Allies for Gina and Shelly were in short supply. No one would trust Gina, except for possibly one organization. The Hooded Claw.
This guild of assassins was founded by the vampires sworn enemies, the vandals. The vampires and the vandals had been at war with one another since long before the creation of Tairos. Long before recorded history began in fact. The vandals were created by the sworn arch rival of the father of the vampires, Khastran, which is what started their never ending feud. Despite this however the vandals were ironically among the closest relatives to vampires, with their creator being of the same race of demons as Khastran. The vandals even shared many weaknesses and powers with their vampire enemies, but a key difference between them was that vandals fed on their victims souls with their claws, rather than their blood.
The Hooded Claw despite its name was not just made up of vandals. It also included beasts, monsters, demons of all kinds and even human assassins too. Furthermore the Hooded Claw would offer its services to anyone provided they could pay highly enough, though for obvious reasons it did not provide any services to, or employ any vampires.
The money raised from the Hooded Claw's activities was used to help fund the vandals' ever growing empire throughout Tairos, though it was still neither as large nor as evil as the vampires.
Shelly didn't think that the Hooded Claw would give Gina the time of day any more than the larger cities, but fortunately the vandals had a way of knowing if someone was telling the truth, that admittedly caused tremendous pain for the person enduring it, but Gina was used to pain by now.
Sure enough as soon as Gina arrived at the guild of the hooded claw alone, she was captured. The head of the guild, the oldest vandal on the planet, had the power to read someone's soul. Again it wasn't quite mind reading, but it was an extremely advanced form or soul reading that could tell if someone was lying.
Vandals fed on their victims by stabbing their claws into the victims stomach where they would pull their souls out and consume them in their hands. However if they were careful then a vandal could simply use their claws to read a person's soul. Very few vandals had mastered the power however as it was an extremely delicate process.
It was still the worst agony for the people it was inflicted on, as the vandal was not only cutting into their flesh, but their souls too. Gina luckily survived it more due to the experience of the vandal elder (though she had a feeling that the head of the guild kept it going for longer than necessary just to torment her.)
The vandal agreed to help Gina sneak her way into the camp, though there was much disagreement on how. The vandals wanted to launch a full scale attack against the vampires and even threatened to torture Gina into giving them all the information they needed.
However Gina, who had come alone, said that she had left all of the secrets with Shelly and that if anything happened to her, then they would be revealed to all of the cities.
Gina did not want a massive full scale attack as she was afraid it would endanger the prisoners who the vampires would all instantly slaughter if they were overpowered. She also felt that a sneak attack would be more successful as the vampires would never see it coming.
Reluctantly, the vandals leader, not wanting to let a golden opportunity to bring down the vampires go, agreed to send five of the guild's best assassins to help Gina and the others.
They included a monster assassin named Kreleg, who resembled a humanoid with six arms, a snake-like lower body instead of legs, a bald head and a single red eye which looked more like a long strip across its face. His teeth meanwhile were large and overlapping and unlike most monsters of his kind who had green skin, his was black, with a red stripe down his back and stomach.
Among his powers aside from advanced strength and near indestructability included the ability to fire acid from his mouth.
Another of the assassins was a Venusian named Trialex, who was one of the most prominent and long lived assassins in the guild. Unlike many of the others however, he had a code of honour and would never take the lives of those he deemed to be innocent.
The third assassin was a witch named Loressa who was famous for casting some particularly vicious curses and punishments to those who she was chosen to assassinate. She was by far the most despicable and loathsome member of the guild, but Gina wasn't throwing any stones at that point.
The fourth assassin was a vandal named Fastian, who had more spectral powers than other breeds. Just as with vampires there were many different breeds of vandal. Fastian's breed could form into mist, walk through walls and make their bodies transcendent, though they couldn't do so indefinitely, and doing so for too long could leave them weak afterwards.
The fifth and final assassin was a Caradon named Makos. A magical creature that was the combination of a Shark and a human being, with extraordinary powers. He was by far the most violent and unpredictable of the assassins.
Needless to say Shelly was somewhat uncomfortable with the team Gina had assembled and Loressa in particular had fun tormenting Shelly by letting her know of some of the most gruesome curses she had inflicted on her victims over the years.
Makos also quickly got into a fight with the Al, with Gina herself having to separate them.
Perhaps not surprisingly Trialex was the most friendly and understanding towards Gina and her new friends. He knew of Gina's exploits and even told her that at one point he would have happily collected her head, but much like Shelly he believed that she wanted to and was capable of change.
Whilst the assassins may not have been happy with it, Gina was still the leader of the team due to her greater knowledge of the vampires. Gina knew the exact weak points of the camp and where would be the best place to strike. Ironically in much the same way as she had done to the very first allied camp that she had helped Clasia take down, Gina planned to use magics to counteract the vampires forcefield from within, though she would not bring it all down at once. Not only were the vampire's spells too powerful for that, but if that ever happened the vampire's first policy would be to slaughter their prisoners to make sure that none of their secrets would get out. Gina instead hoped to weaken the forcefield at certain points from inside to allow the assassins to sneak in.
When Gina arrived at the vampires camp, it was among the few times she saw the vampire queen smile. Gina tried not to let the feelings of genuine affection she had built up towards her phony "mother" return. It would be so easy for her to fall back into the old habits once she was in Clasia's care again, but Gina just kept the memory of people dancing in the streets at the news of her being tortured to death in her head.
The vampire questioned Gina on what had happened to her, but Gina lied stating that she was washed up in the woods and forced to flee from a pack of Raptors for a few days.
Clasia seemingly bought it, only because she had no idea her magical shock collar didn't work on Gina anymore.
She took Gina to see the man who had tortured her and gave her "daughter" a chance at revenge. Gina instantly started to beat him viciously. Hurting someone now sadly came as naturally to Gina as anything else. After a few minutes however she managed to control herself and stopped, much to Clasia's surprise and disappointment.
"What is wrong?" Clasia asked sincerely.
"I just eh, I'm a bit tired and he went down too easily. Can I have a minute or two to rest and get more creative with how I'm going to hurt him?" Gina said.
Clasia wasn't buying it. She hadn't seen that kind of look on Gina's face for a long while. It almost looked like remorse.
"Just what did happen to you out there Gina? I hope when they had you prisoner they didn't help you reconnect with your roots?" Clasia asked.
Gina laughed in response.
"The people who tortured me, you mean? Who danced in the streets when they thought I was dead?"
"How did you know they celebrated your death if you were out in the woods for all that time?" Clasia asked.
"I heard it from a soldier I ran into who was angry that I wasn't dead."
Clasia still wasn't buying it however.
"Oh Gina. I want to believe you I really do, but if you weren't lying, you'd be on the floor by now." Clasia said as she raised the device she normally used to activate Gina's "collar" many times before. Gina still tried to keep up the bluff, but it was no use.
"Don't insult my intelligence Gina. I don't know how they did it, but rest assured. I'll have another one in you in no time." Clasia said as she lifted up another glowing sphere.
Gina was terrified of being under Clasia control again. So much so she even lifted a knife out and held it to her own stomach.
"I mean it. I'd rather die than go back to being your slave." Gina said.
"If that were true you would have killed yourself years ago. You don't expect me to believe that you would ever put someone else above yourself? I suspect that this little display is more down to your wounded pride than anything else. You can't stand the fact that I've always beaten you. Always broken you and now that you think are free, you're undoubtedly willing to risk goodness knows how many fools who tried to help you get here's lives with this suicide mission?" Clasia taunted.
With no other options, Gina fled, but Clasia was too fast and soon caught up to and overpowered her former student. Still in the ensuing struggle, Gina was able to land a lucky blow with her knife straight into Clasia's eye. The vampire doubled back in pain, and Gina then grabbed the glowing orb from her hand which she threw at a nearby wall behind Clasia, breaking it.
The dark magic however created a massive explosion that blew both Gina and Clasia dozens of feet across the room and buried them under masses of rubble. Neither were killed, but both were knocked out and the alarms were soon raised.
Thinking that the vampires had discovered Gina's ruse, the assassins abandoned her more subtle approach and began to attack the vampires, or rather Makos did.
He made his presence known by bursting out of the ground he had been crawling under, fin first before two vampire guards, who he then dispatched by biting both of their heads off at the same time. Fastian, and Loressa soon came to Makos' aid, though not because they wanted to actually help him, just because it gave them a chance to fight.
They made short work of the dozens of vampires that attacked. Loressa turned several of the vampires into bugs and squashed them, though she also turned one vampire into a statue and then another into a hammer which she used to smash the statue before breaking the hammer to pieces. She then turned another vampire into a crucifex which caused his entire body to burn up, though just before it did she used the burning cross to impale three more vampires, causing them to burn up too. Probably her most creative attack however was turning one vampire into a mouse and then another into a hawk that ate him, and then yet another vampire into a Tiger to eat the Hawk, and then another into an Alligator to eat the Tiger, and then another into Grizzly bear who disembowled the Alligator and then finally another into Ceratosaurus who killed the Grizzly and several more vampire soldiers.
Kreleg and Trialex meanwhile wisely continued a more stealthy approach and made their way towards the mine in the hopes of freeing the prisoners. Krelegrax didn't actually care one bit about the prisoners, but he was under orders from Gina.
Shelly, the Al and the centaur all searched for Gina. Unlike the others Shelly, even if she wouldn't admit it, was worried about Gina and she used the Al's keen sense of smell to try and locate the former traitor. Ordinary Tyrannosaurus Rex's had among the keenest sense of smell of any animal ever to live on the planet.
The Al led them to Clasia's quarters, which were guarded by two white wolvrons. These creatures were the children of two werewolves, born in wolf form. They possessed no humanity and were far stronger than regular werewolves or indeed most species of earthly demon or beast.
There was absolutely no way anyone could hope to sneak past them as their senses were every bit as refined as the Als.
The hybrid Dinosaur shook Shelly off its back and made its presence known to the two wolves with a roar. Both wolvrons then started to circle the little Dinosaur who still stood its ground. Soon the wolves attacked the Dinosaur at the same time, with one going for its neck and the other its tail.
The Al dodged the wolf that went for its neck, though the other wolvron managed to grab its tail. Reacting quickly, the Al delivered a deep bite onto the wolf facing its head's arm, drawing blood. Its scream briefly distracted the other wolvron to the point where the Al was able to pull its tail free and wrap it around the demonic wolf's throat. Though even the Al's tail didn't have enough strength to break the wolvron's neck it was still able to choke its enemy to the point where it was knocked out.
The other wolvron meanwhile sunk its fangs into the Als back. With any normal creature, that would have been enough to severe its spinal column in half, but the A's magical constitution allowed it to persevere, albeit in tremendous agony. Indeed the Dinosaur had never quite felt a force like it, but it continued to bite onto the wolf's arm and as its bite was so much more powerful than several wolvron's combined, eventually the white wolf relented and howled in pain, waking up its partner.
The wolvron then used the claws on its other arm to slash at the Dinosaur's face and this time was actually able to make the Dinosaur release its arm, as the reptile was scared of being stabbed in the eye. The wolvron then tried to further attack the Dinosaur with more scratches to the face, but the Al used its tail to trip the wolvron and then delivered a flurry of quick, but powerful bites to the wolf's stomach, disemboweling it in no time.
The other wolvron then charged at the Dinosaur, managing to knock it off balance and pin it to the ground, before delivering a series of furious slashes. The Al however, though overwhelmed at first by the barrage of attacks, soon pushed through them and used its body weight to knock the wolvon on its back, after which it then latched its jaws around the wolf's head. The wolvron fought as hard as it could, but the pressure of the Al's jaws was just too great and in seconds it punctured through the wolvrons skull, its brain and eventually it crushed the demonic white wolf's head completely.
The other wolvron meanwhile despite its injuries was not dead. It literally held its guts in place with the arm the Al had torn into. The wolf almost couldn't figure out what was happening to it. Normally a wound like this, unless it was made of silver, wouldn't even register for a wolvron as its healing factor would have repaired it. The jaws of the Al however, aside from being tremendously strong also contained dark magic which could affect the majority of supernatural creatures and ensure that the animals jaws could harm them as easily as it could an ordinary animal.
The wolvron's loyalty to its vampire mother however overrode everything else and the animal made a last, foolish charge at the Al which responded with another whack of its tail, which sent the wolvron crashing to the ground, with its arm falling away from its guts which fell out of its stomach in the process.
As it lay there in a pool of its own blood and intestines, the Al finished the wolvron off by wrapping its tail around its throat and choked the life out of the white beast, before letting out a roar of triumph.
Meanwhile Shelly and the Centaur made their way into Clasia's room, only to see half a dozen or so vampires desperately pulling several pieces of rubble away from her.
Careful not to alert them, Shelly and the centaur headed to where Gina, who they could see poking out from under more rubble a few feet away, and tried to help her out.
Gina came too with Shelly's help. She was burned down one side of her body, but her constitution allowed her to overcome it. Meanwhile Clasia after coming too, soon pushed all o the rubble off herself and instantly headed for Shelly and the centaur, which raised its club in defense
Clasia however easily knocked the beasts club out of his hand and sent the cyclops crashing to the ground with one strike, before turning her attention to Shelly who she grabbed by the throat.
"What did you do to her? How dare you think you can steal her away from me! Do you have any idea how long I worked on her?" Clasia said, whilst Gina meanwhile picked up the centaurs club and used it to stake two of Clasia's vampire lackeys from behind whilst they were distracted laughing at Shelly's plight.
The other vampires turned to face Gina, but fortunately the cyclops jumped on two of them from behind, and gave the other a slash to the face with its claws which sent him tumbling back onto the club Gina held out.
Gina then staked the other two while they were pinned under the centaurs legs, before going to face Clasia.
Whilst she was still stronger than Gina, Shelly or the centaur, the blast had weakened Clasia to a greater extent as she had been closer to it.
She held her talons to Shelly's throat telling Gina to let her go or she would kill her.
For a second Gina attempted to call Clasia's bluff, but as soon as the vampire Queen drew Shelly's blood with a shallow cut, Gina put her club down.
"How disappointing. I don't know what they did to you but." Before Clasia could finish, the Al suddenly came bursting into the room.
As the Dinosaur closed in on the vampire queen she drew more blood from Shelly, only to be interrupted again by more vampire guards coming up from behind the Al, who instantly went for the Dinosaur.
Seizing her chance, Clasia threw Shelly into Gina and ran out of the room as fast as she could, leaving her guards to be slain by both the Al and the centaur.
Gina instantly ran after her, but soon saw the vampire Queen had fled completely when she got outside.
Sadly Gina didn't have time to chase her. Her first priority was helping the prisoners escape, including even her former torturer. As he lay there curled up, whimpering and helpless, Gina was still tempted to stick a knife in him, but thankfully she didn't want to give her mother the satisfaction.
Instead she along with Shelly helped him over the Al's back as they rode away to help the others.
Down in the mines Kreleg and Trialex had succeeded, after easily disposing of a few vampire guards to shut down the force field that was surrounding the mine where the prisoners were trapped.
Unfortunately dozens more vampire guards soon arrived to detain them. Armed with magical whips that could cut through their victims bones, the vampires tried to push the mob of already cowed and terrified prisoners back. Kreleg and Trialex did their best to fight the vampires off, but they were soon outnumbered and surrounded.
Gina however soon came to their rescue. Riding on the back of the Al, along with Shelly, and wielding a silver sword. (A weakness of many breeds of vampire.) Gina rode past the vampires with the Als incredible speed and sliced several of their heads off. The Al's lightning fast reflexes also allowed her to dodge the vampires' whips, whilst Shelly sprayed holy water on the vampires who weren't decapitated, causing them to go up in flames.
Whilst the vampires turned their attention towards Gina, Kreleg and Trialex led the prisoners down the passageway Gina had told them about, though not before she gave them her former torturer and told the two assassins to get him to safety with the others. Trialex would carry him down the tunnel until they reached the end, which was a giant underground lake. Unfortunately it was the home of a Spinosaurus that guarded the lair, but Gina still felt that was the safest way out.
The Spinosaurus that was almost 60 feet long soon rose out of the lake, roaring at the top of its lungs. The vampires regularly fed it people they captured in the forest, but sadly the great reptile was seemingly always hungry, due to the dark magics the vampires infected it with that had turned it into a caricature of its former self.
Kreleg was the first to attack the Spinosaurus, spitting acid in the giant Dinosaurs face as it leaned in to bite at them. He managed to hit it in its tongue and near its eye. For the first time in its life, the Spinosaurus actually retreated somewhat, but as Kreleg moved to hit the Dinosaur several more times, it began to panic and lunged forward out of the lake. Trialex told Kreleg to stop, but the monster was as arrogant as he was bloodthirsty and kept attacking the Spinosaurus.
The sailbacked Dinosaur fought through the barrage of acid and swiped Kreleg away with one of its claws. Such a blow from the Spinosaurus' massive claws would have sliced an ordinary human in two, but Kreleg whilst cut was simply thrown across the room.
Unfortunately however Trialex was not quite as durable and was forced to flee from the Spinosaurus. He desperately tried to hurry the prisoners back the way, (with another one of the prisoners carrying Gina's former torturer) but sadly the Spinosaurus caught up to several at the back. It picked one up in its jaws and swallowed him whole, whilst it sliced a further two in half with its claws and speared another through the torso with its left claw like a fish.
Trialex stabbed the beast in the leg with one of his swords, but its skin was so thick he was only able to make a shallow cut. Still at the very least it distracted the Spinosaurus long enough for the last of the prisoners to make their way back up the tunnel. The Spinosaurus however responded with a kick to Trialex knocking him several feet backwards and breaking his arm in the process.
The Spinosaurus then walked slowly towards its cornered prey. In the three hundred years he had faced demons, vampires, monsters and werewolves, Trialex had never been so terrified as when the 60 foot long reptile stood right in front of him and slowly opened its jaws. Before it could swallow him whole, Kreleg bombarded the beast with another round of acid, this time hitting it in the tail. The Dinosaur spun round screaming and waving its tail frantically in the air. Kreleg, whose claw wound had already healed, then jumped through the air and landed on the Spinosaurus' face. It tried to use its claws to pull him off, but Kreleg was too quick for the Dinosaur and slithered on top of its head, after which he wrapped his tail around its throat and used his six arms to pull the Dinosaurs jaws open. He then started to spit his acid down its throat and onto its tongue. Kreleg's vicious attacks however didn't last long as the Spinosaurus used one of its claws to slice his tail off, after which it shut its jaws, cutting off all six of his hands in the process, before he slid off its neck and onto the floor. The Spinosaurus then impaled Kreleg through the stomach with one hand and prepared to slice his head off with the other.
Trialex however intervened, throwing a dagger at the Dinosaurs massive sail, which he realized was its only weak point. Sure enough the dagger cut through the sail and seemed to hurt the Dinosaur more so than even the acid. Still it didn't appear to do it any lasting harm. Once again however the Dinosaurs attention was diverted and it pursued Trialex, who wisely didn't attempt to fight back like Kreleg had.
Kreleg meanwhile limped over to the small lake the Spinosaurus had come from and puked the acidic substance from his stomach into it, until eventually the lake started to boil.
He then waited a few moments for his hands and his tail to grow back, whilst Trialex constantly attempted to dodge the angry Spinosaurus. At one point the beast managed to corner him against a wall, but he was able to escape by bringing his sword down on one of the acid burns on its snout when it moved forward to bite him.
Once Kreleg had recovered, he fired another round of acid at the Spinosaurus' tail and made sure to hit the already existing burn marks. The animal charged at him in response, but as it got near the now bubbling lake it stopped. Clearly it was smarter than he thought.
Both Trialex and Kreleg surrounded the Dinosaur from both sides, with the animal ready to strike in case either of them came near. Trialex responded by throwing another one of his daggers at the Dinosaurs sail again, and whilst it was briefly distracted by the pain, Kreleg jumped onto the Dinosaur and wrapped his tail around its throat again, though this time he spat his acid onto its neck, and jumped down before it could reach him with its claws. The animal then tumbled backwards towards the lake, though it still didn't fall in. A few blasts of acid towards its stomach which was now exposed as it was leaning upright in order to clutch its throat followed by a few more towards its feet, finally sent it tumbling backwards into the lake of acid.
Kreleg quickly slithered backwards towards Trialex and pushed him to safety out of the way of the acid that splashed when the Spinosaurus fell back into it. Fortunately he managed to get the assassin to safety in time, much to Trialex's surprise
"Well I owed you one." The monster said, almost hating having to admit that.
Trialex however still thanked his six armed ally and went to fetch the prisoners from down the tunnel.
Unfortunately however the Spinosaurus wasn't dead yet. It rose out of the boiling water, its sail having completely melted off, its body covered in burns and one of its eyes having melted out of its skull.
The Dinosaur reached out with its single claw which it impaled through Kreleg's tail, pinning him like a worm on a hook. Before Trialex could even respond it then pulled Kreleg back towards it and bit his torso whilst stabbing its other claw into his chest. The Dinosaur then pulled with both of its claws and ripped Kreleg into three pieces, before spitting out his midsection and scooping up his top half in its jaws which it crunched to pieces before finally spitting the mangled remains into the acid bath below.
Much like how the Al felt about the vampires, the Spinosaurus evidently regarded monsters as too toxic to actually eat, but it was still not above using those powerful jaws to crush them to paste!
The giant reptile then lurched awkwardly out of the pool of acid, stepping on the remains of Kreleg's torso which it crushed into powder. However the Dinosaur only managed to walk a few feet towards Trialex before it collapsed onto the ground.
Trialex had heard about the tremendous power of the Spinosaurus but how the creature could even be alive after a bath in that acid was incredible. He'd seen Kreleg's acid eat through reinforced steel!
Still it was obvious that even the mighty sail backed predator was finished as it still desperately tried to crawl along the floor. Trialex put the Dinosaur out of its misery with a sword straight between the eyes. It had to stab it in one of Kreleg's acid burns as that was easier to puncture, but at least within a few seconds the Dinosaur was dead at last.
Trialex then led the prisoners past its corpse and the still twitching remains of Kreleg's tail which was all that remained of him.
Incredibly and disturbingly enough, Kreleg's tail was still trying to repair itself and grow into something else. It wouldn't be able to bring him back however. His people's healing capabilities were beyond most other creatures to the point where even after death their bodies would still attempt to repair themselves for days afterwards. However once they had actually died that was it.
Trialex didn't know how to feel. He certainly couldn't mourn Kreleg. He was a sadistic killer, who had slaughtered scores of innocent people both for profit and his own pleasure. Still he had saved Trialex's life and so the Venusian gave a simple bow of his head to the acid pool that contained his fellow assassin's remains and moved on. The prisoners were out of the mine, but they still had a long way to go.
The centaur meanwhile went to help Makos and the other assassins, who were being overwhelmed by the vampires. Despite their superior powers, there were just too many of the bloodsuckers for the assassins to deal with. The vampires didn't care how many of their comrades died. They'd happily sacrifice themselves as they knew that failure was not an option for Clasia. Sadly when the centaur arrived he wasn't able to provide much help either.
His brief attack however did distract the vampires long enough for the assassins to slip by the vampire horde, though they all soon found themselves running for their lives.
Despite his power Makos had been gravely wounded, with one of the vampires managing to strike him in the leg, by ironically hiding in the hole in the ground the shark man himself had made.
The wound would heal very quickly, but none of the other assassins wanted to wait around, so the centaur picked Makos up and placed him over its back, before riding away.
Unfortunately however the assassins soon found vampires coming down almost every corridor they tried to flee down. Fastian meanwhile couldn't simply phase through the walls as the vampires had come prepared for that and indeed any form of spectral invasion with powerful magics that ran throughout the entire base. Eventually the assassins came to a dead end. However there was a hole in the floor, at the very end of this corridor.
Fastian was hesitant to go down for obvious reasons. What could possibly be so horrible that the vampires couldn't keep it up here.?