"Now then," Teresa Taylor said coldly. "I"ll put an end to this, Fan Fu Qing."Despite the imposing sight before him, Fan Fu Qing had not budged or turned to retreat. He merely responded with a defiant glare. Teresa Taylor didn"t care. Instead, she continued with her threats, but this time her words held a sense of self-reproach.
"If I don"t end this immediately, not only you…but both Saint Teresa Academy and myself will be reduced to oblivion as well."
As Teresa Taylor neared him, Fan Fu Qing stood his ground, silently taking in the scene before him.
It feels like I am standing before G.o.d Himself, being judged for every sin that I had committed from birth until now. I can feel the weight of His glare, and the burden of his punishment. The sensation of being burned at stake after being condemned by the faithful. Without the physical reinforcement spells that have been further enhanced by the blood magic of vampires, I would have been cremated to ashes already.
Teresa Taylor"s foot sc.r.a.ped to a stop a few meters away from the stationary Fan Fu Qing.
"What happened?" She asked mockingly, her sword lowered at her side. "Are you just watching?"
Fan Fu Qing responded with a baleful glare.
"No," Teresa Taylor admitted. "My question was certainly mean-spirited. Without your sword, there is nothing you can do. I can understand that you are so frozen with fear that you"re unable to move. But once you snap out of it, feel free to run away."
Fan Fu Qing"s eyes narrowed in anger. But Teresa Taylor"s fury surpa.s.sed his.
"Though I will catch you and kill you immediately."
Fan Fu Qing"s eyes widened when he understood that Teresa Taylor"s words weren"t a threat. They were a promise, reality made manifest. G.o.d"s will about to be executed.
Snapping out of his stupor, the vampire king then conjured his mana and created a gigantic blood lance, which he unleashed toward Teresa Taylor. The crimson projectile streaked through the air at a terrifying speed, leaving a broken trail of rubble in its wake.
However, in the face of such a powerful attack, the White Witch merely swatted away the immense projectile with one of her wings, flinging it in another direction. The blood lance exploded harmlessly against the ground a few meters away, raining down debris on the headmistress. Even then, any bits of rock and dirt simply disintegrated against the s.h.i.+mmering halo that shrouded her body before they could even get close.
"Right."
Unfurling her wing to reveal the cold expression on her face, Teresa Taylor gave Fan Fu Qing a pitiful stare.
"Now that your sword is broken, all you have left is your blood magic. Well then, let"s go."
With a single leap, she propelled her body through the s.p.a.ce between her opponent and herself, closing the gap at an incredible speed. It was almost as if she was soaring across the air, her wings of holy fire spread wide in majestic fas.h.i.+on. In the face of such danger, Fan Fu Qing threw out a hand, acc.u.mulating blood-red mana into his palm.
"What?" Teresa Taylor demanded. "Nothing"s going to work on me!"
"Don"t think that you"re the only one who improved her skills and magic over the last twenty-five years, Teresa Taylor." Fan Fu Qing"s eyes glowed red as he solidified his mana. All around him, thousands of blood spears rose from the ground, all pointed toward the soaring headmistress. "Curse of the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan! Eternal Blood Fortress!"
The countless blood spears launched toward Teresa Taylor, but before they could pierce into her body, they disintegrated against the radiant halo and blazing wings of holy fire that wreathed her slender frame.
"Holy Cremation."
Teresa Taylor raised her sword toward the air. A blinding light descended from the heavens and slammed down onto Fan Fu Qing"s position, razing his Eternal Blood Fortress with holy fire. Despite unleas.h.i.+ng the wrath of G.o.d, there were still a good number of blood spears remaining between the two.
Then Teresa Taylor crashed into the ragged figure of Fan Fu Qing, her sword cleaving through what little blood spears remained. The vampire king gritted his teeth and conjured a ma.s.sive blood sword that he then used to meet the White Witch"s ferocious blow. The two superpowers clashed in a holy and b.l.o.o.d.y explosion in the middle of the campus grounds, the collision of their mana sending tremendous shockwaves throughout the academy.
I could no longer see what was going on in there except bloodied spears and a raging inferno of holy white. It didn"t matter. I had to go. I had more important priorities to see to. Turning my back on the ma.s.sive clash, I made for Zhao Yan"s position.
As I sprinted across the courtyard, my friends followed me closely. While I searched for Zhao Yan"s position, I came across a bunch of vampires who were feasting on the blood of the other students. There were still a bunch of students fighting against them, but their magic was no match for the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan. Thankfully, I saw that their a.s.sailants so far were the younglings instead of the adults. In the distance, I could see the teachers taking care of the adult vampires. Teacher Einsberg, for example, was engaging a trio of matured veteran vampires.
Despite Teresa Taylor"s holy flames burning in the background and vaporizing the moisture in the air, Teacher Einsberg was still somehow able to conjure ice from nowhere. He froze the vampires, incapacitating them, and injured them by shattering their frozen limbs. However, the holy flames of the White Witch"s angelic form continued to heavily restrict his ice magic and therefore his spells were not as effective as before.
It was clear that he didn"t need any a.s.sistance, however. When I ran toward him, he waved me away. He also dismissed my friends.
"Go help the other students!" he instructed. "I can take care of these vampires myself!"
I exchanged a glance with Rossetti and Kufa, and then we nodded in unison. The other students in the distance were slowly losing ground to the young vampires, and unless we directly intervened, they were doomed.
As much as I wanted to locate Nan Gong Zhao Yan and save her from the tragic fate of a shoujo heroine in a bulls.h.i.+t vampire manhua, I couldn"t just watch other people die.
"Honestly, we should be getting out of here," Kufa muttered darkly as we ran toward the students. "The school is doomed."
"We can"t just leave them!" Rossetti protested hotly, gesturing toward the other students. Kufa sighed.
"I"m not suggesting that we abandon our schoolmates, I meant we should all start evacuating once we rescue them. There"s no longer any point to sticking around here. If all of us want to stay safe, we need to escape from the school."
"I doubt it will go down that easily." I glanced back as another huge explosion rocked the academy. "Headmistress Taylor is still fighting. I find it difficult to believe that the vampire king can defeat her."
"Yeah, she"ll probably annihilate the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan." Kufa nodded in agreement. "In the meantime, let"s help as many people as we can!"
"Over there!" Rossetti pointed. I joined her in sprinting toward the besieged students. Kufa scowled before he followed.
"Guys, I know you want to help, but don"t be reckless! Check to see if there are any veteran vampires among them! We can"t fight the masters – we will have to leave the adult vampires to the teachers. We should intervene only against the young vampires. I know how you feel, but we won"t be helping anyone if we get ourselves killed."
"Kufa is right." I sighed. "But those guys there are young vampires. We can handle them. Rossetti!"
"Roger!"
She nodded, understanding what I intended. I bounded to her front and then cupped my hands. Without pausing, she sprinted and jumped, stepping onto my linked hands. I then tossed her high into the air, and she drew both of her chakrams. Almost as if she was dancing in the heavens, she swung her chakrams about and conjured flames.
"Heavenly Phoenix Kagura Dance!"
The young vampires glanced up in shock, not expecting an attack from another student. Without hesitation, Rossetti was raining fiery death upon them.
"Flaming Phoenix Feather Blades!"
"Ugh!"
The vampires shrieked as they were struck and immolated. They staggered, flailing about as their bodies combusted, the fire spreading from where Rossetti"s feathers stabbed into them.
However, they were pretty tenacious. While they were still floundering about, I took a deep breath and continued running toward my schoolmates, who had frozen at the incredible sight. They were rooted to the ground from disbelief, and still vulnerable to whatever attacks from the surviving vampires.
Gathering mana, I charged right into the fray and broke a path through the remaining vampires, scattering them. As I recklessly plowed through the stunned enemies with my swords, I managed to free my cla.s.smates from their grasps – sometimes by severing the poor vampires" hands at the wrists or even just below the elbows. The b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.ds screeched in pain and rage as they recoiled.
"Ah!"
"Whoa!"
They dropped onto the ground and scrambled to their feet, staring at me in surprise. At that moment, Rossetti landed beside me, and the two of us began fighting back-to-back. Her chakrams lashed out and cut a ring of destruction and blood through the vampire horde while I slashed our enemies with Hei Yue and Bai Ri, hacking off limbs and heads. We covered each other"s back, making up for our partner"s flaws and plugging whatever gaps in defenses we saw while executing a relentless attack that decimated our enemies.
"Amazing…"
"That"s…Rossetti p.r.i.c.ket. And the transfer student…"
"Were they always this skilled?"
"I can"t believe how well they are fighting together!"
I paused and gestured impatiently at them to leave.
"We"ll take care of them! Hurry up and escape!"
I realized that I was sounding like Kai Lin from earlier. d.a.m.n it. I hope I didn"t trigger a death flag or anything. After this, I still had to go look for Zhao Yan. Raising Hei Yue and Bai Ri, I continued to carve a b.l.o.o.d.y swathe through the vampires, occasionally covering Rossetti while simultaneously leaving my back to her.
"The h.e.l.l?!" Kufa complained when he finally caught up. He had to weave through the crowd of students who were fleeing in the opposite direction just to reach our position. "You two didn"t leave anything for me, did you?!"
I was about to retort when I saw a fresh wave of young vampires bounding over the rooftops of the campus buildings and descending toward our position, blood magic congealing around their hands and forming deadly claws. Reinforcements, obviously. No matter how many vampires Rossetti and I slew, there were more where they came from.
"You and your big mouth," I grumbled, glaring at a chastened Kufa.
"Sorry."
"No time for jokes, you two!" Rossetti chided. "They are coming!"
As the fresh wave of vampires lunged toward us, the three of us prepared for our counterattack.
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