'Does it not work?' Jack thought worriedly.
Arlcard suddenly made a loud howl. His howl was piercing and deafening. Jack had to move away from him while clutching his ears.
"Ungrateful whelp! I will unmake you!" Aubelard exclaimed as he shot at Arlcard. His Demon Hand's duration had ended. His hands had reverted to their original sizes. But his current hands didn't look less intimidating. His fingers elongated to a sharp claw and were currently about to crush Arlcard's head.
Before it hit though, Arlcard's hand suddenly moved and caught Aubelard's arm. Aubelard tried to pull his arm away but failed. Arlcard had stopped howling and was now staring at Aubelard with very different eyes. His eyes were completely black. The skin on his face also appeared slightly rough.
"He didn't change into a giant bat-face, that should be a good sign, right?" Jack mumbled.
"It is, try inspecting him," Peniel said.
Jack did and was stunned to find that Arlcard had shot up to a level 70 Rare Elite. He was even ten levels higher than Aubelard.
"Today you will pay for your sins!!" Arlcard declared.
His right hand was still holding his rapier. It turned to a blur as it stabbed at Aubelard. Each stab was accompanied by a trail of dark rays.
Aubelard did his best to block using his one free hand. But since he was unarmed, he still received damage even when he successfully blocked. A spell formation appeared on the hand which was still being held by Arlcard. A shadow veil appeared upon the spell completion, the same that had incapacitated Jonathan.
The cloak enveloped and gripped Arlcard's rapier hand tightly. It failed to drag Arlcard away, but it still managed to inhibit Arlcard's stabbing motion.
Aubelard cast another spell, the Spear of Corruption came out again and pierced into Arlcard which was still held by the shadowy veil. Aubelard finally managed to tear his hand away from Arlcard's grip. Aubelard decided to equip a weapon after that, a set of claws made of black metal.
"Is that all you got?" Arlcard uttered. His body then exploded into shadows. The shadows turned into multiple images as each stabbed at Aubelard. Aubelard did his best to block the attacks using his claw weapons.
Jack pulled away once Aubelard and Arlcard clashed. He was not going to risk getting himself hit by a stray attack. Jonathan was resting as he drank a healing potion.
Sidney cast a spell to support Arlcard. Her ice spears shot at Aubelard. The old vampire was already losing to Arlcard, Sidney's intervention tipped the scale further on Arlcard's side. Aubelard's HP kept on decreasing.
Seeing that, Jack gathered his courage and joined in the range attacks. He shot standard ranged attacks, Mana Bullet, and Energy Bolts at Aubelard. The damage he caused was very pitiful though. He felt ashamed, but since he had started, might as well continue.
Aubelard's expression was completely different from before. He was scowling. His HP was less than one-fourth now. "Whelp! Don't think you can win just because you become higher level than me!" Aubelard exclaimed.
A strong sword aura burst out of his body, it forcefully pushed Arlcard back. When Arlcard countered with a strong stab, Aubelard's body split into innumerous bats. The bats flew haphazardly around.
Arlcard cast his dark net spell to capture the bats again, but this time the bats were spread out in a large area, he only managed to capture a small portion. The bats went around and bit on everyone. Each bite not only caused damage but also healed Aubelard's HP.
Jack cast Barrier and kept on moving back, away from the mass of bats. The bats bit on his barrier, but their damage was small so his barrier could still endure. He continued moving away until the bats decided to leave him.
Jonathan stood his ground as his halberd twirled and destroyed the bats that came at him, but the sheer number of the bats was too much. Many grabbed onto his body and started biting. Ephiltes's light-speed swordsmanship fared better than Jonathan's, many bats were split in two before they could touch his body, but he was also being forced to continuously retreat. He retreated to where Sidney was.
Sidney cast a spell. Cold wind churned around her. All the bats that came near her were swept by the icy wind and were slowly frozen.
After a while, the bats finally coalesced again at where Sidney was. Aubelard decided he should take care of this troublesome mage first before focusing on Arlcard.
Sidney was not flustered, she aimed her staff. Spell formation started to form, but before it was completed, she felt a strong push from behind. Her concentration was broken. She was shoved in Aubelard's direction.
Aubelard did not let go of this chance. He immediately seized Sidney's body and sunk his teeth onto her neck. Sucking her life. His low HP started going up again.
Sidney was unable to move. Aubelard's bite had a sedative effect on her. Her eyes though were staring unbelievably at the person who had pushed her. It was Ephiltes.
"You snake!" Jonathan scolded. He had always known Ephiltes couldn't be trusted, but he didn't imagine that the guy would do this during their life and death struggle.
Ephiltes didn't feel any guilt. In his opinion, he was simply thinking ahead. Arlcard had proven to be able to handle Aubelard, victory should be certain. But for him, there was still the problem of competing with Sidney to get the proof of Aubelard's demise to be given to Horatio. He was not worried about the weak outworlder. But Sidney, on the other hand, was stronger than him. He knew under a fair fight, he would not win. Hence, he exploited the opportunity when Aubelard was targeting Sidney.
Jonathan attacked Ephiltes in rage but was easily repelled by Ephiltes.
"Jonathan, focus on Aubelard first! We will deal with him later," Jack ordered.
Ephiltes scoffed at Jack's words, but he agreed about dealing with Aubelard first.
Arlcard attempted to attack Aubelard who was feeding on Sidney, but Aubelard cast a spell and his body flew up, carrying Sidney with him. Arlcard couldn't fly so he could only attack from range. He thrust his rapier as multiple sharp energies shot out. Aubelard turned his body so Sidney was facing the attackers. Arlcard's attack hit Sidney instead.
Arlcard became reserved due to that. Ephiltes was not so, he swung his swords sending sword light after sword light which landed on Sidney's body. He couldn't care less, both were his targets.
While Aubelard was facing the duo, he didn't pay attention to his back. Those duos were the two remaining most dangerous opponents, after all. Hence, he didn't see a bottle flying at him from his back. The bottle hit his body and broke apart, spilling liquid all over him. Fume appeared where it touched his body and a hissing sound was heard.
The pain caused him to stop his feeding on Sidney. His HP that was regenerating now stopped, he also received another Weakened status. Aubelard looked back in rage. His eyes landed on Jack, who had just thrown a bottle of holy water at him.
"You again!" Aubelard roared. "I should have roasted you first!"
He cast the Demon Hand spell which had gone off cooldown. He clawed his two hands onto Sidney's body. Since he couldn't heal by sucking blood anymore, the woman no longer served a purpose. Sidney's HP was already low, Aubelard pulled his two claws and the poor woman's body was violently torn apart.
Aubelard then came down at Jack. His attack created a reversed shockwave that prevented Jack from moving away. But Jonathan came in front of him. His halberd had again transformed into a giant hammer. The giant hammer smashed Aubelard's demon claw. An explosion erupted and both Jack and Jonathan were thrown away.
Ephiltes struck Aubelard's back. Since the vampire had returned to the ground, he had more leeway in attacking. Several thin sword lights stabbed into different parts of Aubelard's body. Aubelard endured the wound and forcefully turned around and swiped his claws, shattering all the sword lights and hitting Ephiltes.
The Knight Captain was wounded but didn't retreat. His body turned into light as he zipped around Aubelard, slashing the vampire every time he went past. Aubelard cast a spell and the Shadow Veil caught Ephiltes mid-flight, stopping him. Aubelard then slammed him into the ground.
As Aubelard lifted his claw to deal a high-damage hit, he realized Arlcard had not been attacking. He looked over and saw his vampire son was being enveloped by numerous runes all around his body.
"That's... a rune technique," Peniel uttered.
"What's that?" Jack asked.
"It sort of like the equivalent of a Mega Spell for the physical class. It took time to gather the energy before the technique can be unleashed," Peniel replied.
Arlcard seemed to have finished accumulating the energy.. He glared at Aubelard with a grin.
