Hunters - Final Showdown. Chp 4.

Final Showdown

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Barros ran his fingers over the dead man's eyes closing them, feeling the last warmth slip from them. Checking Grayson's pulse he knew the man was dead. He bent to move Grayson's body into a side street away from the hustle and bustle of the now warzone when a considerable, death smelling weight landed upon his back. Sophia had somehow freed herself from deaths embrace.

She was now committed and didn't let up. She was now intent on destroying the man that she had loved. The red sun still beat down overhead, it must be powering Sophia. She was overpowering him. All of his years of training as a Hunter now came down to this moment. Would he survive? He hoped so. He still had his son to care for.

Sophia dug her claws into his lower back ripping holes in his tunic and skin. His only reply to the pain was to grunt, as he worked a way to get her off. If he could get her feet off the ground, she would be vulnerable. Rolling his shoulders over he felt her fangs penetrate his neck. He flung her completely over now, her fangs parting with his neck. She hit the ground with a thud and Barros saw that the dagger and sword had been freed.

The amulet was now hanging around her neck its body still crimson red like the sky. Acting compulsively Barros raised his second knife and drove it through the amulet shattering the metal. It screamed like Vampires did when they died and the wind picked up blowing dirt and whatever else it could carry. It blocked out the sky and made a sound like a tub or sink being emptied.

Looking up at the sky Barros saw the red literally being scrubbed from it. The amulet rolled around on the ground and all of the red that had been sucked out of the sky streamed towards it leaving behind the crystal blue of midday.

Sophia growled and her main source of power was cut off. The sun was shining and Barros had the upper hand. Switching into her human form Sophia swung her leg in a roundhouse kick towards his face. He caught her foot in his hands and his twisted her leg trying to throw her off balance. Her other foot came up in a flash solidly connecting with his chin.

He released her leg and came back with a third dagger slashing quickly at her exposed leg. It tore flesh it two small spots releasing the black blood she held within. Sophia howled as the Fyndfire covered blade pierced her skin and the amber lit up her leg.

Withdrawing the knife and raising it for another strike, Barros drove it downwards again, but this time Sophia rolled in the dirt to her side avoiding the blow. The knife dug into the dirt and Barros dropped it in order to bring up his mailed arm to fend off her claws. She drove him to the ground her power evident in her movements. The sun was now not red but the Countess was still powerful, and she could easily kill Barros even in her human looking form.

He was a human, strengthen by a lifetime of training, but she was an ancient creature. He couldn’t kill her, not like this. She looked a wreck, blood shot eyes with the swollen black one that Barros had stabbed hidden under her cowl, the robes ripped to shreds. Black blood dripped from several wounds that Barros had inflicted on her. Her raven hair was ripped like a veil of a witch’s dress. This was the closest that Barros had seen a living Vampire to being dead. He pitied her.

'What is it to be my love?' Sophia asked her voice in a hoarse whisper. 'You and I cannot kill each other, we are bonded for life. I concede you have been my toughest opponent Barros. From the moment, you began tracking me in Alilletia I knew it would end like this. Let me go, pretend I am dead; the Hunters should not execute you for treason. Raise our son as if he should be. Teach him not to hate me as you did'.

'It's too late for that Sophia', replied Barros his breath in laboured gasps as well. 'He will be the one to find you and finish you, he will be stronger then I am. Be gone'.

Sophia smelt the air and rose moving away from Barros. 'The old one comes', she hissed. 'Tell him I am dead. You share my curse. May you be prepared'.

Cold dread rushed over Barros as he recalled she had bitten him. Surely, she hadn't left her fangs in him for long enough to pass the venom through to his blood stream. If she had, Barros would now be unconscious on the ground. He couldn’t share her curse now. There just wasn’t enough time. Sophia fled, rushing into a side street her robe flapping around her in the self-cyclonic wind she created when she ran. Barros's eyes followed her. What the hell had he been thinking all of those years ago?

Piero was now approaching, his grey chainmail cloak thrown around his shoulders, crossbows in both hands, both loaded and ready to shoot. He saw Barros covered in both his blood and Sophia's. Racing over pulling a several bandages from his belt, he began to clean Barros.

'What the hell happened?' he asked frantically. 'Where is she, I hope you got her'.

'She’s gone Piero. As you can see the sky is now back to normal’, said Barros.

‘That’s good’, replied Piero looking up. ‘Did you get the amulet she used? We can’t let it lie idle or fall into the wrong hands’.

‘I stabbed it, that’s how the sky returned to normal. She returned into her human form and I stabbed her through the heart. The bitch is dead’.

'Good, good', said Piero helping Barros walk down the street. 'I can finally head back to Anacore now. You want to come with me?' he asked.

'I've got nothing better to do now, if I meet smell any Vampires along the way I'll take them down.

Barros looked at the slightly greying man, green eyes meeting brown eyes. This man would do anything in order to stop the Vampires spreading. Anacore was far to the north through Renor, some of the most dangerous country that could be travelled. Highlanders could spot travellers from kilometres away, rush down from the hills, kill them take anything of value and then vanish again leaving no trace.

'I'll go with you. I've got something to do here first', said Barros. 'I have to take care of my son'.

'Ah the half-breed', said Piero closing his eyes seeming to be in pain. 'What a terrible day it is for the world. What are you going to with him?’

‘I’m going to take care of him as best I can. I fear that I have been afflicted, so I’m taking him to the only person I can trust’, said Barros. ‘I’m taking him to the lake’.

‘Surely not Bulldrag?’ enquired Piero.

‘That’s where he is going and that is where he is going to stay until he is ready’.

‘Fair enough, were is he now?’

‘My house, it’s not far. I’ll need to pack, if you could prepare my horse that would be great’.

They reached the simple house and found Abner asleep in the cot he had been left in. It was a fenced by simple wooden palings with little decoration. Lifting the boy out of it, Barros saw a letter attached to the lower frame. Sophia’s curved handwriting scrolled down the parchment until it reached the bottom.

Barros, it read. By now you should be feeling the early effects of the poison I have developed. I won’t tell you what it is, but I tell you this. Blood is now you’re calling. Our son Abner will not understand who he is until he completes your ritual, and he will be the one to kill me. Until then he won’t know who you or I am. I have given him my memories and until he first drinks he shall not know. Turn him into the weapon you so want him to be. Turn him against his own people, what he truly is. Know this; he will be your downfall. Love eternal, Sophia.

Rage filled Barros; the clever bitch had outsmarted him. Of course his son would be her downfall but his? Impossible.
Piero came inside; the horses had been saddled and was now waiting outside. He stood just inside the door watching Barros think about the letter.

‘Got everything and ready to go?’ he asked. ‘We’re on a tight schedule if we’re to make it to Anacore before the winter arrives’.

‘Of course, let’s go. I’ve got the boy and half of my weaponry; I can always come back later’, said Barros. ‘But it is a shame to leave it behind’.

They left the house mounted accompanied by a pack horse. The sturdy beast was unlike any Barros had seen. It was longer in the leg then every other horse. He pointed this out to Piero.

'Bred that way', he said. 'The monster sized horses from the islands bred with our own. Anacore is the first Huntrey to get em. They run for longer, go faster and can even sometimes track Vampires for us. Dead useful they are'.

'Well I have been out of the loop for a while; I've still got old Pandean here. He'll do me for now', replied Barros as they trotted out of the main gates heading north.

They would need to find a smaller mountainous route parallel to Rhorn Pass if they where to make it to Bulldrag Lake. The ferocious fighting just north of the border between Sauria and Renor would stop them from getting through. Renor soldiers would be pushing south surging into the pass. It was a stalemate, whenever one army made progress the other fought with a savagery that made the other retreat.

The Hunters, leaving Rhorn far into the distance reached the footholds of Rhorn Pass. The mountains loomed over them like a wave overtaking the sands on the beach. Small plumes of smoke rose over them reaching into the heavens where Highlanders made their camps. A rocky path emerged from the tree line, as they grew closer to the foothold. It rose high up into the mountains getting closer to one of the smoke plumes.

'Don’t fancy fighting my way through that’, said Barros looking concerned.

‘Highlanders are easy to deal with if you know how’, said Piero. ‘Easy to find a vampire within them, kill it then be on our way’.
‘Why if we kill one of their own will they let us go? Surely wouldn’t they string us up by our feet and let us hang?

‘Yes, but you have forgotten that the majority of people think we are sorcerers. When the wild men see that we clearly have superior technology to them they will let us pass’.

‘Great plan’, muttered Barros.

Piero gave a judgemental shrug steering his horse up the hill. They rode into the mountains, horses with heads bowed awaiting the oncoming challenge.