Brace for impact, his instincts advised just a moment too late.

The packed dirt hit him hard. He hadn't realized it would be this bad before he made the leap. Instead of the loose earth he had expected to collide into, this felt like he was slamming his back into meter thick concrete. As the initial contact made his entire body shudder from impact, it became immediately apparent just how wrong he'd really been in hoping for a comparatively soft landing.

It was both agonizing and exhausting. The wind was knocked out of him completely as they began to tumble, leaving him with nothing but the spots dancing in the corners of his eyes. Fangs drew close, mere centimeters away from his neck now. He was only barely keeping them back with nothing but his own arm strength and a hollow metal tube.

...For what that strength was worth, at least. His arm was broken again.

He could feel part of the bone scraping around inside, against itself. Like that feeling of accidentally grinding your teeth together in a weird way, except more constant and with a lot more stinging pain involved. Why did it have to be the same arm that broke, too?

The fangs crept closer and closer, his muscles flagging more than enough to see the writing on the wall plain as day. Silver lining, then; the broken arm wasn't going to be his problem for very long. He let his screaming instincts fade into the background and called forth a copy, positioned just a bit to the left of where they were wrestling.

It manifested not a moment too soon, because moments later his weapon was knocked from his hands and-

< -|- -|- >

-Henry's first sight was Noapte biting down hard on his originator's neck. The pipe that had been knocked from his hands hit the ground with a deafening crash, making him very glad he'd been summoned on the side opposite of where it landed. That definitely would have killed him, and he needed to be in play here as long as possible.

"Shit!" Cecil cursed out loud from across the field. In the distance, the last intercepting clone also fell to the ground lifeless, leaving only Henry himself standing in the way of Noapte and his remaining vampires. All seven of the monsters pressed the attack, seizing the momentum in the confusion.

Henry had to force himself not to rush to their aid. Half wounded as he was, he'd never close the distance in time to be of any help. Even giving them clones to help wouldn't do anything but slow them down, since they'd all share the same defects, and a much greater threat was lying right in front of him.

If he left that threat unchecked – or tried to check it with insufficient force - it would only become much, much worse for everyone still alive.

Unfortunately, that left him with little choice. He would simply have to trust that the others could pull their own weight, at least until the trap was sprung.

He quickly pulled a knife from his belt, plunging it into the back of Noapte's neck before he could rise to face him. It sunk in deep, right between the spots where those little tendony bits attached to the base of the skull… what was it called again? He wasn't exactly sure, just knew that it was a generally important part of the body. Dr. Helmut might've had a more illuminating take if he were here, but right now he was fine saying it was 'as good a place as any.'

He took a few hasty steps back, leaving Noapte's prone form to thrash angrily and make some sort of frustrated gurgling noise while he tried to ready himself as best he could. The arch-vampire pulled free from the mangled corpse he'd been hunched over, turning slowly to face him with bits of his predecessor still hanging from his mouth. When he wrenched the blade free with a snarl, it was already apparent that the wound was well on its way to healing over.

Must have interrupted him mid-feed… he looks pissed…

Hopefully, a hit like that would be enough to keep his attention. Henry had his own role to play, just as everyone else had theirs. Cecil made the call, and the rest followed shortly after.

"RETREAT!!"

Nobody needed telling twice.

In the span of the time it took for the knife to fall to the ground, a new dynamic began to form. The enemies they were up against were all basically full strength, and meanwhile the survivors were battered, bruised, and Henry in particular was in such a state he probably needed more than a few stitches at least. These facts were plain as day to anyone with a brain present, making it seem only sensible that they would decide to cut and run. It was all designed to look equal parts sensible and callous.

Henry was mostly confident that Noapte would fall for it. He didn't seem to be one to plan very far in advance, so there was a good chance he wouldn't think to question it until it was too late. Generally, his attitude was to accept what came, anyways.

So, if they were to, say, make it look like all their carefully crafted teamwork and cohesion and teamwork was breaking down in a way that directly advantaged him… what reason would he have to not press the advantage?

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"Are you finished yet?" Noapte hissed derisively. "Does getting in my way specifically serve some higher calling for you? Because I can't imagine why any sane human would think it wise to try it again only a week after I left him grovelling in the dirt."

"Guess that makes me insane, then," Henry concluded. "For some reason though, I'm not too upset about it. Up for a rematch?"

"...You are a half dead fool, and your only future is to repeat lessons already learned."

"Eh, I'll take that as a yes."

Noapte tried to charge past him without further preamble, sharpened talon-like fingers slashing towards his face.

Now, that just wouldn't do, he thought to himself. They had so much more to discuss, and such an opportunity wasn't likely to show itself again. He swatted the strike aside, the casual gesture landing like a full-force kick on Noapte's outstretched nails rather than a light tap. A sprinkling of new clones kept the arch-vampire from slipping past him, giving their lives in the name of buying just enough space for Henry to reposition.

Those lives were not spent in vain. He kept the numbers rolling, seeing as it was the only advantage he currently held at the moment. If only he had the strength to actually take a proper swing in retaliation. With one arm hanging uselessly at his side, his options in that regard were frustratingly limited.

"Actually, about that lesson," he remarked, stepping in front of Noapte once again. "You have a moment to tell me what you did with Martin? The one Fire mage you enthralled and took off with that day."

"...Him?" he barked out something almost resembling a laugh. "Is that what this is all about? You came here to find out what I did with your friend, hoping to get him back?"

"Well… that's one of the big reasons. Truthfully, I have a bunch more to go with."

"I'm sure you do. I couldn't care less about any of them."

Another two clones stepped into the fray. One had picked up the shotgun and held it close to his body, evidently looking to see if he could give the arch-vampire something resembling his now prevalent facial scar. He never got close enough to try it out, or to stop his zealous opponent from monologuing.

"You're just another worthless challenge to tidy up," he jeered as he tore another Henry apart. "I have nothing to learn from this. This is no great trial for me to overcome. Just a chore. Do you think I got to where I am today without putting down my fair share of vengeance sworn upon me? Do you think you're somehow impressive by coming crawling back for more?"

"You're asking a lot of questions," Henry countered, "for someone who supposedly doesn't care about my intentions." He placed himself in the way of his opponent again, much to his growing frustration.

"I know your intentions already," Noapte snapped. "You intend to kill me. I intend to show you that that is simply impossible. As well as figure out what you thought you could accomplish here, doing the exact same thing as last time with fewer friends to console you in the aftermath."

In the distance, the disorganized rout had just cleared the second trench. They were all running on pure adrenaline and fumes now, Claire nearly stumbling and falling to the ground after the jump. If it weren't for Dee grabbing her and holding her upright at the last moment, she wouldn't have had the space to get up in time before the vampires got to her.

"Do you need me to enthrall them, too?" Another clone tried to backstab the arch-vampire, only to be caught by the neck and killed instantly with a sickening crunch. "Is that what you need to finally learn? Another Martin? Will that keep you from insisting on fighting a losing battle?"

That last comment…

Henry had been about to get back in the fight himself, then stopped. That last comment made him want to laugh. Uncontrollably.

"…Are you kidding me?!" he began to guffaw maniacally. "A losing battle is all I've ever had! You think I'd give that up, too?!"

The response seemed to confirm something to his opponent. A passing look of understanding, just for a moment, flickered in the corners of Noapte's expression. He understood. For someone like Henry, a response like this was to be expected.

But Henry wasn't done talking yet. And the second half of his response was about to throw that understanding straight out the window.

"Because you're right."

The world seemed to slip a gear for a moment.

"...What?!"

"You're right. I am done fighting a losing battle by myself. Not in a 'because I think I can win this time' sort of way, either. I'm just legitimately reaching the limits of what one bloke can accomplish by himself. Even if I can technically be four blokes at once."

"I just can't keep bashing my head against the wall like this," Henry finished. "Because as much as people like to pretend otherwise... the wall is usually the one that wins that fight. In a way, you're the reason I was able to realize that, so… thanks, I guess."

"...Wait, hang on."

Noapte's confusion was plain as day, now. He'd all but abandoned his earlier pursuit. "That… no, that doesn't make any sense! The first thing you did was to call me out specifically! Are you giving up or not, then? Your words say one thing, but your actions-"

"Oh no, I'm not giving up, either!" Henry feigned mock indignance. "Sorry, I'm being a bit obtuse with what I mean, aren't I… perhaps if I take my list of threats I made earlier, it'll make more sense…"

"First, I called you a worthless blood junkie… but that was just basic courtesy, that. Next up was wiping out all your pansy little minions…"

He turned to take a quick look at them. It appeared that they were about to reach the inner trench… Which, if that were the case, then it was almost like they were on cue.

*CHAKCHAKCHAKCHAKCHAKCHAKCHAK*

"Oh, that must be them right now!"

The night sky lit up bright as day, and the remaining small clump of machine guns got to work chewing through the equally small clump of vampires. The trap was sprung.

Magic might have been responsible for creating elves and monsters alike, but Cecil's men were more than ready to prove that overlapping fields of fire made them equal. Six individual streams of fire crisscrossed the battlefield, almost one for each of the pursuing vamps. After the four retreating figures had managed to duck into the skeleton-filled defense line, there had been a crucial moment where they reached safety, but the vampires hadn't gotten around to breaching it yet.

A constant barrage of ammunition peppered the staggering form of the monsters, inky blotch after inky blotch blossoming on their frames as every last scrap of lead was sent downrange to soften them up. That was all they were counting on to happen in their plan, though that was more because they'd naturally assumed they'd be in for the worst case no matter what. The pair of lucky shots that turned a few into rapidly cooling piles of meat were a pleasant surprise.

Five vampires still stood at the end of it. Each one of them horribly maimed but not in such a way that a little cannibalization wouldn't be able to save them. Gouged eyes, shots to the stomach, an arm almost sawed off by several shots through the elbow joint… It was all over too soon.

No doubt the dead would have been enough to replenish them, if the trap had stopped there. But that was only the first half of it. The moment the bullets stopped, the magic began.

A blazing inferno consumed them, a pillar of flame rising into the sky almost half as tall as the black obelisk behind it.

"I honestly have no idea how they all ended up with Fire Domain," Henry stated casually, watching the newly-made mage soldiers clamber out of the inner trench they'd hidden in. "Maybe it's something to do with their upbringing. I mean, if they're all military, then maybe that sort of filtered them all into one direction that their magic talent picked up on? I don't know, really. But it sure as hell made parallel casting a treat, didn't it?"

Noapte was left speechless at the display.

"Hey," Henry barked crossly. "Earth to bellend. I said I was done fighting a losing battle by myself, yeah? I meant every word of that. Especially that by myself part. Much easier to have a fighting chance when you're not the only one playing, wouldn't you agree?"

"You…"

The arch-vampire couldn't bring himself to say any more, but that one word was dripping with more than enough emotions to compensate. Incredulity, anger, hate, rage, confusion… and probably many others.

"Now, if I remember correct, there were two more threats I made to you, following the completion of that first one. Would you prefer I kick your ass red now, or give everyone else a turn first? I'm trying to include more people in the problem solving process these days, on account of it tending to work out."

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