SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Chapters Read: 6-10

It is going DOWN! This section has basically been five chapters of straight up fighting which is pretty wild.

Looking back, I thought that more happened involving Annie and Darius. But I guess that's just not the case.

The time has now basically come to confront Steve once and for all. What strikes me the most is, just how fast it's all happening, and really how many finer details that I'm forgetting. It's actually making for a really fun experience. I think in the previous times I read this, I was so filled with adrenaline that I basically just kept it pushing, kept the pages turning.

I mean, so many major events have happened already throughout this series. What a ride. Kurda Smahlt's wild storyline, Steve's first original scheme which led to Mr. Crepsley's death, Harkat being Kurda, Darius being Darren's nephew, and about a thousand things in between.

Now it all leads to this. These have been the most straight forward battle chapters since honestly perhaps book six. I mean, book 7-9 had a lot of fighting of course, but nothing to this scale as we're seeing in this finale. Some of the fighting in books 7-9 felt like it was filled with a lot of traps and plot twists and things of that nature. I mean it wasn't always like that, but I'm basically just pointing out that this battle really feels epic, and properly grand.

Harkat, Evra, and Merla and the rest of the Cirque Du Freak being willing to fight is a lot more meaningful and special to me in this read, I'm not sure why. They really cared for Mr. Tall. Them joining forces with the vampirites was pretty awesome.

In another world, or timeline, or universe, Evra kills Steve and gets to avenge Shancus's death. Mr. Tiny doesn't allow this unfortunately as of course he wants to see how this plays out with the hunters vs Steve and the prophecy etc.

Still, it's cool to know that, if it wasn't for Mr. Tiny interfering, Evra would have gotten to Steve. I sort of wish Evra stayed more involved in the series than he was, but I suppose it makes sense that Evra did his own thing, and lived his own life. I actually think it deepens the story and is logical that Evra's role became a bit limited. But it wouldn't have hurt to make him a little more involved.

But Evra almost killing Steve like that, is slightly interesting. It almost makes me wonder if Mr. Tiny's prophecy is as legit as he claims. I fully understand that Darren or Steve or Vancha could die by other means, and that the consequences largely would remain for the party that failed to eliminate the other but.... It just makes me think. I feel like I'm missing something there. It's on the tip of my tongue but maybe it's nothing. Maybe it really was as simple as like, a moment to display Evra's own grit, and just put on display how Evra almost had justice. I suppose at the end of the day overthinking/theorizing when it comes to prophecies in fantasy can get tricky and deep LOL.

I also am in general appreciating how involved Debbie and Alice are in the series more than I did previously. I think in prior reads, a lot of characters introduced after book six, felt like filler characters to me LMAO. I kinda didn't take them as seriously when I was younger which is actually silly. Well, Debbie was involved before but only for one book. Her reintroduction still always felt off to me at times in my prior reads. This feeling even extended to Vancha, but now Vancha is seriously one of my favorite characters in the series. So yeah, those three in general feel way more significant to me.

On the flip side, talking about bad guys here, I always knew R.V. was heavily involved but, he still was involved slightly more than I remembered. Nothing crazy, but still more than I thought. R.V. showing a glimpse of decency and shame/regret after Steve killed Shancus was pretty surprising because I thought he was fully gone into brainwashed/evil territory. I think pretty much the entire cast of characters was disturbed by that act of evil.

So yeah, while this battle takes place, Vancha and Darren go after Gannen and Steve. I love how this all goes down. For a lot of the series, there's been a lot of mad dashes filled with suspense and plot twists and schemes. But this time the chase is more of a formality. Soon, Gannen and Steve stop, and they finally wait to fight.

This final scene has lived in my head rent free for a long time. After so much story and chaos it comes down to a two on two fight, basically in the open, by a river. The simplicity, and intensity is so intense.

I'm super intrigued and heartbroken about Vancha and Gannen's relationship more than ever in this read. Again, they seem to have their own simultaneous storyline going on in the background while Darren deals with own destiny. Fairly similar to how Kurda, Steve, and even Mr. Crepsley had their own journeys. It would really be fascinating to know a little more about their relationship. I wonder if those two are involved in this fifth, sorta forgotten about chance that Mr. Tiny mentioned in book seven, which is connected to what Darren is about to do in only a few pages... I forget Gannen and Vancha's fate though. We'll have to wait and see!

I mean these four are such an interesting group. It's not like Mr. Tiny to include a hunter if he's not to likely play a role here. Steve dismisses Vancha as a red herring, which now seems like a deliberate misdirection by the author perhaps! Again, it all depends on how this all ends. Man, if it ends how I think it does, I may have a serious rant about Vancha and Gannen. They may be a significant part of this series I overlooked all these years due to poor memory and awareness by me.

The fight between the four has been outstanding, and R.V. coming out of nowhere was really wild. Again, even his character significance intrigues me. I'm surprised that the series really even keeps involving him and frankly. I forgot he even played a role in this final battle at all. His death was oddly tragic. It also reminds me just how interesting book two was.

Quite frankly, there's a lot of moving parts to this story here, and it's epic. A lot to process but epic! At this point, it's barely resembling a vampire-vampaneze war, everything feels way bigger than that.

I'm only halfway through the book here, this is about to be nuts, I can't wait to experience this again! I'm sad it's almost over but, this is amazing.