Chapter 423: Bravely Going Alone
Sigh… I thought that even though we are outnumbered now, we can still win easily because of the help of the expert level mages. But it seems that I was wrong.
Why did Albert want to only give the chance for everyone to fight, except for the expert level mages? It will be easier if they join and defeat the vampires, right?
But no! The expert level mages are just for support and reinforcements in case we"re losing! Even the angels and the werewolves were not part of the plan. Only humans with power of advanced level or lower.
"We need a strategy that didn"t include the expert level mages because they are powerful. During the real war, they will most likely be given other jobs. The werewolves and the angels are also our trump cards. I can"t ask them to not partic.i.p.ate, so I told them to protect the areas other than from where the vampires will be coming. By the way, what are you making?" Albert explained his intention, and then asking me what I"m doing.
"It"s obvious. I"m making a banner that says "Welcome, Vampires!" so they can see our hospitality," I said.
"If your hospitality means you will kill them, I don"t want to buy the dictionary you"re reading," Albert said.
I ignored him as I painted the plank of wood with paint. As they are vampires, they might love red color, so I wrote the message in red.
"…do you think vampires can read? Even the werewolves and elves can"t," Victoria said.
"Ah!"
"You totally didn"t expect that! They won"t react at all to your "hospitality"!" Victoria shouted.
She"s right. The werewolves and the elves can"t read. But after they are under me, I get Sophie or the others to teach them writing and reading. Sometimes, I would even bring Daniel and the other kids so they can learn together with the werewolves. Though after the lesson is over, they started racing. The kids would ride the werewolves in their wolf form, and the winner will get a treat.
Now that the orphans have know me better, I don"t mind telling them about this world. They also said that they will help us once they get older. Though I hope they don"t need to do that in the future.
But now that I was reminded of the monsters being illiterate, why do I have to do something troublesome?
"Tsk! If I know they are illiterate, I won"t have to do this," I said.
"You are the only one who would ever think of doing something like this!" Victoria shouted.
"Master! Instead of writing, how about pictures?" suddenly Jewel suggested something good.
"That is a good idea. Let"s draw it," I said.
"What good would that be!?" Victoria complained.
"They will stop momentarily and admire my work of art," I said confidently.
"Just don"t do that! And Jewel, don"t give him weird suggestion!" Victoria said.
"Sigh… fine. Let"s leave now, Victoria," I said.
"Leave where?" Victoria asked.
"To the battle of course. We"ll leave the other vampires to Albert and the others, while we fight the Vampire King. If we enter the same battlefield, there will be too much hindrances for our fight," I said.
"You"re going to face him right now?" Albert asked.
"Yeah. See you later," I said.
This time, Spot is not with me. He will be watching the fight nearby instead, while I fought the Vampire King alone. Well, not alone since Victoria is with me.
"Graham, Shelia, you two can do whatever you want. Just don"t be hindrances to Albert"s strategy, okay?" I ordered my two other familiars.
"Understood, Master," Graham said.
As for Shelia, she left right away. She said that the village is often under attack because it"s in the way of weak monsters to reach here. Even though there are many werewolves and angels staying behind, she wanted to see it for herself.
I think Graham also think the same as he flies to the same direction Shelia go. Even if there are any strong monsters attacking, those two should be enough to handle it. Three if I include Graham"s shadow clone.
I left with Victoria and Sonia, who is invisible, to report to Albert once I encounter the vampires.
"Victoria, turn into a katana right now," I said.
"Right now? Isn"t it too fast?" Victoria asked. But she still transformed into a katana.
"Not really. And prepare a lot of small Blobbies as well," I said.
"You"re thinking of fighting while using portals?" Victoria asked again.
"It depends on how the fight goes, but yes. The vampires won"t die unless their heart is destroyed. Maybe I should have made a contract with them instead of the angels? But how they consume blood and use it for the source of their power could be a weakness as well, while the angels and the werewolves don"t have any obvious weakness. So, I guess it"s fine the way things are," I said.
"What if they surrender?"
"If they truly think of surrendering, I will let them leave. Maybe. If I could get their cooperation to fight the cult, then it"s fine to let them live," I said.
And I finally reach the vampires as we talked. They have stopped and are waiting to meet me who come alone. Seems like their king asked them to stop to watch the situation first.
"Human. What is your name?" the Vampire King asked.
"My name is Roy. Nice to meet you. And you are?"
"I"m the Vampire King, Avan," he introduced himself.
"So, why are you stopping, Avan? Waiting for me?" I asked.
"Yeah. Twice that you got us by surprise, but it won"t happen again."
They are much smarter than the werewolves and the angels. If it"s the werewolves, they would attack me if I do the same thing to them as what I did to the vampires. And if it"s the angels, they will fight me as well. Though the angels would be too easy to fight.
But the vampires, they stopped and watch the situation first. How clever.
"I can tell you that I won"t do that anymore. You have gotten closer to my friends now. Except for the Vampire King, whom I judge to be the strongest among you, the rest can go and fight my friends. I won"t stop you or kill you unless you attacked me first," I said.
"…go," Avan ordered his army to go.
And as promised, I will not do anything to them unless they attack me first.
"Oh, and if you surrender in the face of my friends, you can say so. If you all sincerely won"t fight us anymore, they will stop fighting. You can also appoint someone else as the leader in case you are surrendering. Of course the one you appointed has to be someone other vampires will follow. You can also appoint more than one leader," I said.
"…everyone in Marquess rank, you all will be the leaders. As for those in Duke rank, you will fight him with me," Avan said.
"…It won"t be a one on one?" I asked.
"I won"t underestimate you anymore," Avan said.
So, I will fight the Vampire King and the Vampire Dukes? As for the Duke, one of them should be as strong as the vampire boy that Shelia defeated, right?
If it"s a one on one, I can win easily. But it"s not.
I guess I should be glad since their most powerful members will be fighting me instead. Albert only need to mind the others.
Since their duke rank vampires won"t fight, and our expert level mages also won"t partic.i.p.ate, I guess we are similar in strength. Just that the vampires outnumber us. Well, if it"s Albert, I can trust him to do well. After all, he is also the one in command during the war in my past life. And he can stop the cult for so long until after I die. Though I don"t know how long that is.
So, even though we are outnumbered, Albert should still be able to do something here. Even if he can"t Harold and old man Henry will help him. As for Lynn… well, I don"t know. But at least Claudia can be trusted.
Other than Avan and four other vampires, everyone else started walking with those he called as Marquesses at the lead. I will do as I say and won"t do anything to them.
But it seems like not all of them will walk forward. Some of them have started coming here in hope that they can kill me.
"Stop!" Avan shouted, but the attacking vampires ignored him and attacked me.
"You killed my son!"
"You made me kill my own brother!"
Well, that"s understandable seeing how they are angry. But I won"t let them kill me.
There are about ten vampires getting close to me, with dozens more of them behind. Well, it"s ten first.
I swung Reizpear and Victokatana quickly as I killed the ten approaching vampires.
"I said I won"t attack unless you attack first. Since you attacked me first, I will kill you," I said.
The other vampires, including those who are marching forward and Avan, were in shock seeing how easy it is for me to kill ten vampires. Maybe it"s because they have drunk a lot of blood before, so they don"t expect to not be able to do anything at all.
As for the dozens of vampires behind those I killed, they no longer have the will to fight. Not only they won"t fight me anymore, they also deserted and escape without following the rest to go to Angela"s location.
At least I can still reduce their number even if it"s just a little bit.
"What are you looking at? Still want to come at me?" I provoked the vampires. But they are too afraid and continued their march instead.
Now, it"s just me and Victoria, against five vampires. One Vampire King, and four Vampire Dukes.
Maybe it should be five, but since that boy died, there"s only four Dukes left.
Well, here we go.