Blade demon 02: Meeting the hunter

Alice fell to the ground struggling to breathe. She looked up to see the man she met earlier at the inn. His blade was on fire while the fiend growled in pain.

"Another one of you? Can't you leave us alone?" The fiend growled.

"Fire sigil, fire moon!" The man swung his sword launching a crescent-shaped blade of fire.

The fiend jumped backward and kicked one of the chairs toward the man. A blade of blood formed in the fiend's hand and he used it to slice the burned flesh.

"Fine, I haven't killed one of you in a while so let's do it!" The fiend flashed toward the man swinging his blood blade.

The man swung his blade that was still on fire blocking the direct hit. The fiend's blood started burning. The fiend took a step to the side and swung again at the man's neck.

"Fire sigil. Fire disk!" The man spun his blade at his side creating a disk of red-hot flames deflecting the fiend's attack.

"Fire sigil. Fire combo!" He immediately followed with a slash to the neck. The fiend deflected it so he followed with a downward slash and then an upward slash. He kept chaining an attack after the other, with each one his slashes grew faster.

Alice who was staring at them only saw two red flashes of lights zapping around. They were too fast for her to follow.

In a moment, they crushed through the wall and went outside. Alice hurried to watch, peeking her head through the hole.

To her surprise, she could see them better outside in the dark rather than in the lit room. She thought it was because of the man's bright blade that it made him stand in the dark.

"Listen, would you mind speaking a bit?" The fiend said to the man, "At least tell me your name, it's been a while since one of you gave me such a fight." Fiend laughed.

"Then you're in big trouble, I'm from the weakest in the corps!" The man swung his blade even faster, not giving the fiend a chance to catch his breath.

"Fire sigil. Fire burst!" The man sliced the fiend's other arm and after he passed by him the wound exploded tearing a part of his shoulder.

The fiend burst laughing at the amusing fight, "This is truly fantastic, I bet your blood will taste even better than those weaklings." Small blades of blood emerged from his body and cleaned all the burned flesh from his wounds in an instant. His body then immediately regenerated all of his lost limbs as if it was nothing.

"As you can see, I have drunk enough blood to last me quite a while…" The fiend licked his lips just to feel a rope twist around his neck.

The man took the chance of the fiend being distracted and swung his blade even faster. "Fire sigil, Blue flames!" The man's flames turned bright blue as he flashed toward the fiend with unimaginable speed.

"Why do you interfere?" The fiend dodged the man's slash and rushed toward Alice grabbing her by the neck. She did the same and grabbed him from the neck.

"Let her go!" The man screamed. The fiend didn't reply and decided to use Alice as a hostage for the moment.

"Do you think you can strangle me? I'm a close-quarter one, do you remember?" The fiend said with a nostalgic smile on his face.

"…Wait, what are you doing?" The fiend cried as he felt something get sucked from his neck and to her hand, her nails were deep into his neck.

The man who was watching noticed the fiend growing pale and Alice's eyes glowing red. "Hold up, it's forbidden!" The fiend screamed.

"Fire Sigil!" That moment of distraction was all he needed, the fiend's head fell to the ground.

The man landed beside the coughing Alice and gracefully sheathed his blade. A gust of hot wind seemed to swirl around his body.

"What brought you here?" He asked. Giving Alice a cold stare as if he was devoided of emotions.

"You're the pervert from today, you chased me all the way here just to show off." Her answer made the man freeze in place. He looked down at her with an annoyed stare.

"What I would like to know, is what a girl like you is doing here with that monster. The regular procedure is that I kill you immediately." The man pulled his blade again. He was serious.

"That fiend, alongside another one. They killed my family. After killing the first one I chased this one all the way here." She replied. Unlike facing that fiend encouraged with her anger. Now seeing the man who technically saved her life pointing a sword at her made her a bit scared.

"Don't lie, a normal can possibly kill one of them. They will just rise back up." The man replied as his blade caught on fire. For some reason, he seemed angrier.

"I strangled it to death, cut his head with an axe, and fed his corpse to wild hogs. I doubt he will raise from that." She said trying to stand up, her legs were still shaking so she stumbled like a newborn calf.

The man gave her a suspicious look, seeing her stumble like that made it hard to believe she did such a thing.

"What are those things anyway?" She asked as she started at the fiend's corpse.

"Each place has a name for them. Fiends, monsters, demons, Oni, Vampire, blood humans. The most common name is vampires, but those things don't turn to bats so I prefer to call them blood humans." The man replied.

"That's fairly messy for someone who seems to be killing them as a job. Are you people legit?" Said Alice as she strapped the rope to her waist.

"We had to consider that multiple reigns have named them differently, Knowing how people refer to them is important." The man finally put his sword back.

"Alice. Alice Chlorophyllae, a milk seller. What's your name?" Alice asked with a happy face.

"That is a long last name!" The man said in surprise, he didn't even remember what that last name was from how long it was.

"Nice to meet you mister 'That is a long name' would you need something?" She glared at him with an angry face.

"Recared Viso, A vampire hunter," Recared Said with an exhausted look on his face. Dealing with this girl was going to be annoying. Dropping her at the training camp would be the best thing he could do, if she truly managed to kill a vampire on her own, she must have talent.

"What now? What do we do?" She asked him. Inside her head, she was thinking of maybe returning to her village and living the rest of her life in peace. She had avenged her parents so all was good.

"I will be taking you to the training camp, they can care for you there," Recared said with a smile.

Alice lifted her hand as if she was about to say something but stopped. 'What guarantee that I won't be attacked again? What if they sent more people to take revenge. The image of a vampire killing her new family flashed in her eyes.

"I can settle down and have a family, but then I run the risk of them attacking again. Would I be able to train in that camp to fight those monsters?" Alice asked.

"That camp is designed to train new vampire hunters, I'm sending you there to become a hunter," Recared replied.

"Do I have any choices?" Alice asked with a straight face.

"You have to choices. Go to the training camp and become a vampire hunter, or I will kill you here so you won't spread panic." Recared replied with a serious face.

"How about the third choice of marring you and having you protect me for the rest of my life?" She asked with a stupid face.

Recared looked at her from head to toes, "Humph!" a faint mocking laugh escaped his mouth.

Alice snapped at him, "What is that supposed to mean!"

"Sorry, nothing. I have plenty so no thanks." He replied with a smug smile.

Alice stared at him, "You must be lying, with how gloomy you look. I bet you never had a girlfriend before." Alice said with a judging look. She managed to catch a glimpse of Recared flinching.

"I was right, I am right…" He burst laughing and Recared chopped her head with the hilt of his sword. "Stop wasting time, we need to move!"

"Don't hit a frail lady like this!" Alice growled back at him.

"I don't consider someone who strangled a vampire, cut its head with an axe, and fed the corpse to hogs. A frail lady. Stop joking and let's move." He dragged the vampire corpse toward a suitable spot to burn it.

After they finished cleaning the mess. Recared seemed very keen on burning every single drop of blood. They finally set forth toward the training ground.