(Author’s Note: This beginning isn’t Kenji talking, but one of the Vampires)

This battle is simply stupendous! Livestock is really interesting, especially if they try to resist. Heroes, huh? There was this particularly group, who were summoned by the emperor to this world.

“Heroes? They are a unique livestock, that’s what they are.”

Their battle capabilities were a notch above the rest, but not their attitude. Strong? Yes. Coordinated? No. While fighting, most of them didn’t even noticed that some of their own magic, were hitting some of the knights. Or is it that they don’t care?

Seeing that, gave me a very good idea. I could transform them into my lackeys! The more pure a livestock’s mana is, the better they can be as undead.

There are several types of Undead. Vampires are one of them, with a well build Hierarchy.

Pure Vampires are at the third position, and they can control the lower ones. After that, comes the Elite Vampires, offspring of two Pure Vampires. Strong, but a level below the Pure ones.

With that, comes the Tainted Ones. Normal Vampires, which can be born by 2 normal humans, with a small mutation due to their amount of mana. The more they kill/feed off of people, the faster they can reach a higher position. It is a shame that is hard to happen nowadays. This emperor causes so much hindrance.

Then, below the Normal Vampires, are the Former Humans. Simply put, Thralls and Ghouls. Thralls being the weakest, but in high number, since any living being can become a Thrall. As for Ghouls, they are simply Thralls that desired to be more human. How pathetic.

And Lastly, Fallen Ones. Humans that hadn’t become a complete Vampires, and needs blood. But that, is also a problem, since blood will kill them. Those types… The ones who refuses the transformation, and try to live normally. HOW PATHETIC! HAHAHAHAHA!

“Hou~? There is someone interesting among them. That human girl… Long lustrous black hair… And she’s a swordswoman to boot… She reminds me of the Princess. Oh, how I wanted to feed on you, Princess.”

The Princess, Daughter of the Royal Vampire, Victor le Gant. She is a Tainted One. The Daughter of a Royal Vampire, and a Royal Oni. She was beautiful, if her cocky attitude, and HORNS, weren’t in the way.

“She could have become a good Mother’s Clan, but decided to be a Swordswoman. How pathetic.”

Nonetheless, the woman, and if her STATUS is to follow, a [Samurai], is very good. She is slashing a strange, curved sword, with extreme ease, AND being graceful while doing so. It is like she’s weaving some cloth. It is to the point I’m mesmerized by it. Sirius got another girl, and wanted to make her, his bride. I can do it too, right?

The thought of making this woman my bride was getting more and more interesting by the moment. Although a swordswoman, she does have good measures on her body. Perfect. It has been quite sometime I had a good meal.

I got myself gulping and eyeing the woman’s body temptingly. But looking more carefully, the other ‘Heroes’ would be in my way.

“Well, it has been your fault for staying in my way.” Breathing in, I focus on my mana. “Oh, Lord of the Bloody Kingdom. All creation shall fall to thee power! Upon the great wall of life, Nail thee Claws on Life Itself! In the Abyss of Despair! Waiting for the Blood to Flow! |Rain of Crimson Blood, Twin Lotus!|”

With the battle going on for awhile, Suzuki Mari started to feel a strange stare. Like someone was seeing her as a prey, about to be eaten. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it, she thought to herself.

Her ability with the sword was much more honed than her classmates, to the point where she didn’t had the need of Magic to defeat them… That’s what she thought, until Ayduin talked to her.

Instead of using magic with an incantation like every other mage, she used unconsciously, like she was breathing. Of course, the magic wasn’t THAT good, but made a huge difference in some cases. Since then, she added a lot to her repertoire of skills.

The main ones, were, of course, based on [Non-Elemental Magic].

[Non-Elemental Magic]. A type of magic, relying on pure mana, to give some effects to the user. The effects Varies from each individual, but they all can use the spells, and being completely different from mages, they can do that without chanting a long, and tedious incantation.

Alas, Mari’s skill, could be compared to the Sword of War, Colonel Gregory’s skill… when he reached the position of Sargent. She could keep up with him, until he used his Magic.

While Colonel Gregory could use the Non-Elemental Magic, [Flash Step], with great aptitude, Mari had that, and a variation of it, the [Heaven Step].

Different from [Flash Step], which helps the user to reach point A to B in a high speed, [Heaven Step], allows the user to make platforms on its feet, allowing it to ‘Step’ on air. Combining the 2 together, could be a strong weapon on a battle. Alas, for Mari, that was quite hard to reproduce.

Mainly, because she couldn’t concentrate enough to activate both skills at the same time, something that Ayduin noticed, and informed her about it. Alas, she couldn’t do that, even now.

“Dammit! There’s no end to this!”

“Keep fighting! We need to-”

“DIE! HAHAAHAHA!”

It had been happening, especially after he was rejected by Naomi, but Takahashi started to act very strange. Especially when Kenji’s name was mentioned.

He acted like he was in a complete, no. Not a complete rage, he was in rage. His movements become unpredictable, his eyes were bloodshot, and sometimes, they could see a strange figure right behind him.

Not only that, but his actions brought death to most of the knights around them, and Mari didn’t felt good seeing such scene. She was forced to kill her own classmates, transformed into mere puppets by the vampires. And seeing more death, made her gulp, holding the urge to puke.

“Still not used to this yet?!”

“What you think of it!”

Aoki asked her, while sweeping his new long sword against a bunch of vampire familiars. He, much like Mari, needed to kill his classmates. But. Just like the ones who stayed alive, he didn’t show any remorse while doing so.

Mari and Naomi were the only ones who acted with such attitude, and seeing their classmates killing another, made them disgusted for some reason.

“WAIT! WHAT IS THIS FEELING?!”

Aoki asked. He started looking frantically around. What he noticed, was a massive amount of mana being focused around. He wasn’t able to pin point the location, but the amount made him shiver.

“INCOMING! FROM THERE!”

While Aoki was frantically looking around, Hayashi pointed towards the Pure Vampire, and started his own incantation. Not only him, but Takahashi too.

“The Night skies are my source of power! Bend to my will and engulf my enemies! |Wave of Darkness!|”

Before Hayashi could finish his own chant, Takahashi finished his, and upon saying the key word, a wave of shadows appeared, engulfing the enemies from where he was, to where the Vampire was.

The shadow wave, upon touching the vampire familiars, simply vanished with their bodies. The spell of the Vampire, created a wave of blood, with strange black flowers on it.

When the two different waves connected with each other, the two mana sources made a boom sound. Like a certain beam battle on animes, the waves started to push each other, going ahead, and backwards.

“DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GUY!”

Takahashi poured all of his mana on his spell, while Hayashi helped him, by giving buffs to his spell. Since Takahashi had an affinity to [Darkness Magic], and Hayashi towards [Death Magic], they helped each other, and could make Takahashi’s spell much stronger. Alas…

“IT ISN’T WORKING! BASTAAAAARD!”

The Darkness wave was consumed by the wave of blood, but before it touched them, Hiroto, activated one of his spells, and hit his staff on the ground. Upon doing so, a yellow and white barrier appeared, stopping the blood from entering.

“Gruesome.”

Looking outside, the bodies of the fallen knights, and the Vampire Familiars, were consumed, dissolved, and were now different flowers.

“I… Can’t hold much longer! This isn’t normal magic!”

“You are correct, livestock.”

Looking upwards, they saw the Vampire, stepping on the top of the barrier.

“This. Is Vampiric Energy. Much like Draconian Energy, the Vampiric Energy empowers spells, especially those related to [Blood Magic]. Even this Time Barrier of yours, will soon be consumed by this waves.”

The barrier wavered, and they started to think between themselves, and talk with each other with ideas to get out of this situation. Except Takahashi. He was blabbering stupid things such as “Let’s swim through it!” and “We can kill him!”

“EHAHAHAHAHA! YES! RESIST! IT IS MUCH BETTER LIKE THIS!”

“Oh, do tell.”

“Wha-”

Before the Vampire could react, a lot of explosions happened, and all in a small amount of seconds. Behind the barrier, the ‘Heroes’ looked baffled. Not only the explosion destroyed all the liquid around them, but as the dust settled, it showed the Vampire, injured without an arm.

“WHO DARES TO DO THIS TO ME?!”

“Me.”

Appearing out of nowhere, and taking off what looked to be a hood, Kenji showed himself. He was atop of a hover-board, with a few blood dots on his clothes here and there. He looked just fine, but as for his opponent, well, he wasn’t.

The Vampire started growling, and some of its blood vessels got visible on his face. Soon, his lost left arm, started to regenerate with a gruesome appearance. Seeing that, Kenji made a disgusted face, looking as tough he was about to puke. He even put his own hand on his mouth so to not do so.

“Ew. What the blast was that?”

“Livestock should just obey.”

“Oh, I see. So? Where’s an owl when you need them?”

“Owl?”

The Vampire got confused. Seeing that, Kenji burst in laugh, and made not only the Vampire even more confused, but also the others.

“Aaah… Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t hold it in. Whew! Anyway! Owls eats bats.”

With a burst on the ground, the Vampire lounged itself towards Kenji. Seeing only a blur, Kenji instinctively activated the Agility Mode of his clothes, and vanished as well.

“Wha?! Where they gone to?!”

Mari asked, but her answer was soon received. Sliding across the floor was Kenji, with one hand holding the earth below him. He looked upwards, finding the Vampire with wings made out of blood, and with a condescending look towards him.

“I am fairly surprised. You was able to keep up with me.”

The Vampire said, with an impressed tone of voice. Getting up, Kenji cracked his left arm, and looked up.

“Not good. Not good at all.”

He murmured that, but only the closest ones to him heard that.

“Kasumi… Protect those idiots. Things are about to get a bit messy.”

(Are you sure? You won’t need…)

“I’ll be fine. Now go.”

A small fox came out of his shadow, walking towards the ‘Heroes’. Cracking his neck, Kenji simply activated the blades of his gauntlets, and moved in a high speed towards the Vampire.

The situation is like, really bad. I always thought my opponents would have at least something they were bad at, but this Vampire proved the contrary. His STATUS are well-balanced, and he is more than able to defeat me. No wonder he’s just playing, and with a smug expression nonetheless.

I tried to cut, kick, punch and so on, but he avoided with the most ease of the world. His STATUS were around 34K, and it was so different from anything I fought up until now.

First of all, the size. Compared to my previous enemies, this guy was small. But! His small size meant he had a higher speed and leeway to act. Against the Giant, I used the slime’s low Intelligence to deceive, and defeat it.

Against the monsters in dungeons and on forests, I had help from Kasumi and Amara. But against this guy? Those were basically useless. Even with the [Flash Step] enchanted on the boots, I couldn’t keep up with him. No, I could keep up with his speed, but hitting him was a complete different matter.

“Yawn~… Is this all? Why some of the Familiars had so much difficult to take you.”

Saying that, he approached me, launching a punch on my stomach. It felt like the air inside my lungs had disappeared. Following that, when I glanced at him, I received a punch on my face. I fell, rolling on the ground, quite a ways away.

“Hmmm… What was this hard feeling? It is your mask?”

Coughing and stabilizing my breath, I glanced at the Vampire. He shook his hand, like he felt it numb. So the Mondálium is good against the impacts… Shame my body isn’t. Shock. I felt my whole body shudder to what could happen if I wasn’t using the Odyssey Outfit.

When I got up, there was a hand on my face… No, the Vampire simply approached me in a high speed, grabbing me by the head, and pushed me to the ground. Not only that, but he dragged me, making a huge line across the field. Blast!

Not wanting to receive even more damage, I activated my left blade, piercing the Vampire’s chest. He felt the blade, and coughed some blood. He made a very angry face, and tossed me backwards, towards where the idiots were.

Falling, I hit the ground, and even bounced, until I stopped. Opening the mask, I rolled on the ground and tried to get up. When I got on my knee, and looked upwards, the Vampire was already in front of me. Are you serious?!

What he did? He flicked his finger on my face, just like a certain cat god from a certain anime, facing the MC. I was tossed on the ground once again, going a few ways away from where I was(again), right at the Barrier Hiroto made.

“Blast… This hurts a lot… Gah!”

While trying to get up, I coughed some blood. Looking through my MPD, I had a few broken bones. And some organs pierced.

“Well… it is over I think.”

Looking upwards, the Vampire had a very carefree expression on his face. I want to kill this bastard.

“Hmmm… Just to be sure…” He started saying, and then… he opened a wound on his left arm with his claws. “Victor-Sama wants your life… But that, can be done without your limbs.”

The blood flowed from his left arm, materializing into a crimson sword.

“Third Bloody Art, |Crimson Blade|.”

He glanced at me, and lifted his sword, aiming at my arms. I can’t move… No matter what I did, I couldn’t move my body. The sword came at me, and I heard some blood being spilled. Funny enough, my vision got all black. No, I didn’t close my eyes, it just happened.

“Guh!”

Hearing a grunt, I shook my head, and my vision returned. Soon, I saw the Vampire a few steps away from me, with the sword of blood broke on the middle, and with a cut through his chest. When I glanced behind me, I saw Suzuki-san with her blade draw. I gulped, and she started talking.

“You looked like you needed some help.”

“I feel grateful, but hurt at the same time.”

(Kenji-Sama… I’ll help too.)

Kasumi was about to jump towards me, but I stopped her. I got up, and activated [Restoration], putting my bones back in place, and healing my organs. THIS HURTS LIKE HELL~!

“Urgh! This hurts… Anyway…” I started, looking to the Vampire. “You better stay on Suzuki-san shoulder.”

“Why on me?”

“Cause I’m his target… Which means, that he might aim at her. Also, cause you need someone that can protect your back.”

“But what about you?”

“Isn’t you doing that already?”

With an “Ah!”, she nodded, and Kasumi as well. The moment was soothing… If it wasn’t by Takahashi’s small snark.

“Ha! You was saved by a girl!”

“Well, you was saved by me, who was saved by a girl. What that makes you, really?”

A vein popped on his forehead, and he was about to slash his scythe on me. But Suzuki-san stopped us.

“Enough, Boys… There’s an enemy in front of us.”

“She’s right.” And Aoki chimed in. “We need to defeat him first.”

“Talked like a real hero now.”

With that, the others were together, and now would be an 8 VS 1 battle. Never would have thought about this. What a day.

“Livestock… SHOULD BOW TO ME~!”

With a burst of mana, the Vampire shouted, and tossed said wave towards us. Quite heavy…

“Well, too bad! No one is bowing for you today!” I said sarcastically, and then… “This might be worth a shot…”

The idiots looked towards me, since I made a small package appear right in front of me. Even the Vampire eyed the Package with caution. The package was around 1 meter long, 10 centimeters in width and around 15 centimeters in height.

It looked like a box, except being round on the tips, instead of square. With the press of a yellow button on the middle top part of the package, it opened, revealing a sword inside. Not a normal sword, mind you. This was made before I made these idiots equipment.

The Dwarf simply said this:

“This a hard thing ta make. If ya use this, it’ll broke after the use. But, ya can make do for now with it. Kinda hard ta make something with this type of augment ya know.”

I took the sword out of the package, and the box closed, disappearing, and after I got a grip of the sword, I infused lightning and fire on it, by holding it with my 2 hands.

“Let’s make this thing done.”

The edge of the blade took a blue color, and I was ready to get back to the fight.

“You think a mere stick can change the outcome? I will show you… How inferior you are.”

“Less talk… More blood.”

Activating the Agility Mode, the vanguard, composed by me, Suzuki-san, Nakamura, Aoki, Takahashi and Kasumi on Suzuki’s shoulder, advanced towards him. The rearguard, was composed by Hiroto, Yamada, and Hayashi, since they would use magic and projectiles against this guy.

“Took the words, out of my mouth.”

Moving with the high speed of the Agility Mode, and the [Flash Step] of the boots, I started a flurry of slashes against this guy. Alas, my sword swished through air, since the Vampire avoided the attacks. He tried to use that as window to attack me, but fortunately, Suzuki-san covered for my mistakes, stopping him on his tracks.

He clicked his tongue, avoiding her attack, but a small cut appeared on his left cheek. Looking closely, Kasumi used that as an opportunity, firing a very thin black lightning. I was only able to see thanks to the MPD. It isn’t healing!

The vampire passed his hand on the cut, but it wouldn’t regenerate. His face was already full of anger, but now? He was even more pissed, and his eyes got bloodshot.

Observing the situation, Takahashi and Nakamura rushed towards the Vampire, waving their scythe, and punching as much as they could. Nakamura gauntlets were clad with fire, and his punches didn’t hit the Vampire by a hair’s breadth. As for Takahashi, he was trying to sweep the legs of the vampire away, which awarded him a kick on his face, sending him away.

Avoiding him, me and Suzuki rushed ahead. Aoki joined us, and with continuous slashes, the Vampire got occupied avoiding. Of course, we didn’t hit a single time. As we kept doing that, we heard swishes through the air. While Suzuki-san and Aoki jumped away, I simply ducked. The Vampire tried to kick me, but before he could do it, arrows struck on his chest. He glanced ahead of him, seeing Yamada with her bowstring loose.

“NOW!”

Hearing that, I got a bad feeling, and got out of the way. Soon, a black sphere, together with a strange white blade of energy approached the Vampire. But the next thing that happened, surprised all of us.

“Devour…”

With just a word, a strange monster, with white teeth, and no eyes appeared from the crimson sword. Then, it devoured the two spells, like it was nothing more than a gentle breeze. And that was it… The two spells were gone. My curiosity got the better of me, and I tossed two charges of Zerstörung, and the thing devoured as well.

Even more curious, I grabbed Schicksal, and shot a fire burst. The monster stretched itself, devouring the flames… Or was what it tried to do.

“What?!”

The Vampire jumped, avoiding the flames, and even I got confused to that. I would make a small snark to that, but just put Schicksal back on its holster, rushing through the smoke of the flames, and tried to slash on the Vampire, only to be punched and sent away.

I collided on the ground, and rolled, until I stopped. Aoki rushed ahead of me, with his golden blade shining with a strong golden light. Seeing that, the Vampire, retrieved the monster, and deflected the slashes. But every time he did so, his face would contort in… anger?

Suzuki tried to join in, only to be cut by an invisible source. He entire body got all soaked in blood, as well as Kasumi. Aoki lost his cool, and his movements started to become more random. KASUMI! SHOCK!

“What if I…”

Remembering the charges of Zerstörung being devoured, I took the transmitter out of the Digi-Storage, and pressed the button. Nothing happened… Was what I thought, but…

“It is useless. Your attacks cannot- GUHAH!”

He started talking, but suddenly, he coughed a huge amount of blood. Aoki used that as an opportunity, and slashed at him, but his blade was deflected away, and the Vampire slashed at him. His armor, which was a light gold armor, was simply cut clean, like hot knife on butter. Thankfully, he wasn’t cut completely.

“Wha.. at… Happe… ned…”

The Vampire staggered, and looked towards me. I heard a shout, and another white blade appeared behind me, and was going to the Vampire. But he simply vanished. When he simply appeared, right besides me, grabbing my arm, and tossing me on the ground.

“Gh! Whatta…?!”

I turned towards him, and saw that his wounds were healing. It was normal, since he was drinking my blood. With that, I acted by holding the sword in a reverse grip, and stabbed at him. He let go of my arm, pulling and tearing my flesh a bit. Did he felt… that much of a pain?

It was as tough the blade made him feel so much pain. When he appeared again, he was holding the area I stabbed with his two hands.

“What? What was that?”

“Dunno… And honestly, I don’t care.”

He made a very angry expression, but that didn’t mattered. Soon, a black scythe swiped at him. I ducked, avoiding the blade, and afterwards, a fire Hawk struck him, making him stagger again. Takahashi’s attack was innefective, and Nakamura’s too. So, the Vampire simply punched both of them away. Those two are really being tossed around, huh?

“ENOUGH! GAH!”

Another magic struck him. This time, it was Kasumi’s magic, a ball of black fire. I glanced at my blade, seeing a big crack on the middle of it. It endured more than enough.

The Vampire staggered, and turned around. His Blood materialized into small daggers on the air, and so, I rushed towards him, piercing his back. The daggers on air turned towards me, and so, I put to use the Odyssey Outfit function. The thin barrier.

The daggers struck me, but the barrier stopped the. Alas, I felt the impact. Imagine like a pointed thingy reaching your skin through your clothes, still not piercing you.

“RELEASE ME YOU WRETCHED FIEND!”

“HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU NEED! AOKI!!!”

The Vampire then noticed. Aoki appeared, slashing at the guy from his shoulder to his waist.It happened quite fast, but Hiroto saw Aoki’s technique was effective, since [Holy Magic] is very effective against Vampires. SO, he healed Aoki, and Aoki started to focus more and more energy on the blade.

“I… Won’t die… to LIVESTOCK!”

“Of course you wouldn’t.” I break the blade in the middle, making a charge of Zerstörung appear on my hand, and shove it inside his chest. “You’ll die to humans.”

So, I kicked him away from us with the help of [Flash Step], and when he got really far…

“WHAT DID YOU-!”

“THERE!”

Aoki started to talk, but I simply said the word, and pressed the Transmitter’s button. A loud explosion happened, and chunks of meat fell on the ground. Breathing out, I fell on the ground, sitting, and looking towards the meat chunks.

Not only me, but Aoki as well. Hiroto was healing Suzuki-san and Kasumi, as well as Takahashi and Nakamura. The latter two didn’t had lots of wounds, but were still hurt somehow.

After Takahashi got back up, he was searching for the vampire, but soon, he stopped and looked through his STATUS.

“I LEVELED UP!”

After that, we all checked our own STATUS, seeing that we all leveled up. I was at LVL 26, but now? I was 39. Wow~ It got up by a lot huh? My AGI, and DEX stats, were now more than 27K. My STR and CON stats got up by a huge amount, reaching the 19K. My HP got on 19K as well, and my MP even more, reaching the 67K. But my INT stat was the one who got a huge boost. It was around 14K, but now? Is on 32K! Might be because of Anarchy, actually.

“What a day, huh?”

We stayed there for quite a while, since we were too tired to even walk. A carriage with doctors and priests appeared afterwards, and we were taken back to the capital’s gate, reaching it almost at night.