Chapter 415: Chapter 415 - Tomorrow
Point-of-View: Dracula
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"Lord Dracula, I have an urgent report," Remarked Jagger, as he entered the throne room, along with Lavinia and Caera.
They shut the doors behind them and approached, before bowing their heads to me.
His tone doesn’t sound particularly urgent, but then, this is how he always sounds. Caera is smiling as she always is, though Lavinia looks quite vexed. At least one of them is capable of expressing a normal range of emotions. Though, I suppose I have much bigger concerns to worry about at the moment...
"What is it? What has happened?" I inquired warily, though I already had a decent idea of what it must be.
"The Vampires we sent to scout the borders of the Dark Continent nations have reported seeing significant movement from all five nations. It seems likely that they’re preparing to launch their attack soon," He replied with a slight grimace.
"In all likelihood, they will attack us tomorrow, and almost certainly during the day. Their numbers are significant, we do outnumber their forces with the Lessers, but those creatures proved to be a lot less effective than we’d hoped during the last battle," Added Lavinia with a sigh.
"I didn’t think they’d attack so soon, I was hoping we’d have a bit more time," Muttered Jagger in response.
"I think it makes sense...the next full moon is in three days, so I always assumed that they would attack before then," Pointed out Caera with a smile.
"In all likelihood, the strongest among them will aim to attack and eliminate the four of us, while the rest of their forces deal with the Vampires and Lessers," I surmised grimly.
"In which case, we should try to slow down and wear out those who would target the four of us, using the Vampires and Lessers. If we can tire them out to any significant extent, that will boost our odds of victory," Mused Lavinia objectively.
"Indeed, we may be at a disadvantage now, but their victory is not yet assured...so long as we manage to eliminate the strongest among their forces, we can still emerge victorious," Nodded Caera in response.
"What a pain this is turning out to be...maybe we should’ve just attacked Arcadia with the entirety of our forces in the first place," Sighed Jagger wistfully.
"There’s no point in dwelling on the past, we can’t change what’s already happened, after all. And besides, there’s no guarantee that the outcome would have been any different if we had decided to solely target Arcadia during the last attack. The simple fact is that we greatly underestimated our enemies, and paid the price for it," Pointed out Lavinia with a grimace.
"How are our forces looking? Have the three of you each finished creating your upper limit of fifty Vampires apiece?" I asked them.
I’d already completed creating my upper limit of a hundred Vampires, but without many humans of high Mana quality left at our disposal, they aren’t as strong as they could be.
"Well, we have maxed out our capacity of Vampires...two hundred and fifty in total. Unfortunately, not only has that upper limit been lowered due to the deaths of our three fellow Elder Vampires, but the overall quality of this current batch is a fair bit lower as well. We combed through the livestock farms, but we could not find very many humans with decent Mana quality. As a result, many of our current Vampires are quite weak. Incidentally, our livestock farms are down to about a third of their initial numbers, we used most of the remaining humans to replenish the Lessers, though their numbers are still slightly less than what they were before we attacked the Dark Continent," Caera informed me.
"I see...I suppose that can’t be helped. The only significant casualties we managed to inflict upon the enemy were the deaths of the Dragon King Liquaqua and the Demon Aratron. Of course, there is a possibility that Sirius, Jevera and Azriel managed to take down other dangerous individuals before they were killed, but we should assume that they didn’t. In which case, we still have three Dragon Kings to worry about, Frielektra, Terrastra and Aereeze.
As for the Demons, there’s Lucifer and Pavorphobus, not to mention the Demon Lord himself, Satan. And that human, Larrk Stryker, he is not to be taken lightly either. Oh, and the half-breed as well, the spawn of Satan and Frielektra, she is likely a significant threat as well. And there may still be others we’ve overlooked," I remarked with a frown.
"When you lay it all out like that, my Lord, I feel as though our odds are even worse than I’d assumed," Sighed Jagger apprehensively.
"Yes, it will certainly be far from easy. But with the moonlight barrier, we still have a chance. Even if we each have to face around, say, three of the strongest individuals among the enemy, it should be more or less even with our full power unleashed," Reasoned Caera thoughtfully.
"Speaking of which, have those humans managed to improve the Magic Item at all?" I inquired in response.
"They have, but it’s nothing too significant. Just some minor fine-tuning, nothing more," Replied Jagger with a shake of his head.
I see...I suppose that’s understandable, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect any drastic improvements in such a short period of time.
"Alright, then...let us begin preparing. Rally our forces and have them get ready to battle at a moment’s notice. We have no margin for error, everything needs to go our way if we are to stand a chance of winning this battle."
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