"Sir!" the subordinate cried in worry.
He shook his head and smiled weakly at the young man. "This is how it should be."
His lifeforce was but a little sacrifice compared to what they could gain if the vampires die. The fight was surely about to come to an end anytime soon. One last sacrifice was all they needed.
Little by little, the bandits were thinning in number, whereas the knights were also at their limits. Teo was sweating buckets, his golden hair sticking to his forehead as he swiped at another bandit with his spear.
The grounds and foliage were practically painted in blood now.
A bloody scent was like perfume to vampires, a delicious smell they couldn’t resist when presented freely. The knights were soaked, and as gruesome as it might sound, sometimes they even lick on the blood for a tiny snack.
It was exciting, exhilarating even.
Perhaps it was also one of the reason vampires loved to conquer and fight – the adrenaline rush that pumped in them with the scent of blood heavy in the air.
"The enemies are slowly going down. Create a protective circle!" Teo instructed.
The others immediately followed, creating a circle of defense around the royals at the middle. Cordelia joined in on their defensive barricade, and a knight raised a brow at her in incredulity.
What was a woman, who was looking like she could be his mother, doing beside them, fighting? He hasn’t seen her do much but to immobilize the bandits with blunt blows to the nerves with her hands and a few kicks.
The knights were the ones that did the dirty work of finishing the fallen bandits off.
"Get inside the circle, woman," the knight snickered at Cordelia. "You will just get yourself hurt. Don’t dream of being at par with us men."
The whitehaired maidservant glared at the knight, "Boy, if you look down on me again, I will make sure that you are the one to get hurt and not me."
Sensing the intense aura that emanated from Cordelia, the knight bit his tongue and swallowed a lump that suddenly got stuck in his throat. Her eyes were so cold that the bandits wouldn’t even compare to how dangerous she was just by her mere presence.
What would she be able to do if she had a weapon to wield as well? The knight shuddered with the thought.
+++
The last of the bandits were hesitant now. Their will to continue the fight against the vampires had been cut into half by the apparent difference of their skills.
Many of their comrades were dead, bloody and beaten to the ground. Some even in pieces and beheaded as Teo and the knights had mercilessly cut through them like they were soft cheese.
"Where is your leader?" Teo asked one of the bandits that stood nearest him, "He is a coward to have hidden while his men fought with their lives at stake. Get him out now."
The bandit didn’t speak a word, disconcerted by the bloodbath and painful groans from nearly dead comrades sprawled everywhere.
On the other hand, Elys watched with an ache in her heart.
Her eyes scanned at the piles of body that surrounded them. One of them had his face cover torn. He desperately gasped for air, hanging on for dear life as blood spluttered from his punctured throat.
The princess’ hands shook with anger.
He was just a boy, a young teen with a long life ahead of him if not for this bloody battle.
She turned her attention to the prince. He had a smug look on his face, a look that could only mean he relished on utter chaos and death that surrounded them.
The stench of blood sent his senses into overdrive, an almost maniacal expression painted his face.
"Do you hear me?!" the golden-haired knight yelled as he continued, "Leader of the Black Bandits, your plan has failed, and only few remain. Surrender yourself and we will spare these unskilled men of yours."
Silence... the leader didn’t even speak a word nor make a move with Teo’s taunting.
The other bandits – the ones left standing and those of the injured – were hesitant. Some even started crying in fear for their own lives, thinking their choice to fight had been a big mistake all along.
"What is that?" the princess pointed somewhere up ahead. Elys noted a greenish glow from a dense foliage of shrubs and vines.
Everyone turned to where her finger pointed at.
She recalled the time she had seen the Black Bandit’s leader held his necklace after the bombs detonated, and she realized that must have been where he was hiding.
Everything that happened afterwards went off in a flash. But to Elys’ eyes, her world had actually slowed down.
The Black Bandit’s leader rose up from where he hid, his bow in hand and several black arrows set to launch at the vampires. Before anyone could even notice, he released the arrows coated with the magical attributes of the stone, and they zipped past trees and shrubs.
The princess knew whom the arrows were targeted at.
Aleksander and the knights were unaware of the jade’s power. The spell that the leader chanted specifically intended for them to become vulnerable to the magical item.
The arrows flew with lightning speed.
With the dagger still in her hand, Elys instinctively threw it in an attempt to stop the arrows from hitting the bull’s eye. With precision and accuracy in mind, the dagger flew from Elys’ hand to meet the arrows that rushed towards the prince.
The moment the dagger left her hand, Elys hastened to where Aleksander stood and practically hauled him out of the way.
The two of them dogpiled to the ground, with the princess on top of Aleksander.
The dagger fortunately hit and deflected the arrows, to which dispelled the jade’s magic on the arrows.
The arrows hit the ground, just a few meters away from where the prince stood. Aleksander’s eyes widened with surprise – why did the slave princess save him?