Akri flowed inside of me like adrenaline as Lucah and I stood back to back in the middle of the streets, scanning our surroundings for danger. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the barrier was still untouched and intact. If the barrier was still in place, the creatures must have crept into Elmire before we completed the spell. But how? They shouldn't have been able to move around in broad daylight without significant injury, or at the very least one person noticing their plight.
My head was spinning with questions that I almost didn't catch the dagger flying at me from the shadows. I physically manifested my akri and deflected the dagger within seconds of it almost striking me. I heard a faint hiss and looked towards the sound. In an alleyway across from me, a set of glowing red eyes peered from the dark. Goosebumps erupted on my skin.
"Navi, there are two on my side. How many on yours?" Lucah whispered.
"One, as far as I can tell." I responded.
"Now tell me, how'd you do in your physical offense and defense classes with Hester?" Lucah asked lightly. I glared at him, appalled that he could joke around in this situation. Lucah's lips were set in a smile, but his eyes were grave. I realized he was legitimately worried about my fighting ability. I was barely five feet tall with a petite frame that could easily be physically overwhelmed. However, Hester had been merciless in training me, making me compensate for what I lacked physically with my abundance of akri.
"Don't worry about me," I said calmly. Lucah hesitated, but then nodded. I suddenly felt a rush of cold air beside me as he leaped away from my side. A loud crackle boomed as he manifested his akri like lightning and struck a vampire charging at him. To my shock, these vampires looked much more monstrous than what I had seen in our books. These creatures loomed at least seven to eight feet tall with disfigured faces showing exaggerated, large fangs. Their gray skin resembled the color of death, and they yielded immense claws that could easily tear someone apart. A bloodcurdling shriek erupted and echoed into the quiet night as the monster's chest ripped open from Lucah's attack.
I quickly turned back to the demon in the shadows who now ran towards me at an incredible speed. I enveloped myself in a burst of flames, setting the creature on fire as it attempted to grab me. It writhed on the floor and released screams of anguish. I jumped back to put distance between myself and the vampire.
This was bad. Neither Lucah nor I had the proper weapons on hand to completely kill these vampires and prevent them from healing. We would both eventually deplete our akri while keeping these creatures at bay. I could hold out longer, but Lucah...
I heard Lucah cry out and snapped my head towards his direction. A vampire had him pinned to the floor by the throat. I sprinted towards them, akri coursing through me. With his hand still locked on Lucah, the vampire turned to me with a terrifying smile ripping across his face.
This vampire was different from the others - his figure and proportions closely resembled that of a human. He still had those chilling blood red eyes with dark circles beneath them as if he had not rested in ages. His skin gleamed a sickly white in the moonlight. His sleek, black hair was slicked back with not a hair out of place. Almost comically, the vampire was dressed luxuriously as if it cared to impress or signify its class - though I noticed dried blood speckled across his coat. I grimaced, wondering how many people this vampire had hurt before running into us.
Lucah punched and kicked against the vampire to the point where I saw blood dripping from his knuckles, but the creature didn't even flinch. I hurriedly stretched out my akri like arms towards Lucah and the vampire, but the monster did something unexpected. He suddenly threw Lucah to the side and launched himself at me. With horror, I saw my akri narrowly miss him as he slipped between its grasp. Unable to stop my own momentum, I was flying straight into him. In the blink of an eye he was right in front of me, and all I could see was the glint of his fangs as they reached for my neck.