The death of the ‘Legendary Trash Mob Vampire’ noticeably dampened the other vampires’ will to fight. The fall of one of their Royal lineage was enough to make them realize just how dangerous this battle was.
Only eleven Royals had come in total this time, and they had already lost one before even encountering the enemy’s top-tier combatants. And those two freaks were still fighting, having wiped out hundreds of low-level vampires in just ten short minutes.
Some of the lower-level vampire grunts immediately went into hiding, while others started thinking about running away. But the battlefield held not only those two demonic figures but also numerous Special Powers Unit members and the terrifyingly powerful nuns of the Sacred Inquisition. The survival rate for deserters was practically zero.
Just then, a sharp-eyed vampire grunt spotted a street that seemed to be guarded only by a little girl with a wolf tail.
He turned and shouted to his companions, “Over here, brothers! This way’s clear!”
“Good job, Lao Chen! I’ll buy you blood-wine if I make it back alive!”
“Hahaha~” A hook-nosed, blond British vampire laughed maniacally as he followed them. It was as if they weren’t defeated soldiers fleeing, but victors on a parade.
“Old Mike, why are you laughing?” Lao Chen asked, puzzled.
Unexpectedly, Old Mike replied in Mandarin tinged with a British accent, “I laugh at the Special Powers Unit for having no strategy, and the Sacred Inquisition for lacking wisdom! If I were commanding troops, I would have placed an ambush right here…”
Lao Chen was horrified upon hearing this and quickly covered Old Mike’s mouth. Of all the things to say, why that?
“If you wanna die, just say so! You’ve watched that old ‘Three Kingdoms’ series too many times, you idiot!”
The motley crew of vampire grunts swarmed into the street guarded by Shaya.
Shaya was hopping along towards the park when the group of vampires blocked her path.
“Where are you going?” Shaya asked.
Hearing the voice, Old Mike scanned the area but didn’t see anyone. Shaya stomped on his toes, and only then did he notice the little figure in front of him.
“Oh, by my Progenitor Caine, what a wretched child. If this were at my uncle’s estate, he’d give this brat a good, hard kick up the backside,” Old Mike cursed, hopping on one foot while clutching the injured one.
Lao Chen, seeing her long wolf tail, assumed she was a young werewolf spectator and thought to just shoo her away with a treat. He handed a piece of candy from his pocket to Shaya.
“Little werewolf, scoot. Otherwise, we won’t be polite.” As he spoke, he even reached out instinctively to pat Shaya’s head.
The next second, Lao Chen’s head was looking at his own body. Frozen solid in a moment of confusion, he then had his head crushed under Shaya’s foot.
“Filthy trash mobs, prepare to die!”
A hundred-meter stretch of the street was instantly engulfed in freezing air, transforming into a deadly ice cavern.
Old Mike never imagined that someone who’d uttered that line would actually encounter a fierce warrior blocking their path.
“The culture of China is vast and profound… surely it can be applied… next time…” With these words, he peacefully closed his eyes.
All two hundred-plus vampires Lao Chen had brought were completely frozen by Shaya, then scattered into stardust under the moonlight.
The commotion Shaya caused attracted the attention of the ten remaining Royal Vampires deep inside the park.
They sensed Shaya’s power and were itching for a fight, but restrained by Xino’s authority, they could only dutifully protect the dark mages.
“Could you take her down if you all went together?” asked Xino, who had now replaced Dracula as the Progenitor Vampire.
“No problem, Lord Xino,” one of the Royals replied, already eager. The scent of blood outside was intoxicating; he could barely hold back.
“We will win!” a white-haired Japanese vampire declared with absolute certainty.
The other Royals showed no hesitation either, each desperate to prove themselves now. Knowing that Lord Caine was also watching them, they all wanted to distinguish themselves in this battle to secure a higher status in the future Vampire Holy Empire.
“Excellent. All of you, go together. Capture that ice mage. We’ll use her blood to consecrate our Holy Empire!” The deteriorating situation outside didn’t affect him in the slightest; his only real concern was the safety of the dark mages.
‘As long as we complete the summoning, victory will be ours.’
The vampire grunts on the front lines only had to fight, but he, as the commander, had many more things to consider.
Yet, not long after those ten Royals went out, only three came stumbling back, battered and bruised.
A mere five minutes had passed. The Royals, who had been so full of confidence, brought back news of a perfect rout. The three who returned were missing limbs, still emanating a chill. Their already pale faces were blank, like walking corpses.
“W-What happened?” Xino couldn’t accept this sudden change, asking in stunned disbelief. “Didn’t you say you would win?”
“Win your mother’s [beep]!” With that, the dying Royal turned to ashes and scattered into the world.
In his final moment, he broke through the bloodline shackles of the vampire kin, mustering all his remaining strength to send his regards to Xino’s mother. It was perhaps the most liberating moment of his long, long life.
Before Xino could even process this, Shaya had already killed her way in. She held the Fimbulwinter blade over her shoulder, using her charging momentum to launch an attack against this newly ascended Progenitor Vampire.
Her sword swept out in a full moon arc. Xino didn’t dare dodge, afraid the dark mages behind him would be caught in the blast. So he had no choice but to take the hit head-on, getting frozen into an ice sculpture by the power of the chilling moon.
But he was, after all, a Progenitor-level existence. He wouldn’t be defeated so easily. He broke free from the ice effortlessly and charged at Shaya to counter-attack.
A Progenitor-level vampire’s nigh-invulnerable physical body alone was enough to crush modern conventional military forces. Even something like a nuclear bomb was no longer enough to threaten them.
Xino punched the body of the sword, forcing Shaya back over ten meters.
He wanted to move the battlefield away from the dark mages so he could fight without holding back.
Shaya saw through his intention, but she went along with it anyway. Their movements were too fast for mid-level Awakened to follow, but the shockwaves from each exchange shook the very earth. Vampires and Awakened all across City A could sense the collision of these two immense auras, like two suns crashing into each other.
The vampires on the periphery were surrounded by the Special Powers Unit. Defeat seemed inevitable, but then, when Xino entered the fray, their power suddenly surged. They entered a frenzied state, and the fighting became more intense than before. If the encirclement continued, casualties on the Special Powers Unit’s side would inevitably rise rapidly.
But suddenly, just as quickly, the vampires in this frenzied state immediately weakened, as if they had been poisoned.
Chen Shijie, directing the soldiers to pull back, smiled wearily. “The antibodies are taking effect.”
The core of the anti-infiltration plan had been to poison the various blood reserves the vampires relied on. That blood, mixed with the antibodies from Song Liangpeng’s body, acted as a slow-acting poison for the vampire kin, continuously weakening their combat strength while also planting this final contingency.
Whenever their bodies were under increased strain, like just now, the effect of the antibodies would be triggered, causing them to rapidly weaken.
Xino noticed something was wrong with the others and found it hard to believe.
‘Why isn’t my bloodline enhancement working?’
Distracted for just an instant, Shaya’s sword sliced off half of his arm.
“You should worry about yourself first!”
Shaya’s fighting spirit blazed. Her body transformed once more into her adult state, and her werewolf transformation activated simultaneously. Her speed and power skyrocketed, making it difficult for Xino to defend himself for a moment.
What Xino didn’t expect was that the dark mages’ location was also under attack.
He didn’t even have a chance to glance back; fighting Shaya required his complete and undivided attention.
‘Just how many powerful experts does China have? Why is this so difficult?!’
He was truly starting to panic now. If the mission failed, what awaited him would be a fate worse than death.