Gareth was right of course. There were only a few more minutes of the sun's appearance in the sky and this was all to keep the coven safe for those minutes before they could finally, openly fight back.

The problem, however, was that ignoring them was easier said than done. Hell, it was impossible. Or at least it seemed like so until Alexia dashed over with her footholds of wind, and spun her sword to send down an attack that slammed into ten of the water monsters and burst them apart.

The drops of water began to converge, trying to stitch the destroyed monsters back together again when Arlette slammed her palms together, separating them to create a dark purple spell circle that conjured a barrage of needles that stabbed into each water droplet with ridiculous precision, injecting them with the Dark element's parasitic destruction and breaking them apart at a microscopic level from which they could not recover.

Arlette's action called more of the water monsters to herself but she was already mumbling a spell that surrounded her with a dark aura and lifted her off the ground just in time to avoid their attacks. In the air, she raised her hand, conjuring dark lances that came down and ripped her attackers apart.

Before they could come back together, Alexia returned Arlette's favor as a lotus flower appeared, announcing a brief activation of the Von Helsing Arts.

~A Thousand Cuts~

Sword swings so fast that they could only be felt and not seen ripped the torn monsters apart to the smallest piece and destroyed their ability to reconnect and regenerate.

"Ha ha!" Gareth laughed like he had been vindicated and then yelled once again to bolster the forces,

"CHARGE!"

Arlette and Alexia's involvement turned the tide in favor of the Hellsingers, allowing them to cut past the bulk of the water monsters and strike the shield one last time to finally shatter it, finally gaining entry into the underground Caverns.

However, before they could charge into the hole, the defensive formation glowed a brighter and more malevolent shine. As though someone had infused it with more Mana and empowered it greatly.

"Brogan!" Alexia said with gritted teeth. She could sense his aura from that boosted Formation right as a gigantic clawed arm struck toward her, faster than she could avoid, and smacked her out of the air.

"Umph!" Alexia groaned as she hit the ground.

"Alexia!" Arlette cried out while swerving in the air and barely avoiding the second clawed arm rising from the Formation.

Down on the ground, the Hellsingers who had just managed to push through and break the barrier keeping them from the hole found themselves getting pushed back again as the water monsters grew larger, now empowered by Brogan's malevolent Mana.

Alexia rolled to the side, avoiding the clawed arm as it tried to smear her into the ground. With a gentle flow of wind, she became upright again and kicked her way back into the air with a foothold. She spun around the clawed arm and stabbed her sword into it.

She activated her Von Helsing Arts for a reversal of energy but it didn't work quite as well as she hoped. The formation was far too dense in energy. While Brogan might currently be empowering it, the formation wasn't powered by just him and was capable of operating independently from anyone. It was far too intricate to just be reversed.

Meanwhile, Arlette used a defensive spell to keep the second clawed arm away from herself, her eyes darting around until she found what she was looking for.

"Alexia!" She called out and then pointed at what she had spotted, "The center!"

The center of a formation is its foundation. It's what keeps it stable and to destroy it is to destroy the formation. The problem was, it's never that easy. In a case like this, you may not get the chance to attack it because you're already preoccupied with battling the Formation.

Arlette and Alexia shared a look and then glanced at the clawed arms attacking them both and a plan was formed. They ran from the arms as one, only occasionally exchanging blows with them until they crossed each other's paths like a cross-stream and then…

*BAM!!!*

*SPLASH!!!*

… The two clawed arms struck one another, their equal strengths canceling each other out to a cascade of water showering down from above.

But Arlette and Alexia weren't done and they kept going, charging down to focus their attacks on a single spot. Alexia activated her Von Helsing Arts for one big push and Arlette added in Divine energy for a magical boost.

*BANG!*

*BOOM!!!*

A portion of the formation was destroyed and the energy coursing through it rebounded, creating an explosion and feedback to the one empowering it.

"Arrgh!!!" Brogan cried in the deepest recesses of the underground caverns, his eyes glowing with rage.

Meanwhile, Arlette and Alexia landed on the ground, heaving from exertion but not looking tired just yet.

"That was exhilarating," Arlette said with quite a bit of delight. It had been so long since she was in combat and got to flex her muscles. Magically speaking.

"It's not over yet—" Alexia said with no levity.

The water monsters burst into water droplets now that the formation was destroyed and the Hellsingers could charge once again but the final rays of sunlight were now gone from the horizon. The sun had set minutes ago and twilight had now ended.

As far as the Vampires were concerned, it was Nightfall.

There was a rumble in the earth as Brogan's vampire minions came trudging up. The Hellsingers were dismayed at having failed to breach before nighttime but really, they were prepared to face Vampires even at night. The goal was to slay the monsters by any means and the lack of sunlight would not dampen that goal.

Now that the hole had been breached and the Vampires were making appearances, Alexia retrieved her tools for hunting. Or at least, she was about to retrieve her tools for hunting when she sensed Vampiric auras that were coming from other places besides the hole.

At first, she feared they might have fallen into a trap and spun around with her eyebrows knit in caution. But then, there was a gust of wind and suddenly, two figures were standing at the edge of the hole in the ground.

The two were draped in long gold and black cloaks. With hoods over their heads and masks to cover their faces. Only the eyes were visible through the mask and they were Vampire red. By the way the cloaks looked on them, Alexia believed they were both male.

Of the two, one had its Magical energy out in full blast;

The Tenth Circle.

Alexia tensed. Not even Brogan was this powerful and it had taken a well-laid trap to take his arm. Defeating this Tenth Circle Vampire would be even more difficult. A task these mid-tier Hellsingers with her might not be able to help with.

'No. There are only two of them,' Alexia told herself, 'If we act now…'

And then the second Vampire nailed her with his eyes. His magical energy was subtle, weaker even. But there was a quiet authority about him. Also, a… familiarity.

The first set of Vampires out of the hole had their fangs bared but before they could even take note of their surroundings, they were struck by great authority.

"Fall."

The order, clear in Alexia's ears, came from the hooded/masked Vampire with the more subtle magical energy and Brogan's minions obeyed. Keeling over face-first onto the ground.

Without a bother, the hooded vampires leaped into the hole. Followed by six others equally cloaked and hooded vampires who arrived and leaped into the hole faster than Alexia could react. Leaving her staring, her eyes moving from the hole in the ground to the vampires still stuck lying on the ground by that strange order.

"What the fuck just happened?"