Alex and Bonnie, Vampire Hunters
"Thank you for allowing the change of scenery. This topic is not something we can discuss out in the open. Even if the music was loud back in the factory, I don't believe our conversation could be kept in secret there," he turned to Alex, "Are you sure about what you said?"
"Not really. It's going to be a test, but I'm a curse removal specialist. Part of the reason I came here was to see if I could remove someone's vampirism. But I don't want to force that on anyone, that's why I'm asking for help."
"Dad…" the guitar player glanced at the vampire lord, who just sighed.
"Calm down, honey. First, let me introduce myself properly. I'm Victor. The elves here know me as Victor Damascus. Yes, like the metal. But my real name is more on the nose. Victor Dracul. This is my daughter, Vanessa Damascus," the vampire lord gestured to the guitar player, "Same thing with the last name. Some people know, others don't."
"It's a pleasure. I'm Alex, these are Bonnie and Elistrae," Alex gestured to her companions.
"Are all of you vampire hunters?" Vanessa asked.
"Honestly? No. We just came into town because we hear about vampires being here and I wanted to test this ability," Alex explained.
"Are you sure this will work?" Vanessa was staring deep into Alex's eyes.
"No. But I've cured worse things in the past," the assassin replied in a half lie. She did get rid of her curse, which was significantly worse than being a vampire. But she didn't use the legacy for that.
"Vanessa…" Victor reached for his daughter's hand.
"Dad, no. You know how I feel about all of this. I just… can't take it anymore," she turned to Alex, "I'll do it. If it's something that might make me stop being a vampire. I'll do it."
"Wait… what?" Elistrae gasped, "Aren't you his daughter? Why do you want to stop being a vampire?"
"The situation is a bit more complicated. She is my daughter because I saved her. There was an accident and she would die. So I offered her an alternative," Victor started.
"Which I took. I was eighteen at the time, and I didn't want to die. Also…" Vanessa took a deep breath. Which only made the rest realize that she had yet to breathe in front of them, "I had. Have, a son. He was two, and I was the only one that could take care of him. But… being a new vampire is hard. I couldn't handle the thirst. One day I almost bit him. Victor stopped me in time. I dropped my son with my sister and vanished since I couldn't actually tell her about what was going on. Better for them to think I'm a deadbeat than a monster who was willing to eat her own child."
"How long ago was it?" Bonnie asked.
"Ten years," Vanessa turned to Victor, "Don't get me wrong. I love you like a father. You know that. But… I can't just leave Samuel."
Victor nodded, "I understand. And even if you are no longer a vampire, you still will be my daughter. And I would love to meet my grandson again."
"Can you do that now?" Vanessa turned to Alex, who nodded in response.
They set everything up, preparing a bed, and letting the vampire of the hour to change into more comfortable clothes before Alex started to work. She couldn't use [Steps of Purity] but she didn't need to. Working against a curse was much simpler than undoing spells. It took her just a couple of minutes to break down what the red line was and even less time to confirm what she had to do. Using [Purifying Brilliance] a light washed over Vanessa and after a couple of seconds the glow narrow down, being directly on top of the red lines. In just a few seconds, those lines became weaker and weaker until they were completely gone.
Vanessa suddenly gasped for air and started coughing as Alex just said, "Neat."
"What, what happened?" Victor rushed towards his daughter.
"It worked. She's not a vampire anymore. She is probably having to breathe for the first time in a while, so that's why she's like this. Oh, and since her heart is beating again, that will probably feel super weird," the assassin said with a smile as she stood up, walking towards Bonnie and Elistrae, "And now I can do that with a single skill. It's on the list of removable curses I have. That rogue vampire will get a nasty surprise."
"Right, this is the skill you were trying to level up, right? Hoping that as it ranks up, you can also add debuffs or something related to the tattoo to it," Bonnie asked.
"Exactly."
"Thank you, thank you so much," Vanessa had tears in her eyes.
"No worries. We can do that with any other vampires that want. Could you set something up, lord Victor?" Alex asked. She needed more targets to practice. Sure, she could just go around doing that with every vampire she could find, but eventually they would either come after her, or run away and hide. She felt this was the easiest way to go about it.
Victor nodded, "It won't be hard. Especially if I can show Vanessa as proof. I can have that set up soon."
"Great, and while you do that, we are going after the rogue vampire," Bonnie said with a smile. She held a spyglass in her hand that was surrounded by a glowing constellation. She looked through it and eventually her sights stopped on the mansion, "There! Kind of obvious, but it's the vampire is in the manor."
"How can you be so sure?" Elistrae asked. She knew the location was right, but usually there were a few steps to be taken before discovering that. Not that people couldn't just go there and solve the issue, but this was the human's first time.
"I enchanted this spyglass to point towards the vampire that killed that guy. Used the constellation of the Reticulum. The crosshairs in a telescope. Changed the effect from finding dungeons and doorways, to finding that vampire," Bonnie walked to the balcony, "Ruby, Aquila!"
The slime jumped out of Bonnie's clothes and took the form of a giant eagle that was hovering just outside the building. Bonnie jumped over and gestured for Alex and Elistrae to come, "Let's go!"
The elven healer blinked before walking over, "If you can do that, why do you want the flight item from the set?"
"Because this takes a fuck ton of mana, and if ruby can be on the ground fighting. I can be the aerial support," the Astral Witch replied just as her two companions jumped on the bird.
Ruby no longer looked like a slime but now but now a crimson eagle with black talons and beak. Her feathers crackled with electricity, but that didn't harm any of the passengers. With a flap of her wings, they started moving quickly towards the mansion. A lot of people were looking up, gasping and taking pictures, but those were only the beings inside the dungeon.
"Hey Alex!" Elistrae yelled over the wind.
"Yeah?"
"That skill. To make them stop being vampires. Is it a single target?"
Alex nodded, "It is. And the cooldown is five minutes."
"Ok, save if from the big guy, then."
"Big guy?"
"You'll see."
"We are just above the mansion. Ruby is landing!" Bonnie warned as the slime started her descent.
They dropped into the courtyard, right in front of the entrance of the mansion. Ruby returned to being a slime and Bonnie used the spyglass again. Unlike its normal use, that is a once and done effect, with her enchantment she could use it repeatedly, as long as she was still pumping mana into the tool. From what she could see, the rogue vampire was inside somewhere on the east wing, between the third and fourth floors.
After pointing that out, Elistrae asked, "Ok. I know I said I wasn't going to help. Which I kind of did already, but no one complained. Do you want to fight inside, and go through it the regular way. Facing the vampires one on one and stuff. Or do you want to fight them here, and have them all coming at you?"
"What level are they?" Bonnie asked, she would prefer to stay outside. Using her legacy indoors had a reduced effect.
"40, the boss is 45," the elf replied.
"And is the boss coming out right away?" Alex asked.
"No. They only show up if all the others are gone, and we continue doing something."
"How many?"
"24 or 30, but they come in waves. First is either one or two, then two or four and so on. The last wave will have either 12 or 16," Elistrae continued.
"Do you think 16 is too many for us?" Bonnie asked.
"If you can't take them. I can, so don't worry about it."
Alex turned to the Astral Witch, "Let's go ham then. We can go back and hopefully, Victor will have everything set up."
"Ok," Bonnie nodded, "How do we do that?"
"Do you see the statue behind the mansion?" Elistrae asked.
"You mean the giant bat that is bigger than a skyscraper? Yeah," Alex rolled her eyes.
"It's just bigger than the mansion, the buildings nearby are bigger. Anyway, attack it. When you do that, the vampires will come out of the woodwork to defend the statue."
"Why is that? Is that statue protecting them or something?" Bonnie frowned.
"Exactly. It does two things. First, it casts a shadow over the entire city, forcing the place into an eternal night. Second, it casts an illusion on the shadow itself. One that doesn't affect vampires, and shows the sky above the way it is right now."
"So.. We are not actually looking at the sky?" Bonnie glanced up, seeing the constellations she could use.
"Yes, and no. With the exception of the moon. That really is not here. It's just part of the effect of the statue."
"I see… Well, either way, my legacy is still working, so let's just go for it."
"Just try not the break the bat. Victor would get upset, and you are trying to work with him."
Alex and Bonnie nodded, and the two prepared an attack. The assassin used an old classic, a wind blade, but not using the dagger on the scabbard that increased the power of her draw attacks. Bonnie went for a similar thing, using a fire first through the Lepus constellation. That wouldn't increase the power of the spell, just change its shape slightly.
The two attacks slammed against the wings of the bat, barely doing anything to the giant statue. But there was a roar coming from inside the mansion as two vampires jumped out of the windows on the ground floor. Unlike the ones they saw in the party, those had bat like faces, with long sharp fangs and claws, sickly gray skin and were hunched over. Both were dashing across the courtyard, snarling at the two humans who attacked their precious statue.
"Let's give them an old enemy. Ruby, Full Cerberus," Bonnie knew about four constellations related to dogs. Three variations of the Canis, being Major, Minor, and Venatici, the last one being a pair of dogs. And, of course, Lupus. The wolf constellation. Because of their similarities, she could overlap the buffs each of them gave. They were, respectively, increased strength and damage, speed and agility, intelligence and perception, and lastly, endurance and recovery.
As a combination of all those constellations, Bonnie taught Ruby a specific form. One with two furry and muscular legs, a humanoid torso with arms that ended in clawed hands, everything covered in fur, and three wolf heads. Just as the four sets of stars overlapped inside the slimes's body, she became the equivalent to a werecerberus. A three headed werewolf. As a bonus, she also added the Furnace constellation, Fornax, in the center of Ruby's new form, to give her access to some extra fire damage. Unfortunately, that was the limit of her power at the moment. Five constellations active at once was all her legacy permitted. Or, more precisely, four minors constellations and one major one, being Lupus in this case.
Ruby howled and dashed at the vampire on the left, slamming both claws on its stomach before the three heads spewed fire on top of him, incinerating the creature on the spot.
Alex didn't move, but she looked the remaining vampire dead in the eye and said 'expunge,' triggering the skill of the same name. That would remove any buff, curse, debuff, and ailment affecting a creature and damage it depending on the strength and quantity of the effects. White flames appeared around the vampire, attempting to consume the bloodsucker. That lasted only a moment and when the fire was gone, the creature was covered in burn marks. Still alive, but already struggling to move. Alex jumped forwards, using her [Wind Chase] and decapitated the vampire with a swift motion.
"I just realize. Don't we need wooden stakes?" she asked as she walked back toward Elistrae and Bonnie.
"It works, but so what you two did. I guess I was worried for nothing," the elf shrugged and summoned a chair using one of her rings. At the same time, more roars came from the mansion as the next four vampires jumped out.
"One wave down. Three to go," Bonnie smiled as she prepared her next spell.