Chapter 205: A Bloody Good Time

Merlin and his friends made their way into the corrupted Victorian-era temple. The air was thick with the scent of decay, and he could feel a cold chill run down his spine. He glanced around at his companions, seeing a look of mild anxiety and apprehension on their faces, except for Alvira, who seemed rather excited.

The interior of the temple seemed to be predominantly Greek in design, although it was hard to tell due to the sheer amount of damage that had been done.

What were once imposing stone statues of what Merlin could only assume were the Greek gods, were now headless slabs of stone, carved up and disfigured by large claw-like marks.

As the group moved further into the temple, their footsteps began giving off a sticky sound, as if they were treading on puddles of glue.

It had gotten rather dark within the temple, and the faint light escaping the door had quickly left them seeing nothing but shades of grey.

「Skill ⟪Light⟫ Activated.」

A small ball of light formed within Merlin's grasp, illuminating the area around the group, and allowing them to see something Nora immediately regretted.

Before them was a long hallway full of carnage. The scattered remains of ravaged corpses littered the hall, and blood stained the floor beneath them, creating a disgusting sticky sound after every step they took.

As they walked further into the temple, several Vampires lazing around could be seen. Some were flirting with each other, others were sitting around drinking blood from glasses as if it were wine, and a couple more were torturing or draining the last remaining humans.

The floor between the party and the vampires was now laced with more than just blood, corpses of humans, and several stray body parts, were scattered along the floor, or strewn over pews like wet laundry.

Amongst the corpses were what Merlin believed to be recently turned vampire spawns, feasting on whatever remains they could get their hands on, or licking the blood from the floor.

Nora turned away from the scene and made the motion that she was preparing to throw up. It was already a challenge for her to come this far, and Merlin had noticed that she was trying to keep her eyes towards the ceiling as they were walking.

"Well, there are the vampires," Merlin announced, "Prepare yourselves."

The vampire spawn seemed preoccupied with their feast, to the point that the first enemy to notice their presence was one of the vampires, which was mockingly wearing a blood-stained priest vestment, and was looking for a new human to torment.

The vampire began hissing towards the direction of the party, gaining the attention of the other vampires. The priest-looking vampire quickly kicked a couple of the vampire spawns to get their attention.

Within moments the vampire spawn had been given their orders to attack and began charging at the party.

Two vampire spawns run towards the party on all fours, as if they were mad hounds ordered to pounce. Zankoku and Alvira made quick work of the vampires, one had been cleaved in two and the other received a knife to the brain.

A third vampire spawn made itself known after quickly leaping into the air, preparing to sink its teeth into Alvira, but it was quickly met with the blunt end of a war hammer.

Tiny's wide swing shattered the vampire spawn, killing it almost instantly. At the same time, the remaining force of the blow sent the remnants of the monster back to where it had come from, and in turn, sprayed the other vampire spawn, and the vampire priest, with the tiny giblets of their fallen comrade.

Several more vampire spawns were cleaved as if they were being harvested by Typhoeus' scythe.

"Why are these guys so easy to kill?" Alvira asked.

"They're essentially just corpses at the moment, their bodies are frail because they've only recently become undead, vampirism requires time to mature in newly turned victims," Merlin said, "It acts like your average infectious disease, it has an incubation period."

The fight continues, with Merlin's party easily demolishing the vampire spawns. It was at this point that the vampires became overly agitated and began preparing themselves for a fight.

The first vampire to attack the party, however, was the one wearing the priestly garb. It lunged towards Alvira, but quickly found itself down one eye as an arrow embedded itself in the vampire's skull. But the monster didn't have time to rip it out, as the party had already started attacking it.

After the slashing of blades and the swing of a scythe, the creature's head started rolling along the floor.

"One down," Tiny remarked as he swung his war hammer like it was a golf club, sending the skull flying towards the group of enemy vampires. "I thought this was going to be hard."

Seemingly taking that action as an insult towards their pride, the vampires all began hissing at the party before collectively breaking out into a charge with their fangs on full display.

"Now this is what I'm talking about," Tiny roared.

The group separated somewhat, each taking on a small group of vampires, except for Nora who was standing at the back while taking any shots she could within the chaos.

Merlin dashed to the far side of the room as a group of vampires leapt towards him. Fortunately, Tiny's stunts had lured the largest group of vampires, so it was only three of the undead monsters that had chosen Merlin as their first target.

Merlin quickly made this a choice they would have no time to regret, as the vampires leapt into the air to dog-pile Merlin. They quickly found themselves suspended in mid-air like puppets. Thorn-covered vines ripped through the undead, impaling them and leaving them helpless.

Merlin began chanting a skill name before resting his hand on the torso of one of the vampires.

「Skill ⟪Ignite⟫ Activated.」

Small embers started appearing on the vampire's clothes before quickly erupting into an adequately sized flame as the cloth continued to feed the fire. The vampire screamed out in pain and began panicking as it struggled against the vines.

The ignited vampire was slammed into the other vampires by the vines before being slammed into the ground, feeding the fire more fuel to extend its burn time.

The vines were retracted from the vampires so that the vines themselves did not take damage from the flames.

As all the flammable parts of the vampire's clothing burnt away, the roasted undead skin underneath showed, it was a rather gruesome sight to behold.

The vampires staggered to their feet, but before they could take a step forward, their heads had been swiftly removed from the rest of their bodies, finishing each creature off.

Merlin scanned the room, finally paying attention to his surroundings. His first thought was to see who required his help, but he also looked to see how well the team fought when outnumbered.

His eyes flicked to Typhoeus first, who seemed to have a taste for the dramatic, Merlin noticed that he was adding extra flair to his attacks, favouring wide swings and inefficient spins due to the overall weakness of the vampire spawns that surrounded him.

With a large swing, he cleaved what remained of the vampire spawns in that area, and also managed to hack off the leg of the one vampire who targeted him, sending the undead creature face-first into a pile of vampire spawn viscera.

Maria on the other hand was showing efficiency and precision with each of her movements. Two vampires had chosen her as their prey, an unwise decision.

Two swift strikes were all it took to remove the sight of one of the vampires, leaving it helpless to the flurry of blows that followed. Her rapier severed every crucial skeletal muscle that was required for the creature to operate, effectively paralysing its arms and legs. Then as her attention moved to the second vampire, which was currently closing the distance, it received a similar fate.

Alvira showcased a level of savagery that he had yet to see from her up until this point. He was unsure if this was merely impatience caused by her goal standing right in front of her, or the fact she was using the cursed vampire blade she claimed earlier, either way, her playstyle had become somewhat reckless.

Alvira seemed to be taking the most damage out of everyone so far, but the life steal on her blade was keeping her alive, albeit barely. But with each vampire that dropped dead around her, she seemed to get slightly more disappointed.

Nora on the other hand didn't get a single vampire on her, giving her the space required to take careful shots.

The blood and viscera that filled the temple were clearly taking a toll on her, but she was pulling through and landing important shots. One shot of hers, in particular, saved Zankoku from getting disarmed by a vampire that got too close.