Dapper stalked his prey through the long grass, moving silently with fluid motions between the shadows cast by the trees and bushes as they were illuminated by the starry sky. He could see the group of three casters, two moving with nonchalant carefree chatter while the third nervously darted his eyes around, appearing to sense his impending demise. All of them wore no armor, instead opting for green camouflage with various gear meant both for stealth and carrying the necessary supplies to travel long distances.
“Are you sure about this, Blaze?” the antsy member asked, voice cracking slightly as he coughed to clear it of the fear that kept creeping in. He kept tightening his grip on his spear, which Dapper could practically see shaking. “I’ve heard stories about the Inverse… a lot of nasty things lurk here.”
Dapper smiled at the man’s comment. He was one of those nasty things.
The man who was Blaze, an older man with graying black hair and a stern face, responded. “Relax, Twinge. I’ve come here dozens of times. Nothing is around here; the Inverse is massive, more massive then the real world. The chances of us running into anything are practically nil.”
The other man laughed. “Even if there was… are you really that scared of a Vorpal, Twinge? With all three of us here? We have Blaze for thermal casting, me for gravity, and you for kinetic. If we cooperate, we can fell almost anything the Inverse can throw at us.”
Dapper moved closer, now within range to take one out, as Twinge answered. “You say that now, Crusher. But this is their turf. We have defenses, numbers, resources… absolutely all the advantages outside of here. But here, we are weaker, and they-”
The man’s words were cut short as Dapper leapt from the bushes, snapping his neck as he flew by, letting the man’s now lifeless body collapse to the ground. Dapper landed back in the thick grass, completely unseen by the other two casters.
Blaze and Crusher immediately froze and looked around frantically when they realized their rightfully scared friend was now dead on the ground, dark mist beginning to swirl around him. Blaze started lighting the surrounding grass on fire with jets of blue from his hands, while Crusher leapt into the sky to get a bird’s eye view. Dapper rushed through the igniting grass, eventually being forced to enter the open, where Blaze saw him as his eyes grew wide.
Dapper stood there for a moment, letting the man see the one who would end him. A fancy jacket and a long sleeve white shirt with matching black dress pants, and his favorite top hat. His sickly yellowish-tan yet smooth skin marked him clearly as a Vorpal, but even without that, his two gaping voids where a Human’s eyes would normally be removed any doubt. He gripped the brim of his hat, smiling widely with his flawless smile as he regarded Blaze. “Salutations… Blaze, was it? Only two of you remain. You likely should not have come here… that is, if you didn’t want to get folded.”
Blaze cursed as he attempted to roast Dapper. “Wreck us! A Vorpal!”
Dapper stretched and morphed between the bursts of flame, avoiding any amount of exposure that would cause him harm. He started losing ground when Crusher joined in, attempting to drop whatever boulders or lose logs he could find on top of Dapper. Growing annoyed, Dapper stretched his arms and pulled himself up and around the latest boulder being leveled at him, sling-shotting himself up towards the gravity caster. He quickly grabbed the man with one arm as his target frantically tried to manipulate gravity and push him away, but while Dapper’s arm stretched slightly his grip held firm. Dapper formed his free arm into a blackened spear ending in a sharp point, and stabbed it through the man’s chest. Both fell to the ground, only one still alive as dark fog flowed off of his arm as it quickly reformed from needle of death back to its normal state, though it was still covered in Crusher’s blood.
To Dapper’s disappointment, Blaze ran in desperation. “Tsk, tsk, Blaze. You can’t elude me… and to think, after all that grandstanding about how invading the Inverse somehow wasn’t a grave mistake...”
Dapper stopped himself from following when he heard sobbing. He looked around as he finished wiping his bloody hand on the grass, not seeing any other combatants as Blaze moved farther towards the horizon. He finally looked down, and saw a much shorter being, barely even four feet tall and standing a little over half his own height. It had a bag over its head, and was dressed in rough gray clothes made from wool, with no shoes. And strangest of all, there were shackles on its arms.
Dapper pulled the hood off the short one, revealing a young Human girl. She had straight blond hair and blue eyes that were red with tears, and now quickly filling with fear. She backed up and screamed at the sight of Dapper, falling backwards and trying to crawl away.
Dapper just watched for a moment, confused. He stretched an arm out and picked the girl up by the back of her shirt, dangling her in front of him as he looked at her. She covered her face, quivering in mortal terror. “P...Please… let me go…”
Dapper looked around. “Let you go where?”
The girl stopped crying slightly to answer, still shaking. “I… don’t know… those men kidnapped me. I don’t know where I am…”
Dapper set the girl down and squatted down himself so he wasn’t towering over his new conversation partner. “You are in the Inverse, little one.”
The girl looked at Dapper with horror. “D-d-does… that m-m-mean...”
“Yes, I’m a Vorpal.”
The girl turned to run, as Dapper grabbed her again. She thrashed as she tried in vain to get away. “I don’t want to die! I want to go home! Let me go, you monster! Freak!”
Dapper dropped the girl at the sting of the final insult as he watched her run. He followed for a short distance, watching her till she grew tired and collapsed, crying. He approached again, and sat down next to her. He was not feeling overly concerned for her well being, but rather curious on how a Human child had come to be in the Inverse, and why. “Tell me, how did you get here? You said you were kidnapped? Why?”
The girl refused to answer for a long while, but Dapper waited patiently, as he had lost interest in chasing down Blaze now that this new event had his attention. She finally responded, anger bleeding into her voice. “I am – was - being held for ransom. A gang in the Pyro Empire, where I’m from… they kidnap children, then hide them somewhere until the parents pay. I was walking home from school, when they…” The girl started crying again.
Dapper patted her on the back, to which she recoiled, so he stopped. “Hmm… intriguing. I know little of interactions between Humans. So you don’t all get along, then?”
The girl gave Dapper an incredulous look. “What? No- no of course they don’t! What kind of inhuman… thing are you?”
Dapper raised an eyebrow over his nonexistent eyes. “I’m a Vorpal.”
The girl sighed. “Right. Well… you are the friendliest Vorpal I’ve ever met.”
“Really? You chat with many of them?”
“No, I’m just saying… we are taught that Vorpals will always kill you if they get you.”
Dapper looked towards the starry sky. “Yeah, that’s an apt assumption to make.”
The girl’s gaze sharpened on Dapper again, horrified at his answer. “But then… why aren’t you killing me?”
Dapper tore some grass from the ground and fiddled with it. “I don’t really know… I suppose I could. Maybe I should. But I guess I just don’t really want to. I can sense you aren’t a caster, so I have nothing to gain from it.”
“You only kill casters?”
“Well, no. I primarily kill casters. Anything else… Meh. It depends.”
The girl was silent again for a long time. “My name is Alicia. Do… Vorpals have names?”
Dapper smiled, tipping his top hat towards Alicia. “My name is Dapper. Pleasure to meet you, Alicia. So, since I’m not occupied at the current moment… why don’t we see if we can’t get you home?”