Chapter 171 Heroes Or Villains

Alicar and I made our way deeper into the cave. It was quite humid, the air was moist, and overall, it was quite an uncomfortable feeling. After defeating the Marquess, the entire area became eerily silent. I was expecting more vampires to be present, but for some reason, there were none to be seen.

We were already completely separated from the rest of the group, for all we knew, they could all be dead. The slight thumping from our footsteps was the only noise that echoed through the dark, tense cave. As we went further inside, I could feel some sort of pressure, emanating out of the depths.

It made the hairs on my skin stand up. It was a feeling similar to the presence of the special zombies... although, there was a lot more dread. Ignoring the danger, we continued making our way in, for some reason, not a single vampire engaged us for several minutes.

"Where do you think they are?" I asked.

"I'm not sure... this might be some sort of tactic of theirs."

"I guess we should be careful then."

It was possible that they might have been hiding in order to organise a sneak attack against us. My [Darkness Hatred] ability should be able to stop anything like that happened though, since I'd be notified if there was a high concentration of vampires.

We trekked further into the cave, as I looked back, the entrance was only a tiny smudge in the distance.

[Vampire Detected]

[Rank]: Marquess; [Remaining Blood]: 100%

Ah. Finally. A vampire and a strong one at that.

Beside him, were a few other vampires, ranging from Barons to Earls. It looked like a pretty big fight was about to be underway.

"You take care of the Marquess, I'll wipe out the others first," said Alicar.

"Alright."

"I'll join you once I clear the area."

Without any time to breathe, the Marquess charged straight at me. I planted my back foot into the ground and prepared to parry his attack. Alicar had run off, clearing some of the weaker vampires behind.

'',

Clang. My rich purple sword clashed with the vampire's crimson blade. Bracing myself, I blocked a few more of his attacks.

"Sword, drink my blood."

Seeing the blood leaking from his arm, I jumped back. The blood flowed through his skin, eventually gathering on his blade. A bright red aura seeped out from his body.

This was about to be bad.

Without Alicar to back me up, I'd need to face this next attack head-on.

Kicking up a cloud of dust, the vampire dashed toward me. I raised my sword, blocking his first swing. However, the impact launched me into the hard, rock wall of the cave. Dust, debris and water showered down on my head as the vampire dashed toward me again.

Picking myself up, I tensed my entire body. Watching the movement of his arms, I tried to predict the path of his blade. Again, our blades clashed, causing a loud bang to echo through the cave.

Cut him down, Mayuri.

Drawing power to my blade, I launched a big shockwave of air toward the vampire. He seemed to have not thought much of it, deciding to take the blast head-on. It smashed into his arm, causing several cuts to form. All of a sudden, he looked down at his bleeding arm.

"Why... is this not healing...? What did you do?!"

Before he could comprehend what was happening, I closed the distance between us and frantically swung my sword at him. He blocked a few of my attacks before kicking me down onto the ground.

As he tried to land another attack on me, I rolled out of the way and got back onto my feet.

Ah, that hurt.

[Vampire Detected]

[Rank]: Marquess; [Remaining Blood]: 79%

Cut him down, Mayuri.

Again, I launched a shockwave of air at the vampire. He quickly jumped out of the way this time. However, I charged in and swung at his chest. In the chaos, I managed to knock his blade out of the way and land a slash on his body. My sword cleaved through the edge of his skin, cutting through his clothes, and drawing out his blood.

He looked down in shock as the wound didn't heal itself. he was starting to lose more and more blood as it stained his clothes.

'',

[Vampire Detected]

[Rank]: Marquess; [Remaining Blood]: 56%

The [Sword Saint] ability was incredibly powerful. Every single attack of mine is extremely potent, even against vampires. Without the ability to regenerate their wounds, eventually, they'll just bleed out like a human.

"Why can't I regenerate?! What are you doing, you livestock!"

His face scrunched up in anger as he fed more blood to his blade.

"Sword, drink more blood!" he screamed.

Sensing the aura around him grow even denser, I decided to pull back as far as I could. Keeping my eyes on his, I watched to see where his next attack would come from.

"I'm going to kill you, you piece of shit!"

Sprinting towards me at almost incomprehensible speeds, I could only pray and hope that I'd be able to block his attack. However, his arm was suddenly cut off, falling to the ground with a splat.

"Good job keeping him occupied until now."

Alicar was back, slashing into the vampire's flesh with his bright silver blade. The vampire grabbed his arm off the ground and tried to reattach it. However, it was basically all over. He was completely overwhelmed as the two of us constantly swung our swords against him. Unable to parry them all, he suffered more and more wounds.

Eventually, he fell to the ground.

"Sword... drink all of my blood, kill these useless pests!"

The aura levels around him peaked.

However, I was prepared this time.

A moment before he launched the attack, I quickly leapt to the side and avoided it completely. More and more of the cave edge was being shaved off.

Corpses littered the ground, they slowly evaporated into nothingness.