Blood Sacrifice

“You damned vampire, hand over that traitor Elizabeth!”

Nikus's furious voice boomed through the cavernous underground space.

He took two steps forward, pointing his greatsword straight at the man in front of the stone coffin's shadow.

The vampire noble stood his ground without changing his posture, eyeing the sword leveled at him.

Then he spoke, his voice smooth and raspy with a hypnotic cadence.

“Foolish humans. Once all of you are dead, my dear Elizabeth will naturally return to rule this city once more.”

“In your dreams! Today is the day you die!”

Nikus roared and made to charge forward.

“Wait.”

Vera reached out to hold him back.

“Leave this vampire noble to Rosie and me. You handle the rest.”

Nikus opened his mouth to object.

But Vera didn't give him the chance, immediately adding, “Have you forgotten that the four of you couldn't take him down earlier?”

The words caught in Nikus's throat.

They were knights; to unleash their full combat power, they needed to be on horseback.

Fighting a vampire on foot wasn't a matter of lack of strength, but lack of speed—they simply couldn't land a hit.

He gave a sharp nod. “Fine, he's all yours then.”

Vera was a Dawnguard hunter, far better equipped than them to deal with vampires, especially high-ranking ones.

“Knights, with me! Let's wipe out these wretched scum!”

The Norman Knights stepped forward in unison, their plate armor clanking cleanly with the movement.

The moment the vampires appeared, the victims and servants had been moved to the rear, and the knights had already drawn their weapons.

The knights formed a compact battle formation—shield knights in front, greatsword knights at the flanks and rear—and pressed toward the vampires lurking in the shadows.

“Alysia, protect His Reverence and the others.”

Vera unslung her repeating crossbow, drew an all-silver bolt from the quiver at her waist, and loaded it into the groove.

“Rosie, with me.”

She raised her crossbow and started toward the vampire noble.

Alysia nodded, gently putting down the elf on her back before stepping in front of the group.

Though the white-robed cleric wanted to step up and help, casting both the barrier and the purification earlier had severely drained his mental energy.

Rosie really wanted to complain: I'm not a vampire hunter, why drag me into this?

Still, Vera was the professional, so Rosie chose to trust her judgment and followed close behind.

At the same time, she reached back with her left hand, gripping the warped buckler slung over her back.

With her right hand, she drew her one-handed sword, its edge already showing a few subtle nicks.

“Rosie, pin him down!” Vera's voice came from nearby. “Create an opening for me!”

Rosie cursed internally, but still charged at the vampire noble.

Without taking down these vampires, none of them were getting out alive anyway. They had to fight to the end.

Lowering her center of gravity, she kicked off hard against the stone floor.

Beneath the dark red glow, her figure blurred, covering the twenty-meter distance in an instant.

Harnessing the momentum of her charge, her blade flashed like cold lightning, aiming straight for the vampire noble's neck.

Clang! A sharp metallic ringing echoed.

A blood-red rapier met her blade horizontally, firmly parrying the heavy, momentum-fueled slash.

The vampire noble didn't give an inch, though veins bulged along the hand gripping his rapier.

“Impressive strength. But that's all you have.”

Before his words had even fully faded, a fierce low kick whistled through the air, driving straight for his groin.

The vampire noble's face paled slightly as he retreated several paces backward in a movement that almost defied biomechanics.

A soft thud sounded.

A silver bolt, shot from a tricky angle within his blind spot, whistled through the air and lodged straight into his shoulder.

Embedded in the gap between muscle and collarbone, the arrowhead hissed as a thread of grayish-white smoke rose from it, the surrounding flesh charring and curling like skin touched by a red-hot iron.

Rosie withdrew her leg, looking at him calmly with a hint of mock curiosity in her tone. “And here I thought vampires didn't have anything down there.”

The vampire noble's expression instantly darkened to a severe scowl.

Reaching up, he grabbed the shaft and yanked it upward, tearing out the arrowhead along with a small piece of charred flesh before tossing it aside onto the floor.

“You may die now.”

The blood-red rapier in his hand thrust out rapidly in a split second, moving so fast that only several dark red streaks seemed to materialize in the air at once.

Rosie abruptly raised her buckler.

A series of soft thud-thud-thuds echoed in quick succession.

Several smooth-edged holes appeared in the iron-bound surface of her buckler, the draft passing through them brushing against her cheek.

Against that blood-red rapier, the iron-wrapped buckler was hardly sturdier than cardboard.

Rosie didn't bother checking her shield; instead, she flipped her blade and counterattacked instantly.

Combat Skill—Heroic Strike.

The blade flashed bright, transforming into a sharp arc of lightning that swept toward the vampire noble's neck at a speed barely inferior to his own rapid thrusts.

“Hmm?”

The vampire had been about to press his advantage, but the angle and speed of this strike caught him off guard.

Rather than blocking head-on, he withdrew his sword and stepped back half a pace, letting her blade graze the air just in front of his Adam's apple.

Using the opening created by pushing him back, Rosie leapt backward a few steps before looking down to check her shield.

The edges of the holes were smooth and clean; fortunately, her left hand was uninjured.

“Kill!”

Meanwhile, Nikus's roar erupted from the knights' battlefront.

His greatsword swept across in a wide arc, but the vampires dodged effortlessly with their nimble movements.

Several blood spikes shot toward Nikus like arrows.

Metallic clashes echoed as a shield knight stepped up in time, interposing his heavy shield before Nikus.

A vampire suddenly materialized beside the shield knight, thrusting a blood-red rapier toward the gap in his visor.

Right at that moment, another greatsword swept over, forcing the vampire to leap back.

Then, several clouds of blood mist burst open simultaneously across the battlefield, shrouding a large area in thick, dark red fog.

The knights' vision was severely obstructed; their heavy blades cut through nothing but mist, unable to lock onto targets.

The vampires, however, were in their element within the mist. From its depths, blood spikes or rapiers would dart out unexpectedly, retreating immediately after a strike and causing the knights' retaliations to hit empty air.

Fortunately, the knights were clad in full heavy armor and coordinated seamlessly.

Even with constant ambushes, the vampires found it hard to inflict real damage on the armored knights.

On the other side, Rosie and Vera kept the vampire noble tied down.

No longer making reckless attacks, Rosie focused on defense, working in tandem with Vera's sniper bolts to keep the vampire noble from gaining the upper hand.

Battles on both sides seemed locked in a stalemate.

Just as Rosie forced the vampire noble back once more with Heroic Strike, a shot detonated above the knights' battlefield, and a brilliant pillar of white light flared at its center.

Under the radiant white light, the bloody mist dispersed rapidly like paper thrown into a roaring fire.

The vampires hiding inside shrieked in agony, clutching their eyes as thin wisps of white smoke rose from their exposed skin as if scorched.

The knights did not waste this opportunity.

Grasping his weapon with both hands, a greatsword knight brought it down with his full weight, cleaving off a vampire's head.

Simultaneously, a shield knight lunged forward, slamming a vampire to the ground with his heavy shield before driving a blade straight into its heart.

Within a few breaths, the figures that had been locked in combat with the knights moments before began to decay and crumble into ash.

The vampire noble whirled around, his composure shattering for the first time.

“Damned Dawnguard...”

The female hunter had seemed to be engaging him, but her true target had been the other battlefield all along.

“You think this is over?”

Vera's voice drifted over from nearby.

Her repeating crossbow was reloaded, its silver arrowhead leveled squarely at him.

“Nikus, he's the only one left. Capture him and force him to reveal Elizabeth's location.”

“Understood, Lady Vera.” Nikus was in high spirits.

After losing so many men today, they had finally turned the tables.

Raising his greatsword, he marched forward.

The knights fell into step behind him, steadily advancing toward the stone coffin.

The vampire noble stood motionless, his blood-red rapier dangling at his side, dropping all pretense of defense.

He knew all too well that even if he were stronger, victory against so many foes was impossible.

Throwing back his head, he let out a fit of hysterical laughter.

“Hahaha! Foolish mortals! You will never find Elizabeth, for all of you shall die here!”

His voice pitched sharply upward.

“Drag down to hell with me! Hahahahaha...!”

He moved.

Grasping the blade of his blood-red rapier with his left hand, he yanked hard; the sharp edge sliced open his palm and fingers, blood gushing out.

Turning the blade, he drew the edge across his throat in a brutal pull, opening a deep, wide gash across his neck.

Blood spurted forth, raining down on the flagstones ahead in a dense pitter-patter.

“Quick! Stop him!” Vera shouted.

Rosie raised her sword, then froze in hesitation.

The vampire noble's sudden action caught everyone off guard, leaving them stunned in place.

By then, the vampire noble had already grabbed the rim of the stone coffin with his blood-soaked hand, lunging over to press his spurting neck wound tight against its surface.

“By my blood! Awaken!—”

His blood seeped rapidly along the intricate runes etched into the coffin lid.

The moment the blood touched them, the runes blazed to life, spreading along every groove faster than the eye could follow, enveloping the entire stone coffin in a glow of dark red.

The vampire noble's body collapsed like a hollow coat drained of its stuffing, shriveling up at visible speed.

【Hidden Adventure Quest: Blood Sacrifice】

【Quest Reward: ???】

A sharp fracture echoed from the surface of the stone coffin.

A fine, long crack split across what had been a seamless stone surface.