You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty.

Damien couldn't physically sweat, but his body reacted with panic at every move. He knew that one strike from the poison master would likely end in his death, and he treated it as such. He rolled away to dodge a bright green blast that covered a nearby ally, making him collapse to the ground in pain. Although his physical abilities were less than that of the vampire noble, Elson took control of the pace.

"Ugh!"

The black-haired boy gritted his teeth, stumbling slightly after being kicked by a footsoldier from behind. He reflexively swung his sword behind him, gravely injuring the one who struck. It was a foolish move as the demon contractor took advantage of the distraction to move forward with a barrage of poisonous attacks.

"Ha! Come on, brat. You're from the Rose clan, aren't you? A coward you are..."

Elson looked as though he was barehanded, but upon closer inspection the Shadow Knight could see a construct attached to his fingertips ending in a sharp tip, glinting with deadly intent. Damien had no intention of falling for the bait, his bloodthirst and preservation instincts warring with each other in his mind. He knew that his best chance was to wait for Shadow Smite and begin his offense in quick bursts.

"Heal!"

A bright, white light covered the poison master and restored his wounds. The tome in the elf's hands glowed brightly, and she summoned another barrier to protect herself from General Drake's vicious attacks. She had no time to say anything as the woman was relentless in her attacks.

The poison master's labored breathing became much easier, and he smiled as he faced down the vampire.

"Damien!" Archbishop Romero called out to the boy, taking his focus for a brief moment. "Be more aggressive! I'll be your support."

You are under the influence of Greater Blessing.

Your defense, resistance to status ailments, and attack speed are increased significantly.

END and INT increased by 20% for 20 minutes.

These effects cannot be forcibly dispelled.

The boy remembered the priest's reassuring words as he readied for their one-on-one battle. His focus was interrupted by Jensen's body being flung across the battlefield and into a group of armored defenders. The Lieutenant-General was bleeding from the side of his face as he got up, looking straight ahead at the person who had thrown him so far.

A large shadow was cast along the floor as Delont, the black-haired invader, stepped between Damien and his opponent. He barely registered the boy's presence, licking his lips and relishing in the battle. The demon contractor was drunk on battle-lust, with his tunnel vision focusing on the cold-hearted soldier in front of him. Nobody dared approach, and the vampire noble swallowed briefly as he had to look up to see the enemy's face.

"Why are you holding back, Vernicus?! You said you'd make me pay."

Jensen dashed forward, twirling the axes in his hand as he prepared for another round of fighting. Damien immediately noticed Elson cooking up a spell just as the warrior approached and intervened.

"Shadowbolt!"

Black lightning shot precisely through the gap between the two opponents, much faster and stronger than usual thanks to the amplification of his cold iron equipment on top of the buffs he received. Delont was so focused on Jensen that he didn't register the attack sliding past him. It hit dead center, wrapping around the man's tattered robes and disabling him. The green aura in his attacks disappeared, allowing Jensen to reach the demon contractor safely and clashing in a show of metal and sparks.

"You fucking kid-!"

"Blood Maledict. Curse of Agony." Jensen said, placing the symbol of an upside-down cross on his forehead using his blood, making it flash brightly as his spell was activated. The man had always been quiet, reluctant to share any details about his skills. Damien had simply attributed it to him being a warrior-focused class with simple skills rather than him having a secret weapon.

All the blood along Delont's muscular frame wrapped around him in tendrils of dark-red thorns of gore. Every move cut into his skin, making him bleed as the pointed ends shaved away at his health. With how tightly it wrapped around the man's muscles, it was a surprise he hadn't died outright from the painful attack. Delont looked even more pleased as his body was peppered with gashes and cuts. His rapid healing was in full effect, mending his skin slowly even as the skill persisted.

"Yes! YES! That's what I'm talking about! WARPATH!"

"Goddamnit, Delont! You're supposed to PROTECT ME!" The elven mage said, hitting the floor as Natalia tried to behead her with more magical claw strikes. Her tome glowed brightly, blinding the rampaging vampiress once more as the invader made a mad dash for her assigned protector.

A reddish hue surrounded the mad vampire, and he began to spin on the spot at rapid speeds. His spear threatened to destroy anything in its way as he moved toward Jensen and wreaked havoc throughout the battlefield. Damien couldn't afford to lose focus, turning to face the lunging poison master. He watched as a bottle filled with liquid was thrown at him and quickly battered it away with his shield.

The liquid splashed along the hardy exterior, and Damien could see that the area was beginning to dissolve the surface of the star steel shield. He had been through many battles with the shield, and it had even managed to withstand the effects of the Ankheg Queen's venom with only slight warping. Seeing the shield lose the subtle, magical glow it always had made the pit of his stomach churn. He checked the equipment's description before realizing it had been changed by the mysterious liquid.

DAMAGED BLESSED SHIELD

- Forged from a star steel and mithril alloy, this shield is extremely durable, lightweight, and can hold two powerful enchantments at once, providing a minor boost to light-based enchantments. Due to the effects of a mysterious poison, it has lost the magical properties it once held.

- Vastly reduces damage from piercing, cutting, and bludgeoning attacks.

- Pernatia’s Blessing (Minor): Heal 10% of HP instantly. Deals minor light damage to nearby enemies and inflicts blindness. 10-hour cooldown.

- Holy Rebuke I: Reflect one attack. 12-hour cooldown.

- Weight: 1kg

"How do you like that? It's a personal blend. Your kind has been far too arrogant, relying on your equipment, healing factor, and..." The man ranted on about his arsenal, chuckling slightly at the boy's incensed look.

Damien's gut instinct told him that engaging in battle was a very dangerous and stupid idea, and his vampire bloodlust made for some comedic internal dialogue.

'Poison, high agility, and intelligence. Even then, he thinks he can just talk down on me? I'll rend him limb from limb...' Damien shook his head as the man went on a pointlessly long dialogue about his poisons and the intricacies that went into making them. 'What the hell am I saying?! I need to find a way to take him down without incurring too much damage.'

That was when it struck him. The vampire prince realized he had been too focused on making sure he was ready to fight the others and that he was unknowingly handicapping himself against a dangerous opponent. Whether it was through his strategical analysis or the adrenaline of battle, he came to a simple conclusion.

"Screw the future, I need to focus on bringing this bastard down," Damien whispered to himself. Although he tried to be humble and focused, something about the man's snobbish words and mannerisms made the veins on his neck pop out in irritation. "By any means."

He set his sword and shield down, lowering his stance and staying deathly still as the contractor noticed his opponent's unusual act.

"Oi, did you lose your will to fight or-?"

Damien burst forward, empowered by a mix of blue and black mana. Elson could sense a change in the boy's expression and activated his own Mana Infusion. It was standard practice, but the quality of the poison master's aura was larger and more palpable. Regardless, the vampire boy pushed on. His cold iron sword swung forth, emitting copious amounts of dark energy as it struck the poison master in the armguards. He battered away Elson's other hand, dissuading any attempt at retrieving a bottle from underneath his suit.

"You need to be taken down a notch. Let me help you with that." Damien's eyes glinted red as he blasted the man point blank with a Darkfire spell. It detonated along the human's upper body which was diminished almost immediately by an unknown skill or artifact. But the vampire's onslaught was far from over.

He swung his sword with the intent to kill. Every move had no hesitation, as Damien only focused on bringing upon a world of pain on the poison master who dared to attack Welton's Furnace. Their specializations were radically different, but the full-blooded vampire closed the gap with his stat points.

"You're not that fast, now that I look at you. You're slower than Chester, admittedly he was holding back most times."

That sentence irked the arrogant human, biting back a retort as he activated a new skill. "Mold Spores!"

Miniature, black spheres spread across the area. They began to break apart from each other into tinier pieces until they became almost invisible. It was lighter than air, whipping around due to the battlefield's chaos and mixing between both armies. Almost immediately, they all began hacking and coughing. Damien was caught in the area of effect. Just before his blade reached the poison master's throat, he was enveloped in a series of coughs that brought him to his knees.

Warning! You are suffering from Mold Spores.

20% increase in stamina depletion.

You are likely to experience shortness of breath and hacking coughs.

Greater Blessing reduces a portion of the effects.

The effect made him wheeze with difficulty, glaring at the cocky human. Despite affecting his comrades, he seemed to show little guilt. Damien's impressive endurance made it a significant annoyance, but the severity of the skill was much higher for those who had weak constitutions in both armies. Many were vulnerable to attacks during their coughing fits, being gravely injured as a result.

"You think you can stand up to an avatar of pestilence?! Beelzebub's granted me one of the strongest blessings in the world! You're no match for me, you little runt."

Damien exploded in rage, bursting forward and coughing violently at the same time, halting his charge. Elson aimed his sharp claw-like fingers into the holes of the vampire's helmet, but the boy turned his head in time for it to bounce off the cold iron exterior. With the man nearby, he whipped out his ultimate move.

"SHADOW SMITE!"

There was no chance of avoiding the attack. Even someone as durable as Jensen would have trouble shrugging off the damage output from Damien's attack, and the vampire was well aware that the demon contractor wouldn't have enough END to withstand the wave of darkness that sprouted from his sword.

Shadow Smite has reached level 2.

Many people were caught in the crossfire of such a destructive attack. Most of the defenders managed to get out of the way, but the hooded grunts from the invading army weren't so lucky. With darkness sapping their stamina and MP, the dwarves pushed forward and trampled them underfoot.

Poison Resistance skill has been unlocked!

Poison Resistance has reached level 2.

It appeared the persistent cough gave way to some added resistance. Almost immediately, the effects of the poison became even weaker.

The demon contractor was laying a dozen feet away, blasted back by the concussive force of Shadow Smite. He laid there unmoving, but Damien took no risks and ran to behead the man before anybody could interfere. A few steps away from the body, he noticed something off.

Elson's entire body looked as though it was molting. His eyes were wide open, staring at the approaching vampire as he cast another spell.

"Locust Swarm."

From the pores on his skin, thousand upon thousands of mortifying insects erupted. It was enough to make a seasoned soldier vomit. A wicked smile crossed the avatar of pestilence's face as they went towards the vampire boy. Damien shouted, but his voice was drowned in the sound of the insects buzzing toward him. It was too late to create a shield, and he began to feel them crawl past his armor and try to dig into his toughened skin. It was a testament to his endurance that the persistent locusts couldn't break through his skin so easily, but with thousands attacking him from all angles, there was no solace.

"You didn't think I came here to battle without some form of protection against deadly attacks? I'll admit, you're stronger than I anticipated; making me use this skill. I was saving it up for an emergency. But you can die now."

Just as the first few locusts breached his skin and into his organs, Damien came up with a desperate solution during his moment of crisis. Pointing the tip of his sword at himself, he charged the weapon with mana as fast as possible and cast another spell.

"Dark..fire..."

He braced himself as an explosive attack rocked his entire body. The protections granted by his armor reduced most of the damage, but it was still difficult to withstand a self-inflicted explosion. Feeling the sensation of insects digging into his skin fade, he repeated the action once more, turning the locusts into dust as a second Darkfire spell roasted his entire being.

HP: 1431/2969

"DAMIEN!" Archbishop Romero called out in a panic, realizing that the boy had been pushed to the brink during the ensuing battle between Jensen and the vampire spearman. He had been too focused on mitigating casualties between their forces and healing Natalia's familiar to the point he neglected supporting Damien against the demon contractor.

Major General Brigatin came forward to help the boy, who had fallen to one knee and shakily tried to get up. The vampire noble got up, glaring at the general. It was as if he was warning the paladin away. Damien knew Romero's value to the army and was unwilling to take away from the force protecting the Archbishop. Turning his head slightly, he could see the gloating human move forward towards the weakened vampire.

Elson stared at Irene from a distance away. She had gotten a slight reprieve from the General of Wisperium's forces, who was being attacked by several grunts at once. They made brief eye contact, but unlike her usual smile, it was replaced by a wide-eyed expression containing shock. It was then that the demon contractor realized she wasn't staring at him, but something behind.

"Maxwell, kill."

The Shadow Servant rose from behind, catching the freshly molted human off-guard. It had been lying in wait, circling throughout the battlefield and waiting for an ample opportunity to strike. It had resisted the urge to rip the man's head off, obeying the mental commands Damien had summoned it with. Like a bolt of black lightning, it reached the human in a single pounce, mauling the contractor violently.

"ARGH! NOT THE FACE!"

After a few seconds, it withdrew. The demon contractor wasn't able to get a reprieve as Damien's silhouette stood over his prone body. With a mangled face, he stared into two obsidian pits with a glint of red. The burnt, scarred and disfigured face of Damien Rose, is barely visible through his battle helmet. Unable to get a word in, the scion of Wisperium beheaded the demon contractor with a swift swing of his sword.

The tides of battle began to change at his roar of victory.