Crusaders Part 4

One year ago

"Surround the murderer! He must not be allowed to escape for the murder of Lady Gertrude and her brother Peter Irwin of Kent." Five burly men armed with cudgels and yard long sticks approached me from all sides at my table in the Tavern on my return to south of London city. The man who hollers the order is none other than the Magistrate Micheal Brew; a notable figure in the legal halls in Dover. He must had pursued me to this small tavern where I have decided to bed down after the hot meal. I know the Magistrate well as he is the one missing from the Manor which I put to rest the vampires. He is one of them but he evaded my trap.

"Come now, dear Sir. A man of my standing accused of murder. Surely your senses has taken leave of you to see me in that light. I am Sir Gerard Black, previously a Major of the Black Watch and now a semi retired officer who is having his meal. Come what may, can I have your good name, Sir?" I glanced at the man who brought on this troupe of troublemakers to encroached on my solitude evening. The hour is late and the place is empty except for my guests, there is the Tavern keeper and his wife, plus a lonely figure who sits in the dark corner having his evening meals all alone.

"I am Magistrate Micheal Brew, of Kent County. This man stand accused of the murder of Lady Gertrude and her brother Peter Irwin in their Manor two nights ago. He had not only murdered them but burned their bodies to ashes to cover his crime." I need to stand corrected here as it was the Angels who did the incineration of the carcasses. "He killed not only the two but also the household servants. This man stands for the murder of six innocent life's taken by his hand."

I could had sworn I seen the Magistrate eyes' changed their shape and the eyeballs changed from dark to fierce red like those of the vampires. The Magistrate has taken to stand at the Tavern door with his right hand on the long walking stick of his with the head knob shaped like a Gargoyle. That stick has a hidden thin narrow blade inside it to be used in situations like these.

"Hold on your accusations, Sir. I stand innocent until I am proven guilty. Show me you proof that I am the killer. If there is none, please slink back to your wooden boxes and leave me to catch you another day." I have set aside the bowl of soup I was enjoying and pushed the chair back to get up. I grabbed hold of my rapier and hat. I attached the scabbard to my waist belt and brushed my hat.

"How dare you mock the Court of England? This is your proof." The Magistrate produced a blade which resembled mine but I am sure that those not have silver embedded inside it. "This blade carries your insignia and your initial."

"Aha! You assumed too much. You think by brandishing a blade with my initial would be my conviction to the hangman's rope; you are poorly educated for the position of Magistrate. I deny your charges and would not be permitted myself to your mock up trial." I kicked away the stool I was on and faced my surrounding adversaries. There are two of them to my right and three to my left. "Come now, your honored Magistrate. Surely these discards you picked from the sewers must be from the worse as they looked to me like rats."

"Sir Gerard, rats can be blood thirsty too." I should had guessed; vampires in the shades of the sewer rats.

"If there no more of Man, then they would die like the rats they are." I withdrew my rapier and my short blade from the side of my belt. The first was on the one on my left who lurched at me with his cudgel. The cudgel is not a deadly weapon wield by a fool from the sewers but its when the fool is a vampire; his strength is enhanced. He swung the cudgel but I side step and slashed out with my blade on his exposed forearms.

"Viola! First cut is mine." As I swung back to faced the approaching guards, I re-consider my options. "Hey guys, five to one. Can some of you take a rest while some of us fight first?"

"Perhaps I can reduce the odds." The solitary man joined in with a swing of his broadsword on the so called rat who happened to be in front of his table. His swing was deadly as he removed the 'rat' of his head. "The only way to kill a vampire is to removed their head."

The other four was startled by the new participant as they find themselves facing two armed foes now. An advantage which I took to offer on as I move forth with my rapier to embedded it in one of the four vampire followed by the short blade on his neck. My special blade does it work and removed his head. As the blood spurts out, my newly acquainted friend has joined in the melee like a berserk warrior with his heavy broadsword swinging in arc movements to remove another head. 

"I am afraid we are down to two rats and one Magistrate. Shall we settled for a wager on who get killed first?"I told my friend with the broadsword.

"No, I think its who gets the last one." I see both the rats dead with hole on their face made by the metal balls fired on the back. The dead vampire on dropping dead reveal a man with a set of matchlocks pistols in the hands. He holstered the twin pistols and brought out an arquebus; a version of a long barrel rifle with iron ball as its projectile. But this rifle come improvise with a steel blade at the end of its barrel.

"Goodbye, Mr. Vampire." The man with the rifle blew off the Magistrate's head. "Hello, my name is Micheal and I dislike to woken up from my sleep by vampires. He is not first Magistrate I shot."

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