Zankoku had taken quite a few hits at this point. His weapon allowed for wide swings, but the vampires still managed to close the distance and deal damage. The covering fire from Nora was one of the main reasons that he was still alive.
Merlin began moving to assist Zankoku, but his eyes were drawn to the sight of Tiny. The large man was somehow holding back the largest group of vampires. And while he was taking hits, similar to Zankoku, any hits of his that connected effectively removed that particular vampire from the fight, either permanently or temporarily.
Merlin's eyes snapped back to Zankoku's situation, but he only just noticed that one of the vampires had broken away from Zankoku's range and chosen Nora as its target instead.
"No!" Zankoku shouted as he turned his back to the other vampires, immediately sweeping his blade at the legs of the vampire that broke away. Fortunately, he had managed to sever the vampire's legs, causing it to plummet face-first into the ground. Unfortunately, however, the vampires he turned his attention away from had used this opportunity to finish the job.
Merlin turned in time to witness several claws ripping through Zankoku's chest, stomach and throat. Their blood-soaked claws retracted from his body one by one, and upon the last claw disappearing, Zankoku's lifeless body plummeted to the ground.
"Oh shit, Liam!" Alvira shouted, she finished off the last of the vampires that were fighting her before running over and starting on the group that had killed her cousin.
The vampires that finished with their prey had split up, adding to the forces that were fighting the rest of the party, while some remained to fight Alvira.
Merlin finished off the vampire that had targeted Nora before turning to her, "Cover Tiny for now, call out if anything is running towards you."
He then dashed towards Tiny, plunging his dagger into the head of a vampire that managed to sink its fangs into Tiny's arm. Using the dagger as leverage, he ripped the blood-sucking parasite from his friend before throwing it to the ground and stomping on its head.
With a flick of his wrist, three thorn-covered vines burst out from Merlin's hand, piercing the throat of three vampires surrounding Tiny. Merlin received a system notification, one he hadn't seen in a while.
「Passive skill ⟪Rose Blight⟫ has triggered, target's stats have been reduced.」
"Get over here!" Merlin taunted with a smile, tugging his hand back and causing the creatures to lose their balance and begin staggering in his direction.
The vampires within Merlin's grasp were decimated by a whirlwind of dagger strikes, leaving them nothing more than bloodied husks.
The fight continued briefly, but it was swiftly nearing a conclusion, with Merlin's friends clearly coming out on top, albeit some of them seeming worse for wear than others.
Merlin finished the last vampire that had pounced on him by shattering the monster's nose and front teeth with the pommel of his dagger before decapitating it.
The group heard a loud squeal from one of their friends, all of them turned to see that it was Alvira, who was currently standing over a glowing green orb.
"Looks like she's finally got her vampire soul," Snowbunny said.
Merlin looked down at the vampire whose face he had shattered, noticing a faint yet noticeable glint on the floor nearby, hiding within the blood and viscera. He reached down and picked the item up, a notification appeared to acknowledge that he had finally obtained vampire fangs.
「You have completed the quest, "Fangs for nothing", visit the wizard college to receive your rewards.」
With that, he only had one set of monsters left to hunt until all of his wizard college quests were completed.
Looking at the condition his party was in, especially Nora who looked very pale, he decided that they shouldn't remain in the area. He mentioned to the group that he had one more quest to finish before he could leave, which was fortunately located in the nearby graveyard.
As the party was making their way to the graveyard, Zankoku respawned in Macedonia and messaged the party, he informed the group that he was just going to turn in his quest and see them when they returned, as the server would close by the time he made it back to the Necropolis.
The party found a group of skeletons within the graveyard, enemies they had yet to find within the Necropolis up until this point.
As the fight began, Tiny showcased his raw strength, decimating the majority of the skeleton population of the graveyard within a few moments. The sheer force of his war hammer caused immense bludgeoning damage against the vulnerable skeletons, and the damage multiplier from the holy weapon made him a force to be reckoned with.
Merlin picked up a couple of bones that were laying around, and then he finally got the last notification he needed.
「You have completed the quest, "Welcome to the bone zone.", visit the wizard college to receive your rewards.」
With that, all six wizard college quests had been completed, but he would likely have to wait until the next session to turn them in.
Meanwhile, Tiny had gotten excited by the sight of a strange ore that seemed to be growing around the graveyard.
"That's soul steel ore. You won't be able to mine it just yet, but it's definitely something you'll want to grab in the near future." Merlin informed him.
"Soul steel, like the stuff your dagger is made of?" Tiny asked.
"Yeah, refined soul steel," Merlin confirmed before thinking of something, "Oh, Tiny, you're working on mining and blacksmithing, yeah?"
"That's right, why?" Tiny asked curiously.
"I need a favour once you can forge refined soul steel," Merlin said, "I'll help you get your job levels up during the next session if you'd like."
"Sure, no problem," Tiny responded.
The group made their way towards the village of Hysia once they received a notice that it was almost their time to log out. The group snuck out of the Necropolis in a similar way to how they came in.
Once the group entered the Valley of Plenty, they all began to relax. Nora, especially, seemed to look much healthier than she had minutes prior.
"Let's maybe level up a bit before we try that again..." Typhoeus muttered.
"Agreed," multiple people responded, but the feeling seemed to be rather unanimous within Merlin's group.
The servers had eventually turned off once the group was safely within the village and began resting.
After the briefing, Arthur made his way home, where he was greeted with a delivery.
"Wow, but it's the weekend, I thought the post didn't work on weekends?" Arthur said as his sister handed him a large parcel.
"I think it was through a third-party delivery service, not the local post," Anna said.
"Makes sense, considering I came home to my package, and not to a 'Sorry, we missed you card' in the letter box because they were too lazy to carry the package out of the car," Arthur said with a spiteful tone.
"Seriously, you're still mad at that?" Anna said, "It happened a month ago."
"I watched him come up to the door, knock and then walk away. The guy didn't even acknowledge my existence," Arthur retorted, "That's the government for you, lazy and useless regardless of the department."
"Now you're just imitating Father," Anna teased, "Now, what did you get?"
Anna stared at the box curiously, it was one of Arthur's least favourite traits about her, she was always too nosy when it came to packages.
"Let me guess, more seeds?" Anna said, "You did mention something about buying that extremely poisonous plant last time."
"The Brugsmansia? I don't have the room for it." Arthur said, "Also, you take back that remark about father."
"I will not," Anna stated.
"Well, then I guess you won't be seeing what I got," Arthur said, taking the box and slowly carrying it up the staircase.
"Wait, why are you being so secretive this time?" She said in an almost whining tone, "Are you embarrassed? Did you buy something naughty you don't want anyone to see? I suppose you are of age... Rather, you're past that age, I guess you're just a late bloomer."
This was an old tactic that his sister started to employ in Arthur's previous timeline when the two were younger. Arthur would get embarrassed by her claims and his pride forced him to prove her wrong every time, when in truth he was starting to tire of being coddled, and lacking any privacy that he believed an average child would have.
"Yeah, maybe." Arthur retorted, "I guess you'll never find out."
Without a hint of shame, Arthur shut down his sister's devious strategy, leaving her somewhat dumbfounded as he walked away with the package.
"You cheeky brat," was all Arthur could hear being yelled up the staircase as he made his way up to his room. With a slight grin on his face, he closed his room door and placed the package on his desk.
