Chapter Ninety-Seven: Entering the Basement

At the entrance to the basement, Mingchuan, appearing in Trexi’s place, stood before the rest of the squad without his helmet, as if he had no need for it at all.

“There’ll be more Satans in a moment. Everyone, put on your helmets!”

Trexi donned his mimicry helmet, yet it looked as though he were wearing nothing at all.

“Your Highness Trexi, your gear seems better than ours,” Colt said with a careless grin, not the least bit restrained, as he glanced at the armor Trexi wore.

“After all, this armor was made by Cole. In quality, it’s still a notch below what Tyren and the others have,” Trexi said with a smile. The nearly transparent helmet did nothing to hinder his view of the world outside. After fiddling with the basement’s access control for a moment, the gate slowly slid open. Before it was even fully open, Trexi had already drawn a long-range weapon—a small pistol, but one that clearly packed a terrifying punch. With several crisp shots, the Satan that had barely shown its face inside was cut down on the spot.

“A beam weapon?” Colt could not help but sound surprised.

“Is that so strange? That bastard Cole has no intention of letting his weapons be used by ambitious people. If I weren’t his brother, he probably wouldn’t even grant me that much face.”

“Haha! It’s my honor to fight alongside the Crown Prince!” Colt laughed heartily, already drawing his greatsword.

But before Mingchuan could issue any orders, Trexi had already stepped inside.

“Let’s fight together, everyone—Mingchuan, you…”

“Your Highness is surely excellent at military strategy, isn’t he? Then let His Highness take the lead!” Seeing that Trexi was trying to dump the responsibility on him, “Mingchuan” decisively rejected the idea.

“Ha, then I’ll accept your kindness. Everyone, take formation 3-1-3: melee in front, ranged in back! Follow me!”

With that, Trexi led the charge without hesitation, while “Mingchuan” ran at his side and surged forward with him.

“Let’s go, everyone!” As deputy leader, Colt followed as well, and the others nodded and rushed after them without delay.

“Vampires?”

Seeing the vampires ahead, Trexi charged at them at once in the role of captain. He drew a strange beam sword, shaped like a Japanese katana.

“Human, die—”

Before the vampire could finish, Trexi had already reached him.

“Then die!”

With one slash of the beam sword, the vampire was split cleanly in two. Trexi’s swordsmanship seemed to belong to some ancient Eastern style, yet after that strike he showed no concern for the vampire’s second life at all.

“Don’t think you can recover, vampires! Swallow Return, draw cut!”

Three vampires rushed Trexi at once. Yet Trexi merely sheathed his sword into a scabbard that had appeared from nowhere, then drew and struck in a single motion. A blade’s radiance passed directly through one vampire’s head, and then, as if one cut had become three, three blood marks appeared on the vampires’ heads at the same time.

“Sorry, but when it comes to swordsmanship, if it has ever existed, there’s nothing I can’t learn!”

He slid the sword back into its scabbard, and then two more katana appeared in his hands.

“Next, the Two-Heaven One-Style school!”

The vampires closed in from the front. Just as the members behind Trexi were about to draw their weapons and rush forward, “Mingchuan” lifted a hand and stopped them.

“No need to hurry. He’ll finish them all equally.”

Watching Trexi’s direction, the others finally understood why “Mingchuan” had forcibly held them back.

Trexi’s twin blades flashed faster and faster, and the long-lost Two-Heaven One-Style technique seemed to have been duplicated in his hands. His nimble footwork and lightning swordplay left the vampires unable to receive even a single fatal strike. In the blink of an eye, with every lift of his hand and fall of his blade, the vampires had all become corpses.

Without needing anyone else, Trexi cleared the entire forward area by himself.

“Area reconnaissance!”

As if he had cast some kind of spell, a data screen appeared before him.

“The basement has two levels. The only Satan type present is vampire. Remaining count: twelve. All are on the second level. Everyone, this time I won’t steal your spotlight. Split into two groups and keep the internal air circulation running at all times. Full armor engaged. Remember: those so-called skills you first learned were only what the government wanted you to see. What’s truly practical is your own weapons and your own bodies. Understand?”

“Understood, Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

Everyone saluted Trexi.

If another commander had said, You fight, I’ll watch, it would only have caused resentment. But Trexi was different. He had just finished a battle in the open, and besides, he was the Crown Prince!

The group split up. Colt led three of the seven toward another basement entrance, while “Mingchuan” followed behind Trexi, accompanied by Wenxin and Katusha.

“I’m going straight to the people from the Kingdom of Kestan down in the basement. Are you sure you want to come with me?” Trexi smiled and drew his little pistol, ready at any moment to deal with the Satans.

“It’s fine. We can help draw some of their fire.”

At that moment, “Mingchuan” also seemed to have a weapon in his hand, and it looked exactly the same as Trexi’s.

“Mingchuan, this is…”

Seeing the weapon, Wenxin seemed to hesitate for a moment.

“Don’t worry about that. Let’s move first!”

Following Trexi, “Mingchuan” also broke into a run.

Watching the backs of the two of them, Wenxin and Katusha could only run after them with helpless expressions.

——

To be honest, I really hadn’t planned on having Prince Trexi appear at first. The changes to the plot are enormous compared with the original draft!