Prologue: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

By the time the revenants had appeared, Ivan had already began slinking away from the group, having disappeared completely unnoticed and out of view by the time the first shot had been fired; The battle had started, Ivan had seen both the form that these revenants had taken and the numbers they faced, and knowing that there was already a proficient sniper amongst the group, there was no way that he wanted to waste unnecessary bullets unless absolutely required.

Ivan moved swiftly and silently behind buildings off to the side of the battle, unnoticed by the group and revenants alike; Though he treated and used his sword in a manner refined by both professional military training and many years of experience with it and his manner of movement was perhaps closer to that of a thief, his pattern of movement, with exception to that he walked on two feet and brandished a shashka rather than claws, shared suspicious familiarities and traits in common to that of Werewolves – This was not something he taught himself consciously or learned from others, but rather, something simply developed over the due course of his journey, perhaps adopted for reasons he did not fully understand himself.

By the time Alexander had climbed onto a nearby rooftop, his chosen vantage point, Ivan had reached his chosen destination; The mezzanine of a low-lying barn, barely behind the approaching revenants, unseen.

Following the same pattern of movement, with his shashka drawn, his back-pack and rifle tightly secured to his body, Ivan took a diving lunge through the weakened and weathered wooden wall of the barn, straight towards four revenants to the rear of the pack moving in a tight group; Slashing swiftly, his aim focused at the necks of the revenants, Ivan came down, beheading two of the four before hitting the ground; The moment he touched ground, before the remaining two had a chance to realise what had happened, Ivan repeated his previous action, taking out a third and performing a kata on the fourth as it turned to face its opponent. Four revenants taken out in a moment, Ivan held his sword in offensive stance and quickly examined his surroundings, assessing for his next target. Two revenants, one coming from the front, the other from behind – Ivan simply swung around backwards with his shashka, taking out the one behind rather unstylistically, turning again and performing a simplified kata on the one originally in front, tearing it from head to toe.

Continuing these actions, Ivan soon found himself a few paces away from being back-to-back with the vampire. "Never thought I'd see the day that I fight a common enemy to a vampire..", huffed Ivan, casually.

Emris MounCastle looked around him. The area was barren, the smell of death hung in the air. So this is Transylvania, everything I imagined. Here is the heart of evil! Here I will begin to fight those that stole my childhood from me. A frown crossed Emris's face, he wondered what he a 19 year old could do against the dark forces ahead of him. It didn't matter though, he sought revenge and he would have it. He may be young but he was very good at what he did. He was fast, agile and smart.

Emris smiled knowing that the future no matter what it was would bring him some degree of glory. Emris put on his silver half mask, it was time to hunt. Emris ran down a hill, he loved the feel of the wind rush past him. The wind soon carried the sound of battle and the smell of the dead.

Excellent! The dead are out, time for them to meet and fear me. Emris emerged and saw the battle before him. A group of humans fought skeleton warriors, they fought well but they looked as if they needed a little help. Emris pulled out his cross bow and fitted a silver arrow aiming at one of the dead; The bolt fired and hit true felling one warrior. Emris grinned and pulled out his whip. Alright my friend let us battle together once again Emris jumped into the fray swinging his whip, he felled two warriors quickly due to the element of surprise. The warriors soon realized their danger and began to form a circle around Emris. great they can think! Emris grabbed his crossbow with his left hand felling another warrior. While using the whip to keep the others back.

Irene sniffed the air, it smelled of living dead. She ran off towards the direction it was coming from, she wondered what it was this time because it truly could be anything here in Transylvania. She soon found herself in a almost empty town, it's only occupants were what appeared to be hunters and revenants. Drawing her revolvers she ran towards them firing at the revenants, of her sixteen shots only seven hit their targets. She then holstered them again and drew her sword

''Looks like you can use all the help you can get,'' She said to the hunters, then she saw a face she knew ''Carlos? Carlos Lombardi? is that really you?''

((OOC: Erik and Sigrun will return to Valhalla after the battle is over. Also, none of you except Chef (because they have met before) know that Irene is a Lycan))

Carlos chopped left and right with his silver blade, knocking the heads off of several skeletal warriors around him as he swung around in a full circle. He took out his crossbow with his left hand and fired a volley of bolts at some soldiers with the weapon's machine fire capabilities. A few fell from the bolts, but not many. Carlos noticed suddenly as a man with a crossbow and a deadly whip jumped into the fray and started to slay several walking bones. I don't know who this guy is, Carlos though. But he's pretty good. He was becoming surrounded by skeletal warriors so Carlos ran forward with his silver blade and started to fight back to back with him, destroying the enemies swiftly.

"Who are you?" Carlos asked the man with the whip with a bit of strain in his voice as he swing his sword. "I'm grateful for your help, whoever you are, though I'm not sure what brings you out here in the dead of night."

Carlos raised his crossbow to aim at another revenant when it was suddenly blasted away by pistol shots. He looked towards the source of the gunshots and noticed a familiar face. It was Irene, an old friend.

"It has been a while, hasn't it, Irene?" Carlos said in reply to her with a smile as he stabbed his sword through a revenants skull. "It would be excellent to fight by your side once more. I hope your fighting techniques haven't gotten rusty!"

Irene smiled as she loped off the head of a revenant

''Rusty? Far from it I would say,'' she said to Carlos ''I never thought we would meet up again, so what brings you to Transylvania?''

As she spoke she continued to battle the revenants, she dodged a blow from one and then grabbed its neck with her free arm, with one quick move she ripped its head off and tossed it away. She then turned to face a pair that was trying to flank her, they struck at the same time and she was only able to parry one blow, the other caught her in the lower gut. She ignored the wound and then brought her sword down into the skull of the first, as the other readied another strike she pulled out her rifle and shot it in the face. Then she ran to the nearest building and climbed onto the roof, from here she could give the others support fire. She then proceeded to open fire on the undead, taking careful aim and timing her shots so no bullet was wasted.

Emris spun around giving a nod to the man who had come to help him, "The names Emris MountCastle, I am here to hunt these monsters and rid the world of them." One of the warriors came extremely close to Emris, he dropped his cross bow and threw his left fist straight at the skeletons head. There was a crack and the head splintered and shattered under the impact. Emris withdrew his fist smiling, "These come in handy from time to time!"

"Well, you're personality hasn't changed over the years, that's for sure," Carlos replied to Irene with a grin. "I'm actually here trying to recruit people into the Dark Symphony. As soon as they revenants give up I'd like to talk to these people about it, as they seem more than able for this kind of thing. Say, you don't belong to any groups right now, do you? Would you mind joining forces with me for a while, just like old times?"

Carlos brought up his sword and deflected an axe blow from one of the revenants. He recoiled with a swift smash to the head with his sword, sending it flying into another skeletal soldier, causing him to tumble over. He turned his head when he heard the man with the whip speak up.

"Emris, eh?" Carlos replied. "My name is Carlos Lombardi. I think we'll get along just fine, seeing as we both are fans of knocking the heads off of animated skeletons. Truthfully, though, I expected a better fight from them. I am really unimpressed. I thought this would actually be somewhat of a challenge."

As soon as he said that, a roar shook the ground, deep and gravelly. Suddenly almost fifteen enormous skeletal creatures rose from the earth with huge maces in their hands. These were much larger than the normal cannon fodder they had been taking care of. These skeletal knights had to consist of at least ten skeletal corpses fused together each. They all wore iron helms and had red lights in their eye sockets for eyes.

"It looks like the cavalry has finally arrived!" Carlos said with a grin. "I was getting worried they wouldn't make it!"

The large skeletal knights grunted in reply and charged towards the team of hunters, prepared to smash them to bits. Carlos whipped his crossbow towards them a fired a few shots at one, but the bolts just stuck into them, hardly hindering them. This will be a little harder than I thought, Carlos thought to himself. I guess my crossbow will be nearly useless here. I'll just have to give them a few pokes with my sword to drop 'em. Carlos pulled out his sword and prepared himself as the large skeletal knights charged at the company, hefting their maces.

((OOC: Think LOTR trolls except a little weaker.... Have fun! But don't take these guys out so easily. I will permit everyone to kill two or three of them.))

Irene watched the monstrosities arose from the ground, she quickly shifted the rifle and reloaded it. Then she began to sight up again, she aimed at the the closest one. Pulling the trigger a bullet hit it in he shoulder causing it to turn and face her, as it charged she fired again this time hitting it in the leg which caused it to stumble

''Damn, these things just don't want to die!'' she cursed

Firing again she caught the monster in the head, sending bone shards everywhere. She then targeted another and fired off three rounds quickly, two missed but the third brought the creature to its knees. But before she could finish it off another had come up behind her and began to smash the building she was on. Irene rolled out of the way of the club as it hit the roof and then stood up and made a running jump and landed on the next building, not giving a second thought she continued running and made another jump, but there was no other building. As she crashed onto a abandoned cart the skeletal creature had caught up to her and once again was smashing everything in its way, as she pulled herself up pain shot through her left leg, then she realized it was broken. She stumbled forward and rolled over to face the monster, she pulled out her pistols and emptied them into it and then passed out.

Vlad grinned from beneath the black bandanna he wore. As two of the large Skeleton Knights charged at him, he aimed down the site of his SKS Lancer. Time seemed to slow at that moment. His breathing was all he heard over the slow methodical thump of the feet approaching him. He gritted his teeth and squeezed the trigger.

CLANK CLANK CLANK

Three full metal jackets sprung out from the breach of the SKS, the stream slowly curving around the heads of the spinning casings. The recoil of his rifle on his shoulder also seemed to dull and slow. A tracer could be seen, exploding from the end of the barrel and flying straight into the first Skeleton Knights shoulder-blade, shattering it to pieces.

The ringing of the casings from the SKS hit the ground in order of first to third. The three shots met their mark, the last, right in between the eyes of the first Skeleton Knight. Time seemed to finally speed back up from then. The first enemy of his, fell to the ground with a fragmented skull, it only took three .30 caliber bullets to take one down, all above the shoulders.

The second of the Knight charged in straight to Vlad. He knew that using anymore bullets on an enemy this close would be pointless, so he switched triggers and revved his Lancer once more. A steel mace, darkly silhouetted against the moonlit sky, fell down toward him. A vertical slash. Vlad blocked and parried the blow with the blade of the chainsaw. Putting his shoulder into it, he shoved the Knight away and then slashed at it with his Lancer. Three rips were cut to ribbons easily, however the monstrosity still stood before him, although hunched over and seemingly in some form of pain.

Vlad started to chuckle, albeit in a menacing way. He looked at the Skeleton Knight and said:

"Jeez, you undead-types sure don't give up too easily. I'll be sending you all to hell now."

At that, the Knight stood up straight and hefted his mace before Vlad. Vlad smirked and then in turn, charged at the monster. With a running slash, Vlad de-legged the Knight, who immediately let fall his mace, which hit the ground with a dull clunk. The creature grabbed Vlad's ankle suddenly and started to drag it toward him. With the most violent of jerks, the Knight managed to break Vlad's ankle. Vlad let out a yell of pain and fell to the ground himself. He could hear the bone crack beneath him, he gritted his teeth, trying not to yell again. The monster still had him within his vice like grasp.

Vlad swung his rifle over him, smacking off the skeletal hand from his ankle, thus freeing himself. He struggled to stand on leg, the other barely managing to balance him. He found by looking to his ankle that it was not broken, but merely a very serious sprain. With a look of absolute wrath, Vlad slowly lowered the muzzle of his SKS's barrel to the Skeleton Knight's head, shoving it into an eye socket. The creature suddenly stopped writhing in an attempt to stand back up. Vlad managed to get only four words out before blowing the back of the skull outward and into pieces.

"See you in hell."

Emris grinned at Carlos, "Sounds like we will get along just fine then."

Emris heard the oncoming enemy, he turned, the skeleton knight were advancing fast. Emris stowed his crossbow at his hip and readied himself for the next challenge. Cracking his whip a few times and flexing his gloves he felt good about this. A strange gleam came into his eyes, he loved the feel of the adrenaline coursing through his veins, the thrill of a fight. This was where he belonged. On the field of battle slaying monsters who sought to harm innocent people. At last Emris felt like he was doing something worthwhile.

The moon glinted of his mask catching the eyes of one of the knights. The knight charged at him his mace raised to crush Emris. Emris jumped out of the way at the last moment and struck the knights exposed neck. The knight recovered fast and swung his hand around hitting Emris in the stomach sending him flying. Emris landed with a groan, Well that was stupid of me... yeah keep an eye out for the other hand. Idiot! Emris jumped up and was face to face again with the knight, Crap! This thing can move! Emris threw a punch at the knight hitting the kneecap then spinning out of the way of the flailing arms and mace. Emris was behind the knight fast and struck hard at the monsters skull. Hearing the crack of the whip and skull he knew the knight was done for.

Carlos dived out of the way as one of the skeletal knights attempted to smash him with its mace. It caused a minor crater in the ground and dirt flew everywhere. Those knights are very strong, Carlos thought to himself mid-battle. I cannot afford to get hit by one of their strokes. I must rely on my speed and agility to outmatch them. Carlos hefted his sword and watched as the knight charged towards him once again. This time he was ready.

The knight once again tried to crush Carlos but he stepped to the side just in time to avoid the blow. He raised his sword and severed the arm of the creature with a mighty swing, causing it to roar in pain. It swung its remaining hand at him and grabbed onto him. Carlos felt a rib snap as it picked him up in a tight grip. The skeleton creature proceeded to squeeze him tighter. Carlos yelled in pain as he felt the grip become more life threatening. He raised his sword with all of his might and stabbed it in the arm of the beast, causing it to drop him.

He jumped forward and stabbed it in the ankle, causing it to fall forward in pain. Seeing the oppurtunity, Carlos jumped on the back of the creature and plunged his sword straight through its head, killing it instantly. He ripped the sword out and jumped off the pile of bones. Another knight noticed the death of his friend and charged after him. Carlos ran forward yelling a battle cry and cut it in the stomach before it could attack him, making it double over in pain, bringing its head down as it looked at the wound. Carlos lifted his sword and chopped its now lowered head in half, defeating yet another knight.

"Looks like all those years of practice have finally payed off," Carlos said.

"The Feeling is Mutual Boy."

Ivan looked over his shoulder for only the briefest of moments, huffing non-chalantly with one raised eye-brow as the vampire pushed off towards his next target. Doing the same, Ivan lunged forward, striking with robotic precision in repetitive circles at a few more revenants that had made their way closer, beginning to circle around the two. This attempt to circle two, however, went fairly unnoticed by the two as they swiftly dispatched their opponents.

Before he'd realised it, Ivan found himself without target, standing near to the front-side of the barn he'd previously lunged through the wall of, now visible to a few but remaining out of sight for a majority of the group, with a large pile of dry and shattered bones littered around him, stretching across the distance to the rest of the group.

Taking the opportunity, Ivan looked around and examined his surroundings, noticing that two more hunters had entered the fray; A man and a woman, the woman seemingly familiar with the man that Ivan now knew as Carlos. Ivan noticed the three engaged in casual discussion, despite the battle that they were all involved in at the time; Though not making specific effort to listen in, by way of his nature and general inclination to pay attention to everything within his surroundings at all times, though noticing this in time to have missed half of what was spoken, he made out the last few lines of it all.

"I'm actually here trying to recruit people into the Dark Symphony. As soon as they revenants give up I'd like to talk to these people about it, as they seem more than able for this kind of thing. Say, you don't belong to any groups right now, do you? Would you mind joining forces with me for a while, just like old times? Emris, eh? My name is Carlos Lombardi. I think we'll get along just fine, seeing as we both are fans of knocking the heads off of animated skeletons. Truthfully, though, I expected a better fight from them. I am really unimpressed. I thought this would actually be somewhat of a challenge."

Dark Symphony..?

Ivan had never heard the name before, but hearing Carlos' intentions, Ivan was both suspicious and curious; He was well aware that killing a spirit was not something possible through conventional means, and well aware that fighting one was not something to be taken lightly; However, he too, had found the battle thus far, to be more light that he would've expected for such a battle – every hunter in the group had thus far, dispatched their opponents with relative ease, which while something to generally consider good, had Ivan concerned – these were, afterall, revenants, and clearly, something was wrong. Nevertheless, he had little time to think on it, for the battle unfolding before him soon regarnered his full focus; With an enormous roar, 15 giants skeletons, clearly more dangerous than their revenant predecessors by a multitude, emerged through the ground.

"It looks like the cavalry has finally arrived! I was getting worried they wouldn't make it!" Ivan overheard from Carlos as the skeletons began charging towards their various targets.

Ivan paused for the slightest second as he thought carefully over the nature of these new opponents and the limited weapons available to him to fight them with; Having never fought such a creature before, and deciding it better to observe this new threat rather than charge straight in, Ivan backed into the barn once again, and in a manner with more in common to the nature of Werewolves than anything else, in the shortest moment, swiftly ran up the supports of the barn and jumped his up and over the mezzanine and onto the roof of the barn. The moment he reached the roof of the barn, he realised truly how tall these skeletons were and realised what weapons they carried, and thus, realised the ineffectiveness of his vantage point; Running over the roof, he leaped over its edge, grappling onto the edge of the roof of the particularly high house beside it and climbed over, crawling across its surface and finding himself with a much better vantage point.

Resashing his shashka, loading and aiming his rifle, Ivan watched the battle through a scope, prepared to fire, but unsure of the likelihood of his rifle's effectiveness. Before long, he noticed one particular hunter, the woman, the friend of Carlos, in trouble; She'd landed atop a wooden crate, crashed through it, done some form of damage to herself unbeknownst to Ivan and a persuing skeleton had caught up; As the creature caught up, she emptied her pistols into its body, and fallen unconscious. The creature, still able-bodied, stood over her unconscious body and raised the over-sized club in its boney hands, preparing to bring it down upon her body.

No time; Think quick.

Ivan narrowed his scope to the left eye-socket of the skeleton, and focusing on his target, tightened his finger over the trigger of his rifle and fired. The bullet met its target, ricocheting within the skull of the skeleton and exiting at some unknown point as the skull shattered into an uncountable number of pieces and flew in every direction. A few exaggerated seconds passed as the body of the skeleton, remained unmoving, fixed within its final pose, its over-sized club looming ominously in its raised hands. Eventually, gravity took it on a slow journey backwards, concluding as it, too, shattered into innumerable pieces surrounding the cart.

Lucky shot.

CLANK CLANK CLANK!

Ivan turned his rifle and scoped in the direction of the distinct sound of a distinct weapon, and noticed Vlad, his home-town compatriot, fairing well against his opponents. Ivan grinned; His compatriot seemed to be having fun.

Ivan turned his rifle once more and took aim at a skeleton that had began making its charge towards the exposed back of one of the other hunters. Squinting down on his scope as the creature moved in and out of his aim, Ivan tightened his grip on the trigger once more and prayed for a good shot. As the creature reached closer and lunged itself towards its target, Ivan fired, aiming once again for the skull; The bullet clipped the side of the skull, not shattering it, but sending the skeleton off-course during it lunge; The hunter, not initially noticing the creature in time, would likely have noticed it as it flew along side, skidding across the ground in front and flinging cold mud in all directions. Ivan held his aim and tightened his grip once more. As the momentum dissipated, the creature began pushing itself back off the ground, and in that moment, Ivan fired once more; This time, the bullet instantly shattered the now already fragmented skull, exiting in the same direction it had entered, and the creature fell, front first, into the mud, never to stand again.

Ivan briefly reexamined his surroundings; So far, he'd been lucky; None of the creatures had yet realised his position, and as such, his vantage point remained viable.

A revenant charged the hunters, but was sent flying back as its chest ripped open from a massive impact. Soon, a revenant beside it fell victim to the same destruction.

Joseph reloaded his crossbow and aimed for another revenant. He fired and it ripped open as well. He put the crossbow on his back and drew his sword to join the fight more directly.

He split a revenant's skull in two, then turned and decapitated another. Joseph noticed Carlos as he looked back.

"Sorry I'm late," Joseph said, "hope I can make up for it."

Carlos slashed left and right at the smaller revenants, severing many limbs and sending heads flying in all directions. He had only received a few cuts in the battle, but the skeletal knight had broken one of his ribs, making breathing a little harder for him. Luckily, the adrenaline coursing through his body allowed him to ignore it and continue on. Carlos was about to shoot the head off of a revenant with his crossbow when a more powerful bolt flew through it. There's only one person I know who uses a high powered crossbow like that, Carlos thought. That can only mean.... Joseph? His thoughts were confirmed as he saw his old ally jump into the fray with everyone else.

"Look who decided to show up," Carlos said with a sidelong glance at Joseph. "It's nice to see you still living. I think you could redeem your late arrival by taking out a couple of those big daddies. Prove to me your skills haven't receded!"

For the first time, Carlos noticed that Irene was still on the ground unconscious. I have to get her out of the way, he thought to himself. He charged forward, slashing revenants aside with his sword. When he reached the girl, he picked her up carefully and ran back to a nearby house that most of the people seemed to be gathered by, fighting off the revenants. Carlos put her down by the wall. He hefted his sword and looked out on the battlefield. They were doing well, though those giant skeleton knights were very powerful. There was now only seven of them left. The battle would soon be over, but the victor of it was still to be decided.

Joseph simply nodded, turning his attention to the giant skeletal knights as he loaded another bolt into his crossbow. He took aim and fired at the head, blowing it off in a flurry of dust and debris. He loaded in another bolt and took aim at another one, but as he fired, it moved slightly. The blast blew its arm off at the shoulder, and it moved toward Joseph. He replaced his crossbow on his back and drew his sword. As the skeleton stepped closer, he slashed its leg, bringing it to its knees. It made a swing at Joseph, but he ducked it, and proceeded to run up and stab the creature between the eyes.

Another giant skeletal warrior charged at Carlos, slamming its mace down suddenly towards him. He jumped out of the way just in time, the air from the force of the attack hitting him. He ripped out his crossbow and shot it repeatedly in the face, making it fall backwards in pain after being assaulted by them. Its massive body slammed into the earth, causing dirt to fly everywhere. Carlos, seeing the opportunity, jumped onto the the knight and stabbed it right in the chest.

Carlos grinned at his accomplishment, but it soon went away as another knight almost crushed him with its mace. He dodged out of the way and the knight managed to crush the now lifeless body of his comrade to pieces. Carlos was about to attack when the skeleton brought its fist down and slammed it into his stomach, sending him flying. He flew into the ground and rolled a few times before he came to a stop.

He coughed in pain, but managed to get up in time to dodge another attack. He shot it in the kneecaps with his crossbow after dodging the second blow and spun around to hack it in half from the spine with his silver sword.

Great, now there are only three of those guys left, he thought to himself. I will sit back a bit and watch some of my temporary comrades finish those behemoths off. I really want to see the extent of their skills.

((OOC: Whoever wishes to post next, can do so))