The Arena

In this time Mama Yacine had summoned and allowed herself to be possessed by the Loa Marinette-Bwa-Chech. She raised her arms toward Carl and chanted. All around him the ground erupted with poisonous serpents. This was strong magic indeed as were no poisonous snakes in Haiti.

Carl backed up to the wall of fire made his own gestured and the fire moved to encircled him roasting the snakes as they moved to attack him. This elicited a scream form Mama Yacine as the spirit left her. It was at this time that one of the circling vampires moved to the attack. Carl drew his battleaxe as he moved to meet the bloodsucker diving on him. He could hear Mama Yacine shouting "NON NON!" He did not know who this was aimed at but the vampires diving momentum would not allow it to stop the attack if it wanted. Meanwhile it appeared the zombies were equally unclear as they had stopped moving.

Now throwing an axe or tomahawk is not an easy thing, particularly in battle. The key is to match the axes rotation with the target so that blade ends up being imbedded in the target. In a competition or contest you have set distance making it easier than on the battlefield when your target is moving. Up to this point the vampires had made sure to stay clear of his blade but they had no idea about his axe throwing ability. He could bring the blade to them.

Carl dropped the fire around him and faced the diving vampire judging its approaching speed. At what he judged the appropriate time and threw the axe. The vampire was surprised by this an attempted to stopped, spreading its wings an attempting to pull up. Carl had calculated this and the axe blade hit the vampire in the center of its chest. The axe being blessed did its work. The vampire screamed in pain then fell to earth dead, bouncing once.

Carl rushed over and retrieved his ace from the body and for extra measure separated the head form the body. Seeing this another vampire dived to the attack from behind. Carl saw that Mama Yacine's gaze had shifted to behind and above him and he faced this direction. He was back to holding his sword again instead of the axe.

He held the shield up as if to take the vampires attack head on. At the last second he side stepped to the left and brought his sword down separating the head from body. The right wing and arm of the vampire impacted the shield knocking Carl off his feet as the head went rolling off to the side and the body's remaining momentum was expended as skidded across the ground. Another vampire took this as an opportunity to attack at the same time the zombies began to close in.

Carl got up turning to Aradia and said "wind shear" Aradia thought for a second then nodded with a smile.

Aradia raised her arms above her head concentrating on the vampire. Unfortunately for the vampire its approach came right over one of the bonfires. As it passed over the fire Aradia quickly lowered her arms and a blast of wind pushed the vampire down into the bonfire sending up a shower of sparks and flames. The vampire tumbled from the fire and took to the air flying off into the distance, a smoldering, smoky ball of fire screeching in pain before it did a slow, smoky death spiral to earth.

Enraged, Mama Yacine launched her heaviest attack yet just as the zombies were closing in. Three magical blasts struck Aradia in rapid succession also hitting the zombies around her. She was sent tumbling across the ground till she slammed against some rubble on the other side of the arena.

Carl cut his way through a group of zombies and rushed up to her just in time to block another spell from Mama Yacine. This one hit his shield and it was strong enough to push him against Aradia.

He looked down at her, she had a bloody nose and a bruise on her cheek. One of her amulets was shattered. "You OK, Rad?" As he pulled her up just as another magical blast hit them. The plus was that it also knocked back the zombies that were approaching them.

She nodded and gasped "She is casting spells faster than I can deal with"

"Faster than you can shoot?"

She grinned in comprehension. She stood behind him as he shielded her from Yacines attack's. He said "Say when"

"When"

Aradia had drawn her gun and stepped from behind him firing at Yacine as Carl dealt with the approaching zombies.

Yacine screamed and ducked behind some rubble as Aradia and Carl resumed dealing with the zombies. The other vampires had held back after the loss of their three comrades. The figures at the top of the rubble had remained stationary throughout the battle merely observing.

Carl launched an attack at the closest group of zombies moving through them till he was standing in front of Mama Yacine as she stood up from behind a pile of rubble He gestured at a machete lying on the ground and using telekinesis he hurled it at her. Mama Yacine turned to a vaporous form to allow the blade to pass through then solidify again. Carl did not have time to follow up as the zombies were again closing in.

Aradia created a small tornado and was using it to push the zombies back. Carl gestured toward the nearest bonfire and stared feeding a string of fire into the tornado turning it into tornado of fire. This scattered the zombies driving them into the rubble. Carl noticed Aradia was showing signs of tiring and he knew even he could not keep this up forever. It was time to end this he thought as another of Mama spells struck him. The force was enough to stagger him.. He drew his .45 and emptied the magazine at her forcing her to seek cover once again. Carl enjoyed hearing her cuss.

Carl turned to Aradia and said "Charge" as he sprinted toward Mama Yacine

One of the circling vampires landed in front to him blocking his path. This was the biggest one, the other two had landed next to Mama Yacine, ready to defend her. Carl did not slow down. Using his shield he knocked the striking clawed hands of the vampire upwards. At the same time he started the swinging of his sword low, putting all his strength behind it. He swung the blade up between legs of the vampire; driving up through its crotch, through the torso and exiting out between the creatures right shoulder and neck splitting it two. The momentum of Carl's swing spun him around a full 360 degrees as he went past the falling body. He came to a stop 20 yards from Mama Yacine and the two remaining vampires.

Carl stood catching his breath. Attacking them was not an option because he would have to climb up into the rubble to get to them. He glanced quickly over his shoulder making sure the zombies were still out of the fight. He figured that he about another minute before they regrouped and attacked again.

The beings at the top of the rubble were still there, still just observing. Her could hear Aradia breathing heavily behind and off to his right. He checked the ground they were standing on; it had been dried from the heat of the bonfire behind them.

He could not get directly at Mama Yaince because he would have to climbing through the rubble to reach her but he had another option. Breathing heavily he focused intently on Mama Yacine and there was a rumble in the sky. A look of what must have been realization crossed across her face. As she began the transformation into her bat like form there was a bright light then a blast.

It knocked Carl on this back and the flash temporarily blinded him. He quickly got back to his feet shaking his head to clear it while patting out the parts of his trousers that were smoldering. The lightning bolt he had summoned was powerful and accurate. It had blasted a small crater in the rubble as it incinerated and blew Mama Yacine's body into many pieces. Bits of it could be seen charred and smoking around the crater.

He looked over at Aradia as she struggled to her feet brushing the debris off her and brushing small bits of rock from her skin that had been imbedded there form the blast. "What the hell was that?"

Carl did not answer but turned back toward their enemies.

One of the vampires with her had been stunned, like Carl, by the lightning. He saw it struggle to its feet. It looked around for Mama Yacine, then looked at him let out a loud growl and flew away. Carl looked over at the surviving zombies and saw they were already scaling the rubble to leave. Further off to one side was the other vampire struggling to free itself from some rebar it had been impaled on. The rebar had been sticking out of the rubble. Its wings had been shredded by the blast and one side was badly scorched and still smoking. Carl climbed over to it careful to stay clear of its claws he removed its head with his sword.

Looking around Carl and Aradia found themselves alone. The zombies were gone, the vampires were gone. The beings who were merely spectators had also left. All that remained were the bodies and parts of bodies. The ground was covered with corpses, severed limbs and heads of the slain. He was a ragged sight with burn holes in his blood splattered trousers and with blood also on his face from the zombies he had slain.

His armor, sword and shield showed no sign of wear and bore no signs of battle. They were not stained or other wised marked with blood of those slain. Other than a few bruises and exhaustion he was unharmed.

Aradia had dried blood around her nose, a large bruise on her right cheek and numerous cuts and scrapes. Of her amulets one was gone and the other badly damaged. She was obviously exhausted and trembling a little as she came down from the adrenalin high.

Clouds were starting to form again obscuring the moon and reducing visibility as the bonfires were beginning to burn out. Carl and Aradia moved over to the two inverted cross and began the gruesome job of removing the bodies from them; they also retrieved the head from the staff. Aradia threw up twice as Carl pried the bodies off of the makeshift inverted crucifixes. It took three trips but he put the remains of the wizard and two slayers onto one of the bonfires. He also piled some more wood from the rubble onto it.

He did not know their faiths and it was not a formal funeral but he said a few what he felt were appropriate, words over their pyre as did Aradia for her faith. They then gathered what remained of the vampires and put them in a separate bonfire. Aradia caused a wind to fan the bonfire making it burn more intensely as Carl put more fuel on it. He gathered up his SOCOM 16 cleaning the gore form the muzzle as best he could and grabbed his poncho. Rodents had begun to appear and were already investigating the carnage.

They climbed out of the makeshift arena and trudged through the near total darkness back to the shed where they had left their bags.

They saw and heard no one or thing on the way back. Their bags were just as they left them. Carl had Aradia pullout her first aid kit, another one of the purchases on the shopping list, and they cleaned up her cuts and scrapes. She still had not said much and Carl was a bit concerned. "Rad, are you OK?"

She sighed looked at the ground "Yeah, just sort of disappointed in my performance."

"Why is that, what do you think you did wrong?"

""I realized I am out of my league. Yacine was much more powerful than me. I could never have handled her alone."

"Don't let that bother you, there are not many could"

"You could have. You did not need me there. Sure I was helpful but even Yacine recognized you as her biggest threat, that is why she concentrated her first attacks on you. " She paused and looked at him "The thing is as much as I was out of my league in dealing with her, even with the zombies and other vampires she was just as much out of her league going against you."

"Let us just say I have a lot more experience and that counts for a lot. I do not know how old Yacine was but I am willing to bet I had a few centuries on her just as she had a lot on you. Do not be so disappointed in your performance you did great for a relative newcomer. You catch onto things quickly and I would imagine that if you live long enough you will rank up there with Miranda. As to your value in this past battle the important thing is what you learned"

She seemed to perk up a little as they packed up their gear and headed back to the airport. Walking back to the airport she hit him with a big question. "Just who the hell are you anyway?"

"What exactly what do you mean Rad?" He was not surprised but acted so.

"I think you know what I mean. I have not seen as much as you but I know that even Miranda cannot generate something as powerful as that lightning strike you did. Heck you almost killed us with it. You pretend to be just some lowly Paladin but your powers are something more."

"Not really. Look kid my magical abilities are not that great. I t took you a couple of years to get where you are at with wind and water; I have been trying to get a handle on this lighting thing for centuries. My abilities are few and limited. I can master any weapon worthy of the name almost immediately. I am seemingly immune to illness and recover from injuries, even magically induced ones quickly. All of that would be relatively meaningless without my special weapons and armor. Take them away from me and I would have died long ago. Without them I would not present much of threat to our enemies. In terms of pure magical ability you are much more powerful than I am. It is what I bring with me that changes the alignment.

My one big advantage is experience; hundreds of years of it. I used my sword and shield tonight just as I have hundreds if not thousands of times before. That is a lot of muscle memory. I have seen just about every type of attack and ambush. I am pretty sure that Satan and others rack their brains to come up with something new."

It was still early morning when they arrived back at the airport and it would be noon before they could get a flight out. They took that time to clean up and Aradia asked some more questions.

"So who were those guys at the top of the rubble? All they did was watch."

"Remember that a large part of this business is establishing a reputation, both on the good guys side and the bad guys. I think that is what Mama Yacine was attempting to do. They were her invited guests so to speak, to witness a demonstration of her power. They were probably other vampires; maybe even witches and sorcerers. I imagine she killed the three others with a similar audience in attempt to recruit followers or at least convince them to join an alliance."

"Why didn't they help her?"

"I guess they did not want to align themselves with a vampire who could not even deal with a young witch and aged Paladin."

Through various good connections they were on an outbound plane chartered for relief operations. They grabbed a spot off by themselves in the net seating running along the sides of the aircraft and began to dose off. He did not know how long he was asleep but suddenly he was wide awake aware of somebody sitting next to him. He looked over and realized it was Satan. There was nothing distinctive about his looks he just knew it. Satan appeared to be an average 30's something professional in the attire of the International Red Cross. He looked over at Aradia and saw that see was still asleep.

Satan spoke first "You really area first class pain in the ass, you know that"

"Well hello to you to and no don't worry about waking me up"

"I won't. You cost me big last night."

"You? I would have figure that Yacine was part of Vlad's crowd. You and vampires don't always run in the same circles. Next thing you know you guys will be having a joint company picnic." Carl looked around. The other passengers were sleeping or reading and did not seem to take any notice of Carl and Satan. They were too far away to hear their conversation over the aircraft noise.

"I was setting Yacine up as a challenger to Vlad's leadership. I figure to keep him busy defending his home turf so he would not be bothering mine. She was gathering power and establishing a rep but guess who has to come along and screw it up. It was a lot of hard work, particularly dealing with all the Voodoo stuff"

"Happy to be of service. It is interesting that you are willing to concede that Vlad has turf as you put it."

"I concede nothing the vampires will return to my leadership once I have dealt with Vlad." He paused. "You needn't look so smug. That fancy thing you do with lightning won't save your ass the next time. Besides I think you are losing your touch, you let one vampire get away"

"I did not see you there. Did you know I would show up?"

At this point Aradia had awaken and was listening in on the conversation

"I was not there. But somebody sent me the highlights. I knew there would some goody, goody showing up. The plan works as it always does. Let it leak out that somebody is in trouble or something evil is brewing. You guys get wind of it and pass it along and somebody comes down to investigate or help. In this case Yacine ambushes them gaining prestige, power and experience. She had just not progressed to the stage to where she could deal with the likes of you. I really didn't expect you knowing how you hate Haiti. I should have known better as you are also a sucker for a damsel in distress. "

Carl smiled "Well maybe, but as nobody else seemed anxious to head down there. Plus there was matter of the three guys who went missing."

"Ah yes, nobody gets left behind. I am sure I will be able to use that against you someday. " He paused in thought for a moment then asked, looking at Aradia "So when did you start running around with kids?"

Aradia replied "This kid just helped him put down one of your friends and set back your plans."

Satan eyes glowed red as he looked at her "Don't you dare to presume that you are more than a minor annoyance to me. My plans and fortunes have never looked better. Worldwide economic unrest with cries for more protectionism by individual groups, Class warfare and isolationism are on the rise in the United States. Sure some call it non-interventionism but a rose is a rose. Anti-Semitism and other intolerance on the rise in Europe, economic and territorial disputes are on the rise in Asia over precious resources along with population pressures while Africa and Russian always remain prime territory for me. In the Middle East I have still have groups killing each other in the name of their God. So don't you even think you are more relevant than a speck of dust to me."

Aradia was about to respond but Carl put an hand on her arm. Turning to Satan he asked "So what is with the Red Cross outfit, a bit of a stretch for you isn't it?"

"Not really, you would be surprised how much evil, intentional and otherwise, is done in the name of helping people.' Giving and evil cackle he added "As the saying goes the road to hell is paved with good intention."

Pausing and checking his cell phone before he asked "You going to be there this week?"

Carl nodded "unless something comes up"

"See you then and if it is not past her bed time bring the child along." Before Aradia could reply he vanished.

She sat there quietly with a furrowed brow. After a few minutes Carl said "I know you have some more questions, so ask them."

She took a deep breath then slowly let them out before speaking. "Is he right, Satan I mean? Do we really not make a difference?"

"Let me answer you with a question. Would I keep doing this if I thought we didn't? I believe everything we do makes a difference. I don't just mean people like us, Paladins, witches, hunters and so on. I also mean everybody else as they go through their daily lives. I believe simple acts of kindness, just doing the right thing are as important as slaying demons. Simply holding a door open for somebody or donating a bag of rice to a food bank carries the same weight as what we just did in Haiti."