Chapter Text
Heavy footsteps crunchy against the leaf-covered floor. With the darkened forest concealing them, a company of hunters jogs through the undergrowth. They keep as quiet as possible, low and out of sight.
Their pace is brisk and they move with purpose. Their destination lies up ahead, somewhere among the shadowy trunks.
Suddenly the trees break and reveal a clearing. In the clearing sits a wooden cabin of decent size. All the windows are shut, but light still seeps through. The group comes to a stop, still within the treeline.
“That’s it.” Says one, a woman with short white hair, named White Choco.
“You are sure?” asks a green haired woman named Pistachio.
“Well, there’s nothing else out here, is there?” responds White Choco. She turns around to face the rest of the group.
There’s six of them in total. White Choco is the most senior, followed closely by Pistachio. Both have been hunting for about a decade and have at least a dozen kills under their belt each. The other four, however, are much newer. They consist of Raspberry and Raspberry Mousse, cousins who look more like twins, Bumbleberry, a stocky, purple-haired woman, and Knight, a round-faced blonde.
“Alright, let's run things through one last time before we get going.” White Choco declares, keeping her voice low. “According to our intel, there’s four vampires here. Allegedly, one of them is on the stronger end, so we’ll need to be cautious of that. The vampires are here to transport captives, and making sure that doesn’t happen is our top priority.”
“Since we don’t know the layout, we should take it from all sides. Get in through whatever entrance you can find. We also don’t know where the vamps are, so be very careful. Go in pairs.” White Choco continues. “I’ll go with Pistachio. Raspberry, you go with Knight. Raspberry Mousse will go with Bumbleberry.”
“What?!” Raspberry protests loudly.
“Keep your voice down! You and Mousse need to be able to work with people who aren’t each other.” White Choco scolds.
Raspberry scowls, but marches over to Knight.
“Remember, we for sure have human hostages at stake. Their lives come before killing a vamp. Don’t let the pursuit of glory cost an innocent life.” This warning comes from Pistachio, who accompanies it with a pointed glare. “You’re all still young and inexperienced. Learn this lesson now, before you learn it the hard way.”
White Choco nods in agreement before adding on, “And check your gear now, too.”
The others groan and roll their eyes, but comply.
“Why’re they treating us like newbies? This isn’t our first hunt.” Bumbleberry grumbles to the others while sorting through her many pockets and pouches.
“I know right?” agrees Raspberry Mousse. “I know what I’m doing. I already have a kill.”
“Really? I hadn’t heard.” Bumbleberry sarcastically replies. Mousse had managed to fell a vamp on his last hunt and hasn’t shut up about it since.
“I think we should listen to them. I mean, they know more about this than we do.” Knight chimes in. He for one, is going to take everything the older women say to heart.
“Suck up.” Says Raspberry. Knight just rolls his eyes and inspects his sword, a long, enchanted silver blade. Satisfied with its condition, he looks through the rest of his supplies. An array of silver daggers, check . Hawthorne stake, check . Lighter, check . First aid, check .
“All good here.” He reports. The others around him mutter their agreements.
“Good. I know you think this unnecessary, but you don’t want to be the fool who gets mauled because they didn’t check the enchantments on their blade and it broke.” White Choco warns them.
“Now, me and Pistachio will take the middle, Knight and Raspberry take the left, and Bumbleberry and Mousse take the right. And remember, be careful .”
“We’ll be fiiiine.” Raspberry says.
“You better be.” White Choco replies.
…
Knight creeps along the exterior of the cabin, Raspberry at his back. His heart thumps wildly and he tries to steady it. They can hear that.
“Nervous?” Raspberry asks.
“Only a little.”
“This is your first time hunting more than one vamp, right?”
“...yeah.”
“Well newbie, just follow my lead.”
“Oh shut up. You know perfectly well that we’ve both been at this for the same amount of time.”
Raspberry just snickers as Knight rolls his eyes. As he does so, he notices something.
“Look, a window.”
It sits at about face-height, and Knight stands on his tiptoes to peek in. The window reveals an empty hallway, and when Knight presses his ear to the glass he can hear muffled voices from the right.
Raspberry comes up next to him and lightly presses on the glass.
“It’s unlocked. It’s like they want us to break in!”
“How sloppy…”
An uneasy feeling settles in Knight’s chest. Why would a window be unlocked? Was it just carelessness? A trap? Or did they not feel the need for such security for some reason? Whatever it was, it didn’t bode well for the success of the mission.
“Boost me.” Raspberry commands, not dwelling on such things as always. But Knight kneels and she uses his shoulders to climb into the now open window. Then she pulls him up as well. He lands silently on the carpet.
He motions for Raspberry to follow him as he moves right, to where he heard voices. She does so, and the pair sneak down the hall. They stop when they come to a doorway and both quickly duck to either side. As conspicuously as possible, Knight peers around the doorframe to asses the room.
It seems to be the main room of the cabin, with several chairs and a fireplace. Three of what he can only assume to be vamps are sprawled around the room. Fortunately, none of them happen to be facing this particular doorway. He glances across their features, searching for signs of each vamp’s power level.
He turns back to Raspberry. Using the sign language developed between hunters, he quickly fills her in. Three vamps. Facing away from us. Can’t tell what house they’re from. They’ve got a fire going, so they could be Red Dragon. Each Vampiric House was headed by a ‘Lord’ and determined what abilities, strengths, and weaknesses a vampire had. It was integral for a hunter to be able to quickly tell what house a foe belonged to.
He looks back again to further observe the room. This time his eyes fall to the furthermost corner. Laying there, gagged and bound, are the human captive. The sight makes him recoil in disgust. Treating humans like animals. Revolting . And then to sit around and talk not even five feet away. He looks over the captives, searching for wounds or other liabilities. There’s five in total, and all seem unharmed, if severely frightened.
Raspberry makes a distraught noise from next to him, and he knows she sees them too. To Knight’s dismay, he hears the distinctive shink sound of her unsheathing her sword. He frantically motions for her to wait.
Hold on a second he signs rapidly. Wait for the others. They outnumber us right now. She doesn’t even glance at his hand. That’s the downside to using sign-language; it’s super easy to ignore.
Mentally cursing Raspberry’s recklessness, Knight readies his own sword. He knows he can’t talk her out of this without using his voice and giving them away, so the best he can do is make sure no one dies.
Raspberry bends her legs, readying herself to lunge. She holds up a five and begins counting down. Knight takes in a deep breath to steady himself, and readies his blade. She reaches zero.
With a shout, Raspberry charges out of the doorway, Knight hot on her heels. The three vampires jump up in surprise. Not wanting to waste the advantage of surprise, the two hunters are quick to pounce. Knight goes for the leftmost one and manages to get a good slash on their arm before they can spring away. Raspberry fairs similarly, landing slight blows before her target can escape.
But there’s no time to celebrate yet. As two of the vampires retreat, the third pounces, taking Raspberry from behind. They piggyback onto her shoulders, clawing and scratching and whatever they can reach. Knight shouts and runs to help, slashing with his blade and trying to dislodge the vampire without harming Raspberry. The woman in question staggers around wildly, trying to dislodge the bloodsucker.
Knight is acutely aware of the other two vamps, who circle around them, looking for a chance to strike. Knight tries not to give them one, brandishing his blade threateningly while not losing focus on Raspberry. Judging by how the vampires are steadily inching closer, he’s not doing a great job at it.
Raspberry slams her back against the wall, and then with one of her silver daggers, stabs her assaulter in the arm. The vampire screeches and throws themselves off of her, before scurrying away to their brethren on the other side of the room.
Now the two parties are in a standoff, both daring the other to move first. To be honest, the odds aren’t looking great for Knight and Raspberry. They’ve lost the element of surprise and now the vampires are ready for a fight, having drawn weapons. Plus, the hunters are outnumbered. Knight isn’t sure where the others are, but he hopes the noise of fighting has alerted them to his and Raspberry’s whereabouts. And the disappeared fourth vampire lingers in Knight’s mind. Maybe they’re lucky and their info was incorrect, but if not, then that would further stack odds against the hunter’s favor. If the others don’t show up soon, this could turn into a bloodbath.
To make matters worse, a soft whimper sounds to Knight’s right. That’s right, there are innocents at stake . All eyes dart to the human captives, still bound and gagged.
Knight and Raspberry are closer but the vampires are faster. And even if the hunters made it there first, Knight wasn’t sure they could fend off all three. He prepares himself for a hostage situation, as he has little doubt that’s what the vampires will do.
Just as one of the vamps takes a step closer, the other four hunters burst through the rightmost door, and conveniently in front of the humans. Relief washes over Knight as he takes in the familiar faces.
“Starting without us? I’m hurt.” Bumbleberry boisterously remarks.
“It wasn’t my idea!” Knight replies.
“You found the captives and three of the vamps. What about the fourth?” White Choco butts in.
“No idea. I take it you haven’t either?”
“No sign of them.”
“Then consider yourselves lucky.” One of the vampires speaks up. “But I’m sure they’re on their way, and then you’ll regret interfering with our business.”
“Yeah, like one more vamp can make that much of a difference.” Raspberry brushes the threat off. The vampire just smirks.
As both sides prepare themselves for a fight, Knight and White Choco exchange uneasy looks. This fourth vampire must be quite powerful if the vampires are so confident in their capabilities. But there’s no time to dwell on it.
“Knight, you get the captives free and out. We’ll take care of the vampires.”
“Got it.”
Knight dives behind his fellow hunter and pulls out a dagger to cut their bonds. He can hear the sounds of battle behind him, but is confident in his comrades abilities to keep the vampires at bay. He removes the gags first.
“Are you all alright?” Knight asks the captives.
“We’re unharmed,” one replies. Knight moves on to cutting the ropes around their feet and arms.
“What the hell is going on?”
“No time to explain. I need you all to follow me and do exactly as I say if you want to get out alive. Don’t question anything, just do it. Got it?” He’s answered by a chorus of agreement. Knight stands up and turns around to survey the fighting, the group behind him following suit.
The fight is going well. The Raspberry cousins duel a vampire wielding twin daggers while Bumbleberry and Pistachio dart around the massive one with a clever. White Choco fights solo against the third, but holds her ground just fine. Content that the three known vamps are well distracted, Knight quickly plans their escape.
The window he and Raspberry came in through shouldn’t be too far, and from there he and the humans can make a break for it in the woods. He dislikes the idea of leaving his teammates on their own, but knows someone needs to defend the civilians.
“You see that door over there? We’re going to run through it and down the hall until we get to a window. Then we leave through the window and run like there’s no tomorrow.”
“After that?” One woman asks.
“Wait for the other hunters to find us. They can take care of these three”
“But what about the fourth you guys were talking about?” A young man asks.
“Hopefully we won’t run into them. Now go!”
Knight steps aside to let the civilians pass and then follows after them. The group dodges around the various clashes. Seeing their captives free causes all three vamps to try to break away and go after them, but the hunters don’t let them escape. The one battling White Choco manages to lunge after them, but Knight deflects her, and White Choco quickly rengages. The two hunters exchange a brief look before Knight darts after the rest of the civilians.
He breathes a sigh of relief once they’re all through the doorway, but quickly gets back on guard.
“Keep going!”
The group runs down the hallway until Knight halts at the still open window.
“Here. Does anyone need help getting through?”
The group all shakes their heads no.
“Okay. One at a time, I’ll stand guard.”
They obey silently as Knight turns back to observe the hallway. He notices a closed door on the wall to his left, and an uneasy feeling washes over him. He readies his sword and adjusts his stance. Nothing. He can still hear the shouting and clanging of the brawl down the hall but that’s it. Where is the fourth?
Just as Knight turns his head to check on the progress of the civilians, his question is answered. The door slams open with such great force it’s nearly blown off its hinges, and out steps the largest person Knight has ever seen. At first Knight can’t make out anything but wild white hair, but when they turn to face him, Knight’s blood turns cold.
There’s a saying among hunters regarding a vampire's power. If it looks like an animal and acts like an animal, don’t worry too much. If it looks like a human and acts like a human, be on your guard. And if it looks like an animal and acts like a human, you're screwed. Because after the initial turning madness subsides, vampires lose the remains of their humanity as their power grows.
As Knight takes in the full figure before him, he can practically feel his chances of survival dropping. They must be at least seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and a burly body. Their considerable stature is only added to by the aforementioned stark-white hair that practically engulfs them. He can just barely make out tan skin beneath the croppings of ruby scales and maroon stripes that run across their body. White-slit eyes meet his, and a shiver runs down his spine. The image is slightly undercut by their attire, white muscle shirt and sweatpants, but one thing is still clear. This is no ordinary vampire.
Knight’s eyes dart back to the civilians. Three of them are all the way out, with a fourth halfway through the window. All of them are frozen in fear.
“What’ssss going on here?” The vampire speaks.
Knight can’t find a response, and so merely brandishes his sword. They just chuckle and bring forward their own weapon; the most massive sword Knight has ever seen. It’s almost as tall as he is, and at least five inches wide. But the sight triggers something in Knight’s mind, something towards the identity of this vampire.
“I sssee. A little hunter thief thinks he can ssssteal what’s mine.” The fire, the sword, white hair and ruby scales. Yeah, he knows who this is. Pitaya, the Scarlet Dragon, and vampire Lord.
“T-they aren’t yours ” Knight speaks with a trembling voice.
“Who are you to sssay that? One little hunter who can’t even hold his sssword.” Indeed, Knight’s hands are shaking.
“There’s also me.” The final civilian speaks up. Knight groans internally. While he can admire the bravery, the other man will only be a hindrance.
“No there isn’t. Get out of here.”
“But I want to help!”
“You can help by not getting in the way. Run!”
“B-”
“RUN!”
Pitaya just watches the conversation with a bemused look. Finally the other man relents, and turns back to the window. Knight observes him climb out through the corner of his eye, but redirects most of his focus back to his opponent.
“If you want to get them, you’ll have to go through me.” He isn’t foolish enough to actually think he stands a chance, but he issues the challenge regardless.
“Easssy enough.” Pitaya readies their own blade, and Knight gulps. ‘Go through’ may end up being more literal than Knight had meant.
Without another word, Pitaya swings their blade horizontally. Knight dives to the floor, narrowly dodging. The sword flies above his head and lodges in a wall with such force it gets stuck. Pitaya has to stop and pull it out, an opportunity Knight doesn’t let go to waste. He slashes at their legs and they jump back, taking their sword with them.
They’re further away now, towards the main room and everyone else. They pause, rethinking their strategy. The enclosed space works in Knight’s favor, making it harder to move or swing large objects around.
Knight takes the moment to run through what he knows about Pitaya. One of the dragons, they in particular have an association with fire. While most vampires go up like dry grass, Pitaya and those under them are resistant, even strengthened by it. And while enhanced strength is an asset of all vampires, Pitaya is said to have strength even greater than most. It’s probably what allows them to swing such a large sword around with such ease. He’s pretty sure there’s a couple other things, but strength and fire are all he has time to think about before Pitaya charges at him again.
This time, they go for a more diagonal swing, and Knight has to dive to the side to avoid it. They stop the arc of the blade just before it meets the floor and direct it back at Knight. This time he dives between their legs and comes up behind them. He lunges forward with his own sword and makes contact along their back back, leaving a long horizontal gash. They try to turn, but can’t fit their sword past the wall before Knight has already leaped away.
To his horror, Knight realizes he is now past the window, with Pitaya in front of it. If they wanted to, they could easily go after the civilians and Knight would never catch them. But they don’t even glance at it, instead advancing on Knight. Perhaps Pitaya believes they’ll have plenty of time to go after the group, or perhaps the heat of battle has made them forget all about it. It doesn’t particularly matter.
Again, Pitaya charges and Knight dives to escape. And so begins a pattern of Pitaya swinging wildly, Knight dodging, them being hindered by the close quarters, and him landing light hits. All things considered, the fight is actually going quite well for Knight. He’s had a few close calls, but Pitaya is definitely worse for wear.
Finally, when their sword gets stuck in the wall one too many times, Pitaya changes their strategy. They leave the sword where it is, half-buried midway in a wall, ball their fists, and start swinging with those.
This proves much more effective, to Knights dismay. Now they can move quicker and turn faster, meaning Knight has to put all his focus on the defensive and is no longer able to dart in for quick slashes.
A massive fist slams into the wall where Knight was just moments prior. All this diving and ducking is getting pretty exhausting. Something needs to change, and soon if he doesn’t want to end up pulp.
He hasn’t been able to focus on what’s going on in the other room, but clearly their fight is still going strong. He’s not too worried about his compatriots' safety in what was a three-to-five battle, but he hopes they can wrap it up.
When Knight only barely dodges Pitaya’s next strike and is almost too tired to get back up, he knows he needs to change his strategy. His eyes land on Pitaya’s sword, still embedded in the wall, and he’s overcome by what’s probably a really stupid idea. But hey, he’s dead either way.
He makes a break for it, escaping the reach of Pitaya’s fists. While running, he exchanges his sword for a smaller dagger. Once he reaches the blade, he grabs the handle and swings himself on top of it. Pitaya is, of course, right on his heels, barreling towards him at full speed. Once they get close enough, Knight launches himself onto their shoulders. He lands awkwardly, frantically grabbing onto their hair to keep himself there. Pitaya staggers, having been caught by surprise. Their arms flail wildly, trying to dislodge their unwanted rider.
Knight moves quickly, repositioning himself on their back as opposed to chest. This makes it harder for Pitaya to grab him, but also means he is obstructed by all that damn hair. His arms are wrapped around their thick neck and he clings on for dear life. Unable to really see what he’s doing, Knight hacks and stabs with the dagger in his hand. He can feel it sink into flesh and hears Pitaya’s shriek of pain.
Emboldened by his success, Knight stabs again, hitting what he thinks is a shoulder. The arm attached to said shoulder had been reaching out to grab Knight, but jerked away at the attack. Knight twists the knife deeper, hoping to disable the use of the arm entirely. Such a blow would give him a huge advantage in this fight.
Pitaya seems to realize this too, and starts trying to shake him off. Knight has to drop the offensive and start really hanging off to avoid getting flung. A particularly violent movement displaces his arms and Knight scrambles to find purchase again. He’s relieved when he manages to securely wrap them around something again, only to realize he’s not grasping onto a neck but a face.
Before he can correct his mistake, sharp fangs sink deep into his forearm. Searing hot pain shoots down his entire arm and he drops the knife he was holding. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck . Getting bit by a vamp is never good. They usually have all kinds of nasty venom in their teeth. And on his dominant arm too!
Pitaya releases his arm, but Knight isn’t able to recover in time to dodge the hand that finally grabs him. Holding him by the back of his shirt, Pitaya swings him around, briefly tosses him upwards, and then slams him into the wall with a chokehold.
Their tight grip almost crushes his throat and he makes the lovely discovery that their fingers end in pointed talons. He tries to kick them but ceases as exhaustion sinks in. A numb feeling spreads from the bite on his arm and Knight has to fight the urge to close his eyes. Instead, he makes eye contact with the vampire holding him.
Their eyes burn with rage and their face contorts into a snarl. Knight notes that their mouth is still stained with his blood, an unsettling feeling.
“You’re tougher than you look.” Pitaya says. “But I ssstill win.”
Their hand constricts, and Knight gasps for air. His eyes dart to the doorway down the hall, just in time to see Raspberry stagger into view.
“Knight!” She shouts when she sees him. But one of the vampires pounces on her before she can run to his aid.
“Your friendsss are still busy. But don’t worry, you’ll sssee them again. Once I’m finished with you, it’ll be no problem to sssend them the sssame way.”
“I…w-wouldn’t be…so sure” Knight chokes out. With his good arm, he grabs one of the other knives strapped along his body. Moving as quickly as he can, he slices the wrist of the arm holding him. Blood spurts everywhere, some even landing in Knight’s mouth, and he’s pretty sure he swallows it. Gross . But the attack has the intended effect; Pitaya cries out in pain and releases him, staggering back.
Knight hits the ground hard, but he doesn’t get any time to rest. Pitaya lunges at him with outstretched hands. With the last of his strength, Knight slashes horizontally. He doesn’t even expect the blow to land, but the silver blade meets flesh. More blood sprays and Knight shuts his eyes on instinct.
The knife is yanked out of Knight's hand, and he hears a demonic screeching sound that he thinks is Pitaya. He frantically wipes his eyes clean in order to see what happened. At first he can’t tell, since Pitaya is hunched over and clenching one of their hands. But soon he gets the full, gory picture.
His knife had struck Pitaya’s outspread hand diagonally, and is still lodged in their palm. Their pinky is severed clean off, and their ring and middle finger are badly damaged. Since the knife is silver it must burn, and Pitaya is clearly torn between pulling it out and potentially further mutilating their hand, or leaving it in and having to endure the pain.
Suddenly another screech distracts both of them. Through the door, Knight can see the result of Raspberry’s tussle with one of the other vamps. Raspberry kneels over the vampire, stake driven through its heart. It claws at the stake weakly, before going limp and crumbling to ash. Knight cheers internally, both in celebration of Raspberry, and in relief that the battle with the lesser vamps is now five to two.
Pitaya growls in rage, but there isn’t much they can do. They aren’t in good shape, slashes all over their body, one shoulder disabled, and the other arm suffering a slit wrist and badly wounded hand. Said hand is going to need urgent medical care if they want to keep it.
But Knight’s not in much better condition, he can barely lift his head. When they turn to him, fear runs cold in his heart. But they just stand there momentarily, and then turn to lumber towards the main room.
Knight forces his aching limbs to follow, concerned for the wellbeing of his teammates. He passes through the doorway just after Pitaya, and is relieved to find them all alive, if roughed up. Pistachio gasps when she sees them both, and the two groups disentangle themselves. The remaining two vampires flock to Pitaya, concerned for their master. The hunters assemble themselves around Knight, but don’t yet drop their guard.
Both parties stare tensely at each other, but not for long. Pitaya unfurls two large, leathery wings from who knows where, and with one last glare at Knight, shoots up towards the ceiling, crashing through the wood and disappearing into the night.
Their minions follow suit, one shifting into some kind of small, winged animal, and the larger one vaulting up after them.
“Should we follow them?” asks Bumbleberry.
“I don’t think we can.” replies Pistachio.
“What about the captives, what if they try to go after them?” asks Raspberry Mousse.
“Pitaya…was badly injured. Their health is probably more important.” Knight speaks up.
As if just remembering he’s here, the others all turn to look at him and then burst into a flurry of questions.
“What happened?”
“You’re hurt!”
“Was that really Pitaya? The vampire lord?”
“Where are the civilians?”
White Choco steps in. “Calm down everybody! He’s injured, let him breathe.” She waves his crowding teammates off. “I’ll question him. Pistachio lend me your healing supplies. Then the rest of you secure the area. Verify that the vamps are really gone and find the civilians.”
They nod, and do as she asks. White Choco turns back to Knight.
“What happened to your arm?”
“Got bit. I think it’s just a sedative, I can barely move, but nothing else. The fangs got pretty deep though.”
White Choco nods and pulls out a bandage to begin wrapping his arm.
“Any other major wounds?”
“I’m pretty banged up, but that’s it.”
“Good. Now tell me what happened and how you ended up dueling the Red Dragon. That was them, no?”
“Y-yeah, it was. I guess they were the fourth vamp, and they came barging out of one of the other rooms. The civilians weren’t all the way out so I told them to run for it. I couldn’t call for you guys or run without putting the civilians at risk, so I figured I’d hold them off as long as I could.”
“‘Stronger end vamp’ my ass,” White Choco grumbles. “But you seemed to have fared well against them nonetheless.” She says, sounding impressed.
“Yeah… I cut their finger off.”
“What?! Knight, that's incredible!”
“O-oh, uh, thanks. I think I only survived because they were too large for the hall we were in…”
“Don’t sell yourself short, kid. That was a Vampire Lord . They’ve been around for centuries, and no ones been able to deal such a severe blow!”
“Yeah, I guess…”
“But what was a Vampire Lord doing here anyways? This seems a little lowly for them to oversee personally.”
Knight just shrugs. Hell if he knows.
Before the two can ponder it further, the Raspberry cousins walk back into the room.
“No sign of the vamps.” Mousse reports.
“How’s Knight?” Raspberry asks.
“I’m fine. Congrats on the kill, by the way.” Raspberry beams.
“That’s right!” White Choco exclaims. “It’s late tonight, but we’ll have to celebrate tomorrow. Knight too! He cut off Pitaya’s finger.”
Both twins look impressed.
“But first, we should search the cabin for anything valuable, and then find the other two and the civilians. Have you seen them?”
The cousins shake their heads no and Knight shakily stands up.
“I’ll help. Need to get my knife anyway.”
He walks back into the hall where the battle occurred, and the others follow.
“Sheesh.” Raspberry states.
Indeed, the hall is a mess. Deep gashes streak the walls and Pitaya’s sword is still deeply embedded in the dark wood. Blood is splattered everywhere, but it’s mostly Pitaya’s. Spotting the silver gleam, Knight walks over to the first knife, the one he dropped. He picks it up and stares at the drying blood that mars its surface.
“What happened to your other one?” Raspberry interrupts him. “I noticed it’s missing.”
“I think it’s still in Pitaya’s hand.”
“Did you really cut their finger off?” Mousse chimes in.
“Yep.” Just as Knight says that, he notices something sitting in a pool of blood. “Oh, ew. There it is.” He points.
“Damn. You got them good.”
“Yep.”
“Are you just gonna leave it there?” Raspberry asks.
“Yes…?”
“You should take it, like as a trophy.”
“What? No, that’s weird! What if they want it back?”
“Why would they want it back?”
“Because it’s theirs ?”
“Well who cares what they want?”
“It’s just common courtesy!”
“Quit standing around arguing about stupid things and get back to work!” White Choco interrupts.
“Yes ma’am!” They say in unison. With a final glance at the disembodied finger, Knight walks out of the hall.
…
The house contained nothing of importance, which was to be expected. It wasn’t too hard to find Bumbleberry and Pistachio, who had in turn found the civilians. After everyone was reunited and everything was explained, the whole group walked back to the large van the hunters had arrived in.
Since the civilians had been captured for quite a while and came from all parts of the surrounding area, it was decided to just bring them all back to base and sort it out in the morning. The group is shaken and unsettled, but unharmed. Several of them had been missing for several weeks. As Knight looks over their relieved faces, he feels a sense of pride well up in him. This is what he does. Save people.
The hunters talk quietly among themselves during the long drive back to base, congratulating each other on a job well done. Knight retells in excruciating detail his battle with Pitaya, and even the civilians listen intently. Now that the shock of the encounter is over, Knight can truly appreciate his accomplishment. He won in a fight with a freaking Vampire Lord!
The van pulls to a stop outside of a nondescript building. One of the hunters' safehouses, since the main base is about an hour away. Everybody piles out of the van and White Choco lets them inside. Beds are claimed, gear is shed, and when Knight’s head hits his pillow, he’s out in seconds.