Modern World Warlock

After Udras, the warlock turned Death Knight, arrived at the location where Laurent, Madeline, and Maya were scouting, they prepared themselves for a tough battle.

Thanks to Dante's guidance, they were familiar with many of the spells that a warlock could use. However, the fact that Udras had turned into a Death Knight would make his abilities different from those Dante used, so they had to be ready for the unknown.

When Udras aimed his palm at the trio, they quickly stepped away from each other and rushed in different directions.

Maya turned her head as she ran straight to see how her opponent would react. Suddenly, noticing that Udras didn't move his arm to switch targets, she felt a slight alteration in the environment, prompting her to jump out of instinct.

Right as her feet left the asphalt, a crater appeared beneath her in the blink of an eye, and she recognized the spell as "Destro."

However, Maya was confused since Udras wasn't pointing his palm in her direction, and when she glanced at her teammates, she noticed they also had to avoid being blasted by the invisible force.

'Did he split his spell into three!?' Maya pondered.

As soon as Laurent regained his footing, he jumped, extruded his bat wings in the air, and dived directly at Udras with his claws forward.

Laurent's fingers were as sharp as knives, enveloped in a faint red energy that materialized into blood right when his strike landed.

Before the vampire lord could reach him, Udras waved his arm and raised a shadow wall beside him that stopped Laurent's advance, allowing Madeline to make use of the opening on his other side.

When the vampire sentinel pointed her finger at Udras, a thin red beam of light that looked like a laser beam was shot straight at the Death Knight—pressurized blood.

Still, Udras simply raised his other hand and stopped the strong bloodstream with his palm, splashing blood all over his arm.

Madeline expected her attack to stab through Udras' hand, but his body was much tougher than that. Nevertheless, Madeline's specialty wasn't shooting the blood itself but lighting it aflame.

"Blood Flame!" Madeline exclaimed, instantly making the blood that had splashed on Udras' arm light up violently with a fire that had a dark red hue.

The Death Knight seemed to be taken aback by the sudden combustion, and in that brief moment of confusion, Maya drew her pistol and unleashed the entire clip on her opponent, prompting Udras to move erratically to avoid the reinforced bullets.

Still, Maya had excellent aim, so while Udras moved away, she managed to land two shots on his chest.

Laurent took the opportunity to approach Udras from behind, his claws glowing brightly, but when he tried to strike him, obsidian chains came from the ground and snared his legs.

*Tch!* The vampire lord clicked his tongue with annoyance, and when he looked back at Udras, the Death Knight had clasped his hands together, and strands of shadows began to form around him.

Laurent recognized the spell as "Shadow Whip," which he had seen Dante use before during their training. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to avoid the lashes due to the chains on his legs, Laurent raised his arms and protected his body.

*Bam, bam, bam…* Three wide and quick attacks hit Laurent, slashing his forearms and half of his torso.

The shadow whips felt as if they were ripping his skin apart, and before he could take another hit, Maya had caught up with them and shot at the Death Knight, interrupting his spell.

"Are you good?" Maya asked the vampire lord after Udras stepped away from him.

"I'm fine. Just a few scratches…" Laurent replied, his eyes sharpened with anger.

Maya could see the gaping slashes on Laurent's body, so she knew that they weren't mere scratches. Nonetheless, the vampire lord seemed more focused than before.

As Udras stepped back to gain some distance from his opponents, Madeline tried to land another attack with her pressurized blood, but the Death Knight wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

Pointing his palm straight at the blood beam, Udras launched an invisible force that blasted the blood beam away, prompting Madeline to surround her body with mana and raise her forearms for cover.

She didn't have a way to avoid the attack, and putting all of her energy into her defense, she felt the spell breaking through.

*Slash!* Laurent and Maya could hear the sound of blood splattering.

When the two got a vision of Madeline, they noticed she had been struck with a "Rapture" spell.

Luckily, the vampire sentinel was still in one piece, but the invisible slash traveled from one of her eyes to the bottom of her torso before being blasted into a building.

Maya clenched her teeth and prepared to rush to help Madeline, but when she glanced to the side, she was halted by an eerie energy coming from Laurent.

"You… dare to hurt my little sister?" Laurent muttered, his voice clouded in pure anger.

His eyes were glowing red, and his hair seemed to get slightly longer. The veins on his neck and forehead popped out, and his fangs grew out of his mouth, resembling a wild beast.

In the blink of an eye, Laurent disappeared from Maya's sight, and when she turned to look at Udras, he was being slammed to the ground by the furious vampire lord.

'What was that speed!?' Maya pondered, her eyes widened in shock at the scene.

Udras retaliated by casting a "Destro" spell, but Laurent simply waved his arm and deflected the invisible force to the side, landing on a building behind him and leaving a gaping hole in its wall.

As Laurent jumped upwards and extruded his bat wings, his shirt was ripped apart, and Maya saw that his wings had grown from their usual size.

'I… Didn't know vampires could do this,' Maya thought.

She was aware that people could become stronger and faster whenever they found themselves in life-or-death situations, but Laurent seemed like a completely different person after seeing his little sister getting hurt.