There was no way to put on his armor and holster his weapon fast enough.
"Move, move!"
Gabriel and his brothers shot off the balcony to land in the courtyard, where they were preparing to defend.
"Apprentices, to the attic! Protect civilians!" Ordered their superior.
There were elite soldiers already guarding the surrounding area, as expected of the Brotherhood of Light, with archers at their posts, spears forward, and swords lying in wait. War priests at each entrance were casting their spells.
And bloodied corpses of both Brothers and misshapen bat-like creatures with long, dark claws and fangs like daggers.
"Crews of the Dark Lord?" gasped Thomas
"Julia told me that I should warn you" José stayed by her side "while they hid with the other maidens. She said something about a prepared spell and...something else."
"Just talk!"
"The summoner, she knew this would happen!"
"What the hell!" Manuel snorted.
"It can't be... somehow she knew that today we would lower our guard..." Tomas mumbled.
"Well, stay awake!" Gabriel growled at them "Or we will be food for demons!"
In the huge pavilion to the underground channels, surrounded by protective spells, more apprentices and soldiers gathered in a guard position.
"One group will stay outside and the other will spread out in duos at the tunnel entrances!" the instructor began to point out "a soldier and an apprentice in each!"
"Yes sir!"
"You, young warrior!" called an old warrior who was very familiar to him.
"I know you" Gabriel frowned at him.
"You will come with me to the northeast entrance."
"They are at the northeast entrance, Julia told me" Jose whispered "and I have heard that this old man is formidable, you should go."
Gabriel's frown deepened at so many coincidences but he went after the Brother without complaint.
"It is a pity that we find ourselves in these circumstances, young warrior" he told him when they headed towards the tunnels "the maidens that you protected last time are here, you will be able to see them before heading to our posts."
"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" He was still reluctant to trust his sudden partner.
"I'm just an old man captivated by romance" he replied sarcastically. "Here!"
Instead of going straight down the hall, they came to the hall where a bunch of trembling maidens were sheltering.
"Gabriel!" Marie ran towards him, as if she had been waiting for him.
"Are you alright?" He held her against his chest.
"We're fine" she separated to look into his eyes and speak to him softer "you have to know, something is very wrong, I don't know how, but I can feel it, I... I..."
"Okay," he rubbed her shoulders, "breathe, what's going on?"
Her sisters leered at them, but remained cringing, even Julia was holding a sobbing Anisa.
"I... she knew, th-th-they..."
"The vampires."
He couldn't help but notice how she cringed at the word.
"It's okay" he tried to calm her down "they won't get here."
"Gabriel!" the old man called him "it's time, we can't waste any more time!"
"Who...?" She looked at him confused.
"Let's go immediately" he told the Brother and turned to her "I'll be covering the entrance, stay with your sisters. Everything will be fine."
He hated the idea of leaving her so upset, but he had a duty to perform, for her sake.
Despite her, she nodded, holding back tears, and he had to gently cup her cheeks.
"You will be fine." He slowly released her and turned around, against all his instincts.
"Wait, Gabriel." She didn't wait for him to finish turning to her, to push herself and catch his lips with hers.
The kiss was brief and he was more than aware that he wasn't the only one who had been stunned. Before releasing him, she whispered something that puzzled him.
Separating from him and looking into his eyes, she said:
"Come back to me, my Gabriel."
He agreed:
"I'll do that."
Resuming their run at the entrance to the hall, both the veteran and the apprentice remained silent. In fact, he couldn't even hear any echoes in that room.
"Oh, the pure love of youth" the old man sighed, as if at any moment some beast would not appear to attack them "how I miss those days. How lucky you both are that the ways of the Lord have connected you."
Gabriel made a face:
"Could it be that age makes the Brothers nosy?"
He laughed at his impertinence:
"What a surly young man you are, young Gabriel!"
"You keep saying my name like you've known me forever."
"Well, that name was already rumored since before your recent fame. The baby they picked up outside the church, like some kind of God send, who was growing up to be a troublesome kid, cranky at the best of times... They even thought they could inflict discipline on him if enlisted in the ranks of the brotherhood at a young age, some came to believe that they were only giving him the tools to unleash his violence."
"Wow" he said sarcastically "I didn't know that my well-earned reputation had gone that far."
"Oh, you can't imagine, when suddenly they only spoke wonders of that young man's talent, as if some kind of prodigy was emerging from the one who caused so much trouble to his caretakers. Someone might have suggested, with amusement, that some maiden had reached his heart. God pulls his strings in mysterious ways, don't you think?"
"I'm not interested in anything about that."
"Of course not, you are only interested in being able to see a smile on that young woman's face. This old man knows very well how fierce hearts like yours work, my young warrior. Who knows, maybe those are the feelings that make you a man worthy of serving God, humanity, and your beloved!"
"I still don't understand why you are telling me all this, old man."
The man just watched him, with that spark of intelligence that made Gabriel quite uncomfortable.
I guess you're not ready to know.
"What the hell do you mean?" He snorted, already annoyed.
But an echo stopped them and they both raised their guard. Crackles approached with sinister wet and smacking sounds. When the first pale creature emerged from the shadows, the Brother had drawn his sword and Gabriel was gripping the hilt of his riding crop. The being brought the bleeding head of one of his comrades between its jaws and the boy clenched his teeth.
"They do it to intimidate" the old man was whispered.
"I know," he snorted.
Two more with their enormous wings drawn in came closer.
"Well, this is going to be fun" the Brother somersaulted with his back and prepared for the attack.
For the first time, Gabriel had to agree, so his corners twitched mischievously.
As the first screamed, flinging the nameless knight's head aside, the tip of Gabriel's riding crop caught him first, right in the middle of his face. Blood splattered and the other two went for the adult warrior. How could it be otherwise, he showed off with his movements, which seemed like a rehearsed dance, attacking the closest extremities, before they reached him.
Steps forward, steps back, the whip flew with his own grace, leaving more splashes of red in his wake. When they thought their enemies were backing down, they charged again. One was unfortunate enough to get too close, so the thickest part of the leather ripped part of his face open and the handle of the whip ended up breaking his jaw before it closed in on him.
Just as he was laughing at his feat, a shadow flew over them, heading straight for the maidens' hall.
Marie!
Let's watch the world burn!!! A really hard part is coming and I don't know how prepared we are for that...
Anyways, let me know how are you liking this story, share and let me see your stars~
Peace~