Chapter 138: The Calm Before the Storm

So, the war against the Vampires was over, it had been a hard fought battle, but we won. Nah, I'm just kidding, of course. It hadn't even begun yet, it was just a day later...but a guy can dream, right? 

In reality, I was at home along with the rest of Group D. We were getting high. I mean, there was every chance that we could be killed soon, so we might as well enjoy ourselves while we still could. The Vampires that had headed north and east were about a third of the way there, and according to Atticus, the rest had begun moving to the west and south this morning, and would be here sometime between the day after tomorrow and the day after that. 

"Dude, back up a sec...you're saying that there are Elves and Fairies hiding somewhere in this world? Aw, man, I want to see an Elf, I hope they're like the Elves we've seen in fantasy stuff in our world, you know, with the long blonde hair and big boobies!" Exclaimed Rai as he took a puff, after I'd filled them in on the details of yesterday's meeting. 

"Yeah, totall-..uh, I mean, nah...I-I'm not interested," I began, before changing my tone as I noticed Key glaring at Rai and Persia watching me with narrowed eyes. 

"What!? Oh, come on, man...you've got bad taste, Elves are the freakin' best-...ow!" Rai started, before Key walked over and smacked the side of his head, "Hey, what was that for?" 

"You had a fly on your head," She replied with an annoyed huff. 

Her expression clued him in as to why she'd actually smacked him, as a sheepish look of realization appeared on his face. 

"R-right, a fly...," He muttered awkwardly, averting his gaze. 

"It's too bad we don't have any reliable historical records...though if our ancestors really did enslave and force this Demi-human race to have their offspring, I can see why they wouldn't want any record of it," Remarked Az, swaying his webbed hand in front of my face as he took a puff. 

"Cut it out," I grumbled, pushing his hand away, "And yeah, it's a pretty dark past. I'm really curious about what actually happened to the other races though, did they die out or are they just in hiding? It's hard to believe that they've been hiding somewhere completely undetected for over a thousand years."

"I'm helping you get over your weakness, don't be ungrateful," He replied, putting his hand back in front of my face. 

"I'm already more or less over it, so cut it out," I muttered, smacking his hand away. 

"I feel kinda bad, the only reason we have Animas is because the humans we descended from forced another race to conceive their descendants," Mused Persia with a sigh.

"Wait, does that mean that all the current humans in this world aren't technically fully human?" Rai suddenly exclaimed with wide eyes. 

"Oh, yeah, you're right...these bodies probably have a pretty different genetic make-up to the humans we were in our old worlds," I responded as I took a puff and slowly exhaled. 

"These other races, you two already know about them through the fiction of your old worlds, right? I find that really strange," Frowned Key skeptically. 

"Yeah, but who knows...maybe they were designed by people who had reincarnated into our old worlds from a world like this."

"So, what are these other races like, from what you know?" 

"Well, Atticus only mentioned Elves, Fairies and Demi-humans. Elves are usually portrayed as having long pointy ears and blonde hair, Fairies are really small and have wings, and Demi-humans look like humans with animal ears and tails...but then, the Vampires in this world are pretty different to the Vampires I've seen in my old world's fiction, so who knows what the other races are really like," I answered with a shrug. 

"It doesn't really matter though, does it? I mean, these races have been missing for over a thousand years, so I doubt we'll ever see them," Shrugged Persia, losing interest. 

"Yeah, probably not, but that sucks...I wanna see an Elf," Sighed Rai wistfully. 

"Hmph, sorry I don't have 'long blonde hair and big boobies'...idiot," Huffed Key, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance as she stared down self-consciously at her chest. 

She wasn't exactly flat, but she was far from busty, so Rai's comment earlier had definitely irritated her, to put it lightly. 

"Y-you've got it all wrong, Key-Key! Your red hair is way hotter than dumb blonde hair, a-and, um...your boobies are the tits!" 

"...is that supposed to be a compliment?" 

"Totally!" He exclaimed affirmatively. 

"Hmph, I hate you." 

"Aw, come on, don't be like that, wifey...or should I say, wifKey-." 

"Never. Say. That. Again," She warned, grabbing his face, her expression a mix of horror and embarrassment. 

"Hehe, 'wifKey', that's gotta be the best worst pun I've ever heard," I snorted with a stifled laugh. 

"Grr, don't you start with that, Kuro," Growled Key, flashing me a glare. 

"L-let's just pretend none of that happened, 'kay? Oh, hey, Az, did you come up with any attack names?" Inquired Rai, changing the subject with no subtlety whatsoever. 

"Huh? Oh, that...no, not really. Seems unnecessary," He replied with a shrug. 

"Come on, dude, everyone's doing it these days!" 

"I'm not," Interjected Persia with a look of disdain. 

She really did find the whole idea of naming attacks stupid, huh. 

"What about the attacks you contributed for the ambush, didn't you name those?" Asked Rai, continuing to pester Az about i5. 

"No, I haven't...fine, I'll name that attack 'Giant Spiky Ice Balls'. Happy?" 

"Come on, dude, that's too literal, you gotta think of something cooler, heh...see what I did there? Get it, I said 'cooler', and you use ice-."

"Even if that had been a clever pun, which it wasn't, you ruin it by explaining it. If it means that much to you, then you think of a name," Shrugged Az with disinterest. 

"Hm, let me think...ooh, I know, how about Frostbite? The spikes could be like teeth, hence the 'bite', and you could catch your opponent off guard since it doesn't perfectly fit! I mean, when I hear 'Frostbite', I think of an icy breeze, so I wouldn't expect a big spiky ball of ice!"

Not the best name, but not terrible either...plus he had a good point, a name that didn't perfectly fit the attack could actually work as a useful bit of misdirection. 

"Frostbite, huh...I kinda like that," Mumbled Az in reply. 

"Awesome! So, then, you should come up with more attack names! I know, think up one right now!" 

"Uh...how about Hailstorm, but instead of simply raining down chunks of ice, I'll rain down sharp icicles," Replied Az, after thinking it over. 

Looks like he was on board with the whole naming thing, after all. He probably just didn't want to put in too much effort in coming up with names. 

"Ooh, I've got one...how about Absolute Zero, where you unleash a massive amount of ice all around you?" I suggested with a grin. 

"Hm...I like that one," He responded with a nod. 

"This is so dumb, guys...you agree, right, Key?" Sighed Persia, glancing at Key. 

"W-well, I-..."

"Hehe, actually, you'd be wrong about that. See, my Key-Key has also named her attacks!" Grinned Rai triumphantly. 

"Oh...," Replied Persia, giving Key a quizzical look. 

"I-it's not like I wanted to, but Rai kept pestering me about it, so I named a couple of my moves to get him to shut up, that's all," She muttered, a bit unconvincingly.

"Guess that makes you the odd one out, huh, Cat Girl?" I inquired teasingly, "Though it's not like you don't have any named attacks at all, I've named some for you, after all!" 

"As far as I'm concerned, those don't exist!" 

"Sure they do, let's see...there's Spiral Sphere, Spiral Sphere: Mincemeat, Meow-." 

"Hold on, what the heck are those last two!?" She exclaimed in protest. 

"Oh, you know...when you compress your Spiral Sphere and then expand it at point blank range to shred, or mince, your target into tiny little chunks, and Meow is when you blast wind out of your mouth, of course!" 

"That's a great name, dude, 'Meow' sounds pretty innocuous, but is actually pretty devastating!" Rai grinned approvingly. 

"You do realize that I'd NEVER yell out an attack name out loud, right?" 

"That's okay, I can yell them out for you," I teased her with a smirk. 

"Don't you dare."

We continued chatting and messing around while smoking up for the next couple of hours, before sleepiness took over. Persia and I dragged ourselves to our bedroom, while the others crashed in our living room. Days like this were always nice, but given what was on the horizon, to me it felt like the calm before the storm. But I planned to weather the upcoming storm, because I wanted more days like this one... 

... 

... 

The next day, things finally got serious. The remaining non-combatants shifted back to the evacuation zone at the south of the Rustlands, including Erhtaph and the royals from Bronztan and Silvland, who took refuge in the Rustlands' castle, which was located somewhere in the middle of the nation. All B-Ranked and above Adventurers were at the north, along with a few third year student Adventurers like myself. 

All the first and second year student Adventurers, along with all the C and D-Ranked Adventurers, were positioned a couple of kilometers ahead of where the evacuation zone started, as the last line of defense. 

The Adventurers positioned at the north were all under strict orders to follow the plan we'd settled on. It was simple, we had given the responsibility of launching the ambush to some A-Ranked Adventurers, eight of them in total. We had eighty Stored attacks, twenty each of mine, Ekai's, Az's and Instructor Tabbs' large scale attacks, each Adventurer would be given ten Extract cards of the same type. 

The two Adventurers who would be given the twenty Extract spells of my Scarlet Lightning Novas were both Wind Magic users that would use Flight and blast my lightning down onto the Vampires. Az's spiky ice boulders would also be dropped down from above by Flight users. 

As for the flame and wind tornadoes, four Adventurers were in charge of those, and would be on either side of where the Vampires would pass through as they approached the north gate of the Rustlands, ten each of wind and fire on either side, which would then be simultaneously unleashed to combine the wind and flames in order to create super fiery and powerful tornadoes converging onto the Vampire army from both directions. 

So, yeah, we'd be blasting them from above, the left and the right. Oh, and the Adventurers who would be launching the Extract spells would also be equipped with the modified Stealth barriers that excluded intangibility, rendering themselves invisible and soundproof as they launched the ambush. 

After the ambush was done, the rest of us would attack. The ambush was to be launched about a kilometer ahead of the north gate, and most of us would be positioned right outside the walls. There were about eight hundred Adventurers outside the walls, about a hundred stationed on top of and inside the walls, to fire the cannons and prevent the Vampires from getting too deep inside if they managed to get past the wall. 

And there were somewhere between three or four hundred of the lower ranked Adventurers back at the last line of defense. We had just under thirty S-Ranked Adventurers on our side, the only one missing was Elina, but she was a non-combatant, so she'd be useless anyway. 

With a few exceptions, all the Adventurers would be fighting in groups of three or more, and they were encouraged to team up with people they got along and worked well with. The exceptions were myself, Az, Ekai, Fuo/Atticus, Princess Cusnai along with a few other of Bronztan's S-Ranks, Neo Lapunder, Yuur Ganroh and Instructor Tabbs. Objectively speaking, Persia was also strong enough, but I made her team up with Rai and Key. If I had my way, she wouldn't be participating in this at all, but she adamantly refused that. 

We were all set and prepared for the attack, and now it was just a waiting game. I had a Call card on me that was linked to eight other Call cards, which were in the possession of each of the Adventurers who'd be launching the ambush. Normally, you could only link a pair of Call cards, but this spell was a bit different, in that it was a one-way spell. Unlike the normal Call spell, this one consisted of a sender Spell Card and multiple receiver Spell Cards. I had the sender, which was linked to eight receivers, all of which I could contact simultaneously. 

Basically, I run my Mana through the Spell Card to activate it, and it would vibrate each time one of the eight receivers were activated by the Adventurers. If it vibrated eight times, then it'd mean that they were all listening at the other end, and I could pass on any messages. The main purpose was to give them the signal as to exactly when to launch the ambush, to prevent any of them from losing their cool and attacking too prematurely. 

I was currently atop the wall, and it was about half an hour to midnight right now. According to Atticus, the Vampires that headed north appeared to have taken over Platinberg already, and the ones that had headed east to Bronztan were heading back to Silvland. Good, I'd been worried about the possibility of them heading for us after finding Bronztan empty, which would leave us having to face Vampires from both the east and the north...if that had been the case, we'd be so fucked right now. 

The king, one of the Evil Numbers, one of the Vampire Knights, five of the Vampire Generals and a few dozen Vampire Minions had stayed behind in Silvland, presumably to hold down the fort, so to speak. As for the group headed our way, they consisted of one Evil Number, three Knights, nine Generals, and a little over a hundred and thirty Minions. I knew what the Crosses of the Evil Numbers and the Knights were, but as for the lower ranked Vampires, Atticus didn't have much information on them. I couldn't fault him for that, I mean, I didn't even learn all the names of my classmates till my third year began, by which the number of students in my class was practically cut in half. 

"It will only be a matter of hours before they are upon us now. I suggest getting everyone into position before dawn," Advised Atticus, stepping up beside me. 

"Right. I suppose this doesn't really matter that much right now, but what's the statuses of the other three groups?" 

"Those who headed north are remaining there, and suffered minimal casualties, I sense that they lost about forty Vampire Minions or so, but the higher ranks that led them are fully intact. As for the ones that went east, all of them are going back to Silvland, I do not sense any Vampire in Bronztan."

"And that leaves The Empire to the west..."

"Yes, regarding the group that headed west...it would appear as though they have just arrived at their destination."

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