Chapter 25: Blood Thrall [Volume 1 – Between Daybreak and Evernight]

The mission was located on another lower continent, and its details were very simple. There was a small city controlled by vampires. Next to it was a secret research center that belonged to the Empire. After two unsuccessful attempts to conquer the city, the mission was assigned to Red Scorpion.

Red Scorpion mobilized a full company totaling one hundred Black Scorpion soldiers led by three Red Scorpions. This included Qianye and fifty other rookies.

Over ten thousand local soldiers cooperating with Red Scorpion were gathered in the countryside of the small city. This was the first real battle for the rookies, who had been excited from the very beginning.

Qianye traveled in an interplanetary ranked airship that could travel between the continents for five full days, reaching the target area.

Qianye followed the group and jumped from the floating airship to enter their heavy duty trucks, heading toward the location of their mission.

The mission was unbelievably simple: separate into three groups, directly attack the city, and kill anyone who resisted. Then… nothing. That was it.

The entire fleet of trucks moved quickly, their wheels violently flattening the ground as they advanced like a group of frenzied galloping horses.

Qianye sat in the truck hugging his origin power gun. As the truck drove along, it bounced up and down by at least a meter, causing his body to sway slightly. The current him was so used to riding black stone steam-powered vehicles that he could drive them for small trips.

Unlike the other rookies, Qianye did not check his gun over and over again. Instead, he started going over his memories about vampires.

The vampire race was one of the main dark races, but were nicknamed bloodsuckers by the human race. Real vampires were extremely similar to humans in outward appearance. All were abnormally beautiful or handsome, with appearances enticing to humans.

They had long lifespans and great power. In theory, upon reaching the rank of duke, vampires could live for more than a thousand years. They could even choose to slumber for a considerable time, slowing the rate at which their life force decreased. It was said that, hidden in the deeper parts of vampire territory, there were terrifying existences that had slept for over ten thousand years!

Vampires were unusually dangerous. Along with their formidable intelligence, they possessed mighty power and abnormal speed.

Origin guns were created to compensate for the lack of origin power in humans, but the method of creating them was later stolen by the dark races. This allowed them to invent luxurious, beautiful guns that were sold to wealthier human gunners for exorbitant prices.

Lastly, vampires had a unique method of inheritance. They could either procreate with the opposite gender or go through a process called “Embrace “, in which they would inject their origin blood essence into the bodies of humans, turning them into a vampire. At the same time, human blood was a delicacy to vampires.

Therefore, vampires and humans understood each other the most. In the beginning, when the dark races occupied the entire world, vampires were mainly the ones who reared humans. Large amounts of humans were bred to provide blood for vampires. In their eyes, humans were equivalent to pigs or sheep.

In both the Yellow Springs Training Camp and Red Scorpion, Qianye had killed vampires. However, those had not been true vampire warriors, and there had only been a few of them as well. They had been bound by origin power and were only allowed to move around in the examination grounds.

This time was different. This time, they were in a true battle with the vampires.

As the heavy trucks moved, the veterans in the vehicles gave every rookie three specially made origin bullets of pure silver.

These origin bullets were physical bullets that could be inserted in the barrel of an origin gun. Empty bullets could be industrially manufactured or made by hand, but only soldiers that were rank three and above could inject them with origin power to finish the production of a physical origin bullet.

These three silver bullets were especially effective against vampires. Since these rookies were only rank two Fighters, they were only given three of these bullets. Even if they were given a hundred of them, each rookie would still only be able to shoot an origin gun three times.

Each of the rookies loaded the rifles in their hands with the silver bullets and waited for the battle to begin.

The heavy duty trucks charged directly at the small city that was two hundred meters away! Coming to a rumbling halt, the trucks arranged themselves in a serpentine formation, creating a barricade and a bunker.

Traditional gunpowder firearms shot at the trucks from the city walls, but the metal bullets were not enough to penetrate the meter thick steel plates. The Black Scorpion veterans started to retaliate, and origin bullets started flying toward the city and exploding along the city walls.

In the blink of an eye, the gunfire from the walls was suppressed and the rookies immediately jumped from the truck, quickly following the veterans and making their way toward the city.

The battle was much simpler than expected. The Red Scorpion squad leader would charge in front, and with just a glimpse of a vampire warrior, a silver bullet would follow.

The bullets of the Red Scorpion squad leader were not wasted, only targeting higher ranked vampires warriors while leaving the normal vampires to the others. The Black Scorpion soldiers would then go through another round of picking, killing off most of the vampires, and only leaving a few for the rookies to try.

Qianye raised his hand and his origin rifle jolted. He had always earned full marks in his target practical exams, and this was no exception. The silver origin bullet shot out and pierced a hole in a vampire's forehead. White smoke immediately emerged from the wound as the surrounding flesh and blood turned black as though it were burned.

This vampire went stiff and stopped moving as two bloody flowers bloomed on his body. Two rookies could not control themselves and shot the already dead vampire. This obviously yielded no points for them.

Qianye's shooting speed was fast and steady. He immediately changed his position and shot again, shooting the head of a vampire that had just popped up on a roof. Then, in the next few seconds, Qianye shot his gun again, causing another vampire to fall while screaming.

Among the rookies, Qianye’s performance was the most eye-catching, killing off three vampire warriors with three bullets. His performance even rivaled that of the Black Scorpion veterans!

Having entered a real battle, Qianye deeply noticed how different it was from the Yellow Springs Training Camp.

The nine years of cruel training that kept him on the line between life and death had allowed his combat reaction to become an instinctive part of his body. Under any circumstances, Qianye would always react correctly and use the optimal timing to retaliate.

The goal of the Yellow Springs Training Camp was to create the best killers, so its battle style aimed for one shot kills. As long as Qianye had a chance to retaliate, the enemy was almost bound for certain death.

Therefore, on the battlefield, Qianye started showing his skills. His performance in battle significantly exceeded his statistics on paper. Not only could he suppress many of the rookies, he even performed better than many of the Black Scorpion veterans!

This was the true brilliance of a Yellow Springs Training Camp graduate!

The vampire warriors in the city amounted to a hundred. It was a small scale infiltration. The local army originally numbered in the tens of thousands, but after two attacks, casualties rose to almost ten thousand without any success.

However, after the intervention of the Red Scorpion Corps, the tide was turned and the line of battle was pushed back. This allowed them to recapture important areas of the city and kill most of the vampires without letting a single one escape.

This battle helped Qianye understand why there were only ten thousand soldiers in Red Scorpion Corps while other places required up to two hundred thousand support soldiers. A company of Red Scorpions rivaled the strength of over ten thousand soldiers of the Empire's official army, and when compared with the local forces, the difference was even more significant.

The Empire was always pragmatic, even to the point of cruelty. Strength was the deciding factor behind a corps’ support. This was another kind of fairness where strength was crucial. Numbers weren’t even considered.

After reconquering the small city, a sight that surprised Qianye appeared.

A thousand or so people emerged from a few large buildings and insanely charged toward the Empire’s soldiers and the Red Scorpion soldiers. All of the people they could see had dull gazes, pure white teeth, and dark purple lips. These people had completely lost their minds, becoming wild beasts that could only perceive fresh blood and meat!

The Red Scorpion soldiers seemed to have expected this and started to put away their origin guns, swapping them for gunpowder firearms. In that moment, all kinds of machine guns, automatic rifles, and even cannons started firing, creating a storm of metal aimed at the madmen!

Many of the people that were charging wore almost completely intact uniforms of the Empire’s local forces. They were shockingly the soldiers that had lost and were captured inside the city during the assault a few days ago!

Many of the local soldiers that followed Red Scorpion Corps into the city stopped in shock, but the Red Scorpion soldiers continued the cold massacre!

“No, stop! That's my brother!” a young local soldier started yelling as he charged toward a Red Scorpion squad leader, his arms spread wide to stop him from shooting.

The leader simply turned his body, however, causing the soldier to fall as he reloaded his gun and shot the soldier charging at him like a mad beast.

“You killed my brother! I...I'll kill you!” the young soldier shouted angrily as he pointed his gun toward that Red Scorpion squad leader.

A cold light flashed in the leader's eyes as he immediately pulled out his handgun, blowing half of the soldier’s head off!

The Red Scorpion squad leader examined the surrounding local soldiers, coldly asking, “Are any more of you planning on revolting?”

All of the local soldiers immediately denied, fear evident on their faces.

“Then hurry up and attack! These guys are no longer human, they’re blood thralls!” the Red Scorpion squad leader shouted as he raised the machine gun in his hands, aiming its metal barrel at them.

Under the threat of the Red Scorpion squad leader's gun, the local soldiers finally raised their weapons while trembling and started attacking. The number of local soldiers was ten times larger than that of Red Scorpion’s, and once they started shooting, it became an impressive sight. In a blink of the eye, the group of rabid people who only knew to attack were shot down.

Only then did the Red Scorpion squad leader nod in satisfaction as he raised his right fist, shouting, “Attention! Begin moving independently and kill everyone in this city! I repeat, kill everyone! Kill the young, the old, and the women!”

This order stunned Qianye. In his heart, killing men and soldiers was right and proper, but why would they need to harm the elderly, the young, and the women?

However, in both Red Scorpion and the Yellow Springs Training Camp, obedience was the first rule.

Carrying his origin rifle on his back, Qianye picked up a spare automatic rifle and headed to the alleys to search.

Just as he turned a corner, a boy suddenly ran out from a door in the corner in front of him.