kscans

Chapter 59 - Learning How to Fight from the Enemy

"Listen up. We high-ranking vampires are made mostly of magic. In other words, we ourselves are like magic."

Kongoul, the mysterious vampire who had suddenly attacked during my founding ceremony, was now, through a strange turn of events, teaching me how to fight like a vampire. Seriously, what a bizarre development.

"Uh-huh."

"Not 'uh-huh,' it's 'yes.'"

"Yes."

Kongoul seems to be surprisingly strict about manners.

"What that means is, we can use magic without rituals or incantations like humans do."

Right, I learned that from the vampire teacher at the castle.

"Our way of fighting is far more free than humans can imagine. We can magically replicate anything we can think of. We're omnipotent. We can even do things like grow back an arm, like I just did. In other words, a vampire's battle is a battle of imagination—who can out-imagine the other."

"Out-imagine the other..."

"That's right. In human terms, it's something like this."

He then created the magic arrows that the humans I fought before had used, but without an incantation.

"And when a human tries to create a powerful spell..."

With a pop, magic arrows of different sizes and in great quantities were created.

"This is the limit for a typical human. It's because of their limited magic and lack of control. But we don't need to control magic, and our magic power easily surpasses that of several thousand ordinary humans. The higher a vampire's rank, the higher their magic limit becomes, and if they store a large amount of high-quality blood, they become even stronger."

"Whoa, we have that much magic power?"

"You should at least know that much."

"I thought I had a good grasp of my own strength from fighting monsters and humans."

"Measuring yourself against small fry will only narrow your own potential. If you want to know your limits, fight someone stronger than you."

"But if I die doing that, it's all over."

"You idiot, we're vampires. As long as we're not turned to ash by sunlight, we can recover from being torn to pieces. If you're facing an opponent you can't possibly beat, you can play dead and put yourself back together later, or use teleportation magic to escape. There are plenty of ways."

"Teleportation magic!? That exists!?"

Seriously!? I can use stuff like teleportation or an anywhere door!?

"Ah, don't use spatial teleportation carelessly. You could end up in a weird place and never be able to come back. If you're going to practice, do it within a short distance, within your line of sight. And in your case, you need to be able to properly use your power before you even think about it."

"Okaaaay."

"It's 'yes.' Don't drag it out."

"Yes."

This guy is really strict about manners. He looks like a monster, but he's surprisingly caring, or rather, has a strong senior mentality.

"That's about it. After this, just keep fighting and experimenting, and train yourself to instantly create an image that surpasses your opponent's. Remember, in a battle between us vampires, the one with the stronger image wins. Shape an image that surpasses your opponent's!!"

"Understood, Professor!"

"Hmph."

I see. It seems our vampire abilities are far more versatile than I thought. But come to think of it, the very image of a vampire—turning into mist, turning into a bat, flying, having incredible power—is already pretty over-the-top and lawless.

"Alright, let's fight."

"Eh?"

"Eh?"

Wait, wait, why are you suggesting we fight in this atmosphere?

"Isn't this the part where you say, 'Well, I'm not in the mood to fight anymore today, so I'm heading home'?"

"Why would I say that? I taught you how to use your power so we could fight."

What a disaster. I can't believe there was such a huge misunderstanding between us!

"Shouldn't a master dote on their student!?"

"A student should challenge their master to surpass them, shouldn't they!?"

How violent!

"I just want to live a lazy, peaceful life holed up in my territory."

"No, you can't say that after making such a flashy scene fighting humans. You're getting a lot of attention, you know."

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Well, yeah. I kind of thought so myself. I intended to just invade a remote town, but before I knew it, it had become a nationwide incident, and now it's escalated into a major conflict involving several countries.

"No, that was the fault of the humans who were driven by greed! Lust for power is not good!"

"It's because you stimulated that greed in those humans. If you want to live quietly, you should have taken over a remote village or something and slowly built up your power over time. Suddenly conquering a town just makes it look like you're itching for a war."

"R-Really...?"

"You're a real disappointment, you know that?"

Stop it! Don't look at me with those pitiful eyes, like you're looking at some pathetic creature!

"Well, that's how it is. You made such a flashy debut as a vampire. If you want to survive from now on, you'll have to be able to at least take me down!"

Stop it! Stop talking about me like I'm some cringe kid who failed their middle school debut!

"Kuh! I'll do it! I'll do it! I'll shut that mouth of yours with force!"

"Hah-hah! That's what I'm talking about! Now this is getting fun!"

Before he can completely destroy my mental state, I'm going to shut him up with force! He himself said that a student can beat their master with force, so I won't let him complain!

"Here I come!"

"Bring it on!"

And so, the curtain rose on the great battle between vampires, which would later be known as the Calamity of the Continent-Splitting Thunder and Fire.