Gacha Leveling

It took a long time before Matthew and the others saw a luxurious carriage coming through the road. They were far enough from the castle to not be seen by the castle sentinels. Safe from castle reinforcements, they decided to ambush the carriage.

Orpheu put himself in front of the cart ordering it to stop. Matthew and Tina remained hidden inside the forest that surrounded the road waiting for their time to act.

The carriage stopped and a man wearing a breastplate and carrying a huge sword got down from his seat beside the coachman with a smile on his face.

"Who is stupid enough to try to rob lady Tarkov? You do not value your life?" He said approaching Orpheu.

"If you leave now, I'll spare your life." Orpheu threatened the man.

"Fool." The man said bringing down his sword on Orpheu with incredible speed.

However, the professor was a master swordsman. All it took was a small side step to avoid the blade. With a step forward, Orpheu closed the distance between them in an instant, and, before the bodyguard could react, he drew his katana from its sheath and, on the same movement, took the man's head off with a clean cut through the neck.

The man's body vanished in a mist of mana, but his clothes stayed behind. Unlike normal dungeons, that dungeon left the items of the simulacrums behind as if encouraging adventurers to use them to finish their missions.

Seeing the bodyguard being defeated so easily, the coachman tried to flee by himself, but Tina and Matthew sprung from their hiding spot and restrained him.

Then the door of the carriage opened and from inside a blonde maid and a dark haired woman dressed in an elegant purple dress got out. Looking upon the bodyguard's clothes on the floor and the coachman held fast under Matthew's knee, the woman in purple smiled openly.

"Entertainment so soon before the party?" She said licking her lips.

"It seems Lord Novak is holding no expenses for the ceremony, Lady Tarkov." The maid said bowing and giving way for the woman to step forward.

"You. Man in red." Lady Tarkov said pointing to Orpheu. "You're the one who defeated my Boris?"

"I am." Orpheu said getting in position to fight.

"I hope you're ready to take his place then." She said baring her fangs.

The next moment a deep darkness covered all of them after a hand movement of Lady Tarkov. No one could see a thing inside the darkness. But Lady Tarkov's laughter seemed to resonate around them.

Tina tried using her mana to produce some light, but the light from her mana couldn't illuminate farther than a couple of inches. The same when Ffyr produced a flame. The magical darkness simply prevented any kind of light from forming.

Orpheu kept moving so he wouldn't be caught standing still and focused in his other senses. He tried to listen to a step, to smell the scent of a perfume or even to feel a soft caress of a breeze. But it seemed impossible. He could not locate anyone inside that unnatural darkness.

It was when he felt a hand grabbing one of his feet and pull him hard making him fall to the ground. Another pair of hands grabbed both of his hands and held them against the floor. With Orpheu pinned on the ground, the person holding his foot got on top of him. Orpheu could only feel the heavy breathing on his neck.

"You're mine now." He heard Lady Tarkov's voice on his ear and then her teeth scratching his neck.

Orpheu was prepared to be bitten as he could not free his hands that the maid, he assumed, held fast. However, before the vampire's teeth could break his skin, a wave of fire was cast by Ffyr spreading in circle on all directions.

The flame was weak, but it made the horses neigh and run dragging the carriage away from the darkness. It also singed both vampires enough to weaken their hold on Orpheu allowing him to brake free from the maid's hold. On the same movement, he scratched the maid with his sword making her back down from him. Quickly after, with his hands free, the professor now could push Lady Tarkov from him reversing their positions and getting on top of her.

The vampire could only gnarl in surprise while she tried to wrestle him before he plunged his sword on her chest making her disappear in a mist of mana. With Lady Tarkov destroyed, the magic darkness vanished revealing the maid with a cut on her wrist.

The maid hissed after the death of her mistress and bared her fangs charging Orpheu, but Matthew was quick to shoot her down with his gun a few times also reducing her to a mist of mana.

With all enemies vanquished, they now held the coachman in their custody. He was clearly not a vampire and just a human servant. He was crying beneath Matthew's knee:

"Please don't kill me. I'll do anything. Please…"

Helen charged forward with her shield up when the castle guards found Erin and her in the arsenal. She used her massive shield to create an obstacle under the door frame while Erin shot lightning bolts over her against the guards who tried to subdue them.

"Don't kill them! The master wants them for tonight's entertainment!" Someone screamed.

"Don't let the master know they've escaped!" Another person screamed.

"Quick! Apprehend them!" A third voice screamed.

That would work on the girls' favor, if none of them were coming forward with lethal intentions, the two of them had an advantage in battle ahead, since, at that point, they had no reservations on destroying the simulacrums.

Helen's spear kept the guards at bay while Erin's lightning transformed one after the other into mists of mana.

Upon realizing that trying to force their way in like that was useless, the guards kept their distance and tried to persuade both of them to surrender. Erin and Helen refused vehemently. They knew surrender meant they'd just die as entertainment for Novak.

While the guards tried to convince them, they suddenly heard a male laughter. Every head turned to look at the man who just walked in the situation. A very tall muscular bald man with a faint beard dressed in a luxurious outfit approached them all slowly.

"What a fun little game we have here." He said with a smile. "I came down to find myself a little snack and look at that. We're having the help playing a fun little game."

"Lord Babivic!" One of the guards exclaimed upon seeing him. "We're terrible sorry, we are having a little trouble with tonight's feast, but it will be resolved soon."

"Nonsense little man." Lord Babivic said. "You'll all die like that. Move over and let me have my fun."

"But my lord!" The guard protested. "These are Lord Novak's prey, they are to be tonight's entertainment."

"Well. Then tell lord Novak I helped myself to his playthings early." Lord Babivic laughed licking his fangs. "Or are you going to stop me?" He added a threat.

"No my lord." The guard lowered his head and gave way to the vampire.

"He'll be a tough one." Helen said imbuing her shield, armor and weapons with mana.

Erin put an electric wall in front of Helen to protect her, but Lord Babivic grabbed the wall enduring the pain of the high voltage and breaking it apart.

"That stings." He laughed.

Helen tried to hit him with her spear, but the man moved extremely fast for someone of his size. He dodged easily her attacks and kicked her on the shield sending her backwards towards Erin.

At this moment, Erin fired a lightning bolt at him which he took on his chest with a smile.

"Tell lord Novak that he has excellent taste in his food." The vampire said to the guards watching the bout while dousing the small flame the bolt of lightning lit on his clothes. "These two are just my type."

With those words he charged forward again trying to grab Erin, but Helen put herself on his way defending her friend with her shield. After absorbing the blow of the vampire's attack, she slashed at him with her sword instead of her spear which was more appropriate for close combat.

Lord Babivic dodged her attack again, and punched her shield hard enough to send tremors down Helen's body. She countered the punch with another stab that the vampire dodged again. In the same movement, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to himself.

Once she was close enough, he slapped her on the face sending her to the floor hitting her head hard on the stone. He then looked at Erin triumphant.

"Why don't you two just give up and let me have fun with you?"

Erin didn't say a word. She just looked at him with death threat on her eyes. The intensity of her stare made Lord Babivic hold his step for a mere moment before walking slowly towards Erin.

"You are feisty." He complimented her. "I like it."

When he uttered those words, Erin drew her Holy Mana skill and shot a golden lightning bolt at the vampire. The holy mana nullified the unholy mana from the undead creature making the lightning bolt strike have a devastating effect on the arrogant man.

He screamed in pain taking a couple of steps back. Finally terror and anger took over his expression. He wasn't expecting them to wield holy power. He though of running away, but, as soon as he looked at the door, Helen plunged her sword in the back of his ankles taking another scream from the vampire.

Without his Achilles' tendons to keep him standing, Lord Babivic fell to the ground.

He looked at Helen with a scared expression. He tried to mumble to her to wait, but Helen didn't even listen to him. She plunged her sword deep in his heart making the vampire disappear in a mist of mana.

Upon seeing Lord Babivic being destroyed, the guards realized that that was not a battle they could win. They all ran away. They had to warn their master.

Helen got up from the floor sheathing her sword and grabbing back her spear.

"Guess we have to hurry now." Helen said cleaning a bit of blood from her nose satisfied after seeing the look on the vampire's face just before he died. "Oh, look. I leveled up." She commented.