KRAAANG!!!
Grand Duke Jeil Helraig swung his fist once more, shattering the wall of shadows with a tremendous noise.
The wall could only withstand the first strike. However, I wasn’t just standing idly by during that time.
“What’s wrong? Surprised?”
With a deliberate provocation, I smiled confidently and released half of the shadows I had gathered behind me.
The shadows, freed like smoke, split into hundreds. These split shadows crashed into the wall, creating a complicated trajectory like bullets, all aimed towards the enemy.
However, the opponent was the Vampire of the Grand Duchy. Jeil began to deflect all the irregularly flying shadow bullets with movements as wondrous as catching bullets with bare hands.
But no matter how incredible his reaction speed was, it was inevitable that gaps would appear and attention would be distracted.
‘Now.’
As the frequency of his gaze towards me decreased while he focused on the shadow bullets, I dashed forward without hesitation.
PAANG!!!
The ground I stepped on couldn’t withstand the pressure and shattered, sending fragments flying.
I subtly adjusted the trajectory of the bullet right in front of me and slipped my body in between.
In doing so, I erased the physical distance between Jeil and myself in less than half a second.
“Your Highness!!”
With the screams of the vampires guarding him, Jeil’s body flew up toward the ceiling, embedding itself there.
But the sensation in my hand was faint. Moreover, not a drop of blood was on it.
Just before my fist, launched from a low stance, made contact, he certainly reacted.
‘He must have blocked his abdomen with dark magic and deflected the bullets behind him.’
It was a hellish dilemma. In a simpler contest, one would have surely been hit.
If he had left his back open, he would be a pincushion; if he had focused solely on defense, even if my attack didn’t reach his heart, his insides would have been entirely wrecked.
But Jeil managed to form a shield around his abdomen in that brief moment to perfectly negate my direct attack, while simultaneously clearing the bullets in the direction his body was flying, thereby minimizing his damage.
As evidence, instead of crashing into the ceiling, Jeil quickly spun around and successfully stepped onto it.
With eyes ablaze as if he were going to kill me, he kicked off the ceiling and reversed his momentum.
KRAAANG!!!
A fierce descent like a meteor. But surprisingly, avoiding a fast and linear movement isn’t that difficult.
‘Still, it feels like a waste to just dodge.’
When it’s at a level where you can’t avoid it even if you wanted to, it’s scary, but if you can see it and follow it, an honest attack like that is rather an opportunity.
Once again, I shot shadows upwards from below. Then I reached out my left arm toward the falling bio-meteor.
KRAZIK, even though I had wrapped the remaining shadows around my hand as cushioning, my left hand distorted unrecognizably upon colliding with Jeil’s fist.
If I had kept pushing down for another 0.1 seconds, my body would have exploded.
However, as the shattered pieces of my left hand pierced through my skin and jutted out, I made sure that all the blood that burst forth went upward without a moment’s waste.
“…Hup!”
Blood Magic. My unique magic that allows me to manipulate blood at will.
But I can’t ignore experience. Although my underlings may have reported that I could use Blood Magic, it was clear this was the first time Jeil saw just how well I could handle it. In that fleeting moment, sensing something ominous, he tried to abandon his attack and get into a defensive stance.
‘But it’s too late.’
The thin, rapid spray of blood shot through Jeil’s body, leaving pinhole-like wounds.
‘Just a little more.’
Naturally, I connected half of the blood droplets I had been manipulating individually into a line.
From points to a line.
I formed threads of blood piercing through Jeil’s body, holding the ends in both hands as I unfurled them.
“Your Highness!!!”
As his subordinates screamed out again, the throne room blossomed with bright red flowers.
Shrrrr, the blood threads displayed as blooming flower petals emerged from Jeil’s torso, disassembling his body.
However, the regeneration ability of the Grand Duke Vampire was on another level.
Initially, his body should have been sliced into hundreds of pieces, but thanks to the wounds healing immediately as the threads sliced through bone and flesh, Jeil was still moving, limbs intact.
As if that weren’t enough, despite the reduced falling speed due to the recoil, Jeil showed no signs of giving up on his attack. Even amidst this chaos, he twisted his body and added rotational force to his right arm, charging towards me.
‘This is how vampires fight.’
Forget the idea that sacrificing flesh and taking bones is uniquely one’s strategy.
On the first day of training at Iron Grave, Stella told me that.
When the enemy is also a vampire like me, or when one is prepared for a self-destructing attack…
It’s not over until you’ve completely cut off the enemy’s breath and confirmed one more time.
Never stop your thoughts while acting, and prepare for the next move every single moment.
And I had no intention of repeating the same mistake twice. Just before the collision with Jeil, I detonated the half of the blood I had left inside him.
“Gah!!!”
My blood is far easier to manipulate than someone else’s. In other words, as long as it’s my blood, I can handle it as I wish, no matter the position or situation.
As if a grenade erupted within, Jeil’s torso exploded, and chunks of flesh splattered everywhere.
I evacuated from the landing spot, then delivered a swift kick to the corpse of the fallen opponent.
KRAAAANG!!!
This time, the Grand Duke of Helraig wasn’t standing on his own power but was sent flying like a sack and crashed into the wall.
Thud, stones fell from the ceiling.
Intentionally avoiding the heart to escape the blast’s range, Jeil got back into position and stood up quickly.
Perhaps if I hadn’t adjusted, he might have had his own way of coping.
“…Seems I underestimated you too much.”
His voice was cold and composed. The excitement and joy of having found an interesting plaything had vanished from his face.
I lightly opened and closed my left hand.
The battle between the bloodsucking vampires had only just begun.
I had just landed a surprise hit, but I still didn’t know how strong I really was nor how serious he truly was.
Yet even with that, one thing was absolutely clear to me.
‘I really can win.’
This battle, there’s a considerable chance of success.
No longer was the Grand Duke of Helraig a being on the clouds for me.
*
Boom, as though an earthquake had struck, the vampires, one dragonkin, and one elf gathered in the central hall on the first floor all turned their heads in unison towards the same direction.
The difference from an earthquake was that the source of the vibration was not from beneath the ground, but somewhere up above.
And that vibration, appearing to be some kind of signal, instantly transformed the tense atmosphere inside into a state of combat readiness.
“Are you planning to fight? With just three of you?”
The elderly vampire who had sent Aria upwards let out a hearty laugh as he asked.
Slein Perbat, the Duke of the Helraig Duchy.
He was ordered to send up the fourth progenitor to the throne room once it arrived and eliminate the remaining party of progenitors when the battle began above.
The Grand Duke’s orders were law in the duchy.
Slein had completed his preparations diligently and was executing his lord’s command, but honestly, he was somewhat skeptical about needing to summon this many people.
‘Even counting the progenitor, it’s just four of us, right?’
When the marquis, Merton Gloton, sent back a report that the fourth progenitor could use Blood Magic, he was equally taken aback, but still…
What were the chances of a progenitor not even four years old defeating one of the two grand dukes reigning at the top among the existing vampires?
A Grand Duke is a being so far above even a vampire like Slein that he couldn’t help but look up for a long time.
He couldn’t shake the idea that it was much more realistic that the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow morning.
Yet, the disparity in numbers was simply overwhelming.
There were hundreds of vampires gathered in the duchy, and counting those guarding outside the castle walls would total over a thousand, while what did they have on the other side?
One single progenitor and the Grand Duke taking the field most definitely represented excess power. Setting that aside, excluding the progenitor leaves just three remaining.
Dragonkin ought to be treated with caution, but there was no need for excessive concern about elves outside their forests.
The presence of the azure-haired vampire was faint enough that Slein couldn’t help but question whether they needed to draw in reserve forces from the border.
Right, only until this very moment.
“I can’t believe they fail to recognize my little sister’s true worth. The Helraig Duchy is nothing special.”
From the azure-haired vampire’s lips flowed a voice as cold as ice.
It wasn’t said loudly, but the clear yet chilling tone seemed to carry something that alarmed all listeners.
Zrring, a sword was drawn from the vampire’s waist.
Naturally, Slein’s eyes were drawn into the sword.
Vampires using weapons are rare.
It’s not that they never do, but in most cases, it’s much simpler to use their bodies, and any lack of reach can be compensated with dark magic; on the other hand, weapons can break and become useless, while the vampire’s body can always regenerate as long as it’s alive.
However, when Slein realized the true identity of the drawn sword, he felt his blood freeze.
‘How…’
An instinctive sense of rejection surged as he looked upon the silver blade adorned with the emblem of his hated Luminous Kingdom.
He couldn’t possibly ignore it. It was undeniably the sword of the knights, the sworn enemies of vampires.
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