To the world, vampires went extinct more than 300 years ago but in reality, one continent still housed them, Ethereal Moon. This fact wasn't known by many outside the continent but everyone living inside knew the truth.
Chains appeared on the vampire's shadow and restrained his body to the ground. Yoko and the man took this as an opportunity and tried to chop off its limbs but the vampire exploded into bats and reformed. The vampire swung his arm at Yoko. Yoko dodged the vampire's arm by bending her body backwards while the man used his body to ram the vampire.
"[Void Shifter]."
Yoko's daggers became covered in darkness and she thrust them at the vampire. The vampire tried to block but the dagger didn't pierce through the vampire's skin, the darkness by the tip of the dagger shot a beam through the vampire's body. Of course, Yoko wasn't done, she slashed at the vampire and a crescent beam of darkness once more pierced through the vampire.
This was a move invented by her to stop Kai from blocking, it didn't work on Kai's monstrous body but she was still praised greatly.
"AGHHH!"
The vampire regenerated damage but it still felt pain. Now, its anger was focused on Yoko, the man beside Yoko didn't deal damage, he only prevented Yoko from being injured.
"[Shadow Step]!"
Seeing as how the vampire was angered, Yoko vanished and reappeared a few steps away while leaving behind a shadow of herself. The vampire destroyed the shadow that stood like it was a person and glared hatefully at Yoko. Although she had confidence in taking the blow, she would still sustain injuries and in a drawn-out battle such as this, she needed to be as healthy as possible.
"...Kai's technique takes too much mana..."
She's been limiting her use of magic for a reason, this was a vampire, she needed to preserve ten times the amount of mana compared to fighting a normal person but for some reason, Kai's technique to turn into a shadow and appear in a different place took at least a fifteenth of her mana, it didn't sound like a lot but that meant she could only use it fourteen more times at most.
"Old man, can you knock over some trees?"
"Alright, I don't quite get it though."
The man swung his great sword horizontally and wind slashed through the trunks neatly.
"Now..."
Yoko once more employed Shadow Step and neared the vampire. Seeing this, the vampire roared and attacked once more but Yoko twisted her body, although her cheek was grazed and blood dripped out, Yoko didn't even flinch. She took her daggers and stabbed it into both sides of the vampire's neck.
"[Shadow Strings]."
Using the shadow from the fallen trees, several thin strings of shadows wrapped around the vampire.
"AGHHH!"
Each time the vampire moved, the strings dug tighter and tighter and soon, the vampire was bleeding all over.
"...A mindless vampire."
Seeing as how the vampire was restrained, Yoko took her daggers and retreated while the man charged forward.
"HAAA!"
The man stabbed his great sword through the heart of the vampire and twisted it, causing the vampire to roar in pain over and over.
"[Gale Sword]!"
A scabbard-shaped wind covered the great sword and churned the flesh of the vampire causing it to go mad from the pain.
"All of these things appearing lately are mindless! If this thing had as much knowledge as a human, I don't even want to imagine the consequences!"
The man yelled at Yoko while continuing his attacks. The vampire had more than enough mana left to regenerate but because of their unending attacks, they managed to kill it after half an hour. Although it managed to escape a few times by turning into bats, Yoko restrained it each time.
"...Lass, you're strong."
"Thank you, I'm actually out here to train and this was a good way to test my skills."
"Yeah, now that ya mention it, those skills of yours are quite strange, aren't they?"
The man was referring to Void Shifter and Shadow Step, the former was named by Kai but invented by Yoko while the latter was taught to Yoko by Kai.
Yoko remove her damaged hood and lowered her mask which revealed the bleeding cut on her cheek.
"Oh, ya got scratched, rub some of this on there to stop the blood from being smelled by more of these things."
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The man handed Yoko some green paste which she used without hesitation.
"Thank y-"
Yoko's eyes widened. Just a second ago, the bulky man gave her some paste with a smile on his face but now, he had a hand piercing through his chest.
"Old man!"
Yoko wielded her daggers and attacked the figure behind the man but she was blown away and broke some trees from the impact. Her ribs were broken and she had cuts all over, her vision was hazy as she stared at the figure raising the man's body with his hand.
"A... vampire!"
It was another vampire but it was different from the last one, this one's eyes had clarity and his hair wasn't blonde, it was black.
"I must say, I came to check out who was able to destroy my finest creation but it was just you two."
Finishing his words full of contempt, the vampire threw the man whose chest was pierced to a nearby tree where he lay limp. Yoko got up as fast as she could and after looking at the man one more time, she fled into the shadows.
"A darkness user, quite rare. I wonder what would happen if you were to become my servant?"
Saying his words, the vampire had a twisted smile on his face as he quickly chased after Yoko.
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Who knows how much time has passed since Yoko began to run? She covered the cuts with the paste she received from the man but the vampire still seemed to be able to track no matter how far she went.
"Are you done escaping?"
"...!"
Yoko was just about to rest because the fatigue was getting to her but she immediately sprinted once more. The vampire had been playing with her this entire time, she had long since ran out of mana after using Shadow Step and Shadow Assimilation to escape. Now, she relied on the speed she prided herself upon as one of the fastest B-class.
In fact, if the vampire truly devoted himself to catching her, she would've been caught the moment she ran but fortunately, he seemed to playing with her as if she was just running within the palm of his hands. This would incite despair on most but to Yoko, this was a blessing, if the vampire delayed long enough for Kai to find her, then she had absolute confidence that Kai would be able to take care of the vampire.
Needless to say, it wasn't easy to exhaust a B-class, even if she ran at the speed of the fastest man on Earth for hours straight, she would still be able to run but while running, she set up multiple traps whether they be made of magic or real traps made of some metal thread in hopes that the vampire would slow down. She also wanted to rely on some beasts in their way but after sensing the vampire, they all escaped.
"I think this has gone on long enough, don't you?"
Hearing the vampire's words beside her ears, she turned her body and slashed with her daggers without hesitation but the vampire grabbed her arm and threw her on the ground.
"Ugh..."
Yoko groaned in pain, her broken ribs were damaged even further. The brute force behind the attack of the vampire was enough to form a small depression and buried part of Yoko's body inside. Her arm was dislocated and not just her ribs, many other bones were broken with that one attack.
"How tough, everyone I've encountered would've died taking that attack without mana. You're definitely going to reach S-class."
Raising Yoko's broken body from the ground and revealing her neck by ripping part of her clothes off, he revealed his fangs.
"That's as far as you go."
A gun was suddenly shoved up the vampire's mouth and before he could react, it fired a huge laser and destroyed at least fifty trees and made massive damage on the ground.
Not only was the vampire's head blown off, his neck was also evaporated into nothingness. Kai pulled Yoko with his other arm and wrapped it around her before using his other leg to kick the vampire's body away.
"You're really injured."
"...Kai..."
Yoko's eyes were hazy as Kai held her in his arms.
"Good grief, I allow you to leave the group for a day and this happens?"
Using the hand that held Yoko, he activated healing magic and quickly restored her as fast as he could.
"Drink this."
Kai placed a blue potion on her lips which she drank albeit with difficulty.
"I can't let you go otherwise you might get caught up in the aftershocks... Whatever, I'll finish this quick."
Kai sighed and held Yoko by the waist firmly before leaping forward.
"Damn you!"
The vampire had just gotten back and Kai charged at him already.
"[Blood Tendrils]!"
Sharp tendrils made out of blood formed from the floor and chased Kai at an insane speed.
Kai snorted and replaced his gun with a sword, then he cut through the tendrils and continued his sprint. Although he held Yoko, he actually covered her in mana to prevent her injured body from being jogged. At the same time, he was healing her.
Once he arrived next to the vampire, they clashed. The vampire blocked Kai's sword and as soon as he did, the trees behind him were blown away by a huge gust of wind.
"[Empyrean Flames]."
Kai's body ignited into golden flames but Yoko was completely untouched.
"[Flamethrower]."
The sword in Kai's hand disappeared and was replaced by a gun. The vampire's eyes widened when he remembered the previous attack and he quickly retreated to the side but unfortunately for him, it was a different move.
A cone of golden flames formed from the barrel and burned an entire fifty meters of the forest.
"AGHHHH!"
The vampire's skin was being scorched by the golden flames and the damage caused by the burns kept taking his mana.
Seeing the vampire suppressed, Kai used Telekinesis to place Yoko on top of a tree and covered her with mana before continuing his fight.
"You're going to regret hurting her."
The gun disappeared once more and Kai's fists ignited. He leapt forward and landed on a punch on the burned body of the vampire which caused him to groan in pain. Then, he took a giant black stake and pierced it through the vampire's chest and lifted his body and embedded it into the floor.
"AGHHHHH! YOU BASTARD!"
Kai waved his hands and four more stakes appeared, these were smaller than the first stake he brought out and with quick movements, he embedded them into the vampire's four limbs.
Kai held the stake on the vampire's chest and injected mana into it, the black stakes quickly turned orange, then red, then golden and burned the vampire fiercely.
"AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Aren't you going to turn into bats?"
"BASTARD!"
Kai scoffed and took another stake which he pierced through the mouth of the vampire. The five stakes resonated with the center stake and also ignited into flames. These were the weapons he invented to counter vampires.
Since the vampire couldn't take the pain anymore, he burst into a colony of bats but as soon as he did, the stakes' flames ignited even stronger and burned the bats without even leaving dust. If he had used regular flames, then the vampire would be able to regenerate but using golden flames, he prevented even dust from staying.
Seeing as how the vampire was really killed, he retrieved Yoko and resumed his treatment.
"Kai!"
Erina arrived along with Amelia.
"I told you two that I don't need any help."
"I wanted to make sure Yoko was safe!"
Kai rolled his eyes as green flames burned on his hands, the wounds on Yoko healed even faster than before.
"She'll be fine now."
Kai dispersed the green flames and carried Yoko.
"Let's go back."
His artificial hand glowed and the four of them disappeared while leaving behind a partly destroyed forest.