Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Guarded border

The strange blood golems could see in the dark. While she was confident in getting rid of them, she was clear that they would raise the alarm if she did.

They were positioned within ten meters of each other, so there were hundreds guarding the forest. Besides, her Bats had discovered some strange little devices that detected mana. She could see how they were activated when her scouts approached, even if they did it from behind the tree in which one of the devices was hanging.

Fortunately, the winged mana beings were too small, too insignificant, to trigger the alarm. Unfortunately, they would probably detect her even with Darkness.

Therefore, breaking through that line of defense was more difficult than she had imagined. Without a doubt, the time and effort to create it had been monumental.

The first option that she thought of was to send her hounds to attack different areas. It would create chaos, and allow her to sneak through one of them. Thus, they wouldn't know who had entered. They wouldn't even know if someone had really entered or through where.

However, she feared that it would attract Krovledi. One of the reasons she had chosen to go there, aside from the challenge, had been that it was supposed to be impossible to do without getting caught. Because of this, it was much less likely that her enemy would be searching for her there.

The only problem was to find the method to achieve it, although for now she couldn't think of a way. So, she was walking the perimeter, watching directly or through her scouts.

Gjaki could see some beasts crossing it. The golems reacted and focused on them. Then, they cast some kind of spell, as they glowed, and mana circulated through them. She assumed they were broadcasting what they had seen.

The devices only reacted if there was mana involved. Therefore, she could only see them act occasionally, when one of the animals cast one of their innate spells.

It was then that something strange happened. A snake crossed the perimeter after emerging from a small stream, but the nearby golems didn't react.

"What'd happened?" she wondered "Maybe...?"

She decided to test a hound, by sending it close enough for the golems to detect. As in the case of the Bats, they ignored it, and it hadn't gotten close enough for the mana detection devices to kick in.

She then made it take a heat stone with its mouth. It damaged the hound a little, but it could hold on for a long time. Those stones were used as stoves. They heated up when imbued with mana.

As soon as it got close, the golems turned to it. Nonetheless, they did nothing else, since it didn't cross.

"Infrared vision! They detect heat. I just need to hide mine."

She had little knowledge about special materials to reflect heat or insulate it, so she opted for a much rougher option. The tailor created a garment that covered her entire body, and that had a double layer. After wearing warm clothes, and putting it on top of them, she filled the space between both layers with ice that was in her inventory. That ice was at a lower temperature than usual.

She approached slowly, while keeping an eye on the golems, and gritting her teeth, so they wouldn't chatter. Barely a minute had passed, and she was already frozen to the bones. With Blood Overload, Gjaki could probably counteract the cold, but she was afraid of being found out.

She crossed slowly, afraid to make a noise, while carefully watching the slightest reaction of the golems, which didn't move. Her only problem was that her arms and legs were going numb. She couldn't remember ever being so cold.

"Now I know what portable refrigerators feel like," she tried to joke with herself.

She felt chills and tingling all over her body, as well as a strange tiredness. Still, the vampiress kept going, still feeling awkward, slow, tired.

Little by little, the chills and tingles disappeared. In their place, her eyes were closing due to the sleep that overwhelmed her. She wanted to stop, to rest, to forget about everything, about the muscles that seemed to be getting rigid, harder to move.

She didn't even notice, but had stopped feeling her limbs. The cold had made her lose her sensitivity. She stopped. She was unable to think of moving on. She was unable to think.

However, before Gjaki drifted off to sleep, one last burst of her consciousness activated Blood Overload. It quickened her blood circulation, and cleared her mind for a few moments.

Startled, she stored the clothes with the ice, and hurried forward as best she could, straining her legs. She soon felt tingling again, cold, shivering. Also, Self-Regeneration acted.

"What was that? Hypothermia?" she thought, scared by what had just happened.

It seemed to her that she had nearly died in the most absurd way possible, frozen by her own idea. Despite Blood Overload, she still took a while to recover, to regain her body temperature.

In fact, after getting far enough away, Gjaki hid in a Shadow Protection, took the tent-castle out, and slipped into a deliciously comforting hot bath. Nonetheless, she still suffered some chills. She wasn't sure if it was from the cold, or from nearly dying.

Thinking about what had happened scared her. She vowed herself never to do anything like that again. At least, if there was a next time, she needed some sort of insulating material.

Despite that, she had achieved her goal. Neither golems nor devices had activated when she had passed, so she was at the other side. The vampiress didn't know if there would be more obstacles, but she had certainly overcome the first ones in a more dangerous way than she had imagined.

To recover from her fright, she had no choice but to devour some cream-filled cupcakes that Diknsa had made especially for her. They may not warm her body, but they did warm her soul.

She hadn't been with them much, but she was homesick. Gjaki wanted to see her adoptive mother again, Coinin and her sisters, the sometimes grumpy but friendly dwarf... or Chornakish.

She sighed. She wanted to go back, but first the vampiress had to get rid of the dangers that threatened her family. At least, she needed to weaken them, to prevent them from attacking again.