"Hmm… this is… interesting. Though it might come out troublesome."
As the morning sun blessed this ashen land with her ray, Dov leaned himself sitting to a black tree with purple leaves falling around him. Thick mist shrouded the surrounding, yet even as the air got blurry, he can still clearly read the documents in his hands through his mask.
"Is there a problem?"
Since the two usually hunt at night, Celene set out some blankets for them to camp and sleep through the day, till the sky gets dark enough for their liking.
"I thought the vampires were creating an army to help the Pretender's cause to eradicate humankind…"
"End?"
"Turns out I was wrong. We might get ourselves caught up in the middle of a crossfire."
*
When the moon was shining high and Lustmist got as dark and foggy as always, the two finally arrived near what was supposed to be the location of the entrance to the Shrine of Consciousness.
But what they witness in front of them, wasn't something that belong to the dark elves or the demonkind.
"Bless All-father… they are this close!?"
A tall keep stood before them, fully forged out of hardened stone, and red mists were fuming around it. It felt very noble yet also crawling with nightmares. The sight of bats could also be seen flying all over it.
"Or did they… build it recently for invasion purposes?"
And then…
"Dov, the sky is changing color!"
The moon turned blood red. Now the night sky felt a lot more threatening as its black went slowly fading away from the raging reflection of the crimson light.
"By the Stars— no time to lose! We need to support the elves!"
Dov suddenly started running, fuming with haste, so fast that Celene almost fell from her inability to keep up.
"Huh!? I thought they're our enemy!?" Her face froze when she heard him.
"Questions later!"
When the two were busy running like there was no tomorrow, Dov saw 7 circles of magic being painted before the top of the keep.
They're bright red, gleaming like they're about to explode. And when he looked in the direction of where those circles were aiming, he saw a line of walls, not so tall not so short, built out of ebony bricks, plated with deep purple-shaded metals called ardorum.
Men and women were standing on top of it. Knife-eared. Brown skin. Purple eyes. Grey hair. Slightly taller than Dov. They stared dreadfully at the sky with their bows turned limp from the hopelessness that strangled them. Those poor folks are the dark elves.
*Rumble!*
In a matter of seconds, a black dot spawned on each circle, growing at an alarming rate till it cover each of them whole. They went shaped like a decorated portal, and crimson meteors started falling out of them, raining the wall with their eminence.
Though sadly for the vampires, Dov was in the vicinity. And for whatever reason, he chose to side with the dark elves…
"[Personal Skill]"
"[3rd Act]"
"Curtain of Corvus."
The Hunter raised his right hand to the air. Time felt like stopping as soon as he began casting. Then as everything went laggard compared to Dov's magic, 7 purple fireflies slowly flew far to the top of those poor elves.
And as time felt like its back ticking, in a blink of an eye, they expanded and transformed themselves into purple energy shields coated with shades of the element of darkness, the element of demonkind and so the dark elves.
*!!!*
Crashed to them, every single one of those crimson meteors. Completely blocked and perished into thin air as they splattered like raindrops. The dark elves didn't know where that shields came from. But they sure finally found what they currently needed the most.
Hope.
"Celene! Ram the keep's door!" Dov shouted as he ran approaching closer to the dark elves on the wall to get a better positioning if he ever need to protect them again.
"Eh!? Alright!"
Holding herself to question anything, Celene turned her body and aim her sight at the door which pointed straight at the gate of the dark elves' wall. She leaned her shoulder to the front, making a stance directed at the wooden target placed on that large stone-made building.
"[Personal Skill]"
"[1st Act]"
The ashen ground of this land quickly turned bright, as a bluish light bloomed from Celene's body. Electric current crept profusely around her, smiting the air where she stood. And then… she finally broke her stance.
"Lightning Charge!"
Faster than the eyes could blink, she blasted herself like a thunderstrike. The earth shattered as she stepped on them, scattered all over her trace. Then she met the door she targeted, and it perished the moment she crashed them into nothingness.
"Good evening!" She said as she grabbed the huge ax hanging on her back.
She found a couple of ghouls there wandering mindlessly inside the base floor of the keep. Her eyes began to light up and thunder spurted gleamingly from them.
When someone pledged themselves to be an adventurer, they will receive one or more symbols out of the six to indicate which role on the battlefield they have their talent at.
Some of the symbols Dov received are shield and staff, this carries the meaning that he's good at defending and using magic, that's why he could spawn those energy shields to protect the dark elves.
Meanwhile for Celene, one of the symbols she got is an ax. Hence, she's an expert at culling out large masses with her melee weapon. Especially to those who are on the weaker side…
*Shing!* *Crash!* *Drakk!*
The lycan lady swung her huge ax time after time through the ghouls, splitting them away from the wholeness of their bodies. As they didn't have the mental capacity to be afraid, they continuously swarm her without any plan to flee from her unending strikes.
The floor and stone walls of the keep were now splattered with thick blood.
*
"Did any of you see the vampire who cast the spell?" Dov asked the dark elves back at the black wall, while his eyes were still fixated to the sky, preparing for any incoming attack.
"Not quite to the detail… but I'm sure it's a woman!" One of the closer dark elves said.
"Yea yea! Her voice sounded woman too!" Said another elf.
"Woman…?"
A vampire gender can help a bit with analyzing how strong they are. Although only if the information said that the vampire is a male.
Male vampires are 100% vampire-born, not other races who got turned into one. This is because female vampires don't get attracted to virgin blood nor do they bite people in general.
So the one who was attacking them right now could literally come from any rank of vampire nobility. However, Dov didn't ask for the unpure right now…
"If the one attacking is a turned vampire, then there might be a male who turned her inside the keep. If that's the case… Celene might be in trouble." Dov thought to himself. "The biter is always times stronger than the bitten."
"Speaking of which mister, you… are a Hunter right?" A dark elf lady asking full of doubt.
There's a somewhat commanding aura coming from her. She wore a very luxurious religious outfit colored in black and purple, with a sized necklace made out of pure ardorum.
Her chest is also quite massive, that's a good indicator to tell that she was one of the higher up. It's one of the rules here amongst women of Lustmist.
"Correct." Dov relaxed himself for a bit to calm them. "Code: Night Bear, at your service."
"Night… Bear?"
"Oh! I've heard of him, Mother Prioress. He's one of the Veteran Hunters. Probably the best demon on the job right now!" Said a male elf close to her. Compared to the lady, he dressed like a soldier, fully armored and fully weaponized with a bow and dagger.
"Veteran?" The lady questioned.
"It's the highest rank a Hunter could get, ma'am," Dov answered.
Adventurer System always has their way of ranking the adventurers. For someone who doesn't have a profession, they are graded from Bronze to Rodhium based on their achievement, this stage is called Metal Ranks.
Meanwhile, for those who have and had a profession, their ranks are called Exalted Ranks. Every profession has its own title for each of the ranks they used, but in general, it's always divided into four ranks.
For Hunter, it started from Apprentice, Senior, Professional, and lastly Veteran. This indicates that Dov was already at the peak of his Hunter's career, and has the right to move on to the next rank when he ever feels to retire.
The post-profession rank will be Master, Grandmaster, and Exalted. Which is less active and acts more like a supervisor or teacher.
"I'm here under the order to hunt the vampires who previously attacked Hazinite Bridge."
"Oh, you're here to help us? That's great news!" She sounded both relieved and excited. The same noise could be heard from the other elves.
"Just doing my job—"
But Amid their conversation, Dov spotted the sight of a woman on the highest balcony on the keep in front of them. Her pale skin and black hair said enough that she's indeed a vampire.
Dov has no intention to give her a chance to cast another spell. So he took his large black pistol hanging on his waist and aimed straight in her direction. Purple light began shining around its muzzle and flickers of light slowly got absorbed into it, accumulating into a brighter, eerier shade of purple.
*Bang!*
And a magic bullet got shot out of his pistol. The sound it made was so loud, that all the dark elves around him went trembled in fear, afraid of the spell Dov just used.
Such a dreadful yet beautiful shot as the bullet's trail was so vivid, that it created a line between him and the vampiress at the top. The woman quickly fell from the height, and gradually, so did the keep standing before the black wall.
"So it was really magically created…" Dov muttered to himself.
Slowly those rubles of stones began disappearing, leaving only the corpses of ghouls and two women on the ashen ground. One is Celene, and the other is the vampiress.
Then before any of the Hunters could do anything, the vampiress went back on her feet with a grumpy expression staring at Dov far before her. In a blink of an eye, she turned into red mists and perished from the scene.
The vampiress has escaped.
"Ahh… a magic bullet didn't kill her. So she indeed is one of the nobility." Thought Dov. "Then… should I prepare some silver bullets? Or…"