Lizzy went to the biggest temple near the center of the ruined village, the one that probably held the orb she needed. According to the books she read, it was a place of worship of elemental spirits. The stones were decorated with symbols that perhaps were a language that she couldn’t understand, they represented elements such as fire, water and wind, but also the sun and the moon — or at least, that was what she thought they represented, it was hard to see without any light.

Perhaps it was a mistake to walk around without any light source that wasn’t the moon, but she needed to keep a low profile, a lantern would be just screaming “I am here! Come get me!”. Maybe when the moon wasn’t full she would bring something to see more clearly, for now moonlight was enough. The roof of the temple had fallen long ago, so moonlight was able to creep in, guiding her towards a pedestal with a crystal orb emanating a vague green light.

Lizzy wanted to go in, to claim the orb for herself, as planned, but then she stopped. She heard something — someone — approaching. Instead of walking toward the glowing orb, she ran into a somber hallway of the temple, one that wasn’t in the direct line of sight of the room with the orb.

And she waited.

She had made the right choice, as two humanoid bat monsters entered the temple, following the instructions of their master to collect the orb for himself. It was true what Paul said, they always came in pairs. What Lizzy didn’t expect was that they were able to talk.

“Let’s grab that thing and go back, this place gives me the creeps!” one said with a high pitched voice.

“Don’t be such a wuss, there’s nothing inside these old ruins!” answered the other with a deeper voice.

Lizzy kept herself hidden, waiting until the perfect moment to attack, hearing their conversation with great interest.

“Do you think that the orb will hurt us?” The first one said with worry.

“Don’t be ridiculous, the others didn’t hurt us, why would this one do it?”

This was certainly a source of worry, they had just confirmed that they already had some Elven Orbs in their possession! How many did they have? Two? Three? Four? What if this was the last orb they needed for their plan? Lizzy definitely needed to get this one back! But she had to be patient, she couldn’t risk betraying her position.

Looking around the corner, she saw how one of the ur-vampyrs approached the orb cautiously, testing if indeed the energy trapped inside would cause them harm. The other looked annoyed at the cowardly display and moved him so that he would not bother him, then he grabbed the orb like it was nothing.

“See? Nothing happened. Now let’s go, the earlier we give this to the master the better.”

Lizzy went back to her hiding spot as they were going outside the temple. She knew that she had the element of surprise on her side, so it would be easy to strike them down. She crouched as she followed her enemies outside the temple, using other hallways and rocks to hide as they walked. Then they suddenly stopped.

“Did you hear that?” the cowardly ur-vampyr asked.

“Hear what?”

“That noise, it sounded like steps.”

Lizzy cursed herself mentally for making the mistake of not being silent enough.

“No, it was nothing, just your imagination playing you tricks.”

“No, I swear that there is something here!”

Lizzy didn’t get to see it, but she could hear that the cowardly one got hit in the head by his companion.

“Stop being like this! I swear, these new ones are always the same!” the one who apparently was his senior said, bothered. “Now, let’s go, the master is waiting for this thing!”

There were almost outside the temple, which meant that they would be able to fly away, out of Lizzy’s reach. She needed to act now. Lizzy went outside her hiding spot and ran towards the ur-vampyr holding the orb — the one who insisted that nothing was wrong — and thrusted her sword directly into his heart. Needless to say, the other one was surprised to see his companion being turned into dust and flew outside.

Lizzy bent down to grab the orb from the pile of ashes. The orb was clear and perfectly smooth, with the exception of glowing runes engraved near its center, the energy emitted from it was somewhat warm and welcoming. She could see why the cowardly ur-vampyr was worried that it would hurt them, it was purifying energy.

She kept the orb on her left hand while she held her sword with the right hand. She couldn’t sheath the blade yet, there was still one enemy to kill, and she knew that he didn’t completely run away, his master would not like that.

She walked out slowly and looked around, expecting an ambush. Everything was calm, but it didn’t take long for something to happen. She already had killed his companion, so it was only the two of them now. The bat monster dropped from behind Lizzy, but she had enough time to turn around and swing her sword. The ur-vampyr managed to dodge at the last minute and flew around Lizzy quickly, trying to distract her.

Lizzy knew that spinning around to keep her enemy in front of her was a bad idea, so she only tried to follow with her head instead, walking backwards to get to the forest. Eventually he dropped from the sky, attempting to take her by surprise, but Lizzy knew that he was going to do that, so she turned around and swung her sword instead. She managed to land a hit on the ur-vampyr when they heard a howl.

Momentarily distracted, Lizzy failed to avoid the attack of her opponent — who tackled her to the ground — dropping her sword and the orb. She didn’t let him hurt him, though, she instead grabbed her dagger and stabbed him on the side of his torso. He screamed in pain and Lizzy was able to get him off her. Once she was free, she stood up and picked of her sword. However, when she turned to the orb that had rolled a couple of meters away from her, she found the monster picking it up. He looked in pain, he was bleeding from the wound Lizzy caused, but he still cared more about bringing that orb to his master.

She was ready to attack again, to maybe use her gun to hit her target if he were to fly away, but then she heard sound coming from the bushes nearby. The ur-vampyr turned toward the source of the sound, just like her, and they found a massive and aggressive wolf coming towards them, its fur shined under the light of the full moon, its red eyes shined even more.

A werewolf.

Lizzy remembered what Paul had told her.

“They are rare, but you might encounter a werewolf in the forest. These beings once were blessed by nature and elvish magic, but once the elves died lycanthropy became a curse. Be careful to not get bitten by one of them, that’s how they spread the curse. Luckily, thanks to the fact that they are being affected by dark magic, a single silver bullet might do the trick.”

She couldn’t use the bullet on the ur-vampyr, she needed to make sure that the more violent and unpredictable threat was down. The silver of her sword might be enough to kill it, but it was far riskier than using her gun.

“Guess I’ll leave you to that, thanks for the orb!” the ur-vampyr said. Then he flew away.

It was such a shame, but for now she had bigger fishes to fry, she needed to get rid of the werewolf. The creature was growling, probably discontent that someone got into its territory, and was ready to pounce on her. Lizzy readied her gun, pointing at the wolf, waiting for an opportunity to hit either its head or heart (either way would prevent the wound from healing itself).

She waited for a second, then two and three more, holding her breath until it happened. The creature moved towards her and she took the shot hitting right in the head and killing the beast instantly.

She released her breath and sighed in relief. She might have failed to retrieve the orb, but she was able to take down a werewolf! Her relief turned into concern when the werewolf began to turn back into a human, as she recognized who it was.

It was the mayor of Riverbel.

Lizzy didn’t know what to do. She killed a monster, yes, but that monster was a man, one that was very important to her village. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t bring the body back to the village, she wasn’t strong enough, but she couldn’t leave the body here, could she?

It seemed that she had no choice. Lizzy left the body behind and decided to return to Paul empty-handed.