Nightmare Crusade

Chapter 6 - Nocturnal Evil

The band starts up again, playing a diabolical melody straight from the crypt as the savage libosimen begin to crowd around Jack, who takes an immediate defensive stance. One of the bloodsuckers charge up to him brandishing a meat hook. Jack cleverly dodges and decapitates it. More and more of the monsters approach. One gets kicked into the blood trough, and another decapitated. Norman simply watches from behind the blood trough, unsure of what to do.

In the back beyond the swarm, in walks a very beefy-looking libosimen with disproportioned wings and armored minions on either side of him. The crowd shuffles out of the way, clearing a path between him and Jack. The armored guards rush towards Jack, who stabs one in the stomach, and then jump-split-axe-kicks the other right in the head. The libosimen's helmet is crushed like tin under the knight's heel. Before he can recompose himself, Jack stabs straight into his unprotected neck and then pops his head off, almost like a bottlecap, causing black blood to fizz out of his throat. He chucks the disembodied head at the muscular one, who retaliates by slicing it in half mid-air with his machete before it reaches him, then he flies after Jack.

Jack sprints straight at the massive, oncoming foe, then swiftly jumps, kicks off a pillar, and lands on the monster's back. The beast lets out one final hiss before Jack plunges his sword into his back and through the heart. The hulking, lifeless body crashes to the floor, fatally crushing other party-goers.

Norman decides to use the brawl as a distraction for his escape. His ankle still fractured, he begins crawling towards the door, but again it swings open before he reaches it. In steps a knight clad in green. Norman gazes up at her, and she down at him.

"Uhh..." Alissa starts, "Are you a friend of Jack's?"

Meanwhile, Jack chops and slices his way through the hordes of intoxicated vampires, massacring the entire party into quivering bits. The once red and white room is painted with soupy black blood. He makes it to the right side of the room where the band is playing. The drummer looks up at Jack, who is distracted fighting, in slight annoyance before standing up and hurling one of his barrels at him. The barrel pounds Jack in the back, knocking him down. Satisfied, the drummer prepares to hurl another barrel, lifting it above his head, but he is shot through the heart with an arrow. The defeated drummer turns to looks at Alissa, aiming her bow directly at him with a smirk as he tumbles down the stage steps and dies.

Alissa turns back to Norman and explains, "According to Jack, the only ways to kill these things is by decapitation or driving something into their heart. Stay vigilant, little draggy!"

Norman nods in response.

The survivors of Jack's killing spree begin to retreat and fly away. In the middle of all the carnage stands Jack, gripping his blade and covered in their blood. The two string players stop playing and look up. In one expert motion, one violist props the instrument up as the other pulls arrows out of a compartment in the back of it and delicately places them on the strings, turning the instrument into a sharpshooting weapon.

Alissa quickly pulls an arrow from her quiver and takes aim at the melodic marksmen—but another libosimen kicks open the door next to her and tackles her to the floor.

The string players fire the arrows. Jack leaps out of the way while slapping one of the oncoming arrows out of the air with his sword.

Norman quickly spits up a fine shard of glass and digs it into the back of the libosimen on top of Alissa. It shrieks painfully, sits up, and immediately tries to yank the glass from its back, giving Alissa the leverage to shove it off. Norman moves out of the way as the libosimen gets knocked towards him.