Desolate World

Knowing Red, Blue and Torch had started the ambush, Ace also started. And his target was the vampires and vampire servants in the back. 

Four ace cards and a joker card flew towards the middle of the vampire formation simultaneously. They then exploded one by one causing AoE damages to several vampires and vampire servants. 

*Boom**Boom**Boom**Boom**Boom*

"Ahh…," A vampire servant wailed, as his HP was cleared. He didn't have an opportunity to respond at all, before dying. His body then fell down with the refugee that he had brought. Also died.

"Help!!!" A vampire fell down after one of her wings was torn, because of the attacks. Her HP was almost wiped out. 

In this ambush, the vampire servants all died. The rest of the vampires were injured to various degrees. Even the kidnapped refugees that were carried by them suffered heavy casualties. Only Hugo, Freya, and Mila who was brought by Freya were unaffected. It was mostly because they were in the middle of the formation.

"Wicked humans!" Freya roared, after seeing many of her kind were falling down one by one by the sandwich of ambushes by Ace in the back and Geo's pets in the front. 

Her shouted made Hugo, who was stunned to wake up. He looked around him with a painted expression. He then saw two flying skates and a fire crown sealing the entrance of the cave. There was a surprise shown in his expression, as just a moment before, there were no creatures there. 

"I will kill you!" Hugo shouted angrily. He then rushed to Red who was the biggest among them and currently sealing the entrance completely with her huge body. However, his movement then became weird. Instead of flying straight to Red, he was flapping his wings chaotically and finally ramped the ceiling and fell down.

Looking at the falling Hugo, Freya shouted, "Viscount!"

She then rushed to him with a panicked expression. She left the other vampires that were confused about what to do like headless chickens. 

It was the effect of Cloud's skill 'confuse'. Because of attacking Hugo, she canceled her stealth. She was currently at the corner of the cave.

Seeing Freya rush to Hugo, Ace and the rest didn't slow down the intensity of the attacks. One by one of the vampires were falling down. Their HPs were cleared up by the attacks of Ace and Geo's pets. In less than 10 seconds they had killed most of the vampires.

The vampires couldn't do any worthy countermeasure, because of the shock and were overwhelmed by the momentum. 

This was the most ruthless decision that Ace had taken. Despite knowing that many of the unconscious refugees would die because of attacks, He steeled his heart to continue reaping the lives of the vampires who still couldn't assess the situation. He did that because, in his understanding, they were in the process of becoming vampires, based on Nila's story. And he couldn't do anything to help them.

He was surprised that the plan of the surprise attack was so successful. He thought the vampires would give worthy struggles. But, somehow they just passively received the attacks these ten seconds.

And for Ace, Red, Blue, and Torch, 10 seconds was plenty to deal tons of damage to the vampires. Four Aces and a joker that copied Ace card's effect dealt a total of more than 2000 AoE damage to the tail of vampire formation that was the most crowded.

***

A few minutes before.

Cloud and Geo rode Jumpy that was walking with rapid steps. Like Ace, Cloud had consumed stealth potions, so they were invisible. In fact, they didn't have to do that, as Jumpy with his trait could make them invisible using camouflage. However, it meant they had to always ride Jumpy. 

It would be too restrictive for them, so they chose to drink stealth potion.

They had noticed the vampire servant near the entrance, but they chose to ignore him like Ace. A few minutes after entering the cave, Cloud and Geo were informed by Ace by the party channel that he had found Mila and the vampires. He told them their strength and their journey towards the cave entrance which was strange.

After hearing Ace's report, Cloud also felt strange. Then she thought of a possibility, <Yeah, it is strange. I just think of a possibility. Maybe they are running from something or someone.>

<I also think like that. But it is not important, right? As our objective is to save Nila's sister. Now that she is carried by the vampires, our plan isn't plausible anymore. As for confronting them directly, that is too risky, right?> Ace said.

Cloud frowned, She then said in the party channel, <Why do you think it is risky? Remember! We are in the dark and they are in the light. We can ambush them. And you said, most of them are just below level 10, which means their HPs are about 1,000 or so. 

With AoE attacks of yours, Red's, Blue's, and Torch's, we can wipe out the low-level vampire servants in a few seconds. Then focus on dealing with some vampires. Except for the one with level 22, I believe we could kill all of the vampires in a few minutes.

Then, the rest is just the vampire player and the vampire woman.>

Ace didn't answer for a moment. After a few seconds, his voice then was heard, <Okay, we do that. It's very risky. So we need to improve our odds. Here is the plan.>

***

Hugo felt terrible. He had never imagined they would encounter an ambush just right before they would exit the cave. 

The timing of the ambush was also very sinister. After they received the report of the vampire servant that guarded the entrance, of course, they would lower their guard.

After standing up, he still felt his mind was in a mess. He didn't understand how, as he rushed to the big stingray-like creature to attack it, he lost control of his body coordination. He could still operate his wings, but he lost control of them. As a result, he ramped the ceiling at high speed and fell down.

For some reason, he wasn't attacked anymore after fell down. He felt strange about it.

"Are you okay, Viscount?" Freya asked with a worried expression. 

Hugo saw Freya had put the girl that she had carried on the ground and approached him worried.

"I'm o…," He wanted to say that he was okay. But he couldn't finish it, because he saw the spectacle around him.

Around him, several bodies were lying on the ground. Hugo could see there were terrible wounds on them. And as he checked them carefully, their HPs were gone. It meant they had died.

Then a vampire fell down a little far from him. He knew him, it was one of his vampire subordinates. His HP was already empty.

He tried to digest the situation in front of him. But for some reason, he failed to make sense of it. No, he had comprehended what happened, but he refused to accept it.

"It's a lie, right?" With a disbelieving expression, he asked Freya who was beside him.

***