Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

146 – The Third Stratum – The Realm of Vampires and Underlings Part 2

If I’m not mistaken, the secret lies in the black glove on her right hand.

This is also a Magic Tool. Its ability is to absorb and release impacts.

However, she should only be able to absorb the damage she was supposed to inflict.

She cannot absorb the impact that comes back to her fist.

So, it is not as convenient an ability as the impression given by the written word.

Every day, it steadily absorbs impacts that don’t break her hand, then she releases the stored energy in Clears.

In a way, it might be similar to my horn. I store Magical Energy and then use it in battle.

It stores the punch impact.

Breaking a big tree should have consumed a considerable amount, but Amelia doesn’t seem to care.

Herv is the one that brings out Amelia’s true nature in a big way.

Just as Haagenti thought her spine was about to snap, she turned into mist to escape.

They can use abilities that don’t manifest with their Jobs.

However, it seems that she can’t use it to travel large distances, in fact, she materializes right beside Herv.

「Ooh, that’s handy.」

「Descendant of the Dragon-Slayer…」

Haagenti says that almost as if she was spitting it out and Herv merely shrugged her shoulders.

Among her numerous nicknames, Descendant of the Dragon-Slayer was given to her not because of her achievements, but because of her abilities.

Practically everyone knows that she’s a descendant of a Demon King slayer, but fewer and fewer people know specifically which Demon King.

It seems that that Demon King was a Dragon and Majin half-breed.

It’s said that Herv’s ancestor was splattered with the blood of the subjugated Demon King and attained an ability close to immortality.

it’s a common legend, but one look at Herv’s body will tell you that it is no lie.

Her endurance is also legendary, but it is her natural healing power that has reached the levels of regeneration.

Loss blood won’t return to her body but any wounds she has will have already closed up.

「What? Gonna cry foul? Or you gonna say that regeneration should belong to Vampires alone?」

「Not at all, I was just thinking how difficult it might be to suck you.」

「I love you go-getter types.」

Haagenti took a deep breath and exhaled quietly.

In that time, blood coiled around her right arm, and several cone-shaped spears were deployed around her.

「I shall pierce, and then strike you.」

「Bring it on.」

The battle between those two isn’t over yet.

「sigh… Fast, strong, beautiful… Vampires sure are hard to deal with…」

Grumbled the Roaring Gunner Emeline, moving around with her colossal cannon with ease.

The figure of a Vampire was chasing her.

「Attacking while taking advantage of the night and fog… Isn’t it too much?」

Emeline counterattacked without turning around.

She put the giant cannon on her shoulder with the muzzle aimed behind her and she pulled the trigger.

A thunderous roar.

The male Vampire was blown apart from the waist up and couldn’t regenerate, so he was defeated.

The Magical Energy bullet still continued on and disappeared into the depths of the forest.

「What a powerful cannon you have.」

The voice came from a different Vampire, female this time.

「Yeah, great, thanks.」

Before she realized it, Emeline was surrounded.

「However, you only have one cannon. And it cannot fire in all directions at once.」

「Good guess, Captain Obvious.」

「…」

They all jumped towards her at once, but most of them couldn’t lay a finger on her.

「Hup.」

With a mechanical sound, a…handle sprang out from the middle section of the cannon.

To put it simply, in an instant, the giant cannon became…a giant hammer.

Emeline grabbed the handle and spun the hammer around her.

The Vampires were smacked away.

「Oh, some of you dodged it.」

A minimum amount of information about the Adventurers had been shared with the Monsters of the Demon King Army.

How they handle such information in practice is a different matter, but there are those who put it to good use.

A few of them turned into mist to avoid her attack and were closing in on her.

「Boom, hammer time.」

Still in it’s hammer state, she pulls the trigger.

The Magical Energy bullet that was fired blew apart two Vampire’s while the recoil propelled the giant hammer to attack the last Vampire and blast it away.

After that, she spun around from the recoil until she stopped and put the hammer down, tired. Emeline was the only one left standing.

On her cheek was one long wound made by a nail.

As you can see from the fact that she didn’t move an inch during the first bombardment, as a Gunner, she is also skilled at negating the recoil.

But every once in a while, she would let the recoil wash over her.

「Hoo, that was a workout. Job well done.」

Satisfied, she nodded to herself.

「…J-just kidding. I wanna get crazy~!」

Probably feeling the gaze of the Thousand Form Summoner Margret on her, Emeline’s back straightened up.

Speaking of Margret…

Her outfit has changed since the start of the battle.

Now she’s wearing…something like a nun’s habit.

A fairly rare Magic Tool that can resist Black Magic and has an effect that repels sudden attacks.

Another thing is the golden cross she has.

「Preferring to sip the blood of beautiful women is unforgivable.」

This is also a Magic Tool and is said to be able to exorcise demons.

In actuality, it is a terrifying item that disrupts the flow of Magical Energy, hindering the Vampires’ ability to manipulate blood, shapeshift, and regenerate.

She seemed to have a talent for business, and although she initially borrowed the help of her family’s company, she soon became successful enough to pay them back with interest.

With all the money she attained, what she did next was start collecting Magic Tools.

Apart from Herv’s cursed sword, all the Magic Tools in the Hervor party were acquired by Margret

Even financial power can be used as a weapon. As long as it’s interesting to the audience, anything goes.

Another special thing about her is her abilities as a Summoner.

Originally, similar to my ring, a Summoner forms contracts with people and excels at the art of summoning them.

But somehow, she is able to also make contracts with inanimate objects.

In every Clear, she summons what she needs in that instant in her hands.

Incidentally, since she wears her clothes in layers, she will be naked once.

Of course, in Clear videos, it’s done well in a way that her important bits are just barely hidden, but people in the Dungeon side can see them. The video editors as well.

It’s rather imposing how she doesn’t seem to care about that.

I’d like to mention that I couldn’t see anything, the fog hid everything from view. Yup.

「Now then, I’m counting on you, Nick.」

Nick is the name of the bear Demi-Beast that she made a contract with.

That’s right, living things can be summoned by other living things.

Nick, who is normally the master of the forest, stands on his hind legs and swings his claws downwards at the Vampires.

Because of the cross’s ability, the Vampires’ abilities were weakened and they were defeated.

So far, it sounds like the Adventurers are getting overwhelmed and despite none of them actually being defeated yet, the Adventurer side has certainly received some damage.

Herv and Amelia continue to fight while ignoring their injuries, and even Emeline and Margret, who dealt with the Vampires well, have been having their blood sucked by the bat Demi-Beasts that they didn’t take care of.

The ones that you can truly say are unharmed are all the Heroes aside from Herv, the Samurai Masamune, and the Faceless Archer Suuri.

Although Vampires are getting defeated at an alarming rate, they are succeeding in whittling the Adventurers down.

「Ahaha, unlike the Monsters that burst apart with just a little nudge, you Demon King Castle Vampires can take a beating! Now, this is fun!」

…At least, I think it’s working.

Besides, the preparations are already complete, and the plan is still underway.

The Adventurers still don’t know the threat of the reborn third stratum –  the Realm of Vampires and Underlings.