Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Ambush

Although the situation seemed desperate, Gjaki remained undeterred. There was only contempt on her face.

"This's all so cliché," she said, rather resigned.

"Cliché?" the adventurer asked, confused.

"Oh, it doesn't matter, you're too stupid to understand," she took the opportunity to insult him.

"In your situation and you still play brave? I was going to treat you well, but you need discipline. It's going to be fun," he threatened.

"Do you think you can handle me?" she challenged him arrogantly, as if that weren't a problem.

"You're not very smart. Do you not understand your situation? If you expect your friends to come help you, forget it, they're too weak. And you, you're trapped in a special cell for dangerous prisoners. You can neither escape nor attack us. It's easy to attack you from the outside. If you aren't obedient, we'll hurt. Also, we're two and at a higher level than you. Even without the cell, you wouldn't have a chance, right Apo," he tried to intimidate her, to drive her to despair.

He turned for a moment towards his companion, because Apo wasn't answering him. To his surprise, he wasn't there. There was no trace of him.

"Two? I only see one," she assured, while wanting to appear surprised. There was an obvious tone of mockery in her voice.

"What's going on!? What've you done!?" he turned to her accusingly.

"Me? I've been here all the time..." she wanted to play innocent, and even shrugged her shoulders.

Inside, however, the vampire cursed.

"Shit! I was so close... Why has he turned around and activated his defenses? If I get close now, he'll detect me."

The truth is the trapped Gjaki was nothing more than a Clone. With Ventriloquist's help, she had made him believe that she really was there. It was somewhat ironic that the cell itself prevented any possibility of her being exposed. Any flaws in her expression or mannerisms were masked by the gleam of the bars.

She had taken the opportunity to approach behind him and attack his companion. While hidden in Darkness, she had imbued her daggers with Bloody, Blasphemous and Dark Touches, and pierced him into his Weak Points. The blood warrior had reinforced her blood skills with Blood Pressure, her physical with Blood Overload, had landed the attacks with Backstab, and had reinforced them with Pierce. Furthermore, a Bite on the neck and Disrupt had been executed at the same time.

To prevent him from screaming, she had timed her attacks with Blood Control, to fill his mouth with blood mixed with poison before he could react. She had also used Surplus so that more blood could be absorbed, in order to be prepared for a possible fight.

"Perhaps, it's been a bit overkill," she told herself, after realizing that her enemy had died almost instantly. Without a doubt, she had gone overboard with the preparations.

Without wasting any time, Gjaki had hidden the corpse in her inventory, and shrouded herself in Darkness again. She was closing in on her other target, when he had turned and activated his defenses.

Therefore, when he turned back to yell at her Clone, she decided to use a more aggressive tactic, since she couldn't get close enough anymore without being spotted. While the vampiress believed that she could beat him in one-on-one combat, there was a chance that he could escape from her, or that he had some other unforeseen resource like that cell.

The artifact had surprised and frightened her a little. She didn't know if they were something exceptional or not, but she did know that she had to be very careful. If caught in it, the vampiress might be able to escape it with Intangible, but she couldn't be sure. Precisely, they had been designed to prevent an escape. Luckily, it was a bit slow to activate. If she was vigilant, she should be able to avoid it.

Irritated by the Clone's impassive smile, the adventurer moved closer to discipline her. However, a noise behind made him turn around. He was met by a dark figure and two red eyes that jumped at him.

A Blood Hound was no match for the adventurer. It was not only two levels below, but its original power was already inferior to someone of the same level. However, six at once was another story.

He managed to block the first, but the others each attacked an arm, a leg and his head.

"Dammit! Martial Shield!" he exclaimed.

An aura of energy enveloped him, thus damaging and pushing back the hounds. However, they didn't care about the damage received, and immediately attacked again, recklessly, without defending themselves.

Perhaps it was the unexpectedness of the offensive, or that there was simply no reason to fear anything beyond those attacks, but the adventurer didn't suspect anything about they were only attacking him head-on.

Gjaki took advantage of the new rush of her creations to attack from behind. The armor and an energy shield protected him from stabbings, from stealth kills. So, this time she decided on a kick that targeted his spine.

She struck in such a way that the energy of the blow was concentrated in the vertebrae, by half-passing the protections. Although these cushioned almost half of the blow power, the rest passed through the flesh without hitting it, without letting it take most of the impact. It attacked directly the bone.

"Aughhhhhh!" he yelled in pain.

That unexpected blow not only caused a serious internal injury, but also distracted him for a second. Enough for two hounds to bite him, for Gjaki to Grab him by the legs with the whip. Wounded and bruised, he fell to the ground, where he was mercilessly attacked by the blood and mana creations.

The adventurer died not even knowing that he had caught nothing but a Clone. His "infallible" plan had led to their deaths.

A level 41 centipede approached, as it had been drawn by the noise of the fighting. The vampiress took advantage of the fact that she hadn't yet unsummoned them to throw five hounds at it, since the last one could hardly move, and was discarded.

The dungeon dweller could coil around its prey, corrode, bite, and slash with its legs. However, it was immobilized by the hounds, so there wasn't much it could do. It was an easy way to kill them, but the mana and blood cost was a bit high, so it was inefficient.

Gjaki retraced her steps and entered the rest area, where her companions were waiting impatiently.

"I need to recover mana, we'll leave a little later," she announced.

"What happened?" Krinia asked. She was relieved now that her human friend had returned.

"I've had to clean up some trash..." she began to explain.