As the green arrows poured down like rain, the bald vampire took a deep breath, looked up, then roared. It sounded like the roar of a lion mixed with the roar of a bear. The roar was strong enough to force everyone on the ship, even the other vampires, to block their ears.
The vampire’s roar created an air dome that deflected the arrows, causing them to hit the deck instead of their initial targets.
The archer clicked her tongue and pulled her bow again. But this time, the vampires weren’t going to let her off the hook that easily. They charged at the net on both sides of the ship and tried to climb up to her position. When Lily and Rina tried to use their magic to attack the ones on the ropes, another vampire threw a pouch toward their feet. When the pouch broke, white dust spewed out like clouds, covering the two girls’ sight. With how prepared they were and the fact that they only attacked the one ship that carried cargo, there was only one truth. There was a rat among the crew.
But figuring out who the rat was wasn’t important, the important part was how much the vampires knew. Did they only know the parties’ formation and their strength? Or did they know the whole plan? Toby preferred the latter as it was easier to narrow down the number of suspects he should report to master Elaria. Should they, no, when they made it out of this mission alive.
With the dust making Lily and Rina cough uncontrollably, the vampires effectively disable the Mages while holding back the Archer. If they want to turn the tide, the parties must not let the vampires have their way.
The shielder must have thought the same as he charged toward the ropes on the ship’s port while Toby told Lukas on the ship’s starboard.
“Cut the ropes, Lukas. Don’t let them get to the Archer. I’ll protect Lily.” Before he drifted like a car toward the two vampires charging at Lily and Rina.
Combined with Elaria’s training that forced him to master his Mana usage and movement, along with how she threw him into a group of new monster types every three days for the last two weeks, Toby gained much-needed mastery over what he had. With not so little Level, Life Exp, and Distribution Points on top.
===
Toby R. Moriarty
Race: Calamity Turtle
Level: 6 (30/135)
Rank: 2 (0/120)
Life Experience (Life Exp): 360
Path: The Dark Lord / Healer
Status
Strength: 30 (+0)
Dexterity: 4 (+0)
Resilience: 30 (+0)
Charisma: 11 (+0)
Mind: 20 (+0)
Mana: 20 (+5)
Distribution points: 23
===
By killing both Rank 2 and 3 of four different types of monsters, Toby was able to gain two levels, 320 Life Exp, and 20 Distribution Points. A massive haul, considering he had always been poor with his Life Exp. Not only that, the necklace the guild gave in even boosted a huge five points into his [Mana].
Toby, at that moment, was a force to be reckoned with even among the Rank 3s. If he stopped being such a gamer and kept everything for “I might need them later” situations, of course.
That’s why the two vampires charging toward Lily and Rina couldn’t react in time before Toby grabbed onto their legs, causing them to faceplant on the deck.
With one eye opened, as she was still coughing from the dust, Lily pointed her wand at the two vampires and shot two rhombus-shaped rocks at the vampires’ heads, killing them immediately. At the same time, Rina summoned a gale and blew the dust away.
But before they could recover, the bald vampires dashed at them as he shouted.
“I’ll take care of the Mages, you lads take the loots and block the rest.”
Each step the bald vampire took, his muscles budged and grew as he charged toward the spars. Before anyone could react, a vampire who was at least eight feet tall was charging at the three. Full speed.
From what [Insight] told him, Toby thought this leader of the vampires had low magic resistance and high physical resistance. But instead of aiming for anyone else, he charged at the Mages instead. Which was bad. When someone charged at the enemies they were weak against, it would for sure spell trouble as they might trick the enemies into thinking they were easy targets.
Toby poured Mana into his flippers and turned them into a type of armor that could potentially cause more damage to the bald vampire.
“Charging right at us? What a fool.” It seemed Rina took the bait.
She created multiple fireballs the size of her head around her while Lily hit the ground and summoned five vines from the butt of her staff to bind the bald vampire. The vines shot out in a straight line along the surface of the deck and wrapped themselves around the vampire’s ankles. But it didn’t stop him even for a second as his thighs tightened before he broke out of the vine with just his brute strength while he kept charging at them with frightening momentum.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Get out of the way.” Rina signaled Lily to dodge before she fired the fireballs.
The vampire smirked as he took out what he hung on his waist, half of a stone mask that covered only the upper half of the face. It wasn’t a good sign when your enemies smirked at your action. That vampire had something up his sleeve. The moment he wore the mask, he shrank down from a massive barbarian to the size of a dwarf. Much to Toby, Lily, and Rina’s wide eyes. They knew there were Items that had special abilities, but stat-increasing Items was one of the best. But still, an Item that could change the user’s body was unheard of. With the bald vampire’s body shrank, the fireballs not only missed their mark but also flew over his head toward the shielder behind him. Luckily, the shielder reacted in time and held up his shield to create a blue barrier. When the fireballs hit the blue barrier, they sizzled out as the shielder was pushed three steps back.
“Watch where you’re shooting you.” He shouted before turning to the right and slammed his shield into a vampire.
“I’m sorry,” Rina shouted.
“RINA, DODGE!” Lily shouted as she used [Push] and shoved Rina back.
“Tch,” The bald vampire, now half the size of an adult male human, clicked his tongue as the machete in his right hand barely missed Rina’s head while his left palm blocked Toby, who jumped and turned the Mana around his flippers into hands to punch him.
With how the vampire’s gaze was locked onto Rina, he must still be aiming for her. As Toby thought, the bald vampire didn’t give up and stomped his leg forward to reach toward Rina again. His attempt was met with a rock bullet aiming at his head from Lily and a slash on his ankle by Toby’s horizontal karate chop with the Mana covering his flippers. The vampire jerked his head back to dodge the rock bullet but ignored the slash. Unexpectedly, the slash was barely able to graze his ankle, causing a wound as long as an index finger and as wide as a toothpick. Either the vampire's magic resistance was stronger than Toby thought, or Toby was too weak to deal meaningful damage.
Toby clicked his tongue and backed away to keep his distance.
“Eat this,” Rina shouted as she fired a huge fireball toward the bald vampire.
The vampire touched his mask and grew back to his original size, then chopped the fireball in half, which caused two explosions that almost caught Lukas if the boy didn’t jump to the side in time. But because of that jump, Lukas was tackled by a vampire and fell on the deck.
“Lukas!” Lily yelled as she shot a rock bullet toward the vampire mounting the boy. Before the rock could reach that vampire, the bald vampire smashed her rock bullet with his machete and let out a mocking smile.
“You’re fighting me, lad. Don’t be so distracted with your matey.”
Despite saying that, the bald vampire twisted his body before he raised his machete, then chopped down at Toby, who was sneaking up on him from behind like a ninja. Not a good one, since he was found out, but it was enough to draw the bald vampire’s attention away from Mages. Toby raised his Mana-covered flippers to block the machete, but when he looked at the bald vampire’s salvage grin, chill ran down his spine. Toby quickly used [Push] to back off just before the machete came down. The cold blade cut through his Mana like tofu before it slammed into the deck and sent splinters flying everywhere.
When he thought about what could have happened to him if he hadn’t dodged in time, Toby would break out into cold sweat. Not that he could, but it was that close of a call. To confirm his suspicion, he used [Insight] on the machete.
[Link cutter – Rank 3]
[Alliance: Water Item – Suggestion: Use Water Mana to counter the polluting effect]
“That thing can cut Mana?” Toby pretended to mumble as he thought, Water Mana? Wait, if I have Dark Mana then other elements Mana make sense too. But how do I draw out Water Mana?
“What’s wrong,” The bald vampire laughed. “Where’s that bravo when you asked me all those funny questions go?”
“It went to your mom when she said I was better than your dad last night.” Toby sneered and shot toward the bald vampire. He shot toward the vampire while spinning like a drill, with his Mana forming an actual drill shape. It was a good attempt, but still couldn’t do anything as the bald vampire raised his machete to block.
The vampire's face grimaced as he stared at Toby with murder in his eyes behind the machete. “You would have died a painless death if you didn’t open your mouth, lad.”
A blue glow covered the machete as Toby’s Mana started to melt like ice cream on a hot summer day. Sensing danger, Toby backed up seven feet away from the bald vampire right away. From what they could sense, a foreign Mana was invading his Mana drill and broke it down by inserting itself between the flow of his Mana drill.
From what Toby could remember from the notebook, this was a complicated technique that either needed many magic circles to activate or a deep understanding of Mana itself. The No.12 Dark Lord, Jill López, was able to disrupt her enemies’ Skill thanks to her deep understanding of Mana. While the bald vampire didn’t seem like he had the same knowledge.
“How did you get your hand on such a valuable weapon?” Toby once again tried to drag out the battle in order to find a way to beat this vampire without displaying all his Skills.
The bald vampire didn’t answer this time and simply charged at Toby with the machete raised high. When the vampire tilted his body forward, Toby knew he was about to chop down. So he used [Push] and made a perfect drift toward the back of his enemy. Toby thought he could counterattack from behind, but it was a trap.
The vampire didn’t chop down but lunged toward Lily, who was fighting together with Lukas instead.
“Shit.” Toby cursed as he chased after the vampire. “LILY, LUKAS, BEHIND YOU.”
Yet, even with a five-point boost in his [Mana], Toby still couldn’t catch up with the vampire’s speed. Just when he was able to use [Magic Hand] and potentially summoned the broken blades to throw at the vampire, Lily noticed the vampire and pulled Lukas up together with her. The two shot vertically up and hovered midair, away from the grasp of the vampires.
Toby thought they dodged it successfully, but he had a bad feeling when the bald vampire didn’t continue his attack but just stood still and stared at the kids.
Before he could react, two vampires jumped down from the crow nest onto pinned Lily and Lukas. They pinned the kids down on the deck.
Toby looked around to find anyone who could help the two. Grillion was busy protecting the captain, the crew was busy, so were Rina and Tootha.
That was when it struck Toby. None of the other party’s members could be found, except for the rabbit girl. If they died, there would have been corpses left. But there was no sign of them at all. They disappeared without a trace.
“Kill them.” The bald vampire ordered. Much to Toby’s dismay.
Toby didn’t hesitate anymore and created two [Magic Hands] and punched the vampires mounting on the kids away before they could stab the kids.
The bald vampire snapped his head toward Toby and the two stared at each other.
The vampire’s muscles bulged and increased in size again while Toby covered his body in Mana while using the [Magic Hands] to keep the enemies from touching Lily and Lukas.
Just when the turtle and the bald vampire were about to go for another round, everyone heard a roar that shook the sky. Toby turned toward the roar. He couldn’t help but let out a self-mocking smile at the monster with a missing tooth appearing near the horizon.
“That thing sure knows how to hold a grudge.”