Ryu stands with the city of Valeed at his back, facing an army of countless magical beasts and dozens of Lesser Vampires.

Once again, Ryu is in serious mode.

First, he systematically dispatches the magical beasts with Dimensional Cleave.

But the number of magical beasts is overwhelming. He then deploys a large-scale Dimensional Barrier, completely encasing the herd of beasts, shrinking it to gather them together for a mass cleave. This is more efficient than killing them one by one.

However, even this becomes tedious, so he creates a Dimensional Barrier cage and starts transferring the magical beasts inside with teleportation, one after another. It's like a cage of dimensional barriers.

Later, he realizes that he could have simply stored them directly in a separate dimension using teleportation... But he was so focused on using Dimensional Cleave that he didn't consider it. It seems he still needs time to optimize his combat strategies.

However, the cage of barriers might have served as a useful message to the Vampires, demonstrating that their magical beasts were being captured in bulk.

Noticing the situation, the Lesser Vampires approach Ryu, aiming to attack him.

He instantly kills the first few with Dimensional Cleave, but it proves ineffective against subsequent Lessers. It seems that the Lessers also possess the Mistfication ability. This is troublesome. Since even Mimir could be killed instantly, he had assumed that Lower Vampires couldn't Mistfy. It seems he was wrong.

He had investigated demonkind in the royal palace's library because he wanted to know the Vampire's weaknesses.

The Vampire Lord was a formidable opponent. Ryu didn't think he would lose in a fight, but he couldn't think of a way to win either. He wasn't sure what would happen in a prolonged battle, but if his Vampire and magical beast subordinates attacked the city during that time, it would be pointless.

But ultimately, he couldn't find any Vampire weaknesses. After all, it had been over 2000 years since the final war against the Demons. There shouldn't have been any decent records left.

However, Ryu had come up with a few ideas to deal with the Vampires. Now, he just had to test them in a real battle. He decided to try out his countermeasures to Mistfication one by one.

First, trap them in a Dimensional Barrier cage.

Result: Success.

When he trapped the Mistfied Lesser Vampires within a Dimensional Barrier, it seemed that they lacked the ability to cross dimensions, whether they were in mist form or not.

Second, rewind time to revert the Mistfied Vampires back to their un-Mistfied state, then cut them.

Result: Success.

They seem susceptible to physical attacks in their un-Mistfied state. He had suspected this since he had been successful every time he activated Dimensional Cleave unexpectedly in the beginning. It seems his prediction was correct.

Third, store the Mistfied Vampires in a separate dimension while they are still in mist form.

Result: Success.

He couldn't kill them, but they were trapped in the separate dimension and unable to escape. It was an obvious result considering they couldn't cross dimensions.

Ryu's strategies all worked. This wasn't so scary after all.

Ryu decided to capture the Lessers by trapping them in Dimensional Barrier cages, one by one. This would...

As expected, he appeared.

The Upper Vampire Lord, the Vampire Lord.

What was his name again? He didn't seem to have heard it.

Ryu: "What is your name?"

Lord: ".... Count Nemroy. And you?"

Ryu: "Ryujeen."

Lord: "You... you're not human, are you?"

The Lord's eyes glinted.

Lord: "A Dragonkin? I haven't seen one of you in a long time. Why are you stopping us?"

Ryu: "My second home, the city, is right beyond this point. It's not good for it to be attacked."

As he said this, Ryu deployed a Dimensional Barrier around the Lord, trapping him.

If Vampires couldn't cross dimensions, this should be the end of it. All that remained was to interrogate him or dispatch him... But then, his worst fear came true.

The Lord effortlessly escaped the Dimensional Barrier.

This was strange. In their previous encounter, the Lord's attacks hadn't been able to penetrate Ryu's Dimensional Barrier...

But this time, the Lord had simply slipped through the barrier in his Mistfied form. So, his Mistfication ability allowed him to cross dimensional barriers? But the Lessers he had just tried couldn't cross the barrier even in their Mistfied state. Maybe it meant that there was a difference in level between the Lord and the Lessers, even in their mistfied forms.

He was a formidable opponent, indeed.

But, perhaps, he couldn't physically attack while in his Mistfied form. Because in their previous encounter, Ryu had managed to block the Lord's attacks with his barrier. Maybe he had to be in his solid form to launch physical attacks.

And he could cut him when he was in solid form. Although he had managed to kill the Lessers by cutting them while they were in their solid form, he had already cut the Lord once during their previous encounter. However, the Lord had still managed to return to his original form after being cut, using Mistfication.

There were still many unknown aspects, such as whether he used up energy to revert back to his original form or if he couldn't recover if he were cut into enough pieces. But for now, he seemed to be invincible, with no apparent solution.

Of course, the same was true for the Lord regarding Ryu. While the Lord was immortal, he didn't seem to have the power to break Ryu's Dimensional Barrier. If he knew that, he might not attack. But since the Lord in this world was unaware of this, he might still attack. He might have realized this when Ryu trapped him earlier, but he might need to fight again.

It was unclear if the Mistfied Vampire could use magic to attack while in his Mistfied form.

While Vampires had yet to use magic in this encounter, that didn't mean they couldn't. It was still unknown whether Vampires possessed the ability to use magic. It was best to assume they could. But if it was just magic, he should be able to block it with his Dimensional Barrier, so there was no need to worry too much.

It was also unclear if magical attacks would be effective against the Mistfied Vampires. Since Ryu lacked the ability to use general attack spells like fire, wind, water, or thunder, he couldn't test this. (He actually had stored attack spells that his past opponents had used, but he had forgotten all about them after years of not using them. Ryu later regretted not using them, but it was too late.)

In the case of the Lord, he could cross the Dimensional Barrier in his Mistfied form, which meant that trapping him in a separate dimension probably wouldn't work either. It was even possible that teleportation might not work.

Ryu had actually considered using teleportation to send his opponent to a place where they would be killed... A place like the sun, perhaps? It was an idea influenced by his past life's knowledge on Earth, where Vampires were said to be weak to sunlight. But if the opponent could use spatial magic, that might not work either.

There was still much unknown about this opponent. He described himself as immortal. It was dangerous to be complacent.

It was unclear what would happen if this became a long-term battle. If he had to resolve it somehow, it might come down to a test of endurance, but Ryu, the opponent, and the Vampires weren't infinitely durable.

Fortunately, he had managed to trap the Lessers and the magical beasts within the Dimensional Barrier cage, so he wouldn't have any problems in a prolonged battle...

However, Ryu was counting on another possibility. It was because he believed that this possibility was highly likely that he had decided to fight even without knowing the Vampire's weaknesses.

And it seemed he had won his gamble.

It was...

Count Nemroy choosing to retreat.

"Human blood is not a delicacy, but a luxury. We can live without it. This time, our Lessers, having been left undefended, got a bit ahead of themselves. We simply took advantage of that. If someone like you is on the human side, there's no need for us to force our hand."

With those words, Count Nemroy retreated, taking his Lesser companions and the magical beasts with him.

To be Continued...

Next Time

Ryu Returns

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