Ace Party (4)
Sensing that the situation was taking a dangerous turn, Kim Dajeong activated her skill.
"Blessing!"
Light burst from the bodies of Ha Donggeon and Oh Eonju as they charged at the high-ranking vampire from both sides.
At the same time—
"Rise!"
Kang Deoksu, timing it perfectly, summoned the Knights of Steel.
The knights, only their upper bodies emerging beneath the vampire's feet, thrust their halberds upward.
Thunk!
Even with spears suddenly impaled into both of its sides, the high-ranking vampire didn't lose its composure.
Right after—
Ratatatatat!
A sudden burst of gunfire rang out from behind the vampire.
Caught off guard, the high-ranking vampire slowly turned its head after being peppered with bullets to the back of its head.
The bullets were being pushed out of the vampire's skull in real-time.
Frowning, the vampire stared into the empty space behind it—no sign of the presence it had sensed just moments ago.
Perplexed, it stomped lightly.
As the halberds embedded in its sides shattered, the vampire shot forward.
"Ghhk!"
"!!"
Ha Donggeon and Oh Eonju were swinging their claws and spear toward it at nearly the same time.
They were both charging at full speed and couldn't stop.
In an instant, the two were about to collide with each other, while the high-ranking vampire redirected its momentum toward the rest of the party.
The two exchanged a brief glance. Oh Eonju quickly veered to the left.
Immediately, Ha Donggeon twisted in the opposite direction, pulling his spear back with full force.
Whoosh!
Dark flames danced along the spear's blade as he launched it toward the vampire.
A tendril of blood snaked from the vampire's back to intercept the spear,
Crash!
But it couldn't block the spear infused with dark energy, and was instantly shredded.
"Huh?"
Sensing something was wrong, the vampire turned its head.
Flash!
A light arrow shot by Kim Gayoung struck the vampire head-on.
Fwoosh!
Shards of light burst apart in front of it, engulfing its body—and at the same moment, the black-flamed spear closed in.
The vampire clicked its tongue and swung its hand,
Boom!
The spear was knocked away.
However, the vampire's hand—unscathed until now—was now engulfed in black flames.
Frowning, the vampire muttered to itself,
"What is this now…"
It ignored the wounds from the light shards and stared at the black flame burning its hand.
The shallow injuries from the light shards quickly filled with blood and vanished without a trace. Its regenerative power rivaled that of the beast-transformed Oh Eonju.
As the vampire slowed, focusing on the black flames on its hand—
"Grrrah!"
A berserked Oh Eonju slashed her claws at its heart.
Slash!
But tendrils of blood shot from its body, wrapping around Oh Eonju's arm and using her own strength to hurl her away.
Crash!
She slammed into the wall of a nearby apartment, smashing through it.
Flash!
Another light arrow flew at the vampire.
Unfazed from last time, it began to ignore it and press forward.
But—
Wooooom…
This one felt different than before, when it exploded like a shotgun and scattered light fragments.
Sensing something ominous, the vampire reached to grab the arrow—
But—
Shunk!
"!?"
The arrow, imbued with a Piercing skill, shattered the vampire's hand and went straight for its heart.
Thud!
Thanks to a last-minute twist of its body, the arrow narrowly missed the vampire's heart and grazed just beside it.
"Huff… huff…"
For the first time, the high-ranking vampire's face twisted like that of a demon, sensing a crisis.
"I was originally going to kill the supporter first, you know? That's the standard tactic."
His eyes, gleaming with madness, locked onto Kim Ga-young.
"If you'd just stayed still, you could've lived a little longer, you idiot—"
His words didn't get to finish.
No one cared about the vampire's mutterings, and there was no reason to let him finish.
BOOM!
The vampire, dodging a spear shrouded in black energy, flung his body to the side and let out a screech, his bloodshot eyes glowing red.
"Aaaargh! You damn pests!"
With a shrill scream, the vampire's thighs and calves swelled grotesquely.
And then—
BOOM!
The concrete floor exploded as the vampire launched himself like a missile toward Kim Ga-young.
Swishhhh!
To make matters worse, blood tendrils shot from both of his hands, aiming straight at Kim Ga-young.
However—
Whoosh!
Just before the attack landed, Kim Ga-young vanished like a lie. Moon Byung-ho had teleported with her just in time.
CRASH!
The blood-formed tentacles only stabbed uselessly into the ground.
Hissssss—
At the same time, a cloud of purple poison gas spewed out right in front of the high-ranking vampire's face.
"Guh!"
It hit him at the perfect moment—just as he inhaled.
BOOM!
The vampire barely escaped the cloud of purple gas by stomping hard on the ground, gasping for air.
"Cough! Hack!"
His body trembled violently as he stood up, having inhaled Yoo Hye-rin's toxic gas.
The veins from his neck to his face bulged prominently, and blood tears leaked from his eyes, where the capillaries had burst.
As he slowly looked around, the high-ranking vampire saw Ha Dong-gun and Oh Eun-joo, who had silently approached him.
The ones he had been targeting—Kim Da-jung and Kim Ga-young—were now far away, surrounded tightly by steel-armored knights.
"Heh."
The vampire let out a short laugh and opened his mouth.
"Amazing. Are you all really human? What are you?"
Ha Dong-gun casually humored the high-ranking vampire who suddenly struck up a conversation.
"Funny, I was going to ask you the same. What are you? Who's leading the vampires, and where is he? If you want to live, talk."
"How pathetic I must seem. Being threatened by prey. You want to know where we came from?"
The vampire laughed inwardly.
'Fools.'
His only goal was to buy time.
That was it.
"We are the new humanity, blessed with power by Him. I don't fully understand who He is either. But I do know where He is."
As he smiled cryptically, Ha Dong-gun smiled right back and asked,
"Where would that be?"
"Before that, I'd like an answer to my question. I had some adorable little vampires around here. What happened to them?"
"They're all dead."
"…Oh?"
The high-ranking vampire's lips trembled slightly as he asked,
"Funny… I don't smell any blood. Do you drink it too? Those were my carefully raised prey, you know."
In that moment, the vampire smiled inwardly like a victor.
Because the preparations were nearly complete.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart pounded violently, circulating blood rapidly throughout his body.
The rushing blood slowly inflated his body.
As the overflowing blood was pumped through him, his muscles swelled and strengthened. Energy filled every fiber of his being, ready to explode at any moment.
Just then, Ha Dong-gun spoke with meaning.
"So stalling was your goal."
The vampire flinched but soon smiled.
"Realizing it now won't change a thing!"
Just as he was about to unleash his explosive strength, the man before him said something odd.
"Did you really think I was humoring your pointless talk for no reason?"
"What?"
At that moment—
Ziiiiing—
Something strange appeared right in front of the vampire's nose.
A 20kg plate, like the kind you see often at the gym.
"?"
The moment it recognized it—
Crack!
The plate, fired at tremendous speed, wiped out the high-ranking vampire's head.
Right after launching the iron mass—accelerated using gravity—toward the vampire's face, I used the Ring of Communication to give orders to Ha Dong-geon's party.
[As I said before, the core of vampires is their heart! Destroy the heart!]
Even with its head blown off, the creature wasn't dead.
The proof? It hadn't collapsed, and the system message announcing a successful hunt hadn't appeared either.
Fwoosh!
Black flames flared up from Ha Dong-geon's spear, and the moment they tore into the creature's heart—
[You have hunted a High-Ranking Vampire (Lv. 49).]
[You have gained an enormous amount of experience points.]
[36,124,284,637 won has been deposited into the wallet of the Absolute at Home.]
A massive haul of experience and earnings came in.
Thanks to the Crown of the Absolute, both the XP and payment were multiplied several times over.
Because of that—
[Skill level has increased.]
[Skill level has increased.]
I got to experience back-to-back level-ups for the first time in a while.
["Declaration of the Absolute at Home" has reached level 25.]
[You have gained 3 skill points.]
Along with these pleasant notifications—
"Guh!"
It hit me.
My field of vision expanded around me, and it felt like everything within the domain was shrinking. The rapidly heightened senses filled the entire area, and then the true expansion began.
"!!!!"
At this point, I was fairly used to enduring the pain without being able to do anything.
Crack!
I finally understood why I could never get fully used to the pain.
It was because the higher my level got, the stronger the pain became.
Was it because I'd jumped up two levels at once, despite already being at a high level? The pain lasted a long time, and a metallic, bloody taste filled my mouth.
Apparently, I'd clenched my jaw too tightly without realizing it, and my gums were being shredded.
The only saving grace was that thanks to the Primordial Vitality, Owenju's ability, my injuries were healing in real-time.
I couldn't even really feel the pain in my gums.
Because the pain from the domain expansion was so overwhelming, the lesser pain didn't even register.
When the seemingly endless suffering finally stopped, my body relaxed, and a wave of exhaustion hit me.
"Jaehyun-nim…"
When I opened my eyes, there was Seo Yejin, looking down at me with tears welling up.
When our eyes met, she wiped away her tears and asked:
"Did your domain expand again?"
"…How did you know?"
"Because every time your domain expands, you end up like this."
I remembered then—Seo Yejin had been by my side for quite a few of my level-ups.
[An entity that satisfies the conditions for citizenship has been found.]
[Would you like to grant citizenship?]
I could now see the newly expanded domain and the people within it.
"I'd love to just accept them all…"
But there might be vampires hidden among them, so I had to check each one carefully.
Seeing thousands of pictures filling the visible area made it feel daunting.
Still, after painstakingly checking one by one and confirming they were all normal, I granted citizenship.
Among the new additions, there were actually three with awakened abilities, but I didn't have the energy to check the details of their powers.
[Everyone, good work. You can return now.]
After relaying the message to Ha Dong-geon's party, I turned to Seo Yejin.
"Yejin-ssi."
"Yes, Jaehyun-nim?"
"I'm going to sleep a bit. I'm just so tired."
I saw her nod.
My eyelids were heavy.
I let the drowsiness take over and fell into a deep sleep.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]