The scared onlooker jumped away like a monkey, while "Shovel Knight", one of the middle-aged duo who had enthusiastically fired from the second floor, glanced back. His soul nearly left his body as his eyes widened and he screamed:
"Rat...Rat...Ratling!"
But it was already too late.
Under the direction of the female hunter, Natalie, the volley of crossbow arrows, swift as a storm, swept across the high ground, effortlessly piercing the walls and turning the three young players, who were defending the high point and blocking the reinforcements from outside the village, into sieves. Then she turned her gun and began to fire at those damned vampire enthusiasts among the civilian militia.
The young players scattered in panic, their rudimentary plan hadn't accounted for the witch hunter wielding something as unscientific as a "Ratling".
"Get inside! Quickly!"
Milian dragged Lumina·Sun Mark, a female player with a broken leg, into a house. Lumina felt pain but it wasn't as intense as she had imagined.
It seemed pain-blocking had taken effect. She still struggled, eager to use the hunting gun in her hand to fight back, but Milian pinned her down.
Having heard the roar of the automatic hunting crossbow outside, Murphy's temporary assistant, a student at the Artisan's Academy, knew full well that Murphy's ambush plan was now in jeopardy.
If Murphy and his summons were to fail, her own fate would be anything but kind.
So, gritting her teeth, Milian reached into her blouse and pulled out an object and handed it to a muscular player next to her, then pointed at the female hunter outside and mimicked the action of injecting a needle.
The good sport buddy "Precipitated Bull Bull Defies Difficulty," who had been pulled into the game by Ayu, looked at the object in his hand and then at the anxious gesture of the female NPC pointing outside the house.
He understood instantly, and took a deep breath before rushing out, carrying the hopes of the entire village.
Murphy, who was scurrying all around due to the powerful suppression of the automatic hunting crossbow, was forced to rely on his vampire mobility to take evasive action amidst shadow, chased by a stream of deadly gunfire.
Wood splinters flew everywhere, dust scattered in the air.
Murphy could only hide clumsily and dared not stop.
The automatic hunting crossbow in the hunter's hands was adjusting its position, and the steam-driven ammunition cylinder could trigger a dozen crossbow arrows with every rotation, its firing speed matching that of an automatic rifle.
Murphy felt like he was playing hide and seek under a hail of bullets, realizing he could be turned into a sieve by this mechanical device at any moment.
But he also noticed the young player charging out of the house.
With a savage look on his face, the latter charged like a wild bull, panting heavily, his eyes red, and in his lifted hand he held an object.
It was a metal cylinder like a pen, not made by hand. There was a button on its top. As the Precipitated Bull Bull pressed it hard, a thin injection needle popped out from the other side, gleaming eerily in the sunset.
The female hunter felt the wind on her back.
But she couldn't stop the fire suppression because Murphy was now heading towards her.
She raised her wrist.
The crosshair locked onto Murphy.
Just a squeeze of the trigger and a cunning and evil soul would disappear from the world.
Time seemed to extend infinitely at that moment, but in the next instant, it was back to normal.
Clink.
The sound of the empty ammunition cylinder made Natalie's eyes widen, but at the same time, the assault from the sporting buddy landed.
With a soft "pffft" like a mosquito bite, the sharp injection needle plunged into her neck.
The next moment, a terrifying wave of dizziness and numbness erupted from the body that had been fortified by natural psychic power. As Natalie gritted her teeth and tried to throw her hunting crossbow at the vampire in front of her, the vampire easily dodged and delivered a kick.
Thud.
Natalie landed face down on the ground, her vision spinning. The last thing she saw was the vampire raising his sword at her under the dusk.
The hunt ended, and she had failed...
How...shameful!