Hey, I'm a little bit afraid to tell you - don't love me too much for this chapter. You'll not like the next one but you'll survive, I promise!

Now enjoy this one!

CHAPTER 9 – The Guardian Council – The Fight

I automatically went into a defensive position and took out my stake. In the same movement I jumped back bringing some space between me and the Strigoi.

Every time I had to fight a Strigoi (it has only been three times so far) I automatically started to remember the lessons with Dimitri. The first weeks of training with him I hated every bit of it. I hated the work out and I hated the lap running. But now I had learned that sometimes it was not a sign of cowardliness but a sign of intelligence to exactly know whether you could win a fight or not.

Suddenly I felt someone approaching in my back and the strong sick feeling in the stomach told me that there was at least one other Strigoi. Pushing my elbow behind me I felt it hitting a body and a moan signalled me that I had met the right spot. At least one of them was out for a moment.

To get myself in a better defendable position, I took a stand with a solid brick wall in my back. Now I saw them approaching – there where three Strigoi in total: 2 men and one woman. While the two men came closer, holding some wooden sticks in their hands, the woman stayed in the back. It astonished me to see such a big group. Usually there is only one Strigoi but a group of three – this could get a little bit difficult for me.

As the first one slowly stepped closer, he received a hard punch in the face and he stumbled backwards. Moving towards the other, I used my body swing to push him away with my handy. But he only stumbled a few feet away and fast he came back again with the wooden swing in his hand. Since the wooden bat was longer than my arm, I had to be careful not to get into contact with it.

This was also something not very common for Strigoi. Usually they only relied on their own powers to attack Moroi or sometimes even Guardians. This group did not only consist of three people but they also had weapons brought along with them. And obviously they were not hesitating to use them.

Unfortunately I had been lost in thought for too long and hadn't taken care of my surroundings. Suddenly I felt a stabbing pain in my right arm. As I turned around, I saw the other Strigoi holding a long knife in his hand, smiling cruelly.

'Oh I just had to …' I thought to myself sarcastically and so I jumped up and stomped with my food right into his cruel smile, hearing his bones crack. But this only gave me satisfaction for one moment. Soon I felt the warm blood emerging from the wound in my arm. Stabbing wounds could get very dangerous and I knew that losing too much blood would do no good. But I did not take a closer look to not get distracted again.

While the first Strigoi recovered from my last blow, the other one was back on his feet. During all the time, the woman kept in the back, probably as a back-up, if the situation should get worse.

When the Strigoi started his attack on me again, I ducked his first blow with his bat and also did so when he swung it back.

I hated fighting against someone who had a weapon in his hands, especially one as brutal as a wooden bat. These things could cause real bad harm or even take you out of the fight completely. Unfortunately fighting against an enemy with a weapon had never been on the schedule during novice training in school. My luck right now was that Dimitri had showed me some tricks how to dodge and stay outside of the reach of the weapon. I don't know why it was not taught during school how to fight these unfair fights but I guessed that it was because nobody had ever fought a Strigoi with a weapon.

Slowly stepping closer the Strigoi tried to get into a better distance to me to hit me with the bat. In the corner of my eye, I saw the second Strigoi approaching slowly, trying not to draw my attention towards him.

Somehow I got the feeling that these Strigoi did plan this attack. For an unscheduled attack this was too much coordinated, since they had brought weapons. This would mean that they had known that they wanted to attack someone (I did not give into the thought that I could originally have been the target) and had gotten their weapons from somewhere.

The second reason was because they did not attack me in the normal brutal way but they gave me the impression of wanting to capture me and not to kill me. With a little beating up first, of course, but it was not in their intention to kill me, which totally confused me to no end.

When both of the Strigoi came into my reach again, I started the attack this time to shake them off.

The fight went on like this for a while until I made a huge mistake.

I nearly had one of them in the near of my stake but totally forgot the second one. Without hesitation he used the second of inattentiveness and pushed his wooden bat right into my back. With a scream I went down. The pain was breathtaking but I knew I needed to get up fast.

I rolled on my back to see which one was attacking next and sure – one of them tried to jump on me. Within a split-second I had my stake in hand and let him fall right on it. And surely – I had positioned it in the right angle – the stake met his heart and with a high screeching sound he was finished. But this only meant that two where remaining.

I used the moment of shock of the other two Strigoi and quickly jumped back on my feet. I still felt the pain in my back and the loss of blood slowly weakened me. I already started to stumble, which was not a good sign. I needed to kill them fast, otherwise they would take their chance to kill me – if not worse – turn me into a Strigoi.

Much to my surprise I finished off the second one within a few strides and pushes as he wasn't paying attention to my stake and when he actually did, it was too late. I already had positioned it right in his heart.

This only left the woman which I surely should not underestimate. The fight with the woman actually was the hardest and longest one. She was a really quick and her punches where hurting like hell. After a few minutes of fighting I already had a very dangerous wound in my belly and several scratches in my face.

I felt the blackness slowly enveloping me and I fought hard to keep my body from giving into the darkness and my eyes to stay opened. My movements were getting slower now and my arms got heavier by the minute. The moment I stumbled over my own feet was the moment she saw her chance of winning the fight and I only saw the huge knife coming down on me, not able to put up my defences anymore

Suddenly the woman Strigoi went stiff, her eyes glazed over and she fell backwards.

Behind her I saw a dark scheme coming up. Though my heart was pounding (I don't know if because of the adrenalin rushing through my veins or the sight that stood in front of me) I didn't even have the energy to smile at him. In this moment I was so happy to see him.

"Hey comrade"; I said before finally giving into the darkness. I knew that I was save now in the arms of the god-ass Guardian that ever had existed. The last words I heard from my beloved saviour, where my nickname in Russian:

"Roza!"

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