Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 3.4.

Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 3.4.

“We can’t take on a mage – especially if Jaheira is unable to call upon the insect swarm…” I conclude, “there is only one solution, we have to somehow sneak by her… Mook and I can use our stealth to melt with the shadows, Viconia can use Sanctuary and I think I have a ring for you, dearest…”

I rummage through the pouch that is attached to my belt to find a small ring which I hand over to Jaheira – the Ring of Invisibility. Viconia casts her spell and disappears our view, straining my ears I hear her quiet footsteps as she heads towards the mage’s room.

“Mook and you should go as first, her attention is elsewhere rather than on the doors… crawl along the floor and she won’t see you,” Viconia’s voice explains, startling me as she has returned unnoticed, “Jaheira and I will follow you.”

I catch a brief glimpse of the thoughtful looking vampire mage as I crawl into the room, soundlessly I dart to find a brief refuge behind a small cabinet and then silently hugging the wall I cross the last few steps before reaching the safety of the passageway.

Mook follows my exact path across the room and with jealousy I note that her movements are that much more smoother and fluid than mine… she soon joins me in the safety, but while we wait for Jaheira and Viconia, suddenly I hear the vampire starting an incantation and I recognize the invisibility-purging spell.

I have not even had time to get properly worried as Jaheira whispers quietly in my ear, “We are in safety, she has mistimed with the spell.”

The passageway becomes more and more tortuous as we walk further and time from time we are forced to deal with more vampires. Being the most protected, Jaheira is the one that holds the frontline together, Viconia and I try to flank the opponents to avoid them touching us, as one simple scratch of a claw could severely weaken our fighting abilities.

Just when I start to wonder whether this maze is actually going to lead us somewhere and whether Bodhi herself is actually present here, we arrive to face a set of heavy, inlaid wooden doors. I have no second thoughts that there is something important on the other side. With a swipe of my boot I knock the heavy doors and despite looking impossible to move, they slide open easily. The room inside is very large and of circular shape with another pool of red blood in the middle of it.

And there are plenty of vampires inside. In the back of the room I see her majesty, Bodhi, herself… dressed in her usual, disgustingly atrocious uniform… Quickly, Jaheira and Viconia casts the protective spells, but it is already quite obvious that they won’t last for the whole battle…

“Ah, so you have made it this far… and even managed to defeat my mageling… impressive,” Bodhi taunts, “well, it ends here, however – Lassal, dispose of them and quickly. But do not feast on the bodies – I shall have the first bite!”

Lassal, I recognize the large vampire that eluded us at the docks – now he commands his cronies to quickly overwhelm us. Luckily, we have Viconia on our side and the battle starts before the vampires have even reached us – but now they are fighting amongst themselves. Seeing this, Lassal becomes infuriated and charges us with the speed of lightning… Viconia’s attempts to control him are futile - he is too powerful for that.

Mook bravely uses her crossbow to plink at the confused vampires, while Viconia is doing her best to maintain her spiritual control over their minds. In the meantime, Jaheira and I have to deal with a furious Lassal… Jaheira is being hard pressed, having to work tirelessly with her shield to block the swings of Lassal’s claws. I make my advance on him from the side and he is too busy swinging at Jaheira to see my sword descending on his shoulder from above and cutting deep inside the undead flesh. Jaheira uses his confusion to her benefit and lounges forward and brings her scimitar down on his neck sending Lassal sprawling on the ground mortally wounded. I bring down my sword and it protrudes through his chest and his body shudders with powerful convulsions before calming down forever.

Those vampires that are still standing now fall quickly under our combined efforts to leave Bodhi to face us alone, for some reason she has not joined in the fight.

“Well, I hoped it would not come down to this,” Bodhi speaks after the last of her lackeys fall after Viconia’s newly obtained anti-undead mace has cracked its skull open, “you are a determined man, Theodur, but I knew that before…”

“I have to admit, Bodhi,” I reply, “you were right about Shadow Thieves wanting to use me. However, I have been using them as well and now only one thing stands between me and Imoen – you, Bodhi.”

“But do you actually realize to what extent have you been used?” Bodhi continues, “Do you think they consider you only a simple mercenary or perhaps they intend to use you because of what you are? What about your… heritage, Child of Bhaal? Do not look surprised, Irenicus has told me all. He might have learned more about you and your power, if those pesky Thieves would have not interrupted him…”

“Again! Again you bring up this name! What is your connection to that monster!” Jaheira’s face is pale from anger, caused only by mention of that hated name.

“Yes, what do you know of Irenicus,” I add sternly, my grip on the hilt of the sword intensifying.

“Hah! I know more than your brain would be able to digest - you are unable to spot even those obvious things beneath your nose… Why, even Imoen escaped your notice,” Bodhi continues to speak in riddles.

“What about Imoen? And what about your connection with Irenicus,” I continue to press on with the questions.

“I am afraid, I have already told you enough… more than the good ‘sister’ was actually allowed to… regardless, I am tired of this discussion,” Bodhi raises her hands and makes a deep hissing sound before continuing, “Let us end this… let us both learn a thing or two.”

Immediately, I feel myself filled with the protective energies of Jaheira’s spell and Viconia quickly protects herself before jumping in the fray – Bodhi is too powerful to even attempt to control with her turning abilities. Jaheira is Bodhi’s first target, but she uses her shield skillfully to avoid getting caught by Bodhi’s swings that are coming so rapidly that Jaheira is not having any chance to counter.

Viconia and I move in to support her, but before any of us have made even an attempt of an attack, Bodhi swiftly redirects her assaults to Viconia and two powerful hits send Viconia tumbling into the wall with a sickening, cracking noise and she remains fallen unconscious.

Jaheira uses the respite to launch an attack of her own and her scimitar leaves deep gash over Bodhi’s chest, my swing misses Bodhi’s head by an inch as she avoids it by ducking swiftly. Next thing I know is that I am flying through the air and when my body meets with the cold stone floor through Mook’s screams of horror, I realize that my left hand is badly shattered and broken.

Jaheira is left to deal with Bodhi alone, at least while I regroup myself, though with only one healthy hand I cannot use neither my sword, nor bow. I see that Jaheira is still holding on, but she is starting to tire from parrying the attacks with her heavy shield. Bodhi’s rapid swings force her backwards and after one especially powerful blow, she drops down on her knee desperately holding her shield to protect her head from Bodhi’s claws.

I grasp the situation quickly and without any weapon I quickly charge towards Bodhi and my body slams into hers with a full force and knocks her backwards. To my relief, Jaheira realizes that this is the only chance before Bodhi recovers to cut me open while I stand defenseless… she drops her shield on the ground and holding her scimitar in her outstretched hands like a spear, lunges from the floor and rams the blade right into Bodhi’s open chest…

For a moment we both stand watching and awaiting when Bodhi’s body will finally collapse on the floor, but it is not happening… instead a swirling magical portal appears behind her and laughing all the time she steps through it to disappear from our eyes. Perplexed and for a moment forgotten about my damaged hand I look into Jaheira’s face, reddened from overexertion, beads of sweat forming on her forehead… she drops her scimitar and slowly slumps down on the floor, breathing heavily.

I sit beside her, looking at the side of the room where Mook is pouring the contents of healing potion into Viconia’s mouth, the latter still groaning in pain. Viconia soon rises from the floor and crawls over to us and attends to my injury while Jaheira is taking her time to recover from the exhaustion.

“Wow, I was worried there a bit for you, guys,” Mook speaks, relieved, “you sure showed her good in the end…”

“Yes, that was some fight,” I chuckle wearily and take Jaheira’s hand into mine, “and you saved our sorry skins…”

“I suppose I should thank you as well,” Viconia grins sourly, “I have no desire to leave this life just yet…”

Viconia retrieves a wooden stake and crawls around the room to finish the fallen vampires one by one. After a little wait Jaheira also raises from the floor and assures me that she is all right - since there is nothing here for us to do, we can safely return to Aran and report on the job well done. Chatting cheerfully we return back through the corridors we came not even half-an-hour ago…

“Umm, guys?” Mook suddenly stops and we turn to her, quizzically.

“What is it, Mook?” I ask her, perplexed. As a response, she only points her finger to something in front of us… but of course, we have completely forgotten about her… Tanova stands in front of us with eyes glowing in bright red.

“Run for it!” I yell aloud and like the wind we breeze past the vampire mage who from the surprise of our cowardice has forgotten that she was supposed to bury us under her barrage of deadly spells…