Two Worlds: Clash of the Guardians (Completed)

II - The Dark Tunnel - Part I

Elli

October 2, in the year of 8845, Reminis Calendar (RC)

Elli squirmed with all might she could gather, trying to free herself from Vadiraj's clutch. 

But she was too weak. Too hungry. Too engulfed by her father's death. 

She was about to give up hope when she saw a silhouette lingering outside his father's garage. Great, the police have come. She hoped their bullets could tear through the chain-mail. It would be a disrespect to her father's hard toil, but it was the only way to avenge his death. 

She opened her mouth, trying to scream for attention but with the staff piercing into her windpipe, she couldn't even whimper. Vadiraj had begun extracting her blood. Sparks of electricity spiraled around his staff. The extraction process stopped instantly. Judging from Vadiraj's expression, Elli knew he'd failed again. Frowning, Vadiraj tried again. Resisting her pain, Elli's fingers searched the floor, grasping for the sword.

Where the hell is the fucking sword!

Her neck was bruised from the constant stabbing of the staff. Her consciousness began to slip when a jet of red light came from the entrance, throwing the Vampists off their feet. Elli wiped the blood from her eyes, and saw a blond-haired man about her age storming into the room. He held a gleaming red rod in his right hand and fiery runes flew out of the tip, sending the younger Vampists into the burning fireplace. Cursing, they stood up and shook off the ashes.

"Ha, a Black-Born, and a weak one!" Laughing, Vadiraj stood up from beside Elli.

The three-inch black serpent on the wizard's skin hissed at the insult. Defiantly, it slithered from the wizard's ear and lingered at his temple. Having known that the wizard was a so-called Black-Born, Vadiraj's goons gagged and lunged at him in high spirit. 

The wizard wasn't at all intimidated. He whispered an incantation and his rod transformed into a scimitar. Red lights shot out of the short sword's curvy blade as the wizard sliced through the air. But instead of cutting through the chain-mail, the blade slipped off the material. 

The wizard's mercurial eyes widened in shock.

"Do you like our new attire? Now we don't have to be afraid of your blade anymore." 

Like a wind, Vadiraj appeared next to the wizard. He grabbed the Black-Born's cloak collar, lifted him up, and sniffed his neck. "Hmm, a wizard's blood. A hundred times better than a human. You are one of the Baraldines. I thought I've killed them all."

"Suck your own blood, maggot!" 

The wizard's lips moved and his scimitar changed into a dagger. With a fluid movement, he sliced Vadiraj's head off. The other two Vampists thrust themselves at him. Quickly slipping his fingers into a pouch on his belt, he tossed a pile of dark powder towards them.

"Aargh, hawthorn..." 

The Vampists rubbed their eyes, which seemed to make the burns more intense. Odour like decaying flesh wrapped around the air in the garage. Elli knew the smell came from the Hawthorn powder. It was resulted by the interaction between the chemical components when the Hawthorn's branches were being cut off. Her father had once made her an amulet with Hawthorn powder added into it. He said it could ward off evil spirits but Elli didn't believe him. 

Judging from the Vampists' agony, Elli regretted for disobeying her father. Roaring, the Vampists swept their staffs blindly through the room, knocking over stools and crafting tools. Vadiraj's head rolled on the floor, trying to prevent itself from being stepped on. By chance, it found its way to Elli's shinbone, inches above her injured ankle, and bit it. In panic, Elli seized the sword and stabbed it into the skull, with a force that could've cracked a rock. 

Vadiraj howled and his body careened around the room to grab the bleeding head. Elli lunged at Vadiraj's headless body to tear off the chain-mail, but Vadiraj managed to grab her and threw her across the room. The wizard circled in but his strikes were parried away by Vadiraj's staff. 

The wizard's mercurial eyes narrowed, judging the situation. "They are immuned to spells," he muttered, before pocketing a strand of fallen hair and a photo frame. "Come, let's go." He scooped Elli up, and they dashed out of the shop.

Vadiraj's voice tore through the evening air, accompanied by the moans of his goons. "Curse you, Black-Born! Once I regain my strength, I'll kill you!"

Police had surrounded the corpses of the hamburger vendor and the streetwalker. Ambulance sirens echoed trough the air. The wizard wound through the crowd and quickened his pace. They didn't notice Elli and him, too busy taking pictures of the corpses. 

Another escape plan ran across Elli's mind. She didn't know this wizard. Though he'd saved her, she couldn't bring herself to trust him. The round belly police seemed to be the only person she could depend on now. She tried to wriggle herself out of the wizard's arms.

"Be quiet! Only mages can help you fend off the Vampists' attack now. Trust me." 

The wizard seemed to read her thought. He cast a swift glance behind him, before leaping into the churning water with Elli in his arms. When they were transported back to Reminis, Elli saw Vampists corpses littering the shore of the waterfall. She managed to notice each of the corpse had a huge hole in its heart, before all of them dispersed into black mist. Hands circling around the wizard's neck so that she wouldn't fall, Elli looked askance at him. 

His hair gave out the fragrances of herbs, soothing her fatigue. 

A grim smile stretched over his clean-shaven cheeks, adding colour to his eyes. "Yeah, I killed them all, but I lost your trail when I made it through the portal. By the way, my name is Marko Baraldine. How are you feeling?" 

"I'm feeling..." Overwhelmed by the stress of the past month and the despair of losing her only dearest one, Elli felt dizzy and collapsed into his arms.