The two remaining men were shocked into stunned silence by the lightning strike. Cory gritted his teeth, his expression hardening into calculating fury as he looked at the unconscious, smoking body of Bam Bam. "How?" he muttered under his breath.
The man with the big nose was sweating heavily, fear finally taking hold. "Boss, I think we should retreat."
Cory shook his head, his sharp eyes evaluating John's slumped, exhausted posture. "Nonsense, can't you see the boy is tired? We could take him if we work together." Cory then started to walk deliberately in John's direction, masking his true intention behind a facade of renewed attack.
However, Nose lacked the courage to fight the boy after seeing what happened to Bam Bam, who was considered their strongest.
He walked a little behind Cory, but seeing his two friends lying unconscious on the ground, he decided he could not proceed any further.
"I am sorry, boss." Nose abruptly turned around and ran in the direction of their camp. Cory snapped his head back, watching Nose flee, and a fierce, murderous anger started to swell inside him. "Nose, you fu*king coward! You are dead, I promise you!"
Cory then turned his full attention back to John. He slowly clapped his hands together once, the sound sharp and isolated in the silence. "Bravo, kid, you surprised me. But I don't think that you can do that move anymore; you played all of your cards."
John was standing in a slumping position, visibly exhausted to the brim. He was panting heavily, his chest heaving, as he quickly and fiercely yanked the arrow out of his right shoulder with his left hand—the searing, raw pain made his vision momentarily white. He then dropped the spent elemental lightning stone from his left hand. "You're right," he managed to grin, forcing a desperate, terrifying smile onto his blood-stained face. "Or maybe I might have something else up my sleeve."
Cory watched the pain flash across John's eyes and saw Leonidas lying defenseless behind the boy. Cory smiled evilly as the perfect, brutal plan formed in his mind: he would attack the boy's weakness, not his strength. He dashed toward John, initially feinting a charge at the exhausted hybrid. However, John was grinning, attempting desperately to bluff that he had another hidden tactic.
Cory ran right past John, his target confirmed. He sprinted straight to where Leonidas was located on the ground. John's terrifying grin dissolved into raw, shocked disbelief when he realized he was not the target.
"No!" John screamed, the effort of the shout an agonizing explosion in his chest.
John tried desperately to run after Cory, but the sheer, mind-numbing exhaustion had crippled his legs, locking him in place. All he could do was watch, paralyzed by fatigue and failure, as Cory reached the prone figure of Leonidas.
Leonidas did not expect Cory to come for him, but he was still utterly powerless, trapped by the venom. Cory arrived near Leonidas and kicked him straight in the face. He then patted the paralyzed Clan Lord down and found the hidden knife. "And what is a knife doing here? No, no, no."
Cory threw the knife far to the side and thereafter kicked the old vampire on top of his head. The impact was sickeningly dull.
"No, leave the old man alone!" John screamed, his heart tearing apart as he watched his grandfather take the beating he was meant to be taking.
Cory watched John screaming, paralyzed by his failure. "Why do you call him old man? He doesn't even look that old, or maybe he is a vampire too, hehehe," Cory chuckled, enjoying his own deduction.
John forced his body to turn around, his muscles screaming with the effort of walking toward them.
"Don't come any closer, or this handsome man gets it," Cory warned sharply, grabbing Leonidas by his long, vibrant red hair and brutally dragging him several feet along the ground.
Leonidas struggled furiously against the bandit's grip. "You fu*king coward! If I wasn't powerless, I would rip you limb from limb!" he spat, the rage of the Clan Lord palpable even in his compromised state.
Cory, fueled by the resistance and the defiance, instantly took out his knife and stabbed it deep inside Leonidas's back. "You fu*ker, don't you ever talk that sh*t to me."
Leonidas refused to make a sound. Though the combined pain of the venom and the fresh steel wounds was immense, he would not give Cory the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. Cory noticed the Clan Lord's infuriating silence and, enraged, stabbed the old vampire multiple times in the back. With every brutal stab, he would deliberately twist the knife, all while looking John straight in the eye.
John could not take the sight any longer. "Please stop! I surrender!" John collapsed heavily to his knees, his arms falling limply to the ground in total defeat.
Cory ignored John's broken pleas, fixated on Leonidas's defiance. "Oh, so you are a tough guy. I wonder what would happen if I stuck this knife through your heart."
John was in a state of shock, his voice cracking with desperation. "Please! Please! I beg of you, spare my grandfather and kill me instead!"
"Oh, you're right, you humiliated my men in front of me; that cannot be tolerated," Cory replied, his voice chillingly calm.
He paused, then turned his gaze back to Leonidas, tightening his grip on the bloody hair. "I just had a thought about who would get hurt the most in this situation. And I have come to the conclusion that if the boy dies, then you will be hurt the most. Am I right, pretty boy? What parent wants to see their child die first? So I decided that the boy would die first."
Leonidas gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing with protective fury. "Listen to me, bandit, and listen well. If you lay one finger on that boy, then you will die in the worst way possible. Walk away now, and I will forget everything that just happened today."
"Shut! Up!" Cory shouted, enraged by the persistent defiance. He kicked Leonidas twice in the stomach.
Leonidas did not utter a sound as he was kicked, but he did cough a mouthful of dark, thick blood onto the ground. "You call that a kick? My granddaughter kicks harder."
"I told you to shut up!" Cory roared, then repeatedly stomped on Leonidas's head. The sickening, dull impact resonated through the ground.
Tears began to run down John's cheeks, streaming down his face as he watched the unrelenting assault. "Stop!" He then spread his arms apart in an ultimate act of sacrifice, shouting, "Here I am! Take me instead!"
Cory grinned, his eyes gleaming with malicious pleasure. He dropped Leonidas's hair and walked directly to where John was kneeling. John's head was hanging down, his eyes fixed on the ground, waiting for his death. "Do it," John whispered in a low, broken tone of voice.
"Don't be in a hurry, boy." Cory then savagely stabbed John deep in the ribs. As the knife was buried inside John's rib cage, Cory looked up at Leonidas, whose face was contorted with pure, helpless anger. "I don't like that look in your eyes, pretty boy."
Cory brutally twisted the knife inside John's ribs. "Aaaah," John screamed, the pain so excruciating that he almost wanted to pass out. Blood gushed from John's mouth.
After a few seconds, Cory pulled the knife out and gripped John by the neck.
"I warned you, bandit," Leonidas said through gritted teeth as he lay powerless on the ground.
"Why are you doing this? We did nothing to you," John rasped, struggling against the tight grip on his windpipe.
Cory gave a short, chilling chuckle. "Because I can... And do you think I didn't notice how you laughed when you fried my friend?"
John struggled for air. "I did not find any pleasure in shocking your friend... I… I did it to scare you. I … And it did work on your friend."
Tsk. Cory sneered. "Well, he is dead after I deal with you two."
Cory then leaned close, his voice dropping to a horrifying, deliberate whisper. "I am going to take my time killing you, fu*king brat, and after I kill you, I will then find out if you have a family, and I will kill them too, hehehe."
Anger and fury surged inside Cory. "Changed my mind; the pretty boy dies."
Just as Cory wanted to release his grip on John's neck to raise the knife, John surged up. He gripped Cory's wrist and said with raw defiance, "You ain't doing sh*t."
"Let go, you fu*king brat!" Cory yelled, repeatedly punching John in the face, expecting him to release his grip. But John did not let go of his right arm's wrist. Cory then quickly picked up the knife and stabbed John in the ribcage again, expecting him to release his grip. However, John only tightened his grasp. "Aaaaah, it hurts!" Blood leaked from his mouth and the stab wounds in his ribs.
Cory laughed, his voice manic with victory. "Hehehe, I am going to find out who your grandfather is, then I am going to cut off his head and send it to his family members, hahahaha."
John's mind reeled. He imagined the entire scenario vividly: the castle, Anna's face—everything happening exactly as Cory said. Leonidas noticed the subtle change in John, his eyes widening in alarm. "Is the boy's wolf side going to come out again? He can't control that power; if the wolf side comes out, then we are all probably going to die."
Cory was fully focused on his sadistic triumph, but he suddenly sensed that something was amiss. He looked into John's eyes and saw a faint electricity flickering across the iris. "No, it's not possible…" Cory's eyes widened from shock and disbelief, and he began to panic. He tried desperately to escape from John's clutches, but to no avail. John's fingers dug deeper into Cory's flesh.
"Let go of me, you fu*king freak!" Cory continued to struggle. He tried to stab John in the heart, ready to deliver the lethal blow that would end the boy's life, but it was already too late.
A sudden, fierce surge of electricity erupted from John's hand.
Leonidas's eyes widened, filled with great surprise and amazement by the sight. "How is this possible?"
Raw sparks crackled and danced visibly on John's fingertips. The massive jolt of power surged violently into Cory's body; thick veins popped out from his neck and temples as the bandit started to convulse involuntarily.
John released even more electrical power, and Cory screamed with agony. His body whipped and contorted as the electrical power rendered him utterly helpless.
"Yes, boy, kill him…kill him!" Leonidas urged, desperate for the final victory.
John heard Leonidas's harsh words, and the command immediately snapped him back to reality, instantly causing the electrical surge to also come to an end. John let go of Cory, causing the bandit to fall limply to the ground. John slowly stood up and observed Cory for a moment. He had a stern expression on his face as he looked at his hand, but secretly, a wave of thrilled satisfaction washed over him. "I have electric powers, so cool," he thought.
He smiled, secretly happy that the bandit was still alive. He took out a bottle of blood and drank the potent liquid, leaving the bottle half empty.
John then quickly searched through Cory's unconscious body and, moments later, triumphantly found the magical map.
"Old man, are you okay?" John asked, his voice strained. With moderate difficulty, he ran to where Leonidas was lying, and a dark, growing pool of blood could be seen on the ground beneath him.
John looked down at Leonidas, whose defiance had cost him greatly. "Here, drink up," he said, giving Leonidas the half-bottle of blood.
Leonidas looked at John for a moment before taking the bottle. "Brat, why did you not say that you have lightning powers? What else are you hiding from me, brat?"
John had a big smile on his face, feeling the rush of his successful improvisation. "Well, I myself didn't even know that I had that kind of power; I'm really him, if you think about it."
Leonidas quickly got annoyed and said, "You ain't sh*t."
John smiled, then instantly composed his face, vanished the smile, and gave Leonidas a serious, deadpan look. The old vampire did the same, and they both stared at each other in a fierce, silent challenge. As John and Leonidas looked at one another, John decided to deliberately blink his eyes. The old vampire noticed John intentionally blinking and, against his own nature, mimicked him, keeping the serious expression rigid. The young man then blinked his eyes twice, but Leonidas flawlessly mimicked him again.
After a few seconds, John couldn't hold his serious expression any longer, and a light smile started to form on his face, breaking the tension. "I see what you did there, old man. You're really funny, did you know that?"
Leonidas lightly grinned, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. "I have my moments."
"Come, old man, we can't waste much time," John said, pulling himself together. He managed to pick Leonidas up, but with immense difficulty. John felt his body numb and his limbs heavy with exhaustion, yet he forced himself to carry Leonidas on his back.
As John was standing, he slightly turned his head. "Old man, I don't have the energy to run anymore."
Leonidas was silent for a few seconds as he was thinking, looking over John's shoulder. He then thought of something they could do. "Boy, go to their camp."
John was confused. "Why?"
Leonidas grinned, a predatory glint returning to his eye. "We are going to take their horses."
John and Leonidas arrived at the camp, where one of the horse tethers was broken and one animal was missing. They quickly came to the conclusion that it was the fleeing man with the big nose who had come to the camp and fled with his horse.
Leonidas then smacked his hand against his forehead in irritation. "Fu*k, I forgot you don't know how to ride a horse." Leonidas knew that people from Earth usually relied on vehicles, so he correctly assumed John lacked equestrian skill. John had, in fact, partially learned how to ride when spending time with Carmilla and Thomas, giving him the bare minimum necessary to survive this task.
With his limited experience, John was completely uneasy about the task of guiding their only steed on this treacherous journey. "We have to hurry." Leonidas was truly worried that he wouldn't arrive on time to warn his family of the surprise attack or be there to lend some moral support.
"I know," John replied, quickly helping his grandfather mount the horse first, before mounting the horse himself. As John took hold of the reins, his hands were trembling with profound uncertainty. "Shit, why are my hands shaking like this?" Sweat started to form instantly on John's forehead. If they arrived late, Decker could possibly win, and they did not know what other plans Decker had up his sleeve.
John's heart was pounding with a mixture of determination and trepidation. Leonidas could clearly hear John's heart beating loudly within his chest; he could sense the boy's raw nervousness. John knew that his grandfather was now entirely depending on him, as Leonidas was paralyzed from the waist down and severely weakened from all the stabbing and beatings he had just taken.
"Calm down, boy, I am here to guide you," Leonidas said, his voice steadying John.
John closed his eyes and took a long breath. He held the air in his lungs for five seconds before slowly blowing the air out. Leonidas could hear how John's racing heartbeat was gradually decreasing. Leonidas knew that the heavy burden of guiding the horse fell upon his grandson, as John was the only one with the necessary, albeit very limited, equestrian skills.
"Now let's go; there's no time to waste."
John did not say anything, merely nodding his head once. He still felt profoundly unsure if he had the ability to control this powerful creature beneath him. They first crossed the bridge and traveled a little further until they came across a broad expanse of flatland.
All John saw was greenery, stretching as far as the eye could see. The grassy plains, lush and fertile, swayed gently in the breeze. John's eyes momentarily drank in the beautiful sight. "Wow, I didn't know that this world looked so beautiful. Oh my god," he thought. He saw slender streams of crystal-clear water weaving their way through the land like soft, delicate ribbons. He also noticed small trees scattered across the landscape like precious gems.
"Enough, we have to go!" Leonidas urged, pulling John back to the moment.
John quickly snapped back to reality. He took out the magical map (the small cube) and pressed the button. A magical, holograph-like map appeared, showing their current location.
"Old man, where should we go?"
"Give me the map," Leonidas instructed.
John handed Leonidas the cube. "Directions to the Crimson Castle," Leonidas commanded. The magical map instantly showed them the location of the Crimson Castle, and Leonidas knew exactly where to go. He then gave the cube back to John so he could store it in his storage ring.
"We have to go that way." Leonidas pointed firmly in the direction they needed to go.
As they set across the plains, John's inexperience riding a horse became jarringly evident. His body would sway awkwardly and his movements lacked the necessary coordination, making him struggle continuously to find his balance on the powerful animal. Furthermore, John's communication with the horse was flawed, relying on rough pulls of the reins rather than subtle direction.
Although the ride was inherently difficult, John was immensely grateful that his regeneration ability had worked wonders during his unconscious state and subsequent power surge. The arrow wound in his shoulder was now nothing more than a faint pink scar, and the deep stab wounds in his ribs were already fused shut, allowing him to absorb the jolts of the clumsy ride without immediate agony.
However, Leonidas, who was wise and resilient despite his paralyzing pain, would constantly offer his guidance to the boy. "Focus, boy," he would snap.
"I am trying, you old geezer." Leonidas wanted desperately to smack the boy for his foul mouth, but he needed John conscious and focused.
With each jarring stride, Leonidas would grit his teeth and share his knowledge of horsemanship, teaching John how to maintain his balance, the crucial subtle commands, and the bond required between horse and rider. John, knowing this was their only chance, used every ounce of his mental focus to absorb all the advice his grandfather imparted. As the agonizing minutes passed, John showed flashes of improvement.
Furthermore, as the two traveled across the vast expanse, the landscape blurring at the frantic speed, they got ever closer to their destination.
However, something occurred that Leonidas had already predicted might happen. As the desperate journey wore on, the horse's strength waned. Its breath became a harsh, labored rasp, and thick foam gathered on its lathered flank, signaling it had lost the energy to gallop any further. "No, don't give up on us now!" John cried out, his nervousness escalating. He had not anticipated the horse's physical limits. After several minutes of struggling, the poor animal stumbled violently, and then collapsed heavily to the ground.
Thud!
The horse was utterly unable to carry them any further, and John's heart sank like an anchor to the bottom of the sea. John took out the magic device cube to check their progress. The magical, holographic map appeared, and he noticed that they were still a terrible distance away from their objective.
"Shoot, what do we do now, old geezer?"
"Stop calling me an old geezer, you brat," Leonidas retorted instantly.
Sigh. Leonidas's momentary irritation vanished, replaced by the grim reality. "Guess we have no choice. Boy, we have to run."
"You mean I have to run!" John said it loudly, his shoulders slumping with exhaustion. He knew that running with Leonidas's dead weight on his back was going to be difficult, and he had no idea how long his injured body would hold out. But arguing would not help them achieve their goal.
John looked down at the tired horse that was lying on the ground. He crouched down and rubbed the horse on its head. "Thank you for carrying us thus far, Mr. Horse."
Leonidas became instantly irritated. "What the hell are you doing, boy, thanking a horse? It's just an animal."
John snapped his head up and gave Leonidas an aggressive gaze. "You ungrateful old fart, if you talk anymore crap, then I'm gonna punch your face in."
"Ugh, I can't be bothered to argue with a dumb child. Hurry up so we can leave," Leonidas muttered, conceding the argument.
After saying a silent goodbye to the horse, John, with Leonidas's strained verbal guidance, agonizingly hoisted the paralyzed vampire back onto his back. John, straining against the combined weight and his own physical fatigue, the young vampire boy and his grandfather then embarked on a final, desperate run through the plains. He felt a deep sense of dread that they would not make it in time, but he had no choice but to keep moving forward.
A few agonizing hours had passed. John had not taken one moment to rest. His legs were screaming with pain and his breath was ragged, yet he kept moving with sheer determination. He pushed himself until the shadows lengthened and night finally descended. John knew he could not sustain the pace safely in the darkness while carrying Leonidas and collapsed heavily against a rocky outcrop, utterly defeated by exhaustion.
They decided to quit running during the night, conserving John's meager strength. John, after checking on Leonidas and making sure his grandfather's head was propped up, fell into a shallow, necessary sleep.
At daybreak, John forced himself awake. His legs still ached and his body stiffly protested, but the rising sun served as a terrifying reminder of the deadline. He hoisted Leonidas onto his back and instantly resumed the desperate run, pushing across the vast expanse of the plains.
There were still mountains that they had to cross, and as John felt his resolve about to snap, he saw something flying through the sky.
"Help! Help!" John screamed, waving his free arm frantically at the approaching object, which he recognized as a flying boat.
The person operating the vehicle was a middle-aged man; he had a bald head and was wearing black short pants and a white vest—clearly a delivery man. He was in a good mood, looking forward to starting a small vacation to visit his family the next day. While the man was humming contentedly to himself, feeling the cool breeze against his skin and enjoying the beautiful view below, he noticed a small figure carrying another man on his back.
"What the hell are these people doing here? Are they lost?" the man muttered, concern clouding his pleasant thoughts.
He saw the boy waving his arm and instantly figured out that the pair desperately needed assistance. "I am coming," he shouted, adjusting the controls.
As the flying boat gently touched down on the grassy ground, the middle-aged man opened the door and asked, "Do you two need some help?"
The man's friendly expression instantly shifted to shock when he saw John up close. "Wait, little boy, I know you."
John pointed at himself, utterly confused. "Me? Really?"
Leonidas was equally confused, looking up at the unexpected helper.