--
"It's him! It's him! It's him!!!"
"He's here! He came for you!"
"He wants to kill you! Drink your blood! Make a mess out of you!"
"You can't let him get away!"
"He needs to die!"
"He must be devoured!"
"Devour him! Devour that sinner!!"
TJ's heartbeat thundered in his ears. He slipped into a state of absolute focus and concentration in response to the threat presented before him.
The voices in his head roared at him. They urged him to do unspeakable things to the man in front of him. They wanted him to devour that sinner.
TJ was aware that he and his friends are in mortal danger right now, and how he wished he could silence the voices in his head so that he could focus on the fight ahead; alas, nothing he tried worked.
He was fighting a battle inside and out. He's up against a loose criminal who wanted to shred them to pieces and drink their blood to the last drop, and he's also fighting for control over his body and thoughts.
It's times like this that he hated being cursed. This can't be how every single serious battle he would have would go!
'Come on, please give me peace, for now at least. I can't afford to be distracted, or else I will really die here.'
TJ could only helplessly beg the voices in his head to stop roaring at him. But sadly, they acted as if they couldn't hear him.
'Eat him! Kill him! Devour him! '
They chanted these words like a broken record, a prayer to him that compelled him to do something.
Fwoosh!!
The vampire disappeared from his position again. TJ's heart leapt to his throat as he strained every sense he owned to the max in hopes of following his movement.
He was able to see him, but barely. The man was just moving too fast. He's moving at speeds that completely transcend the perception of novices like them.
Clang!!
Still, TJ managed to follow...barely.
Even if you ask him, he wouldn't be able to tell you how he's doing this. It's just that for some reason, TJ could accurately see through the cunningness of the enemy.
It's like he could tell who among them was the man's target. He might not be able to truly follow the man's speed, but he could tell who he was going to attack next and manage to intercept him just in time.
『???』pulses!
TJ didn't even see that alert. His focus was on struggling to repel the man with the help of his friends.
'Damn it! The toughness of his body, his speed, and his stats...it's all above the Apprentice Rank.'
TJ never sparred with any apprentice-ranked combat pro before. He sure as hell never fought somebody stronger. He could only guess this much based on the clues the enemy has shown so far.
As he struggled with the man, Lily shot another magic missile bolt at the enemy, forcing him to retreat.
TJ's hands and arms were hurting from the struggle. The man looked skinny, but he sure hit hard as hell.
Lily continued firing off magic missiles. But because of the man's speed, most of them missed.
TJ then said, "Conserve your mana; hit him only when you're sure it'll land. We'll stall until someone notices."
"A wise plan, young man! Raaagh!!" The man replied instead of Lily before charging again.
No. It's not wise. It's more like the only option they have in this situation. And before somebody says that it's stupid to voice out his plans for the enemy to hear, do remember that none of the trio were telepaths, and they have to have a clear goal if they want to survive this encounter.
The man charged again, and just like before, he was aiming for Lily. He did another feint, making them think that he's going for TJ this time, but his real target was Lily.
It seems like he's really desperate to sink his fangs into her.
Of course, TJ once again moved to intercept him. He would've left it to Sieg if he could, but both boys knew that he couldn't, so the task fell to his hand.
This time though, something different happened.
Amidst his movement to intercept, the voices in TJ's mind screamed at him to fall back. They were so loud that TJ momentarily lost control over his body, and his instincts took over.
This made him halt his movement, which also allowed him to only suffer a graze from the man's stretched-out claws.
"TJ!!" Lily screamed in fright. Sieg was also shaken. The big man regretted being so slow right now.
TJ clutched his chest. His face paled, and blood stained his training clothes that are now shredded in the chest area. He winced, feeling the sting of the wound. He also felt something else other than that.
"Hihihihihi!" The man's perverted laughter chilled them to the core.
They saw him licking the blood from his fingers. His eyes rolled at the back of his head, and he shivered from head to toe.
"Aah!! Blood! More! Hihihihi! More blood!!" The man's deranged laughter echoed through the street.
"TJ! God, TJ! Are you okay?"
"Don't touch me!!" TJ exclaimed, stretching out a hand to stop her. "His claws are laced with something. It might be infectious. Focus on him; I'll take care of myself!"
His words didn't make them feel better at all, but they're also in the middle of a crisis, so they could only listen to him.
TJ whimpered. The sound of his heartbeat was growing louder; his blood pressure was spiking too. The graze might've left only a shallow wound, but it was definitely bleeding more than it should be.
"Foul blood!"
"Creature of the night! Blood drinker!"
"It's not infectious."
"You've been infected with a heart-racing agent. He's got it in his claws. It causes your blood pressure to spike and your wounds to heal slower so that you'll bleed more. So long as your friends don't touch your wound or your blood, they'll be fine."
"He's a low-class vampire; the scent of your blood probably activated one of his passive skills."
"He's an Adept. He's weak because he'sblood-starved. It happens to vampires who don't drink blood for more than 24 hours. But he's still strong enough to whoop your ass."
"Don't worry about him drinking your blood. At most, it just makes him more deranged; he didn't get enough to actually recover from theblood-starvedstate."
"You have to apprehend him fast, boy. Night is almost upon you; he'll only get stronger by then."
"Foul creature! Kill him!"
"Devour his sin!!"
TJ was stunned. That voice just now...
'No! I don't have time to think too much!! 'TJ roared in his mind as he watched as the man dashed forward again; this time, who knows who he'd target?
"It's you. Do something, or you're really going to die."
TJ was so used to ignoring the voices in his head. Not once in his life were they ever helpful. He received this curse at a very young age and has suffered from it ever since.
It was so bad that even the Medical Saint couldn't get rid of it. He could only mute it a little bit every now and then.
As TJ watched how the world seemed to slow down with the deranged vampire scaring Lily and Sieg before turning and running towards him with a deranged smile and excitement on his face, TJ wondered what changed.
Bang!!
"TJ!!" Lily screamed in fright as she heard the loud sound.
She and Sieg thought that something terrible happened to TJ, but in truth, he wasn't the only one hurting now.
With a stretched-out hand, TJ held Hotshot, whose muzzle still emitted smoke.
"Ugh!!"
A weak and pained groan came out of the man. His eyes were wide as he clutched his chest while staring at the blunderbuss.
"Heh, didn't see this one coming, huh? Bitch!" TJ lost all sense of decorum, openly gloating at the profusely bleeding man near him.
Lily and Sieg finally reacted. They dashed and arrived at TJ's within a second, their own hearts thumping loudly in their chests.
"Kihihihihi!"
To their horror, though, the man's perverse laughter sounded out again. They watched, terrified, as the man's body rose from the ground as if he were being revived by some dark force.
The wound on his chest visibly healed, and his bleeding stopped. The man then landed weakly on his foot, hunching low while still laughing angrily.
"Son of a bitch! I really did not see that one coming! You're going to pay for that, boy!!!"
"No!!" Lily and Sieg both screamed, and both placed their bodies in front of TJ to protect him.
Luckily for them, somebody finally came to their rescue.
BOOM!!!
Like a large stone boulder unceremoniously dropping above, a silhouette landed right next to the deranged man.
It was a woman with long black hair, and her eyes gleamed with frenzied light.
"You fucking dared to attack my precious disciple!?"
BOOM!!
The woman punched the man so hard that his body released a sickening crack as it made contact with the ground; he even bounced slightly, and a crater formed beneath him.
This woman was none other than Dean Skywind, Lily's master, and she was understandably and royally pissed.