"Set up the fence high and sturdy!" An elf, the vice commander of the Einherjar, hurls a series of instructions to his people.
Set on the border between the Land of Outlaws and the Allied Kingdom's two neighboring principalities.
Cho, the vice commander, stands atop a DIY tower. His short blonde hair peeks from his fedora cap, and his laser focus eyes remain on the wide dry expanse that is the borders on the side of Dark Lands.
The Einherjars under his command move in a frenzy as they build the necessary foundation and augmentation for the temporary wall.
A couple of elves are working in tandem on planting the thick logs. Another elf helps dig where the logs will take root.
While a foreman guides the construction, another elf then proceeds on tying the logs together with his sturdy rope to make the logs stick together.
Cho takes out his slingshot, a rather unwieldy weapon which his compatriots make fun of him (the slayers mostly), but as its wielder, he knows better of its advantages.
Loading his slingshot with a small potion bottle full of silver dust, and some liquid substance, Cho takes an estimated aim at the dry expanse where he senses little movement and presence.
The small potion bottle flies into an arc, while midair, Cho shoots it with a stone. As a result, it breaks the glass and rains its contents in a particular area.
Hiding from the relatively big bumps of the dry dirt are vampires. The sound of their cries alerts the elves.
It is the height of the morning sun. Various characters wearing all-black scurry from their hiding area.
Cho can tell that they are vampires thanks to their crying. The silver dust is enough to make the small contingent cry in pain.
"You, and you. Shoot them down, but don't kill them!" He orders two archers beside him to take aim and attack the vampires.
Hitting them where it hurts, and pinning them to the ground are the basic arrows that cleanly arc into the air, making their mark with ease.
"Bring them to the hole."
A group of elves warily carrying their swords approach the vampires. They cut their tendons and break their bones. After that, they drag them within their walls.
When they are just beginning on building the walls, the Einherjars are forced to kill the escaping vampires.
But now, it has become easier thanks to the security the wall offers and the necessary vantage point that Cho desperately needs from the beginning.
With his impressive eyesight, he can easily pick up the sneaking escapees.
Cho is unaware of the state of things on the frontlines, but from the vampires they capture, he at least can infer that the elves are making progress.
Their mission is to capture vampires, and that is exactly what they will do.
"Tell me, vampire, how did you reach that far and so near to our walls?"
The recently caught vampire shudders as Cho threateningly wave his silver weapon. He lightly grazes with his silver dagger the scorching marks that the silver dust leaves on the vampire's skin.
"AAAAAGH!"
"Tell me!"
Under the shade of the tree, Cho interrogates the vampire brutally while the other vampires watch in terror from their prison holes. The tree shakes at the vampire's thrashing from the pain and more leaves continue to fall creating a shower of green.
Cho maintains a stoic facade despite feeling greatly annoyed with impatience. It appears the vampire is a tougher nut than he looks.
A giant hole beside the tree acts as the cage where they keep the caught vampires. A silver mesh resembling a fishing net covers the hole. And from the little gaps, the vampires can see the outside, but they cannot see the elf torturing the vampire.
The cry of the vampire induces them with fear.
In contrast to the sunny weather which entices vigor to whoever sees it, the vampire is deader than they already are. Maybe thanks to the heat, or maybe they just have a natural fear of the sun.
Finally, the vampire cracks at the interrogation and confesses.
Cho drags the vampire to the whole and throws him with his lot. The elves on guard carefully manage the net not leaving it to chance for the vampires to take their luck and escape.
"Heh~ Crafty bastards..." He sarcastically remarks as he recalls the new information he extracts from the vampire.
It seems that a few vampires manage to learn their hunting of vampires, and sets a plan in motion to escape the Land of Outlaws and break through their barricade.
Every night, the vampires slowly advance to the edges of the wall both in the forest side and the sea side to make a run for it and escape.
The walls the elves build are not so extensive it covers the border, but it is long. Cho takes it his highest priority to cover as much ground as he can. There are just enough to block the most common pathways. But truthfully, there are still blindsides.
Cho realizes his limits.
He cannot think of a strategy that will meet all of his objectives. He has to sacrifice some. Maybe, reduce the vampires to hunt and focus on killing, or sacrifice the walls' quality for quantity.
For now, Cho decides to play it safe and not commit to any strategy yet.
"Increase the patrolling units in the night." He says to his aide with a sigh.
"Send the vampires in our custody to the Tower of Coal. Ask them for advice on how to remedy our lack of numbers to cover the borders. We need extra eyes. Try the Elf Police. Maybe they are willing to help."
He muses on a few more ideas, while his aide attentively listens to his every word.
"Also, extend the patrols to the forest's side and the seaside. The vampires might try swimming or use the cover of the forest to bypass us."
He adds while fiddling with the fedora cap feeling the heat of the sun.
The hunting and catching of vampires continue. Cho runs around the walls and surveys the surroundings. He has some elves purchase a few horses from the nearest towns which takes a few days of travel.
Thankfully, the horses arrive just right on time.
Cho rides on a horse and goes around the walls to compensate for his lack of speed, and so that he can cover more ground with his eyesight thus increasing the discovery rate of vampires hiding in the expanse.
When night comes, the atmosphere among the elves becomes graver.
They change their priorities from hunting and capturing the vampires to defending and outright killing them. Cho switches from his slingshot to a small dagger and a rapier. In his opinion, a very stylish set of weapons.
Using his shorter weapon for defense, and the longer and more flexible rapier as a means of offense, Cho demonstrates his combat abilities deserving of the vice commander of the Einherjars.
Tonight is especially active as more than a dozen of vampires find the courage to directly attack them. If not for Cho's mobility with the horse, he will not be able to arrive at the area where the vampires are trying to break through.
"Kill them! Drain their blood!"
"Do not fear them, they will die with a single fatal blow!"
"Attack! Advance! We will break through!"
The vampires maintain their morale by shouting. Their strikes and blows are definitely deadly and even a graze will bring fearsome injuries to their enemies.
Unfortunately, the elves are an agile bunch.
And Cho demonstrates this agileness to the extreme. His rapier slithers and connects to the throat and ripostes to the shoulder of the vampire beside.
Following this are a series of dance-like maneuvers.
Cho's keen edge starts flowing.
His dagger smoothly parries the weapons and sharp nails of the enemies, while his rapier strikes from a safe distance. Those who get intimately close to him meet both weapons thus ending their life definitively.
The momentum of the fight lies in the elves' favor, and in time, they kill a vampire and another.
No blood drenches their weapons, there is only ash.
As Cho has heard, Vampires don't bleed red but grey ash. He can subtly see them burn with ash from the lacerations they inflict them. They heal fast, but even their troll-like vitality is not endless.
"Return to the ash." Cho flicks his rapier removing the dirty ash from his weapon.