Lavinia drew a claw over her palm once again, cutting deeper this time around so it doesn’t heal in a flash. She squeezes the blood out, letting it pool in her palm before willing Essence to soak it and then, “Rise.”

She gave it a moment, allowing herself to be patient with her newfound abilities but all the blood pooled in her palm does is slink back through the wound, closing it as it recedes. It was far from the result she sought but at the same time it was a new attribute she didn’t have before— as long as her blood was close by it would crawl its way back to her, seeping through the pores of her skin to become whole with her. It didn’t use to do that before and while she was glad that blood loss wouldn’t be so much of a concern for her now, it still frustrated her to no end that the Blood wouldn’t move at her command.

With a huff, she set her hand aside and looked at the camp below. It functioned the same as it had two nights ago when she found it, except now Lavinia knew each path and routine of the Kimpe and Simak below. Every eight hours or so the patrolling Kimpe would switch positions with another in favour of rest or weapon training. The grey skinned, lanky Simaks hammered away at their anvils without break, filling the forest with the sounds of their smites and the roar of their furnaces. They drew on the metal once it was red hot, inscribing runes as they chanted some strange string of words or another before setting the metal to rest in mud fetched by the weakest of the Kimpe.

The camps armoury doubled in size with each night that passed and all the Kimpe in the camp were fitted with weapons; fists, chainwhips and broad axes of their choosing. Watching them arm themselves brought some anxiety to Lavinia as she whiled away her time in the trees, at this point the Essence she’d absorbed from the Kimpe she hunted had settled into her Soul Crystal, becoming part of the whole. Now she thirsted for the Essence within the Soul Crystal hidden in her boot but resisted because as it turns out, Seraph and Jonn are alive.

She couldn’t speak for their wellbeing but the night she spoke into her ring Seraph’s voice hushed back at her a moment later. She spouted orders quickly, urging Lavinia to sit and wait for a signal rather than charge in for their rescue— not that she could get away with stepping foot in the camp.

Her encounter with the last Kimpe had been painful and despite coming out on top in the end Lavinia knew she couldn’t risk taking on multiple of these deceptive demons. Perhaps if her new ability worked like it was supposed to she could stand a chance, kill them all before dying herself but the Blood wouldn’t move to her commands.

Whatever signal Seraph meant to give had not made itself known even as the sky began to brighten, illuminating the camp for a new day of smithing, training and likely torturing Lavinia’s Trirax teammates. Her patience began to wane as she lost faith in the two rather weak demons. What could they do against the Kimpe in their imprisoned state? How would the signal look if there truly was one coming?

Inwardly Lavinia knew she only needed to devour something, she thought about going back to where she defeated the last Kimpe and feast on the remnants of its corpse but that would take her away from her post and she could miss this signal. Moreover, Lavinia didn’t enjoy stale, rotting flesh, the hunt had to be fresh for her enjoyment and she’d perched herself in a tree closest the camp with an abundant of leaves to disguise her presence while she stalked the Kimpe patrolling around the perimeter below.

Gritting her teeth, she bore with the growing hunger, as a Crimson the hunger came fierce at her stomach but in truth she only needed Essence to continue existing. Her thoughts of Deran’s steaks and kebabs are broken away when the largest Kimpe struts out of the tent in the centre of the camp. The brutish demon barked orders at the nearest demons and they got to it, running over to unlock a cage that sat near the smiting Simaks to release three emaciated Dire Wolves.

They weren’t the challenging monsters Lavinia faced through the journey in the forest. These hadn’t eaten in days it seemed and the prideful glare and bloodthirst she found in the monster she battled was nowhere to be found in these. The Kimpe in charge fetched some fly riddled slabs of meat and tossed it at the three from a bucket and poured out the mud-like water in a large basin for the creatures while another Kimpe quickly saddled them up as they ate.

The Kimpe in command barely let the wolves finish devouring the paltry meal before mounting them with a team of four others. He barks something at the working Simaks Lavinia strains to hear before charging out.

Did he say Corym?

The troupe galloped past her tree at the fastest pace the three skinny wolves could manage, leaving the camp full of Simak that merely continued their work at their anvils and a handful of Kimpe to guard the camp and especially the tent.

One…three…four of them left. Lavinia narrows at the Kimpe strolling into position a few paces away from her tree and licks her lips. This was her chance. If she’s quiet she could kill this one silently and lure the others outside the camp. Maybe that was the signal, those Kimpe leaving.

She takes a breath and plucks a bunch of leaves from the tree, deliberating whether or not this fell in line with Seraph’s plan. Doesn’t matter. One less Kimpe is good enough. She balls up the leaves and as the Kimpe starts to stroll away she tosses it, landing it on its head.

Growling, the Kimpe crouches up and picks the ball of leaves, glaring suspicion at the forest but never looking up. It tosses the ball away and returns to its patrol only for another ball to bounce of its head. This time it roars out at the forest, yellow eyes glowing menace as it knuckle-walked over to inspect behind the trees.

Finding nothing, the Kimpe snarls and turns its back on the forest but when Lavinia presses her hand on its shoulder it goes completely still as her claws dug into its neck one after the other. She stripped the Kimpe of the axe it carried around like a toy and took a good sniff of the terror running through its blood before leading it into the thick of the forest.

“Where are they?”

The Kimpe trembled against the tree she pressed its face to, she wouldn’t let it set those yellow eyes on her, “You. You’re the one then.” It says, a creeping chuckle in its voice, “Vampiric Demon you have no place here!”

“Grrr!” Lavinia let her claws all the way through its thick neck until they burst out the other side and pressed together. Ripping away its throat Lavinia let the Kimpe’s body fall, headless and dead. She hated to waste any more time and the damned thing sounded stubborn even with her leaning against it. She threw away its irritating head, not hungry enough to bother eating the disgusting part that mouthed off to her and searched for its Soul Crystal while slicing up its flesh in strips for a quick bite.

She found the Crystal at the base of its tail and ripped the entire thing off, tucking away the Soul Crystal in her other boot just in time to hear the brewing commotion in their camp.

They couldn’t already know one of them is missing. Hopping into the trees Lavinia chewed her meal rapidly and took in the sight of the now burning centred tent. The Simak had stopped working to gather water and mud to put it out and the Kimpe rushed in rather than out. A fiery red beam smashed into one, sending it flying and setting other tents on fire in the process.

Grinning, Lavinia plucked her dagger from her side, “Finally.”

{T-2/L-3— Kimpe}
{T-2/L-2— Kimpe}
{T-2/L-3— Kimpe}

Lavinia set her dagger ahead, marking the Kimpe struggling to pick themselves up from what had to be Seraph’s beam. There were Simak scrambling around as well but she didn’t bother any with them as they didn’t bother with her; their interests switched from preserving the camp to preserving their smiting tools once she landed and cut at the ankles of the Kimpe crawling away from her feet now.

The ugly, fur bound demon snarled and surged Essence to those accursed yellow eyes but Lavinia is already upon it, her dagger shimmering in the dark smog as Essence coursed through it. She slashed across its face, splitting the demons head in two with the trail of darkness extending from her blade, ending it before it has a chance to cast any illusions.

Fire spread fast, cutting through the camp as Simak’s ran amok and the leftover Kimpe picked their weapons to defend what would soon be a smouldering mess. Their scowls told her they didn’t fear the fire, but the intense heat put her on an edge she’d never felt before, it crackles and seared through everything without discrimination and yet her target was the centre of the building maelstrom.

Seraph and Jonn won’t be able to get out at this rate. The tent was sturdy built with some metal parts guiding its structure and all keeping the flaps of cloth that burned clung to it. They’ll suffocate.

The Kimpe to her left and right scraped their axes against the ground, pulling the metals through the fire turning it red hot even as their fur singed from proximity. Lavinia took a sharp breath, careful not to inhale the fumes and dashed at the Kimpe lurking behind her for a surprise attack. The demon snarled, then barked at the challenge, pumping the silver gloves with Essence it came alive with a green, wispy flame.

It punched as Lavinia sprinted towards it, discharging balls of fire at her head. Narrowly dodging the first Lavinia swells Essence in her hand and catches the second, gritting away the scorching agony she screams in her charge, “Reais Smite!”

The Kimpe meets her head on and catches her smite, a bad idea for it as Lavinia’s Essence cracks through its flaming silver glove and shatters its wrists. Howling, the Kimpe stumbles away but Lavinia hounds after him, sensing its approaching allies behind her she slides underneath it, slicing at its ankles with her dagger and snatching its tail as she rises behind it.

As she thought, the two axe wielding Kimpe were charging through the smouldering camp at her and their comrade. Taking another sharp breath, Lavinia pulls the Kimpe’s tail around its neck, strangling the life out of it as she drew it away from its charging allies.

An axe whirls at her head and she ducks behind her captured Kimpe, letting it take the hit and gasping as a burst of Essence explodes the demon before she can kill it herself. Its corpse falls out of her grip, its head and a chunk of its shoulder blown away to expose her.

They only care about killing me. Her grin only grows at the thought as she dashes away from the corpse and the axe, letting the daring Kimpe retrieve its weapon. She trains her eyes to the other, it watched her every move as she danced through the crackling fires to flank them on the other side where the centre tent continued to smoulder. The fire begun to strip bend the metal with loud groans. Got to end this quick!

Lavinia leapt in the air, dagger poised as she soared but eyes narrowed at the fiend that threw its axe. The Kimpe watching her growled and surged with Essence, running up to meet her where she’d land but in a blink she was gone, disappeared from the air and materialized above her true mark, “Crimson Blink, Reais Smite!”

She dropped with all the force of her jump and more, slashing her Essence enflamed claws across the unsuspecting Kimpe, rending through its thick hide and cutting through to bone as she lands. Cut into four pieces the Kimpe managed to let out a gasping groan before blood pooled up from its body, head and torso split in four unequal, barely tethered pieces.

Lavinia let out a huff as she gripped her dagger close. She hasn’t spent this much Essence before, but then again she never had this much before now. Her grin remained as she licks spilt blood from her face and leers at the Kimpe left.

The axe in its hand slips as it falters. Lavinia takes a menacing step forward and it stumbles back, tripping on the first Kimpe she killed and before it can balance itself a fiery blast bores an instantly cauterized hole in its chest and knocks it forward. It falls flat on its face, revealing her teammates battered and beaten behind it.

Although Lavinia fantasizes often of devouring them the sight of Seraph and Jonn stuns her to an odd, breath-taking silence. Her single eye smokes from the fiery beam she sent through the last Kimpe but she hangs over Jonn’s shoulders, legless and with her left arm torn from its socket. Jonn got away with less but his eye is nearly sealed shut from swelling that covers his entire face, their shawls, boots and rings are nowhere to be found.

Jonn buckles and takes Seraph to the ground with him, spurning Lavinia out of her shock to dash for her teammates, “You…” she couldn’t find the words if any to say to them, but then as Jonn looks up at her, his eye crinkling into a smile and offers a thumbs up she recalls Seraph’s last words to her at the camp and chokes out, “I…I am sorry, Seraph, Jonn.”

Jonn lays Seraph on the floor, looking over his shoulder as remnant Simak run about with their valuables, he shakes his head and reaches for Lavinia’s help to stand, “We need to move, their captain is headed back to Corym with what little he learned and…he found the ring, we can’t warn Ulx about it.”

“What?”

Seraph coughs up blood, wipes her mouth and glares up at Lavinia, “Chase them, kill them before they get to Corym and inform their Prime. If their Prime knows we’ve discovered one of their posts then…he won’t hesitate anymore, he’ll take Corym for himself and the Simak. Maybe the Caldri will abandon us too, I don’t know but…you have to stop them, Lavinia!”

Jonn steps behind her, “I’ll help, I was saving this to show Ulx, let him know that I’m more than a coward. I guess this is how I do it.” His words only bring confusion to Lavinia as she attempts to turn but he straps his arm through her armpit, locking it in place as he heaves, “You’re really heavy so…don’t expect me to go too far.”

Lavinia catches the nod Seraph gives him and then with gust the ground escapes her feet, Seraph shrinks to a distance and torrents of high wind whip her hair in her face, “Jonn! You can fly!”