17: Vampiress.
"Humans always try to resist, don't they know they can't change anything?" The Vampiress complained aloud before lunging at the two UNMSO members she wanted to fight.
"That's what makes us human, we're too stubborn," Irina took the lead, saving none of her strength and using it all in a vertical slash straight at The Vampiress' beautiful face.
The woman raised her arm, which was covered in purple Pneuma that resembled snake scales, her hand also seemed to be covered in a soft gauze of energy that made her limb look like a grotesque claw with horrible nails.
Clank!
Laria's invisible sword slammed into the open palm of The Vampiress' raised hand. The metal floor of the cart creaked at that moment. The Vampiress smiled and held the invisible weapon she had been attacked with before trying to wrestle it away from Irina.
Cleverly, Irina canceled the summoning of her Pneuma sword, before bringing her hand to her waist in a rather quick gesture and pulling out a pistol, which she did not hesitate to fire at the enemy.
Startled by this strange development, The Vampiress dodged and moved her body to the left. Her movement was quick and even left a residual image, but then she took several steps backward and some black blood spilled from the right side of her body.
Swish!
"Acceleration!" Lisa's Pneuma shook, and the bullets floating around her seemed to absorb more of that invisible energy before being hurled at The Vampiress with abnormal speed.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Several invisible projectiles were fired at The Vampiress, who this time used her hand to shield herself, allowing the Pneuma projectiles to bounce off her energy claws.
She also had to resort to moving back and forth at high speed, leaving behind residual images and trails of purple Pneuma, but the invisible bullets seemed to follow her, moving at odd angles and even spinning after being dodged.
Adding Irina's slashing attempts, including the technique of creating air cuts with her invisible sword, several wounds appeared on The Vampiress' body, infuriating her.
"Enough!" The Vampiress shouted, creating a spherical shield of purple Pneuma that finally protected her from the attacks, at least for a few seconds before it was extinguished.
The woman then turned several meters away from the two women, before touching the blood that stained her expensive and luxurious dress, then looked at Lisa and Irina with abject and seething hatred, even if her wounds were closing, the mental damage was much worse.
"Bitch! Do you know how expensive this dress is!?" The Vampiress shouted rudely before shielding her neck with her arms armored by the purple Pneuma.
Irina had sneakily attacked her, quickly approaching The Vampiress with a movement technique and attacking with her Pneuma sword, trying to stab her enemy.
But The Vampiress was now much more alert and serious than before. Underestimating the two women had resulted in her receiving several wounds, and she could now feel the foul human Pneuma trying to eat away at her, but her energy solved the problem.
"A Vampiress!? Alexis, go to the top of the train and tell the others not to leave their seats," Jack's voice rang out, who had come out with his weapon in tow, ready to fight when he heard Irina's shots.
This time it wasn't just an attack, but a warning from the woman to alert her companions, and as always, Jack was the first to take the lead. However, when he saw The Vampiress' face, something strange seemed to stir within him.
The voice of one of mankind's most primal instincts came to Jack's metaphorical ears, and he quickly cleared his mind and controlled his body, keeping himself on guard as his brown eyes filled with caution, but also anger.
"You can't charm me, you fucking bitch!" Jack insulted the Vampiress, who snarled at him, showing her prominent fangs.
"I hate men like you, they have too much self-control," The Vampiress said viciously, leaning her back against one of the carriage windows.
Now she was surrounded by her current four enemies, as Laria had joined the fight, looking at The Vampiress with clinical interest, pausing at the strange black blood that stained her clothing.
"If I didn't smell your delicious blood and feel your foul Pneuma, I'd think you were one of mine, those gray eyes are looking at me like you want to slice me open," The Vampiress said to Laria, who was twirling the scalpel in her hand.
"I want to cut you open," Laria's cold tone seemed to have a small effect on The Vampiress, who smiled wickedly.
"Witches are a nuisance," The Vampiress clicked her tongue a bit cautiously.
She assessed her enemies, the man wielding a large enchanted axe and a revolver in his hand, The Vampiress was still annoyed that her charm had failed twice today.
Her other enemies were three women, but she knew that they were the ones who always got in her way, because normally only women could fight against her influence, but her enemies were anything but normal women.
Since everyone in front of her was an Operator, her charm needed extra energy to work, but she couldn't focus on that aspect now, not when her enemies outnumbered her. So when she noticed that Jack was resisting her lately, she stopped trying to attack him that way, at least for a while.
An idea came to The Vampiress' mind, her red eyes seemed to flash, and her hair moved unnaturally, shattering the reinforced glass that hit her back, making the strong wind and the sound of the train passing along the tracks more audible.
Chuck! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
"Let's fight somewhere more comfortable," The Vampiress yelled before jumping out of the window, but her footsteps could be heard coming from the roof, it was obvious that she was doing this to entice them to come up and fight her in a more advantageous ground.
"At least my technique worked better under pressure," Lisa said as she approached the window, weapon in hand, to see if she could see The Vampiress.
"You finally managed to accelerate your Pneuma bullets without using actual bullets? That's great, I'd love to talk more about it, but we've got a lot of work to do," Jack said, who looked at the closed cockpit door, where blood was gushing out, darkened by the heat.
He had a bad feeling about this situation and it was confirmed when he knocked on the door and it opened slightly. The cabin was a bloody mess. Blood, organs, and bones were all strewn and smeared everywhere.
There was nothing that wasn't stained, and it was only the long blonde locks of hair that gave Jack an answer from his sixth sense. The victim had been a woman.
"Damn," Jack said quietly as he stepped into the cabin, making sure that what he stepped on was at least blood and not some part of the mangled body in front of him.
As if by design, Jack stumbled over the woman's mangled head, nothing recognizable except for the sparse blonde curls on her scalp.
Her skin wasn't even intact, as if it had been ripped off. The mouth, open in what appeared to be a great scream, showed a lack of tongue and teeth, the latter of which he swore he'd seen lying around.
"This..." Lisa leaned out and Laria leaned in to look, bumping into the horror of this scene.
Even though they were used to seeing scenes like this and much worse, it was the eeriness of the case that chilled Lisa and Jack's blood, while Laria calmly navigated the surroundings, unfazed.
"She took his time, I can't imagine how long she must have suffered... Vampires are like cats, they play and make their food suffer," Laria said, her cold tone and lack of expression making the subject at least a little more palatable.
But it didn't change the fact that a woman had died a brutal death at the whim of this terrible creature. Jack gripped the handle of his weapon tightly, feeling more than ever the desire to tear the vile Vampiress to pieces.
"Come on, we have to figure this out," Jack's words finally determined the course of action they would take in this matter.
As members of UNMSO, they would fight! It would be difficult and The Vampiress would probably run away in the end, it was notorious how elusive these creatures could be, but at least they would make sure to inflict wounds on her that she wouldn't be able to heal so easily.
The three then approached the broken window before heading to the back of the train car, where it connected to the next car and where there would likely be a ladder or handholds for climbing.
The trio knew that if they climbed onto the roof of the car, no matter how they did it, they might be attacked by The Vampiress who was surely waiting for them up there, but none of them hesitated to do so.
Jack was the first, he had holstered his pistol and handed his axe to Laria before considering his options. The ladder was small and didn't lend itself to a quick climb, probably this situation was built into its design.
So the man chose the best option at the time. After a moment's thought, Jack ran and jumped towards the metal wall of the other car. His foot dented the material a bit, but that allowed him to propel himself towards the other wall.
He did the same with that wall, using his foot to dent it a little and propel himself again, finally reaching the roof of the car, all by cleverly using a basic movement technique with Pneuma.
Now that he was at the top, he looked up at the wagon of initiates, on this one was The Vampiress woman who looked at him with interest, and although there were several meters of distance between them, the charm that the beauty of the female figure exuded was undeniable.
Jack didn't take his eyes off the beautiful woman, ignoring her charm and focusing only on her, trying not to let her sneak up on him with her remarkable speed.
Even when he bent down to take the handle of his weapon that had been offered to him, The Vampiress did not move, just made several flirtatious gestures at him, as if mocking him.
Now armed and ready, Jack took a step forward, which brought a huge smile to The Vampiress' lips, which she licked as if imagining the taste of the man's flesh before her.
"You are very resistant to my charm, if I did not find traces of your essence in this girl, I would think you were not attracted to women. But your endurance, your toughness, your stubbornness, all that makes you a better saucer," The Vampiress said, showing her long, blood-stained fangs.
"Why did you attack that woman?" asked Jack suddenly, wanting to know the reasons for this strange way of doing things.
"What else, don't people try some snack and put it aside or throw it away because they didn't like it? There must be no philosophical or important reason, I did it out of hunger, and since I didn't like her taste, maybe I made a scene with her remains," the woman's cruel words were very discordant when we added her excellent appearance, making the mental shock much greater.
"I see... we're just snacks, aren't we? Pieces of bread, and like me, you've eaten so many slices of bread that you don't even know how many you've eaten, right?" while Jack spoke, Laria did the same actions as Jack to get on the roof of the car, so she could hear part of the conversation her friend had with The Vampiress.
"Oh! You understood quite well, too bad," answered her, and when Lisa had finished climbing, The Vampiress took action.
She had waited for all the 'food' to be served in front of her, and although she regretted not eating the girl who seemed to have ancestors from the Serikos continent, the three operators in front of her were enough for her.
Bam!
Her heavy step dented the metal roof of the carriage, her figure flashed towards them, across the gap between the carriages, and with a speed greater than she had demonstrated for a while, she used her fist to attack Jack's throat.
Snap!
But instead of feeling the warm, brittle bones of the man's neck, she was greeted by the cold metal of Jack's enchanted axe, which was pushed back, sliding on the metal.
"It's not so easy to eat this piece of bread, bitch!" declared Jack, who had been strengthened by the invisible pulse of the Pneuma to effectively withstand The Vampiress' attack.
Bang! Bang!
Two bullets fired by Lisa caused the Vampiress to not react to Jack's rude words, leaving only purple blurs on her figure as she dodged the projectiles by moving to the side, but an invisible bullet grazed her cheek.
"These Pneuma bullets should be slower, but you use an acceleration technique. How much energy will you have left in the end if you keep using something like that?" The Vampiress asked Lisa in a very mocking tone.
She was experienced, considering the fight just now, and added to what she had seen and experienced in the course of her exchange with Lisa, The Vampiress came to a conclusion that made her start to salivate.
"You will be vulnerable soon!" The Vampiress exclaimed before raising her hand and shielding herself from the strong kick Laria gave her.
A look of surprise appeared on the creature's pretty face as she was forced back two steps while her hand was pushed back hard.
"Bitch, you tried to seduce my boyfriend," though her expression and tone were still cold, jealousy and anger could be heard in Laria's words as she hit The Vampiress while reinforcing her kick.
"You seem to well-tamed him, I can smell his essence on you," The Vampiress said provocatively, licking her lips and even making sniffing sounds.
These actions only made Laria frown a little before she moved her leg out of the way and then attacked The Vampiress with her scalpel, aiming straight for the woman's throat.
Bang!
As The Vampire stepped back to avoid Laria's attack, a bullet fired by Lisa flew towards her, but the woman simply used her clawed hand made of purple Pneuma to protect herself from the projectile.
"You are an annoying bitch," Jack had accelerated his body with a Pneuma technique and swung his axe at The Vampiress, aiming at one of her arms with the obvious intention of cutting it off.
Clank!
The woman protected herself with her purple Pneuma-covered arm, and though her form recoiled from the force, only a red line remained on her white skin. She had been wounded by Jack's attack, and even though it took the little one a while to regenerate, the situation only made The Vampiress smile broadly.
"Auchs! Your Pneuma inside me feels hot! Why don't you put in something else~?" the woman asked in a suggestive tone, although it was obvious that she was teasing them.
She liked to tease her prey, mock them, and fan the flames of their emotions to see what they could do, even if they resisted, she would just rethink her strategy at the same time as she stopped trying for a moment.
Before hitting hard, trying to poke all the points she could find, and if she found a vulnerability... the mere thought of enjoying a tasty meal made her wipe the saliva from her mouth.
Swish!
The vampiress dodged another invisible projectile from Lisa and her red eyes narrowed as the woman noticed something, the increasing speed of this last attack gave her a bad feeling.
The vampiress' black hair began to move on its own, and even the curls began to expand and snake; a strange pressure emanated from the beautiful woman's body, making the three operators feel uncomfortable.
"You're getting on my nerves," the woman said in a low voice, but they could hear it as if it was whispered directly into their ears.
Ommmmm!
The woman's purple Pneuma boiled and covered her like a soft gauze, gradually turning into small snake-like scales.
Just as The Vampiress was about to act more seriously, she looked away, her red eyes seeming to shrink from the extreme danger she perceived.
BOOM!
A streak of orange light slammed directly into The Vampiress' body, knocking her violently backward, but that wasn't all. Lisa had been waiting for such an opportunity, and so she pointed to the body of the beautiful woman who was flying in the air, covered in smoke.
"Acceleration!" the invisible Pneuma bullets floating around Laria emitted a distinctive buzzing sound, filling with the energy coming from their creator.
Ommmmm! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
The bullets flew at a speed they could not reach alone, all of them, dozens of them, attacking The Vampiress' entire body like a hive of ants attacking a target.
"Years... four years, FOUR FUCKING YEARS UNTIL THIS MOMENT!" shouted Lisa, who was held up by her friend Irina, who approached her to prevent her from falling to the ground from exhaustion.
"Translating a movement technique into a technique to enhance your Pneuma projectiles... how envious, it's rare to be able to do something like that," Jack said with a bit of envy in his tone, before looking at Alexis who was approaching with the Pneuma cannon, whose cannon was emitting a thin puff of smoke.
"I finally got to use this bad girl," Alexis said, showing off the massive weapon in his hand with pride in his tone.
"Ah, but I don't think it's that useful, sweetheart~" The Vampiress' creepy voice was heard again, causing the others to turn around.
The Vampiress' hair was disheveled and somewhat sang, and her dress had been torn to shreds, leaving her naked body in the open air. For a moment, the group seemed to hold their breath at such a beautiful sight.
It was a slender body, white skin, large breasts, pink nipples, and a hand covering her bottom, while angry red eyes looked straight at Alexis.
Even though her body was full of burns and bloody holes, which in any other case would be a serious disfigurement, The Vampiress' special qualities made everything on her body perceived as 'beautiful'.
"They won this time, it wasn't the long, arduous, and hard fight I wanted, it seems I have to adapt to the new special toys the humans have created over the years," The Vampiress mused before the purple energy on her body covered her again.
This energy looked quite subdued, but it served to cover her nakedness. She didn't care much about showing her naked body, but not like this, not getting hurt, so she glared hatefully at Alexis and Lisa before looking up at the sky.
"So, I'll be looking for you again... when I finally feast on you," before the operators could do anything else, The Vampiress jumped off the roof of the train.
Then she kicked hard into the void, causing an explosion in the air and propelling her body forward; with each kick, the air exploded, propelling her steadily forward, and soon she was lost in the distance.
The Vampiress didn't know it, but the way she chose to leave inspired some thoughts in Laria, her gray eyes seemed to glow brightly as an unfinished idea was born in her mind.
But only when they would meet again when Laria would show The Vampiress what she had accomplished in all the time they hadn't seen each other, what the beautiful woman had unwittingly sown.
"Now we have to make another report," Irina said with a resigned sigh.
"UNMSO already knows what happened here, at the next stop we can interact with some colleagues on the way to deliver our reports to them," Alexis added, making the atmosphere a bit lighter.
"Well... first let's announce over the train's PA, I don't want people traumatized by seeing the mess that fucking bitch left behind," Jack said before pausing for a moment and then speaking again.
"I just hope the Mimic we meet on our mission isn't a fucking dog too," though many might take Jack's words as a sign, he had only said what everyone was thinking at the time.
"Come on, at least we can celebrate my triumph. I'll get a bonus when I turn in my research and development process, Mom wants to buy expensive stuff!" exclaimed Lisa, who at that moment felt like a weight had been lifted from her heart.
Unbeknownst to her, at least at that moment, her Pneuma had gradually begun to change. Only Laria, the most energy-sensitive of the group, could feel the change, and a small smile appeared on the woman's usually cold face.
It was good that all team members were growing and getting stronger. Because they would need everything to withstand what this world would throw at them in every mission they would undertake in the future.