Chapter 57: A Deadly Battle
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Chuklet ran for his life across the labyrinthine underground caves of Elderbridge, which he and his thugs had dug on their own to hide from the vampires above. However, everything came crashing down out of nowhere, as the vampires he feared so much found him rather easily.
"Hahh… Hahh… Hahhh!"
The burly hobgoblin, despite his appearance, wasn't in great form after sitting on his throne and commanding others to do things for him for a couple of years.
After running for less than a couple hundred meters, he had already grown rather tired, gasping for air, yet he couldn't stop running; his life depended on it.
"Shamir should be able to buy me some time..." he muttered, smiling. "He'll probably kill those two bastards, so that's two problems I won't have to worry about!"
The Hobgoblin, albeit tired, moved very quickly and knew this labyrinth like the palm of his hand. He climbed walls, jumped over large rocks in the way, and even rapidly slid through tight crevices.
Rapidly, he was making his way towards his destination, a room within the underground labyrinth where he had stored many of his magical trinkets.
"As long as I can get there, I'll be able to teleport the hell out of here! I'll have to unfortunately report the Main Branch that taking over this city was a failure," he gritted his teeth. "But I'm sure they'll give me a second chance! I've brought them a lot of money anyway."
Chuklet wasn't the brightest nor the smartest Hobgoblin out there, and his strength was just barely above average. However, what he was good at doing was robbing others and inspiring dumb people to join his cause and become his meat shields and thugs.
So he was going to just do that again, but even better than before. He had already learned many of the weaknesses of players, and they were a perfect target to abuse. With their stupidity, naivety, and how they call everything "a game," it's very easy to trick them and then rob everything they're holding and wearing.
"Almost there!"
The Hobgoblin quickly noticed a purple-colored sigil in the distance; it was beginning to glow brightly before his magic command, and a black ring on his left hand was reacting to it.
A Black Magic Artifact.
"Just in case, I'll make a barrier there so nobody can follow me…!" he smiled. "Shamir will probably go back where he came from after summoning him... Dammit, summoning him just once for a couple of minutes cost so much damn money! But I'll make it back! In time…! I have to keep thinking positively, just as mom told me! If you can't rob today, rob tomorrow, Chuklet!"
As he was about to go past the sigil and activate it, suddenly...
Pain.
"Ugh?!"
Chuklet felt a tremendous amount of pain, twisting his head to realize...
An arrow had just pierced his left shoulder!
"What the…?! When!"
He didn't even feel the arrow coming or being fired at him—or even a presence firing it!
Until the arrow was already piercing his shoulder, festering his wound with poison and curses while also beginning to freeze his arm, making it unusable.
"Who?!"
The hobgoblin glared behind him, noticing an adorable "girl" encompassed in a veil of black flames. Her face was full of anger, and she glared at him with "her" pink eyes.
"Oi retard, where the hell do you think you're going?! Come and fight, you braindead motherfucker!"
Despite "her" cuteness, she had such a foul mouth!
"You?!"
The Hobgoblin immediately recognized "her" as well; "she" was the "succubus" that was with the vampire, Vlad!
"You're that damn girl!"
He quickly held upon his axe, summoning out of his black-colored ring and giving a small step back, as if trying to put into a defensive stance.
"Don't you dare shoot me again or-"
"I'm not a girl! I'm a guy, you piece of sh*t!"
Before Chuklet could say or do anything, a rain of arrows made of fire, ice, lightning, and curses were fired at him consecutively.
The speed at which they were fired was too fast! And it was because the bow wasn't a conventional version but a magic bow.
By fueling it with Arcana, the incubus was able to rapidly fire many magical arrows consecutively.
Honestly, it was better than conjuring spells conventionally.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Ugh!"
The Hobgoblin was quickly engulfed in explosions of many elements. He tried to create barriers of darkness and a veil to protect himself, but they were easily worn down and destroyed.
"Shit! Fuck off!"
He swung his giant axe, unleashing a gigantic wave of darkness against Chris, which began slicing through the already delicate structure of the cave.
TRUUUM!
"Ugh!"
Chris had no place to evade, taking the hit head-on. His equipment protected him from the lethal blow that would have cut him into two halves.
BOOOM!
"To think I had to waste one use of this on your attack, just die!"
"W-What?! You're fine?!"
Chuklet couldn't believe his eyes! He was sure that this demon should have died from his attack, but he ended up coming out unscathed from that.
And right after that, a giant, electrified trident came flying towards him, clashing against his weapon, which he used to barely block his vitals.
"T-This is…?! A moving weapon?!"
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
The trident moved by Chris' command as he moved his small hands, clashing against the Hobgoblin, who could barely keep up with the immense speed and explosive attacks from the flying weapon.
With its wielder being so far away, the only thing he could do was defend while trying to slowly make his way towards the sigil and then close the entire road, keeping the demon outside and him inside the storage area.
"I'm almost there!"
He gritted his teeth, preparing several spheres of darkness and firing them towards Chris, who had to quickly conjure walls of stone from the ceiling, walls, and floor to defend.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
As the explosions surged and bombarded Chris, Chuklet smiled, rushing towards the sigil and then running past it. His black ring glowed as a huge, purple-colored wall was formed, a mighty barrier.
FLUOSH!
"What?!"
Chris eyes widened as he saw the barrier appear and Chuklet laughing and running away.
"So long, suckers!" the hobgoblin laughed. "Chuklet lives another day! Mom would be proud of me, gahahaha!"
"Hah…"
Chris eyes glowed bright red as his demonic powers surged. Suddenly, pink and black clouds made of dreams and nightmares he had eaten gathered within his bow, forming a giant arrow.
"You leave me no option then!"
The incubus formed a gigantic black and purple-colored arrow made of condensed dream and nightmare essence, further enhanced by his Arcana.
"{Nightmare Arrow}"
The arrow was fired, reaching the barrier and being stopped.
BOOOMMM!!!
Only for a split second before exploding and destroying the barrier, shattering it into pieces.
Chuklet glared at the scene in disbelief.
"Shit…"
.
.
.
[The Skill [Blood Demon's Immortal Chimera Body (SS)]'s Ability {Lesser Blood Demon Transformation} has been activated,
[Your body has transformed, taking upon the form of an Ancient Blood Demon of your Lineage for 15 Minutes and Increasing All Stats and Vampiric and Chimeric Abilities Power and Effects by 330%!]
[While in your {Lesser Blood Demon Form}, you are Immune to any Status Effect, and your Stats cannot be lowered or increased any further. You can also use the following Abilities without any cost: {Blood Asura's Rampage} {Blood Domain}, {Blood Curse}, etc.]
Vlad's entire body transformed as he activated the power of his Fused Skill, becoming twice as large, with a bulkier build, red skin, horns, and even longer hair. Although most of his appearance was concealed beneath his armor, his armor itself was barely containing his bulky body now.
"RAAAH!"
With a furious berserk-like roar, the vampire prince reached the desert elf assassin, swinging his bare hand, now a huge, armored claw, against the two snakes that the daggers had become, at the same time as he swung down his sword, unleashing a barrage of blazing slashes and blood powered claw attacks.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Crack, crack…!
CRASH!
The snakes were torn apart easily, as they both shattered into pieces and exploded into darkness and poisonous gases. The assassin was growing slightly surprised. His poison had little effect on the vampire. This quickly gave him the insight that vampires must be immune to most poisons, even those from a soul artifact!
"So he has some sort of transformation ability too, which is interesting," Shamir smiled. "Let's see how far he can take his new form!"
Although he had been summoned here to kill as part of his job, Shamir couldn't help but enjoy a fight that didn't take him a few seconds to end. As someone who grew while being taught by ruthless master assassins, he already had a few screws loose to even survive all of that through his childhood.
Even though his job as an assassin indicated he had to swiftly take care of his foes, that had become rather difficult right now, even more so when he had lost any factor that would have given him an advantage in terms of stealth or surprise.
Therefore, the fight ended long-winded, instead of being the usual stab in the neck or the heart that he would do to finish off a foe before they could even realize he was there.
His jobs were quick and, although he hated to admit it, boring.
As someone who craved violence and blood-pumping battles and was addicted to the sense of adrenaline that life-or-death battles brought to him, finishing off foes quickly was...
Too damn boring!
"Good! Fight! Struggle! Show me how far you can go, Vampire!" laughed the desert elf as he swung down his daggers against Vlad.
His daggers clashed against Vlad's sword and his armored claws, their powerful Auras exploding against one another, releasing bursts of crimson, black, and purple flames everywhere.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
"Hahaha! You're too slow anyway!"
Shamir enjoyed the fight as he quickly evaded Vlad's attack seamlessly, moving faster than Vlad could ever chase him. Resembling a blur of darkness, the desert elf reached the vampire's back and quickly attacked him several times with a barrage of powerful blows.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
"Ungh?!"
Vlad was sent flying after taking on such an extreme series of blows, but quickly recovered, moving back to Shamir and quickly swinging his sword again, releasing consecutive slashes that the assassin evaded easily.
"This is too easy! There is no mastery behind your attacks!"
Shamir continued becoming more and more vocal; he was voicing his opinions and words, even though he had stated he didn't want to talk before. It seems that the longer a battle became, the more talkative he would become.
"SHUT UP!"
Vlad, however, was already getting tired of his yapping. Like a hulking berserker, he quickly swung both of his arms down, releasing a powerful shockwave of pure Blood Power, shaping itself into something.
"{Blood Domain}!"
FLUOOOSH!
A domain of blood expanded as Shamir noticed he had been suddenly trapped within a barrier. The domain twisted space, quickly creating a pool of blood where his legs were stuck.
"A Domain?!"
His eyes widened as he noticed giant tentacles made of blood wrapped around his legs, rapidly trying to pull him down.
At the same time, the blood transformed, becoming giant spears aiming to impale his entire body.
Shamir felt his heart beating faster and faster.
"How long has it been already?" he thought. "How long has it been since someone managed to get this far against me? And a domain?! This shmuck can summon such a thing? Hahah! HAHAHA!"
As he laughed like a maniac internally, the assassin glared at Vlad coming towards him, his sword absorbing the blood of his domain and becoming a gigantic crimson blade.
"{Blood Sword}!"
SLAAASH!
A giant wave of crimson light was unleashed, blood energy erupting and coming towards Shamir at full force!
Yet the assassin smiled; he was fascinated.
"Hahahah!"
BOOOMMM!!!
The entire blood domain erupted, trying to consume and engulf him in endless attacks and agony, aiming to destroy him. Attacks came from every angle as the attack from Vlad exploded on his face.
Yet…
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Hundreds of slashes cut through all things; a storm of darkness erupted as the entire blood domain was destroyed immediately, an explosion of black and purple flames surging.
BOOOM!
"This bastard…"
Vlad glanced at the assassin; his two daggers had disappeared, now merged together into a large, black-colored scimitar.
"{Soul Artifact Fusion}: {Black Venomous Dragon Scimitar: Apophis}"
The aura that the new scimitar released was tremendous.
It was as if everything before was just Shamir testing the waters.
"Please, vampire… Don't die yet!"
With a wicked smile beneath his semi-transparent black veil, the desert elf reached Vlad, a single swing of his scimitar releasing dozens of slashes at once.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
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Can't wait to see what's next? You can join my Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/pancakeswitch
and gain access to all these Advanced Chapters:
62 Advanced Chapters of
The Protagonist's Sister Is Actually The Strongest
40 Advanced Chapters of
The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns
17 Advanced Chapters of
Fantasy Story Online: The Crippled Vampire Prince Walks The Heavenly Demon Path