The Viscounts had been defeated, but the battle raged on.

The Earth Cross created a crack on the ground, which caused many to stumble. The army of Kyros used this well and killed as many as they could.

"Enemy attack from behind! Knights! Formation! Mages and archers reform in our perimeter!" One knight tried to take charge after seeing the deaths of their Viscount.

The group displayed experience as the groups began to reform into a battle position that accounted for the enemies around them.

"Coven and Mardock, protect me!" Kyros cried out as he summoned his bow and arrows.

Although the Viscounts were killed quickly and efficiently, the remaining forces still numbered over thirty. Yet the forces were all busy as the numbers that Kyros overwhelmed them with a powerful rush.

Kyros was now using his bow and arrows to shoot more of his enemies. As he was in the middle of the enemy formation, Kyros had a good position to attack the enemy. Using his dexterity and intelligence, Kyros attacked critical times and would critically wound or stagger an enemy with each blow.

[Calaminus used Splash.]

Calaminus also joined the fray and would tap and startle a nervous enemy. Since they were being attacked from back and front, those who Calaminus tapped would jump, evade or slash at the area. These distractions would lead to an enemy.

"Tap that ass! Tap that ass!" Calaminus made a strange chant as he began to use Splash on the hind areas of the enemy.

"Time to focus our attacks. Coven, send your ghouls to attack there!" Kyros shouted without even pointing where. Yet with their link, the Coven knew where to send the ghouls.

CRASH! CRASH!

The ghouls ignored the attacks they received and recklessly charged for inflicting attacks with their weapons or through biting and clawing the knights and barbarians.

"These are?!" 

"The vampires!" The mages cried.

"And there are Shadow Ghouls among them!"

The surprise attack didn't give the Viscount troops time to identify the enemy. But now, they could clearly see what they were up against.

After seeing the claws and fangs of undead men, the group realized that they were facing undead enemies and began to switch their weapons to fight them quickly.

"Don't give them any breathing room! They have weapons specifically made for vampires! Keep pressing and pressuring them! Kyros ordered.

Scarlet and Gregory emerged from the gates along with their ghouls and joined the battle.

The knights had just managed to hold a line, but then eight ghouls and two vampires attacked at the back.

"Kill the mages and the archers first!" Kyros ordered.

Suddenly, all the ghouls that were charging and smashing their bodies on the knights sprinted madly on the mages.

"Blast them with mana blasts! We need to blow their heads and body!" A mage cried as he spam cast his mana.

Some of the mages shot fire bolts and various magic, but the ghouls paid no mind to this. 

Some of the remains of the ghouls fell as they tried to leap over and step on the shields of the knights.

The mages kept shooting and blowing back the ghouls, but then, one of the ghouls that they thought were dead suddenly bit on one of the mages who lost his focus.

"Always double tap. They need to learn." Calaminus sneered as the formation of the mages that held the line fell from the inside. Another archer made the same mistake as he thought his headshot on one of the leaping ghouls killed it permanently. But once more, the ghoul bit on the legs of the archer, and it caused yet another gap.

The gap allowed Kyros to send in his Shadow Ghouls.

As mages lacked physical strength due to the focused study on magic, they could only wear light armor. These made them susceptible to the Shadow Ghouls, who could claw and stab. The archers were another delicious target for the Shadow Ghouls as they valued mobility over defense.

The knights tried to reform their ranks to stop and use their bodies to shield the Shadow Ghouls, but another creature had the immense strength to knock them back.

The golems assaulted them were using the bodies of the slain soldiers as weapons and smashed them onto the knights with such throwing force. Kyros also wilted down the forces by shooting his arrows from afar.

Martha couldn't harness any more force energy but kept attacking and harassing enemies. But she had a strange impression that she shouldn't kill all enemies, especially the knight and barbarians. So she left the deadly kill-shot for the mages and archers.

The knights tried to surround the archers and mages, close the gap to protect them, and enclose them to form shields. But while this stopped the ghouls, the shadow ghouls' paper-thin shadow form managed to slither inside and attack the mages.

Several fire bolts erupted, and strange Holy energy accompanied it, which killed one of the Shadow Ghouls. But these attacks affected the knights who were holding up the shield. With no commander, the troops acted on their own, and since they weren't experienced in fighting together, the knight's attempt to shield the mages became the trap that gathered all archers and mages inside.

The vampires managed to kill a few knights and barbarians that were maintaining the formation, and eventually, an unshielded area appeared.

One by one, Kyros and Martha snipped the mages. However, the mana shield that one of the mages managed to cast was quickly destroyed as Kyros added Entropy element to his arrows.

After confirming that all mages and archers were dead, Kyros gave the order to finish the job.

"Spare as many of these knights and barbarians as you can!"

Shadow Ghouls and familiars also jumped from one soldier and the next. The purpose of the shadow ghouls and familiars wasn't to kill any of the enemies but was using their constant hops, claws, and tackles to distract most of the enemies.

By the time the enemy knights and barbarians managed to kill most of the ghouls, they had already lost so many men.

The battle steadily tilted to the side of Kyros's team. With two skilled archers attacking and supporting the vampire and golems, none of the main forces even got wounded from the battle. Calaminus was also extremely useful as his splashes struck on a strange place that added to the knights' nervous reactions.

Soon, all the enemies were subdued.

The fifty strong men of the three Viscount patrol consisting of mages, barbarians, knights, and archers had been defeated. Most were dead, but a few were allowed to live.

As for Kyros's team, only three of the ghouls remained at the end of the battle. One of the golems died during combat, and two shadow ghouls were destroyed by the mages that used strange dark-subduing magic.

"We did it... We defeated... a viscount squad! Three viscount teams were defeated!" Hunter couldn't believe what happened.

"Bite the survivors. We need to replenish our ghouls!" Kyros explained as he began to absorb the blood of Esmeralda and Gradier.

---

Level up!

Strength- 60-> 62 (Sealed/Cursed)

Magic- 80-> 36/88 (Sealed/Cursed)

Dexterity- 275-> 283 (Sealed/Cursed)

Vitality- 59-> 60 (Sealed/Cursed)

Intelligence- I'm done comparing myself to you. -> Why haven't you tried curing cancer? ( Sealed)

Soul Force- 33-> 46 (Sealed)

Ancient Source- 119-> 125 (Greatly Sealed)

Fallen Source- 121-> 126 ( Greatly Sealed)

---

"Oh? I leveled up? Is it because I absorbed rather strong soldiers?" Kyros was intrigued.

"Your three Sources are increasing steadily. It seems your seals have really weakened!"

"I should really study magic..." Kyros sighed. He looked at his stats and knew that he would make a jaw-dropping mage even when using a Midland Kingdom standard.

Martha walked down and looked around him.

"Thank you..." She spoke.

"Don't worry about it. You drank my blood, but while your heart is very unwilling, you are now part of my Coven. I hope you can trust me now."

"I have a question... Why am I so..."

"Unchanged? You thought that by becoming a vampire, you'd become a mindless creature?" Kyros laughed.

"You literally control mindless creatures." Martha pointed at the ghouls.

"Oh right. Those are different. I can create two contracts through my bloodline. The first one is what you and these guys have. You submitted to me and willingly entered into a contract. The other is these ghouls. I force my blood on them and take over their body. It kills them in the process, though."

"That is different from the rituals that most vampires use. I've captured several Dhampirs, and I know that they cannot betray their masters through a dark contract. How is that I feel I can shoot an arrow at you and not suffer any backlash."

"I can drain the blood out of you if I want. Do you want me to?" Kyros smiled.

Martha didn't want to test Kyros's patience.

"But how do you do this? You're different from the vampires I dealt with. And now that I am a vampire, I can tell... I'm different. How did you turn me into this?"

"My bloodline." Kyros smiled mysteriously.

"Now... To the matter at hand. Let's start turning these survivors into ghouls. As for the rest of the survivors and even for those fresh corpses, drink up, guys! You might level up as vampires! But hurry. We need to leave this place. That bright magic that the mages cast on the sky would draw the attention of others. Bind that Ragion and carry him. We'll be interrogating him shortly." Kyros ordered.