Makai Hongi

Chapter 174

I couldn’t deal any damage to a Ghost General.

Nehyor had been sure of this. That’s why he set them on us.

Out of all the members of the Wild Hunt, they were the worst match for me.

And of course, he sent out the strongest ones, so that I would not have even have the slightest chance.

“Sir Golan. We’ll join you.”

“Huh?”

A group of Vampires came up behind me. There were ten in all.

Until recently, I had rarely thought of them. They were too young and soft.

Well, they were actually older than me.

I was just seventeen, but these Vampires had been spoiled by their parents for fifty years, and spent at least thirty of them being shut-ins.

“You won’t be any help here. Stand back.”

Vampires were among the high-ranking races. And their potential abilities were incredible.

General Farneze was the most obvious example, as she was on another level as an individual.

Hell, even Nehyor, who was currently grinning at me, was a Vampire.

That’s why I knew.

It was just potential. They were young and did not have enough experience. They would be no match for this enemy.

“Its exterior is made of hardened mana, sir. Ordinary attacks will not be effective.”

“I know that.”

“However, we are able to suck it out.”

“…Huh? Like blood? You’re able to do that?”

I hadn’t known that…

There were other races that had the special ability ‘Bloodsucker,’ but it was difficult to use.

You had to be able to pierce the enemy with your fangs first, and it took time to suck out enough.

Not only that, but your opponent had to have blood to begin with.

In the Demon World, there were races like Golems, who moved through mana. And Tree Spirits also absorbed mana along with water and nutrients.

The Ghost General in front of me did not have any blood. So ‘Bloodsucker’ shouldn’t work.

“No, no.”

“Our ability is not the same as that lowly thing.”

“We use ‘Manasucker.’”

“We can suck in the mana directly.”

“…Are you serious?”

Perhaps it was the advanced version of ‘Bloodsucker.’

The high-ranking races like Vampires must have this special ability that allowed them to suck in mana directly.

In the case of ‘Bloodsucker,’ you sucked the mana in the blood at the same time.

I wondered if Vampire lore from my old world had come about when Vampires visited and started sucking from humans. They would have thought, ‘What? There’s no mana inside.’ And then returned the blood.

And when that happened, humans might have become drunk from the small traces of mana in the blood, and then become servants to the Vampires.

Having too much mana enter your body would likely lead to death, but it would have just been a small dose.

Perhaps their brains were tricked by this unknown feeling that mana caused… Well, it was all just speculation. But I thought that it was possible.

Leaving that aside, if they could really use ‘Manasucker,’ then it was worth a try.

There were ten of them in all. If all of them did their worst, surely even a Ghost General would be weakened.

“Alright, do it. What should I do?”

“It would help if you could stop it from moving too much.”

“Got it.”

If I had to seal its movements, there were several ways to do that.

The same thing that Bekka and Saifo had done.

–Get the joints.

If you could do it well, you could put them into a lock that they wouldn’t be able to get out of with strength alone.

(It would have been almost impossible if it was a fast enemy. Thankfully, this is a power type.)

And so I waited for the right moment and then moved in. After using Aiki to break its balance, I kicked its legs out from under it.

This single smooth move was the product of years of training. It wasn’t something I did and hoped for the best.

Someone who fell victim to it for the first time would have trouble comprehending what was happening to them.

It tried to push me away, and its flailing arms caused its body to move in the air even more. And like that, it rotated in the air before falling heavily on its back.

All I did was accelerate it along the direction of power.

Its own power caused it to lose balance and then fall.

It tried to get up then, and so I grabbed one arm and pulled it to its neck.

Then I hooked it to the other arm and flipped over the body.

Now it was strangling its own neck while lying flat on the ground.

I just needed to hold him down at the point that would move first if it wanted to get up, and then it was finished.

“Is that good enough?”

“…Ye-yes.”

The Vampires all look very pale. Perhaps they were astonished at how swiftly and smoothly I had done it.

…And then I remembered that they were always pale, and probably hadn’t changed much at all.

Then the ten Vampires swarmed around the Ghost General and pressed it down as they started to use ‘Manasucker.’

And while it took a while, they were still of the high-ranking races, and so it was very effective.

It looked like the Ghost General’s body had become smaller.

“Did it lose weight?”

I had to adjust the position of the arms so that they would stay tightly in place.

When I looked over to Dyle, the battle was still continuing.

However, Dyle seemed to be pushing the enemy, little by little.

As for Saifo, Bekka and the Reapers…

“…What the hell are they doing?”

They were playing tag.

Saifo and the others were the ones running away.

Had they been on a beach, they’d be shouting and laughing.

And if they took a photo and posted it on the internet, people would call them riajuu.

“Riajuu who were too bloodthirsty.”

Fifty Reapers had all unleashed ‘One-shot Kill,’ and they had clearly failed.

There was nothing to say, other than that luck had not been on their side.

As for the Vampires…

“It’s getting thinner at a good pace.”

It had been as big and strong-looking as the name ‘Ghost General’ implied, but it looked so different now.

If I had to describe its body, I would say that it looked more like a skinny student.

So this is what happened when ten Vampires attacked you with their special ability.

I doubted it would have gone so well if there were only one or two of them.

Would it straight up disappear if they kept sucking? I started to wonder about this, but it was not the case.

“I cannot suck any more.”

“I’m full.”

“I’m getting sick from the mana.”

“I won’t need any more mana for a while.”

They had either eaten enough or too much.

They were lying on their side or on their backs and patting their stomachs. Did they forget that this was a battlefield?

While they had been toughened through training, it seemed that they were still soft deep down.

“Well done. You can rest now.”

I was sure that I could take care of the rest. This weak looking armor. Or whatever it was that was inside of it.