One of the forces that had joined the Empire’s encirclement was the vampire army led by the head of the Third Clan—Old Third. It encountered the enemy at the “Bloodstained Wasteland.”
This was a battle between vampires.
On one side stood a prestigious clan with centuries of glory. On the other was the newly risen “Dark King Army,” centered around a human girl and relying on Dracula and her family as its main fighting force.
Since she was a self-proclaimed new king, and some humans already saw vampires as leaning toward the “dark faction,” Wang Yafu had given her army that name.
Old Third felt that today’s luck was truly awful.
He’d considered the possibility of running into an enemy, but he never expected it to be this opponent.
In his plans, the time for him to fight Wang Yafu was definitely not today.
By all rights, the other side shouldn’t have appeared here, either.
To seize Dibiles’s capital, Old Third had brought virtually all of his clan’s main forces here.
Which meant—
the remnants he’d left back home existed for one purpose: to serve as bait.
Old Third thought:
If that human girl intended to become king of all vampires, she shouldn’t pass up such a golden opportunity.
The most sensible move would be to seize the chance and take the Third Clan’s territory, further strengthening her side.
If the Dark King Army had appeared here, it could only mean one thing:
Their leader had brought her already meager forces out of their homeland and come here to fight him, risking an attack by other vampire factions.
In other words, the other side had chosen the worst possible course of action.
So what if the Dark King Army won here?
With its forces battered, it wouldn’t be able to seize Dibiles’s territory afterward.
And if that human girl wasn’t after territory, but had come for this army instead, then the best possible outcome would still be a mutual defeat.
‘This is so stupid!’
Old Third clenched his teeth, his handsome face twisted by the reality of his plan going wrong.
A furious roar rose in his heart.
He had neither a younger sister nor an older brother, so he could never understand.
Wang Yafu didn’t know that Wang Xiaole was the emperor’s consort, but she knew her older brother was in Dibiles. If she didn’t do something, her frail brother might be caught in the crossfire.
For the sake of the one person who mattered most to her—her only older brother—she was willing to fight this war even at the risk of having her forces wiped out by the other factions.
That resolve left her supporters feeling helpless. And yet, at this moment, they truly meant to give it everything they had.
‘Well, I did bet on the little miss. Now I’ve got no choice but to stick with her to the bitter end.’
Dracula stood at the front of the formation. The cloak she’d finished making not long ago now billowed behind her.
‘This concubine isn’t suited to a place like this, but a little hardship is nothing when it’s for a friend I get along with.’
The doll-sized Alice sat atop Wang Yafu’s head, delivering a line that sounded pretty cool.
The next moment, soldiers in the Dark King Army’s formation pushed out a large cart.
A wooden platform six zhang high had been built on it, with a huge hide drum set up on top.
A sturdy vampire woman stood beside it, gripping a pair of drumsticks and beating the hide drum again and again until its sound shook the sky.
‘We won’t be outdone in spirit! Someone, sound our war drums too!’
Old Third ordered someone nearby.
A soldier hurried off to carry out the order. Before long, the Third Clan’s army was beating out a steady “thump, thump” of its own.
At that moment, the enemy soldiers at the front marched toward them in tight formation.
‘Attention. The enemy vanguard is closing in. They’re about to attack!’
Dracula warned the soldiers on either side of her.
Ten breaths later, the enemy drums grew more urgent.
At the same time, several thousand soldiers in the enemy vanguard suddenly broke away from the formation and charged forward.
‘Archers, three hundred and fifty paces ahead—loose!’
Dracula shouted the order.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Arrows filled the sky, whistling down from above.
But only a few thousand enemy soldiers were charging, and they were spread out. When the volley fell, only a hundred or so were struck and sent tumbling to the ground.
‘Two hundred and fifty paces ahead—loose!’
Watching from a relatively close position, Dracula saw that the enemy kept coming despite taking some losses, so she shouted another order.
Another volley of arrows flew. Once again, the Third Clan’s army suffered no major losses.
That was the strength of an elite force. Old Third didn’t know exactly how capable the soldiers in the lower-ranked clans were, but he did know this:
His men were fundamentally different in quality from the enemies the Dark King Army had fought before!
‘That brat has only conquered a few weaklings so far. If she thinks she can sweep through every faction in vampire territory with ease, she’s dreaming in broad daylight!’
Under Old Third’s cold gaze, the Third Clan’s soldiers continued their advance, quickly covering more than half the distance to their target.
‘One hundred and fifty paces—loose!’
‘Fifty paces—loose…’
No matter how well Dracula judged the timing of each volley, by now her soldiers had killed fewer than a thousand enemy troops.
