Kain, Hunted

As Kain opened his eyes, he was met by a wonderful sight. A woman stood on the nightstand by his side, she reached halfway up the lamp that stood there, showing that she was about the size of Kain's outstretched hand. The tiny woman was a fairy, dressed only in a tiny piece of white transparent linen cloth that was wrapped around her like a skirt. Her hair reached her waist, and had a color that was almost white. Even though she was tiny, Kain could easily see her beautiful blue eyes and three red ruby earrings hanging from each ear.1

"Good morning" she said, her voice was beautiful and stronger than one would believe from her size.
"Heya" Kain replied, stretching out his hand for her to enter. She jumped from the nightstand and into his hand, sitting down in it. Kain then led his hand over to his face, where the fairy stood up and kissed his cheek. Kain smiled, as the fairy jumped onto his shoulder, clinging on to it as he sat himself up in the bed.
"You fell asleep pretty fast yesterday, didn't get to say much. You must be exhausted" the fairy said.
"You know me Catherine, always get so tired after vanquishing evil" Kain said jokingly, smiling at the fairy, Catherine.
"My husband, vanquisher of evil" Catherine laughed, "what did you accomplish then?"
"Well, Messalina's sister Cathola tried to stir something up, taking a group of Succubi and running from the daughters of the night. I helped Messalina getting Cathola back, and getting rid of some unruly Succubi and other nasties in the process" Kain said, yawning.
"Sounds like hard work, tonight I'll give you a massage" Catherine said, her tiny hands caressing Kain's neck, her breasts pushing up against his skin.
"I'm looking forward to that" Kain said, smiling at her.2

Suddenly, Kain took Catherine in his hand, and quickly got out of bed.
"What's wrong?" Catherine asked, knowing that Kain always took special care with her during the day.
"Do you smell that? Rotting flesh and brimstone" Kain said as he sat Catherine down on the bed, and quickly put on his clothes. His long coat, the dark cape and his slouch hat. Hanging from the wall, he retrieved his rapier, two flintlock guns and the musket. Then he picked Catherine back up.
"Vampires, ghouls or lesser demons" Catherine said.
"Or wraiths" Kain added, running upstairs in their house, over to a large closet filled with their clothes. He opened the closet, and put Catherine inside, on a high shelf. He quickly ran to get a cup of water and a plate with some soft vegetables on, and put the food and water next to Catherine.
"Who do you think sent them here?" Catherine asked.
"No idea, but someone powerful. The smell is so intense, there must be a lot of them. I'm going to go talk to Messalina, maybe she'll know" Kain said as he pushed some hanging clothes in front of the shelf where Catherine stood.
"I love you" Catherine said, muffled through the clothes that hid her.
"I love you too, and I'll be back as quick as I can" Kain said, closing the closet door.3

Walking down the stairs, Kain picked up both his flintlocks and pointed them at the locked door that separated the evil outside from him and his love. As anticipated, the door was suddenly forced open. In ran three creatures, all of them headed for the stairs where Kain stood. One of them was a tall but thin creature with grayish leathery skin and a disfigured face. Kain recogniced the creature as a ghoul, a common creature of darkness. The two others were equally tall, but looked almost like human beings, had it not been for their pale faces, pointy ears and incredibly large mouths, filled with sharp teeth and a pair of extra deadly fangs. The last two were vampires, but weak ones.4

Kain let his flintlock do the talking when the ghoul ran up to him. A single shot to the face of the creature, and blood sprayed over the room as the creature fell dead to the floor with a large hole in it's hideous face. He put the other flintlock away, knowing more creatures would come, and that the vampires would be easier dealt with by using his trusted rapier. One of the vampires ran up to him, and swung his fist to Kain's face. Kain dodged the incoming blow, and grabbed the vampire's hand as it passed him. Kain swung the hand over his shoulder, and threw the vampire down the stairs, a sickening snap sounded as it hit the last steps of the stair with it's head. The other vampire tried to help the fallen one get up, but quickly realized that even though it hadn't been killed, it's neck had been snapped, and it was now useless for it's purpose. The remaining vampire, angered and in a rage, leapt up the stair in a single effortless jump, hitting Kain in his chest with it's feet. Kain was knocked over by the impact, but quickly got back up to his feet. The vampire tried to bite Kain, it's large mouth almost closing over Kain's left hand. Instead, Kain used his hand to punch the vampire's jaw, and used the momentum to kick the vampire down the stairs. As the vampire was getting up from the floor, it was impaled by Kain's rapier, and Kain finished it by stomping the back of it's head with his foot. Noises of a skull breaking filled the air, alongside a spray of blood that filled the air like mist. 5

Kain ran next to the door, and waited for more creatures to enter. As expected, another creature ran into the house. It was another ghoul that ran in, but Kain stopped it's progress by impaling it's head with his rapier. At the same time, a third type of creature entered, a demon. The demon was far larger than any man, both in height and muscle. It had a green tint to it's thick skin, and large fangs that protruded from his mouth and reached down to his lower jaw. The demon wielded a large sword, much longer than Kain's rapier. It swung the blade through the neck of the dead ghoul that was still attacked to the rapier. The head of the creature still hung from the rapier, but Kain shook it until the head slid off. Blood flowed out of the severed neck and the head, further coloring the room sanguine. As it growled, the large demon swung the sword again, headed for Kain's head. Kain dropped to the floor, just barely avoiding the sharp and lethal blade. Once lying on the floor, Kain slashed his rapier against the feet of the giant demon, but the demon easily jumped over the blade, kicking Kain in the face as it landed. Kain's vision blurred as he felt his nose being hit. His ears rung, and he barely managed to roll away when the demon smashed it's sword down into the floor where Kain had just been lying. As his vision started to come back, Kain manage to drag himself to his feet, his rapier still in his hand. The demon laughed as it dropped it's sword to the floor and grabbed Kain's shoulders. With immense force, it picked Kain up and threw him across the room. Pain shot through Kain as he hit the floor at the other side of the room. Breath was knocked out of him, and the blood spraying from his broken nose once again helped blur his vision. He coughed as he got to his feet, seeing the outline of the large demon once again picking up the sword and walking towards him. Blinking a few times to clear his eyes, he scanned his surroundings for the rapier. It had been knocked out of his hands as he had been thrown across the room, and it was now lying next to the dead vampires at the bottom of the stairs. 6

"Prepare to die, puny human" the huge demon said, laughing, as he slowly approached Kain. Kain's face was bruised, his nose was broken and bleeding, and he was still struggling to catch a breath.
"Your first mistake," Kain said in pain, as he stumbled over to his rapier. The demon laughed more when he saw the agony he had inflicted in Kain. Kain picked up the rapier, turned away from the demon.
"Tell me, what was my mistake?" the demon asked with his guttural growling voice. The scent of brimstone in the room was intense to Kain, even though his nose had been broken.
"Your first mistake, was to assume I was human" Kain said as he turned around to face the demon. His nose was back in it's natural position, and the blood on his face had dried. Even though Kain still looked exhausted and beaten, his bruises were gone, and he was quickly recovering.
"Human with demonblood, makes no difference." the demon said, raising his sword ready to strike. Kain started running towards the demon, and as it started swinging the sword against him, Kain pulled out his flintlock and fired it with his left hand. The right hand swung his rapier, the light weapon being much faster than the sword of the demon, sliding through the demons stomach. Kain then dodged the incoming blow, and observed the damage he had inflicted. The flintlock had hit the demon in it's left shoulder, and the rapier had severely opened the demon's abdomen. The sword of the demon had hit the floor, and was now stuck there. As the demon let go of the sword and stood upright, the contents of it's stomach started gushing out. Blood, acid, long veiny innards and pieces of flesh gushed out and filled the floor. The demon dropped to his knees and let out a sigh of agony as Kain's rapier ripped through it's head, severing it in half. 7

"Come on, he's in here" Kain heard from outside just a second after killing the demon. He briefly looked out of the open door to observe another large demon running towards the house, followed by three vampires and a couple of ghouls. Further away, Kain saw several other groups of various creatures walking towards the house. Demons carrying torches and swords, vampires with their fangs on the ready and ghouls with bloodlust in their eyes. Kain calmly reloaded his two flintlocks and readied his musket as he waited for the creatures to approach him. His initial plan had been to leave, bringing Messalina to his aid, but he feared for Catherine, and didn't dare leave her alone when the creatures approached with tools and torches,  enough to completely destroy the building, with the frail Catharine in it. He wanted to take her with him and run, but taking her out at day would leave her far too fragile, and a single attack from a quick vampire or another demon could easily kill her with Kain being unable to do anything about it. If they were going, Kain would have to wait for the sun to go down, when Catherine would grow to his size, and be able to defend herself again, making it easier to escape or go to find aid.8

"Kain" a voice said from behind him, from inside his house. Kain turned around.
"Adrian, what are you doing here?" a surprised Kain asked as his long-time friend fully climbed inside through an open window. Adrian's cape was a replica of the one Kain wore, but didn't fit the man, and became a hindrance to him as he tried to fully enter the house, prompting him to fall clumsily to the ground before standing up and unsheathing two sharp sabres.
"I'm here to help, Messalina said something was about to happen to this place, and so she sent me up front" Adrian said.
"Up front?" Kain didn't quite understand. The first ghoul now reached the door, Kain fired his musket at it, sending it's body flying out of the house lacking a head.
"She's on her way herself, bringing some of the daughters along with her," Adrian explained as a vampire ran into the building. Adrian walked over to it and slashed his sabres in an x pattern, cutting the creature into several pieces that slowly slid apart, creating a fountain of blood in the process. "And by the way, it's Nightwing now" Adrian said.
"Watch out for these ones" Kain said as a demon stepped into the room, closely followed by two ghouls and another vampire.
"Your brethren, is it?" Nightwing asked as he attempted to stab the demon in it's face. The demon easily dodged the attack, and used the opportunity to swing his own sword at Nightwing. Nightwing's skin was sliced, a stark reminder not to get cocky. "I see what you mean" he said.9

Kain let Nightwing deal with the demon, and turned his attention to he three others. The two ghouls ran at him, and the vampire jumped across the air, landing behind him. In a single 360 degree swing of his rapier, Kain severed one of the ghoul's arms, cut the other ghoul in half and cut the Vampire's chest. Then he kicked the vampire in the chest, knocking the air out of him, as he barely dodged the sword of the demon that Nightwing was fighting, the two fights mixing into one. Nightwing slashed his sabres through the air, cutting of the other arm of the remaining ghoul, who was now running around with blood gushing out of it's two large open wounds, seemingly having no idea what to do. Kain, having just pushed Nightwing away from an attack by the demon, slashed at it with his rapier. The rapier slashed through the demon's throat, and a spurt of blood gushed violently from the wound, yet it did little to slow the demon. The demon swung his sword at Kain again, and Kain dodged it again. Behind Kain however, the vampire had got up, and was hit by the demon's sword. Going straight through his heart, the vampire screamed as the sword of his ally finished him. The demon looked confused for a second, before Kain stabbed it with his rapier, the weapon going straight through the demon's abdomen. Nightwing stabbed it again with his sabre, and swung the other one against it's head. However, the demon held out his hand to protect himself from the incoming sabre. The effort stopped the sabre from hitting it's head, but it instead severed all the fingers on his hand, and proceeded to get lodged in it's throat. Kain pushed his rapier down, and forced the demon to it's knees as the wound in his abdomen was getting bigger by the second. In the same instant, both Kain and Nightwing kicked the demon's head, while holding on to their weapons. The rapier and the two sabres came loose from the demon, and blood showered both the men as the demon fell back, chocking on it's own blood. 10

As Nightwing expressed a relieved sight, and Kain started wiping blood from his rapier, a new group ran inside. This time, it was five large demons, a dozen or so ghouls and several vampires lurking just beyond the door to the house. Nightwing charged at the demons, his sabres slashing through the air. One of the demons used it's sword to forcibly knock one of Nightwing's sabres out of his hands. The other sabre hit a ghoul, but got stuck in it's head, and Nightwing was knocked to the floor by one of the demons. As one of the demons was about to swing it's sword at Nightwing, Kain fired both his flintlocks into the head of the demon, instantly killing it, as both bullets hit each their eye. The demon fell back, but the other four approached Nightwing and Kain, and now the vampires were making their way inside as well.11

Suddenly, an arrow shot through the skull of one of the demons, the following flow of blood and brain showing that it had been an instant death. A whip lashed through the air, it's sharp iron-tip ripping through the flesh of both a demon and a ghoul, ripping them apart in a ghastly blood-explosion. Five more arrows shot across the room, killing some of the ghouls and vampires. Kain looked over at the large window where Nightwing had entered earlier. A large group of women stood outside, many armed with bows and arrows, others with yet other weapons. In front of them all stood a beautiful creature holding an iron-tipped whip. Long black hair cascaded down her gentle features, over her breasts, barely covered by thin silken fabric wrapped around her. The hair almost reached her blue silk panties, panties that led Kain's gaze down long sensual legs to white stocking and high-heeled shoes.12

"Messalina" Kain said, helping Nightwing to his feet, collecting his weapons, and walking over to the window where Messalina and some of the daughters of the night stood outside. The daughters kept shooting their arrows, and a couple knife and sword wielding ones entered the room and started fighting the shocked remaining demons, ghouls and vampires.
"If you thought this was anything special to deal with, I'm glad you don't know the full extent of the army that's chasing us" Messalina said, some of the Succubi, female vampires and Lamia at her side becoming tense at the mention of the very subject.
"Chasing us?" Kain asked, reloading his flintlocks.
"Yeah, a group came to the church this morning. Go get Catherine, we're leaving for the sanctuary" Messalina said.
"But I thought you said they attacked the church" Kain said.
"Attacked, and failed" Messalina corrected him.
Kain ran upstairs and got Catherine, feeling more comfortable with taking her along when the daughters of the night and Messalina were escorting them. They retreated to the sanctuary of Messalina's church, and there they gathered in the main dining-room, Messalina, Nightwing, Catherine, Kain and a selected few others, to discuss the matter at hand.13

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