Point-of-View: Selesa Jeule
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"You know, these things aren't as strong as I thought they'd be...they're only hard to deal with because of how tricky it is to destroy their cores," I remarked, as I fired a wind slash at the Vampire I was fighting.
"Don't be stupid, sister, we're four S-Ranks and one A-Rank, of course we're having an easier time than most," Responded Les, as he shredded the Vampire's arm with his Water Drill.
Wha-...stupid? That was uncalled for...
"Keep your guard up, Selesa, these three are manageable, but the Vampire Minions I fought when escaping Silvland were a fair bit stronger...some of them are stronger than others, so be careful!" Advised Vi, as she slammed her foot onto one of the Vampire's faces, snapping his neck all the way backwards.
I had paired up with Les for this thing, and we had joined up with and were currently fighting alongside Vi's group, which included Siert Huet, another one of the Rustlands' S-Ranks, and Siela Larwas, an A-Rank. We were currently fighting three Vampire Minions between the five of us, having gotten some distance from the chaos and crowd. The majority of the Vampires and Adventurers that were still outside the north gate were all bunched up in one spot, like a thirteen year old boy's cum-filled jerkoff socks.
A few had the sense to break away from that spot like we had, but the rest seemed too panicked to think straight, and were dropping like flies. There had been more than eight hundred Adventurers outside when this began, but about five hundred and fifty of them chased after the Vampires that went into the Rustlands, leaving about two hundred and fifty remaining outside. And I could confidently say that at least a hundred and fifty of those two-fifty were dead.
Meanwhile, not counting the stronger Vampires, a little over thirty Vampires Minions had remained outside, but I'd barely seen a dozen of them get taken down, I might have missed a few, but I seriously doubt more than fifteen of them were dead. I counted seventeen of them above the rapidly dwindling crowd of Adventurers, keeping their distance in the air and raining down Blood Magic blasts at them.
A few had descended here and there away from the crowd, including the three that we were fighting. From what I could tell, they enjoyed fighting, but if the risk was too high, they'd opt to play it safe...the ones above the crowd of Adventurers would probably swoop down once they reduced their numbers to less than thirty or so. We were a couple hundred meters away from the chaos, so we were somewhat safe from getting caught up in the crossfire.
At the moment, I was taking on one of these three Vampires along with Les, Vi and Siela were fighting one of the others, and Siert was taking on the third one by himself.
"Do not get cocky, human, you are nothing more than an insect!" Exclaimed the Vampire fighting Siert, firing a barrage of Blood Magic blasts at him, which he blocked pretty easily.
He fought using water whips, which he extended out from his lower back like tails. He was currently using eleven tails, each about ten meters long, and while he had the attitude and confidence of a wet biscuit, he was pretty strong and used his water tails really well.
"I-I wasn't getting cocky...I-I'm so sorry!"
Seriously, what's with this guy...
"Huh!? Are you mocking me, human!?"
"N-no, I...I said I'm sorry!"
What the fuck, man.
"Siert! If you don't win, I'll kick you!" Yelled Vi in exasperation, as she evaded a Blood Magic blast from the Vampire she was fighting.
"Now, you die-!" Exclaimed the Vampire, shooting towards Siert with his claws extended.
"Sorry...," Muttered Siert, before suddenly, the Vampire's arms were ripped to shreds, as he got within ten meters of him, "But I...I don't want to ever be kicked by her again...it hurts so much..."
The Vampire let out a cry of pain and stumbled back, as Siert extended out a few more water tails, for a total of fifteen. The Vampire fired a volley of Blood Magic blasts from his hands with a look of fear, while also spreading out his wings in order to fly up. Siert blocked the blasts with his water tails while rapidly sprinting towards the Vampire, piercing his body with eleven of his water tails, stopping him from flying up any further.
"I-impossible...," Stuttered the Vampire, blood dripping down his body like rain.
"Sorry," Sighed Siert apologetically, before tearing the Vampire into pieces, his tails violently whipping and twisting at a blinding speed, stopping as a red flame appeared, and then vanished.
Holy crap, that was brutal...
"Wow, that worked like a charm...just how hard did you kick the poor guy, anyway?" I inquired, as my back bumped onto Vi's back.
"I-it was an accident, I was kinda drunk when it happened," She replied sheepishly, before we both shot towards our respective opponents.
The Vampire that Les and I were fighting was starting to fly up, as my brother began to gain the upper hand...this Vampire's Cross seemed to be the ability to extend his claws about an inch longer than other Vampires...which was, you know, kinda useless.
I activated Flight and followed after him, using a burst of Propulsion to catch up faster. I wrapped wind around my Wolverine knuckle blade thingies as I chased after him, firing another burst of Propulsion to quickly evade as he shot out a Blood Magic blast at me. Alrighty, I'll keep charging up my blades as much as I could while dodging his attacks, and then unleash it onto him...I even had a cool name for this attack!
I had to say, it was super awesome that yelling out attack names was starting to catch on in this world...it'd be super embarrassing to do if no one else was, but since it was a mainstream trend now, there was nothing to be embarrassed about! Huh, I never thought I'd use the words 'mainstream trend' in this world. Ooh, looks like my attack is charged up and ready to go!
I took out a smoke bomb from a pouch on my back and flung it at him, he fired a Blood Magic blast at it, but that only made the effect more, well, effective. Now! I fired off blasts of Propulsion from the bottom of my feet to swiftly shoot up, till I was a few meters above the Vampire, using Flight to maneuver myself till I was directly above where he was. I raised my arms, compressing and intensifying the wind around my knuckle-blades as much as I could.
A few Blood Magic blasts come hurling out from the cloud of smoke, but they were fired in random directions...it looks like he's too wary to move, and was instead firing long ranged attacks all around him in fear and panic. I'll attack as soon as I get my eyes on him...
The smoke was slowly starting to clear, but I can't attack too soon, it'd be bad if I missed...I have to wait till I at least get a glimpse of him and know his exact position...any second now...there he is! I swooped down towards him and intensified my wind just a bit more, before swinging both my arms out across each other, sending out the wind blades in an X shape...
"Take this, my ultimate attack...Logan Wind Scythe!"
I fired off three wind blades from each hand, across each other and rapidly barreling down towards to Vampire, who looked up in alarm but my attack was too fast for him to dodge. It sliced him up into a bunch of chunks, which proceeded to plummet to the ground. Les was right under the falling pieces of flesh, his right arm pointed up and water swirling around it, as he formed his Water Drill attack.
The dismembered chunks fell straight onto his attack, getting shredded instantly, before that red flame appeared. Nicely done, but...he didn't yell out his attack name. Hm, as his big sister, I'll need to have a serious talk with him about that later.
Meanwhile Vi and Siela was pretty much done too. The latter used her bladed whip to slash their opponent's heels and knock him off balance, and before he could get back up, Vi sprang onto him and unleashed a barrage of stomps down on his body, each stomp resulting in a mini-shockwave, and the ground was slowly becoming a larger and larger crater, until she finally stopped as she stomped on his left elbow and a glass-like cracking noise sounded out, before the Vampire disappeared in a red flame. We all regrouped as I glided back down and landed on my feet.
"What should we do now?" Inquired Siela, hitching her whip onto her belt.
Her walrus fangs were so cool, I wanted to touch them...but I didn't know her well enough to do so...ahh, I was so torn...
"Good question...perhaps it'd be best to go help the Adventurers crowding the area outside the north gate...but doing so may drag us into the chaos as well," Muttered Les with a frown.
That sounded way tedious, but if I was going to suggest something else, I'll need to be explain why it was a better option...hm...
"I suppose we could continue trying to lure Vampires away from the crowd and kill them off slowly, but fighting that much will use a lot of stamina," Sighed Vi, a look of concern on her face, "What do you think, Siert?"
"M-me? I-I...I don't...I'm s-sorry! I'm useless...worthless...that Vampire called me an insect, but maybe that's an insult to insects...I-I'm sorry, just...just please don't kick me-!"
"I-I'm not going to kick you, Sii, calm down! I was just asking you if you had an opinion, that's all!"
"Oh...and o-of course, I couldn't even do that much, I'm useless..."
Dude, who hurt you?
"Stop! For the love of-...! Never mind, does anyone else have any suggestions?" Asked Vi with an exasperated sigh.
"Let's go to the front! There aren't as many Vampires, so if someone at the frontline is struggling, we can give them a hand! And think about it, if the Vampires leading this attack were to die, the others will probably panic at the very least, don't forget, Vampires can sense each other!" I suggested.
"Sometimes...just sometimes...you aren't a complete fool, sister."
"H-hey!"
"Not a bad idea at all, Selesa...in that case, maybe we should split up again, it would be pointless if all of us head in the same direction and come across one of our allies who isn't struggling, while someone somewhere else is losing...what do you think?"
Splitting up increased the risk of me dying, but that wasn't an acceptable excuse for me to use...oh, well, guess I'll just along with it.
"Yeah, okay, let's split up. Les and I will go to the right while you two go the left...or, uh, northeast and northwest, I guess."
"...we know what left and right are, Selesa."
Anyway, with that, we split up and headed off at top speed. Well, I could move faster than this if I used Flight with Propulsion bursts instead of running, but if I did that, Les wouldn't be able to keep up, since he couldn't use Ice Magic, which meant that he couldn't use Skate. Oh, now might be a good time to talk to him about that...
"Hey, little bro, there's something serious we need to talk ab-."
"If this is about me not shouting out an attack name...then please, shut up."
"Wha-!? H-hey, that's no way to talk to your big sis!"
"It is if she's being a complete idiot."
Ouch...
A few minutes later, we came across a fight...it was that Neo Lapunder dickhole and Yuur Ganroh, the fifth ranked Adventurer of the Rustlands, they were fighting a female Vampire in a cape. Well, actually, now that I'm looking closer, Neo was fighting her while Yuur was hanging back with an exasperated look on his face.
"Hey, we're here to help-!" I began to call out.
"Stay back! I do not need any assistance, for I am the number one S-Ranked Adventurer of this nation!"
Ohh, so that's what was going on here. Still, his opinion didn't change the fact that he was losing right now. He had scorch marks all over his body, along with a bunch of cuts and gashes. Meanwhile, the Vampire looked practically relaxed, barely even paying attention to the fight.
She had dark gray hair tied up in a ponytail, with the front partially covering her right eye, and a red streak down the right side of her hair. She wasn't wearing much at all, just a black bikini under that black and red cape...oh, wait, I don't think swimsuits exist in this world, so I guess she was just wearing underwear...I mean, it looked sexy and all, but wasn't she cold at all?
"Shouldn't we help him? He's getting overwhelmed, and it seems like she's just toying with him," Remarked Les, as we walked over to Yuur.
"I suppose we should, but he did insist on handling it himself...and I certainly am not going to ignore his dying wish."
Just how unpopular was the number one Adventurer of the Rustlands anyway? I knew he had some beef with Kuro too, and while I'd been living here for the past few months, it was apparent that most of the other Adventurers disliked him too. So...I guess we were just going to stand here and watch him die, huh.
Neo zipped around using Lightning Boost, he was really fast, but the Vampire was definitely following his movement with relative ease. He fired several bolts of lightning at her, which she was able to evade almost effortlessly. Hm, she's not as fast as Kuro, so she's not an Evil Number...must be either a Vampire Knight or a Vampire General. Fuo's Vampire, Atticus, had written down a bunch of details about the Vampires, which were made readily available to the Adventurers.
But most people didn't seem to pay attention to anything besides the weakness of their cores, what Blood Magic was and the unqiue ability each Vampire had, their Crosses. The names, descriptions of their appearances and the Crosses of all the Evil Numbers and Vampire Knights had also been included, but I don't think most people went through those details.
Memorizing the descriptions of their appearances was a huge pain, since they all had either white, gray or black hair plus a small amount of red, other than that, there was no way to physically differentiate the Vampires...well, except for whether they were male or female, I guess.
This Vampire's hair, I'm pretty sure it had been described...I had memorized the Crosses of the Vampires, but I had only partially memorized their appearances and names. Okay, she's almost definitely a Vampire Knight, and if I remember right, six of them were females...I don't have enough info to narrow it down any further.
She hadn't used her Cross yet, but only because she wasn't taking the fight seriously...let's see, the Crosses of the six female Vampire Knights were Levitation, Beckon, Invisibility, Pain Share, Repulsion and Gigantification, respectively. Well, no point speculating much further with the lack of info, so for now, I'll just watch this fight and see where it goes...
Neo zipped towards the Vampire with lightning violently crackling around his fists, before leaping at her with a yell and swinging his fists down at her, which she sprang back to avoid, firing a Blood Magic blast onto him, which he was in position to dodge, the blast exploding onto his chest.
"He has the speed to challenge her...but he's just attacking wildly," Observed Les, who was watching the fight closely.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...he has a falcon Anima, so he had, like, crazy good eyesight. My dog Anima wasn't so useful, I had the ears and the tail, and I guess my hearing from my dog ears was pretty good, but my eyes and nose remained the same as before, which I found disappointing when I first manifested my Anima.
"You flail so hopelessly, it is quite amusing," Laughed the Vampire, as she evaded the swing of his scorpion stinger.
"Shut up, bitch! I'll fucking kill you!"
He's so easily provoked, his attacks were getting sloppier and easier to predict the more she taunted him. This is kinda sad to watch.
"Such empty threats...what a strange human you are, you lack fear due to sheer arrogance...what a truly pitiful, and idiotic, existence."
"I said shut up, you fucking bitch!"
He was swinging his lightning enhanced fists at her rapidly but predictably, and she was evading them with an amused look on her face.
"Hey, maybe we should help, after all-," I started to suggest.
"Don't you dare! Just try it, I'll drive my stinger down your throat and tear you apart, bitch!" He yelled at me, his eyes bulging furiously.
...wow. I can't believe he heard me, I wasn't even talking that loudly.
"Hm...I think I'm rooting for the Vampire," I remarked with a twinge of irritation.
"Good, I thought I was the only one," Spoke up Yuur in agreement, staring at Neo with a look of disdain.
He was now rapidly firing out successive bolts of lightning in desperation, with each and every shot missing their mark. Does he really not want any help, even if the alternative is death? He really didn't want to survive if it meant that he'd have to admit he needs help to win this fight...
He was suddenly sent flying onto his back by a powerful blast, letting out a gasp of pain and his back slammed onto the ground with a resounding impact. He was covered in burns and cuts all over, why wasn't he using a healing spell?
"Shouldn't he be healing himself?" Inquired Les, voicing my thoughts.
"I believe it got destroyed early in the fight...I did offer him my healing spell...but he refused to take it."
...I was starting to feel like this guy deserved to die.
"This is starting to get boring. I am done with playing around with you...truly pitiful, I feel as though it would be a waste of time to kill you. Leave now if you wish to live, run away. But if not, well...I guarantee your death if you attack me even once more," Remarked the Vampire, licking her lips with a sadistic smirk.
"You...you bitch...I already told you, to fucking shut up!" He screamed in anger, rushing at her with a mass of lightning charged up in his right fist.
But this time, she didn't bother moving, standing perfectly still as he shot towards her, drawing back his fist as he closed in. He was glaring at her fiercely, hatred and rage in his eyes...while she stared back with a condescendingly triumphant expression.
He drove his fist towards her midsection, and with a vicious crackle and spark, burst through her back, punching a hole through her stomach...when suddenly, he coughed out a ton of blood, with more blood pouring down his body...from a hole in his midsection. He stumbled back with a shocked and panicked expression, clutching at the wound in silent horror, as the Vampire began to laugh maniacally.
"Yes, that is exactly what I wanted to see! Your expression...is delicious," She sneered, licking her lips with a slightly flushed expression.
"This...th-this is impossib- arghhhhhhh!" He began, before letting out a scream of pain as the Vampire broke her own right arm, his own arm snapping at the same time.
That Cross must be Pain Share...let's see, it's activated upon eye contact within ten meters of the target and lasts for fifteen minutes...once under its effects, the target can't break free of it no matter what, even if they were hundreds of miles away, if the fifteen minutes weren't up, the effect would still be active. And given how intensely he'd been glaring at her this whole time, he had DEFINITELY made eye contact with her.
The effect was that the Vampire and her target would share both pain and damage...she was putting herself at risk too, since if her target decided to injure himself in the corresponding spot where her core was, she'd die instantly...I guess that was part of the thrill, maybe? Then again, she could just move her core to a spot where her target couldn't strike himself, like in her head. On the plus side, once she uses her Cross on someone, it had a half an hour long cooldown time.
"Hey, Neo! Any damage you take, she takes, and vice versa! Destroy your head, that's probably where her core is, which means you can still win!" I yelled at him.
I mean, if he's going to die anyway, he might as well die with a win, right? Unfortunately, he just looked confused by my yelling, but the Vampire definitely looked a bit spooked, as she hurriedly broke her left arm as well. He let out another scream of pain and collapsed onto the ground. Well, between the injuries he'd already received before her Cross came into play, plus the gaping hole in his abdomen...it was kinda a miracle that he was still conscious at all.
"Clever girl, that was an impressive deduction...unfortunately, your ally here does not share your intellect. I do not even want to consume his life force, I do not feed on lowly maggots," Said the Vampire, before plunging her hand into her chest and crushing her own heart, laughing as blood poured out of her mouth.
Neo slumped onto the ground lifelessly, a large pool of blood forming around his corpse. I swiftly equipped my knuckle blades as the other two also put up their guards. Now that he was dead, we were in the firing line. Not good.
"So, uh...I don't suppose you've had your fill of violence for today?" I asked hopefully.
"Hah, you amuse me, girl! Oh, no, not at all...I would not even call that an appetizer, considering what an unimpressive specimen I had to work with...after that, I think I am in need of a palate cleanser. And you look positively delightful," She remarked with another lick of her lips as she stared me up and down, her voice turning slightly husky towards the end.
I felt a chill run down my spine and automatically stepped back with a nervous feeling around me.
"Y-you mean me?"
"Indeed! I prefer human women to men, their bodies are simply more fun to...play with...and in addition to your obviously impressive intellect, your body is quite tantalizing...you see, the finer the overall specimen, the more I enjoy the fight. Mm, and you are a fine specimen indeed."
Y-yikes...
"Sister, the look on your face...it's the look of someone who's just had a taste of their own medicine."
"H-hey, that's not cool, bro!"
I took in a deep breath to compose myself, before fixing my gaze onto the Vampire, watching her cautiously. Wait a sec, we might still be able to get out of this without fighting...
"Hey, how about we do this another time?" I yelled out at the Vampire.
"And why would I agree to such a thing?"
"Because...you can't use your Cross again for a whole half hour, isn't that right...Nezera Autumn?" I replied confidently with a smirk, though on the inside, I was kinda terrified.
"Oh, now you really have my attention...how do you know about my Cross and my name?" She inquired, a curious look on her face.
"Let's just say that we have an informant on our side."
Maybe I can sow seeds of mistrust amongst their ranks...
"Hm? That only raises more questions...but alas, not everything can go perfectly everytime...and besides, even without my Cross, I believe I can still enjoy you quite thoroughly...," She smirked, before zipping towards me rapidly.
I sprang back and fired a blast of wind, which she evaded to her right. The instant she did, a sharp chunk of earth came hurling towards her, she fired a blast of Blood Magic to destroy it, right as Les sprang up behind her and drove a water blade extending from his hand at her back. She rapidly twisted her body to evade it, as he grazed her side, quickly getting some distance from her the moment his attack failed.
Before she could go after him, I quickly flew up a bit and swooped down towards her, with my knuckle-blades raised, using short bursts of Propulsion to increase my momentum. She extended her claws out to counter, and right as I got within a couple of meters of her...I fired a small but piercing shot of wind from my mouth, which drilled through her left eye. I then swiftly swung my blades down at her, which she sprang back to avoid, as I grazed her shoulders.
I quickly sprang back as a large rock came plummeting down towards from above...Yuur Ganroh was above her, using his dragonfly wings to move around and the Earth Levitation technique to float a bunch of rocks around him, which he was dropping down at her. The instant she jumped away to evade the rock, Les sprang up to her side and slashed her left shoulder deeply with a water whip from his right hand, but it was too shallow to have any real effect, and she swiftly whipped her tail up at his face to counter.
He quickly brought up his left hand defensively, forming a hurried water shield to get in its way. His defense absorbed some of the impact but not all of it, as she left a deep gash in his forearm. She then raised her claws towards him, before springing away as Yuur fired another rock towards her and I fired a barrage of piercing wind blasts.
She then swiftly flew up towards Yuur, firing Blood Magic blasts at him. He was quick in the air and used his wings really smoothly, maneuvering himself away from her attacks while hurling his rocks at her. Unfortunately, she was just a little bit better at moving around in the air, and her blasts could destroy his rocks.
He'd had eight floating rocks around him when she first flew up, and he was now down to just two. Suddenly, he closed his hands, and all the debris caused by Nezera blowing up his rocks began to hone in on her at a rapid pace. She got pierced and slashed plenty of times, but managed to avoid dying, when he suddenly swung his arms, sending his two remaining rocks zooming in towards her on either side, a massive dust cloud bursting out as they converged on her...did he get her?
She suddenly burst out of the dust, shooting towards him rapidly with red blasts charged up, her legs absolutely smashed but healing rapidly. He narrowly evaded her blasts as she fired them, but before he could react, she was right above him. She swiftly balled her fists together and slammed them onto his chest, sending him rapidly plummeting towards the ground with a sickening crack, knocking him out. She must have shattered some of his ribs.
I'd quickly fired an expansive blast of wind at the ground where he was about to crash onto, softening the impact significantly, but he was definitely out cold. Nezera then zipped down towards me and swung her claws at me, I sprang back at the last moment and blocked with my blades, but she was seriously strong, the impact causing my knees to buckle and nearly collapse.
I gritted my teeth and burst out wind from the tips of my blades, leaving several shallow cuts on her arms and face...fuck, I can't generate much power since she was overwhelming me. As I collapsed down onto one knee, Les jumped up behind her silently and drove his water drill straight through her back, before letting out a stifled cry of pain as she pierced his right shoulder with her tail and swung him away, sending him crashing onto the ground on his side, knocking him out as his head struck a rock.
"This is a nice buffet, two appetizers and a delectable main course," She smirked, her eyes scanning me slowly.
"Heh...I think 'pain course' is a more fitting term right now," I replied weakly, as she continued to overpower me.
I was charging up wind into my mouth, but I can't fire until I have enough to blow her entire head off...assuming I can hold out long enough to do so in the first place. The other two were out cold...sweet baby Jesus on a shit sandwich, I am so fucked right now!
She suddenly stiffened and her head turned to the north so quickly that I heard a small 'pop'...did she accidentally break her own neck just now?
"What is going on? Eighty-Seven is...no, that is impossible. Tch, Pythea and Magna as well...or are they simply reacting to her-...?" She muttered with a puzzled expression, before letting out a sigh and turning her gaze back to me, "It pains me, but I cannot stay to kill you. I could kill you quickly before I leave, but that would be a waste...tell me, what is your name, girl?"
"U-uh...it's Selesa."
"Mm...a delightful name, rolls off the tongue quite nicely. I swear to you, Selesa...I will not use my Cross on another human till we next meet...and then, we can share in the most intimate of pain! Till then!"
With those disturbing parting words, she flew off to the north, as my blood ran cold. What...why...? What the fuck, man!? Why me, of all the people she could have taken an 'interest' in, why fucking me!? I...I don't want a psychotic Vampire yandere obsessed with me! People who are into yanderes have a screw loose, I never got why they were so popular, and I was as degenerative as they get! I walked over to Les and Yuur, using a healing spell on each of them.
"God...fucking...damn it, I'm beat," I groaned, as I collapsed onto my back on the ground.
Yeah, I know this battle is still not over, but...whatever, fuck it, I'm just going to lay here for a bit...
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