Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

241 – Dancing Amidst the Sudden Rain of Blood 2 (Part 1)

「If it’s come down to this, guess I have no choice but to freeze you too.」

「I see you have a dangerous hobby of encasing lively adult women in ice.」

That line was like Carmilla’s revenge for Wraith’s snarky comment from earlier.

For a brief moment, I thought I felt an aura of killing intent emanating from the usually expressionless Fran.

「Sorry lady, but I don’t go for older women.」

The killing intent I felt just now seems to have disappeared after Wraith’s comeback.

Carmilla ended the back and forth with a single smile and returned her focus to the battle.

「Haagenti. Rejoice, for I am entrusting you with the duty of protecting me.」

「This is the greatest pleasure I could possibly ask for…!」

「As for you two, crumble their tower.」

「Ma’am…!」「At the cost of my own life, if necessary!」

The Impaling Daughter Haagenti is put in charge of protecting Carmilla while Short Hair and Long Hair go after Melania.

The reason support units such as Josh and I are free to do as we please is largely due to Melania’s durability and height. Her existence covers up the weakness of a regular party where the support units would have been targeted first.

Carmilla knows this too. So she comes up with a strategy to crumble Melania, who she regards as a tower.

Just now, Wraith momentarily used the Magical Energy of the Spirit, but considering all the battles we’ll be facing from the second stage onwards, I’d like him to avoid using it continuously. Even if this is an actual battle, this is still only the first stage.

「Fran! Protect those three!」

「…」

At the words of her childhood friend, Fran silently retreats. She switches course to hold back the two Vampires.

「By the order of big si-…my queen, you won’t leave so much as a scratch on her.」

Haagenti stands in front of Wraith.

「I get what’s got you so riled up.」

The two male Vampires are dashing across the frozen sea of blood.

The fact that the figure of the Evil Eye Assassin Botis has still not been seen adds even more to the list of threats.

Haagenti then proceeds to dig her nails into her back and manipulate the fresh blood that spurts out.

Two long and large whips grow out of her back. With a vast amount of Magical Energy, she is able to ward off the interference caused by the Magical Energy in the rain.

「This rain is useless, you know?」

She’s provoking him. Actually, the Vampires have to expend an extra amount of Magical Energy in order to counteract the rain.

Wraith beamed with a roguish smile.

「We’ll see.」

The Semi-Immortal Short Hair is directly facing off against Fran.

The Blood Manipulator Long Hair is taking a long detour around her in order to stab Melania from behind.

Acknowledging Fran as a large threat, Short Hair, who specializes in regeneration, is facing her, prepared to take damage, probably as a form of tactics.

The remaining three members of the Wraith party are two supports and a Half-Cyclops who isn’t used to direct combat.

I suppose it was decided that a single Vampire from the Demon King Castle was enough to handle all three.

「I don’t have a fetish for being whipped, so I’ll do this.」

Pillars of water rise around Wraith. Wriggling like snakes, he swings them like whips.

「This isn’t enough to…!」

Haagenti barely dodges the whip that came from above.

But Wraith wasn’t only trying to grab her with the whip.

The whips that hit the ground are flicked, splashing water everywhere, making the environment wet.

「…This is-」

The water that splashed onto Haagenti’s right arm and the whip was immediately frozen. It doesn’t end there, if it freezes all the way to the core, its effectiveness is greatly-

「Piss off…!」

The frozen blood peels off the whip as if peeling off scales. Only the portion of the whip that was rendered useless is immediately cut off.

Furthermore, Haagenti created a blade of blood and used it to cut off her right arm without so much as a second thought.

She isn’t a Semi-Immortal, but she can still regrow her arm via regeneration.

「I expected no less from a Vampire.」

「…You cheeky little…」

The corner of Haagenti’s lips raises up defiantly.

「Enough, Haagenti.」

A crimson Hydra appeared.

Of course, to be precise, it’s not literally a Hydra. It is a nine-headed water dragon recreated using an enormous amount of blood.

It’s one of the Imitations that appeared in the Original Dungeon that Milla and I, including Josh, challenged.

「Haha, it’s always something new and interesting whenever I fight any one of you guys from the Demon King Castle.」

「You are the first to have seen this, be honored.」

「Oh, believe me, I am. But I’m not really the one you wanted to show that to, right?」

Carmilla replied by having all nine heads of the dragon attack him.

While the Hero battles against the water dragon, our battle continues.

As expected of the members that were handpicked by Carmilla. Even if they don’t have titles or aliases, they are the best of the best from the third stratum.

The Semi-Immortal Short Hair is keeping Fran at bay, and while that’s happening, the Blood Manipulator Long Hair is aiming for our backs.

「Are you wondering why you can’t blow me away as you did to so many of my brethren during the Raid Battle?」

「…No.」

Fran swung her fist like a scythe mowing grass, but Short Hair dodges it by ducking.

Fran immediately follows up with a kick, which her opponent guards against by crossing his arms in front of him.

Accompanied by the cracking sound of bones breaking, the broken shards break through the skin where blood, or the Magical Energy blood replacement, leaks out.

「During that time, we attacked relentlessly so that you all wouldn’t even have the slightest chance of noticing the blood-sucking leeches that were attached to all of you. There was also the aim to tire everyone out with fierce battle after fierce battle. But now it’s different.」

「I’m not listening.」

At the same time that Short Hair was kicked, he stepped back to reduce the impact. Even still, what power.

However, due to being a Semi-Immortal, even before Fran could close the distance between them once again, he had already fully regenerated.

「You wield fearsome destructive power, but so long as a Semi-Immortal avoids attacks that would otherwise kill me instantly, I can regenerate. As long as I maintain a neutral distance between you to some extent, someone else will hunt down your allies before long.」

「…You talk too much.」

The way to seal a Vampire’s regenerative capabilities is to crush their Magical Energy organ or destroy their brain.

Both sides know this basic fundamental.

Short Hair limits the damage he receives to just barely able to regenerate.

Destroyers are strong. They are strong without learning any martial arts. They are strong without any training. They are just strong. They pulverize the enemy and wrench victory from their dead hands.

As for a way to seal the Destroyer’s power…yes, there is one.

Don’t fight.

Rather than prioritizing his own battle, he chooses to devote himself to buying time, for the sake of the overall victory.

…Amazing.

Vampires are inherently proud creatures. Or perhaps I should say that they have confidence in themselves.

They are similar in appearance to the abundant Normals, but within them is a strength that proves that they are a different living thing.

Right now, however, Short Hair has clearly placed Fran on a higher rank than average and is acting accordingly.

Even if this is under Carmilla’s orders, even when he saw with his own eyes what Fran can do in the Raid Battle, this Demon King Castle Vampire probably has no issue at all with using this method against a little girl who is barely older than ten.

Even still, he does it.

Because he wants to win.

Because if there is any pride that must be protected, it is that one.

「Out of the way.」

「Want me to move? Then go ahead, try to destroy me.」

「…」

Fran knows it too. That Short Hair isn’t some naive enemy that would let her turn around and protect us.

Besides she still has to be on the lookout for Botis’s Evil Eye.