Vampire King

When Nocturne saw Nine's prone form on the floor, he wasn't ashamed to say he snapped. The only thing that remained on his mind was the urge to take revenge, but his first reflex was to check whether Nine was alright.

It wasn't until this moment where he sorely regretted that he hadn't branched out to specialize in healing spells. Though he knew how to use it rudimentarily, compared to how far Nine had taken her specialty, it was nothing to boast about.

Just as he was about rush over to drop to his knees in front of Nine in worry, he heard Nine's sweet, lovely voice through a voice transmission, telling him that she was alright.

The relief that gushed through him couldn't be properly described in mere words alone. It was akin to someone being pushed off a airplane to freefall for a minute before abruptly realizing that they had a parachute.

Nocturne struggled to keep the expression of abject despair on his face, quickly morphing it to rage. Without missing a beat, he threw himself into battle with the Vampire who had just appeared.

On the ground, Nine listened as the battle went on. The wave of abject despair that had washed over Nocturne as he forgot to uphold the magic he usually used to conceal the deeper parts of his emotions from her had caught her off guard. Immediately, she abandoned the plan that she prepared to carry out to easily take out the other Vampire. She couldn't find it in her to subject Nocturne to more pain than she already had.

She could tell that whoever the Vampire was, they were the same Tier as Nocturne, who was already Ninth Tier, so she had no worries. She knew first-hand that Nocturne was no slouch in the battle department. He would be able to take care of him, and the other Vampire thought she was dead, so she could recover without fear of interference.

Nine thanked Rainier through the familiar bond, truly grateful. Even she was not immune to sneak attacks that came out of nowhere. A person couldn't be fully on their guard all the time, and Rainier's timely assistance had prevented the dagger from sinking in too deep.

There was only a small cut left behind, barely even scratching the skin, but it showed how close the call was, nonetheless. Rainier had sensed that something was off even before she had, moving himself to the position where the dagger was about to sink in.

[Rainier, are you alright? Did the dagger penetrate your core?]

Rainier responded without a pause. [No problem. He didn't do any damage. Master, are you alright?]

[I'm fine, thanks to you.]

Reassured, Nine slowly started recovering, pushing out the minute amounts of silver that had sunk into her bloodstream. She felt quite thankful that it wasn't Nocturne on the receiving end of this.

The silver, though minute, had dispersed greatly into her bloodstream. Nine had to expand a rather significant amount of magic as she searched her body to make sure that none of it remained in her body. Gathering the amounts that had sunk into her body, she ejected it from the wound on her back, her self-regenerative abilities quickly restarting once the silver was out of her blood.

She had never realized how truly damning silver was to the Vampire race as a whole. It was one of the more secretive weaknesses that Vampires concealed from other races. In fact, she doubted that most Vampires even knew this was a weakness to them at all.

That lay the question, who exactly was this Vampire? Immediately, she guessed that this was probably the elusive Vampire King that had disappeared from Morhil city. The only thing that surprised her this much was that the Vampire King was already at the Ninth Circle, which was a statistical anomaly. From the information she had gleaned, she would have thought that he was a Seventh or Eighth Tier at most.

The Vampire King clashed blades with Nocturne, sneering at the distraught expression on the other Vampire's face.

"You're not going to check on your beloved? How cold of you, only caring about revenge instead of checking their well-being."

Nocturne's blood boiled hearing the Vampire King's words. "Silence," he said shortly.

The Vampire King chuckled. "I guess you're stone-cold, just like me. Your own safety over anyone else, huh?"

Nocturne ignored the other's attempts at causing him to falter.

"Why bother to fight me? We should join hands! Clearly, you would thrive in the Night Tide continent instead of with the humans! You're wasting all your potential! Why don't you work under me instead?"

Letting out a cool breath, Nocturne concentrated on the fight, putting aside all superfluous emotions and thoughts. The only thing he thought about was what move to make next, how this would correlate with their surroundings, and whether or not he should hit harder.

As the battle progressed on, it became apparent that the Vampire King was losing. Nocturne's reflexes and battle efficiency outstripped the Vampire King, who had neglected to hone his battle experience and skills other than advancing in the Circles.

Though the Vampire King was already in the Ninth Tier, he clearly didn't have a sufficient amount of battle experience to match his progress. This fact caused the Vampire King to slip slightly as it registered to him.

Not letting the slip get past him, Nocturne immediately delivered a critical blow to the Vampire King's right side, causing him to slam into the wall so hard that he was disorientated.

The Vampire King braced himself for the following blows but was surprised when there was none.

When he extracted himself from the crumbling wall, he abruptly realized that the Elf Vines had already wrapped themselves around him, pricking rather deep.

Alarmed, the Vampire King raised a hand to cast a spell, only for his hand to be swarmed by the Elf Vines the moment he made his move.

The more he struggled, the deeper the thorns sank into his skin, drawing blood.

The Vampire King tried all manners of getting rid of the Elf Vines, only to end up completely immobilised. It was only then that he looked towards Nocturne in alarm, hoping that he would be able to strike a deal with the other.

He was shocked when he saw Nine and Nocturne heavily locking lips.

"Impossible!" he blurted, unable to believe what he was seeing.

He was sure that the silver dagger had fully sunk into the other Vampire, thereby granting them a quick but painless death.

Hearing his words, Nine and Nocturne separated, only giving the trapped Vampire King a cool glance.

"What's so impossible? That I'm not dead? That the dagger doesn't seem to affect me? That you lost?" Nine said, her lips pulling into a cold smile.

The moment the Vampire King saw the other's face for the first time, he lost himself in the shock and awe that surged forth. How could this Vampire in front of him contain such a godly aura? The Vampire in front of him had the most elusive and compelling Charm that he had ever experienced.

The Vampire King was not ashamed to say that his Charm, something that only manifested in Royals, outstripped the rest of the Royals, but this Vampire's Charm was something that left him in the dust.

Luckily for the Vampire King, due to Nocturne's presence distorting earring as well as the King's innate resistance to the Charm due to him having the skill himself, he was not too overly affected other than being in awe.

The Vampire King opened his mouth to spit something else out when the Elf Vines suddenly swarmed him, covering every inch of him. The previously rather sedentary Elf Vines that seemed content to just hold him in place as they drained the Vampire King's blood seemed to feel like it wasn't enough, wrapping him until he couldn't even get another word out.

Nine and Nocturne's eyes sharpened as their ears picked up the sound of deliberate footsteps echoing in the cavern.