Fair and Square
A silver bolt punched clean through the vampire's vitals, and it toppled over, unable to regenerate.
"...!"
Only then did a second vampire notice my presence, hurriedly unsheathing its blood-red claws.
"Bang."
But it was already too late.
Thwip!
The already-loaded crossbow loosed its second bolt, driving it straight through the creature's throat.
No regeneration this time, either.
I retrieved the silver bolt from the vampire's corpse, shook off the blood, and slid it back into my quiver.
Those with angelic blood receive superior damage bonuses with every kind of weapon, but the weapons they actually use are almost always the ones you grip and swing.
Swords, spears, axes, hammers... and so on.
At worst you'll see someone hurling a javelin or throwing a weapon, but rarely ever drawing a bow.
That's not to say we can't use one.
Click!
Exceptional hand-eye coordination, keen hearing, and a sixth sense that reaches into every corner of my surroundings.
Every one of those things can only be a plus when it comes to archery.
And on top of that, I have a body perfectly built to bring those senses to their fullest.
The only reason I don't bother is that a single spear thrust is more destructive and more unpredictable than a hundred arrows.
"I'd call that basic etiquette."
Two gatekeepers, at difficulty one.
Both were dead now, which meant nothing stood between me and the castle—no one, or rather, no vampire.
The moment I stepped inside, a gloomy, desolate atmosphere greeted me. More of the place lay in ruins than remained intact, and across the cavernous ground floor, quite a few vampires were still wandering about.
"Hm?"
"An intru—"
"Somebody's—"
They all went quiet after a single silver bolt each, of course.
Only possible because they traveled in twos, at most.
Without losing a single arrow, I climbed to the second floor and slipped into a certain room.
A chamber that had once served as a king's throne room.
One man dressed in rather noble finery stood among six vampires.
Since I hadn't caused any big commotion, they hadn't yet realized I'd entered.
Assassination's out of the question, then.
I took aim not at the man in the center, but at the vampires clustered around him.
Waiting for the moment two of them lined up on a single axis.
Thwip!
The bolt flew, punched through one vampire, then drilled through a second before it finally stopped.
"...!"
"An intruder!"
"Who the hell is it?!"
The four remaining vampires—everyone except the man—locked eyes on me, each summoning a weapon of blood and charging. The fastest of them closed the distance in a blur and swung its crimson claws at me.
Click!
Thwip!
I wrenched the crossbow around from where it had been aimed elsewhere and drilled a bolt through the vampire's skull in a heartbeat.
The lead vampire crumpled.
Even after witnessing a physically impossible maneuver, the remaining three didn't miss a beat—they came straight for me.
Decent judgment, honestly.
Unfortunately, it left me far too little time to reload.
"Hmmm..."
"Die—?!"
"...!"
"You insane creature—!"
I planted a light kick against the wall, slipping past every attack at once.
Spinning like a somersault, I turned the world upside down—ground became sky, sky became ground—and faced that inverted world head-on.
Click!
"First one's..."
Thwuck!
Right through the heart.
Crimson claws came flying at me in the same instant.
I flexed my body lightly, caught the incoming claws, and used them as a foothold to launch myself skyward once more.
Reloading happened in the same breath as the entire sequence.
The last two offered no more resistance before they crumbled as well.
Only after catching myself mid-air did my upturned world right itself again.
Clap clap clap clap.
"Impressive. Just as befits a vampire hunter."
What remained was a vampire—a real one, this time—who hadn't so much as stirred until every one of his underlings lay dead, simply striking poses the whole while.
'The mid-boss of Difficulty 1 is a "Baron" rank...'
In terms of raw stats, he was weaker than even a top-1000 ranker, so any user with real combat experience could beat him outright.
But from the moment you enter this place, your stats get slashed dramatically.
A genuinely difficult boss, impossible to win against by 'conventional' means.
"But can you defeat me, Baron Jueros?"
"Let's find out."
"Good. Come at me!"
Baron Jueros conjured a whip of blood.
A whip that looked menacing at a glance.
With how wickedly sharp its edge was, letting it land even once would mean a grievous wound—that much was certain.
Before he could close in, I fired off a single bolt.
He blocked the arrow flying at his throat with his forearm and frowned.
Unlike the others, it hadn't left a wound deep enough to kill in one hit.
CRACK!
"...So it's a silver weapon."
"Not breaking through, huh."
"Of course not! Mere silver cannot harm this body!"
Jueros snapped the bolt in two and immediately swung his whip.
It came in with a wicked edge, but it was what it was.
I dodged the whip with room to spare and fed him two more silver bolts.
"Tch!"
But just as he'd said, the silver bolts were no longer lethal.
Every strike aimed at a vital point was blocked.
He was definitely a troublesome opponent for a mere 'user' to handle.
"Yap."
Thwip!
"Yap."
Thwip!
"Ghhgh...!"
So I'd fight him with chip damage instead.
Baron or not, no vampire survives sixty-six silver bolts made specifically to kill his kind.
I hopped lightly over the lashing whip and took aim with the crossbow.
Even if I couldn't target his vitals, the damage kept accumulating.
After about thirty bolts, his movements had dulled noticeably.
By now I didn't even need to try dodging—a few steps of footwork was all it took.
"GRAAAGH! Fight me fair and square!"
"I am fighting you fair and square."
"What kind of fair and—DIE!!"
"That's just my afterimage."
"RAAAAAGH!! You insolent human!"
A good amount of blood now pooled across the floor.
Just a few more hits, and Jueros would die.
'Time to...'
Even so, I kept firing from a safe distance.
Vampires with a noble title each possess a special power.
And the power of Jueros, bearer of the Baron's title, was...
"I shall hold back no longer!"
The blood spilled all around Jueros went into a frenzy.
Blood currents surged and churned, and even the blood of the vampires sprawled nearby was sucked toward him.
Sreeeak.
A third eye split open on Jueros's forehead.
Its crimson pupil rolled wildly, locked onto me with perfect precision—and the whip came flying.
CRUNCH!
"Oh no."
The crossbow shattered.
Shards of the crossbow scattered from my hand.
I really did put it through a lot. Never imagined I'd fire thirty bolts from it, but it had more than done its job by now.
'Go to a good place, old friend.'
I let go of my attachment to the broken crossbow and drew out yet another weapon.
A silver sword.
A blade forged of silver—lethal to vampires—settled into my hand.
The whip came for me again, dead on target.
SHRAKK!
"...!"
The whip split clean in two.
The moment the severed halves touched the ground, they liquefied into blood, and the blood congealed again into a host of thin whips.
More than ten whips, all aimed at me.
And then—
"Huh?"
"Starlight Surge."
A surge of the sword, brimming with starlight, tore every last whip to shreds.
FWOOOOSH!
Jueros's head went with them.
Blood dripped steadily from the silver blade.
I flicked the sword to shake off the gore, then slid it back into the sheath at my waist.
"This one's nice."
I'd copied a bit of the swordsmanship of Aisha, the Eleventh-Ranked Sword Saint of Starlight, and it was surprisingly handy.
Sword God's techniques aren't bad either, mind you—but most of his abilities run on demonic energy, and his movements are sluggish, so they're not very efficient.
After all, right now I'm playing as close to an ordinary user as I can manage.
No divinity, and my mana—or any of the power I actually hold—is essentially close to zero.
"Since the crossbow's gone, I'll take the Blood Stone route."
There are three ways to clear this dimensional space.
One is to shatter the Blood Stone at the top of the castle; the other is to slay every vampire within it.
With the crossbow gone, hunting them down one by one as I combed the whole castle sword in hand didn't exactly appeal to me.
Better to smash the Blood Stone quickly and be done with it.
"The Progenitor? Well, the Progenitor is a secret."
Not someone I plan to reveal during a test.
And above all...
"If I hunt him down, I'll throw in a special gift for anyone who wins a one-on-one lecture with me. A really good one."
Because I know.
I know exactly what kind of monster the Progenitor—a mere vassal, nothing more—truly is.