Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 438 438: Hold your ground!

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The terrain around Anton Orlock's Manor had always offered it some nice defenses in the form of hills. Hell, if it weren't for the ability of flight possessed by powerful Mages/Mage-knights and the Manor's own tall walls, Anton might not have needed illusory formations to hide it away.

It was atop one of those hills that Alexia stood with Arlette by her side as they looked down at the Manor as its walls crumbled due to explosive charges. As an accomplished Alchemist in her own right, Alexia always had a good many alchemical products on hand for such cases as this.

"Yes," Alexia said as even from being this far away, she could still see the Manor and observe it as clearly as if she were right in front of it,

"Expose those bloodsuckers to the glorious rays of the sun."

She had considered lobbing the explosive charges from a distance. However, after due observation revealed that the Vampires hiding within had no one above ground keeping watch, she had a few Hellsingers plant the explosives and set them off instead.

"You found this quickly," Arlette said by Alexia's side. Caius had told her where Brogan was hiding but as she had never been here and he hadn't told her how to find it, that didn't really help.

"It helped that I have his personal effects," Alexia said.

If she had relied just on the feel of Brogan's aura, it would have taken much longer and she might have lost the 'scent' in the process. Fortunately, the arm she took from Brogan was equipped with his Moonstone Ring and his storage ring.

Alexia had searched Brogan's storage ring, and he had been smart not to leave anything in it that would reveal his location. However, locations have an energy—a scent—to them that the Von Helsing Hunter senses are very sensitive to.

Brogan's ring had scents from various locations, a lot of the recent ones were from the Capital but there was one—one visited as recently as the Capital—that was from a bit of a way off.

There was a bit more deductive reasoning involved and some discarding of locations' scents that seemed to only be distracting from the goal until finally, Alexia decided on her. Since she arrived with Arlette and the Hellsingers, Alexia had become convinced she was right.

She could smell it. Brogan was here.

Someone stumbled over from among the Hellsingers that hadn't been sent down to the Manor to plant explosive charges.

"This— This is it!" Gareth said with fervor and his fists clenched.

Alexia furrowed her brows.

"What are you talking about, Hellsinger?"

Gareth was so locked into glaring at the Manor, he didn't look at Alexia. But he did answer her question.

"This is the Manor where Young Master Caius was found."

"Found? When?" Alexia asked.

"When he was kidnapped by a Vampire Lord months ago," Gareth said like he was in a trance,

"I wasn't with the rescue team. Not only had I failed to protect the young Lord and gotten knocked out, but only the highest-tier Hellsingers followed Lord Lucian to get him back.

But I heard all about it; A secluded terrain out of the Capital, with a Manor built with black stones."

Arlette looked between Gareth and Alexia and then spoke up.

"It could very well be a coincidence. You said it yourself, you weren't part of the rescue team."

Gareth's eyes remained trance-like as he mumbled.

"A coincidence? Perhaps. Still, what are the chances that there are two Manors built alike, located in similar sounding regions and both just happen to be hideouts for Vampires…"

Alexia frowned.

This was the first she had heard of Caius's kidnapping and it had her mind moving in a tangent of thoughts like there was a connection to be found between that kidnapping case and this one but she just hadn't figured it out yet.

Arlette frowned. She could practically see the gears in Alexia's head turning in ways they should not and arriving at conclusions they should not. So she looked over at the Manor destruction happening ahead and said,

"They've breached the first layer."

That pulled Alexia out of her thoughts and now she heard the cries of tens of vampires burning in the rays of the setting sun.

Gareth shook his head as well. Looking like he was coming out of the trance, he squared his jaw and stood at attention.

"We await your orders, My Lady."

Alexia cleared her throat then. That tangent would have to wait.

"Yes," she said, "Charge."

The word was said in a normal tone but heard clearly by all and carried by them in fervor as they cried as one with Gareth's voice loudest of all.

"CHARGE!!!"

In a roar and chorus, hundreds of Hellsingers poured down toward the destroyed Manor and at the opening in the ground that revealed a wide entrance into the underground hideout.

The ones closest to the hole were the Hellsingers who had been responsible for placing the explosive charges and bringing the Manor down and when they heard the order to 'Charge' they stormed the opening in the ground first, only to be met with magical shields, erected by the vampires within the hideout for defense.

Weapons and spells clashed with the shields, trying to break through with Arlette and Alexia watching it all from the Hill.

"They've been locked out," Arlette observed.

"Brogan is trying to buy time till nightfall," Alexia said with a frown.

She had various hunting tools and means at her disposal but to use them now, with the enemy securely underground seemed like a waste. They needed to shatter the magical shield first.

The first crack appeared on the shield and Gareth, who had arrived with the rest of the Hellsingers saw this and grinned.

"Keep at it! We're almost through!" He yelled, falling into the role of de facto Lieutenant to Alexia.

Alexia didn't mind. She liked his fervor. And he seemed to have experience leading operations.

But right when the cracks seemed too much and the shield appeared close to shattering, Arcane formations appeared on the ground and with the sound of the rushing wave of an ocean, conjured water swarmed in a circular wall that slammed into every Hellsinger and pushed them tens of meters away from the hole in the ground.

"Hold your ground!" Gareth cried out as he stabbed his sword into the ground to allow himself support to not be pushed away.

The water wet the ground and then pulled away from the Hellsingers, pooling together in sections to create monstrous figures with misshapen heads that wobbled. The monsters looked humanoid from the waist up, wielding weapons made of the water that made up their bodies. And then, from the waist down, they each had eight tentacles that slithered and pulsated on the ground nauseatingly.

The monsters swung their weapons and their tentacles, striking the Hellsingers with enough force as the earlier wave and consistently keeping them away from the hole.

The formation was the last line of defense Brogan's Coven had. One that they put in place in case of emergencies they never really thought they would face. In short, with the preparation that went into the making and arming of the formation, the water monsters seemed more than a match for the Hellsingers. In strength and in numbers.

"Ignore the monsters!" Gareth yelled, in an attempt to rally the men, and with his voice strained with struggle,

"They're only distractions to keep us from our goal! Break through them!

BREAK!!!"