A little while after Maria said her words, the Vampire Nobles of the enemy side began stepping into battle which prompted Ash to make his move as well. Maria couldn’t find the Vampire Duke among the enemy Vampire Nobles but there were quite a few of them that had stepped forward unlike the previous times. There were around 20 Vampire Nobles of Count rank and above that appeared and 2 Marquis Rank Vampires were present as well.
The Vampire Marquis that was leading this time’s battle had a partner that was similarly a Marquis. Due to their strength, they had many vassals who were of high rankings but it wasn’t like Maria’s side was a pushover. The commanders and captains of the army began stepping out and they flew into the air following Ash after he called out to them.
“Vampires with Count ranked powers and above, on me!”
All of the vampires that they were facing were of the new generation so they didn’t recognize Ash despite his power being of the Duke Rank. The only information they obtained about him was that he was an upcoming ‘newbie’ vampire who had Duke Ranks powers but was not on their side. It was quite unbelievable as well that such a powerful vampire was serving under another who was the one that started this war across the continent.
“Careful! It’s the one that has powers on par with a Duke!”
“Is Duke Vorpal not here yet?!”
“I-I don’t know…but if he doesn’t get here, won’t we all die?”
“It’s better to die than to submit! So enough talk! Let’s kill these traitors!”
The Blood Continent’s vampires all viewed the vampires under Maria’s rule as traitors since they didn’t serve the Blood Lord, the one true king of the vampires, but instead a person who wasn’t even a vampire. Of course, after Maria’s awakening, she had awakened a part of a true vampire’s powers. Also, her awakening was a bit peculiar because Ash and Carmilla began calling her a True Ancestor at some point and Carmilla had become more obedient to her as well.
“W-Wait, w-who’s that over there?” One of the vampires called out when they noticed Maria who was spectating the battlefield.
“Huh?”
They all felt an odd compulsion to bow down to her but they resisted this impulse and only glowered and hissed at her. Ash saw what they were doing and his face went dark. His aura changed abruptly and immediately began charging his Blood Energy for a powerful attack.
Maria was indifferent to the vampires’ reaction. Nothing had changed in her status screen so Maria didn’t see anything different about her race besides the awakening and other than the Lifesteal racial ability and the attainment of Blood Energy, which was a resource unique to the vampires, Maria didn’t see how she was a ‘True Ancestor’ Vampire or whatever. It was undeniable, however, that when the opposing vampires saw Maria who was floating in the air watching over the battle with an amused and excited expression on her face, they felt the compulsion to submit to her.
This effect could either be from what Ash and Carmilla had described Maria as since if she was a True Ancestor, then it was only natural that she would command the subservience of all vampires that saw her but it could also be due to the aura that she exuded thanks to her Lust sin that would passively [Charm] those that saw or came too close to her.
In the past few in-game days, Maria had been learning how to use all of her abilities to their fullest and this Lust or Charm aura was something she kept on using since it was very advantageous in a fight. If her opponent was constantly experiencing a debuff check every now and then, it would greatly distract them from the battle and give Maria an advantage. If they actually succumbed and were charmed by her, then it was practically sealing their fate in that battle against her.
“How dare you insects brazenly act this way before Her Majesty…”
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Ash’s voice suddenly echoed across the battlefield in the next instant and the enemy vampires finally tore away their gazes from Maria when they felt the overwhelming aura that the furious Vampire Duke was exerting.
“Prepare to die, you fools.”
His voice was calm as he raised his hand and a sea of blood suddenly appeared in the sky above him. He coldly glared at all of the enemy vampire nobles before waving his hand down.
“[Blood Storm].”
“How about you pick on someone your own size, eh?”
A massive red barrier suddenly appeared in front of the enemy vampires just as Ash’s ability was about to rain down hell upon them. His ability only struck the red shield and after a while, broke through it before continuing down to attack the vampires that were his original targets. Ash’s face didn’t change at all since he expected this. The Vampire Duke that was backing the enemy vampire nobles had appeared and blocked his attack, or at least, part of it.
“Hohoho! You really are a powerful duke!”
A second red barrier appeared so Ash’s attack was intercepted once again but like the previous barrier, it was breached once again but the power of Ash’s [Blood Storm] had greatly diminished. However, even then, a few of the Count-ranked Vampire Nobles who were struck by the attack were sent tumbling towards the ground and received some degree of injury. A cloud of bats appeared in the middle of the sky and they joined together to form a vampire. This vampire looked like a young child and he had a smug look on his face as he had a stare down with Ash.
Ash only had a passive look on his face as he didn’t really care about this newcomer. He had already gauged this person’s strength earlier and although he was a duke, he wasn’t as powerful as him. This was even with the fact that there was still one last seal that Ash had to break before the remaining bits of his sealed power were restored. In terms of strength and ability, he was already much stronger than before he was sealed, and this was all thanks to Maria who was always working him to the bone which constantly pushed him past his limits and then some.
Once he broke the last seal, he’d be able to far surpass his former self so this little vampire duke boy wasn’t someone that Ash would take seriously in this battle. He seemed quite young for a vampire and even though he had power, it wasn’t enough to defeat Ash even though the young kid was exuding overwhelming confidence.
“So you’re the vampire duke that’s backing these guys, huh? It’s about time you showed up after cowering behind these fools. I was getting bored,” Ash said as he tried to provoke the kid.
It didn’t seem to have worked since the young vampire duke’s confident demeanor didn’t change at all as he only shook his head and replied with a scoff, “Hmph, talk big all you want, but this battle’s outcome has already been decided.”
“It indeed has…”
“Hmph!”
Ash and the vampire boy immediately rushed at each other and began exchanging blows. Maria watched the enjoyable fight and saw that Ash was lowering his strength to the same level as the child. Maria could see that he wanted to fight this youngling for as long as he could just for pure enjoyment on his part so she allowed it since it made for a good show. Since there were only 3 other vampire dukes, excluding the one he was currently fighting that were their enemies, Ash would only get 3 more chances like this so he didn’t want to waste this fine opportunity where he could hone his battle techniques as well as put on a performance for his Queen.
He was still skeptical about his archnemesis, Siegfried’s, power since he had become the Blood Lord so it was inevitable that he was much stronger than the past Siegfried. Ash needed to continue building up his power so that once the day came for him to exact his revenge, he’d be able to personally do it without needing anyone else’s interference.
Ash was thoroughly enjoying the battle even though it seemed as if he was just toying with the poor child. Maria was greatly entertained when she saw all sorts of vampire skills being thrown out and colliding with each other which formed quite a beautiful sight. It was like watching an action movie in a theatre and the only thing she was missing was the popcorn but halfway through the fight, the young vampire duke, whose name was Vorpal, appeared to have noticed that Ash was actually holding back.
“How dare you shame me like this! Fight properly with your full strength! How dare you disgrace this noble with this sham of a battle?!” Vorpal roared in anger at Ash even though he seemed to be afraid after learning about this fact.
Ash only chuckled at the raging young boy and replied with a sneer, “Hmmm, I’m just putting on a show for Her Majesty, the true Queen of this world. Is that so wrong?”
“What?”
“[Blood Clone], [Blood Shift].”
Ash used 2 skills in tandem, leaving behind a clone of himself while he surprised Vorpal by suddenly appearing behind him who didn’t notice that the Ash in front of him was a fake.
“A-An ambush?! H-How…dirty!”
Ash had an arm around Vorpal’s neck and was lifting him up into the air. He had a triumphant smile on his face as he turned towards Maria and asked, “My Queen, what shall I do with–”
Before he could finish his words, Maria suddenly interrupted him with a long string of words and orders, “Sorry, Ash gotta go, that goddess is calling. Don’t kill that kid, I have a use for him so just keep him as a prisoner. See ya, bye~”
“...Eh?”
Maria had already disappeared after she finished saying her piece and left Ash and Vorpal standing alone in the air. He had already prepared a technique that would finish off the poor kid but after hearing his Queen’s orders, he had to lower his other hand and retract his energy.
Vorpal was scared out of his mind since he saw that Ash was prepared to kill him in the next instant if that beautiful young girl told him to so he immediately yelled, “Y-You heard your Master, you can’t kill me! You can’t kill me!!!”
“Shut up.”
Ash smacked the kid unconscious before turning his sights down to the battle below him. He sighed and began walking to the army's command center while dragging the vampire kid on the ground behind him.