Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 32 – The duty of a vampire warrior

[Eternum Calendar 1971]

“Tch, do not interfere, Vampire.”

With a glare that could silence even veteran soldiers, Gerald looked down upon the demon known as the ‘vampire’. He looked at her as if she were no different from the bugs he had trampled on the way here. Such thoughts were deeply ingrained values and sentiments planted within him from a young age; in short the only feelings he had felt when looking at her were disgust and repulsion. It wasn’t just her but all forms of demonic beings, whether weak or strong, he only felt that they no longer should be allowed to live.

“Heh~ your personally certainly took a complete 180… or perhaps this was your true disposition the entire time? Well whatever, in any case I refuse. You’ve long overstayed your welcome here so leave this place quietly if you want to live. I might just be willing to overlook whatever horrible detail you’ve committed thus far.”

Against such petrifying gaze Yvonne showed no inclination of a wavering spirit. The only reason she had offered to let him free was because she knew she would never win a direct fight, there were far too many handicaps. Not only did she have to keep an eye on the children and make sure no harm befalls them but she also had to deal with potential Crystalline monstrosities that could come out at any given moment. There was also a problem with Alice’s currently unstable state and just how she was supposed to be dealt with was unknown.

At her behest Gerald looked up through his shadow cloaked hood- a bone chilling green gaze.

“Leave…? Do not mock me, vampire. It seems you do not quite understand the predicament of your own situation. It is you who should be leaving, though whether I’d be as charitable as to give you such an opportunity is another matter entirely. At this point one or two more dead pests won’t change anything; I definitely will not be stopped when I’ve suffered so much injustice just for this moment!”

Gerald lashed out, letting out his pent up aggression. Yvonne could feel it, that this man was seriously on the verge of insanity and that he was extremely willing to commit just about anything to get what he desired. It was a dangerous situation and in truth Yvonne honestly felt like she wanted to escape but she couldn’t abandon her duty as a member town’s guard. Leaving behind those children was not an option she could afford but most of all she did not want to have to deal with the repercussions from Morgant if he ever knew harm befell his childhood friends.

Gritting her teeth she tried to form a smirk, the kind that Morgant would’ve made in this situation to aggravate the opponent. With uneasy sweat trickling down the sides of her face she could feel the moisture from her palms as well. Enduring the near painful anticipation she cautiously placed her hands to the hilt of her sword, ready to draw and taking a battle stance. The flare to call Morgant here had already been set off, thus her only reasonable victory condition was to stall for time.

That being said, stalling wasn't the only thing she was going to do and if possible she would also aim to defeat Gerald. With a quick assessment she had reasonably deduced that his current weakness was the existence of the Golden Monolith floating by his side. If she could destroy that, while it may not defeat him outright, it would most likely relinquish all the Crystalline monsters under his dominion. It was a worthwhile theory.

“It seems you’ve lost all sense of sanity… well, not that I was really expecting much from someone like you. I will not allow you to use my hometown as a playground for your disgusting and pointless experiments.”

With those words she could feel the intensity from him burning in the air. The shadows around him reacted, as though alive, in erratic patterns and slithered in an offensive manner. From such a display Yvonne now had to take into consideration the possibility that those shadows could also be used offensively.

Gerald slowly grabbed for his bow and loaded a long arrow, aiming it steadily towards her face.

“Worthless creature… know your place.”

He didn’t raise his voice nor speak with any sort of passion but the cold and emotionless deep voice amped up the menacing nature behind it. He was truly angry.

A quiet, suppressed tranquility warped in unbridled rage. Gerald released the his bow and launched a predictable missile toward her. A single arrow, ripping through the air as it whistled ominous, only that wasn’t a single arrow. To the untrained eye it may have appeared as such but Yvonne was a member of the elite vampiric race and her sight sensitivity was among the greatest. She could see it subtly lagging behind the first missile’s shadow, another several more projectiles.

Though Yvonne’s greatest condition was during the night, she still possessed greater reflexes and speed than any average human or elf. She was able to quite easily evade the incoming arrows and even positioned herself to take the counter offensive. Taking the opportunity for the enemy to reload she took a step forward with her hands still on the hilt of her sword to draw for an opening strike.

Yet unexpectedly, just as she was about to rush right in a second volley of arrows came flying towards her at full throttle. It was much quicker than she had anticipated; in fact it was almost impossibly quick for an archer to follow up like this. Having no other choice she focused of evasion and took several steps back.

However just like before, as she finished dealing with the second batch of arrows another round came at her.

“Kuh, what?”

She was forced a few more steps back in order to not suffer any damage.

This pattern persisted and every time Yvonne had successfully avoided a series of missiles another round came following extremely quickly after. The speed in which Gerald was reloading, aiming and firing was confusingly fast. Expending a little more stamina and effort she found an opening to glance back at just how he was accomplishing such a feat. What she saw surprised her, though she felt that she should’ve predicted such an outcome. The shadows surrounding Gerald had multiplied and created several mirror images of him and assisted his assault.

There were at least five or so shadows, since they were flickering in and out of existence there wasn’t a fixed number.

“Tch.”

Yvonne clicked her tongue as she continued to focus on dodging and deflecting the myriad of arrows. As the situation progressed, if she was continually forced into a defensive position there was no way she could ever hope to reach the Golden Monolith to destroy it.

‘No choice then…’ she made up her mind to go on the offensive. At this point preserving the situation would eventually lead to her exhaustion and she would fail. There can be no gain without any sort of sacrifice, thus with such a mentality she steeled herself and charged forward at full speed.

A dangerous volley of arrows flew towards her.

A direct hit on her body, yet she persisted and moved forward.

Long arrows pierced through her light armor as they stuck out but thankfully managing to avoid having any of her vitals hit. Enduring through the intense pain she moved forward, giving even Gerald a slight pause in his attacks at her tenacity.

“Wha-”

He exclaimed as he dropped his guard. He did not expect her to brute force her way through. In just a brief split of a second, abusing her vampiric prowess, Yvonne had managed to cover several meters of distance and was standing just before Gerald within striking distance.

Gerald was a highly trained archer and understood just with his body that close combat would be disadvantageous to him. His body unconsciously forced his body back into a suitable retaliation distance but this unfortunately opened the path directly to the Golden Monolith. This had been Yvonne’s plan from the beginning.

“It’s over!”

“Dammit! As if I’d let you!”

At the expensive of losing his balance entirely, as Gerald fell back he forced himself to shoot another arrow. It was a [Power Shot], a standard skill for archers which used enchanted arrows for a deadly shot that could pierce through even full plate armor. The trade off was that it was a little bit more unreliable in terms of accuracy but that in itself was fine since the most common usage of the skill was as a battlefield control skill to put distance between the user and the opponent.

If the opponent faltered and moved then the skill would have served its intended purpose. If the opponent endured then the skill would score a massive hit. Either way it was a useful skill, if not a little limited in the amount of ammunition it was possible to carry. Enchanted arrows were not so cheaply produced after all.

Even pushing her vampiric traits to its absolute maximum it was unsure if she could come out of this alive. Thus having no choice Yvonne dropped her pursuit of the Golden Monolith and fell back. Gerald, having given time and distance to regain his balance stood up to prepare another volley.

The pattern had changed. No whenever Yvonne got brave enough to grit through the pain Gerald would launch a Power Shot to further deter her. Once more stalemate had return to their battlefield.

By now Yvonne had suffered quite a bit of wounds and she was losing blood at a noticeable rate. If she persisted in this manner then she’d die of blood loss before she died of actual injuries. It would be an ironic fate for a vampire to die in such a manner, not to mention it would be insulting to her kin. However she had no healing based magic of her own and the only skill she had to mitigate this situation was a vampire-centric spell known as [Life Sealing].

This skill was the single most potent skill that had elevated the race of Vampires to its elite ranks amongst demons. It was a skill that instantaneously removed all damage on her and allowed her to fight back at full strength. Of course it wasn’t an omnipotent skill that could give vampires effective immortality, this skill was merely a temporary fix. Once the duration of the spell expired than the wounds would reappear and she would take double the damage. Thus it was a spell only to be used when backed into a corner.

Using this spell, she had instantly removed her wounds and the blood stopped leaking from her body. She also managed to regain the majority of her strength and stood up with renewed determination to fight. That being said she was now on borrowed time until the spell duration ran out and at that point she would most assuredly be killed if she didn’t win.

She took a deep breath and looked down at her now temporarily healthy body. There certainly did exist a method to reach the Golden Monolith through the Power Shot missiles but she was unsure if she could survive afterwards. She took a brief moment to look back at the Elven boy that was rested against a large boulder with his fellow Lamia friend, unconscious.

“Haa…”

She sighed as she focused her eyes at the worthless piece of trash Elf in front of her. With her eyes now shining with the true determination of a vampire, brightly with the color of infinite white she prepared her sword once more. Her only regret, as she scoffed at herself, was that she didn’t bring her shield. She couldn’t because it would be too much of a burden when she was tracking someone but that didn’t make it any less regrettable.

“Wretched beast… your meager attempt at mimicking sentience itself is disgusting.”

“Bastard, don’t underestimate me! I am a vampire!”

Shouting with enraged fervor she leapt into battle once more with her sword in hand. Charging with reckless abandon, the flare in her eyes trailed behind a light.

Gerald breathed in slowly as he prepared his bow.

“That you are… a worthless mosquito that has no place in this world! Now die!”

The dark winds swayed between them as Gerald looked back at the disgusting mosquito charging right for him. He lashed out with equal viciousness as he and his clones drew back their bowstrings and unleashed a devastating volley even more intense than before. As he let go of the string a powerful shockwave reverberating from his bow came an equally devastating missile that rippled the air and left a trail behind it. Not just one or two but several shadow missiles also came lagging behind.

Yvonne gripped the hilt of her sword with empowered ferocity and determination. She did not falter a single step as she rushed into the volley of arrows, managing to dodge a few but ultimately getting pierced by a few. She lost a few steps but near instantly recovered her momentum and rushed forward, taking advantage of the enemy’s minute need to reload after such a powerful shot. Covered in holes and her own blood she would’ve definitely needed to recover after such life threatening blows but she had a technique to temporarily mitigate all damage.

She abused ‘Life Sealing’ to instantly remove all of her wounds. The only problem was whether she would be able to survive the incoming damage once the duration of the skill ran out. ‘Hah… I feel like an idiot,’ she mocked herself but she was already past the path of no return; she couldn’t give up now.

Gerald’s eyes opened wide open and as though everything, including himself, were moving at ultra slow speeds he had to witness with his own eyes his failure. Yvonne was now within striking distance of the Golden Monolith, of his most prized treasure.

He could only watch.

She raised her sword.

She struck down.

A loud crashing sound reverberated through the howling winds of the maelstrom.

… He smiled and scoffed.

“… Eh?”

Yvonne’s eyes were glued to the Golden Monolith as not a single scratch was done to it. She slowly and hesitantly shifted her gaze towards the sword in her own hands.

Broken.

“Fool, did you think that it’d be that easy?”

Now the position had been reversed. With her disillusioned and stunned state, Gerald was in perfect striking position and he once more shot deathly powerful missiles towards her. She only had a split second to evade them and though she was successful in avoiding most of them, one of them scored a direct hit to her shoulder, crushing her bones within her soft skin.

Unable to put up any sort of resistance after her initial rush of adrenaline had dissipated, she was knocked back by sheer inertia of the arrow. She wanted to stand up and get back into the fight but she could feel it. The slow, cold, grasping black hands of death reaching right for her as the duration of her Life Sealing spell was near its end. The coldness of defeat had overcome her mental fortitude as she fearfully tried to cover herself with her arms. She couldn’t hear anything anymore and the only thing that was on her mind was the pain that was soon to follow.

She looked back up at Gerald who had a completely malicious smile etched across his distorted face. Tears fell down her eyes as she embraced herself. The luscious green forests painted with shadows from the Maelstrom of Alice’s unstable magic and Gerald’s shadows were completely overcome by a pure red.

All the wounds that Yvonne had hidden away resurfaced in a spectacular fountain of blood. Almost drowning in a pool of her own blood she somehow made it through the pain. In fact she couldn’t even feel the pain after becoming completely numb.

She was losing blood at a terrifyingly rapid pace. The wavering and struggling of her consciousness took an even worse toll on her body as she tried to keep her eyes open. Her final scene before blacking out was Gerald preparing the last Power Shot missile.

The final nail in her coffin.

He fired it.

Ripping the very air behind it, the terrifying requiem of a whistling arrow came towards her at full strength. She tightly shut her eyes to accept her fate… yet that fate never came. ‘Was it because of the numbness of my body?’ she thought as she couldn’t feel any particular pain or any obstruction to her thoughts.

She didn’t think she could but she tried opening her eyes once more. The world still seemed to be covered in a horrific red from her bloodied vision, but she could clearly see it. An arrow forcibly stopped mid air right in front of her face. As though alive it struggled violently in order to reach its intended target, yet it never could and continued to vibrate midair.

Looking to her left was the figure of a small boy, but to her he now appeared to be a giant. Even through her bloodied red sight she could see the glowing menace that was in his green eyes, Morgant. Small, oddly shaped rocks orbited around him with equally murderous intent. Though they all seemed feeble she of all people knew exactly the kind of power capable of being unleashed from them.

… He wasn’t happy. After witnessing the kind of state his childhood friends were in he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He declared furiously as he contested Gerald’s cold gaze.

“Sub-human trash… you have now forfeited your right to existence; I will no longer permit it.”