After getting in a starting position, Luciel ran towards the forest with moonlight reflecting from his raven black hair.
As he ran, he felt fully aware of his surroundings with all of his enhanced senses on full alert.
There was just some kind of extra energy inside him that he was dying to use somewhere.
He stopped at one of the trees and extended his claws, climbing up. He already learned the lesson from the last time he was in the forest. Even if he was a vampire, there were still creatures out there that posed a threat.
"This is amazing!" He shouted, feeling the wind going through his hair as he jumped from tree to tree. The feeling of no restraints while his body effortlessly carried him around felt exhilarating. It was like someone took the heavy shackles from his body and allowed him to run free for the first time.
Luciel was so busy with his newfound freedom that he didn't even notice that he was going faster than when he turned. Now when finally rested and with a full stomach, he finally managed to reach his current peak.
For a moment, he enjoyed this liberation, being able to forget for what and why he fought for, the constant battles and countless lives he couldn't save. There was also this brutal training that his dad put him through when he was a kid ever since his mom got kidnapped and tortured by the vampires until they turned her into a bloodhound.
There was also the time he got trained by the Church when he was old enough, but the hardship and prejudice when they heard about what happened to his mom made his peers ostracize and even bully him.
Despite all that, Luciel still gave his best, he saw the horrors that vampires are capable of doing. They weren't doing it just because they were hungry, no… Their faces were painted with smiles from ear to ear when they saw someone suffer because of the loss of a loved one, crying in pain and fear. They found fun in pure chaos.
At one point, Luciel finally stopped running around aimlessly and sat down on a wide branch of a tall tree, leaning his back against the trunk.
He raised his head up and put his arm over his forehead as he laughed, "This is just ironic…" He started to think about his title, "A feared Vampire's Bane turned vampire." He stopped laughing and finally sighed as he finally got back to his miserable reality with all of his thoughts and the sense of freedom finally disappeared.
His crimson eyes were staring into the distance, even if Alex was telling him not to worry, Luciel could tell that his way of thinking was rapidly changing. No matter how much he was rejecting his new self, he would constantly drift away, following his vampire nature.
"A Vampire's Bane…" He repeated his title, remembering the time he earned it.
When he was looking at the bounty board in his colony, he found a request for help. It was from a small colony not too far away from his.
The request was simple, to help them get rid of the vampires that were terrorizing them and killed more than half of their population. The biggest problem was that those vampires were more ruthless and aggressive than average. Most of the vampire hunters that would go and offer them their help would get killed and had their heads hung above the houses, as a warning to the rest.
Hearing about the request, Luciel accepted and gathered his party. There was Alex, Helen and two more.
Luciel and Alex were the main damage dealers, George would be at the back of the battlefield acting as a support and healer while Dash was their protector, dealing with the small fries that would try to sneak on them. Meanwhile, Helen would stay away from the battles since she was the brain of the group, she would usually polish Luciel's plans or make new ones, and analyze the terrain and the enemy while providing useful information.
The five of them headed to the small colony and managed to kill off all the vampires that were causing panic in the colony. The request was fulfilled, but that wasn't enough for Luciel.
He knew that the problem hadn't been fixed. As long as there's a vampire nest near the colony, this horror will continue.
And so, with a party of only five members, they managed to take down a vampire nest, making the group earn their titles. Alex earned the title "A Knight in a Shiny Armor," while Luciel earned "Vampire's Bane" due to his combat skills with a sword and unique use of divine arts. After that event, some vampires would run at the moment they would spot Luciel.
"A Knight in Shiny Armor," Luciel laughed, "Seriously, why is he wearing that relic of old and where did he even get one?" Thinking about Alex, there was a pleasant smile on Luciel's face.
They met when they were training under Church and Alex was the first one to approach Luciel, saying something along the lines that a knight never ignores a person in need of help, and just like that, a troublesome duo had been born that kept watching each other's backs even today.
Luciel looked up at the night sky, full of stars with not even a cloud to be seen, "I wonder how Helen is doing right now…"
****
Helen was sitting on the bed which she and her husband used to share.
She took another tissue paper and blew her nose before tossing it on the pile that was just getting bigger, she didn't have any strength to clean up after her.
"I told you not to take any risks…"
"Why are you so selfish…"
"Did you not think… What would happen to me once you are gone…" She tried to hold back her tears, but to no avail and she burst into tears again.
"And now…" Her voice was trembling, sounding fragile, "I didn't even get to see your body…"
She took a few deep breaths, looking at the night sky with shining stars hanging above it, "Due to your selfish nature, instead of resting in peace, you roam this world as a monster…"
She wasn't there on the battlefield to see it since she was at the far back, coordinating the platoons that had been formed and informing them of the happenings all around the battlefield since all information went through her.
She heard what her husband had done after he turned, how he killed that woman and even bit his closest friend.
Helen would give everything for her dear husband to be next to her right now. For them to laugh and joke as they used to, to have his strong arms wrap around her each time they would go to sleep, for him to tell her stories of his adventures before they met.
Thinking about him, she remembered the first time they had met.
It was at the party that was being held in their colony after successfully defeating a minor army of vampires that tried to enter.
Most hunters saw this victory worthy of celebration, but Helen thought differently. The only reason she was here at the party was because of the pressure her friends put on her. They kept saying that it's going to be fun, you deserve it, get some air, and so on, but for Helen, it wasn't so simple.
She felt troubled. It was her first time acting as a strategist, but she was no fighter, but a scientist who studied vampires, and the Church got interested in her after providing battle strategies along her research. It was just a weird hobby of hers, thinking how they could achieve victory since both of her parents were hunters and they taught her a lot of tactics to use against vampires, but she had no talent in fighting and decided to help humanity in her own way, her intellect.
But during her first mission as a mastermind, she messed up and almost sent the men under her straight to their deaths by underestimating the enemy's strength, having high exceptions of her allies, thinking that they should be able to defeat the foe.
If it weren't for Luciel, who earned the title Ray of Hope that night, all of the hunters would die.
She sighed, leaning against the counter and ordering another glass of whiskey while her friends went on a dance podium.
Meanwhile, one could see Luciel, Alex, George, and Dash raising their beers in the air before drinking everything in one go before hiccuping. They were drunk.
The boys were laughing, joking and slightly hitting each other. It was then when Alex pulled Luciel closer to himself and messed with his hair, pointing toward Helen. Teasing him for some time since Luciel was throwing glances at Helen from time to time during the whole conversation with the boys.
Getting annoyed by Alex and the rest of the boys who joined the fun, Luciel got up and started walking towards Helen, and sat down on the chair beside her. He wouldn't have approached her if he wasn't drunk and got mocked by the boys.
Helen refused to talk at first, she was grateful to Luciel, but at the same time she felt like she didn't deserve to be in his presence, but Luciel didn't give up and she had to throw him a bone at the end, after all, both of them were intoxicated.
As they were having a conversation, the music slowed down. Luciel got up and suddenly yanked her on the dance floor. Without the two realizing it, love had been born.
After a long dance session, Luciel finally introduced her to his party and they continued to operate together ever since.
****
While Luciel and Helen were thinking about each other and their past, Alex was wide awake with a sword in his hand. He only got like two hours of sleep, "Luciel… Where are you…" There were crawling sounds all around him while strange voices could be heard.
"Give me… The shiny…"
"My… Shiny…"
"Shiny…"
"What is happening!" Alex slowly started to go into a state of panic and randomly swung his sword. The fact he could hear snarling voices around him and not see anything even after using the divine art was driving him mad.