Vlad once again roamed through the streets of the ruined city. By his side, Tyler walked along with him, keeping up with the vampire without missing a step, but that didn’t matter much to Vlad. All that was on his mind right now was finding his friends. He could tell that something was wrong. He knew that they were in danger.
Whether that was his vampiric instincts telling him this or something else, what was important was that he knew this to be a fact. Not a gut feeling, not some hunch, but a pure, unadulterated fact. And it was that fact that was driving Vlad to locate his friends and save them. No matter the cost.
Vlad and Tyler stuck close to the sidewalks trying to remain hidden and not out in the open, risking monsters spotting and attacking them on sight. If Vlad was alone, he could've use [Stealth] and rushed toward the warehouse and gun shop to locate them. However, since Tyler was a Knight Class, he didn’t possess a [Stealth] skill, making things more challenging for the vampire to reach his destination.
Just as the pair were about to turn a corner, a lone four-legged creature appeared. Its body was covered in dark silver fur and bore the resemblance of a wolf. One of its notable features was a black diamond-shaped spot on its fur along with its tail being completely silver except for the tip which was a solid black.
[Dire Wolf – Level 9]
The Dire wolf whipped its head around and spotted Vlad and Tyler, its blood-red eyes trained on its two targets. The creature quickly crouched down, prepared to pounce on the pair the moment it had the chance. However, before it could act, a solid blade of blood manifested from Vlad’s hand before getting launched in its direction. The creature couldn’t react in time as the condensed blood blade severed its neck within seconds. Its head rolled along the ground, blood seeping out of both ends as a death notification appeared in front of the vampire.
[Dire Wolf has been defeated! 675 XP has been obtained!]
“Whoa…” Tyler whistled, amazed at what he just witnessed. “I didn’t expect you to take down that monster with only one move.”
“It wasn’t that hard,” Vlad muttered.
Tyler eyed Vlad’s hand, his face written with curiosity. “What kind of skill was that? Did you shoot out some kind of blood attack or something? Are you perhaps a Blood Mage?”
“A Blood Hunter. It’s a rather unique Class compared to others.”
“I see. That explains the Hunter gear,” Tyler looked up and down at Vlad’s outfit, nodding in response. “I guess there are certain people that really benefit from the apocalypse.”
“Every benefit has a price,” Vlad declared, his voice cold and stern. “Don’t think it was easy for me to obtain this class, because it wasn’t.”
Tyler looked a bit shocked hearing this from Vlad, a hint of curiosity shown on his face. He was likely curious as to what kind of price the vampire had to pay to acquire the Blood Hunter Class.
“Well, at least you’re strong,” The Knight Leader simply stated. “In the apocalypse, getting strong is our top priority.”
“Yeah…” Vlad said absent-mindedly, his eyes trailing over to his hand that hurled the [Blood Strike] Skill.
Although he was able to catch it off guard by throwing his attack at it immediately, he felt that the fight felt a bit too easy. Especially when the monster was on the same level as him. For some reason, his [Blood Strike] skill seemed to have gotten a lot stronger. Not only that, but his activation time was even faster than before as well. It appeared that every time he used the skill, his understanding and efficiency with it would improve by a large margin.
Clenching his hand into a fist, a slight smile formed on his face. The fact that he was getting stronger thrilled the vampire. It reminded him of when he first experienced his vampirism. The power he felt when he slaughtered those monsters and the urge to obtain more.
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He wanted more power.
He wanted to become stronger.
He wanted to dominate his enemies.
Vlad blinked, suddenly realizing his train of thought. Where did that come from? Was his vampiric nature slowly altering his personality or something? He wasn’t the type to desire power like that. If anything, he’d only want to get stronger so he could protect those closest to him.
And yet…why did he feel that using his power for that purpose would be a waste? Why did it feel like protecting those weaker than him, even if they were his family, was wrong? If he wasn’t going to protect his family, then…what was the purpose of all this power?
As soon as he questioned this, a menacing thought crept into the back of his mind.
What else was his power for? It was obvious. To dominate! To conquer and rule over all the inferior species. Be it Elves, Dwarves, Nymphs, or even humans. All of them were destined to be enslaved and dominated by him. Nobody would defy him, no matter who or what they are. Not even those pesky, narcissistic, petty gods…huh?
What the hell was that about? Why was Vlad feeling so annoyed and irritated at the thought of the gods defying him? Why was he feeling that way towards divine deities anyway?
Just what the hell was going on with him?
“Vlad, are you alright?” Tyler called out to the Blood Hunter, his voice pulling him out of his dark inner thoughts.
He glanced at the Knight leader for a moment, unsure of what to say. “Yeah…I’m fine.”
Having these kinds of thoughts was dangerous. It was obvious that Vlad’s vampirism was altering his mentality. He never sounded so arrogant and war-like before. And the worst part was that he didn’t hate that side of himself. If anything, he felt more in-tuned with his savage-like nature. And that in itself was dangerous. If he didn’t control his instincts, he feared that he would give in more to his vampiric side, to the point where his old self was no longer present, leaving only a vicious vampire that wanted to control and dominate everything in sight.
Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a few deep breaths so he could calm down a little. After that, he focused back on the task at hand.
“How far are we from the Warehouse?” Vlad asked Tyler, not sparing a glance at the leader as he kept moving.
“It should be a couple of blocks right now. As long as we stick to the sidewalks, we should be fine and avoid any…?!”
Tyler stopped talking as both he and Vlad looked ahead, spotting several monsters before them. They were large, muscular, and had green skin and tusks protruding from their jaws. They were Orcs.
Before getting spotted, the pair hid behind some debris, staying as still and silent as possible. However, while hiding, Vlad couldn’t help but voice a snarky comment to Tyler.
“You just had to jinx it, didn’t you?”
“Give me a break,” Tyler grumbled. “How was I supposed to know there would be monsters ahead, huh?”
If he had kept his mouth shut, then this situation could’ve likely been avoided. Oh well, not like this was a bad thing anyway. If Vlad could level up a little bit before facing whatever was putting his friends in danger, he’d gain an edge if he came across a strong enemy during that time.
With a glance, Vlad appraised the Orcs to see what he was dealing with.
[Orc – Level 13]
[Orc – Level 12]
[Orc – Level 12]
[Orc – Level 14]
[Orc – Level 15]
[Orc – Level 13]
It seemed that Vlad was seeing a pattern. The majority of the Orcs, Vlad faced were well over level ten but stopped around level fifteen. There were likely Orcs that were at a higher level, but at the moment, Vlad was facing off against these types of Orcs.
Considering his skill and efficiency with [Blood Strike], he should be more than able to take these monsters down. Sadly, he can’t risk using his skill at max power and risk his BP going below a hundred. Not unless he wanted to drink blood in front of Tyler and out himself as a vampire.
Which meant that he needed to rely on Tyler…Vlad grimaced at the thought of receiving help from someone else like this guy. But, he also had no choice in the matter. He had to conserve his BP at least until he found his friends. So, just for the moment, he and Tyler had to work together to take down the Orcs.
“Alright, how do you suppose we take them down, Mr. leader?” Vlad asked Tyler.
Tyler paused for a moment, surprised that Vlad was asking for his help, but instantly locked in, turning his attention to the Orcs.
“If we want to take them down efficiently and without trouble, we’ll need to distract them and attack the moment they're blindsided. You think you can create a smoke screen with that skill you used before?”
“I could,” Vlad mused. “If I launch the attack at the ground.”
“Alright, then try and use two. One for the ground to create a smoke screen, and the other to hit the Orcs while they're blinded. If we can diminish their numbers with this tactic, then taking them down when we attack up close will be even easier.”
Vlad nodded, agreeing with Tyler’s plan. As expected of the Leader that guided the other players to the Mall and built their base of operations. As the pair were prepared to fight, they trained their eyes on the Orcs, not letting a single one escape their sight.
And while the Orcs remained oblivious to their surroundings, the vampire and knight got ready to slaughter the green monsters.