Chapter 30

Lavinia materializes at the camp in a shroud of blood and Essence, her dagger poised ahead of her and eyes darting about for the enemy. Seraph and Jonn are gone, their knapsacks dragged through the dirt and into the forest in a long, undisturbed trail; taken in their sleep. Lavinia's knapsack and even the dwindling campfire are untouched and there aren't any prints around the trail— their kidnappers must've used the knapsacks to clear all signs.

But it won't be enough. Lavinia sticks her nose in the air and takes a fresh breath of the forest and campsite. Seraph and Jonn's scents were long since memorized and sniffing them out through the forest will be a simple enough task. But she wasn't looking for out for their scent, she was searching for the assailants.

Lavinia shifted in her spot, glaring at the trees and bushes for yellow eyes— her nose picks up the scent of multiple Kimpe around the campsite, having had a good sniff of the one that lured her away made it easier to sniff out the presence of the one that remained at the campsite, hidden somewhere in the thick of the forest.

"Grrr!" growling, she takes a step out from the spot she materialized, fixing her gaze on a particularly wide tree with dead fruit and seeds littered around its base. The berry bush where she discovered the yellow eyes sat a few paces away from the where Seraph's and Jonn's knapsack trail disappears; eerily close to the wide tree she suspects.

Tightening her grip on the dagger she prepares to ambush when the hidden Kimpe walks out, revealing itself to be twice the size of the one she killed, muscular with a red patch of fur around its torso that stained the midnight black that coated it. It bore the same yellow eyes and had fangs growing into large tusks protruding from its mouth and its knuckles are heathed in a serrated silver glove. 

{T-2/L-4— Kimpe}

"Where are they?" Lavinia demands, Essence swirling throughout her being in an excess she saw herself burning through until she found Seraph and Jonn.

The Kimpe smirks and pushes off its knuckles, standing upright and dwarfing Lavinia in an instant. It smashes its fists together, banging the silver gloves for a reverberating high pitch clang that split her vision and multiplied the opponents before her as the whining in her ears went away.

All three Kimpe share the same features without any difference; a huge grin splay over their faces and a tinge of red within their yellow eyes. Lavinia doesn't wait any longer for an answer and pours Essence through her feet to thrust ahead at the Kimpe in the centre. Twice her size, level and width, Lavinia throws the dagger at it. It deflects the blade with its gloves, sending it clattering to the ground.

Marking that target Lavinia lurches out at it, ignoring the other two as illusions of the centre Kimpe only to earn a metal fist to her cheek. Sent flying through dirt, root and bushes, Lavinia claws herself to a stop, "Inspect!" 

{T-2/L-4— Kimpe}

To her amazement all three Kimpe bounding towards her bear the same indicator. But all can't be real. She licks blood from her lip and sidesteps the Kimpe's smash, a second comes from the side, pulling its leg back for a kick she vaults over. That's two I've touched…how?

Lavinia hits the ground running, the third stood in wait at the campsite and it screams at her, baring its mouthful of fang and teeth before rushing at her. She sneers, "Wave Shot!"

Summoning the spiralling orb of Essence in her hand takes less than a second now, feeling much appreciated for this, Lavinia turns her back on the charging Kimpe and tosses it at the two hot on her tracks. The orb spirals out in a low hum and collides with the first, obliterating in an explosive shockwave that dissects halfway through the second.

Thick hides. Lavinia notes all the while dodging the final Kimpe's strike, letting it crush the earth beside her and leave it over extended. She grapples the demons neck and tosses herself up on its back and immediately the Kimpe scrambles to rid itself of the rounded gloves forcing its hand into a fist. But it's too late, Lavinia snatches its head to the side and sinks her fangs in.

She drains and the effects are immediate. The two she saw as the same Kimpe fade away, leaving an exploded animal corpse and a scaly bipedal monster with a long snout Lavinia can't recognize. The Kimpe she drains screams and hoots at the scaly monster for help but it shakes its head, bleeding out its guts from the side where Lavinia's {Wave Shot} smacked into it. Desperation stains its blood as Lavinia forces its head to the side. It tosses itself to the ground hoping to smash Lavinia with it but only ends up releasing her onto its front for her to smite, "Reais Smite!"

The Kimpe surges with Essence, its eyes soaked in it as a free, gloveless hand snatches Lavinia's feet out from under her. Lavinia rolls away with the fall, coming across her dagger jutting out of the ground. She picks it up and tosses it with all the Essence of her unspent {Reais Smite} and this time it stabs through the Kimpe embedding itself deep in its chest as the demons picks itself up.

Roaring out a challenge the demon smashes the ground with its fist, kicking up dirt as it glares at Lavinia crouched on all fours, ready to pounce upon its neck again. Essence continues to surge in its eyes as it smashes the earth and everything nearby, keeping Lavinia within its sights all the while.

Lavinia floods her feet and claws with Essence as she narrows her sights on the Dagger sticking out of its chest and the blood leaking out of its neck. With a deep breath she lurches after her target and all of a sudden the Kimpe goes entirely still with its arms spread out wide and eyes set out in a baleful, yellow glow that envelops all of Lavinia's vision. Swirling and spinning and humming with a noise, Lavinia crashes face first with all the momentum of her sprint at its feet.

"Bwahahah!" she hears it laugh through the world spinning on its axis. She's never felt this way before and the urge to throw up the bounty of blood she'd drained from the damned Kimpe is immense.

The Kimpe snatches Lavinia by her braids, it chortles on and on as it speaks to someone or something. The words wouldn't make sense to Lavinia and remained warbled amongst everything else that's consumed in yellow.

Desperate to kill it, desperate to stain her tongue with its blood and rip out its offending tongue, Lavinia shut her eyes and ears to the world and focused on the sensations around her. The strain of her hairs keeping her up in the Kimpe's grip, its hand further ahead and the arm outstretched, keeping her a good distance from it like a trash bag.

Lavinia pushed her senses, taking a short breath of air full of the Kimpe's musk, adding to the sensation of its arm to map out its body in space. Relaxing her weight in its grip, Lavinia let Essence roll down her body and swell in her feet and waist for a moment before she blindly secures a grip on its arm and swings with Essence propelling her feet into its long reaching arm. A satisfying snap followed by a howl of pain announces her success.

Arm broken near its shoulder, the Kimpe lets Lavinia fall. Disoriented, Lavinia keeps her eyes shut and sniffs the yelling Kimpe out and crawls over to it. It slams its gloved fist down on her head, smashing her face into the earth. Lavinia eats the dirt and snatches the offending hand oppressing her head and crushes its wrist in hers before the Kimpe can pull for another punch.

Pulling the Kimpe towards her by its broken wrist, finding its head in the swirl of yellow is difficult and Lavinia has her hand bitten for her efforts, of course she bites back, sinking her fangs into the nearest thick of flesh without bothering for the neck. She drains the Kimpe of blood until its jaws go slack and release her hand, then she continues to drag it closer, finally peering her eyes open when its head, large as her torso lies between her legs. 

1.008862ESQ Absorbed!

Blood dripping from her forehead stains her vision almost immediately as she shifts to address the weakened Kimpe, "Now…. where are they?"