When, after a few minutes, masked individuals looked at the house of another gang leader, they thought it fully justified their expectations of a dark and eerie place, the abode of the city's most fearsome bandit. Baldy, distinguished by his particular cruelty, always toyed with the guards a bit and his house matched his character. It's a pity that the ominous house isn't proof of crimes. That was a tough spot for the guards.
"Through the door. Break it down and take them all down. I'll jump onto the roof and keep watch. Let's go."
Giving the order, Sergey soared gracefully above the pavement in a leap and moments later landed on the roof of the house with a crash, gripping a pipe with his hand. His people had already broken down the door and entered inside.
Baldy was no Prince Charming. The latter was confident, lived alone, in a quiet neighborhood. The former constantly kept at least two gang guards in his house and never slept in the same room two nights in a row. The noise woke the cautious bandit, and there he was already climbing out of the window and jumping into the yard.
A shadow leaped from the roof and fell right onto his back, revealing itself to be a person. A dagger swung, slashing the man's throat from ear to ear. After drinking half the blood to avoid suspicion with its absence, Sergey entered the house. Opening hideouts and disappearing into the night, simple and straightforward work. One might even say easy.
The scout was wrong only about one thing. The bandits turned out to be much richer than he and the townspeople had thought. No need to occupy. There will even be leftovers.
***
The paladin jumped, performing a somersault over his opponent, landing behind him and delivering a powerful blow immediately. The second remained in place and, swordplay in hand, danced around his opponent, making wide swings with his weapon. Overall, this pair's behavior strongly resembled the Jedi from the famous saga. They also loved to elegantly swing their lightsabers.
As was revealed in autumn, the Elurian and Orod paladin schools differed from each other. If the former gravitated towards a certain formality and density of combat, the latter preferred reckless hacking, broad swings, and beautiful jumps with maneuvers. Where did the Elurian paladin's blood come from? That was when several were wounded on the battlefield near the Cursed Bridge. Vampires were providing aid.
These two paladins who led the training bout against one of Oleg's guards were naturally from Orod. They miraculously survived. Both received bolts to the chest at the moment they leaped over the river. And the river, as is known, flows straight to the vampire settlement. It was near there that the children playing near the bridge pulled them out of the water, barely alive.
Oleg, Leonid, Alexander, and Semen watched the beautiful fight from a distance. The vampire played with his two opponents, easily predicting their actions and outmaneuvering them. The fight was "one-sided."
"Do all guards fight this well?" Alexander hadn't attended training for a long time and was pleasantly surprised.
"Since recently, guards are called gendarmes," since one of the vampireesses, looking at the unsuccessful search for fleeing vampires, exclaimed, "What are you poking around like gendarmes for? They're not there anymore!" The word stuck, and since then, those under Oleg's command have been called nothing but gendarmes.
"Almost all. Some better, some worse."
"What about the paladins, they're not rebelling?"
It was Semen's turn to answer, under whose responsibility the prisoners were partially kept and from whom he milked blood every two months.
"We put mages and nobles in dugouts; they're all satisfied. We don't force them to work; we returned their clothes and feed them well."
"And the other prisoners?"
"Well, they froze in tents over the winter, of course, but not fanatically. We take care of them as instructed."
"Revolts?"
"Well, Sasha (Alexander), you know the local ideologies, and we've shown them our capabilities. They sit quietly, work without slackening, but not overstraining themselves."
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