Chapter 101: Demon Kings’s Army – 2

Chapter 101: Demon Kings’s Army – 2

Despite the Demon King’s Army being quite a mess, with the Demon King and her (relatively most normal) aide having a big fight, there was a surprising amount of order in certain areas.

Firstly, they were gathered in the basement of the Demon King’s castle and its surroundings.

…Of course, they weren’t properly gathered, but they were gathered, at least.

However, not all monsters were meekly confined to the basement.

The monster legion was kept underground for secrecy… but these weren’t monsters who would follow a directive to stay only underground.

Especially not monsters who constantly hunted other species.

Therefore, some Demon King’s Army executives either condoned this or even joined in the trend.

After all, they too found it boring to be stuck underground, waiting for an unknown time.

…Completely disregarding the fact that such actions would further delay the time they were waiting for.

Anyway, the monsters’ actions of going above ground on their own, causing havoc, fighting each other, and raiding the surroundings naturally attracted attention.

And because of this, humans perceived them as ‘monster hordes’ and dispatched investigators.

…Unfortunately, those investigators ended up as a luxurious meal for these bored monsters.

As this routine repeated, even the Demon King, who initially tried to control them, eventually half-gave up on control and changed her directive to just stay near the main force.

Therefore, the day that directive came down was truly chaotic… but, as is often the case with monsters, order was established by beheading a few radical ones.

After that, they began to leave the underground, maintaining a certain order and sequence.

Thus, the monsters who came above ground desperately roamed around, looking for something interesting.

Naturally, they were quite ferocious, and if they saw something, they’d usually hit it first.

And…… even more so when a human suddenly appeared.

“Hmm… a human dared to come this far?”

“Well, it’s fun for us.”

“I’ll take that one. She’ll make an excellent subordinate.”

Sharp fangs, red eyes, and hair bleached white.

Three vampires’ eyes gleamed at the sight of a single human who appeared just as they were lucky enough to be above ground.

…It looked like children who had found an interesting new toy, but…

Unfortunately, their gleaming fangs showed that it was absolutely not just that.

***

“God… damn it……!”

Where did it all go wrong?

From the moment I accepted this damn request? Or from the moment I trusted the potions and acted a little too boldly?

…I don’t know.

But one thing is certain……

“Yeah……! Come at me, you sons of bitches!!!”

I had to take down these three vampires that suddenly appeared in front of me if I wanted to live.

Flames blazed to their maximum on my sword.

My armor was breaking, unable to withstand the heat, and I was getting burned more and more… yet, I didn’t stop the flames.

There’s no way I could take down those bastards with flames that couldn’t even burn me.

“Kiiieek! Kieeeek!!”

“What the hell are you babbling about? So annoying.”

Sometimes, I’m glad I can’t understand what monsters are babbling about.

…I don’t know what those bastards are saying, and I don’t want to know, but at least it won’t be anything pleasant to my ears.

Flames rising from the sword surged forward.

No, the flames… swallowed the space.

They swallowed the space with their ferocious maw, craving to engulf everything in sight.

The air heated up, and the creatures of the earth ignited.

Flames scattered, and the enemies’ stances crumbled.

The enemy’s attack, craving the blood of life before them, was swallowed by the flames that craved to engulf everything.

Swallowed, and also ignited.

The flames didn’t stop until they spread to the attacking monster itself, engulfing its body.

…Because I was emitting the flames to do so.

Whoosh!

The sound of sharp wind cutting through the air.

I knew this sound, no, I had come to know it.

…A sharp, crude spear made of blood.

It was the favorite technique of those vampires in front of me.

For a moment, I tried to pull back my sword, but I caught sight of one vampire almost burned to death.

…It was a disadvantageous fight from the start.

Even if I got hurt…… I had to take one down to make it a worthwhile fight.

“Alright…… let’s see how far this goes.”

I didn’t pull back my sword.

No, I even more fiercely poured mana into it, raising the flames of the sword.

The gloves and armor that should have blocked the heat were already melting beyond the point of breaking.

Even the sword emitting fire seemed to be deforming, indicating it had already surpassed its limits.

“…Kuh!”

The blood spear grazed my neck.

I dodged as much as possible, but I still couldn’t avoid it completely.

After all, I noticed the attack too late to completely evade it.

……The blood that fell from my neck, then again became the enemy’s weapon, aimed at me.

“This is why vampires are annoying. The moment you get a scratch in a fight, they become a pain in the ass.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, the wounds on my hands and arms were seared by the intense heat, so there was no blood or anything.

And… the vampire being seared by the sword was also completely annihilated.

…As for the bad part, well.

Perhaps it’s the attack from the two perfectly fine vampires still aiming at me?

I raise my sword.

…I hurriedly extract mana from the sword, which is starting to melt, and inject it into my already half-broken armor.

A clearly unstable defensive barrier deployed.

And, as everyone expected, the barrier shattered powerlessly under the vampires’ attack, piercing my left shoulder.

However, what the vampires didn’t expect was……

“It’s going to sting, and it’s going to be hot enough to kill you.”

Clang! A clear sound of breaking glass, and electricity spreading out.

…Lucia spoke of them as failures, but they weren’t at all.

Although their power was weak… their electrical properties made them excellent for deception and causing stiffness.

My intensely heated and continuously burning sword struck the neck of the vampire whose gaze had been diverted by the momentary flash.

……Whether the sword actually melted, there was no cutting effect.

Rather, the sword just bent into a strange shape.

However, it was enough.

I intended to burn his head to ashes anyway, so what did it matter if it was cut or not?

“…I never thought I’d use this potion like this.”

Perhaps shocked that his comrade’s head had instantly turned to ash, the lone remaining vampire began to falter.

My weapon, which seared with flames, was inherently a good counter to vampires who constantly tried to regenerate.

And a monster of a vampire’s caliber would be well aware of that.

Anyway, in the precious opening, I opened a glass bottle filled with cold air and poured it onto my arm and sword.

If I had my way, I’d fight right now, at the peak of the flames and heat… but if I did, my armor, my arm, and my sword would all burn away.

I inevitably needed time to cool down… and this potion, with effects similar to ice magic, shortened that cooling time to a mere instant.

…Although the sword had cooled down a lot and lost its power, it didn’t matter.

I was tired, and injuries had accumulated… but I had bought stamina potions for times like these.

The white potion, which felt strangely like a cathedral, flowed down my throat and spread through my body.

…The wounds scattered across my body and the fatigue that weighed me down felt much lighter as a bonus.

……Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be a panacea, just as Lucia herself had said.

I was still tired, and my wounds had only improved a lot, but were still there.

…Of course, it seemed to look a bit different to the vampire in front of me.

“What, why are you running away?”

With two comrades dead and him left alone, it was true that he was at a considerable disadvantage… but I was just as exhausted, so it would have been a fight worth trying.

……Until I recovered with a stamina potion.

He probably thought it was a fight he couldn’t win, so he ran.

The problem is, who exactly did he run to?

The vampire species of monster is by no means a weak species.

Of course, the ones I fought now weren’t high-ranking species, just ordinary vampires… but these guys are 3rd to 4th grade monsters, to begin with.

It was a fight I would never have won without the aid of magic potions and the daring output I could achieve thanks to stamina potions.

But such a monster is running away.

There’s only one destination for vampires when they run away.

Towards a being stronger than themselves,

To ask for support because there’s an enemy they can’t defeat.

And, as if affirming my thoughts…… a faint but distinct vibration began to echo from afar.

…It was from one being, but it was by no means an ordinary one.

The mana is strange.

It felt as if all my mana was being sucked away by the being coming from afar.

I don’t know what kind of being that is. But……

……The fact that it’s a being powerful enough to cause such strange phenomena seemed terribly clear.

“At least a high-ranking vampire, or even higher…? For a mere monster horde?”

The Empire currently believes that a special monster with the ability to command and gather monsters has appeared, causing monsters to temporarily gather.

That’s why they’re calling them a monster horde.

…They’re wrong.

No, to be precise, they’re only half right.

“This is… no mere horde. The monster that gathered these guys didn’t just have the ability to gather monsters.”

This is a legion.

A legion with at least high-ranking vampires.

No, it might not even end there.

“…I need to return as quickly as possible.”

I urge my tired body on… but I couldn’t stop all the blood seeping from my wounds.

…And vampires, as their name suggests, are very sensitive to blood.

“Hoo, is this the one? She looks weaker than I thought?”

“……Damn it, I can hear him talking, so he really is a high-ranking vampire.”

…And the next moment,

My vision was already dyed red.

……Ah, I really shouldn’t have taken this request.