Free Vampire Hunter D: Dark Road Part Three Page A

left papers detailing its power and usage. It should be more than enough to slay the likes of you. So, how about it? Are you willing to sacrifice the lives of those two humans to resist me?”
    â€œHe’s probably bluffing,” said the hoarse voice.
    â€œDo you have the nerve to try me?” the baron sneered, looking at the Hunter’s left hand. “No, the man they call D probably has courage enough to fill the seven seas. But I see that one of those humans has hired you as a guard. Would you stoop so low as to sacrifice your employer?”
    This was obviously the greatest crisis that D had encountered. No one spoke with reverence of a man who would allow others to die for him. And the weapon that would be directed at this young man wasn’t the sort of thing he could shrug off.
    The baron declared, “In that case, have at you, D. What you do next will show me what kind of man you are.”
    The baron started to pull his arm out, and at that very moment a crimson rose opened on top of his head. Its lovely appearance aside, the blossom delivered hellish torment to his immortal flesh. Wailing as he reached for the flower, the baron reeled backward.
    â€œWho—who’s done this?”
    A second flower blossomed right in the middle of his pale, sweaty brow. Letting out another shriek, he writhed as he pulled out his right hand. It didn’t hold anything.
    Turning, his hate-filled eyes caught a figure at the entrance to the cavern, far behind D—a diminutive figure who stood dripping wet. It was Lady Ann. She was soaked because, when jumping down from the cliff with D, she alone had landed in the pool at the bottom. Naturally, there was no reason why D would’ve helped her back out. Reaching shore on her own, she’d dragged herself inside. And that was when she saw Baron Schuma menacing D.
    Obsessed as she was, Lady Ann viewed any foe of D’s as a foe of hers. She didn’t care what happened to Gordo or Rosaria. She sent her deadly blooms sailing toward one of her father’s compatriots—a man boasting of triumph over the man she loved.
    â€œNow, D!” she said, but D had already sprung, and was bringing his longsword down on the baron’s head.
    The baron didn’t have time to raise his stick to ward off the blow.
    But in that deadly instant, the rock wall exploded. Even D was caught off guard by this, his body pelted with pieces of stone and a gust from the blast throwing him to the center of the cavern.
    â€œD?” Lady Ann cried out as she raced toward him. As she did so, she saw the strange thing that appeared where the rock wall had been.
    At first glance, it appeared to be a reddish black mass about six and a half feet in diameter. Wrinkles and creases ran through it in some areas, while others swelled like balloons. Even more bizarre were the four-inch-long barbs that protruded from every inch of it, then pulled back in, extending and retracting over and over, so the essentially spherical shape didn’t seem the least bit stable.
    â€œD—what is this?” asked Lady Ann.
    â€œGotta be the weapon’s guardian,” the hoarse voice replied, but the moment it did so, one of the barbs on the sphere shot out at D like a whip. When he deflected it with his sword, a second barb assailed him, then a third. Fending all of them off, D dashed between the unprepared whips toward the creature’s body. His blade pierced it without a sound.
    After pulling the sword he’d buried to the hilt halfway out again, D leapt back. A yellowish ichor that had apparently come from the creature’s body clung to the blade, and thanks to it, the sword had begun to melt and give off white smoke. Putting his left hand against the blade, D pulled the sword out all the way to the tip. The melting stopped.
    The liquid was a powerful acid. It’d spilled from the wound D’s sword had caused, turning the already melted rock into boiling-hot