Chapter 89: Boons from Lords (1)

"Young Lord, stay close to me," Gareth said quietly as he took on a fighting stance. He looked back at Caius and gave him a reassuring smile, "The Estate was alerted the moment the Carriage crashed. Reinforcements will be here soon. Until they arrive, I assure you, I will protect you." Caius looked into that smile and the confidence in Gareth’s smile and he still didn’t believe him. There was just too much of a disadvantage to be overcome here. He didn’t have any real feats for them in the original story to refer to. In [To Kill A Demon Lord...], Caius had never actually been in danger while under the Guards’ protections throughout his time at school. His moments of danger and real-life and death battles came after graduation when he was making his own way. The most Caius—as Kevin—had read of the fights the forces of the Von Helsing Estate got into were always like reports. Nothing about what they actually had to overcome and simply a leap to the result which was always a success. But that didn’t fill Caius with confidence because they, in all those fights, were never stated to be in as much of a disadvantage by numbers and maybe even power levels as was happening here. The Vampires started their assaults with magic, unleashing Spell circles that thrust various elemental attacks at the Hellsingers—the term used to address every member of Count Lucian Von Helsing’s private Army of Monster Hunters. The spells were all at the Fifth Circle and the Hellsingers all stood firm and swung their swords at such incredible speeds that the blades blurred. When it was all over, every magical attack had been sliced through. The Vampires split off then. Two of them to each of the three other Hellsingers while three faced off against Gareth. Well, two faced off against him, while the other tried to take advantage of the distraction to pull Caius to him. That third Vampire managed to wrap a tendril of water around Caius’ arm and pulled hard. Before Caius had even moved an inch, and before his mind could process the situation so he could try and free himself, Gareth’s sword swung and cut the tendril on two, before throwing two fingers of his free hand forward to cast a spell circle against the Vampire’s Chest. The spell circle stamped against the Vampire’s dark cloak and created a blast of wind that struck it at such point-blank range that it went flying. *BAM!* The Vampire barely grunted because he was already casting a spell of his own to create a cushioning wind to keep him from hitting the ground and he used that cushioning to boost himself at Caius. "Ah!" He yelled with his mouth open to show off his fangs and his arms spread with claws glinting with malice while his eyes were especially bright with intent. Caius recoiled. For the first time so far, his brain adjusted just a bit. He watched the Vampire flying at him get closer. He could tell that, despite the malice so clearly oozing from its form, he wasn’t about to get attacked. He wasn’t about to be killed. He was about to be wrapped tightly in a steel grip to pull him away from Gareth’s protection. He could tell all this and that was why he especially hated how powerless he felt at the moment. The energy he was feeling from the Vampire’s Mana was at the Sixth Circle. Three circles beyond what he was currently capable of. And one Circle beyond what Gareth and the other Hellsingers were capable of. Or so he thought. Caius had just gritted his teeth and summoned his Mana ready to cast his most powerful spell so he at least didn’t get grabbed without doing anything, when a spell circle appeared on the ground beneath his feet and the feet of Gareth and the two Vampires whose spells he was fending off. Caius’ eyes went wide at the energy of the spell circle being at the Sixth Circle. He was even more surprised when he realized the magical energy that made the spell possible had come from Gareth. The spell circle became a cyclone of fire and blew all about to create strong waves of flame that targeted the two Vampires Gareth had been fighting and caused them to recoil and snarl at the unexpected move. The third Vampire that had launched himself at Caius to grab him had such a good awareness of his surroundings and great reaction speed that he was already casting a spell circle to create a sphere of wind that was enough to blow the flame aside and create a path through. This all happened in the space of a second. One moment, that Vampire had its sight on Caius only to have its view obscured by powerful flames, and the next, he broke through the flames only to find Caius was gone, and in his place was Gareth. "Gotcha," Gareth said with a smirk and thrust his sword forward, flooding it with Mana so the blade became coated in fire that cut through the sphere of wind and stabbed through the Vampire’s mouth that had fallen open in surprise. "Huh- ACK!" Were the last sounds the Vampire made before Gareth swung his sword upward, splitting his head open as the flames cauterized the wound throughout until he fell to the ground and his red eyes lost their glow as he promptly stopped bleeding. Caius looked about as surprised as the Vampire who had just been killed. He knew now that he had been used as bait. Sort of. The flames were large but they had acted more like a smokescreen so the Vampire flying over couldn’t see when the switch happened and when Gareth took Caius’ place to await with his sword. Also, the spell Circle being at the Sixth Circle when so far all Gareth had shown he was capable of was the Fifth Circle made it clear that it had all been a ploy. A ploy all the Hellsingers had played. It was meant to lure their enemies into a false sense of confidence. Interestingly enough, Gareth and the Hellsingers were not the only ones who had hidden their true capabilities. After all, the Vampire that now lay dead on the ground with a split-open skull had also started with a Fifth Circle spell only to come at Caius with Sixth Circle energy. In a case where both sides were using the ’acting weak to eat the strong’ ploy, the first to show their hand would likely lose. As had been the case here. The flames created by Gareth’s spell didn’t just die out either. Barely giving the Vampire he just slayed a second glance, Gareth swung his sword and created another spell circle that took control of the flames to repurpose them into a different attack that sent out various spears of fire at the Vampires who just recoiled. They both cast defensive spells. Their shields were both bombarded. One Vampire was lucky/smart enough to move his body just enough so the spear only grazed his shoulder. It burned and hurt but his fate was far better than that of its brethren whose side was pierced by one of the spears. "Ah!" The Vampire cried out only for the spear to contort like the formless flame that it was and wrap around his midsection before Gareth pulled his hand back with a clenched fist to control what was now a rope of fire to bring the Vampire closer so he could swing his sword at its neck. The Vampire raised his arm to block the blade with a quick cast of a much more solid shield spell circle while his other hand swung at Gareth’s chest, and his claws cut gashes across the Hellsinger’s chest. The gashes were deep and it had to have hurt like hell but Gareth showed no sign of it. The force in the hand swing should also have sent him sliding away, giving the Vampire space and time to recover but Gareth barely moved an inch. Instead, the veins in his sword-wielding arm bulged and the strength he was backing his sword swing with, hiked up enough notches that he broke through the Vampire’s raised shield, and his sword’s flaming blade sliced clean through its neck. The Vampire’s head fell to the ground, bouncing once in a macabre sort of finality before it burned to ashes under the light of the sun now that it was no longer under the protection of the Moonstone Ring that was still shielding its now-headless body. Gareth barely gave his kill a second glance. He was already turning his sword to aim its blade at the one last Vampire, of the three that came at him, he still had to kill.