CHAPTER 27: TRUE NATURES (HELL HOUNDS VS DEATHBORNE)

STREETS OF DOWNTOWN, NEXERIA

Black Duchess turns around and looks up, seeing the two vampyres looking down at them.

“One seems like a vampyre, the other is something ancient… close to a vampyre but not quite. This will take some time to heal him. Go see what they want, and come back in one piece; putting you both back together is time-consuming. Just make sure they don’t disrupt me.” She says, keeping her focus healing Mafisto.

“Don’t vex my amour. My brother of bone and I will handle this occurrence.” Zombato stands next to Deadhead.

“The next rodeo, huh, laddie?” Deadhead smiles at Zombato.

“I never know when one ends and the next one begins. Let’s mosey.” Zombato smiles back at Deadhead.

Zombato shoots a giant bone lance up to the rooftops and signals his friend to go first. Deadhead and then Zombato run up the bone lance to the top of the roof where they meet with the two vampyres.

ROOFTOPS OF DOWNTOWN, NEXERIA

“I’m glad to see you could join us up here. We were getting bored up here waiting for you to realize you were being watched.” Banus says with a pompous tone in his voice.

“You could have hollered at us. I mean, we have a lot of capabilities, but mind reading is not in our repertoire.” Zombato snaps back at them.

“The Lad here is right. Now what business do you have with stalking us? That isn’t polite.” DeadHead follows up.

“Apologies for that. But that man you protect is with the Saurcle, is he not?” Vamyn says, staring at Zombato fiercely.

“Formerly of their employ. Spies and an assassin have been trying to conclude us all evening.” Zombato replies, looking down at Mafisto being healed.

“They can’t be serious, Vamyn; if this new group is anything like the one we faced before, they’re blindly loyal. It must be a ruse.” Banus says skeptically.

“Banus, calm yourself. We don’t know everyone’s story. If he has left the Saurcle, then you can leave him with us. I am Vamyn Pyrellor of the Deathborne. I’m here to protect the city.” He responds; his gaze not leaving Zombato.

“Ah, so you’re Vamyn; I was hired to hunt your alliance, but the client fell to pieces. He was full of fecal matter, in my judgment. I am Zombato and this is Jonny DeadHead, both of the Hell Hounds. Now, I understand you want to protect him and clearly want information out of him; but he’s in no shape for that. Also, I’d feel dreadful if I put the target on your back; after all The Saurcle attacks on him. So, if you truly think you can protect him better than I can. Prove it. Let’s brawl.” Zombato verbally throws down the gauntlet.

“Laddie, you talk so eloquently for someone who’s called the Master of Messes. Heh heh.” DeadHead chuckles at his friend.

“Jonny, be quiet. I’m attempting to start a bat…” Zombato gets punched in the face by Vamyn before he could finish his sentence.

“I won’t turn down a challenge, and I need answers for many things besides just The Saurcle.” Vamyn says with his fist in Zombato’s face.

“Laddie!” Deadhead yells toward his friend. He quickly dodges a dagger that was coming at his leg.

“I’m sorry; if it were any other day besides today, I’d let you pummel him. However, it’s a new day and I’m a bit rusty. I hope you don’t mind the sparing match.” Banus says, holding a sword in his hand.

“Well, I haven’t had a one-on-one battle in quite some time, fella.” Deadhead pulls out his bone guitar with sharp blades on the sides, holding it like an axe.

“So let’s make some music!”

Banus charges at Deadhead with his sword pulled back in his hands. He throws the sword at Deadhead, who deflects the blade with the side of his guitar and stabs it into the ground. Deadhead looks for Banus, who disappeared from the front of his vision. Banus comes striking down from the air holding a gothic-looking axe. Deadhead holds his hand out and grabs the axe’s blade with his bare hand. Banus lets go of the axe and stabs Deadhead in the stomach with a hidden blade equipped on his wrist.

“Heh heh, nice moves fella. Too bad I’m all bones.” Deadhead smirks and whacks his vampyric opponent across his face with his bone guitar.

The hidden blade breaks off in Deadhead’s stomach area as Banus rolls across the rooftop. He rubs his face and stands up smirking.

“Hahaha! This is great! You guys should have come sooner! I haven’t lived in half a century, just been stuck moping in a chair. I hope you have a strong backbone, because my blood is boiling!” The hot-blooded vampyre charges at Deadhead again.

“Wow! Pain is overflowing through your soul. It’s screaming at me.” Zombato says each word after dodging quick strike after quick strike from Vamyn. The zombie ninja jumps back and flips away from Vamyn to put some distance between them on the rooftop.

“I’m thankful that I’m a living corpse right now, or else that soul read would have killed me.” The zombie says with a hint of flippancy.

“Ah, Zombato; now I get it. You’re a member of the Dead Stars, the zombie ninja faction. The soul read technique I’ve heard stories about; you learn your opponent’s true nature through battle. Now things are making sense. Well, if you want my true nature; then let me show you my true nature.” The ancient vampyre’s eyes glow red, and his claws extend out of his fingers.

“I see you’re well-traveled, too. It’s no small feat to know about the Dead Stars.” The dead star ninja replies; his eyes glowing yellow.

“I acknowledge to the 8 deities I’ve met thus far that I can scrap without tiring because it has been an endless day of brawls. If you want to show more, then I’ll oblige, too.” He rips out his humerus from his right arm and reforms it into a blade.

He quickly blocks the slashing vampyre coming at him. Zombato kicks Vamyn away from him and charges straight at him with a thrust of his bone blade. Vamyn backhands the sword swiftly deflecting the attack and follows up with a slash of his other hand across Zombato’s face. Blood drips down from Zombato’s face.

“Your celerity is quite high, but every fiber of this demented decay are instruments of destruction.” Zombato puts his hand under his bleeding face, making it fall into his palm. The blood stretches and extends into a solid blade. Zombato slashes with the bone blade at Vamyn, who blocks with both of his claws. He impales Vamyn’s knee with his blood blade, stabbing it into the ground. Vamyn grunts in pain; he uses it to gather more strength from within and push Zombato some distance away from him. He pushes his leg through the blade and runs at Zombato faster than before. His eyes glow brighter red, his leg heals fast, and his claws sharpen more. Zombato stands stunned at the sheer speed and resilience of Vamyn coming at him. He cannot react fast enough that he gets his body cut in two pieces diagonally by his vampyric rival; a weird.

“The Dead Stars trained you well. However; do not underestimate my decades of experience. I will protect anyone I give my vow to.” Vamyn says, standing tall and unwavering.

Zombato’s top half of his body moves towards Vamyn, making him raise an eyebrow in curiosity. His body grabs Vamyn with the one arm still connected and slams him backwards head first into the roof. Zombato crawls using his one arm and upper torso to the other half of his body.

“I regret to inform you the 50% off sale ended early. I’m a full price item.” Zombato says, reconnecting his two parts together.

Vamyn gets up off the ground and stares at Zombato; starting to chuckle.

“You’re definitely nothing like what I was expecting. You’re worth the price of admission.”

“I am some ravishing remains; quite the high end haunt, if I say so myself.” Zombato says with his own undead charm.

“You just have to be one of those people, don’t you? Heh heh.” Vamyn continues to chuckle.

“And what is that?” Zombato asks him.

“Another jaunty loon.” Vamyn turns around.

“To my knowledge; jaunty loons are the highest quality of people. Indubitably, we have T-shirts with that printed on them.” Zombato chuckles.

“Ha ha, oh course they do. We should check on our allies; see if they haven’t destroyed each other yet.” Vamyn heads off on his way.

“Well, if they’re having a murder dance akin to us, we might have to put them back together again, heh heh.” Zombato follows him.