All around the forest, death was being meted out. The hunters and huntresses of Yvonne's tribe didn't know it, but they were slowly being eliminated one squad at a time.
Vampires didn't use obvious traps like nets, pits or strings. Rather, we made use of the shadows to conceal our presences before dropping down on them from out of nowhere and stabbing them in the back. For the groups of three, they were easily dispatched by the duos and trios of vampires, who cut them down with their blades before any of the poor hunters even realized what was going on.
For the larger groups of five or six, they required more specialized techniques…such as blood magic.
Five hunters and huntresses cautiously trekked through a clearing, simultaneously looking out for dangers as well as clues. As they passed between two ominous-looking trees with withered branches and stepped into a clearing, the vampire lying in wait above cast his spell.
"Ugh?!"
Blood stakes erupted from the ground and impaled all five of them before they even noticed what was happening. They gurgled and grunted, too shocked by what had just happened to even register their deaths. Three were killed outright while two continued to writhe, groaning and desperately trying to free themselves.
The vampire didn't give them a chance. He swung his hand and conjured another blood whip that streaked through the air and sliced off their heads, finishing them off once and for all.
Such incidents of brutality weren't limited to that. Similar massacres were happening across the forest. After completing the elimination of one such unit and using blood magic to hide all traces of their deaths (which was usually not very successful – splatters of blood remained on the grass, the smell of blood itself, and it was impossible to conceal the bodies no matter how much we shredded them), the vampire knights would move on, relying on the bats to feed them information regarding the next closest targets.
After finishing up five hunters and huntresses with his sword, Larson and his team were alerted to the approach of another group by the bats. With no time to hide the bodies, they melted back into the shadows.
Unsurprisingly, the hunters and huntresses from the approaching squad rushed over when they saw their mauled comrades, kneeling down to check if there were any survivors and to see who had killed them.
While they were distracted, Larson and his team dropped down on them and butchered them. First, they obscured the hunters' vision with blood whips and blades. The hunters reacted quickly, their impressive reflexes allowing them to escape – some of them, anyway. Out of the five, two had their heads cut off cleanly and they tumbled over. One of the surviving trio had her arm cut off by a whip, barely able to avoid a fatal blow.
As they rolled to their feet, Larson and his team closed in, their swords flashing down on the beleaguered survivors. Exemplar hunters they might be, but they weren't used to fighting with blades. They didn't last two seconds before they were cut down.
"About fifteen hunters slain by us so far," Larson murmured, keeping count.
The vampire knights weren't the only ones engaging the hunters and huntresses. True to my word, I provided a distraction to shift the hunter tribe's attention away from my subordinates. A good number of the tribe had moved in the direction where my icicle had come from, reasoning that there would be the likeliest place to find me.
Of course, the majority had assumed otherwise, noting that it was improbable that I would stick around in the same place after revealing my position like that. Like every good archer or sniper, I would have swapped locations after firing the shot. Their reasoning was sound – if this was a normal combat situation, I would have done exactly that.
There was no reason for me to make myself a target, after all.
However, in this case, I wanted to gather their attention to me. It was unfortunate, but the hunters and huntresses who split off in different directions, relying instead on their tracking skills to locate me rather than joining the others in a mad dash for what seemed like the most obvious location, turned out to be mistaken.
These scattered groups were essentially picked off one by one, the vampires closing in on them like a noose around a neck.
I had also given them permission to drink the blood of the hunters and huntresses, which they did so when trying to cover up their tracks and shred the bodies. It would power them up and doubly served as a reward for a job well done.
As for me, I had my own job to do.
"You…!"
The hunters and huntresses who made a beeline for my position stopped when they caught sight of me waiting for them, having taken a seat on top of a fallen log. I waved at them casually and greeted them with a smile.
"What took you so long?"
The hunters and huntresses exchanged suspicious glances. Their numbers had been greatly diminished. As I said earlier, they had split up into smaller groups so as not to alert me, and competed against each other in what seemed like a race to reach me first. While they did so, most of their groups were gradually picked off one by one by my vampire knights.
What remained was five groups of mostly five or six, a little under thirty. They showed up one by one, training their arrows on me and watching my movements carefully. Before the first group could fire a single shot, the second squad arrived not long after. A few seconds barely passed before the third showed up, and so on and so forth.
I shook my head in amusement as I regarded them, wondering what they were waiting for. They probably realized something was amiss. Not only that, they were already aware of my abilities, having seen how I had deflected their arrows with my ice spells earlier that day. They were waiting for my snowflake shield to materialize.
No use wasting their arrows then. Unlike my mana, their arrows were limited in supply. They could enhance the power of their arrows with their battle auras, much in the same way Yvonne augmented her combat power. Unfortunately for them, my magical power surpassed their combined battle auras.
They had already witnessed my formidable might earlier. They were being careful.
Not only that, they appeared to have noticed something else.
"Where's our mistress?"
"Where is Lady Yvonne?"
It had occurred to them that if I had been waiting in such a conspicuous area without putting in any effort whatsoever to hide myself, there was no way Yvonne wouldn't have found me. The fact that I was still nonchalantly sitting right in the open, exposed, meant that Yvonne should have discovered me. Speaking of which, it would have been perfectly natural for them to run into Yvonne on their way here.
Yet she was nowhere to be seen. And I was unhurt.
"You fought our lady, didn't you?" The de facto leader of the hunters, a burly man with a spear and bulging muscles stepped forward to point his weapon at me. "Where is she?"
"Who knows?" I smiled mysteriously. He met my gaze and nodded severely.
"I assume you have defeated her. Killed her, even."
"And what will you do if I have?" I asked with a casual shrug. "Are you going to avenge her?"
The hunters exchanged skeptical glances before they burst out laughing. They weren't amused that I claimed to have defeated their leader. No, rather, they found it funny that I thought they would try and avenge her.
"If our former mistress was weak enough to fall at your hands, then she deserves to die," the burly hunter declared with a sneer. "That's even better for us. It means that the position of leadership is now up for grabs!"
"Yeah!" A huntress in a leather skirt agreed with a sly grin. "Whoever defeats or kills you will be worthy of becoming the new leader!"
The thirty or so hunters and huntresses were staring at me in undisguised ambition. Several of them cautiously hung back, as if realizing something was not right. Even though the majority of them had broken off to search other areas of the forest, believing I wasn't stupid enough to remain where I was after firing the icicle at them, there should still be a good number of hunters converging upon this position.
Yet there were only thirty of them. Where were the others?
Not that it mattered. The target was right in front of them and they were taken over by their desire to hunt. Even though hunters were supposed to be patient, they were unable to hold back their ambition and wanted to strike me straightaway.
"We should work together and coordinate our attacks to strike him," the burly hunter began.
"Hey!" the huntress snapped at him. "Who said you are in command here?"
"I say it's every hunter for himself," a lanky hunter sneered.
"But you've seen how strong he is," an archer pointed out, her arrow aimed at me. "He is capable of powerful magic."
"No matter how strong he is, he can't possibly withstand attacks from all of us, especially if we hit him from multiple directions!"
"Enough talking! Let's do it!"
I watched the hunters launch themselves at me. The archers launched their arrows at me, the deadly projectiles converging upon my position. Under cover of the deadly hail of the arrows, the spear and knife-bearing hunters and huntresses raced forward, each of them eager to be the first to reach me and plant his or her blade deep in my body.
I cocked my head to the side before I unleashed my ultimate spell.
"Absolute Zero."
"Ugh?!"
The next instant, the entire clearing was entombed in ice. Azure frost spread out in all directions, instantly engulfing all thirty or so hunters and huntresses. I didn't waste my time summoning my ice dragon because I couldn't afford to give any of them a chance to slip away into the forest and escape. It would be troublesome if they made use of their home terrain to disappear. Unlike the hunters and huntresses, I didn't have tracking skills. Even if I had my bats, it was possible that they could escape the cordon of ultrasound that I had woven over the forest.
I was taking no chances.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I snapped my fingers and watched the frozen forms of the hunters and huntresses shatter into countless fragments.
Even as I eliminated the immediate threats, I could sense movement in the forest. There were overly cautious hunters and huntresses who had wisely chosen to keep their distance and watch from afar instead of recklessly plunging in like the rest. Upon seeing that they were no match for me, they decided to retreat.
Unfortunately, they didn't notice that I already had forces watching them.
"Ugh?!"
One of the hunters fell, clutching his throat. The huntress next to him spun around, only to be beheaded by a red-haired knight wielding a crimson sword.
"None of you will escape," Stella declared coldly as she stabbed the third huntress. She had been vigilantly scouring the surroundings for such groups, making sure to keep an eye on them while I was distracted by the main hunter force. When they began to retreat, she pounced and slaughtered them.
Elsewhere, a couple of vampires did the same, dispatching small squads of hunters and huntresses who tried to flee.
"Going somewhere?" Eleanor asked before impaling a trio with blood stakes from the ground, raising her hand daintily to cover her mouth when she giggled. "Did you really think we can't see you?"
"Thanks," I told them, and continued moving forward, relying on the bats to continue supplying me information. By now, there were very few hunters and huntresses left, but I was determined to ensure that none left the forest alive.
Through our combined efforts, my platoon of thirty-plus vampire knights wiped out the entire hunter tribe, previously numbering over three hundred, in less than six hours. The sun had yet to risen even as the last of them fell.
"That should be all," Larson reported and I nodded. A smile spreading across my face, I tilted my head back to watch the gradually brightening sky.
"The southern provinces have been conquered," I declared.