Reversing her grip, Stella spun her sword around and severed one of the creature's arms. She wailed and staggered back, darkened blood pouring from the stump, but struck with her skeletal tail. Stella stepped to the side, dodging the bony spike at the end of the tail by a hair's breadth, and then amputated it with a swing of her crimson sword.
"KREE!"
The mutant whirled around to screech, the mandibles that made up its lower jaws flaring in rage and agony. Spinning her sword upward, Stella sliced off the creature's forked tongue before it could stab her with its barbed ends. Once again, the mutant staggered back as blood sprayed from its dismembered tongue.
She slashed out with her remaining claw, but Stella ducked under it and twisted her body around to ram her blade into the creature's sternum. The monster flailed about with a hiss, but Stella ripped her sword upward without any hesitation, cleaving through her chest and head. The creature stumbled, somehow tenaciously clinging to life despite having its brain split apart, but Stella moved on reflex and beheaded it with a follow-up stroke.
The deformed head sailed through the air before landing on the ground with a loud thump, spilling blood from the stump that was supposed to be its neck. The headless corpse continued to stand for a few more moments, as if not realizing that it was supposed to be dead, and then collapsed.
Breathing heavily, Stella regarded her dead foe for a few moments before she finally relaxed. Tears streamed down her face, mixing with her perspiration.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "If only I was faster…if only I made it in time…"
No, that was mere arrogance. Stella knew deep down that she wouldn't have made it in time, no matter how quickly she ran. Even though the woman's death had been recent, she had been dead for at least fifteen minutes. Most likely longer. She was probably dead before Stella had begun running from the garrison and toward this area.
Even if she was still alive when Wilson saw the Gensy convoy get attacked by Mikhail, Stella wouldn't have made it in time. Her new vampire physique had granted her great speed, but she remained incapable of teleportation. She couldn't move from one area to another in an instant. Not over such a great distance.
"Damn it…I have to let Klein and the others know."
Stella straightened and turned toward the direction of the rest of the convoy. Before she could take a step, however, she heard a rustle. Narrowing her eyes, she held her sword in both hands and waited patiently.
Her night vision and heightened senses had already picked up the presence of the enemy before they appeared in front of her. The dark shadows behind the leaves…the faint sounds of twigs snapping under the weight of something huge…and the scent of tainted blood.
"That bastard…" she hissed under her breath.
More of the mutants came into view, rags of their blue and white clothes hanging to their bloated bodies. Scraps of red cloth hung to their heads or were tied to their hair, remnants of their trademark scarves. There were four of them, and they were visibly former Gensies.
Unfortunately, just like the lady from before, they had been transformed into hideous monsters. Bony tails arched over them, wing-like bone appendages protruded from their shoulders and their lower jaws split into grotesque mandibles filled with fangs. Claws had sprouted from their muscular hands and their feet had turned into talons.
Former humans who had been mutated by whatever means Mikhail had employed. The bastard wasn't satisfied with killing the Gensies. Even after he robbed them of their lives, he had continued to desecrate their bodies.
To what end? Why drag innocents into this? Why subject them to such horrifying torture? Just what was going through his mind?
Even as those questions ran through Stella's mind, she found that she already knew the answer. After all, she had heard the same rhetoric espoused over and over again by Miranda and her warped subordinates of the corrupted mage corps.
To the arrogant and insane mages, the lives of others were worthless. Villagers, nomads, travelers and even each other…they were nothing but fodder. Tools. Specimens to be used for one's own experiments. Miranda truly thought that she alone was special. That she had the right to use other people, to sacrifice their lives for her own research. Her subordinates had followed her example, embodying the same corrupted morals that she preached, ironically not realizing that their mistress treated them the same way as the others – as disposal test subjects.
Even her little lover, Mikhail, was no exception. Perhaps he might delude himself into believing otherwise, but Stella didn't know or care. She was only certain of one thing.
"Unforgivable…I will never forgive you! I definitely won't!"
She gritted her teeth as she ducked under the claws of the first monster and swung her sword up to amputate one of its arms. Twirling her sword, she then rammed the blade into its chest, but it deflected her weapon with its remaining claw.
Stella was then forced to retreat when its stinger-like tail plunged toward her, burrowing deep into the ground when it missed. She lashed out with her sword and cleaved the tail, causing the injured mutant to stumble with a howl.
A second monster almost caught her by surprise, slashing at her from behind. Thanks to her vampire reflexes, she was able to spin around and barely deflect the claws in time. Sliding to the side, she narrowly avoided its stinger tail and tried to hack it off, but the creature showed surprising dexterity by intercepting her blade.
"Ugh!"
That wasn't a problem in itself, but behind her, a third creature pounced. She withdrew her sword and dove to the side, only for the tail to catch her in a glancing blow and send her sprawling on the ground. She rolled onto her back, dodging a talon that dug deeply into the earth. Then one of the mutants tied to bite off her face, its mandibles clacking and fangs slavering over her.
Stella slammed her forearm against its throat, momentarily choking it and holding its mandibles at bay. The creature hissed and its forked tail arced out to stab into her cheek, but Stella managed to turn her face away in time to avoid an injury.
Even this close, she couldn't identify the features of the previous human…couldn't even tell if it was formerly a man or woman. The mutations that Mikhail had wrought upon them had erased all traces of their former humanity and turned them into slobbering abominations.
"How…can he do this?"
Rage fueled Stella and she kicked the abomination off her. Immediately springing to her feet, she swung her sword and bisected the poor creature while it was still hurtling backward, before it could regain its balance.
Despite the grievous wound that it had suffered, the monster was still alive. The upper half of its body tenaciously clawed at the ground, pulling itself toward the vampire knight. Stella flinched when she ducked its tail.
"How…can he turn his fellow humans…into such monsters?!"
With a yell, Stella stabbed the head of the creature, obliterating its skull and brain. It finally died for good this time.
However, she didn't have any time to feel triumph. The remaining three converged on her, snarling with their mandibles. Pack-like behavior? They were learning from the battle, coordinating to attack her from multiple directions.
Stella felt a chill run down her spine.
Gritting her teeth, she tightened her grip on her sword and charged. At the last moment, she veered away from her intended target, causing it to be thrown off by its feint and colliding with another of its brethren. The injured mutant – the one whose claw she had dismembered earlier – managed to pivot on its talons and thrust its half-broken tail at her, but Stella was already moving. She hacked the tail, shortening it further, and then stabbed the creature.
Her original target was its chest, but the mutant moved quickly and dodged. Her blow went wide, but still somehow her blade lodged itself deeply into its shoulder. The mutant recoiled with a hiss, but Stella stepped forward to plunge her blade deeper.
With a determined yell, she dragged her sword across the monster's chest, cleaving it from collarbone to hip. The monster's head and right stump – its arm having been hacked off earlier – slid off with a trail of blood.
Knowing how tough these creatures were, Stella mercilessly stomped on its head, crushing its skull and reducing its brain into a blood splatter. For good measure, she cut off the left arm and amputated its legs in a series of strokes, more from instinct than actual conscious thought. Perhaps her subconscious didn't want the damned thing to rise from the dead later.
The other two monsters had finally untangled themselves from each other and were splitting up, forcing Stella to divide her attention between both sides. They slowly circled her in a predatory manner, a cunning that was borne only in intelligent beasts.
"They are learning," she breathed, realizing how scary that sounded.
Fortunately, so was she.
If her opponents were deliberately splitting up, then she saw this as a chance to focus on them one at a time. She lunged at the one at the right, intent on finishing it off before its companion could come to its aid.
"KREEE!"
The creature's mandibles spread out and it slashed at her viciously, standing its ground. Having already gotten used to the pattern of its attacks, Stella spun away and swung her sword up in a sweeping arc from below.
In that single stroke, she hacked off both of the monster's arms. One at the elbow, and the other at its wrist – but both set of claws were sent flying into the air, accompanied by a spray of blood.
Even without its claws, the mutant was still a deadly foe. It crouched down to allow its lethal tail to punch a hole through Stella, but she was already whirling away. Then she reversed her grip and rammed her sword into the creature's exposed throat, taking its head off in one savage strike.
As the monster toppled over with a bloody gurgle, Stella spun about to parry the slash from the final monster.
"You're finally here, huh?"
The mutant snarled and its tail reared up and above its head to puncture hers.
However, Stella didn't wait for its attack. Her sword flashed crimson and she cast her blood magic. A massive red beam lanced out of her sword and obliterated the mutant's head before descending in an arc that bisected its body. The mutant stumbled before both halves crashed in different directions.
Panting, Stella dispelled her lethal spell and paused to catch her breath. She gritted her teeth and glared in the direction of the Gensies' convoy.
"You won't get away with this, Mikhail the mage."
Vowing, she sprinted toward the remnants of her campsite.
As expected, Mikhail was waiting there with his spear, along with dozens of his newly transformed mutants. He was murmuring to himself, making observations as he studied the creatures around him. Even now, he was still in the mood to conduct research, taking note of his subjects' mutations and pondering on their capabilities. He didn't seem surprised at all when Stella showed up. Instead, he greeted her with a smile.
"You are…the girl who accompanied that ice mage who hurt Chairwoman Miranda very badly." He clapped his hands as he studied the female knight, seemingly delighted. "Excellent! You saved me the trouble of looking for you."
His grin widened.
"You, that despicable ice mage, that cowardly necromancer…and those four deserters…I'll kill you. I'll kill all of you!"
He threw his head back and laughed.
"I'll avenge my beloved Chairwoman Miranda! After I've killed all of you, I'll bring your heads back to her. She'll definitely reward me!"
"Do you really think so?" Stella asked coldly. "Have you still not come to your senses yet? Do you not realize that she treats you as nothing more than expendable tools?"
"No!" Mikhail shouted. "She loves me! I'm different! I'm special!"
Stella shook her head. She already knew this, but she still couldn't help but be exasperated by the depths of delusion that Mikhail had sunk into. Perhaps he was aware of it himself, for he sobered slightly.
"Even if she doesn't love me before…when I avenge her…when I bring your heads back to her, and save her…when I heal her wounds…she will come to love me. She has no choice! I'm the only one she can rely on now!"
"I wonder about that."
"Hah! Are you in any position to criticize me?" Mikhail sneered, pointing his spear at Stella. "Aren't you the same?"
For a moment, Stella couldn't believe what she was hearing. She gaped at him in disbelief, and then shook her head.
"Huh? Are you out of your mind? How are we the same?"
"You can stop pretending," Mikhail retorted. "I know what kind of girl you are. You love Klein Pearson, don't you? You've given your heart, body and soul entirely to him! You'll do anything for him! Isn't that true?"
Stella stared blankly at the raving maniac. She blushed a little, but she couldn't help but scoffed.
"I'll admit that I do hold some feelings of affection for Klein, but aren't you mistaking something? I'm not some mindless love slave or pathetic subservient girl who has given my everything to him. Even if I have fallen in love with him, that doesn't mean my body or soul belongs to him. I am not an object. I am not some trophy he adds to an ever-growing harem, not that he ever has one to begin with. Honestly, though, I wouldn't call what the feelings I hold for him love. Perhaps infatuation. I am emotionally attached to him, perhaps even attracted to him, because of what we've been through together. But it's still too early to call this true love. Besides, I think you have a dangerously absurd misconception of what love is."
"What are you talking about?!" Mikhail snarled. "Love is giving your everything to someone! Surrendering yourself totally, heart, body and soul, and devoting yourself to the person you love!"
"That's exactly what I mean by misconception." Stella raised a finger. "Your idea of devoting yourself to the person you love seems to be based on the premise of turning yourself into her slave. That's nothing more than stupidity. In fact, I venture that people will call you a simp."
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"
"A simp. Anyway, who cares about that? Now listen up." Stella placed her hands on her hips and glared at Mikhail sternly. "Devotion doesn't mean being subservient. It just means being faithful. That you will pledge yourself to only one spouse and no one else. Be faithful and loyal to the person you love without cheating on him or her. That's what true devotion means. Not being a slave. As a side note, that's why I don't believe all that harem bullshit. How can a man claim to love me when he's busily dividing his affections among multiple women? I'm not asking him to serve me, nor am I expecting him to devote 100% of his time and affection to me alone, but I would at least expect him to be faithful to me. Otherwise, how is it fair that he runs off to other women while expecting me to stay faithful only to him? I am not going to degrade myself to the point where I happily share the man I love with other women. That's just debasing myself."
"What…what…? Huh?"
Stella ignored the stuttering Mikhail and continued.
"And that brings me back to your misconception of love. Love is a partnership. A relationship between equals. It should not be equated with ownership or servitude. Neither party should 'belong' to the other, like an object or trophies or servant. Love is a relationship built upon mutual respect, reliance and understanding. How can you call your slaving away for Miranda 'love'? That's not romantic love. That is just sheer stupidity."
"You…!" Mikhail roared. Stella continued to pay him no heed and instead covered her beautiful face with a hand.
"Why the hell am I explaining to you what true love is? How did the conversation even turn into this?"
"Shut up!" Mikhail turned to his army of mutants, who had been idling around and apparently listening to the exchange between the human and vampire with detached curiosity. "Kill her! Kill her now!"
"Since you can't win an argument, you resort to attacks on the other party." Stella sighed and shook her head. "How very typically juvenile."
Even so, she was no longer in the mood for jokes. Not when faced with her imminent death. Holding her sword up, she grimly resolved herself as the tide of monsters closed in on her.