The assassins, despite Fastian's reservations, all descended into the cavern. Below was a dark, long tunnel, which led out into a massive cave, which they soon saw was filled with the remains of humans, demons, beasts and other creatures that had all been butchered, but not by the vampires. By something far worse. A hideous creature that soon made its presence known when it darted out of the tunnel at the other end of the cave. A Reaper!
These bloodsuckers were members of the vampire family of demons, but they were very different to most breeds. Reapers were the result of when several vampires of the Torro breed bite and infect a single human. Torro's are among the strongest vampires and infect people via a simple bite which also allowed them to be among the most numerous. Clasia belonged to the Torro breed, and they often occupied positions of authority. Most of the time when multiple Torro's infect a human, the different strands grow into different demons that fight for control over the body, and literally rip the infected human apart from the inside. Not just their body, but soul too. The multiple demons then die shortly afterwards, assuming they haven't already killed each other.
A very few times however, the multiple stands of demonic energy are able to somehow form together into a vastly powerful demonic spirit. Essentially a super vampire known as a Reaper. The human soul that would be converted normally is either ripped to pieces or worse it is trapped inside its body in a mangled state, in constant, unspeakable agony, yet unable to move as the Reaper now controls the body.
Reapers have no higher intelligence. They exist only to hunt and kill and will feed on the blood of anything. Humans, beasts, monsters, demons, magical creatures, and even vampires. In fact some reapers are known to specifically go after regular vampires as their blood makes Reapers stronger.
This Reaper was created by Clasia and her cohorts. She had always wanted to have a Reaper as a pet, and sacrificed hundreds of slaves in the mine until she created one. Ultimately however this monster proved to be too wild even for the vampires. Due to the unique nature of their birth, Reapers were the only members of the vampire family that even the Emperor could not control completely. Clasia's Reaper was therefore used as a mere guard dog below, as there was no way it could actually be used on the field. Still Clasia had carried on trying to create more Reapers ever since, killing hundreds more men and women in the process.
The Reapers did have the power to turn others into members of their own kind. In fact once again they could not only turn humans, but vampires, demons, beasts, and monsters too. This was the main reason Gina wanted the assassins to face the Spinosaurus instead. As dangerous and powerful as the Dinosaur was, the risk of people being infected and more Reapers escaping into Tairos was too great.
In spite of this the assassins foolishly tried to fight the Reaper. It certainly didn't look imposing. It was relatively short, slight, bald, pale and deathly thin. Its eyes meanwhile were completely white with no pupil or Iris and its head was constantly moving as it ran on all fours towards the assassins.
Makos was the first to make a move, thinking he could easily bite this frail looking creature in half, but when he reached out to pick it up, the Reaper let out a high pitched, deafening roar, as its jaws opened up into a three way leech like pattern. The Reaper's tongue then lashed out like a whip against the Caradon, slashing it across the face and knocking it to the floor.
Loressa tried to repel the Reaper with her dark magics, but they had no effect on the Reaper whatsoever. Many species of vampire had a greater immunity to magics than natural creatures and other demons. Even Loressa was forced to use her strongest curses on the lowly vampires above. The Reaper however in another sign of its superiority was almost completely immune.
Fastian tried to phase through the Reaper, hoping he could solidify his hand inside, but he found that he simply bounced off of the demon's skin. Worse when it grabbed onto him, he couldn't phase again.
Before any of the other assassins could do anything to help him, the Reaper opened its three way leech like jaws and bit Fastian on the neck. Just as a vampire would with a human, it drained him dry in under a minute and tossed his still twitching body to the floor.
Makos soon dived underground, hoping he could attack the Reaper from below, but the super vampire simply reached into the ground and pulled the shark man up with one hand and then used him to swat the centaur away as it tried to attack.
The Reaper then held Makos in place, while it punched out every single one of his giant teeth, after which it picked one of the teeth up and stabbed Makos in the eye with it, bringing the shark creature to its knees. The Reaper then repeatedly stabbed Makos with his own tooth all over before slicing his stomach open with it.
Loressa wisely fled back down the tunnel and used her magic to levitate herself back up. The centaur still tried to help Makos, as foolish as that was, but the reaper slashed it across the chest with Makos tooth. Before it could inflict any more damage to the centaur, Makos made one last strike against the super vampire. He jumped it from behind and wrapped his toothless jaws around its head. He hoped that he could swallow the Reaper alive. Whilst he was able to get its torso into his mouth, the reaper soon used one of its arms to push Makos' upper jaw back so far it snapped. It then continued to push until it ripped the entire upper section of Makos' head clean off, before jumping down its throat ripping the rest of the Caradon's body to pieces from inside.
Whilst the Reaper was in a frenzy, the centaur wisely galloped down the tunnel. Unfortunately when it reached the end, it couldn't climb back up the walls that were completely smooth.
In desperation the centaur let out a roar for help, but no one answered. The Reaper soon came crawling down the tunnel on all fours, roaring with its three way jaws open and its long tongue licking Makos' blood away from its mouth.
The centaur stood its ground, but before the Reaper could pounce on it, Loressa, surprisingly came to the centaurs' defence and lifted it safely above.
Loressa simply didn't want to face the vampires above alone, though luckily for her and the centaur, the bloodsuckers' attention had been diverted. Gina and Shelly had fought their way through the vampires in the mine with the help of the Al, but eventually as the entire security force descended on them, they too were forced to flee. Gina however knew exactly where to go. She wanted to leave it long enough until she was sure that the prisoners were out of the mine, and given that no vampires had returned she felt sure that either the prisoners had escaped, or they had been slaughtered. Either way she could now put the next part of her plan into action.
The center of the mine contained the source of the magic that protected the vampire's camp from the outside world. The magic however was bound together by a physical object which if shattered would unravel the spell. However it wouldn't just simply shut the forcefield down. As the magic unravelled it would pull everything in the mine apart. That level of concentrated magic would be enough to destroy even most vampires.
Gina felt it was her and Shelly's only way of escape, ironically as knowing what cowards the vampires were, if the forcefield was destroyed they would instinctively flee, rather than fight. It would take the spell a few minutes to completely unravel and destroy the mine.
When Gina arrived at the mine she saw that not all of the vampires had bought into her plan. Many of them had regrouped and were guarding the forcefield. The vampires were riding on the backs of Raptors and other smaller meat eating Dinosaurs, including the three Allosaurus who had slaughtered Gina's original platoon and kidnapped her who were at the very back. Gina's hope that the assassins could hold them off for long enough had been in vain.
Outside meanwhile Trialex had managed to get the prisoners clear of the camp, but they were soon stopped in their tracks by the vampire's pet Triceratops. The same animal that had stopped Gina from escaping all those years ago. It killed several of the prisoners and drove the others back the way. Trialex did his best to try and hold off the animal, but the Dinosaur wasn't buying into his tricks and charged straight at him, impaling the Venusian on one of its horns before tossing him aside onto the forest floor. The famed assassin had learned the hard way why escape from the vampire camps was damn near impossible.
Back at the camp Gina desperately tried to think of a way past the vampires, but soon she didn't have to as a distraction came in the form of a gigantic and unexpected rogue Dinosaur. A Gyphosaurus.
These creatures were close relatives of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Almost as large, these beasts however were completely covered in feathers. Ironically even more so than any modern bird. Their feet and even their snouts were completely covered in long, thick, feathers, though other than that they had the appearance of a normal Tyrannosaurus Rex, albeit slightly smaller.
This Gryphosaurus was in fact a former vampire commander that Loressa had transformed into a Dinosaur as a distraction. Even though most of the vampires had been drawn to Gina, a few had foolishly remained behind to see if the assassins could have escaped the Reapers cave. Both the centaur and the witch had easily dealt with them, but Loressa had decided to turn the last into a Dinosaur and sent it to the mines. Not to help Gina however. Loressa now simply wanted to escape. The fact was that she was a miserable coward, who had got in way over her head. She knew the only way of escape was through the secret passage in the mine. (The holes in the forcefield would have sealed themselves shut by now.)
The Gryphosaurus first drew the attention of the vampires who had been pursuing Gina, and then when they threatened to overwhelm it, the giant avian predator fled down the same mine she had, drawing the attention of the vampires and dinosaurs guarding the forcefield.
The three Allosaurus were the first to attack. Though they were the same size as the Gryphosaurus, they were not as strong. Tyrannosaurs were famous for having stockier builds than those of other theropods. With one smack of its tail the Gryphosaurus sent the leader of the Allosaurus pack backwards into the other two, sending them all crashing to the ground.
Gina couldn't help but smile at watching the Dinosaur that had helped condemn her to a lifetime of suffering at the vampire's hands, be tossed aside like a child. It was foolish of her of course. The Dinosaurs really had no say in it, being controlled by magics to do the vampires bidding, with the vampires magics also bringing out their most aggressive and brutal traits compared to normal Dinosaurs. Still in this instance Gina let her own petty emotions cloud her mind.
The vampires riding on the backs of the raptors soon began to circle the Gryphosaurus, and though the Dinosaur managed to knock the lead vampire off its raptor with its tail, and then grab the raptor in its jaws and finally crush the vampire under its foot. The other vampires relentlessly struck their giant adversary with their swords.
Gina and Shelly rode on the back of the Al into the pack of Raptors, knocking over three at the one time with its tail, allowing the Gryphosaurus was to push past the remaining Raptors. It in turn however was soon stopped by the leader of the Allosaurus pack who slashed the Gryphosaurus on the snout with its claws.
Whilst the Allosaurus strength was nowhere near that of a Tyrannosaurus, its speed was several times greater and the Allosaur was able to deliver a number of bites and slashes to the Gryphosaurus before the Tyrannosaur could respond.
Whilst the two Dinosaurs were fighting it out Gina did her best to try and make her way past the vampires, but unfortunately the bloodsuckers were still too numerous. With the three Allosaurus having surrounded the Gryphosaurus, Gina and Shelly commanded the Al to attack one of the Allosaurus. The Al leaped through the air, ironically in a similar way to how Allosaurus themselves often did when hunting sauropods and clamped its jaws around the Allosaurus' neck. The larger Dinosaur screamed in pain and tried to shake the Al off, but the more it struggled, the deeper the Al's teeth went into the Allosaurus' neck. (This gruesome feature came from the Tyrannosaurs side of the family as their jaws were not only stronger, but virtually inescapable.)
As the Allosaurus shook violently, both Gina and Shelly fell off the back of the Al and to the ground right in between the leader of the Allosaurus pack and the Gryphosaurus, whose attention was soon taken over by the third Allosaurus.
The alpha of the pack meanwhile focused all of its attention on Gina and Shelly, who tried to run, though Gina held her back. Shelly wasn't thinking straight anyway as she more than anyone else should have known you can never outrun an Allosaurus. To be fair you couldn't exactly fight one either which is what Gina was seemingly planning to do.
The Dinosaur stared down this small prey for a short while, almost confused as to why it wasn't running, before letting out a roar. Gina responded by slashing the Dinosaur in the leg and it soon responded with a kick sending Gina crashing to the ground and seemingly knocking her out. Shelly tried to intervene but the Dinosaur with one swing of its head, knocked her back. The Allosaurus then prepared to scoop Gina up with its jaws, but just as they were about to be close around her torso again, Gina sat up and stabbed her sword into the great reptile's eye. Before it could even react, she pushed the sword straight into its brain, killing it outright.
Unfortunately however almost all of the vampires had now gathered round Gina, but Shelly bought her the time she needed by tackling one of the vampires that was blocking Gina's way to the power center. With one strike of her sword Gina smashed the device.
Once again the blast threw her across the room, though not with quite as much force as the torture device. A testament to how dark the magics used for that vile spell were.
In a matter of seconds, magical beams began to fire from the forcefield generator, which vaporised a few of the vampires it struck.
The Al meanwhile was forced to let go of the larger Allosaurus' neck by a stray beam, which both Dinosaurs narrowly managed to avoid. The Al then ran towards Shelly and Gina and hoisted them both on its back before fleeing along with the rest of the vampires, and the Allosaurus the Al had attacked.
The other Allosaurus and the Gryphosaurus however remained behind. Both were so caught up in fighting one another that they didn't even notice what was going on around them.
The Allosaurus put up a great fight, delivering a series of brutal slashes to the Gryphosaurus stomach and throat. The Allosaur even tore out the Gryphosaurus' eye with its claws and bit off one of its arms and even the tip of its tail.
However it only took one lucky bite from the Gryphosaurus on the Allosaurus' leg, which not only broke it, but allowed the feathered Dinosaur to pull the Allosaurus on its side and deliver a second, lethal bite to the Allosaurus' stomach.
Sadly for the Gryphosaurus however before it could escape, another stray blast of magic from the forcefield hit the ceiling above and buried the feathered Dinosaur under a ton of rubble. The weight of the rocks proved to be too much even for the Dinosaur and as it died, it slowly changed back into the vampire it once was. Transformation spells such as this could still work on some breeds of vampire, but they were never permanent the way they would be on humans. Eventually the curse of Khastran would snap the vampire back to its original form. Still the magic could last for several hours, and the vampire would temporarily lose any supernatural powers it had when it was changed and therefore if it were killed in its new form, it would still die. Ironically in this case, the Dinosaur, which was still a natural creature was killed a lot more easily by the rock fall than the vampire would have been. The bloodsucker regained its memories and persona, mere seconds before it crumbled back to dust. The witch's curse was as cruel as it was powerful.
Gina and Shelley however were luckier and escaped from the camp just as it was consumed by the magics in a large pit of blinding yellow light, though at the same time so did the majority of the vampires and the Allosaurus itself.
Outside of the camp, the centaur had joined in trying to protect the freeing prisoners from the vampires and had even managed to kill a few vamps with its club. Loressa on the other hand had fled the area completely. Using her magics, Loressa flew hundreds of feet through the air and away from the valley. She wasn't used to losing and the encounter with the Reaper had shaken her confidence to say the least. The centaur also briefly held off the Triceratops when it tried to finish what it started and trample Trialex who had not died from his previous wound, with the Dinosaur's horn only narrowly missing his organs. The centaur placed the Venusian assassin on its back and used its club to strike at the Triceratops nose repeatedly any time it got near.
The explosion from the camp however distracted the Triceratops long enough for the centaur to break his club down full force against the Dinosaurs jaw, breaking it.
The animal however was merely enraged and charged at the centaur with greater determination, now not being put off by any of its attacks. The horse-like beast was forced to flee, moving so fast it almost dropped Trialex from its back. This allowed Gina a chance, whilst riding on the back of the Al to impale the Triceratops from the side with one of the vampire's spears that she had picked up. With the Als greater strength she drove the spear in deep enough to puncture one of the Triceratops organs and slew the beast.
Not long after Gina's triumph however the ground began to shake. It seems she had underestimated the power of the vampire's magics, It wasn't just their camp that was going to be consumed. The entire nearby area, possibly the entire valley, was in danger. The light which had engulfed the camp continued to grow larger and larger, destroying several vampires and unfortunately the prisoners closest to it.
Up ahead meanwhile earthquakes began to rip the valley apart. Gina, the vampires, the prisoners and the Allosaurus all fled as fast as they could, with several of them being swallowed up by unexpected movements in the earth.
Even in this desperate situation however Gina didn't forget who her enemies were. She used the Al to trip up several of the vampires as they fled and took down over 30 of the bloodsuckers this way, until the Allosaurus soon turned its attention to her on a vampires command.
The Al did its best to keep ahead of the Allosaurus, but the larger Dinosaur's greater size allowed it to take greater strides until it caught up to the Al. The Allosaurus bit into the smaller Dinosaurs tail and threw it back towards the ever approaching light, before speeding off into the distance.
Gina and Shelly both fell off the back of the Al in the process and landed several feet apart. The Al instantly went for Shelly first, and having no time to run back from the ever approaching light, left Gina, despite Shelly pleading with it to stay. Gina was only barely able to keep ahead of the approaching light, and just when all seemed lost the centaur picked her up and carried her on its back along with Trialex.
The centaur and the Tyrannosaurus Al both ran side by side for the next several minutes as the light continued to expand, swallowing up everything in the nearby area. Eventually however the powerful magics began to fade, though not before swallowing up two thirds of the entire valley. When Gina looked back she saw that all this once thriving jungle teeming with Dinosaurs was now nothing more than a gigantic smoking crater in the ground. Even Gina had never caused such destruction before, but she didn't regret it as the vampire's power in this area needed to be crippled.
The prisoners and the vampires had been scattered in the resulting explosion and earthquakes, and Gina, Shelly and the centaur would spend the next few days searching for the prisoners and slaying any vampires they came across.
On the second day they encountered the Allosaurus which had cornered a small group of prisoners in a nearby cave. The beast was too big to get in itself, so it stuck one of its long, claw-like arms in there and pulled two of the prisoners out. One who it throttled to death with its claws whilst the other, it played with like a cat playing with a mouse. Knocking its victim down repeatedly whenever he tried to run away, and sometimes letting him run a small distance only to then easily catch up to and block him off.
Before the Theropod could claim its third victim. Gina and the centaur working together were able to take the giant reptile down.
Riding on the centaurs back, Gina lured the Dinosaur away from the humans and then proceeded to slash the creatures side several times with the help of the centaur, until the Allosaurus knocked her off with its tail. The centaur however landed a lucky strike with its club against the Allosaurus' ribs when it went to attack him, which knocked it off its feet, and as it went tumbling over Gina, she held her sword up which went right through the wound on its neck that the Al had made back in the camp. The Dinosaur was killed instantly. Again the beast had no say in serving the vampires, but at the same time there was nothing that could have been done to help it. The black magics that had been injected into the Dinosaur to make it stronger and more vicious could not be reversed. If anything killing it was the more humane option as without a vampire to control it, the Dinosaur would be driven further into madness by the magics in its body. There had been many instances of Dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Allosaurus that had foolishly been released back into the wild after the vampires who controlled them were slain, only to later become savage monsters killing and hunting anything they came across for no reason at all.
Still again Gina didn't see it that way and was simply happy to have taken down one of the Dinosaurs that had captured her. In fact she even cut the Allosaurus' head off afterwards and planned to mount it on the wall in the cottage, but Shelly who was utterly disgusted with the idea refused.
Despite the losses of over 50 people, most of the prisoners in the vampire's camps had escaped thanks to Gina and the assassins actions. Among those in the vampire's camp that had survived, included Aleskia's wife and children, who Gina and Shelly brought home.
Aleskia couldn't believe that Gina had kept her word and genuinely thanked her, though he made it clear he still couldn't forgive her for her earlier actions. Gina understood. No matter how many lives she could save, it would never bring back those who had died because of her.
Still at the very least she had gained Aleskia's trust, and Gina would impart to him all the knowledge of the vampires weaknesses, their magics, their plans, their aims that she had gained access to when she was with the bloodsuckers.
Aleskia wasn't the only person she gave the vampire's secrets to however. She supplied them to many of the prisoners, including even her former torturer who had also managed to make it out alive. Gina still wanted to rip his throat out, but she knew that if the information came from the man who had tortured her, and was therefore viewed as a hero, the leaders would be more likely to believe it.
The information in the long run proved vital to beating back the vampires and cost them many more devastating losses.
As a result of this, Gina's reputation improved among many of the major cities of Tairos. Never enough for her not to be among the most wanted people in all of them however. There were attempts to rescind her wanted status by the people she had rescued, but they never came to much.
Gina herself didn't think she could be forgiven. She just wanted to set right what she had helped create in the years she had aided the vampire horde in becoming stronger. Still over the course of the next century as Gina continued to not only battle the vampire horde, but other threats to Tairos, many came to view her as a hero. In fact some even viewed her as the greatest hero Tairos had ever produced. She was later christened the queen of the forest by her admirers. Ironically however her own home city would be among those that would condemn Gina the most. Even though her actions in destroying Clasia's camp is what allowed them to finally rebuild to a greater extent than ever before. They never forgave her for the lives she destroyed and were among the most relentless in trying to capture her. All of the claims that both her defenders and enemies threw at Gina were true. She was a murderer, a victim, a hero, and a traitor. However, whether or not any of those cancelled out the other, is something that we still debate thousands of years on from the age of Tairos, but at the very least we can have this discussion about Gina, unlike other heroes.
Gina continued to live in Shelly's cottage along with the Al after the destruction of the camp. The two women, though not exactly close friends after their adventure, nevertheless realized what an effective team they had made. From a practical point of view Shelly had the Al's loyalty, whilst Gina could teach Shelly how to be a better fighter on her missions. Beyond that however Shelly's greater empathy had also allowed the two women to make allies such as the centaur, whilst Gina's greater experience in dealing with the vampires helped to counteract Shelly's naivety.
The centaur itself meanwhile left the two women after the camp's destruction. Feeling its debt to them had been repaid, it would nevertheless continue to aid Gina now and again on other missions too out of friendship, as would Trialex who made a full recovery at the Hooded Claw.
Finally Clasia had also been among those who had escaped the destruction of the valley, but she was demoted for her failures, to the absolute lowest rank possible in the vampire horde. Had it not been for her years of service, the Emperor would have most surely killed her.
Clasia soon became obsessed with making Gina suffer for what she had done, and became both Shelly and Gina's greatest ever enemy.
However the former vampire queen's cruel attempts at revenge and also the further adventures that Gina and Shelly and the Al had in the forest of Tairos are stories for another time.