Second World

Although Aubelard's grade had returned to his non-weakened state, his HP and level did not. The health he had lost also remain. His HP was slightly below half at the moment. Yet, the expression on this archaic vampire didn't show any concern. He was still grinning widely.

When his grade returned to Rare Elite, Aubelard emitted a violent shockwave that pushed everyone back. He then floated off the ground.

"Perish before my Perpetual Swords of Death!" Aubelard exclaimed. His figure in the air was like an aloof God disdainfully watching over the lower beings. Seven-runes spell formation was formed swiftly.

Sidney cast her ice spears spell again. The ice spears flew towards the floating Aubelard, but the vampire made no attempt to evade.

A black hole suddenly appeared before him. A sudden burst of sharp energy shot out and cut all the spears before it reached Aubelard.

After that, several of these black holes appeared nearby Aubelard. Everyone looked at the black holes in alarm. Before they could react, each hole shot out the same black sword energy. The sword energies traveled so fast that most of them failed to dodge. They received darkness damage from the sword energies.

Only Ephiltes managed to dodge the sword energy. However, another black hole appeared behind him. He couldn't avoid this time. the black sword energy hit his back and sent him reeling.

The assault didn't stop. Black holes continued to appear and shot out sword energies. Arlcard and the others tried to block and evade as best as they could. But the attacks were unending. They could barely defend themselves, much less go back for the offense. Aubelard's laughter echoed throughout the hall as he watched his opponents struggle for their lives.

Jack was situated further away so none of the black holes appeared near him. But seeing the situation now, he couldn't be happy about him being spared. Once the others were taken out. He would be next.

Jack turned to where Charlene was still lying on the altar. The rune diagram around the altar also served as protection that had kept her from harm from any stray energies. Jack thought about taking her and fled. There was nothing he could do here anyway. But what prevented Aubelard from coming to the surface and taking Charlene away again? Hell, once he no longer think he needed to stay in this town, he might be slaughtering the entire town just to cover his tracks.

No. Defeating Aubelard here was the only chance for this town to survive. Jack decided not to flee. But what could he do? Even the most powerful amongst them, the female mage, Sidney, was struggling to stay alive amongst the sword energies onslaught, she could only use her spells for defense under the circumstances. Ephiltes was the fastest, but even he couldn't continue dodging. Jonathan's HP was down to less than half already, Jack didn't think he can last long.

Arlcard was the only one who received the least damage from the black sword energies. Probably because he had an inherent resistance against the darkness element. But this vampire was too lacking compared to his father. He might possess a promising blood lineage to become a great vampire one day, but it was still too soon for him to go against Aubelard.

Following the thought, Jack remembered something. A strong blood lineage? He fished something out of his bag. It was the Ancient Blood Awakening Potion that could draw the hidden potential of a native vampire.

Jack looked over to Arlcard. He had to get this potion over to the man. He ran forward.

Peniel had been with the group fighting Aubelard. When he saw the native's HP getting lowered to a dangerous level, especially Jonathan, she cast Group Fast Heal, bringing everyone's HP up again.

Aubelard noticed this. He scoffed. "A futile effort, you only delay the inevitable. Still, you need to be punished for that."

A black hole appeared near Peniel. Although she could fly and was fast, the sword energy was faster. It cut through her with deadly precision. Although she didn't have as much defensive stat as Jack, her inherent skill reduced all damage she received by 50%. Her HP dropped to critical but she survived.

A second black sword followed, but Peniel received invulnerability when her HP fell below 30%, allowing her to survive the second sword as well. She quickly retreated into her hidden dimension before her invulnerability ended and the third sword arrived.

'That prick is targeting me, I can't stay in the open!' Peniel said to Jack telepathically.

'It's ok,' Jack replied.

'Hey, why are you approaching? Do you have a death wish?' Peniel asked when he noticed Jack's movement.

'I have a plan,' Jack said.

He was now already within Aubelard's spell's area of effect. A black hole promptly appeared to greet him, but Jack's improved mana sense had sensed it before it appeared. He was even aware of where it was pointing at, thus its trajectory. His footwork honed by the Eight Diagram Illusory State swiftly took him out of harm's way.

Aubelard did not care about a weak outworlder. His spell automatically target any hostiles that came into range. But after Jack dodged the sword energies a few times, Aubelard couldn't help but turn in the outworlder's direction.

He observed as this outworlder dodged one sword energy after another, and frowned. How did this weak outworlder do it? Despite being a powerful native, mana sensing was still a rare ability only a few possessed. That's why Peniel had been so shocked when Domon exhibited the ability.

But even so, what could he do? He was still a dancing ant who couldn't do anything to him. Aubelard removed his attention away. Content to just watch how long these people could endure his skill. With that healing fairy out of the picture, sooner or later they would succumb.

When Jack was close enough to Arlcard, he called out, "Arlcard!"

The young vampire looked back. Slightly annoyed since he was also concentrating on defending against the sword energies.

Jack tossed the Ancient Blood Awakening Potion at him. Arlcard caught the potion reflexively.

"Drink it!" Jack uttered.

Arlcard was not sure what this outworlder was giving him, but the aura from this potion was incredible. He even felt that his vampiric instinct urged him to hurry up drinking the liquid inside this bottle.

Aubelard who had ignored Jack, turned his attention back after Jack tossed the potion. He was wondering what the outworlder was up to. His attention then fell on the bottle in Arlcard's hand. His eyes opened wide in shock. Unlike Arlcard, Aubelard had lived amongst the elites in the Sangrod Empire, so he recognized the potion.

Arlcard had opened the bottle and was about to drink it.

"Don't even think about it!" Aubelard exclaimed. Since the start of the fight, this was the first time he adopted a serious expression. He made a gripping motion, all the black holes that were still harassing everyone vanished. Following the disappearances, a large black hole appeared in front of Arlcard.

Jack could sense the mana accumulating from that black hole, it sent his hair raising. Although Arlcard didn't have mana sense ability, the vampire could also feel the danger this large black hole exuded. Aubelard had executed the finishing move of his Perpetual Swords of Death, which combined all the darkness energy to unleash a final killing move. If hit, this attack could kill almost anyone, similar to the Soul Annihilator skill he had used before on Harper.

Jack made a split decision and said to Peniel, "Peniel, come out! Give me Invulnerability."

Peniel didn't hesitate, she came out of her hidden dimension and cast her spell.

Arlcard knew that he could not evade Aubelard's attack, so he decided to just proceed and drink the potion. If it was enough to make Aubelard take action, that's mean this potion was not simple. He just hoped he could survive Aubelard's attack.

When the black hole exploded though, he knew such thought was wishful thinking. He never felt such overwhelming darkness energy before. Then another thing took him by surprise. The weak outworlder suddenly put his body in front of him, shielding him.

Arlcard sighed inwardly. This outworlder was too weak, his body would simply be destroyed by the dark energy in an instant and that energy would still hit him.

However, a second had past and the outworlder still stood in front of him. The raging dark energy slammed onto him but he didn't budge.

Arlcard finally emptied the bottle just as the darkness energy dissipated. The outworlder was still standing in front of him.

Jack, who had put himself in harm's way, had his heart beating like crazy throughout the bombardment. He felt as if the force from that tremendous sword energy was enough to cut him to pieces hundreds of times over, but when his surroundings calmed down, he found himself was still standing there.

"This invulnerability rocks!" He exclaimed.

He heard a crashing sound from behind. He looked back and saw broken bottle pieces on the ground.. Arlcard was clutching his chest.