Chapter 475: Don’t Panic! This is a Trap!

The advantage of traps is that they can be prepared in advance.

The downside is that they can’t move.

No matter how effective or efficient the killing power may be, traps are not favored because they don’t allow one to choose the battlefield.

Power achieved through traps lacks initiative.

But right now, I have the initiative.

Collie is waiting for nightfall.

A vampire’s strength lies in their immortality.

Their standard formula for victory is war of attrition built around that immortality.

But even beastkin with protective fur are still vampires, they weaken during the day, and their regeneration slows.

Now that they’ve realized I’m no pushover, they’ll try to settle the score at night, when they have the advantage.

Their timing to attack is nightfall.

They’ll try to interrupt my rest and sleep, which means they’ll come the moment the sun sets.

Vampire beastkin under the cover of night.

Possessing every flaw of vampires except their sharp night vision and beast instincts, they’re the perfect audience for my stage.

If I set ten traps, they’ll walk into eleven.

Before night, I constructed traps using wild vines in a clearing.

Snare knots that seize the ankles, classic pitfall traps with spikes, sharply carved logs that would swing in like battering rams, and spring-loaded branches meant to whip across their faces.

“Whew. That’s one done, at least.”

Vampires may not be caught so easily by regular traps, but the vines and branches I used were anything but normal.

Enhanced with the power of the Divine and the Tree of Genesis, these wild vines were tough and unyielding.

Even an Ancilla would have trouble escaping if they got tangled.

“Heave-ho. Heave-ho.”

“Woof-ho! Woof-ho!”

“Azzy, stop. Don’t mess around. You don’t even know how to tie knots.”

Seeing me tying vines, Azzy apparently wanted to join in.

She grabbed a vine in her mouth and gave it a tug, and despite using little strength, the reinforced vine snapped.

“You’re stupid strong. Even an Ancilla probably couldn’t do that.”

If just pulling on them snaps the vines, what’s the point of these traps?

Tch.

This whole strategy hinges on how long I can bind Collie.

If only Azzy could dismember Collie and toss her limbs across each mountain peak, but she’s not going to do that.

If I run, Azzy will follow me and leave Collie behind, and then Collie will break free and rescue her Neonates.

Isn’t there some clever workaround?

Just as I was thinking…

“Woof-ho! Woof-ho! Woof… woof?”

It happened.

The vines couldn’t hold.

When they snapped, Azzy tumbled backward, triggering one of the knot traps.

It rolled her up tight, and as she dug her claws into the ground to resist, she tripped a spike trap.

The spikes flew toward her, and though she easily batted them away even with her ankle bound, a broken stake spun through the air and wrapped around her like rope.

In mere seconds, Azzy had triggered seven traps.

She now hung in the air, tangled with two stakes like some suspended beast.

…And of course, all my traps were wrecked in the process.

“That takes talent, you mutt! How do you manage to trip every trap I worked so hard to make?!”

“Woof! That was fun!”

“Don’t say it was fun! That was a disaster!”

“Again!”

“You want to do it again?! I’ve had enough! You’re totally useless! I ought to roast you and eat you! Set, Re! Fahrenheit!”

Enraged, I lit a branch on fire and approached Azzy.

Her eyes went wide.

“Woof? Is this the ‘discard the hound after the hunt’ thingy?”

“That hound caught rabbits at least! You tripped all the rabbit traps! And how do you even know that idiom?!”

If I think of this as a test, maybe it’s not all bad…

No, wait. It is bad!

She didn’t help at all, she ruined all the traps!

The first thing I had to do now was get her untangled.

I closed my eyes tight and tossed the ball.

“Fetch.”

“Woof!”

Crack. Snap. Crunch.

I heard several unpleasant sounds.

When I opened my eyes, Azzy was sitting in front of me with the ball in her mouth, wagging her tail.

Behind her, the shredded vines and splintered wood lay scattered in ruins.

This is a catastrophe.

I sighed and took back the ball.

“Thanks. I got a good idea from that. Instead of single traps, I should string them together in series. It’ll take some effort to coordinate them all, but I guess that’s what I need to actually hold down an Ancilla.”

“Woof? Thanks? Then reward me!”

“It’s just a figure of speech, you mutt. Don’t cause any more messes! Just… Just sit quietly!”

Scolding Azzy, I decided to build traps even more elaborate and powerful.

Ones that would drag the target across the ground, tear their limbs apart, and impale them with stakes.

A bit excessive maybe, but they are vampires who don’t die.

“Woof? This one?”

“Don’t touch that. If you ruin this one too, I’m putting you in stew.”

Even with the strength granted by the Divine, setting up these chain traps took a toll.

And who knows how long it took, before I knew it, the sun was already setting.

Collie would be here soon.

“I need to lure them this way, but I can’t make it look too much like a trap. Let’s hide underground, Azzy.”

“Woof…”

“It’s not a playground.”

I pulled Azzy along to a hideout I’d prepared in the brush.

It looked like an ordinary hill from the outside, but thanks to Earthweave and druidism, it was my custom-built sanctuary.

It didn’t look suspicious, but to someone tracking me, it would be just suspicious enough to come closer.

From there, I watched outside.

Let them come. The trap will catch them.

Let them not come. Then I’ll enjoy the safety of night.

Remaining alert, I scanned the surroundings.

Soon enough, just as expected, footsteps approached.

Light but confident steps, the step of a seasoned warrior.

“…Huh?”

The problem was, it wasn’t the one I expected.

“Is this the place? Azzy, are you here?”

Now some other weirdo was wandering in to trip my traps.

What the hell?

The Regressor?

She came to find me?

It had been a while since I last saw her, but she hadn’t changed one bit.

Judging by her outfit and appearance, she looked just as she had back in Tantalus.

A single bee tethered to a thread danced around her as she looked around.

I was happy to see her, sure, but not enough to run out waving.

It was too unexpected, and I didn’t know how to react.

I couldn’t just pretend I didn’t know her either.

But this was a crisis.

And there were traps.

Do I show myself or not…

“Wait—no! That’s a trap! Right there!”

She was about to step on a trap meant for Collie!

I sprang up and shouted, and the Regressor instinctively drew Chun-aeng and dropped into a stance.

But upon recognizing me, she tilted her head.

“Hughes?”

“No! Your foot!”

She was about to step right on it!

I shouted just as she triggered it.

The vine snare lashed out and wrapped around her ankle.

Heavenly Counter Domain, Terra Firma Art. Ground Sever.

As soon as the vine touched her ankle, the sword in her left hand, Jizan, twitched.

Even though it hadn’t touched the ground, a fracture-like ripple spread out in the direction the sword pointed.

The vine embedded in the earth crumbled and tore.

She cut the trap clean through before it even pulled her leg.

“What is this?”

That counter was possible only with the absurd martial art, Heavenly Counter Domain, but my chained traps didn’t stop there.

Next, a sharp stake flew in.

A one-time-use ballista trap, built by pulling back a reinforced log with Azzy’s strength, meant to pierce even vampire bodies.

But the Regressor casually swatted it away with a flick of Chun-aeng.

But the stake was just a distraction.

While her attention was drawn to it, slings came flying in from all sides, meant to drain Collie attention, force her to expend all her counters, then hit her with a surprise blow.

Heavenly Counter Domain, Skyblade Art. Butterfly Cut.

She sliced through even that.

Chun-aeng shimmered and carved straight through the center of the slings in a single motion.

Five slashes in one swing.

It looked efortless.

Even I, the one who made the traps, was impressed by how easily she handled them.

She took a single step back, but instinctively, and unfortunately for her, that spot was another trap.

The ground collapsed beneath her.

Spikes awaited below like the fangs of a beast.

But she didn’t fall.

Because the moment the ground gave way, she reacted.

Skyblade Art, Cloud Steps.

She stepped on compressed space and caught herself mid-air.

A technique only possible for one who wielded Chun-aeng.

Whether the ground collapsed, the vines caught her, or ropes flew in, she met all of them without hesitation.

The perverse martial art, Heavenly Counter Domain, engraved counters to every situation she’d ever faced.

More concerned with me than the traps, she furrowed her brow and pointed.

“What the hell are you doing?”

What the hell?

That’s my line!

I snapped back.

“What do you mean, what? What are you doing?! These were traps I made to deal with vampire trackers! You wrecked them all, now what am I supposed to do?!”

“Vampire trackers? Oh, them? They won’t be coming. I ran into them earlier and took care of it.”

…You took care of them? The Ancilla?

Well, I guess that’s expected. The Regressor could beat an Ancilla.

For once, she actually did something useful.

That’s one less thing to worry abou—wait.

Less? Or… more?

“Anyway.”

Flash.

Lightning flashed, and the Regressor was suddenly right in front of me.

With both eyes wide open, even her Seven Colored Eye activated, she stared at me as if to declare I wouldn’t escape her gaze.

Not that I had any intention of resisting, but she didn’t give me the chance.

She shoved Chun-aeng against my shoulder.

“Woof?”

Azzy barked out in confusion, but the Regressor ignored her and stared down at me coldly.

“W-what? What now? Are you trying to collect another right arm?”

“There’s something I want to ask you, King of Humans. Answer honestly. Otherwise… I can’t promise what I’ll do.”

Strength? Needless to say, she overwhelmed me.

Skill? That broken martial art blocks ambushes and traps before they happen.

Tools? She doesn’t just carry idols of the Divine, she wields the Divine’s relics.

My Mind Reading works only halfway.

She’s my natural enemy by design.

The Regressor pressed Chun-aeng even harder to my shoulder and asked in a low, menacing voice.

“Do you want to destroy the world?”