When I was about to finish the ‘vampire’, unexpectedly, it growled at the sky. As it perished into dark fumes, vanquished by the light spear that poked out from the ground and impaled its chest from the back, three other similar blood-red creatures with human features appeared at the back alley’s entrance.
“Calling for backup at the brink of death huh, that’s what I like to see!”
Did you really think this was gonna bring me down? You wish! And thanks for telling me that you’re not the only one of your kind, but there’s a whole group of your people!
I dashed towards the trio as they ran in my direction, leaped on both feet and landed behind them as we were about to make contact, then once again leapt up in mid-air with the help of my momentum.
“The holy light that pierces through impurities - Halo Arrow!”
I did an aerial cartwheel as I uttered the spell, causing multiple light arrows to emerge and unleash from the tip of my sceptre. Failing to dodge my attack, a ‘vampire’ was hit and eliminated by two arrows, whilst its fellows roared at me. As one of them fired spikes -
“Silverlight Overlay!”
A layer of mist-like light unfolded around me, successfully blocking the incoming spikes. The duo attempted to lunge at me right after, but to no avail, as two long thorny whips extended from the mist, grabbed them in the air, and slammed them into the ground. They tried to tear down the whips with their claws, but the light energy radiated brought a burning sensation to them, making their suffering even worse.
It’s time to end this.
Seeing how they were unable to untangle the Halo Thorns, I held my sceptre tight with both hands. A pattern like a round fountain surrounded by a golden floral frame, part of my personal magic circle, soon expanded beneath my feet in mid air. As I gathered my powers, the golden frame and rubies on the sceptre emanated a brighter glow -
“May these lost creatures bathe in the grace of the gentle moonlight!” I knocked the sceptre on the magic circle and raised my voice. “Silvermoon Hymn, Snowlight Mirror!”
A shapeless power spread from the magic circle to its surroundings, while a giant silver plate like the reflection of moonlight in water appeared below the ‘vampires’. They groaned in pain as the pure light vanquished them into black fumes, which dissipated into the night.
Sure they were taken care of, I descended to the back alley, only to find out there was nothing left at the scene. Not even a single drop of blood nor fumes remained.
Judging from this kind of disappearance, as suspected, these ‘vampires’ were not human. They were either ghosts or the deceased, yet they all possessed a human appearance. According to Mr. Chong, ruling out the victims who were killed from having their blood sucked dry by the ‘vampires’, the rest were turned into more of their kind, which I presumed was the identity of the ones I had just defeated.
If they were living humans, their remains would still be preserved by the presence of their soul within, even if they were being severely crushed by magic of the opposing attribute. In other words, those creatures with human features did not have souls anymore. Any such thing was probably gone the moment they became part of the pack, leaving them hollow from then on.
This further proved that other than the victims who had turned, there was a leader behind all these. Otherwise, there should not be any retainers to begin with.
Feeling satisfied with the results we’d collected tonight, I beamed and waved my right arm to put away the Sceptre of Luna. It returned to a gem resting on my necklace.
“Miss Igarashi, it’s all over now. Come out wherever you are!” I yelled in the dark.
The barrier hasn’t been lifted anyways so no one can tell nor complain about what I’m doing, not even if I’m yelling. If we think of it this way, we’ll soon be leaving the area as well. So, it'd be impossible to actually reach us for complaints, right? Plus, no CCTV is installed in this area if I remember correctly.
In less than ten seconds, Kou was already sprinting from a corner about twenty feet away from the back alley.
Was she hiding in such a close spot all along? Did she not fear the danger?
“All set. Let’s head home.” I took a look at my wristwatch.
It’s about to hit 1:00AM? Wow, time really does fly.
“Shall we go for a midnight snack? Let’s treat it as a celebration for your first successful crusade against the ‘vampires’,” Kou suggested with a grin.
Choosing midnight snacks over sleep? Don’t you feel…exhausted or anything?
“Nah, let’s save it for tomorrow. Also it’s easy to gain weight if we eat at this hour.” Without hesitation, I rejected her offer.
“Huh, being health-conscious I see.” Her sarcasm had me speechless, as all I wanted was to hit the hay after consuming a tremendous amount of energy throughout the day and having my first actual battle in a long time. I would not be able to recover from my fatigue if I did not rest up.
As I was about to head in the direction we came, I noticed an item in Kou’s hands.
“Is this a…camera? Why’re you carrying this?”
One of her hobbies was photography, and it did not take me long to recognise her ‘right-hand man’, the Canon single-lens reflex camera, wrapped between her palms.
Why would she need a camera for the battle tonight?
“For taking pictures, of course,” she replied as if it was a matter of fact.
“I know that. But what’re you taking pictures of?”
Like there’s some photo-worthy scenery nearby.
“Of you, obviously!” She said it with a proud look on her face. There was a spark of excitement too.
“What? Me?” On the contrary, her response left me even more puzzled.
“To capture your fighting poses in the battle against those ‘vampires’! I was worried it would take a more advanced camera to get decent shots since it’s quite dim around here, and I didn’t manage to get one in time. To my surprise though, all your moves were so gleaming that they saved me the trouble in the end. Your postures were so graceful - graceful enough for these babies to be part of my top-tier collection!“ She showed me her ‘treasure’ with sparkles and joy in her eyes as she spoke.
Her words sent me into a face fault.
“What’re you even here for!”181Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9DcOVRtOI
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