The runes on the vampire hunters' circlets glow in pulses, and the volunteers begin to scatter around the street. Roland rushes out of the building towards the fiend.

THUNK!

In one swift motion, it raises its clawed hand and slams it down on Roland, who blocks it with his tower shield. The cobblestones directly underneath his feet shatter on impact.

「Hrrrargh!」

Clunk!

When the beast pulls its hand away, Roland takes the opportunity to swing his mace at its knee in an overhead blow. It makes a dull, meaty impact noise as the weapon unmistakably stops at a bone.

「Grrrnnnnghhhh!」

Thud!… Thud-thud!…

With a roar of pain, the demon visibly winces and stumbles backwards, dragging its elongated and disproportionately thin foot with only four toes. It's forced to readjust its stance to avoid toppling over, and the fiend clenches its sharp, shark-like teeth again when it puts weight on its other leg, baring the whole shadowy set to the vampire hunters.

「Did that hurt!? Good! C'mere so I can make it worse!」

Roland taunts the demon, shrugging his armored shoulders.

「Roland! Get back!」

A voice from the group of volunteers shouts.

「Just throw it! I'll be alright!」

「But-!」

「Do it!」

The man with a handheld rectangular box in his grasp tries to protest, but Roland insists as he's backing away from the fiend with his shield raised.

「Man, this better work out… Everyone hide! Go!」

The vampire hunter mutters under his breath, pulls the pin on the IED, and throws it towards the demon. As it sails through the air, the man grabs his Flashlight back into his hands, and shouts a warning to the rest. The group scatters, running into the dark alleyways while Roland continues backing away. The box flies right over him.

Thunk!… Clunk. Clunk…

The thrown IED lands between Roland and the fiend, then bounces a few paces towards the demon. It swerves to the side, stopping neither far, but neither close to it.

Roland continues backing away, and the rectangular box on the ground suddenly glows blindingly bright white.

BOOOOMMM!…

A magical reaction rips apart the IED casing, scattering the metal shrapnel inside everywhere. The resulting shockwave shatters nearby windows while metal fills the air.

Clunkclunkthunkclunkthunk!…

The fragments reach Roland. Most are blocked by the tower shield he's holding out in front, but one of them impacts his helmet and flies upward into the darkness.

「Ungh!… Shit!…」

Roland lets out a pained grunt, and ducks behind his shield. He shakes his head slightly.

At the same time, the demon who was ignoring the IED, is now gurgling blood and writhing in pain. Its massive body is peppered with bleeding holes of varying size, and its sharp set of teeth acts like a patchy dam for the flow of blood pouring out. Angered, obvious hatred appears in its vertically slit amber eyes. It splays its clawed fingers, then breaks into an uncannily fast sprint at Roland and the rest, who are now emerging out of the network of alleyways.

Thud-thud-thudthudTHUDTHUDTHUD!…

The ground rumbles as the demon closes the gap in nearly an instant. Still somewhat dazed from the impact, Roland lifts his helmet up from beyond his shield, and braces.

…THUDDDD!

Almost as if appearing to forget to take another step, the fiend trips over its feet, claws outstretched towards Roland, and plummets face-first onto the ground. The ground shakes as it falls over, and the demon slides across the cobblestones. The tips of its twisting horns poke Roland's shield, and its clawed hands slide right past him at his sides.

Clunk! Clunk! Thunk! Thwack! Crack!…

Though fiend isn't moving, Roland is quick to swing his shield out of the way and begin hammering the demon on its head with his mace. With each impact, the rock-hard head becomes softer, until the demon's skull simply gives way. He pants and breathes heavily, then pulls a red vial out from a small satchel on his belt. He lifts his helmet slightly, uncorks it using his teeth with a loud pop, and drinks the entire contents in one go, discarding the glass vial onto the ground.

「That one was a little bigger…」

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang…

Roland remarks as he turns around, and heads towards the relieved group of vampire hunters. The dead fiend appears to have raised morale by quite a lot. The volunteers are exchanging amused grins, confident smirks, and nod in respectful awe of Roland's might. They take a few steps towards him, too. Suddenly, he raises his shield and begins charging towards them.

「Vampire!」

Clangclangclangclangclangclang!…

He shouts, sprinting towards the group as fast as his armor will allow him. The volunteers perk up in alarm, and swivel their heads around.

Thud.

One of the men at the rear simply drops to the ground, and his head rolls away from his body.

「Wha-!?」「Shit!」「Where is he!?」

The high morale from just a few seconds ago dissipates, and the men begin swiveling their heavy Flashlights around in panic.

「In the alleyway! I saw a glimpse of his eyes!」

Clangclangclangclangclang!

Roland replies, and points his mace at one of the alleyways the group had just passed by.

They swivel their weapons around, and one man closest to it notices a pair of red eyes staring at him. He tries to point his Flashlight at them, but by the time he blinks, he can see the vampire's face emerging into the streetlights' pale glow. The vampire hunter clenches his teeth and jumps back.

THUNK!

Roland leaps in the way, and the vampire bounces off his shield as if a speeding car had just hit him. The vampire flies into the air, writhing and wriggling as he tries to right himself, before finally nearing one of the rooftops. He digs his bloodied claws into the wall, stopping his fall. Clutching onto the building, his crimson eyes scan for an easy target below.

Clickclickclickclick.

Without bothering to aim, one of the men swivels his Flashlight around up at the vampire while rapidly pulling the trigger. The flashing orange light blinds some of the volunteers caught unawares. They recoil, wincing, clenching their teeth, and forcing their eyes shut as they turn away.

Though he was nearly ready to leap in and take another man's head, the vampire panics when he sees the orange light. His clawed hand quickly grips onto the roof, and he turns to a cloud of ash when the panicked vampire hunter finally points his weapon directly towards him.

「Aggghh… My eyes are fucking burning!…」「Did we get him!?…」「Are there more? Anyone see any!?」

The handful of hunters that were unaffected by the indiscriminate usage of the Flashlight swivel their heads around in search of the vampire, while the rest groan in discomfort and rub their eyes, struggling to open them through the burning pain while their tears flow. The man lowers his Flashlight, and lets out a relieved sigh.

「I think I got him!-」

He exclaims, glancing at the small dusting of ash below where the vampire was.

「Rooftop! Another one!」

Someone cries out, and everyone's heads begin to scan the rooftops flanking them. The scarlet eyes staring down at them from one of the homes' rooftops are easy to see on the backdrop of the dark roof stretching over the city. The heavy Flashlights swivel upwards.

Clickclickclickclickclick…

Orange flashes shine on the rooftop, and when their eyes readjust to the level of light around them, they furrow their brows in worry.

「…Did we get him?」

One of the men asks tentatively, lowering his weapon.

「I don't know… Anyone see ashes?」

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Another replies, and looks around the group. They exchange similar gazes as the man, and the concern on their faces grows when nobody says anything.

「I think he might have gotten away… We shouldn't stay here long. Things are going to get much more difficult now.」

Roland remarks, and after verifying that no other vampire is watching them, his stance relaxes.

「Shit!… He just died on his feet! I didn't even hear the fucking vampire!」

One of the men remarks in a bitter tone, cursing through his teeth while looking at the dead man, and his circlet on the ground.

The circlets' runes light up, with the exception of the now-ownerless one.

「…We need to go. Recover the circlet. Is the wounded alright?」

Roland nods his helmet towards the circlet on the ground, and glances over his shoulder at the man clutching onto his chest, barely holding onto his weapon under his armpit. One of the volunteers takes the circlet and slips it onto his forearm for holding. He clicks his tongue, his gaze consciously avoiding the beheaded corpse.

「…What about him? What do we do?」

Another vampire hunter asks, and nods his head at the dead man.

「…Nothing we can do here. Leave him. If we don't join him, we'll get to bury him.」

Roland replies, and heads back to the crossing where the main road meets the dark side path. The volunteers reluctantly follow.

「What about the injured? He can't move his arm, his wound is still bleeding, and these things are too heavy to properly use one-handed.」

A hunter asks, jogging up to Roland's side, and nods his head back at the bloodied man trailing behind him. Roland remains silent for a few moments, and they make their way back to the split in the road from which they arrived to the main street. He stops in his tracks, and glances over his shoulder at the volunteers.

「…I think he should return to the pilot. He's not going to be of much help like this.」

After a prolonged pause, Roland replies, and nods towards the dark path with the beheaded fiend.

「I'll go with him! If he runs into a vampire like this, he'll be in trouble.」

A man from the back calls out, and walks up to the wounded hunter.

「But then on the way back you might be in trouble. We should split up. One team should continue, while the rest escort our injured man back.」

Another suggests while looking over the rest of the squad.

「No. The way back should be relatively safe, but it would be unwise to send him alone…」

Roland shakes his helmet, and glances at bridge.

「…One man will escort him back, then hurry to follow us. The way back should be relatively safe, but it would be unwise to send the injured man alone.」

He adds, turning his eyes back to the escort volunteer.

「Right! I'll go with him!」

The man nods, and the two split away from the group.

「Follow the lights!… I'll mark our direction if we leave this street!」

Roland calls out as the two head towards the dark path. The escort nods his head, and scouts the path ahead for the wounded man. The two then disappear behind a corner.

「Let's go. Let's look for those corpses the vampire lady should have left…」

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang…

After a moment, Roland heads for the bridge. The squad of vampire hunters follow, and the river splashes noisily underneath as they cross…

…

Around the same time, in the mayor's mansion…

Baron Roskiel is sitting in his throne of bone. The skulls, femurs, and other large bones within are coated with streaks of dark, dried blood. His bored, scarlet eyes turn to the human slaves eating bread and oats in water. The women shrink under his gaze, and some choke on their food in panic, which gives Roskiel momentary amusement. A vampire runs in, throwing the door open. Another one trails right behind him.

「Baron!… Baron, there's trouble!」

The vampire exclaims, and points his clawed finger at the still-open door.

「I thought you were told to handle trouble?…」

Baron Roskiel remarks, quizzically spreading his hand with a conceited look on his face.

「We can't handle that! They have weapons that'd burn us to ashes!」

The crimson-eyed man replies, and his companion nods his head in agreement.

「Crossbows? Just wait for them to reload. Come to me with something so trivial again, and I'll tear you apart…」

「No, baron! It's not crossbows!-」

Baron Roskiel dismissively waves the man away with his finger, but the vampire shakes his head.

「Baron!… Baron!… We've got a problem!」

A masked human shouts as he runs in through the partially open door, slamming it open with his shoulder. The rest of his band follow him in.

「Tsk… What is it now!?」

Frustrated, Roskiel throws his clawed hands up, and leans back in his throne.

「There's a group from the capital! They've got this big guy with them, and they said their weapons burn vampires to ashes in an instant!」

The bandit shouts, also pointing his finger at the door. His masked band nods along.

「…What? What weapons?」

Roskiel asks, furrowing his brows with an indignant and confused expression on his pale face.

「They're like!…」

The bandit exclaims, and his gaze drops down to think.

「…They look like vampire lamps! And they have the orange glow too! One flash, and you're gone! They got one of ours like that!」

The vampire next to the masked humans fills in the bandit's thought. The bandit points at him, and nods in agreement.

「What is the meaning of this?…」

Baron Roskiel utters out as he stands up from his throne. He grips onto this cloak, and heads for the door.

「…Guards! Organize a hunting band! Find them! Use as many fiends as you think you'll need! Take the bandit groups with you too.」

He shouts over his shoulder at the vampires watching the women scattered around the room. They nod, and the majority of them follow the baron outside.

Roskiel looks around the city's rooftops for a brief moment, and finds a suitably tall building.

He leaps onto the mansion's fence, then a nearby home's rooftop, then towards his destination, all in under a second.

Fwap…

With a quiet flutter, Baron Roskiel lands on top of the guards' garrison building. The stone building is a veritable fortress within an already fortified city, and the tower that once housed its already slaughtered guards is amongst the tallest in the city, rivaled only by the slightly shorter bell tower, and the decrepit church of Mercia.

「What is the meaning of this?…」

Leaning onto the stone parapet, the baron mumbles out again as he looks at the distant hole in the overhead roof, and a series of bright orange flashes elsewhere in the city pulls his attention away.

Fwap.

The baron's head perks when he hears another quiet flutter originating a few paces behind him. In his still heart, there is no doubt as to what might have caused it.

「Oh? Now I have to admit, I am rather surprised. A coward like you planning and executing something of this scale, and personally managing it… Roskiel?」

Lily remarks with a disdainful, scornful smirk on her face. Her narrowed crimson eyes glare at the baron as he turns to face her.

「Lilia… Long time no see, wasn't it? I believe it has been… Five?… Six hundred years now?… I see you haven't changed much.」

Baron Roskiel grins, spreading his clawed hands, amused by Lily's presence.

「I am Lily. That is not my name anymore.」

Lily declares with her arms crossed, and her smirk turns to a light scowl.

「Oh?… Changed your name after the cursed sunlight had returned? In a way, I understand… What brings you to my kingdom, Lilia?」

The baron shrugs, and asks with his hand quizzically raised, grinning at Lily. She scoffs, not bothering to hide her disdain at all…