Chapter 474: Falling Hazard

There’s nowhere to hide on a wide plateau.

Sunlight pours from the sky, shining from the highest point down, and on a land without shadows, everything is fully exposed.

Those who find beauty in the world would love the plateau, because they can see more of it.

Those who don’t, probably wouldn’t.

The Coven of Lunken includes many beastkin.

Covered in fur that shields their bodies, they have resistance against the sun.

If I’d carelessly wandered around in broad daylight, I would’ve been chased down immediately.

But I had Azzy.

“Woof woof! Woof woof woof!”

“Baaa-aaah!”

Collie’s Neonate, the sheep beastkin Meeyang, let out a wail and fled.

Despite wrapping herself in thick, fluffy wool and gaining the power of immortality as a vampire, a sheep was still a sheep.

As Azzy barked and bounded forward, she bleated and locked herself inside the outpost.

Collie had gone on the chase with her hunting hounds and Neonates.

Only one Neonate remained guarding the foggy outpost.

A sheep beastkin Neonate might endure sunlight, but she couldn’t endure Azzy.

Meeyang screamed at me.

“Baaah! Get that thing away from me!”

“Pardon? Miss Collie told me to look after her.”

“Baaah! I get it! Just get her out of my sight! Baaah!”

“Alright, I’m going. For real, okay? I’m going now.”

“Baaah!”

Well now. It’s not like I was really going to stick around.

Can’t be helped, I guess.

I pulled out a ball from my coat.

Azzy, who’d been unleashing pure instinct at the sheep beastkin vampire, immediately crouched low and wagged her tail when she saw it.

“Here! Don’t take it out on the poor sheep, go fetch!”

“Woof!”

As I threw the ball, Azzy sprinted like an arrow.

Perfect.

I crossed the outpost’s boundary naturally while tossing the ball.

If I keep following her, I can cross the border…

“No wait, Azzy, don’t go ahead! I’ll go. Did you already fetch it?”

“Woof!”

“Try to bring it back slower next time. Go!”

With the ball toss, I casually crossed the border.

Borders are rarely sharply defined lines.

Especially if mountains are involved, it’s even harder to draw the line, after all, no one lives up there.

So normally, if a mountain lies along the boundary, the highest ridge becomes the default border.

After passing the peak and crossing the ridgeline, the world hidden behind the mountain opened up in full view.

A sight I’d never seen before in the Duchy of Mist.

Just one mountain pass, and yet the view was completely different.

But even that came after passing dozens of mountains and finally reaching this last one.

I can feel a bit proud of that, I guess.

Though it was only possible because no Elders came after me.

“Why did Hilde leave? If she’d come with me, we could’ve escaped more easily.”

“Woof!”

“Azzy… can we stop playing fetch and just walk like normal?”

Now that I’d crossed the border, vampires were no longer enemies.

Even if Collie figured out my deception and chased after me, it wouldn’t happen for at least another day.

I needed to get as far away as possible before then.

It’s easier going down than up.

Using cards to make a sled, leaping over boulders with strengthened legs, I ran down the mountain.

Pushed through sand, jumped over valleys, ducked through brush, I moved for quite a while.

How many hours had it been?

Even after descending so far, there was no end in sight.

The mountainous wall-like ridge still had a long way to go. I glanced back to catch my breath and saw the ridgeline far behind me.

Even after coming this far, there was still so much left.

Sigh.

If only someone would invent teleportation already.

Muttering to myself, I half-heartedly tossed the ball.

“Azzy, go find us a path.”

“Woof!”

Azzy darted off, vanishing into the bushes.

Rustle, rustle

Bushes parted violently, then rejoined.

In no time, she came back and dropped the ball at my feet.

“Here!”

“Safe, huh? Okay.”

You still need to test even a stone bridge before crossing.

You never know what’s hiding in that underbrush.

Earlier, I almost fell thinking it was solid ground.

Ugh. It’s a long way.

The brush is getting denser.

No paths, no people.

Who knows what might be out here, so I’m relying on Azzy to scout ahead.

Still, no one was chasing me.

I only had to look forward.

I was just deciding to appreciate my slightly improved situation when—

“Awooooooo!”

A howl similar to a wolf rang out from somewhere.

Before I could process it, I was already flat on the ground.

Even if I’d been spotted, I had no desire to actually see a wolf.

“Awoo—! You deceived me—!”

A beastkin’s howl echoed through the air.

Somehow, my lie had been exposed.

“Woof! Friend!”

“Not anymore!”

“Woof? It is though?”

“Then play with me! Hold hands and roll around or something!”

“Okay!”

“Don’t jump! You’re giving away our position!”

I tried scolding Azzy, but it was already too late.

Beyond the ridge, five beastkin appeared, Neonates of the border patrol, led by Collie.

A vampire strike team of beastkin, protected by their fur and immune to sunlight, descended the slope with their hounds.

They looked like they’d tumble down at any second, but it didn’t matter.

They were beastkin vampires.

“Grrrrrr!”

“Growrrrr!”

“Baaa-aaah!”

The five dots became a landslide, sweeping down the slope.

Dust clouds thickened into fog.

At the very front, scratching the ground with her black fur streaming, was Collie.

That’s supposed to be a vampire weakened by the sun?

Tch. No wonder humans can’t escape.

I could handle Neonates in the sun.

But not Collie, she was beyond my power.

I’d have to rely on Azzy.

Though I wasn’t confident…

“Azzy, do you know tag?”

“Woof! I know!”

“Great, makes it easy to explain. We’re the prey, and they’re the hunters! We have to run before they catch us!”

“Woof woof! Got it!”

“Then run! Before they catch us!”

I bolted the other way, flipping through my card deck.

It was so thin now, it looked pathetic.

I spread it out and scanned it quickly.

Almost all my weapons were used up.

All I had left was one skewer, four Divines cards, a few single-use Clovers, and some Hearts.

The Heart potions were still plentiful, but they strained my body, I didn’t want to use them unless necessary…

But wait, my body was now filled with power of the Divines.

It might not be too taxing anymore.

I’d have to test it in a pinch.

Gripping the Divines card in both hands, I began the long run.

“Awooooo—!”

Collie was the first to charge.

Practically dropping down the slope, she lunged at me at an angle.

True to her orders to bring me back alive, she didn’t even extend her claws and just reached out to grab me.

“Woof!”

That’s when Azzy leapt in.

A vampire beastkin and the King of Dogs collided midair.

Limbs tangled, and a dull thud rang out.

Moments later, the beastkin and the beast king rolled down the slope together.

“Your Majesty…! Don’t interfere!”

“Woof! Let’s play! Let’s play!”

“This isn’t a game!”

Collie flipped over and slammed Azzy into the ground.

Though she retained the instincts of a beast, her techniques were all human.

With a twisting throw, broken branches scattered, and a cloud of dust rose.

Shaking off the Beast King in an instant, Collie kicked off the ground again.

But overwhelming physicality can suppress technique.

Before she could take off, Azzy was already on all fours and had bitten into Collie’s hind leg.

Her leap cut short, Collie collapsed flat on the ground.

With mud smeared on her face, Collie turned her head.

Azzy, still chomping on her leg, let out a bright bark.

“Woof!”

“Argh—!”

She’d held back against humans, worried about hurting them. But vampires were different. At the very least, she had no problem holding Collie down.

The problem was…

“Baaah!”

“Grrrr!”

Sheep, dog, cat, and goat beastkin.

They were only Neonates, slower than Collie, but they were clearly after me.

Vampires grow stronger near their maker.

While they weren’t as tough as Viltear, they were still difficult foes for me.

They split up and closed in with military precision under Collie’s command.

The scent of vampire blood made Azzy growl, her fur bristling.

While she might tolerate Collie, she had no reason to be kind to other vampires.

Azzy launched herself at them.

“Argh—!”

This time Collie grabbed Azzy and wrestled with her.

She tried to hurl her by the scruff, but Azzy’s sheer momentum overwhelmed her.

The two tumbled down the slope again.

I wasn’t sure who I should be more worried about, Azzy or the slope.

Leaving the two of them to stir up a storm of dust and branches, I glanced at the Neonates charging at me.

“Baaah! Stop! Or you’ll get hurt!”

Was that the sheep beastkin from the outpost?

Her thick, fluffy mane looked soft enough to absorb any impact, but her charge was no joke.

Every step she took dented the ground in the shape of hooves.

I didn’t stop, obviously.

And the sheep beastkin seemed to make up her mind, slamming down on the ground.

One… Two… Now.

Thunk.

The ground under her gave way.

The sheep beastkin, who’d been trying to ram into me, sank straight into a pit.

She hadn’t noticed the trap I’d camouflaged with twigs.

“Baaah?!”

The sheep Elder looked around, clueless.

She’d fallen into the very spot I’d run across just moments earlier.

｢When did he—? There was no time to dig traps!｣

With the Divines, anything is possible.

I created a hole the moment I stepped and grew grass and branches to mask it.

If you don’t look closely, you’re bound to fall in.

Because around me, it’s already a minefield.

“Grrk!”

“Myaaah!”

“Damn it…!”

The beastkin vampires stumbled into my traps, slowing their pace.

Not that I cared, I kept running in one direction.

“We can chase you forever without even sleeping! Give up!”

Well, I do need sleep.

So I’ll have to shake you off before that.

I parted the underbrush to make a path and ran without looking back.

The sheep beastkin shouted behind me.

“Baaah! You’ll regret this!”

“Meeyang. We must capture him alive.”

“I know! A few bruises won’t kill him, right?”

“I suppose not.”

Suppose not?

Excuse you!? I was the favorite of your Progenitor, you know?

If I get hurt, it’s a huge problem!

Not that the Neonates in the border patrol would know that.

They closed in from all sides.

I clenched the Nine of Spades and folded it in one hand.

The Tree of Genesis, Grass Knot.

Within a 5-meter radius, every blade of grass found a partner.

The gently swaying blades softly entwined with each other.

Druids, sages from the era when the world was covered in greens, their power was reproduced with just one card.

“Awoooo!”

…Well, time has changed since then.

Snap, rip.

Even grass that had endured through harsh lives couldn’t withstand a vampire’s charge.

Stalks tore.

Roots were ripped out.

The grass paid the price of my command with pain.

In honor of their brave sacrifice, I must push forward.

“You’re slow!”

“No, you’re too fast!”

Even if I tripped them, it was hard to shake off Neonates charging without fear of death.

They crushed my traps and tore through the Grass Knot.

If they intended to kill me, they’d have had several chances already.

But they couldn’t, so they tried to cut ahead and block me.

Good. Now.

Through parting bushes, my objective came into view, a cliff.

I’d spotted it earlier.

A cliff hidden by foliage is hard to notice until you’re practically on top of it, especially when running.

I dove low and slid across the ground.

I tore through grass and branches, bleeding off speed.

I’d been running fast enough that I barely stopped just in time.

“Baaah! Stop! It’s a cliff!”

The Neonates skidded to a halt a beat too late.

Dirt clouds kicked up as they barely managed to stop themselves.

The goat beastkin at the front spat out a twig from his mouth and shouted.

“Pathetic trick! You really thought we’d fall for something that simple?!”

“Looks like one of you did.”

Baaaaaah—

The sheep Elder’s cry echoed far below.

The goat beastkin turned and saw their comrade’s fall, then responded.

“Falling won’t kill us anyway! Surrender peacefully!”

“Thanks. That eases my guilt.”

Not that I’d feel that guilty about hurting vampires anyway.

I slammed both hands into the ground.

Maybe I’m not at General-level, and can’t shatter earth with Qi.

That’s something only those who’ve mastered Gon Qi Arts can do.

But I can accelerate the collapse.

I withdrew the roots anchoring the soil.

Crushed the clumped earth.

Using Earthweave and druidism, I carved away the cliff that had barely been holding.

“You—! cut the ground…!”

Even dull vampires could feel the sensation of falling.

The dog beastkin in the wrong spot tried to claw the earth and slipped.

The goat and cat beastkin sensed the danger in time and scrambled up the crumbling slope.

Not that I’d let them escape.

Using Eight of Spades, Elixir, I softened the ground.

A layer of the collapsing cliff turned into a sliding card surface.

The cat beastkin tried to dig in with claws but couldn’t hold on and plummeted.

“YOU WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!”

Only the goat beastkin held on, climbing the slope with powerful hooves.

He charged at me with speed almost like flat ground.

He reached out toward me.

But if it’s just one Neonate… I can win.

I knocked away his hand and stomped his head.

He barely held on, but with a strong double kick, even his hooves couldn’t keep him upright.

Slowly, his center of gravity tipped back.

“Kgh—arrghh!”

As he flailed his arms to balance, I graciously held out a branch.

“Here. Grab on.”

Maybe he couldn’t trust my sudden kindness, but the goat beastkin hesitated, then reached for it anyway.

It was the only thing to grab.

That drew his attention.

I flicked the branch.

Off-balance from holding it, the goat beastkin toppled backward, falling just like the others down the distant cliff.

“YOU—!”

“Bye-bye. Let’s not meet again, yeah?”

“DON’T THINK THIS IS OVER—!”

He shouted a classic villain line, but then the tumbling dirt buried even his face.

I clung to a tree root and looked down the cliff.

The vampires who fell were now covered in a heavy pile of dirt.

It’s still daytime.

With regeneration slowed, they won’t chase me again anytime soon… but once night falls, who knows.

Tch, what a pain.

Vampires are so annoying.

Pseudo-immortality is cheating.

Climbing back up, I pulled out a ball and threw it.

It traced an arc and disappeared into the underbrush.

Moments later, Azzy came back with it in her mouth.

“Woof!”

“Had fun?”

“Woof woof!”

Azzy looked delighted, but Collie did not.

She pushed through the bushes, looking like a walking pile of dirt and twigs.

“…Awoo. I don’t know why the Progenitor wants you, but playtime ends here.”

Vampire blood runs cold.

Collie wasn’t tired, but she wasn’t reckless enough to attack alone without her Neonates.

If she tried and I subdued her with Azzy’s help, they’d be out of commission for a long time.

Having decided to retreat and recover her forces, she glared at me and growled low.

“Vampires don’t die. No matter how long it takes, we’ll find you. If you don’t want to be hunted forever, surrender now.”

“No matter how long it takes? But what good is that? Over time, Tyr’s feelings might change. I might die.”

Truly, spoken like a vampire.

You really don’t understand human.

We’re not eternal.

We’re fickle, you know?

“If you meet other vampires, give them a message. Things are more precious when they’re hard to obtain. Which means, I’m getting more precious by the minute.”

“We’ll see if you’re still so smug in the end. Awooo!”

Collie howled and disappeared into the brush. She was probably heading down to recover her Neonates with Bloodcraft and return by nightfall.

Even when covered with their fur, vampires are naturally weak to sunlight.

Which means they’re much stronger at night when nothing holds them back.

Meanwhile, I’d be floundering in this treacherous terrain.

I wouldn’t be able to end things so easily next time.

Instead of running, I’d better set traps and incapacitate them entirely.

Fortunately, right now my only pursuers are one Ancilla and four Neonates.

If no stronger enemy shows up, I can lose them.

Well… a new pursuer probably won’t appear, right?

God forbid… an Elder.

Good.

Time to use all I’ve got, and show these beastkin what human cunning really means.

Neonates are also undying, but not immortal.

Those with relatively weak Bloodcrafts die and get replaced so often that calling them vampires is almost ironic.

Especially during the day, being injured or subdued under sunlight is fatal.

Left unattended, they lose their energy and their regenerative abilities weaken.

In a chase, numbers are everything.

If it takes too long, the Neonates she brought won’t even get a chance to be used.

Collie sprinted down the cliffside to rescue the Neonates buried under the landslide.

They were pitiful subordinates who couldn’t even fulfill their duties properly, but blaming them would have to come later.

For now, restoring them took priority.

As Collie dug through the mounds of earth, pulling out her buried subordinates one by one—

Rustle.

From somewhere nearby, the bushes parted, and a ‘boy’ with pitch-black short hair appeared.

His androgynous features gave him an ambiguous look.

He held a bee tied to a thin string.

The ‘boy’ muttered while watching the bee trace figure-eights through the air, tethered to the delicate thread.

“How odd. The scent of Tracking Fragrance I planted on Azzy is pointing here.”

Shei glanced back and forth between Collie and the bee several times before tilting his head.

“No matter how I look at it, Azzy doesn’t seem to have turned black… So who are you supposed to be?”