Point-of-View: Siert Huet

———————————————————————————

​​

"Looks like we're stuck here for a while," Sighed Siela, as we snuck into an alleyway with a Stealth barrier around us.

"I-I'm so sorry...you're, um, probably uncomfortable with having t-to share your barrier with someone wh-who's so worthless like m-me...I couldn't e-even keep my own barrier Spell Card safe, so-."

"Please stop. That's not helping right now, why don't you just, uh...keep quiet. Let's wait here and recover our Mana and stamina."

It had been a little while since the thirty-hour mark passed by, and at first, things went well despite the fact that not everyone made it to the rendezvous point. Fourteen of us had made it there, the location was a large tailor shop that was somewhere in the middle of the area between the east gate and the castle, but the remaining two never arrived, they might be dead for all we knew.

Once the timer reached thirty hours, we went on as planned despite our group being short two members. We started fires in empty buildings in order to create some commotion and lure Vampires to us. And a few did show up, which we were able to kill with no casualties on our side...and then, several more showed up, outnumbering us significantly.

We put up a fight for a while, but it wasn't long before they overwhelmed us and massacred most of us, I saw eight people die, and more had likely been killed out of my sight. Before we could all be killed, Yuur yelled at everyone to put on their Stealth barriers and hide, but I fumbled and dropped mine, right as a Vampire fired a Blood Magic blast at me, forcing me to dodge, but as I did, the blast destroyed the spell I dropped...Siela then dragged me away and activated her Stealth barrier around both of us, and we were now hiding in one of the empty buildings.

This place had a pleasant aroma...I see a lot of flowers around, as well as some tools, like shears, watering cans and clippers, it must be a florist. It was a bit dusty, I don't think anyone has been here for a few days. Still...something about this place felt a bit...unsettling.

"Okay, it looks like there aren't any Vampires coming this way, we should be safe in here for now," Whispered Siela, peering out of the window and letting out a sigh of relief.

"U-um...why are you whispering, we're inside the Stealth barrier."

"Oh, right, I forgot...I suppose that I'm on edge, given these circumstances. Well, while we recover our energy, let's look around this place, maybe we can find some food," She suggested, walking around.

"O-okay."

I followed closely after her, staying within the barrier. There didn't seem to be anything on the ground floor besides flowers and other plants, so we went up the stairs. There were two upper floors in this building, but they were just as empty as the ground floor...strange, it looked like the upper floors were where the owners of this place lived, but it was dusty up here too, so no one had walked through this area for a few days. It was eerily quiet.

"H-hey, is it just me, or does something feel a bit off here?" Stuttered Siela nervously.

"I-...," I began, before trailing off as we got to the second floor, the stairs leading onto a hallway, a foul stench invading my nostrils.

"Ughh, what is that smell?" Groaned Siela, cowering her nose with a nauseated expression.

"I-I think i-it's coming from there," I replied, pointing at an open door at the end of the hallway.

She cautiously walked towards the door, taking her blades whip into her hands. I hesitantly followed after her, and as she reached the end of the hallway and poked her head into the open doorway, she let out a slight gasp and stumbled back. I peered in as well, seeing what she saw...two corpses. They had been torn apart, their spilt blood had dried and their entrails were strewn about. I could see bite marks on their necks...a Vampire must have toyed with them before consuming their life forces.

"Y-you know wh-what, I'm not h-hungry anymore, l-let's...let's go back down!" She exclaimed shakily, stumbling in her hurry to get away from the horrific scene in front of us.

"O-okay, I th-think that's a good idea," I agreed nervously, following after her.

She was practically sprinting down the stairs, it was a bit difficult to keep up with her and stay within the barrier. As we reached the ground floor, she dropped the Spell Card, which undid the barrier, and then her shoulder crashed against a small bookshelf, atop which was a vase. The vase fell off the bookshelf, but right before it could crash down, I swiftly formed out one of my water tails and caught it, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Woah, nice work...I almost gave our position away, thanks for cleaning up my mess-...or rather, for preventing my potential mess, I guess," She laughed sheepishly.

"N-no, I didn't do a-anything special. A-anyone could have d-done that, I'm-."

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to make you so...self-deprecating? You're strong, but you have no confidence in yourself, you never stand up for yourself and when people compliment you, you always insist that you don't deserve any praise and end up insulting yourself for no reason...I know it's probably none of my business, and you don't have to answer, but what happened to you to make you this way?"

I...I didn't want to talk about that.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean t-to make you pity me, I don't deserve-."

"And there you go again...well, just forget it then. Here, let me put the vase back," She replied, dropping the subject and reaching down to pick up the vase, before stopping with a frown.

I let out a quiet sigh of relief, before following her gaze, though it was bit too dark to see exactly what she was looking at.

"U-um...is something w-wrong?"

"Hey, look at this, Siert. There are scratches on the floor next to the bookshelf, and the bottom of the bookshelf looks a lot more worn down than the rest of it, as if it's been moved to the side regularly...I think there's something behind it. Hey, help me move it, slide it to the side," She said, standing up and grabbing the shelf, dragging it to the side.

I reluctantly helped her, pushing on it from the other side. I didn't have a very good feeling about this, but I couldn't bring myself to protest. We shifted the bookshelf off to the side, revealing...an opening, with a staircase leading down.

"I-I don't th-think we should go down there," I stuttered, getting a bad feeling once again.

"I get where you're coming from, but...I can't deny that I'm curious to see what's down there. It's probably just a normal cellar...cellars are usually pretty off-putting anyway. Come on, let's go."

I noticed this from the way she walked up to the open door on the second floor earlier, but...she lets her curiosity get the better of her too easily. And I couldn't help but follow after her, my heart racing faster and faster with every step we took, going further and further down. A strange smell was coming from the bottom...it was a bit overwhelming.

Is that the smell of flavored incense? It was sickly sweet, making me a bit nauseous. Why use so much? And Siela declared that this was just a normal cellar, but I don't think that's the case...why would a cellar be hidden behind a bookshelf like that?And this overly sweet incense aroma was stifling, it almost felt like...someone was trying to cover something up. We reached the bottom, but it was too dark to see anything.

"Stay quiet okay, I'm going to deactivate the Stealth barrier to see if I can find a Light Crystal," Whispered Siela, before feeling around the wall slowly, "Yes, I think I found it! Okay, I'll run some Mana through it...good, it's lighting up."

I blinked a couple of times as the crystal began glowing, and as my eyes adjusted, I looked around the space, my heart sinking as I took in the sights in front of us...

"No..."

"What is this...?" Siela stumbled back shakily, looking sick.

There were five people in here, chained to the walls, and so thin that the outline of their bones were visible through their skin...they were clearly dead, and had been for a few days, but they had definitely already been close to this thin before they died. I see, the owners of this house...they tortured their slaves.

All of them were missing fingernails, had whip scars all over their bodies, some of the skin on their arms and torsos had been peeled off. It's been a few years since I saw such sights...sights that I hoped to never see again. Sights that I had desperately been trying to forget for the longest time...

"The people we saw upstairs...they...they were the ones that did this, r-right?"

"Yeah...probably," I replied, rage and sorrow enveloping me...over the last few years, I had been surrounded by mostly good people, and as a result, I almost forgot about this...how cruel people can be.

"You know, when I saw those people up there, I felt sorry for them, having suffered such gruesome deaths...but now, I feel like they just got what they deserved. We've fought a lot of Vampires till this point, and one thing's clear to me...they may view our life forces positively as a source of nourishment, but as for our actual selves...they look at us with disgust and resentment. I thought it's probably just because a human was the one who sealed them away in the Forbidden Zone barrier, but looking at this...I can't help but think that maybe humans deserve that resentment, you know what I mean?"

I understood exactly what she was trying to say...if this is how humans treat their own kind, who knows what they would do to others? Monsters are vicious, violent creatures, but they don't harm their own...maybe humans are the real monsters here? I understood perfectly what she was trying to say...because those are the same thoughts that have occupied my mind for a very long time now...

———————————————————————————

Point-of-View: Selesa Jeule

———————————————————————————

Well, this sucks. And after such a good start too. We overcame that major obstacle by killing off all those Minions and those three Generals, but that ended up backfiring...with that many Vampire deaths occurring in quick succession, we'd have to be pretty fucking lucky for none of the other Vampires to sense that...but sadly, we weren't that lucky. Not even a little bit.

Right at the thirty-hour mark, everyone charged out of the rendezvous point and deactivated their Stealth barriers, Les and I had been at the back of the charge. But as soon as those in front deactivated the barriers, Vampires sprung up from behind buildings and alleys...they must have sensed the deaths of their brethren, and then come here quietly and lay patiently in wait for us to move...

About five of us were taken out instantly, and the rest of us put up a bit of a fight, but not enough...we killed a few Vampires, sure, but by the time they overwhelmed us and forced us to retreat, only four of us were left, myself, Les, this A-Rank from the Rustlands with a rhino horn on his forehead, Oreg Dinwiy, and one of The Empire's lapdogs.

We had all returned to the rendezvous point after reactivating our Stealth barriers. Unfortunately, the Vampires had the building surrounded. But they hadn't shown any signs of approaching the place, weird...well, at this point, we had killed a lot of Vampires since this whole battle began, so they'd have to be pretty stupid to continue underestimating us.

We had deactivated the Stealth barriers so that we could communicate with each other, and were hiding while peering out the windows to keep an eye on the Vampires. Some of them were starting to look a bit impatient...it's only a matter of time before they charge at us. We could try slipping past them, but they had formed a pretty tight circle around this building, the gaps were pretty narrow. And then it hit me...

"Let's fly out!" I exclaimed, before lowering my voice as they all glared at me with looks of alarm, "Sorry, my bad...anyways, I just realized, we can fly out with the Stealth barriers."

"Great idea, that just might work. I can use Flight as well," Added Oreg, as their eyes lit up following my suggestion.

Hehe...am I a genius or what? It's too bad that Sherla nickname I tried to spread around never caught on.

"Wait, I cannot fly," Spoke up the lapdog.

"Neither can I-...oh...oh, no," Began Les, before trailing off in horror as I stepped behind him and rubbed his shoulders with a smirk.

"Oh, yes...the two of us that can fly will carry the two of you that can't fly...don't worry, little bro, I'll hold on to you nice and tight, your big sis will make sure you don't fall...m'kay?"

"Even when you're smart, you're really dumb...and no matter what, you're always a pervert...," He groaned with an exasperated and fed-up expression.

That was so uncalled for, and mean too...he's probably just going through a rebellious phase, he doesn't mean what he says! I think...

"A-anyway...let's get going before they blast this place with their Blood Magic. Oh, wait...hey, lapdog guy, what's your Elemental Magic type?"

"Hm? Oh, I use Fire Magic. And I have a name, it's-."

"Perfect, in that case, set this place on fire before we escape, that should keep them distracted and busy for a bit, buying us more time to get away safely."

We then swiftly put the plan into action, the lapdog set a fire going in the middle of the building, which spread rapidly, before I held onto Les's shoulders and activated the Stealth barrier around us, while Oreg did the same with the lapdog. We agreed that each pair would find a safe place to hide, and afterwards, try to covertly pick off the Vampires one by one.

I flew out of the building while holding tightly onto Les, flying past the Vampires and looking for a good place to hide...maybe an empty building or something will do. Well, this is going...not according to plan. I just hope things were going better for the main group that stormed the castle...

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.