IZEL

I was 19 now, and a much better Vanquisher than before. 

I had pushed myself past my limit hundreds of times, wanting to be better than I was yesterday every day. All of those years, all of that rigorous work and training paid off because I could gladly say, "I'm the best Vanquisher."

"Here we go again," sighed Aleksander.

"I am!" I stated as I pulled my arrow back and released it, hitting the bird in the tree not far from us. "So I should be allowed to go."

"You're not even 21 yet." He pointed out, reminding me of the rule that stated that Hunter Vanquishers had to be at least 21 years old.

"I'm close enough," I said, approaching the bird and removing the arrow before putting it into the sack with the other game. "I may be 19 years old, but I kill like I'm twice my age. I should be allowed to go, I'm the best Vanquisher." I said again.

"One of the best," he corrected before shooting at a squirrel with his arrow. "And it's because you're one of the best that they don't want to risk losing you."

"You mean the Roi doesn't want to risk losing me," I said bitterly. "All he cares about is his protection." I was one of the several Vanquishers who stood guard in the Fortress, protecting the Roi from whatever danger he was paranoid about. I was forced to stand eight hours in front of the door to his chambers every day so it was hard not to cause trouble. What else was I supposed to do for entertainment other than disobey the Roi? "It's like I'm tied down to him."

Alek chuckled, "as if you'd allow yourself to be tied down to anyone."

"He doesn't allow me to go with the Vanquishers," I explained. "He says I'm banned."

"And will that stop you from going?"

"Of course it won't," I admitted, "but it still sucks, he should ban you too, just so I don't have to break his orders alone."

Alek shook his head but I noticed the way his lips quirked up. He was also a great Vanquisher, he and I started training around the same time. Being three years older than me, he had been 11 years old when he started training. His drive to train hard was almost similar to mine, he had lost someone he cared about too, his older sister. She died protecting him, and since then, he swore he would make sure he didn't need anyone else's protection. Just like his sister had, he would risk his life to protect those he cared about.

I was one of those people he cared about, though I assured him many times that I wouldn't need his protection.

He approached the squirrel and dropped it into his sack. "I think I've got more than you now," he said.

"This isn't a competition, this is for survival," I retorted

"Says the one who always wants to make bets before we enter the forest," he countered, "and survival? Really?

"Just trying to make it sound cool."

"Hunting food so Lilliville doesn't die of starvation is cool."

I sighed, "of course you find that cool."

Aleksander was the responsible one of our duo. He had a kind of zeal when it came to helping others, and I did too, but I wasn't as zealous as he was.

"Do you not like helping others, Izel?" He questioned me.

"I do," I said, "but I'd much rather go on the out with the Hunter Vanquishers and hunt vampires than sit and wait like sheep all day."

"Aaand we're back to this topic."

"I can kill, and I can kill well, and I can easily sneak onto the—"

Alek took me by the shoulders and lightly shook me. "Don't be rash, Izel."

"I'm always rash, you know that."

"Vampires can kill and they can kill well too."

I looked to the side not wanting to hear any more from him because I knew what would come next. "I don't want you to give me a reasonable explanation that makes me doubt myself and change my mind."

He lightly chuckled at that, but held my chin and tilted my head upward so I had no other choice but to look at him, his caramel-brown eyes studying me. His hands were warm, as always, unlike mine which were forever cold. He was lighter than I was and had black hair which was always the same style, short on the sides and curly on top. And he had dimples which I envied. They were my all-time favourite part of his face. I often dug my finger into his dimples when he smiled, just because I could, and also because it made him smile all the more.

"Teamwork," he suddenly said. "You're good alone, but you don't work well in a team, and when the Vanquishers go hunt, they use teamwork to defeat the vampires."

"I work well with you though," I reasoned.

"That is true," he smiled, revealing a smidge of the dimples I loved. "But it's not enough to work well with just one person when you're in a group of 20."

It wasn't because I didn't trust the Vanquishers or anything, I just always had a problem working in sync with anyone other than Alek for some reason, which was one of my biggest weaknesses. Smith had forced me to train with several others, but the compatibility never surfaced.

"Plus, the Hunter Vanquishers have probably left already, so you can't cause much trouble now," Alek grinned and then released my shoulders to secure his sack.

I narrowed my eyes at him. The Hunter Vanquishers were set to go on another vampire hunt and I knew that Alek asked me to go hunting in the forest with him to stop me from sneaking into one of the vehicles again. We usually went hunting once a week, but this was our second time this week so it wasn't hard to figure that out. It wasn't uncommon for me to disobey orders, and the only things that truly kept me out of trouble were the forest and Alek. Put them together and I was as well behaved as a baby with a pacifier.

He knew how irrational I could be, he learnt the extensiveness of it after I ran away when I was 13. That was the first time I met the Masked Slayer, but not the last. It had been six years but I still hadn't managed to kill him, which really pissed me off. I would kill him one day though, I was sure of it. I dream of the day when I finally feel my dagger sink into his chest and pierce his heart. When I finally see the life seep out of his eyes. 

Alek slung an arm around my shoulders and started walking with me through the forest, "let's head back now before anyone gets worried."

I wrapped an arm around his waist. "Worried about us? We're too skilled for them to worry about us," I stated proudly, getting a laugh from Alek in return. 

I liked it when we were like this. No training, no looking after rowdy kids, no going over statistics. Just us, as friends. We had been close friends for 11 years now and the villagers always said there was no way we were just friends, and to be completely honest, I often got confused. 

I liked being around Alek, loved being around him in fact, but I didn't know if that meant I liked him as more than a friend or not. He was the one who helped me mend the scar of losing my parents, and I helped him mend his scar too. Ever since then we've grown closer and closer every single day until we formed this unbreakable bond of ours. 

There have been moments that made me question my feelings. Moments where I found myself looking at him and moments where I caught him watching me. Moments when I missed him whenever he went on a mission and moments when he embraced me before recounting the details of that said mission. I didn't know if that was a friend thing or a lack of guys in my village that I actually liked thing.

Alek and I both paused suddenly, and it was so in sync that one would think it was scripted. Something was off. The birds had gone quiet and the breeze felt uneven.

We weren't alone in the forest.

The breeze was a big giveaway, an uneven or sudden change in the wind meant there was something fast running somewhere in the area. And by something, I meant a vampire. Vanquishers were trained to be aware of the feel of the wind to the point where even if we weren't aware, we were aware.

I dropped my sack and bow and then unsheathed my sword. A bow was only good for hunting animals, or far away threats, but not close-up vampires. Alek did the same and in no time we were back to back, surveying our surroundings.

A figure moved overhead, and Alek and I both looked up fast enough to see a figure leaping from one tree to another. Our senses were on high alert, and I adjusted my grip on my sword. My attention was still on the branches above when a vampire suddenly leapt from behind a tree and tackled me.

Dammit. 

I hated their sneak attacks when they got us focusing on one vampire in one area only for another to come out and attack from another area. It didn't phase me though. I've been a Vanquisher for many years, after all. 

I dug my heels into the ground in order not to lose my balance, spun around with my opponent and pushed them off of me. I steadied my feet and held my sword tighter as I evaluated what I was up against this time.

It was a male. It was taller than me, and rather muscular which was good for me because the muscular ones were less tactical when it came to their movements. They relied on their strength. So long as I made sure it didn't get a hold of me, I would be able to take it down.

Despite its size, the vampire leapt toward me with extraordinary speed, but I managed to evade it. I planted a kick on the back of its knee just as it passed me, but it didn't lose its balance like I hoped it would. Instead, it grabbed my arm and threw me onto the ground. Within seconds, its foot was above my face but I quickly rolled just as its foot met the ground with a hard thump right where my face had been mere seconds ago. I swung my sword hand across and it growled as the blade cut across its skin. It wasn't enough to stop it, but it was enough to get away from it. I rolled across the ground and shot to my feet before unsheathing my dagger and flinging it toward the vampire.

I wasn't surprised when it caught my dagger, but it sure was surprised when I ran it through with my sword, grabbed my dagger from its hands and used it to end its life. It immediately crumbled to the ground when I extracted the dagger from its heart.

I heard a groan behind me and whipped around. Alek was still wrestling with the other vampire. It was a tall, thin male. The thin ones were best at dodging attacks. They planned and perceived movements. It was irritating.

I sheathed my dagger and removed my sword from my opponent's body just as Alek's opponent fell to the ground.

"I beat you," I said as Alek retrieved his own sword.

"This one right here was literally like a snake," he told me, "dodging my every move. It was annoying."

We wiped our swords of the blood before picking up our belongings. The vampire bodies would be gone within a day, the tergots would take care of them. Tergots were little insects that ate dead bodies. It was as if they smelt death because they always appeared before the bodies even started rotting. They always came in swarms—appearing from nowhere—and devoured the body within hours.

"I was actually hoping for an attack," I said.

"Of course you were," Alek sighed.

Vampires often roamed the forest, seeking to get a kill and some blood. They may not come directly to our village but they waited for us on the outskirts, places where we were bound to go. The forest was one of those places.

"It's been ages, like what? 3 weeks since the last ambush?" I asked.

"Yeah, but then again we only come into the forest once a week."

"I know. We should come more often then."

"You get quite a thrill from killing vampires, don't you?"

"Don't we all?" I asked. And it wasn't like it was a bad thing. They started killing us first after all.

"Let's just go back before anything else happens."

"Fine," I said, stretching my back from when the vampire threw me to the ground.

"You didn't get hurt did you?"

"Hurt?" I asked, releasing a dramatic laugh, "don't make me laugh."

Alek only snickered, but his laugh echoed alongside a deeper more ominous laugh. I unsheathed my sword once again, my heart beat doubling in speed. We weren't alone in the forest, and that humourless laugh that sounded was hauntingly familiar.

"Masked Slayer," I growled, searching the forest for his dark and dangerous figure.

"Did you miss me, dear Izzy?" the voice came from above ground, and I sneered at the use of the nickname. I looked up, and there he was, perched up in a tree. 

The Masked Slayer.