Chapter 98 - The Vampire's Crypt - IV

As if to purposefully mock Alvira for her overconfidence, the vampire boss suddenly erupted into a cloud of red mist, completely enveloping the party.

"Why did you have to jinx it." Zankoku yelled as he attempted to escape the mist. "It has a second phase."

Merlin quickly leapt out of the mist's range. He found that his vision was partially obscured by red blotches in his eyes, and his attempt at wiping it away didn't work well enough.

Merlin watched as his party stumbled out of the mist, it seemed that a couple of them had been completely blinded, and a couple were coughing out what looked like blood.

The mist slowly gathered back into the shape of a human before dissipating, leaving the vampire standing there, seemingly unhurt.

Merlin and Zankoku both sprinted towards the vampire. Vines burst out of Merlin's shoulders and attempted to restrain the boss, but the vampire cut the vines apart with its sharp claws, forcing them to retract back into Merlin's body.

While the vampire's attention was locked on Merlin, Zankoku started his attack, He performed a large sweeping attack from behind the vampire, leaving a deep gash in both of its calf muscles.

The vampire turned around and swiped its claws at the samurai, leaving a deep gash in his face and sending him tumbling towards a pile of cages.

Merlin took this opportunity to leap onto the vampire's back, stabbing both of his daggers into the back of the boss's neck.

The vampire roared in pain as Merlin's daggers sunk into its flesh. It began quickly twisting its body in an attempt to throw Merlin off, but he was holding on using the daggers as support, it began reaching for Merlin, but he barely avoided the boss's grasp.

Zankoku stood back up and charged towards the boss. He managed to slide under the incoming wide swing of the vampire's claw before delivering a strong slash to its abdomen.

Merlin ripped one of the daggers out of the vampire's neck and began repeatedly stabbing the neck as if he were trying to saw its head off.

An arrow suddenly flew through the air, piercing the creature in the ribs. The vampire's attention snapped towards Nora, who had just prepared another arrow. The vampire's eyes glowed faintly before another arrow was let loose, this time the arrow flew way off target, shattering against the stone wall. Nora dropped her bow and stood there in a daze, she had fallen victim to the vampire's charm.

"Someone slap Nora, she's been charme--" Merlin noticed Nora's behaviour, and immediately shouted instructions to her teammates. Unfortunately his commands were cut short as a large claw reached towards him, successfully wrapping itself around Merlin's head.

Before Merlin could react, he felt his body lose all its strength as he was picked up by the head and thrown to the other side of the room. His body rag-dolled through the air before crashing into the ground, only stopping once his body collided with a wooden desk.

His collision snapped one of the desk's legs off, causing it to collapse on top of him.

Loose sheets of paper covered in strange symbols slid off the desk and landed around him, a thick leather-bound book with a faint glow joined them, creating a hefty thud sound as it landed on the stone floor.

As Merlin tried to reach over and grab the book, he just found out that he currently couldn't move or feel anything below his neck, which caused him to groan in frustration.

Merlin's eyes locked onto a few of the sheets of paper instead, his eyes traced the strange foreign symbols that were scratched onto them. The symbols seemed almost entirely unfamiliar to him, but he had a strange feeling that he had seen them before.

A few minutes passed before Merlin's attention snapped back towards the fight. He saw Alvira get pierced in the chest by the vampire's claw, only to be thrown aside as it continued fighting the rest of the party. It didn't seem like Alvira was dead, but she looked close to it.

Tiny retaliated, launching a powerful swing into the vampire's shoulder, causing it to go limp and fold at a strange angle. The boss let out a deafening roar as its eyes suddenly became bloodshot, with its one remaining arm it punched Tiny as hard as it could, sending him barrelling into a handful of cages behind him.

Several more arrows were let loose, half of them missing their target as the vampire weaved back and forth as it approached the archer. Zankoku attempted to intercept the boss, but was quickly overpowered and sent tumbling backwards.

Nora let one more arrow fly before rolling under the boss's swipe. She tried her best to create more distance while shooting at it, but the vampire was too fast. Eventually she was caught as well, and her party watched helplessly as her arm was snapped. Nora screamed in pain, while the boss seemed to be laughing at her suffering.

The vampire dramatically swung is head back before sinking its fangs into Nora's neck, her screams slowly died out as she felt her life force drain out of her body.

Merlin suddenly felt a rust of pain flow through his body, he quickly found out that he could move his body again, although it felt sluggish he crawled out from under the desk. He immediately noticed that his daggers were still lodged in the back of the boss's neck.

He watched as the boss was coming real close to killing Nora, and a quick glance told him that nobody else was going to make it in time. Merlin grabbed the broken desk leg that was laying beside him before he sprinted towards the vampire while chanting a skill name.

「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack will do an extra 5% damage, and has a 10% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」

Merlin quickly closed the distance, he watched as Nora gasped for life, and the vampire dug its claws into her body. Merlin leapt into the air and swung the wooden leg at the vampire's head. He also made an attempt to whip it with his vines, but unfortunately it didn't trigger his passive.

Merlin received a notification jingle informing him that the skill had triggered. He watched as the wooden leg erupted into a cloud of splinters that scattered out in all directions. Nora's hair seemed to have caught most of them.

The vampire shrieked, dropping Nora as it staggered backwards. Nora's body fell to the ground almost lifeless, but she was still breathing, albeit barely.

Merlin found that he was left with nothing more than half a wooden table leg that conveniently sharpened into a jagged point, forming a makeshift wooden stake. 

Merlin's attention snapped to a noise quickly closing in behind him, he turned around just in time to see Zankoku sprint past him with his sword drawn and chanting a skill name. Zankoku angrily roared as he cleanly  sliced one of the vampire's legs off, causing it to fall onto its back.

Merlin made his way towards the vampire as he watched Zankoku angrily slice at the vampire's body. Merlin received a small jingle notifying him that his twenty second cooldown had finished, at at that moment he began chanting the skill for heavy strike again.

Merlin leapt onto the boss's chest, pinning it down before he thrust the makeshift stake into its heart as hard as he could. He heard the vampire's ribs snap as the stake forced its way in. The vampire clawed at Merlin's side desperately, but then as the stake pierced its heart, it stopped moving as if it had been paralysed.

Zankoku came in with the finishing strike, a downward strike with all his might that successfully cleaved through the boss's head, sending it rolling away. Merlin felt his body slightly sink as the vampire's corpse he was on top of turned to dust.

"It's finally over." Zankoku groaned before collapsing onto the ground.

Merlin dug his daggers out of the mound of dust before standing up and casting cleanse on himself, causing all the filth he had acquired to slowly peel away.

"God, I hate vampires." Merlin groaned as he began pacing around the room. As he checked up on everyone's conditions. They seemed to be fine, and their passive regeneration would kick in soon.

"That definitely shouldn't have been here, something is seriously wrong." Merlin mumbled to himself as he approached the book he was looking at earlier.

He picked the book up and inspected it, causing an information window to appear before him.

┌───────────────────

[Strange book. (Unique)]

A strange leather-bound book, the pages are full of scribbles featuring foreign symbols. Its contents may be translatable.

• Uses remaining: 1

• Grants Knowledge: "Language: Bashkatil (Beginner)"

└───────────────────

"Bashkatil?" Merlin muttered out loud. It was an interesting find, a language that even Merlin hadn't heard of.

He wanted to claim the book for himself, but he had to comply with loot etiquette and announce his find. "Hey guys, I found a book here that teaches you another language, do you mind if I take it?"

"What language?" Zankoku asked. Fortunately he didn't seem that interested in having the book, it appeared to just be mild curiosity.

"It's called Bashkatil, I believe it's the language scribbled around this place, and probably the language the boss was speaking in." Merlin explained.

"Oh cool. Yeah go right ahead." Zankoku answered. Merlin also received confirming groans from the rest of the party.

Merlin immediately opened the book, causing it to light up and vanish, giving him a notification in return.

「Knowledge Obtained: "Language: Bashkatil (Beginner)"」