The Vampire Arena(adapted from feedback)

"What's happening!" asked Susan, in a scared voice. The shadows merged and started to expand around them. Soon, they were surrounded on all sides by their own shadow. And it was rising. Encircling them inside a large, black sphere. Susan clutched Daniel in fright as the darkness enveloped them. Daniel didn't show it, but he was just as scared as Susan was.

Gradually, their eyes started to grow accustomed to the darkness that surrounded them, or was the darkness receeding? It was hard to tell. Whatever happened, when the darkness receeded, they realised they were in some sort of cage. Inside the cage, were about twenty people in strange dress, as if they were straight off a millenium parade; Knights in armour with lions on their shields; Men with pointed ears, carrying bows; a women with no visible weapons or armour; Men carrying spears.
"What is this place?" said Daniel, gazing up towards the sky. He gasped. The sky was completely black. No stars, no moon, nothing. "Where are all the stars?"
"We don't know" said one of the knights. He stepped forward and removed his helmet "We've been here for a few days now"
"Who are you?" asked Susan.
"Tyler " he said "We have no idea where we are"
Daniel surveyed the occupants of the cage.
"O.K, two possibilities" Daniel whispered to Susan "Either this is a fancy dress party and everyone is acting their part, or they actually are from the past"
"Are you saying we time travelled?" asked Susan, disbelieving.
"That's one of the possibilities" he said "And I think that the other one is a bit far fetched"
Susan shrugged "So's time travel"
"So perhaps the better question is 'Why are we here?'" said Daniel.

Daniel's question was about to be answered. A large, hovering platform carrying a single, fierce looking woman in a cage flew overhead. Flanking the cage were six men in Roman dress.
"Oh no," said Daniel "I think I know what this is."
"What is it, Daniel?" asked Susan.
"You remember from History, the Roman Empire used gladiators to fight each other for entertainment?" asked Daniel.
"Yes" said Susan.
"I think this may be a gladiator fight" said Daniel. As he said it, the cage was dropped into the woods, out of sight. The cage they were in clicked and the walls of the entire contraption fell outwards and seemed to meld into the ground.
"Why are they getting all of us to fight a single woman?" asked Susan "Won't it be easy?"
"It seems far too easy," agreed Daniel "There must be more to it than that."
As he said it, the roof of the cage opened. When the sides were level with the bars, the cage started to sink into the ground. Soon, nothing remained of the cage that had held them.
"Let's go," said one of the men. He stepped up in front of everyone. Looking at him, Daniel saw that he was dressed in Roman dress.
"My name is Darius, captain of the 4th legion of the Roman army, I was once a gladiator, but I worked my way up to my position, this isn't like any arena i've ever seen, so we need to set up camp, make weapons out of anything we can find," The men went off to collect fierwood, build temporary shelters and fortify the camp with mud and bark walls.
"You seem to know what your doing" said Daniel to Darius. Darius nodded.
"I served in the Roman army for ten years before I came here, I know how these games work,"
"Careful," said Daniel "They've probably changed quite a bit since your time" Darius shrugged.
"Romans are Romans, they're all the same"
Daniel and Susan went off to help with the fortification.

Night. A fire was lit. Darius placed several men on watch. When it was his watch, he realized that the fire was getting low. He told his men to be alert and went off into the woods to collect firewood. Once he had collected the firewood, he made to go back to the camp, when he became aware that he was being watched. Looking around in the dark woods, he saw nothing, but he couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was watching him. He thought he saw something on the ground. Running over to investigate, he saw a pair of legs. Quickly lighting one of the sticks as a torch, he saw that it was a man with a bow. Without even checking him, Darius knew he was dead. As far as Darius could see, there was no sign of a struggle. Looking the bowman over, he found two red puncture marks on his skin. His skin was white, devoid of any blood that colored it. Somehow, he had been sucked dry of every single drop of blood. Darius decided to report this back to camp. Holding his torch, he made his way back.

As he left, someone dropped from the trees above him, licking the blood off the side of her mouth. The vampires bloodlust had been sated for this night. She turned her attention to the body on the floor. Venom dripped from her teeth as she sunk them into his neck. As she watched, waiting, the bowman's eyes flew open. They were unlike any human eyes. They were bright red. He opened his mouth to reveal razor sharp teeth. "My son," she said "Do what you were made to do, destroy the humans camp." The bowman stood up and punched a tree. His fist came out the other side and the tree fell. He dropped his bow and picked up the tree trunk. He turned in the direction of the camp and threw.

As Darius reached the camp, he had to dive to the side to avoid a tree trunk. Looking at the foot of the trunk, he saw that there was a punch hole through it.
"We're under attack!" shouted Darius, rousing everyone from their sleep. He watched as everyone took defensive positions in the camp. Daniel went to the fallen tree and took off a relatively thick branch. Susan armed herself with a sharp stick as well. For a moment. Silence. Then, a black figure flew out of the trees. "He has taken to the air, shields up men," shouted Darius. The men that had shields formed a protective wall over those that didn't. The figure dropped, punching through the shield wall, right into the center of the warriors. They turned and hit him with their swords. The swords bounced off, as if his skin was made of steel. As one of the men made to hit again, the vampire caught it, wrenched it from him. He bent the sword and threw it away as if it was made of putty. The men ran for it. Daniel did not. He stepped forward, catching the vampires attention.
"Why do you do this?" he asked. As the vampire turned, Daniel recognised him. "You were in the camp earlier"
"I must feed on your blood" said the bowman. His eyes were red and he looked mad. Daniel approached. The vampire matched his pace towards him.
"So, is this what this is about, blood?" asked Daniel "Or are you working on someones orders."
The vampires step faltered enough for Daniel to guess that he was right, but it said nothing. Daniel looked around. Susan was in position behind the vampire.
"Now!" Daniel shouted. Both he and Susan ran towards the vampire. Daniel drove the wooden stick towards his chest. It went inside it. The vampires eyes, which had been red before, changed to brown and he went limp.
"Did we win?" asked Darius "Are the games over?" Daniel shook his head.
"He was just the pawn," said Daniel "The one we have to kill is still out there."
"Our weapons didn't even make a dent," said Darius, holding up the crumpled sword of one of his warriors.
"It appears that at least some of the old vampire legends are true," said Daniel "Stake through the heart kills them."
"You've heard of these creatures before?" asked Darius.
"In stories and tales," replied Daniel "I wasn't sure that the legends would be true."

"Well, what else do you know of them?" asked Darius. Daniel quickly summarised all the different ways to kill a vampire. Garlic, stakes, burning, even holy water. After he had finished, Darius sat down on the tree that had been thrown into the camp the other night.
"I don't know what to do," he said "I've fought countless enemies in the defense of Rome, but never an enemy as powerful as this."
Daniel and Susan sat down next to him, pondering.
"I have an idea that might work," said Daniel. Darius looked at him, waiting for him to begin.
"The vampire jumped into the camp last night, the force of his landing was enough to make a rather large dent"-He indicated the small crater where the previous bowman had landed-"What we need to do, is set traps, pit traps with wooden spikes in it, they'll work as stakes if the vampire falls in, we need to find some water and soften the mud around here, so the vampire will be bogged down, I reckon Susan's locket"-he indicated the christian cross hanging round her neck- "Will turn any water that we put it into holy, so we can just throw water at them and they'll die."
"It's a good plan" said Darius "You should go and make preparations for it, you can take command of the men"
"Me?" said Daniel "I have no battle experience save last night, your much more qualified to lead these men than I."
"It's true that I have more experience in battle, but from what you've told me today, you know more about fighting this thing than I ever can," said Darius "So, what are your orders, captain."
"Go and tell the men they have a new captain," said Daniel "Tell them to assemble outside my tent."

Once all the men were assembled, Daniel came out of his tent.
"Some of you may know why you have been called here today," said Daniel "I will tell you now that I am taking command of the men." There were mutters of indignation, shock and anger at his words. Daniel raised his hand to silence them.
"Darius himself decided to step down and asked me to take command, I would first like to confirm what some of you have already guessed," Daniel paused. "The woman we're fighting is a vampire." Shock was imminent in the soldiers faces, but Daniel also saw something else as well. Fear.
"How do we fight these immortal creatures?" asked one of the men.
"Powerful they are, immortal they are not," said Daniel "There are several ways they can be slain, but this woman is smart, we need to set traps for her."
"What would you have us do, Daniel?" asked Darius.
"Dig holes with anything you can find, chop down the trees and chop them into sections, sharpen them and put them in the holes," said Daniel "See if you can find a lake or something, perhaps we can make the water holy."

The men went off to do what Daniel asked them.
"I want you all back inside the perimeter of the camp before nightfall," said Daniel "These vampires have only ever shown themselves at night so far." Susan went off to help prepare. She was tasked with finding the lake Daniel had requested. As she went off on her own, the sky started to darken. She was too far from the camp to make it back before nightfall. Then, she stumbled and her foot touched something wet. Looking down, she saw that she had wandered into a stream. She knew that streams most often lead to lakes, so she followed it. She soon wandered into a large lake. Wading into the center, she looked around. There were several pairs of red eyes watching her from the bank. A few she recognized as men from the camp. The vampire woman had been busy, turning a lot of the men into vampires. They hadn't drunk blood yet and they could smell her. She would be their first meal. She started to back away through the water. The vampires followed her into the water. She felt in her pocket for something to use. Found a small, metal cross on a chain. As she brought her hand out of her pocket, the cross fell into the water. The effect was instantaneous. The nearest vampire to her screamed. His body seemed to go red before exploding. The other vampires were shocked, before exploding in turn. Soon, there were no vampires in the river. Susan reached into the water and picked up the cross. She put it around her neck and climbed out of the pond.

Back at the camp, Daniel had begun to feel worried about Susan. He sent a party of warriors out of the camp to find her. A long while later, Daniel saw the party returning. But something was different. Daniel realized that they're eyes were red.
"Get ready!" shouted Daniel "They're coming." As the men ran to defensive positions, the vampires sped up. When they were about a quarter of a mile from the camp, the ground collapsed under them. Several of the vampires fell down and were impaled on the wooden spikes that were down there. There were still six vampires left.They advanced more cautiously, making sure that they didn't trigger any of the other traps. Daniel picked up a wooden spear made earlier at the lead vampire. It went right through him and he withered until he was dust at the feet of the others. Three others fell down another of the spike traps. As Daniel watched the movements of the remaining two vampires, he realized that the woman was coming up behind them. It was behind her, however, that Daniel was looking. Susan was sneaking up behind her, holding a stake in one hand and a necklace in the other. As she got closer, her foot came down on a twig. There was a resounding snap and the woman turned round. She grabbed Susan's wrist that was holding the stake. Susan dropped the stake. As the vampire woman dipped her head to Susan's exposed wrist, Susan dropped the necklace around the vampires neck. The vampire relinquished her grip on Susan and shrieked in pain as the necklace touched her skin. Her skin seemed to be heating up. She was melting. Her entire being was decomposing until all that was left was the necklace. Susan picked it up along with the stake and turned to the remaining two male vampires. They had been distracted from the camp and were now going towards Susan. Susan veered to the left. The vampires changed course. As they changed course, the ground below them cracked. They both fell down onto a single spike. It impaled them both through the heart and they, like their mistress, melted. The competitors had survived the Vampire Arena. A hovercraft had come from overhead. They had all been forced into the cage on it and taken into the air. When they got out of the arena, they saw no stars, no blue, as if the sky wasn't there at all.

"What happened to all the stars?" asked Susan.
"This is the future, maybe they're all black holes now," said Daniel.
"It seems unnatural," agreed Darius. As they climbed, they noticed a blue gas coming out of one of the air vents on the hovercraft. The gas was forming into a humanoid shape. Then, it punched one of the Roman guards off the hovercraft. The other turned it's weapon on the blue figure. More blue gas came out of the bottom, masking the scene from view. When the gas cleared, there were several blue figures standing on the hovercraft.
"No time to talk," said one of the blue figures, picking a key card from one of the guards pockets. He ran it through the door and the door opened. The blue figures became gas and surrounded you. You could still breathe, but you couldn't see anything. When the blue gas retreated, you were standing in a forest, it was different from the forest in the Arena. The trees looked greener and were taller.
"What are you?" asked Daniel, then backtracked "I mean who are you?"
"I am Danzen, chief of the Ozone Colony in Rome, we are the resistance," said one of the blue people "The humans using their fossil fuels were destroying us, we evolved to cope with it, the finished product is what you see, we plan to overthrow the Roman Empire and stop them from destroying us."
"I get how you were created and all," said Susan "But what about the vampires?"
Pain came over Danzen's face
"The vampires were the Romans attempt at fixing what they did to the world, they experimented on the Ozone people and the mutants that the carbon atmosphere created," explained Danzen "We evolved to cope with the change."
"We have never seen any man defeat the vampires before, we can defeat them, of course, but the Roman's enemies cannot," said one of the other blue people.
"The important thing now is, will you fight with us?" said Danzen. Daniel considered.
"I will." he said.
"As will I." said Susan.
"Welcome to the resistance." said Danzen.