Bai had been in a tree as sentry on the opposite side of the coven from where the soldiers approached when the attack began. Him and the other two surviving sentries thus had been oblivious to the approach of the troops, their setup and Lina’s entrance into the coven. But when the gunpowder was ignited and exploded they were awoken to attention.
Bai had been in a tree as sentry on the opposite side of the coven from where the soldiers approached when the attack began. He and the other two surviving sentries thus had been oblivious to the approach of the troops, until the gunpowder exploded and awoke them to attention.
Bai himself could see the smoke and the dust from the explosion rising into the air, he could feel the trembling of the earth as it rattled the tree he stood upon, and he could feel the force of that boom within his ears.
Bai leapt down from the tree and rounded up the other two sentries that were nearest him to confer in secret.
“What in God’s name was that explosion?” one of them asked.
“We’ll find out,” Bai said, “We approach slowly. We can assume the coven’s under attack.”
Together, the three of them approached, remaining hidden behind the brush as the entrance to the coven came into view. Much to their horror, they saw a large crater just above their coven and two rows of soldiers firing down into it with volley after volley of projectiles.
Bai suggested, “We should circle around, find Tam, and attack them from behind.”
They swiftly circled around the troops, but by the time they’d reached the location of Tam’s post, the firing had stopped and Tam was missing.
They saw the body a few moments later and Bai approach and inspected it, pulling away the cloak to expose the neck. A large, round wound in the shape of a jaw, with two semi-circular gashes, where the upper and lower teeth respectively tore through, was visible. The skin was paler than normal, and only small streaks of blood stained the area around and below the wound.
“His blood’s been drained, by a vampire,” Bai said to the other two, “Probably by Lina. She must be with them.”
They moved rapidly, but softly across the forest floor, slowing to very gentle, silent steps as they came within earshot of the soldiers. A number of clearly trained and appropriately armored soldiers comprised the majority of the group, along with a handful of villagers, whose limited armor and casual peasant dress distinguished them.
Bai told his two fellow companions, “Focus on the armored soldiers. Let’s try to be in and out in an eye blink. We’ll each kill one, then run away and regroup. Then we’ll hit them with another attack.”
As Bai and the other two vampires slowly crept in from behind, several screams emerged from out of the crater. Three vampires hiding together in one of the rooms, leapt out through their door in a sudden burst, pouncing upon the humans within arms reach. They weren’t looking to kill the human, but to keep them from draining out of their pen. They tried to herd the humans backwards by force. The three of them, with all of their strength, pushed against the crowd of people, their arms outstretched, pushing forward with their shoulders. They knocked many persons over, toppling them to the ground in the process and causing a panic as people were suddenly forced backwards.
Those few that had been missed by the three vampires, that were already out of reach when the vampires emerged, started to run in the direction of the Great Hall and up the ramp and out of the coven, led by Constanta. Vasile, at the front, heard the scream from the tunnel were he led, and he immediately turned and rushed against the panicked stream of human bodies that ran upwards and out.
The sound and commotion below distracted the soldiers, who turned and aimed their weapons into the crater, and Bai realized that this was a perfect opportunity. He ordered his two companions, “Now!” and the three of them ran at the soldiers.
The soldiers were completely taken by surprise by the attack. In one moment, three soldiers all had vampires perched upon their bodies — their great weight pushing them to the ground, while the feet stood upon their waist and the arms wrapped their shoulders. The vampires didn’t have time to drain the blood, so instead they simply reached through the armor, to find a bit of neck between the seems, and then bit at the flesh and pulled it away with their teeth. Spurts of blood spilled out of the soldiers as they dropped to the ground, and the vampires began to run before any of the soldiers could raise their guns and aim.
But Bai hesitated, as he looked down into the crater. Only now did he realize what damage had been done, as he saw that the crater had exposed their main room to the sunlight. But what drew his attention was Vasile entering the Great Hall from above.
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