Light of Dawn

Chapter 42 - Crescent Shade

Jake and the others flew out of the portal that Eve had created and were sprinting down the path leading to the palace. Even from where they were now they could hear the sounds of what had to have been a fierce fight. The night air was ringing with the sound of gunshots, and the ever present screams of the Strigoi. Jake reached up and tapped his silver cross making his entire body vanish within a white light as his Skin replaced his clothes. Beside him Lance's green eyes had taken on a slight amber tinge and his face had grown slightly longer as he let his wolf half come out. On his other side the skin along Issac's back had rippled before two large bat wings exploded from his shoulders as his hair grew slightly longer. Finally behind the three of them Eve's hands shown like two blue road flares as her hair began to lift itself from her shoulders.

The four of them exploded from the mountain path hidden by the trees and Jake now with his own Shinobi weapons, two kodachi blades that were roughly the same length as his short swords. But unlike those before, these blades were perfectly designed to cut, and Jake found himself tearing through limbs of the Strigoi that he found in the open yard right before the palace gates. He'd ashed three of them already while Lance and Issac both cleared a rather large path through them all. The two large Beings were locked in a furious brawl with at least half a dozen of the grey skinned vampires, the pained cries of them both along with their vicious snarls filled the air around them. Eve meanwhile was sending a large stream of blue flames into the mass of bodies, ashing several nearly instantly while others were still able to resist her flames.

Jake was tackled by one of the Strigoi and the two of them flew several meters through the air, but Jake used the momentum of the impact to roll backwards so that he was on top. The vampire snapped it's jaws at him only for Jake to remove the entire upper half of its head instantly reducing it to nothing but a pile of ash. He was back up on his feet in a matter of moments and was already dealing with another Strigoi, ashing it within three strokes of his swords. Two more came at him and Jake did away with them rather easily as well, these vampires were physically superior to him in every single, but they had no minds of their own and attacked wildly. They weren't too hard to predict now after Jake had undergone his Shinobi training and he was finding that he alone was keeping up with the large amount of vampires that were being ashed by his friends. Lance ripped them in half, Issac tore their heads from their shoulders, and Eve burned them until there was very little left of their bodies. Jake meanwhile was wasting absolutely no movement, he was Doing like a Shinobi Does! He wasn't thinking about it, he was simply trusting in his body to react, to keep him alive, and thanks to his Skin further boosting his ability just a bit more he was cutting his way through these vampires rather easily.

Still, he could see that on the inside there were still dozens, more of these things and the Shinobi and Saints were doing their best to fight them off but neither one was entirely capable of dealing with a Strigoi. They were to wild for a Shinobi with no experience fighting them, and they wouldn't go down if a Saint merely shot them in the heart. Jake called out to the others that they'd have to hurry and get to the palace gets when he suddenly felt a sharp chill run down his spine. He ducked his head just then as a sword went over his head with air having to race to keep up with it. Without even thinking Jake caught his attacker with a mule kick that sent them stumbling backwards several steps  and when Jake was finally able to turn to see who it was he was met with the sight of a younger version of Issac looking at him.

"Oh shit." Gabriel said swinging his broadsword dramatically until he brought it up to his shoulder where it rested as he eyes Jake up and down. "And here i was hoping to end this quick." 

He let sigh and was about to say something else when another bunch of Strigoi lunged at Jake which he dealt with in a single swing of each of his swords. They looked ready to attack again until Gabriel let out a painfully loud hissing-screech that made nearly all the Strigoi in front of the palace gates stop. And just like that the fighting in front of the gate stopped while the brawl happening inside the palace gates continued to rage on. Even Lance and Issac had ceased their fighting to look at Gabriel and Jake as the two of them stood across from each other.