A Monster Life

86 - In a Pinch

The Old Ones and their underlings did not back down from the fight against the intruders and the rebelling vampires, but the ragtag bunch of different members were much stronger than they had experienced with their kind before. Corstyn was proud of his bug form, and despite the occasional mocking of his ability, the others knew they were no match for the agility his creatures possessed and the nasty bite from their mandibles. Even Dornus did not like to engage him in a serious fight. He grumbled at the effort it took to come even close to the harpy. He had never met anyone as nimble as her in the air and each time he closed in on her, she either stabbed the bug or swept it aside with a directed gust of wind. Telling the others to help him with their bats and crows was no use since they were busy assaulting the dragon, and although they as high vampires controlled many creatures at once, they all lacked the ability to direct attacks at more than one target at the same time. But he needed only one of his bugs to reach her and bite her to gain control over her, and thought hard on how to do it.

Yingshien spit out large balls of fire left and right, and thanks to the crows and bats flying close together, she burned many with little effort, but their sheer numbers and regeneration still made things difficult while they annoyingly pecked and scratched futility at her scales. She needed them to be packed tighter so she could take them down faster than they could regenerate. She watched Conchim blast a wave of the bugs away, and it gave her an idea.

Conchim halted in mid-air when Yingshien flew up behind her and whispered something in her ear. She liked the plan, gave her a nod in confirmation, and flew to one corner of the open space. Yingshien flew to the side, and Conchim concentrated all her mana. With one strong thrust of her wings, she sent off a severe gale through the open space.

The airborne vampires lost control of all their creatures caught in it as they tumbled through the air and smashed hard into the far corner. Before they recovered and regained their orientation in the packed and fluttering cluster though, they watched the dragon sweep down on them.

Yingshien flew up the moment Conchim sent her mighty wind force, did a half loop, and filled her lungs to the brim. She dove at the wriggling cluster driven into the high corner of the courtyard and spat out her lance of fire.

The vampires screamed out when most of their transformed bodies burned to ashes, and the shock of the pain caused the remaining creature not caught in the gale to drop from the air into the fighting crowd below.

The unexpected downfall of three Old Ones intimidated the remaining high vampires and all their followers, and elated Malyssa and her group. She cheered out loud. 'They're faltering! We can bring them down!'

Irian, one of the high vampires, noticed the carnage the bloodwolf caused on his own, and called out to her friend. 'Ginium! Take out that beast with me!'

Ginium threw down a vampire from her own staff, who dared betray her by taking the rebelling side and had the gall to attack her from behind. She looked at the bloodwolf knocking down anyone taking him on, and grinned. She fought a hunter on occasion for sport, but she thought this one would make things less dull. 'All right!' she said, and dropped down to the ground in a pile of large white rats.

Irian transformed into two metre long red and black striped snakes, and slithered fast through the crowd alongside the rats towards Ulric.

Ulric gripped the windpipe of one vampire woman and crushed it, while suppressing the guilt he still felt towards hurting a woman, even if she was on the very bad side. He noticed the movement on the ground around him too late.

Irian wrapped her snakes around his limbs and torso, and squeezed hard while Ginium's rats climbed all over and bit and scratched at any exposed area, and the top ones went for his head. Ginium loved the similar expression from the hunters she fought, when they closed their eyes and pulled back their ears because they knew they couldn't defeat her. The vampire women lost their breath when thin and long spikes pierced straight through all their bodies.