Delor, watching Noah, weakly smirked at his actions. In his mind, he was of the belief that if this was all that was necessary for a vampire to save themselves, no vampire would have died of silver.

The next moment, his eyes widened in realisation. Noah was no vampire; he was just a mimic!

"...fire. Fire. Fire! Fire, Fire!"

Delor's subordinates, hidden in the shadows of the moonlit woods, let loose a volley of silver-tipped arrows. However, Noah's bony hands currently covered his chest, and the arrows pierced those.

Noah's pained, furious grunts increased in volume and frequency. He was absolutely determined to do what needed to be done. The arrows that struck his hands began to leave holes that drained his blood, but they could not do the same to his burning will.

"Monster…you're…you're no human…"

The tables turned once again. It was now Delor's turn to watch, saucer-eyed, as the arrows that flew at Noah only temporarily slowed him down while he continued to rip out the chunk of his chest surrounding the arrow.

With a furious final pull, Noah was now left with a hole in his torso for the second time today. With the silver liberated from his chest, along with his heart, Noah ripped out the other arrows from the other parts of his body.

Silver's effect on vampires were not so simple. It often lingered in the system if the vampire, acting as a poison that eventually killed it. However, to Noah, as much as it burned through his mana to do so, all he needed was to undo then redo his mimicry to immediately dispel those lingering effects. This was what Delor had realised Noah could do, and precisely what he did.

Despite his inhuman feat of willpower, the vampire that had regained the favour of the moon knew he was short on time. Without a doubt, Delor's subordinates would be here in no more than ten seconds to engage in physical combat. Noah was also aware that he would be dead before that same period of time ended. After all, he currently didn't have a heart. Conveniently, the vampire found that the solution to both problems lay weakly slumped against a tree beside him.

Delor's eyes widened even further as Noah jumped towards him.

"No! No no no! Bastard! Do you know wh-pffgrghhh. I am! I, I…"

As Delor's blood was sucked out of him, he adamantly refused his imminent fate, screaming even while his throat was reduced to a straw for Noah's consumption. As his strength faded, he finally fell silent, the loss of blood that was sucked out of him forcing him to succumb to the rest of his injuries.

The Commander was dead.

The few seconds of bloodsucking were insufficient for fully regenerating and closing the wound of a major organ, but the rich blood of the Commander along with the full moon, allowed, at the very least, for his heart to complete its regeneration. His skin, however, was very open. The ghastly sight of the beating heart through the hole in his chest and ribcage could evoke nightmares for anyone who glanced at it.

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Not Delor's subordinates, though, who had been rigorously trained. Not letting the death of their commander faze them, the two archer knights burst out of the lightening shadows of the foilage, each with a dagger in hand. They ran to either side of Noah and lunged towards him.

"Too late."

A single swipe decapitated both of them.

About to drink from the two of them before their hearts stopped, officially finishing them and rendering his bloodsucking useless, Noah froze.

The moon was dimming.

Which meant that the sun was coming.

'Seriously?!'

He didn't have time to drink any blood. Sure, he could drag the bodies to the shade and drink there, but his current problem didn't allow for that.

The next moment, his lack of mana undid his mimicry, and he immediately keeled over. After all, he was no longer under the compounded healing of the vampire and the moon or was experiencing its strength in his veins.

'I'm getting real fucking sick of falling on my knees.'

In the state Noah was in now, he would die by the time the sun was fully up. He had no choice but to make a desperate play. For the second time today.

Gritting his teeth, he used his mana nodes to pump mana he did not have into his spirit, then activated the mana flow engraved deep within his soul. He was straining his spirit to use mimicry.

Noah did not want to end up like Emma, but he had no choice. If he tried to summon too much mana he did not have, he would. The loss of mana from transformation was relatively constant from monster to monster, but different monsters used vastly different amounts of mana for what they did. For example, a vampire would require a vast amount of mana to send out a blood blade, but his dryad form could do the same thing with next to no mana, with a vine blade.

What Noah needed was to get back to Haldor, and fast, before he lost too much blood. He could, in theory, use his unicorn form to try to heal his wound, but the amount of mana that would take would certainly strain his spirit.

'Mimicry - Arachne!'

His legs elongated and formed an abdomen, then eight spider legs sprouted out of it.

With a singular leap, he jumped across a quarter of Verdant Oakwoods, only a mere half-mile away from Haldor. However, this mere distance would make all the difference. The moment his spidery legs touched down, he cancelled his mimicry. Any more, and Noah would end up like Emma. The momentum of his jump had mostly been canceled out by his Arachne form, and the small amount of resultant momentum sent him tumbling into a tree, leaving him leaning perfectly against a tree.

For a few moments, he just caught his breath while his mind continued to whir for more ideas. Memories of the intense fight he just had whizzed past his mind. What a disaster.

He had fallen prey to the Commander's scheme. He didn't even just lose the physical battle this time. Noah let out a pained sigh as he inwardly shook his head. He would think about these things later. For now, he had more pressing concerns, such as what he would do now. He still had a hole in his chest, and a severe lack of mana and stamina. His strained spirit did no favours for him either, with the pain it currently wrought upon him

But that was it. No more clever schemes or desperate plays. He was fresh out. The only way left was to endure.

Gritting his teeth, he began to crawl. Crawl, then crawl some more. For hours, he crawled.

He would not die here.

He had vowed it.

When his knees gave out, he dragged himself. The hole in his chest had turned green from an infection around the edges, and his temperature was spiking. He had lost all sensation in his chest, but the pain still came in waves.

At some point, he stopped thinking. He was just too tired. So tired. But still, he kept going. Like an addict who had tasted a high once, he wasn't even living as ordered to by the survival instinct programmed into all living beings. He just wanted to experience that peak he once thought he had arrived at again.

Finally, he broke out of the shady woods. At this point, the sun was at its peak and was beating down on him. He wasn't down yet, though. He still had to push himself until he saw someone, or the guards at the border of Odir spotted him.

His face now dragged on the ground, his head too heavy for his neck to support.

He no longer looked forward, and his eyes no longer opened. His infected heart began to slow to a crawl.

Like a lizard's tail that continued to struggle after it was cut off, only his arm moved.

Eventually, only his hand.

Then, his fingertips. Though they couldn't pull his weight that dragged on the grassy ground, so they only left bloody marks on the spot where he lay without making progress.

'...rry…'

Noah didn't know what that final thought, that final word he tried to form, was.