—–
Against all my expectations, something had emerged before us that stopped us from advancing further. The people stood still, paralyzed in fear before these three figures. The power they emanated was clearly supernatural. The three pale-white-skinned and crimson-eyed people in front of us were smiling deviously. The auras they emanated were clearly not that of normal humans and their appearances faintly reminded me of the two other Vampires I had slain, and also of Partner, if even by a little bit.
The auras within their bodies resembled seas of crimson-red, where darkness was mixing within it. All three of them were clearly stronger Vampires than the ones I had slain before. They were all… B+ Rank, with the one in the middle being A Rank in threat-level.
They were clearly capable enough of slaying every single person here.
The little Gofumin in the arms of my clone began to suddenly tremble in fear, as I felt she suddenly peed herself out of fear… this broke my heart and made me quickly act without a shred of a doubt, I decided to not even speak with them.
This clone was still able to do many things. Although it had a limited amount of Mana, I was going to do something I didn’t want to do and borrow the mana of everyone here to fuel it to conjure Shadow Storage. In a split of a second, I expanded my shadows below this clone, as the people all around me quickly began to disappear inside.
The Vampires wouldn’t sit down and look as I took away the prey they wanted to enjoy, so the first one to attack, a Vampire man with short white hair and a pointy chin, rushed towards me. His Aura suddenly shaped itself as countless gigantic furious bats, flying towards us and completely capable of tearing everyone to shreds if I were to let him.
But of course, I wasn’t going to let him.
I am sorry, but I’ll drain all of you dry of your Mana!
I utilized Mana Siphon through this clone, and most of the people of the village suddenly fell unconscious after having almost all their mana drained. Their minds might have grown exhausted to the point of blacking out, but this was the only way to rescue them.
FLASH!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
The massive swarm of deadly crimson-red aura-made bats with sharp fangs suddenly rained down into the dark shadow barrier I just created with many efforts, using Materialization to materialize it and make it as hard as possible.
He was too late! The people were already inside my Shadow Storage, and now the trick was escaping with this clone into a safe place!
“You’re an interesting ghost!”
CLASH!
Suddenly, another one of the Vampires, a mature woman-looking Vampire with long blonde hair and one of her eyes being covered by a parch, emerged behind me and tried to crush me with a powerful kick. Her physical strength was incredibly admirable to the point the entire earth around us shattered wide open and left a massive crater in the shape of a spiderweb!
I had managed to evade as I used Shadow Sneak with that clone and flew directly into her shadows, surprising her.
“My own shadows? You’re a bold one!”
However, as I realized something wrong was going to happen, I quickly decided to rush away, but my clone was suddenly grasped by her own shadows, as they shaped into deadly and monstrous beasts trying to catch me and devour me.
Fuck! Are you kidding me?!
The pain was rather nonexistent in my clone, but it still weakened it. If it grows weak enough, the Shadow Storage Skill will stop working, and the people will be summoned out! If that happens, they will all die against these monsters!
I can’t let this happen! My clone quickly cut her own legs and flew away, letting the shadows of the Vampire woman devour that other half, feasting on it as if they had the power of eating souls themselves… who are these Vampires?! They’re clearly way stronger than the Necromancer and the Scientist…
Ah, I see. I have been just fighting the non-combatants this whole time. This is why it was so easy to fight Vampires before. After all, you can’t really expect a Necromancer or a Scientist/Alchemist to be the strongest the Vampires have to offer. It was foolish for me to ever think for a second that Vampires were beings that could be easily underestimated.
I quickly tried to dive into the ground, and thankfully, my phantom clone was able to easily dive down into the underground and phase through it with ease. I simply had to get to it and do it. I also absorbed the last bits of Mana from the people, so they all had fallen unconscious now, even Gofumin.
I felt horrible for having done this to them without previously asking them, and they might even suffer fever and other sicknesses in the future, but this was the only way for me to guarantee their safety, even if for a few seconds.
I dived into the ground right away, but when I had already crossed five meters, a massive shockwave hit me directly. The entire earth opened wide before the might of that same Vampire woman. Her kicks and punches opened the entire ground looking for me.
The entire place began to fall apart as if she was shaping the complete landscape to her own liking. And, of course, this woman was also the A-Rank threat.
“You can’t escape from me! Even in the underground, I can easily follow you!” Laughed the woman, accompanied by the two sick-looking Vampire guys at each of her sides.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Her blows shattered the earth and everything around my clone. I gritted my teeth in desperation, trying to run away from her, but countless rubble began to fall wherever I went, accompanied by the thunderous sounds of her feet hitting the ground.
Crossing physical objects also cost mana. How long will I be able to run away from her before my fuel runs out?!
Fuck, and my main body is still not here yet!
—–