It is harsh

It did not take long for the Vampire to make the first move that initiated combat. What the first move was exactly...it was a spell. And with his magically quick reactions, Marius gripped his cloak and blocked his body from view. This resulted in tears to form on the cloak as the magic was potent enough to overpower the anti-magic protections.

Marius sneered at the sight of the damage, trying not to imagine what would have happened if he trusted his armor to take the hit instead. His heightened perceptions were able to gaze through the tears and see the Vampire rapidly approaching him with one of her clawed hands at the ready for a strike. This resulted in the Rune Blade to have to be on the defensive again.

Counting in his runes to help him once again, he quickly dropped his cloak and brought up his sword. His strength enhancing and speed enhancing runes pulled through as he was able to block the strike in time and was able to hold his ground after being slight back a couple inches from her impact.

The hand that was in contact with the oil-and-silver coated blade started to sizzle and boil. This caused the Vampire to have a look of annoyance about her as she hopped back and away from Marius. But the Rune Blade was quick to take the advantage.

He dashed forward and began a combination of slaves that flowed from one into the other. The Vampire dodged all of his attacks. After one particular slash, she raised her other clawed hand and managed to cut a hash on Marius’s face, causing him to swear and dash away from the Vampire before she could land another hit.

Before he could check on his wound, he felt an odd sensation, yet one he was familiar with. He could feel the blood from his wound leave his being and looked to see it flow like a river to the Vampire, who was drinking it as it came to her.

He sneered as his hyper-regenerative ability quickly sealed off the wound. But what the Vampire managed to get was enough, as her damaged claw began to reform and looked as if it was never affected by the concoction on the sword.

There were a few more exchanges like this, with the two only being able to barely hurt the other and quickly recovering from the injury in their own way.

“Great, at this rate we’ll be getting nowhere every time,” Marius thought to himself. “I will have to think of something to end this back and forth. We’re just cancelling each other out.”

That was when he saw an oddity on the Vampire. For a brief moment, an almost rainbow-like glow wrapped around the creature and she started to appear more...confident. There was no mistaken the aura of this magic he was detecting.

“Divine magic of nature...”

He hazarded a glance to the girl’s corpse. Being a Vampire, an undead, nature should be an impossible magic for the monster. Was that child blessed by a get spirit that somehow resided in these forests?

“Well...that could happen and tip the scales.”