549 Chapter 549: Coiling Dragon

"I'm impressed," I continued, shaking my head. "You really forced my hand. That said, I'm pretty worried. If you'rre this strong, I can't imagine how much stronger Fan Le Lao will be. Just great…that means it will be extremely difficult for to defeat him."

"What are you talking about?"

Xu Wu Cheng stomped toward me, each of his footsteps leaving a distinct crater.

"Don't you dare speak of his highness Le Lao in that manner?! You think I'll allow you to ever get close to him?"

"What makes you think I need your permission?" I muttered, rolling my eyes as I retreated from him. Glaring at Xu Wu Cheng defiantly, I smirked. "And you seem to be mistaken about something, Xu Wu Cheng. You're just someone who has accomplished nothing (basically I'm making fun of his name Wu Cheng, which literally means no accomplishments). You're just a tiny stepping stone to Fan Le Lao."

With a roar, Xu Wu Cheng infused his foot with mana and raised it, kicking toward my head, presumably to break my skull and kill me.

His foot never reached my head.

"Green Dragon."

The sudden appearance of my Celestial Guardian swept Xu Wu Cheng off his feet with a single flick of his paw, his majestic figure uncoiling and whipping across to send the rest of the vampire forces into disarray. As they panicked and frantically dispersed, the great dragon raised his head and roared, his immense bulk almost filling out the entire space of the warehouse.

"W…what the hell is that?!"

Xu Wu Cheng spat out blood as he slowly rose to his feet, his injuries from Green Dragon's claws slowly healing. The legendary vampire regeneration, huh?

No matter. I would like to see how immortal a vampire was against a dragon.

"Get rid of them for me, please, Green Dragon."

My Celestial Guardian grunted at my request and lashed out.

"Guuaaaaah!"

Xu Wu Cheng bellowed in agony as he was flung across the devastated warehouse, Green Dragon's tail having caught him in the chest. An entire wall of the building was razed, and the structure collapsed. Unaffected by the falling debris, Green Dragon shrugged off broken beams and the shattered ceiling, bellowing as he stomped toward the remaining vampires who had yet to be incinerated by Vermillion Phoenix.

The warehouse was getting very crowded now…

The vampires fled, or attempted to, but Green Dragon's maw yawned and an emerald stream of mana swept out to obliterate them. Vines and wood sprouted from the floor, entangling the fleeing vampires and ensnaring them in suffocating tendrils or mercilessly cutting them to shreds with razor-sharp thorns. The more resilient were battered and crushed by thick logs of wood.

"Aaaaah!"

"Nooooo!"

As for the rest, Vermillion Phoenix incinerated them with his flames, in conjunction with Rossetti's Flaming Phoenix Kagura Dance. The wood was incredibly flammable, and consequently the whole warehouse was ablaze. Kufa also helped, darting in to thrust his katana and stabbed the entangled vampires in their chests or heads.

"Hey! Pick on someone your own size!"

Xu Wu Cheng bellowed and unleashed his blood hydras on Green Dragon, the fanged serpents hissing as they attempted to bite and bind the titanic dragon. The Celestial Guardian merely cast a bored glanced at them before he stomped his foot on the ground, conjuring a wall of wood and vines to wrap around the lunging bloody serpents and forcibly halting them in their tracks.

"…!"

Xu Wu Cheng jumped back to avoid getting ensnared by the vines and thorned tendrils, but he stubbornly continued to harry the immense dragon. Blood spears burst out of the ground, only for vines to burst out of the ground and coil around them, crumbling as they were crushed by the green plants. With an annoyed growl, Green Dragon lumbered after a retreating Xu Wu Cheng.

"Monster!"

The crimon-haired vampire noble spat in mixture of rage, dread and defiance. He raised his hand and coalesced his mana, firing off another barrage of blood spears again. With a flick of his tail, Green Dragon smashed the offending projectiles aside before blasting Xu Wu Cheng with emerald mana. Cursing, Xu Wu Cheng flipped his body high above the destructive stream and landed some distance away. With a swing of his hand, he conjured a fresh batch of blood hydras to attack Green Dragon.

As expected of Fan Le Lao's second-in-command. He was actually faring very well against Green Dragon. Honestly, he was much better than I thought. Perhaps it was because of all the blood he had sucked over the last week, but he was evidently stronger than he was when Rossetti and I double-teamed on him back then. Well, he was due a powerup, otherwise it would be boring to crush him. What, you think only the protagonists can get stronger? The antagonists would somehow sit around, fiddling their thumbs and wwait for the protagonists to beat them instead of improving themselves in the meantime? That wasn't very realistic.

The other vampires, inspired by their leader's defiance, had regrouped and resumed their assault. Except that Vermillion Phoenix and Rossetti were still around, backed up by Kufa. Rossetti's dancing spells boosted my Celestial Guardian's firepower and he unleashed an inferno to incinerate the scattered vampires of the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan. Meanwhile, Kufa weaved through the edges, taking out any stragglers who had strayed too far from their main force.

A few of them broke away to target me, plunging forward in a suicidal charge. With their leader distracted by Green Dragon, they took it upon themselves to slay me. After all, my Celestial Guardians would disappear along with my death. Recognizing that I represented the biggest threat, they were willing to sell their lives to take me out just so the rest of their group could survive.

I pushed my glasses up as I turned to face them, impressed by their bravery. Instead of swinging Hei Yue and Bai Ri to prepare for a melee battle, I summoned another of my Constellation spirits.

"Leo."

Leaving my back to Green Dragon, who continued to concentrate solely on Xu Wu Cheng, I allowed my dependable lion to materialize beside me. The charging vampires paused briefly in their charge, registering the danger.

They were too late.

"Regulus."

At my command, Leo unleashed the golden pillar of destructive mana at the incoming vampires. They immediately dispersed, but three of them weren't able to dodge in time and they screamed as their bodies were instantly disintegrated by the torrent of golden light.

"That's…!"

"…pretty powerful?" I asked as I drove the black blade of Hei Yue through the chest of the asker. His comrade spun around and slashed at me with her blood claws, but having anticipated that, I parried her strike with the white blade of Bai Ri.

While the dead vampire slipped off Hei Yue, I infused Bai Ri with cold mana and blasted the female vampire at pointblank range. The wave of azure mana surged from the white sword and froze her arms.

"You…!"

Staggering back, the vampire tried to shatter the ice that now encased her arms, but I advanced on her, slashing mercilessly. Fortunately for my opponent, her surviving teammates descended upon me from either side, hoping to catch me in a pincer attack.

How naïve.

"Leo, Regulus."

They had completely forgotten about the Constellation spirit I had just summoned. The lion bounded toward my side, his body flashing blindingly. Before the vampires knew what was going on, the entire space around them warped and disappeared in a fiery pillar of golden light. Four of the vampires who, in their hasty eagerness to attack me, were too far forward and thus unable to retreat in time when the fiery spell expanded. They shrieked for a brief second before they were completely disintegrated by the golden light. Seeing their teammates' demise, the rest of the vampires quickly retreated.

Then they vanished when Rossetti and Vermillion Phoenix unleashed their flames upon them.

"Richard! Are you all right?"

Rossetti landed gracefully beside me, crouching down as she held her chakrams out, almost as if they were fans.

"Yeah. Now all we have left is that fella."

"That and the survivors!" Kufa called out as he dueled with another vampire. I nodded, but glanced at my prime target.

"Blood Hydra Claws!"

The nine serpents materialized and attempted to wrap around Green Dragon. Clenching his fingers, Xu Wu Cheng transformed them into garrote wires of blood.

"Blood Hydra Whip!"

Green Dragon grunted as the blood wires stretched taut over his armored body, attempting to cut through his diamond-hard scales with immense pressure. Fortunately, they didn't pierce through and he merely cut the whips apart with razor leaf blades.

"…!"

Dismayed that his signature attack had failed, Xu Wu Cheng fell back, but he still wasn't out of tricks. As Green Dragon pursued him, he dove and slammed his palm against the ground.

"Crimson Sphere Blood Lances!"

Countless Blood Stakes speared out of the ground, slamming into Green Dragon's armored scales. His immense bulk made it difficult for him to dodge, but fortunately my Celestial Guardian was extremely durable. More annoyed than injured, he growled and entombed the battlefield of blood spears in overgrowth of shrubs, vines and plants before having them consume the blood in a single, brutal movement.

"You just won't go down, will you?"

Xu Wu Cheng huffed as he continued to withdraw, perspiration dripping down his handsome face. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his fist and conjured more crimson mana.

"As expcted of a monster…"

He was pretty resilient himself. As much as I hated to admit it, Xu Wu Cheng was proving to be quite the formidable foe. Not that I would ever tell him that to his face. I didn't underestimate him, but he was proving far more challenging that I had anticipated. I guess I didn't take into account how much stronger he would become after drinking so much blood.

I was hoping that Green Dragon would finish him off quickly in a one-on-one battle, but Xu Wu Cheng was unexpectedly drawing the battle out longer than I would have liked. And while he continued to stall for time, the rest of his surviving cronies were closing in on me, Rossetti and Vermillion Phoenix.

I exchanged a glance with Rossetti, and the both of us moved out. Spreading his wings, boosted by Rossetti's dance and my mana, Vermillion Phoenix annihilated the remaining vampires in an instant.

"You…!"

Howling in rage, Xu Wu Cheng tried to dive at me, but Green Dragon blocked his way. Gnashing his teeth in frustration, the red-haired vampire sent another armada of blood lances from the ground that failed to pierce Green Dragon.

I didn't waste any time. While Xu Wu Cheng's attention was focused on Green Dragon, I struck.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

Okay, that was a joke. A serious one, though. Black mana wreathing Hei Yue, I swung my black sword and blasted Xu Wu Cheng from behind. He stumbled, his body fuming, and then I thrust Bai Ri forward.

"Ugh!"

Xu Wu Cheng screamed when my white blade pierced him from behind, blood spurting from his chest and freezing as the red fluids were enveloped by my icy azure mana. The whole place exploded with white frost, the ice expanding and entombing everything within a frozen grave.

"Bastard…"

Blood dribbled from Xu Wu Cheng's mouth before freezing into red crystals. He struggled frantically, turning his head slightly to glare at me, but I gripped my sword firmly, twisting it deeper into his back and sending his body into violent convlusions.

"Stabbing me in the back…attacking me from behind…have you no honor?"

"Honor?" I snorted in laughter. "Coming from a guy who tried to overwhelm me with numbers? Even with my friends here, you easily outnumbered us a hundred to one. Not only that, you're the guy who blackmailed a girl and turned her into your servant. And you want to talk about honor? Also, who was part of a vampire clan that launched a terrorist raid on a school full of students who weren't fully trained, without giving them any warning? I don't want to hear about honor from someone as despicable as you."

"I'll never forgive you."

I actually burst out laughing at that. How rich! This guy, who committed all sorts of atrocities, was acting like he was the victim here. Had he gone out of his mind?

"I don't need your forgiveness. And just a side note, I will never forgive you either. I don't care about what you did to Ji Yan, but the moment you made me your enemy, your fate was sealed."

With that retort, I blasted his body apart from the inside by infusing my white sword with mana. Xu Wu Cheng let out one final cry of defiance before he blew up, his red-blood mana erupting with tremendous force. As I rolled away, stunned from the sudden impact, Xu Wu Cheng turned on me, clutching the gaping hole in his bleeding chest. Already the hole was beginning to close up as he forcibly channeled large amounts of mana into regenerating himself.

His regeneration skill was on a totally different level from the other vampires.

"What are you, a cockroach?!" I demanded as I glared at him, feeling more irritated at his unbelievable tenacity than cold dread.