Reina stood over Lucas, who lay defeated on the ground, panting and grunting in pain. She stretched out her hand and gazed down at him with a sense of finality.
"It's over," she declared, her voice cold and resolute. "You had great potential, and I won't deny that. But like a jackal who comes to the lion when his time is over, you came to me."
Lucas groaned in response, his body still wracked with pain from their intense battle.
He tried summoning the strength to his arms and legs– he tried getting up, but Reina stomped her foot on his chest and pinned him down.
"Don't struggle," Reina continued, a faint hint of mockery in her tone. "Just lay there and I'll make sure to end this quickly and painlessly. After all, I may be a vampire but I'm not a heartless monster like you, human."
As Reina spoke in a contemptuous tone, particles of darkness surrounded by a violet hue began to gather in front of her hand, slowly clustering into a sphere of pure, malevolent energy.
The sphere pulsed with power, crackling with tendrils of purple lightning that made the air around it seem to warp and distort.
Reina really didn't want to resort to this high-level spell again, but she needed to kill Lucas for real this time.
He had survived this spell once before, but at point-blank range, he wouldn't survive it again.
Lucas, still recovering from their fierce battle, sensed the immense power emanating from the sphere of darkness.
Even he knew that he had no chance of surviving without his armor.
If he had known that he wouldn't be able to defeat Reina, even with the Embrace Discard and the boost in stats he had got, he would never have taken off his armor.
Despite this, Lucas refused to give up now.
His mind raced as he frantically searched for a way out of this dire situation.
Thousands of possibilities ran through his head as he desperately tried to devise a solution.
And just then… he came up with a plan!
With a fierce determination in his eyes, he slowly extended his hand up, his palm facing Reina, his body trembling as he struggled to keep it steady.
Kwush—
Instantly, a bright orange ball of fire conjured in front of Lucas's open palm as he took aim at Reina, pouring all of his mana into the spell until it started spinning and the flames turned blue.
Reina arched an eyebrow, unimpressed. "A fireball spell? It looks powerful, but it's still a low-level spell. If our spells clash, mine will win. Is this your last desperate attempt to stay alive?"
Lucas let out a labored breath, his words coming out in short gasps.
"You talk too much," he managed to say, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "I thought I was the chatty one during fights. And, just so you know, you're not my target anyway."
"....?"
As Reina struggled to comprehend Lucas' words, he abruptly turned his palm at the orange-haired girl in the distance, all while maintaining his piercing gaze on Reina.
Mary, who had been relishing in Lucas' imminent defeat, suddenly found herself as the locked target for his fireball spell.
"Huh?" she gasped.
"Ignis Rotaem!" Lucas roared a chant and launched the sphere of flames at the orange-haired girl.
In a split second, the fireball hurtled toward Mary, causing her expression to contort in fear.
"No!" a gasp of horror escaped Reina's lips as her mind started to race, the speed of her thought process accelerating and time itself slowing in her eyes.
She pondered over the choice between saving Mary or killing Lucas for what felt like a thousand times.
As much as she wanted to kill the boy more than anything, she found her body moving to save Mary as the sphere of darkness materializing in front of her hand collapsed.
Swish—!
The fireball shot through the air with incredible speed, leaving a trail of blue flames in its wake.
Reina quickly intercepted it, throwing herself in its path.
BOOM—!!!
The fireball struck her squarely in the face, exploding on impact with a deafening roar.
Even though it wasn't nearly enough to kill her, the explosion left tremors in her head and smoke rose from her skull, temporarily obstructing her vision.
"Arghha!" Lucas let out a pained groan as he rolled and jumped to his feet, quickly rushing towards the orange-haired girl while Reina was still disoriented.
"Mana Burst!" he yelled and suddenly short bursts of explosions went off under his feet, propelling him forward like an arrow.
Swish—!!
The girl watched in terror as she saw the silver-haired boy closing in on her. But before she could react or run away, Lucas appeared before her in a burst of speed.
"Heik!"
The girl tried to scream as Lucas circled around her and grabbed her from behind, pressing his wrist blade on her neck.
Right then, Reina recovered from the fireball blast. She stroked her head and quickly turned to look in the direction where Mary had screamed.
Reina's eyes widened in rage as she watched Lucas hold a knife to Mary's throat.
She tried to charge toward him but Lucas pressed the blade harder against the orange-haired girl's skin, drawing a small drop of blood.
"Careful," Lucas warned, his eyes devoid of any emotions whatsoever.
"You bastard!" Reina spat in anger. "Do you have no shame? You've killed children, and now you're taking one hostage! Where is your pride as a warrior?"
Even though she cursed him, Reina stopped in her tracks, not daring to take a step forward.
Lucas couldn't help but smirk seeing this.
Checkmate.
When Lucas used Mana Burst to blow up the whole place earlier, Reina didn't save anyone else aside from Mary.
At first, he only thought that there might be something special about the girl.
Maybe she had a high potential – which is possible since she was chosen as one of the sacrifices for the Vampire Monarch – encouraging Reina to keep her around so that in the future, she could devour her.
Reina already had the mythical beast egg in her possession, so why was she still keeping the girl around?
High as her potential may be, he doubted Mary could have the ‹Mythical› rank potential. In simple words, compared to the beast egg, Mary was useless to Reina.
So then, why was Reina going through so much trouble to protect the girl when she didn't even need her? It didn't make sense.
Not only that but even Mary seemed to be relying on Reina. It was almost as if she trusted her. She was attached to her– a vampire.
Lucas knew that a vampire's mind control could not create such emotions in a victim's mind, as it could only brainwash them.
Therefore, he doubted that Mary was under any mind control.
At last, the only explanation that made sense to him was that Reina had formed an emotional connection with the little girl, despite her being a human.
It sounded absurd, but it was the only theory that could explain their strange relationship.
Little did Lucas know his theory was actually correct.
Three years ago, when the vampires had abducted Mary from an orphanage, they had taken her across the border to their territory.
There, she was imprisoned in an underground cell with other abducted children like her.
The vampires planned to feed those who awakened high-ranking potential to the Vampire Monarch, while those with low-ranking potential would become slaves or food for the noble vampires.
On one occasion, Reina had visited the underground prison for some unknown reason.
It was there that she noticed a certain orange-haired girl who reminded her of her deceased sister.
Witnessing the girl's pitiful state evoked a sense of compassion in Reina's heart for some reason.
It was the first time she had ever felt anything for a human besides disgust.
Since that day, Reina started visiting the underground prison every other day.
Before long, she started talking to the orange-haired girl. Of course, Mary, who was still scared of her at the time, didn't reply and just watched the vampire trying to talk to her in fear.
But over time, she started talking back and even trusting her a little.
Reina would bring food and books for Mary, and they would spend hours talking.
As the Abyssal Vampire King spent more time with the human girl, she slowly began to feel attached to her.
Mary's hair color and some behavior habits reminded Reina of her beloved sister, who had passed away years ago while fighting on the border.
So as time passed, Reina began praying for Mary not to awaken a high-ranked potential. That way, she would be able to take the human girl as her slave and give her the best life a human could get in vampire territory.
That's why Reina was horrified when Mary awakened a ‹Immortal› staged potential. She was chosen as the future sacrifice for the Vampire Monarch.
But Reina couldn't let that happen. She knew she shouldn't go against her own kind as one of the seven Abyssal Vampire Kings, but she did anyway.
She sneaked into the underground prison and broke Mary out of there. It was tough, and Reina sustained a lot of injuries, but they managed to escape.
Since then, the bond between them only grew.
Although Lucas had no idea about this backstory since there was nothing like this in the novel, he did sense the bond between them.
And he realized it was the ticket to his victory.
