Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Coordinated attack (V)

Gjaki had seen at least six vampires in the dream, but Eldi and the mole-beings had discovered that there were many more. Some were just civilians, specialists in various fields who had been forcibly turned into vampires. Others were loyal, bloodthirsty vampires with combat experience.

However, there was no one who alone could compare to one of the three companions. Not even in their dreams had the vampires imagined that three level 100s would suddenly appear in the underground city.

They advanced down the wide hallway, until a mole-woman stopped them.

"There're presences behind some doors," she warned them.

A few moments later, several of those doors opened. More than ten vampires emerged from them, with very serious faces. They knew they had been discovered, so they had to give up the element of surprise.

Their levels were between 70 and 80, so none of them were individually dangerous to Eldi. However, against so many, he could have more than problems. In addition, it was difficult to guarantee the survival of the mole-beings that were accompanying him.

Although these were experienced warriors, they didn't have the dwarfs' ability to fight as a block. Maybe in groups of two, three at most, but not like an army. In recent centuries, they hadn't had battles of such magnitude.

For that reason, the attacks of vampires more than 20 levels higher were very dangerous for the mole-people. Although his enemies weren't relaxed either. The difference in level with the high human was evident. Only by fighting together could they survive. Maybe, by taking some hostages.

Their plan was to try to contain him, and for a couple to capture some of those "short beasts."

"Fourteen have come out," Eldi murmured to his hand, which was close to his mouth.

"Understood, dad, we're coming," a female voice responded. It came from the small device he had in his hand.

Two figures appeared at the other end of the hallway. They had entered through that same level but from the other side, and had advanced there. They had experience sneaking into protected places, and disabling or avoiding traps. For many years, both had fought against numerous nobles.

Their swords clashed, and powerful blades of mana shot forward. That surprised the vampires, who the least they were expecting was an attack from behind.

Eldi had activated an Area of Defense for his companions, threw a Javelin at his closest enemy, swung the axe and jumped forward with Kangaroo Power.

Such an action would have been dangerous a few moments before, but his children had distracted his enemies. Therefore, the vampiress was barely able to get the spear to only hurt her. The others weren't able to react quickly enough to prevent the battle mage from approaching.

With Abyss, the six closest vampires were drawn into the slash created in space with the axe. That was followed by Gravity, which pushed them to the ground, thus unbalancing and disorienting them.

At the same time, two vampires had been severed by the twins' attack, and three others had suffered serious injuries. The children of Eldi retreated, visibly exhausted by the attack. Taking advantage of this, five vampires rushed at them, furious.

What they didn't know was that the twins were acting to attract them. When the vampires left the hallway, about to reach them, they were attacked from both sides.

In one side, an elf woman was brandishing a powerful two-handed sword. In the other, there was a hybrid between elf and high human.

Both Mideltya and Ted attacked without hesitation. The two had fought alongside the rebels on many occasions, they weren't inexperienced youngsters. In fact, they weren't that young from the human point of view either, although they were from the elf or high human point of view.

The moment their allies attacked, the twins stopped retreating and rushed towards their enemies. Lidia dodged a vampire's spear, and cut his arm lengthwise down the middle with one of the sharp Twin Shadows.

A vampiress took advantage of that to pierce her stomach with her sword, while smiling cruelly for a moment. However, a moment later, her smile froze. The sword couldn't penetrate the orichalcum chainmail that Eldi had made for her daughter.

The high human was too experienced a fighter to let her guard down, and let herself be impaled. Knowing of her chainmail protection, she had intentionally left an opening in her defense to lure the enemy to her. The vampiress, with her weapon unexpectedly blocked, was unable to prevent her throat from being pierced.

Initially, they hadn't wanted to kill their enemies so as not to alert them, but Gjaki had already disabled the gates. Besides, there were too many of them to show mercy.

Liodon, for his part, used the same tactic against another vampire, who soon fell lifeless. Without a doubt, they were twins.

Between the two siblings, Ted and Mideltya, the five vampires who had fallen into their trap were nullified.

With no time to rest, they moved down the hallway to help Eldi. That's why they had come.

Weeks ago, Liodon and Lidia had made their father promise that he would call them if he needed their help. Since Eldi didn't know what they could find in the attack on the palace, and he did know that his children would be angry with him if he didn't call them, he had gone to look for them. His grandson and his fiancée had joined as well.

With some Burning Blasts, Eldi ended the resistance of the five immobilized vampires. He renewed Projectiles against me? for the third time, switched to a hammer and jumped forward with Earthquake. There were four left, of whose initial conviction little had survived.

The vampires were terrified. Their only hope was two shadows that were stealthily approaching the mole-beings. If they could take hostages, they would have a chance to escape, as long as their enemies weren't like them, so they care for the hostages.

What the vampires didn't expect was that they would be detected by a mole-woman. Although their camouflage was almost perfect, similar to Darkness, walking hits the ground. The emitted waves were detected by her.

"Two are approaching! Over there!" she exclaimed.

Having been discovered, the two vampiresses gave up their camouflage and rushed towards them. They were too close for Eldi to come to their aid, and the level of those "repulsive beings" was too low to be a problem for them. Their number could be, but given the circumstances, they had no alternative.

One of the vampiress raised a mana shield to defend herself against the rather strange attacks of the mole-beings. They had thrown some peculiar can-shaped objects at them. However, given their level, they couldn't be too powerful.

Nor were they concerned about the Earth Covers that the mole-beings erected to defend themselves. They were convinced that those defenses would fall in seconds under their Scratch.

However, when those kinds of cans exploded, they discovered their terrible mistake. The power compressed there wasn't from the mole-beings, but from Eldi through Canned Spell.

Several Burning Blasts burned them, as the spells surpassed their defenses with ease. At the same time, the Earth Covers defended the mole-beings from the remnants of the explosion.

The surviving vampires watched with disbelief and horror at the failure of their companions, at their last chance. Knowing that they couldn't face their enemies, they surrendered. While the vampires feared retaliation from their father, at least they would live a little longer.