Orh’bankhur charged at the iron-clad Vampire General, Mercy Brown, and used his ax to try cleaving the vampire’s head open. A bloody aura wrapped around the Vampire General as a thin, straight sword manifested in their hand. The vampire used the thin sword to redirect Orh’bankhur’s attack so it only smashed apart the ground beside it.
A crystalline orb appeared in the vampire’s other hand and launched a [Blood Arrow] right at Orh’bankhur’s head. Orh’bankhur was a strength and endurance-focused warrior so he didn’t have the agility required to block such a point-blank attack so the [Blood Arrow] struck his face.
Orh’bankhur didn’t even flinch at all as he wielded his hammer and used [Thunderclap] on his enemy. Mercy Brown jumped back while dealing a few blows on Orh’bankhur who tanked all the damage and continued chasing after the vampire who dodged his skill.
“Puny vampire, die!”
Orh’bankhur used another skill but this time, it was a feint. He canceled the skill mid-way and used an ordinary kick to attack Mercy Brown who was just about to dodge the skill as he did earlier.
“[Chop]!”
It was a basic skill that a warrior using an ax could learn but Maria’s Ogre General maximized its quick-action effect to chain it with a [Whirlwind Strike] that sent his opponent flying away. The vampire flipped in the air and landed stably on the ground but everyone noticed that his helmet had been split apart and thrown away by Orh’bankhur’s attack. A single trail of blood trickled down the vampire’s face showing that they had been injured but what really caught everyone’s attention was the long blonde hair that cascaded down the vampire’s shoulder.
Ash was a bit stunned and asked, “Mercy Brown was a woman?”
Having long-hair as a vampire didn’t make one a woman or anything but after looking at Mercy Brown’s face, Ash could instinctively tell that the vampire was a woman. Maria was also intrigued by what Ash said because even she had assumed that Mercy Brown was a guy from the way Ash addressed her earlier.
Carmilla looked at Ash puzzledly and said, “You didn’t know that?”
“...I always thought the heir to the Brown family was a man.”
“Well, this generation’s Mercy Brown is a woman and our generation’s as well. I’m surprised you didn’t know this.”
“I didn’t really care about the things outside of my territory.”
“It’s because of that you were easily schemed against…”
“...”
Ash couldn’t deny that because it was quite true so he just remained silent and watched the battle. Maria also turned her attention back to the battle and couldn’t help but think that it was a pity a woman like Mercy Brown was serving the enemy. She had a weak spot for vampire women because they looked so beautiful and she was rather attracted to beauty for some reason. It was why she had more maids than butlers in her castle and all of them were top-class in the face department.
Maria couldn’t help but be envious towards the vampires at times though it was only because she didn’t know about her own beauty that could easily charm a vampire.
“It’s quite a shame but beat that lady up Orh’ba! Don’t you dare shame me!” Maria said as she half-threatened half-cheered on her Ogre General.
“Orh’bankur win for Queen!”
The large ogre roared and lept towards Mercy Brown who prepared to dodge out of the way but unfortunately, this leap wasn’t an ordinary leap. It was the ogre’s skill, [Tremor]. When he landed, Orh’bankhur slammed both his weapons on the ground repeatedly and sent out shockwave after shockwave in the area 50-meters around him.
Mercy Brown was caught in the area of effect and took quite a bit of damage but couldn’t relax even after being hit by the attack since Orh’bankhur was already in front of her with his hammer swinging towards her face.
“You cur!”
It was the first time since the start of the battle that the stoic vampire had spoken a word. She wrapped her weapon up in a blood aura and raised it to meet Orh’bankhur’s attack head on. Maria was surprised because Orh’bankhur’s blow was actually stopped and the following attack was avoided as well. Mercy Brown took the chance to quickly stab Orh’bankhur with a rain of stabs from her [Multi-Thrust] skill. It was then followed up with a [Blood Rain] that was cast from the orb she was holding in her other hand. During her [Blood Rain] cast, Mercy Brown had used another skill that opened up the distance between herself and her opponent before she started chanting a spell.
When Orh’bankhur finally broke through the veil of bloody rain, he was then hit by a few more blood magic spells in quick succession. The battle continued to proceed like this with Mercy Brown occasionally engaging Orh’bankhur in close-combat before keeping a distance with him using her movement skills as she cast long-ranged spells to attack him.
Maria finally figured out the vampire’s class after seeing her abilities so she asked, “Is she a Sword Mage?”
“To be precise, Your Highness, Mercy Brown is a Red Mage. Red Mages use both sword skills and magic spells in their attacks. It’s a bit different from a Sword Mage or a Magic Swordsman as the spells used are more powerful and take a while to cast without the help of a magic orb weapon,” Carmilla elaborated.
“Magic orb…the thing she’s using in her other hand, right?”
“Yes. So unlike the other classes that’s like a swordsman using magic, this class is more of a mage using a sword.”
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“I see.”
Maria continued to watch the battle and as she watched, she noticed that Orh’bankhur’s opponent was slowly getting an edge over him so she said out loud, “This could be bad…Orh’ba is a bit weak against magic and chasing her around is also tiring him out.”
“Shall we help him, my Queen?” Ash quickly asked.
“No, my Ogre General isn’t this weak. I should tell him to stop holding back now.”
“Hm?”
Orh’bankhur’s HP and SP were slowly being whittled away but the ogre didn’t show any signs of weakness or fatigue. He was currently fighting in front of his Queen so he couldn’t show her that he was being pushed back right now but Maria already saw it.
“I may not be able to hold all of you back, but at the very least, I’ll kill you, ogre cur,” Mercy Brown said as she pointed her sword at Orh’bankhur’s neck.
Orh’bankhur only grunted back in response as he banged his weapon together to psyche himself up but just as he was about to rush at his opponent again, he heard Maria’s voice.
“Orh’ba, no need to hold back now! Use that for me and win this battle quickly!”
“Yes, Queen!”
“Holding back? Hah, you’re just bluffing!” Mercy Brown yelled. She didn’t believe Maria’s words one bit.
Right now, she was giving it her all and was barely keeping up with Orh’bankhur. If she wasn’t faster and more agile than him, she would have lost this battle so to say that he was holding back, Mercy Brown didn’t want to believe it. However, what happened next caused the vampire lady’s growing confidence to disappear. Orh’bankhur let loose a horrifying roar that was so powerful it pushed her back with a sonic wave.
Orh'bankur's body turned deep red as his armor broke apart from the extra increase to his muscle mass that now made him a meter or so taller. With the armor stripped away, it revealed the extra pair of arms and the steel-like body he was hiding underneath it. The ogre’s energy began raging around and damaging the courtyard before it returned to him a few moments later and settled on his body.
Orh’bankhur was now clad in a red aura that acted like his armor and he stopped roaring. He unbuckled the large cleaver and shield that was on his back and used his extra pair of arms to wield them.
“Orh’bankhur kill you now!” Orh’bankhur declared before he rushed at Mercy Brown with a burst of speed and agility that wasn’t suitable for his large build.
“!”
Mercy Brown was shocked when she saw Orh’bankhur suddenly appear in front of her and before she could even raise her sword to block, she was already sent flying into the air.
‘H-How?’
That was her only thought before she blacked out from being thrashed around in the air by Orh’bankhur’s lightning-like consecutive attacks. In this ‘berserk’ form, Orh’bankhur’s lack of speed and agility were immediately compensated though he would lose a bit of his rationality after activating it. This wasn’t a unique ogre skill or anything. Instead, it was the skill that all boss monsters shared, the [Red Blood] state. It activated only when a boss’s HP was pushed towards a certain extent or if certain conditions met the criteria of its activation.
Maria had trained her ogre to be able to use this at will after remembering that he was an ogre boss monster. Just because she had subdued him and he came under her command didn’t mean his characteristics as a boss monster would suddenly disappear. She exploited this fact and turned Orh’bankhur’s [Red Blood] state into an ‘active skill’ he could use at any time.
Of course, there were some stringent conditions to use it like being under a certain percentage of HP but that condition was met in this battle where Mercy Brown had continued to whittle down his HP until it was about three-fifths gone.
There was no cost to the skill though there was a cooldown and the conditions had changed from the norm but since it was usable, Maria wasn’t going to fuss about the details. What really puzzled her was that among all of her boss-class subordinates, only Orh’bankhur was able to use his [Red Blood] state as an active skill. The others couldn’t use it even after Maria tried applying the training she did with Orh’bankhur to them. Not even Ash or Carmilla could do it so she gave up on it and thought that Orh’bankhur was just a rare case and had been lucky.
Maria was right though, she was lucky because what she didn’t know was that the developers found out about this and quickly had AI Zeus patch this so none of her other boss-class monsters could use or learn it since the effects were too overpowered even by their standards.
If Maria kept on recruiting or even developing boss class monsters that could use the [Red Blood] state at will then her army would become way too broken so it was fixed after the team that was monitoring Maria reported it.
As for why Orh’bankhur could still use the [Red Blood] state at will and why it had actually become a skill one day, this was because Mr. Lindow, the company’s head that created the game and the AI managing it, had decided to let Maria keep her accomplishment of exploiting the boss monsters’ system mechanics.
Previously, the [Red Blood] state wasn’t a skill. It was only turned into one after the devs patched their mistake so that Orh’bankhur could use it as an active skill even after the fix. Naturally, the regular boss monsters that weren’t tamed by any one would still have the Red Blood state in their mechanics. Only those that had been tamed by players wouldn’t have the ability to use the Red Blood mechanic.
Skill Name: Red Blood Type: Unique Ability Description: Forces the user into a berserk state, increasing all stats by 150% and all damage taken by 50%. The user gains immunity to all critical hits, knockback or knockup effects, debuffs, and aggro control abilities Extra Effect: All of the user’s attacks will become [Crushing Hits]. Crushing Hits have a 100% chance to deal critical damage and interrupt casting. There’s also a 10% chance to inflict the [Fainted] debuff on an opponent Condition: HP below 60% Cooldown: 1 hour
Having the skill on one of her boss monster minions wasn’t too bad and Mr. Lindow thought that it was interesting so he let Maria have this for her reward of exploiting the system he created. The little girlie that he had been paying attention to for a long while now was constantly surprising him with the ingenious way she played the game. Her path to become a New God was also something he was paying close attention to and Mr. Lindow couldn’t wait for the day that she actually reached godhood.
Orh’bankhur and Mercy Brown’s battle ended with Orh’bankhur’s overwhelming victory. After the ogre had knocked Mercy Brown out with a crushing blow, he didn’t stop and went wild with his attacks. He chained skill after skill and utterly decimated the vampire woman until Maria ordered the berserk ogre to stop. She had trained Orh’bankhur to the point where on command, he would immediately stop what he was doing even when he was in his crazed [Red Blood] state. If he failed to stop, Maria would chop off all his arms before fixing them back on after Orh’bankhur returned to normal and reflected on his mistakes.
Thanks to this, Orh’bankhur became extremely obedient even when his mind was in a completely irrational state though he began to instinctively seal the [Red Blood] skill and never used it in battle because he was afraid if something went wrong, he’d have his arms chopped off again by his Queen. Orh’bankhur returned to his normal state after Maria flew over and landed on his shoulder which made the menacing red ogre flinch for a moment before he opened his mouth and said, “Orh’bankhur win for Queen!”
“Yes, you did a good job, Orh’ba~ I’ll reward you later after we finish clearing the dungeon!”
“My Queen, should I finish her off?” Ash asked after he saw that Mercy Brown was still alive and breathing even though she had been brutalized by Orh’bankhur in the most savage way possible.
“It’s fine. She can’t fight anymore and I’d hate to kill such a beautiful thing like her~”
“...As you will, my Queen.”
“Since Orh’ba defeated her, I guess I’ll give her to him as a reward after we clear this dungeon. A beautiful vampire maid, that should be nice, right?”
“E-Eh?”
“Tie her up, Carmilla!”
“Y-yes, Your Highness.”
Ash and Carmilla were both shocked and began to sweat a little because they didn’t know whether Maria understood the words she was saying or not. Even though her meaning was likely innocent since she wanted to give Mercy Brown to Orh’bankhur as a maid but prisoners of war were usually treated very cruelly and like slaves after a war. This was especially so for the customs on the Blood Continent. It was why Transylvania had a slums area behind Wall Victoria. In fact, almost all of the cities and towns Maria conquered had a slums area. War prisoners from conflicts between territories were usually housed in these areas and treated like dirt.
There was no such thing as slavery under her rule so Ash and Carmilla didn’t think too badly of her decision. The only problem was that she was using Mercy Brown as a reward for one of her soldiers–what more her Ogre General. Becoming a ‘maid’ to an ogre was a bit…rough. Well, since it was their Queen’s decision, the two could only look at Mercy Brown with a little bit of pity in their eyes.
At least she wasn’t going to be treated like a slave. This was Mercy Brown's only saving grace from being conquered by a ruler like Maria. If it was anyone else, then she'd be subjected to a very torturous fate instead of being spared like right now, considering she was a vampire marquess.
Once the defeated vampire was tied up, Maria tapped Orh’bankhur on the head and said, “Let’s go to the next area!”