554 Chapter 554: Boss Battle

When did he…?

Then again, he was seconds away from the chamber. I thought we still had some time to run, but evidently I was wrong. Damn it, we shouldn't have dallied…

No. I was misunderstanding something. This whole castle was Fan Le Lao's territory. In other words, we had been running around in the palm of his hand from the very start. No matter how much sooner we ran, he would have caught us instantly.

He must have made use of his knowledge or power over his own base to avoid the Federation soldiers and the medic who were tending to Nan Gong Ji Yan. Either that or that group had already left, probably bringing Ji Yan to the surface after sedating her.

Whatever the case, Fan Le Lao was now here, right in front of us. A few dozen meters away from our position, but it felt as if he was standing right in front of me.

Gritting my teeth, I gently placed Nan Gong Zhao Yan down on the floor, propping her against a corner. With Rossetti beside me, I straightened up and faced our enemy with clenched fists. The most powerful member of the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan, at least in our generation. And we were fighting in his territory.

This was bad.

Gesturing toward me arrogantly, Fan Le Lao's lips curled into a sneer.

"Return Zhao Yan to me."

"She was never yours."

"Fine, then." Fan Le Lao coolly cocked his head to the side as he stared at me, his eyes raking over my battered body callously. "I'll just have to take her from your dead body."

"Over my dead body."

"That's what I just said." Fan Le Lao shook his head. "Oh, and it seems that you've killed Xu Wu Cheng? Impressive. He was right about you, after all. I didn't think you would be this much of a threat. Not only did you kill so many of my clansmen, you even brought the Federation military and mercenaries to raid my castle, and now you are stealing my woman."

I burst out laughing. "Zhao Yan is NOT your woman."

"She will be."

I guffawed even harder. "How? With your shoujo manga-style drama where you cast some stupid illusion spell to manipulate her memories and have her attend the same school as you, get closer to you and fall in love with you in the cheesiest manner possible? Only a delusional manhua artist would think you can pull something as absurd as that off."

"…"

"Don't tell me you were really intending to do that."

"It worked in Vampire Sphere."

"Well, this isn't Vampire Sphere."

"What are you guys even talking about now?!" Rossetti demanded, turning from me to Fan Le Lao and looking completely bewildered. "From earlier, you guys have gone off into your own world and are arguing over something I don't understand."

"You don't have to understand," Fan Le Lao told her coldly. I chuckled and shook my head.

I honestly didn't know what went on in the heads of certain female authors.

"Shut up!"

Fan Le Lao's murderous aura exploded, rippling across the clearing and sending shivers down my spine. Rossetti also looked similarly affected, her face turning pale. Both of us stumbled back a little from the shockwaves, heaving as the thick, menacing atmosphere threatened to suffocate us.

This guy was on a totally different level.

"In any case, you've really drove my clan to the edge of extinction. I'm afraid I won't be able to forgive you now. Hah~" Fan Le Lao sighed and shook his head. He then raised his head to glare at me, a cold glint in his purple eyes. Huh…what was with these bishounen characters and their weirdly colored eyes? Who the fuck had purple eyes? I had never seen someone with purple eyes in my entire life. "I didn't want to do this because you're quite the interesting fella. But you've forced my hand."

"What, you didn't think there will be repercussions after assaulting our school, killing a huge fraction of the student population and staff, abducting a good number of hostages and trying to kidnap the rest of Zhao Yan's family, did you?"

"I did…but I must say, your actions have exceeded my expectations. Man, I really wanted you as an ally. Looks like Wu Cheng was right, after all. I should have killed you from the start."

His eyes flashing in cold fury, Fan Le Lao swung his hand down. From the ceiling, a murderous hail of blood spears rained down upon our position with the force of meteors.

"Snow Aegis!"

I grabbed Rossetti and dragged her closer while throwing out my right hand and summoning my snowflake shield to protect us from the rain of blood spears. The crimson lances slammed against my six layers of protective mana mercilessly, but thankfully my defense held. That didn't stop me from wincing from the tremendous impacts. Every time a spear collided with my shield, I felt a tiny shockwave of mana ripple through my body.

Fortunately, I had Rossetti by my side. She did a small dance, careful not to whirl outside of my territory and into the barrage of blood spears, and I could feel her spells buffing my defense. Thanks to that, I felt the impacts alleviated slightly and I was able to solidify my defenses.

"Uaaaah!"

With a murderous cry, Fan Le Lao descended among the hail of spears, thrusting his real spear forward. I raised Snow Aegis to parry his strike, shuddering from the violent collision. Thankfully, with Rossetti's buffs, I could withstand the powerful blow. Fan Le Lao didn't seem like he was affected and he merely thrust his spear repeatedly in movements almost too fast for my eyes to follow.

Sparks flew as the thunderous spear strikes hammered brutaly against the defensive layers of mana, tiny but powerful tremors spreading across the stalwart shield to rock my shuddering body. Fortunately, Rossetti continued to buff me and I weathered the relentless onslaught without much difficulty. I exhaled and held up my right hand, matching Fan Le Lao's vicious bows defiantly. His movements grew increasingly faster, but I refused to back down and stood strong with my formidable, frosty defense.

If Fan Le Lao was growing frustrated at my refusal to fall, he didn't show it. He was coolly and efficiently thrusting his huge spear, as if believing that he would eventually be able to penetrate my defenses.

"Richard!"

I glanced at Rossetti, who was casting a different buff spell this time, and nodded when I read her intentions. Even if Fan Le Lao wasn't able to destroy Snow Aegis, he sought to wear me down eventually to force me to expend all of my mana on defense. Once I was exhausted, it would be a simple matter for him to deliver the killing blow.

As if Rossetti and I would let that happen. That was why she was casting her buff spell.

With a yell, I parried a strike from Fan Le Lao and suddenly lowered my shield. While his guard was still down, I stabbed him with Bai Ri, which was blazing from holy flames bestowed upon the white blade from Rossetti's dance.

"!!!"

Fan Le Lao staggered back, having twisted away to avoid a fatal blow. Even so, flames spread rapidly across his chest and he had to surge his bloody qi up to extinguish them. He didn't panic despite the surprise blow he had suffered and instead reacted with a vicious slash of his spear that would have eviscerated me if I hadn't blocked it with Hei Yue. Dismissing Snow Aegis, I prepared for a close combat duel, but another sweep of the vampire prince's spear sent me skidding backward from the sheer strength of his blow, my feet gouging out the concrete from the ground.

"Huff…what raw power!"

I dropped to my knees, heaving. Rossetti rushed toward my side worriedly, her chakrams raised defensively. Fan Le Lao glanced at his chest before he stroked his chin curiously. He then glanced back at me.

"Impressive. I didn't think you would be able to counterattack under such circumstances."

I gritted my teeth. Bloody monster. He didn't even flinch from my sword thrust, which had been buffed by Rossetti. There was little sign of injury, and the flames that I had left on his chest were immediately extinguished by a surge of his demonic mana. I felt cold perspiration drip down my face.

How could I win against such a monster?

To make matters worse, Fan Le Lao's retinue finally showed up. They flanked their prince, scattering on all sides to form a semicircle that surrounded Rossetti and me. Clearly they did not intend on allowing us to get away.

I glanced at the hole in the wall that Taurus had made. Unfortunately for my Constellation spirit, he had been impaled by the blood lances, so I temporarily couldn't summon him for a while. I also didn't know what to summon against a monster like Fan Le Lao. Whatever I had in mind would be outmatched by his skills and innate blood magic.

"Attack!"

Fan Le Lao didn't give the order, but someone among his retinue did. A sergeant, perhaps. At his command, the vampires charged forward. Both Rossetti and I also rushed forward, moving in perfect coordination. Unleashing torrents of flames from her Heavenly Flaming Phoenix Kagura Dance, Rossetti incinerated a few of them. I stabbed and slashed with Hei Yue and Bai Ri, while summoning Vermillion Phoenix at the same time. The whole chamber was enveloped in an inferno, and the space was filled with the screams of immolated vampires.

"!!"

Fan Le Lao struck again, his spear almost impaling my face. Fortunately, I pulled Bai Ri up in time to deflect this spear to the side. I then retaliated with a riposte from Hei Yue, but my enemy dodged under my strike. Undeterred, Fan Le Lao resumed his machine gun-like barrage, thrusting his spear repeatedly against my swords. I matched him blow for blow, parrying every single one of his strike as determinedly as I could, eeven as crimson sparks flew from the ferocious collisions and sprayed our surroundings.

Unaffected, Rossetti and Vermillion Phoenix continued to engage the surviving vampires – the remnants of Fan Le Lao's retinue. Fan Le Lao focused solely on me, his attacks growing stronger and stronger, with each strike more powerful than the last one. He knew that as long as he could slay me, Vermillion Phoenix would automatically disappear. Similarly, Rossetti wouldn't be able to do much on her own.

It was a sound strategy. I wheezed and panted, but held steady my resolve.

Like hell I was going to die here!"

"I see."

Even as he continued his barrage, Fan Le Lao studied me quietly, his purple eyes cold and calculating. I felt shivers from just looking at those dark depths.

"If a frontal approach will not suffice…"

"…!"

I was almost taken by surprise when a blood spear sprang to life behind me, almost impaling me in the back. Sidestepping the sudden projectile, I watched as it ricocheted harmlessly off my Bai Ri when I parried it, shattering harmlessly.

But there were more blood spears emerging behind me.

I was forced to dodge and roll away when the row of spears suddenly launched themselves at me. They slammed into the ground, burying their sharp ends deeply into the soil. Miraculously, none of them hit Zhao Yan, but I suspsected that Fan Le Lao was controlling his blood techniques on purpose. Of course he wouldn't want to injure "his woman."

Vermillion Phoenix and Rossetti were a different matter altogether. Fortunately, their teamwork was seamless, the two of them moving together to engulf the blood spears in purifying fire before they could reach either of them. Fan Le Lao was less concerned about his subordinates than he was over Zhao Yan, and they were forced to move or get hit by friendly fire. Either he didn't care about their wellbeings and thought of them as expendable or he trusted them enough to dodge his blood spears without any difficulty. Knowing him, I bet it was the former. The guy was a callous bastard with no regard for the lives of people who weren't the heroine. He didn't even care about Xu Wu Cheng, his right-hand man.

Spinning around, I cut through Fan Le Lao's relentless bombardment with strikes from my black and white swords. The vampire leader didn't even wait for me to finish defending myself. He was already lunging at me before I could destroy all of the blood spears. I was barely able to cross both of my swords to block his spear in time.

Clang!

"Oof…!"

I grunted as I was shoved back from the immense impact. Skidding across the ground, I did my best to defend myself from his simultaneous attacks from the front and the blood spears from the back. As it was, Fan Le Lao's movements were far too fast for my eyes to follow, even with the holographic overlays that calculated and predicted the trajectories and directions of his attacks for me. I was reacting purely on instinct now, parrying and blocking whatever attacks he threw at me.

Unfortunately, with his superior combat skills, Fan Le Lao deftly bypassed my defenses and left wounds on my body – most of them from the insidious blood spears that he sneakily launched from behind. Not being a god, I couldn't handle attacks from so many directions.

"Ugh!"

I staggered back despite doing my best to deflect a hit. Even as I knocked away a thrust meant for my heart, Fan Le Lao's spear gouged out the flest on my left arm. Blood spilled onto the floor, dripping from the numerous wounds he left in his wake. Even if I was able to avoid a fatal blow from Fan Le Lao, I would slowly die from the massive blood loss.

Death by a thousand paper cuts. That was Fan Le Lao's strategy.