Chapter 50: Master of Hellscape Island (4)
Everyone’s fighting style was different.
Naturally, there were battlefields suited to each preference.
For Gaiard, the darkness was precisely such a battlefield.
‘That guy, his instincts were pretty sharp. But he doesn’t seem like someone who’d step up alone.’
Moreover, unlike before, Gaiard had accumulated a bit of strength.
With the power built from the blood of two humans, he believed he could at least defeat someone like Evan.
So, what kind of battlefield would be most effective for Evan Lafard, who faced him?
The answer was: it didn’t matter.
Whether in the middle of a desert, or on the sea, the location wasn’t important to Evan.
What mattered was how many weapons were around him to use.
Thus, he scattered weapons around himself and Gaiard.
It was to get serious for once.
“Do you really think you can beat me with such tricks?”
“Winning or losing, we’ll know once we fight. Just know I’m giving it my all.”
“Arrogant brat. You’ll regret coming here alone to face me.”
Gaiard swung a sword made of blood through the air.
“Oh, that looks convenient. Can’t I learn that?”
“Do you think a lowly species like you could manage it? You’d be better off hoping to be reborn.”
“Lowly this, lowly that. What if you lose to me after all that talk?”
“That will never happen!”
Gaiard charged and swung his sword.
Evan countered with a sword that had fallen to the ground.
―Clang!
‘I was curious how sturdy a sword made of blood would be, but this is practically steel!’
The sword Evan held was crafted with great care by the Academy’s blacksmith.
It wasn’t a legendary blade, but its quality was exceptional.
Yet, Gaiard’s blood sword didn’t even get a scratch when clashing with such a weapon.
―Clang! Clang! Clang!
Watching Evan parry, Gaiard was inwardly startled.
‘I didn’t hold back. And yet he withstood it. This guy, he’s not just sharp.’
A boy, no more than a mayfly by his standards, a human, inherently weaker than his kind, had parried his sword.
“You’re not bad. Even with my strength diminished, to take a blow from me…”
Gaiard paused mid-sentence.
He had felt no significant energy from Evan before, but now a considerable amount of Qi emanated from him.
“You were hiding your Qi―”
As he spoke in surprise, Evan hurled his sword.
The energy had seemed faint compared to their first encounter, making Gaiard think it was a mistake.
The blade grazed Gaiard’s earlobe as it passed.
“With something like this, you think you can―”
―Swish!
Evan extended a chain, pulling back the handle of the thrown sword.
The blade flew back, aiming for Gaiard’s neck.
“Ugh!”
The moment the sword reached him, the blood sword transformed into a long spear.
―Clang!
The spear, extending to his back, blocked the blade.
The deflected sword returned to Evan’s hand.
“What? You can handle a spear too?”
“Centuries ago, I fought countless battles. I don’t need human weapons, but I wield them better than you lot.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Evan planted his sword in the ground and picked up a spear that had fallen nearby.
“Then let’s see what this vampire’s got.”
“Insolent fool!”
Gaiard thrust his spear.
To the fierce stab, Evan responded with an equally precise thrust.
―Clang!
The spears veered off, heading toward each other’s vitals.
Here, Evan slightly released his spear to extend its reach, piercing Gaiard’s shoulder while simultaneously dropping to the ground.
“You!”
The blood spear transformed again, becoming an axe.
As the axe blade swung down, Evan kicked it away.
At the same time, he pushed the spear’s handle with his other foot, driving it deeper.
―Thud.
The recoil allowed him to dodge the axe, completing the sequence.
“You scurry around like a rat!”
Gaiard pulled the spear from his shoulder and formed two daggers from the single axe.
Seeing this, Evan realized the nature of the blood-forged weapons.
‘It seems there’s a limit to the total amount of blood he can shape into weapons. Why else would he make daggers that small?’
Evan, too, swept up two daggers with his chain, engaging head-on.
―Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Four blades moved dazzlingly.
Evan, naturally skilled in all weapon techniques, was expected, but Gaiard was also adept with daggers.
He occasionally landed threatening attacks while trading blows with Evan.
‘It doesn’t seem like he’s lying about having fought many battles in human ways.’
Not a textbook style, but attacks born from experience.
This was the kind of expertise gained only through bloody battles.
‘If I let my guard down, my head’s coming off. Shall I pick up the pace?’
Gaiard was undeniably skilled with weapons.
But his opponent had lived a life entirely defined by war.
―Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Evan spun the daggers in his hands, sometimes gripping them properly, showcasing dazzling dagger techniques.
The evenly matched exchange gradually tipped as Gaiard’s wounds increased, pushing him back.
‘This guy… so young, yet how is he so skilled with daggers? Humans can’t even master one weapon in their lifetime.’
Gaiard had planned to kill Evan, absorb his blood, and vanish.
But Evan was far more tenacious than expected.
Moreover, through the fortress’ gaps, signs of dawn were approaching.
This made him hasty, leading to the mistake of thrusting his dagger too deeply.
‘He’s rushing.’
And Evan wasn’t one to miss such an opportunity.
Evan dodged the extended dagger and spun his blade.
He slashed the arm and drove a dagger into the elbow, twisting it.
―Rip!
Wedging the dagger between bones to create a gap, he kicked Gaiard’s torso.
Gaiard’s wrist was torn off.
“Argh!”
Even a vampire felt the pain of a severed arm.
His arm lost form, flowing like blood.
“Ugh, I don’t have many clothes.”
Evan grumbled, looking at his blood-soaked pants and shoes.
Meanwhile, Gaiard painstakingly regenerated his arm.
“…I acknowledge it. My plan to crush you with human methods was my mistake. So, I’ll face you my way.”
The weapon he held turned back into blood and was absorbed into him.
Then, his body began to twist.
―Crack.
His fangs protruded further, and his nails thickened.
“Urgh!”
His pale face contorted in apparent pain.
His body staggered, and finally, wings sprouted from his back.
―Swoosh!
An unstable form, like a bat turned human.
But that was the true form of a vampire.
“We don’t want to transform like this. So we don’t show it to others. That means everyone who’s seen this form is dead.”
With that, he vanished momentarily.
In the blink of an eye, his grotesque claws reached Evan’s face.
Evan blocked with a dagger.
―Crack!
A grip strong enough to break steel.
This was indeed a different form.
‘His speed and strength have surged. Even if it’s not his full power, is this what a high-grade monster is like?’
In human form, Evan was confident he could win.
But now, holding out as planned was the best option.
The gap in power was evident,
a moment where the disparity between species was keenly felt.
‘But humans aren’t that weak either.’
Evan picked up the scattered weapons with his chain and faced him.
―Clang! Clang!
He thrust a spear and threw an axe.
At the same time, he swung a sword to block attacks.
―Clang!
But he couldn’t pierce the vampire’s toughened hide after the transformation.
Simple attacks could no longer even scratch him.
Knowing this, Evan attacked even more fiercely.
“The fun’s over. Now die.”
But this was what Evan had induced.
Since Gaiard acted similarly to human psychology, Evan had lured him into complacency.
‘Come on, get closer. Closer.’
He dodged lethal attacks, waiting for an opportunity.
Then, he seemingly tripped over a rock, about to fall backward.
“Ha!”
“Foolish idiot!”
Gaiard bared his fangs and lunged, intending to tear out Evan’s throat and drink his blood.
At that moment, a broken sword shot up, piercing under Gaiard’s chin.
―Thud!
“How could you wield Aura at your age…”
Evan drove the sword in and struck it with his elbow, like hammering a nail.
―Thud!
Grabbing the hilt of the blade that pierced through the head, he twisted it.
―Crunch!
‘No matter how tough the hide, the bones can’t be that strong.’
As the neck bones snapped, Gaiard collapsed.
But this didn’t kill him.
It only knocked him out briefly.
That was enough, though.
Evan’s goal was to buy time to escape the fortress.
―Crack!
As Gaiard’s neck bones realigned, his eyes saw nothing but rage.
“I’ll kill you… lowly species…”
His red pupils fixed solely on Evan’s retreating figure.
He charged in a frenzy.
As they exited the fortress, the dawn began to break, and strength drained from his body.
‘You planned this. But this won’t stop me…!’
Evan left the fortress and entered the forest.
Gaiard followed but could no longer see him.
“Where…”
Instead, a chain emerged from a blind spot, wrapping around his body.
Evan appeared from behind, pulling the chain to bind Gaiard to a tree.
“You think these flimsy chains can hold me…”
As he tried to break the chains with force, he felt his body go limp.
It wasn’t just the rising sun; something else caused it.
A familiar yet unpleasant liquid.
“What is this!”
“That’s right, it’s Elixir. Also called holy water in another sense. You have no idea how much I had to beg to get this.”
The liquid was diluted Elixir, or holy water, always given to cadets after grueling training.
The chains were coated with it, rendering the vampire powerless.
“You! I’ll tear you limb from limb!”
“Aren’t you getting too worked up? Do you even know where you are?”
“What?”
As his excitement subsided, his vision cleared.
Looking at the scenery around Evan, he saw a barrier beyond the forest.
That’s right.
Gaiard was now outside the barrier.
Where the Hydra lurked.
“You can’t be unscathed either, can you?”
“Thanks to your transformation, my lowly species’ Qi is masked, so I should be fine. Meanwhile, I’ll just head back in.”
At that moment, the Hydra’s head rose above the forest.
“Shaaa!!!”
It charged toward them, or rather, toward Gaiard, who emitted a stronger presence.
“I won’t die like this! I’ll definitely get you…”
―Crunch!
The steel-like head chewed Gaiard thoroughly and swallowed him.
―Gulp.
***
Dodging the Hydra, Evan leapt back into the barrier and returned to the fortress.
‘I almost died for real.’
First a vampire, then a Hydra.
Had it been a normal encounter, he’d have been killed instantly by such powerful foes in succession.
‘Come to think of it, my life’s got too many ups and downs, doesn’t it? I brought this on myself, though.’
He realized his life, for a supposed ordinary noble, was fraught with crises.
Of course, Evan bore some responsibility for this.
It was due to his tendency to act boldly, trusting in his skills.
And that personality didn’t let him overlook even a single fortress.
‘Now that I think about it, what’s with this hole? I can faintly sense some mana.’
A hole of unknown depth.
He hadn’t paid it much attention since dropping Lina into it.
But after encountering the Hydra and vampire in succession, he felt something suspicious.
Why was there a hole in a place like this?
Was there a reason for it?
‘Oh, I brought that, so I should try it.’
Along with the Elixir, Evan had prepared a magical item for emergencies.
It was a luminescent spell meant to blind a vampire’s vision.
Now useless, he activated the magic and threw it into the hole.
A momentary light illuminated the hole’s depths.
At the not-so-deep bottom, something was faintly visible.
‘Huh? Was that a door just now?’
Having seen something, Evan immediately drove a sword into the ground and wrapped a chain around it.
Then, holding the chain, he descended.