<711 - The Poor Child (11)>
C Group, Class 981 students.
Vampire Vladimir was wronged.
“Vladimir is the true destroyer who will eventually bring about the end of the world, so we must fear and keep a watchful eye on her!”
“The Three Great Evils are merely illusions that hang over the present era; the true great evil is the vampire Vladimir, who hides in the shadows and rules the world!”
“The Dark Princess has foreseen the future and recognized Vladimir as humanity’s greatest enemy, so the Church of the End will be watching you!”
What on earth have I done for Dobi, the leader of the Church of the End, to be watching me day and night with all sorts of organization members glaring at me?
“They must have some basis for it; otherwise, they wouldn’t be acting like this.”
“What could Vladimir have done?”
“What do you expect a vampire to do? Besides sucking blood. Maybe she just randomly grabbed someone and drank their blood, whether it was a family member or not.”
“Gasp. Is she raising an organization to avenge her family and mimicking a fanatic? That’s so cool…”
“I thought Dobi was just a lunatic, but turns out he’s a pretty decent guy!”
The clueless students voiced their suspicions about Vladimir while fostering sympathy for Dobi, but the actual person was truly going crazy.
She was hiding quietly in the upperclassmen’s pet storage, just sucking on unappetizing animal blood. So why was she being treated like a murderer, having drained human blood and killed someone?
“Vladimir.”
“Kasia.”
Vladimir turned with moist eyes to Kasia.
Kasia, the leader of C Group.
A being with a life more tragic than anyone else as a fused lifeform and the strongest student in C Group.
Unknown Identity.
Identity Eraser.
Horrific Criminal.
Students who have survivied in the Outlands, marked as uncharted on maps and secret facilities for various reasons, acknowledged her power as their leader.
Kasia smiled hazily at Vladimir.
“Don’t worry. Even if you are the enemy who drained Dobi’s family, you’re still my subordinate in C Group. No one can touch a subordinate without my permission.”
“…I’m such a fool for trusting you. I didn’t suck any blood! I didn’t!! No human blood!!”
Vladimir stomped toward Dobi angrily.
“Ugh! The seer who glimpsed the blood-soaked future is trying to kill me! Save me!”
How could that guy run away so well?
The amateurs could barely manage their bodies in the high-density mana, but they moved through it as if they owned the place.
Mana of unknown origin.
With a malevolent momentum as if it had been ripped straight from the edge of the world.
Dobi claimed to be the leader of the Church of the End, but the power he wielded was no trifling matter.
The sheer magnitude of his mana made it seem like he really had foreseen ‘the end of the world’ or at least a ‘ominous future’ and had come back as a genuine seer.
What in the world did that guy see in the future?
What was his existence in that future?
“The vanguard is always mine!”
“Starting from the original ancestor?!”
Lion-man Leon, draped in a lion’s mane, charged fiercely.
His strike breached the usual [Mutual Destruction] effect of Deadcat.
“…!”
“Nice, huh? You’ve reached a pretty decent level, but how about this?”
“Surpassing the power of a basic strike, it really is monstrous!”
While Deadcat was overwhelmed, Io, with blue fists, collided with Gigasdos, with red fists, amidst the skirmish.
Blue and red lines tore through the air as their fists collided, causing seven bursts of flame and twenty-three distortions in paths.
“What’s going on? That punch was supposed to be particularly effective against ghosts and undead, right? If this punch is effective, just how weak are you?!”
“Shut up!”
“No, the one who should shut up is you. If this is all your so-called specialty attack, you won’t beat me this time. If you’re ‘ghost-specialized,’ then I’m ‘human-specialized!’”
Even if the color of the punch was blue, the wielder’s color quickly drew nearer to red Gigasdos.
Bruised and torn, blood began to cover Io.
“Without a god, what could you possibly become? Why do you choose to be a lonely prodigal in this chaotic world?”
“Senior Dio, you’re as always. Having five gods, yet abandoning their will, you, the God’s Punishment practitioner, are not the same as I am. Even if I distance myself from the Power of God, my attitude towards their lives and gratitude toward the esteemed will never change!”
“Then you won’t win. The only thing that can stop me, strengthened even against the God’s punishment, is the Power of God itself.”
The gray-wandering knight Dio revealed his spirit to the world, as the sandstorm that would punish him for tainting the eyes of justice blew once more.
In the midst of the wind of divine punishment that even made it hard to manifest mana, an endless barrage of dark mana attacks poured down.
“Faith is my metal, and Religion is my strength. Even if the gods offer no aid, the earnestness to walk the right path shall become our strength.”
“I envy you. Your shallow faith hasn’t been betrayed, and your ease in remaining a toy of the gods!”
Dio, weaponizing even the divine punishment to threaten his enemy, extended his sword like a hellish fiend released from the underworld amidst sandstorms, thunder, and darkness.
While Luga hurriedly stepped back in confusion, Again, known as the strongest among the Four Kings of Class, also launched his charge.
“Blood-imbued Vladimir. I shall test your skill!”
“Before that, let’s see if you can defeat us first!”
“Lotto, synchronize your pace.”
“Are we not even in sight?”
“Don’t get cocky.”
As Lotto and Hestia synchronized their combo move, tying Agains’ tempo down with a heavy-hitting exchange, the strained expression on Irene’s face showed that her pinpoint freezing magic was imbued with Kasia’s electricity.
Clank!
Temporarily freezing part of a body to slow down movement, with added electricity further paralyzing it, slowing response time.
The arms and elbows of Lotto and Hestia struck Agains’ stopped body, shaking it with a heavy thud.
Boom!
With a flashy explosion, Agains, with his insides jumbled, started bleeding black blood from his nose while one of his arms broke.
Faced with how easily the attack was allowed, Lotto and Hestia found themselves flustered, while Mandela, busy keeping Sadi Chocolate in check, yelled out a warning.
“Juniors, are you not paying attention? Again
“Ha ha. Sounds like it’s already too late, what should we do?”
As if rewinding time, his arms became straight and reached toward Hestia and Lotto.
Ta-da-dah!
Hestia, combining the instinctual crisis awareness of mercenaries with the smoothness of the Mana Flow Technique Manual for Maids, was able to evade, but Lotto couldn’t.
Again seemed to know every technique taught by the academy’s imperial professors and personal instructors, seamlessly piercing in.
In the end, Agains revealed his teeth in a vicious grin as he grabbed Lotto’s arm.
“That strike was quite nice. Good things should be shared, right? Here, I’ll return it.”
WHOOSH!
From Agains’ hand, Lotto’s strike was recreated.
Lotto’s arm soon became a mess, just like Agains’ insides had moments ago.
“AAAHHH!!”
“Gah, get away from Lotto!”
Empowered by his berserk rage, a hand that swept the ground swung fiercely at Agains.
SWOOSH!
Three shards pierced Agains’ forearm, loosening his grip.
“Rush in all at once!”
“Is there a way to recover from this?”
“Then let’s deal continuous damage that can’t be healed!”
The joint magic of Rozini and Sandkooker formed a sweltering ultra-high-temperature metal pipe that swallowed Agains.
Beyond the melting pipe, Titosso’s Titosolar Beam descended, poised to incinerate the entirety of the pipe and envelop the spot where Agains had stood.
Even without Vladimir stepping in, the battle seemed to be nearing its end, but Ziang, who was getting a grasp on the fourth level of his feng shui, could see it.
Swish.
The scorched ground began to rewind back to the state before the skirmish occurred.
[Again,]
[Fourth Level Inscription Zone,]
[Reversing Zone.]
“Oh, this is hot. That hurt a lot. What were you thinking doing that?”
“Y-You’re still fine after getting hit by that?!”
“How dare you withstand my [Reprisal] and pull off such nonsense?!!”
As Agains swung one hand, the ultra-hot pipe scattered and melted, engulfing everyone like molten metal.
“!!”
Irene desperately spread her ice shield, and Sandkooker laid down a secondary defense line with earth magic, but the subsequent flood of light engulfed their vision.
“This is Titosso’s light?!”
“Gah! I can’t aim accurately!!”
An absurd power that could nullify all attacks and reverse them back at the opponents.
In a crisis where twenty second-year students were about to be entirely retired, something intercepted the molten metal that had surged through the second defense.
“Are we… alive?”
“This is… Blood Magic!”
“A magic shield?! But where did this much blood come from…?”
At that moment, Dobi’s shout echoed in everyone’s mind.
Blood-imbued Vladimir.
“Oh? This one lives up to its name, Blood-imbued!”
“…”
“Do I not even deserve to have a word exchanged with me? Hehehe, hohoho! That almost arrogant confidence, I like it. Enough of the small fry; it’s your turn now!”
Ignoring all the other students, Agains charged straight toward Blood-imbued Vladimir, who secretly turned pale from his originally white face.
‘That was a pet’s blood, stolen secretly when Oknodie was summoning stealth mosquitoes, the power of high-grade pets is amazing, it’s not really my skill! But Agains had no plans to back down regardless.
Vladimir gritted his teeth and pulled out his second blood pouch.
‘There’s no helping it. I have to use the blood collected by my stealth mosquitoes mixed with the blood of the seniors when Oknodie sent them out!’
The true feelings of a blood thief like Tetriforce would jump in shock.
