Phoenix Reborn

Vincente sat down gingerly he had been in a huge battle for the spirit warriors and because of what he went through at the hands of the vampires he had become quite nervous and what many would call very stressed out that they weren’t able to keep him on.

It was hard knowing that a place he had given three lifetimes his life had abandoned him in Grenoble France.   Yes they had given him a beautiful mountain fort that was easily defensible. 

As soon as he was fired he knew that his life was over.  Now they would say he has become unbalanced and all he wanted was revenge.  But who was to blame, he couldn’t put the blame on himself since even though he had went up against the strongest vampires he just couldn’t take responsibility.

Vincente had been born in France in a small villa where his father had hid mages who were being hunted by the mages circle.  At the age of 14 he was helping his father with that and he knew that he could easily get help from some of those mages.

That was the first thing he did and they put so many shields and protective wards.  Noone would find out what he was planning.  He approached the Hunters first.

He would need to know just how they became as they were.  For his idea they would be more extreme version of The Hunters.  He would stalk their prey and do whatever was necessary to end the stain on humanity known as vampires.

Vincente was happy to hear that Hunter General Lianna had agreed to meet with him.  It sounded like she wanted to recruit the former Spirit Warrior.  She knew his abilities would be of great help especially with his combat skills.  What she had no idea was he could imbue fire to any object he was holding which would mean a perfect vampire hunting power.  Noone really knew just how powerful he was. 

——-

Lianna entered the gated fort that was in the Grenoble Mountains.  It had been years since she had been to France as it was not the hotbed that needed her specifically or the hunters nearly as much.  They had their own group that hated the cadres more and it was from the mages themselves they called themselves The Holy Fire.  Some were priests and others were elemental mages.

She had been born in Scotland but had lived in Paris for years when she was younger and she could easily speak the language.  Knowing of what happened to Vincente and she knew the rage that could happen.  It is why she became a hunter after one of her sisters was killed by one of those who walked at night.  She had never found out who it was but she did make sure she would kill any she found.

She saw a huge man in chainmail with a two handed sword.  She approached him cautiously, she had her strength and her stakes also a short sword and leather armour.  “I am here at the request of Vincente.  He should be expecting me”

The man nodded “Welcome General Lianna.  You are most welcome in this home.  Please follow this young lady”

The lady in question looked to be no more than 13 years of age but she had the otherworldly sense to her.  She could feel the power and it didn’t feel dark.  She then figured it out this was an elven maiden her power was of the light and she was probably older than most and had powers that many would die for.

“Mistress Lianna.  My name is Elcantra I am here helping with Vincente for now to protect this place.  The nature magic is protecting us here and you need not worry about vampiric attacks here.  Thank natural world does not like them and would warn us.  Vincente is looking forward to chatting with you”

She nodded and didn’t really understand the reasoning but her power was being able to see the auras of those she came into contact with.  This elven maiden could easily take out a small army and her magic was that of nature she was probably one of the rarest of the druids. 

“General Lianna.  Welcome to my home away from home.” The booking voice of Vincente said.  “France was always my home but not in the mountains of Grenoble.  I am very pleased you could come on such short notice.”

She bowed to the master of the house.  He was no longer the innocent looking gentleman that she had dealt in the past.  His face was scarred up from the battles he had waged.  His hand shook as well due to nerve damage that hadn’t healed fully as of yet.  “Thank you for the invite and the safe place to stay while we discuss what it is you wish to discuss.  You are a bit too old to join the Hunters especially as an ensign.  I take it you want advice on creation of a new caste?”

He nodded “You are not aggressive enough for what I have in mind.  Don’t get me wrong I respect what you do and what you are I need more action and the means to destroy the vampiric breed.  I have a few solid followers as well who want what I do.  But most of them are not going to stay young for long”

She laughed “So you want long life curse I thought you had that already with the spirit warrior”

Vincente nodded “I do but since I no longer can work as one eventually my power will wane I will start to age again.  My team though doesn’t have the curse of long life.  Since we will be going after the toughest of the tough we will need to have something on our side.  I have some mages that will cast the spells for me.”

“I see so you want the spells that were used to create the extremely long life spell.  I suggest you don’t use it as you sound like you are going out after a fight with the biggest and best trained on their side.  Long life will be something of a misnomer for you as seldom will you get to old age. “ Knowing what he wanted she could understand but would a mage really want to bring them into the magical community of unnatural oddities.  Hunters were powerful but they were also not as modified as what she figured Vincente wanted.  Strength to march that of a vampire and long life. What else could he want?  She figured it was a bit ask.

“Okay Vincente I can give you the spell but it takes a mage of immense power to put it into the potion you will need.  I’m not sure you could afford the power cost that it would take.  You my old friend are going to make this harder that you need to.  I am worried”

He laughed “Thank you Lianna every bit will help us.  As for your worry I can understand you also know what I went through in the last great battle. You saved me from certain death and for that I will be grateful.  I am not sure if I can afford it but I am going to try.”

Lianna was smiling she really did like this man and had always wished he would have been with her in an emotional way.  “What are you looking to get modified”

He laughed “You won’t like it.  But I want to get strength and long life equal to a vampire.  I have plans to have us not need food and that we would gain energy from the sun that would sustain us.  The other thing is we will each be imbued with an armour spell that can help to protect us.  And of course we will require holy and fire weapons.”

She was shocked “You aren’t asking for much.  The weapons you will need a magesmith, of you want holy you will need a priestsmith.  For the long life and strength you will need an adept class mage that focuses on potion makers.  None will be cheap especially not the armour skin you plan on making as that will require a shielded that is also a smithy.”

He laughed “I have the money stashed away.  My parents were well off and left me everything when they died.  I also have my pay that I received from being the spirit warrior.  This place was gifted to me by the Spirit Warriors and I have already spent money to make it impossible to use scrying on with magic.  It’s also shielded and can be rejuvenated by the magical line running underneath the fort. It means we won’t have the ambient magic for mages to use.”

She nodded “You are very resourceful but those who burn brightest burn out quickly”

He smiles Vincente was very happy “But like the Phoenix who dies in his flames and is reborn.  I am the Phoenix Reborn”. He put his mind into it and grabbed the ball and turned it into a ball of flame that floated briefly before it settled down.  “Now you know one of my secrets.  I can imbue objects with fire at will.  It is why I was always known as a phoenix.  Vampires will have a hard time defending against my justice.  The flames of justice are with me”

——

Three days later Lianna was gone out on the Hunt.  He had already contacted those he knew who wanted in and even now were moving to the mountain fort on Grenoble.  He was excited as unlike the hunters he would allow mages to join his ranks.

“Welcome my friends.  As you are aware I am creating a new sect of Hunters and we will be using some of there spells to assist us.  All of you claimed you wanted to burn the disease out of this country and out of Europe.  Most of you know I was a powerful Spirit Warrior which allowed me woke protection from the vampires but even my skills didn’t keep me safe.  I have had a potion that can be taken it will allow you to get some powers that are the equal to the vampires special abilities.”

He grabbed the potion and took it all in.  He felt the tingling sensation and coukd feel the magical armour come to life as it wrapped around his body.  The burning fire came into his system giving him the unnaturally long life.  He tasted iron as his blood began to strengthen with a brightened strength. 

It was no surprise that 18 out of 19 of those he invited had taken the potion.  They would become the core group of men and women who would be able to take on a vampire at their own game.  They wouldn’t just hunt the demons in human guise they would stalk them and then slay them.

The core group was strong and had some mages.  They even had two magesmiths who were capable to creating weapons.  He had given the magesmith titles of Master of Weaponry.  They also were the best trained fighters he had.

Vincente as the leader who be The Phoenix.  The only one of them and when he died it would have to be determined from the ranks who would take on.

The master of weaponry was Antoine who with having been a magesmith he also had the ability of fireballs.  He was who Vincente was hoping would take the leadership role of something happen to him.

The second master was Agostinho.  His special ability was he could shift himself into a bird.  While a bird wasn’t the best it was a great way to scout the enemy.  He also was better trained in many martial arts and had no qualms about using them and whatebwe else he could for advantage.

The priest was the Holy Warlord.  There would only be one of those.  She was a great lady named Elena who was Spanish descent.  Her main ability other than healing magic and holy magic was she had the ability to heal just by touching someone with her hand even if it wasn’t overly powerful or not as powerful as her magic it helped.

Elena has already put the holy wards around there place and also linked the spell to the key lines of the area.  No devil or demon would get through to the no matter how hard they tried.


The 15 remaining members were all soldiers of the phoenix with no other ranks.  Almost all of them had some form of elemental magic fire water earth and air.  Fire worked best against the vampires , then earth.  Air and water weren’t as good against them unless they were combined together.

He was shocked as he had 6 members of his own family talking about joining all of them kids or grandkids of his including one great great grandkid.

If he could get Aimele on board they would be almost unstoppable as she created fire storms.  He was closer to her than to anyone.  His family also was immune to fire but not it’s side affects like smoke inhalation.

The elemental workers were all classified different.

Fire users were called The Dragons
Earth users were called Golems
Air users were called Sylphs
Water users were called Kraken.

For his purposes he classified them all as equal but his fire users were what he needed most as they were what could kill vampires the easiest.  Each one would have a leader that would be chief and then from there they would promote those who they knew deserved it.  It would be a meritocracy.

It was all coming together beautifully and the training was amazing.  Vincente was pushing his powers further now than before.  He could even imbue his clothes with fire without them burning up, and he could imbue his hands with fire now as well so that strikes with his hands would be able to destroy the unholy beasts.

Things were running too smoothly which he didn’t trust since he had heard rumours from his friend Shane of a new group that has surfaced called the Stalkers.  Nothing was really known but they didn’t like any undead and that they were all fair game. 

Shane said “Just watch out we don’t know what their goal is.  All we know is that no undead is safe around them.  We have heard of a dozen vampire deaths already including one class b vampire.  They have to be powerful as those who have been able to escape have all said the same thing.  They are as strong as they are and they have special armour that can block the physical strikes of a vampire.  It is going to be hard.”

He nodded “Shane you know I am not with your group anymore.  The Spirit Warriors destroyed my Spirit and my heart when they mustered me out of the service.  I have a confession that these Stalkers sounds like they are for us and won’t let evilness to spread.”

He glared “What do you know Vincente?”

“I need your word you won’t hurt me when I tell you.”. He saw Shane nod.  “I created the group and am willing to work with other groups to help protect their people from Vampires”

“Vincente. This is extremely dangerous especially as you have went after some of the strongest vampires in France.  They weren’t even necessarily ones who were causing trouble.  You are risking the magical community trying to destroy you.  What are your goals?”

He smiles sadly “You know what happened to me at the hands of them.  I want to protect our people and block the power of the undead who have been steadily destroying our very way of life.  It was with that in mind I created this offshoot of the Hunters which were named The Stalkers by the undead themselves.  We won’t stop till the undead are gone.”

Shane wasn’t happy even Vincente could see that.  They had been friends for the last three centuries in fact he had been trained by Shane.  Then he rose through the ranks to that of Lt Colonel which was higher than even his mentor and friend.  Was this jealousy, he hadn’t thought that was possible.  Why was Shane so against this?  It was all good that the vampires would die. 

Shane couldn’t stay because of what he heard but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to rely on his abilities and his keeping quiet about what he knew.  He knew that they would send someone after them eventually.

————-

Two years later Vincente was looking at his people, it was nothing short of a miracle.  They numbered now at 63 members strong.  When he first started he has no idea it would grow this large. 

He had not a single death of his people and they had accounted for over 350 to kills against the undead including the lich.  He was most pleased with his people and how they performed.

Rumours were that there was a hit that was put out on him.  He was the only member that anyone knew.  While he still had some contacts with the spirit warriors they had not been able to tell him too much including who was being sent to assassinate the head of The Stalkers.

He was at his Grenoble home as they knew the place since they had given it to him.  What they didn’t know was his ancestral home which was hidden from everyone.  His followers had left the fort and went there.  One day they would retake this place.  He knew for sure he wasn’t about to make it through the next week as he wouldn’t be able to fight any spirit warriors that they sent against him.

He heard the crashing of the door as it was blown inwards.  He saw four members of the spirit warriors only one did he know and know him well he did.  Shane was standing there with his hands pushed out in front of him.  He had used the power of his telekinesis to force the doors in. 

“So they sent my execution squad and it was you that they sent Shane.  Did they think I wouldn’t fight you as we are friends.”

Vincente looked angry but Shane also knew he was scared “I am sorry Vincente but the council want you for your crimes against the supernatural community.  Come peacefully I will make sure you are given a fair trial.”

He grabbed his knife and suddenly it was imbued with the power of fire.  One after another he whipped them at Shane who didn’t get hit.  He then grabbed pebbles from the ground and they burst into flames as he through them not at Shane but at a women who he knew was only a few years past her training.  She screamed as she exploded with the flames that engulfed her.

Shane jumped in between his people and quickly put up a wall of telekinesis.  He felt the force of the powers and knew he had to do something.  He snapped his hand out to the side and the knife slipped into his hand.  He threw the knife using the telekinesis to give it more power.  It ripped through the magical skin armor piercing the heart. 

Vincente smiled “Thank you my friend”

As Vincente passed away he knew his people were safe for now as noone knew who was part of the Stalkers.  He couldn’t give that away now, and he wouldn’t need to worry as they were going to hide for years and would get back into the swing of things as soon as the heat died down.

He Vincente had succeeded far better than he had ever hoped.  His people would end the scourge that were the undead and humanity would finally be at peace.