LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 36
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
“Fire!!”
Kwah! Kwah! Kraaack!!
The mountain spirit.
The mercenary group sent by a southern noble barely managed to capture its clumsy bulk, which was running at an unbelievable speed.
It had materialized into the material world at the cost of using its mass, only to be halted by the bolts embedded all over its body.
– Kkiyaaaak!!
Though it thrashed about in anger, it had no choice but to temporarily dematerialize to extract the bolts that were stuck in it.
That required concentration.
“Good job!”
Shwaak!
In that brief moment when the mountain spirit was momentarily trapped, Lin Xue took her chance. If Rita had seen this, she would have called it the “Claws of the Hawk.”
The arrow rose into the air before curving gracefully downward to accelerate. Powered by mana, it struck precisely at the mountain spirit’s distorted third eye.
Kwah!!
– Kwaaak!!!
“Got it!!”
“Fall back! Fall back! Don’t push your luck! If you die, I’ll swallow your money!”
“Captain! What the hell are you talking about!”
“That’s why, to stay alive!”
The mountain spirit writhed in pain.
As its rock-like body over ten meters tall began to thrash, it turned into an attack that devastated everything around it.
If they didn’t maintain calm, they’d be turned into a bloody mess from its kicks and punches, so the mercenary captain bit his lip.
– Kaaak!!
“Man, how annoying!”
To dedicate oneself beneath the great hero’s feet is for our world!
While the mercenaries quickly retreated to secure a safe distance and chipped away at the mountain spirit, Alexis Juulka, gripping a sword in the air, caught the attention of the dark spirit and Serika with the aid of Jinkyung and the mages.
Shukkaak!
Whoosh!
Sometimes with a decisive slash, sometimes with fire magic.
His ability to wield both magic and sword was flashy yet swift, drawing the gazes of the humans on the battlefield.
“You lowly humans…! Don’t run away!”
“Dear lady, are you going to catch a bug moving that slowly? Once this is over, I’ll pamper you lots!”
The vampire’s gaze and feelings were also.
“Hum… an…!!!”
Pachit!
“Hmm?”
While engaged in combat with the human magic swordsman, the vampire felt an odd sensation brush against the back of her head, halting her momentarily as she turned her head.
She was getting a signal from ‘home.’
Pachuk! Pachik!
“…These vile humans…!”
Once could have been dismissed as a misunderstanding, but the signals were not just one.
Only then did Serika realize something was amiss, her beautiful and lovely face contorting into a gruesome expression that could only be described with the slang term “kaogei” back on Earth.
The ‘Garden’ was under attack.
One of the last two remaining among all the dungeon’s rooms.
“Wow… Did you see that?”
– Stay focused.
“Wow, if you looked at it right, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
As Alexis paused for a moment, catching sight of that face, the vampire began to exhibit the power she had been concealing even amidst the chaos.
「How dare you attack my – Garden – !!!」
While mana is a temporary strength, the ‘Garden’ was one of the two core elements that served as the foundation for her power.
The other one was the Dungeon Core.
If she were to lose the Garden, she would fall into utter despair without any additional chances.
Rage was a natural sequence of events.
Kurrururung…!!
– Kkiyaaaak!!
– Kaaak!!
The two spirits that had been summoned by her rage began to swell even larger and rampage with the newly acquired mana.
“Become the fertilizer of my territory – !!!”
She unfolded her giant wings made of blood and shook them once.
Woosh – !!
“Kuhak!!”
“Ugh…!”
Amidst the countless deaths of adventurers and soldiers who were unprepared for the area-wide attack from above, Alexis, now returned to the ground, frowned in confusion.
There was something in the vampire’s words he didn’t quite understand.
“What does that mean? Garden?”
– Someone among us is likely aiming for an opportunity.
“Damn it! They’re aiming for the dungeon and the treasure! Even now?!”
“Adventurers have been doing that for a while now, right?”
“Whoever that bastard is, I’m going to kill him! I’ll toss him to a beast!”
Fuming in response to Lin Xue and Jinkyung’s words, Alexis summoned flames in one hand and took to the air once more.
The treasure could wait; it was the rampaging vampire that was the pressing reality.
The regular army was effectively tantamount to rivals and clients. If the vampire rampaged and killed too many, the reputation adventurers could earn would decrease.
“These guys are completely insane! Fall back while capturing slowly!!”
Nonetheless, the situation had improved dramatically for the humans.
The anger of the Dungeon Lord affected every being, disrupting the balance of madness and combat power.
“Monster brat…! You really had to make things difficult!”
Kwah!!
“Move quickly! Copgerin’s sons! Capture the other one too, while the adventurers deal with the vampire, make for the dungeon!!”
“On it – !!”
Amidst all this, Odellin, one of the two senior knights, finally smashed the head of a certain abomination spewing green waste.
The knights responded with roars as they charged forward.
Kwahack!!
“I killed this one! Zenta Clayma!”
“Take down the zombie!!”
“It’s not over yet!”
A moment later, they also succeeded in breaking the other abomination, which had been spewing purple liquid.
Zenta, lifting its core with an axe, roared while the knights turned their gazes toward the small fry, aware that the war was far from over.
“Push! Push!”
– Kyaaaak!!
“Don’t breathe in the steam! The poison isn’t gone yet! Mages and priests, you should focus on purification instead of pushing forward!”
The consecutive victories lifted everyone’s spirits.
The Copgerin forces surged toward the dungeon, their morale rising. The monsters’ madness alone was no longer sufficient to stem that tide.
“Damn, we can hear that noise!”
“Even the knights are brainless. Should we try to flank them?”
“Should we? Feels like we’ve already won.”
Adventurers and mercenaries, confident in their victory, began looking for places to fall back and opportunities to seize.
Zombies and green skins toppled one by one, or in groups, gradually clearing a path.
“Is that all!? Lady! Try harder! Dance, you should dance!”
“Shut up!!”
“Such a potty mouth!”
– Illuminate the light. Let darkness withdraw! Burn the mountain! Flames arise!
Shwaak!!
– Kkiyaaaak!!
– Kaaak!!
In the meantime, the three elite adventurers, donned with every buff possible, pushed against the vampire and the spirits, finally nearly toppling both spirits.
Now, the only relatively intact being left on the battlefield was the vampire.
“…Am I going to lose like this?”
Recognizing him, the vampire’s eyes went blood-red, extending even past the whites.
A crimson energy swirled around her body, sparking, giving off an ominous vibe. The humans looking at her instinctively braced themselves.
– Brace yourselves!! May death not invade!
“「Defense Barrier」!”
“「Do not lead us into wicked trials!」”
With the appearance of someone ready to explode with power, the mages, responding to Jinkyung’s warning, quickly spread their barriers all around in preparation.
Foosh! Pwoosh!
“What is that…!”
“Damn it. It’s sucking everything in! Block it!!”
In that moment, the vampire shot out two tendrils that pierced the backs of the corrupted spirits.
The veterans who quickly realized what that meant darted out as fast as they could from their protective barriers, but while infusion might take time, forcible extraction was always quicker.
“My misfortune here because of humans trying to profit from abandoning their comrades…! 「Blood Rebirth」 – !!!”
Laughing in absurd disbelief, Serika summoned a gigantic red orb in the air based on the collected power.
This was a completely different type of magic from the blood magic she had been using in a rough fashion until now.
The results of this secret soon manifested.
Woosh – !!
The orb burst, I spreading over her hand and raining down onto the ground.
“Getting back up again…?!”
“No matter how persistent vampires and necromancers are…!”
And yet, where her finger pointed, zombies and green skins began to rise once more.
Those that had fallen and stood again were now painted entirely red, adorned with red flowers sprouting like dead spiders atop their bellies.
“Unfortunately, I can’t make a bonsai. I’ll kill you all. 「Rose」.”
Although she couldn’t properly resurrect the abominations or spirits, Serika left behind a single red clone, blooming a bright red rose atop its head, and upon flicking that flower, the clone opened its eyes wide with blood-red pupils.
“I’m busy, you know.”
– Kyaaak!!
Kwadak – !!
As the clone stepped forward, blood blossoming everywhere, Serika turned to flee.
Before everything that held her memories was completely destroyed, she needed to protect whatever remained.
“They’re running away!!”
“Where to…!”
“「Fireball」!”
“「Owl’s Eye」 – !”
Every strike from Lin Xue’s sniper shot and Alexis’s long-range slash, along with various magical attacks, were unleashed.
However, none of those attacks could halt Serika’s flight. She dodged the big hits and simply braced through the smaller ones, charging forward no matter what.
Pwoosh!
“Guh…!”
Among all those attacks, just one—the somewhat fatal arrow strike from Lin Xue—was enough to keep that elite-class entity going as it sprinted for its life.
“Damn!”
“Let’s chase!!”
“Great! Even the remaining treasures of the dungeon and the corpse of the lord will be immensely valuable!”
And only those capable of flight could pursue the elder vampire now.
The tides had turned dramatically.
Rather, the knights were entrapped on the ground by the resurrected zombies while the mages and adventurers took to the skies, beginning to chase after the vampire.
“Such things…!”
“Zenta! Those abominations…!”
“What…!”
“Those persistent ones…!”
Of course, the knights couldn’t just stand there watching that scene unfold… but neither was there any way for them to move.
As Zenta and Odellin turned back at the call of their subordinate knights, the dreaded things began stirring once more.
– Clatter…!
– Thud…!
The two monsters, spewing purple liquid and green gas.
The abominations were rising again.
This time, with their skin and muscles stripped bare, they took shape as skeletons.
Although they wouldn’t exhibit the elite-class power as before, their physical hardness was that of high-class entities, rivaling that of the abominations.
Now they were skeletal behemoths.
– Clack!
– Clatter…!
From everywhere, the corpses that the vampire’s magic could not resurrect began to rise, shedding their skins and reassembling right there.
Though their capabilities were nothing more than ordinary skeletons this time, being amid the zombies adorned with the Rebirth made them sufficient in number to fill their ranks.
The zombies, commanded to “hinder the humans,” wouldn’t obstruct the skeletons, of course.
In a flash, the path was blocked.
“Others are rising too…!”
“Is it necromancy as well?!”
Given previous events, everyone could only assume that the vampire possessed ‘necromancy’ abilities.
To some conscious minds, it was a matter they could be thankful for: at least they had discovered this presence now and could hunt it down.
“Rise again, slaves of the blood kin. Your bodies, to guard the path of your master, it is time to be used once more.”
Of course, presiding over this was not the glamorous vampire lady they imagined but a woman draped in far more noble attire.
“Push them back – !! They’re much weaker than before!!”
“We need to chase the vampire!!”
“….”
In the cold gaze of the expressionless woman watching the humans filled with chaotic desire, there was not an ounce of contempt nor any depraved satisfaction for trampling the weak.
There was merely the anticipation of a nearly successful hunt—nothing more, nothing less.