Point-of-View: Lusk Cotuid

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  "Do you think the fighting has started yet?" Inquired Arts with a bored sigh.

  "How would I know?" I answered with a shrug, as I adjusted my glasses.

  It had been a rather stressful few days, in addition to protecting the civilians, us second-years had also been tasked with making sure the evacuees don't break out into riots or brawls. It was rather crowded, and as a result, tensions were quite high. It wasn't just us second-years in charge though, some of the Academy instructors and low-ranking Adventurers were also here.

  All the civilians were roaming around outside, even though they'd been told to stay indoors as much as possible……however, I could not fault them entirely, I had seen the conditions that the buildings were in after so many people had been crammed into them over the last few days……it was not hygienic, to say the least. After all, the population of two nations had been evacuated into this zone that spanned just about a quarter of the Rustlands total area, so of course it was going to be cramped.

  Of the twelve second years, we took turns in our roles, eight of us would man the front of the evacuation zone in case of the worst case scenario, Vampires showing up, while four would patrol the evacuation zone to make sure there were no problems between the civilians. Well, the eight who would be manning the front were essentially doing nothing, so I suppose it would be more accurate to say that we were taking turns in groups of four to patrol, while the other eight rested, effectively speaking at least.

  Currently, the eight at the front included myself, Arts Stuwen, Prato Cichudde, Necola and Poderl Witniar, Ilian Tinior, Lesca Harkens and Riefe Elrurs. And the four currently on patrol were Ida Rowmaet, Kusu Omack, Zubu Abook and Rygar Tatmer. We were positioned on a rooftop of a tall building, giving us a decent vantage point to see from.

  "Stay sharp, students, be prepared to react for the worst……it's better to be paranoid and have nothing happen than to stay relaxed or complacent and be caught off-guard when and if something does happened," Advised Instructor Falm Burays.

  That was a slightly pessimistic approach, but I understood what she was saying. She was right, if we stayed complacent and unalert, we would be caught off guard and possibly killed if a Vampire shows up.

  "You have a point, instructor, but we can't help feeling bored, we've been at this for days," Sighed Ilian, tweaking his bowstring absent-mindedly.

  "I-I wish I could be bored……but I'm t-too nervous, what if the V-Vampires have already beaten our frontlines?" Mumbled Prato nervously, "O-oh, I'm s-sorry, I know I shouldn't b-be so negative, but I can't help it……"

  "Nah, you're good……and besides, a Trap acting like you are right now is totes moe!" Exclaimed Arts with a grin, slapping Prato on the back playfully.

  Sometimes he seemed to be speaking a different language……

  "Actually, he brings up a good point……what if the Vampires really do win? I doubt we can do much, and considering the way to kill them, I probably won't be much help," Chimed in Riefe, nodding at his slingshot with a sigh.

  His weapon was effective against normal monsters and against other people in duels, but he would have a hard time killing a Vampire with it. And while it certainly was a possibility that the Vampires would emerge victorious, I couldn't imagine……

  "I can't imagine Kuro losing to anything," Remarked the Witniar twins in unison, voicing my thoughts.

  "Oh? I dunno about him, but I sure can't picture Azyl being defeated, he's crazy powerful!" Added Arts with a look of awe.

  "Y-you're right, he was incredibly powerful……," Mumbled Prato, the tension in his expression easing slightly.

  "Indeed, and there are several S-Ranked Adventurers present as well," Pointed out Lesca with an optimistic nod.

  Taking all of that into consideration, perhaps our chances of victory in this battle were greater than we had all initially anticipat……suddenly, I spotted someone running towards this direction……an Adventurer, and he was wounded.

  "Instructor-," I began.

  "Yes, I see him," Replied Instructor Burays, before turning to some of the other Adventurers guarding this area, "Your four, come with me, he may be being pursued. Stay here, students, remain on high alert."

  "Right!"

  She and four of the Adventurers went down to the man who had just arrived. He had several injuries all over his body, and was bleeding quite profusely. In addition to the eight of us students, there were about twenty low-ranked Adventurers, and a few other instructors, including Instructor Liga Dile, Instructor Tear Tones and Instructor Lidui Uensh.

  Ideally, we would have more, but we could not afford to weaken the front-lines too much……the fact that even twenty Adventurers had been spared for the rear defense was mainly to ease the nerves of the civilians……after all, if the Vampires really did show up here after having defeated the front-line, then the battle was as good as lost. Instructor Burays approached the Adventurer as he walked towards the evacuation zone.

  "Are you alright? What of the battle, did something happen?" She asked with a look of concern, walking up to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

  Wait, what was that……I think something was on his back, I could see what looked like a……whip? No……that was a tail!

  "Instructor, get back-!" I began to warn her, when suddenly a hand burst through the Adventurer's chest and pierced through to the instructor's heart, the claws digging in.

  A figure began growing behind the Adventurer, with wings on its back and sharp fangs……a Vampire. Did it have the ability to shrink itself?

  "Wh-why……you p-promised to let me live if I……," Began the Adventurer, before his voice fades as the Vampire sunk his teeth into his neck.

  "Humans are such pitiful creatures," Scoffed the Vampire, pulling back his arm with a sneer.

  Instructor Burays lifelessly fell onto the ground, as did the Adventurer.

  "Why, you damned monster!" Exclaimed one of the other Adventurers who had gone down with the instructor, the four of them charging at the Vampire.

  But before they could strike it, flashes of red shot towards them, blasting onto them. They stumbled back with groans and cries of pain, before more Vampires showed up, pouncing on them before they could recover and draining them. We did not even have any time to react, but before we knew it, fourteen Vampires were here, and five on our side were dead.

  All of us, both students and Adventurers, were paralyzed with fear, unable to react……even Arts and Ilian, who had been complaining about how bored they felt, were now silent and frozen.

  "Students, stand back! Adventurers, with me! They only caught us by surprise, do not overestimate them!" Instructor Liga Dile suddenly commanded, snapping everyone out of it.

  He then sprang down and unleashed the full extent of his Retractable Anima, slamming a punch down at one of the Vampires, who dodged away. His fist slammed onto the ground, severely cracking it. He then raised some of the broken pieces using Earth Levitation and fired them at the Vampires at a rapid pace, piercing through them. Some of the Adventurers took heart from his effort and followed after him……but some ran away in fear……including Instructor Lidui Uensh.

  The crowd behind us was in an uproar, the Adventurers who ran away must have told them what was happening, and panic had started to spread like wildfire. People were bound to get crushed to death if a stampede broke out. Something had to be done……

  "Ilian, contact the four on patrol using the Call spell and tell them to try controlling the crowd. Arts and Riefe, you two go help with that as well. The rest of us will cover for the Adventurers!" I exclaimed, snapping them out of their trances.

  "R-right……right, you got it, man!" Replied Arts affirmatively, before he and Riefe turned around and rushed towards the crowd, as Ilian took out the Call Spell Card and contacted the team on patrol.

  A red flare went up as Instructor Dile sent several earth spikes into one of the Vampire's bodies, killing it. However, the other Adventurers were not doing as well as he was……which was not surprising, considering that they were all C and D-Ranked Adventurers……almost the entirety of our second-year class were stronger than they were.

  I fired compressed shots of water from my fingertips to back up the Adventurers, along with Ilian's lightning-tipped arrows, Prato's flame beams, fireballs from the twins and water spheres from Lesca. But it was no use, all our attacks could do was keep the Vampires from grouping together, we were not inflicting any significant damage……we could not use full power attacks against them, if we did, the Adventurers would get caught in the crossfire. Lesca and Ilian possessed high levels of accuracy, which they both took great pride in, but even they appeared to be holding back somewhat.

  With our paltry support and their own inadequate skills, it was not long before the Vampires overwhelmed them……and killed them all. The only one left alive was Instructor Dile, who had managed to kill three of them, but now that the other Adventurers and Instructor Tones were all dead, he had to fight all the Vampires by himself……unless we joined the fray. But……I was afraid, I did not want to die, and I could not bring myself to command the others to do so……

  "Hey, snap out of it, Lusk! If we don't do something, Instructor Dile will be killed and then the Vampires will turn their attention to the civilians!" Exclaimed Ilian, fear in his eyes but determination as well.

  Yes, he was right……we may well die if we go down there and fight those monsters, but avoiding fighting them was impossible, we would die for certain if we did not fight, along with the civilians.

  "Everyone……let's go and help the instructor, try and fight at least one Vampire, we just need to keep them occupied!" I declared, before forcing myself to jump down off the rooftop we were on, using window ledges as footholds to descend.

  "No, stay back-!" Instructor Dile began, but was interrupted as multiple Vampires attacked him simultaneously.

  I fired a barrage of water shots from my fingers at one of the Vampires while drawing out my eight daggers using my tentacles. The Vampire turned his attention to me and flew up at me before I could land, swinging his claws at me, which I deflected with my daggers before slashing his wrists and the bases of his wings.

  Unable to stay airborne, he plummeted down to the ground and crashed down, I landed on top of him, my feet slamming onto his midsection and knocking the wind out of him. I then swiftly restrained him using my tentacles, immobilizing his arms, legs, wings and tail using seven of my tentacles while digging my daggers into him in each of those spots, while I used my remaining tentacle to wrap around his neck and stab into his chest.

  Meanwhile, the others had followed after me, Necola and Poderl were fighting a Vampire in tandem, as they always did. Lesca, Ilian and Prato were each fighting one……we were keeping five Vampires occupied, but that left six more……we don't have a choice but to hope that Instructor Dile would be able to handle them on his own.

  He was currently on the defensive, using earth walls to block their Blood Magic attacks, but he would not be able to keep this up for long, and winning a fight while on the defense was impossible.

  Prato was fighting a female Vampire with short black hair and a single red horizontal streak, and he was holding his own. He lacks confidence and is self-conscious about his feminine appearance, but he undoubtedly has the most destructive offensive capability in our entire class. His Fire Magic worked differently to most……if he produces flames in the ordinary way, they manifest with a low level of speed, so he only uses it that way when in tandem with Arts, whose wings can enhance and hasten those flames.

  But Prato would not always have him around to do that, and so he adjusted his output……he reduced the output point on his palms to as narrow as he possibly could while channeling Mana into that output point as densely as he could……the result was an incredibly powerful and straight line of heat that could melt through concrete in an instant. However, it also consumed his Mana at an rapid rate, therefore he had to fire it in short, sharp bursts instead of a continuous output.

  The Vampire he was fighting drove his claws towards his chest, Prato attempted to evade but got a deep gash on his left shoulder, letting out a cry of pain. The Vampire then fired a Blood Magic blast at him, he quickly responded by firing a beam of heat in retaliation……

  "S-Solar Ray!" He exclaimed with a slight stutter……Arts had advised him to shout out a name for his attacks, as a psychological way to boost his confidence……naturally, Arts was the one who named his attacks for him.

  His heat canceled out the red blast……and continued on, burning through the Vampire's face and the top of his head.

  "Kill him, quickly!" I yelled, as I tightened the grip of my tentacles on the Vampire I was restraining, while continuing to stab him with the daggers I held at the ends of my tentacles and firing water shots through his back from my fingers……damn it, where is his core!?

  Prato fired several more of his heat beams at the Vampire as his head began to regenerate, incinerating him bit by bit……until he suddenly went up in a red flare, as Prato struck his knee.

  Lesca was fighting a Vampire with oddly shaped forearms, they were wide like shields……must be the unique ability of the Vampires, their Crosses. She was firing rapidly spinning spheres of water at him, but while his defensive forearms were taking some damage, they were regenerating almost just as fast.

  Ilian was not doing too well either, fear was restricting his movements, he was fumbling with his bow, his accuracy clearly suffering. He fired another arrow at the Vampire he was fighting, she evaded it and fired a blast at him in return, breaking his bow and scorching his hands. As she shot towards him, he drew out a couple of daggers and blocked her strikes but he was losing ground quickly.

  The twins were also struggling, they were fighting the Vampire who had killed Instructor Burays, his Cross appeared to be the ability to shrink and return to his original size as he pleased, he evaded their attacks by shrinking down to the size of a toddler, before swiftly returning to his original size and countering their flames and weapon strikes.

  Necola blasted a fireball at him, and as he shrunk to avoid it, she drove the sharp edge of her shield towards his face, but he deflected and injured her arm away with a Blood Magic blast, she stumbled past him as he flew over her with a flap of his wings, before swooping down towards her with his claws extended. Oh, no, she is in no position to evade-! Right before they could pierce through her, Poderl pushed her out of the way, the claws going through his throat instead.

  He then slumped lifelessly, as the Vampire let out a laugh and tore of his head with a flick of his wrists, the decapitated head rolling towards Necola, who stared down at it with a look of horror and disbelief, her dead brother's head lying in a pool of his own blood, inches in front of her.

  "N-no……NOOOO!!!!" She screamed in despair, tears running down her face, before being sent flying and slamming onto a building wall as the Vampire fired a Blood Magic blast at her.

  Blood ran down her head as she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

  "Hah, I do not know or understand what is happening at the north, but if our leaders are not sticking to the plan, then we may as well do as we please!" Declared the Vampire with a deranged laugh, some of the others voicing their agreement.

  What? Was something happening up north?

  "You damned bastard!" Yelled Ilian furiously, charging at the Vampire wildly, turning his back on the one he'd been fighting.

  No, he was blinded by rage……! It was too late to warn him, as the Vampire he turned his back on blasted him with Blood Magic, knocking him to the ground, before picking him up by the back of his neck and sinking her teeth into his shoulder as he shouted and tried to break free……but his cries faded before long, as the Vampire broke his neck and tossed him aside as his body went limp. No, stop it……

  Lesca let out a scream of anger and despair, firing a massive barrage of water spheres wildly. The Vampires evaded her attacks but one of them lost an arm, and shot towards her with a look of fury. He fired a Blood Magic blast to evaporate her water attacks and plunged the end of his tail deep into her back, before flying up and taking her with him as she screamed in agony……did he wrap his tail around her spine?

  He then grabbed the top of her head with the hand he regenerated and lifted her up as they reached a height of about fifty meters. He then swung her down with all his strength, she crashed down onto the ground with a resounding impact, blood bursting out everywhere……I looked in horror as the dust cleared, her body was severely mangled and broken, her head twisted at an unnatural angle and blood pooling all around her……she was dead. Please, stop this……

  "No, this cannot be, my students are- arghh!" Instructor Dile began in shock, a look of despair in his eyes, and just for a moment, he let down his guard……and in that moment, four Vampires rushed at him and pierced him with their claws, tails and fangs, the life leaving his eyes almost instantly, before his body slumped and collapsed onto the ground.

  "Just two children left, huh……I think I shall instead go help myself to the few million humans just past here," Remarked one of them, flying up with a lick of her lips.

  "Do as you please," Laughed the Vampire with the shrinking ability, before turning his gaze to me with a blast charging up in his right hand……I still had not struck the core of the Vampire I was restraining, I had a strong grip on him and had struck him almost everywhere, but now that the other Vampires were free to attack me……I was a sitting duck.

  Prato was off to my right, keeping the Vampires as bay with his heat rays, a terrified look on his face while tears ran down……he was sweating profusely and his movements were starting to get unsteady……he was reaching the limit of his Mana quickly.

  "Damn it, die!" I urged desperately, as I continued firing water shots at and stabbing the Vampire I had restrained……

  "It's no use, human, that one has a rather useful Cross, he can shrink his core down to the size of a grain of sand, the opposite of me, I can shrink my entire body except for my core," Remarked the Vampire who killed Instructor Burays and Poderl, approaching me with a powerful red glow charged up in his right hand, and continuing to grow in power.

  "S-stay back! If y-you attack me, your comrade here may be killed!" I warned him weakly, stumbling back as he walked towards me with an undeterred smirk.

  "That does not matter to me," He chuckled, before firing the Blood Magic charged in his right hand……I sprang back and let go of the Vampire, who took the brunt of the charged up blast and got incinerated into dust.

  But he did not absorb all of the impact, I swiftly wrapped my tentacles in front of myself defensively, let out a stifled hiss of pain as a sharp, burning sensation erupted at the point of impact, scorching off a heavy amount of my tentacles. I stumbled back, unable to think clearly through the pain……I can't let him attack again, I'll die, I need to……I need to kill him! I moved my tentacles away from my front and fired water shots from my finger, but the Vampire shrunk to evade them and fired a couple of Blood Magic blasts at me.

  I was unable to dodge, the blasts striking my torso and legs, I let out a pained gasp as I collapsed onto my knees in a daze. From my peripheral view, I could see that Prato was out of Mana, two Vampires approaching him cautiously as he backed his way into a wall, cornered by them and sheer terror in his expression. And of the eight remaining Vampires, three had flown past us towards the crowd, while five remained here, presumably to ensure that they could finish us off. But……I was too afraid to care, all I could think was that I did not want to die……

  "I should not get too close, it would be unfortunate if I were to get caught in those strange appendages of yours," Stated the Vampire, pointing a large red blast at me from a few meters away with a wary expression.

  I can't move……is this it? I……I-I'm going to die……my seemingly-final thoughts were cut short as a massive crash erupted where the Vampire had been standing, the red glow of his blast dissipating……before the red flames that confirmed his death appeared. What just happened……? The other four Vampires, including the two who had been closing in on Prato, were staring wide-eyed in the direction of the crash.

  The dust cleared, revealing one of the Rustlands' S-Ranked Adventurer, one who relied almost solely on sheer brute strength instead of magic……Vi Loubder.

  "You fucking monsters……I'll crush you all," She snarled furiously, her eyes ablaze with rage……

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