Chapter 102
[Guy’s POV]
Farrowgate used to be a fun town to play in. I would visit whenever my father had business there, and I loved to see all the goods the traders were selling from across the ocean. The people were happy, the streets were kept clean, and our people never had a problem with the government.
But things change fast, apparently.
There was barely any chatter among the townsfolk, people locked their doors and stayed in during the day, and the roads were littered with trash brought in by the gulls.
But worst of all were the suspicious glares I kept receiving.
“It's not just me, right? They're looking at you, too, right, Olly?”
Oliver looked at the townspeople with a blank stare.
“It is you.”
He looked back down at his feet and returned to silence.
“Gah! You're meant to lie, dude! Why am I being discriminated against?”
I complained, but really, I already knew why this was happening. My father told me many times that our people would always feel the sting of prejudice in times of unease.
Still, nobody had outright said or done anything to slight me. And the guards always looked relieved when they saw one of us at least.
“I wonder what the girls are up to? They were in such a hurry to head south.”
I tried again to start a conversation, but Oliver remained silent as he fiddled with some arrows.
“I know you want to help, but shouldn't you take a break? You've been at that for days.”
I said.
“No time to rest. They'll come soon.”
“Huh? How do you—”
“Enemy approaching! Sound the alarm!”
A lookout on the wall began bellowing urgently and hammered the large bell nearby. Soon after, the same noise could be heard echoing from all over the town.
“Damn! What happened to Harkon? How did they get past him?”
I cursed the situation and ran to the wall to look down at the approaching army.
There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of heavily armoured soldiers down there. Not enough to take the town, but enough to cause us some problems.
I relaxed slightly. The reason was that this was nowhere near enough to handle the blood knights we had on standby.
“Not good.”
Oliver frowned as he looked down.
He was already trembling, and his voice was cracking as he spoke.
“They're well armoured, and Klaus is leading them. They already know about the vampires.”
“What? No way, how would they—”
“How doesn't matter right now. They know. I'm sure!”
He suddenly snapped back at me.
Oliver's mental state had been declining at a rapid pace, but this outburst was still unexpected.
“Look! The armour covers their necks. They're all using crossbows as secondary weapons. And Klaus Eisenruf is in charge.”
Oliver frantically pointed as he spoke.
“Mr Klaus? Why does that—”
“Imbecile! You're a Vespertille, and you don't know? The Eisenruf family specialise in fighting undead! Klaus cleared out a feral vampire den just last summer on his own!”
Mr Klaus had been one of my favourite teachers, and he never so much as mentioned my race to me to suggest he had such a history. Still, Oliver knew his stuff. He probably wasn't lying.
Still, I didn't like the way he was speaking.
“We need to get the enchanted ammunition out here—”
Oliver suddenly froze, and his face turned pale.
Without explanation, he fled from the wall and continued running as if the reaper themself was on his trail.
I thought perhaps the attack had begun, or maybe the imperials had done something gruesome. But they were simply spreading out into formation. Klaus had yet to even call for a meeting.
But then my eyes locked on him.
Deep green eyes that seemed to look into the soul, peering out from behind a strange mask as if to say, “I see all, but none see me.”
The mask held no purpose to those of us who had seen those eyes before. After all, there was no mistaking who wore it.
My knuckles tightened, and I subconsciously checked to ensure that I had my blood vials handy.
Rex Jaeger. A friend who terrified me. Someone who could joke and laugh one moment, then slaughter without remorse the next. He was staring right at me, of that I was certain. His was a cold, passionless gaze, as though he was merely calculating my worth as a lesser being.
A chill ran down my spine as I understood at last how his enemies must have felt before they died. I truly did not want to trade blows with him, but I knew that if it came to that, he wouldn't hesitate to take my head.
That was the impression he gave me.
But unlike Oliver, I would not run.
I would stick to my principles. I would confront madness and cast away evil where I saw it. I was a Vespertille, and my blood commanded me to stand tall.
***
[Rex’s POV]
I spotted the two small figures on the walls immediately after they appeared. How could I not when they were the only ones not in a uniform?
An undeniable sense of shame and disappointment overcame me as I visually confirmed that my former classmates had indeed run to join the very people who slaughtered so many innocent people.
And that feeling turned quickly to disgust as Oliver ran in fear upon seeing us.
“Oh? That's Guy up there, isn't it?”
Axel shielded his eyes from the sun.
“They must still be sticking to the blood tax if he's out in this weather. Or maybe he just jumped some hobo and drained 'em dry.”
He chuckled.
“Think he'll join the festivities? I call dibs if so.”
“...Don't kill him.”
I spoke firmly in response to Axel's light-hearted joke.
“Hm? You going easy on him? I don't mind, but if he leaves me no choice, I'm at least gonna break him a little.”
“That's fine. Just don't kill him.”
I repeated.
Lily sidled up and whispered into my ear.
“I've still got the bomb ready. I could get it over the wall if you want.”
She came even closer, her lips nearly brushing against my ear.
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“Or is this where we depart?”
I met her eyes and nodded slightly, just enough for her alone to see.
“Alright… Don't miss me too much, kay?”
Lily stepped back and vanished into the shadows.
“Eh, boss chief! Where mean lady with nice smile go?”
Bubblin seemed to be the only one around who noticed.
“She has a special mission to do. It will be just the two of us for a while.”
“Four.”
“Hm?”
“Little tiger and fire pig. Two and two make four.”
“Ah. Yes, you're right. Thank you for correcting me.”
I kicked myself mentally for such a blunder, but was thankful once more for Bubblin's presence.
“Soleans! Klaus Eisenruf of the Black Crown Empire demands an exchange of words!”
I snapped to attention as the ball finally started rolling.
“Come speak with me, as your honour demands! Come out, or we will come in!”
His roar shook me to my core. Klaus was terrifying in gym class as it was, but now I saw that he had been going easy on us.
“Enough of your mewling, cat.”
A pale man with long blonde hair and crimson eyes called down from atop the wall. He wore a rapier at his side, and his attire identified him as upper-class nobility.
But before all of that, he was a vampire.
“You find yourself in the presence of Alexandru Radu.”
The pale man spoke with a level of pompous self-importance that I had rarely seen before.
He didn't look particularly impressive, but I knew better than to judge a vampire by their frame.
“Why do you disgraceful beasts bark at my door?”
He continued to antagonise Klaus.
“Hahahaha!”
Klaus immediately burst into laughter, earning a displeased grimace from Alexandru.
“Look, lads! A mosquito in a dress!”
We all immediately forced out the most obnoxious laughter we could muster.
Alexandru's mild irritation soon grew into a twisted display of rage. No living being could contort their face in such a hideous manner.
“Rats! You dare to mock your betters?”
He leaned over the ramparts as he spat hatred down at us. But after a moment, he regained his composure.
“No, perhaps I should welcome your uncouth intrusion. This saves me the trouble of chasing you around.”
He raised one arm skyward with a cold smile and snapped his fingers to produce an impossibly loud noise.
The next moment, arrows began to rain down on us.
As one of the only people not given a shield, I was forced to duck under Leon's. Quickly, but without reckless haste, our forces locked shields and closed out the gaps to the best of their ability.
Some projectiles still made it through, but they merely glanced off the tough armour of Alma's Obsidian Reavers.
“Keheheh! Weak! Slow! Aimless!”
I heard the unmistakable voice of Bubblin outside the shield wall, followed by cries of shock and outrage from the distant Soleans.
As the hail of arrows stopped breaking against our curtain of metal, we broke apart and responded to their attack.
“Fire at will!”
Klaus commanded, and the crossbows came out.
Shooting from below naturally put us at a disadvantage, and the Soleans were easily able to duck down behind their battlements to avoid any losses.
That is, until Klaus stepped forward and held his palm out in front of him. Aura gathered in a rough, poorly formed sphere.
Despite his pathetic control, the aura density was even greater than what Harkon had exhibited.
Soon, a solid chunk of grey crystal had formed. Klaus reeled his arm back and pitched with explosive force.
The object blasted through the top of the wall, sending two men flying off the wall and exposing several more.
They tried to flee to a different section, but Axel immediately sniped them with a couple of Mini-Railguns.
At the same time, our battlemages began arcing balls of fire over the wall. The idea was to avoid civilian buildings and only hit the empty area behind the gate, where it was assumed infantry would be waiting.
But something long and crimson shot up from behind the wall and pierced each spell individually.
“What was that?”
Leon furrowed his brow, unable to track the object's speed.
“A spear, I think.”
I responded, but even my eyes couldn't confidently convey what they witnessed.
“Shields up!”
We all followed the order as another volley was fired at us.
This time, however, we did not remain unscathed.
On impact, the arrows burst into flames that wormed their way through the gaps and seared our flesh. This was manageable, but the real problem came from the shields we held.
“Gah!”
Leon reflexively dropped the shield, leaving us exposed. The same thing was happening in select parts of the shield wall, and those who endured the pain were left with nasty burns on their shield arm.
“Volley!”
Alexandru commanded, and we were immediately met with another wave.
Leon was fast to move, and his rapid-fire sword swings spared us from earning any new holes in our bodies.
And while others lacked that kind of defence, the armour again absorbed most of the damage.
“Volley!”
More exploding arrows pelted us.
“Volley!”
A new enchantment was added to the next wave, as the arrows shattered on their own mid-air and rained shrapnel on us.
“Volley!”
The attacks kept coming. Fire created an opening, regular arrows were used to capitalise on it, then a random third type would be thrown in to prevent their pattern from being predicted.
I tried to assist by analysing the arrows being loaded while dodging, but I saw no discernible difference between the ammunition used.
This shouldn't have been possible. Magically forged weapons and ammo always looked rather distinct based on the spell it contained. The only exception I could think of was…
“Oliver.”
I muttered aloud.
“Forget the wall, lads! Move in pairs!”
At Klaus's word, our formation spread out wide. One person would focus on firing back at the defenders on the wall, while the other protected them.
It wasn't perfect, and some losses were accrued. The only one truly safe despite the chaos was Bubblin, who continued to gloat and dance near the wall. His shining golden glow forcefully altered the path of any approaching projectile.
“Open the gate!”
Alexandru, appearing smug, yelled out with a wide grin.
Right away, five figures emerged and bounded like feral beasts towards us.
“Vampi—”
One man's warning was cut short as his head twisted in one full rotation.
Klaus clapped his hands together loudly twice, and we all understood the command.
“You dare flee?”
One of the vampires, a young girl with blonde hair, narrowed her eyes in our direction. As she said, our force was hurriedly moving back towards the path we came from.
And in the blink of an eye, she had silently closed the gap. Her jaw opened wide as her fangs eagerly aimed to pierce my throat.
Leon's sword moved flawlessly to intercept, but what happened next shocked both him and the vampire girl.
I grabbed the back of her head and forced her right into her target, helping her to sink her fangs into me. And then I bit back.
We tore into each other's necks like savage beasts. This was a suicidal move for any human.
The girl ripped back and desperately tried to escape my grasp.
“W-what are you!? Let go of me, vermin!”
Her lips and throat had begun to melt as an acidic substance ate away at her. We were both rapidly regenerating through our wounds, but only she showed any discomfort.
Leon, seizing the opening without question, sliced clean through her neck. With his Gift in effect, the extreme resilience of the undead was rendered useless, and his blade glided right through her.
As her head went soaring, her eyes moved to look at him in despair and fury.
“How? How could this weakling cut my flesh?”
Her severed head continued to talk. I didn't know anything about vampires being able to come back from such a wound, but I saw no reason to take any risks.
“And you, what ar—wait! Stop! No, don—”
Crunch!
I brought my foot down and observed with relief as her body turned to ash.
Fortunately, the others had not yet noticed what transpired. I would be able to catch one or two more of them with the same method.
Vek's toxin production was certainly a thing of wonders. Poison may not work on the undead, but acid was another story.
“Do not feed on those ones!”
Alexandru's voice rang over the battlefield, and although he did not point at anyone, multiple pairs of red eyes glanced at me, then at Klaus. Did they have some kind of psychic link?
Speaking of Klaus, he was going toe-to-toe with two vampires at once. And winning.
For someone so huge, the therian could move at blistering speeds. He was more a blur than anything, only stopping when one of his destructive strikes made contact.
Claws cleaved chunks of the foe out, fists broke bone, and his use of aura solidified each part of his body that the foe tried to attack. He was a hurricane of brutality, fast as the wind, and as tough as steel.
What was crazier was the fact that he wasn't committing his full attention to his own fight. He kept using tiny openings to bombard the Farrowgate wall, or even the other two vampires who were tearing through our allies' armour with ease.
Casualties were sustained yet again, but Klaus was keeping it to an acceptable level all on his own.
“Disregard the beast! Harvest the cattle!”
Alexandru once again directed his troops, and they split up to dig into the scattered infantry.
Klaus did his best to intercept, but when all they had to do was disengage from him, it was much easier to escape his grasp.
And with the vampires moving so quickly into our lines, Klaus could not freely throw his aura around.
This was the cost of being too strong when fighting alongside others. Collateral damage becomes an ever-present danger.
“Tch! Damned blood sucker.”
Felicia cursed as she barely avoided being disembowled, instead only suffering a shallow cut from a vampire's dagger.
She tried to fight back, but even in her True Form, she was too slow.
“Go. I'll be fine.”
I reassured Leon, and he rushed to back up his squadmate. They still couldn't do much against the foe, but they were able to keep them at bay long enough for more support to arrive and push the enemy to a new target.
“Kyahahaha! Die! Die! Die!”
Bubblin came barrelling towards me, a vampire skewered on Soot's tusks while the goblin bashed its skull in repeatedly.
The monster tried to strike back with its claws, but the searing, radiant light that Bubblin conjured seemed to be incinerating them at the touch.
Soon after, another vampire had been slain.
“Boss! We both got one!”
Bubblin high-fived me as he rushed past without pause to attack another, smaller vampire.
“Hm? Guy?”
I recognised the figure, who carried with him a scimitar with a long tassel on the pommel.
Seeing Bubblin's approach, he pointed two fingers out, and his crimson nails extended at blinding speeds.
The recognisable red spear appeared, and Bubblin was promptly dismounted.
Seeing that this could go badly rather fast, I moved to assist.
“Bastard!”
But I was intercepted by another female vampire.
“You murdered my sister! I'll tear you limb from limb!”
The hysterical creature slashed repeatedly with a slim blade. Learning from her sister's mistake, she cautiously kept her neck out of range of my teeth. A fact that seemed to enrage her terribly. It probably hurt her racial pride to be the one who feared being bitten.
There was, simply put, no feasible way that I was going to outmatch her speed. And so I didn't try.
I stepped into her strike and moved my bones to lock down her blade. Her reflexes were outstanding, though, as she grabbed hold of my axe to prevent my incoming counter.
Her face twisted further into confusion on contact, but she managed to stay focused on me and not the talking weapon that was likely assaulting her mind with violent threats.
Too bad for her, I still had Leon's dagger.
“Argh!”
She jumped back as my blade began to penetrate her eye, just a moment before I could get to her brain.
I cursed my own poor speed, but upon seeing Axel moving to support Bubblin, I relaxed. There was no longer a need to hurry.
The female vampire hissed at me as she clutched at her bleeding eye, but unlike the others, I had not moved too far from the bulk of the force. As such…
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
My allies were quickly able to lend me support. Her body violently spasmed as numerous crossbow bolts pierced her body. From such close range, even her resilient muscles offered little protection.
She fell to her knees, and with no hesitation or grandiosity, she was skewered through the heart by the spear of one of the soldiers.
“Junior, your armour isn't suited for this. Here.”
The man didn't even celebrate his defeat of a vampire. He just handed me his crossbow and moved to support his comrades.
Considering my limitations, I offered no argument and moved to the rear to help suppress the enemy archers.
It was such an easy job for me that I was able to observe Axel's fight in all its glory.
