Guerrilla Warfare (3)
Team C, having received the survivors from Teams A and B, had arrived with them in front of the Prosperity Bridge.
However, crossing the bridge was by no means an easy task. Rat-a-tat-tat—
Bullets were flying toward them from the other side. It was a natural reaction.
From the perspective of those guarding the bridge, the only ones who had tried to cross it until now were vampires.
Moon Ji-hoon and Moon Sang-hoon looked troubled as they turned to the leader of Team C.
"What should we do?"
"The response is too aggressive. They have no intention of listening to what we have to say."
Then Team C's leader, Kim Min-ho, grinned and replied,
"What do you mean, 'what should we do'? We break through, of course." "Huh?"
The twins, Moon Ji-hoon and Moon Sang-hoon, looked bewildered. Sure, they could probably break through if they really wanted to.
Their side was well-armed too.
They had enough rifles, and there were even vassals with special abilities. "But those people aren't vampires. They're just regular humans, right?" They couldn't justify killing them.
"Besides, even with powers, if you get shot—it's over!"
They also couldn't guarantee how many casualties their side would suffer if it came to a clash.
Of course, this was a judgment the Moon brothers made out of ignorance regarding Kim Min-ho's abilities.
"Now that I think about it, this is your first time seeing it, isn't it?" "Huh?"
As the twin brothers stood confused, Kim Min-ho's already muscular body began to bulge even further, his form swelling with reddish energy.
Soon, the texture of his skin changed.
Radiating an aura like solid rock, Kim Min-ho spoke up. "Wait here quietly."
Even his lips had hardened, causing a slight lisp in his speech, but it only made his voice sound even more solid.
And then— Boom! Boom!
Kim Min-ho charged across the bridge like a tank. Ratatatatata—
As expected, a barrage of bullets rained down on him, but he didn't even flinch as he sprinted forward.
Ping! Ping!
The concentrated fire that struck his chest simply ricocheted off with no effect.
As he pushed forward like a bulldozer, screams began to erupt from the other side.
They had never experienced anything like this before—not even against vampires.
"Retreat! Fall back!"
Seeing them panic and start to retreat, Kim Min-ho stomped hard on the ground.
Boom!
A small crater formed in the asphalt as Kim Min-ho's massive body launched forward like a cannonball.
Crash!
He landed in the middle of the defense line with a thunderous impact, standing right before the one who had just ordered the retreat.
"Nice to meet you."
In the heavy silence that followed, his solid voice rang out.
"I'm Kim Min-ho, from the Supply Team 3 of the Sports Complex Group."
Stunned by the sudden turn of events, the battle team leader unintentionally introduced himself as well.
The words from Kim Min-ho's mouth were too familiar to ignore.
"I'm Han Kang-min, Leader of Battle Team 2 from the Jungang-dong Group." "Nice to meet you."
Still trying to process the situation, Han Kang-min heard Kim Min-ho continue.
"We're currently rescuing survivors from the vampire zone. Please open the way."
The Vampire Lord, the True Ancestor ( @). Vlad T,epes.
The ruler of the vampires—he was fundamentally different from the ordinary vampires residing in Ulsan.
Unlike them, who were once human, Vlad was born with noble blood.
"And yet, I..."
Vlad looked down at his trembling hand.
His right hand, once charred into charcoal during the process of breaking through the barrier protecting the World Tree, had regenerated new flesh. Yet, despite having healed completely, a burning pain seemed to flare up again.
The reason was clear.
The energy that had just spread in all directions—
It perfectly matched the energy signature that had once burned his right hand. "...Does this mean I'm feeling fear?"
That shouldn't happen.
As one who inherited the great blood, he had to maintain his dignity. Vlad clenched his hand to forcibly stop the trembling.
"Even so... the ripple of this power..." He couldn't understand it.
"That kind of power is only possible when it's confined to that place." Which meant that the source of that veil must be with the World Tree. And yet—why?
"Why am I feeling that power near here?"
He couldn't identify what it was, but he had clearly felt an explosion of energy with a similar wavelength sweep through the surroundings just moments ago.
"Hm."
In his mind, he knew he needed to head to the source of the energy wave and assess the situation. But when he tried to move, fear of the unknown power gripped his legs and held him in place.
"Park Jaechan, Lee Yeondo, Choi Jeongil are dead."
Whether it was intentional or not, three high-ranking vampires had died almost simultaneously.
But their deaths were strange.
They were high-ranking vampires upon whom Vlad himself had bestowed the Blessing of Blood.
Though their origins had been insignificant, he had chosen ones who could at least handle the blessing, however imperfectly.
They weren't ones who would die easily. And yet—they died.
"And once again, the power of the blessing vanished completely." Just like when Jeong Yeonghun and Ko Inseok had died in Busan.
Normally, when a high-ranking vampire died, the amplified Blessing of Blood—strengthened by the life force they had consumed—should have returned to him.
That was the natural order. But nothing returned.
As if their existence had been completely erased from the world. "I need to find out what happened."
Rather than heading straight to the suspected source of the anomaly, Vlad chose to visit the locations where the high-ranking vampires had disappeared.
He convinced himself it was logical—to avoid confronting the fear rising from the depths of his chest.
"Either way, the night of the full moon is approaching. Whatever happens now can't overturn the tide."
The high-ranking vampires wouldn't have died so easily.
Their battles with the enemy would've been soaked in blood and death, and all of that would ultimately become offerings for the full moon.
The enemies, unknowingly, were merely helping the ritual progress.
"Either way, they'll become sacrifices for the Blood Festival. It doesn't matter."
So for now, finding the cause of the vanished blessing took priority.
With that in mind, he headed to the building closest to him where one of the three vampires had perished.
When he arrived—
He felt a strong sense of wrongness. "Why is it so... clean?"
It was strange.
This was where a high-ranking vampire had died.
He had expected the building to be in ruins from the battle—but it looked perfectly normal, no different than usual. Not even a trace of blood.
"No bloodstains?" His face hardened.
War always brought death, and the earth was meant to be soaked with blood.
Yet here, he could sense neither the stench of blood nor the presence of death.
It was as if the vampires who had gathered here had all simply vanished. "What on earth...?"
He searched the entire building, but didn't find a single corpse.
The vampire legion that had been with Lee Yeondo had all disappeared. "This... This can't be."
And then it happened again. "Hm?"
Another link with a high-ranking vampire was severed. That meant—another death.
"I smell blood."
Without hesitation, he flew toward the source where the scent of blood was intensifying.
And as Vlad focused all his senses on that location, he realized something strange.
"...The smell of blood is fading?"
He couldn't understand what he was feeling—until he saw it with his own eyes.
"...What?"
Humans were hunting vampires.
Arrows of light pierced their hearts, and silver-clad knights drove halberds into their chests.
Tututututu—
Small metal projectiles fired by the humans tore into the vampires' hearts. That much he could understand.
There had always been powerful humans in the world. But then—
Shhhh—
The bodies of the slain vampires began vanishing instantly from the humans' hands.
The blood that had burst from their hearts briefly stained the ground—but even that disappeared along with the corpses, leaving no trace behind.
"This is..."
It wasn't just that the bodies were disappearing.
Vlad, who could sense the flow of energy, saw it clearly.
The humans were greedily devouring everything that made up the dead vampires.
At last, he understood why the Blessing of Blood hadn't returned from the high-ranking vampires.
"...This power is dangerous."
They had to eliminate those humans immediately.
Fortunately, despite the powers they had displayed, the strength they actually possessed was pitifully weak.
"I'll kill them all right here, right now." At that moment—
Swish—
Just as he was about to move, all the humans who had been there vanished without a trace.
"Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped him at the absurdity of the situation. Soon, his laughter grew louder and louder.
"Hahahaha!"
After laughing for a while, his expression slowly turned cold. "It can't be helped."
Regretfully, there were no other options left. Even if it was incomplete—
"There's no choice but to begin right now." "Huff. Huff."
That was close.
Of all times, the enemy started moving just as he was leveling up. 'If I had been even a little slower, it couId've ended badly.'
Despite the pain of leveling up, thanks to Yuhan-gil's voice, both Team A and Team B were able to use the servant summoning skill.
In any case, they had successfully taken down Vampire No. 9. For a first operation, it was a major success.
They had managed to eliminate nearly a thousand regular vampires and four high-ranking vampires.
In fact, regular vampires could be dealt with adequately as long as there was a steady supply of firearms, so reducing the number of high-ranking vampires by four was the real achievement.
'The problem is, now the enemy has clearly become aware of us.'
The biggest reason this guerrilla operation had succeeded was because the enemy hadn't realized their true strength.
Now that their power had been revealed to some extent, the vampires would surely begin preparing accordingly.
'From now on, it'll be nearly impossible to pull off achievements like this without sustaining damage.'
They wouldn't be able to continue using such bold strategies. However—
'Whittling down their forces little by little won't be that hard.'
Just by using Seo Ye-jin's abilities properly, most of the vampires could be wiped out.
Once Yoo Hye-rin's mental strength recovered, the plan was to carry out terrorist attacks using Seo Ye-jin's mice, while using Moon Byung-ho to quickly eliminate the vampires embedded like tumors within the local survivor groups.
'First, we take complete control of the area north of the Taehwa River.'
The goal was to build a force that could stand toe-to-toe with the vampires, not just survivors dancing on the palms of their hands.
'If we keep assassinating high-ranking vampires using Moon Byung-ho's
abilities and piercing arrows, we'll steadily reduce their power.'
The results of the first operation had far exceeded expectations, which was satisfying.
But then—
"J-Jaehyun! We've got a problem!"
Of course, things in life never go according to plan. He turned to Yuhan-gil and asked,
"What's going on†"
"Th-the vampires are going berserk!"
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]
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