Return to Jorgaldur Volume IV: Reunion

Reinforcements (I)

With hardly any time to think, Gjaki did the first thing that she could think of. She used almost all of her mana to summon a Darkness Pillar. She took advantage of the fact that the spell hid her to wrap herself in Darkness, and try to crawl away.

As the vampiress did so, she could see that whatever had affected her had been purged after emptying all her blood pool. There was no sign of it even when she consumed a vial of blood, which allowed Self-Regeneration to activate. She also took a healing potion to help.

Gjaki felt terribly weak and her whole body ached. Not only there were the injuries sustained, but Berserker had overtaxed her body. It had pushed it past the limit, thus exhausting her, not to mention the loss of blood.

For their part, the other two vampires had dodged the Darkness Pillar, while the one who had been fighting Gjaki had been engulfed by the spell. After a few moments, when the Pillar disappeared, it could be seen that he had survived.

Despite her being of a higher level, vampires are quite affine to darkness magic, which was why it hadn't been enough. Although, that didn't mean he had escaped unscathed. He was badly injured, his whole body seemed to be burned, and he could barely move.

His companions let him recover on his own, as their mission was much more important. It was evident that her enemy was very weak now, so they had to locate and finish her off as soon as possible.

"There she is! That shadow!" the gray-haired vampiress pointed out.

The two ran towards her, but were forced to stop. A Boomerang thrown axe cut off their path, just as an Earthen Wall appeared in front of them a moment later.

They circled it quickly, but by then the lynx had reached them. She engulfed herself in fire and intercepted them, not attacking but protecting Gjaki.

That gave Eldi and Nilgha time to arrive. They also guarded Gjaki behind her, just as she undid Darkness. Her appearance was pitiful. She was covered by her blood and her enemies', and felt terribly weak. It wasn't easy for her to get up.

She gripped the two daggers her attendant had retrieved. She wanted to fight as well, though she could barely stand. The vampiress was breathing heavily, and her face was contorted in pain. To Berserker's stress and injuries, it had to be added that she had lost quite a bit of blood. Since she had previously Sacrificed her own blood, the loss became more relevant. It would take time for her to recover.

"Move away, this is none of your business," the vampire demanded.

None of the three moved. They were shielding the vampiress behind them, though they didn't attack either. Everybody was very short of strength, and feared leaving her unprotected if they did.

"It doesn't matter, it's already too late for you," the enemy vampiress smiled triumphantly.

Reinforcements were arriving, though not all. Two of them were running towards the elf. They were clearly irritated by her intervention.

"Aaaaaargh!" there was a weak, desperate cry of pain from behind the vampires.

They turned for a moment to discover a huge goshawk finishing off their badly wounded companion. She had taken advantage of the fact that they had left him behind, and had killed him.

They couldn't do more than watch as the albino bird shrank and, wrapped in the wind, took off again. It was the most dangerous situation for the goshawk, close to the ground and without having reached a minimum speed. Nonetheless, her enemies didn't have time to deal with her.

Taking advantage of the distraction and pressured by the approaching reinforcements, the lynx pounced on the enemy vampiress. She was engulfed in fire thanks to the little mana she had left.

Eldi threw a Javelin and Charged into the vampire, axe in hand. Nilgha followed close behind, ready to seize any opportunity.

Gjaki was the only one who didn't move, since she practically couldn't do it. Secretly, she used Red Energy and Red Mana to recover mana and energy, at the same time that she drank more blood taken from her inventory. The vampiress wouldn't be able to use those abilities again in an hour, but it was clear that there was no point in waiting.

Although she felt terribly weak, she was no longer completely helpless. She summoned a pair of Bats to watch in all directions, and stood by. Her plan was to summon several Blood Hounds when necessary, or even a Blood Clone. Maybe, There was a better option.

She was also using Resupply to regenerate her own blood from the pool, but it was a process that took time. Precisely, time was something they didn't have. The enemy reinforcements were closing in.

Goldmi had managed to hold off the reinforcements for quite some time, at the cost of a large mana and energy drain. Finally, she had been forced to decrease the intensity of her attacks, as she risked running out of mana. This had allowed the vampires to have fewer problems, although they still couldn't move forward freely.

The elf was now shooting mostly normal arrows, which were relatively easy for that veteran group to block. However, she often added a more dangerous arrow among the others, thus forcing them to maintain their defenses, not to be careless. They were advancing, but they had to be very careful, and much slower than they could have been.

It was when they finally discovered the source of the attacks that two vampires volunteered to deal with the nuisance. They broke away from the main group and headed towards her, while taking cover behind the trees.

They were confident that she would be an easy prey when they got to her. Her attacks were of a slightly lower level than theirs, and she was also a ranged attack specialist. They didn't think they were going to have any trouble at close range.

"Only two are coming, I'll take care of them. They need you there," Goldmi assured her sisters, who were restless.

Although worried, the lynx obeyed. The goshawk, on the other hand, kept watch in the sky. She was ready to intervene where and when necessary.

"What an idiot... With so much vegetation it's easy to get close without being seen," a vampire criticized her.

"Maybe they think we wouldn't spot them within it," a vampiress mocked.

The two vampires were only a few meters from the tree the elf had been shooting from. They just had to attack quickly, without giving her time to react. They were almost certain that she hadn't seen them coming, as she had kept firing, without fearing an attack.

"They're here," Goldmi said to herself. The plants had revealed it to her.