Return to Jorgaldur Volume IV: Reunion

Alone facing danger (II)

The area was clear, so there were no trees to hide. That was why they had chosen it to set up the ambush, and it was now playing against her. So, Gjaki took out a huge rock from her inventory to hide behind it.

The vampires took a few seconds to react, stunned by the unconventional and implausible tactic. At first, they thought it was another illusion, but the rock blocked their attacks. As much as the splinters were continuously popping out, it would take forever to destroy it. Therefore, they decided to circle it.

The vampiress pulled out several more rocks. She didn't block all her surroundings, because that would lock her in. She simply created obstacles where to hide, where to protect herself, where to put some traps between.

Dark magic in general isn't very effective against vampires, so she refrained from setting Tentacles. She calculated that it could barely hold them for a few moments.

The first one to fall into a Mirror Trap didn't even realize it until she saw her image reflected. She wanted to attack, but the attack simply went through her reflection.

She felt lost, as the trap has the particularity of disorienting those who fall in, and of making them walk in circles. In addition, the interior is hidden when activated, as if it were behind a huge dome-shaped mirror. It would take her a while to break free, though she was lucky not to be targeted.

Gjaki was closer to another trap, one that a not-so-lucky vampire fell into. He felt disoriented, but the same didn't happen to his enemy. It was easy for her to attack him from any angle without him seeing her. She even had no problem when a second one fell into.

Of course, the traps weren't perfect. An attack could accidentally hit her, and she couldn't avoid the omnidirectional area skills. Only three had perished when her enemies began to adjust to the situation.

"Cast area attacks if you fall into a trap! They're illusions! With Blood Mist, you can corrode them faster!" a vampiress warned them.

"Regroup! We'll use the locator to find her!" the leader ordered.

Gjaki hid behind a rock. She was waiting for them to regroup, while recovering mana and planning her next action. She had killed five, but it hadn't been free. Her mana reserves were well under a quarter.

It is true that she recovered mana faster than others, and that she had already drunk a potion, but it wasn't enough. Luckily, she had found out in the past that healing potions did work there, unlike the game. By then, she had cursed the developers, but now she couldn't help but praise Eldi. He had made them especially for her, a little sweeter.

She normally didn't need them, but right now she couldn't trust Self-Regeneration. The vampiress also missed her Bats, because now she couldn't spy on her enemies.

While waiting, she tried to analyze that oppression, that "suppression", as her enemies called it. It affected her blood pool, but it didn't seem to affect her own.

"Maybe...? It's risky," she thought.

Therefore, she decided to try Sacrifice just for a moment, to use her own blood instead of the reserve.

"It works! But I can't use it much," she told herself.

Her blood was that of an ancestral vampiress, far more powerful than the one she consumed. The problem was that using it left her without it. Its use had to be limited, or her life would be threatened.

As she planned what she could do, she enveloped herself in Darkness. While Gjaki didn't have much mana left, she hoped it would block the device's detection for a while, which it did.

"She's disappeared!" the person in charge of the detector exclaimed.

"She must be doing something to block it... Attack the whole area! She can't have much mana left!" the leader ordered.

As soon as the indiscriminate attacks started, Gjaki deactivated Darkness and rushed towards the barrier. Since she couldn't get close to the artifact because of their surveillance, she had decided to go to that particular point.

"Are you okay?" Eldi asked worriedly, after finally crossing the barrier.

"Block that first!" the vampiress urged.

He then realized that several attacks were coming. They weren't very strong, because instead of being directed against a target, their aim was to cover the largest possible area. Despite this, they weren't without danger. Luckily, a Rock Wall was enough to intercept them. Nilgha was able to safely enter under the protection of the Wall.

Perhaps, the resistance member had nothing to do with it, and she barely knew Gjaki, but Eldi had acknowledged his identity. He was their hope, the legend, the adoptive father of Lidia and Liodon. She wouldn't hesitate to risk her life if he needed her help.

"Who're they?" the newcomer asked.

"I don't know, but they're coming for me. I don't know what they want, but that artifact suppresses my blood abilities. That other locates me. Eldi, could you lend me some mana? I'm almost empty," Gjaki asked.

"Sure," he agreed.

He passed almost half of his mana to her, and it would have been more if his companion hadn't stopped him. It has to be noted that the transfer has a loss of 25%, that Eldi's level was lower, and that he had already spent some mana in the previous fight.

"There was no need," the vampiress protested, though she too was touched.

Aside from Loan Mana, Eldi had Protected her, thus sharing half of her damage.

"Of course it does. I'm sure you're going to do something reckless," he accused her with a smile.

"Let's go, they've stopped," she returned his smile, without denying it. "I'll jump in the middle, and you attack them from behind."

"I wasn't wrong..." he sighed.

Nilgha looked at him, wanting to confirm that Gjaki was just joking. She was surprised when he shook his head with a bittersweet smile. She turned to her and stared at her, not knowing if she was crazy, reckless, or very brave. Maybe, a little of each.

For her part, the lynx simply advanced silently, ready to attack as soon as Gjaki started.

In turn, the elf was again Holding back her arrows, ready to attack when the albino bird managed to break through the barrier by her side. Her winged sister had taken over in opening the hole, by using her Daughter of the Wind aura.

As soon as she succeeded, the elf planned to release them all at once. She just hoped it wouldn't be too late. She didn't even pay much attention to a snake that had been Tangled. It had tried to sneak up on her, and inadvertently had fired some Alarms.