Published at 30th of July 2022 8:28 am

Chapter 665: The Vampire and the Avenger

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"So, do we have a plan?" Delvin asked as he ordered all the Thieves to gather per Jon's request.

"It is a simple one. The Guild now is as good as bare. Before we can operate anything, we need to get everyone in line and regain the streets of Riften." Jon replied.

"You are going circles around the problem like this again? This is what got us into trouble in the first place." Vex protested, "I say we turn the Rift upside down until we find Mercer and off him."

"You can't do that." Said Karliah who was resting her back to the wall behind the Guild Master's desk when Jon and Delvin stood, "Other than Sir Jon, no one here is enough to overwhelm Mercer in combat unless we swarm him in one go."

"He was always ruthless and merciless." Brynjolf spoke in a heavy tone.

"This means not only has he abandoned the guild, but he is also working against it with no sense of regret and will drop you dead the moment he catches you off-guard." Karliah said with sadness visible on her as she never really forgot how Gallus died to Mercer.

"Focus on getting our affairs back together, that should be the priority of those who are staying here." Delvin finally added, "That would be Tonilia, Vekel, Vex, and Jullanar."

"Is she staying?" Vex asked while looking at Jull.

"Yes." Jon nodded as his eyes met Jullanar and continued, "Jullanar needs to recover and she can run the scene in the Guild alongside you all. I have a few properties in the city that she knows and you can access them if you want to operate up there. They are small-time restaurants, old inns, some workshops, and a couple of warehouses.

Moreover, I have some thugs and ruffians on payroll and they are stationed around these places. They don't know who they work for since I have been using a shell company to buy these places during my fight with Maven and now is the time to utilize them.

Once you spread over the city, I know very well that you know how to do business. It will not put the best impression between us and the people but start extorting money, breaking stuff, demanding protection fees, and giving loans with intense interest rates. Even though I grew up in the city and I love its people, I want to punish them for siding with Maven Black-Briar for my own selfish reasons.

Still, if I ever hear about a dead body or you fucks going too far, I'll come down on you like the wrath of God Almighty and you'd pray it was the headsman block that'd save you from me. Understand?"

Jon explained how the Guild will start operating in the next couple of days.

Thieving is of no use at the moment since all the Thieves are disadvantaged and cursed as they believe. However, Jon started coming up with an alternative for the crumbling crime syndicate he is now taking over.

From a fallen guild that runs on smuggling, burglary, and laundering money, Jon started turning this scene into a Mafia-like operation that will be focused on Riften.

Riften has indeed been a thorn on Jon's side for some time and has always sided with Maven. Even though it wasn't exactly their fault since Maven was already an established ringleader, it is customary for a city to be torn upside down when a new Boss comes to town.

Jon also wanted the Thieves Guild to be aggressive. This will give them a good boost to evolve into the next phase of their evolution, from Old Fashioned Crime to Organized Crime.

Organized Crime has many advantages over the current way things are happening. While the Guild showed signs of reformation a few times, the old mindset was still strong in people like Vex and Brynjolf who are good at sneaking and swindling. Now with this shift, the situation will be more of a business rather than a circus for the underground freaks.

Jon had this plan in mind for some time but he didn't want to use it before he hunts down Mercer. However, with the Black-Briars without a leader, it is time to push into Riften and completely swallow it over.

Those who rejected him will be between the Thieves Guild and the Dare Dragon Trading Company, i.e. the rock and the hard place.

Meanwhile, he will go around and slaughter the Black-Briar entire clan and its relatives as well as their Mercenaries, Arch-Wizard Mecinar, and Mercer Frey of course.

He may have deviated a bit from the story but he had no idea how unexpected this deviation was going to lead him.

***

A few moments before Jullanar woke up, Serana took her leave and headed back to her business. She was ready to leave Riften and go to Whiterun where fort Greymoor stands, the place where her family of Vampires stays.

She didn't want to stay around Jullanar because she didn't want Jullanar to recognize her.

Serana was very smart and managed to deduce that Jon hasn't told Jullanar about her in particular. She may know about him having a vampire ally like Serana but not Serana in person.

The reason here is because Jullanar knows that Serana is leading a Vampire Family while Jon is unaware of the matter. If he finds out, she isn't sure how he will react since she won't be fully relying on him for her revenge.

This family is something that she must keep out of Jon's radar at all costs.

But as she was traveling in the woods of the Rift, her radar picked on one of her family members. A vampire that she has converted herself.

She immediately started to heighten her senses and discovered that where that signal came from, there were sounds of horse hooves and clinking metal. This caused her to bolt out of the way up to a high tree where she can survey the situation.

It was then when a patrol of armed men passed by with a wagon reinforced with steel. The sight alerted Serana to the fact that those men were the Dawnguard, the newly reformed Order of Vampire Hunters that came toe to toe with the rising number of vampire attacks as of late.

Inside that wagon was a vampire that surely belonged to Serana. This means that if this situation is blown up, word may arrive to Jon that she has been creating Vampires and having her own gang.

"Shit! I need to get the drop on them." Serana's thoughts accelerated as she started to count the men and spy on their formation and their weapons.

There is no time before they come to the first checkpoint near the city and then they will be into Riften's territory. Whoever is in the wagon will have their fate sealed beyond that point.

But as Serana was checking the auras of the living to make a headcount before she attacked, she detected several auras off the main road that were hiding behind natural barriers like rocks and trees while closing in on the Dawnguard patrol.

"What is happening?" Serana wondered as she counted more than 30 non-Dawnguard combatants.

Why would the living ambush the living who are in the vampire hunting affairs?

It is not like Vampire hunters carry anything of value and in this type of situation, it is impossible not to figure out that what the Dawnguard is transporting is a captured vampire.

But the ambush was as serious as it can get. The ambushers brought every weapon in the weapons catalog.

And when it was all in place, the ambush began. Crossbow bolts started to fly from the treetops and tree logs slid down the road to break the horses' legs.

The Dawnguard lost 5 combatants from the start and started retreating behind the wagon.

"Retreat, retreat!"

The Dawnguards started to keep their line and fire back at the ambushers but the situation wasn't in their favor. Serana didn't intervene until she spotted that the ambushers had brought a reinforced wagon of their own as if they were also ready to capture the Vampire.

"At this rate, the Dawnguard will be annihilated and the ambushers will capture whoever is in there." Serana thought and immediately, she cast the Bound Bow spell.

From the hiding of tree leaves, Serana drew the bow and shot one spectral arrow at one of the ambushers staying at the back of their formation. It was amidst the shooting of crossbows so her mysterious arrow went unnoticed.

She then fired again and again and again. Her marksmanship wasn't great but it was enough to hit unmoving targets. She learned some marksmanship from the Dark Brotherhood assassins and used it repeatedly in addition to her spellcasting so that she can deal with such situations. Eventually, Serana's unnoticed help was the equalizer the Dawnguard needed to recover from the ambush.

"Those Dawnguard are tougher than expected! Release the Hounds!" Shouted one of the ambushers as a few men with distinctive executioner hoods came from the back. Each of them had two ropes that are tied to two ferocious-looking dogs.

"GO! GET THEM!"

Right away, the men released the dogs and around 18 of them bolted ahead like the wind. While the Dawnguard would train dogs of their own, these dogs were fierce and monstrous as if possessed by something.

In this situation, Serana had no way of protecting the Dawnguard convoy using her arrows. She had to personally step in, but just as she was about to…

"Fuck it! Release the Troll." One of the Dawnguard carried a big hammer and immediately shattered the lock on their reinforced Wagon before it burst open with a terrible roar from within.

An Ice Troll, reinforced in all manners of armored bladed iron, walked out with a menacing look and a murderous glare on its three eyes. It wasn't a well-established rumor just yet but the Dawnguard seemed to have been taming the Trolls for combat uses, something that is seen as madness by many.

Once the Troll was out, it hit the nearest Dawnguard by mistake before immediately turning to the coming hounds. With one swing of its arms, a hound was captured, bound on the ground, and thrown at another, killing the first and crippling the second.

The troll was indeed mighty and its armor was bladed and spiked, something that caused the ambushers to panic profoundly. As for Serana, she immediately took a peek inside the wagon.

"Lurbuk? You damn fool." Serana cursed as she saw the Vampire Orc chained and bound in a sorry state inside the wagon.

This was one of her servants and someone she was obliged to save to make sure the rest are okay.

Immediately, Serana descended from the tree and sped to the shadows while the Troll and the Dawnguard were starting to retaliate at the ambushers. Once there were only three Dawnguard combatants left to guard the wagon, Serana took the opportunity.

She immediately moved in a swarm of bats, bypassed the first Dawnguard with a dagger in his chest, used his axe to split the second's skull, and gripped the third by his neck and twisted it the wrong way.

With that, she jumped into the wagon, slapped the worn and torn Vampire Orc, and offered him an arm she just tore from one of the Dawnguards to drink its blood.

"Lurbuk, you fool!" She shook off the dazed vampire.

"Se… Serana?" Lurbuk recognized the voice of his mistress even in his sorry state.

"The others? Are they well? Did anyone else get captured?" She asked in a hurry, "Is the project okay?"

"Wait! No… no one…" Lurbuk tried to reply but he used his fangs to draw more blood in order to sober up quickly, "Only I was captured. I was away from the fort for reasons…"

"Alright. Let's get you out of here first." She said and dragged Lurbuk out but immediately, she was attacked by five of the hounds that were let loose on the Dawnguard.

"Shit! They fell already?" Serana wanted to use her vampire powers but out of nowhere, three flying axes hit the hounds' necks deeply and dropped them on the spot.

With a galloping noise, an armored fighter jumped off a horse, with a blade in each hand, axes on the belt, shield on the back, and armor on everywhere else, and they joined the fray.

With one swing, they killed the 4th hound, and with the next, they killed the 5th.

Three more hounds gathered ahead trying to encircle the fighter but immediately…

*HISSSSSS*

they hissed like an angry cat.

The hiss was so powerful that it had Aura mixed in and it terrified the hounds. As they backed away, the fighter started killing them systematically.

"You stay here. I'll save the others." The Fighter turned to Serana who was seen trying to help a very injured man, the voice was very unique and feminine implying that under the owl helm, there was a female Khajiit.

As the Khajiit rushed for the fight, Serana noticed the emblem of House Dare, which Jon usually wears, engraved on the center of the Khajiit's segmented armor.

A Dare Mercenary.

"Lurbuk, you get out of here. Get back to the fort and don't stop until you get there."

"I understand… I'm sorry."

Lurbuk, who now had some power in his messed-up legs, healed fast and started running per Serana's orders. She was going to secure his back and get rid of any pursuers but as soon as she turned back, a large object came flying towards her.

The Armored Troll was completely charred with fire magic in order to prevent its insane regeneration and with that, he was blasted back so badly with a magic attack that it landed on the wagon and broke its half.

"Secure the Vampire before it gets free." Shouted one of the Ambushers.

Immediately, more men with hounds started to flood over as well as ambusher crossbowmen. The only thing they could register as a vampire right now is Serana who just evaded the falling troll by jumping sideways.

"DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!"

Meanwhile, the Dare Mercenary Khajiit was in a bloody mess of her own. She rushed over the corpses of the fallen Dawnguard and started killing the ambushers like crazy. Her blade would slice one's neck and make a mess of their remaining limbs. Many men and women fell to her vicious attacks in mere seconds before they started to recover from her charge.

Meanwhile, Serana was attacked by the hounds but she managed to fend them off with her claws while retreating into the fray rather than out of it. In mere seconds, the Vampire and the Dare Mercenary were fighting back to back as they bitterly recognized a common enemy.

The Mercenary, however, was very focused on killing.

"You Fang Clan bastards, Akara will slaughter you all." Spoke the Dare Mercenary while she was berserking… or rather catserking. (A/n: immersive word, very nice.)

"It's the Avenger!" Shouted one of the ambushers, "That bitch again!"

"Shit! Grab the Vampire and go." Shouted another.

The Ambushers seemed frustrated all of a sudden but immediately, a man rushed through the lines with two blades like Akara and immediately struck her.

She parried, countered, recovered, parried again, so on and so forth. He was as impressive as Akara with how artistic he fought and went even further as he estimated her skill in two rounds. With one upward strike, he sent her helmet flying.

A White female Khajiit with an impressive wild mane stood her ground with growling fangs and blood-red eyes.

"You're one of Jon Dare's dogs?" The man asked before correcting himself, "His cats, I mean."

"You Fang Clan will die by my hand. ALL OF YOU!" Akara shouted and before she attacked, the man tore open a scroll and cast it on her to freeze her immediately.

"I think Jon Dare shouldn't learn we are here. The last thing I want him to do is to come rushing with Karliah and the rest of them." The man said, "Get the Vampire quickly."

Serana heard what he said and almost paused. Karliah and the rest of them?! Seeing the man, he was middle-aged and using a normal sword and a Dwarven one.

Unmistakably, this is Mercer Frey.

While this was none of Serana's business, she looked around and suddenly grabbed the frozen Akara from her arm. In a flash, she dispelled her frozen state and threw her as far as her vampiric power could support her.

Serana was launched in the air up to 10 meters high and 30 meters far before crashing down and rolling near her horse.

"Shit! What did she just say?" Akara heard it.

Serana whispered something to her right away and looking at the woman among the crowd of ambushers, she saw her surrender with a mischievous smile.

Immediately, Akara sobered from her rage and rode her horse as far and as fast as she possibly could in the direction of Riften.

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