Rukh's Condie Petie (open)

[cielo]

Rukh didn't know why there was a vampire in Condie Petie. He figured that, mayhaps, this bangaa had been infected by some bloodsucker just passing through. That was pretty likely, actually, because he'd never heard of a vampire in a mining town.

He'd been wandering between Alexandria's isles, taking care of a few stray ghosts, and there had been a particularly determined zombie infestation he'd cleared out in Burmecia, which had threatened to become a full-blown town takeover.

But, well, here he was. Facing down a new experience.

"C'mon," said the bangaa, crouched low and looking quite menacing in the dim moonlight. "C'mon, kiddy, show me what you got. Or, you could go quietly."

Rukh, despite his fear, recited out loud something that had been drilled into his head over the past ten years: "Never, ever give up."

The bangaa gave a lizardlike smile made more eerie by elongated fangs. Apparently all the teeth this bangaa in particular had were canines. "You know how to usssse that?" the bangaa asked, gesturing at Rukh's sword. It was simple. Much like a Defender with silver mixed in.

"Not really," he lied.

"Oh."

The vampire rushed him.

[DarkValkyr]

"Stop!" shouted out a young girl's voice. The next thing coming after that was a Holy spell aimed at the Vampire. The girl stood not far from them, dressed in simple clothes that matched her yellow neck-length hair.

[Aredjay]

A frozen silver-tipped arrow, augmented by an unnatural wind current, also came whizzing in the Bangaa's direction. Its source would seem to be well-hidden, were it not for the loud coughing coming from behind a large bush, which was immediately followed by two (apparently female) voices trying to shush the sickly one.

[cielo]

Rukh shielded his eyes from the Holy spell, a stark contrast to the midnight darkness, and in that moment the vampire bowled through the casting and took some minor damage, narrowly avoided the arrow, and tackled the boy to the ground.

Now, Rukh didn't consider himself the best fighter in the world, and that was definitely correct. That, and vampires were tough, while bangaa were heavy and naturally strong. But he impressed himself in the next few moments by successfully bracing himself against the ground with arms, head and back, thrusting his knee up to the bangaa's chest, kicking, and following through with another shove-kick. This gave Rukh enough room to maneuver to his feet with a surprisingly nimble roll and bring his blade up in time to parry a punch by a fluke.

He didn't have time to look around at his helpers, because, well, he was fighting something with a lot of pointy teeth.

[DarkValkyr]

Lyra gasped. "What do I do?" she muttered frantically and waved her arms. She gathered enough thought and decided to cast a Curaga at both of them.

[Aredjay]

Another arrow was fired at the vampire from the bush, this time covered in a sticky phlegm-like substance. No ice or wind accopmanied it; instead, a thin layer of ice began to encase Rukh's blade before apparently fusing with it.

[cielo]

Rukh, narrowly ducking another claw attack, found his cuts and scrapes healed over. The bangaa, rather than show signs of intense physical harm, stopped his attack and looked very uncomfortable.

He got better, and when he did, he instead charged the girl Lyra. There was no way Rukh could possibly catch up to stop him, but he figured that something that moved quicker than most legs could carry was something being thrown.

He'd been taught not to throw swords. Swords were meant for hitting things up close. Throwing knives were meant for throwing. Cases of successfully hitting a moving target with a thrown sword were remarkably scarce.

Rukh threw his sword.

The bangaa dropped to its knees just two yards away from Lyra, ice-and-silver augmented blade sticking point-first out of its heart at an awkward angle. The bangaa groaned and tried getting to his feet, but by now Rukh had run over and plowed his head into the dust with a well-aimed boot, retrieved his sword, and sheathed it in the bangaa in a more appropriate spot: the head, of course after moving his boot.

[DarkValkyr]

Lyra gasped as she saw the Vangaa coming at her, but was even more shocked to see the sword suddenly splash out of his chest, then the impale on the head. She lifted her palm onto her head. "Oh dear," she said. "This is so dreadful..." she looked like she was going to faint, but instead sat on the ground instead.

[Aredjay]

Seeing that the Bangaa had been slain, three figures appeared out of the nearby bush: a young archer who seemed equally as grossed out as Lyra; a blue-tinted woman in martial arts garb, and a pale, green-tinted man with a wheezing cough and tatters. They walked (or hobbled) over to Rukh and Lyra.

"You two all right?" inquired the blue one.

[DarkValkyr]

The girl's head whirled over to see the three other people. "Um, yes, I think so, thank you." she bowed.

[cielo]

Rukh cleaned his sword on the vampire's shirt and sheathed it before replying. "Yeah, thanks for that. They don't exactly get any easier to rekill."

He gave the bangaa a glance. The corpse was quickly fading into a fine powder.

[DarkValkyr]

"Won't Vampires come back if we leave it long enough...?" Lyra asked, concerned for the town.

[Aredjay]

"Not if we do this," replied the archer, withdrawing a Phoenix Down from her pocket. She dropped it on the vampire's remains, and they disappeared in a burst of light.

[cielo]

"Usually just scattering the ashes works, too."

He held out a hand to the archer and priestess and smiled. "I'm Rukh."

[Aredjay]

(OOC: Okay, that's annoying. I was posting, and it redirects me to some random search engine. So I lost my post.

THEN, it redirected me to the main forum page. >_<)

The girl took Rukh's hand and shook it.

"Kaitlyn Auron. Behind me are Serac and Gasp. We run a projectile shop in town."