The crowd watched with nervous breath as the favorite to win it all disappeared without leaving a trace.
Everyone who put their bets on him felt like tearing their hair off their scalps.
At that moment, in the air above the crowded street, where arrows flew in the direction of screaming bounty hunters, a flash of red appeared.
“Hahahaha…”
An eerie laughter belonging to an ancient creature echoed through the chaos.
The laughter felt cold, evil, and ominous.
Swoosh—a flash of red light flew through the street, moving through the riders.
The riders felt strangely cold, as if their toes were dipped in a frozen lake, when the red light passed through them.
They couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease that lingered in the air.
At that moment, a small tear appeared on their necks, which soon widened and began gushing with blood.
Dozens of riders gasped for air and grabbed their bleeding throats.
Yet they couldn’t do anything and fell one after another from the back of their horses.
The crowd gasped in horror.
Over a dozen strong outlaws had suddenly died!
“?!” Ambrose caught sight of that and then saw the red light approach him.
“Basic Parry!” 𝑶𝐕𝐞𝗅xt.𝑐𝞸
The black blade smashed into the red light and cut straight through it as if it were made of paper.
The Black Sword was capable of cutting through anything!
Even light!
“Ugh!” A figure emerged from the destroyed light with his lips bleeding and his veins bulging.
The crowd exclaimed in shock as a figure’s face appeared on the screens.
The red light was Johann all along!
“He managed to cut me even though I was coated by Vampire Light?” Johann soared across the air like a bird whose wings had been cut off.
As he landed on top of the former horse of the Demonspawn, he wiped the blood off his lips and turned around to look at the black-haired young man.
“How did you do that?!” The bearded woman rode beside Ambrose and exclaimed in shock. “I haven’t seen anyone cut through Vampire Light before!”
“Vampire Light?” Ambrose frowned. “What is that?”
“It’s a unique way of traveling among vampirekind.” The bearded woman looked in Johann’s direction with an intrigued look. “That means Johann is a vampire!”
‘Vampires?’ Ambrose thought with a strange expression, but he was already feeling numb from hearing all about these strange creatures.
Thus, he wasn’t even surprised that this world had vampires!
Another horse galloped beside him, this time mounted by Loralei, the Queen of Misfortune!
With her piercing gaze and flowing black gown, she exuded an air of darkness.
“You.” Loralei looked deep into Ambrose’s eyes. “We have to work together to defeat him. I do not have a way to bypass Vampire Light, but you do…”
“…” Ambrose frowned and looked towards Johann, who was riding the horse through the protection of the shade that hid him from the prying eyes of the bounty hunters.
They also entered that same alleyway, now having to ride in a single line and not beside each other.
“We cannot win if we don’t defeat him.” Loralei whispered, trying to tempt Ambrose into joining her side.
“You should listen to her~” The bearded woman grinned while riding in front of Ambrose. “I’ll give you a helping hand. It’s not every day you get to try to kill a man worth nearly 500,000 silvers!”
“Tsk, fine.” Ambrose reluctantly agreed, as he wanted to win this race.
However, he believed that he could win with his horseback riding skills.
He was still clear about the vast difference between him and Johann.
Thus, he wanted to give it a try and if things look dire, he would abandon the plan and try to win by himself with the help of his riding skills.
“Good.” Loralei said. “We’ll make our move once we reach the outskirts of Warhaven. Don’t get killed by the traps…”
As the horses thundered across the alleyways, they soon entered the light cast by street lamps and began galloping down a street surrounded by roadside trees, a graveyard, and an old park.
They couldn’t see any signs of traps or obstacles.
It was a clear street ahead, stretching out before them like an open invitation to freedom.
At that moment, a large shadow appeared over the street as if it were about to swallow everything in its path.
The shadow surrounded Johann and his horse.
“Hmm?” Johann looked up into the air and saw a large man falling towards him with a metal club in hand.
“Raging Blow!” The large man shouted and smashed his club into the horse, causing the horse to explode.
Johann, on the other hand, dissipated into red light and flew into the distance.
Soon after, his head popped out of the light, and he turned to the large man with a dissatisfied look.
“Why the hell have you come to hunt for bounty? Isn’t 1,000 silvers beneath you?”
“Hahahaha, I want chaos!” The large man shouted raspily and then focused his attention on the trio that was approaching him.
“Shit, it’s Caius.” Loralei clicked her tongue. “The main reason why organizers of the Death Race don’t give a bigger reward for killing participants is because they don’t want people like him to come kill everyone.
“Usually, bigshots like him ignore 1,000 silvers as mere pocket change, and even if they killed everyone, it wouldn’t be enough for them to move.
“However, Caius is a strange person. He likes chaos and disorder.”
“What is his bounty?” Ambrose asked while tightening his grip on the black blade.
“He is brown-ranked, but he is one of the closest men to reach red rank together with Johann.” Loralei gulped and said. “His bounty is 501,011 silvers, even higher than Johann’s!”
“Shit…” Ambrose sighed.
Loralei already understood why Caius was here. He was the trap hired by the race organization to increase the excitement.
It would be rather boring if Johann won without any hardships.
Now, Caius, his rival, had come to spice things up.
The bearded woman wryly smiled. ‘It would be great for Caius and Johann to kill each other, but wouldn’t I earn a jackpot if I killed both of them?
‘I am only White Inquisitor, but this is a chance like no other!’
“The Thunder Bazooka!” Caius leaped across the air, and suddenly a flicker of lightning appeared around his black metal club.
Rumble—a sound of explosive thunder reverberated across Warhaven.
The ground shook, buildings trembled, and the ceiling darkened even further as the Thunder Bazooka unleashed its devastating power.
The air crackled with electricity, and the spectators watched in awe as the destructive force landed on the street.
Boom—a vast dust cloud swept across the horses and the trio.
Johann tried to fly away with his Vampire Light, but the dust cloud caught up to him and sent him crashing through a nearby building like a wrecking ball.
“Hahahahaha!” Caius’ humorous laughter echoed across the vast air.
But then a pillar of red light descended from the sky and exploded right into him.
“Ugh!” Caius groaned loudly as he crashed into the ground with a hundred times the force of gravity.
The impact left him stunned, with a bruised left arm and disheveled brown hair.
From the red light, Johann appeared with sharp claws. He lunged forward like a raging lion and slashed through Caius’ waist like a sword cutting through apple.
“Raaaah!” Caius let out a pained scream and clumsily swung his metal club around, but the wind it produced was enough to push Johann away.
However, Johann returned to the state of red light and flew right through the bulky body of Caius.
Spurt—a deep tear appeared on Caius’ neck, and he was quickly starting to choke on his own blood!
Caius’ expression fell, as did everyone else’s.
They expected him and Johann to be near equal, but now it looked very one-sided!
‘Could it be that Johann had already reached the level of a red-ranked outlaw?!’ The bearded woman thought with shock while standing beside her dead horse.