Abigail was for the most part sheltered, as she spent most of her life around people who were meant to protect her. Early childhood of course, she was under the protection of her parents, but teen years and up were already under tutelage of a powerful Magi - Master Eirhardt. He told her stories about how he traveled the land and risked his life for people, own profit and even research earthly and magical. All these stories gave her a false idea what an adventure was. Reality was often far more brutal.

  She and Karya stood on the road now, ahead of them few armed men. They all looked like a bunch of adventurers, just minding their business around the road, potentially resting mid-travel. Abi knew that she might get catcalled by them, and that ignoring the vulgar comments was the best way to not attract attention, at least for her. The vampire had a different idea, as she soon resumed the walk, passing by the men. When someone made a gesture or a comment at them, Karya immediately replied by showing a rude gesture or telling them to screw off, but with more vulgar words.

  Until the last man.

  He was bald, short and scrawny looking. If a hairless rat could be a human, this man was exactly that - a rat. But for a second him and Karya looked at each other. The vampire was first to react, grabbing Abi's hand and going into full sprint. By the time the redhead realized she was being dragged, she was already fully running.

  And then she heard it.

  "It's them! Those whores spied on us!"

  The rat lookalike was one of the workers in the river, and he just now recognized the girls from before. The group was in fact waiting for travelers to pass, so the bald rat could recognize them.

  So they run, both of them. Karya had her left hand on the hilt of the sword, right around Abigail's wrist. She run with long strides, head low and focused on the way ahead. Abi was different, as she needed to first focus on moving her legs again, feeling the burn of previous running to settle in her muscles. Her legs felt like two wooden logs, very opposed to the idea of fast movement's again.

  Thunk!

  The sound was vicious, but the fall even more. A tree root was sticking out of the ground, and Abi's foot slid right under it, kicking the root and failing to pull it out. Instead she fell on the ground, disoriented of what actually happened. A sharp pain in her leg alerted her to look down her body, just to notice that her ankle was twisted in an unnatural position.

  A human foot should not be parallel to the shin.

  Abi wanted to scream, but had no time for it. She saw one of the men raise a crossbow at her. She saw the faint shine of metal, as the bolt was launched from the weapon. It soared through the air, so painfully slow, she thought it was a mockery by the Divine, to show her the death, at ultra slow speed. She closed her eyes.

  Splat!

  Something wet covered her face. She opened her eyes, and stared directly at the very tip of the crossbow bolt. It was embedded in Karya's thigh. The projectile hit the side of her leg, piercing through the unprotected flash right above the knee, but very much off center, probably missing the bone.

  The whole situation was so shocking, she didn't know if she should scream in panic, pain or just stare at what was happening in confusion and silence. She never before was in such danger, and hurt enough to be grounded. Abi moved her left leg a bit, and such strong pain run through her entire body, from the ankle all the way up to her chest, that she almost fainted.

  For a moment her vision darkened, but after about 3 seconds, it went back to normal. What she was looking at now was Karya, about 20 feet away and facing off 4 opponents. They didn't have time to position comfortably.

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  First one was large, both in height and girth. He probably could lift the vampire girl with one hand effortlessly, if not for the fact his right forearm was hanging off a patch of skin from his elbow, where Karya has slashed. His weapon was an axe, which fell onto the dirt bluntly. He was about to scream in pain or shock, but a sword has grazed his neck, going through his vocal cords. Soon he was choking on blood, gurgling as he collapsed. The blade belonged to one of his companions, who have missed.

  The second one just sliced his buddy, trying to attack the vampire alongside someone else. But she ducked to the side, causing number 2, to slice open his friend's throat. He stood there, watching what he has done, ignoring the combat.

  Karya danced between them, rushing the remaining opponents. The rat looking human, and a dwarf. The human had a rough and thick looking saber, hiding behind a man half his size for protection. The dwarf had a shield and a mace. He swung the weapon at Karya, hitting her right in the stomach. She took a step back, looked up and met a next hit with her sword. The clang of metal against metal was very loud, but the effect was louder. Karya's sword was bent to the side, almost perfectly perpendicular. The heavy mace blow completely warped the thin steel. Another mace hit landed on her rib, throwing her onto the ground.

  Of course it was the scrawny ratman who jumped on Karya and tried to choke her, wanting to delight in her death at his hands. He barely placed his hands on her neck, before her hands landed behind his head and dragged it down. She bit into his neck and pulled him back in one motion. The fountain of blood that emerged stunned both the man and the dwarf, as she threw him off herself and stood up fast.

  Another crossbow bolt was fired at her, hitting her in the shoulder, punching right through the chainmail rings. The vampire didn't even bother wincing, she just approached the second man, who was still stunned at killing his friend. He faced away from her, and with a swift move, his body remained but his head faced Karya, looking right in her eyes. Until his knees buckled under the body's weight and collapsed.

  Three down, two more to go. The dwarf stepped back few paces, fear telling him to run. He swung the mace at me another time, but I barely avoided it hitting my face, as I leaned back. I didn't decide my next move, first idea came to my mind, I executed.

  Leaned back from the dodge, I kicked his main hand, which was in recovery from the swing. This caused the dwarf to lose his balance and he fell on his knee, helping with the landing by bracing the shield on the ground.

  He didn't have a chance to get up.

  With both his hands away, I jumped at him, biting at his neck. His beard was thick, and almost prevented me from biting in, but with a strong pull, I embedded his neck on my fangs. His struggle prevented me from draining him, and I had to pull back. I did so, standing up, and stepping on something hard. It was the axe from the giant, who's arm I cut off. I grabbed the axe, and looked at the dwarf. He was covering his face with the shield, too afraid to think straight. I used the fact he wasn't looking to hit over the shield, feeling as the axe slides into his skull.

  All dead, except the crossbowman. I've turned to him, and he struggled to pull on the string, his fingers slipping from it and forcing him to start from beginning. When he looked up, I was standing in front of him.

  He was completely terrified.

  Another thought, another action. My fangs were deep in his neck, sucking him dry from his blood. And as I did it, I realized I should've kept him alive for questioning.

  My thirst was stronger than reason.

  When I pulled back from his neck, he was already unconscious. I let go off him completely, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

  Adrenaline was still pumping through my body, I felt that I've been hit multiple times, yet I could not recall pain. I looked over my shoulder, Abigail still conscious but in pain, struggling to breath. Between her and me - 4 dead bodies. I looked back to where we met the gang first, I could see nobody. When we were passing, I thought there was definitely more than 5, yet I could not see a single one. They must've run away to alert more of their allies, or seen what I've done and run away.

  Either was, I've turned around to check up on Abi. But when I approached and looked at her foot, I felt my adrenaline slowly seep out of my system. This was a one nasty thing. Her ankle was at an impossible angle, probably broken to the point she'd need an intervention if she hopes to walk ever again on that foot.

  "Shit, can you move it?" I pointed at her foot, still stuck in the root.

  She looked at me, winced in fear for a moment, before looking back at her leg. "No, when I tried I almost fainted."

  I had to move fast, otherwise more of those bandits might come over. I've crouched down and looked at Abi. "I'm sorry, this will hurt." She gave me a nod, but before she could finish it, I pulled on her leg, dragging her body across the ground.

  Her foot was now unstuck, but still broken, and the scream that came out of the mage's mouth more resembled a banshee's shriek than a sound that a human could make.

  But before she could do anything else, I've already lifted her up on my arms in bridal style, and started running.