I Planned a Su*cide Mission and Got Kicked Out of the Party

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“How long has it taken, Baron? About six hours? Or maybe seven?”

Dracula asked with a displeased expression. Jeongjae nodded, equally annoyed.

“It took a long time. It took a significant toll on my honor.”

“That only served to further ruin your honor, Baron. I prepared that mental magic for nearly two weeks without rest. It wasn’t meant to be undone in just eight hours.”

Jeongjae could have spent time explaining how hard he worked to untangle the complicated mana circuit against Dracula.

If he were to explain, it seemed that Dracula would have been somewhat willing to listen; he looked genuinely perplexed and irritated that his carefully crafted work was undone so quickly.

However, Jeongjae was not in a relaxed state of mind. Valuable citizens had died. Those people he wanted to protect had turned to corpses while he briefly stepped away.

If it was completely unexpected, it would have been better if there were no signs or opportunity to stop it. But Jeongjae had already faced Dracula, who was unable to use his powers properly in broad daylight, and if only he had just subdued that detestable vampire then, this might have been a problem that could have been prevented.

If he had known this would happen, he would have done whatever it took to deal with that guy in midday. He would have countered the mental magic he was trying to use and prevented him from getting into such a predicament.

Somehow, he would have shown him how it felt to get caught when trying to escape. Of course, he didn’t avoid the battle carelessly; he was merely cautious not to expand the engagement unnecessarily and risk falling into an enemy trap. But at least if he could have predicted that the situation could unfold this way.

Anger surged up in him for various reasons, and there was also a sense of unfairness that was hard to describe. Abandoning the dialogue with Dracula, Jeongjae immediately unleashed a destructive ray magic from the green magic circle in his hand.

“Takkin!”

“That magic again!”

Two thin green rays were fired toward Dracula, but he flapped his arms, shielding himself with his robe and deflecting the rays.

Jeongjae confirmed that a regular strike wouldn’t harm the enemy and clicked his tongue. This was an entirely different visage and energy from daytime.

Just as Jeongjae was on guard against Dracula, it seemed that Dracula was equally cautious of Jeongjae. In pure mana matches, the Grand Mage would easily win, even at night. If Dracula aimed to seize victory, he had to turn the fight into a battle of strength.

The vampire lord sprang up and closed in on Jeongjae as if to dive him. Jeongjae was able to respond appropriately, having already predicted that Dracula would attempt close combat.

Quickly, Jeongjae coated his right hand with the blade of mana and delivered a punch to Dracula’s chest, who was rushing towards him.

The hole made by Jenis’s attack on Dracula’s robe was quite large, and thanks to Jeongjae’s magic correcting the trajectory of his punch, the blade penetrated deeply into Dracula’s chest.

This body was practically a corpse. Though red blood did not flow from inside, the sensation of flesh being deeply pierced hinted at the pain Dracula was likely feeling.

“Ugh… Aaaah!”

Jeongjae thought this strike would force Dracula to retreat, but Dracula, demonstrating his willpower, reached out toward Jeongjae while remaining suspended in mid-air.

Jeongjae raised his left hand instead of his right, which was still punctured, and prepared to unleash powerful destruction magic at the enemy’s face, but Dracula quickly grabbed Jeongjae’s left arm at the wrist.

The sensation was uncomfortable. The arm he had hurriedly raised to use magic was caught unprotected by the powerful hand of the vampire lord.

As the intense grip tightened around Jeongjae’s wrist, he was startled to see the blood drained from his hand to the point it turned white.

Such overwhelming strength was hard to believe coming from a creature. If it were Rose, she would have scoffed it off, but unfortunately, Jeongjae had no wall of steel to rely on.

With pressure that felt as if it were crushing his bones, Jeongjae grimaced and trembled all over.

“This arm, this arm! How dare you be so cocky!”

At that instant, a crunching sound echoed and Jeongjae’s wrist bone completely shattered. The pain he had anticipated was undeniable, but the agony of having his bone splintered by that grip was worse than expected.

He bit his lip to stifle the scream threatening to escape. Though he couldn’t explain it clearly, he felt like he was in a position where he mustn’t scream.

Surprisingly, holding back the scream was not that difficult. Even though it was the worst physical pain he had ever felt, he had experienced worse shocks during moments he lost consciousness.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Only a shallow moan escaped Jeongjae’s slightly parted lips. Jenis, who had been sitting on the ground, widened her eyes and jumped to her feet. Although she staggered as she stood due to her injuries from the battle against Dracula, the sound of a ‘crack’ made her forget her own condition.

“Professor! What was that just now…”

“It… really… hurts.”

After pulling out the blade buried in Dracula’s chest, Jeongjae infused his right hand with iron fist magic and struck Dracula’s face hard.

Even compared to Rose’s punches, the impact was nothing to scoff at. Dracula, struck like that, lost his grip on Jeongjae’s left arm and was sent flying about five meters away, landing roughly.

As the vampire adjusted his dislocated facial bones, Jeongjae hurriedly wrapped a stabilization spell around his left arm to temporarily connect the broken bone.

“Ugh, that hurts.”

The moment Jeongjae brought the mana bandage close to his arm, he felt a prickling sensation of electricity in his right hand. His left arm was enveloped in a dark mana aura. It seemed Dracula’s mana had invaded his body after breaking his bone.

“This situation is bad.”

Jeongjae muttered, cold sweat trickling down his face. As he approached, Jenis lightly touched his left arm. Both Jeongjae and Jenis trembled simultaneously; Jeongjae from the pain of his broken arm and Jenis from contacting the darkness on the wounded area.

“Leave the temporary treatment to me. The darkness that has invaded is too strong for quick stabilization, but I’ll at least try to stop it from spreading.”

Having attached herself to Jeongjae, Jenis was now in the line of fire for Dracula’s next strike. Jeongjae anxiously glanced toward his left arm.

He wasn’t even sure if it was right to push Jenis away right now, but if the mana surrounding that arm spread further into his body, there was a good chance he would be at Dracula’s mercy before nightfall.

He was not an easy opponent. He had to make use of all the help he could get.

“I’m counting on you, Jenis. Just stop the mana from spreading for now, and if possible, cast a pain relief spell too.”

“Got it. But you shouldn’t use your left arm tonight.”

“I know that much!”

At that moment, Dracula shot two bolts of black lightning towards Jeongjae. With all his might, Jeongjae raised his right arm and unleashed a mana shield.

Unlike Jenis’s shield, Jeongjae’s mana barrier dispersed Dracula’s powerful strike without any difficulty. Dracula nodded awkwardly, still wearing a displeased expression as he cracked his jaw.

“Even in a situation where one arm is gone, I can’t see any chance of winning in a mana duel.”

“If I can’t even manage that, there’s no reason for me to be called a Grand Mage. Jenis. Are we almost done?”

After Jenis lightly cast a pain relief spell on Jeongjae’s arm, she withdrew her hand. The pain vanished astonishingly, but Jeongjae again felt that he wouldn’t be able to use his left arm at least for that night.

He felt no mana at all in his left arm. The only method to prevent the spread of darkness was that Jenis had completely locked off the mana blood flow in his veins. It was an excellent choice, but it was a situation that would undoubtedly interfere with combat.

“Yeah. For now, the dark mana shouldn’t spread further from your arm. But the mana circles you can use with one hand are limited. You probably can’t even use the star’s flash… What should we do? Should we just hold up the shield and wait for dawn? I’m good with assisting you with shield magic…”

“Do you want to fight while getting dragged along by the enemy? Listen carefully, Jenis. When it seems like there’s only one option, you must look for other alternatives.”

“But that’s only if there are other options available!”

Jeongjae silently extended his hand northwards to point at Harriet Castle. Jenis thought Jeongjae was indicating something, but as he closed his eyes and trembled, she realized he was preparing a spell.

“Jenis, with all your strength, protect me with your shield! You should be able to take one hit!”

“Let’s try! By now, I should be able to regain the power of the cross…”

Just then, Dracula’s black mana spheres surged toward Jeongjae directly. Jenis hastily grasped her necklace and drew out the last remaining magical energy from her magic tool.

With a flash, a small cross-shaped mana shield—not so much a shield as a brooch—appeared in front of Jeongjae, deflecting Dracula’s magic.

As Jenis sat down on the ground, looking relieved, Jeongjae’s magic bore fruit.

Breaking through the half-closed castle gates Jenis didn’t have time to finish shutting, the old field cannon newly brought from the territory flew into the air, floating around.

Jenis had directly assisted Jeongjae in the coastal defense battle. She wasn’t foolish enough not to recognize the significance of the cannon appearing at this moment, particularly when they couldn’t draw the magic circles with both hands.

“Cooling magic is ready. I’ll give it all I’ve got.”

“That much isn’t necessary. Today’s is a ‘limited cannon strike.’ Carefully, I’ll pour in enough mana pellets to achieve our goal. Of course, that doesn’t mean to target the enemy.”

It was essentially bombarding the center of his territory, but fortunately, all the citizens were waiting behind Jeongjae and Jenis, in the north.

Since Dracula was positioned close to the territory entrance compared to them, if the cannon was aimed only to the south of the territory, it could avoid harming the citizens directly.

Damaged infrastructure and buildings could be rebuilt, but dead people usually don’t come back.

Jeongjae took a scroll from his possession with his now unusable left hand, moved it to his right, and tossed it into the sky.

“Today is uniquely a ground bombardment using the field cannon. Adjust the angle of the cannon. Mana pellet loading complete. Ready. Limited cannon strike magic, Banflite.”

At that moment, the howitzer hovering in the sky lowered its angle and aimed at Dracula, who was gazing blankly up from the ground. Before Dracula could realize what was about to happen, three blue mana spheres poured out simultaneously from the cannon.

Boom, bang, crunch, kaboom! With just one bombardment, the distance was shattered, and nearby buildings were swept away. While some residents may have just lost their homes to this cannon fire, the citizens, seeing the ‘Wrath of the Gods’ again, cheered wildly with the expectation that they would utterly destroy the enemy.

“Hooray! This is it! Taste this, you monster!”

“Did you think you could just walk away after facing our Baron?”

Unlike the uplifting atmosphere of the citizens, Jenis’s expression was grave. Indeed, the firing speed of the cannon was not as quick as before, making cooling easier, but she was worried about Jeongjae’s mana capacity executing both the telekinesis and Banflite bombardment at the same time. Moreover, Dracula was dodging the bombardments with surprisingly agile movements.

As the continuous thunder echoed, giant craters yawned across the city, but they didn’t deliver a decisive blow to the vampire. Jenis asked with a tremulous voice, her unease evident.

“Is this actually working? It might be better to speed it up and finish it off…”

“We can’t finish it just by landing a hit. Just wait. There’s still one left.”

“What about that spell…”

“You’ve seen it not long ago. Just a little application, and I can draw him right in front of me.”

“If that’s possible, that would be great, but…”

“Now’s the time!”

Fortunately, the situation unfolded as Jeongjae had anticipated. Tired from dodging the continuing bombardments, Dracula finally decided to take to the sky, transforming into a bat to strike directly at the cannon.

Seeing the bat soaring through the smoke, Jeongjae hurriedly took out another scroll from his possession.

“All living beings of the sky, obey my command! Top Gun!”

Originally, it was a spell to enslave seagulls into dive-bombers, but this time the vividly colored magic circle formed in front of Jeongjae inexplicably drew in the flying Dracula.

Just as Dracula’s mental magic had been powerful enough to inflict damage on Jeongjae, this mental magic circle he had meticulously crafted was strong enough to draw in Dracula as well. As Dracula was swept in without knowing what was happening, Jeongjae, who could no longer maintain telekinesis over the cannon, released it, letting it crash to the ground.

The cannon hit the ground with a clanging sound as it broke, but that was not the priority.

Dracula, unable to hide his embarrassment, flapped his wings and was drawn to Jeongjae’s face in the form of a bat. Jeongjae hung a pearl of ignition magic from the small bat’s foot to complete the Top Gun scroll.

However, the conclusion was different. Jeongjae forcefully shoved the bat carrying the pearl with repulsion magic.

“What did I say the name of the spell was? Top Gun? No, that’s not right. The name of this spell is…”

Before the bat could drop the pearl, the ignition pearl exploded right next to Dracula as he was getting pushed away by Jeongjae’s intent.

“Kamikaze.”

A blast occurred again from the distance. This explosion caused even more significant collateral damage than the earlier ‘limited Banflite’ magic attack, but the greater collateral damage only meant a stronger attack directed at the enemy for the citizens this time.

Dracula coughed amidst the smoke, rubbing his eyes. It was clear that the ‘Kamikaze’ had successfully dealt him considerable damage.

Struggling to stand on two legs, Dracula’s robe was torn apart at various places, exposing his pale skin, making for a rather gruesome sight, but Jeongjae and Jenis were not in perfect condition either.

Glancing back and forth between himself and his opponent, Dracula spoke.

“If we engage now, it would be hard to determine a winner. It might take quite a long time to discern the winner.”

“That means your defeat, vampire.”

“Indeed, Baron. Because I cannot eliminate you before the sun rises.”

Dracula said solemnly and bowed his head. Jeongjae realized that he was still trying to escape, but again, he could do nothing to stop him.

“But you also won’t have the strength to chase me or capture me here. Let’s conclude this peacefully.”

“Get lost, you filthy bastard.”

Jeongjae spat out his curse. While he wanted to say something way harsher, even that was difficult for him after losing energy from the double scroll magic.

Dracula raised his head, which had been bowed, straight up, then turned and dashed directly south, beyond the territory’s borders.

The incident of one of the strongest subordinates of the Demon King’s Army attacking the worthless territory alone ended, leaving behind the death of three guards among the casualties.