A Story About a Vampire

Chapter 11: Danse Macabre

Vallentin's thoughts burned to ash at Quillan's words. Before he even knew what he was doing he had summoned his sword to his hand and was halfway across the hall. Quillan reacted fast; 13 knives flew from inside his coat to intercept Vallentin. All 13 of them were parried with flawless efficiency, not a stride was missed and just like that Vallentin was in striking distance of his opponent. One swing for the neck, ducked by the man in red. A second swing that he couldn't see because of his dipped head, the strike bisected him at the waist. The blade flicked into reverse grip and stabbed through Quillan's forehead and was quickly torn free. His waist had already reattached and he grabbed Vallentin's hand as it approached for a fourth attack. He was halted just long enough for the first knife to fly through the back of his head and out the other side, the rest which trailed behind didn't arrive until the wound was healed and Vallentin had broken free from Quillan's grapple. 4 knives were dodged, the others sliced Vallentin's limbs to ribbons. Another wild slice of his sword was deflected by the first knife. Both had healed all of their wounds.One second had passed. The blood from Quillan's first wound hit the ground.Sophia hid in the roost under a blanket, earphones in with her hands clamped over them. Vallentin had only been gone for about a minute but her head was so full of what-ifs that she hadn't sat still for a single second. She had to do something, but what could she do if two vampires were fighting? She had no idea, but she couldn't bare to sit around doing nothing.By the time she'd ran down the entire tower and into the entrance hall, the room was awash with gore. She didn't see Vallentin or his assailant, but she could feel the overwhelming pressure from their raw power, hear a cacaphony of clashing blades, and see the violent splashes made in the pool of blood by the imperceptable movements of the two monsters. Human eyes couldn't possibly comprehend the frenzied blur of motion, striking with such speed that the clangs of metal sounded like two armies clashing. Sophia stood atop the staircase in awe, frozen in fear and confusion. She was shaken from her stupour within seconds by a clashing sound and barely pereived blur alarmingly close to her face, then the candles flickered and the sensory overload of a battle ceased. Vallentin stood in front of her, "Sophia you have to go now!" Then he was gone again.Vallentin got lost in his battle against Quillan. His entry hall was drenched in blood, the two of them had recieved no less than a thousand mortal wounds each and neither showed signs of their healing slowing down. All of his thoughts of the combat vanished when a small presence entered his periphery. Quillan noticed it too, smirking like a demon and sending one of his blades toward it. Vallentin was in front of the blade at lightning speed, deflecting it to one side. Lightning speed was barely fast enough. Vallentin sent his intruder into his armour exibit to get him away from Sophia and quickly told her to run before once again giving chase.Quillan didn't really care that he'd been denied the chance to kill that girl. All he was really after was drawing out all the strength of the Vallentin fellow, surely if he was this powerful then he'd figured out how to infuse his soul into something; like Quillan's own knives. He didn't have to wait long in this room full of armour for his new friend to reappear. "There you are my friend!" he strolled the room inspecting the various suits of armour, "I hope I didn't touch a nerve just then.""I think that's exactly what you were hoping for. What do you hope to gain from antagonising me?""I know you've put your soul into something," Quillan grinned, "You can go ahead and show me, if you keep messing around then i don't know how you expect to win."Vallentin smirked, "Your knife trick is cute. This castle and everything in it is part of me!" Vallentin snapped his fingers and the suits of armour began to move, lifting the weapons on display around them and levelling them towards the man in red. Quillan cackled, "Now we're talking! I've gotta say you're even more incredible than I imagined.!"Vallentin took a deep breath, "I'm giving you one last chance out of courtesy. I know that right now you feel that life has given you all it has to offer, but there's so much more you can do. You can give back to life. I thought of this many years ago and just in the last day I feel I've done more good than I have in centuries. I beg you to get out and find your meaning."Quillan rolled his eyes in disgust, "This crap again? How's this, if I kill you then my purpose will be to be God."His knives spiralled him, ready to start the duel anew. Vallentin spoke no more, the animated armours began to do battle with Quillan.Eight suits of armour against thirteen knives, whilst the vampires simply watched. The armour immediately took the advantage, they matched the speed of the blades and overpowered them drastically. With the knives occupied, Vallentin lunged for his cackling foe. Quillan couldn't hope to keep up anymore, his knives were being kept from him by the animated armours and without them he couldn't match Vallentin's speed, nor the range of his sword. The entire contents of this room were all but destroyed in the ensuing combat, knocked from their pedestals and drenched in Quillan's blood. He was shredded, over and over, laughing all the while, fighting as hard as he could to no avail. Until the final time his head was sliced from his neck and his lifeless eyes looked up from the pool of blood, a grin still plastered on his face. Vallentin looked down with a blank expression, he took no joy in killing this broken man; nor did he feel any sorrow. He had to die, that's all there was to it. For a moment he thought about his lack of feeling about ending a life before realising that he probably shouldn't trust any conclusions he made to emotional dilemmas when he was on his third or fourth one of the day. So he simply turned for the door whilst the animated armours started clearing up the mess, only for the door to burst open in his face. Sophia stood, panting, in the doorway. Vallentin gave her a reassuring smile, "You know you definitely shouldn't have followed me again."Sophia caught her breath, "I know but adrenaline! And there's no way I was gonna leave you to maybe die!"Vallentin pulled her into a hug, "Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, there's nothing you could have done. But there's no need to worry; I'm not going anywhere."