As Erina, Date, and Arata were defending the inn's surroundings, Kei dealt with anyone who passed through. Arata's spot was covered by a huge platform and so that was safe but the other two spots were open. Erina was occupied by a vampire and most of the servants passed through during that time. Date couldn't handle all of them at once because of his element and there were also some who got through.

That means that Kei had to fight more than Erina and Date but how could Kai just allow him to fight all of those by himself? He set up traps all around the inn and even added secret stashes for them.

Soon, a huge boom could be heard as one of the servants got caught in a trap and was burned to its death. The traps were made of magic circles and a single step would evaporate them.

Of course, that meant each of the traps took up a huge amount of mana to activate, they're able to burn A-class servants to death in an instant after all. After one use, the traps would be disabled for at least an hour as it takes up mana but it can be prematurely detonated though it would damage the circle in the process and in turn, make the charging time longer.

"Haa... haa..."

Kei was gasping for breath as another servant dropped to the floor and burned into nothing.

"Roughly five hours have passed... Kai's nearly done, I just have to hold on until then..."

Kei's body was tattered and there were many broken bottles around him, all of them were healing and mana potions provided by Kai. The wounds all over his body made it evident that the healing potions were used quite some time ago but his surroundings were bare of any corpses.

Kei's vision was blurry and his mind was spinning but he leaned on his sword for support. He'd been battling servants on the same level as him for five hours straight and during the past hour, he had to fight them with just his physical body because his mana had long since ran out. Kai could accomplish this task easily because he could heal himself and instantly regain his mana but the others couldn't.

Before long, another servant appeared before Kei.

"Ugh..."

Unable to fight back, Kei was sent crashing towards the wall. The vampire's claws had pierced through his abdomen and he was forced to cough up a mouthful of blood.

"...[Flame Dragon]!"

Kei tried to slash upwards with his sword to summon a flame dragon but instead, only a tiny pip of flame appeared and dispersed as quickly as it came.

"Hahaha..."

Kei closed his eyes, accepting the fact that he would be the reason for the ritual to fail. Kai would save him before his death after all.

DING

After hearing the sound of the claws being deflected, Kei felt his mood growing cold. Kai wouldn't be able to accomplish his task now.

"Are you okay?"

But after hearing the voice that spoke, his eyes widened and upon looking at the body that protected him, he was genuinely surprised.

"Yoko!"

"Drink this."

Yoko threw two bottles, a red and a blue one at him and then ran towards the servant with her fists covered by giant gauntlets. After punching the servant and sending it flying, metal lines stuck to its body.

"[Iron Coffin]!"

Hundreds of metal lines wrapped around the servant and covered its entire body, then it crushed the servant until blood spurted out of the bottom.

It was a derivation of Akane's Iron Maiden, one that used mana instead of blood as a catalyst. Although the power was way less, it was still far less dangerous to use. Then, Yoko changed her footing.

"[Fast Movement]."

Dashing towards the side, Yoko used both of her arms and struck the air.

"[Iron Cannon]!"

"GAH!"

The air cracked where Yoko punched and a figure was sent flying.

"You managed to sense me, huh?!"

A woman with blonde hair and red eyes with a broken arm buried her foot on the floor to stop herself from crashing into a wall. Soon after, the woman's arm restored itself.

"Kei, dagger."

Yoko told him while staring intently at the vampire that had just appeared.

"Here!"

After searching for a bit, Kei threw a small dagger at Yoko which she then immediately stabbed into the coffin.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Can you fight?"

"...I still need a few more minutes."

"Alright, I'll buy you time. I can't handle this by myself after all."

Yoko retrieved the dagger from the coffin and pointed her fist at the vampire.

"You won't be getting past me."

"Don't worry, I don't need to."

Saying so, the woman raised her arms and from the shadows of the alleyways, tens of servants shot out. Seeing that, Yoko furrowed her brows and was about to intercept but just as she did so, a charming voice resounded throughout the battlefield.

"Ara~ What's this?"

A gust of wind pierced through the air and sliced apart the servants. They had nothing on defense as they charged out and completely focused on speed so it was quite simple for them to get cut apart.

"Who's there?"

The vampire woman looked at the roof on the opposite side of the street. There was a silhouette of a woman there, her back facing the moon.

"I came here because I sensed the magic power and Kai told me to come here when that happened but... what's a vampire doing here?"

The woman stepped out from the roof and her body slowly floated downwards with the wind guiding her every step. It was as if she was descending from an invisible flight of stairs and despite her average clothes, her atmosphere was special. A normal person would feel the need to bow down to her imperial aura.

"You... another A-class, no- you're not an A-class."

"Great intuition."

The woman waved her hand and following that, a crushing pressure enveloped the area, only Yoko and Kei were spared. The surroundings and the servants trembled while the vampire had animosity in her eyes.

"You're..."

Once the woman's face was visible, Yoko recognized her immediately. Although she could see well in the dark, she still couldn't make out the woman's features perfectly.

"Alteria Kingdom's first princess, Alteria Sachiko. Pleased to meet you, Dark Queen, the youngest master of physical combat- or so my sister has told me about you."

Sachiko said with a bow.

"You were S-class...?"

"That's right. I had to hide it years ago and unfortunately, I can't seal it back. That means Alteria Kingdom will be known to have 3-"

Sachiko stopped in the middle of her words and continued.

"No, that makes it four S-class."

"Four?"

"That other girl that sticks around with Kai, Erina, was it? She's also S-class, though she only entered it quite recently."

Despite knowing Erina quite well, she feigned.

"So she's already S-class..."

"Are you done?"

The vampire stared at them coldly. The servants all quickly gathered around her and surged with blood magic.

"I'm sure you've seen how the servants rarely fight using blood. It's because their own contractors are incapable of handling the mana enough for the servants to manipulate blood energy."

The vampire pressed her fingers together and a sticky residue of blood was stuck in between.

"But I'm different, I'm S-class. Even if I control twenty of them, they will all still be able to manipulate blood."

The blood stuck between her fingers suddenly expanded into a giant ball, the servants that gathered around her created giant streams of blood that wrapped around the ball.

"Kill them."

Immediately after her order, the servants stopped providing blood and charged forward.

"How boorish, Iori, take care of them for me please."

"You can handle them by yourselves, can't you?"

A figure appeared clad in wind, he was wearing commoner clothes but the giant sword he wielded that towered over his body made it evident that he wasn't a normal person.

Turning the sword sideways, he knocked away all of the servants coming near Yoko and Sachiko.

"The first prince..."

Yoko and Kei were stunned. With the knowledge they have, they knew that the talented one in the royal family was Kazuki, the crown prince but seeing his two older siblings, it was as if Kazuki was made of the leftovers.

"I'm sure you're all wondering about our current strength and reason for being here but don't worry, I'm not your enemy. In fact, Kai sought my help."

Yoko and the others were fifteen while Arata was turning sixteen but Sachiko, as the first princess was even older than Kazuki who was twenty. The way she talked made Yoko and Kei feel as if their souls were being sucked out of their bodies and they were sent into a trance. Noticing this, Yoko immediately bit her tongue and woke herself up from a daze before slapping Kei.

"Ouch..."

Although Kei felt that it was too much, he knew that if she hadn't snapped him out of that state, then they might have been entranced by her and do her every bidding.

What was that power...?

Yoko hadn't heard of a magic to charm people other than those practicing black magic but also knew it wasn't Sachiko's natural charm, that wasn't possible unless it was... an innate ability!

But if she did have an innate ability, and on top of that, was already S-class, she was nothing short of a monster! It has to be said that even Kai hasn't unlocked his innate ability and his power is already monstrous yet the first princess wasn't even mentioned as a great talent but turned out to be even more shocking than Kai!

"Tch. What a troublesome human."

Even the vampire felt threatened. An S-class vampire was strong, far stronger than a human of the same kind but to actually feel threatened, how strong was the first princess?!

"Troublesome, but that doesn't mean you can't defeat me, do you have that much confidence in yourself?"

As Sachiko's words were directed at the vampire, it immediately faltered and was forced to close on eye as if trying to control something.

"..."

Sachiko was hitting right at the truth, the vampire had confidence in herself about being able to defeat Sachiko but once she was addressed, she felt Sachiko's power.

"What kind of technique...?"

Although she was hundreds of years old, she still couldn't decipher what Sachiko was using. With an uncertain variable like that, her confidence in defeating Sachiko wasn't much.

"So, do you think you can defeat me?"

Sachiko raised her arm and all of a sudden, the wind rampaged, nobody was spared. Yoko and Kei were forced to close their eyes and defend their bodies as a giant ball of wind spun around above Sachiko's palm at untold speeds.

"Maybe not alone, but what if there were two?"

A man with black hair and red eyes stepped out from a cocoon made of blood that had just seeped out from the gaps in the floor.

"Then why not match that with another?"

The man leapt backwards as an icicle stabbed into his previous position.

"You... I swear you were trapped."

"You overestimate your own abilities."

Erina appeared in a white dress. It was the dress given to her by the Goddess of Frost, now that she was S-class, she could exert some of its abilities. It was an Enchanted Gear after all.

"Phew. I got here just in time."

Arata arrived with wounds all over his body.

"There's no more attacking from the back, I can help over here now."

After drinking a health potion, Arata walked to the front of the group and raised his shield.

"Looks like I'm not too late."

Date panted while quickly arriving next to Yoko.

A few dozen more shadows arrived and were revealed to be servants and A to B-class vampires. The servants weren't much of a problem but the vampires were sentient.

"Only fifteen minutes left..."

Kei muttered under his breath. Out of all the participants here, he was the most injured. It would be best if they delayed battling for fifteen minutes but he knew that was hoping for too much.

And just as he feared, the fighting began immediately. Erina and Sachiko stopped the two S-class while the rest of them fought against the leftover vampires and their servants.