Prima Killton, one of King Bryce's Royal Knights, was known as the fastest vampire in the settlement and the others could see it as he had dashed across the room in almost a second from the doorway all the way to Arthur.
From the yell in his voice, it seemed he was clearly distressed due to seeing Kim on the floor. Erin, noticing how much anger was in the vampire's voice, could only guess that Kim was somehow related to Prima.
However, Silver knew what Arthur was doing was wrong. The people who he was going after had also killed innocent lives and for what reason, just because they were scared. They were even the ones that attacked first. Which was why she, and it seemed like the others were struggling to move.
The shadows around Arthur started to move, but it looked as if Prima had improved since last time she had seen him fight, as he dashed in even faster, allowing for the tip of his rapier blade to go through the shadow before it could reach his weapon to block its attack.
Still, Arthur had moved slightly, making the attack miss, and it looked like the shadow would soon catch up. Prima quickly pulled his sword out before it was able to touch the shadow and continued his thrust again and again.
It was strange watching the 'fight', since all they were seeing a shaodw slowly chasing after Prima, but each time he would move position and attack in a different place. Arthur could simply cover his body in shadows, but if he was to do that then he wouldn't have the opportunity to attack either.
'Prima's speed improved, and he hasn't even activated his ability yet.' Silver noticed. 'He also is aware of what the shadow can do, so he keeps his range, making sure his weapon stays untouched. Did Prima start training after the loss to Cindy?'
Regardless, it looked like there was a stalemate between the two sides.
"Do you think I would let you touch me?" Arthur asked. "I know what your ability is."
Prima's ability allowed him to increase his speed after each successful hit within a certain amount of time, yet so far he hadn't managed to land a single strike on the Punisher, despite how fast he was.
"Let's see you deal with this." Arthur said, lowering his shadow and now covering the whole ground with it.
Prima started to leap back, making sure not to touch any of the shadows. Instead he thrust forward hitting the air, and out from the tip of his blade he fired what looked similar to a Blood swipe, only the shape was different as it came out like an arrow. Despite it being fast, Arthur was able to move out of the way, seemingly having an easier time evading this Blood arrow than the rapier itself.
Some watching this couldn't tell the difference in speed, but such a minimal loss in speed was apparent for these high level fighters. The strongest of the vampires.
'This man is strong. They say I am the fastest vampire yet there is someone right in front of me who can match up to my speed. The title seems to only apply to the current generation. The only way to attack him is to somehow get past his shadow and hit him directly with my sword, but how?'
It was then that a red string had appeared and had wrapped around Arthur's arm. It wasn't that the Punisher hadn't seen it coming, but more that he had ignored it because he hadn't felt any enminity coming from it. Nor did he think it was something serious to worry about when comparing to Prima across the room.
"I'm sorry Arthur, I understand your pain, but I've learned certain things from the others. You might have your reasons to team up with the Dalki, but the fact remains that your side is even attacking my own family's castle right now and you're doing nothing to stop it! I have no other choice but to choose to save the vampire settlement, my home!" Silver shouted.
Silver yanked on the string attempting to at least overpower one of Arthur's arms. Unfortunately, it looked like it hardly had made any movement at all, though Prima believed that he should be at least slightly restricted by the strings.
Although he hadn't figured out who exactly these mysterious people were, he would gladly take any help facing Arthur. Seeing the strings, told him that at least one of them was from the thirteenth family, who he had believed to be on their side against the Punisher.
"I have no grudge against the thirteenth family, but I will also not let them get in my way." Arthur stated as he yanked on the string, causing Silver to stumble into the shadow. At the same time, Arthur raised one hand and made a Blood wall blocking all of the attacks that were coming towards him from Prima who had wanted to use the opportunity when his attention had been elsewhere.
Although the shadow was a skill that was slow, making it somewhat of a weakness, his blood skills were not.
'How long has it been since I last used Blood skills… or tasted human blood?" Arthur wondered. 'Well, I suppose it doesn't matter.'
Out of the shadow that was on the ground, eight figures started to appear. They had human appearances, but were completely made out of shadow. All of them were Arthur's Shadow clones.
They quickly proceeded to surround the Royal Knight. Prima thought this was an opportunity, if he attacked the clones' bodies then his ability would activate. He pierced the first one with his rapier expecting for it to go through the body, which it did, but the body didn't bleed, and instead shadows just rippled.
As soon as the rapier had touched the first body, the shadow effect had started and began to move over the weapon. The weapon had slowed down slightly. Still, the Royal Knight felt like he could still pull out the weapon with brute force.
Before he could though, another shadow hit Prima directly in the face, sending him flying back and his body flipping through the air. He quickly regained his balance landing on the floor on all fours. With a sore face he wondered what had just happened.
'What's going on? Those clones can fight and attack me, but then why isn't my ability working on them?' Prima was confused.
However, Leo could see what had happened. Through his ability he had seen that Arthur had switched positions with one of his clones, and his real body was now present in the one that attacked. So the hit that had landed was a full strength hit from Arthur himself.
Although Prima didn't know what happened, he was struggling with how exactly he could face Arthur. The floor was covered in shadow he couldn't touch. Any attacks could be blocked with the shadow, and now he even had clones helping him.
The only time Prima had gotten close to hurting Arthur was when he had help, but even then Arthur still had blood abilities on top of that.
It was at that moment that a certain individual went to strike at one of the shadow clones, and in an instant the shadow dispersed, and the clone's body had disappeared. The next person had struck with a red blade doing the same to the one next to them.
'How? How are their blades not slowing down when they touch the clones? Are they special weapons?' Prima thought.
Even Silver, who had now gotten out of the area of the shadow on the ground, was amazed by what was happening. One by one, the clones were all quickly dealt with, and Arthur had transferred his energy back to his original place at the back of the throne room.
The two masked people that had dealt with the clones started to walk forward, and it looked like their feet were soon going to enter the shadow space that was on the ground.
"Wait, if you touch that it will slow you down!" Prima yelled out a warning, thinking that maybe these others didn't know much about the Punisher's powers. It wouldn't surprise him, after all their existence had mostly been forgotten by all but ancient vampires. It wouldn't be uncommon to not know what the shadow exactly could and couldn't do.
Then, as if Prima was witnessing a miracle, when the two masked stepped on the shadow, they could see that a clear circle appeared around their feet. It was as if the shadow was unable to reach them. They could walk through it fine without the shadow touching them.
This was because both Erin and Leo were using the third stage of Qi.
"You harmed a boy that I have come to respect and like very much. You were once a man that I admired but I can not understand what could have happened for you to have put that boy through what you did!" Leo stated, holding his sword with both hands.
Erin also decided to pull out something from her back, the Demon tier beast weapon. As she held it in her hands, frost began to envelop her hand and the weapon.
"Oh, so it's the two of you." Arthur sighed, recognising the voices and the stance.
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