Chapter 11 - Vampire Cave

After a short 20 minute run, the steep ravine entered their vision.

"Get into position," Alastair ordered, slowing down their dash.

Instantly the squad disappeared and reappeared into their allocated positions.

"Let's go," Alastair commented after confirming their locations,

Reisa nodded, following Alastair and jumping down into the ravine.

The sound of the nearby waterfall echoed through the thick walls creating a resonating yet mystical sound from all directions.

"[Telepathic Link]" Reisa chanted, casting her spell and linking the squad's thoughts.

"Hello~!" Len's voice rang through everyone's head.

"Quiet down!" Tonia whispered back.

"Commander, arrow attack coming in 5 seconds," Enga's voice rang out,

Sure enough, an arrow came whizzing straight at Alastair.

With a quick move of his hand, the arrow was caught and snapped into two.

"Another arrow in 3 seconds,"

Like a repeat of what happened just then, the arrow was once again caught and snapped.

"Who are you?" A deep voice resonated from within the ravine. "You don't smell like a human, but you sure look like one."

The voice echoed from wall to wall, dispersing the sound and preventing them from finding the origin.

"If you leave now and leave that girl next to you behind, we'll spare your life," the arrogant voice cackled.

"[Scan]" Reisa whispers calmly,

"There are around 200 male vampires surrounding us. The leader is to our left 500 meters away. He only seems to have around 1500 mana strands. It seems a bit too weak for a clan of vampires," she observed, speaking through the telepathic link.

"There's some activity around 500 meters below us. Scan down there." Alastair replied,

"[Scan]," she chanted once more, "There are around 50 female life signs down there. They aren't exactly humans but they are not exactly vampires either." She comments, confused.

"They're in the middle stages of transforming. I think I know what's going on." Seilon's voice rang out. "These few vampires must be the past of their pack. They've been hiding for so long; afraid of becoming extinct. But now that their numbers have gone below 300 they're finally taking action and kidnapping the 50 women below to transform them into vampires so they can be used to breed and once again increase their pack." He hypothesized, vaguely empathizing with the vampire's situation due to himself being a half-vampire.

"We didn't come here to fight!" Reisa shouted, looking around and pretending she didn't know where they were. Hoping to lower their guard.

"We need to get them on our side," She said through the link.

"We mean no harm! My name is Reisa. I'm a member of the Demonic Army. We've come to help!" She shouted, putting up her hands.

"Demons?" A small fearful hiss could be heard echoing through the ravine.

"Do not worry! We mean no harm! The war between us demons and vampires has ended ages ago. We hold no grudges against you all! Please. Let us help you all"

"Prove it." The voice replied cautiously.

Reisa moved her hands and slowly took off the ring artifact before placing her hands above her head as she turned around to show she meant no harm.

The illusion quickly dissipated, leaving behind her true appearance with her horns, eyes, and tail.

"You too." The voice directed itself at Alastair, who also did the same.

"Fine. Everyone. Stand down." The voice ordered, causing multiple swishing noises and the life signals disappeared from the scene.

"You guys stand down as well," Alastair ordered whilst putting the ring back on.

"Understood." The squad replied, all instantly disappearing from their positions.

The leader of the vampires walked out of his hiding spot.

His short messy white hair and blood-red yet without the usual demonic reptilian-like eyes glowed in the dark. Apart from the eyes, his appearance could be said to be the exact same as that of a human, however, the dark energy which surrounded him would have said otherwise.

"Eh? Vampires don't have fangs?" Reisa accidentally blurted out, before quickly covering her mouth.

The vampire chuckled, "Those only appear when we feed, sweetheart." he smiled, "Follow me,"

The three moved quickly into the depth of the ravine and down a few flights of stairs.

In front, a huge cave system had been emptied out and wall-mounted candles lit up the surroundings. Small houses were even built with streets lining the ground.

"Let me introduce you, This is the Vampire Cave, where we've been staying for the last 5000 years. I'm the chief here, Velrin," he introduced. "We usually feed on the blood of rats and whatever we could get our hands on within the caves. Sometimes if we're lucky, an adventurer would stumble into the ravine and we could feast, but that rarely happens nowadays."

Reisa and Alastair walked around slowly, accompanied by Velrin. The sight of hundreds of vampires, skinny to the bone, some shivering from the cold, broke Reisa's heart while Alastair remained emotionless.

"I would just like to add something," Velirin suddenly interrupted. "I would like to offer you a trade,"

Reisa stopped and looked back at Velrin, "Go on,"

"In return for co-operating with you, I want you to find a solution to our problem here." He said, "If we don't find a solution soon, our pack would not last another year."

"What about that breeding program?" Alastair asked,

Velrin shook his head, "That was only a desperate measure which was doomed to fail. The success rate for a human to change into a vampire is less than 20%, and even if they do happen to succeed, the fertility rates are even lower. But if they succeed, the amount of time required for a baby to be born is more than a year. There's are just so many factors that can go wrong."

"Can't you use them as a food source instead?"

Velrin shook his head once more, "We"ve thought of that but with only 50 of them, only half of us would be able to feed whilst the other will remain half-starved, it would definitely cause a riot within our already unstable population. We do not wish for bloodshed within our pack. We don't want to lose any more of us. And now that the humans are halfway through their transformation, their blood is poisonous for us to drink from anyway."

Alastair nodded and walked towards the exit, "We'll go think of a solution and come back within a day,"

Reisa followed closely behind Alastair as they jumped out of the ravine with a single leap.

"Squad." He called, immediately summoning all the members to his side.

"We need to think of a solution to their problem." He explained,

Reisa took out their map again in the hope it might spark an idea.

"We could always just kill some humans and give them their corpses?" Leon offered,

"No, that'll attract too much attention, and it'll just a short-term solution" Seilon replied, "We need something that could last for a long time."

"Couldn't we just kill all the vampires?" Enga suggested,

"No, His Majesty ordered us to only exterminate them if they don't cooperate." Alastair objected.

"Change their diet~?" Len added, taking out a small stick of candy from her pocket, only to get hit on the head by Tonia.

"Isn't this a village? Seilon suddenly pointed at an isolated small dot located on the map which wasn't too far from here. "There doesn't seem to be buildings or roads within a 2-kilometer radius of it. We can always just turn the villagers into a humanoid blood bank and no one would know."

"Oh come on… Another massacre… We've already done like 10 in the past week!" Len complained, plopping herself on the ground in protest, hoping to gain the sympathy of the others.

"We'll go check it out," Alastair replied, rolling up the map and nodding, completely ignoring the tantrum of the small spoiled girl sulking by his side.

The squad dashed towards the direction of the village; Len being forcefully dragged by the neck by Tonia as they all arrived in half a dozen minutes.

"It really wasn't far," Reisa glanced around,

"There are around 500 people," Len reported, sitting on a rooftop they found themselves landing upon, her eyes slightly squinted, "Mostly some really old folks though." Her voice became slightly disappointed.

"500 is enough," Alastair said, taking his sword out of its sheath. "Kill those who resist, round up the ones who surrender, and leave no traces of there ever being a village here."

"Understood." All the squad members grinned as they took off their rings and removed their cloaks to reveal their squad uniform, their eyes flashing bright red under the bright moonlight. This was their specialty.