Chapter 7 - Sword Technique

　　Although they had just suffered a crushing defeat and most of the hunters were carrying wounds, they all began to get busy, preparing for the defense against the incoming vampire attack.

　　Most of the hunters who were uninjured or lightly wounded ate lunch and immediately went to bed; they had to be on nighttime defense duty for a few days and had to be refreshed.

　　Some of the less battle-hardened squires went out of the guild compound and buried rune stones with defensive features in various places within Constantine City. These rune stones were able to form a holy attribute boundary that weakened the vampire's power.

　　Other attendants went forward to the church with large bags of salt to exchange for holy water.

　　Edward watched as the squires filled the vats of holy water that had been brought back into parchment water bags and distributed them to each hunter to be used in the battle against the vampires.

　　He was also given a bag.

　　"This 'holy water', how is it obtained? Why do we have to exchange it for salt?" Your son opened the water bag, licked it with his tongue, and asked Chief Hite.

　　"It is said to be made by adding salt to water that has been blessed by a priest, so it has to be replaced with salt."

　　"Yeah?" Edward licked again, doubt growing in his mind.

　　This salinity always feels like déjà vu.

　　It seems that one summer, the hospital's air-conditioning system was overhauled, and in order to replenish electrolytes for the hot and dehydrated doctors, the department branched out from the pharmacy to get some glucose solution and .....

　　Physiological saline!

　　"Not only can holy water be used against vampires, it can also be used to clean wounds that are not only low in pain ...."

　　"And the wound heals fast, doesn't it?" Edward picked up slightly breathlessly.

　　"Yeah, so Lord Kayne knows."

　　Your son shook his head helplessly, it was saline!

　　"As for the priest's blessing or whatever, it wouldn't be a magic that casts purification spells on water or something like that, would it?"

　　"There seems to be such a rumor, but how to make holy water has always been a secret of the church. In fact, the most crucial thing is the ratio of water and salt."

　　"Just use nine parts salt with a thousand times the amount of purified water." Edward, as a laboratory doctor, naturally knew the saline ratios.

　　Chief Hector's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately instructed his valet to go and try to make some.

　　"Take a few Blood Spell Stones out of the loot and douse them with this holy water we've made ourselves and see what happens!"

　　Blood Spell Stones are rubies that have been cast by vampires with evil spells to increase the power of bloodline spells, and can be purified with holy water.

　　The attendants quickly reported the results, "Lord Chief! The purification was successful, we made our own holy water!"

　　The chief steward's eyes were full of joy: "Quickly! Quickly blend some more, put them in buckets and put them on the courtyard wall!"

　　While rejoicing, he was also cursing the church for not being something, treating the holy water as a treasure for enrichment, obviously a small bit of salt can match a big bucket, and every time he also wants the faithful to take a large amount of salt to exchange.

　　Edward, however, wasn't that ecstatic, he was thinking: what kind of messed up world is this, and why can saline be holy water to kill vampires? Fear of saline and fear of silver, are vampires bacteria?

　　He quickly dismissed the thought in his head, though; had he gotten something wrong by seeking the rules of physics in the magical world?

　　At this time Chief Steward Haight had finished his work with the holy water, and was again directing his attendants, who were moistening cloth with the precious whale oil, and then wrapping sticks around it to make torches.

　　"If only there were brighter torches."

　　One of the great advantages of vampire night fighting is the ability to see at night, whereas the human side can only point to torches for light.

　　Whale oil torches are by far the brightest torches out there, but they're still actually limited in brightness.

　　"By the way Master Chief, what was that crystal ball made of last time Father Suez pulled it out? Is there anything like that in the guild?"

　　"That? If you can test the properties and strength of spells, it should be a gem sensitive to spells like Violet Jade, and there are some in the guild."

　　There is one more thing that Chief Hector is not too proud to say: these spellstones were purchased with the money that Prince Kayne "loaned" to the guild last time.

　　"Can I have a piece? It might come in handy in battle."

　　After fetching a piece of violet emerald from the treasury, Chief Hector also brought Edward a brand new silver light sword.

　　"I'll have Evely protect you when the time comes, but it's better for you to have this for defense."

　　"Okay." Edward took the silver sword and took a few empty swings with the scabbard.

　　The sword was as light as nothing, but the sound of breaking through the air was sharp, obviously a good sword.

　　It's just that he doesn't know how to swordfight, and if he swings around with this thing, he'll more than likely hurt himself.

　　However, since this was Chief Hector's goodwill, he took it.

　　His ornate belt, which actually had sword buckles for hanging swords, had been just a decoration before, but now it was actually working.

　　"And that is, since you're going to be in the war as well, you'd better get some rest and refreshment as well."

　　"I'm a rather energetic person, I'm quite capable of staying up late." Edward said, thinking that this point might have something to do with the fact that he was a Bluestar with a rich nightlife.

　　Chief Hector nodded, most people who were good at magic had a lot of energy, and Lord Kayne's staying up all night holding back an oversized fireball was fresh in his mind.

　　The Chief Steward then threw himself into his work.

　　After the blood-like remnants of the sun faded into the horizon, night fell.

　　Surprisingly, the first night passed peacefully.

　　The vampires didn't attack, only the body of a hunter who had fled in the middle of the night was found outside Constantine.

　　It was the next night that the vampire army attacked the city of Constantine.

　　Relying on their dependents who had blended into the city, the vampires easily opened the gates.

　　After entering the city, they didn't rush to Secret Silver Street to seek revenge on the hunters, but instead went on a rampage of captivity in the city.

　　Many civilians were poisoned, the luckier ones were directly drained of their blood and died, while the less fortunate ones were abused before being killed and eaten.

　　The hunters lit torches on the compound wall, and Edward stood on top of the fort, watching the outside.

　　Ivory had already donned her defenses and stood majestically beside him with her silver sword in hand.

　　A large number of figures soon gathered outside the compound, but they were not vampires.

　　Some alert civilians heard of the vampire invasion and immediately fled to the church for refuge. The church, however, feared that vampires had been mixed in with the asylum seekers and refused them entry, so these civilians had no choice but to come here for help.

　　Originally, Chief Hector was also afraid that there were vampires mixed in, and did not allow the hunters to open the door, but Edward had the hunters throw a large bucket of holy water on the crowd, causing several vampires mixed in to burn to ashes instantly, which allowed Chief Hector to let open the door and allow these civilians to enter.

　　Before the civilians could be fully sheltered, however, the vampires showed up.

　　In Edward's imagination, a legion of vampires would have been a bunch of oddly shaped monsters, bunching up in a mess like a bunch of punks and charging in.

　　However, those vampires were wearing uniform black armor and holding up huge shields, advancing over in a neat formation.

　　It looked like a square of trained swordsmen.

　　Unlike humans, these swordsmen all had reddish eyes and long teeth that leaked out.

　　They soon discovered the guild doors were wide open and civilians were panicking and pushing their way in.

　　The black-clad vampire swordsmen charged, hundreds of them coming at a neat pace in a shocking scene.

　　Those civilians who hadn't yet entered the guild then panicked, desperately pushing their way in regardless of others.

　　Seeing this situation, Edward immediately condensed the [Inflammation] [Gathering] two runes in his mind, and he intentionally didn't condense the latter two runes just to let the fireball gather a little bit bigger in his hand.

　　A huge fireball then came out of his hand and smashed into the street.

　　Although the blow didn't cause any vampire casualties, it managed to block the road. The hunters at the entrance took this opportunity to yell at and punch and kick the civilians who were crowding around, finally accommodating the last wave of civilians into the courtyard.

　　The large iron door banged shut, and the hunter behind it proceeded to press a heavy object ready by the door to block it.

　　The vampire legions, meanwhile, reorganized their battle formation behind the flame-sealed street, the swordsmen stepping back to the side with their shields raised, revealing rows of archers in the rear.

　　"Careful." Ivory reached out and pulled Edward behind the fort's arrows.

　　Dense feathered arrows flew, and several hunters who couldn't dodge were shot down on the spot.

　　After the first wave of arrows, Evelie stuck her head out from behind the fletchings to inspect the situation, she let out a yelp of surprise and then shrank back.

　　A second wave of arrows followed this over, and a feathered arrow flew against her scalp, snapping off a strand of her hair.

　　A few hunters who tried to counterattack with their bows were also shot down by the second wave of arrows, and if it wasn't for Evely's quick reflexes, I'm afraid that they would have ended up in the same situation as them.

　　The vampire archers lined up in several rows, firing wave after wave of arrows without interruption.

　　"Amazing, these are baronial vampires?"

　　Edward, who couldn't lift his head from the rain of arrows, asked.

　　"These are just soldiers under the Baron, all low ranking vampires."

　　"A low-level vampire is that good?!"

　　Edward finally realizes that he's still underestimating the strength of the vampires in this world.

　　In fact, these low-ranking vampires were not strong individually, and two or three of them together would not necessarily be able to beat Evelyn alone, but after going through militarized training, the vampires were integrated into a legion, and it was very horrifying.

　　Although this world was a magical world, it was still in the Cold War era after all, and without airplanes and cannons, discipline and morale could make a qualitative difference in an army's fighting strength.

　　In contrast, the vampire hunters who only focused on personal quality training had instead become a bunch of rabble.

　　"At this rate, the outer wall will soon be lost, won't it?"

　　The hunters were silenced by a rain of arrows, and soon the flames in the streets would clear and the vampire swordsmen would be able to charge.

　　"We'll just have to abandon the outer walls and yard and defend against the fort." Ivory said.

　　Abandoning the outer layer of defense and dragging the enemy into the chaos, the vampires can't line up in an army formation, and the hunter's side's advantage of having a stronger single soldier can come into play.

　　"But what about the civilians in the courtyard, and there are baronial vampires on the enemy side who haven't fought, right?"

　　Evelie was silent, she was worried about that too.

　　"Let's figure out how to make it impossible for the vampires to shoot arrows, you take this."

　　Edward handed Violet Jade to Ivory.

　　"What are you doing with this?"

　　"In a moment you throw it as hard as you can as high as you can."

　　When the shower of arrows had passed, Edward shouted, "Right now, throw it."

　　Upon hearing his unquestionable tone, Ivory immediately tossed the violet emerald high into the air.

　　Edward lay on the ground, reached out and aimed at the Violet Crested Jade that flew high into the sky, and prodded the runes in his mind.

　　"Close your eyes!"

　　A ball of light from [Exorcism] flew out and hit Violet Jade.

　　The burst of bright light instantly illuminated the area into daylight, and those unknown vampire archers who were staring at the tiny sphere that suddenly flew up one moment were burned in the eyes by the bright light the next.

　　The legion of several hundred vampires erupted into a succession of screams.

　　"No?"

　　Noticing that the arrow attack had stopped, Edward and Evely cautiously peeked out from behind the arrows, only to see that the vampires appeared to have lost the fight and were gathered in a group ready to retreat.

　　Not only the archers, those swordsmen were also affected.

　　The swordsmen in the front row were slowly backing away, although they were still trying to hold on to their shield-gripping swords, but they all had their eyes closed, and a line of blood and tears were flowing down their faces.

　　"They're running away? Isn't it time to give chase?" Evelie had just closed her eyes slightly slower and her seeing was still a bit blurry, but she was already excited.

　　"I'll give them a big fireball first to see if they're swindling defeat." Edward raised his hand, already gathering his fireball.

　　Before the fireball could strike, an icy voice suddenly came from behind him:

　　"That really scared me, I thought I wouldn't even have to do anything."

　　An alarm went off in Edward's head, and the fireball flew out in a panic, off-target, and smashed into a private house down the street.

　　He turned his head to see a short-haired man who had appeared at some point.

　　Evelie had moved, she rushed at the short haired man with her sword, only to have her sword stabbed in the air, the short haired man swept out a kick with great speed and the huntress was sent flying like a rag doll.

　　"Evely! You're okay!"

　　The huntswoman who had been kicked off crashed miserably into a nearby fletch of arrows, having suffered her worst injury in days, as if she had broken several ribs.

　　"Hurry .... Run!" Evely, who was no longer able to stand up again, squeezed out these words to Edward with difficulty.

　　Yet she was still a step too slow.

　　A dagger appeared in the short-haired man's hand, and he rushed towards Edward with extreme speed that was hard to catch with the naked eye, the dagger slashing precisely towards Edward's throat.

　　"Ding!"

　　Edward's mind went blank.

　　His eyes caught the dagger that glinted and slashed at his throat.

　　But he was already unable to avoid it, and with his physical reaction speed, he was afraid that he could only watch his throat being slit open and then die miserably on the spot.

　　However, after a strange metallic clanging sound, he had already appeared behind the short-haired man without realizing it.

　　In his right hand, he still held the silver short sword that would have been at his waist.

　　Edward immediately threw away his short sword and stretched out his palm, wanting to shoot a round of [Demon Breaking Arrow] before the short-haired man could react.

　　However, before the runes had even coalesced, the short-haired man had already turned back around, his face still full of shock and incredulity.

　　What happened next was even weirder.

　　The man's body turned halfway, his upper and lower body became misaligned, then split in half and fell to the ground.

　　The poison of silver spread through each of his severed torsos, and both halves of his body turned pale black.

　　Edward has no idea what's going on.

　　But the badly injured Evely fainted with a smirk on her face.

　　In her last moments before she fell unconscious, she was sighing and rejoicing that she had been able to see such a skillful and magnificent sword technique in her lifetime.

　　Kayne, so handsome!