Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Duel (VI)

The next few minutes were a brutal melee, without rest, without mercy.

Black Wolf struggled to his feet, while ignoring the pain. He jumped at her with all of his strength, with his claws threatening her. She, as she had done previously, bent down, grabbed one of his arms, and took advantage of her enemy's speed to throw him a few meters beyond.

Immediately, the vampiress wielded the spiked whip to attack his eyes. However, he shielded them with one hand, and grabbed her weapon with the other. He didn't care that its spikes dug into him, and pulled the whip to draw his enemy to him. Unexpectedly, she released it, which caused him to fall backwards. Afterwards, she jumped at him while wielding both daggers, perhaps not expecting Blackwo to react so quickly. He rose to his feet, and met her with his claws, which pierced a bodyless Clone.

She appeared right behind the Clone, leaned on her opponent's wrists, and used them to propel herself forward, to kick hard his muzzle with both legs. He reacted angrily, and barely managed to reach her with his teeth, which inflicted a small wound on her thigh. A few more inches, and he could have broken it.

She rolled to the side, while Self-Regeneration healed her small injury. Immediately, she summoned a Bat to attack the eyes of her enemy. Obviously, it didn't manage to hurt him, but it distracted him for a moment.

Gjaki took the opportunity to attack him from behind, but he discovered it, and turned on her, while tearing the Bat with his teeth. He hit her with all of her strength, in which was added the speed of his still-on-the-ground body as he turned toward her.

The vampiress easily dodged it. It was an attack as powerful as it was telegraphed. Therefore, it gave her time to avoid it, and to hit his arm hard at his elbow. It wasn't easy to drive a dagger at that speed into the joints of his armor, but a hard hit with Harden could damage him.

The vampiress sensed a strange energy flow. She activated Premonition again, which allowed her to dodge backwards an Energy Blast. He stood up. At the same time, she placed her hands on the ground and called Entangle.

The blood she had taken earlier was from Goldmi, who at the time had been convinced after much insistence. With it and Physical Assimilation, she had been able to execute the skill, though not as effectively as her friend. As Gjaki was preparing to do so, she had been able to perceive where there were still roots that could obey her command, and which rose up to trap the wolfish demihuman.

However, the roots were weak, so they were unable to hold back the enemy's frenzy for long before being torn apart. Nonetheless, that time had been enough to summon some Mirror Clones, get behind her enemy, and execute Drill.

It was a somewhat dangerous skill to perform, because if her enemy reacted and counterattacked, it could be a disaster for her. For that reason, she once again relied on Premonition, although this time the expense of mana and blood was unnecessary.

He managed to break free, and fend off two Mirror Clones, but not the powerful blow to his back, which she inflicted while spinning. He wasn't only pushed forward, but it severely damaged the armor, denting and cracking it. In part, thanks to Weak Point, which had told her exactly where she should hit. In part, because of the power of the blow.

Upon impact, the demihuman rolled on himself, which made impossible for her to chain another attack. Although it also caused him to lose sight of her.

He stopped dead, stood up, and looked around. He found her with her eyes fixed on him, crouched, waiting for him. The demihumen just lunged at her.

Although Gjaki had already guesses it, the Tentacles were barely able to slow him down a bit. She had wanted to test it out in case it was a weapon she could rely on, but the result was unsatisfactory.

At least, she had been able to resupply with the last vial of blood. She had her pool full, but there was no more left. It meant that she had to use Blood Overload more sparingly, in spite of needing it to offset Berserker's speed.

She stared at him. The vampiress was prepared to dodge at the last moment, but she didn't need to. This was the same place she had sunk into before, and there, the foot of her enemy sank too.

His speed made it utterly impossible for him to avoid stumbling, and he found a knee to the jaw as he fell. A dagger pierced one of his eyes, though he managed to prevent her from damaging the second.

Still falling, he tried to Slash at her, but she had leaned on the arm defending his eye, and rolled over her enemy's shoulder and back. He ended up falling on his face, although this time the ground was rather soft.

It kept the fall damage from being more serious, but it also made it harder for him to get up. Gjaki took advantage of it to attack again the part of the back that she had damaged before.

Several sharp blows with Harden further sank the armor, while, with her other hand, she drove her dagger through a small crack. It wasn't a very deep wound, but she could add the Bleed and Stand Still! curses to it.

She jumped away as his enemy squirmed. Blackwo managed to put his back against the ground, and thus defend himself with his claws like a cat belly up.

She jerked away from him, and positioned herself out of his reach. However, he wasn't from her whip. With Thousand Lashes, she covered the wolfish face with small cuts, as well as imbued dark mana thanks to Dark Touch. She also absorbed some blood thanks to Bloody Touch.

It was then that the vampiress noticed something, so she jumped back, cautiously. She realized then that his eyes were no longer bloodshot, but there was pain and disbelief in them.

"Aaaaarggghh! Damned! I'm going to kill you!" he threatened while screaming in pain.

"So Berserker is over. Good, I no longer need Blood Overload to match his speed," she told herself.

She stared at him, waited, took the opportunity to catch her breath, and let him continue to Bleed out. Right now, time was running in her favor. Surely, his energy was mostly depleted, and her curses made it difficult for him to recover it, as he needed it to fight them.

"You've forced me to use it. You're going to regret it," he growled while clenching his teeth and drawing his sword.

She frowned. From the beginning, she had been surprised that he carried a sword. She didn't remember him having used one in the game. It was an unknown variable, and therefore unpredictable.

Gjaki stepped back, drew both daggers, and wrapped herself with a Darkness Shield, thus bracing herself for whatever might come.