Chapter 367: 355 Vampire’s Retainer
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—"
The sound of arrows splitting the air fiercely echoed throughout the deserted alley, as a torrential downpour of arrows was unleashed towards the direction where Reiger and his companions were, sparing no corner.
The surrounding buildings bore the brunt of the arrow rain first, with part of the arrows landing on them, sticking into the walls.
Lakyus and the others reacted swiftly to the arrow rain. Just as they were about to make their move, Reiger had already started chanting magic.
"[Arrow-blocking Wall]."
Instantly, the flow of air around them began to change.
The magic that Reiger chanted was designed to weaken projectile attacks.
Therefore, as the air currents shifted, the arrow rain that had been shooting towards them like a torrential downpour was immediately affected by the airflow, and began losing its precision one after another.
With a series of "thunk thunk thunk" noises, all the arrows that had lost their precision deviated from their main target either by whizzing past the group or falling from mid-air as if they had lost their strength, either sticking into the ground or into the surrounding buildings.
It was only then that Lakyus and the others sprang into action, spreading out from each other instead of staying clustered together to avoid concentrated enemy attacks, while Reiger alone remained standing in place, without having moved an inch.
"Chirp chirp chirp—"
Suddenly, a series of sharp cries rang out.
The group noticed that following the arrow rain, a great mass of shadows flew out from the jail-like building.
"Careful!"
Iveyor’s eyesight seemed to surpass all those present as she was the first to identify the nature of the shadows and shouted to alert everyone there.
"It’s vampire bats!"
Vampire bats, as their name implies, are a group of small bat creatures that attack humans and other beings to suck their blood.
These creatures are not very strong—in fact, they are quite weak. If leveled according to "YGGDRASIL," they would only be a Level 1 or 2 monster at most, easily dealt with even by the lowest-ranked Copper grade adventurers.
However, the most troublesome aspect of the vampire bats is not their individual strength but that they typically act in groups, always appearing as a large swarm. A sizable group of vampire bats could present a serious challenge even to a team of Mithril-ranked adventurers.
This type of creature is also one of the most commonly summoned and controlled by vampires, thus the presence of a swarm of vampire bats usually means there are vampires nearby who have summoned and are controlling them. The larger the swarm of vampire bats, the stronger the vampire that’s controlling them is likely to be.
Now, the number of vampire bats that flew out from the building in front of Reiger and the others was enough to be described as blotting out the sky, a sight so densely packed that even Ivey was shocked.
"How, how can there be so many vampire bats...!?"
Not only Ivey, but Lakyus and the others also showed changing expressions.
"Gegran! Tia! Tina! Fall back!"
Lakyus quickly gave instructions.
"Tch...!"
Gegran, Tia, and Tina clicked their tongues and did not disobey Lakyus’s instructions, quickly retreating.
"This number..."
Brian also retreated with a furrowed brow.
Facing such a number of flying creatures, warriors like Brian and Gegran, who primarily engage in close combat, were at a significant disadvantage.
After all, warriors have too few area-of-effect attack methods, to the point of having virtually none. If they were to be surrounded by a swarm of vampire bats, they would certainly be overwhelmed, succumbing to a tragic end similar to an elephant being bitten to death by ants, slowly being bitten and drained of blood until they died from excessive blood loss.
That’s why Lakyus had warriors like Gegran fall back, and not just them, she even called Tia and Tina back, leaving only the Magic Singers capable of using wide-range attacks at the forefront to face the swarm of vampire bats.
"[Fly]!"
Ivey acted first, using a flight spell to soar toward the sky, attracting a portion of the vampire bats.
"[Maximum Enhance·Crystal Scatter Bullet]!"
Following that, Ivey released magic that had been strengthened by her skills, letting countless crystalline bullets shoot out towards the swarm of vampire bats.
"Pop! Pop! Pop!"...
The crystalline bullets hit a large number of vampire bats that were diving towards Ivey, shooting them down from mid-air, blood spraying as they were struck.
"Go! Floating Swords!"
Lakyus then commanded, causing cone-shaped swords to rise behind her.
That was Lakyus’s favored magical tool—the Floating Sword Group.
As the name implies, this magical tool consisted of swords that could float freely and, under Lakyus’s manipulation, become flying blades that would strike enemies from a distance.
Now, Lakyus activated this magical tool, sending the blades zipping out, cutting through the swarm of vampire bats back and forth as if wielded by invisible hands, slashing down the bats one by one.
Unfortunately, the number of vampire bats was simply too great. Even with Lakyus and Ivey launching their wide-range attacks, killing off many vampire bats, there were still plenty that broke through their defenses and flew towards the warriors in the back.
Of course, Reiger also became a target for the vampire bats’ attacks.