Lau fought with her own body. To get up on her two feet, grab her rapier by the handle, and jump down to stab the bastard vampire full of holes…
But for every retaliative notion, a myriad of negative feelings flowed in a unstoppable cascade…
Aaron: Dammit!! Is she not hearing me?! It worked with Beryl and Cassie!
Maya: Could it be…Maybe that’s why she can’t use the same tactic against us!
Aaron: Huh?
Maya: This is but a theory…The harmonies, tone, speed of her voice when she sings must be the power behind her emotion tampering. Her voice must be hitting the synapses inside our brains in a way that controls our behavior…
Aaron: So mind-control?
Maya: She wishes…but this is a deadly power…a horrid harmony through violins, and even Lady Mergrove’s eyesight is rendered useless because she “feels” disoriented by confusion…
Aaron: Still, I’ve broken this before!
Maya: I believe the songs and poems are just mediums to regulate power and intensity per victim… Like how a magician would use a wand, or how our Grand Lady Priestess uses her gospel…
Aaron: What you getting at?
Maya: Sir Samuel gave us insight on your last encounter with this vampire…Given last time, she chose to swap full control between individual targets, I’d wager she is using most of her power on Lady Lecourt!
Aaron: Can’t figure anything else, so I’ll go with your thinking.
Maya: This could mean that for now, these vines are our only problem!
Aaron kept dodging non-stop, having plunged Url’s stimulants in his thigh to keep his stamina in check. But even he realised how fast and numerous the vines were for him to outlast the singer in this skirmish…
Aaron : Upper hand, my ass!! I ain’t half fast enough to-
One large root came at him at full force, but Maya shot it away with a full powered “Blow”…
Which gave the hunter an idea…
Aaron: Kid, I got a plan…Can you do me a favor and cover my ears shut when she goes for a finisher?
Maya: What?! How would I know what you mean by that? And how will covering your ears even-…You are joking…
Aaron: My comrade’s up in a dirty bunghole screaming at nightmares…So no, I’ll trust your gut and try to free her.
Maya: Even if that works…how will we-
Vines came to their way, with their thick, thorny exterior threatening to slice off Maya’s young, soft skin of her flesh…
The Titan shoved her down, and used his entire back to block the plants whipping them at high speeds…
Tragoedia: (Such strength…no human should have this…)
Maya: Aaron, stop!! We can find another wa-
Lau: Look. I know Lau. She seems like the tough highborn girl, but she’s got a lot inside that this shithead vampire can use to tear her down! We have to free her!
Maya:…But we don’t even know if-...
Aaron: Aah!!Just do it!…I can’t let my comrade suffer!!!
Maya: Alright, as long as we get those vines off you!!
Aaron: Tchk!! Barely hurts…
Suddenly, the vampire stopped her assault…Aaron wasted no second and had his feet up to the ground and Maya hanging from his back…
Tragoedia : You…Titanborn…
Aaron: You can try singing all you want, the only thing coming out of that mouth are cries for help!
Tragoedia:… As Cain told me…loud-mouthed and brutish…
Aaron: You met the fucker too…Figures, freaks of nature always find one another.
Tragoedia:…
Aaron: Cat caught your tongue?…Don’t remember you zipping that mouth back at the plaza…
Tragoedia:…?
Aaron: You forgot it, bitch? That day you made Landen’s jewel a fucking blood bath for your lackeys to play in.
Tragoedia:…You have the wrong-
Aaron: Idea? What did I miss? The corpses on the walls? The blood all over the floor? The smashed windows? The living corpses you made sure to sink your teeth in?
A strange view for the hunters, Tragoedia chose not to respond…
Aaron:…Or was it when you made my friend have a fucking panic attack right in the middle of it all? Beryl cared about those fellas more than any of us ever could.
Tragoedia: I…I was not trying to-
Aaron: Of course you didn’t! You just killed them cause they threatened you? What did they do? The kids shouted louder than your singing? The people couldn’t stand your voice? Or was it because we had it better for once in our fucking lifetime and you bastards can’t stand that?!
Tragoedia:…I was only looking out for-
Aaron : Bullshit! You didn’t do this for food, you did it cause you gave no damn about those poor people! No other reason!
Tragoedia:…I was hungry-
Aaron: And don’t you think I know what’s going on in Lau’s head right now?! I remember Beryl crying like a kid in front of you!! You made him like that!!!
Tragoedia:…shut up…
Aaron: And since Lau isn’t waking up, I’ll get rid of the problem from the root!!!
Tragoedia: Shut up.
Aaron: Bring it!! You ain’t innocent!! You’re like the rest of them! A fucking psychopath!!!
Tragoedia: Shut up!!!
She held back for too long. With Aaron’s last word, she opened her mouth and screamed at the hunter, who just froze in fear as the product of her stretched lungs burst through Maya’s hands, his earlobes, drums and receptors…
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Once the vines recaptured both, she flew close to the Titan, tears running down from her broken mask…
Tragoedia: I…didn’t want to do that…I never planned for you to find us…I just wanted to feed my people…Give them the life your people stole from us!!!
Aaron:…
Tragoedia: You forced me!! I would have never killed anyone!!! But you, and that hunter, and those dependents, they all forced me to do it!!! It’s not my fault!! It’s not my fault!!! I’m always forced to-
The tree trembled once again…
Tragoedia: I…I want to help them…I can help them…Better than what you could have ever done!!! I-he will give them what they desire most!!!
Aaron: He?...
Tragoedia: Surrender now…Before I-
Unbeknownst to her, a muriad of slashes brought within a quick tornado ran through every vine, ripping them to shreds…
And along with that, Aaron’s binds, who woke up and slammed his palms against the vampire’s head like a drum…
Falling to his feet, he looked out for the two girls supporting themselves up…
Aaron: Lau, you woke up!
Lau: My story’s not over yet…
Tragoedia:…How…
Maya: You have a limit of one…one person you can entrap immediately…I cast “Silence” right before Aaron tempted you to scream, and saved him from your spell, all while changing your target…Would’ve been either the vines, which would have made you vulnerable, or Lady Lau…
Lau: Which brings us here…
Aaron: Thank god the kid has a few brains onto her…Ya’ll make a good huntress, brat.
As the singer recalibrated with the surroundings, she set herself up, against the wounded trio…
Tragoedia : You won’t…pass…through…
Aaron: Ther’s no other way to “pass” through genius…
Lau: Which brings us to the point…how about you stop with the sad poems and start whistling a real song? What are you trying to do here?!
Tragoedia:…
Aaron : Guess a few more pounds will do the trick.
Tragoedia:…Dance, dance, dance…
Aaron: Huh?
Maya: Aaron, look out!
Tragoedia : From my rimes sate your thirst, from our lands rid this curse!!!
A verse told with a growing, menacing tone right behind, Tragoedia made the vines grow berserk, preparing to strike down on the hunter with all the might the tree could force upon him…
She flew high up, out of the grey storm’s range…
Aaron: (Shit!! I don’t have enough in me to keep on dodging them. And I have to keep an eye on-)
Swoop! One vine knocked him over his feet, another came to slam itself against his head and disconnect him from this fight, if not the world itself…
But the Titan’s end was nowhere near. Another tornado of slashes cut the vampire’s weapons to bits…
Maya ran to help up the hulk, while Lau appeared before them, with a syringe of meds dropping empty to the ground, her own wounds healed, and a new wind of determination as she looked upon the flower chaos and its red-haired centre…
Aaron: Oy, princess!!! Take it down a notch, you’ll hurt yourself!!
Lau:…Willheart, keep the brat safe. I’ll take care of her…
Aaron: As your chief, I-
Lau: You can barely move, I see it! Make use of that lazy muscle and guard our junior while I carve the pretty face off that bitch’s head!!!
Aaron:…Heh, you starting to get likeable, princess…
Lau: And you still piss me off…but your speech…
The winds grew large and turbulent…
Maya: Was her blessing that bigger…?
Lau: That’s the Aaron Willheart I’ll follow! Now back off and watch how Lecourts take care of a vampire!!
Holding the hilt of the Valiant Sword as hard as possible in a hammer grip, she deeply breathed in and out, and then proceeded to dash through the towering jungle while Tragoedia awaited in fear…
Tragodeia: Pierce her silver veils and end the usurper spawn…
Like the tails of a demonic being, the vines sent their thick mass towards Lau…
The miniature-sized huntress, blessed with the winds of her mother land evaded the attacks, and made sure that she would roll over swiping vines, change platforms in the middle of an assault, sidestep through the surprise roots sprouting from underneath, all by a hair’s length.
Maya: She’s…fast…
To show Tragoedia how useless her defense was when paired up against true speed.
She panicked. She hummed in a baritone voice and ordered the roots to encircle her when she chose to jump from one vine to another, trapping the girl midair.
But she hadn’t learned from her mistake. Lau just freed herself from that flower prison by bursting through with gusto and breeze…
Rising in harmonies, tempo, intensity, the vines danced in the air trying to swat, pierce, grab, thrash the huntress that flew through them like a fly…
Lau: Keep on singing!!! I’ve got enough over here to send us both to the surface!!!
Tragoedia:…(I can’t fly higher, or… Lord Wilfred…)
She couldn’t ignore her threats. But neither could she stop to answer.
She trembled in fear. Slowly, her arms covered her face.
She had nowhere else to run…Only bracing herself could she go against the princess…
Tragoedia: (I can’t fight…) Stop!!
Lau: Fuck you!! How dare you…now I know how Grut felt when you did this to him!! Don’t play the weak bat!! You…
Last resort…Tragoedia called the tree to guard her against Lau. But the princess was too fast and managed to dash through the makeshift shield.
Lau: You are a pathetic, coward, killer!!!
Her wind enhanced rapier pierced through her throat, and Tragoedia’s gurgles halted the vines at their tracks…
Lau: Lecourt Arts : Gale Assault !!!
He rapier flew back and forth, back and forth, piercing through Tragoedia’s flesh and wings with rage as they both fell to the ground…
Aaron: Shrimp!!
Maya: Lady Lecourt!!
Quickly to her aid, as Tragoedia found herself too beaten to move…
Lau: I’m…fine…but this bitch…
She struggled to get up…her restorative factor working at half the pace it could a few seconds ago…
Tragoedia:…
Lau: What now…no more songs for us…
Tragoedia:…L-o-rd-Gah!!!
Blood flying out of her mouth, every chord in her throat could barely function without destroying itself…
Lau: Last chance to tell us…what are you planning to do…why do you want those two innocent boys?!
Tragoedia:…
Lau: I wonder…did the freak that kill my sister sing to her woes, like you? Did he promise her a life away from problems?! Did he delude her to do his bidding, like you did to those poor brothers!?
Tragoedia: Sh-… Shu…
Aaron’s mind…only thought of one thing…how easily it could be to chop her head right then and there…
How Tragoedia’s voice could be silenced in one sweep…
Maya: I know what you are thinking, but this vampire is our best way out…we should-
Voice: Keep her alive…that’s a good idea…
Nowhere to be seen. A hollow, tired, voice heard throughout the hall…
Maya: What was that…
Voice: That would be me, dear.
From behind, they stumbled across a plant-made doll…No significant features, only a tall, humanoid doll, made from the same accursed bark surrounding them…
Voice: Tragoedia…They caught you off-guard, didn’t they?
Tragoedia: Milord…You shouldn’t be…
Voice: I know…but mine kin being slaughtered is not a sight I can stand by…Now, to work…
Within the snap of its wooden fingers, the two hunters found themselves ejected from the ground by two wood pillars.
Maya and Tragoedia were bound and immediately pulled through an opening made by the doll…
Aaron:…Get over here…who are you?!
Voice:…Poor hunter…
Lau: Let the girl go! Get over here!!!
Casting a wave through the vines to carry him through the burrow…
Aaron and Lau didn’t take their time. They gave chase…
