By the way, Shaya was currently fighting while wearing a maid outfit. The puppet left behind by Ling Xiaoxiao had, after completing its task, simply taken over Ling Xiaoxiao’s role of oppressing and “enslaving” Shaya.
During this time, our poor little Shaya, while instructing Song Liangpeng and Mu Panxia, was also receiving guidance from Ling Xiaoxiao. Beyond the swordsmanship she had promised to teach her, this guidance also included specialized maid training.
Ling Xiaoxiao had also smugly left behind a set of protective gear styled as a maid uniform. Although it looked utterly defenseless, it could completely ignore attacks from Awakened below the high-rank level. It even accommodated the characteristic of Shaya’s body state changing during battle, as the black-and-white maid outfit was enchanted with a spell to automatically adjust its size.
Driven by intense shame, Shaya pushed her speed to the limit, terrified that anyone might get a clear look at what she was wearing. The one who suffered for this was the newly ascended Vampire Progenitor. Under Shaya’s increasingly rapid assault, he could only defend blindly, being forced back step by step.
Meanwhile, the distress signals from the dark mages flashed frantically in the sky. Xino was now in a dilemma, stretched too thin to handle everything.
Remembering Dracula’s fate, Xino didn’t dare entertain any thought of retreat. Seeing the battle was lost, he chose to fight to the death.
“You forced me into this!” He suddenly exerted force, repelling Shaya who had just kicked at him.
His eyes were now covered in a scarlet crimson, his expression twisted and maniacal. The elegance upheld by the new generation of vampires was completely gone, replaced by a kind of madness, the madness of one utterly consumed by fear.
The battle between the two had already destroyed nearly half of the city’s buildings. The stench left by blood magic permeated every corner of the city. To minimize casualties, Chen Shijie urgently recalled all personnel to fall back and defend the city’s perimeter. The vampire army, however, was trapped inside the barrier, forced to endure bitterly.
Via the live broadcast from the Canglong Hao, everyone in the ground forces watched the fight between Shaya and Xino with tense nerves. Unbeknownst to Shaya, the fact that she was wearing a maid outfit was now common knowledge. When Shaya came to an abrupt stop, causing a certain ‘turbulent motion’ in her chest, the young soldiers, regardless of gender, watched this scene with a critically appreciative gaze.
On the screen, her movements were fierce, every slash aimed to be lethal, yet unorthodox. Strikes launched with sharp wolf claws and powerful legs made her attacks unpredictable.
Surprise moves like headbutts, bites, and tail sweeps emerged one after another. Combined with special attacks like Holy Flame and Lunar Frost power, she formed her own complete combat system. This system, paired with her agile movements and powerful physical prowess, made her feral self exponentially more dangerous, every move brimming with a wild, savage beauty.
Having lost his reason, the frenzied Xino was no longer cautious. His fighting style became aggressive, trading injuries for injuries. He even charged directly into Shaya’s attacks, tanking a blow to desperately grab hold of the blade of Fenrir’s Winter. Shaya immediately released her sword, and her figure vanished.
The instant Shaya disappeared, countless incredibly sharp blood spikes erupted violently from Xino’s body. In moments, the entire city was occupied by crimson blood thorns.
Shaya’s movements were already extremely fast, but she was still wounded by such a sudden attack. Her right arm dripped blood, and her maid outfit was slashed with numerous, dense tears. The Canglong Hao very considerately processed the footage, eliciting a wave of disappointed groans from everyone stationed at the city’s edge.
Chen Shijie watched the still-transforming blood thorns with a stern expression. He keenly noticed that the tip of each blood spike had a vampire impaled upon it.
‘What is this?’ His years of experience dealing with these monsters allowed him to react quickly. He immediately gave the order.
“All personnel capable of long-range attacks, focus your fire on destroying the impaled vampires! Don’t let them become nourishment for that Progenitor!”
Under Chen Shijie’s direction, elemental Awakened of all types launched their attacks. For a time, lights of various colors flashed across the night sky, wave after wave of elemental projectiles bombarding the city within the barrier.
Not only that, the military base and the Canglong Hao in the sky quickly responded, providing overwhelming fire support.
Witnessing this scene, the fighting spirit in Shaya’s heart burned even more fiercely, her blood boiling. The phantom of Fenrir appeared behind her once more, though this time it manifested in the form of a Beastman.
Shaya swung her sword, unleashing three gigantic slashes that directly obliterated all blood thorns within a hundred meters.
At the center of the blood thorns, a now unrecognizable Xino struggled to recite a prayer.
“O great Lord of Blood, our salvation, God on Earth, the supremely great true god Cain! Please grant me your blessing, allow me to conquer this land!”
Enormous, eerie blood roses bloomed grotesquely upon the bodies of the impaled vampires, only to rapidly wither after blooming. A certain power of cycle or rebirth seemed to manifest on them.
Immediately after, a blood mist enveloped the entire sky, leaving only a hazy moonlight, which also seemed tainted, tinged with a faint red.
Within that sky-obscuring blood mist, a figure slowly coalesced. A terrifying pressure spread out between heaven and earth. The barrier enveloping the city quickly developed spider-web cracks before shattering completely.
[Die.]
A single word. Even though it was in a language no one present understood, everyone clearly comprehended the meaning.
Some people, as if possessed, began to self-harm. An impulse for self-destruction spread directly among them like a virus.
Chen Shijie broke out in a cold sweat, his expression grave. Even he, trained by the headquarters, felt his emotions stirred by this sinister influence. The situation for the others was even more perilous.
“Dammit, we must retreat!” He closed his eyes, forcing himself to regain clarity, then took out his communicator and shouted, “Canglong Hao, unexpected situation! Requesting emergency forced evacuation!”
High in the sky, the iron Canglong, which had been hovering over City A, received the evacuation request. The emergency response system activated. A massive azure beam of light pierced through the blood mist, then split into countless smaller tractor beams, enveloping all combat personnel on the ground and pulling them upward.
At the center of the battlefield, Xue Ji was fighting thirteen dark mages. Her current spiritual power limit had not yet reached the level of a high-level awakened one, while three of her opponents were no less than high-level awakened ones, and the remaining ten were all mid-level. If they were not restrained by the spells they were constantly brewing, Xue Ji would not have dared to confront them head-on.
But Xueji was still overexerting herself. Even with her superior spellcraft and higher efficiency in utilizing spiritual power, she was now suppressed to the point of barely being able to catch her breath. The white halo around her was compressed by the dark curses into a space less than two meters around her.
If it weren’t for the Firebird feather deep within her soul continuously generating spiritual power, she wouldn’t even be able to maintain this state of desperate endurance.
The current situation was actually after Xueji had taken the opportunity to snipe and kill four dark mages using White Reaper. Otherwise, things would be even worse.
‘This is going to be trouble for Ling Xiaoxiao’s side.’ Finding herself in such a dire situation, her first thought was actually for Ling Xiaoxiao’s situation. This reaction made her shake her head wryly at herself.
“What does it matter if that woman dies? It’s all her own fault for asking for it.” Xueji gritted her teeth, maintaining the magical shield around her. “Even at a time like this, she has to bother me.”
“Is this how you handle defense, Ling Xiaoxiao? City A has been infiltrated like a sieve!” Xueji now meticulously controlled her spiritual power allocation while complaining that Ling Xiaoxiao spent her days slacking off and coming up with new ways to torment her.
The dark mages opposite her, seeing Xueji at the end of her rope, were overjoyed. Battling her had been a nerve-wracking experience. For a mid-rank mage, with her level of spiritual power reserves, to hold them off alone for so long… such talent was something only their cult leader might possibly possess.
A hoarse voice, amplified by spiritual power, reached Xueji’s ears.
“A pity. You have already lost. But with your aptitude, if you were to join us, you could undoubtedly become the most powerful mage in history.”
“Join you?” Xueji responded. “I don’t even know who you are. How could I dare join you? Tell me first, who exactly are you?”
On the surface, Xueji was probing them, but her attention was focused on the thick darkness surrounding her. Lilith was currently tracing their spiritual power back to its source.
‘Did you really think I’m just a simple white mage? Your cultivation is still lacking.’
Xueji offered a tired smile, waiting for their response.