My Players Are So Fierce

The “bodyguard” Bonnie, who was recruited by Tris, blocked Lady Adele from approaching the tent until Murphy and Femis came out.

“Protect Tris at all costs!”

Murphy said to the female vampire in front of him, whose demeanor was frenzied yet appeared very loyal and reliable, with disheveled hair and no semblance of decorum.

The latter eyed Murphy with a malicious gaze from her blood-red eyes and twitched her high-bridged nose, as if she had caught a whiff of Murphy’s scent similar to Lady Tris’. She then slapped her chest with a thud.

Amidst the quivering oscillations of her protruding features, she said hoarsely:

“I will not fail my mission!”

“Good, I leave it to you then.”

Murphy nodded, giving Lady Adele a look, and the three vampires turned to leave.

Tris said she had woven new memories for this crazed Bonnie using her mental illusions. The fact that the young lady hadn’t been able to undo those false memories for thirty years fully demonstrated Tris’ exceptional talent in this area, so Murphy wasn’t worried about this insane white silver vampire losing control.

“Lord Murphy!”

As they walked out of the camp into the woods, Lady Adele took out six blood-red, glossy vampire hearts from her spirit pouch and suspended them in the air, presenting them respectfully to her elder.

Seeing this harvest, Murphy was also slightly surprised.

He had originally only given Lady Adele tasks to collect three, but his blood descendant had truly proven herself capable, which also indirectly proved the dominance of the half-elf rogue + sin blood on the night battlefield.

“It seems you do have an urgent wish you want to fulfill.”

Murphy didn’t mince words with his blood descendant.

He took five of them and pushed the remaining one with the most vigorous blood aura back to Lady Adele, as this blood essence could further enhance her strength.

As he said, he was always quite generous when dealing with subordinates who were faithful to their duties.

“Speak, your wish.”

Murphy asked.

Lady Adele gave the distraught young lady a puzzled look but didn’t have much time to ponder. She then turned to Murphy and said earnestly:

“I have decided to accept my new life and become a blade in your shadow, dedicating everything to your cause. But as Lady Adele’s final wish, I still long for it to be fulfilled.

I hope…

You no longer harbor hostility towards Lady Femis!

I believe she will not pose a threat to your endeavors. I hope you can view her as an equal partner! If possible, I hope you can treat her as kindly as you treat your warriors and your subjects.”

Lady Adele’s wish sounded quite preposterous.

But considering that blood descendants and elders could always sense each other’s thoughts more keenly than strangers due to the sacred blood link between them, Lady Adele’s request wasn’t entirely off the mark.

She must have sensed Murphy’s underlying hostility and wariness towards Femis, which forced her to resort to this plea.

“Alas”

This request wasn’t entirely unexpected to Murphy.

Just as blood descendants could sense their elders’ thoughts, as an elder, he was even more attuned to Lady Adele’s emotional changes.

He could feel Lady Adele’s feelings towards Femis, which contained gratitude, loyalty, and a kind of… well, let’s call it “admiration.”

Given that Lady Adele had now become his blood descendant, it was understandable for this loyal maid to hope to win a precious friendship for her former mistress.

But the problem was, it was no longer a question of whether Murphy harbored hostility towards Femis or not!

The trouble that had been sown within Femis over two hundred and twenty-five years ago had now dragged everyone into an inescapable vortex of death.

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“Listen to what I have to say first.”

Murphy placed his hand on Lady Adele’s shoulder and used concise language and ventriloquism techniques to explain the situation Femis was currently facing. Lady Adele’s cold yet charming face was filled with shock.

Especially when she heard about the potential threat of death from the Blood Pact Knights, she instinctively gripped the hilt of her sword.

She said hoarsely:

“We must kill them! We cannot let them approach Kadman City! They are currently entering the Foul Swamp, which is an opportunity! I can contact my mother’s… forces left there. In any case, we still have a chance!

But we must be resolute.”

“No, it’s impossible.”

Lady Femis leaned against a tree.

Hugging her arms like a frail mortal, she said hoarsely:

“That is a knight lord leading elite knights, with the leader being a Golden Rank powerhouse, and the elite knights under his command are all Silver Rank! The core members of the Blood Pact Knights number only 300, but they have become the most powerful arbiters among the seven great clans, relying on martial prowess unmatched by blood tribes or even the entire continent.

Such a force is impossible to be ambushed and destroyed hastily. We must find another way.”

“Join forces with the Witch Hunters, storm the Blood Vulture Halls! Resolve this within three days, wipe out all traces, and make it seem like the destruction was caused by an Astral Realm rift.

This is currently the only viable option.”

Murphy stood with his hands behind his back, raising his head to gaze at the twinkling starlight in the dark woods.

He said in a deep voice:

“You must follow this tactic. I have no intention of abandoning my plans here. I don’t want my efforts during this time to go to waste.

I believe you each have your own reasons to fight. I don’t have the time or interest to convince you.

But I will go meet with the Witch Hunters in three hours.

Tris will accompany me.

If you cannot make up your mind, then leave. I can pretend I’ve never met you.”

After speaking, Murphy turned and walked deeper into the woods.

He caught the scent of his little players over there and planned to see what mischief they were up to in their hiding place.

After he left, Lady Adele looked at the pale-faced Lady Femis with concern. She had learned why the young lady’s memories differed from her own, but instead of feeling betrayed, she was filled with pity.

The young lady’s first thirty years of life had been a carefully constructed lie, and her own birth father had masterminded it all.

By the Night Mother, just thinking about it was terrifying.

“My lady!”

Lady Adele stepped forward, wanting to say something, but Femis only waved her hand and walked alone towards the other side of the woods.

She said wearily:

“Don’t follow me, Adele. Let me be alone for a while…please, my friend.”

——

“Hurry, hurry! The waning crescent moon stars have risen! We specifically set aside 30 minutes of game time for this moment.”

Deep in the woods of the survivor’s camp, Meow King’s group was busily setting up something around a strange tree stump.

They were all atheists born under the red flag, so performing this kind of feudalistic superstitious ritual was their first time.

Black Stockings was holding a thick stick of incense, placing it on a silver stand.

Day One No Fap and Led More Than Three to Five Pecks were carrying a basket of freshly picked berries and a bundle of dried bay leaves respectively, while Electronic Succubus Old Tune held a candle for lighting.

Don’t Need Hands to Show Off was carrying a bucket of strange powder bought from the Witch Hunters, sprinkling it around the tree stump in a circle while muttering incantations.

The whole scene resembled an amateurish cult ritual!

Murphy, hiding in the shadows of a nearby tree branch, found it quite intriguing. He could roughly guess what Meow King’s group of six were trying to do, likely an attempt at the nature ritual Meow King had learned from the Witch Hunters.

Under his watchful gaze, Meow King, the main protagonist of this ritual, had changed into a linen robe as required, probably taken from the camp’s warehouse.

He was also wearing a strange woven grass wreath on his head.

This was indeed a requirement of some ancient nature teaching ritual, but that grass wreath looked odd no matter how you looked at it. Perhaps these rough fellows had woven it themselves?

The craftsmanship was truly poor, even a kindergarten girl would be more dexterous than you guys!

“This ritual succeeding would be a miracle!”

As a “feudalistic superstitious creature,” Murphy didn’t have much experience with feudalistic superstitions either. But as a vampire, a transcendent being, he could spot at least seven mistakes in these six little players’ ritual with just a glance.

This made him deeply lament how crude his otherworld warriors were at their first attempt at such practices.

But it was worth a try, no big deal.

If the little players could stumble upon a new job system, Murphy would consider it a huge gain.

However, it would take them some time to fumble through the preparations for this ritual. Murphy took out a large, blood-red vampire heart from his spirit pouch.

This was not one of the five blood essences offered by Lady Adele, but rather from his own spoils of hunting.

It was Jed’s blood essence.

He looked at the vampire heart in his hand. Its swirling crimson glow emitted a mysterious and lingering aura in the darkness, but no matter how you looked at it, you could sense a certain deficiency and weakness within it.

The blood essence of a deceased silver-rank vampire should have been more brilliant, yet these unfortunate souls must have encountered some nightmare in the Blood Vulture Halls, leaving them in an irreversibly weakened state, resulting in Murphy’s war trophies being less than full.

But this was not a bad thing for Murphy.

As a vampire who had just entered the Black Iron Rank, absorbing the blood essence of a silver-rank being could have resulted in the embarrassing situation from last time.

The power might not have been fully absorbed before he himself collapsed.

Now that his Black Iron Rank potential was beginning to be unleashed, that “deficiency in replenishment” situation should not occur. Moreover, he had received a hint the last time he absorbed blood essence that frequent use could have severe aftereffects.

Murphy had also obtained specific instructions on its usage from Tris.

In summary, vampires could use no more than one essence at each power stage, otherwise there would be problems. After all, this essence was essentially seizing power from other vampires, and occasionally it might also take some strange things.

For example, certain obsessions or sinister thoughts from the heart’s original owner. Tris said she knew of at least seven unfortunate blood tribe members who went completely insane from indiscriminately absorbing unverified blood essences and had to be mercifully destroyed by their respective clans.

This warning may have contained some exaggeration, but it was clear that Tris did not want Murphy to rapidly gain strength by killing his own kind in this manner. This unique mechanism was probably an evolutionary taboo developed by vampire beings to prevent infighting and self-destruction.

It was the same principle as the madness virus in the human brain.

“Snap”

The swirling crimson vampire heart shattered in Murphy’s tightly clenched fist.

He elegantly inhaled that blood mist-like essence into his nose and mouth. A prompt quickly popped up in front of him:

【Blood Essence – Blood Vulture】Fusion. This essence belongs to Berna Jed Lessenbra. Random abilities will be extracted from his power characteristics and bestowed upon the user.

Due to his strength far exceeding the user’s, the number of extracted power characteristics increases, and the newly acquired power characteristics will decay to the initial level.

Power Extraction in progress…

1. Racial Talent【Crimson Wings】enhanced.

The blood wings manifested by the user will be stronger and more powerful, able to withstand more attacks without dissipating, allowing the user to traverse the skies at greater speeds.

Since the user already possesses the Rare Template – Enhanced Racial Talent【Sky Mastery】,【Crimson Wings】enhancement effect is further increased.

In daylight environments, flight speed increases to【1.25x Speed of Sound】.

In night environments, swift flight speed increases to【2x Speed of Sound】.

2. Racial Talent【Bat Heritage】enhanced.

The user’s bat transformation skills will extend an additional branch as【Swift Bat】, allowing the user to temporarily turn into a bat swarm to dodge attacks in combat, nullifying that strike.

This skill has no proficiency level but must be actively triggered!

Cannot dodge unperceivable attacks.

Cannot dodge wide-area spirit attacks.

3. Skill extracted:

Summon – Carrion Black Crows【Midnight Hunter Special Skill】, current skill proficiency is “Novice”.

Due to the user’s expertise in Otherworld Creature Summoning, this summoning effect is enhanced to: Summon – Carrion Murder Crows, allowing the user to summon a group (≥5) of vicious, bloodthirsty carrion crows to attack enemies at the cost of dark spirit energy. These creatures’ attacks carry a minor spirit attack and inflict the【Bleeding】effect.

The number summoned and duration depend on the total spirit energy consumed by the user.

4. Skill enhancement:

Tomb Guard Sword Arts skill cap raised to【Master】, current proficiency is【Proficient】.

Reminder!

Before officially changing jobs, the penalty for improving this sword art’s proficiency is 3x learning time cost, so please create your own Tomb Guard badge and complete the Tomb Guard job change as soon as possible.

Power Extraction complete!

“Four power enhancements? Cool!”

Murphy opened his eyes with satisfaction, feeling an itch on his back near his ribs.

According to Tris’ previous reminder, vampires needed a month after passing the Black Iron Rank before their blood wings could fully grow. But with Jed’s essence, Murphy felt he could have his bat wings in a day or two.

Although these were illusory spirit organs that could retract into the body at any time, they did need to physically manifest the first time.

Supposedly that process wasn’t painful, and many vampires felt nothing while growing their wings.

But it represented the vampire regressing towards their “true bat form” as eternal sin descendants, just like how Joban Marci had shed his human guise to enter a more ferocious wolf-bat form in combat.

The higher a vampire’s power rank, the further they deviated from the human form towards their racial origins, essentially a “return to roots” phenomenon.

This was Tris’ conclusion, which Murphy firmly believed.

He would never doubt Tris.

Down below, the little players finally completed the ritual preparations after Murphy absorbed the blood essence’s power.

Under Murphy’s watchful gaze, Meow King stepped forward and knelt before the wooden stump.

He looked nervous.

But following the Witch Hunters’ instructions to the letter, he cupped the lit bay leaves and placed them on the incense, igniting the strangely colored flames under the starlight’s illumination. The incense fragrance then spread all around.

Led More Than Three to Five Pecks quickly handed over a basket of berries, which Meow King raised high before slowly placing it before the incense.

“Oh, great Avalon deity, I beseech your blessing…”

Meow King shouted in his broken voice, almost making Murphy laugh out loud.

Although vampires didn’t fully understand the nuances of the ancient nature teachings and elven natural heritage, he could tell that the prefix “great” should not be used to address the Avalonian nature deity.

That astral deity did not like its followers calling it “great”.

According to Tris’ mother, the historian specialized in theology, each deity had its own unique personality, often reflected in the prefixes of their titles.

Meow King was probably in for trouble this time.

Murphy thought as he lost interest in this doomed ritual and was about to turn and leave, when suddenly his body froze.

Because from behind, he felt an invisible yet immense gaze descend upon them, making the vampire’s heart race with the urge to flee. In the next instant, Meow King excitedly shouted as if in a frenzy:

“Hey! I made it, brother!”