531 Chapter 531: A Bloody Battle (1/2)

Covering Rossetti, I slashed a vampire that was aiming for her back, and then ducked under the claws of another vampire that flanked me. I slammed my elbow into his solar plexus to throw him off. Behind me, Rossetti cut through another vampire with her flaming chakrams before they could exploit the gap in my defenses. With my swords, I scythed down another vampire that was aiming for my partner, and then spun around to avoid getting stabbed through the chest by his comrade. Lashing out with one of my swords, I sent him toppling over in a spray of blood.

”Gah!”

The vampire somehow managed to crawl back to his feet despite the grievous injury. It seemed that their blood magic made them incredibly resilient. Already, his wound was closing up and clotting, his high-speed regeneration making the fatal injury seem like an illusion. Despite the whirlwind of destruction that both Rossetti and I created with our weapons, there were far too many vampires for us to fight on our own. And that was after including Kufa as our reinforcement.

Fortunately, my strength lay not in swordsmanship but in summoning. What, did you already forget the title of this story?

”Vermillion Phoenix!”

The majestic vermillion bird materialized for the second time that night, spreading his wings and illuminating the darkness with his crimson flames. I had absorbed Rossetti's mana that trailed with her use of the Heavenly Phoenix Kagura Dance to reduce the casting time for my Celestial Guardian. A summoning spell that normally required five minutes to cast had been cut down to two minutes because of Rossetti's spell.

Before readers could demand that I learn the Heavenly Phoenix Kagura Dance to speed up my summoning spells, that wasn't how it worked. Number one, the dance was used for one's party members or teammates – you couldn't use it on yourself. Number two, if I devoted all that time learning dance and buff magic, I wouldn't have been able to learn summoning magic. Rossetti had invested years of practice and efforts into mastering her maiden magic. Also, you might as well ask why Rossetti didn't learn summoning magic since her magic sort of buffed that.

By the way, Rossetti's dance magic didn't just buff summoning magic. It buffed everyone's magic, whether it was attack or defense or whatever spells.

In any event, this was why summoning magic and dance magic were team-orientated magic. The only difference was that people usually didn't like summoners because they spent an awful amount of time hiding in the back and doing nothing, relying on the others to keep them safe while they cast their spells, whereas for dancers, they were already casting their maiden magic right from the start, fighting on the frontlines with everyone else while buffing them immediately.

However, when you combined summoning magic with dancing magic…

”Whoa!”

The vampires stumbled back, with so many of their number instantly incinerated by the inferno that Vermillion Phoenix had unleashed upon them. Despite their incredible resilience and high-speed regeneration, there was little the vampires could do when they were completely burned into ashes by superheated flames. No blood magic was going to restore them from ashes or nothingness.

”Aaaaaah!”

”It burns! It burns!!! Ugh!”

”Run away!”

The surviving vampires' nerve broke and they fled. However, none of them were able to get very far because Vermillion Phoenix simply flapped one of his wings and sent a torrent of crimson flames hurtling after them. Despite their speed, the running vampires simply could not outrun the speeding trails of fire which resembled rockets. Caught by the superheated flames, they were disintegrated by the sheer heat, with no trace of them left after the ravenous inferno devoured them.

”Serves them right.”

Beside me, Rossetti slowly brought her Kagura dance to a stop, her chakrams lowered. She watched the demise of the fleeing vampires in satisfaction, a cold expression on her usually friendly face. Apparently she had been haunted by the massacres she had witnessed tonight, and she couldn't help but want venganec for her slaughtered schoolmates.

”You guys didn't leave anything for me again!” Kufa complained when he finally caught up. He had been dueling a trio of vampires with his katana, only to jump back when Vermillion Phoenix burned his opponents into cinders. Of course, I had ensured that we didn't commit friendly fire. ”You could have left a few for me!”

”It's your fault for being too slow,” I replied playfully. Kufa scowled and shook his head in resignation.

”H…how?!”

I glanced down and spotted a spluttering and struggling vampire, who was scorched black. His high-speed regeneration wasn't working because the damage done to him had been too extensive. He wasn't going to survive the horrendous injuries that my Vermillion Phoenix had inflicted on him. Nonetheless, I was impressed that he had managed to survive. Vampires really were tenacious.

Speaking of which, it was fortunate that none of the adult vampires were here, or they would have butchered my Vermillion Phoenix in short order. I still remembered that burly vampire swatting away my Celestial Guardians as if they were nothing.

”Still, it seems that fire magic is super-effective against vampires. They burn really easily.”

”Wait, you mean you didn't realize that until now?” Rossetti was staring at me in astonishment. ”Vampires are weak against fire and holy magic.”

”So that was why you were using fire spells all this while.” I nodded. ”Honestly, I did read about that. I was just amazed to see it in reality. Their effectiveness exceeded my expectations.”

”Actually, it's because your fire-type soul beast is disgustingly powerful,” Kufa corrected. He stared at my Vermillion Phoenix in awe. ”I don't know what you've been feeding it, but normal fire spells wouldn't be this destructive, even against vampires.”

”I didn't feed him anything,” I grumbled. ”My Celestial Guardians and Constellation spirits don't need to eat. And even if they could, I wouldn't be feeding them vampires.”