I Am the God of Games

Up in the air, Vlad looked down at the Players who were still baring their fangs and had yet to give up on resistance, and couldn’t help feeling confused…

Was humankind supposed to be that tenacious? It didn’t feel like that before…

“If it wasn’t that Tigerman’s attacks interrupting my awakening, such mere inferior lifeforms… I knew I shouldn’t have helped them awaken their ancient bloodlines.”

Vlad gritted his teeth, glaring at the Roaring Blaze Tiger Warrior whom the Players had moved to the distance to avoid projectiles but still hadn’t been freed from Vlad’s curse.

Meanwhile, massive spears of light and black serpentine flames shot towards him from below. Knowing that both could hurt him, Vlad could only evade or block them with his blood cloud.

“Damn it!”

Vlad raggedly looked downwards at the rogues who tried to attack him: a youth who was holding an unusual staff brimming with mystical powers and a young girl whose body was palpating some divine power.

Moments ago, Vlad had already noticed that those two had fighting power a class above the other humans.

In truth, Gou Dan and his AWM wouldn’t fall short in comparison to their ability to deal burst damage, but he was now hiding amidst the debris of buildings nearby, looking for the best chance to attack. Likewise, Joe was stronger than Edward in close-quarters fighting—the only problem was Vlad who didn’t get the Players a chance to go toe-to-toe with himself, and so Joe the Spirit Swordsman could only give the Nightstalker dirty looks from down below.

Still, after being harassed by the Players whom he saw as ants in every manner ever since he awakened, Vlad became a little serious. But despite assuming that he would crush those ignorant fools in no time at all, he had spent a lot of energy only to kill just a handful…

Feeling as if nothing was going according to his will, Vlad’s blood pressure boiled over. Without thinking, he summoned a few more thunderbolts and launched them at Eleena and Edward who dared to attack him, only to be blocked by Eleena’s sacred shield.

And at virtually the same instant, the weapons of several Holy Lancers positioned elsewhere shone with dazzling radiance, focused and buffed with mana before unleashed as enormous cannon strikes!

Even so, Vlad’s target was only those two humans, and the moment of less than two seconds when his thunderbolts shone to the point that it struck at Eleena’s shield, he had already regained mobility the instant his blood cloud revert to its normal form!

Hence, flapping one of the crystallized blood joints behind him, he easily evaded the Third Seal Release: Range of Truth-even though it was a combined ultimate move that the Players charged for a long time!

Regret and irritation showed on those Players’ faces just then. Even they were aware that the chance for a sneak attack only came once, and it wouldn’t work since Vlad would be careful against it next time.

Still, despite thanking his lucky stars for evading the combine mana cannon blast, Vlad’s own irritation was growing into rage.

To think that he was being forced by ants to such extent, and was almost caught in their trap!

Though he wouldn’t die instantly from a single strike that contained such levels of mana and divine power, he would definitely be critically injured and unable to move freely for some time.

And there were only too many solutions to handle an immobile Nightstalker, the most common of which was sealing him directly…

“All of you had truly exceeded my expectations. Rejoice, I’ve changed my mind!” Fred roared from the skies. “I won’t kill you so easily, because I will torture every last one of you until you die!”

He glared at Edward who was hiding behind a sacred shield and was clearly issuing orders, and a smile appeared for a split second over his face. “Do you think you’re safe just because you’re hiding behind that thing? I could use wind if thunder doesn’t work!”

Hence, like the conductor of a symphony, Vlad spread his hands and gently drew a few strokes in the air. Two massive hurricanes immediately stretched out of the blood clouds behind him, their spiral funnel cutting straight towards Edward and Eleena!

And unlike the thunderbolts, the blood hurricanes were continuous and didn’t immediately fade after hitting Eleena’s sacred shield. It instead gained momentum like a drill, inflicting tons of damage upon the shield.

Within seconds, visible fractures cracked open over the sacred shield.

“I can’t hold it any longer.” Eleena shortly informed Edward about the terrible situation they were in, before stuffing another lollipop into her mouth to recover mana.

“Damn it, I didn’t think that he could regain movement that quickly…” Edward was feeling the setback too.”

He took a deep breath, adjusting his mana and preparing himself mentally-while newbies all relied on the Skill System to unleash their abilities in the simplest way possible, advanced Players had learnt the flow of energies within their own bodies after using their skills over thousands of times, therefore becoming familiar with the structure of the spell that made up the skill (or something like that).

Moreover, most first-rate Players shared the notion that using their own wills to construct and cast their skills instead of relying on the Skill System would make casting quicker, increasing the versatility of the skill itself while also reducing cooldown time.

Edward was naturally one such Player. He had even vaguely felt out the wondrous energy that came from Happy Flames, although it was just a skin-deep feeling for now.

But in this very moment, with the strategy which the Players had staked all they had ending in failure, they could only brace themselves and charge.

Eventually, the two tangled blood hurricanes shattered the sacred shield and advanced towards everyone.

Raising his staff, Edward was ready to cast his spell when he noticed that he was in the center of the hurricanes and could see the horrific walls of gust nearby, but his surroundings were somehow extraordinarily serene.

Could this be the so-called eye of the storm? Edward thought, suddenly remembering an experienced wood elf’s story about hurricanes back in Trinia.

Nonetheless, a dark shadow had appeared before him in the next split second.

Edward didn’t have to see to know who it was

—the pungent scent of blood that hit him in the face and having been attacked by him on close-range before, he knew that the Revived Nightstalker had come for him again!

“Black Dragon H-“

Edward promptly casted his spell, but Vlad was much quicker.

The Nightstalker reached out and seized Edward by the throat, holding his voice in his vocal cords and lifted him into the air.

“You’re the leader here, yes?” Vlad’s lips parted in a harrowing smile, revealing his fangs that were much longer and sharper than that of humans. “I wonder what look would appear on their faces when they realized that their leader has become my blood slave!”