Chapter 46 – Count Dimitri’s Castle Ruins (2)

[3, 2, 1, 0 Raid commencing.]

At the same time,

‘Creak’

The iron gates automatically opened inward. But no one was moving. They were watching Sungjin’s sword dance in a daze.

Sungjin held the Moon Specter and Blood Vengeance in a cross and tilted his head towards the entry way.

“Let’s go.”

Sungjin stood at the vanguard. Followed closely by Giovani, Mahadas, Dominic, and finally Peng Long. With the exception of Sungjin, it was the original formation.

Inside of the iron gates was a large garden. Even though it was called a garden, it wasn’t like it was full of life. Dried and cracked potteries, broken pieces of glass, long dead flowers and twisted up trees, the garden was full of death.

“Woof! Woof woof!”

A dog’s barking could be heard from the inside. Two Doberman showed themselves, but they did not look like any ordinary Doberman.

Past the rotten cheeks, the teeth could be seen, and the eyelids were missing, showing the entirety of their eyeballs; They were zombie dogs. The hunters tensed up at their grotesque appearance. With the exception of Sungjin.

Sungjin slowly made his way forward. The zombie dogs backed up to keep a distance from him barking all the while.

“Snarl! Woof woof!”

They continued to threaten him. Ignoring them, Sungjin continued forward. Eventually, the dogs charged towards Sungjin.

“Kaa!”

Heavily decayed with nearly nonexistent skin, the Zombie moved much faster than a live Doberman. But

“Woosh Woosh”

With a flash of Sungjin’s two swords, the Dobermans were bisected instantly. Sungjin continued to walk up to the front door without any sense of caution or urgency.

He felt that something was missing. Looking behind him, the Hunters were all standing with their mouth agape. Only Mahadas was looking at the Doberman corpses. Sungjin shouted out to them

“Aren’t you coming? Come quickly; we have to go together.”

At his words, the Hunters came running towards the Castle entryway. In front of the gates, there were five strange looking stones.

“You all read the information sheet, right? Let’s stand on top of each stone.”

Obediently the Hunters followed his instructions. And once all five took their place, a bell could be heard ringing in the distance.

“Ding~ Ding~ Ding~”

And the hunters heard a voice coming from above.

“Ah, welcome! It’s been such a long time since we last had guests!”

Hunters all looked up towards the sky. A cloud of bats flew together and formed a single figure on top of the tower. It was in the form of a man with a long cape.

“How do you do? I am the master of this Castle.”

The man whose face was whiter than the moon politely bowed to them.

“I am Count Dimitri.”

He opened his mouth and smiled. His sharp fangs could be seen clearly. Everyone was taken aback by his fangs, but Sungjin had other thoughts.

‘Wait… Wait a minute…hold on.’

“I have prepared a fun recreational event for our dear guests on each floor.”

Sungjin quietly spoke to the Cube. It was barely audible.

“Operator, get me Al Zard.”

The magic carpet emerged from within the Cube at his request.

“I have spent a long time preparing these fun little entertainments so you should have lots of fun. Enough that you wouldn’t want to leave ever again. Hu hu hu hu..”

The Thousand Year Count Dimitri let out a strange laughter. The Hunters watched him completely absorbed. But Sungjin was distracted; he was making a plan.

‘If I take Al Zard up to him and kill him now, wouldn’t the Raid be cleared?”

“I hope you enjoy your stay.”

At the same time as his farewell,

“Creak”

The gates began to lift letting out rusty noises of moving gears. Before the Count stood back up from his deep bow, Sungjin threw Al Zard forward and shouted

“Flight”

The Magic Carpet opened itself. But

“Pew~”

Peng Long’s arrow flew first. Sungjin watched the arrow fly in surprise. The Arrow made it all the way in front of the Count’s nose, but with a ‘pop’ the Count reverted back to a large cloud of bats.

His laughter filled the sky.

“Hahahahaha~”

‘Damn’

Sungjin chased after the bats using Al Zard. He could hear the Count’s voice coming from the mass of bats.

“You can only play with me after you’ve finished with the other little recreations I have prepared for you. Please come to the top of the tower. Then, I will do my best to entertain you personally.”

‘I don’t have time for that’

A high-speed aerial chase ensued. Sungjin chanted an incantation while chasing the bats.

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe! Chain Lightning”

A ball of lightning gathered in Sungjin’s right hand and was shot out of the Moon Specter like a bullet. But, a small portion of the bats separated from the main mass and prevented the main body from being harmed.

The bats that were hit by the lightning fell to the ground, but the masses of bats continued to escape. Once the bats reached the other side of the castle, they flew towards the moat. Sungjin began to recite a different spell.

“Incinerate everything in your…”

But while he was doing so, the bats began to enter the sewer built on the inside of the moat. Sungjin quickly finished off the rest of the incantations.

“…path! Fireball!”

He fired the fireball, but most of the bats made it into the sewer.

“Boom”

The fireball exploded and greatly damaged the entry way. Sungjin flew to the front of the sewer to look at it. It was very small.

It would hardly fit a human being, or even Cain (albeit he did grow bigger recently).

‘…Welp.’

Sungjin returned to the front entrance of the castle using the Magic Carpet, filled with disappointment. The hunters watched him return.

“Did you manage to catch him?”

Giovani asked. Sungjin knocked on the Cube next to him and replied

“If that were the case, this guy would have said something.”

Sungjin glanced at Peng Long. Because of his arrow, the Count was able to get a bigger head start.

‘I can’t really tell him off though since all he wanted to do was help…’

Sungjin shook his head and entered the castle. The other Hunters followed suit. The interior of the castle was dark. Dominic looked over to the cube and said

“Operator, I still have that lantern from the Cemetery, right? Please take it out for me.”

‘You don’t need it…’

Sungjin thought to himself, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want others to know this was already his second time experiencing everything. While the hunters were busy trying to light up the lanterns,

“Ti ta dii~”

From the dark, a violin and other classical instruments began to play an orchestral song. At the same time, the lights in the castle came on. On the first floor was a large corridor.

The previously pitch black ceiling was now brightly illuminated by chandeliers.

“Daa~ raa ta da~”

The classical music continued to play in the background while

“Hahahahaha~”

“Hohohohoho~”

Unnaturally laughing pairs of men and women appeared. The men wore a dress suit, and the women wore a fancy dress. The couples danced to the tune of the music, but each of them wore strange looking masks.

The hunters’ faces had various emotions displayed on them. Dominic muttered

“This chapter… just what…”

It was written in the ‘Information sheet’ but it was still odd to experience it first hand. Sungjin addressed the hunters.

“Don’t be put off by them, stay alert.”

And in a moment during the middle of the song, suddenly

“Bang”

A loud smashing of the keys of the Piano could be heard, and the music stopped playing. Sungjin turned to the hunters and informed them

“Ok, it begins now. I will take care of most of them, so try to hunt safely.”

“Keee ta taan~ ta ta taan~”

The elegant and graceful music was replaced with an eerie screechy sound. The dancing couples threw away their masks all at the same time.

“Ugh…”

Someone gagged upon seeing their faces. Behind the masks were deathly white faces, with fangs showing from their lips. Their faces twisted into a wicked grimace, and they began to screech.

“KYAA!”

“You’re supposed to bait one of them at a time and fight them, but…”

Sungjin muttered something. He held the Moon Specter and Blood Vengeance like a cross and charged alone into the narrow corridor. The well-dressed vampires also came charging towards Sungjin.

Unlike the other kinds of undead, these were extremely fast. But there was no way these vampires could match the power of Sungjin who was wielding Legendary Tier swords in each hand.

With each swing of his sword; heads, arms, and legs were cut off. While Sungjin charged onwards through the Corridor like a hurricane, a few stragglers began to attack the other four Hunters.

“Wait! Here they come! Careful!”

Giovani came to the Vanguard and raised his shield. Dominic raised his spear, and Peng Long nocked an arrow. But

“Taha!”

Mahadas dashed forward and kicked one of the vampires. He broke the chin of a female Vampire in a single blow.

He turned to face the Male vampire and said

“Overheat”

With the command, the gauntlet he wore glowed bright red. Using the bright red gauntlet, he landed a punch exactly on the vampire’s diaphragm.

‘Splat’

A strange sound erupted; A sound that was difficult to imagine that it could come from a human being.

‘Wheeze”

The Vampire let out a strange sound of agony. When Mahadas pulled back his fist, a large hole had been punched through the vampire’s stomach.

Giovani, who had been tense, lowered his shield. Dominic and Peng Long also relaxed their weapons for a moment.

“Taha!”

Mahadas began to hunt the multitude of Vampires with incredible speed and power. The Korean ahead of them already formed a mountain of vampire corpses. The three remaining Hunters glanced at each other.

They understood deep inside. This raid could probably be cleared with just the two of them. But Peng Long began loosing arrows towards the Vampires in the distance.

Giovani and Dominic saw that and also prepared their weapons.

“Uryah!”

They charged towards the Zombies.

*

‘Guard’ Dominic swung his Spear around, and couldn’t help but feel that this chapter was very strange.

‘The chapter is one thing… but the teammates, especially those two…’

Just surviving from chapter to chapter was a struggle. Had been a struggle. It was nice to get high contribution percentage, but survival came first. He had fought hard for the sake of his own survival first, and contribution second.

But there was something very different with this chapter. The Korean teenager who charged onwards, slicing off limbs of vampires like a human tornado using two swords. And the monk who beat the monsters to a pulp using his fist.

Between the two of them, he had to work hard to scrape together contribution points. He was also part of the top 0.01% of the best Hunters among humanity.

‘No matter how strong the allies are, they cannot gift contribution points…’

Dominic’s weapon was a Spear. It was a weapon designed to fight enemies from behind the cover of the tank. But right now, the tank Giovani wasn’t able to get any points either.

The Korean and the monk were rushing ahead killing everything in sight rendering defense and ranged support unnecessary. Peng Long had been able to try and get some contribution by shooting enemies far into the distance, but Dominic had no such ranged abilities. After considering his options, the only solution he could come up with was to charge ahead with his spear, even if he had to put himself at risk.

The Vampire whose jaws were shattered was wandering about in front of him.

“Yaaah!”

He charged forward and stabbed at the Vampire’s head with his spear.

‘Stab’

With a piercing noise, the Vampire died without even being able to let out a cry. He felt a rush of adrenaline upon hunting the undead.

‘What if… my teammates aren’t strong, but it is the enemies that are weak?”

Dominic thought as he charged towards another Vampire.

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