Chapter 15: Gungro, the Immortal Vampire (Part 2)

“A sound? What sound?” Ravia was enthusiastically introducing her hometown of Altak to the boy beside her when she heard the question, her expression confused.
“I mean… it’s coming from behind us!” As he spoke, Jiang Zhe instinctively turned around, shielding the girl beside him with his body, his gaze fixed intently on the darkness behind them.
“…” Looking at the arm stretched in front of her, Ravia’s expression became complicated. To be honest, she didn’t like being protected by others. In the past, she might have pushed the arm away and stood side by side with the boy—her grandfather had taught her that since she was young.
The feeling of being protected…
Ravia felt her cheeks burn slightly, her heart pounding. It was an indescribable, complex emotion she had never experienced before, and it made her feel very uneasy. She felt that if she didn’t say something now, her past convictions about certain things might vanish along with this complex feeling…
“Sos, I…”
“Don’t speak!” The boy’s tone was low and urgent. The girl, who was hesitating and peeking up at his expression, could even see the seriousness and wariness in his eyes.
Tch!
The girl muttered to herself.
A long silence ensued…
The girl clearly could no longer bear this oppressive atmosphere. What was even harder to tolerate was the pounding of her heart. In such silence, she could even hear the boy’s heavy breathing, which made her even more uneasy.
Was there really something behind them that made him so concerned?
Or…
Was he trying to scare her?
Ravia felt this was somewhat similar to certain scenes in the knight novels she had read as a child…
This made the girl, biting her lip, wander into wild thoughts…
Just then…
“What’s that?” The boy beside her interrupted Ravia’s thoughts with a slightly shocked voice. Her face turned red as she instinctively looked up, following his gaze. Immediately, her flushed cheeks turned pale.
Oh my god, that’s…
In the tunnel behind them, faint footsteps could be heard. Following those footsteps were people with expressionless faces and stiff movements. If Ravia wasn’t mistaken, these people… these people in tattered clothes were none other than the dead werewolf puppets she had encountered earlier.
Since they no longer had any sign of life, how could they possibly come back to life?

Wait… Could it be… As the girl beside him was filled with shock, Jiang Zhe also noticed something wrong with these “uninvited guests.” He called out tentatively, “Stop! Who are you?” As Jiang Zhe had expected, none of the intruders answered his question; instead, they continued approaching the two of them with blank expressions. “Stop!” Jiang Zhe grew increasingly uneasy. Controlling two fireballs to float in front of him, he said in a low voice, “If you don’t explain yourselves, don’t blame me if I become ruthless!” The moment he finished speaking, he felt the girl beside him firmly grasp his arm and urgently say, “Sos, be careful! They’re Gungro!” “What?” Gungro? Jiang Zhe couldn’t help but recall the stories Ravia had told him—vampires with immortal bodies in legend… Just as Jiang Zhe was stunned, the intruders ahead suddenly sped up, rushing at him and the girl like a gust of wind. But the next second, they were engulfed in exploding flames. “This is self-inflicted!” Jiang Zhe watched indifferently as the flames swept through the entire tunnel. He had never been indecisive. “If they don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them” was his principle. And like these intruders, he could clearly see their hostility. He never held back when dealing with such people. This was different from the “childish fights” he had had with Ravia in the past! He could tell the difference from the start. But… “Be careful, Sos! Gungro isn’t something that can be easily defeated!” Warning her companion, Ravia spread a circle of flames beneath her feet, enclosing the two of them firmly. Her expression was clearly tense. A few seconds later, Jiang Zhe understood why the girl was nervous. To his surprise, several dark shadows emerged from the flames, like streaks of black wind, reaching the two of them in an instant. “Slap! Slap! Slap!” Ravia quickly caught those shadows. Shapeless waves of fire struck them, producing solid-like sounds, but the effect… Looking at the burn marks on the monster’s arm and its blank expression, Jiang Zhe found it hard to believe.

“No way?!” Even if Ravia’s Fire Wave spell was weak, it shouldn’t be this ineffective. It didn’t seem to even scratch the opponent—back then, he had been in so much pain he almost howled…
“What’s with that expression of yours?” Ravia muttered unhappily, seemingly annoyed by her companion’s strange look. “These guys are the legendary immortal vampires…”
“Mm-hmm.” Jiang Zhe grunted indifferently, pulling out his left hand from his pocket. Against such legendary vampires, relying solely on his right hand wasn’t enough.
During his year at Rex Academy, Jiang Zhe’s speed in casting fireballs without chanting spells or using gestures was around 13 seconds, according to Scott’s precise measurements. With chanting and gestures, the speed was 2.5 seconds—of course, this was for a single fireball.
However, a speed of 2.5 seconds per fireball didn’t mean two fireballs would take 5 seconds. After gathering a large amount of fire energy, his speed would increase further, especially when Ravia helped him cast [Barrier: Fire World] or any enhancement magic. At that point, his speed could even reach one fireball per second.
But… casting fireballs didn’t mean he could control them perfectly. With just one or two fireballs, he could control them with his mind, but with five or more, the mental strain was far greater than simple addition. In such cases, his hands were needed—controlling fireballs with hands was far more precise than with the mind, and the fireballs moved faster and more flexibly.
And with at least a dozen of those legendary vampires in front of him, relying solely on his right hand was clearly insufficient…
To be honest, Jiang Zhe didn’t really like using his left hand. It wasn’t out of a desire to act cool or anything like that, but because of the magic array on the back of his left hand. During regular training, he could clearly feel that his left hand had much weaker control over fire energy compared to his right—much weaker. It was as if that magic array had some powerful special force that instinctively resisted the accumulation of fire energy.
Still, the magic array wasn’t entirely useless. At least Jiang Zhe noticed that whenever he was in negative emotions like anger or frustration, the array would emit a cool aura, helping him return to a normal state of mind—more effective than any calming magic item.
“Boom boom boom boom boom…”

Sure enough, after using both hands, Jiang Zhe could cast fireballs much faster than usual. Although the fireballs cast with his left hand were weaker in power, at least the dense barrage of fireballs completely blocked the entire tunnel, driving away any Gungro that tried to attack the two of them to the other end of the tunnel. For a moment, Lavia could only see the black smoke and raging flames from the fireball explosions, unable to spot even a single Gungro. What an… what an absolute waste of magic power… “What an enviable talent…” she muttered softly, glancing at the boy beside her. At least now, she somewhat understood what Scott had said. “Thoth? Thoth doesn’t need to learn defensive magic!” With such excessive use of magic, there was indeed no need to learn defensive spells… In a confrontation or battle against magicians of the same level, who could possibly withstand it? Sure enough, he must have held back during their fight… What a… what a detestable guy! But even Jiang Zhe, with his extraordinary talent, couldn’t maintain this state for long. In less than half a minute, he felt his magic power depleting, and sweat began to trickle down his forehead. Indeed, at his current stage, such reckless use of magic still placed a heavy burden on him. But as Scott said, what if it was in the future? “Huff, huff,” the magic release stopped. Jiang Zhe panted, wiping the sweat from his forehead, and murmured, “It should be over by now…” But before he could finish speaking, he was shocked. In the tunnel, still lit by faint flames ahead, all the Gungro seemed to have been turned into black blood under the light of the flames. But just two or three seconds later, that black blood surged and reshaped into human forms. Counting them, there were forty or fifty of them… “Is… is the legend true?” Lavia whispered in shock. “Gungro vampires possess immortality…” Beyond shock, her eyes still held a hint of despair. Such magic power still couldn’t harm the Gungro… If he couldn’t do it, then what about her… herself… Perhaps there’s a saying that the more you know, the more you fear—this phrase aptly described Lavia at that moment.

From ancient texts, she had learned of the terrifying Gungro. Upon seeing these forty or fifty Gungro before her, and realizing that Jiang Zhe’s extraordinary magic couldn’t inflict even the slightest harm on them, she couldn’t help but feel fear—fear so intense it bordered on despair.
One of these creatures was already so hard to deal with; forty or fifty of them…
This was simply… impossible.
Just then, she heard a long sigh from the boy beside her.
“Gungro… immortal vampires, right?” With a deep sigh, Jiang Zhe spoke calmly, raising his hands to conjure a massive fireball nearly half the size of a person in front of him. Just by looking at the green and yellow flames burning within, it was clear this was a highly compressed fireball, its immense energy leaving Ravia beside him stunned and terrified.
“Sosu, you… you can’t be…”
“Correct!” As he spoke, Jiang Zhe pointed forward with his right hand, and the highly compressed fireball shot toward the charging Gungro with a whoosh.
“Boom!” After an explosion far louder than any before, the tunnel was completely engulfed in flames. Worse still, the intense force of the explosion caused the tunnel to collapse…
“You idiot…” Whether from fear or the atmosphere, Ravia’s eyes grew moist, glistening in the flames. But soon, she felt a strong arm wrap around her, with someone whispering words of comfort in her ear.
“Don’t be afraid, it’s okay!”
“A bear!” A massive burst of flames erupted from the two of them, like an ancient beast stretching its body to blow away all the rocks falling toward them. It was a huge bear, its entire body covered in dense flames…
Transformation!
Jiang Zhe’s only magic for defense…