“Seulgi, are you okay?” Wendy asked and followed up with another question when she received no response from the younger vampire. “Have you somehow been petrified by Irene’s touch?”

“Uh… uh? Yea, I am okay.” The young vampire stammered and she tore her contact away from Irene, embarrassed by Wendy’s comment about being petrified by the leader’s touch but could not help but concur with it. Truly petrified.

Irene had not expected herself to be able to soothe the young vampire so easily and when the leader caught the intense stare from Seulgi, she felt rather troubled by it. She knew that look because she had received it numerous times, usually from unknowing mortals who were infatuated with her. Perhaps, just perhaps Seulgi’s one was slightly stronger and it disturbed her more than it should have but since Seulgi was already one of them, Irene decided to stow that uneasy feeling of hers away and hoped that the young vampire would only be momentarily interested in her. Such feelings should pass quickly. The leader thought. Yet no matter how hard the leader tried to break her thoughts away, that look from Seulgi still lingered in her mind and the leader realised that she could possibly be thinking about it for a long time.  

“Irene, Seulgi is almost done with the books, are you going to take her through strategic combats already?” Wendy asked. 

Irene blinked her eyes, breaking out of her reverie and surprised by Wendy’s sabotage before the young vampire.   

“Or is Joy going to do it?” Wendy suggested again, there was a more playful edge to her voice this time round.

Irene frowned as considered the alternative suggestion for a moment and shuddered at how intense the training might become. Joy, could go to lengths when it comes to training and with Seulgi still so young and seemingly inexperienced, Joy could hurt her. Then again, Irene wondered if Seulgi was truly as inexperienced as she appeared. Like during the first time they had met in the forest, the older vampire scanned the young vampire from head to toe once more, only to realise this time round how muscular and attractive Seulgi was. The young vampire had a look that was not immediately attractive but grows on others as time goes by. Further troubled by her own assessment of the young vampire, the leader looked away.  

“Or we could ask Yeri to do it.” Wendy suggested again, this time with a sly grin on her face.

A deep furrow appeared between Irene’s brows at that suggestion. The leader knew that she should give Yeri a chance at mentoring another vampire but Irene was also pretty sure that Yeri would botch things up. Irene knew what she had to do.

“What do you think Wendy? Who should do it?” The leader smiled craftily as she threw the question back to the vice-leader whose eyes had doubled in size for a second before narrowing to slits in the next second.

“What do you think Seulgi? Who do you want to mentor you in combat?” Wendy evaded the bullet from Irene and directed it to Seulgi instead.

The confused young vampire did not know that she was caught in a playful crossfire between the leader and the vice-leader. With two of the senior vampires looking at her expectantly, Seulgi felt burdened at this novel situation but she had to choose and so she chose. “All of you.”

Irene was mildly taken aback by the unexpected outcome but had to admit that the young vampire’s choice was a wise one. In fact, Irene should have offered all four of them to teach Seulgi vampiric combat right at the beginning because they all had different strengths.

Wendy’s strengths lay in strategic planning even before the combat started which was also a main reason why Wendy was not a reckless fighter. The strategic planner especially loves to entrap her target foe. If it truly came to physical combat, Wendy was also a quick analyser and could figure out an enemy’s weakness much quicker than the rest.

For Joy, striking hard and fast was her forte. Unlike Wendy who believes in the power of planning, Joy has been faced with too many impromptu situations and fights that she could never have planned for. Therefore, Joy’s goal was always to incapacitate by using offense mercilessly. The general weak spots of the vampires include the eyes, the heart and their neck. Joy, would therefore aim for these spots and strike them in succession.

Meanwhile for Yeri, the younger vampire was especially good with sneak attacks and possessing a variety of tools to aid her in combat. Yeri’s favourite tools are silver weapons which sometimes included pins. The leader scowled momentarily as she was reminded of Yeri’s obsession with silver. Despite her lack of experience in actual combat, Yeri was a scary opponent because she had tested these weapons on Joy and Wendy and they turned out to be so lethal and she managed to win in their duels until the leader banned her from using it. Even so, Yeri had continued to develop and innovate such weapons in the name of preparation for an actual combat.

Irene’s greatest asset was the amount of experience, great or small, that she had gained through the numerous years and she never stopped learning. Her greatest ability therefore lies in the unpredictability of her combat style. Irene was so versatile that she could be as witty as Wendy, as quick as Joy, and as cunning as Yeri, all at once. The leader was never known to show distress because she knew she would always prevail at the end. This thought of hers was also what kept her going strong all this while. The mental discipline that Irene possessed made it difficult for her members and her opponents to defeat her.   

Irene nodded in approval of Seulgi’s choice. “Well then, we shall do that, beginning with Yeri first, followed by Joy, then Wendy, and finally myself.”

Wendy looked at the young vampire who was still under her and nodded too, in admiration. “Very ambitious, very good. I hope you will stop picking on me after this combat training.” The vice-leader was inwardly laughing to herself because Seulgi was about to find her real cause of headache in this household… and that was Yeri.

**

“Lesson one from Yeri, always show enthusiasm even in the toughest situation!” Yeri, the first-time mentor to another vampire instructed energetically.  

It was the day four since Seulgi had first joined their coven and the young vampire was beginning to feel restless and lethargic from the intense reading and not having fed for the past few days. Yeri, the newest mentor, adjusted the blank-looking new vampire’s lips to curve into a smile. “There! You’ve got to look happier.”  

Joy, who was watching by the side kept shaking her head in disapproval and was growing more impatient by the seconds. When they sparred, Joy could be a fun-loving and lenient opponent. However, when it came to training, Joy demanded nothing less than the highest standards of discipline and performance. This was also the main reason why the other members often joked that “Joy-like training” was equivalent to the spartan-like training for humans.

Despite Irene and Wendy warning Joy to let Yeri explore and implement her own style of training, Joy was finding it painful to watch. She pitied the new vampire who has had to endure Yeri’s nonsense. Joy was internally debating whether or not to just take over Yeri’s portion for mentoring. Already, half an hour has passed and Yeri has not officially started, instead, choosing to babble about her unexciting experiences. This is dragging way too much time… Yeri, when are you going to start…? As if Joy’s thoughts had jinxed it, the two vampires were suddenly on a move. Surprised, Joy almost yelped, everything happened so quickly and Joy had to play back in her mind what happened just a few seconds ago. Were there any signals from either of them to begin their sparring? The answer that came back to Joy’s mind was a definite no. Then the thought that Yeri, being Yeri, might have planned a sneak attack on the young vampire dawned upon her.

The two vampires were neck and neck. Yeri being the smarter vampire, wasting no movements while Seulgi was the swifter one and her packed with more power.

It unsettled Joy a bit but excited her at the sa