The continual fighting was a non-stop, stressful frenzy that would have exhausted the reserves of most adventurers, even in groups. Therefore, they didn't dare to enter the forest under the current circumstances.
However, it wasn't so for Gjaki, as it was relatively easy for her to rely on Darkness to retreat. She could even summon a hound to distract her enemies if necessary. Besides, the shelter provided by Shadow Protection could be used if rest was needed, though she would rather not do it if it could be helped, if she could just hide. It was more efficient to invest that mana to eliminate prey.
Since the level of her enemies had barely gone up and hers had, it took her a couple of days to get to 47.
She had unlocked Night, a spell normally only useful during the day. As its name indicates, the area around is darkened for a few minutes, as if it were night. It allowed her to act without fear of the sun, and also blinded her enemies. Used well, it can totally change the outcome of a battle. The biggest disadvantage is in the high mana consumption.
Elbowing was the next skill for tavern fighting, and she wondered if he could use it in real fights. She soon realized that it wasn't very useful beyond some brawls, as one of the characteristics of those skills was their lack of lethality.
When a bee joined her attackers, she paid it no more attention than the rest. She simply backed up a couple of steps, and let the Tentacles catch it, while smashing a tough tortoise with a massive two-handed hammer.
What the vampiress didn't expect was for the rest of the hive to come after her. They weren't so aggressive normally, but also the flowers were scarce. Like the others the inhabitants of the forest, they were very irritated. Only a little push was needed to trigger their fury.
Anything that moved was attacked without delay, including three hounds, a deer, a second tortoise, a blue bird with a long tail, and Gjaki herself.
One after another, the herbivores that had come to the place were annihilated by the swarm of bees of just over half a meter in length. It didn't take long for only the vampiress to remain, along with a multitude of corpses.
Gjaki managed to lure three more to the Tentacles, before being harassed by dozens, soon to be hundreds, of them.
She ran to take cover behind a tree whose trunk was more than ten meters in diameter. She was hidden from them for a few moments, and could create two Dark Walls and two Clones. Immediately, she hid in Darkness, and backed away slowly as her enemies arrived.
The bees didn't hesitate to go through the walls to attack the clones, but soon found out that they were ethereal, so they stopped being lured to the walls. They may not have been very intelligent, but the Collective Mind made up for that.
The bees spread out across the area quickly and efficiently, all of them about a meter apart, thus covering all the gaps. They moved in unison, and left no spot without checking. It forced Gjaki to show herself again.
"They're smarter than they seem," she muttered, while attacking the closest one.
She didn't bother to finish it off, there was no time for it, it was enough that it couldn't fly. Another bee fell a moment after, as it was prey to her whip, but soon the rest rushed towards her.
She activated Bloodlust, which made them hesitate for a moment. It was long enough for one of them to fall. Another four received attacks on their wings with daggers of level 40 and 35. She had used Flying Daggers with these weapons because she didn't want to lose the 45 ones even for a moment. Only the wing of one suffered enough damage that it could be said to be incapacitated.
Three Blood Hounds appeared. They attacked nearby enemies, and gave the vampiress a break. Another three enemies were momentarily blinded with the help of the whip and Did you get something in your eyes? She jumped up to kick one of the blinded insects, and sent it against another, thus crashing them both into some leafless bushes.
However, there were many, hundreds. Soon the hounds were overwhelmed, and she barely had room to block and dodge. Therefore, she was left with no choice but to activate a Darkness Pillar, which annihilated a few dozen.
That gave her a little breathing room, and took a lot of mana away. She had no time to lose, so she took advantage of being hidden by the pillar for a few moments. She enveloped herself in Darkness again after summoning two hounds. They were sent each towards one end, while she slowly moved away towards another direction.
She was careful, but couldn't avoid a bee. They moved faster than she could without revealing herself. With no time to mourn, she stepped out of the shadows to finish it off quickly.
Since many had gone in pursuit of the two hounds, the density was a bit lower at her position. So, she decided to speed away, which included Blood Overload.
As soon as she appeared, the insects pounced on her. Decoy fooled them for a few moments, while she jumped onto another, stuck a dagger into it with her foot and Surprise Dagger, and propelled herself over it to run away. At the same time, it was pushed against another of her pursuers.
She would have put up some Tentacles to slow them down, but preferred to conserve what little mana she had left.
Gjaki launched Fleeting Dagger against an approaching bee, and stabbed it in the eye. She dodged another's bee stinger by a few inches, and pierced the insect with her now free hand, with the aid of Spearhead and Scratch. She then Head-butted the one-eyed bee, retrieved the dagger, and used Double Edge on the other eye.
"It hurts," she complained from the blow to the head.
Nonetheless, there was no time for those complaints. In one leap, she dodged another attack, rolled on the ground to avoid two more, and with Decoy she left a fourth behind again, as well as holding them back for a few seconds.
Without stopping, the vampiress hid behind a tree, where she could catch her breath, and let a Bat watch them. To her surprise, they were no longer chasing her.
"Have I gone far enough? This has been dangerous," she breathed relieved.
It was then that she had an idea that was as attractive as it was dangerous. However, she first needed them to calm down. She needed her mana back too.