Half-bred Delicacies. (Ciroton)

DAM Outpost, ten miles East of Thorne…

“Father Orion!” the young priest shouted, running down the monastery’s main hall. He nearly slipped and fell several times on the church’s freshly polished marble floors. His efforts weren’t in vain, thankfully. The middle aged commander of this DAM outpost was getting closer and closer with each step the young priest took.

“Your holiness!” the priest shouted, attempting to draw Orion’s attention. He was only twenty feet away now, and his superior was bound to have heard him this time. Thinking back on it he’d later wish that he hadn’t gained Orion’s attention at that exact moment.

As soon as his gray haired superior’s eyes came to rest on him the priest found himself slipping on the marble floor for what felt like the thirtieth time within the last minute or so. He pin wheeled his arms in an attempt to keep himself upright, failing miserably. It didn’t take long before he felt his rear collide with the marble floor.

“Father Urias,” Orion said, chuckling. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his robe and started to make his way towards the younger priest, a disarming smile adorning his lips. Because he was walking casually instead of sprinting, like Urias had, Orion’s footing didn’t fail on the polished marble.

“Father Orion,” Urias replied, rising and brushing his rear off. He was thoroughly embarrassed, but that didn’t change the fact that he had very important information for Orion. “We just got a report in from our scouts in Thorne.”

“And?” Orion replied. Thorne was a trading town along the Ichigon trade route. The town was famous for its fine wine, (Orion’s favorite) as well as its various landmarks. Because of the town’s popularity it was necessary to keep a DAM presence to monitor ’unholy’ activity.

Orion wasn’t quite as zealous as, say, Ulrich or Dietrich, but he acknowledged the fact that the town needed protection. If any force took over the town they’d gain a foothold along the Ichigon trade route, and thus gain control over the majority of trade in the Southeastern section of the country.

“Well,” Urias said, snapping Orion out of his thoughts. “Our scouts say that there’s an increasing unholy presence in the town. Thorne’s stood without a single unholy creature setting foot in it for over two decades. Unfortunately, that record was broken recently. Our scouts say that there are two unholy beings in the town. One a vampire, one a demonic hybrid.”

Orion winced. Suddenly protecting the town from being taken over by a hostile force didn’t seem so frightening. Vampires were especially hated by Ulrich, and demons were Dietrich’s department. If he didn’t do anything immediately, Ulrich and Dietrich would. That wouldn’t hold well with Orion’s superiors, and he’d be out of a job.

“Send a task force to remove them,” he said, continually wiping his sweaty palms against the insides of his pockets. “Don’t let any other outpost know about this. The last thing we need is a hostile takeover of the town by that nut Ulrich, and we certainly can’t have Dietrich blowing it off the map.”

Urias nodded and ran off, nearly plowing into two conversing nuns as he did so. It would take a bit for the task force to get to Thorne. Thankfully for the DAM operatives, their targets wouldn’t be leaving the town any time soon.

~

“Damn sunlight,” Cain thought, doing his best to stand in the quickly shrinking shadow of the town’s post office. The simple fact that it was still light out, even at 8:00 in the evening, was proof that, if there were a god, that god surely hated Adonai.

The vampire sighed and looked upon the sight before him, his anger at the seemingly-endless sunlight transferring to the humans littering the street. As would be expected of a trade city, Thorne’s main street was covered with a massive number of stalls, with each one selling a different product.

Cain’s olfactory glands were overflowing with the scents of the humans and their wares. To his disgust he found that one of the stalls happened to be selling garlic products, and another selling silver jewelry. One wrong step and the overflowing amount of atropics would cause him to have a convulsion.

He considered ducking into the post office for protection from the monstrous objects in the street, and started to do so. Of course, one sniff of the office itself destroyed that idea. Some idiotic farmer was sending a shipment of garlic to a buyer in some town farther along the Ichigon trade route.

The vampire hissed at the smell and left in a hurry, deciding to try the building across the street. He ran across now, the smells of the street and post office having made him nauseas. Cain wrenched open the elm door and launched himself inside, plowing over several people as he did so.

His violent entry disturbed several bar patrons, but it was well worth it. He couldn’t smell a single garlic product, and there were only two or three humans inside the bar wearing silver items. Not only that, but Cain’s sense of smell told him he wasn’t the only inhuman being inside the building.

As Adonai’s senses attempted to sort through the people in the bar and pinpoint the one that wasn’t human, he sat down at the counter to buy a drink. Standing behind the counter was the stereotypical bartender, a slightly chubby man with a receding hairline, a man who seemed to be perpetually cleaning an ever dirty glass with an even dirtier cloth.

“What can I getcha?” he asked. Cain frowned at the smell of rotted fish and undercooked meat on the man’s breath, but kept his opinion on the man’s hygiene to himself. He ordered a glass of cherry juice with a smidge of vodka. The bartender seemed disappointed that the vampire hadn’t ordered the wine that Thorne was so famous for but, like Adonai had, kept his opinion on this strange man to himself.

The S-Class vampire’s sense of smell went into overtime. Among the smells of cherry juice, vodka, and a sweaty human, Cain attempted to shift through those present and find the non-human he’d smelled. It took a few seconds but he was able to find the scent of the one he was looking for.

“Definitely female,” he thought, taking a sip of his drink. “I can smell the estrogen.”

Having found his scent Adonai was free to take a deeper sniff and further discern his target. Whoever it was had a vaguely human scent, though it had a slightly more sour odor to it. A demon-human hybrid perhaps? Cain wondered what said person’s blood would taste like.

Demon blood had a bitter taste to it, like coffee. Human blood had a much sweeter taste, thus the reason vampires preyed on humans more than any other race. The combination probably tasted like coffee mixed with French vanilla creamer.

Cain licked his lips at the thought, and doubled his efforts to find his target. The simple hint of estrogen in the being’s smell allowed Adonai to find her fairly quickly, as she was the only female in the bar. The vampire bared his fangs and began to make his way towards the half-breed…

OOC: Wow, this is the best post I've done in a while.

OoC: As you know, I will be using my new character, Aleena. Link in my sig, and all that other stuff. Oh, and I hope I portrayed your character correctly. Scold me via PM, if there is something wrong and I will fix it immediatly.

BiC:
Humans, thought the young half-demon in disgust, looking upon the chaos of the town market. The owners of the stalls kept trying to push all sorts of perfumes, clothes and jewelry on her as she passed by. For as long as she could remember, Aleena had hated the human race for its shallow, ignorant ways. I had better find a place to stay before they figure me out, resolved the lunar demon noticing all the curious glances directed at her. She hurriedly made her way to the village pub/Inn when a young human boy, about the age of ten, got in her way.

“Excuse me,” asked the boy timidly. “Why do you have white hair if you are so young?”

Aleena stopped and looked at the boy for a few seconds, trying to figure out just the exact words to use. “You seem like an inquisitive young boy,” said the half-demon to the delight of the child. “Too bad you will be killed one day because of it.” With that, the young woman continued on her way, leaving the small boy in a mild shock. Filthy humans, thought Aleena acidly as she finally entered the bar.

Aleena quietly opened the front doors to the bar and walked in the threshold. The building was quite crowded, dozens of people carrying on in all manner of conversations over the playing of a piano in the background. She quietly walked up to the bartender, a fat, gray-hared sorry excuse for a living creature if Aleena ever saw one. What a moron, thought the lunar demon viciously. He was mindlessly cleaning an old beer glass with an even more ancient rag. It was as if the man had became hypnotized, unable to stop performing this act of futility.

“What can I get you?” the bartender finally asked after Aleen had taken a seat on a barstool. She ordered the lightest drink available, being her first time drinking alcohol, and took a sip. It was a tasty, off blue coloured beverage that fizzed slightly as it ran down her throat. She could tell by the expression plastered on the old man’s face that he was slightly disappointed about something. However, she put it out of her mind when she heard the sound of disgruntled humans coming from behind her.

A strange, oddly dressed man had burst his way into the bar as though something was raining from the sky. However, glancing out the nearby window, Aleena saw nothing of the like. The half-demon quickly turned around and began to nurse her drink so that it looked like she didn’t care about the strange new addition to the room. The man had the most enigmatic appearance she had ever seen. The very strange human wore a fancy suit complimented by a tie and a pair of very nice looking black leather shoes. However, the eye patch the human wore over his left eye opposed the mans conservative attire.

Something is not right, thought the young woman. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something doesn’t fit with this picture. Aleena became lost in thought, trying to solve another puzzle that life had presented to her. The half-demon began to twirl the olive stick in her drink unconsciously as she starred into space. However, if it had not been for a mild inconvenience that was about to occur, Aleena would have never seen the light of the next day.

“Hey there beautiful,” muttered a drunken human, throwing Aleena out of her deep thoughts. “What is such a nice place like you doing in a girl like this?” The disgusting drunken man smiled at the half-demon hopefully. The sight made the half-demon sick to her stomach.

“If you like your tongue attached to your body, I’d advice that you shut the hell up,” Aleena said savagely to the drunken human.

The half-demon then turned to leave the bar, but as she wheeled around, she came face to face with the enigmatic businessman. His teeth exposed, revealing elongated and sharp canines, the distinctive mark of a vampire. Aleena’s reflexes took control, drawing her katana faster than the blink of an eye, causing the other patrons of the establishment to scurry like the vermin they were.

“I knew there was something strange about you when I first laid my eyes on you,” said the half-demon, addressing the vampire.

“Very good,” said the vampire. “Too bad you won’t live long enough to enjoy your accomplishment.”

“Not very smart half-breed,” Cain hissed. If Aleena had noticed him earlier she would have been able to use her sword from a slight distance. However, he’d gotten too close for her to effectively use her sword against him. The fact that she was trapped between the vampire and the bar was yet another disadvantage.

Confident that he could simply knock her out and take her to a less populated place to drink her blood, Cain struck out with his fist. The half demon moved with quickness that surprised the vampire, easily ducking under his lazy blow and retaliating with a swift yet powerful uppercut into the vampire’s jaw.

A loud cracking sound coming from his jaw and the coppery taste of blood in his mouth alerted Adonai to the fact that the blow had shattered his jaw and caused one of his teeth to pop out. Annoyed, he took a step back and spat the tooth into his hand.

After allowing a quarter of a second for his jaw to heal itself, time which his opponent used to step away from the bar, Cain prepared himself for a second assault. This time he’d be much quicker and maybe try to fake his opponent out by pretending to prepare for a kick…

“Hey!” the bartender shouted, reaching under the counter. “Get out of my damn bar!”

The balding man didn’t take long to find what he’d been looking for, and pulled a double-barrel shotgun out from under the bar. This move surprised Cain, who hadn’t even suspected that the bartender had such an advanced weapon. During his time in this world he hadn’t seen anything more sophisticated than a crossbow.

The Class-S vamp got over his shock quickly and lashed out with the Wirevein technique. It took a moment for the bartender to register the fact that his trigger finger had been torn off, (Probably a druggy, Cain thought) but he eventually noticed this fact and was thrown into a pained screaming fit.

This didn’t last very long. Cain lashed out with the Wirevein technique a second time, slashing open the man’s throat and coating a section of the wall behind him with blood. The bartended emitted several gurgling sounds and collapsed to the floor.

All of this happened in the space of only five or six seconds, and Adonai wondered why it hadn’t taken four. Regardless of how long it had taken the bartender was now dead and unable to interfere in this hunt. Cain advanced on Aleena for a second time, and was greeted with a katana to the belly.

Apparently stepping back while his jaw healed hadn’t been as good an idea as he’d thought earlier. Stepping back like that had given his opponent enough space to put her sword to good use, and she sure as hell knew how to use it.

OOC: Sorry for shortness. I've got a lot of battles to catch up on.

OoC: I am also sorry for the shortness (And possible bad quality) of this post. I received Twilight Princess for christmas, so naturally it has deviated my attention.

BiC:
Damn, missed his heart, cursed the young half-demon. Aleena quickly withdrew her blade form the wound, then with great speed slashed as his legs. He fell to the ground yet was back on his feet in an instant. The vampire too was quite agile, and before she could do anything about it, he grabbed her ankles and pitched her towards the bar.

She collided the shelf behind the bar with such incredible force that it caused every glass to break, no matter how far away it was. The glasses behind Aleena dug into her back as they shattered, tearing and cutting both her clothes and skin. The half-demon then slumped down to the floor into a pool of blood that sprouted from the slain bartender.

Aleena gave a faked pained groan that was extremely convincing in her mind. She could hear the slothful footsteps of the vampire approaching her, and feel the vibrations on the wooden floor. So far, so good, thought the half-breed. He may be clever, but I am even more so. Convinced that her plan was sound, she continued to lie there, looking as helpless as she possibly could.

“Well,” he said convinced that she was unconscious. “That wasn’t much of a fight,” However, at that very second Aleena sprung into action. She jumped from behind the counter and fell toward he opponent, sword pointed at him like a spear. The vampire lazily avoided her resolute charge, causing her to bolt outside the building.

The sun had all but vanished from the sky, giving way to the near full moon that now dominated the opposite side of the twilight sky. The once busy marketplace was now deserted, obviously the fleeing patrons from the bar had warned the others about the conflict. The vampire emerged from the building looking just as confident as he did only a few minutes before.

The elongated shadows cast by the dying sun gave the Half-breed an Idea. Dark circles appeared over many of the shadows, absorbing them into their perimeter. The circles then pulled the shadows up and twisted them into near-human shapes. The shadows then shrieked with cries of pain, as they became demons with glowing eyes of various colours.

The Necrals then formed a line behind their master, eagerly awaiting her commands. Aleena pointed her sword at the vampire that offended her so, then shouted to her dark shrouded minions, “Surround him!” They complied without a second’s hesitation, encircling the vampire.