'Once I get in close range with her, I'll kill her' my ass!
"Arghhhhaaa!!"
Despite his bravado, Drake's plan to kill the female vampire failed miserably.
Now he lay sprawled on the ground, his arm severed and blood pouring out as he cried and screamed in agony.
Anastasia and Chase, having fought against the blonde vampire and her mind-controlled minions up front, were down on their knees, wounded and struggling to catch their breath.
Grace, Elijah, and Aster stood at a safe distance, keeping a watchful eye on the enemy with their weapons at the ready.
Meanwhile, Amelia, Hugh, and I stood spread out at the back, ready to provide cover fire with our bows and guns if needed.
As I watched the third-year cadet writhing in pain, I couldn't help but shake my head slightly.
I warned him not to rush in, but he still did it.
But despite my warning, Drake still rushed in with Chase using his shield gauntlets to protect him, acting as a tank.
Meanwhile, Anastasia fought the mind-controlled minions at close range with her archery skills.
As that happened, Grace, Elijah, Aster, and Chase protected them in a circular formation. Their aim was to get Drake near the blonde vampire.
This strategy worked. Drake was able to get in close range with the blonde vampire.
However, just as he was about to swing his sword, the other third-year cadet, Emma, unexpectedly jumped in front of him.
Emma was under the control of the female vampire, and Drake was caught off guard.
Stumbling backward in surprise, Drake didn't want to hurt his friend.
The blonde vampire took advantage of the opening and swiftly got behind him to cleave off his arm.
Actually, she had been aiming for his neck, but Hugh's quick thinking and precise shooting had saved Drake's head from rolling on the ground.
Now because of that, I have one less pawn to move, and this battle has become increasingly more difficult to fight.
Not only that but now we are also surrounded by the cadets and civilians under the female vampire's mind-control.
"I am assuming command now that both third-year cadets are down," I said firmly.
It wasn't a question or a suggestion; it was a clear order.
As expected, nobody, not even Chase, voiced any objections.
They weren't in any position to reject help at this moment.
"Hugh, stay two steps behind me and use your guns for close-range combat. Anastasia, move back and take Hugh's position to provide us with cover fire with Amelia. Chase, act as our tanker. Elijah and Grace, rush with me. Aster, watch my back," I commanded, delegating specific tasks to each member of our team.
"What about Drake?" Chase asked, getting up to his feet along with Anastasia.
"Leave him," I replied indifferently. "We have no manpower to protect the wounded."
"What?! You want him to die?!" Chase snapped.
I turned to look at him dead in the eyes. "First, control your emotions. We are up against a vampire. If you lose control of your emotions, you'll be mind-controlled by her. Second, do you want us to die protecting him?"
"....."
"That's what I thought?"
With no further arguments, everyone quickly moved to fill the positions I instructed them about with me at the center.
Maybe Drake was strong; I don't really know. However, he made three mistakes.
First, he dared to command the troops he knew nothing about.
For example, Anastasia is an archer.
She would do a much better job at long-distance cover fires than Hugh Jass, who's a gunman.
Since guns are quick to shoot, he can easily fight at close range.
Plus, Chase, Elijah, and Grace are in one unit. They are already familiar with each other's fighting style, so it's best to make them fight together.
"What's our plan?" Hugh, who now stood exactly two steps behind me, asked. "Do we rush?"
"Yes," I answered. "Get me to her, and I'll do the rest."
"Ha!" right then, the female vampire scoffed. "Did you not see what happened to your comrade? And you're still trying the same thing?"
Yeah, Drake's second mistake was that he rushed in without a solid plan in mind.
Maybe he was too overconfident in his close combat skills, or maybe he simply underestimated the vampire.
Whatever it was that he thought, it cost him his left hand.
"Charge!" I yelled.
At my command, we darted forward in the direction of the blonde vampire.
"Kill them," the blonde vampire muttered.
As if waiting for that cue, the people surrounding us, with vacant looks in their eyes, rushed at us.
I stashed my bow back in my dimensional bracelet. I didn't need it right now. In its place, I summoned the short spear I had bought last night.
–"Arghhaaa!!"
–"Haaaa!"
–"Hiyaaaa!"
Meanwhile, the individuals under the vampire's mind control tried to block our path, but we pushed through.
Bang, Bang, Clang—!!
Slash, Splurt, Swish—!!
Sounds of gunshots, sword slashes, shield blocking, and arrows whipping through the air filled banquet hall.
Everyone tried not to hurt anyone more than necessary since our enemies were either our allies or normal civilians.
Not me, though. I didn't have the luxury to hold back since I wasn't fighting at my full power without my spear and armor.
"Haaa!"
Amid the chaos, a slightly chubby guy suddenly broke through our formation and charged toward me. I recognized him as someone from my class.
Without hesitation, he stepped in and threw a powerful roundhouse kick aimed straight at my face.
Swish—!!
Reacting swiftly, I ducked down and evaded his attack, causing his kick to meet nothing but air.
Taking advantage of his momentary loss of balance, I quickly rose to my feet and lunged forward with my short spear at the ready.
Kach, Splurt—!!
Sure enough, my spear collided with his body, piercing his gut and causing blood to spurt out as he buckled down and fell to his knees.
I swiftly withdrew my weapon and kept rushing forward, determined to stay focused on the fight ahead.
Drake's third mistake was that he wasn't ready to hurt his own comrades.
"Haaa!"
"Huuyu!"
Bang, Bang—!!
Two more guys broke through the formation and jumped in front of me, but they were quickly taken care of by Hugh as he shot their legs and rendered them immobile.
"Ha, nice cover."
My eyes whipped across the battlefield, looking for my target, and soon I found her.
There she was – the blonde vampire. She was only ten meters away from us.
She had her hands stretched out and open claws facing us. Ominous dark energy was clustering into an orb in front of her.
She was about to use some kind of dark magic spell.
Unfortunately for her, I can't let her do that.
"Anastasia!" I yelled. Before charging, I had given her three sets of light-enchanted arrows. I asked her to shoot the vampire with them at my signal.
At my cue, Anastasia quickly nocked a light-enchanted arrow on her bow and shot it with lightning-fast speed.
I had to agree that both her aim and shooting time was better than Amelia's.
Clang—!!
However, the blonde vampire's reaction time was far too inhumane.
She quickly canceled her spell and swung her claw, breaking the arrow in half before it could even touch her.
Of course, I had expected Anastasia to miss her shot. I just wanted her to shake the vampire a little bit.
"Break formation!" I yelled, and everyone instantly split up to fight on their own.
They had gotten me close enough. From here, I had to charge at the vampire myself.
"Tsk!" seeing me closing the distance, the blonde vampire clicked her tongue and readied her claws.
Swoosh—!!
At speed incomprehensible to the human eye, her figure blurred out into thin air and appeared right before me, her claws aimed at my stomach.
Swish—!!
However, she had to quickly step back to dodge an attack when Anastasia swiftly shot another light-enchanted arrow in between her and me.
"Arghhh!" the vampire gritted her teeth in frustration.
While she was off balance, I used this time to eat the distance between us and stepped right in front of her.
With all my strength, I aimed my spear toward the female vampire's chest, intending to stab her heart.
Fwush—!!
"Huh?!"
But I was left stunned when the vampire quickly arched her back sideways to avoid my spear thrust.
But she didn't stop there. She swiftly moved towards my unguarded right side before I could even get a chance to react.
Thwack—!!
Using the momentum of her steps, she spun her body and landed a powerful spinning kick to my back, sending me flying several meters forward.
Bam—!!
My body skidded across the floor like a flat rock skipping over water until I crashed into the wall and came to a stop.
"Arghh– Khuuk!"
Groaning in pain, I willed strength into my legs to get up, but before I could achieve that, a foot struck my face and stomped me down on the ground.
"Humans never learn," a mocking feminine voice resounded in my ears as excruciating pain assaulted every part of my body. "Now your friends will die because of you. Well, they would've died anyway, but now I will make it painful."
Through her foot squishing my face, my eyes moved around the banquet hall.
She was right. It seemed like we were about to lose.
Chase, who was already exhausted, was on the ground as several people swarmed around his fallen body.
Elijah was swinging his battle hammer against mind-controlled William, but the latter was quickly countering him.
Grace was fighting a bunch of other cadets from our class, while Aster had a water barrier cast around her to protect herself from a horde of mind-controlled minions.
Anastasia, Hugh, and Amelia were still on their feet and still fighting, but for how long?
"Before I kill you, let me ask you one thing," the vampire spoke, her voice cold. "Do you know Reynold Morningstar?"
"...H-He is my father," I uttered through squished cheeks.
"I knew it. I recognized those eyes," the blonde vampire replied, her voice tinged with hatred. "Three years ago, your father single-handedly killed hundreds of my comrades in battle and almost killed me too."
Her icy gaze still fixed on me, she continued, "By sheer luck, I survived. But your father managed to damage my mana core to the point where I could never recover my true powers. I became a mere shadow of who I once was."
"Who asked– Arghh!" I tried to interrupt, but the blonde vampire stomped her foot against my face even harder and continued to speak further, almost as if relishing her certain victory.
"I was demoted from a warrior to a mere spy. The Vampire Kings sent me to enemy territory to act as a rat. I, once the great Mercy Bloodrose, had to act as a mere spy! Your father was the cause of it all. I swore in the name of our Monarch that day – someday I will make your father pay. Even if I can't kill him in combat, I will hurt him another way. And look at that. Fate brought you to me to be squished under my foot like an insect."
I scoffed, "If this is your idea of getting back at my father, then let me inform you that it's pointless. My father wouldn't shed even a single tear if I were to die here."
Mercy shook her head, her expression turning serious. "That's not true. The bond of blood is the strongest. It hurts when your own blood is spilled."
"Even if that's true," I said, flashing a confident smile. "Can you spill his blood?"
Mercy drew back her claws and strengthened them with mana. She was done talking. Now all she wanted to do was plant her claws in my chest to crush my heart.
But before she could do that, I summoned a red button from my smart bracelet's dimensional storage and pressed it.
"....?!" Confusion was evident on Mercy's face as several orbs began to glow from underneath the polished, white tiles of the banquet hall almost instantly.
Kach—!!!
Quickly, I bit a small part of my tongue between my teeth and closed my eyes as I let out a muffled pained scream. "Mnghh!"
Swoom, Bang—!!!
Right at that moment, a bright light and a deafening bang occurred almost instantly, disorienting both of us.
Those were the new batch of light-enchanted flash bombs I had planted at the western exit last night when I came to scout this place.
Not only were they more powerful than the ones I used on Reina, but they were also capable of stunning a target for two whole seconds.
"Arghh!" But due to the stinging pain in my tongue, I was able to recover my senses faster and act quickly while Mercy was still disoriented.
Thwack–!!
I pushed away her foot and landed a kick on her abdomen, making her take a few steps back.
Deftly jumping back to my feet, I rushed forward and thrust my spear at her heart.
"Haa!"
Slap—!!
But even in her stunned state, she was able to react to my attack and slap away my hand.
I didn't stop there. I willed mana into my right leg and moved it to throw a front kick at the blonde vampire.
I had to land at least one critical strike before the effects of the flash bombs wore out!
However, Mercy anticipated my move and quickly raised her guard to cover her abdomen.
She just had to survive one second, and after that, she would kill me. Or at least, that's what she thought would happen.
But I suddenly whipped my leg up and turned the front kick into a quick roundhouse kick.
Thwam—!!!
Mercy was sent crashing to one knee as my kick landed flat on her ear.
Swish, Thruck—!!
Right then, another light-enchanted arrow whistled through the air from behind Mercy and struck her shoulder blade.
"ARGHHHAAA!"
Kach—!!
As she let out a beastly, blood-curdling scream, I rushed in and thrust my short spear into her heart.
"Aaahk!"
Mercy's mouth fell open as she gasped her last breath. I stood over her, gazing down into her terror-filled and widened eyes.
Grabbing her by her neck as life slowly seeped out of her body, I spoke bitterly:
"If fate truly exists, then it's nothing but a fickle little whore. It didn't bring me to you, but rather, it brought you to me so I could finish what that father of mine had failed to do - and that is to end your life."
Despite being weak and near death, Mercy brought her claws up and attempted to gnaw at me, still determined to take my life.
But soon after, her body went limp, and two canines fell from her mouth as I released her by the neck, letting her fall back to the ground, dead.
