Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

"Humph!", the girl from the church of the light softly snorted as she saw the residual water and darkness mana from all the spells that the seconds in command had used recently gather, to shorten the first’s casting time and increase the strength of his spell in order to make up for the incapacity of his teammates to replicate his spells casted with this method, in order to catch up with her.

"Clang!", the highly pressured water torrents that rained from every direction aiming to destroy Sera clashed against the white bursting sword which suddenly tripled its size as she slashed it with a twirling motion.

Though Sera had managed to stop all of the black water currents coming her way, it was only for a fraction of a second before they continued their way, which is understandable, as bursting sword is not a defensive technique, she did so just with the physical impact of the energy sword which is nothing to look down upon.

The first had used darkness and water mana from the other three seconds in command and combined it all alongside his into this spell after all, that being said, it was enough for Sera to buy time so that she could release the energy contained inside the sword, making the energy explosion resulting from it meet the still advancing dozens of black water currents head on.

"Hssss!", even before the clash happened, loud sizzling sounds were produced as the light energy burned the black water mana, and then a thunder-like explosion echoed through the battlefield.

"Boooom!", Sera’s energy and the first’s mana combined with the one from the other seconds in command created a large energy cloud that engulfed everything in its vicinity.

Naturally, Sera had turned into a white energy stream that entered space to then appear a few hundreds of meters away before she got caught into the explosion.

"Tsk, he was still hiding the true extent of that annoying ability of his", said Sera to which Laila who became visible next to her added in a voice that only her friend could listen to.

’It was not bad, now we know that he can go back to up to four spells when it comes to mana gathering for it, and that each instance shortens his casting time by 10% percent, with an extra 10% for every affinity he forfeits’

The first’s already fast casting time had basically been cut in half earlier, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to catch up with a double boosted speed and attack power Sera thanks to the self-motivation technique applied to white piercing step and white bursting sword.

"Oh, so you have can do that now, sorry I have to keep things upfront to progress on my end", said Sera, Laila could now directly speak to Sera in her mind and the girl from the church of light could also use this connection but chose to not do so.

This was a technique derived from "Villains lose their advantage because they talk too much" cliché by the way, you can’t expect Laila to share what she had been able to confirm about the enemies every single time, after all.

Speaking of which, the first couldn’t help but frown.

’Damn, I don’t know to what extent but that darkness user woman is seeing through me... does she know the limits of my recycling ability, if so, this is getting dangerous’, he thought to then directly cast a spell.

"Black Fierce Rotating Shield!", the spell was replicated by everyone else, including the fourth was about to use an attack type instead, but had to change midway to not be left out of the defensive formation.

"First, why didn’t we go on the offensive before defending, you can cast faster when it comes to attack type spells rather than defense ones, right?", said the fourth to which the third gave him a "are you crazy" gaze.

"Hey, fourth what the hell are you talking about, earlier I was nearly cut down by that light user woman because you bastard tried to attack her instead of blocking her!", exclaimed the third, he was a fraction of a second away from being cut by Sera after all.

If the fourth had used a defensive spell, he would have been able to slow down Sera a bit and that would allow the third to properly defend himself.

"Huh, don’t tell me you are afraid of being targeted by the enemy, third, this time I didn’t mess with the group’s casting chances or anything of the like so you are basically blaming me because unlike what you expected, she didn’t target me or a subordinate but you", mockingly said the fourth basically throwing the same words the third used against him earlier, back to his face.

"You!", the third gritted his teeth, the fourth was right, he did let his guard down because in his mind the fourth was an easier target than him, otherwise he could have at least tried to defend himself with his trident which was still boosted by the first’s weapon enhancing spell, but was taken by surprise.

"Third’s remark was indeed not right as he is partially to blame for lowering his guard, however it is also true that if you had slowed that woman down instead of trying to attack her, first would have had the chance to launch a round of our attacks at the enemy instead, you weren’t thinking on the team and just wanted to clash with her, fourth", said the second.

In other words, he was telling the fourth that his attacks were meaningless so he should try to give the opportunity to the first, which is not a bad idea actually, but it indeed was offensive.

"Give me a break second, I was out of the battle formation the moment my connection was half cut, I’m making do with what I can and I even brought back two of our subordinates to cover up for me and now you are saying that my independent actions are also wrong, why don’t you have your connection half destroyed like me, I would like to see you saying the same in my position, in fact if I remember correctly the remaining wounded subordinate is...",

"Enough fourth, third was in the wrong this time, don’t say those things out loud, I don’t know if my isolation is working as it should against the darkness user woman, still I had to reveal the full extent of my shortened casting ability this time, and it could have been avoided if you blocked instead of attacking, you can cast independently faster, so cooperate with second and third if the enemy bypasses our first line of defense", said the first.

’Damn second, I even left the subordinate connected to him out of the battle to help him and third called me a coward earlier but is afraid of being targeted, and yet, first takes it against me instead’, thought the fourth.

"White Piercing Step", midway through their conversation, Sera’s voice made all the seconds in command look frontwards.

"Crack!", the shield targeted by the boosted secondary attacks of the movement spell and the sword condensations crumbled on the spot.

"Black Fierce Sea Rotating Shield!", this time the fourth did as his teammates wanted and casted a defensive spell to block Sera from advancing instead of an attack type one to try and kill her.

"White Bursting Sword!", of course the fourth’s defensive spell was destroyed with a single slash of the white energy sword which tripled its size midway through its motion, but the fourth’s interference allowed the other seconds in command to properly react and adjust their defensive spells to move behind of the fourth’s one indeed.

"Clang!", after breaking through two of them, the sword stuck at the third shield and it was then when Sera released the energy contained in it, in order to continue advancing.

"Boooom!", the remaining shields were blasted away but by this time, the first was ready to act.

"Black Fierce Sea Current Step!", and he went with an improved version of their common movement spell first, this was replicated by the others while the fourth casted the spell alongside them.

"Mmm?", Sera couldn’t help but frown those guys suddenly flashed, but it wasn’t to attack her but instead they appeared around the area where Sera was before charging at them.

’Chances are that the darkness user woman is at the back of the battlefield considering how the other one always returns to her side after clashing with us, so...’, thought the first to then shout.

"Black Fierce Sea Explosive Rain!", he went with a wide range spell that focuses in speed rather than in heavy offensive like the fourth’s crushing wave one, the idea was clear they had changed from targeting Sera to targeting Laila.

"Crack!", the countless black water drops which were shot by all the enemies, flew in every direction destroying illusion seeds after hitting them a few times, it took many rounds but they actually made Laila return to be visible.

Why didn’t she trick their mana you wonder, the first had learned his lesson and he changed it so the drops would explode in a timed way, different rounds had different timers and they were random, in other words some drops exploded before they ones ahead of them and that’s what broke Laila’s camouflage.

"White Flashing Step", that being said, Sera appeared above them with a white energy sword on her right hand ready to be slashed at them.

"Thanks", said Laila to her friend who had appeared at a perfect time to assist her, earning her as smile from Sera.

"Black Fierce Sea Rotating Shield!", the fourth who didn’t participate in the barrage of attacks that were used to look for Laila, directly used a defensive spell to stall her, however the last round of black explosive water drops shot by the others, suddenly changed targets.

That was of course Laila’s doing, she spread the energy of the destroyed illusion seeds and left it slowly advance through the battlefield for this opportunity and now with a snap of her fingers, the water drops exploded in unison blasting away the fourth’s spell.

"White Piercing Step!", without anything to block her, Sera turned into a white flash accompanied by secondary attacks and sword condensations all of which was charging at the third of the seconds command.

"Damn it!", the first gathered mana from the remains of the spells used by the seconds in command while forfeiting using earth element like before.

"Black Fierce Sea Converging Currents!", his spell was casted in time, however he committed a mistake, as the target wasn’t the third, well, Sera’s target was him, but the black threads that suddenly appeared to smoothly change Sera’s trajectory, suggested that Laila’s target was different.

"Agh!", it was a though smooth still rushed change of trajectory though, so Laila’s target which were those two subordinates that had just been healed by the fourth, were only grazed by Sera, that being said it was enough to nearly split them in half as the girl from the church of light was stronger than when she wounded them earlier.

The black water currents casted by the first, arrived to their aid a fraction of a second later forcing Laila who was still controlling Sera to help her dodge.

"White Piercing Step", Sera answered with her movement technique and used the secondary attacks and the sword condensations to block the black water currents, which allowed her to safely get away.

What’s more, one of the three sword condensations that she always creates with her words at the time of casting her attack related spells... didn’t disappear but was instead floating behind of her now.

"That’s new", said Laila to her friend who smiled at her in response.

"It’s "thanks" to you, because I had no idea this cliché existed~", said the girl from the church of light.

It was the "A hero’s efforts don’t pay off" cliché, which basically means that after going through some nasty stuff to save the day, others not only don’t show gratitude but instead criticize or blame the hero when it’s totally undeserved.

As to why Sera didn’t have this one in her scope, that’s simple, the hero which she met never experienced such a thing, because he never actually tried to help anyone, so others being "ungrateful" to him was absolutely justified in the very few instances in which others noticed that he was a piece of trash by random luck or accidental interference from Marcus.

Amusingly enough, it was Laila’s accidental interference what triggered this technique, when Laila thanked her for coming to assist her, the technique was created and activated.

It was funny because helping her friend didn’t really didn’t need any effort from Sera and Laila had no need to openly thank her for doing so, but she wanted to do it.

"But this permanent "weapon" technique was more of a bonus, my new technique is this", said Sera as she extended her right hand making the white energy sword which was floating behind of her, fly towards it.

"White Judgement Sword", surprisingly Sera didn’t move from her spot, she simply pointed the now permanent sword condensation which in comparison with the white bursting sword was lacking finer details, it was still a great sword but looked "unfinished" in comparison.

That didn’t prevent Laila from putting on a noticeably surprised expression on her pretty face, something rare for her, she couldn’t be blamed though, considering what was happening on the side of the enemies.

...

A second ago just when Sera got away, the third and second directly encased the wounded subordinates in black sand, clay and rocks to send them away from the battlefield, since they had though barely, still survived thanks to the first’s slightly late interference.

But just as they were sending them away, both the second and third suddenly felt the connection with their mana which was used to encase those two be destroyed.

"Blegh!", what’s more both suffered some backslash as the pieces of floating ground which were covering their subordinates crumbled apart.

"What is...", the third who was wiping the blood that was staining the corner of his mouth, froze midway through his sentence as he saw the subordinates that used to be recovering inside those pieces of floating ground.

’No way, I saw her pointing her sword at us, but there was no attack!’, inwardly shouted the first as he saw two white energy swords piercing the frontal bodies of each of those two, one on the chest right where the heart is placed and the other on the forehead, naturally as those are vital points, they were as dead as possible now.

That was Sera’s new technique, well the one which she actively worked to obtain, it used the "The hero fails or hesitates to kill the villain and he escapes" cliché as its base, the result was white judgement sword, which allows Sera to attack a vital spot from afar if the target has survived after having attacks that should have killed them, land on them.

Those two had escaped from dying at her hands thanks to external help twice already, so she had two chances to attack their vitals, of course this isn’t a "sure kill" technique as that would be too strong, but it gives her a chance to finish the job, the enemy can still defend himself but that’s why the important part of the technique states that it’s to be used against enemies that should have died at her hands, those subordinates alone were no longer strong enough to hold a candle to her, so of course they were properly killed this time.

"Second, third, hurry up and protect...", the first was the one who reacted the fastest but he was still a step too late.

Under the eyes of the once again ten enemies active on the battlefield in total due to the death of those two, at the distance, a white energy sword descended from above and pierced a random piece of floating ground obliterating it on the process.

"No!", now the third reacted stronger than others, because as the fourth was about to say earlier, he was connected to that other subordinate, what’s more, he lost the same aspect as the fourth as his hair which turned brown, suggested.

"This is your damn fault, this didn’t happen when the subordinates were wounded before, so they returning to the battlefield allowed that woman to use that weird spell to kill them, and those two must have heard you talking about something you shouldn’t!", said the second as he glared at the fourth.

"Second, just because the materials used to create you and third were brothers doesn’t mean that you are brothers so stop lashing at me for anything that happens to third, besides just in case you have forgotten, first was going to make the subordinates return anyway, I didn’t do anything out of the strategy we were going to follow", said the fourth to then add.

"Also, it’s not like third is dead or anything, he is just in the same state as me now, you can ask him to do as you wanted, because I’m not going to do so anymore".

The fourth felt incensed, if he acted the way he wanted he was reprimanded and if he acted the way they wanted, he was still reprimanded, they simply seemed to want him to assume the fault of every mistake because he wasn’t fully connected to the others anymore.

"What did you say, you have been getting on my nerves since earlier, in case you have forgotten you have the lowest authority among the four of us, what’s more, when first is standing aside I’m the one in charge!", said the second to which the fourth whose sclerae suddenly dyed black, retorted.

"You know what, screw you, Black Fierce Sea Current Step!", and with those words the fourth disappeared from their side, and now we return to present where the fourth appeared in front of Sera and Laila.

’That fool, he is going to get himself killed’, thought the first as he prepared to cast a defensive spell to separate the fourth from those two, only to hear him say.

"Hey, you two were originally working for those chosen ones but changed sides to work for the masked guy, right, what do I need to do to be accepted on your team?", he said to which Sera frowned, but Laila directly answered.

"It’s not "for" but "with", Gabriel treats us as allies on equal standing not as subordinates below him, besides a contract to make sure we are not trying to play any tricks, there is no other real requirement".

"Oh, I like how that sounds, I’m in and to prove it let me tell you that third’s movement spells suck, now that he has lost the connection to replicate other’s spells, if you target him, he will be easy to kill, what’s more, second has some weird sense of kinship with him, so he will try to protect third, which means two birds one stone", said the fourth.

Naturally what Laila said wasn’t true, sure a contract to ensure the compromise of both parties was important for Daimon, but whether the other party was worthy of becoming his ally was way more important, he didn’t team up with pieces of trash, nor did he offer them to be on equal standing to him, they could still be used as cannon fodder or prisoners, like Claire or that naga noble woman who was corrupted by nether back at Draim.

But she "lying" had a purpose, as it was the finishing touch for her newest technique, one that required quite a long preparation for her taste, but with an effect that was worth it, as in gaining control over one target regardless of the other party’s resistance, but for a limited period of time and with the limitation that she couldn’t use it against people that had seen it happen first-hand even if they weren’t the targets for it.