SPELLBOUND

With a sickening thud, Gallas' body fell to the ground and rolled a couple rounds lifelessly due to the impact and weight. Seeing their prince standing there leisurely – the ultimate picture of calmness and with an air of assurance surrounding him – with the half-blood's head still dangling in his hand, the Dacrian soldiers seemed unable to believe what their eyes were showing them nor were they able to respond to what had just taken place.

They gulped in astonishment, opened their mouths, then shut it again, very closely resembling the actions of those golden, red or black fishes with rotund bodies and bulging eyes that can be found in the palace gardens. Gavriel's men saw the other soldier's responses and could only smirk and chuckle in the superior knowledge that this is nothing to their prince. The best has yet to come.

Their prince resembled the prince of hell very closely, right about now. They could actually feel goosebumps prickling and rising along their skins just by looking at him. Their prince. They knew he was strong, but they had absolutely no idea he was this powerful. Never in their wildest dreams would they have thought he could be stronger than the greatly feared half-blooded vampires who were supposed to be the strongest of all. How? Why? When did the prince became this powerful? Or… was he already always this formidable?

Suddenly, a roar echoed and when Gavriel turned his face towards the source of that noise, he saw that there were little horizontal clouds of white being kicked up at the edges of the periphery. It seemed that the imperial army was retreating. He creased his brows in obvious displeasure. The war was nowhere near over yet so why was Caius already retreating? It could not be as simple as he had gotten scared, could it? A scornful sneer formed on Gavriel's handsome face as that thought crossed his mind.

With narrowed eyes, Gavriel focused his gaze as he searched for Caius. He found him and their gazes clashed and met. Due to the distance between them that was too wide, communication that usually could be made through their eyes were not possible.

Caius' eyes were emotionless as he glared balefully back at Gavriel, he then abruptly turned and disappeared from Gavriel's sight.

The roar of victory from the Dacrian soldiers that had started as soon as the imperial army retreated continued and got even louder. They were ecstatic at this win against their enemies. Small it may be, but it was a very significant one as a half-blooded vampire was taken down by their very own prince!

Zolan landed lightly in front of Gavriel, giving a small bow as a show of respect to his lord. His long blond hair that was braided behind him now painted with blood.

"What do you think is happening?" Gavriel asked, his gaze still fixed on the retreating lines of Caius's army.

"I'm not certain, My Lord but… it felt suspicious to me. It was as if they just came at us this time for the sole purpose of testing out the waters." Zolan replied honestly with a grave expression.

"And what you're telling me is that this water they're testing should not be that of the capabilities of our Dacrian soldiers … but mine?" Gavriel's eyes were cold and hard as one side of his lips curled up, making anyone who looked at him frightened at the extremely glacial sensation he was giving out.

"Yes, Your Highness. They are now aware of the kind of power you actually have. You easily killed a half-blood before their very eyes and beat another one up quite nicely, I would say." Zolan's gaze that had a slight hidden amusement, fell to the other half-blood who was now being surrounded by Samuel and the others. "You, taking down two of the empires' most powerful warriors all at once, and on your own, nonetheless, is enough for them to realize the power you've been hiding all this while."

Gavriel smirked but then, he swept his gaze around the battlefield and his smile slowly faded. His gaze settled on Leon who was now crouching, preparing himself to attack the men who were surrounding him.

"You must be right, but I don't think that's the sole reason behind this attack and retreat. There must be something… a bigger reason behind all this act that he's putting up." Gavriel's voice hinted that he was more than certain about his suspicion.

After handing Gallas' head to Zolan, Gavriel made his way towards the other half-blood. The man was still healing from all the wounds Gavriel had inflicted on him. If he were a normal vampire, he would still be unconscious on the ground or rolling around screaming in pain. But fortunately for him, he was not a normal vampire.

Leon had his eyes blazing red. He had lost his sword from the earlier attack, so he was crouching and ready to fight barehanded.

Long ago, when the vampires were still fighting against powerful beasts, they had learned to use weapons like swords as their fangs and nails were nothing compared to the beasts' fangs and claws. Using weapons were far more effective against the massive beasts than fighting them barehanded. Since then, vampires had gotten used to fighting with the sword. They do not need their swords when they are against the weaker humans but if it was fighting against their own kind, the vampires preferred to use weapons if they were to kill each other.

The soldiers parted and opened a path for Gavriel as he approached. Even though most of them had their attention towards the snarling half-blood, and some of them did not know that Gavriel was approaching, Gavriel's presence itself was so strong that it made them look back instinctively and when they saw him, they immediately moved aside.

Even the half-blood felt him approaching while he was still far off and focussed his threatening gaze and elongated claws at Gavriel's direction.

Gavriel halted beside Samuel, his eyes holding onto Leon's eyes. "You know what you need to do. Leave this to me and take Levy and Reed with you." Gavriel commanded and Samuel immediately nodded.

Without wasting a moment, the big man nodded at Levy and Reed and the three leapt away into the darkness, towards where their enemy had retreated.

"Leon," Gavriel called the half-blood's name as he calmly and leisurely strode forward, circling the half-blood just like how a predator would circle its prey. "Have you forgotten about the deal we agreed on earlier?"