The vampire continues warily glaring at the young mage armed with a sword. The flames burn away, hungrily devouring anything still flammable while the weakened structure begins to creak under its own weight.

《What’s with this kid!? I underestimated him, and he almost set me on fire… And now he’s refusing to do anything!? Did he lay a trap? Is he waiting for me to get impatient?》

The vampire grinds his teeth out of frustration. Meanwhile, the mage adjusts his glasses. His eyes dart all over the street, looking at the alleyway the elderly mage was flung into, the blazing building, and his opponent. His serious face reveals nothing about his intent.

「Very well. If you are that petrified by my presence, then die where you stand.」

The vampire speaks in a loud voice across the distance between them, and readies his sharp claws.

《He will now be casting something in panic… I will wait a moment for him to focus on his spell, then I will rip his throat open. How dare he make me take a step back?》

The vampire continues grinding his teeth, and when he abruptly stops, his face gains a malicious grin.

FWOOOOSH-

The vampire’s cape flutters wildly as he leaps forward. Before Will can even blink, he is already almost in an arm’s reach of the night creature.

《Heh. Stupid brat. Let’s see how well you cast that with your throat full of blood!-》

The vampire prepares to sweep his claws at the bespectacled mage, but his crimson eyes shift to his sword. The mage lowered it ever-so-slightly that it points directly at the vampire’s chest, right where his heart is.

《How did he-!?》

The caped vampire aborts his claw swipe, crossing his forearms and twisting his torso the most he can while digging his feet into the cobblestones to cut his lunge short.

Slllish!

「Hrk!」

The vampire grunts, glaring into the eyes of the mage before him. Despite his best effort to block and dodge, the sword pierced deep into his chest, nicking his heart. Blood splatters noisily onto the ground, flowing from the vampire’s arms and chest.

「You treacherous little rat… At least I have you where I want you-」

The vampire pulls away, sliding his body off the blade. He cocks his arm back with his crimson, slit eyes full of hate. He notices the mage’s lips are still moving.

「…The end of days. 『Heat Ray』.」

The mage utters out, almost silently, and shoves his palm in the vampire’s face while the space in front of his hand blurs heavily.

「Again!? How-!?」

The vampire leaps into the air with his teeth clenched in shocked panic, the very tip of his cape ignites as he barely clears the blurred space that floods the street below…

…

Moments ago…

The vampire keeps glaring at Will with eyes full of suspicion. The burning building’s structure is slowly beginning to give way to gravity.

《…Whatever the reason for him just standing there is, I need to use it to my advantage. What do I do? He said he needs his servant… Do I threaten that mage and distract him that way?》

Will adjusts his glasses and looks at the alleyway the mage was sent flying into.

《No, that would leave Alicia and Lian defenseless. Too risky. The building?》

Will looks at the flames, and lets out a disappointed, quiet grunt.

《That’s not it, either… He’ll be extra cautious about actual flames. Do I just start casting and hope for the best?-》

His eyes return to his opponent. They both glare at each other, and the atmosphere grows thick with tension.

《Naive. That’s so naive and stupid. Just cast something, and it’ll surely kill him? Did I go stupid from the fear or something? There’s no way I can just cast something and he’ll drop dead. He’s way too old for that. Do I get him with the sword, then? Wait for him to get impatient and swoop in, then slash at him? No, that’s not-》

Will’s mind alternates between berating itself and coming up with a new tactic, when the vampire suddenly calls out towards him.

「Very well. If you are that petrified by my presence, then die where you stand.」

The vampire loudly stays as he pulls his hand behind himself for a deadly sweep, and takes a posture openly telegraphing the large lunge to come.

《Here it is. I can’t possibly react to him. Maybe Greaves would be able to, but I can’t. So the only answer is to not react, but to anticipate. He’s angry. He’ll be coming to kill me. It’s trivial for a vampire, so he’ll show up right here and probably gut me… If I’m right, I just need to get the timing right. If I’m wrong, I’m dead.》

Will nervously swallows and braces himself for a large impact.

「Heed my call scorching flames, and incinerate those in my gaze…」

《I have no choice. I’m not strong, I’m not quick, I’m not even smart… So the only chance I have is being as many moves ahead as I can get from him. If I do this wrong, miscasting might kill me faster than he will… But this spell is the only one I trust myself not to cast wrong.》

Will begins the incantation quietly, making it almost a whisper. The vampire lunges forward, and his cape violently flaps behind him.

「…With the sun's pleasant rays…」

Will lowers his sword a little, its tip pointing roughly where the center of his opponent’s chest will be.

Slllish!

「Hrk!」

The vampire drives himself onto Will’s sword with a pained grunt through his crossed forearms and into his torso.

Splat-splat. Splat. Splat.

Red blood lazily pours onto the cobblestones.

「You treacherous little rat… At least I have you where I want you-」

The vampire takes a step back and slides off Will’s weapon. Will ignores him, and continues casting as quietly as he possibly can.

「…The end of days. 『Heat Ray』.」

The space in front of Will’s hand blurs, and he shoves his palm in the vampire’s hateful face.

「Again!? How-!?」

The vampire clenches his teeth with panic on his face, and leaps into the air. He gracefully lands on one of the nearby rooftops as Will’s spell hits nothing. The cool night air becomes somewhat warmer. The vampire finishes stomping out the flames on his cape. He and Will lock gazes, and Will adjusts his glasses.

《I failed to destroy his heart… No, that’s not quite right. I did something to his heart, but the question is, how bad is the damage?》

With a focused gaze and a serious face, Will looks at the vampire clutching at the injury on his chest. Blood slowly flows out, dripping onto the roof. The vampire’s hatred-filled eyes drive a heart-stopping sense of dread into Will, forcing him to consciously refuse to turn his back on him and run.

《He’s badly wounded, that much is clear… But that doesn’t mean anything. Vampires can’t bleed to death, suffocate… But if I have damaged him enough, he won’t be able to regenerate without feeding. He’s keeping his distance away. Last time he got impatient…》

Will takes his eyes off his opponent for just a moment, then starts running away from Alicia and the vampire.

《Huh? Will is running? He wouldn’t?…》

Alicia momentarily looks at Will as he takes off, then glances over her shoulder at Greaves nearby. Her huge, fearful eyes look at the vampire on the roof, and even he appears taken aback a little by Will’s actions.

A little confused, the vampire looks down at Will from the rooftop as he runs. He begins chuckling to himself, yet still clutching at his wound.

「Ha… Ahahaha! Of course! Of course you’d be like this, you human trash! You tripped me up a little, and now you think you have won! You’re more detestable than your loud-mouthed so-called hero friend.」

The vampire spreads his arms, mocking Will as he runs.

「I just might rip the flesh from your bones in front of your friends. They’ll think you deserve it for abandoning them, after all…」

The vampire lifts his foot off the rooftop’s edge, tipping forward off of it.

Fwwooooooooooop!

Before he properly begins falling, he kicks himself off its side, shooting towards Will like a bullet. His cape acting almost like an extension of his body, the vampire uses it to right himself and apply its drag, slowing himself to bear on his target. Grinning viciously with his claws ready, and preparing to land within arm’s reach of Will, he glares at his wide-open back.

「『Heat Ray』!」

Will’s last step turns into a small jump as he spins around mid-jump. His sword is extended low and edge-side at the vampire, and his palm is pointed the blade’s flat.

「Third-!?」

The second the vampire lands, he likewise makes a small hop away from Will to gain some distance. Something about Will’s pose strikes him as odd.

《The rooftops!- No!》

Realizing Will’s trick at the absolute last split-second, the vampire leaps aside faster than Will’s eyes can track.

Krrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

The black blob only regains its shape when he claws at the cobblestones to brake hard, in order to not fall right into the flames of the burning building.

「Tsk…」

Will clicks his tongue, still holding his pose and still casting his spell. The blurred air reflects upward off his sword’s blade, forming a very irregular pattern as some of the heat reflects off the cobblestones at a lower angle, and some off the sword. Should the vampire have chosen to leap to safety of the rooftops, the heat mirage would have surely intercepted him.

「Will is Will after all…」

Alicia sighs in relief when she sees Will is still battling the vampire. Her eyes quickly return to Lian.

《Not good… I’m still not any closer to killing him, my mana is starting to run low, and I’m just so damn tired after an entire day of riding a wagon here… If I reach for my potions, he won’t waste a second to kill me. Shit! The one time where I need one, and I can’t drink them!》

Will takes quick and heavy breaths, fatigued by both his running and his casting. The vampire gets up, fuming through his clenched teeth with his fangs bared.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

《Ah. That’s not good…》

Will blinks and gulps nervously. He stops casting and prepares for the vampire to make his move.

Fwoosh!

The vampire closes the moderate distance in a flash. Will instinctively covers himself with his free arm, leaps away the most he can, and haphazardly swings his sword forward in anticipation of the vampire’s presence.

Swish! Rrrripppppppp!

「Argggggggh!!」 「Gah!」

Will and the night creature trade blows. The vampire screams in agony, and Will shouts in pain as the vampire’s claws rip through his casting arm shielding most of his body. Will’s scorching-hot sword slashes at the vampire’s extended arm, causing terrible pain and leaving a fell wound.

Blood soaks into the shreds of Will’s sleeve. He backs away from the vampire warily towards Alicia.

「Curse you… Curse you… How dare you?… How dare you?…」

The vampire seethes through his clenched teeth, looking at his steaming injury that refuses to heal.

「Underhanded tricks like that won’t save you. I’ll admit it… You’ve caused me more trouble than I would have ever expected. I have fallen out of practice of killing humans. I’ve only recently tried my hand at it again. I am quite rusty, you see.」

As Will is slowly and cautiously backing away from the vampire towards Alicia, the vampire follows him with a slow, leisurely step, speaking in a raised voice as if he was nonchalantly having a conversation on a busy street.

「You are bleeding. I can tell you’re tired. You are fading. How long can you keep this up? Five minutes? Fifteen? An hour? I’ve got an hour.」

The vampire continues taunting and threatening Will, following him to Alicia at a distance.

「Alicia, close your eyes when I tell you to.」

Will tells Alicia as he gets close, ignoring the vampire taunting him.

「Huh? Why? Should I heal-」

Alicia blinks with a nervous expression, looking at Will’s back and his bloodied sleeve as he pants for air heavily.

「No. Just do it. Keep healing Lian no matter what.」

Will cuts Alicia off with a commanding tone, and takes a few steps forward towards the vampire.

「…You are delusional if you think you can defeat a vampire who has personally seen the Night of Fangs.」

The vampire gestures with his hands, as if attempting to convince will into nodding along with what he’s saying.

「The Night of Fangs?… Heh. I see. You’re that old, huh?…」

Will asks, grinning nervously at the vampire.

「Old? I prefer the world primeval. Ah! I see! You have mistakenly taken me for a younger generation!」

The vampire smirks back.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

Slowly, unenthusiastically, the vampire claps his hands, grinning at Will. Will quickly peeks at Alicia over his shoulder, causing the vampire to narrow his eyes in further glee.

「I must commend you, you would have definitely killed a trash vampire. The younger generations would not stand a chance, for sure…」

The vampire takes another step forward and spreads his arms, shrugging his shoulders. His burnt slash on his arm still remaining unhealed.

「…But you need to understand the difference between me and them. You are pretty brave, I’ll give that to you. Most men would have run long ago. Now why don’t we cut to the chase and you face death like the brave man you are?」

The vampire drops the veil of courteousness and allows his murderous intent to flow out as he glares down at Will with his crimson eyes full of hatred.

「We can cut to the chase, but it’s you who will be dying…」

Will says, looking the vampire in his vertically-slit eyes.

「…What?」

The vampire tilts his head, growling in indignation.

《Don’t shake… Don’t gulp…》

「I mean, I have you figured out already. I just need to keep doing what I’ve been doing.」

Will says, grinning at the vampire with a snide expression on his face. The vampire’s face shifts through multiple expressions. First comes disbelief. He blinks at Will, shocked and indignant. Then comes mild amusement and quiet chuckling. Finally, a blank expression and a pointless, deep breath taken in through the nose.

「…I was going to offer you an honorable death. I’ll settle for showing you your insides.」

The vampire says with no discernable expression on his face, but his voice carries clear antipathy. Will points his palm at the vampire and starts quietly casting. The vampire smirks, chuckling quietly.

《You have me figured out? Is that it? Is that so? I can’t wait to look at your face when you realize that’s not the case.》

Fwoop.

The vampire continues briefly staring at Will, then leaps into the air. His singed cape flutters behind him as he flies through the air in an arc.

Tap!

Dispensing with all vampiric stealth and silence, the vampire’s boots clatter noisily as he lands between Will and Alicia with a malicious grin.

《You have me figured out you say? Let’s see how willing you are to sacrifice your friends, you one-trick pony maggot.》

The vampire chuckles, and the smug grin on his face bares all his teeth as Will swivels his casting arm towards him.

《Go on! Cast it! Kill both of them!》

The vampire’s hate-filled eyes narrow with epicaricacy, joy at expense of others.

「『Sunlight』! Now!」

「Huh?」

Will shouts the spell’s name, and Alicia forces her eyes shut tight, turning her head away. The vampire blinks in momentary confusion, before his crimson eyes widen quickly. As Will’s palm grows brighter, the vampire jumps back past Alicia and grasps at his black, scorched cape with his clawed hand in haste.

「Aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!」

The vampire screams in pain as his hand shielding his body with the cape is set aflame. The colors return to the dark moonlit street when an orb in front of Will’s palm casts light on it with the power of an afternoon sun, and a clear sky.

The light fades out, and Will lightly grunts. When the vampire notices the light is gone and feels some relief, he starts flapping his burning hand around with a disgraceful expression of sheer panic on his face. Will lunges in, and Alicia opens her eyes.

Swish! Slish Swish!

Will takes a few swings at the vampire while he is desperately attempting to pat the flames on his hand out. The heated sword slashes him in the armpit, but Will lacks the strength to make anything than a somewhat vicious, but shallow cut.

The next attack is supposedly aimed at the vampire’s throat in an attempt to behead him, but Will only manages to lightly nudge him with the tip of the sword due to miscalculated range. Blood splashes on the cobblestones, and the vampire winces from the additional searing pain.

Will then attempts a powerful stab aimed at the vampire’s heart, but he anticipates it, and manages to stumble just ever so slightly beyond the blade’s reach while patting at the flames on his hand with his cape. The sword pierces through the black cape without reaching anything beyond it.

「Greater maximize 『Force Ray』!」

Will shouts, and the vampires panicked eyes are momentarily taken off his burning hand, the blade steals his attention. Will shifts his hand on the hilt, and a thin blue ray extends from his index finger towards the crossguard.

The sword jolts forward, thrusting into the vampire’s chest. Will grunts again, and his nose begins to bleed.

「Aagh! Burns! Burns!!」

The vampire screams again, and grasps at the searing blade only to let go of it on instinct as his hands burn the second he catches it.

Ca-clang!

After a moment of indecisiveness, he firmly grips onto it and pulls it out of himself with a gout of gore, throwing it onto the cobblestones. Will stumbles sideways and bends over to pick it up, almost falling onto the ground himself. The vampire manages to pat out the last of the flames, and his panicked eyes dart all over the street.

「There’s a fire! Get the water! There’s- Vampire!」

A group of men come running from one of the adjacent streets. They recoil in fear at the sight of the ongoing battle.

「Vampire! Get the men! There’s a vampire! Vampire!! Vampire!…」

The men turn back, screaming at the top of their lungs. The vampire in question stares at the men as they leave, unsure what to do next. Will is breathing heavily, grinning at his opponent with smug satisfaction.

《Someone finally noticed. Help is coming… Even if it won’t be much, it’s still help.》

Will looks at Alicia and Lian. Alicia seems to become even more worried, despite Will’s successes and the coming aid.

「Did you know? That spell was meant to help farmers grow more food. It turned out to be worthless due to the massive mana cost. I thought it would be a good, harmless spell to learn magic with. By the time people figured out you can use it for something like this, the hero had already slain the demon lord.」

Will adjusts his glasses and shares a piece of magic trivia with his opponent. He doesn’t respond, and only grinds his teeth in hatred. The vampire leaps over them again, then lunges towards the alleyway his servant was thrown into.

He picks him up onto his shoulder, and jumps to a rooftop above. Will stumbles for a few steps as he walks towards the vampire, but quickly regains his footing. The vampire turns his back on Will, and prepares for a large leap away from the area.

「Are you running away!? You should be! We’re not afraid of the night anymore! The streets are bright, and you have to hide like a rat in dark sewers!」

Will shouts at the vampire, and the vampire turns towards him again, glaring at him with pure hatred in his inhuman eyes. Will glares back with matching animosity, and wipes the blood flowing from his nose with his arm.

《No! It’s a trick… He’s trying to bait me into prolonging this further… More mages will come, perhaps the sun will rise… This was an abject failure. We need to try elsewhere.》

The vampire shakes his head, turns his back on Will again, and leaps away with his servant on his shoulder. A few moments later, Will’s shoulders slump, and he sighs with relief.

「Ahhhh… That was so scarrryyy!… I thought I was dead!…」

Thud! Ca-clang!

Will slurs out, then falls face-first onto the ground. His sword clatters on the cobblestones near him as it slips from his grasp.

「Will! I’ll help-! Ahh! I need to heal Lian first!… Why did you have to pass out all at once!?」

Alicia groans in dismay, and uncorks a blue potion within a small vial…