The morning sun was weak, its light barely piercing the thick canopy overhead. Shadows clung to the trees, stretching long and twisted, lingering even as the day began. The air was damp with the lingering chill of night, heavy with the scent of moss, old blood, and decay.

I stood before the cave’s entrance, my body still aching from the last battle. My wounds were stiff with dried blood, each movement tugging against barely mended flesh. The pain had dulled—buried beneath something colder. Behind me, the warriors shifted uneasily. The hunter swallowed hard. None of them spoke.

I activated Painbound Dominion. The world darkened. Shadows spilled from my feet, stretching into the cave’s mouth like searching hands. The air thickened, pressing inward with unseen weight. Inside, something stirred. A shuffling. A low, uneasy murmur. Then, the first scream.

The vampires woke to a nightmare.

The first barely had time to rise before my blade cleaved through his throat, parting flesh and tendon with a single, clean stroke. A wet gurgle escaped his lips as he collapsed, hands twitching uselessly against his ruined neck. The second lunged in a daze, instincts driving her forward without thought. I caught her arm as she swung, twisting sharply—bone snapped. She barely had time to scream before my knee slammed into her chest, ribs crunching as she crumpled backward. The warrior behind me finished her off.

The hunter loosed an arrow into another’s back. The shaft punched through his spine. He crumpled without a sound. One tried to run. I let him. For three steps. Then Painbound Dominion crushed his will. His body spasmed as his mind betrayed him. I advanced. My blade came down. Another corpse.

Then—the air changed.

A shift. A pulse of something ancient and powerful.

I felt it before I saw her.

The surviving vampires froze, their wide eyes flicking toward the depths of the cave. Their fear did not vanish. It twisted. This wasn’t the fear of death. It was fear of her.

She stepped forward, slowly, deliberately, unshaken by the slaughter before her. Tall. Her pale skin was unblemished, smooth as carved marble, sculpted muscle shifting beneath it. Unlike the others, she was not weak from starvation. She was a predator, fully fed, fully aware. Her eyes burned with something deeper than hunger. Rage. Calculation. Resolve. And she did not flinch beneath Painbound Dominion.

She smiled. It was not amused. It was not mocking. It was worse.

"You think yourself death," she murmured, her voice silk laced with steel. "But you have never hunted something stronger than you."

Then she moved.

She wasn’t just fast. She was blinding.

The first warrior barely had time to react before she ripped through him. One moment, he was beside me. The next—his body was bisected, torn apart in a blur of motion. His torso hit the ground first. His legs followed a second later. Dead.

I unleashed everything I had in Painbound Dominion, forcing the shadows to lash out, coiling around her like hunting vipers, striking at her flesh. She did not slow. She did not hesitate. She barely even noticed. I barely had time to react before her claws raked across my ribs, tearing through leather and flesh. Hell’s Reprieve kicked in instantly, but the pain still flashed hot across my body.

Pain Counter: 7.

I twisted, bringing my blade up, aiming for her throat—She caught it. Her bare hands wrapped around the steel, gripping it effortlessly. Then she tore it from my grip. My dagger clattered to the cave floor. For the first time, I hesitated.

She leaned in, lips curling. "You think you are the monster?" she whispered.

Her fist slammed into my gut.

Pain Counter: 12.

The cave spun. I crashed into the stone wall, ribs screaming, lungs struggling for breath. My vision blurred. I forced myself up. Too slow. She was already there. I couldn’t keep up. I was going to die.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

No. I refuse. I had suffered worse pain than this and won. Fire ignited inside me.

Searing Vigor—Activate.

The pain vanished. Strength flooded my limbs, burning through my body like molten steel. She swung—I caught her arm. Her eyes widened. She had expected me to break. She had not expected this.

I drove my summoned shortsword into her gut, the blade punching clean through her back. I twisted. Blood splattered across the cave floor.

Pain Counter: 27.

She staggered, gasping, fingers gripping at the wound. I didn’t let her recover. My tail whipped around, striking her in the ribs, the impact cracking bone. She lurched sideways, breath hitching.

Pain Counter: 30.

I was on her before she could react. As my blade thrust toward her chest, the air shuddered. The blood soaking the cave rippled, as if it had a life of its own. Then, before my strike could land, the crimson tide rushed backward—not across the ground, but up, into her.

Her flesh darkened, turning red as her veins pulsed beneath translucent skin. I felt it, the sheer force of her willpower overriding my Dominion, bending the very blood to her command.

Then—she was gone.

My blade carved through empty space.

I stood there, breath heaving, my body still thrumming with Searing Vigor. This wasn’t possible.

She should have been writhing under my will. She should have been breaking, bowing beneath the weight of my Dominion. Instead, she had vanished.

A cold dread slithered through me. Pain Counter 30 wasn’t enough. Not even close. She wasn’t just strong—her willpower dwarfed mine like a mountain over dying embers.

Before I could move, before I could even think, something slammed into my back.

A vice grip locked around my shoulders. Fangs punched through my neck.

A raw, piercing agony lanced through me, sharp and invasive, like barbed hooks sinking deep into my flesh. My breath hitched, my body locking in place, my nerves firing all at once in sheer revolt. It wasn’t just a bite. It wasn’t just hunger. She was changing me.

Her will poured into me like a flood, drowning out my own. It was too much, too fast. I had endured pain. I had endured agony. This was different.

This wasn’t pain.

This was control.

A sickening pulse of foreign willpower crashed into me, thick and suffocating, sinking deep into my marrow, my mind, my soul. It didn’t just sink into me—it overrode me. A force so much stronger than my own that for a single, paralyzing moment, my thoughts fractured.

She wasn’t just feeding.

She was taking me.

Her toxin flooded my veins, slithering into every fiber of my being, not an infection but an invasion. It wasn’t just a foreign presence—it was a demand. Let go. Submit. Obey.

I needed to move. To resist. My instincts screamed to fight, to thrash, to tear her away. But I couldn’t. My limbs felt like lead, my breath short and ragged. My vision was dimming, my will slipping beneath the sheer weight of hers.

Searing Vigor still burned in my body, and her venom couldn’t fully take root—but it didn’t matter.

She was still draining me.

My own blood betrayed me, rebelling against me, torn from my veins in deep, heaving gulps. My pulse weakened. My vision swam. My body was shutting down.

I was dying.

Then—an idea.

A reckless, desperate idea. I bet on my endurance being stronger than her willpower. I stopped resisting. I let the pain rise. I let the counters tick up.

I made it a race.

Pain Counter: 36.

Pain Counter: 40.

My vision blurred. My limbs trembled. My heartbeat was slowing.

Pain Counter: 51.

A shrill ringing filled my ears, drowning out all thought. My body no longer felt like my own. My heartbeat was a distant, fading thing. Too slow. Too much blood lost.

I was blacking out.

Pain Counter: 57.

Pain Counter: 61.

Then—her bite loosened.

Dominance Break.

Her grip faltered, muscles seizing as my pain overwhelmed her own will. It wasn’t enough. My vision tilted, my knees buckled. I felt myself falling. My endurance was failing. Close—but not enough.

Then steel met flesh.

A violent shockwave of impact sent a shudder through her body. A sound like wet, splitting wood filled the air. She gasped, lurching forward, her teeth tearing from my neck in a violent snap.

I collapsed forward, my body refusing to hold me up. A burning line of pain cut through me where her fangs had been. My blood dripped onto the stone.

There was movement.

Something heavy. A shadow.

I didn’t understand.

The axe.

Someone had swung.

Someone—

Pain Counter: 79.

I barely remained conscious. My body was wrecked, my mind on the edge of collapse. But I had enough left for one last command.

I tore my head up, throat raw, and threw everything I had left into my voice.

“Kill yourself.”

The moment stretched—silent, absolute.

Then, just like that, the battle was over.