/
It coincided with the personal information of Hero Cloud they knew.
Rowan squinted.
‘He is unharmed?’
He had expected his move to not do much, but he had not expected Cloud would swagger out without a single wound.
‘It is not a coincidence that the Third Squad was annihilated, uh?’
Alright. This was gonna be fun.
Rowan chuckled.
“You all are different from those who came before, yes? All they knew was the art of individual assassination, while you all, I think specialize as a group in killing a single target.”
Cloud said as he looked around, surveying the vampires surrounding him.
“There is no need to give up on numerical superiority, leading to a pointless melee.”
“That’s right. A wiser than ever has arrived. This will be fun.”
“Fun, yes? That’s a little weird. Here I thought you will be tasting despair. No worries, I will let you learn the consequence of running wild without knowing the world is wide.”
Rowan snapped his fingers.
Eight squad members located at the rear of the formation used blood magic. Sharp blades of conjured blood flew true, aiming at Cloud.
Cloud deflected the first five blades with his sword, as the remaining three missed him behest of his agile footwork.
Taking a stance, he dashed towards the vampire in front of him and lowered his sword vertically.
Bang!
Kang!
The vampire blocked the [Strike] by laying his sword horizontally. The sword that blocked the attack only wavered a little, yet the vampire’s posture wasn’t disturbed in the slightest.
The Four Vampire Ancestors of the Zarakh Society sported different specialties.
Gis’s adoptive mother, Haley, was good at manipulating blood, while Kutcher was good at strengthening body using blood magic.
So, of course, members of each family were also greatly influenced by their Ancestor’s specialties.
And the Prime Squad members of the Kutcher’s family were those who dedicated themselves towards strengthening physique through the virtue of blood magic.
Cloud’s heavily casted [Strike] was a skill they could block without too much trouble. Cloud turned his body and rotated his sword diagonally.
A slash aiming at the center of the unprepared vampire’s body.
Another vampire intervened from the left, blocking it. At the same time, the vampire on the right aimed at Cloud, thrusting his sword.
A refined rendezvous ensued.
Cloud evaded the sword, eyeing the spear of blood flying towards him. Just before the spear’s tip arrived, he turned, avoiding it.
He was going to induce a team kill.
But things didn’t turn how he imagined.
The blood spear that had zoomed by, lost its shape and returned to the form of a sphere when the vampire twirled his hand a little.
The vampire morphed it back into a spear and threw it at Cloud, who tried to widen the distance.
Kang!
Cloud broke the hardened blood.
“Morphing the blood that is being manipulated? That’s a bit unexpected, sure.”
The vampires he knew were extremely proud creatures. To them, it was a great insult for someone else to touch their bloodstream.
""
Should this be viewed as a cultural difference between different worlds, or should he consider these vampires castrated for they were raised as assassins?
Cloud turned apprehensive.
On the other hand, Rowan, who mistook Cloud for admiring their superior skills, burst into laughter.
“It’s only natural. Because we are qualitatively completely different from the Third Squad you encountered.”
Listening, Cloud nodded his head.
They’d had been castrated.
* * *
Arrows and spears conjured of blood zoomed through the air.
Dodging the mercilessly flying arrowheads and spear blades, Cloud flicked away a vampire’s sword.
Four hours had passed since then.
The sun had set, and Rowan’s face had a frown.
‘What the hell is this guy? Why isn’t he falling?’
Formations had been created to exhaust and kill strong individuals.
The line closest to the enemy blocked the enemy from escaping the siege.
Three rows of vampires used long-distance attacks to injure or keep baiting their enemy, draining their stamina.
Rest of the columns moved fluidly, helping one or three rows, depending on the situation.
Just as a prey caught by a snake suffocates to death, the opponent who is caught in their Squad’s formation gradually loses their stamina and eventually collapses.
Rowan was confident that even Gis wouldn’t be able to get out of this formation alone. He believed that he would even be able to kill him if he sacrificed the majority.
Because of this, Rowan thought that Cloud, trapped in the formation, would collapse sooner or later.
But looking here, why was it… so different?
Rather than exhausting and collapsing, why it seemed he was getting quicker?
Rather, his squad members who were dealing with him were getting exhausted.
“…Captain. It’s embarrassing to say, but I’m f**king exhausted.”
One of the squad members who had been shooting blood spears approached and said so.
Rowan grunted.
“…fortunately, we thought about securing meal boxes on the way. Replenish and come soon.”
“Yep.”
Just when, the vampire nodding his head, turned to get himself one of the meal boxes they had secured.
Rowan kicked the vampire.
At the same time, a dagger passed through the spot where the vampire’s head had been.
Tiiing! The dagger was nailed to the floor, the blade of the dagger was completely embedded into the rocky ground surface.
‘What…’
Even Rowan, who woke up from a stupor, couldn’t help but be surprised.
It was so fast and accurate, that it was impossible to deal with it in a more amicable way. Kicking was the best option he found at that moment.
“Meal boxes? What did you guys do before you came to me?”
Rowan wasn’t the only one surprised by the sudden change. The entire Prime Squad panicked, stopping their attack on Cloud, raising their vigilance.
“I asked. What you all had been doing?”
Meanwhile, Rowan read annoyance on Cloud’s face. It was a good omen, a precursor to disturbance. Losing one’s composure in a life-and-death battle was no different from wanting to die.
“What we had been doing? Nothing eventful. Just killing the hapless humans populating the surrounding villages to replenish our blood stock, dragging the remaining few to serve as our meal boxes to consume later.”
So, Rowan provoked Cloud.
He mocked the desperate resistance of the villagers.
Hoping for Cloud to become a little more emotional.
And Rowan’s attempt was successful.
Cloud’s eyes turned cold.
“Better had been the vampires I used to face before.”
“What?”
Ignoring Rowan’s frown, Cloud muttered quietly.
[All Bless]!
A divine blessing rested upon his body.
Strength, Agility, Durability, Magic.
All of his abilities scaled off.
[All Bless]!
The divine blessing superimposed on his body.
The stats that had been greatly increased amplified once again.
[All Curse]!
The intangible mana that flowed from Cloud dwelled upon the vampires.
Mana completely interfered with the operation of the vampires’ blood magic to the movement of their muscles.
Imposing shackles on their abilities.
Before the vampires could panick at the sudden increasing pressure on their bodies—
—Cloud murmured once more.
[All Curse]!