Chapter Two: Battle

“It was a thousand to one and a million to two.

Time to go down in flames and I'm taking you,

Closer to the edge.”

~Closer to the Edge, 30 Seconds to Mars

You've got to be bullshitting me, Andromeda thought once again as she caught sight of a group of vampires in red uniform in the distance. She picked up her bow �" a new one that her friends Raze and Alexandrine carved for her �" and a quiver full of silver-tipped arrows. The Arcane Archers were back, and they were ready to burn a few dozen houses down.

Agrona had a bad history with the Arcane Archers. As far as Andromeda could tell, the villagers of Agrona had been rivals with the archers ever since the beginning of time. People used to say that Arcane was a great town that lay right beside the village of Agrona, that is, until the villagers decided to raze it to the ground. With no supplies and no weapons, the Arcane villagers had to seek shelter elsewhere. Nobody has seen them since.

Legends say that a magician took pity on the Arcane villagers and called the Earthshaker to create a cave from large boulders and rocks. And some myths say that the gods of the sea were enraged at the villagers of Agrona �" now that explained the giant flood that nearly destroyed their village �" and let the Arcane villagers live underwater. And Alexandrine, one of Andromeda's best friends, say that no one survived the fire and the Arcane Archers are ghost-leprechaun-pixie-witches who want to murder all the Agrona villagers.

Yeah, you could say that there were a lot of versions of the story.

Andromeda liked to think that the Agronians were jealous of the Arcanians, because almost none of the Agrona villagers knew archery. Andromeda learned from her mother, who was born in an unknown village in the west of the underground Black Forest. She wasn't an expert at it, but she had some skills.

She was snapped back into reality when she saw a flaming arrow sail above her head. Oh yeah, she thought. The Arcane Archers. Right now, all she had to do was drive them away. She threw a silver knife at an occupied soldier clad in red, the blade that her mother gave her piercing his heart, and Andromeda died a little inside as soon as he coughed up blood.

She froze as she watched one of her best friends, Lykos, impale the Arcanians' heads with a bronze spear, his pet wolf �" a merciless, man-eating wolf of snowy white that goes by the name Ebony �" at his side. Ebony and Lykos worked together well enough �" the wolf went to wound, the vampire went for the kill. And they did one hell of a good job, that they were well known in the village.

Alexandrine stood by her side, flinging two of her favorite deadly-sharp boomerangs at the Arcane Archers. She was excellent at carving and throwing boomerangs, and she was far better than any other. The boomerangs had connected with the necks of the Archers, and Andromeda watched in pure horror as their heads were cut clean off with the sharp weapons. Her friend, however, watched in pure delight.

Alexandrine's brother, Alexandros, was in the midst of defeating five of the archers, hacking off heads with his favorite war ax slash electric guitar, his black hair blowing in the wind. He was a heartthrob in the village, and not to mention the fact that he simply looked awesome when he was in the battlefield. He got his legendary ax-electric guitar made with a vampire-witch who lived in the modern world for a few years before settling in Agrona.

A flash of black and blue blurred past her, and Andromeda immediately realized that the blur was the quickest vampire in the history of ever. Melaina used her speed to knock out and murder unsuspecting enemies in opposing teams. She used deadly-sharp ninja stars that had the ability to light up in flames. She burnt, killed, and wounded her enemies. She probably scored third on most badass people in Andromeda's tiny group of Arcanian-slaying friends.

Raze was the biggest threat to the Arcane Archers. Andromeda wouldn't admit it, but if there was anyone who was better than her at archery, it was Raze. He mastered weapons very, very easily. He just wouldn't admit it so she can get a tiny bit of the glory. Of course, he did study from Greek and Roman vampires, who taught him how to master the sword. She could notice that the Arcanians were terrified of the 145-year-old vampire wielding a sword with steel as black as death.

Andromeda shook her head, grabbed one of her arrows, and dipped it in a vat of blasting jelly. Blasting jelly pretty much exploded anything that it hits, and it was incredibly loud when it hits its target, she thought as she shot the arrow dipped in the green substance. She winced and bit her lip as she heard cries and shouts from the direction, and two seconds later, a boom was heard all over the forest. She kinda felt her heart break into pieces at the sound of that boom.

She fired an arrow at an Arcanian directly at the sleeve of his uniform, pinning him to a tree. As she was about to shoot an arrow to his throat to end his life once and for all, something stopped her inside. Alexandrine looked at her uneasily, as if to say, 'What in the name of the gods, Andromeda? Have you gotten mad? Do it, and do it now or I'll do it for you!'

She's killed countless other vampires before just for the sake of being appreciated by the warriors of her village. She wanted to be like her father �" the brave, strong vampire warrior he is �" and she wanted to be like her mother �" the peaceful, calm, storyteller and poet who believed that there was beauty in every life.

But her mother was dead, so as she notched an arrow to her bow, as she watched the arrow sail directly to the throat of the man clad in red, as she could feel shivers down her spine as the man howled in pain as he died, Andromeda made up her mind. Her friend Alexandrine grinned at her, being the cold killer she was with her trust boomerang, and proceeded to behead a few dozen Arcane Archers. Andromeda was supposed to be like her dad.

Even if she wanted to be like her mom.

Author's Note

Can anyone help me improve this story? If anyone can give me constructive criticism, that would be great.
Closer to the Edge (c) 30 Seconds to Mars
This (c) Me