The woman up ahead of us, had palest white skin I had ever seen. I wasn’t sure if it was an effect of the moonlight that lit her, but it was almost as if she had a faint glow. It wasn’t just her skin. The woman’s hair was as white as fresh snow too. The only colour on her came from her lips, they were a deep red colour. Her white dress was perfectly matching. If I didn’t already know what it was that waited there for us, I could easily have mistaken her for a goddess, perhaps of the moonlight. As I gazed on, the woman’s lips made a smile.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come looking for me. I thought I was going to have to come and find you. This saves me the effort, thank you.” She said from across the way.

“Don’t engage her!” Serin said turning back to the group for a moment.

“Aren’t we confident?” The vampire woman said before stepping forward.

Her movement wasn’t even a blur, it was more like she vanished into the air with a step. There was just the sound of cutting through the air. When she reappeared, she was stood in front of Serin. Her arm outstretched and hand holding Serin by her chin. Serin didn’t have time to react, her sword twitched as she thought to move.

“Just how did you all manage to escape?” She asked looking along our group. “That hurt by the way.” She said as she made eye contact with me.

The woman was cut off as Beth lunged forward, trying to take her unawares as she spoke. It was no use though, her blade only met with thing air as she moved. The woman reappeared back where we first spotted her.

“Oh, I see, the succubus. That’s how you saw through my magics. I won’t be letting you escape either.” She said talking to Celine and completely ignoring the attack from Beth.

“Liz the fire!” Yelled Serin.

Liz touched her staff with the flame on her hand as she moved them apart, four fireballs hung in the air between them. With a flick of her wrist the balls of flames flew at her, one after the other. The woman just stood on the spot, not even attempting to move. She burst into flames with the impact of the first and the blaze only grew stronger with each fireball. By the time all four had hit her she was a roaring inferno. Liz was still concentrating heavily trying to keep the fires burning.

“Aren’t they vulnerable to fire?” I asked.

“They are.” Answered Beth.

“Then why didn’t she even tried to evade? The speed she moved at before, it wouldn’t have been hard for her.”

“Overconfidence.”

“I hope so.”

My eyes were glued to roaring blaze in front of us. Was that going to be enough to stop her? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, a foot stepped out of the blaze. As it did the flames fizzled out from the bottom up turning into a mist as they did. She lifted an umbrella she had at her side and opened it, sheltering herself from the drops of moisture that were falling around her and then she begun to laugh. There wasn’t the slightest sign of burning on her, not the smallest singe or mark on her clothes. They were still immaculately white.

“Have you underestimated the situation?” She asked with a smile.

Without a word between them, Serin and Beth charged forward. Serin took the right and Beth the left side. They attacked the woman in a pincer movement. The woman closed her umbrella and as Serin dove at her, thrusting her sword, she used it to parry her attacks. At the same time, she was dodging the swings of Beth’s sword with barely a glance at her. Suddenly she got caught the inside of Serin’s rapier and stepped in. She caught Serin in the chest with the end of her umbrella. The strike lifted her off her feet and into the air. She hit the ground a couple of meters away, kicking up a cloud of dust as she did. Serin was hurt, but she was immediately trying to get to her feet. The woman turned to Beth who was still swinging madly and throwing expertly aimed attack after attack at her, only for the woman to dodge them like they were nothing.

An arrow whistled past my head and towards the woman, but this was dodged effortlessly without a glance. Two followed straight after, but the same thing happened again. The woman had now turned her entire attention to Beth. She swung low with the umbrella, Beth successfully dodged the attack, but slightly unbalanced was caught by a side kick. She was sent flying across the ground and only stopped as she hit the wall of the building at the side of the road. The woman then looked at me. My sword was already drawn, but I doubted that I would get a chance to use it after what I had just seen. Without moving from the spot, I shot off “Disorient” as soon as I did the woman disappeared from my sight.

“I don’t think so!” Liz shouted from next to me.

A bolt of electricity shot out from her staff over a large area in front of us. The woman reappeared in the centre, she had been caught by the attack and was pinned to the spot. I glanced over at Liz. Beads of sweat were already beading on her face. Altria shot off an arrow, it hit the woman in the shoulder. She wasn’t even dodging now… Was what I thought, but the impact only seemed to bring her to her senses. Her focus switched to Liz, and she started walking towards her. She didn’t seem to be able to use her high speed movement whilst she was caught in the electrical attack. Liz could see her approaching, but there was little she could do whilst she was using her current technique. Things would probably only be worse if she stopped.

I almost stepped forward and swung my blade at the woman. I remembered just in time what would happen if I swung the metal weapon in the electric field and pulled back. As I did the woman sped forward and planted the umbrella in Liz’s gut. She was knocked to the ground and her attack ceased. She then turned to me. She closed the distance between us before I could even move my blade between us. There was a clang as she deflected two daggers thrown behind by Altria and then her hand closed around my throat. Just as I thought I was done, Beth and Serin managed to get to their feet. The three girls were converging around us all at once. With the woman stuck on the spot whilst she held me, we might stand a chance. Trying to make the most of the situation, I threw my arms around her and squeezed as hard as I could.

“Now’s your chance!” I shouted.

The girls all sprung forward in a coordinated movement. They were only a couple of steps away when it happened. She didn’t move an inch, but I was hit from above by what felt like a heavy weight. I tried to resist as I was pressed down by the great force. I wasn’t the only one, the girls had all slowed to a stop and were slowly being pushed to the ground. I could feel my grip on the woman loosening. Before long, my hands parted, and I was thrust to my knees. I tried to grip the hilt of my sword, but I could barely move. Seeing this the woman began to laugh.

“Well, you did try.” She said whilst lowering herself to my level. “I was going to save you for a while, but I suppose I won’t. I don’t want a repeat of before.”

She held me by my chin and the forced my head a little to the side. The next thing I knew was the pain shooting from my neck as she bit down on me. The pain only lasted a moment, then I felt nothing. I could, however, feel the life draining from my body. Oh, is this how it’s going to end then? I could barely move an inch and the longer she drank my blood the closer I got to losing my consciousness. The rest of the party were still pinned down, by the invisible force of her technique. Even if they could move, I doubted that they would be able to save me from this. I took in a deep breath and my heavy eyelids began to close.