The next day.

From the count's surveillance team, an army of unidentified objects in the sky were reported to be heading to the river village.

Ten minutes until the estimated arrival of the unidentified objects, the count waited at the same place he did yesterday alone with a very delighted expression.

“Those humans, they just don’t learn, huh? That just means more fun for me!” (Buroom)

The count, like yesterday, with careful movements took out the staff and began to chant for two minutes in a fast pace.

It numbered 1000 words.

Vampires used verses and sentences to chant, different from humans.

Though it is longer, a basic water attack using the vampire chanting system are stronger in power compared to using the chant system of humans.

When the count finished his chant, dark specks in the sky could be seen.

‘Right on time’ (Buroom)

The count did an additional chant to fly up above the houses until he was overlooking the army that garrisoned area in front of the houses.

Beyond the garrisoned area where his army was, the carbonised bodies of humans and dragons peppered the area.

The count pointed the staff at the direction of the specks near the horizon.

A moment later, several discharges of lightning surrounded the count as the staff began to glow a blinding white.

----

At the grassland in front of the river village where the two thousand strong army stayed behind the field where carbonised bodies of the attacking humans who were with Hachiro's group of heroes, two soldiers were conversing.

“Even though I know we aren’t the target, I still fear the thought of it firing from behind us.”

A soldier who was stationed behind the rows of mechs spoke out his thoughts.

“Don’t worry. The ‘staff’ is there to prevent it from hitting us. So just stay there and watch them get toasted. Trust me, it's going to be, electrifying.”

The two laughed heartily as they waited for the attack.

The ‘staff’ the count used was the attack's, ‘Lightning Empress’s’, targeting system.

Without it, the plasma's current and heat would not only attack aimlessly at the surroundings unable to differentiate from friend and foe, it would also attack the user.

----

Seeing the targeted side in effective range, the count released the attack.

An immense amount of electricity suddenly appeared around him that made a crackling sound.

‘KRAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!’

Not a fraction of a second later, the sound of lightning booming was heard.

It lasted seconds.

The sounds it produced was as if a tsunami made of lightning was destroying everything in its path.

When the count produced lightning, the brightness made him close his eyes.

After it finished, he opened his eyes to look at the results.

“WHAT?!” (Buroom)

What he saw was something unexpected.

Instead of the opposing side being slain, his army that was garrisoned in front of the river village was the side that was obliterated.

Remains of mechs that seemed to have blown up from inside lay scattered.

Though the operators inside those mechs were protected from the current due to those mechs substituting as a sort of Faraday cage, that didn't prevent the water tank used to cool it down from boiling then exploding.

The attack that was supposed to hit the enemy had gone to an unintended course.

“WHAT IS TH- ?!” (Buroom)

When the count was about to react to this scene, from the corner of his eye, he saw something approaching fast, heading for him.

It was going straight for his head.

Not even having the chance to react to the phenomenon of his army dying, the count quickly swivelled his body middy air to let it pass.

The count let his guard down, thinking he was in the clear.

As he was about to turn his head to the direction of the source,

‘Boof!’

Something exploded

“!?” (Buroom)

Green smoke encompassed the air around him.

By instinct, the count covered his nose and mouth with both hands that resulted in him dropping the staff.

‘I have to get out!’ (Buroom)

The count chose to fly away.

‘Wha!? Something’s stopping me from moving!’ (Buroom)

‘Boof!’

From beside him was another explosion that released more smoke.

‘Boof!’

Another exploded

‘Boof!’

Then another.

‘Boof!’

It kept continuing

The piled up mass of smoke continued to encompass the bound count in mid-air.

The count panicked for the first time in a very long time, pushing him to the edge.

'Fuck!'

His eyes were wide open and red.

'Fuck!'

Veins popped out of his forehead due to lack of air and also from the frustration of being trapped and unable to do anything like an injured animal waiting to be picked off by predators.

'Fuck!'

He clamped his mouth shut to prevent himself from shouting to vent his anger that would result to breathing in the unknown smoke that looked like poisonous gas.

'Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!'

His usual composure and care free manner was no longer present as the pale skinned face of his was replaced by something resembling a tomato.

‘If I am going to die here, you are going to die with me!!!!!!’ (Buroom)

In a quick and rapid pace, a magic with a chant that took two seconds was made by the count as a last resort.

Doing so made the count breath in the smoke.

'This is it!!!!!!!!!!'

The vampire army had chemical weapons in the form of green gas that made the affected vomit blood from their nose, ears and eyes, killing in a matter of seconds. Because of the complicated, expensive and secret production process, it was only available to a tiny select few in the vampire continents army. The count wasn't the select few, but he had information of it and also witnessed it in action.

That's why the count expected the green gas to be something similar.

His expectations were betrayed.

‘!? I was tricked!’

He was tricked.

He restarted flying magic that he chose to turn off when he breathed in the gas to chant a magic.

Quickly, he deployed a barrier after another quick chant.

It was for the suicide attack the count made as a last resort.

The attack was making a storm cloud above him to make lightning strikes attack the area around him.

It would not only attack his surroundings, but also him.

That’s why he frantically deployed a barrier earlier to defend himself from his own attack.

After the barrier manifested, it suddenly disintegrated.

“!?” (Buroom)

The count looked up at the dark clouds that with wide eyes.

“............Shit”

‘KRAAAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAA!’

Depending on the polarity type, be it positive or negative, lightning can carry electrical currents from 30 kA to 300 KA.

The count plummeted to the ground and crashed.

Steam and the scent of burnt flesh was emitting from the body of the count.

Because of the power of lightning, one can expect to die if hit by one.

Lightning is said to have a mortality rate of 10%, meaning that 10% of people struck by lightning, die.

The count was not part of that 10%.

“GRRRR…….GRAAAAAAAAA!” (Buroom)

A growl came from the count whose body steamed as he pushed himself off the carbonised ground.

Clearly, he was angry.

It was an anger that took over him.

Wanting revenge was the sole objective in his mind.

“Show yourse-?!” (Buroom)

‘Show yourself’ is what he tried to say.

But,

Something was shoved into his mouth.

Then,

‘Click’

The thing shoved into his mouth made the noise of a gun being cocked.

Not even a second after the sound was made,

‘Splat!’

The sound of brain matter splattering was heard.

----

“Commander. We’ve finished our investigation on the bodies. All victims either died directly from that lightning attack or indirectly from the explosions of those mechs except one.”

Mark, whose forces now had now multiplied to three hundred, secured the river village without any opposing forces.

When they arrived, they saw both the bodies of their comrades and enemies in carbonised states.

When they were headed to the river village, as per Kenshins instructions, they had encountered one of the heroes, Ami with Jen and some injured soldiers.

When they found out what happened, they planned to go to the area outside of where Ami’s group was ambushed.

As they were told about the enemy forces they fought in addition to the overpowered lightning attack they received, they chose to avoid confrontation and focus on grouping up with the heroes left behind by going to an area outside from where Ami and Hachiro's group split up.

But, on the way , they found Hachiro and the others.

They were brought back to a recaptured town they were using as a base to recover.

After they recovered, they formulated a plan to defeat the counts forces in the river village by ambushing them with Hachiro using the attack he used to repel the enemy forces before and use that opening to wipe them out.

But when they arrived, they found the charred bodies of their comrades and unexpectedly, enemies.

Deducing from the states of the enemy bodies, the cause was the same lightning attack that took out the battalion Hachiro's group was in.

Because they didn’t know who used that overpowered lightning attack, it confused them as to who it was that attacked them.

Various guesses were made as to whatever caused it.

Was it a monster that did that or what?

Maybe it was an unaffiliated person who has other aims?

Could it be that they were betrayed?

Could it be that the overpowered attack wasn’t actually man made but a natural event?

They asked for questions as to what had happened but they could only conjecture.