The Vampire’s Templar

The barrier broke with a burst of black magic and the elf stumbled back, howling in agony. “Arrrgh! My hand! My hand! It burns!” He shrank into a ball, holding the hand tight to his stomach as if trying to protect it from the pain, but the contact with his clothes only made the pain flare.

Camilla shook her head. It wasn’t a wise choice to directly touch death magic without some kind of protection. Death magic corroded the living, which was why wounds caused by them always took a long time to heal without purification. This elf made direct contact with an exploding barrier, so it was no wonder that he ended up like this.

For a moment, the screaming elf was the only source of sound in the complex, echoing through the vast chamber. The sound drew even more onlookers than before.

“You…! How dare you? Fighting isn’t allowed outside of the arena and training grounds!” one of the other elves that had surrounded Elyss said, stepping forward, pointing a finger at Camilla’s nose.

Camilla smiled. “Did I start it? I wasn’t even the one who did the fighting.”

“That’s right. I made the barrier.” Kagriss stepped up next to Camilla, meeting the second elf’s glare. She lifted her chin. “If you have a problem, take it up with me and leave Camilla alone.” She pressed closer to Camilla, making Camilla feel warm inside.

But she was supposed to be Kagriss’s shield, so there was no way that she'd actually allow anyone to take anything up with Kagriss directly. First, they were going to have to go through her to try anything. Camilla held out her arm, partially shielding Kagriss with her while shooting a warning gaze at the elf.

“You made the barrier? Impossible. That was death magic! Where is your servant?”

“Servant?” The question caught Camilla off guard before she realized that people who could use death magic were rare. Most sources of death magic were from captured and enslaved undead, controlled by necromancers who had just enough talent to keep the undead under control. Those that had some degree over actual death magic were as rare as holy magic users were. “Neither of us have servants.”

“No servant? Then… you’re…” The elf stepped back in fear.

“Well, you could say that we’re death mages, although that’s not particularly correct in case,” Camilla said, shrugging. “Now, will you apologize?”

“Apologize? Shouldn’t you be the one to apologize?” The elf gathered his courage and began to pull the incapacitated elf back. “Look what you did to him.” Even if he knew that he was being unreasonable, he still had to back up a fellow elf against a stranger, and one that believed that mere animals should be considered their equals at that.

“If he didn’t try to attack Camilla, he wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

The elf scoffed. “Hmph. No, you attacked first, right everyone?” He looked around at the gathered people, making eye contact with a few, especially the ones behind him. Taking the lead, those from his group quickly nodded.

“Yeah, she attacked first.”

“We all saw it!”

More and more voices of agreement sounded out from around them, with none in the counter.

Anger rose in Kagriss, transmitted over to Camilla through her bond. It wasn’t just humans that were devious. The other races had the same flaws.

Camilla sighed and shook her head in disappointment at their actions. Although everyone present knew that they were lying through their teeth, they didn’t care. Couldn’t care. Fellow prize fighters had to stick together against the outsiders. Even some of those that didn’t want to lie could not speak out for fear of going against the current and being isolated here. They could only stay silent and pretend to know nothing.

That was the problem with dealing with people who knew only violence. They were often simpleminded, easily to sway, and easily manipulated. Unfortunately, that made them complacent in the crime in her eyes.

While she didn’t have the confidence to come out on top against those present alone, she could do it with the help of Kagriss. Even if she couldn’t win, she could still establish herself as the strongest one here. After all, no one had anywhere near the amount of mana as she did.

Smiling, she cracked her knuckles, feeling her joints pop with a satisfying crack. Immediately, black mist rose from them as they healed.

“We started it?” she asked. “Are you sure?”

A bunch of nods answered her question and Camilla memorized the faces of all those that participated. Those were the ones that were complacent…as for the others, she won’t touch them unless they decide to interfere.

“I see. Well, I’m not in the habit of sitting still while being blamed for something I didn’t do—”

“You did do it!” someone shouted, interrupting her.

“—so I suppose I’ll have to remedy that and not disappoint. Here I come! Kagriss, Elyss!”

Kagriss and Elyss reacted immediately. Elyss roared, blasting out mana from her body, sending shivers down the spines of everyone present from the sheer amount of power contained within a mana beast, while Kagriss took flight, rising up to the ceiling. Spreading her hands, she gathered mana into her hands and formed an enchantment that Camilla accepted gratefully.

Power filled Camilla’s limbs with just Kagriss’s magic, only to further increase when Camilla applied her own reinforcements, making her bones and skin harder and tougher than steel. Since she didn’t want to kill anyone, she didn’t bother summoning her sword. Blood covered her body, solidifying into a set of reddish gold armor.

Her sudden assault caught everyone off guard and the second elf could only watch with wide eyes as a foot came flying at his face, kicking his nose, and sending blood spurting out from the broken face protrusion. A second kick came shortly after, slamming into the side of his head, knocking him unconscious before he hit the ground.

He was even worse off than the first elf who at least reinforced his own body before coming toward Camilla, and Camilla had to hold back to avoid killing him outright.

With the prime offender of the lie down, Camilla quickly matched some faces from her memory to the people present and went after the ones surrounding Elyss first. But before she could reach them, Elyss had already batted at them with her paw, sending a group of them flying like bowling pins. Her attack had been from behind and caught most of them off guard as well.

Then Camilla hit, kneeing one in the stomach before slamming the heads of two together. “Since it seems that your heads are incapable of telling the truth from a bald-faced lie, I guess you don’t need them anymore. What about your eyes?”

She considered poking them out. Unlike holy magic that struggled to regenerate whole limbs and organs, it was easy for blood magic, so even if these fighters lost eyes, they would be replaceable. Then she decided against it. It would feel too gross to crush them with her fingers.

Tossing the two unconscious bodies aside, she finally reached Elyss and smiled at her. “Good work out there.”

Elyss purred but changed the subject with a gruff tone. “Concentrate on the battle!”

Mere seconds had passed and already five fighters were unconscious with a dozen more knocked down and scattered. However, those seconds were enough for the others to finally come to their senses. While a few ran away, wanting nothing to do with the brawl, others got ready to fight, reinforcing their bodies.

Some charged at Camilla and Elyss while others went after Kagriss, perhaps finding a thin, soft-looking woman an easier target than a giant lion and a woman in armor.

Even if that woman had more mana than the armored woman, surely, they could overwhelm her before she could use her magic? That was probably what went through the minds of all those that targeted Kagriss. They weren’t wrong that in a small and enclosed space like this, Kagriss was the easiest target.

However, with a wave of her hand, Kagriss summoned several black barriers between herself and the crowd of attackers. Having learned their lesson with the elf’s example, the attackers made sure to protect themselves with mana before hitting the barrier. The sheer volume of attack easily destroyed the barrier and Kagriss fell back with a grimace. “Ha… if only killing was allowed…”

Seeing that Kagriss could fend for herself for now, Camilla and Elyss charged headfirst into the dozens of people that attacked her. There were so many targets that she didn’t even have to aim to hit someone and worse, these prize fighters were not used to fighting in groups, so they got into each other’s way. Compared to the mole beasts that gave even Lucienne trouble with their seamless teamwork, these fighters fell far short.

It was easy for Camilla to turn their numbers against them, and soon, pained cries rang out.

“Arrrgh! My eye!”

“Help me!”

“She’s a vampire!”

Every now and then, someone would say something useful, but it wasn’t enough. So what if she was a vampire? It’s not like knowing that would help them in any way.

Plus, she already exposed herself when she summoned her armor. Now that Camilla thought about it, there weren’t any vampires participating in the brawl. The edge of her lip rose. They must have realized that she was a vampire lord and decided to stay out of things.

Slowly, Camilla and Elyss fought their way over to Kagriss and began acting as a shield for her. Without anyone to interrupt her, Kagriss finally had enough breathing space to cast her spell, suppressing the power enough that it wouldn’t kill anyone instantly.

A black mist sprang from her outstretched hand, washing over the prizefighters, chilling their bodies, and sapping their vitality. In response, some of the magically inclined prize fighters retaliated with magic of their own. As backliners, they had the presence of mind to make their magic as non-lethal as possible as well.

What were originally sharp spears of rock became dull hammers of stone that still packed a wallop if they hit. Fireballs became waves of heat. High pressure jets of water that can cut through stone became powerful torrents of water that then disappeared into thin air as their mana was expended.

Seeing the magic flying toward her, Camilla grinned and ducked, hiding behind the crush of people trying to get at her, using them as a shield. Elyss was not as lucky, but she had more than enough mana to create walls of stone out of nothing that lasted long enough to block the brunt of the magic before disappearing.

With the friendly fire contributing to the casualties and fighters’ numbers working against each other, the numbers thinned quickly when Camilla took care of each prize fighter that got shoved toward her one by one.

Ironically, things became a lot harder for her to deal with once there were only a dozen or so fighters left, with the others either sprawled on the ground unconscious or retreated. There was a brief lull in the battle as the remaining warriors and mages retreated to reorganize and to catch a breath.

Camilla just smiled at them, not even panting. “What’s the matter?”

“You’re undead…” one of the warriors asked.

“Never seen one before?” she replied. “Had enough rest? Then either apologize or come on.”

The warrior’s eyes flashed, and he nodded toward the others by his side. Instead of charging mindlessly like the ones before him, he approached slowly, each step measured and cautious. Mana from reinforcement spells leaked from his body, as well as the bodies of his comrades.

Camilla smiled. “Finally not charging forward like a herd of steppe cows off a cliff, huh?”

“The hell’s that?” the warrior asked, and attacked, using his words as a distraction. However, Camilla did not fall for it.

She dodged aside and grabbed his arm, planning to twist it, but the warrior tensed, managing to resist her twist with surprising strength. Giving up on the twist, she instead drove her fist into his stomach. The warrior’s face reddened but he didn’t back up, punching her in the chest, only for most of the force to be stopped by armor.

Grinning back at him, she swung him back into another charging warrior to tie them up, going for another one. As expected, it was much harder fighting them individually than when they were working against each other.

Suddenly, her instincts flared up in anticipation of danger when she sensed life behind her. She ducked, just in time for a fist to swing through the space where her head was. Camilla lunged back up and back, slamming the top of her head into the chin of the warrior behind her. Kicking up at the same time, she caught the chin of the warrior in front of her as well with the tip of her metal boot, before dodging back.

Camilla quickly tangled up with a total of seven warriors, weaving through the flailing storm of punches and kicks. The worst were the grabs and holds which took effort to get out of, during which she usually got hit a few times, although most of the force was blocked by her armor. However, she gave as good as she got, knocking out another with a heavy punch to the face.

Right as she knocked another one over and was sitting on top of his chest, about to lay into him, with the other five trying to pull her off, the familiar voice of the coliseum administrator rang through the complex. “What is going on here?”

The sound of the armored boots of coliseum enforcers slamming against stone accompanied him.

Immediately, the prizefighters stopped pulling on Camilla and backed up, trying to pretend as if nothing was happening. Camilla’s fist that was descending onto the face of the orc trapped beneath her halted and she slowly dropped it, before looking up at the red-faced administrator who had been led here by a coliseum worker.