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War is like a constant reminder of one’s own mortality. You might think it’s only the frontline soldiers who deal with such truths, but surprisingly, the death rate of ordinary infantry isn’t as high as one might expect. Of course, due to the nature of official tactical manuals, the orcs’ death rate has surpassed the expected level in guerrilla warfare.

However, regular soldiers of the Empire cannot fight in that way. Instead, it’s often the mid-level commanders from noble lineages who suffer casualties. Powerful foes tend to attract even more powerful adversaries. No one is safe from the encroaching specter of death.

Dracula contemplated this as he caught the gaze of Jeongjae, who was sizing him up. To ordinary soldiers, he might seem like an avatar of death, but against such formidable enemies, he too was no different than a mortal resisting death.

Both Jeongjae and Dracula raised their hands simultaneously. Without the time to unfold a magic circle, they used repulsion magic to push each other away.

Jeongjae barely managed to take a few steps back, while Dracula leapt into the air, needing to step on the void itself. Jenis’s magic circle was threatening him from all directions.

If it were just facing Van Helsing, momentarily falling prey to a binding spell wouldn’t be too problematic. This, however, was a fight with ‘real’ opponents. When facing a skilled battle wizard, even a momentary lapse could lead to catastrophic consequences.

“Please refrain from destructive actions. Most of the homes around here have people hiding inside, waiting for the situation to settle.”

Count Harker, giving up on stopping Jeongjae, spoke in a calm voice. Jeongjae nodded after observing the sturdy protective spells laid over the houses.

“Indeed, we must be cautious. Though protections are in place, a small mistake could lead to entire buildings being blown away.”

The defensive spells that Jenis had put in place were strong in her own right, yet they appeared fragile enough to crumble with just a slight miscalculation when viewed by Jeongjae.

“Even a mistake wouldn’t make anyone want to become a killer, right?”

“That’s the last thing I’d want. I understand what you’re saying. It’ll be tough to engage from a distance.”

If Jeongjae had Jenis’s traps as his greatest advantage, Dracula’s primary asset was the scattered homes in the territory. It seemed Dracula had decided early on to utilize the buildings, scheming for ambush tactics in the urban environment.

In such a case, it would be inconceivable for Jeongjae to fire powerful long-range mana beams, like ‘Star’s Flash,’ towards Dracula. Though the mana rays originating from the outpost were designed by Jenis to miss and be absorbed by the defensive magic even if they struck a building, Jeongjae’s attack as an outsider couldn’t be applied so conveniently.

Not only ‘Star’s Flash’ but also the weakened and modified ‘Takin,’ the ‘Lightning of Blazing Fire,’ and even simple mana arrow attacks could pose a danger. Dracula feared falling into a binding spell, so he couldn’t afford to carelessly dismantle any of the buildings’ protective spells.

However, if Jeongjae were to make a small mistake that caused a protective measure on a building to deactivate, it wouldn’t be a certainty that he’d miss the opportunity. What if the vampire lord rashly broke into an uninvited home, taking the entire family hostage and holding them as leverage?

Even if they were demon lords, would someone of noble stature stoop so low? Jeongjae understood how far the leaders of the Demon King’s Army could be conniving. It didn’t just have to be Dracula; if the Demon King himself wanted it, he could easily resort to hostage situations or worse at any time.

Leaving any chance for error would be perilous. Jeongjae needed to pinpoint Dracula’s location, close in, and attack from up close. Though his force had mostly been at the rear during his adventuring party’s activities, he wasn’t going to fuss over those small discomforts now.

Park Jeongjae reinforced his own body with enhancing spells and dove into the residential area searching for the vanished Dracula.

His heightened senses from the spell allowed him to detect tension and trembling through the walls.

While he couldn’t interpret everything exactly, one thing was clear. They, whoever they were, were simply hoping for this situation to end, no matter the cost.

What they desired was for anyone involved in this fight to leave this place. Their personal grievances or the righteousness of the war meant little; they just wanted this horror before them to vanish.

As faint whispers echoed from within the houses, and the shaking, frightened breaths of those huddled against the walls filled his ears, Jeongjae realized that he, too, was someone who could bring great devastation to this land—like Dracula.

For a moment, Jeongjae felt his mind go blank. He experienced an instantaneous emotional shift, but whether it was about losing his sanity or regaining a grip on it, it was hard to define in one term.

Just then, Dracula burst forth from the gap between the buildings and launched black lightning at Jeongjae. Having failed to prepare defensive spells in time, Jeongjae hastily lifted his robe to block the attack, but Dracula’s strike left a small hole in his garment and a sharp sting on his face.

As Jeongjae was about to retaliate, flicking his cloak toward Dracula, the vampire lord swiftly ducked back into the buildings to avoid any foolish counterattacks.

Jeongjae chased after Dracula with both hands adorned with magic circles while zooming forward, but as a master of stealth and evasion, Dracula was already an expert in slipping away among the homes.

Dracula had spent years fleeing, hiding from, and countering skilled vampire hunters. No matter how talented Jeongjae was, he lacked the absolute experience that would provide an even footing in a night-time game of tag.

Just as Jeongjae rounded the corner of a building trying to catch Dracula, the vampire lord preempted him, dashing out from an alley and unleashing repulsion magic at him.

Jeongjae once again failed to respond adequately and was sent flying backward from the ambush. Frustrated after being hit for the second time, he decided to load a mana arrow and thought fiercely about landing a hit, but by the time he came to, Dracula was already gone.

“You batty bastard…”

“Actually, you’re the one acting like the bat.”

At that moment, Dracula, who had been hiding behind him with transformation magic, re-assumed human form and locked Jeongjae in a headlock.

The vampire lord revealed his tremendous arm strength, hanging off Jeongjae like a cicada as he squeezed around his neck. Even a regular human, or even a bull, would have likely had their neck snapped from this force, but Jeongjae had already prepared enhancement magic for such scenarios and had his robe’s protection intact.

Jeongjae gripped Dracula’s arm tightly and sent a massive current of lightning magic surging through it.

“Grrraah!”

Feeling the surge of lightning coursing through him, Dracula released his hold and fell back. Seizing the opportunity, Jeongjae struck him square in the face with his magically reinforced fist.

There was a loud crack as Dracula’s prominent nose broke under the force of the blow. The vampire lord’s nose twisted gruesomely to the side, far from his previously refined appearance.

Strangely enough, as one would expect blood to flow from such a shock, it did not. Jeongjae felt as if he had smashed a well-crafted mannequin.

“Stay right there.”

Jeongjae pointed at Dracula with his finger, who merely tilted his head in response.

“Do you think I would listen to that?”

“I’m not talking to you, idiot.”

At that moment, the magic circle belonging to Jenis beneath Dracula stretched out and grabbed both of his ankles. Realizing what was happening, Dracula tried to break free just as Jeongjae lunged forward and delivered a powerful punch to his abdomen.

The sickening crack echoed from his waist as something snapped ominously, but judging by how Dracula managed to maintain his stance, it seemed his spine hadn’t broken after all.

Having just delivered that crushing blow, Jeongjae hurriedly re-cast the body enhancement spell on himself while Dracula hastily transformed into a bat and soared into hiding among the other homes.

Jeongjae, sporting a vexed expression, slammed his hand against the ground.

“Show me where that bastard is.”

Only after this ruckus did Jeongjae fully comprehend the defensive mechanisms in place here. It seemed the reason for his initial confusion was that he hadn’t considered that Jenis’s fortress plan had actually been enacted.

Jeongjae knew that Jenis had contributed significantly to the defense of this territory. However, the system of defensive magic circles laid throughout the area was terribly intricate and wouldn’t just appear without considerable focus from anyone with a normal amount of time on their hands.

Finally, Jeongjae came to realize that the binding magic circles on the ground not only had the ability to trace dark mana but were interconnected, allowing him to deduce the enemy’s position from afar.

As Jeongjae commanded the magic circles, they lit up here and there in a bid to capture Dracula, emitting flashes of blue light. Jeongjae scanned around, watching the flickering lights as they interacted with one another like the grand reveal of answers in a quiz show.

“I feel like I’ve seen this kind of setup somewhere…”

He observed this strange feeling, pondering that perhaps Jenis was fascinated by those mechanisms because they bore a strong resemblance to his own concepts.

He couldn’t linger in thought for too long. The magic circle managed to pinpoint Dracula’s location, and beams of light converged, vividly illuminating the image of a bat flying through the air.

From Jeongjae’s perspective, Dracula was much higher up, so firing the light beams from this position posed almost no risk of damaging the homes below.

Determined not to waste this once-in-a-lifetime chance, Jeongjae raised one hand and formed a green mana sphere.

“The Icy Cuber Crystal shimmers in green.”

Jeongjae chanted his spell. What he held in his hand was nothing but a green magic sphere, not an actual mineral from ‘Star Wars’.

“Takin!”

With Jeongjae’s incantation, a thin green ray shot off towards the bat.

Naturally, Dracula attempted to evade in the air, but the ray bent in mid-flight and struck him directly on the wing.

Changing the trajectory of a launched magical attack so rapidly isn’t something an ordinary human could accomplish. In fact, very few beings in the continent’s history could perform such feats.

With a large hole punctured in his wing, Dracula began plummeting toward the ground. Jeongjae activated binding magic circles at the predicted landing zone of Dracula’s fall.

As the tendrils began to emerge, Jeongjae vaulted into the air with enhanced strength, the instinct that the real Dracula’s neck was about to be within reach igniting his mind with clarity sharper than ever.

Yet his body wouldn’t respond.

“Uh…!”

Jeongjae let out a foolish sound as he slipped off the roof. He tried to regain his balance, but it wouldn’t hold. His muscles were unresponsive. His body refused to move.

He briefly suspected some sort of curse, but there was no sign of the curse eroding his form. It wasn’t a special psychic magic either.

It truly wasn’t an act. Jeongjae recognized this feeling. It was similar to once, during his graduate school days, staying awake day and night crafting his thesis.

His mental resolve propped up by caffeine was held captive by a body that couldn’t rally the same source of fuel. His mind was clear, but he couldn’t move, causing him to effectively shut down.

He had overworked himself. The moment Jenis had vanished, he’d lacked restraint in his recent endeavors. The student who had once cast sleeping spells on him in the night disappeared, leaving him awake, even when he had time to rest.

And when his mind was most fired up, Jeongjae’s body ultimately stopped functioning to preserve itself. The mana’s power, which he had forcibly moved through his body, couldn’t bear the burden exerted by his body enhancement.

Jeongjae muttered profanities as he plummeted toward the ground.

“F*ck this…”

It was profanity laden with various meanings. The Baron Harriet, who crashed headfirst into the ground, crumpled and lost consciousness.

 

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