“Drop those damn knives and start punching!”

Katie raised her eyebrows when she distinctly heard Harrison’s words. That advice made her a little concerned for the sanity of the old vampire. Maybe his age was really getting to him? Ah well...either way, it was a suggestion she was all too happy to oblige. 

Chucking her Branch Blades at the Basilisk and watching them bounce harmlessly off its armor, Katie raised her fists again and started unloading on the tail. The armor, which her magic enhanced blades couldn’t pierce easily cracked under her hits, drawing waves of pained, ear-piercing growls from the Basilisk. 

Wow...the old vampire was actually helpful! Katie could barely believe it!

Another punch landed on the tail. This time, like many times before, Katie’s fist went right into a sharp fur, impaling the entire limb for a brief second and drawing a lot of blood. Ignoring it, Katie pulled the fist back and went for another punch. The second punch landed on the same piece of the appendage as before. 

This time, the armor cracked, and the flesh underneath bled. 

Harrison sensed the blood immediately. After all, he was a vampire, and vampires were the masters of blood. The lucky thing for him was that his memory trick didn't need the owner of the blood to be dead to work. The Basilisk could be alive and kicking, and all Harrison needed was some of its blood. The more, the merrier. 

As soon as the blood was out in the open, and more importantly, there was an open wound, Harrison reached out with his powers. As a vampire, he could easily control and manipulate blood. Any blood, theoretically. Unfortunately for him, the magic-canceling effect of the runes of the intact armors around the wound was still working against him, nullifying his efforts. 

Katie wasn’t too certain about what Harrison was doing. All she knew was that she had a giant, durable target to punch, and she wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. Again and again, she struck down mercilessly on the same tail that was still pinning her against the wall. Her strength was only enhanced by the beating she had taken. 

The Basilisk had obviously not faced an enemy like Katie before. It had faced self-healers in the past, but his past foes were nothing that a few crushing blows and stomps couldn’t end. This made him make the mistake of trading blows with Katie, trying to exhaust her before she could get to him. 

The tactic was fair, especially when considering that the Basilisk was as big as a building and Katie was a decent-sized human.

Unfortunately, Katie was anything but an ordinary person. 

As more and more fur and armor cracked, Harrison’s efforts were finally paying off. A drop of blood defied gravity and flew out of the open wound.

That was just the beginning. The first drop was followed by a second, and then a third. One by one, these drops of blood flew to the old vampire on the ground. 

The Basilisk screeched. For a long time, most of its attention was occupied by Katie. The two puny vampires, creatures that couldn’t even make him feel pain with their most powerful attacks, were ignored. After all, the beast was designed to slaughter magic users. It was entities like Katie that could rip a supernatural being in two with her bare hands that it was concerned about. 

But as the Basilisk saw its blood slowly leaving its body, the beast grew a little concerned. It didn't know what the vampires were doing, but it did know they shouldn’t be allowed to succeed. 

Katie had occupied the beast’s tail, so the Basilisk tried another way of stopping the vampires. Across a part of its body facing the two vampires, muscles contracted before suddenly springing into action, sending a wave of arrow-like furs at the Culls. Each piece of fur was as long as an arrow bolt as they rained down on the vampires. 

Harrison was still occupied with trying to bleed the several-story tall beast dry, but Jake had been keeping an eye on the surroundings. It was too late for Harrison to get out of the way now. Facing the incoming attack, the younger vampire sprung into action. He stepped in between his father and the incoming projectiles without hesitation and gathered whatever blood was in the proximity and formed a shield in front of him. 

He forgot one thing. The furs, just like the carapace of the Basilisk, were covered with runes. Runes designed to nullify any magic they came across. The blood shield that Jake Cull placed so much faith in collapsed on contact, and the bolts barely lost any strength.

Then again, perhaps Jake suspected this was going to happen, because instead of hitting his father, who was the only vampire in the trio that could draw memories from blood, they hit him. 

Several furs mercilessly penetrated Jake Cull’s body. In a sense, Jake was successful in his objective. The projectiles didn't have enough power to go through his physical body. Yet that came at a high cost. The arrows carved into his body were more than enough to kill him. If he could heal himself in time, then he had some hope left, but the radiating runes on the arrows ensured that would never happen. 

Vampires were creatures of magic, making them extra easy targets against anti-magic rounds.

As his son collapsed on the ground, Harrison, whose attention had been focused on the Basilisk’s bleeding tail, snapped around. Everything happened so quickly, and by the time Harrison realized what was going on, it was already too late. His son was as good as dead. He could’ve gotten out of the way, but he stood his ground instead to protect his father, who never could’ve gotten out of the attack range in time. And now he was dying. A cry of anguish left Harrison’s lips as the always composed vampire collapsed on his knees and held onto his dying son’s body. 

“No...no...Jake! Wake up! Wake up, damn you!” 

Harrison had expected something like this to happen before coming down here. In fact, he knew there was a chance for both of them to be wiped out by the Basilisk without any achievement, which would’ve happened if Katie wasn’t here. Yet, knowing something was very different from having that thing actually happening, and for a moment, the father was broken. 

He reached out and grabbed onto the runed arrows and tried to pull them out, but it was too late. Without their magic, vampires were essentially as vulnerable as human beings, and no human could take a dozen arrows and live. Jake’s empty eyes stared at his father, but he couldn’t make out another word before his life came to an end. 

Thundering footsteps came from the side. The Basilisk, seeing that he wasn’t able to kill Harrison with the projectiles, decided to do things more personally. Intending on finishing off the vampires first, the Basilisk tossed Katie to the ground with its tail before turning and charging toward Harrison. 

Unlike Katie, Harrison didn't stand a chance against the Basilisk in melee. The difference in size meant that the Basilisk could crush Harrison under its feet with one casual step. Yet Harrison remained where he was, on his knees and holding onto his son. He knew that he should move out of the way. That he should keep fighting and try to finish what he came down here to do. What his son died for. This was what Jake died for. Yet, he just didn't feel like moving. He was so tired…

The footsteps came closer and closer. At the last moment, the MVP of the team finally arrived. At first, Katie was swatted on the ground again, but she quickly recovered and got back up. 

When she saw Harrison essentially giving up on everything, she was more than disappointed. Really? That’s it? I have been fighting against this goliath for you and you just want to give up? After all that talk of saving your people and ending this war? Sure...your powers are useless against this beast and your son was slaughtered like a defenseless lamb...but that was irrelevant!

Just before the Basilisk could step on the old vampire, Katie launched herself into action. She jumped in from the side and slammed into Harrison, sending the old man flying away and landing somewhere safe. Before she could get out herself, the Basilisk slammed one of its legs down on her. It was enough to crush Katie’s entire lower body against the solid ground. 

“Ahhhhh!” Katie screamed. If it was anyone else in this position, they might as well shoot themselves in the head and end their suffering, but for Katie...again, this was merely a flesh wound! She grabbed onto the ground and pulled her upper body away from the leg. Once she was free, her legs and lower body started growing back again. 

The excruciating process could drive most people mad, but all it did was give Katie yet another power boost.

For a while, the Basilisk stood there and growled victoriously. From its perspective, it was under the impression that both Katie and Harrison were completely crushed, like the body of Jake Cull. It couldn’t see the two due to the angle of its eyes. 

This gave the pair some time to go over their plan. 

Katie practically crawled to Harrison. Her legs were still in the process of growing back, but that didn't stop her from talking. “So...condolences, by the way. Also...back to the important things, you got the blood you need?” 

Harrison stared blankly at Katie for a brief moment before somewhat recovering from the shock. He shook his head slowly. 

“No. Not enough to have a sufficient chance of success, at least. This thing...it is more powerful than anything I expected! And the runes...I have never seen anything like them! How are we going to beat that thing!”

“A simple ‘no’ would suffice.” Katie rolled her eyes. She knew Harrison wasn’t the calmest person right now, but come on! We’re on a timer here! She could see the Basilisk raising its gigantic legs, ready to get back into the cave. The pair of them could hide on the bloody battlefield and try to escape into the tunnels when they could, or…

The situation here was indeed quite dire. First of all, the Basilisk was bigger than anything Harrison expected. That fact that it was impervious to magic made Harrison, a powerful magic user, practically useless. Katie was the only saving grace, but as strong and fast as she was, there was only so much she could do against a beast the size of a building. 

That was like trying to knock down an office building by shooting at it with an automatic rifle. Rifles were powerful and they could penetrate quite a number of walls, but it would still take ages to take the building down. 

But Katie didn't want to turn and run. No...she didn't care about what happened 10 years ago before she knew about it, but now that she did...there was no way she was missing out! 

Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea. A brilliant, and potentially very bloody, idea.

“The blood of the Basilisk…” She turned to Harrison. “Any chance that it is magic resilient? Can blood magic work on that?”

Harrison looked at Katie like she had gone mad. Well, madder. “How do you carve runes into liquid blood? And the Basilisk is still an animal. Of course blood magic works on blood! But we have to get through that layer of carapace first, and that’s not happening!” 

“Again, a simple yes would suffice,” Katie replied. At this point, her legs were back again. She covered her entire body with a layer of red branches before snapping at the traumatized old man. “Ever seen the Avengers?”

“What? The movie?” 

“Yes, the movie.” Katie tilted her head before gesturing for the tunnels. “Go hide in one of them. The scene is about to get a whole lot messier. I don’t want to have killed the Basilisk, only to find you dead and everything to be ultimately in vain.”

Harrison stared into Katie’s eyes to see if she was serious. What could she do to the Basilisk when all three of them couldn’t take it out when they worked together? Although, to be fair, the fight was mostly Katie alone going against the Basilisk. Either way, the old vampire nodded slowly. 

As the Basilisk was making its way back to its cave, the old vampire went into motion, dragging his broken body across the battlefield that was unsurprisingly lacking in terms of blood. As he walked, he stole a glance at the pile of crushed flesh and bone that used to be the body of his son. 

The old vampire’s fists were tight. 

As Harrison reached the safety of the tunnels, Katie stood back up, stumbling a little in the process before steadying herself with her brand new legs. She tilted her head and cracked her wrists. 

“Hey!” She suddenly called out loudly, attracting the attention of the Basilisk. Even as the Basilisk was turning around to see what was going on, the brunette suddenly charged forward. This time, she was running right into one of the legs of the beast at full speed. The fur at that area was gone from the previous fighting, revealing a layer of dark carapace underneath. 

Without a moment of hesitation, Katie smashed right into the carapace. The sheer impact by someone of her strength and speed was enough to dent the carapace. There was only a small crack at first, but Katie quickly changed that as she punched into the carapace again and again with all the force she had at her disposal. She was fast too, landing several hits in a second. 

Before the Basilisk knew what was happening, a piece of carapace on its leg was removed. Katie tore that layer of armor right off, and the runes engraved on the plating did nothing against her brute physical force. 

And then, with two Branch Blades in her hand, Katie started carving through the now unprotected flesh of the Basilisk. 

It was important to put things into perspective. The Basilisk was big. Really big. It was tall and long enough to be a giant in front of Katie. To the beast, Katie was nothing more than an insect. An insect that it could crush while barely moving. That was why someone as strong as Katie couldn’t take it down from the outside. It would take Katie ages just to reach anything important. She could snap bones and crush flesh, but the Basilisk had so much bone and flesh that it wouldn’t matter for a long, long time. 

But this time, Katie wasn’t trying to cut the Basilisk’s leg off or create a fatal wound. She knew she wouldn’t have too long before the Basilisk realized what happened and moved that leg, which would simply ruin everything. Instead, all she did was carve her blades into the beast as deep as she could manage. 

Once a wound was opened, Katie took a deep breath and crawled inside.