SPELLBOUND

"Reed!!!" Levy yelled as he jumped towards Reed who had been viciously thrown on the hard ground. The same giant orc which had attacked Reed was lifting its large feet right above the bleeding and battered vampire. It was planning to step on Reed and literally going to flatten him like a pancake. Reed was going to die if nothing was done!!!

Cursing, Levy forced himself to leap towards the young man. Sh*t! Can I make it in time?!

Levy extended all that he had to speed over to the fallen Reed. By some miracle, he managed to get to Reed, but the giant orc's foot was only a couple of feet away from flattening Reed – and himself if he did not time his rescue perfectly. He could only grit his teeth as he grabbed and pulled on Reed with all his might to barely escape that boulder like foot from smashing into them both. As he skidded to the ground with Reed beside him, the stomp of the orc had created a little dust mist before settling down after a few seconds. When it saw that Reed was rescued, the giant orc roared out before taking another step forward to attempt flattening Reed, but this time with Levy included. Levy could not catch his breath as he dragged the injured Reed with him, all the while seeing the shadow of the large feet coming down right behind him.

They both thudded on the ground again. Reed had been badly hit and fiercely battered till his entire body was now bleeding from multiple cuts and wounds.

"Retreat!" Zolan's voice was the next thing Levy heard and when he looked back, he saw Zolan and the others covering for them. Zolan was also bleeding. Levy had never seen Zolan bleed this badly in any of their previous fights before. "Run! We'll try and make a run for it to reach the dragon's gate!!! Take Reed and run now!!" Zolan quickly shouted out his plan.

Levy did as Zolan had said and he started running with Reed in tow. His body was screaming in pain, but he did not dare slow down nor take a breather as that huge lumbering orc was taking large steps to catch up to them. He knew they could not allow that orc to catch up. If it did, that would just spell their deaths right there and then.

The fight earlier on had been so ferocious and all of them were already on their last legs.

They had managed to kill off three orcs out of the six that were pursuing them, but now they could barely move from all their wounds and broken bones. Those savage beasts were definite at par with the dragons in terms of strength. If only these beasts were able to breathe out fire too, they might be almost as strong as the dragons. Just that they would be severely lacking in the looks department as orcs were not as elegant and majestic looking as the revered dragons.

And now, it was getting hopeless. They could not even have a moment to heal because the orcs were hellbent on killing them now that their prey, the princess, was out of their sight. The vampires could only hope that the princess had managed to reach the dragons now.

They saw that one savage orc had followed after them but since she was accompanied by Leon, the men were almost certain the man could deal with it. Somehow, deep within them they were confident and quite convinced that the princess would have reached the dragons by now.

Though they did not even know for sure if she would be safe from the dragons themselves, they could only hope and believe in their princess. It was only too bad that it seems some of them would not make it out and survive through this encounter.

The three savage orcs that are alive were still very much putting up a fight. And what a good fight they were giving the men too! While they were already battered and bruised black and blue all over, Samuel and Luc were still fighting against those huge orcs. But could they still managed to kill three of them off? They were so badly outnumbered and underpowered against these goddamned beasts!

Zolan had thought that maybe there were still a little hope for them if they managed to push their fight along and were able to reach the dragon's gate. He knew it should be alright for them to run towards the gates now because the princess must have reached the gate already! So bringing the orcs towards that direction should be safe enough. They would not be endangering the princess' life even if they themselves run towards the gates right now. However, the lingering thought in Zolan's mind was on whether they could survive long enough to get themselves all to the gate.

"Let's go, Samuel!!" Zolan yelled again and the huge man delivered a ferocious upstroke swing at the orc that had leapt at them from above and was about to smash its foot right on top of himself. These orcs were horrible! Even their fighting style were so unrefined and rough. They just crash, smash, tumble and stomp on anything or anyone they consider their enemies. "We need to head for the gates! Now!!"

Thankfully, Zolan's response was quick enough, and he managed to tuck and roll before springing it his feet and sprinting away from imminent danger. "F*ck!" Zolan could only curse up a storm, seeing how close it had been to him being dead and as flat as a plank of wood. He could already feel sweat rolling down his back. That was how dire their situation was at the moment.

Samuel grabbed onto Zolan's arm as one of his feet had been broken in the fight and they all started to run.

The orcs came at them like mad beasts.

"Sh*t! They're going to catch us! Damn it… run faster!" Luc cursed. Their speed had been slowed down due to carrying their injured comrades. There was no way in hell that they were abandoning anyone in favour of saving their own lives. However, the orcs seemed to have sped up even more. How was that even possible?

And just as Luc finished cursing out, the orcs had caught up to them. Samuel and Zolan tumbled over on the ground.

Luc had already started fighting them with everything that he had. He had to provide some sort of distraction for Samuel and Zolan to get up and ensure they were not being flattened into pancakes themselves. It seemed to be getting truly hopeless now.

Rising from the ground, Samuel looked over at Zolan. "Leave them to us. The rest of you go ahead with Zolan and look for the princess. You can still move, right? I believe you're the one the princess needs the most now."

Before Zolan could reply, Samuel leapt away from them and disappeared into the fog, not minding the poison before suddenly appearing out of nowhere, zipping down from a higher point and landing right on the head of one of the oncoming orcs. He slashed his sword at its head and all the rest of them could see was the ugly orc's head being cut into half.

Zolan forced himself to get up. He knew his broken bones would take a long while, probably days, to heal. With his current situation, he would not be of much use to the princess as compared to these two men who were much more powerful than him. Besides, the princess herself was quite as smart as the prince. He reasoned out that she would not be needing him that much. And that was why he should be the one to stay and try and act as the distraction for these beasts so that the other two can go on ahead.

"Zolan! I said to run now, f*ck!" Samuel growled as he blocked the orc that was about to slam into Zolan again.

"It's no use, damn it!" Zolan growled back and he leapt as well – albeit with a little trouble – helping Samuel to kill the beast. It was do or die for now.

As the three vampires turned their backs to each other, they gritted their teeth and gripped their swords tightly in their hands. Their eyes were locked onto the oncoming orcs. It was a tacit agreement between them that Zolan and Luc would take on one orc and Samuel would handle another one on his own.