Return to Jorgaldur Volume IV: Reunion

Reinforcements (III)

Gjaki immediately summoned five Mirror Clones, and charged at her enemy alongside them. Krovledi pounced on one of them, tempting her luck. She found an illusion that Blowed Up upon being passed through, and inflicted her superficial wounds.

Gjaki had wanted to distract her to summon three Blood Hounds, which she ordered to attack immediately. If her enemy ignored them, they were capable of causing serious damage. If not, they could distract her.

To counter them, Krovledi summoned a Blood Clone, more powerful than the Hounds, but also more expensive. It took her less than a second to summon it, which was enough for her enemy to regain the initiative, and attack with Thousand Lashes again.

Krovledi unsheathed the rapier she had gotten a few years ago to replace the one lost in their previous fight. To her surprise, she found the whip inexplicably losing power.

Gjaki had released it to draw her obsidian daggers and execute Disarm. Caught unaware, Krovledi couldn't keep the rapier in her hand, nor avoid the hard kick to the stomach that followed. It sent her slamming into the adamantine threads.

Even so, she reacted fast enough, and was able to avoid being caught by Deadly Red, but a pair of hounds pounced on her. The third had been destroyed by the Blood Clone, which had been unable to overcome Gjaki's attack with Sanguine Disruption. As it was made of blood and mana, blood abilities were extremely effective against such beings.

Krovledi also possessed blood abilities. Her Blood Corruption helped her get rid of the hounds, after having received only a few shallow bites. Immediately, she rolled to escape through the gap the threads had left after Lethal Net. She summoned three Blood Spears at the same time, and hurled them at Gjaki, while trying to escape from there.

The vampiress wanted to get out of it to see if she could call on some of her creations to help her against her enemy. What she didn't expect was to receive a strong impact on her face that sent her flying backwards. She didn't even realize that her spears had hit a Clone and not the real vampiress.

"Strike!" she heard at the exit.

Merlin didn't want to waste any more mana against the strange creature. Therefore, he cast a Rock Dome. It is a spell that is meant to defend oneself, but he used it in a different way. Instead of creating it over him, he created it over that kind of blood dog, thus trapping it.

The creation resulting from Infernal Sacrifice immediately began attacking the rock wall, and slowly cracked it. However, for Merlin it was relatively simple and cheap in mana to reinforce the areas that were giving way, by adding a layer of ice. Besides, it wasn't stressful at all.

He didn't move from the place. He not only had to make sure that being didn't escape, but a barrier needed to be maintained.

"There's no need for both of us. Go lend a hand to Gjaki," Smashy urged Crushy.

"But is so much fun to crush them... I'm going! I'm going!" the barbarian hurried when her sister in her previous life stuck her axe in front of him, and threatened to use her fists.

Although in terms of combat their strength was comparable, her sister was terribly intimidating when she got angry. In this world, they were practically the same age, but she was still, in a way, her older sister. It was better he be obedient.

Although, far from leaving scared, he did it with a smile. Actually, his sister was giving him a chance to have fun while she dealt with the routine work. He was grateful to her for it.

She watched him go, and smiled too, while retrieving the axe. Next, she began to painstakingly cut the beings which were trying to recompose themselves again, and didn't let them get away from the Lights Arrows. Although the arrows were being consumed, Goldmi added more when she recovered enough mana.

In fact, the lynx had come closer and was helping too, although slightly away from the barbarian. Her stare somehow made her shudder, without really knowing why. If the feline had known the truth, she might not have even come close to her.

The truth was that Smashy was looking at her continuously out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to hug and caress her, but without knowing if it was appropriate. She loved cats, and that lynx seemed especially adorable to her, even though she was a terrible and huge predator. Maybe, it was precisely because of that. To make it worse, her brother was of the same opinion.

She was also watching as Crushy approached the entrance, and she wasn't the only one. A Bat was watching them, which was why Gjaki had allowed a hole to open in her thread trap.

When the barbarian used Strike against Krovledi, the silver-haired vampiress was ready to act. With both hands clasped in a single fist, she executed a powerful downward strike against the stomach of her enemy, who had been thrown in her direction. It caused her to crash violently to the ground.

There, a Bloody Trap activated, thus immobilizing Krovledi for a few moments. At the same time, Gjaki imbued her enemy with the Weakness, Stand Still! and Numbness curses.

She also added Disrupt and Sanguine Disruption to make it harder for her to break free. She wanted to try and finish her off while Krovledi was almost defenseless, but she suddenly chose to move away from her. As if he were an unstoppable train, a barbarian was running towards them with his hammer raised.

Desperate, Krovledi used almost all of her mana to cause a powerful explosion that freed her from her restraints. Due to the curses, she had had to force the activation of her spell, and invest more mana and blood. Gjaki had stepped back when sensing the mana, and Crushy was thrown back, though he only suffered a few scratches. He got up with his hand on his head, confused.

Then, the stone in Krovledi's necklace glowed, and her silhouette faded.

"I'll have my revenge. I'll make you pay for everything," she threatened them angrily before disappearing completely, and escaping again.

When she reappeared, the vampiress couldn't believe her eyes. Instead of in a room, in a virtually impossible-to-find location, she was in the same place, between Crushy and Gjaki.

"Merlin's spacewhatevername has worked!" the barbarian laughed, while retrieving his hammer.

Sealed Space is a powerful spell that creates a barrier to seal any type of space spell, thus preventing most magical escape techniques. It's quite unusual, but not so for a visitor who possessed nearly two hundred spells.

"No... It can't be... Aaaaargh!!" the vampiress howled in pain.

Wasting no time, first Gjaki and then Crushy had launched their attacks. Krovledi had barely any mana left, so she could only rely on her blood skills. In addition, the situation had caught her completely off guard, as she had believed she was safe.

Krovledi managed to half dodge Gjaki's attack, though her leg was stabbed. She then desperately tried to defend with a Blood Shield, but Wildhammer simply shattered it, and even had the strength to smash her forearm.

She couldn't stop Gjaki from pinning her other arm and biting her, while the barbarian punched into her stomach. Not even when she drew her last breath she could believe it.