Chapter 40: Outclassed

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Outclassed

Valerius did not draw a weapon. He simply raised his pale right hand and dragged the razor-sharp nails of his left across his own palm.

Thick, unnatural crimson blood welled from the deep laceration, but it did not drip to the concrete floor. Instead, it defied gravity, pooling upward into the freezing air. The vampire flicked his wrist. The floating blood violently expanded, crystallizing in a microsecond into two massive, eight-foot-long scythes composed entirely of hyper-compressed, jagged red crystal.

"Let’s see how far that little resonance of yours goes," Valerius murmured, his glowing eyes entirely devoid of mercy.

He vanished.

There was no blur, no displacement of air. One millisecond he was standing in the ruined doorway, and the next, he was directly in front of them, bringing both blood-scythes down in a cross-cleave designed to sever them both at the waist.

The sheer speed of an A-Rank High Vampire broke the sound barrier inside the generator room. The sonic boom shattered the dormant mana-batteries lining the walls, plunging the room into darkness, lit only by the golden-blue pillar of Donald and Evelyn’s combined aura and the sickening red glow of the scythes.

"Brace!" Donald roared, gripping Evelyn’s left hand so tightly their bones ground together.

Donald threw himself in front of her, channeling every drop of his multiplied mana into his borrowed skill. His [Aura of the Vanguard]—usually a faint, defensive blue shimmer—detonated into a blinding, solid dome of gold and sapphire energy.

The blood-scythes slammed into the shield.

The kinetic feedback was catastrophic. The concrete floor beneath Donald’s boots instantly pulverized into a crater two feet deep. The shockwave blew the heavy canvas cot into splinters and sent a hurricane of dust swirling through the freezing room. Donald’s arms screamed in agony, the bones in his forearms fracturing under the god-like pressure of the High Vampire’s physical strength.

"Sturdy little fledgling," Valerius noted dryly, hovering inches above the floor, pressing the scythes deeper into the cracking golden-blue dome. "But sturdy won’t save you."

With a flick of his wrists, the blood-scythes liquefied, instantly phasing straight through Donald’s aura shield like water through a net. Once inside the barrier, they re-crystallized, aiming directly for Evelyn’s throat.

They were hopelessly outclassed. The B-Rank blood magic they had fought in the warehouse was a child’s parlor trick compared to the absolute, suffocating mastery of the High Vampire.

But Valerius had miscalculated one thing. He assumed Donald was protecting Evelyn because she was vulnerable.

He didn’t realize Donald was just buying her a fraction of a second to load her kinetic spring.

As the scythes crystallized inside the shield, Evelyn didn’t retreat. Bathed entirely in the brilliant, raging light of their shared mana, her bare skin glowing like a forged celestial weapon, she stepped into the strike. She twisted her torso with impossible, multiplied agility, letting the razor-sharp blood-blades graze her shoulders, slicing shallow, bleeding cuts into her skin.

She used Donald’s anchored body as a pivot point. Still holding his left hand, she swung her entire weight around him in a flawless, centrifugal orbit, perfectly utilizing the 300% Agility multiplier flooding her core.

She became a blur of blue light.

"[Crescent Slash]!"

Her strike wasn’t aimed at the vampire’s head or heart. It was a crippling, localized blow aimed at the wrists controlling the blood magic. The Bloodhound’s Fang shrieked through the air, the spatial pressure so dense it left a vacuum trail in its wake.

Valerius’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch. He dropped the scythes, snapping his hands back, but Evelyn’s blade was too fast. The cursed steel sheared through the impeccable sleeves of his suit, slicing deep into the pale flesh of his forearms.

Black, boiling blood sprayed across the floor.

Valerius hissed, a sound like tearing metal, and violently kicked backward, soaring across the room and landing softly on top of a ruined generator.

The generator room fell silent again, save for the crackling of the destroyed batteries.

Donald stood at the edge of the crater, his chest heaving, his forearms bruising a deep, ugly purple. He refused to let go of Evelyn’s hand. The [Dual-Cultivation Synergy] was the only thing keeping them from being instantly vaporized. As long as they maintained physical contact, their mana cores cycled in a perfect, infinite loop, continuously repairing their micro-tears and flushing their muscles with fresh stamina.

Evelyn stood flush against Donald’s right side. She was breathing heavily, her body slick with sweat and the blood trickling from her grazed shoulders. Her Vanguard aura flared brilliantly, acting as a sheer, protective second skin of pure energy.

"He got through the shield," Donald gritted his teeth, his [Valuation Eye] frantically analyzing the vampire’s shifting mana signature.

"Then don’t build a shield. Build a wall," Evelyn commanded, her grip on his hand tightening. Her blue eyes were locked onto the A-Rank, burning with the absolute thrill of the hunt. "Don’t know what you did to our cores, but I can feel your mana. It’s an ocean. Put it all into your aura. You be the anvil. I’ll be the hammer."

Donald didn’t hesitate. He surrendered complete control of his offensive capabilities, pouring every ounce of his Investor mana—multiplied by three hundred percent—directly into his defensive skills.

[Condition Met: Absolute Trust Established.]

[Skill Evolution Initiated via Synergy Effect...]

[Aura of the Vanguard (C-Rank) temporarily evolves to -> Shield of the Colossus (A-Rank Temporary)]

A towering, three-dimensional phalanx of solid, golden-blue light erupted from Donald’s body, locking into the concrete floor, the walls, and the ceiling. He was no longer just shielding them; he had turned himself into an impenetrable fortress.

Valerius looked down at the deep, black wounds on his forearms. They weren’t regenerating. The spatial damage of Evelyn’s blade, combined with the sheer, blinding holy heat of Donald’s synergy mana, had cauterized the flesh.

For the first time since he entered the room, the vampire’s arrogant boredom cracked, replaced by a terrifying, feral rage.

"Insolent cattle," Valerius snarled, his fangs dropping from his gums.

The vampire raised his arms, and the blood pooling on the floor from his wounds and the dead assassins erupted. Not two scythes this time. Dozens. A swirling, chaotic hurricane of crystallized red blades filled the entire upper half of the generator room, spinning with the force of an industrial meat grinder.

"Die."

The vampire thrust his hands forward, sending the apocalyptic storm of blood-scythes directly at them.

"Hold the line, Donald!" Evelyn screamed, her Vanguard aura flashing wildly.

Donald dug his boots into the shattered concrete, raised his free hand, and leaned his entire soul into the [Shield of the Colossus]. "Bring it, leech!"

The hurricane of blades hit the golden wall.

The sound was deafening, a localized earthquake of shattering crystal and groaning magic. The scythes hit with the force of heavy artillery shells, exploding into red mist upon impact, only to reform and strike again. Donald’s vision swam with blood. The pressure on his mind was agonizing, but the wall held. He felt Evelyn’s presence right beside him, her pulse beating in time with his own, her unyielding kinetic energy grounding him to the floor.

He took the lethal, overwhelming punishment of an A-Rank so she wouldn’t have to.

And as the endless barrage of blood-blades shattered against Donald’s golden fortress, Evelyn found the rhythm. She saw the microscopic gaps in the storm.

Still holding his hand, she darted forward, pulling Donald with her. They moved in terrifying, beautiful synchronization. Donald stepped into the barrage, his shield absorbing a direct, point-blank volley of scythes, deliberately blinding the vampire’s line of sight with the resulting explosion of red crystal.

From the center of that explosion, Evelyn launched herself.

Using Donald’s heavily armored shoulder as a springboard, she vaulted into the air, perfectly dodging three incoming blades by millimeters. She soared above the blood storm, her bare body wrapped in a comet-tail of blue light, and descended directly upon the vampire.

Valerius looked up, his glowing eyes widening as the ultimate sword fell toward him, perfectly positioned by the impenetrable shield.