17A/N: Chapter 11 is out! *claps hands together* I hope you will enjoy. This shows the first meeting of Vic and Xavier. :)
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust – that was how they died as both vampire and hunters fell to their knees in bloody agony. Once their body crumbled onto the blood soaked ground and turned into dust, Death Reapers could be seen swooping down like eagles collecting the dusty remains with their bone-like fingers. Their mouths, that were black hollow vortexes taking up most of their faces, opened revealing a smell stronger that the decomposing of flesh of a mortal and their shaking skeletal fingers brought the dusty remain to their mouths and consumed.
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST FALL DEAD GOOD MIGHTY LORD OF HELL!" Victoria screamed at the top of her voice exasperatedly, dodging an oncoming Death Reaper that was clad in a ragged grey cloak. Her chest rose and fell dramatically, clearly short of breath. The deep gashes around her body were taking a toll on her and Lilith was right – her wounds would not stop bleeding. She had no idea what was the state of the war now. Were they winning or losing? How many have died? Was Lilith still alive?
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. There was no point to ponder such issues when she had her hands full at the moment. She had just sent a deathly blow to the hunter but again he stood up ready to continue to fight. She had used both magic and her excellent sword skills against him but time and time again he stood up. She was beginning to suspect that he was the hunter everyone was talking about: The one whom every hunter claimed to be the trump card in winning the war and also, the reason why Lilith ingrained every skill and knowledge she had into Victoria's body, mind and heart. This might just be the hunter she was trained to battle and to kill.
"Hey, you dumbass!" Victoria shouted and pointed her sword at him, moving into another attacking stance. "What's your name?"
The hunter rolled his shoulders and swung his sword to shake off the dripping blood that dyed his sword red. Victoria's eyebrows drew together as she saw her blood splattered on the ground from his sword. "Why should I tell you?" he answered with a question of his own.
"Don't you think it'd be more respectful and honorable to know the name of the person you killed?" Victoria smirked and swiped rolling beads of sweat from her temple with the back of her hand.
"Don't give a fuck." With that answer in a deaden tone, he charged forward with a roar and his sword screeched with sparks against hers. Around his other hand, wind began to grow and gather so quickly that Victoria did not have the time to create a counter measure and was sent hurtling backwards like a ragged doll.
Quickly, she thrust her sword into the ground with two hands to gain balance. She swallowed saliva and could taste blood. Her eye sight was getting blurry while she forced herself to stand up straight and rearranged her grip on her sword. She drew out her fangs in menacing aggression as the hunter headed for her, with a green flaming sword in his hand, hoping to land his final blow. "Oh no, you don't." She muttered and followed suit, summoning the fire of Rekgrech that instantly coiled around her blade.
In the same instance, both of them leaped into the air with the help of creating wind at their feet, swords aimed at their target. Once again, swords clashed. Sparks flew and their flames burst even bigger – brighter even. The muscles in their arm strained and bulged. All of a sudden, cracking sounds could be heard and both of them leapt away and landed on the ground. To their horror, their swords broke into pieces but that did not matter. Not at the time. Victoria flung the remains of the sword aside. Her head was spinning and she was going to faint any moment now but both of them were still breathing and standing which meant it was not over.
With her weapon ruined, and her magic proved useless, she had no choice but to rely on her body now. She drew out her claws.
"Finally resorting to your worthless claws now?" The hunter slowly walked up to her.
"At least I still have claws." Victoria spat and started walking to him as well.
"Well, you and claws and I have… tiny little daggers" he grinned and showed her his hand. Tiny little sharp metal shot out through his fingertip.
"You have got to be kidding me." She rolled her eyes.
"Unfortunately… I'm not." In unison, hands were shot out and they grabbed each other by their necks.
Both of them fell silent, not daring to even twitch as sweat trickled down their temple. Finally, Victoria broke the silence. "Why?" she whispered, eyes cast down.
The hunter blinked in surprise, least expecting that of all words to roll out from her tongue. "Why what?"
"Why kill us so relentlessly?" She looked up and stared into his eyes for the first time.
He took her challenge and stared back. "Because vampires are evil."
Clearly, she looked aghast at his answer. "Evil? We're EVIL!"
Brows drown together; he was starting to feel uncomfortable. How did they end up talking, with their hands literally still at each other's throat instead of just giving a clear cut slit?
"You are spawns of the devil. You kill humans."
"You need to be educated."
"What?"
"Vampires are like any other living creatures. It is in our nature to survive and it just so happens that our food is human blood! It's not as if we requested to be made that way! If you view vampires killing humans being evil, then what are hunters who kill vampires? If vampires are considered evil because we kill humans, then what about humans themselves? Over the centuries that we live, we have witnessed uncountable number of humans killing among themselves in massacres and war. They kill their own kind! Vampires don't even do that!"
The hunter stiffened at her answer and words could not seem to click in his head in retort. Growing up under the guidance of the Master of Hunters, he was always thought that vampires were devils and Hunters carry the heavy yet noble duty of eliminating them to protect mankind. Now here he was, amidst the battle of Dra'agrokh and the beliefs he grew up with was challenged by a vampire.
He opened his mouth to try and say something but was cut off by a familiar yell from the distance. In an instant, trumpets were blown and the ground began to tremble and crack. Two figures ran towards them – one a vampire and the other a Hunter.
Was the war officially over? If that was the case, who the hell won?
"Captain!" Victoria whipped her head around to see one of her men running towards her, panting. When he finally reached her side, he whispered into her ear. Her eyes widened, then nodded in acknowledgement as a smile crept up to her lips. She let her hands drop limply from the hunter's neck and took a wobbly step back. The vampire by her side gripped her arms in support but pride got in the way and she pushed him away, trying to stand steadily on her own.
"Looks like our time has run out."
The clarity of how furious the hunter looked made her smile even bigger. The vampires won and the battle of Dra'agrokh was over.
Trying to hold his anger in, he bit out, "There'll be thousands more chances to come." He would do anything at that moment to battle with her but the rules of Dra'agrokh stated that once a victor has been determined, all fights should halt and the land be left.
Victoria just laughed at that statement and walked away waving her hands. However, she stopped midway, turned her head and smirked at him. "My name's Victoria Kandrac, hunter."
"Xavier Arington."
Finally, with exchanging names, both Xavier Arrington and Victoria Kandrac parted ways. Both of them mouthed each other's name silently, surprised at how nicely their names seemed to roll off each other's tongue.
A/N: First off, I want to explain that the Fire of Rekgrech is called "Black fire of vengeance" If their old tongue.
One more chapter to go before I jump back to the current story time line!
Next chapter shows them falling for them, and yes, Gage, Judith and Nicholas will be appearing too. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you again for your support!