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BOOOM!
Vlad took the full damage of a dragon breath at point-blank, an explosion that would easily vaporize most people into ashes. And although it wasn’t a true Dragon but a Lesser Draconic Monster it was still as strong as Tier 6!
Yet…
“What?!”
The orc chief gasped in disbelief as he saw Vlad’s body remaining even as the flames had apparently engulfed him whole. Smoke covered his body, but it rapidly dissipated against the swirling gusts of winds around his body, which also allowed him to move freely.
“Hahhh… That attack took ten thousand durability out of my armor set; don’t you know how much it costs to repair armor?!” The vampire grew furious.
The sorcerer orc in front of him could hardly believe what his eyes were seeing—not even the toughest armor out there would be able to resist the heat of such a strong monster’s blazing breath so easily!
Yet…
“T-This is…!”
“But well, I have to thank you for it anyways… [Cursed Ghost Clone]!”
FLASH!
Suddenly, Vlad’s armor flared with a phantasmal, cursed aura, quickly transforming into a perfect copy of himself, taking sixty percent of his Stats and Abilities, and rushing like a ghost towards the orc.
“Shit! He’s a summoner too?!”
The orc stepped back as he quickly waved his hands. The War Runes over his body, interwoven with Cursed Runes, combined together as his skin began to turn purple, starting from his hands.
“Don’t think I can’t take you head-on just because I am a sorcerer, you bastard! {Cursed Fist Technique}!”
His Aura erupted with darkness and purple-colored energies, shaping into four gigantic fists clashing against Vlad’s ghost clone, who materialized two swords made out of flames and clashed against them with great intensity, explosions of darkness and flames erupting.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“While the clone distracts him...”
Vlad quickly rushed behind the orc, attempting to reach his left hand while holding the staff with the purple-colored skull. He didn’t need to be a genius to guess that’s what was controlling the giant draconic beast.
“Don’t think you can get close to me so easily!”
However, in the last second, the orc’s crimson eyes glared as the staff shone with a bright purple light. The draconic beast quickly swung its long tail, with the tip of a sharp metallic blade attacking it, hitting Vlad at a speed he couldn’t even detect!
CRAAASH!
“Shit…!”
His body slammed into the floor beneath the monster; his armor protected him from most damage, but he still felt the blunt blows, his body twisting in pain. His regeneration abilities barely keep him stable.
“ROOAAARR!”
With a furious roar, the monster lifted its foot and attempted to crush Vlad with them. He quickly had to lift up into the skies, evading yet another bladed tail, only for a second dragon breath to reach him.
FLUOSH!
“It’s attacking way too fast!” Vlad thought, gritting his teeth. “It can both attempt to crush me, stab me, and burn me with its breath?!”
As he realized that the cursed staff was connected to the monster’s collar controlling it, he also realized these cursed powers were also boosting the monster’s abilities and making it much swifter in terms of attacking and detecting foes and danger.
“Let’s try something new then!”
Within a second of the breath reaching him, Vlad quickly materialized a second sword made out of ice from the Tier 2 {Ice Sculping} spell, further reinforcing the shape and enhancing durability through his Alchemy’s Tier 1 spell {Synthesis}!
And then…
“{Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {Dual Style: Dance of Fire and Ice}!”
Vlad spun in midair and descended as he boosted his speed using the Whirlwind Aura spell, resembling a spinning tornado of fire and ice.
SLAAASH!
With the powers of his sword, he pierced through the Magic structure of the dragon breath, splitting it into two halves that reached the sky and exploded behind him.
BOOOM!
At the same time, he continued going down, facing the draconic beast as he rapidly unleashed the ability of his armor at the dragon’s face at point-blank!
“{Elemental Magic Shockwave}!”
TRUUUM!
All the damage his armor had accumulated so far was unleashed at once, slamming the draconic beast’s head with tremendous force. Its eyes started to bleed due to the enormous pressure, and the creature gave a squeal of agony before stepping back in pain and fear.
“Gryyyaarrggh!”
As the beast screamed in pain and the orc chief attempted to control it, Vlad’s clone quickly exploded into cursed energies, suddenly turning into a black spear piercing the orc’s shoulder, although it aimed at his chest.
CRASH!
“Ungh?! What the…?!”
Although the description of the Cursed Ghost Clone didn’t say anything about shapeshifting, Vlad easily figured out that the composition of the clone was made of pure magical power connected to his command.
He only needed to use the Alchemy Spell’s {Shape Forge} or even just {Geomancy} to change the ghost’s shape! However, he didn’t even need to do it himself; the clone copied his abilities and even the magic he knew, doing it by itself with a mental command.
“This is a curse?!” The orc realized the spear was inhibiting his ability to easily conjure magic as much as before, while also weakening his body greatly. “Don’t fuck with me!”
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As he desperately tried to break the spear with his bare hands, Vlad smiled.
“It worked!”
Vlad reached down with his sword in hand, conjuring several spells and bombarding the orc. Small Meteors, Frost Beams, Sunshine Swords, and explosive Spears of Darkness constantly put pressure on the orc’s Aura and his mighty Cursed Fists.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“Dammit! H-How is he so versed in so many elemental spells?! Who is he?! Nobody told me there was such a strong vampire here!” The orc screamed. “Did those damn bastards trick me into attacking this place?!”
Crack, crack…!
His barrier was already gaining countless cracks; the three-layered barrier he had conjured earlier was now beginning to rapidly shatter yet again! And because the draconic beast was still in a state of confusion, it would easily obey his commands.
“Got you!”
Vlad quickly manipulated the leftover elemental powers of the spells he had just conjured using Geomancy, gathering them around his body and fusing them together into a storm of winds, ice, fire, stone, light, and darkness.
“{Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {Dual Style: Elemental Tempest}!”
“Shit!”
The orc chief panicked as he saw a gigantic storm of many elements slam his barrier with tremendous, explosive force, shattering all three layers at the same time before engulfing him in constant damage all over his body.
“Uuuaaaggh!
BOOOMMM!!!
Vlad was unable to keep himself stable as he attacked, the storm generated by his own attack quickly pushing him away at the same time, falling over the ground with the wounded orc.
“Hahh… Crap, I almost died with my own attack,” he muttered. “That was way too strong.”
He noticed his Armor had taken yet even more damage to its Durability, but because it had increased all the way to 120k, even then it was still above 100k.
It was fine; he could keep going.
“I have to... find that guy! Where is he? I’m pretty sure he’s at least Tier 4. He should have survived that…”
He quickly stood up, looking around to find himself surrounded by a dozen orcs wielding weapons and noticing the orc chief in the distance, groaning in pain. The other orc barbarians were pouring potions over his body!
“Stop that!” Vlad roared, charging forward.
“Stop that bastard!”
“Don’t let him get to the chief!”
“Kill him!”
Over twelve orc warriors charged at Vlad at the same time, swinging their axes, hammers, and swords and unleashing powerful Weapon Arts imbued with their Arcana and War Rune Auras.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Tch…! You’ll need more than that to hurt me!”
Vlad saw that each hit barely reduced the armor’s durability by a hundred points; against their non-magical blows, it was impossible for them to pierce through it. And also, by abusing the negative aftereffects of loading his body with Arcana through his accessories, he became an unmovable fortress.
“Are you kidding me?! No attack works!”
“That man… Just who is he?!”
“That damn armor’s doing all the job!”
“Stop him, even if you have to put your bodies in front of him!”
Vlad was growing restless as he saw the chief slowly recovering, quickly charging forward with his two blades, and spinning around with the assistance of the Wind-attribute spells for movement.
“Get out of my way! {Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {Dual Style: Dance of Fire and Ice}!”
Fire and Frost combined together as his entire body began spinning around, slashing the bodies of the orcs, and covering them with deadly wounds that either burned or froze them. Although they were tough enough to not die with a single blow, the aftereffects of the blows, burning flames covering their bodies, and frost freezing them slowly slowed them down.
“Chris, take care of them!”
As he called for backup, Chris surged from the skies, flying out of an alley where he had been shooting down the few orcs that tried to sneak inside the city to kill and assault more of the citizens.
“I got your back!”
He pointed his arrow at the orcs with a mischievous smile, firing several arrows of wind, fire, ice, and electricity against them. The orcs, already slowed down and greatly wounded, were unable to even escape.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Vlad continued his charge as he saw a group of five orcs riding giant black and gray-colored wolves leap into the city, rushing towards him after he heard the orc chief commanding them.
“Stop that armored bastard! D-Don’t let him touch me!”
“Awooooo!”
The five giant wolves, each as tall as three meters, howled as they rushed in unison, clearly led by a larger alpha, all while the orcs riding them pointed giant great bows at Vlad, raining down cursed arrows towards him, which exploded into black flames.
“You’re kidding me?! How prepared were these brutes?”
Vlad immediately knew this wasn’t just some random attack, and based on what he had heard from the chief in his monologues, he had been told by someone to invade this place. Perhaps he was even paid for it!
“Haahhh!”
The vampire prince swung his blade as he moved across the air as fast as his winds could carry him, slicing apart the arrows as explosions of black flames covered him, his armor easily protecting him from their deadly curses.
“Annoying… I guess it’s time to use new Skills,” Vlad smiled. “{Blazing Doppelganger}!”
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Suddenly, out of the vampire’s body, a blazing aura emerged, shaping into three copies of himself made of fire, leaping towards his foes as he barely managed to evade the giant bite of the alpha wolf.
The blazing doppelgangers reached the orcs, hugging them against their will and exploding, burning their bodies and the wolves they were riding.
These doppelgangers inherited a part of his stats but could also combust and explode, dealing damage based on all the stats they had.
The last two orcs quickly chased after him, only for Vlad to bombard them with small, blazing meteors and giant fists made of stone, crushing the wolves’ heads and splattering them over the floor while pulverizing the orcs into pieces.
“T-This is ridiculous!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The vampire quickly looked in front of him, his eyes widening as he noticed the draconic beast’s tail rushing towards him with tremendous force.
“{Soar}!”
Using several points of Arcana, he quickly activated Soar with as much force as possible, catapulting himself into the skies before the bladed tail could hit him.
CRASH!
The tail was quickly stuck in the paved floor of the city, giving Vlad some precious seconds as he saw the orc chief sorcerer back in action, already fully healed again.
“Bastard, don’t you think you’ve forgotten about someone?”
Vlad smiled with malice, as the sorcerer was unable to notice that the Cursed Ghost Clone was still with him, surging from all his wounds and reopening them all.
CRAAASH!
“UUAAGH?!”
The orc squealed in agony, falling to his knees, his control over the beast quickly residing again. His eyes could only see as the other five orcs guarding him were all dispatched by a flying trident and several elemental arrows.
“S-Shit…!”
And then Vlad appeared in front of him, kicking his face with tremendous force, almost dislocating his jaws.
BAAAM!
Then his swords pierced the orc’s arms, making him scream in pain again, before he crushed his legs with the weight of the Arcana Aura Pressure, looking down at the orc like a ferocious berserk.
“Uuuaagh! S-Stop it! Stop torturing me, you fucker!” The orc chief started crying in pain.
“Tell me! Who sent you?!” Vlad roared. “Who the fuck paid you to attack my city?! ANSWER ME!”
With a furious roar, the vampire tightened his sword's grasp, piercing deeper into the wounds of the orc’s arms.
“Aaaaggh! W-Who sent me?!” He muttered, coughing blood. “Hahh… Hahaha! Who else, you fucking idiot?! Obviously, your own kind! You vampires love... you all love to kill one another, don’t you?!”
“What? Was it a Vampire then?” muttered Vlad. “Then…!”
“Paul! Watch out!”
Before Vlad could ask more questions, Alitheus screamed for his true name, as the vampire wasn’t able to detect a figure approaching him in between the shadows, reaching him from behind, and then punching him with enough force to generate tiny cracks in his armor.
CRAAASH!
“Ugh…!”
Vlad slowly looked in front of him, standing up from the ruins of a house he had destroyed when he landed over it, his eyes looking at the figure of a tall, young vampire with short blue hair and crimson eyes.
“I wanted to kill you myself, dear brother, but it seems this bastard couldn’t even take care of the city for me… How useless,” sighed the vampire, grabbing Vlad’s sword and cutting the head of the orc.
“S-Stop, young lord- AAACCK!”
SLASH!
The young vampire man grabbed the purple-skull staff with his hand and then smiled back at Vlad, his powers suddenly in control of the gigantic yet blinded draconic beast.
“Long time no see, Vlad! Excuse me for my terrible introduction; I’m Asthartez! Remember me? Your big brother!”
“A-Asthartez?!” Vlad muttered. “Why are you doing this? Why are you... Ugh?!”
Vlad suddenly felt something; the attack Asthartez had done pierced his armor somehow, leaving his back wounded, with a festering curse that began to weaken him.
“Why, you ask? Isn’t this how we resolve things between fellow vampires?” The young man laughed. “You should have seen it coming from a mile away!”
“To think he would come here so soon!” thought Paul. “And he’s… much stronger than I imagined too!”
Asthartez was no joke; his Aura exuded the power of...
Tier 5!
“Let’s play a game, little brother,” Asthartez said. “While my dear mother takes care of the whore that gave birth to you... Let’s play Wack-a-mole! Hahah!”
“ROOOAAARRR!”
The draconic beast roared, running towards Vlad, its giant claws about to stomp on him.
CRASH!
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