more interesting, having magical abilities of some sort thanks to the vampiric royal blood. Also John, I hope you're right about Shanna, really I do, but she has seemed rather suspicious of late, what with suddenly returning to the camp after being captured for so long and then vanishing again just as quickly." Leaning back on the seat he had found to sit on, he looked around at those warriors they had managed to get all of a sudden to fight with them. [i]If this goes well, at least I'll end up with a nice large group of vampires hopefully loyal to me after Elnaer and Niasa are killed. If they're not, I might have some trouble taking control of this place after this coup ends. At least I have the easier task though, taking down Niasa with a group of elemental users that I've trained well. I don't know that I'd be able to kill Elnaer even with a bit of support, from what i've heard, he's majorly powerful both physically and magically. Not the sort of enemy you'd want to run into on the battlefield in the slightest.[/i]