Chapter 104: The Battle of Rheox (III)

Vantors are a very special type of vampire that first appeared during the Alchemy Era, five or six hundred years ago.
It is said that some mad alchemists, in pursuit of eternal life, obtained vampire blood from some unknown source. After years of research, they finally mastered the dark art of turning humans into vampires. These humans transformed into vampires were known as Simor vampires.
Simor vampires may be the weakest among all vampire species. Not only can they not compare to the most powerful vampire species, the Gangro, but they might even be inferior to even stronger ordinary vampires. Yet, despite this, Simor vampires are the closest to humans among vampires. They can freely control their sharp claws and fangs, as well as their aura. Unless they choose to, no one can detect them among a crowd.
Simor vampires have extremely fragile bodies, perhaps only slightly stronger than ordinary humans. However, their lifespan far exceeds that of humans; even the long-lived elves may not surpass them.
Yet, among Simor vampires, a very special type emerged—one with terrifying power comparable to that of Gangro. Although their physical strength isn’t greatly enhanced, they can freely control blood. To distinguish them, alchemists named this type Vantors, a term from ancient languages meaning “incredible power.”
In the world of vampires, the most powerful being is undoubtedly the Gangro. With control over soul power, their very existence defies the basic laws of the world. Compared to Gangro, Vantors do not possess such incredible regeneration abilities. Yet in reality, their strength is no less than that of Gangro.
The only difference between the two is that Gangro vampires gain power by devouring souls, while Vantors gain power by sucking blood. Unlike Gangro’s wolf-like combat style, Vantors possess incomparable terrifying abilities: they can freely control blood within a certain range, making them almost the natural enemies of all blood-bearing creatures. Apart from Gangro, they are virtually invincible among creatures of the same rank.

Yes, the existence of the Gangro is constant; their strength never fades. Even if they are killed once, they only become temporarily weakened, and the lost strength gradually returns to them. This means that the power inherent in the Gangro can never be taken away by others. However, ordinary living beings cannot do the same, especially humans. In this regard, the combat style of the Vampires of Vantore can be compared to that of the Gangro vampires, making them synonymous with the most terrifying foes.

In the face of Ulrich, a Vampire of Vantore, the necromantic magic that necromancers take pride in is utterly ineffective. Neither bone-related nor soul-related spells can harm Ulrich’s body, which exists between a physical form and an illusion, as it is composed solely of blood. As long as he has enough blood, Ulrich cannot be defeated.

With no other choice, the necromancer can only use spells like Acid Armor to corrode the blood that constitutes Ulrich’s body, but the effect is very poor. Not only is there an abundance of blood floating around Ulrich, but even if that blood is exhausted, he can still draw fresh blood from those necromancers. Living beings with blood flowing through their bodies are at a complete disadvantage when facing a Vampire of Vantore!

Taking advantage of the necromancers’ attention drawn to Ulrich, Manhet secretly signaled Madley, a senior student, to lead the students away quietly through a side alley.

Watching student after student silently slip into the alley without drawing the others’ attention, Professor Manhet breathed a sigh of relief. But when his gaze fell on Argus, he saw him stroking his chin and staring at him with interest.

He’s been discovered by this demon-like man! Professor Manhet’s heart skipped a beat.

To his surprise, however, Argus merely smiled mockingly before turning his gaze back to Ulrich in the arena, which made Manhet feel somewhat relieved.

“What an amazing guy!” Sitting on a barrel with his chin in his hand, Argus watched Ulrich freely control blood for attacks or defense, murmuring, “His strength isn’t as great as Yen’s, but his speed is on par with Yen’s, and his recovery ability is even stronger… What’s more incredible is that he can even control the blood inside other people! — How come I’ve never heard of such vampires existing in the world?” With that, he turned to Connel and said, “Hey, Yen, what do you think?”

Connel glanced at Argus briefly and said with a cold snort, “Not bad! — But he’s no match for me!” Then, with a serious and puzzled look, he continued to stare at Ulric, for he detected a very familiar scent in the latter’s blood…
“Indeed!” Argus laughed heartily. Beside him, the necromancer Pur analyzed Ulric calmly.
“He’s completely immune to physical attacks, and magic doesn’t work on him either… His strength must come from that blood. If we can destroy that blood… we can kill him!”
“Is that so?” Argus said with a light laugh. “Is it really that easy?”
Glancing at Argus, Pur murmured a spell. Then, suddenly, he raised his wand and pointed sharply at Ulric.
With several swishing sounds, several bone spears imbued with intense death energy were shot at Ulric.
Ulric seemed to pay no attention at all to such physical attacks. He neither dodged nor avoided them, showing no concern for the bone spears thrown by Pur, and continued to attack the necromancers.
“Stupid!” A scornful smile appeared on Pur’s lips. Then he pointed his wand downward and shouted, “Fall!”
The bone spears suddenly changed direction and slammed into the ground with clanging sounds. Ulric was puzzled, but the next moment, he felt something was wrong—his body seemed to be under some kind of restriction, preventing him from moving.
“Ulric? What’s going on? Those bone spears didn’t even hit him…” Diya was confused as she watched Ulric gritting his teeth and struggling desperately.
Perhaps hearing Diya’s voice, Argus said with a laugh, “It’s your friend who’s too careless!” He pointed at the ground beneath Ulric and joked, “My companion Pur is an excellent necromancer. He wouldn’t launch an attack without reason. Pur’s target isn’t that vampire, but that guy’s shadow!”
“Troublemaker!” Pur glared at Argus unhappily, who shrugged playfully.
“What?” Diya instinctively looked at Ulric’s shadow. Sure enough, it was pinned down by several bone spears.

Glancing at the struggling Ulrich, Puer slightly lowered his head and whispered, “It’s over!” As soon as those words left his lips, a crack appeared in the ground beneath Ulrich’s feet. From the crack, a dark green plant grew up from the earth. At the top of its branches, a huge crimson flower was slowly blooming, resembling a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth. This was clearly a dark plant from the Land of Death—[Bloodthirsty Thorn—Di’eadis]. If consumed by this plant, no one could escape, except for creatures like Gungro; even vampires would be doomed.

“Be careful! Ulrich…” Amidst Dia’s cry of alarm, Ulrich’s body suddenly turned into a pool of blood. He seemed to try to escape the shadow’s grasp, but Puer had anticipated his move.

“Hmph!” With a cold snort, Puer raised his wand and sneered, “I expected you to do this!” As soon as he spoke, the Bloodthirsty Thorn suddenly stretched out vines, greedily sucking up the blood on the ground.

“Ulrich…” Under the astonished gazes of Dia and the others, Ulrich reformed his body once more, but his appearance was pitiful. He had only half a body, and most of the blood wings on his back were gone. The blood at the severed limbs writhed slightly, looking rather disgusting.

“Whoa! So that’s how it is!” Argus whistled.

Puer gave Ulrich a cold glance and said in a deep voice, “Even the legendary Vanthor vampires aren’t to be feared if they don’t get enough blood!”

“That’s true!” Argus smiled eerily and said playfully, “But it seems you’ve forgotten something. As your companion, I kindly remind you—he’s a vampire…”

Before Argus could finish speaking, Ulrich in the arena suddenly turned into a blood arrow and shot at a necromancer at incredible speed.

The speed was so fast that the necromancer didn’t even have time to react, let alone cast a defensive spell. At best, he could instinctively raise his hands and shut his eyes in despair, a human instinct in times of crisis.

But to his surprise, the blood arrow didn’t pierce his body. Just as he felt relieved, he suddenly felt a severe pain in his neck, and then all his strength seemed to be drained from him.

Under Purl’s astonished gaze, Argus glanced at Ulric, who was bent over the necromancer’s back sucking blood, and said mockingly, “Sure enough! This guy also claims to be a vampire—replenishing his blood is too easy for him…” He stroked his chin curiously and asked, “But why didn’t he use that move earlier? Could it be he lost too much blood and couldn’t use it? Hmm… It seems that’s indeed the case!”
“Thud!” The necromancer had his blood drained and turned into a mummy, while Ulric, having received enough blood, fully reconstructed his body. Now, far from his usual docility, he licked his lips provocatively at Purl.
“You bastard!” Seeing another comrade killed by that damned vampire, Purl finally snapped. Pointing his wand at Ulric, the blood-red thorn suddenly sprouted branches, seemingly trying to bind and drain him.
Looking at the blood-red thorn that had just cost him so much, Ulric reached out with his right hand and clenched tightly. With a cry like that of a baby, the thorn went wild, whipping at everything around it as if suffering unbearable pain.
Before Purl could react, the spores beneath the thorn exploded, spraying green liquid everywhere. From that green liquid, strands of red blood separated and returned to Ulric.
“How is this possible?” Staring at the rapidly withering blood-red thorn, Purl could hardly believe what he saw. He knew well that as a vessel for the thorn to consume, its spores belonged to another dimension, not this world—so how could they still be affected by it? Unless…
Unless that blood carried a mark!
That was the only explanation… Blood drained by the Vanthor vampires became part of their bodies, inseparable, similar to Gungro’s abilities…
Under Purl’s solemn gaze, Ulric absorbed the blood floating outside his body. His body became even more luminous, like the glow of some crystal, but it was clear it was just highly concentrated blood crystals.
“Hahaha, You can’t handle this anymore, my dear companion!” Argus laughed carefreely; it was hard to imagine what he was thinking.
Glancing coldly at Argus, Purl frowned and said, “It’s time to end the game, Argus!”

Seeing the seriousness in Purl’s eyes, Argus smiled faintly, raised his hands in surrender, and said conciliatingly, “Alright, alright, I just wanted to slack off a little…” With that, he jumped down from the barrel and turned to Ulric, saying, “Hey, want to be my companion?”
Hearing Argus’s words, one of the surviving necromancers snapped angrily, “What do you mean, Argus?” Before he could finish speaking, with a whoosh, Argus appeared right in front of him, leaving no time for any reaction.
Facing the demon-like man’s dead-eyed gaze, the necromancer forced down his fear and trembled, asking, “What… what do you want?”
Argus smiled faintly, seemingly mocking him. He reached out and brushed the dirt off the other man’s cloak, saying calmly, “I don’t like it when people interrupt me, so… be more careful next time!”
Under Argus’s almost threatening gaze and the overwhelming pressure he exuded, the necromancer swallowed hard and instinctively nodded, murmuring, “I… I understand!”
“Good!” With a slight smile, Argus turned around, stretched out his hand to Ulric, and asked, “What do you think?”
Under the strange looks from Connel and Purl, Ulric spread his blood wings and landed on the ground, returning to his normal human form. He said seriously, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to be with people who destroy beautiful things!”
“Wow,” Argus shrugged with a hint of regret, “That’s too bad. I really like having strong people as companions…” As he spoke, his gaze grew colder.
Seeming to sense something, blood surged from Ulric’s right hand, floating around his body.
At that moment, the entire ground began to shake violently, with such intense tremors it seemed like a severe earthquake. It lasted for over ten seconds before gradually calming down.
Frowning and glancing in the direction of the Riox Academy, Argus’s expression suddenly returned to normal. He scratched his head and said jokingly, “Ah! Never mind. For someone with great power, even if we can’t be friends, I don’t want to be enemies either…” With that, he glanced at Professor Manhet and the group led by Thos who were still there and grinned, “You guys go!”
“Ah…” The necromancers clearly couldn’t believe Argus would say such things, but after being intimidated just now, they dared not interrupt this terrifying man again.

The only ones qualified and capable of expressing dissent at this moment were Poole and Connel. Of course, Connel wouldn’t have the slightest objection to this proposal—only Poole…

Pointing at Ulric, Poole said in a low voice, “This guy killed five of my compatriots…”

“Poole,” Agus interrupted, speaking seriously, “you understand too that guy isn’t someone who can be dealt with easily. He’s even more troublesome than Jean… Uh, sorry, Jean!”

“Hmph!” Connel snorted coldly. As his gaze swept over Ravia, a hint of shame appeared in his eyes, and he awkwardly turned away.

“That guy Jean definitely won’t help. As for me… Heh, you know… Anyway, now isn’t the time for this. You must have felt that power just now too…” Saying this, Agus patted Poole’s shoulder and whispered, “Isn’t it more important to be able to walk in the sunlight again, or to replace the dark mage as the ruler of the empire, rather than just dealing with a vampire? It’s time to focus on important matters!”

Poole lowered his head in thought. After a while, he raised it and said to the necromancers, “Take their bodies back first, then withdraw. There’s no need to stay here anymore!”

“This…” The necromancers hesitated, glanced at Poole, and nodded. “Yes! Alright!” With that, they glared resentfully at Ulric, summoned skeletons to carry their compatriots’ bodies away, and left.

Meanwhile, Agus stared at Thos with a half-smile for a long time before suddenly walking toward him.

Professor Manhet instinctively gripped his wand, watching Agus warily. After all, that guy was truly terrifying.

What did he want to do?

Thos instinctively mobilized all his strength. Facing someone like Agus, without the power of Sloth, he didn’t even qualify to be an opponent. Indeed, those three puppets disguised among the children, Quinn, Kanso, and Sodges, found it extremely difficult even to lift their heads in the face of Agus’s overwhelming presence.

Yet Agus merely walked toward the gates of the Riox Academy behind them. But as he passed by Thos, he deliberately stopped.

Of course, he could sense that dark force, no less powerful than his own. With a smile, he asked, “What do you want to do, Thoros?” He glanced at Thoros and continued, “Do you want to stop me? Or just respond to my provocation? Oh, I’m sorry—I definitely didn’t mean to. I just wanted to say goodbye to you…” He leaned in and whispered in Thoros’s ear, “It’s best if you don’t do anything, Thoros. I admit you have a very powerful force within you, but right now, you’re no match for me. If you do something I don’t want to see, I can’t guarantee that the pretty girl beside you will leave here alive…”

“You!” Thoros muttered in shock. “You bastard…”

“Shh!” Argus made a silencing gesture and smiled. “I don’t need you to thank me for letting you go. I just want you to leave quietly and stop causing trouble!” He gave Dia a threatening look, and under his gaze, she grew uneasy and instinctively held onto Thoros’s hand.

From Dia’s tight grip on his right hand, Thoros could clearly sense her fear and anxiety. He turned his head away in silence.

“Great!” Argus laughed heartily, whistled like a ruffian, and headed toward the Rexox Academy, saying, “Come on, guys. It’s time to clean up the battlefield!”

Behind him, Connel and Puhl glanced in the direction of Ravia and Ulric before turning to follow Argus.

Only after the three of them had walked away did Professor Manhet breathe a sigh of relief. He knew well that none of those three would be a match for him, and it was quite lucky that he could leave unharmed…

“Let’s get going, kids!” Professor Manhet hurriedly urged Thoros, Allen, and the others to leave. As his gaze swept over Ulric, he wore a strange expression and stammered, “What about Mr. Ulric?”

“My last name is Vlad!” Ulric politely corrected Professor Manhet, finding it hard to associate his gentle smile with his earlier demeanor.

“By the way, Ulric was really amazing just now!” Lisa said, eyes wide. “It’s just that he became a bit strange…”

“Is that so?” Ulric scratched his head awkwardly, feeling embarrassed. “Actually, I noticed that too—when I turned into that form, there was some strange sense of excitement… To be honest, I really don’t like fighting. Thankfully they left. By the way, who was that man? I could sense his extremely terrifying dark power…”
“It was Argus!” With a slight sigh, Ravia patted the puppet Qunin on the back. As products of black technology, these puppets had been greatly frightened by Argus’s power.
On a small hill outside Vando City, they reunited with students like Madley who had left quietly earlier. Upon seeing Professor Manhet and Thos’s group, Madley and the other students breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Professor Manhet, you’ve finally arrived…”
“I wonder what happened to the other professors…”
“Did those necromancers not chase after us?”
Hearing the noisy chatter, Professor Manhet raised his hand and said, “Quiet, everyone, quiet! It’s still very dangerous here. We need to head east to Fedli. Once we get there, I’ll arrange carriages to take you home…”
“Why Fedli?” asked one student in surprise. “Compared to Fedli, isn’t the Saxon Imperial City closer? The Saxon Empire has its Royal Knights there, and the necromancers surely wouldn’t dare go there. Besides, we could seek help from the royal magicians…”
“No, children!” Professor Manhet shook his head firmly and said solemnly, “This matter might not be as simple as we think. My task is to escort you to Fedli and see each of you board the carriages home. If there are no objections, we should set off now! — It’s still a long distance to Fedli from here, and this place isn’t safe!”
“Yes, Professor Manhet!”
With looks of fondness and confusion, the children looked back in the direction of the Rexos Castle before heading east. Except for Thos and the others, they remained on the hill, gazing at Rexos, still able to faintly hear the roaring sounds coming from there.
“Children, we should leave!” Professor Manhet said softly, seemingly noticing the unusual behavior of Thos and the others.
Glancing at the silent Thos, Dia said politely, “Thank you, Professor Manhet, but we’d like to stay here a little longer. — We know how to get home!”

“How is this possible?!” Professor Manhert frowned and was about to say something when Ulrich smiled and said, “They’ll be fine… I can handle ordinary people!”
Recalling the battle just now, Professor Manhert glanced at the group of children heading toward Fedli in the distance, nodded, and sighed, “Then please take care of these children, Mr. Ulrich!”
“My surname is Vlad!” Ulrich scratched his head helplessly. After Professor Manhert left, he went over to the silent Thos and whispered, “Are you confused?”
Glancing at the vampire noble beside him, Thos replied indifferently, “What?”
“I said you’re confused. I can tell…”
“Nonsense!”
“Hehe,” Ulrich smiled slightly and said seriously, “Although I don’t like fighting, you’re all good people. Traveling with you has been very pleasant for me, so… if you want to go back, I’m willing to help you! — You’re worried about those professors too, aren’t you?”
“Go back?” It seemed she heard Ulrich’s words. Dia said in disbelief, “You want to go back? Thos? What good will it do even if you go back? So many people… If you… if you… I…” Her voice choked up.
Seeing the sorrow in Dia’s eyes and recalling Argus’s threatening gaze earlier, Thos squeezed Dia’s small hand, let out a soft sigh, and comforted her, “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere…”
Dia was stunned, tears welling in her eyes. She asked softly, “Really?”
“Really!” Holding Dia’s hand, Thos nodded. His feelings were very complex at the moment.
Suddenly, Lisa’s surprised voice caught everyone’s attention.
“Look at Rexos quickly…”
“Hm?” Allen instinctively looked toward the academy and was shocked to see it surrounded by a blue-violet energy, as if it were another space. Soon, this energy was quickly replaced by fiery red smoke, which swallowed Rexos Castle, the symbol of the academy, and everything else. Before anyone could react, volcanoes emitting red light rapidly rose from the ground.
“What on earth is going on?” Allen asked instinctively, staring at the inexplicably appearing volcanoes.
Ravia’s gaze fell on the edge of that “space,” where she could faintly see some jagged marks, like spatial fractures, that didn’t fit the real world.
“Is it a barrier?” Lisa asked curiously.

“No!” Shaking her head, Ravia whispered, “This is a domain! It’s a domain that only great magi can cast!”
As Ravia said, what they were seeing now was precisely the domain cast by their former dean, the great mage Gret Kaines—a supreme art only great magi could wield, akin to creating a second space.
[Etna Volcano Range]!