The sound of shouting and stomping feet reached my ears and we all readied our weapons while hiding behind a corner in the nearly empty hallway.
A quick check of the various presences in the building confird that roughly a dozen signatures were moving about in a hurry on the ground level. Many tis that were below, most of them were unmoving, but not all.
Due to the proximity of many of the presence hits, I couldn't get a good grasp of how many there were below. There were tons of blurry blobs that were definitely several people, but distinguishing each and every one of them was too difficult for to bother trying.
But that said, I couldn't help but feel like it was less than what should have been at the vacant village we had visited the day before.
There wasn't much reason to believe that the villagers were separated and a bunch of them were taken to another location, though I couldn't discount such a possibility.
This mansion was quite large though, so it was possible that I could find so clues as to what happened to the remaining villagers, though I didn't have a good feeling about it at all.
The moving presences though seed to be grouping up, both those below and those on our level. Following their movents, it felt like they were homing right on to our location.
One was getting especially close ahead of us from our right.
"Intru...!"
An arrow whizzed by my ear as a pair of robed people turned the corner. The one at the far end of the hall, not the fork we were hiding behind.
A fraction of a second later, I finished the hand motion I started even before either of them had shown themselves and a small ice sphere flew out just under the speed of sound.
Fortunately for us, even without any prior coordination, we managed to hit different targets. The arrow went through the one on the right's eye and pinned the figure to the wall behind him before the weight of his body snapped the arrow shaft and crumpled to the ground.
My bullet went through my target's forehead. Blood, skull fragnts and crushed grey matter splattered against the far wall while the body simply flung itself into the wall beside it, prior montum not failing to be preserved just as Newton had described.
A knot tied itself in my gut, but considering the situation, quickly eliminating the enemy was the right thing to do. Take them captive if it didn't slow down, but if it did, then no rcy. Not until the captives were safe at least.
We were too close to afford letting the missing villagers be used as hostages or sothing.
More thumping and this ti there were seven presences coming from our left from around the near corner. They had started as three groups but joined up along the way.
Just before they turned the corner, the team leader rushed out with speed unsuited for his large and muscular body, swinging his one handed axe. With a series of surprised shouts and a splash of blood, the first of the group was instantly bisected from the shoulder to the waist.
But unlike the kids we fought before, this group reacted magnitudes faster.
The leader swung around his shield to block the counter attack as the rest of us followed his lead, but the way that the shield wobbled from the impacts was enough for to know that he wasn't going to be able to hold that position for very long.
Instead of going around his large body, I dropped my body and slid between his legs and under his shield, feet first.
The mont I could see the other side, I scissor-kicked the first person in reach, collapsing his balance and reducing the strain on the leader. Next I swung an arm and fired off another ice bullet at the figure closest to our group.
But unexpectedly, the slight gap between my second attack from when I first erged from under the leader's shield was enough for him to see the attack coming. He flung his body away from my motion, and my spell didn't manage to get anything more than air and so torn threads.
No longer having the benefit of surprise, I rolled to the side before violently pushing off and throwing my body out of the way of the first counter attack. A club impacted where I was just prior, cracks forming in the stone floor from the power of the impact.
Now that he wasn't suffering from all the pressure on his shield, the leader took advantage of the opening I had created, took a step forward and punched out his shield, slamming it into the person who managed to dodge my magic.
The figure went flying as I got back onto my feet, but before I could reorient myself, sothing ca flying at my side.
Not in a good posture to dodge the attack without so especially tricky play, I simply opted to swat the thing with the back of my hand. There was a light clang as, what I realized was a spear head, was hit by the tal pad on my cestus and deflected behind .
Now that I saw what tried to tear into my side, I simply grabbed the shaft of the short spear and spun it upwards. The person who wielded the offending thing had a look of shock on her face as the shaft flew out of her grip and slamd into her armpit then continued on to lift her into the air and over the investigation leader's shield.
As her body flew uncontrollably though the air, several adventurers spotted the opportunity and three blades as well as an arrow pincushioned the flying body, leaving it void of life before it even hit the ground.
[Be careful! These guys are a lot stronger than the ones from before Scarlet! They're between levels 70 and 110!]
[Got it.]
Just as I respond, I'm forced to duck under a chipped sword aiming for my head.
I raise my head to determine my response when I'm forced to hop to the side instead as a club flew where I just was.
Tracing the flight path of the offending weapon to its source, there was a robed figure with his hands empty of weapons in a throwing pose while in mid stride.
Surrounding him was another dozen robed figures rushing to join the fray.
They arrived faster than I expected. Considering that this group was probably the ones I had originally sensed scattered around on the lower floor, I was hoping that we wouldn't have to deal with them along with the current group at the sa ti. I only hoped that the hallways would restrict them more than they restricted our group.
[There's so many of them, but while their levels are kinda high, their skills aren't as good though.]
Alicia presented the skill list of a bunch of the robed figures in the corner of my vision so that my sight line wasn't being obscured.
And just as she said, the skill list was particularly pathetic. It might have been because I didn't really know what was normal in this world, but the skill lists of these guys was strangely short and very little except for so single combat skills were quite low in rank.
Pretty much all of them had decent [Unard Technique] ranks along with a single weapon skill, but there was almost nothing else to note. Quite a few of them had magic skills, but only the rare few had magic skills at a high enough rank to be usable in combat. Those that did had distinctly lower weapon skills that was closer to the level of barely usable.
It made wonder just how these people got to the levels they did with such diocre skills.
It wasn't like they were terrible, but it was difficult to see how soone could manage to reach level 100 with only rank 7 in a weapon skill. Then again, maybe my perception was skewed since I almost all of my skills were gotten and raised through [Blood Sucking].
I shook my head of those errant thoughts and returned to concentrate on the battle.
Behind , more of the adventurers had gotten into the fray.
Spells and arrows flung through openings while swords, axes, maces, and shields rained down against the robed offenders.
The front line established as the bodies t and held in at close range.
The scent of blood filled the air to the point that I was feeling lightheaded and my stomach threatened to roar without any care about friend nor foe. My fangs ached as I wanted to bite sothing, gouge at anything they could reach and feel warm blood flow through them despite them having been neutered through my transformation disguise.
But bearing through the urge, I leaned to the side as a spear was thrust under the armpit of the enemy I was facing. Rather than dodge, I simply grabbed the spear shaft and pulled it hard. The unexpected action caused its wielder to pitch forward, slamming into the person she was hiding behind, knocking him off balance.
Thanks to that, the large tal plate he used as a shield to distract was thrown off giving an easy opening to exploit. Kicking him lightly in the side of his knee, his stance crumbled further, lowering his head just below eye level. It was just enough, and I gave him an open palm strike in the forehead, causing his head to jerk back and slamd into the head of the woman using him as a shield.
There was a sickening crack as their skulls collided and so blood sprayed out from the impact before both bodies collapsed with their consciousness robbed.
I bit my lip, not entirely sure if it was more because my appetite was stimulated further from the scent, or if I was worried that I had accidentally killed one or even both of them from an impact that was stronger than I had anticipated.
But there wasn't ti to worry, as a ball of fire filled the void that the two bodies had made.
Releasing a straight thrust with my free arm, my fist went right through the luminescent gas and imdiately dispersed it with little more than a warm feeling on my fingers.
Hopping over the crumbled bodies at my feet, I raised a leg and threw a spinning snap-kick into the back of the surprised mage's head, instantly lding his face with the stone ground.
This ti, when I winced at the sight, it was for sure because I had thrown too much strength into that attack. The way I could see gore seeping out of the broken skull made that more than clear.
I was starting to really hope that Alicia's lack of experience with vision ant that she didn't have a strong concept of what an unpleasant sight was, and wouldn't be traumatized by all the violence here.
Even still, I really wanted this to be all over. It felt like my sanity and morals were being chipped away the more we fought. Regardless of why we were doing this, we were still killing people. It wasn't like hunting monsters and wild animals. These were fully sapient and intelligent people who had the complete ability to understand communication, yet we were ignoring all that.
Even if we did have a just cause, or rather, that was the entire reason why we were even here. The ones who attacked the village and had taken all the villagers, as well as the ones who had attacked us at night, had all co from here. There was virtually no space for doubt.
In addition, while we did sneak into this mansion, and we did have violent confrontations which lead to alerting the entire building, they still ca at us with weapons first rather than even attempting to talk. Not like we really gave them much space to talk though.
But it wasn't like we had that much leeway in the first place. This was all life and death for us as well. And not only for our own lives, but the lives of the captured villagers as well, who seed to be in the basent right at the mont.
But despite all the reasoning I attempted, it still didn't feel good at all. I just wanted all this to be over.
And for that to co even a little bit sooner, disregarding the tal club that nearly hit my leg, I pulled hard on the next enemy's arm and placed my other fist right in the path of his skull, knocking him out as his body veered off wildly as montum took over when I let go. As his body landed in a crumpled pile against the wall, a part of my mind registered the fact that the arm I pulled on was dislocated at the shoulder and was bent in a nearly impossible angle.
The hallway was filled with bodies now, most unmoving but groans could be heard from a few. The walls and floor was covered in blood and there were even so splatters on the ceiling.
If there was so rust and broken furniture, this would've looked like a scene right out of countless horror films and gas...aside from the nurous armoured figures wielding various weapons.
Most of the enemies were down, but so of ours were as well.
This battle didn't go nearly as well as the one from earlier in the night had. The visible injuries on so of the fallen bodies strongly suggested that they were no re flesh wounds.
There were only a few enemy combatants left, and over half of ours were still fully capable of fighting.
While perhaps sensible, I was still caught off guard when the rearmost cloaked figure suddenly stopped flinging spells at us and turned tail, leaving her two remaining companions to face us.
"Shit!"
I didn't have a good feeling about this. She might have just decided to run, but I couldn't shake the possibility that she was going to try sothing else.
Attempting to give chase, I hopped over the bodies as I tried to manoeuvre without accidentally injuring anyone laying on the ground who was still alive.
But to my chagrin, sothing flew from my side. Unable to properly dodge due to my broken stance as I tried to make way through the body filled corridor, I opted to punch the offending object, and gamble my high stats and armoured fist would do the job.
With a loud clang, my tal plate covered fist made contact with a poorly maintained sword, shattering it.
Almost imdiately after, the one who swung the weapon at went airborne as the investigation leader slamd his shield into his body.
"Go!"
Without bothering to acknowledge his order, I turned and leapt into the air, kicked off the wall and sailed over the remaining bodies before taking chase.
Following the presence of the escaping figure, I closed the distance to her.
We were rapidly approaching the location of the sole unmoving presence I had felt since the beginning on this floor, and it didn't give a good feeling in the slightest.
Wrapping my body in a bubble of air, I removed all air friction around and increased my speed. After another corner, I managed to finally get line of sight to my target so I kicked off the stone floor even harder.
"Father! The intruders...!"
Just as she slamd a double door open and started to yell, I finally caught up with her and grabbed the back of her head, slamming her head into the ground with a heavy crunch. I didn't know if she survived that or not, but I no longer had the leeway to care.
Claret stiffened on my back and I could feel her arms tremble slightly. She pulled herself even more tightly than usual on my back as she looked at sothing ahead.
I raised my head.
Past the large, ornately carved double doors was a strange, wide open room. It was about half the size of a soccer field, there were dozens of pillars with single lit candles lining a slightly raised platform that lead from the door all the way to sothing distinct on the far side of the room.
There was so sort of haze in this room that made it slightly more difficult to see, but it appeared to be a large seat, covered in soft furs and strips of cloth, decorated with well polished coins and jewels. Sitting on the strange throne was a single man in well worn black clothes that looked like it once belonged to so noble or rich rchant so point in the past.
While the figure in the overdecorated seat was sitting so still that it almost looked like he was dead, the fact that the spot was exactly where I could feel that unmoving presence ant that he was definitely alive.
But despite all that, a chill ran down my spine.
Sothing about this man was ringing alarm bells in my head.
It took a mont, but focusing on the figure revealed the nature of the strange haze: it was his aura.
Frankly speaking, I still had weak experience when it ca to beings with auras strong enough that focusing on them was worthwhile, but now that I had realized what it was, I couldn't bla Claret for reacting the way she did.
The aura was a dark crimson, like a scab. But unlike a scab, it ebbed and undulated like it was a creature on its own. The part that made my skin crawl though, was that the edges of the almost hostile looking aura was covered in tendrils that whipped around, snapping at anything within reach like so starved hound.
I had the feeling that I had seen sothing like that before in the past, but there hadn't been anything resembling such a thing in the dungeon. While the dungeon monsters probably did have auras strong enough to be visible if I concentrated on it, I had never really attempted such a thing, so I have no mory of any monsters that possessed auras with such an appearance.
[Scarlet! That one there! It's a...!]
"That's a real vampire!"
Claret wasn't one to interrupt when Alicia was speaking. She had too much respect for the little girl to do so without a good reason. My head snapped to the side and I was exposed to the tense expression on Claret's face. She was scared, but it wasn't the sa sort of fear I had seen before. This one looked more primal, more instinctive.
I glanced back at the figure in the seat.
(Ah!)
Finally, I rembered where I had seen an aura like the one before . It was because of the difference in perspective that I had trouble connecting it, but it looked similar to my own aura, the one I had suppressed ever since I discovered that I had such a thing.
Most likely, auras like this were a natural trait of vampires. And the fact that his aura extended so far from his body ant that, like myself, he was strong.
The body on the floor now void from my mind, I took a few steps forward.
(It's a vampire. A real vampire. The first one aside from myself since being born in this world.)
There were so many things I wanted to know. About myself. About our race.
The man in the gaudy seat slowly opened his eyes.
(That's a nice shade of red.)
Despite the distance, despite the dimness of the room, despite the distortion caused by his strong aura, I could clearly see how his eyes glead a brilliant crimson, almost like that of the scarlet moon beaming through light cloud cover.
"Miss! Did you...?!"
Behind , the other adventurers had caught up, forcing to tear my eyes away from the still silent figure.
But rather than look at , they were all staring at the large, open room with eyes filled with wonder.
"What in god's na...?"
"Who made such a huge room here?"
"Just how big is this place?"
The group grew noisy despite the fact that we were in hostile territory and there could've easily been more enemies hidden sowhere. Like downstairs or directly in front of us.
Despite that, they were looking around the dark room or checking out the open double doors. One was examining the body on the floor behind , but quickly lost interest. The fact that I couldn't feel a presence from it made my gut twist a little, but sothing else quickly forced to divert my attention.
The presence on the crudely decorated throne suddenly approached our group, and quickly at that.
In only a second or so, he closed the dozens of ters. When I turned to face him, there was no indication that it took him any effort at all.
[Be careful Scarlet! He's really strong!]
A status screen appeared in the side of my vision, rather than unobtrusively in the corner like usual. It only took a mont to realize why: his skill list was long. Very long.
It was as if he had taken all the skills that the others up until then for himself or sothing. I knew that wasn't possible, at least as far as my knowledge of the skill system was concerned, but it evoked such an imagery for .
Of course, the reason why it was like this was obvious. As it was both ntioned earlier by Claret and stated in his stats screen, he was a vampire. He had [Blood Sucking]. It was rank 6 unlike mine which was at rank 7, but it explained his extrely long skill list. As did it explain why a bunch of those skills were greyed out as well.
"Intruders? In my domain?"
The way he looked down on all of us sent a chill down my spine.
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