Instantaneous magic spells, such as fireball, lightning or ice lance, would immediately consume the [Magic] they needed the instance they were cast. This differed from summoning magic, which was used to call in weapons, armor or entities from a foreign realm. Not only would it directly consume the relevant portion of [Magic] needed, its maintenance to keep the summoned objects anchored in reality would also constantly expend a certain amount of [Magic] depending on the scale of the spell.
To the caster, this was no small burden.
Leaving the other aspects aside, just the [magic] required to establish a connection to a foreign realm from the main one would be an astronomical amount out of reach to most.
A summoned [Spell Entity] that had lost its source of [Magic] would naturally lose the ability to maintain its form.
That said, there was still a large fundamental difference between a summon by [Magic] and one by [Sorcery].
…………………….
As someone who had maintained only the minimal nutritional standards, it wasn’t too much of an overstatement to say that Bai Ji’s body had always been in a weakened state.
Without energy supply, it was impossible for living organisms to produce [Magic]. Instead, they would have to incessantly expend magic to maintain the lowest requirements to move their body about, causing them to fall into an endless death loop.
Therefore, depletion of [Magic] in their body would not only affect their combat prowess, but their biological processes as well. For example, hunger, lethargicness, dizziness, blurry vision and other negative effects.
In the end, vampires still fell under the category of [living beings]. Their body would do its utmost to lower the [Magic] consumption of its body in order to preserve the basic [Magic] it needed for sustenance, just like how a laptop would automatically enter power-saving mode once it had reached low charge. An example of such would be turning off the effects of their [Immortal Body].
“Boom…!” Like a kite with its string severed, a petite figure flew backwards and burst through a dilapidated wall.
“Cough, cough…” Dirty sludge stained her pure and flawless hair as traces of fresh blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Bai Ji slumped against the ruins. Her western dress had been completely ragged and left large patches of her pale, jade-like skin exposed.
Several of her rib bones had been broken and her internal organs damaged. Her vital organs gave off a scorching and painful heat as thin blood clogged up her throat, causing her to cough continuously… This time however, her injuries didn’t speedily recover as they had before; A pain that felt like thousands of iron wires stringing through her organs continued to persist.
She wanted to place her scythe upright on the ground and stand up, yet realized that she had become incapable of performing even the most basic of movements.
If one were to leave [Magic] out of the equation, her body was merely that of an ordinary young girl.
“How dangerous… I’ve almost lost the upperhand in this fight.” Fear continued to linger in Lan Yu’s heart. After punching a ruined wall that was blocking his way into pieces, he moved forward with heavy steps.
His lower limbs had completely regrown in the embrace of the meat walls. Looking at Bai Ji lying on the ground who had been reduced to her last breath, he revealed his large teeth.
“Heh! How dare you release such a frightening object to scare me… But it didn’t prevent you from being on death’s door, Miss Vampire! Tsk, tsk… No wonder royalty like you is endeared by those bunch of vampires. You look truly tender! I wonder what you will taste like??” An unsightly arc revealed itself on Lan Yu’s large mouth. That said, the danger associated with such an action did cross his mind.
It went without saying that killing a vampire royalty would antagonize the entire Scarlet Blood Region. Even though Lan Yu didn’t know the exact identity and position of the one before him, he had already assessed the potential outcome some time ago.
Devouring a member of vampire royalty would definitely raise his ability up by no small amount; Enough strength to support a grander ambition. When that time came, it wouldn’t matter if he made the entire vampire race his enemy.
“Become my food, Miss Vampire..” Lan Yu leaned forward, causing sticky drops of saliva to land on Bai Ji’s face.
“Whoosh…” When his wrinkle-filled hand was just about to caress Bai Ji’s cheek, a gauntlet glittering in a dark glow tightly grabbed onto his stretched out elbow and a fist impacted on his large face.
“Hmph, just the final struggles of a dead man. You’re already at the end of the line, yet you still want to play the role of a [Honourable Knight]?” Lan Yu slightly stretched his neck and looked in ridicule at the knight clad in metal armor who had fallen back from him.
“What can you do in this lowly leather suit besides pretending to be a hero?”
‘What can you do?’
Those words that evoked a sense of Deja Vu in him resounded.
“At the end of the day, humans are just a feeble lower-tiered species. If they don’t wish to be eliminated by time, they can only make one decision. That’s a trend that no one can escape.”
“…” Ji Bai tightly held on to the long sword in his hands and fell silent.
One could not see his current emotions behind his long tassel helmet that was adorned with a pair of wings from a bird of prey.
“Heh, how ignorant!”
[Destructive Class — Soul of the Hunter]
A pair of red-eyed, sinister-looking wolves pounced at Ji Bai.
He silently stood in place and didn’t attempt to dodge nor hide from them.
“Boom!” Unsurprisingly, the wolves’ heads that overflowed with magic sent Ji Bai flying outwards.
With fresh blood spilling out from his metal helmet, Ji Bai wretchedly got up.
It was logically impossible for humans to directly take a common-class magic spell head-on, even with their armor on.
Yet, Ji Bai was like a roly-poly toy; Even though destructive-class magic had hit him head on in the glabella, he was able to remain standing while clutching his chest.
“Your lifeforce is quite resilient, just like a cockroach’s!” Ji Bai’s stubbornness vexed Lan Yu to no end.
“That’s fine as well. This sovereign does not mind his food being liquid!”
“Watch how this sovereign grounds you into canned meat!”
[Destructive Class—Slashes of the Demonic Winds]
Ji Bai assumed a parrying stance with his sword. However, that didn’t stop the chilly and sharp wind blades from scraping past and creating a “—” cut mark on the [Radiant] chest guard.
His body turned sluggish and he was forced to take two steps back.
‘To grind me into canned meat in an instant? …Heh, even that bi*ch Lilias didn’t dare make such a declaration.’
Muffled laughter reverberated from his helmet, as he coughed out a small amount of blood.
What exactly did the [Radiant] armor excel at? It wasn’t its effectiveness in deflecting oscillations from physical attacks, nor the barrier on its pauldrons. Rather, it was its easily overlooked characteristic that was too insignificant to mention:
A limit to the damage that could be inflicted on its wearer from a single attack.
No matter which tier of species his opponent belonged to, it was capable of providing Ji Bai ample time to engage in battle with while assuring that he would not be killed in one attack.
Therefore, it allowed the current Ji Bai to resemble a roly-poly toy that continuously got up after being knocked over. His sword was placed on his elbow, with its tip aimed towards his enemy. It was completely unknown what the intention behind this action was.
“Hmph, have you gone senile from the beating?”
“Boom!”
The impact of a destructive class spell struck once more. Ji Bai felt that his bones were about to fall apart after continuously receiving rounds of destructive class spells. It seemed as if he was no longer able to get up.
“Brat, if you wish to break through the gap between species, you need to enter that state… If you manage to come upon a great opportunity before the enemy could beat you to death, you win.” In his muddled consciousness, a familiar boorish voice reverberated in his ears.
“You’ve gone mad indeed. In that case, let me quickly put your life to an end.” After saying that, Lan Yu stomped his way towards Ji Bai who had collapsed on the ground.
“Uhhg…” On the ground, Ji Bai shook and stood up once more with the support of his long-sword.
“Oh?? You still aren’t dead?? Are you the reincarnation of a cockroach?”
[Destructive Class— Corpse Claws]
“Boom…!” Once again, Ji Bai was sent flying into the distance, with bloodstains tracing his backwards trajectory.
Despite blood incessantly dripping downwards, the gaze radiating from the seams of his helmet continued to flicker.
He stabbed the longsword into the ground and attempted to rise up once more, his elbow continuing to support his longsword that was aimed straight at Lan Yu.
“Boom!…” Again, Ji Bai was blown away and fell to the ground, rolling.
“Hmm…??” This time, Lan Yu had noticed it.
The guy before him had only been using his handguard to defend against his destructive-class magic attacks this whole time.