Vampires are classified as undead, but they are quite different from ordinary undead.
Typical undead originate from the corpses or skeletons of living beings, whereas vampires are usually born as vampires from the start.
They obtain the energy necessary for activity by draining the life force of other creatures, and because they prefer to suck blood directly with their mouths, they are called vampires.
Like other undead, they are beings that transcend the laws of life and death, and they have a deep understanding of the “gloomy wave” that resurrects the undead.
Because of this, they can freely control lesser undead and can even seize control of undead under a necromancer’s command.
However, such vampires rarely show themselves to the world.
This is because they were thoroughly slaughtered during the “Vampire Hunt” centuries ago, leading to a drastic decline in their numbers.
The surviving vampires, fearful of being hunted by humans, went into hiding.
As a result, in modern times, vampires were considered creatures one could only read about in history books.
However… there are still some vampires who are dissatisfied with this situation.
They lurk among humans using their characteristic stealth, waiting for the right moment.
To once again reign over the world as lords of the dead.
“Don’t mess with me!”
Sabat jumped into the air.
He hadn’t used wind magic. It seemed he had launched himself without any relation to the element of wind.
‘What kind of technique is that?’
I could have figured it out if I had time to observe carefully, but now was not the time.
I had to control the skeletal monster made from Drake’s bones while simultaneously casting fire magic.
“Charlotte, get Helios to safety!”
“Ah, okay!”
Charlotte didn’t argue about wanting to fight too.
She instantly judged what the right move was.
‘If it comes to close combat, I’m at a disadvantage.’
According to records, vampires are far stronger than humans.
If Sabat had strength comparable to the vampires from the records, he could tear me apart with one hand.
I had never trained in magic intended for close combat — if he got close, it would be over.
‘I must not let him approach!’
I sent the skeletal monster forward to block Sabat.
But when Sabat raised his hand, I had a bad feeling.
“…!”
Right after I hastily retreated.
When Sabat swung his hand down, the skeletal monster was shattered by the impact.
‘What monstrous strength…!’
Since I hadn’t fully mastered necromancy, the bone connections were probably quite weak.
But I hadn’t imagined it would be destroyed in a single blow.
“You bastard…!”
Sabat flew through the crumbling bones.
Without hesitation, I launched the Fireball I had prepared beforehand.
“…!”
Boom!
The massive ball of flame struck directly, followed by a huge explosion.
“Ugh…!”
Confirming that Sabat staggered, I immediately retreated.
While securing speed with wind magic, I also prepared more fire spells.
‘My fire magic works. But it’s not enough to deal a fatal blow.’
Even though he had been hit head-on by the Fireball, Sabat wasn’t seriously wounded.
There were only scorch marks here and there.
‘What should I do?’
While moving rapidly with wind magic, I kept firing Fire Bolts.
Unlike skeletons, Sabat definitely felt pain.
Even if it was hard to inflict fatal wounds, I could at least keep him in check.
“These petty tricks…!”
Sabat swung his hand in frustration.
A dark, sinister energy burst out, swallowing up my Fire Bolts.
‘Vampiric energy emission…!’
According to a book I read before, vampires could spew out malevolent energy from their mouths.
Although it didn’t come from his mouth this time, it seemed similar.
‘If I come into contact with that, it’ll drain my life force!’
While continuously firing Fire Bolts to block Sabat’s advance, I kept my distance.
But Sabat kept releasing that dark energy and closing in.
“All you can do is run like a pesky fly…!”
“…!”
Thud!
Sabat’s fingers smashed into the wall, missing me by a hair’s breadth.
If I had been even slightly slower, my body would have been torn apart.
However, I couldn’t completely avoid contact with the dark energy.
“Ugh…!”
A sudden wave of dizziness hit me.
I lost control of the wind element and tumbled to the ground.
Sabat charged at me.
“Die!”
As he reached out toward me—
I moved the scattered bones around us.
“Ugh?!”
My focus was weakened, so I couldn’t form a proper structure.
But the bones randomly fused at the location I had specified.
Engulfing Sabat as he lunged at me.
“Damned things…!”
Sabat thrashed violently, scattering the bones.
In the meantime, I managed to widen the distance.
‘Fireball, once more…!’
While Sabat was still occupied with the bones, I unleashed another massive Fireball right above his head.
“Ugh…!”
Since it hit him right in the head, it seemed to have dealt substantial damage.
Sabat staggered, glaring at me with furious eyes.
“To be humiliated by a mere brat like you…!”
“…!”
Suddenly, Sabat jumped again.
His movement was completely different from before.
Had he been holding back his full power until now?
‘This is dangerous!’
I desperately summoned as much of the wind element as I could.
All my focus went into evading Sabat’s attacks.
But Sabat continued chasing me relentlessly.
“It’s useless!”
“…!”
He smirked as if sure he would catch me—
But then, a voice rang out from above.
“That’s our line.”
Thunk!
Two daggers flew through the air and stabbed into Sabat.
One embedded in his shoulder, the other in his leg.
“Kh… what is this…?!”
Sabat let out a groan of pain.
An extreme reaction, considering it was just small daggers.
‘Wait, those are… the multipurpose silver-plated knives sold at the shop where Helios used to work…!’
As I gasped and looked up—Two figures descended the stairs.
“Good thing we bought the silver-plated multipurpose knives. They’re working great.”
“Are you alright, Eriol?”
Familiar faces.
It was Cain and Senia, my classmates.
They were battered from fighting skeletons on the way here.
“You guys are so late.”
I smiled.
While fighting, I had hoped that someone from the tournament would come to help.
And secretly, I had hoped it would be Cain and Senia.
That hope had come true.
“Hey, is that how you greet people who fought through a horde of rampaging skeletons to help you?”
“Eriol, what’s up with that guy? He doesn’t seem human.”
“He’s a vampire.”
Hearing my answer, Cain and Senia grimaced.
“A vampire, huh? This is the first time I’ve seen one in person.”
“Doesn’t look like an easy opponent.”
Despite facing a vampire, neither of them wavered.
As expected of descendants of the Trigger family, famous for assassination, and the Artyan family, renowned for swordsmanship — both of whom once participated in vampire hunts.
“Cain, Senia. Can you distract him for me?”
“Giving us the hard job, huh?”
“It can’t be helped.”
Cain and Senia moved as I directed.
Both of them were much more skilled than me when it came to physical combat.
“You arrogant brats…!”
Sabat pulled out the silver-plated dagger stuck in his body and roared.
But Cain and Senia closed the distance while drawing their spare daggers.
“It’d be nice if we had better weapons. These are just for work.”
“I’d prefer a longsword too… but you need a permit to carry something like that.”
As Cain and Senia chatted leisurely, Sabat charged at them.
However, the two narrowly dodged and slashed at Sabat.
“Guh!”
While leaving small wounds on Sabat, the two moved swiftly in all directions.
Thanks to the time they bought, I was able to prepare a fire spell.
“Cain, Senia!”
When I raised my voice, Cain and Senia immediately backed away from Sabat.
Right after that, the fireball I launched struck Sabat once more.
“Graaah!”
Was it because he had already been wounded by the silver-plated dagger earlier?
This time, the damage seemed much more significant.
“Damn it, if it’s come to this…!”
“What the hell?!”
Cain exclaimed in surprise.
Sabat’s body had split into multiple copies.
“Clones?!”
It was said that vampires had the ability to divide their bodies.
Even if the clones were destroyed, as long as one remained, they could survive.
“He’s trying to escape! We can’t let him get away!”
“Damn it, how are we supposed to catch that many?!”
There were five clones in total.
They all tried to flee outside the staircase at once.
But just then—
“…!”
Paang!
Five ice spears dropped from above the stairs, hitting each of Sabat’s clones.
“I’ve laid Helios down in a safe place!”
“Charlotte…!”
Charlotte came running down the stairs, rapidly firing off ice spells.
Sabat dodged by moving erratically to evade the freezing magic.
He looked like a bat flitting through the night sky.
“At that speed, we can’t possibly land a hit…!”
“No, it’s fine.”
Thanks to Charlotte’s barrage of ice spells, the surrounding fire elements had absorbed the heat and were now superheated.
If I used that power, I could generate enough firepower.
“Ah…!”
Senia let out a gasp.
Since she had been practicing with me all along, she must have realized what I was about to do.
“Keh keh. Useless fools!”
The five clones laughed at us as they darted around.
“You’ll never catch me!”
“Well, we’ll see about that.”
I combined numerous magical strings in my mind to complete a spell.
The moment I projected the spell into reality, the superheated fire elements around me vibrated and released an immense amount of energy.
That energy condensed in front of my hand… and the spell of ‘homing’ was imbued.
‘Fire Missile, enhanced version.’
Papapapapang!
It was a guided flame missile, far stronger than when I had defeated Helios during the rookie tournament.
Not a mere distraction, but a sure-kill move meant to eliminate the enemy.
The fire missiles launched toward Sabat’s clones.
“What is this…?!”
The clones shrieked in horror.
They twisted and turned, trying to dodge the flames, but it was no use.
My homing spell perfectly tracked their movements.
“Gyaaah!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Since they had split into five, their defenses had weakened even further.
Every time a missile struck, one clone exploded.
“This can’t be happening…!”
KABOOM!
With the final missile’s impact, the last of Sabat’s clones exploded.
Thus, the vampire who had tried to build an undead army by exploiting the dungeon conquest tournament was completely obliterated.
“Haha! As expected of Eriol!”
“We did it!”
“Whew, that was close.”
Cain and Senia ran over to me, and Charlotte approached, letting out a sigh.
But then, I felt a severe dizziness.
“Huh?”
“Stay with us!”
“Eriol…!”
Maybe it was because I had come into contact with Sabbat’s dark energy, or because I had overexerted myself with powerful magic.
My body felt unbearably heavy.
“Sorry, I think I’ll need some help…”
“Eriol!”
As I felt someone catch me, I lost consciousness.
“Mmm…”
How long had I been out?
I opened my eyes, feeling groggy.
“You’re awake?”
“…!”
Startled by the voice beside me, I sat up.
Sitting next to the bed… was Kaisel.
“U-Uncle…”
“You were out for about three hours. Probably because you briefly came into contact with the vampire’s malice.”
Saying that, Kaisel handed me a plate.
On the plate were neatly sliced pieces of apple.
“Eat. I had it prepared for when you woke up.”
“Wait, did you… cut these yourself, Uncle?”
Kaisel Valencia cutting apples himself?
For his bedridden nephew?
That sounded completely absurd…
“No, Klein, who was here until a moment ago, prepared them. He was hoping to win some points by offering them to you once you woke up.”
“…”
Of course.
“He waited for hours, but now that you’re awake, he’s not even here. Poor guy.”
“When did you arrive, Uncle?”
“About three minutes ago.”
“…”
“Anyway, let me explain the situation first.”
Kaisel said in a calm voice.
“Sabat Bastia used his vampire powers to try to seize control of the skeletons placed in the tournament dungeon. His goal was to build an undead army of his own.”
“…”
“The skeletons, under Sabat’s control, rampaged, causing many injuries among the participants. However, since the rampage stopped sooner than expected, the damage wasn’t too severe. The professors quickly rushed into the dungeon and brought the situation under control.”
That was a relief.
I had feared many lives might have been lost.
“The reason the rampage ended quickly was because you swiftly eliminated Sabat.”
“Even without me, wouldn’t the professors have taken care of it?”
“Probably. But it would’ve taken longer, resulting in greater casualties.”
“…”
“You played a major role. Well done.”
It was unexpected praise.
Even when I took first place in the rookie tournament, Kaisel hadn’t been this straightforward with his compliments.
“But this isn’t over.”
“Huh?”
“There’s something bothering me.”
Kaicel continued calmly.
“Even if he seized control of those skeletons, it was still a pitiful force from the Academy’s perspective—nothing but a joke.”
“Well…”
“Sure, if he had taken the participants hostage, it could’ve been troublesome. But ignoring that possibility, the professors present could have easily handled the situation.”
“…”
He made a fair point.
Maybe in a normal small town, it would have been different, but this was Ars Magna Academy, filled with elite mages.
Even hundreds of skeletons would have been easily subdued.
“Sabat Bastia was a recognized prodigy here. It’s strange he didn’t consider that.”
“Then…”
“Looks like you’ve figured out what I’m getting at.”
Kaisel rose from his seat.
“Will you come with me?”
“Of course.”
Though my head was still spinning a bit, I got down from the bed without hesitation.
“We have to finish this.”
“Good attitude.”
Nodding lightly, Kaisel and I headed outside.
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