Chapter 30- Sleeping Beauty

"Urggggg" A sound of exertion forced its way out of my mouth as I tried my hardest to get the top of the coffin to budge. Even while using the butt of my spears as leverage the progress I made was minimal.

I sighed as I removed my spear and turned to Ivar who was watching my struggle with a slightly mocking smile.

"Well go ahead meat head" I said in slight embarrassment as I walked away from the jeweled sarcophagus. Ivar scoffed at my jab as he approached our target and began looking it over for a decent leverage point.

After a quick check, I confirmed that the two enchanted items we were hunting were locked inside this beautifully crafted coffin.

An ebony-colored metal was the coffin's base and small red rubies were adorned all over the top. An odd shape was carved that encompassed the entire lid. 

A host of twisting and overlapping lines that ended in the center created a picture similar to a ram, with a pentagon star in the background. Two rubies were placed perfectly to imitate eyes while a host of diamond-like stones covered the twisting horns.

Though it was all for show as I had previously checked the coffin with the spyglass, either the jewels were fake or they held no value in the enchanted spy glasses opinion.

It was a beautiful pattern but it gave off a bad vibe. 

Besides greed, another reason we found to disregard caution was the fact there wasn't an ethereal plaque anywhere in this room. 

Meaning that if something was inside this coffin it at least wasn't a mini-boss or floor boss. Well unless the tower decided to change up its pattern which we were both expecting at some point.

Still, our curiosity got the better of us.

Despite my earlier failure Ivar was able to quickly wedge the tip of his war hammer in the coffin's lid. With a forceful push, the coffin's lid cracked open, breaking whatever seal that was in place.

It was way easier than I expected, not a single rune was carved into it that I could see. But I understood that if somebody could bust down the door like we did, further defenses seemed useless.

Ivar waved me over as we both hefted the large lid off the coffin, it hit the ground with a satisfying bang but I was more focused on what was in the coffin.

To my shock, there was a woman in the coffin. 

"I think I heard a story about something like this" Ivar said as he looked at me and wiggled his eyebrows. I was confused for a moment by Ivars odd attitude before I understood what he was referring to.

I was more surprised that the story was so old that even Ivar heard it during his time.

"I think this a little darker than the sleeping princess folktale" I said as I motioned to the slightly shining silver dagger that was embedded into this admittedly beautiful woman's chest.

She was stunning, well as much as an apparent corpse could be. Dark black long hair braided to one side, a small nose, and full lips. She wore a dark red dress that seemed oddly suited to combat, as it had a slit on one side that went all the way up to her mid-thigh, armored leggings, and even a small pair of leather gauntlets. 

The gauntlets piqued my interest since they glowed in the telltale signs of an uncommon grade item.

She didn't have a single other thing on her person that we could tell from just a glance. Sadly there were so many red flags that she could only be one thing.

'A vampire' It wasn't definite and this could be just a corpse but I highly doubted it. Too many signs led me to this conclusion, not to mention the gut feeling I had since we broke into this room.

"Ivar, back away very slowly" I said in a whisper and began stealthily retreating. He turned to me with a raised eyebrow but followed along. It wasn't until we retreated to the doorway that my anxiety settled.

"What's got you so spooked, it's just a corpse?" Ivar asked a few decibels above a whisper that caused me to cringe at his lack of caution.

"That's more than likely a Vampire" I said as my eyes never left the dark-haired woman's seemingly unmoving body. I could almost picture her getting up and lunging at us with inhuman speed, claws and fangs drawn and ready to take out our throats.

"What in Odin's name is a vampire?" Ivar asked.

"A former human that now lives by consuming human blood. Claws and fangs of a beast and possibly superhuman athleticism. The spectrum of a vampire's strength is so vague that it's hard to judge." I reported.

In every piece of media I've seen revolving around vampires their strength was a wide spectrum. In some stories, a vampire could die to sunlight and a wooden stake or even to garlic.

Or on the other end of the spectrum, they could be demi-gods that can slaughter armies. Enslave humans into thralls and be one of the closest things to an actual immortal. Seeing as how we were in a fantasy world filled with magic I was leaning towards the more powerful variations.

All of the information that I had was simply too vast to create an accurate battle plan.

"So she's a Draugr then, problematic" Ivar said in understanding as he readied himself for an impending conflict.

"Sure, though a vampire is much more than a simple undead zombie" I advise as if he went into this thinking he was fighting a mindless wraith he'd probably die.