Brooke could feel herself shaking as she plunged into the influence of the First's Aspect. She almost vomited as the thing buffeted her mind and body back and forth, but gritted her teeth and steeled herself against it. The creature must've sensed them by now – they were walking willingly into a killing field.
Everywhere she looked she saw bodies, torn to pieces as though by a wild animal, pasted against stalls, cars, carriages and pavements in a hideous collage of death. Scattered through the hundreds of dead humans she could make out the ash and fallen weapons of the Iron Hollow vampires who had found themselves in the path of the First. Smears of maroon were lashed through the lakes of crimson, and she saw bolt-throwers and the distinctive sickles that Iron Hollow's hunting class seemed to favour.
Ahead of her Capper moved with single-minded purpose, the vast great-sword strapped to his back as he picked his way cat-like through the debris. Ahead of them she knew Gliss and her band were moving in a wide loop to cut the First off while Arcil and the Baelock guards curved in the opposite direction, forming a pincer that would corral the First into an open space where Lilly could take her shot.
Entrusting her life to a thrall filled Brooke with unease, but she didn't see any other way for them to get a clean shot at the First and take it by surprise. Even if Lilly didn't kill it, she might wound it enough for the rest of them. Between them all the other vampires were accomplished fighters, and all armed with powerful weapons from a long dead age. She turned her open weapon over in her hands, the crescent blade at the top glinting viciously in the firelight. She'd never held anything that gave her such a feeling of confidence. It was as though it wanted to be used.
Behind her the surviving guards who'd followed her from Veridian Shores scurried silently – Lucille and the male guard Ivor, flanking their Elder-Blood charges and ready to sell their lives dearly. After having to watch Finbarr be torn apart in front of her eyes, however, Brooke had no wish to watch anyone else die for her.
The presence of the First continued to grow, and more screams ripped out across the air of the plaza, not all of them human. She felt Capper pick up the pace and she moved to match him, hurdling mounts of debris and joining him as they skirted through a series of smashed, abandoned stalls and dropped into the small gully of the tram-rail line. The four vampires stayed low, racing through through shadows with inhuman speed until they reached a junction where four tracks met. Around the cross-roads several kiosks rose, where normally food and drink would have been sold to passengers waiting to ride. Now they were empty, but the smells of the food still lingered. Brooke wrinkled her nose.
Then a strange word boomed through her mind, something she couldn't understand, but it was louder and more powerful than anything she'd felt before. She ducked behind one of the kiosks, hissing in pain and clamping one hand to her temple. As the pain throbbed through her skull she saw that Capper seemed to have been struck by the same baroque explosion of twisted noise and energy rippling through the realm of the vampire essence. It had sounded like some twisted, bastardised version of ancient Vampyr. She had no idea what the word had meant, but she knew where it had come from.
The First was acknowledging their presence.
Terror coiled through and she fought down the sensation. She caught Capper's eye. His face was hard with resolve; a sense of single-minded urgency had descended on him. He nodded to her, and in a silent, almost sinister motion he unslung the great-sword from his back and took it in his grip. It looked absurdly large in his hands but he held it with ease. The thing could have cloven a car in half and he was carrying it as casually as hammer.
"It knows we're here," he said quietly as the guards joined them in the cluster of buildings. "So let's give it something to see. Remember, we just need to give Lilly a clean shot."
The others nodded, their unease crackling in the air around them. They knew that their lives were expendable. Brooke reached out and clasped Capper's wrist, giving him a reassuring squeeze. He smiled weakly.
"Let's go and make this right," he told them. And then, sword drawn, he strode out into killing field.
*
Capper fought to keep the pure terror at bay as his eyes found the towering, bestial form of the First amidst the carnage. It had a human body clutched in one massive hand, and as carelessly as a man might break a twig, it ripped the individual in half, gorging itself on the blood that spilled from within. The sight filled Capper with revulsion, and gave him the slight jolt of impetus he needed to step forward. This thing had to die, whatever it was.
He knew the timber piles where Lilly would be hiding were directly behind him, perhaps a hundred yards or so. They needed the First to come a lot closer to guarantee a direct hit. So Capper held his ground and raised the sword high, screaming a wordless challenge out over the dead air of Iron Hollow.
The First turned and looked at him, tossing the corpse aside like broken kindling.
Behind it he could see the dark shadows as Gliss's hunters flitted stealthily into position to cut off its escape route. To their left he could feel the trembling Aspects of Arcil's contingent looping into position to support him. A spark of recognition seemed to flare in the First's bestial eyes as it saw the sword he was carrying. Sharply accented words tumbled grossly from its jaws, an unintelligible challenge. She felt Brooke and the guards spread out behind her, staying spaced out so that the First wouldn't be able to pick a target without being exposed to another.
"You've lived long enough!" Capper roared, his powerful voice rising through the licking flames and alarms. "Time to die!"
A fanged smile rippled across the First's face and, as he'd hoped, it charged. Its massive limbs cleared meters with every powerful stride, spitting up chunks of ruined tarmac as it went. With every muscle in his body wound taut, Capper rocked back, planting his feet and sweeping the great-sword back to swing.
At the last second he dropped to his knees and rolled aside as the First ripped through the space he'd been standing in like a hurricane. Gritting his teeth with effort, Capper pivoted his body and leapt at the creature as it turned to find its quarry. As it faced him he swung the great-sword with all the strength he could muster.
With speed that belayed its size the First ducked the blow and surged forward, ramming a shoulder into his gut with enough force to lift him off his feet and send him flying twenty feet through the air before he hit the burnt out carcass of a car and crashed to the ground. Snarling angrily he scrambled back to his feet to see the others circling warily as the First lunged and slashed at them like a caged tiger. One blow of those clawed hands would cause horrendous damage, and they still needed to manoeuvre it closer to the timber stand for Lilly to take her shot.
"Capper!"
He looked up at the sound of the voice to see Gliss come vaulting over the car, her whip unfurled and ready. The other hunters flashed past, hurdling debris as they went, racing to get into the fight.
"You okay?" she asked quickly, pausing by his side.
"I'm fine – go!" he barked hefting the sword meaningfully. Gliss nodded and shot off in pursuit of the others. Capper was right behind her and together they thundered into the fray, just as the First caught the guard Lucille with a glancing blow that flung her into a nearby spur of rock. Bones cracked from the impact and Lucille slumped into a sitting position, her spine ruptured.
Brooke had her double-ended weapon held crossways, and she edged backwards away from the First jerking and dodging as it advanced on her, trying to draw it out to the killing range. Ivor joined her and together they did their best to keep the First's attention, trying to avoid the worst of its assaults as they goaded it into range.
With a sudden burst of speed the First feinted towards Ivor, before spinning back and hurling itself at Brooke, she twisted and lashed the curved blade of weapon against its chest, carving a divot in the leathery skin before the First knocked her down.
Ivor sold his life dearly as he leapt between them and swung his axe at the First's head, only for it to block the blow with its arm. The axe bit deep and was stuck there. Before the guard could move again the First's free hand plunged through his armour, taking his heart with it as it burst through the other side.
It tossed Ivor's convulsing body aside, and Capper felt a surge of panic as the First stepped forward, ready to tear Brooke's head off with a single swing.
The blow never landed. Like a striking snake, the end of Gliss's whip lashed out, wrapping around its wrist and halting it before it could follow through. The First looked back, its baleful glare settling on the hunter, before it jerked its arm sharply forward again. Gliss let out a yelp of surprise as she was wrenched off her feet and tossed through the air by the force, the whip uncurling and leaving her sailing through empty space until she crashed to the ground several meters past her adversary.
Then Capper and the others arrived.
He ducked a murderous backhanded swing and pivoted awkwardly, crunching the cross-guard of the great-sword into the First's jaw. It retaliated with another eye-blurring swing of its other hand. Capper managed to jump back to dodge the worst of it, but the talons still cut deep into his side and pain burned from the wound, like acid. He staggered, gasping as he tried to heft the sword for another swing.
Garven lunged past him, aiming the needle-like javelin he'd chosen for the First's heart. The huge creature stepped aside as he struck, and though he pierced the skin, he missed his target and the javelin lodged against the First's thick ribcage. He released the it and swept his sickle from his belt, swinging in the same motion. The First met the swing, and Capper heard the sickening crack as Garven's arm broke in the collision, bending unnaturally halfway up his forearm. He didn't even have time to cry out as the First lunged forward and clamped its jaws around his throat, before ripping his head from his shoulders.
Gliss screamed as Garven's corpse slumped to the ground and her whip lashed across the First's spine. It tore the javelin free from its chest with a snarl and spun, flinging it at her. But Gliss was ready, neatly side-stepping the projectile, rage shining in her eyes. She circled like a predator, the whip flickering out like a lizard's tongue as she struck again and again. The First followed her, snarling and spitting baroque curses as she drew it backwards.
Into the killing field.
Capper's sharpened hearing picked out the whistle as the bolt from Lilly's crossbow cut through air, and an instant later the crystal projectile thudded into the First's back. The monster jerked upright with a guttural snarl of pain, staggering for a moment. He swallowed a deep breath, clutching a hand at his aching side and it came away covered in thick maroon, but he tried not to think about the wound, his attention snared by the First. Gliss backed away for a moment, eyes wide. They waited for agonizing seconds as it twitched, its face tight with pain.
Then it rotated to face the direction the bolt had come from.
Capper saw the shimmering bolt protruding from the creature's back, right where its heart ought to have been, but despite breaking the skin it didn't look like the bolt had penetrated deep enough to be fatal. Lilly's aim had been true, but even these new weapons struggled to breach the ancient defences of the First.
It was moving before he could react, sprinting with murderous intent towards the log pile, and Lilly. Panic filled his mind. Capper knew they could never catch it, and if it reached Lilly while she was alone, she was dead.
"C'mon," he said hoarsely, breaking into a stumbling run. Gliss fell into step alongside him and he could feel Brooke and the two surviving Iron Hollow hunters not far behind.
Hopelessness filled him as the First pulled away, easily outpacing them. Another death soon to be on his conscious. Lilly, who'd been loyal to a fault and followed him all this way, only to be torn apart by a monster at the edge of the world. The feeling swelled like a hollow pit in is gut.
Just before the First reached the timber pile, however, he saw a group of shapes burst from the surrounding shadows and block its path.
Arcil!
The Baelock Elder-Blood must've been lying in wait all this time, ready to spring his own trap. Capper piled on speed and raced to join the melee, Brooke and the others close on his heels.
They had the numbers, but even with their new armoury of powerful weapons, the First still held its own. It smashed Arcil across the face with a backhand that sent him flying, leaving the guard Altus a window to swing his warhammer. The weapon hit the First in the back with crushing force and knocked it forward for a moment. Then it whirled and lunged at the Baelock guard, smashing him to the ground.
It raised a hand to slash his head from his shoulders, but before the blow could land the other Baelock guard, Chara moved in to block it, flinging up the crescent-shaped shield she'd liberated from the armoury. The shield withstood the claws, but the sheer force of the blow crushed the metal up against her and shattered her arm. She screamed as she was knocked to the ground, only for that scream to be abruptly cut short as the First stamped down on her skull, smashing it like an egg.
He heard Arcil's howl of rage, and the Baelock Elder-Blood thundered back into the fight, wrath shining in his eyes as he swung his spiked mace into the First's throat as it turned.
A brief spray of black blood burst from the impact and the First staggered back with a low snarl of anger. Then it plunged back towards the Elder-Blood and punched him hard, its talons gouging through the thick armour plate and ripping a bloody chasm through Arcil's ribcage. He fell with a scream, maroon blood splattering the ground.
Capper took a final powerful bound forward and swung the great-sword as the First spun around, sensing his approach, and the huge blade thudded hard into the creature's side. He felt it dig deep through the leathery skin and a deep howl of pain shook his teeth as the First vented its anger. But the blade didn't carry on, sinking six inches through the ancient flesh before being halted. With a snarl, Capper dragged the blade back towards him, the keen edge gouging deeper as he pulled it free, the blade now slick with the black ichor of the First's blood.
He dove into a roll past it and as it turned with his motion, another crossbow bolt whistled out of the night and slammed into its eye.
The bestial roar shook the ground beneath their feet and Capper felt its Aspect churn like a hurricane. The sensation rocked his mind and his stomach turned. The air seemed to shimmer in a haze as the sheer power of the thing's presence bled through into the physical world, distorting the very air around them. It dragged the bolt free, leaving a bloody divot behind.
Then Capper realised he was the only thing standing between it and Lilly. A moment of indecision gripped him, and that was enough for the First to move. It hurled itself at him in a single unstoppable bound, driven into a mindless rage. He had just enough time to step back and sling the great-sword blade out horizontally to take the brunt of the impact.
It was like being hit by an avalanche. The thing bore him backwards and together they flew a dozen meters, smashed into the concrete and ploughed a broad fissure in the ground as they landed. Capper growled in pain and found himself looking into the huge, fanged maw of the First, just barely held at by the blade of his great sword. It let out an unearthly, guttural snarl and opened it's blood-caked jaws, its one remaining eye shining insanely.
As it reared its head back to bite down, Capper saw the sliver of broken skin and black blood in the side of its neck where Arcil's mace had found its mark. The ragged wound had yet to close and one desperate idea occurred to Capper. If it didn't work, he reasoned he was dead anyway. He stopped pushing, letting the great-sword fall flat against his chest and with it came the First. As its huge frame dropped he jerked his head to one side, wrapping both arms around the back of its head and pulling it close.
And he jammed his fangs deep into the mangled mess of broken skin.
He screwed his eyes tightly shut and bit down as hard with all the considerable strength his jaw possessed. If it had been a human he would have crushed their windpipe like paper, but now he only managed to dig a few centimetres deeper into the wound.
It was enough though.
The taste was more vile than anything he could have imagined. It was like drinking a mix of mould and burnt wood, blended into a disgusting, viscous substance that he could barely even take in through his fangs. When it hit his system his whole body convulsed violently and he could feel the First start to thrash, as though it had just realised what was happening. It couldn't get free though. Its blood was like taking a massive jolt of adrenaline, snapping all of his muscles into involuntary tightness.
Like a dog with a bone, Capper kept his jaws locked into the wound, his vision blurring and mind whirling into a barely conscious state as his body struggled to cope with the toxin. Desperately trying to keep his thoughts in order, he reached around the First's back.
His hands found the protruding shaft of the crossbow bolt. He gripped it with every drop of his new-found strength and, with a final coherent thought, he pulled it towards him. There was an instant of resistance before he felt the bolt suddenly sink into the First's body and he drove it deeper, every vein in his body bulging with the monster's venom as he did.
With a crunch of splintering bone the bolt was driven straight through the First's torso, bursting free in a fountain of black ichor. Capper couldn't control the sheer force he'd imparted and the bolt carried on until he ended up slamming it through his own shoulder as well, pinning the First to him. A scream of agony ripped from his throat as his jaw finally unlatched from the creature's neck.
But it was nothing to the sound that thundered from the First's throat as the crystal bolt plunged through its heart.
The very air of Iron Hollow vibrated with the deafening, multi-layered roar of anguish, and every window within a mile of the battle exploded into shards. The ground around them ruptured with a radiating series of cracks and Capper felt like his skull might explode from the reverberations. A storm boiled through the Aspect plane, stunning every vampire present into paralysis as their minds and bodies fought to cope with the sudden outpouring of ancient energy.
Then its body started to spasm, jerking and twisting with incredible force. With the last vestiges of his consciousness Capper managed to release his grip on the bolt and shove the huge, flailing frame away from him. With a rasp of pain he slumped limp, shoulder burning from the impact of the ancient weapon and his insides afire with the First's blood. Through blurred, bloodshot vision he could still see it though, even in death causing more destruction. Every convulsion of its body was strong enough to shatter stone and bend metal.
No one moved, simply watching and waiting as the First died, its millennia of life coming to an abrupt, violent end in the rubble of Iron Hollow. Slowly but surely its huge Aspect began to break apart like burning silk on the wind. Inch by inch its huge frame began to crumble into soot-black ash that burned the very ground it touched.
When it was over all that remained of the creature was a man-shaped lake of fizzing, half-molten concrete. Capper let out a low, rattling groan of relief and agony. Tendon by tendon, muscle by muscle his body began to unwind. Nausea boiled up in him like a geyser and he wretched, spewing a mouthful of black, tarry liquid out onto ground nearby.
Then he went limp, lying there in the shattered concrete and blood, dimly aware of voices and running feet descending on him.