(Chapter VI.III) Vampyres

You trek up north, following the royal roads wherever they may lead. In this case, they lead you to a little hamlet by the name of Hamlet By The Road.

As you walk down the deserted Main Street, you hear a pained clearing of a throat, and then come face to a face with an old man sitting on his bum by the side of the dirt road.

“Hey, you, armored boy, care to help out an old man?” he says in a strangled voice.

“Will you grant me experience points or other buffs if I help you?” you ask. “I am a busy Holy Paladin, you see.”

“Well I don’t know about that, but I do have a couple of flies in my back pocket I’d be willing to share, if you can help me get on my feet.”

The old man gives you a toothy smile that doesn’t exactly reassure you. But then again, who would lie about keeping flies in their back pocket?

“Are they salted flies?” you ask.

“Salted flies? What do you take me for, some hoity-toity noble? ‘Course not. Flies are the flies. Original taste.”

“Sorry, just been hanging around some noble types recently,” you say. “Not to brag or anything, of course.”

“‘Course,” the old man says. “Now help me up.”

As a Holy Paladin, you do your Holy duty and walk over to the old man. After a few minutes of dynamic stretches, with the old man giving a couple pointers on form, you reach out, and with a heave-ho, you lift him up to his feet.

“There we go,” the old man says, dusting the dust off his worn trousers.

He sticks his hand down the back of his pocket and rummages around for what seems to be half an eternity. Eventually, he sticks out his hand in triumph.

“Look! The flies! Here, you can have one as your reward,” the old man says. He drops one fly into your open palm, before popping the rest into his mouth. “Mmm… Still crunchy!”

You munch on the fly, delighting in your daily intake of protein.

“So,” you say, between bites two and three of the fly. “Seen any Vampyres around here recently?”

“Oh yeah, they killed my family just the other day,” the old man says nonchalantly. “I managed to get away. Something about my blood not being very juicy and smelling like flies.”

“Picky eaters, are they,” you say.

“Yes we are,” you hear a voice calling out behind you.

You turn around and come face to face with a Vampyre!

The maidens that you rescued back home were decent looking gals, a solid cut above average, but this Vampyre…

She has legs that stretch on to eternity, waist-length jet-black hair, a shapely ass that the old man appears to be ogling, and scarce anything on save for thin black panties and a bra.

“You, dear Paladin, smell very sweet,” the Vampyre says, placing a sharp fingernail on your chestplate. “Except, of course, for that tiny bit of fly that I can smell in your blood.”

She smiles at you, baring fangs like steak-knives.

“You know, you’re pretty hot,” you say. “Have you considered a line of work like prostitution before? I’m sure many men would pay for a lay.”

“That’s what I was, before I was transformed into this,” the Vampyre points at her hourglass figure and smiles a wide smile at you. “But now, I have a thirst for blood. Human blood. Your blood.”

“Well, I have a thirst for your XP and gold,” you tell the Vampyre.

The old man, meanwhile, has sat himself back on his bum. He has another pile of flies in his hand, and he munches them down like popcorn, excitedly looking back and forth between you and the Vampyre.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” he yells out.

“Shut up,” the Vampyre tells him. “You were annoying enough when I was killing your family. Don’t do it this time too.”

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” the old man continues to yell.

He gives you a sidelong wink. “I can say whatever they like, cause she sure as heck ain’t gonna eat an old man with fly-blood like me.”

“Urgh! Shut up!” the Vampyre yells again.

You decide that this would be a good time to fight her, considering how she’s distracted and all.