Chương 572: Castle Volkihar

The shore had metal and wood barricades set up with thralls huddled behind them with spears, and many vampires and bowmen standing atop the dilapidated tower next to the large bridge leading to the castle itself.

"A-are you both sure you don't want to reconsider this? Friends or not, I can't ask something like this of-" Saeko puts a finger to her lips, stopping her in her tracks.

"Enough, we've made our decision."

Michael nods, "Besides, we're not the only ones here anyway." he says, raising his hand to the side and summoning Kunkka, who manifests already aboard his Ghost Ship.

"Ahoy mate! Another vessel to sink or... Shore to wash!?" Kunkka laughs as he raises his sword in greeting.

"We're beaching it, Kunkka! I want to see if their frost resistance works with water too!" Michael shouts back.

"Aha! We don't need to crash to see that, my friend!" he exclaims and swings his sword, causing a large tidal wave to rise from the sea and begin moving towards the beach. The thralls didn't seem to care with their dull stares, but the vampires were rapidly backing away to avoid the attack.

"Nice..." Saeko compliments.

"W-who is that!?" Serana exclaims while jabbing a finger towards the man who'd appeared out of nowhere.

"Admiral Kunkka at your service Milady! Aha, I hadn't realised our friend had the company of so many belles! A hungry one too from what I can make of it, thirsty eyes you have lass!"

"Drawn in a river." she retorts with folded arms.

"See? You're getting along great already... As for his origin? He's from the sea!"

The group turn their attention towards the shore that'd just been struck by the tidal wave. The salty water had washed over the barricades and pulled a few thralls out to sea, dooming them to a watery grave. The bottom level of the tower was also flooded, but with the heavy door locked, it wasn't able to take or drown anyone.

"Disappointing! Shall we bring it up with the cannons!?" Kunkka asks.

Michael shakes his head, "Nah, let me try this first." he says while pulling Auriel's Bow into view and drawing it, causing a magical white arrow to appear. "Guy on the most right of the tower!" he announces before releasing the string.

*FWEEEEEEMMBB!*

The bolt strikes at light speed, hitting the vampire directly in the chest... However, Michael hadn't considered the AOE holy damage, annihilating everyone atop the tower instantly in a flash of light.

"Heh, still got it." he chuckles while blowing nonexistent smoke off of the bow.

"Gods gonads! Nice shot!"

"Yeah, it was! Smash the rest!"

The two boats simultaneously crash against the shore, instantly killing any unfortunate vampire or thrall who still thought hiding behind the barricades would do anything.

*CRAAAAASH!*

An explosion big enough to topple and knock over the tower echoes over the ocean, and every ghostly sailor runs towards the castle with flintlocks and cutlasses in hand. Michael and the others follow along, but just as they reach the bridge the many gargoyles decorating it burst to life and begin to utterly thrash the ghosts.

Their swords and flintlocks do little to no damage against their stony skin, bouncing off and allowing the brawny creatures to eviscerate their targets.

Saeko is the first to dash in, slashing one gargoyle to comically small pieces.

Serana blasts one apart with a powerful lightning bolt.

Kunkka follows up with a wide slash that's carried down the bridge, splitting apart both ghostly sailors and gargoyles with Tidebringer...

Lastly, Michael sprints ahead and launches himself at the locked gate of the castle, throwing a hard punch that utterly decimates the fortification. The gate crumbles as Michael flies directly into the center of the Volkihar hall.

Dust and rubble hit the floor and his back as he stands up, only now realising that he had a hundred or so vampires staring at him...

"Er, howdy." he greets with a raised hand before pointing behind him, "Anyone who doesn't want to die should surrender, the rest of your guys are already dead."

"Hmph! They were but the weak chaff who weren't granted the royal blood! You've made a mistake coming here, boy!" a milf vampire states at the side.

"And you've made a mistake with that outfit, two sizes two small on the bust... Trust me, I know this shit!" he retorts and her face morphs almost bat-like as she hisses at him.

"Yeah, not hot." he says before firing Auriel's Bow directly into her face, only for her to dodge to the side before he'd even made the shot, avoiding it.

With a shriek, she leaps forwards as she sheds her flesh and transforms into some sort of shadowy skinny Vampire Lord transformation?

Michael kicks her in the face hard enough to launch her through the stone ceiling as he's trying to process it, eventually deciding to not acknowledge it at all.

His companions arrive after the milf gets sent to orbit, immediately attacking some vampires while Serana shouts and pleads for those she decides are redeemable to surrender. She doesn't engage in any fighting as that would wait for when she confronted Harkon, instead, she runs around picking up the unconscious bodies of her friends, and dragging the willing out and onto the bridge.

The vampire fighters themselves displayed an array of strange and random abilities... Like the milf from earlier, they seemed to use them as costless abilities to be thrown at the enemy whenever they wished.

Kunkka was somehow stuck in the dungeon fist to fist brawling with a large Nord vampire after a Deathhound ran off with Tidebringer.

Saeko was standing on the swinging chandelier stabbing at a stupidly fast bat.

And Michael? He was spamming Auriel's Bow like he was in a Devil May Cry game.