"Don't be surprised, kid. The first layer was a decoy that darkness smothered, leaving it visible only the real mark etched under the clay." Jirni explained, repeating the procedure at every corner.
"It seems it's going to be crowded." Kamila said while pointing at the clean path in the middle of the dirt covering the floor. It was something that only many people taking their same path could have created.
Jirni signaled her to halt and be quiet while she conjured a sphere of darkness to keep the light of their amulets from being seen. It wasn't the number of footprints to worry her. For a rare item like Gorgon parts, a crowd had to be expected.
Yet the fact that so many of them had walked orderly was highly unlikely unless they had come all together. Jirni activated the Silencer device of her army amulet and reported the anomaly before taking another step forward.
"You truly are the cunning woman I've heard so much talking about." The voice coming from her communication device didn't belong to the desk Sergeant she was supposed to be talking to.
"Too bad that you noticed it too late. Yet what really pains me is the idea that I have to kill you quickly. The army should have already noticed my Communication Jamming array and sent reinforcements to your last know position." Kaelan the vampire said while walking from around the corner.
He was around sixty years old, barely 1.72 meters (5'8") tall, with silver hair and goatee. His silver-rimmed monocle couldn't hide the excited red glow from his eyes that shone brightly in the darkness of the sewers.
The man had gentle features and a warm smile, but Kamila recalled him all too well to be fooled by his ordinary appearance.
Jirni gritted her teeth recognizing him, but her grimace became even worse when her lighting spell revealed that he wasn't alone. Several undead came out of all the four corners of the tunnel, leaving them no way out.
Judging from their long canines and the silent grace they moved with, they had to be vampires. Some had even shapeshifted their fingers and toes into claws hard enough that they allowed them to crawl on the ceiling.
"How the heck did you know how to override an army amulet? That's a state secret, you leech!" Jirni took out her enchanted weapons while keeping Kamila behind her. Jirni had promised Lith to keep her safe and Jirni was true to her word.
"You have many enemies, Lady Ernas." Kaelan twisted his mustache as a cruel grin appeared on his face. "Some of them even value your death more than their own allegiance to the Kingdom."
"That's not an answer, vermin." Jirni held six of her needles in between her fingers, ready to strike at the first enemy who dared come too close.
"Because you'll receive none, wench. When I'm done with you, not even your hu…"
A flick of her wrist, a blur in the air, and the numbing pain that ensued cut Kaelan short, making him kneel onto the ground.
'What in the gods' name is this?' He thought looking at the needle sticking only a few centimeters out of his chest. 'How come I didn't even see it coming?'
Kaelan had a bright blood core empowered by centuries of experience and abundant feeding, yet it was turning muddy like that of a newborn.
The rest of the vampires charged forward and Jirni's fingers moved so fast to be just a blur. The remaining five needles found their mark, killing them on the spot. Their blood cores were much weaker than Kaelan's and couldn't withstand the mass of darkness energy ravaging them.
Those weren't Jirni's usual needles, but the anti-Balkor weaponry developed in the case he ever returned. Not only did they held imploding tier four darkness spells, but also the runes covering them made it impossible for anything but normal sight to spot them.
They had no magical aura, no heat signature, and the noise-canceling spell they were enchanted with made even a beast's hearing useless against them. Unlike humans, the vampires were relying on their mystical senses, but the needles were invisible to them.
Kaelan tried to pull the needle out of the wound, only for its metal to melt and burn his skin like acid.
The part still inside his flesh kept releasing pulses of darkness energy that poisoned his body and blood core, leaving him without even the strength to get up.
One of the vampires managed to reach Jirni while using her fallen comrades as a cover, without giving the human the time to make another move. Yet the next thing she knew, her face was being grabbed by an iron gloved hand bigger than her head, which squashed her like a grape.
"Hands off my wife, scum." It wasn't the fact that Orion was over 1.96 meters (6'5") tall that stopped the surviving undead in their tracks, so much as the full armor he wore, with bright purple mana crystals as big as an apple grafted on its hands and thighs.
Three more white mana crystals were respectively embedded on each one of its shoulders and the middle of its chest. The armor appeared to be made of golden feathers that shone like a sun, lighting the sewers.
The helmet was shaped like an eagle's head, its gloves ended with claws, and a couple of wings made of energy were draped like a mantle around its shoulders. They allowed the wearer to fly and they could also be used to intercept incoming attacks, be they physical or magical in nature.
The suit made Orion resemble a humanoid Griffon covered in metal.
The vampire shuddered in fear recognizing the fabled Royal Fortress armor. They could be worn only with the authorization of the Queen herself, bestowing upon a normal human the power of an Emperor Beast and upon a mage the strength of a small army.
Little was known about their working since those who saw them usually died. Kaelan assumed it had to be Royal Fortress armor because the golden knight moved faster than the vampires and the Adamant armor repelled their spells as if they were just a gentle breeze.
Kaelan was still trying to make sense of the nightmare unfolding in front of his eyes when it suddenly turned into horror. Several people wearing Orion's same suit of armor Warped in the middle of the tunnel, while others blocked all the possible escape routes.
'What's the Knight's Guard doing here?' Kaelan thought, recognizing the coat of arms on their shoulders.
The shock from the sudden turn of the events would have paralyzed a lesser man, but the vampire had brushed with his final death enough times to keep his cool even during desperate times.
'Othre's arrays should make it impossible to use dimensional magic, but if they Warped in, then I can Warp out.' He performed the hand seals for a Blink while Jirni darted towards his with inhuman speed, holding in her hands a golden spear aimed at his chest.
The mana left Kaelan's body, the spell was perfect, and yet it failed nonetheless, blocked by a superior power.
The vampire realized that he had no other option but running away so he gathered what was left of his strength to escape. Unfortunately for him, Jirni was too fast and pinned him to the wall by piercing through both the vampire's chest and the rock bricks with her spear.
