My body alternates between freezing and heating up.
When Eleonora unleashes a torrent of crimson flames in her fight, an overwhelming heat rushes over me, making me feel hot. But when Lavina shoots arrows of wind, a chilling gust hits me, making it seem like my breath would freeze mid-sentence.
Kanak? He’s probably handling things on his own.
To be honest, Kanak’s combat prowess doesn’t match up against the elite forces of the Suwang Kingdom, so he feels more like a backup for Eleonora and Lavina. But I’m keeping a real-time check on his survival, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Can you afford to look away?!”
The moment I glanced aside, Shete tried to turn the tide of the battle.
A spear aimed relentlessly at my heart.
The longer my fight with Shete drags on, the more frequently her attacks head toward my heart.
‘This is the only way I can turn the tables in one fell swoop.’
No matter how confident a beastman might be in their stamina, if they can’t overwhelm me without taking a hit, the advantage will eventually lie with the vampire in a war of attrition.
But if there’s that much of a skill gap, there wouldn’t even be a long fight to begin with, meaning the only real chance to turn the tide lies in her targeting a single decisive blow at my heart.
Yet, she doesn’t dodge or defend completely.
Just turning my body slightly, I was grazed near the heart but kept plowing forward.
Arrows flew in from the sides as if they were aiming for me specifically, and while their aim was impressive—skipping over their king to target only me—that was all it was.
If it were someone at Lavina’s level, it might have been different, but arrows that lack will once they leave the bowstring hold no value for me.
“Meow!!”
As the wound on my abdomen burst, spilling blood that intercepted the falling arrows, Shete gritted her teeth and hastily withdrew.
Humans each have their own fighting styles suited to their races.
Setting aside elves, who don’t particularly favor close combat, even Eleonora’s dragonkin knife techniques show a significantly reduced defensive posture compared to human martial arts.
It’s a technique possible because of the unparalleled durability of dragonkin, whether physical or magical.
Based on Shete’s spear techniques, it seems the unique combat style of beastmen evolved by using their excess stamina for dynamic and three-dimensional movements to catch opponents off-guard.
But, while the degree might differ, all martial arts of humans, beastmen, and dragonkin clearly include a defense concept.
It’s only natural.
Is there a need to explain the fact that if arms get severed and legs fly off, that’s the end of it?
Is there anyone who questions the intuitive fact that if the head falls, one dies?
Martial arts are fundamentally techniques to win through combat, and unless under exceptionally rare circumstances, survival is naturally included as a condition for victory, hence all martial arts inevitably allocate substantial portions to defense.
But there are always exceptions. Only vampires, especially higher vampires, see a significant reduction in defense proportions in their combat style.
Vampires can heal any injury as long as their heart isn’t pierced for instant kill or their regenerative abilities are completely drained.
In a game between someone with 100 chips and someone with 1, there’s no need to explain how much more advantage the former has over the latter.
The battle between a higher vampire and others is exactly like that.
By abandoning defense and evading just enough to dodge critical hits, they force unreasonable losses on their opponents, steering both sides toward disastrous exchanges.
And Suwang Shete was too strong, meaning she likely hadn’t fought a vampire on par with herself before.
“Hack!”
Just by enduring with pure physical ability and response speed, I’ve managed to hold on, which is already impressive, but it isn’t perfect.
True to her name as Suwang, she has managed to pierce my body hundreds of times now.
But merely severing my limbs or crushing my organs isn’t enough to kill me, no matter how many times she does it.
The moment my right hand is severed, it regenerates and plunges into Shete’s range.
She screamed as if from an attack, retreating. The next moment, the blood thread connected to my left hand pulled up to Shete’s neck level.
“I won’t let you get away!!”
With a powerful swing of my spear creating a gust, blood splattered everywhere.
I pressed on tightly so she wouldn’t get a moment to breathe.
For those relying purely on regenerative powers, this might be good enough, but in my case of using blood magic, each time I get injured, my firepower increases.
If she doesn’t attack me, she can’t kill me, but every attack she makes releases blood, which becomes a threatening weapon in itself.
It’s nearly impossible to clear out all the scattering blood without using magic.
From there, it’s effectively a one-sided advantage since the beastmen are of a race incapable of using magic.
Shete, renowned for her precision, is no exception, and I’m steadily injuring her more and more.
“Good spear you’ve got.”
While continuing to attack Shete, I spoke half in provocation, half in admiration.
After all, even the solid stone that forms the castle walls gets sliced like tofu by my blood magic.
It seems there’s magical enhancement for durability unlike the knight’s sword, otherwise, Shete would have lost her weapon in one hit if it were an ordinary spear.
A beastman engaging in hand-to-hand combat with me without magic? I was quite interested to see if there’s a way without getting my blood on her hands.
“Don’t underestimate me!!”
WHOOSH, the snow piling up where Shete’s foot landed exploded into the air.
When the white view cleared again, she was closing in on me once more.
It seemed she was still under the illusion that wearing me down through hit-and-run tactics would get her somewhere, but that was a huge mistake.
“Come at me. I’ll take you on as many times as you want.”
If she thought she could win a long battle, that’d be a grand misunderstanding.
My most confident fighting style is one where we cling to each other until the bitter end.
*
Stay calm. Stay calm again.
Eleonora narrowly dodged a massive greatsword that was almost as large as her body, her eyes wide open.
“Ugh!!!”
With a thunderous battle shout, the greatsword gently changed direction like a broom.
Eleonora’s dagger, far too flimsy against the greatsword, scraped its side.
Simultaneously, a rough kick flew at her. Eleonora quickly twisted her body to swing her tail.
SLAP, she’d been pushed back by the overwhelming difference in mass.
Using the rebound of the blow, she swiftly distanced herself, then swung her dagger threateningly at the hidden ambush behind her.
“Eleonora! Just hold on a little longer!”
From beyond the white flurries, Lavina’s voice resonated as several arrows tore through the cold air.
The gaze of the enemy before Eleonora turned towards where Lavina’s voice came from.
Not like this. Eleonora had to hold this man until Lavina and Kanak dealt with the beastmen hiding and shooting arrows.
Cardan Lionheart.
Even if it was just revealed that he wasn’t the true king of the Suwang Kingdom—an enormous power among the beastmen of the continent, unlike any nation—he remained a warrior of the lion beastmen with countless heroic tales to tell.
While much of the Suwang Kingdom’s maneuvers might be the work of the true Suwang, Shete Raselo, the strength Cardan displayed on the battlefield was indisputable.
To claim he could match the vampires of the Grand Duchy without magic or regeneration may make one wonder, “Is he really that impressive if you take all that away?”
But Eleonora understood better than anyone what it meant that their comparison point was the vampires of the Grand Duchy.
‘On par with the teacher.’
Plona Moonlight.
The first vassal of Aria, Eleonora’s master, and the one who taught her how to fight for three years.
Eleonora had yet to leave even a scratch on Plona’s body.
Even though it was purely a test of swordsmanship without dark magic or regenerative abilities.
Of course, it wouldn’t be entirely appropriate to use Plona, who, despite being a rare vampire that used weapons, still retained a combat style resembling that of a knight when urgency wasn’t an issue.
Also, since they hadn’t really fought directly since coming to the surface, and Eleonora had never used breaths in training, it might result in a slightly different outcome if they fought now with their physical and technical growth.
But even pushing these hypotheticals aside, the strength of Plona Moonlight represented a high wall for Eleonora.
Now standing on equal footing with Plona are Martini Sahelrn and Grand Duke Jeil Helraig.
The so-called vampires of the Grand Duchy, who inherit the purest true blood from the Progenitor.
For the still maturing Dragonkin girl, even daring to fight those who could compare to them was closer to recklessness than courage.
But.
‘My master is watching.’
Eleonora instinctively knew that Aria, fighting the true Suwang, occasionally glanced over at her.
She was certain she’d notice Aria’s gaze even with her eyes closed.
And she had complete faith in Aria.
If this moment was one where Eleonora’s life was on the line, she believed Aria would come to save her, no matter the risks.
But Aria was still just watching, focusing on her battle with the Suwang.
‘That means…’
She determined that she could handle Cardan Lionheart on her own. No matter what happens.
“So I’ll win. No matter what!”
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