"Mmh? This blood? I got it from a bat-faced vampire that had killed a bar owner, well…" Rummy paused for a moment.
"This vampire was a new one, it must not have been turned the proper way, its transformation was poorly done but thanks to this, I was able of tracking it down rather easily, this blood must be rather diluted compared to that of the progenitor but I hope the stench is still strong enough to track them down" at the moment, only four of them stood around a recently lit campfire, the undead and three death hunters, the hired locals off to fulfil their duties.
The fire crackled, satisfying sound of twigs breaking and falling deeper into the growing mound of ash, smoke rising straight up in the air, licking the ceiling of this cave before finally escaping outside, one of the other death hunters shuffled.
"I do wonder where you learned of the existence of such a being, I have never read upon such a thing" the skeleton spoke, making sure to speak a technical truth.
"What can I say, our archives are rather extensive already, and we have the full support of Bethome Meleme with her own family archives, she comes from a line of real of hoarders when it comes to historical records, although I am fairly certain she keeps the good details for her books…"
The three vampire hunters shook their heads in unison.
"But we do know that every different type of vampires have an original of sorts, and it is widely believed that defeating this particular undead will put an end to all of their thralls as well, and to do this here, we only need to expose the vampire to sunlight"
"Indeed, vampires, except for the sun-walkers, may be much stronger than us, but they have an easily exploitable weakness" another followed, looking at his palm pensively.
The other was slumped up against the wall, seemingly asleep, her face hidden by her hat.
"And how many of those originals are there?" Loimos dug deeper, he could learn many thing from the ancient undeads, but even Unacunerra, who had been relatively active still, knew very little about the newer generation of death hunters, they had grown fairly distant from the ones that used to clash with the ancient legion of the dead.
Weaker, but seemingly no less resourceful, perhaps even more so as they needed to bridge a greater gap than their ancestors.
"Four" responded the one that feinted slumber, not corrected by any of the other two, it seemed like they were wholly unaware of Atsalinopalo, Vespertillo's twin brother, which was understandable, his blood was special even amongst the vampire lords, vampires that were not of the spirit or golem-like sort were hard to come by when it came to The Shattered.
The hunters of death also seemed to not know Vespertillo's name at all, instead calling those of his blood as bat-faced, also not mentioning vampire beasts.
Loimos made Rummy and the two hunters talk continuously, making them spill what little they knew of the undead, and they indeed did not know much about the specifics, which was a good thing, the less they knew, the more they could be tricked.
After a while of speaking, the locals came back, the two demons spotted absolutely nothing at all, as for the beastfolks, they managed to catch scent of an old trail that seemed to go deeper into the Laba.
Sharing this news, the entire group settled around the campfire, the sharp sound of something cracking and shattering to pieces echoed throughout the woods, coming from the direction they had come from.
"Was that… From the hot air balloon?" someone wondered aloud.
"Surely, it is nothing too bad" Rummy shrugged, laying on her back.
She had already put up a veil that was supposed to conceal their presence from any nighttime predator or bloodsucker.
Loimos sat in a corner the entire time, he behaved like he slept, a vampire hunter was awake at all times, cycling in between the three of them without talking about it beforehand.
As such, the night passed without any accident occurring, Loimos had ways to take out that many people, but when death hunters were involved, it was difficult to say what could happen, Loimos was special for everything relating to him was marked by death, but that also meant that everything in his arsenal could be countered by life, he simply followed along the group as they got moving the next day, taking the direction that the beastfolks had pointed at, the scent of blood growing stronger as they went deeper and deeper, avoiding all manners of traps and danger, fighting off large pawed monsters, that could run around the unsteady ground of Laba at great speed without tripping and getting stuck in the vegetation.
Loimos could sense them ahead of time, but did not provide his assistance, it was up to Rummy to use her capabilities to detect creatures before they approached, shooting them down with the assistance of her fellows before they could lunge forward.
Causing death and grievous injuries amongst some of their numbers was enough to repel attacks, in fact, Loimos could not help but notice that the density of the fauna was actually growing lesser as they progressed, there used to be much more, those beasts simply choosing not to engage with the unfamiliar, tall and lanky creatures.
Those ones seemed famished, desperate for a meal.
'This is their territory' he made a sudden movement with his arm, telling everybody to stop moving.
"The ground below, it is different" he said, pointing down getting everyone to stand still as he pierced the vegetation right beneath his foot with a bone spike, injecting corrosive blood, now enhanced by having been in contact with Nosferatu's foetid blood, which had already been much more potent at dissolving matter than Loimos's.
Spreading small tendrils of blood like a spiderweb crack through the ground, it gave out.
Below their feet, a deep chasm, the ravine expanded, swallowing part of the first, immense trees falling over, roots and vines stretched about, rupturing alongside side barks.
The vampire hunters saw no good ways out of this situation, at least, they did not see a way to properly get everyone out of the free fall they now all found themselves in, Rummy extended her right arm, coiling a rope around everyone present, pulling them closer to herself, except for Loimos, who signalled for her not to.
Getting everyone steady and close to her, the young vampire huntress showed off another trick, some sort of balloon, similar to that used on the flying ship, appeared and inflated, slowing their fall with a sudden halt.
As for the skeleton, he fell like a bag of bricks, falling into the darkness below ahead of the rest.