A Stalemate (2)

She twisted, angled her dagger, and deflected the incoming spear. She then closed in and drove her dagger towards the vampire, but failed to puncture. The attacker had been pulled back before her dagger could slam into his chest.

However, the dagger didn't need to wound them fatally to work. For the corrosive mist covering the blade, a scratch was all that was needed—one that drew blood—and she succeeded in that. The afflicted vampire noticed this right away.

He cried out, and it burned. He tried to stop the spreading of the corroded blood with his blood magic (a magic he crafted and learned over hundreds of years), but that only caused the corrosion to spread faster. As black veins cracked open on his skin, his existence, and his sword included, faded. His last action was clawing towards the others for help, but with no success.

The corrosive mist, losing its food, latched onto the next closest thing: the dark threads, which were laced with the corroded blood of the fallen vampire. It tried to follow the string and latch onto those near, yet the line was severed before it could. Devoid of nutrients, it petered out.

The vampires subconsciously took a step back in surprise. Hearing the rumors about 'Bane of Existence', even if they're true, and seeing it at this time didn't feel real. Not until now, when they saw it in action with their own eyes—a knight, similar in rank to most of them, fell to a scratch. Their fear returned again. Fear, which made them look even more disgustedly at the daggers. However, it didn't overwhelm them, nor did it make them want to run. They were trained to forgo such thoughts. To disregard useless aspects of themselves and fight.

The fear instead gave them a stronger reason to kill. The confirmation was that they needed to do all they could to eliminate the threat, even at the expense of their lives. Attacking her one by one wouldn't work. They were done testing their enemy.

The vampires attacked, dashing not by one as done before but by ten.

'Protect me.' A voice resonated inside Aurora's mind. It was Amia.

Aurora eyed the direction of Amia, who had entered the cave unbeknownst to her, as she focused on her task. She couldn't falter here. She needed to stall them until whatever Amia had in mind was done, no matter what it took. Ignited with newfound determination, she lowered her body and tried to slice at the vampire's thigh, but couldn't reach her target. Aurora barely moved away in time to avoid getting smashed on the head with a blood hammer.

The ten came from every angle, blocking off her retreat, where she could only escape in the direction of the cave. She tried to keep an eye on all ten vampires at once. They advanced on her with careful precision; their footwork was synchronized and minimal, working as a team.

The vampires attacked, and Aurora jumped out of the way and blocked the attacks that were aimed at her. However, her two arms could not block all of them. Four of them had levels similar to hers; the other six had levels higher, with the highest at the rank above. She flared her dark energy into some makeshift form of a shield in defense against the swing she knew was coming and couldn't avoid.

Crack~

The massive hammer, coated with a layer of dark energy, slammed into her dark shield, broke through, shattering it like glass, and connected with her chest. It didn't pause for more than a second between the two hits. And only slightly slowed it, lessening the impact. The pause gave her little time to shift her body, though. She wouldn't leave the cave's entrance unguarded.

The attack threw her back, and she lost her footing. She tripped, then collapsed near the entrance of the cave. She lost her grip on one of her daggers, and the dagger fell out. The dagger, having lost its source of energy, disappeared. She was now left with a singular dagger.

There was no pain. Her undead body had no blood or nerves. However, there was discomfort in how her body moved. It was different. "Ha." She let out a surprised gasp.

She examined her chest—the place where the hammer hit. It was sunken in—she could see her body's dead, unfunctional lungs through the gap of mangled flesh and bone. Fractured ribs poked through the collapsed lungs and flattened whatever lingering air remained inside.

Dark energy surged from her dark core and enveloped her lungs and chest. It didn't need any commands, nor did it ask for any. As if on instinct, her body rejuvenated itself, spending the required dark energy. Her ribs pulled out of her lungs and glued themselves together. Her caved-in chest inflated and restored itself.

In exchange for dark energy, her wounds were healed. There wasn't a scratch left on her body, nor was there anything indicating she was wounded. This was, of course, at the expense of her dark energy and her time, which she desired and needed the most. Her dark energy was draining at a fast pace.

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She gripped her dagger.

It wasn't enough to last long, especially against these vampires. She had used more than half of it within a short time span. With a continuous flow of dark energy into the daggers and the dark mist to keep them from being dispelled, it drained her. The dark mist was more draining than the daggers themselves. And with the drain from every action she took and the healing, which she had no control over, being activated by sustained wounds, it made it worse.

'50 per dagger, 100 for the shield. It's best to keep it to one dagger. I'll need the rest to maintain functionality and to heal.'

She tried to stand but was stopped midway through. The familiar blood hammer swung down towards her, aiming to smash her head. She dove to the side, crouching her figure as the hammer struck. It missed. She kept moving forward, and she swung her dagger at his knee.

The vampire didn't cry out. The dark mist permeated and corroded his leg, but he was still calm. He didn't follow the same path the previous vampire took. Instead, he made his own. Vampire blood couldn't push it out; he knew that and saw that. So he resorted to the only choice he was given.

He took control of the uncontaminated blood in his body and severed his leg. He staggered and hopped, and before he fell, another leg took its place, rid of the tainted blood. It was all in an instant. He spun and swung his hammer downward at his opponent, who had arrived behind him at this point. His bared teeth were exposed through his lips.

The hammer came down, and Aurora was forced to ignore the slight irritation she felt when he escaped death as she avoided to the side. The hammer missed, and she leapt, aiming her dagger where he couldn't cheat his way out of death. Her dagger landed a hit on the side of his head.

Another vampire fell.

The nine vampires and five more moved forward, spreading to tighten their encirclement around her again. Aurora gazed at her reserves of dark energy. She estimated that with what she had, she could last five minutes at most. If nothing changed, that is, such as the leader joining.

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The fourteen vampires advanced in a sudden, coordinated attack.

With her spare hand, she configured her hand and fingers into a gun, channeled her dark energy, and fired. An ingot-sized energy bullet shot out from her index finger, coated with 'Bane of Existence.' She didn't prefer this method, as it relied on the raw and unstable form of dark energy, unlike when she used it to form and coat a weapon. But since she could only conjure weapons with a complexity level at or lower than a sword, it worked for what it was intended for.

The bullet streaked through the air, followed by two more. The foremost vampire tried to move to the side, but it was too slow, and the distance between them was too narrow to avoid. A bullet hit his arm, foot, and side. He couldn't escape death, and he turned to ashes.

Aurora side-stepped, dodging a sword from an attacker she recognized. He was the first one to initiate this battle. She aimed her finger and fired. The man, prepared, cast a blood shield before her bullet could penetrate his stomach, eating up the blood of the shield.

Aurora broke through the dissolving shield and swung her dagger, catching the man off guard. The strings tried to pull the man back again, as they had done before. She was already prepared for this, though.

Two bullets shot out, each predicting a potential direction in which the dark strings would pull him. With his…

She wasn't given the chance to continue her assault on him or finish him. The other vampires all attacked. She lowered her body and avoided both attacks. She moved out of the way, but the third attacked and crushed her arm with a staff.

Her arm healed, and her dark energy drained. She had a little more than 150 points of dark energy left. However, the moment she had been stalling for had finally come. Amia was finished.

'It's time to go.'

Aurora deflected another wave of attacks, relieved by the message she heard. She glanced behind her; she was running dry of dark energy. She had a minute at most, but she was never going to make it inside the cave, not with them attacking. Using 100 points worth of dark energy, she conjured an explosive and used Void Step to teleport back inside the cave. She then activated the explosive.

Boom~

The shockwave of the explosion shook the cave, and the force destroyed the entrance. Fortunately, they were far enough inside to not be affected.

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Aurora collapsed and fell into Amia's arms. She was mentally exhausted. Her voice trailed off before she lost consciousness. "I did it. I stal…ed…"

"You did. Rest well." She cast her spell, and the ground quaked. They fell into a hole she created underneath them. "You still didn't listen... I'll have to ingrain it into you then."