Amari walked towards the balcony where Shizu and Alane were continuously crying out loud that had made the other squad members uncomfortable in their sleep. "Can you two please keep it down? The others are trying to sleep."
"Sorry.." Alane replied while sobbing.
"I'll leave you two be for now." Amari responded while walking off to bed.
"You better hurry off to bed too, Shizu. We have a big day tomorrow, after all."
The next morning, everyone woke and quickly went down to the assembly. When they've gone down, the whole assembly point was crowded, there were many people from various other squadrons. Everyone was talking to each other until the commander greeted everyone on top of the stage. Behind him were all the captains of every squad, including Captain Alane. Shizu had been gazing at Alane for a time when suddenly Hachiro came.
Hachiro then came and placed his hands on Shizu's shoulders which made Shizu jumped. "Hey bud, what are you looking at?"
Shizu jumped and screamed after he was caught. Shizu then tried to cover it up by changing the topic. "Hachiro! I was uh... looking at the stage. It looks quite clean and nice, doesn't it? The janitors surely did a good job at keeping it clean, heh."
"Shizu... I know you're in love with the captain and lust for her. Don't worry, I like her too, you know?"
"Thank god .. well since we have the same taste in her, please don't tell anyone.." Shizu said while blushing.
"Wow, your face turned red quick. You should consider getting a world record for that."
"Hey!"
"Ahah! No wonder Alane has an affection for you. You're so cute when you're annoyed."
Shizu only stood in silence after being teased by Hachiro. His face was also bright red after hearing the words that made him turned on. Meanwhile, the commander on the stage kept on talking and surprisingly, Alane's squadron had been selected to be in the Proxima Company. The Proxima Company is a company of the regiment that would deploy on missions and investigations of certain or suspicious activities of the enemy nation. Shizu recalled knowing that his father was once from the Alpha Company, a regiment company that takes on eliminating demons and infiltrating the enemy nations' settlement. Alane's company was designated as Proxima-4 from the other 7 squadrons within the company.
After the assembly, the Proxima Company's Captain, Nori, was in charge of coordinating the company, which stands off 7 squadrons. Nori assigned the squad Shizu, Proxima-4, to investigate a remote village near the nation's outside border and close to the thick forest. The village appeared to be awfully quiet and only the lights were seen at night but the villagers were absent which only grew suspicions of what could've happened to it them.
The following night, Alane's squad, Proxima-4, went on to accomplish their mission that had been assigned yesterday by Captain Nori. The squad traveled by the regiment's Humvee. When they've reached the location, it seemed as if the place were full of fog. The village resembled a Victorian-era village, resembles the old times of England. The fog was oddly thick, and only the street lights lighten the street. The squad quietly walked through the village's street while gazing upon the large house structures.
"The village seems quiet today. Maybe they're fine... Let's go back." Shizu spoke in fear of what could appear in front of them.
"No. We need to finish this mission, otherwise, Nori would get mad." Alane responded.
"Stop being a wuss, Shizu. I thought you said you were an experienced Aeromancer." Akumu added.
"Well, I'm not exactly experienced in taking on something that I can't see. Come on Alane, we can turn back now. It's now or never."
Suddenly, Alane heard something. The sound resembled footsteps at high speeds. "Shush, I heard something. Prepare your magic and weapons, It's undoubtedly something cryptic."
"Vampires?" Hachiro began.
"Could be." Eririn feared.
"Amari, bless me with your magic." Akumu requested
"Here." Amari fulfilled while casting a spell blessing on Akumu's palm.
"12 O'Clock" Shizu yelled.
At the end of the street was a man in a black trench coat.
"That looks like a vampire to me." Hachiro spoke
"Indeed... I am a vampire. And I suppose this is when I would say, I'll suck your blood" The vampire said.
"Heh, as expected." Akumu responded.
The vampire sprinted at them at a ridiculous speed, targeting Shizu. The vampire then slashed his sword from above and was dodged by Shizu which caused a magic slash that sliced through a village house behind Shizu.
"Oh... what a pity.." The vampire said.
Akumu then appeared behind the vampire and raised his sword above, ready to slice the vampire. "Say your goodbyes, vampire."
The vampire then blocked. Akumu had his sword on top of the vampire's sword after it was blocked, "Sorry to tell you this.. but I'm not that easily killed, especially by a pathetic human like you." the vampire spoke.
Suddenly, Hachiro lunged his war scythe onto the vampire. But it failed when the vampire kicked Akumu and Shizu which launched them onto the ground and blocked Hachiro's attack with his sword. "Not so fast."
"Eri! Take him out." Akumu shouted while on the ground.
Eririn then casted a magic arrow that sent barrages of arrows from her bow followed by Amari, shooting at the vampire. Surprisingly, the arrow hit the vampire in his back and the other arrows ricochet and hit village houses while the bullets were quickly dodged by the vampire. In a split second, Alane quickly lunged her sword onto the vampire's abdomen. The vampire then turned into ashes and was blown away by the breeze of air.
"You guys hurt?" Alane asked.
"We're fine. That vampire was tough though." Akumu replied.
"Yeah, it is a vampire after all." Hachiro added.
"He dodged all of my bullets..." Amari spoke in shock.
"You okay, Shizu?" Alane asked while looking down at Shizu who was laying on the ground.
"Yeah... I'm good."
"You sure?" Alane replied.
"Did I stutter?"
"Oh come on you two. Not here, not right now." Amari added.
Shizu and Alane giggled after hearing Amari annoyed by the two of them. The squad then walked forward. When they were left behind, Alane then helped Shizu up from the ground and they both walked behind the squad together.
"We better get moving before more of them start to appear."
Suddenly, Eririn suggested that they shelter under the village's town church which was across the street. They all agreed and went inside the town church before anything else arrives. When they've got there, they were greeted by the crowd of villagers that were sheltering inside the town church from the vampires.
"We're here to help" Alane spoke to the village head.
"Yeah, don't you worry. We've killed one of them out there." Shizu proudly spoke.
"Thank god you're here." one of the villagers said.
"How many of them are there?" Akumu asked.
"Lots of them."
"Why didn't all of you just leave during the day? Aren't vampires supposed to be afraid of the daylight?" Hachiro began.
"We can't, one of ours tried to. But the vampires had some kind of spell to keep them from dying from the sunlight."
"Hm. They've already known how to use spells, haven't they." Akumu responded.
"Captain, what should we do?" Eririn spoke.
"I suppose, we escape at midnight. If we'd run during the day, it would be a gamble of life and death as they could possibly spot us in the light."
"Understood, captain!" Eririn, Shizu, Akumu, and Hachiro answered.
Amari was sitting next to the window looking out for the vampires with her rifle mounted. Alane then went to her and placed her hands on Amari's shoulders. Amari jumped in fright, thinking it was a vampire.
"What are you doing?! I could've shot you."
Alane chuckled and spoke, "We're escaping at midnight."
"What!? Are you insane? Haven't you seen the last vampire we fought? It took about all of us to take him down. Just think about what could've happened if more of them appeared."
"It's our only chance..."
Amari then sighed and went with it, "Fine. I'll blame you if we get caught, got it?"
"Yeah, certainly."
Alane then moved back to the squadron and the group of villagers that assembled in front of the entrance, awaiting the captain's orders.