Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

It wasn't only the extremely high effect of the buffing spell used by Jasmine what, took the enemy queen by surprise, but the fact that she ignored the "order" in which it should have been used.

There are many types of buffing spells and martial arts, some target an aspect in general such as strength, defense, speed, reaction time and the like can be used rather freely, the "Song of War" martial arts used by Erika is a good example of this type, as it increases strength in general.

And then there are those that are of a much more specific nature, like the ones that buff not an aspect but a specific type of technique, like the "Silver Shield" used by the light princess.

Now, what contributed the most to the surprise of let alone the enemy but even Daimon and the others, is the fact that those type of buffing spells usually have much stricter conditions needed for their activation.

For example, unlike the "Burning Fighting Spirit" that increases instant speed, which was used by Erika at a later time in order to take Jasmine by surprise, spells and martial arts that are meant to buff another spell, most of the time have to be activated before the spell that will be buffed by it.

And so, they have the flaw of giving away the intention of the one that is receiving the spell, since if the buffing spell is meant to increase the effect of a defensive spell, then the enemy will know that the other party is about to defend.

This "order" is a side effect of the complexity of a spell or martial art that has as its effect buffing another spell or martial art in specific, and naturally disappears when the caster has become skilled enough to buff an already ongoing spell without messing with it by mistake, which usually happens around the middle or peak stages of the Arch rank for the talented and the half Stellar or Stellar realm for others.

That explains why it didn't even cross Erika's mind, that the "Silver Shield" spell used by the light princess was a spell that would buff the "Light Protection" spell she used before, in her mind, the confidence of the enemy probably lied on the fact that she was able to use "Dual Buffing" meaning that she could cast more than one buff at the time on a single target.

'How the hell did she ignore the "order" when she is only an early-stage middle mortal level mage!', inwardly cursed Erika, what angered Erika the most was the proud smile on the light princess's face.

If only she knew that Jasmine wasn't happy over the result of her pawn clashing with the ones from the enemy, but because she could feel the surprised gaze coming from Daimon, on her, which made her little heart skip a beat.

It was well-deserved though, not too long ago, Jasmine had to follow that rule like others, when she used "Silver Spear" to buff Aisha for example, she did it before Aisha used her attack spell, so this was a recent improvement.

'Judging by the genuine surprise on that crazy girl's eyes, this was a secret even for her, so this isn't something she obtained due to her challenge, but something she secretly trained to achieve, she must have felt pressured after gaining yet another extremely talented sister… how cute', amusingly thought Daimon.

'Well, there is the "motivation speech" she was given by Aisha too~', jokingly said Eve, which made Daimon bitterly smile to his insides, that mother of his surely played quite the big role in the overall improvement of all those already innately competitive girls, perhaps she motivated them… a bit too much.

Back at the battlefield, Erika snorted at the sight of that beautiful smile decorating Jasmine's pretty face.

"Humph, you have some nice spells and some tricks, so what, I crushed quite a few queen candidates like you before I was chosen by the Lord himself!", she exclaimed to then explode in battle aura.

However, unlike the previous one she used which had a dark orange tone, similar to that of Ethan, a sign that the "material" used to create her was related to his, this one was… of a dark brown color instead.

In other words, Erika was a dual affinity knight and in case you have forgotten, they are considered rarer than dual affinity mages, since to be a dual affinity knight one needs not only the respective affinity, but also to have lit up a second Life Spark.

Well, there are some exceptions like Daimon, who quite literally could "choice" what element did he want to use for his battle aura, but even he can't just use battle aura of all elements unlike with mana, without having obtained the respective Life Spark.

Which is why he decided to play it big and create a variant battle aura by combining many elements into it, resulting in his Demon Light being created, and as a side effect he became able to use battle aura of all the elements that conforms it separately, something that was probably related to his unknown Life Spark, but that's beside the point.

"Earth's Gift!".

"Mountain Regeneration!".

With two different shouts, a few streams of brown battle aura were shot by Erika, to then land on her damaged three pawns.

[The effect of earth element spells will be doubled once]

[Minor wounds will be continuously healed for the next thirty seconds]

Then under Erika's smirking face, the cracks that had appeared on the arms of her pawns, started closing at a visible ratio, thanks to her Earth's Gift she obtained the healing that a middle-ranked healing spell would give, but only had to use a low ranked one, it was a good bargain because she saved quite a bit of battle aura due to it.

"Now let's try again, Burning Spear!", apparently the enemy queen wasn't done, she changed back to fire battle aura and casted another spell, this time through one of her pawns, to gain a fraction of a second of advantage over the enemy.

A flaming dark orange speak manifested behind the three warrior-like pawns of the enemy queen, before their firsts lit up in dark orange battle aura.

"Booom!", being close to the priest-like pawn of the light princess, the three warrior pawns immediately punched the barrier which earlier not only blocked their attacks but even damaged them in the process.

"Crack!", this time, the attack made the white mana barrier crack on the spot, before it crumbled apart, only then did the effect of the last technique used by Erika was explained.

[Armor breaking effect added to the next attack]

'Heh, so what if you can ignore the "order", it's just something you obtained by focusing on being solely a support mage, I also have a way around it and I will personally break your neck with my bare hands later!', excitedly thought the enemy queen, just for her to be returned to the real world by Jasmine's voice.

"Silver Crossbow", with a fierce but mellow tone, a light flash reached the three warrior pawns that were about to pummel the priest pawn to death with their fists.

[The next long-range attack will have its effects doubled… and a light condensed arrow will be instantly shot upon activation]

"Booom!", without giving time to Erika to use a martial art, the light arrow that came out of nowhere impacted her three pawns, sending them flying all the way back into her most outer barrier.

Only then did the sight of a newly activated pawn became visible, this one also had a young female chape, but instead of a sister's attire, it had something akin to a "ranger", wearing mostly what would have been wool and linen light clothing, with shorts and a sleeveless shirt, accompanied with light leather armor and a cape with a hood, it was obviously a long distance combatant, though it was stationed not too far from the fourth and outermost barrier.

But that could be, because while crossbows do exist in the world of magic, they don't have a longer reach than bows, because mages and knights empower themselves instead of using mechanic weapons unlike back at earth, on the other hand the fact that they have a way higher firing ratio than bows do remain.

'This bitch, she shortened her casting time and even used a "composed spell" to get back at me!', inwardly cursed the enemy queen.

Earlier she had no time to cast a countering martial art, because Jasmine's buffing spell also included an attack, something known as a "composed spell" which is not that common to see, because as a combination of a buff and an attack type spell, it reduces the effect of the former and produces a weak impact for the latter.

Or at least that's how it is supposed to be however, the Silver Crossbow spell used by Jasmine, tripled the effect of the long-range attack included into it!

"Are you already receiving help from that masked bastard?", poisonously yelled Erika at Jasmine who softly snorted in response.

"If I was, I assure you, you would know it, after all the enhancement of the buffing spell was reduced due to the attack included into it", said the light princess, to which Erika gritted her teeth.

"Nonsense, are you telling me that doubling the strength of an attack was the weakened result!", she said, in response Jasmine rolled her white metal staff with golden ornaments to then point it at her ranger-like pawn.

"Silver Arrow".

[The next long-range attack will have its effect quadrupled]

"No way!", this time Erika did have the chance to react, her pupils contracted upon listening to the result of Jasmine using a buff spell that only focused in enhancing.

The previous slap on the face for Erika, made Daimon chuckle behind his mask.

'That little girl, she actually derived quite a few spells from "Silver Spear", increasing the restrictions just a bit in order to further amplify the effects, not bad', he thought.

Previously, the sole attack buffing spell that Jasmine could use was "Silver Spear", which regardless of range could triple the effect of an attack type spell, that's why it the spear was used as a part of the tittle of the spell, since spears can be used at short, middle and even long-range combat by being thrown, it was used to represent versatility in this case.

However, the light princess looked for a way to further improve as she had no way to learn the next exclusive buffing spell of the royal lineage from the Light Palace, since for that she quite literally needed to be an Arch rank.

So, she instead put all that amazing talent and her previously naive but resolute heart into deriving more spells using Silver Spear as the base and this was the result, she created a series of buffing spells that had a few restrictions unlike the original, but in exchange the effect was amplified, hence why Daimon couldn't help but praise her in his mind, something that the light princess could somehow feel.

"Light Arrow Discharge!", with three simple words, Jasmine's staff glowed and the ranger-like pawn pointed its hands at the outermost barrier of the enemy queen to then release a barrage of countless light mana arrows.

"Crack!", the light arrows exploded upon contact, causing cracks to appear all over Erika's outermost barrier.

"Damn it, Earth Barrier!", midway through the attack, Erika casted a defensive martial art through one of her pawns, which resulted in an earth wall appearing in front of her outermost barrier.

Only then was she able to catch a breath, but let alone resting she didn't want to waste a single second before using another martial art.

"Mountain Protection!", dark brown battle aura radiated from her body to then be absorbed by one of the still blank golems on her side, making it change its gray color to a dark brown one, before it transformed from its previously vague genderless shape to a seemingly male one with a towering height that surpassed the three meters as well as a bulky built, it had what looked like heavy armor carved into it.

"Booom!", by the time the seemingly endless barrage of light mana arrows ended by breaking through the earth wall that was raised by Erika, the newly activated tank-like pawn had reached the outermost barrier and only then did the effect of the martial art used by the enemy queen was explained.

[Defense increased by a 100% for the next sixty seconds]

At this point it was clear that Erika focused more on buffs that didn't have such outrageously high enhancing effects, but that lasted longer, for example the first martial arts she used had low effects, but they could be sustained for as long as she kept the martial art active by supplying battle aura to it, from fifty percent and above, her martial arts had a time limit and then they had to be casted once again.

The light princess on the other hand, had those monstrously high multipliers for her spells, but they were limited to a single use before they needed to be casted again, amusingly enough, the meek and kind looking Jasmine seemed to have a fiercer buffing style than the tall and imposing enemy queen.

'Let's see you stop them this time!', inwardly screamed Erika to then say.

"Heavy Earth Shield", the tank-like pawn extended its right hand and dark brown battle aura gathered on it, to then form an ethereal tower shield so big that the tank pawn could not only cover itself but even the three warrior pawns at the same time.

It would have looked weird, had it not been for the fact that the tank pawn was nearly twice as tall as the warrior pawns, almost reaching four meters of height.

"Go!", with a loud shout, Erika ordered her pawns to charge back towards Jasmine's area, now that both of them had cracks appear on their outermost barriers, it was a matter of time before one of them took the upper hand for the first part of the battle.

'The four barriers can be classified as "brittle", "normal", "solid" and "reinforced", the one who destroys the brittle one will basically have the normal one in the bag as well and will only be forced to stop the charge by the solid barrier, I must get her outermost barrier first', thought Erika as she commanded her pawns to ignore the rain of arrows coming from Jasmine's third barrier area.

"Clang!", continuous "clinking" sounds echoed through the battlefield as the tank pawn used its giant tower shield which was more like a rock wall that could be moved around, to block the arrows, this was an "equipment" type boosting martial art.

Similar to the "Flame Scimitar" martial art used by Ethan, which wasn't an enhancement for himself but for his magic weapon, the "Heavy Rock Shield" used by the enemy queen was supposed to work like that, meaning that it would normally require a magic weapon for it to be casted on.

In this "game" the pawns couldn't be given magic weapons, which would lead to the participants to believe that weapon boosting techniques like those wouldn't work, but that wasn't the case.

Instead of that, by using this type of weapon boosting techniques, the pawns wouldn't obtain any enhancement, but in exchange they will be given the weapon in which said technique be it a martial art or a spell, would have been casted, in this case a tower shield.

This was another one of the dynamics that Erika knew thanks to her experience in this game, and in case you wonder if the enemy queen felt as if she was playing "dirty" due to it, the answer is an absolute no, because in her mind, the enemy was being actively assisted by the masked silver haired youth, who stood next to her as of current.

"Smash her barrier to pieces, Burning Frenzy!", through the tank-like pawn, Erika casted a new martial art, which resulted in two of the warrior pawns moving to block the priest pawn of the enemy, while the warrior pawn in the middle, which is the one she has been using as her representative before she activated the tank, rushed towards Jasmine's outermost barrier.

Midway through it, the body of the warrior pawn exploded in dark orange flames, which actually caused a few slight cracks to appear on it, a sign that it was receiving some damage due to the martial art casted onto it.

"Boooom!", the burning pawn punched the barrier just at the same time as a couple of light arrows landed onto it, but it was too late.

"Crack!", Jasmine's outermost barrier crumbled apart on the spot, the warrior pawn that did the feat, had its right arm and left leg torn apart by the light arrows, but Erika didn't care, she was smiling from ear to ear as she gave her next command.

"You get back, you block that priest, the rest continue the charge!", the fist part of the command referred to the damaged warrior pawn, the second part was for one of the remaining two warriors to keep the priest occupied and the last one was for the tank and the last warrior to continue advancing.

'This is what you get for not directly using an area buffing spell right at the beginning, a disadvantage in numbers means that you can't temporarily sacrifice a pawn to gain the advantage!', thought Erika.

This was one of her basic but most effective tactics, she will willingly let one of her warriors take some damage in order to destroy the outermost barrier, naturally it only worked for that barrier because it was quite brittle and it could only be used to take the enemy by surprise the first time, they played this game.

But it worked like charm, this is the sole reason as to why she was able to destroy the outermost barrier of her Lord, when she played against him, it's worth mentioning that while she was praised for the move, she didn't manage to destroy any of the other barriers, though it wasn't the same when she fought against the captain of the special corps.

Unfortunately, and for Erika's displease, the panicking expression she expected to see on the enemy's face didn't appear, instead of that, the blond-haired girl seemed to be contemplating things, which confused the enemy queen, at least until Jasmine said.

"Is it done like this…".

"Light Chain Net", to Erika's disbelief, not only was the spell not activated by Jasmine, but by the priest pawn, but an intricate ethereal white chain net appeared on the hands of said pawn, she used both the "representative" and the "weapon manifesting" dynamics at the same time.

'Impossible, it took me two games to learn how to do them and five to be able to use them at the same time!!!', she screamed in her heart.

In the meantime, since the activation time when using a pawn as the medium for a martial art or spell is shorter, Jasmine had enough time to activate another spell, a buffing one this time.

"Silver Shackles!", with an excited voice over the fact that she succeeded to use the dynamics that the enemy was taking advantage of, after having to suffer due to them a couple of times, the ethereal chain net on the priest's hands glowed in a bright white light.

[The next restraining spell will have its effect quadrupled]

And so, the chain net, trapped the tank as well as the two warrior pawns in a single go, stopping them in cold to then tighten around them, successfully preventing them from moving.

"You return!", being the one taken by surprise this time, Erika directly ordered her damaged pawn to return back in order to attack the chain net both from the inside and the outside, the faster she got out of the trap the better, all this while she prepared her next pawn to be activated.

'Damn it, I actually forgot that as small as it might be she is the Lord's creation!', all this while cursing the light princess for being such a fast learner, but comforting herself by putting all the blame on the fact that Jasmine is supposed to be the Balax Lord's daughter, so her talent for the fame must come from him.