1786 Return of a king

Although Layla was aiming her bow and arrow at Erin, she hadn't realised it. She was careful in her next move and was waiting for what Laxmus would do next. On the other side, Erin was also ready to battle against the Red Vampire leaders and to aid her in this, she had very powerful means.

For one, the armour she was currently wearing, what it exactly did, what its properties were, and how much would it aid her in this fight. So far, it had broken the spiritual chains that bound her, which Laxmus could do as well, but it took more time for him.

Then there were her Dhampir powers, swordsmanship skills and demon-tier weapons that she had kept with herself for a long time.

"If both of you will just continue staring at me, then I guess it's up to me to get this show started!" Erin stabbed her sword into the ground, and a trail of ice spread across the floor, aiming straight for Layla and Laxmus.

Seeing this, Laxmus clenched his fists and punched the ground when the ice was just a few inches away from him, shattering and stopping it there. Surprisingly, Layla could also block the ice with the help of her Qi.

'Did he use pure physical strength to block that ice? I'm sure anything that touches the ice coming from that sword will be frozen.' Layal thought.

On closer inspection of Laxmus though, she noticed he had small parts of the shadow constantly moving over his entire celestial body form.

"You have been a pain in my backside for a long time," Laxmus said as shadow started to spurt out from his leg and began to cover the entire area the three were fighting in. Eventually, it rose, creating a shadow dome that encased all three of them inside.

Laxmus then opened his mouth and fired a blood-breath beam straight toward Erin. However, rather than blocking the attack this time, she quickly stepped out of the way but instantly had to defend herself using her sword from the three incoming Qi arrows.

Slashing her sword in a perfect motion, Erin was able to slice through all of them and block the attacks. However, by now, Laxmus had enough time to prepare another attack. Since the blood breath had missed the target, it went straight at the shadow dome's wall behind Erin and returned from a different direction after getting reflected.

Jumping at the right time again, Erin avoided the attack once again. However, this time while she was in the air, she twisted the handle of her sword and covered it in flames before striking down on the red blood beam, slicing through it.

But by the time she landed, Layla had again fired another set of arrows, this time five at once. The truth was Layla couldn't summon so many Qi arrows at once, but using her ability, she was able to hold on somehow, and that's what she had done to fire five at once, and she did it at the perfect moment.

On top of that, she had moved into the perfect position for her next attack.

'I need to stop considering her as the old Erin and start thinking of her as the bitch that just tried to kill me moments ago.'

The arrows were too fast for Erin to use her sword to block this time, so instead, she decided to activate her armour once more. It lit up, and when the arrows hit her, it looked like they passed right through her. And instead, they hit the shadow done behind Erin, which displaced a bit before recovering back to its original state.

"Watch your aim!" Laxmus shouted, charging in his bare fists now that he was annoyed. Erin went to strike with her sword swinging it, but Laxmus instantly grabbed it with his bare hand and kicked her in the stomach.

Perhaps it looked like a normal kick in the shadow space, but Layla knew that kick had enough force to destroy mountains. And when Laxmus kicked Erin and sent her flying into the air, he disappeared from the spot using his shadow, only to appear right behind her.

At that point, Erin had stabbed her large sword to the ground to get hold of herself and brought out her Katana blade, swinging it behind her. This time, the attack was a lot faster, and when Laxmus tried to grab it once again, he had missed it entirely.

However, as the katana hit his hands, it didn't hurt Laxmus. Erin wasn't bothered by this and slashed the katana at Laxmus from a different direction. Since she was no longer using the large sword, she could move at a much faster speed, much faster than Laxmus, as he couldn't do a thing to catch her.

Layla fired another few arrows from behind but even while in the middle of attacking Laxmus, Erin deflected the incoming attack, taking out the arrows with ease.

"A sneak attack will never work on me. Do you forget what power I have!" Erin shouted.

Her whole katana lit up yellow, and then slashing from up to down in one smooth motion, she made a large attack, which cut through the shadow dome and even sliced through the walls of the settlement on the outside.

It had cut through everything that came in its way, including Laxmus. Although he had no deep cut on his body, there was a diagonal slash over his face.

Now extremely infuriated, Laxmus managed to move faster than he usually would have, and instead of trying to grab the weapon, he caught both of Erin's arms.

Holding her still, he opened his mouth wide and stretched it, gathering the red aura he usually would.

Quickly seeing this, Layal decided to run over towards the sword. With it being a demon weapon, as long as she got her hands on it, it would give her a power boost, even if she didn't use it and just had it on her back.

However, the second the beam had left Laxmus's mouth, Erin's armour lit up again, and once again, they saw the attack go right through Erin without hurting her.

And just like that, she was also able to get out of Laxmus's grasp and then, moving her sword, she released all her yellow aura and putting all her strength into one attack, she stabbed the katana Laxmus right through his stomach.

Laxmus was genuinely surprised. His shadow, his celestial body, and even the fact that he was an original vampire, far stronger than the others, none of that had seemed to work against this woman. Her attacks didn't feel tough and powerful, and neither did this woman seem to have anything special in her, yet why was he unable to defeat her.

"I know what you're thinking. You don't understand, do you? It's simple. I am just different from you in every way. A simple action from me has a far greater significance than yours ever will be. And soon, I will make you realise that you amount to nothing!" Erin shouted.

Laxmus went to swipe toward Erin, but she quickly moved back, and his attack missed the target.

While dodging Laxmus's attack, Erin sensed another power building up not far from her.

She turned around and saw that Layla had the Demon tier sword in her hands, which wasn't just one demon-tier weapon but two, with the attachment.

"Erin, what has happened to you?! Have you forgotten everything? Why do you hate us so much? Why do you hate vampires? Look at the sword you are using and the skill that you have. Wasn't that all taught to you by Leo? What do you think he would think!" Layla shouted.

"Leo...he was a great teacher. But in the end, he was a vampire, and we all know what has to happen to vampires. They can't control themselves, and they would eventually kill everyone. So I must get rid of all of them."

Hearing Erin talk just felt strange to Layla. It wasn't like this was some urge to kill vampires. Instead, it was more like she genuinely believed in those words.

"Now be a little darling and give me back my weapon before you hurt yourself!" Erin demanded.

"You can forget the sword unless you come to your senses!" Layla shouted. "What happened to you? What happened to you and Leo? Is that what changed everything?!"

Behind them, Laxmus had finally pulled out the sword from his stomach and instantly placed it in his shadow. Now, Erin could no longer use the katana blade she had been using, which meant she had no weapon, and although Erin was strong, she was mainly a swordsman.

"This bare hand against the two you would be tiring, and I'm going to need a weapon, so you leave me with no choice," Erin gritted her teeth, ignoring Layla's words and keeping an eye out for Laxmus.

A dark portal opened right next to Layla, and as she turned around, she saw a giant claw coming right at her. Unfortunately, because she was focused on Erin, she moved a moment too late, and the tip of the claw instantly sliced at the wrist, cutting her arm.

'The attack went through my second stage Qi so easily....who is this?'

Layla was shocked by this, and when her maimed hand fell on the ground, so did the sword. But Layla had no choice but to retreat and use the flames to stop the bleeding, and that's when she saw her assailant's face.

It was an enormous, terrifying monster with claws so long that they scraped the ground. But for Layla, this monster was familiar becaause it once belonged to someone close to her.

*****

If you want to support me, you can do so on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jksmanga

You will get access to the MWS novel and webtoon for only $5 a month.

For MVS artwork and updates, follow me on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga