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“Archers, reload! Fire!”

At the command of the armored Baron-level commander, dozens of arrows shot up into the sky. Behind a barricade made of tangled wooden stakes, around fifty heavily armored infantrymen pushed forward with their spears, blocking the path, while another fifty archers shot arrows from behind the infantry.

The war in the South had begun. Faced with a simultaneous invasion by Dracula without any declaration of war or warning, the lords of the Southern Region could only raise the sky-blue flags of alliance and hope for support from the nobility around them.

The vampires flew in once again. There were only five of them. Although the allied forces had roughly twenty times more soldiers, the situation of the Baron’s army, which had to guard the path and shoot arrows at the enemy capable of flying over them at any moment, was certainly unfavorable.

The reason that the Baron himself had to come to the frontlines, swinging his sword and giving orders, was not only because these hundred heroes were the total force he could barely gather but also because, if the Baron did not come out to draw attention, it was likely that the vampires would simply pass over this troop and directly assault the Baron Territory.

“They’re coming, they’re coming, they’re coming!”

“Stop screaming and just stab, damn it!”

“The spear tips need to hit, for crying out loud!”

“Reload, fire again–”

The Baron’s attempts to issue a sniping order against the approaching vampires were thwarted when the head flew clean off, severed by the claws of a vampire soldier.

In an instant, the life of the lord who governed a certain Baron Territory came to an end. However, just as a Baron has nobility in his honor, even a regular soldier has pride as a soldier. The fact that the commander had died did not disrupt the formation of the soldiers guarding the path, nor did it make them retreat.

While the vampire who had beheaded the Baron bragged, shaking the noble’s head, the fifty archers pulled their bowstrings and, without any command, simultaneously released their arrows towards the sky.

“Give us the Baron’s head!”

“If we can’t even recover the head of our lord who fell honorably in battle, we have no face to see our friends in the North!”

The arrows shot up by the archers with their own determination struck the vampire’s body with surprising accuracy, forcing it to drop the lord’s head as it let out a painful scream and slowly descended, flapping its wings.

“Something’s wrong! The commander is dead, so why are we feeling so uplifted?”

“Let’s go!”

At that moment, one brave spearmen managed to pierce the descending vampire’s neck with his spear. The foolish vampire fell dead right there, and the soldier who succeeded in avenging the lord hoisted the vampire’s corpse high and shouted.

“We killed a vampire! Hey guys! We killed a vampire!”

“Good job! We can do this!”

“Just four more to take care of, and it’s over!”

“Reload the arrows! Let’s wipe them all out with this momentum!”

Once again, dozens of arrows soared up into the sky, but unfortunately, this time not a single arrow struck the enemy. The four vampires twisted and darted around in the air, evading the arrows while whispering among themselves.

“Since we’ve killed the lord, isn’t that fulfilling our lord’s mission?”

“Our lord said that humans are a foolish race; if we just cut off their heads, the rest will collapse on their own. They haven’t collapsed yet, so it’s not over.”

“Then there’s no need to tire ourselves out here; let’s just fly over directly and burn down the territory…”

“How easy would that be? Look at the morale of those humans. Even if we flew over to the territory, they’d be armed and prepared to fight, using walls and buildings as shields. It’d be better to slaughter them all, take them into our clan, and storm in; the territory would be scorched in no time.”

“That’s a good idea. Let’s do that.”

Dracula struck with black lightning in the center of the Southern Region, proclaiming an undeclared war, and Count Harker responded by sending word throughout the South to gather the alliance, marking the start of the great war in the Southern Region, known as the “Second Campaign,” which had already lasted a week.

Compared to the “First Campaign,” where the imperial army clashed with the forces of countless orcs in the north, this Southern theater, no matter how large the battle, seemed modest with only hundreds of allied soldiers facing dozens of vampires. Yet, its importance and the intensity of the fighting were by no means inferior to the Northern Expeditionary Force.

Already, one Baron Territory and one Count Territory had been almost laid waste by the vampire attacks. The Harker Clan, which had served as the noble’s vassals, opened their gates wide to welcome the refugees fleeing beneath the alliance’s flag, while reconstituting the scattered soldiers into their military forces.

The allied forces were igniting their spirits through various means and slowly starting to establish a system, but the chaos in the command structure, unable to shed the appearance of being affiliated with each local territory, was leading to significant casualties, even against a few vampires.

Arthur Harker, the leader of the allied forces, faced the daunting task of cohesively organizing his troops into a single force while cleverly overcoming the imminent battles.

He was shouldering a burden comparable to Walter’s mission of successfully leading the Northern Expedition while coordinating political and economic issues.

“I’m seeing the alliance flag over there!”

One soldier, who had been desperately wielding his spear against the heavens, noticed the sky-blue flag appearing in the distance and shouted. The flag of the soldiers guarding the path had already been lowered with the lord’s death.

In the despair and fear of ‘Now it’s just us,’ the soldiers, who had been clinging to their weapons, found solace in just that single flag like a thousand armies.

The vampires, who were gradually tiring from flapping their wings, also noticed the appearance of the alliance flag from the side and turned their heads, showing interest.

“Support from the nearby territories?”

“Pfft, it’s probably just a few dozens, maybe just over a hundred. If we focus on this side–”

Then, a flash of white light burst forth.

The light of the holy power that had flown from afar pierced through the darkness beneath the storm clouds, striking one of the vampires in midair. The vampires, staring dumbfounded at their companion who had fallen dead with a hole in its body, quickly caught on to the situation and hurriedly lowered their altitude to land.

The Harker army had arrived. Count Arthur Harker, known as the “Vampire Hunter,” was personally leading the reinforcements.

The allied soldiers, who had never seen Arthur Harker’s cross pendant, were slower to comprehend the situation, but when the blue-backgrounded white-cross flag emerged behind the alliance’s sky-blue flag, they understood everything and began to cheer.

“The lord has come personally! Now we are alive!”

“It’s Harker! Reinforcements from the Harker Clan!”

As the flags drew closer, the figure of Count Harker, holding up the cross pendant to the heavens, became increasingly clear. Leading an impressive cavalry of a hundred, equipped with bows and spears, the skilled cavalrymen advanced.

Even under the dark clouds and Dracula’s protection, the vampires found it hard to contend with that kind of strength. They began to prepare to slip away quietly, unsure of whether to fly up to the sky.

If they gained altitude, Harker’s holy power beams would surely rain down. Although it was well known that only Jeongjae Park and Jeminia were the two mages in the South, it was recently revealed that Arthur Harker’s cross pendant wielded power similar to that of the Hero’s holy sword.

In the end, the vampires decided to run on foot. Blocking their way were none other than the allied infantrymen who had burst through the barricade themselves.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

“Let’s avenge our lord! Let’s kill them all!”

As the heavily armored soldiers swung their spears fiercely, arrows from the archers poured down behind them. Without the ability to fly, the vampires were unable to evade the dozens of incoming arrows, turning into a pincushion and collapsing to the ground. Two vampires were stabbed and killed by the soldiers’ spears right then and there, and the remaining one barely managed to escape, only to be struck down by arrows from the reinforcements led by Harker.

The soldiers confirmed their victory by raising their weapons and cheering, and Count Harker, after confirming there were no more vampires around, dismounted and approached the Baron’s soldiers.

A few soldiers had been wounded and were bleeding, but no particularly life-threatening injuries were visible. After ordering one of the soldiers he brought with him to tend to the injured, Harker grabbed a soldier and asked.

“Where is Baron Polsense? I wish to speak with him. Is he defending the Baron Territory?”

“No, we are the entirety of Baron Polsense’s forces; the Baron fought alongside us.”

“I know his face, but I don’t see him among you.”

“That’s because the Baron is currently here with us.”

The soldier, trembling, raised his shaking hand to present the lord’s head to the count. The reason Arthur Harker could not find the Baron’s corpse at first glance was that the vampires had hidden the body carefully among their ranks to prevent further desecration.

After receiving the Baron’s head, Count Harker discovered the rest of his body intact and wore a solemn expression as he returned the head to the soldier.

“It appears that only the Baron has died.”

“It seems he was targeted from the start.”

“A noble death. Had he not come to fight himself, the vampires would have simply passed by and directly attacked the territory. Such a courageous and wise man, to take so many valuable lives in war.”

Harker remounted his horse again and surveyed the soldiers of Baron Polsense.

“Now, who is your lord? Is there a successor to the Baron?”

“Currently, the heir of our clan is serving as a knight in the imperial army, so for now, the responsibility of the territory would naturally fall upon…”

“In that case, raise the Harker Clan’s flag.”

Count Harker issued a clear order.

“Recover the Baron’s body, hold a funeral, and then come to bear the flag of the alliance to Harker Count Territory. Right now, I’m in the process of gathering the scattered allied forces in the South to face the enemy, and if you have no commander, I will step in for that role.”

The soldiers hesitated, looking at one another for a moment. After all, they were also affiliated with a noble clan. There was no small reluctance to think of arbitrarily changing their clan’s flag.

But who was the person standing before them? Although they had joined under the name of the Audrich Empire, he was the great hero and a noble who truly united the so-called divided Southern Region.

Everyone knew that the Polsense Baron Territory was effectively economically subordinate to Count Harker, and very few were unaware of how hard Arthur Harker was fighting in this war that had only started a week ago.

In the end, realizing they had no better option, the soldiers shouted in unison.

“We will obey the Count’s order!”

“Good. Then let’s get moving. We’re heading West this time.”

Count Harker, as if there was no time to waste, quickly commanded his subordinates. One of the cavalrymen asked the count.

“Since we just won the battle, where are we heading next, Count?”

“To another battlefield. Until our army is properly assembled, we have no other place to rely on than the Harker flag.”

“I knew it wouldn’t be easy to follow you, Count…”

“Are you regretting it? If you regret it, I can send you back to the Northern Expeditionary Force right now.”

The count spoke as if joking. The cavalryman shivered and shook his head.

“I heard the Northern Expeditionary Force is as bloated as ever. I’d rather stick with you, Count!”

“Then stop complaining and follow! Be prepared for at least one more battle today!”

The count, who hadn’t even donned his armor properly, was already dashing westward at the front. The absolute rule that had been maintained for ten years, that is, ‘the chaotic North and the peaceful South,’ was crumbling.

Many believed that this was the prelude to an unending quagmire of war, but few thought differently.

The rapid change of the battlefield. There were those who believed this was a signal that the war would soon reach its conclusion.

 

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