tink*

Like steel against steel, Johnny uses his short sword to parry Vlad's hand to the side before quickly jumping back, avoiding another attack by Vlad's left hand that threatened to bisect him to pieces.

“Struck a nerve? I suppose you aren’t a heartless beast after all”

He mocked with a grin on his face, Blessed contracts were an incredible boon to humanity, things that allowed regular humans like himself to contend with stupidly powerful creatures like the one before him.

There were two types of blessed contracts: a skill contract and a talent contract; a skill contract is a contract that allows an individual to either control, conjure or manipulate an existing property of nature, like allowing someone to control fire or ice.

A talent contract is a contract that enhances one's innate talents or enhances one's body, like enhancing one's durability, strength, speed and even regeneration and mind.

Within this particular contract, there are sub-contracts like a weapons contract, which is the type of contract Johnny had made.

A weapon’s contract essentially compliments the skills you already have, if you're a swordsman then with a weapons contract you can make it so that whenever you're holding a sword your speed and power increase by a certain margin to help when cutting something or make it so as long as you have a sword in your hand you will be able to match the speed and strength of your opponent.

There are a variety of things you can do with it. There are limits, of course, but depending on the quality of your contract, you can get quite a lot of power out of it, and of course, much like any contra, there's a cost, something you must give up.

“Would you let another man call your wife a bitch? I doubt it, so yes you indeed struck a nerve, human”

Vlad responded as he closed and opened his hand, feeling the lack of strength from it. He figured it was because his muscles had not gotten much use in 200 years so his body was out of sync.

“huh, why would I be upset for someone else's sake?”

Johnny said, but unfortunately, he never received an answer as Vlad lunged at him faster than before. His hand mimicking a blade and his nails elongated and sharp.

He went for a thrust towards Johnny's chest, but the young man quickly sidestepped, avoiding the attack and immediately countered by swinging his blade upwards, planning to slice off the arm of the vampire.

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However, Vlad wasn't that easy; using the same arm that he planned to pierce Johnny's chest with, he grabbed the blade, halting it mid-swing.

*Shi*

His hand sizzled, like steak on the grill, but he ignored it and used his other hand, which also had sharp, pointy nails; he swung it horizontally, planning to slice open the human’s neck.

Seeing the coming attack, Johnny ducked down, dropping a mean squat, before drawing his second blade, the sword slid off its scabbard.

*Shhink!*

With sparks flying out, almost as if it was being sharpened as it was being drawn, with a swift motion it went to bisect the vampire’s torso.

Seeing this, Vlad was quick to act; he grabbed the man’s shoulder, lifted himself off the ground and flipped over Johnny’s head; however, just as he was about to attack while mid-air, a projectile silently flew out of the trees.

This forced him to quickly use his hands and throw himself further away from Johnny, dodging the projectile, he landed back in the same spot he was in before the fight.

The quick exchange ended with only himself receiving any damage; his shirt now had a horizontal cut where his stomach should be, and his hand felt like it had been plunged into the roaring fire.

“Your companions seem content with helping as little as possible”

He knew two others were hiding in the forest, the one who shot that projectile and the one who was currently on standby.

One couldn't tell just from his face but Vlad was a bit displeased or rather he couldn't tell if the human was keeping up with him due to this blessed contract his wives told him about or if he wasn't moving as fast as he wanted to due to a lack of practice

“I don't particularly need their help, so they'll get in my way”

“How ungrateful, or perhaps you think you can fight me by your lonesome? I am unappreciative of being underestimated”

Vlad informed with a slight frown on his. This was just a loosening of his bones, but he expected to end it quickly. It seemed these humans were stronger than he anticipated; he didn’t particularly like that.

With a displeased look on his face, Vlad then leaked his aura, and Johnny was quick to feel the chills run over his body and notice the eerily red glow of the vampire’s eyes.

It was in a split second that the mood quickly changed in seriousness, Annabelle was the first to notice as she quickly revealed herself, surprising Johnny.

She launched herself towards her foe, planning to quickly dispatch him before he could do anything, her honey-brown eyes glowed as she moved at speeds greater than the eye could see

“Anna wh–”

He wasn't able to finish that sentence as whistling bullets flew out of the trees in succession, all coming from different angles.

‘Good instincts’

Vlad praised as he lunged forward, dodging the projectiles with ease and evading Annabelle, making his way towards Johnny, who had been distracted by Annabelle suddenly revealing herself.

Vlad, however, was unable to make it to his target as the bullets he had dodged exploded, releasing a high-pitched banshee-like screech that burst his ear drums and forced him to stop dead in his tracks.

Annabelle acted and moved with speed faster than a bullet; she arrived before her stunned foe, delivering a powerful gut punch, launching the vampire off his feet before quickly grabbing him by the leg as he flew up and slamming him back down, creating a small crater on the ground.

‘WHAT!!’

Vlad's eyes opened in shock at the suddenness of what just happened; he felt his body hit the ground hard before rounds of bullets lodged themselves into his body, each one burning his insides as it pierced his skin.

Like tiny balls of fire were being injected into his blood, the bullets would slow his regeneration.

He grits his teeth, stifling a groan as his body is assaulted by a fury of punches, each crushing his bones as they were delivered with the strength of more than a few tons.

Annabelle was relentless in her assault as her fiery red hair swayed to the side with each punch before quickly jumping back, grabbing Johnny as she fled to avoid the coming explosion.

In a second, another projectile left the trees; this time, it was larger, about the size of a shotgun bullet; it lodged itself on Vlad's chest before exploding with the force of a C4 bomb, splattering his body into bloody chunks.

The two fighters left out sighs of relief, the bloody chunks of vampire meat splattered against nearby objects.

“That was a close one”

Annabelle stated to the still somewhat confused Johnny that if she and Lucy hadn't acted, Johnny might have died. This wasn't part of the plan, but regardless, the vampire was dead, so it was fine.

“You owe us for this”

She said as she patted the man on the shoulder with a big grin on her face, a grin that only annoyed the young man