The sounds of iron clanging, explosion magic, and the agonizing screams of the dying. Those were the sounds of the battle of Liden forest... No, no sane person would call this bloodbath a battle. This was a one-sided massacre.

The Dwarfs were unable to deploy their heavy guns out of fear of hitting their allies and had to rely on war axes and a few rifles. For the same reason as dwarfs, elves could not use their strongest spells to attack the vampires and had to rely on their legendary archery skills and a few smaller offensive spells.

As a result, humans lost a huge chunk of their force. The riflemen, who in the last decades became central formations in human armies for their firepower and accuracy, thanks to which they were treated as humanity’s trump card against vampires, However, vampiric regeneration proved to be more powerful than humans anticipated; if you cut off an arm, it will regrow in a few minutes or so, and they will rejoin the fight immediately.Put a bullet through their brain or heart? A few seconds later, and they're as good as new. It took a group of five riflemen and their concentrated fire at a single vampire to take them down.

And the human swordsman? They were being reminded why humans are at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. Though they were doing better than the riflemen, working just in teams of 3 to take down the vampires. The Beastmen were working on their own, utilizing their agility in hit-and-run tactics. And it seemed to work in thinning down enemy lines. But even their valiant fight was proving futile.

Julian was running across the battlefield, cutting down all vampires in his path with his great sword. He understood how dire the situation had gotten and therefore decided to make a bold move, eliminating the noble that led enemy forces. Vampires surpassed all of the world's races thanks to their regeneration. Without it, individual common foot soldiers would not pose any problem, even to humans.

Vampiric society was based on strength, so commoners were the weakest and the queen was the strongest. So, the higher someone’s standing in their society, the stronger they were. Therefore, if a noble that led this army, the strongest vampire present would die by Julian’s hand, by a mere human's, as far as the vampire’s understanding went. Their morale should be sent to the sewer and then they should pull out, allowing coalition forces to consider this battle a pyrrhic victory.

"Here you are!"

Julian spotted his target, a tall black-haired vampire that was about to kill Beastman’s chieftain. Based on his armor and the sword in his hands, there was no mistaking it, this guy was the noble that Julian was looking for. Julian put what little mana he had as a human on to his sword and slashed at the vampire noble.

"!?...Your insolent insect dares to injure this noble?"

Julian managed to cut off one of his opponent’s arms, hoping to disadvantage his opponent. However, as Julian was preparing for his next move, his eyes opened wide at the spectacle in front of him. I heard that vampires have strong regenerative abilities and that their nobles are stronger than normal ones, but come on, this is ridiculous.

The noble’s arm was slowly growing back right in front of Julian’s eyes. His opponent merely looked at him with a mocking smile while keeping his distance to allow himself full regeneration.

Julian refused to grant him the time and closed the distance between them as fast as he could. The vampire noble looked at Julian with amusement as he readied his sword in his healthy hand.

Clank

Their swords collided, but the vampire’s sword didn’t budge at all. Even though Julian was using all of his strength and his opponent was holding his sword only in one hand.

"Hah! Is that all? Since you came to me, I had expected more from you, but... chuckle, what did I expect from a human?"

Julian distanced himself from the noble. So, this is the difference in strength between us and them, huh? But I can’t afford to lose this!

When Julian got a few meters between them, he pulled out a small flask filled with bluish liquid. Without further ado, he poured the content of the flask into his mouth. Julian’s face clearly showed how disgusted he was by the taste of the liquid was.

Divine Drops, as the liquid was called. was a form of mana-rich drink that increased the amount of mana in a person’s body, making it a necessity when fighting vampires. And therefore, it was given to all humanity’s warriors by the church... In reality, however, it was so expensive and complicated to produce, since a slight mistake would cause it to turn toxic for human consumption. Therefore, only higher-ranked members of the coalition army, such as Julian, were given some to use in case of a strong enemy appearing.

After finishing the last drop, Julian felt his mana increase. Even though it wouldn’t be enough to overwhelm the vampire in front of him, it gave him a better fighting chance with the use of sacred art. Sacred arts were essentially healing, offensive, and buffing spells that humans could use. But the number of humans capable of using them was extremely low. Even people with the highest amount of mana amongst the human race were unable to sustain them in a fight for long without divine drops.

"Don’t look down on humans, you scum! Wrath of the Lez!"

The Wrath of the Lez was one of the offensive spells created by the church for humans. Its main effect was to increase in the user’s brute strength. Those who ended up mastering it were essential parts of the human coalition since it was easy for them to overpower almost everything.

Clang

Julian’s sword was coated in a light red aura as he slashed at the noble. The vampire was taken aback by the sudden increase in Julian’s power, but quickly recomposed himself and blocked Julian’s attack. Julian continued attacking noble with as much power as he could muster.

"I appreciated your help human but this is my battle!"

In the meantime, the Beastman’s chieftain regained some of his strength and rejoined the fight against the noble, attacking him from behind with a short sword. The surprise attack seemed to work as a deep-cut wound was created on the noble’s back. However, it healed too quickly for the liking of the vampire’s two opponents.

"My apologies however if we don’t kill him now, we are in for big trouble!"

Julian and the chieftain attacked the vampire in tandem, targeting his blind spots. Luckily for the two of them, this particular noble didn’t seem to have any magic skills. Maybe he is part of the lower nobility, setting this trap to impress the queen and climb up the ranks of nobility? Well, it is not like it matters to Julian. His only concern is to defeat this noble and save his troops.

"I have to applaud you, human. You are not a weak, pathetic worm like the rest of your kind. Be honored, for I Zaechy Malfen, the duke of Malfarhem, shall remember your name."

The duke indeed seemed impressed by Julian’s fighting, while utterly ignoring the cat people’s chieftain. The noble was covered in dozens of cuts, but they didn’t seem to heal as quickly as before.

"I am Julian Beleng, son of the count of Belengen. It is my honor to fight with you."

Julian bowed slightly as he returned, courtesy of Duke Malfen. Then he readied his sword to strike. Just a bit more and we win. Julian met the eyes of the Beastman’s chieftain, who nodded his head to acknowledge Julian’s intentions. The chieftain then sprinted towards Duke Malfen and attacked him vigorously. The duke’s defense seemed sluggish compared to earlier, and his wounds were yet to heal. Is his regeneration getting weaker? Maybe this will work since he also looks tired just like us.

Julian took the second flask of divine drops and drank it in one gulp. Once again suppressed the urge to vomit from the disgusting taste. He could feel his mana increase again as well as his fatigue vanishing.

"Let’s do this, human! Moon claws!"

"Yea! Wrath of the Lez!"

Determined to save their respective people, both of them attacked Duke Malfen simultaneously. The duke was able to barely block their attacks; he was clearly losing strength. His situation was worsened by Julian using one of the stronger spells known to humans, as well as the chieftain using a stronger strengthening spell known to the Beastman.

"Ugh!"

Julian managed to overwhelm Duke Malfen and knock him to the ground. The duke was covered in wounds. Not a single one of them was healing. He was obviously defeated.

"It’s over, Duke Malfen, you have lost. Order your men to retreat or you shall die by my sword."

Julian pointed the tip of his sword at the duke. He was sure that Duke Malfen would not want to order a retreat in front of a human, but it was still worth a shot. And just as Julian anticipated, the Duke started laughing.

"Ahaha… Retreat? You joking right? We are winning. There’s no way we are retreating just because a human got me. Actually, you may even be the toughest opponent I have faced in my life. Dying by your hand would have been an honor."

Julian was taken aback by the Duke’s words. He expected that the duke would not be willing to retreat, but he didn’t expect to hear that it would have been an honor to die by his hand. After a bit, Julian recomposed himself and brought his sword closer to the duke’s chest, and pierced it.

"Aght... Long live...the queen…"

Julian and the chieftain stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds. They did kill the noble that led vampires in this battle; they killed the strongest vampire on this battlefield, but the vampires were still attacking as if their commander’s death meant nothing to them.

Julian had no other choice than to fight against the rest of the vampiric army and force them to give up. He and the chieftain both rushed into the fray, taking several vampires down and finishing them off before they could retaliate. It was going to be a bloody battle, but vampires should be less coordinated without their leader.