Decoda walked to the couch and sat down. She looked at their 'host', as she crossed her legs, though she felt tired, she tried to keep herself awake. "What am I to expect from this test?" She asked.

Maraud's chuckle came out of nothingness as the environment shifted around them all.
"But naturally. I doubt Victoria will leave many in the way of witnesses."

Cryth heard Amelia. "No, but apparently we're headed into even more trouble." They rolled her under the bed and clambered under themselves, astonished there was room for them all.

There was a sensation like a great movement, a horse leaping a gap around them almost.
"The funny thing about monsters under the bed," Maraud's voice explained, "is that in all the stories about them, no-one ever asks one quite simple question. How on earth do the monsters GET under someone's bed? And that, ladies and gentlemen - and Sauriel - is what we're answering right now."
The bed took over. "We're heading into the lion's den right now... I hope you all brought a change of pants..."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RaVage made a displeased noise and started forcing his hand through the shield, his jaw tightening at the pain, but his arousal visible on his face. "The more you fight, the more I savor the delightful experience of your beautiful little body -"

"Ahem."

RaVage looked up, to see Maraud looking relaxed, Cryth Jokan and Amelia looking confused, and Semira looking furious. Sauriel was still climbing out from under the bed. All that could be seen from their angle was Nadia lying vulnerable and naked, tears rolling down her face as she fought back.

"Ah. I should have killed you, shouldn't I?"
"You're not the first to make that mistake, but fortunately you probably won't be the last."

The bed spoke up with it's new body. "THIS ONE'S STYLISH!!"

"Quite," Maraud commented, the shadow of a grin on his face. "So, RaVage. Call the king's horses and all the king's men, because they're about to be given a hell of a job to do..."

Victoria tossed the body of the man aside like a rag doll. She spotted a woman huddling in in some debris and slowly started walking over to the woman licking her lips seductively.
"More....I need more"
She vanished and appeared right behind the woman, causing the woman to let out a shriek. Victoria covered her mouth
"SHH I promise you this will only hurt a little. Before you know it you'll be dead"
She leaned in to bite the woman in the neck


Semira stormed past the others and grabbed RaVage, yanking him away from her daughter who was huddled on the bed
"What did you do to her?"
Her eyes were glowing bright red as well as her staff, the glow on the staff getting larger every second that passed

Nadia looked up at her mother and the barrier vanished
'Momma you came"
she said cheerfully
"H-he was trying to take my clothes off when I wouldn't do it"



Amelia looked up at Cryth
"What happened, I thought I was going to die..How am I still alive?"

Suddenly, fangs sank into Sauriel's shoulder and neck, as three vampire women dragged him back off their master. More vampires attacked from all sides, two pouncing on Semira forcing her to the ground, one snatching Amelia up by the hair and four converging on Nadia on the bed - who found herself surrounded by cloth tentacles.
"Reminds me of that stag night a couple of hundred years ago," the bed mused as the vampire women found themselves entangled and groped copiously by the aforementioned tentacles - half of them seeming to enjoy it.

Freed of Sauriel's grasp, RaVage lashed out with his foot, catching Semira in the cheek and launching her into the wall where his harem proceeded to tear at her body. He backhanded the distracted Sauriel, blasting him through a window where he landed - painfully - in a courtyard where eight scantily-clad vampires waited, licking their lips, before leaping on him.
He ripped a tentacle out of the bed, grabbed Nadia by the arm, and -
CRACK!
RaVage went through the ceiling, through the ceiling after that, before slamming into the aged plaster roof of a minor bedroom and dropping somewhat gracefully to the floor.
He looked up at Maraud who was now on the same floor as him, both their eyes a gleaming red.
"You always were a meddlesome pup."
"You always were a disgusting lecher."
The wall shattered and two shadows started clashing over the battlements in the rain.

Victoria vanished out of sight of the man with the gauntlet and appeared a few feet behind him
"You'll have to be a bit faster then that"
Victoria hissed. She than turned an started running towards the woman running away moving  faster than the eye could see. She was suddenly right in front of the woman waving a finger at her
"Ah ah ah, no running my little prey"


Semira staff sent out a blast throwing the vampires in every direction, away from her. Semira stood up, the marks on her instantly healed, she touched her face where she was kicked
"That hurt a little"
she looked over at the vampire women and swung her staff towards them causing them to explode from the inside our
"Ugh vampires, just as bad as flies"
she looked over at her daughter who was being protected by the cloth tentacles
"Thank you for protecting her"
she then looked above her watching as the two clashed. Even with the speed she was still able to watch them

Amelia cried out as she was grabbed by the hair
"BROTHER"
she yelled

Cryth and Jokan whirled, focusing both their powers on the one holding Amelia - and blanched as her head then exploded.
"Yeuch."
"Indeed."
They helped Amelia up from the slain vampire, only to back up as four more surrounded them. Before either boy could move they were pitched aside like they were feathers, and the vampires inspected the cornered Amelia.
"You'll be a beautiful trophy for RaVage..."
"I want to play with her..."
"Ooh, me first..." "No, me!" "No, ME! I can make her beg..." They laughed sinisterly as they moved in, fanged smiles gleaming.

Stone cracked off aged battlement, air whiplashed across battlements, and spatters of blood flew from nowhere as both vampire males dueled it out. RaVage was larger than Maraud, and was enjoying his advantage - Maraud simply didn't have the strength to block RaVage's strikes. Maraud's back hit the wall and RaVage struck hard, his fist hitting the wall so hard the entire thing crumbled to rubble.
Maraud, however, was not there.
Claws raked RaVage's back and he whirled, hissing, his own talons slicing the air with enough ferocity to terrify even the most stalwart of angels.
But Maraud wasn't there either.
"Hiding, hmm? Suits a little child like yourself," RaVage taunted.
"You know," Maraud's voice said from thin air, "there's more to being a vampire than being strong and immortal. You are aware of this, right?"
RaVage lunged out, his fangs bared, and Maraud's fist materialized from the gloom and crashed into his foe's jaw hard enough to send him flying into a disused trebuchet.
"For example," said Maraud, appearing from the murk as though he'd been completely relaxed this whole time, "it's clear you don't know too much about... well, being a vampire. It's not just a drug you take, you know."
RaVage's grasp met thin air as Maraud faded to nothing. "Yes, you know the basics," Maraud's voice continued. "But ultimately, it's clear I'm just better at being a vampire than you. If you surrender, I swear on Balog I will make it quick."
RaVage spat blood in defiant anger.
"Fight me, coward!"
A sigh. "As you wish."
A fist made of bats twice RaVage's size sent him flying over the courtyard Sauriel had landed in, completely over the room they'd started in and he crashed through the roof into a ballroom where he lay sprawled, gasping for breath.

Amelia started backing up til she could move anymore. She was cornered with 4 vampires surrounding her
"P-please just let me go. I don't want to be anyone's trophy"



Victoria started to claw at his gauntlet as he held her in the air
"LET ME GO!!"
She started kicking wildly and hissing at him
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? let me go after her"

Voctoria continued thrashing and clawing at him until the woman was no longer in sight. She glared over at him and hissed
"You cost me my meal. Now I have to find a new prey"
her eyes started darting around the arena looking for another to feed on, she saw movement under some rubble and could smell the blood from there. She started thrashing even harder now wanting to escape his grasp, the lust for blood even stronger now that she caught scent of it
"DAMN IT LET ME GO"
She yelled in frustration


Amelia looked at Sauriel and shook her head
"No I'm fine"
She got up and brushed herself off
"Thank you"
she smiled at him

Victoria scratched at his gauntlet still fighting
"LET ME...."
before she could finish what she was saying she felt a pulse of energy hit her, her eyes went wide, the blackness of her eyes seemed to fade and reveal her natural blue eyes. The pulse was enough to cause her to gasp as if she just had the wind knocked out of her, and her body went limp knocking her unconscious. Instead of looking like the bloodthirsty savage, she looked like a normal teenage girl but with fangs

RaVage struggled to rise, only to gasp in horror as he noticed the rest of his harem fly away, over the battlements.
"Your lady friends seek new employment," Maraud noted casually as he approached the fallen vampire.
RaVage hurled a punch which did not do him much good. Maraud leaned around it, fangs flashed and the crunch of bone heralded the hand being bitten off the wrist. "My offer still stands, RaVage. You should not have tried to get one over on me and you should not have tried to mock my companions. But I will still show you mercy. If you surrender."
RaVage clutched the bleeding stump. "You trickster. You deceive, you lie, you consort with our meals... you are no true vampire."
"On the contrary, I am perhaps one of the last few "true" vampires left. I have studied the old ways far more than you have studied any way. I know secrets the first vampires knew. I know that you see being a vampire as a way to indulge your deepest desires. In truth, being a vampire is a terrible, terrible privilege. Once you understand that, the rest becomes open to you."
RaVage closed his eyes, and slumped in defeat. "I surrender. I fall upon your mercy."
"Very wise."

The rest of the group had been left alone as the vampire women had sensed the tide of battle turning against their master and fled. Now, Maraud appeared in the room next to them in a unfurling mist, carrying a beaten and broken RaVage in his arm.
"Now then." He dropped RaVage at Semira's feet. "A deal is a deal. The honor of finishing him is yours."
RaVage managed to roll over, to spit at Maraud's feet. "You said you would show mercy."
Maraud's tone was icy. "This IS me showing mercy. A brutal, merciless death at her hands is a far better treatment than a merciful death at mine."