Chapter 537: Bloody Requiem (12)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 537: Bloody Requiem (12)
A red line slashed diagonally across the Duke's torso, from below his right flank all the way to his left shoulder.
Spurt!
Blood gushed into the air.
A faint smile played on Son Seo-yeon's lips as she watched.
‘A success!’
Her body trembled with a surge of euphoria, but her joy was short-lived.
She immediately pushed off the ground and retreated to her original position.
The smile had already vanished from her face.
“Sorry… It was too shallow.”
She had succeeded in cutting him, but the wound wasn't deep enough.
Drawing blood meant she had dealt significant damage, that much was certain.
But it wasn't enough.
Not enough to truly corner him.
Kim Do-jin patted her shoulder comfortingly.
“It’s okay. That was the best you could do, Sunbae.”
He was right.
She had given it her all. It was just that her opponent's skin was far tougher and more resilient than she'd anticipated.
Kim Do-jin turned to Han Ju-yeon, who was healing the two tankers.
“How are they?”
“The wounds aren't too deep. I'll be done in a moment.”
True to her word, the warm light in her hands faded away moments later.
“Ow, that still stings.”
“Nngh… The pain is worse than I expected.”
The two tankers got to their feet, still wincing in pain despite their wounds having closed.
“Everyone, be careful,” Shin Yu-jeong warned, shivering once as if recalling the pain. “Even a shallow cut was excruciating. A direct hit would be horrific.”
It seemed there was something about the attack that amplified pain. Otherwise, Shin Yu-jeong, whose pain tolerance was the highest in the party, wouldn't have reacted that way.
“…Truly impressive.”
As the party quickly regrouped, the Duke's menacing gaze fell upon Kim Do-jin.
“To gather such a troublesome group in one place. Do you have a keen eye for talent as well?”
“You could say that,” Kim Do-jin said with a shrug, playing it cool.
At the same time, he moved a hand behind his back, giving his teammates a pre-arranged signal.
The Duke ran a hand through his hair, which had been disheveled by his intense use of mana.
“I suppose I should get serious now. I have no desire to be disgraced any further.”
His tone was deceptively casual, but his eyes were murderous. A clear sign of his rage.
He gestured.
“Come.”
His gesture was aimed at the pools of blood that had collected on the floor, shed during the fierce battles between the raid team and the vampires, between Francis and the True Ancestor.
Sssss...
Droplets of blood gathered with startling speed, coalescing on the shattered ceiling of the old castle.
Then, with a soft hiss, they began to fall like a fine rain.
「Blood Rain.」
Sensing the danger, Kim Do-jin yelled, “Shield!”
Han Ju-yeon, who had also sensed the ominous energy and was already forming the spell, cried out.
「Divine Shield」
Fwoosh!
A golden shield spread wide above their heads.
The downpour of blood collided with the shield.
Clatter! Clang! Clang!
The chilling, metallic sound sent a shiver down their spines.
Kim Do-jin's face tightened as he looked up at the red rain pelting the shield.
“Don't tell me…”
Were those raindrops actually tiny spikes?
An ability befitting the name ‘Thorn Duke,’ indeed.
He asked Han Ju-yeon, “The shield, what's its maximum range?”
“About fifteen meters… Any wider and its durability will drop. It'll be pierced in no time.”
“How long can it last?”
“…Ten minutes. I don't think I can hold it any longer than that.”
The power within those spikes was stronger than he'd thought, for a shield cast by an S-rank Hunter like her to last a mere ten minutes.
‘And even that is probably a generous estimate.’
That ten-minute window likely assumed she'd be pushing herself to the limit.
Which meant the real time they had was probably closer to seven or eight minutes.
Huu.
He let out a soft sigh and grumbled, “What a damn pain in the ass.”
They were now restricted in several ways.
First, their primary offensive strategy—using Han Ju-yeon as their main cannon—was now off the table.
Her divine power was the bane of vampires. The plan had been for him and the tankers to create an opening, allowing her to land a devastating blow.
‘Our range of movement is limited, too.’
The sheer number and power of the spikes meant they couldn't just tank the hits.
They were forced to stay under the shield, which meant they could no longer approach the Duke as easily as before.
And one last thing.
‘Worst of all, we've given him the perfect distance.’
The Duke's attacks were all destructive and highly effective at long range. The distance created by the rain had essentially given wings to his fighting style.
Advancing slowly while blocking his attacks wasn't a good option, either.
‘That would take too long.’
Meanwhile, the bloody battle between Francis and the True Ancestor was growing more intense. If they tried to push forward while enduring the Duke's relentless barrage, they would burn through their time and resources at an alarming rate.
So, what was the solution?
A way to close the distance and win without dragging this out.
Then, an idea came to him.
A gamble. It was unstable, something he'd never properly used in a real fight, but if it worked… it could turn the tables in an instant.
“Everyone, fall back,” Kim Do-jin ordered, his hand tight on his sword.
Shin Yu-jeong opened her mouth to say something, but then pressed her lips together and obediently followed his command.
She saw the look in his eyes—intensely serious, yet blazing like a fire. Whenever he looked like that, he was about to pull something incredible.
Seeing this, the Duke sneered. “You seem to care a great deal for your comrades. Or… is it something more?”
Kim Do-jin grinned.
“Yep. They're mine.”
“……”
The women's faces suddenly flushed red.
“Jeez… What is he saying all of a sudden?”
“Y-y-you crazy bastard.”
“Hmph.”
“……”
They say life finds a way, even in wartime.
The Duke's face contorted in disgust at the strange, romantic tension blooming in the middle of a life-or-death battle.
“Fine…. Then I'll just have to send them to the afterlife first.”
The moment he finished speaking, a blast of red energy shot toward the huddled group.
Kim Do-jin instantly moved to intercept it.
Boom!
He sliced the cannonball of red energy in two and shook his head.
“Go on, try it if you think you can.”
It was a declaration of war: Try to get past me to hurt them. I dare you.
A wider smile spread across the Duke's face.
“Heh heh…! I wonder. What kind of face will you make when that happens…?!”
The assault began.
Countless spikes erupted from the pools of blood on the floor, while the Duke launched volleys of blood energy, large and small, in every shape imaginable.
Attacks rained down from every direction.
Yet even in this overwhelming situation, Kim Do-jin didn't let a single one through.
Because this downpour of attacks was taking place within Kim Do-jin's domain.
[Activating the Domain of the Ruler.]
Here, everything became clear.
He could see which of the myriad attacks would emerge first.
Which was faster, and which was slower.
All that remained was to prioritize and move accordingly.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
In an instant, dozens of one-sided exchanges took place.
The Duke, gaining momentum, taunted him.
“You can't do anything if all you do is block!”
“Is that so?”
Who said I'm just blocking?
Kim Do-jin was constantly attempting something. He was experiencing the difficulties of a real battle firsthand, continuously refining his plan.
All to create the perfect, single strike.
“Now, try and block this!”
A massive, crimson tidal wave surged toward him.
But even an attack so overwhelming it felt like it could crush everything had a weakness.
‘The point where the mana distribution is least stable.’
To form such a massive shape, one had to invest a large amount of resources into the core of the structure, inevitably neglecting the other parts.
It was unavoidable.
Otherwise, the resource consumption would be too great—the cost would outweigh the benefit.
Of course, a skilled practitioner would try to hide this flaw.
The more skilled they were, the better the concealment.
Conversely, to someone of an even higher level, the flaw would be obvious no matter how well it was hidden.
Schwing!
With a single vertical slash, his sword split the tidal wave in two.
He had instantly identified the structure's weak point and shattered it with one strike.
“……!”
A flicker of shock crossed the Duke's eyes.
‘How in the world…?’
His feelings went beyond mere loathing and began to border on fear.
He feared those eyes, which never lost their brilliant light of hope even when cornered.
He feared that unwavering gaze, which seemed to say, No matter what you do, I will see right through you.
“Grrr…!”
His blood boiled. He was the one on the offensive, yet he felt as if he were the one being driven into a corner.
‘Then so be it!’
He unleashed his restraints. The fight between Francis and the True Ancestor was proceeding as planned; there was no need for him to intervene.
‘I will focus solely on killing him.’
He released every last ounce of power he had been holding back.
Duke Vlad Tepes.
A name he could only bear because he had inherited the purest of the True Ancestor's blood.
And because of that blood, he could do it—crudely imitate the True Ancestor's power.
He gathered all his blood energy, compressing it into a single point.
A mass the size of a great boulder shrank and shrank until it was no bigger than the palm of his hand.
A churning vortex of life force.
This was it.
The reason the True Ancestor was the king of vampires.
The one ability that had allowed him to become hundreds, even thousands of times stronger than any other.
He aimed the seething, crimson sphere at Kim Do-jin.
And then, he unleashed it.
「Blood Cannon」
A beam of red light tore through the air, destroying everything in its path.
KWWAAAAAANG—!
The devastating blast, propelled by the release of power compressed to its absolute limit, seemed to fold space itself as it reached Kim Do-jin—
Crack!
—and froze solid in midair.
“……?”
Vlad Tepes tilted his head, bewildered.
‘What just happened?’
Why had his ultimate attack turned into a mere block of ice?
And…
Brrrrr…!
Why was it suddenly so cold?
Something fluttered down onto his shoulder.
He turned his head to check.
‘…Frost?’
It was frost. The kind that shouldn't form unless it was the dead of winter.
It was settling not only on his shoulder but everywhere he looked, blanketing the world in white.
The red rain falling from the sky.
The vampires hovering in the air.
Even the ancient castle, the True Ancestor's own domain.
Just as he realized something was terribly wrong, he heard a voice.
“Got it.”
The voice was low, yet it seethed with exhilaration.
Kim Do-jin.
He was smiling.
He held a sword that had, at some point, turned pure white from hilt to tip.
“Huuup…!”
He slammed his sword into the ground and roared.
「Bitter Cold」
And in that instant, the world was painted white.