Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 572: By order of the Khione Duchess…

A part of Northern-Star was in uproar now but most of it was a blur of sounds and images as Kyre kept trying to ditch the pursuers while avoiding getting hit by the many more spells they continued to fire at the carriage.

Thanks to Kyre’s driving, the carriage was moving fast, but even his Eighth Circle reflexes could not overcome one major drawback: the carriage was bigger and slower than the pursuers’.

Because of the Carriage’s size, Kyre was limited in maneuvers or how many tight alleys he could drive through. And whenever he did manage a tight turn and pulled into a street that he barely fit into, the pursuers were able to follow with greater ease.

"We have to fight back," Kyre said, "That’s the only way I can think of to lose them."

"I’m on it," Roxanne said and with a flick of her wrist, she retrieved a scroll from her storage ring. She opened the scroll and infused mana into it, activating the Formation she had prepared on it beforehand.

Pulling out of the window of the Carriage, Roxanne struck her hand against the back of the scroll, essentially forcing the formation out of the parchment so that it stuck to the ground and glowed a faint blue.

She timed it well; Kyre had pulled into an Alley that could contain their carriage’s girth and while the pursuing Carriages could maneuver the space better, the walls on each side of the alley made it so they couldn’t avoid the Formation Roxanne placed on the ground even if they tried.

Despite the incredible reflexes of the one driving the foremost carriage, it still drove right into the Formation; Water burst out, thick like it was surging from an ocean, and formed into a massive hurricane with rippling waves revolving about it in the chaos of a storm.

Caught in the Hurricane, the first Carriage was lifted off the ground, its wheels were wrenched off it, the occupants were caught in the force of the chaotic water, their bodies were twisted until their blood and entrails colored the water.

The second carriage was moving too fast to stop in time but the occupants had more time to attempt survival and so, right before the Carriage struck the hurricane and was destroyed like the first, the doors opened and the occupants threw themselves to safety.

Even as they rolled to a stop, the occupants of the destroyed Carriage glared at the hurricane; As a formation, the hurricane wasn’t relying on the reserves of an individual and was drawing power from the Mana that exists naturally in the atmosphere. As such, the hurricane would last a long while unless it was destroyed. Alas, the fierce hurricane would make destroying the Formation difficult, and even if they tried, their targets would have gotten away during the fact.

"Yes!" Kyre exclaimed as they came to the end of the alley and pulled into the street once again. He had made the same deduction as the pursuers they left behind the hurricane and escape seemed a lot more likely.

Caius didn’t feel the same relief however. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were not safe just yet.

"There’s more of them," Nadine said then as though to especially confirm Caius’s fears.

"Where?" Kyre asked with his senses trained for more cars.

"They’re running across the roof," Meline said, having sensed what Nadine had.

"What—?" Kyre began but was interrupted by a great *thud* sound of something—someone—landing on the top of the carriage.

The attacker cried out a spell and while the winds of Kyre’s fast driving made the spell incoherent, it must have activated all the same because the Carriage became burdened by great weight.

Caius assumed the spell was Earth magic and the Carriage would have been dented already if it hadn’t been built to especially withstand damage to a degree.

Still, while the carriage’s body held despite the attack, it slowed down significantly which seemed to allow even more attackers to catch up to them because there were two more *thuds* as two more figures landed on the carriage.

They cast more spells, all seemed determined to make the carriage screech to a halt despite all of Kyre’s efforts to keep going.

"These fuckers," Kyre groaned.

"I’ll get them," Hugo said then with his red eyes bright with malice.

"Wear your mask," Caius said.

They knew nothing about the attackers so they might as well return the favor and keep their identities to themselves as well.

"Yes, My Lord," Hugo said. He snapped on his mask and his hood in a fraction of a second and was already pulling out of the window.

As large as Hugo was, he was quite agile as well. The maneuver he used to exit the Carriage, toss himself into a flip, and land on top of the Carriage with a flourish.

"You sons of bitches are dead!" Hugo said with a flare of killing intent.

"Vampiric scum," yelled one of the three attackers on the roof, "Die!"

And so, the three-on-one battle began.

By the energy coming from them, all three were well into the Seventh Circle, and while Hugo surpassed them by one Circle, with the three banding together, it wasn’t an outright win in his favor.

And the three were incredibly coordinated. When one struck a fire whip at Hugo, the other fanned the flames with a wind column that also doubled as a push that almost sent Hugo off the Carriage. And while the hulking vampire was trying to regain his balance, the third cast an earthen attack.

But Hugo met the earthen attack head-on, striking out a fist that broke through the rock, turning it into fragments that scattered about to be turned back into Mana as they once were. With the momentum of his punch, Hugo lunged and wrapped his hand around the Earth Mage’s neck, his claws digging into his flesh, drawing blood.

As Hugo clenched, the other two attacked him to break his hold on their comrade. But Hugo, bounding across the roof of the carriage in a mixture of strength and agility that was incredible, avoided their attacks.

As Hugo moved, the Mage whose neck was in his hand choked but fought back still. Using Hugo as leverage, the Mage lifted his feet off the Carriage and kicked at Hugo’s chest while he tried to pry the hand from his neck.

Alas, Hugo’s grip was unbreakable. Another second and the Mage knew his neck would be crushed, if the claws didn’t eventually cut open a vein first, so he focused his magical acumen on his feet, conjuring a spell circle onto Hugo’s chest and striking him point-blank with an attack that finally launched Hugo off the carriage.

"Hey!" Hugo cried when he noticed what was happening but it was already too late; He hit the ground hard and watched as the carriage sped away.

With a roar of frustration, Hugo pinned the attacker whose neck he still held against the ground. While the attacker choked and trashed, Hugo pulled up his mask and opened his mouth wider to show off his fangs.

The attacker’s eyes widened in horror, and as fear took strong hold of his heart, Hugo attacked, sinking his fangs into the attacker’s neck before he could realize the grip around his neck was finally gone.

Drinking almost feverishly, Hugo drained his victim of all his blood in less than a minute. Any attempt at resistance was quelled in a quarter of that time but the fear remained, imbuing the blood with Evolutionary charge which Hugo savored and reveled in.

When he finally left the bloodless body on the ground, Hugo found his frustration had been dulled a bit. Replaced mostly with worry;

His Lord and his family were still stuck with the rest of the attackers!

•••

"Hansen!" Yelled one of the attackers still on the Carriage as they watched their comrade hit the ground with the Vampire’s hand still around his neck.

"He’ll be fine," said the other attacker but there was something about his tone that suggested he didn’t actually have a lot of hope.

Still, the two resumed their efforts to slow the Carriage down—or at least, they started to do so when someone spectacularly exited the carriage to stand on top of it as Hugo had done before.

With her eyes red within the slits on her mask, Nadine held her sword as she took on a fighting stance. And then, she charged and began to battle the two who, despite the limited space on top of the carriage, tried to maintain their distance from her while fighting exclusively with spells.

Within the Carriage, Caius opened his eyes which he had shut for a while.

"Hugo is alive," he said.

Despite how that should have been obvious to the Leopolds, because of the uncertainty of the situation they were in, it still gave them relief to hear.

"More Carriages on our tail!" Kyre announced then.

Caius and the others looked and it was true. Only, there was something different about these set— the motifs painted on them matched the atmosphere of Northern-Star and also had an official look about them.

The answer for why this was the case came when a voice boomed from the Carriage in the lead.

"BY ORDER OF THE KHIONE DUCHESS, STOP THE CARRIAGE AND SURRENDER!"