Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

"Be careful, her space movement technique is extremely fast, she doesn’t open a portal but directly enters a space tunnel by turning into that white energy stream!", said the first of the seconds in command, just in time for Sera to precisely do that.

"White Flashing Step", the girl from the church of light was clad in a bright white light to then turn into an energy stream that disappeared into space, at the same time the first of the seconds in command spoke with his peers in a way that only they could hear him.

’She will appear where the darkness user woman is, spread your domain’s detection spells’.

’Black Sea Mist Alert!’, the fourth of the seconds in command extended his right hand and "invisible" mist spread on the sky and upper area covered by their domains.

’Black Seabed Sand Alert!’, the third followed right away, in his case thin black sand grains appeared and spread covering the ground and middle parts of the area covered by their domains.

Both spells were called without chanting out loud and in case you wonder why did they bother using detecting spells when Laila could interfere with them so that she goes unnoticed, their target wasn’t her but Sera.

With the white flashing step’s extreme speed boost, Sera moved really fast so even if she charged in a straight line, they couldn’t react in time unless they used their domains to cover basically the whole area ahead of them which used too much mana, so in order to be able to properly fight against her, they had to detect her the very moment she returned from the space tunnel.

’As expected of that guy’s subordinates, they came up with a way to better deal with us after a single instance of them suffering a loss, however that’s under the premise that... our combo is the same as earlier’, thought Laila as she became visible east from where the enemies were.

"She will appear there...", just as one of the subordinates was about to point at Laila to rain down attacks in that direction, he was left speechless as dozens of "Lailas" appeared all over the place.

"What, is numerical advantage something only you guys can have?", said all Laila’s at the same time.

"Damn it, wasn’t she limited to make one of such stupidly realistic illusions at the time", cursed the fourth of the seconds in command.

He was right, Laila’s illusion was too good at deception, not only the first of the seconds in command couldn’t see through it, but even Sera’s energy "believed" it was the real Laila and it was for that same reason she could only make one at the time as she has done so far.

Until a moment ago at least, after she used one of her illusions as a sacrifice to "infect" the spells of the enemies in order to make their aim suck with the help of the "The aim of a villain’s minions is trash" cliché, she was reminded of another subordinate-related cliché of villains, they have "numerous incompetent subordinates".

So, since she turns negative cliches of a villain into techniques, using that as a base, she broke the limitation of her illusion technique and made a big number of "useful subordinates" in a single go, they were quite useful because with all of them being recognized as "Laila" they could all act as coordinates for Sera.

And that invalidated the purpose of the detection spells used by the seconds in command, as Sera proved the next second by appearing where the first Laila was to then disappear again.

"Attack the illusions, cut her way!", said the third of the seconds in command, it was not a bad idea, in exchange for multiplying the number of illusions, their "resilience" was diminished to the extreme, so she couldn’t do things like stopping attacks with the black threads as she did earlier, in fact just with having mana from those two guys’s domains thrown at them with the intent of attacking her, the illusions were destroyed.

Unfortunately, it’s not like Laila didn’t take that into account, you remember how she "disappeared" into countless energy particles earlier, well... every particle was the origin of an illusion.

And so, the moment those two destroyed all of Laila’s illusions, a new round of them occupying different positions than earlier, appeared, which means that Sera’s path towards them still existed.

"She is too fast!", exclaimed the subordinates as they saw Sera flash just a fraction of a second before his attack landed on that specific Laila, destroying the illusion and the coordinate.

"Black Sea Crushing Waves!", the fourth of the seconds in command casted a wide area attack type spell which was replicated by all the others, as a result, black water mana waves extended with them as the center, sweeping everything in their way.

"Boooom!", all of Laila’s illusions were destroyed in a single go, but that didn’t stop those two, one last Laila appeared above the ten subordinates and so did a white energy stream as Sera returned to the picture.

A white energy sword formed for Sera to wield with her right hand which she aimed to behead one of the remaining eight subordinates.

Just as Sera was about to call out her spell, the third of the seconds in command shouted.

"Black Seabed Wall!", earlier he had blocked Sera’s attack with just the sand and clay manifested through his domain without using a spell and yet he managed to save the life of his subordinate.

’If it was the double sword one, then I would not be able to cast a strong enough defensive spell in time, but with a single one, I can make it in time’, thought the third of the seconds in command.

"White Bursting Sword!", however there was something different this time on Sera’s end as well.

"Crack!", the moment she called out the name of her spell, for every word she spelled a, though smaller sized, still great sword shaped energy condensation appeared and directly attacked the defensive spell used by the third of the seconds in command, it was an instant attack too, by the time Sera finished her sentence the black sand and clay wall was crumbling apart, so when Sera slashed the bursting sword frontwards, the thing cut through the wall as if it was made out of paper.

"Aghhhh!", with the spell which was focused in blocking physical impact having been weakened by the light energy swords before Sera’s technique reached it, the bursting sword cut the subordinate she was targeting, all the way from his right shoulder to his left thigh.

"Booooom!", and let’s not forget that the white bursting sword technique comes with a beautiful energy release as well.

"Black Seabed Embracing Shield!", unfortunately the first of the seconds in command also had a trick up his sleeve, he casted a spell using the remains of the defensive wall spell used by the third of the seconds in command, shortening the casting time so that he could manage to defend his subordinate before the energy explosion went off.

This was something exclusive to the first among the seconds in command, because this super-fast casted spell wasn’t replicated by the others, instead they tried to attack Sera but like before, she turned into a white stream of light which disappeared from their vicinity, returning to the side of the real Laila who though this time didn’t remain in her original spot, still didn’t involve herself into the previous clash.

"Tsk, that guy saved the day again, how annoying", said the girl from the church of light as she saw the energy explosion of her sword technique disappearing, revealing the half burned and half broken sphere of black sand and black clay which had enveloped the subordinate which she cut earlier, the guy was out of the fight for sure, but he was still breathing.

’Had he not interfered, Sera wouldn’t have left anything of that subordinate, that technique was quite something’, thought Laila as she looked at her friend.

The girl from the church of light had also used a new technique, with the cliché of "A hero’s words are pretty but empty", which is also one of the ones Sera hates the most by the way, she heard the phrase "Everything for the greater good" or "Everything for the glory of light" so many times that she got sick of it.

It wasn’t only the hypocrisy what bothered her, but the fact that the reputation of the church of light was mostly based in pretty words, as an insider she knew that with the resources they had, they could have solved a lot of the troubles they prayed to their god about, but nope, they simply offered words of consolation and it wasn’t done out of goodwill but to improve their public image instead.

Those that act because it’s the right thing to do, even if it means being frowned upon by others are the real heroes, that was the conclusion Sera reached after living the way she did, and that’s why she liked Daimon’s stand, he didn’t do "good" all the time perhaps, but he always tried to do the "right" thing, without caring if others appreciated it or not, and more importantly Daimon wasn’t the type to speak pretty words but the type to let his actions speak for him instead.

And Sera’s technique did the same, she literally turned her words into actions, and since her focus is attack power, her words turned into attacks, of course not every single word, only when she called out the name of a technique then her words turned into half-technique level attacks each, that’s what she used to basically destroy the third’s defensive spell.

This technique didn’t require casting and the best part of it, is that it worked alongside the property which increased the power of Sera’s attacks if she called out her technique’s name, it’s probably something she gained after feeling frustrated of being unable to use the dual wielding version of the white bursting sword under the effect of the white flashing step, with which she was sure to kill one of the subordinates in a single go, regardless of the interference of the seconds in command, which was still off limits by the way.

’The seconds in command had put quite the effort into saving the normal subordinates, it can’t be just to maintain numerical advantage so they must be needed for something, we’ll have to actually kill one to confirm it though’, thought Laila as she saw the guy who was enveloped by the half-destroyed sphere of sand and clay be absorbed into a piece of floating ground which then flew away.

’We can’t let them continue to have the initiative, second use your domain too’, said the first of the seconds in command in a voice that only they could hear.

’Are you sure, they’ll probably guess what our dynamic is like once my domain is on the view?’, said the second, to which third one added.

’Not only that, we had never needed to go past my domain for anything besides assisting Lord Ereth and Lady Karla with their training’.

’It was too close this time and I had to reveal another of my unique abilities to them, what’s more even if I keep on using the remains of your spells to shorten the casting time of mine, I’m not certain of being able to keep up with the light user woman’s attacks on my own, don’t consider them the same as other enemies we have fought so far, when fighting together they might equal a chosen one of a low level, probably because they like us have been influenced by one, of course their masters weren’t even close in level to ours but their base was better than yours’, concluded the first of the seconds in command.

Like Aisha stated, these guys when working together could stall Marcus, in fact that was one of the purposes for which Ereth had prepared them, when going all out as in with their domains, three of the seconds in command and the "special" designated leader alongside a certain number of subordinates was enough to hold the fort in the face of a system user of a low level, such as Adam or Marcus, if all of them worked together they could aim for the kill, but of course almost all of them would die in exchange.

For those that weren’t at that level, in group they had at most gone up to the second of the four domains in total so far, though the other seconds in command didn’t like that the first casually said that they, without including himself, were created with regular "materials", they knew it was true, because Ereth himself said so when the first was designated as their leader.

"Domain!", the second didn’t hesitate anymore and directly activated his domain, this one did have something in common with another of the domains present unlike what it happened between the fourth and third of the seconds in command, as in it was an earth related domain similar to the third, but his manifested black solid rock below the black sand and clay.

"So, their domains do align to form a "complete" sea", said Laila without any surprise in her voice, since she had already guessed as much, what she was putting her mind on was in discerning what was the purpose for this arrangement, since it was obviously Ereth’s doing and that guy didn’t waste time in anything that didn’t benefit him.

"Mmm, the fourth one’s is water, the third one’s is sand and clay and the second one’s is basalt and rocks, they have the proper composition for the seabed and what’s above, but then, what’s the first one’s domain, sea life?", asked Sera to which Laila shook her head.

"That woman called Karla attacked with a life-like shark made out of mana, so she would fit the concept of "marine life" better and she is way stronger than these guys, so that’s out of question, if I were to guess, my bet would be in something that is not strong by itself, not definitive for a sea to be considered as such, but which can make a sea dangerous, something like "current" perhaps...", Laila’s words seemed to touch a nerve or maybe they just were dangerously approaching an important truth, because before she could finish her sentence, the remaining eleven enemies flashed as a whole.

"Black Sea Current Step!", this time, one of the seconds in command, the fourth one to be more accurate, was the one that casted the movement spell, for a good reason though.

Since the first had revealed his capacity to use the remains of the spells of the other seconds in command to shorten the casting time of his spells, then he decided to make use of it and so, with a wave of his hand the first called a new spell.

"Black Sea Trident!", it was not an attack type one, but a weapon boosting one, don’t get it wrong, it was probably worse like this, because this spell made a layer of black rock, a layer of clay and sand and lastly a layer of black water to envelop the trident magic weapons of every single one of them, in other words it was a triple affinity boosting spell.

Now, that by itself is not as amazing as Jasmine’s spells which have some crazy multipliers and basically don’t discriminate between affinities or even nature orientation, her light can actually boost darkness without affecting it in the slightest, but don’t forget that the light princess is an unparalleled monster when it comes to support, by innate Jasmine was already a genius for support spells and then her lineage’s ability which was supposed to offer what most considered the "ultimate" support, a set of extra lives for their designated partner, was turned into potential with the help of Daimon, so she broke through the major limitation of main support type mages, the need to have others watch over them, assisting others became combat power for the light princess.

But, the first among the seconds in command is not a main support type mage for starters, also the fact that he could use three affinities at such an advanced level, without relying in Ereth’s arrangements as this was not replicated by others and could only be used by him, meant that the body used for him was really in another level.

’That’s not funny, when that guy was his original self, he already had as much potential as the one I achieved after forcing my Radiant Will lineage to outgrow the limits set up by the church with just half of it, and he has gone way past that with that guy’s help, on the other hand I’m seeing the base potential I’ll have after completing it~’, thought Sera as she saw the tridents being thrusted and slashed her way.

How can she put her mind in something like that while being on the receiving end of so many boosted magic weapons you wonder, well, that’s because the first among the seconds in command isn’t the only one that’s good at last second assistance.

"Thanks", said Sera who had turned into a white energy stream to then appear far from those guys, next to Laila who had been replaced by an illusion of herself at some point before the enemies attacked.

Now they knew that the enemies had changed their strategy, clearly wanting to take back the initiative and more importantly, that the first could use spells with all the affinities of the others at the same time.

Laila nodded at her friend to then turn into countless black energy particles, which brought up a trauma from the past for the enemies.

"Black Sea Crushing Waves!", the fourth of the seconds in command directly used a wide area attack type spell and it was replicated by everyone else.

"Boooom!", this time they did manage to attack all the bases for the dozens of illusions that Laila released though, but at the same time that was the idea.

Both Sera and Laila were perfectly aware that using the exact same moves in the exact same way, was not a good idea against these guys, because they did learn from their mistakes.

"What is...", the fourth of the seconds in command saw black energy spheres suddenly appear above all of them.

"Black Sea Current Step!", the third one directly used a movement spell but he was a step too slow, only half of the subordinates flashed away from their previous position, the other half were engulfed by those black energy spheres which then solidified and fell to the ground.

’She managed to trick me, because it’s a spell that by itself doesn’t pose any threat!’, thought the first of the seconds in command.

He was right, Laila used the "Incompetent numerous minions" cliché once again, this time for a technique to immobilize a large number of opponents in a single go, in exchange for its effectivity, the enemies couldn’t be attacked though so in a sense they were protected, which is what allowed Laila to bypass the fastest of the "alerts" in the mind of the first among the seconds in command.

"White Piercing Step!", and the problems kept coming, with Sera calling out her movement technique, not only did she produce secondary attacks with it as she flashed towards the enemies that remained, but her words produced actual attacks aimed at an enemy each.

Without the time to cast and since they weren’t as strong as the techniques used by Sera, the enemies used their tridents to block, or at least that was supposed to be the case.

"Snap!" with a snap of Laila’s pretty fingers, the trident which she had stolen from that subordinate, became visible high into the sky, but it didn’t last long.

"Crack!", the trident suddenly cracked and exploded, releasing countless black threads which actually pierced through space, reaching... the tridents being wielded by the enemies to then take them away from their hands.