Chapter 63: Docks on Fire! (Part 1)

Gabriel: "Well, let me get down to business."

With a serious attitude, Gabriel says so, glaring at Ethan to tell him to shut his mouth.

Well, I don't mind that the troll is being shut up but I am kinda interested in why this guy is in so much of a hurry. I know he's mostly a no-nonsense guy but still, it's kinda noteworthy that he doesn't even react to the fact that we played him for a fool by making him follow Ethan and Sneha and also that we have surrounded him.

Gabriel: "The Phoenix, Reid Vezalius Rosevelt, has given me the mission of bringing you all to him safe and sound."

Ethan: "Yes, we kinda fig-"

Gabriel: "You shut up!"

He says, surprisingly calmly, and continues before Ethan can retort,

Gabriel: "However, before I fulfill my mission, I have decided to do something else."

Ethan: "And wh-"

Gabriel: "Shut up!"

He points at Ethan as he says so again.

Kais: "And what would that be?"

I try asking the same thing Ethan was going to ask, and not-so-surprisingly, he doesn't point at me or tell me to shut up. Well, I guess he knows at least somewhat about Ethan's, um, personality.

Gabriel: "I want to kill some people."

Ethan: "Well, every-"

Gabriel merely points a finger at him this time, and it works, although it does end up in the troll clicking his tongue. Still, great job, Gabriel!

Sona: "Well, everybody wants to kill some people. Who are the ones you are looking for?"

She says the exact same thing Ethan was trying to say and Gabriel merely answers after clearing his throat once,

Gabriel: "The Vampire Kingdom's commanding forces. All who fall in their commanding positions are the targets."

Well, that's interesting!

Vermillion and Vampire Kingdom are definitely on the opposing sides for this war. However, what's motivating him seems to be a bit personal.

Gabriel: "And so,"

He speaks before I can inquire him about that,

Gabriel: "Since taking them all down alone will prove to be quite troublesome, I want you all to aid me."

There's no humility or preaching in his behavior, he is stating it like a fact. However, one read of his aura is enough to tell me that he is serious, so serious that he is willing to disobey the Phoenix and hurt us in order to make us agree to help him.

Ethan: "Will you finally listen to me?"

He asks with an annoyed smile. While looking at that gives me a lot of satisfaction, and I'm sure the same would be the case with Sneha and Gabriel, I doubt not listening to what he has to say would be wise.

Gabriel: "Go on! I'll have to listen to your barking sooner or later anyway."

Gabriel folds his arms and leans to his car (which probably isn't exactly 'his' car) as he looks at Ethan.

Ethan: "There are three major problems with your 'plan' of killing every commander in Vampire Kingdom."

Gabriel: "Hah!"

He sighs exasperatedly. And I don't think he is doing so intentionally to annoy Ethan or anything like that. He is probably genuinely annoyed at Ethan and everything he says, despite the fact that a lot of it is actually important.

Ethan: "First of all,"

He says with an awkward smile,

Ethan: "There are more than 40 army generals in Vampire Kingdom. Now add to that – 4 royal generals, their public leader Reid, the queen Valdis and, uh, those two assholes, we come up with a grand total of 48 people."

That's a hell of a lot of people. Although, 'those two assholes', eh? Who would he be talking about now?

Ethan: "How much time do you think would it take for merely 5 people to kill all of them? You think we have so much free time?"

His tone becomes mocking somewhere along the line but he raises a good point.

Ethan: "Second, they are all scattered throughout the world at this point. Finding them is going to take months by itself. And by the time you kill 20 of them, 10 new generals would have been made. It's absolutely a waste of time and energy!"

He continues in a mocking tone and Gabriel doesn't react at all as he listens to Ethan's words; which, in all honestly, make sense.

Ethan: "Lastly, even if, by some stroke of genius or miracle, you manage to gather all of them in one place and then proceed to slaughter them, it won't work out."

Gabriel: "Ha!?"

Although he is the only one giving a vocal reaction, we all furrow our brows at that statement.

Vampire Kingdom doesn't seem like it has a lot of ridiculously strong people. There definitely would be some of them but if we can defeat Walter Schmidt and Spectre Dyne even without the help of a Hellfire, it shouldn't be that hard to defeat the Vampire Kingdom's 48 commanders with the help of one.

Ethan: "As always, you idiots think power is the only thing that matters. Well, it's not!"

His face becomes stiffer as he says the next words,

Ethan: "Even if you bring the entire Vermillion to help you in killing them, it still won't work out. Everyone on our side will die! They will be victorious!"

Hearing that, all of us remain silent for a while, until,

Gabriel: "Nonsense! You are just trying to find excuses to not join me."

He says as he steps away from his car and starts powering up his fists with Energy Manipulation.

Gabriel: "I don't care about your reasoning for trying to not join me on this endeavor but I can't accept it. I will make you help me, even if you lose a few bones in the process."

Well, damn! It looks like there's no other choice but to face him now.

I really doubt Ethan said anything he did without a proper reason but, Gabriel is not in the mood to care about that.

And so, we'll need to fight.

Gabriel: "Now, you all-"

He gets thrown away by a punch to his gut by Sagzear, the vampire-spirit that Sona possesses. As I look at him lying at a distance,

Kais: "That probably isn't the end of this."

Ethan: "It definitely is not. In order to win this fight against him,"

We all know what he's going to say, but this time we don't need him.

Kais: "I have a plan so you shut up."

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Gabriel: "Are you serious!?"

He asks in surprise as he looks at the fact that the borders of the apartment complex I used to live in are not much further from the docks. And the reason he is only now able to see and react to it is because it used to be hidden by the high walls, the walls that have been dealt with by of a kick from Sagzear.

Gabriel: "You think I am foolish enough to let you take the fight to the docks?"

As his surprise wears off, his expression grows disappointed when he understands our strategy.

Gabriel: "Luring me there would be a stupid move!"

He remarks as he runs towards Ethan, the most vulnerable person here, probably to take him hostage. However,

Kais: "Stupid move? Please don't forget who you are up against!"

I say as Ethan disappears.

Gabriel: "What!?"

Kais: "It's simple teleportation, there's no need to be so surprised."

Gabriel: "Teleporting another person needs physical contact!"

Since I didn't touch Ethan, I shouldn't have been able to teleport him? That's what he is so confused about, isn't it?

Kais: "Correction, teleporting another person needs aural contact."

Gabriel: "Tsk! touching a person's aura and a person's body is the same-"

He realizes that he is wrong as he takes a look at Sneha's smirk.

Gabriel: "The aura-swapping ability of an Aural? Well, this might actually be a little interesting!"

Saying that, he charges his hands with ridiculous amounts of energy within a second, and prepares to release it.

Sona: "Sagzear!"

She shouts the spirit's name and it appears as soon as she does to take the impact of his attack. The spirit is not alone though, Sneha joins the spirit on the same endeavor.

Kais: "Well, that should take care of that."

I say as I touch Sona and teleport her to the docks too. And immediately proceed to do the same to Sneha and Sagzear.

Gabriel: "Ha!?"

Only as I do so and they both disappear does Gabriel realize that Sneha wasn't trying to take the impact alongside Sagzear but swap her and the spirit's aura with a point near me so I can teleport them. Since his focus was on getting a powerful hit on the two of them, his punch wasn't in my direction but theirs, and so I remain fine even after the impact.

Gabriel: "Hah!"

He sighs as he sees all that.

Gabriel: "That wasn't half-bad, kid. But, now that you are the only one left, what are you going to do to protect yourself?"

It's a stupid question. Of course, I would teleport myself too, it's so easy to teleport oneself after all. Well, that's what I intended to do at least, before Gabriel covered the distance of over 20 meters between us within a flash,

Gabriel: "Go to hell!"

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