[Vol. 5] Chapter 168: The Tactician
The priestess, silently observing from afar, saw everything happening on the battlefield clearly.
Without a doubt, this was a simple, covert, and extrely efficient tactic, with a highly clear purpose and precision.
While the vampire girl was dealing with the waiting servant girl, her opponent wasn’t just standing there doing nothing, as it appeared on the surface.
The answer was threads.
Invisible, transparent, yet extraordinarily tough threads had already, little by little, under the mysterious girl’s subtle manipulation, spread like a spider’s web across nearly every corner around Avrilia.
It seed that to avoid alerting the highly perceptive vampires imdiately, she had deliberately let all the threads float more than two ters above Avrilia, precisely in a position unreachable by the vampire duchess, her giant axe, or even the servant girl who had just left.
This girl’s understanding of Avrilia, or rather the vampires, was profound. She easily grasped the duchess’s pride as a vampire and was certain that her opponent wouldn’t attack hastily. After missing her first strike, she lay low, waiting, unaffected by any taunts or ridicule, quietly setting her trap.
Additionally, she exploited the vampires’ natural reliance on their flying abilities as winged creatures.
Had Avrilia chosen to fight her on the ground using the giant axe, the trap, suspended two or three ters above, would have been rendered useless and ineffective.
But as expected, when the vampire girl, panicked by her opponent’s inexplicable evasion of her attacks and sudden disappearance, instinctively wanted to fly up and observe from an aerial vantage point, she fell right into the carefully set web.
The fine threads, appearing soft and fragile, were, like water, capable of becoming deadly blades under certain conditions.
When the vampire, with her legendary speed, flew directly into the web, the taut threads imdiately sliced deeply into her delicate skin, even cutting into her bones and joints.
Countless spurts of blood gushed out, almost turning the noble vampire girl into a blood-soaked figure in the most literal sense.
“Guh…! Wh-what is this!? This isn’t magic from the faith systems. Who on earth are you!?”
The invisible threads were clearly specialized weapons designed to counter creatures like vampires, who possess high-speed regeneration.
After crashing into the trap, Avrilia imdiately attempted to pull herself free and fall, but the threads coiled around her like serpents, tightly wrapping around her body. No matter how she struggled, it only caused the threads to tighten further, spilling more blood and intensifying her pain.
What chilled the vampire girl even more was that the mysterious short-haired girl, who had seed to be sliced in half by a blade of blood monts ago, had reappeared in a different location. The black, gaping weapon that had previously pierced her head was once again aid silently at her, now ensnared by the threads and struggling mid-air, unable to move.
“Bang!”
The mysterious girl didn’t hesitate, nor did she try to conceal the thunderous sound of her shot. A burst of fire erupted, tearing through the shadows and heading straight for Avrilia’s head.
“Damn it!”
Though she appeared enraged and unwilling, Avrilia still didn’t dare to take the mysterious girl’s shot head-on with her body. Just like before, she transford into a swarm of blood-red bats, narrowly dodging the “bullet” while finally escaping from the web of threads that had trapped her for so long.
However, unlike before, this ti the swarm of blood-colored bats did not disperse. Instead, they quickly gathered on the ground, reforming into her original shape.
After that humiliating ordeal, the once-proud vampire girl looked far more disheveled than she had at the beginning.
Although the countless deep cuts on her tender skin were rapidly healing thanks to the powerful regenerative abilities of her vampire blood, the large amount of blood she had lost earlier was clearly taking its toll on Avrilia. Not only had her face grown much paler than before, but even the powerful aura she exuded was visibly weakening.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it! You despicable wretch, can you really call this an honorable duel? Where is your dignity as a strong warrior!?”
However, the only response the vampire received was another gunshot.
Facing this ruthless and silent opponent, Avrilia had lost all her temper. She hurriedly raised her giant axe, hastily blocking the incoming “bullet.” Yet the force of the impact sent her stumbling back several steps until she crashed into the wall, finally coming to a stop.
At this point, the roles of attacker and defender had reversed.
Violet, who had been observing from the beginning, could tell that at the start, the vampire girl Avrilia held an overwhelming advantage in terms of strength. Even with the mysterious girl’s peculiar equipnt, it couldn’t bridge the vast gap in their attributes.
After all, as a high-ranking vampire, Avrilia wasn’t relying solely on her physical strength. She must have had other powerful artifacts in her possession as well.
Especially the giant axe Avrilia wielded. It was clearly an exceptional weapon. Judging by its aura, it was likely of a Spirit-tier weapon or higher, far beyond the kind of weapon soone at her level would typically wield.
This was probably the source of Avrilia’s confidence.
Earlier, the mysterious girl hadn’t blocked the vampire girl’s attack through sheer strength. While she may have had the ability, it would have been difficult for her.
The body that had been sliced in half was, in fact, a projection created by so sort of technique, like a “mirage.” The girl herself had already used optical camouflage to stealthily move to another location, waiting for the perfect mont to strike.
Normally, this kind of tactic would be useless against a vampire, who is particularly sensitive to things like blood energy.
However, in this battle, it seed that Avrilia was unable to rely on her innate abilities to detect her opponent’s position, leaving her vulnerable to repeated ambushes.
This was the mysterious girl’s advantage, but the true key to leading the battle to victory lay in her ability to accurately grasp this and push it to the limit.
From the mont the two first clashed, and judging by the girl’s quick evasive movents, it seed she hadn’t expected her opponent to be this powerful. Most likely, these tactics were devised on the spot.
As Violet reflected on this, the two girls in the dark alley nearby had already exchanged over ten intense rounds of combat.
It appeared that the mysterious girl was using optical projections to distract her opponent while making adjustnts to the surroundings during the ti she remained hidden.
At the beginning, she had deliberately concealed the sound of her gunshots and the flash of gunfire, and even when she was forced to retreat and hit the wall, she minimized the noise, likely to avoid attracting attention. But now, it seed she no longer cared about the clashing and banging sounds of their battle.
In fact, after so long of fighting, the absence of any Angel City residents or Knight Templars coming to investigate said a lot.
Besides the strange-looking firearm, the mysterious girl seed to possess an array of unusual weapons.
There was the transparent thread she used to set traps and assist her movents, a cylindrical device that extended a sharp light blade like a flashlight, and a small gem likely responsible for creating her optical projections.
Even the skintight suit she wore, seamlessly covering her entire body, seed to offer multiple effects such as protection, optical camouflage, and shock absorption. She was ard to the teeth.
Then, after another rapid succession of “bang, bang, bang,” it was clear that Miss Avrilia hadn’t anticipated that the gun could fire in bursts. With a grunt of pain, she staggered back, three bloody holes in her abdon.
It seed this hidden battle had finally reached its decisive outco.
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