Desolate World

Noah threw the rope at the vampire. However, he missed it. The vampire was too agile to get caught by the rope. The vampire then circled Noah and looked like waiting for the right opportunity to attack Noah.

Noah wasn't discouraged by the failure. After all, the vampire didn't have any chance to run away. The refugees had made a ring around them, preventing him from running. And his leaping skill's cooldown had been over, a few seconds ago. If the vampire dared to show his back, it was tantamount to accepting his death.

And it seemed the vampire didn't have any desire to run, he seemed to believe that with his strength, he could defeat Noah.

Noah then smirked. He got an idea. Looking at the vampire's attempt to wait for him to make a mistake, Noah pretended to stagger. And true. The vampire took the bait.

The vampire rushed to Noah and swung the sharp claws of his gauntlet to Noah's back.

Noah couldn't react immediately. He felt a sharp pain on his back. However, he didn't mind it. He then swung his axe at the vampire. However, the vampire could get away from it.

He jumped back with a contemptuous smirk. He then licked the fresh blood on his gauntlet's claws as if to provoke Noah.

Noah showed a furious expression. He then rushed to the vampire while swinging his axe wildly. The vampire could avoid it by dodging sideways.

He then attacked Noah's unguarded back with his claws. After succeeding, he retreated decisively.

Noah showed his rage. He then attacked wildly continuously. However, the vampire could always dodge them. The vampire even could land a few attacks on Noah's back.

The situation seemed favorable to the vampire. It made the refugees panic. However, Noah stubbornly refused their help.

The vampire showed a belittling sneer. His favorable situation made him more confident. He started to be less afraid of Noah, as he attacked immediately after dodging Noah's last attack.

While receiving the attack, Noah had a thin smile on his mouth. His eyes became sharp and he divisively turned his body and threw his rope to the vampire.

The vampire was caught unguarded. With a panicked expression, he tried to jump back. But his attempt was meaningless. The rope caught his left ankle. His expression was pale instantly. It seemed he had just realized that he was led by the nose all the time. He then looked at Noah with fear.

Noah looked at him with a teasing smile. He then pulled the rope with a sharp jerk.

The vampire tried to resist but his attempt was to no avail. He was pulled to Noah who lifted his axe high. He then tried to defend himself by crossing his gauntlets in front of his head and bent his body to the front to protect his vitals.

Noah ridiculed the vampire's attempt in his heart, 'Yes, struggle with all of your strength. It would be no fun if you give up too soon.'

He then swung the axe downward with all of his strength. The axe hit the gauntlet of the vampire and broke it to pieces.

The vampire's body collided with the rocky floor and bounced upward. He coughed a mouthful of blood. His HP decreased one-third in an instant. It also made him couldn't maintain his defending stance.

With a cold look, Noah lifted his axe once more and then swung it to the opened torso of the vampire who was still in the air.

*Boom*

The vampire's armor was destroyed in an instant. The vampire once again collided hard with the floor and more blood was spitted out his mouth. More than half of his remaining health then disappeared.

Noah then jerked the rope once more. It made the vampire be pulled closer to him. He didn't want to waste his time further with this vampire. He then beheaded the vampire with his axe.

The dark underground cave was quiet in a second. Many of the refugees looked at Noah with an open mouth. Amazement and Awe could be detected in their eyes.

Then Noah's voice pierced the silence, "We've won!!!"

Noah's roar ignited the mood of the refugees. They yelled together with all of their voices, "We won!"

"We succeeded in chasing them away!"

Some of them even cried. How long had they been terrorized by the vampires? Almost every night, they would come to take their friends and loved ones. When they knew later that the kidnapped refugees came back as a vampire servant, it could be imagined how shocked they were. Then they were moving all over the place to escape from the vampires, but to no avail. They always came the next night to kidnap a few refugees.

They had lived that kind of life for months. If not because of Noah's presence that always led the men to resist the vampires' attacks, maybe they had already succumbed to despair.

Noah always tried to find a way to confront the vampire. As they created simple javelins from wood, they somehow could scare the vampire servants. But this method actually didn't pose much threat to vampires, because they could use the jungle environment to avoid the javelins.

The rope was the best invention that could disturb the vampires' ambush. By linking each other in groups by a rope, it gave time for the refugees to fight back.

Now, with the vampires running away from their nest, they hoped their suffering days could end.

Noah then asked the number of casualties. A middle-aged man said with a heavy heart that although no one was dead, 28 people were heavily injured. Without healers' treatment, they would die in a few days.

Noah could only sigh. The men that he brought at the moment were the best fighters among the revugees. Although he always heard the casualties of the refugees every day, he couldn't get used to it. He always felt pain when he knew more people were injured. Because it meant the refugees' survivability would be less. Because, their enemies were not only vampires. Monsters that were lurking inside the thick mist of the jungle also the threats that they couldn't ignore.

With a heavy heart, he approached some refugees that were unconscious to check their conditions. He hoped they could be saved.

***

"Nine servants and a vampire? That damned humans!" Hugo cursed in a low voice. He'd never thought the casualties would be that many. Recalling how hard he had been working on transforming them these months, his heart bled.

The vampires had already been quite far from Noah's group. They were taking a rest. A few of them were injured because of refugees' javelins. However, it was just a minor wound. As for the vampire servants and a vampire that got more severe wounds, they had already fallen into Noah's group. Their fate could have already been guessed.

"So, I say, we must get revenge on them. If we fight seriously, we could annihilate all of the low humans," Freya said with hatred.

***