Chương 662: The Vampire Predator

Mia walked with her sister's group, Marten's group, and Luke Moon's. After they found Triss again and the hunter had been healed by the doll woman, they were taking him back toward the settlement they used as a checkpoint.

"I'm glad that bite can be cured," her sister Triss said to the hunter. His name was William.

"One of the vampires' greatest weapons is their bite," the hunter said.

"As their race level rises, they unlock skills tied to vampiric powers. The bite is one of them." Race skills? Mia found that interesting.

"That's how monsters and beasts work. They unlock powers that are more... biological. More natural to them," the hunter went on.

"We've tried cataloging the different kinds of vampiric powers. There are several tied to the bite. The one that bit your sister was probably the infection type, or maybe a curse type."

"And if we hadn't purified it, what would've happened? Would she have kept that wound forever?" Eleanor asked.

"If she stays away from the vampire, the effect will fade after a while," William said.

"As soon as I find more people from the Church, I'll take care of it. I promise. You have my gratitude. They captured me a day ago. I'm more of a scout than someone who truly hunts." Mia kept staring at Luke Moon's back. Something about him felt strange to her. Maybe it was instinct. She had always been good at trusting that. She just did not know what exactly it meant. Or maybe it was just the lingering embarrassment of him having seen her while she bathed and then saving her afterward.

"Are you alright, sister? Your face is red," Triss asked.

"I'm fine," Mia snapped, quickening her pace.

"You're the one with the wound."

"But she's lucky. If it had been the bite of a powerful vampire, the effects could've been fatal," William said.

"We found a vampire who made corpses rise and turned them into ghoul creatures," Luke Moon said. The hunter stopped walking.

"A vampire necromancer. They're dangerous. Once, when I was stationed with a garrison, we found one of their victims. We brought the corpse inside with us, and that night it got back up. Those vampires don't even respect the dead." He spat on the ground.

"And I also killed something called a Vampiric Beast. Do you know what that is?" Luke Moon asked.

"A Vampiric Beast? Where? When? How big was it? What level?" the man asked too quickly.

"How long ago was this?"

"Last night. What is it?"

"Something bad." He started walking faster.

"There's already a clash happening between two vampire factions. If one of those things showed up, that's a bad sign." They kept moving while William explained.

"Enemies of vampires?" Triss asked.

"Yes. A Vampiric Beast is a vampire's natural predator. It has powers meant to counter theirs, and its senses are sharper than those of an ordinary vampire. While vampires feed on humans, Vampiric Beasts prefer feeding on vampires."

It was close to sundown. Luke had decided to help the hunter for a couple of reasons. One was information. The other was the towers. Either way, we're headed in the same direction as this guy. They stopped to eat, then kept moving. For a while they did not run into any monsters at all. But when they reached a settlement, the barricades had been smashed apart. The group entered with their guard up.

"This is the place you were talking about?" Eleanor asked.

"It was. It was supposed to be more... alive," the hunter said, staring at a corpse. It took less than an hour of walking before they found ghouls. The city's dead had turned into creatures. The group moved through them, killing as they went.

"I heard something," Charlie said to Luke. They followed the street. And what they found was a whole area crawling with beasts. They moved slowly, almost like they were guarding the territory. Then they noticed the group and began to howl.

"We've got a problem, hunter," Evangeline said.

"Is this that Vampiric Beast thing?" The man looked shaken.

"There are too many of them. I don't even know what's happening anymore." The beasts lunged at him. Eleanor fired an arrow that hit a wagon, sending debris flying. The beasts raised their heads and flinched. Luke attacked one immediately.

"What are these things? Tell us, and stop stalling," Luke said. He was pretending ignorance, but he wanted the information too.

"They're an abomination among vampires. A vampire consumed by its own core, corrupted from within," William said. He had a sword in hand. With a quick motion, he touched the blade, and it lit with a white glow. Then he charged the beasts. But he was weak. Luke judged him somewhere around level fifty or sixty. One of the Vampiric Beasts swatted William and hurled him into a wagon. Luke drove his kukri into the neck of the beast moving in to finish him and slashed hard. Blood sprayed.

The wound was already starting to close again, so Luke seized its throat and triggered the bracer. [You have slain an Imperfect Vampiric Beast - Lvl 76] 485, 369 EP earned The bracer fired a knife. With his other hand, Luke pointed and launched another from the second bracer. The second beast took the blade in the face, and Charlie came in with her sword and killed it.

"That thing is a vampire?" Marten asked.

"It used to be," William said, hauling himself back up.

"One of those on the loose is dangerous. The humans it kills become ghouls, and beasts become Vampiric Beasts. The new beast won't be able to spread the infection the way the original one could, but it's still dangerous. They move like a pack." Everyone went still for a moment.

"And would this false vampiric beast happen to be called... an Imperfect Vampiric Beast?" Luke asked.

"Yes." That was when a house exploded outward.

"Another beast," Triss said, then stopped. What came out was a Vampiric Beast but different. Larger. Its skin was still mostly flesh, but patches of red fur had begun to spread across it. Its jaw was broader, its teeth sharper though uneven, and antler-like horns rose from its head. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. [Vampiric Beast - Lvl 120]"Looks like we found the pack leader," Evangeline said.

The enormous creature howled, and the other Vampiric Beasts answered, even the distant ones. Then all of them started moving in that direction.

"We have a serious problem," Mia said. Luke scanned every direction.

"There are too many of them. And the ghouls are heading this way too."

"W-we have to kill the main beast," William said.

"Triss, Marten, can you and your groups buy us some time?" Luke asked. Marten reloaded his revolver.

"I don't think we have much choice," he said, already firing.

"Come on, everyone. Let's either earn some experience or die trying." Triss activated a morale skill on her group.

"Lady Fists, we're counting on you," Randall and Doug said to Charlie before following Triss and Mia. The Vampiric Beast was charging straight toward Luke and his group, but then it stopped, sniffed the air, and its eyes locked directly onto Charlie. It knows she's a vampire. The beast opened its jaws in a roar and lunged.

"Get away from that thing," Luke said.

"It's the one coming at us, Cinderella," Evangeline snapped. Luke threw a knife at the monster. [Shadow Mana Explosion] The knife detonated. A white-and-black blast swallowed the street. Then the monster came out of it. Barely hurt. And the little damage it had taken regenerated instantly. With a roar, red light flared through its body. The few patches of fur it had stood on end, its claws lengthened, and it launched itself forward.

"Spread out," Eleanor shouted, already moving. Did the beast just activate some kind of berserk mode?

"You pissed it off," Evangeline called from somewhere off to the side. Luke sprinted between the buildings while the monster ripped through everything in its path with its claws. But it was still going after Charlie.

"Keep following me, Charlie," he called.

"Yes, Master Luke."

"Where the hell did this thing come from?" Artemis shouted.

"Resident Evil?" Then the creature opened its mouth. Red energy gathered inside, and it fired. The building ahead took the hit, its wall blown apart. Blood bullet? He had seen one of the vampires use that power. Now the beast was using it too. It started firing blood bullets from its mouth. Evangeline slashed into the creature's side with a pair of daggers. She dodged when its tail whipped across and smashed into the wall with brutal force.

The monster turned to fire at her, and Evangeline spat out a cloud of shadow, retreating behind it.

"I'm firing a wind arrow. Move back," Eleanor shouted from the top of a building. Her arrow struck the beast's other side and exploded into a sphere of slicing wind. The monster was hurled sideways, but it got back up almost instantly and started running along the walls, charging straight for Eleanor. Just as it was about to reach her, something hit it. A brilliant green ray. The monster crashed to the ground, shrieking in pain, and a green circle formed around it. It kept screaming.

"What is that?" Evangeline said. It was Anne. She stood there with her wand raised toward the creature. Every green shot from the wand made the monster recoil in pain and remain trapped inside the green circle.

"Healing circle," Charlie whispered.

"Vampires... are weak... against healing," Anne said.

"And apparently it hurts like hell," Evangeline said.

"Let's kill the bastard already." With a flick of her wand, Anne raised a barrier dome around the monster. It was a defensive skill, but now she used it to lock the beast inside the healing circle. Luke charged first. Evangeline moved with Anne. Eleanor stayed back, firing arrows. The monster hammered at the dome from the inside, and cracks spread through it little by little. The instant it shattered, they all attacked from different sides. Then Charlie stopped. Her body recoiled from the healing circle.

She could not push any farther in.

"What are you doing? Hit it with that monster punch of yours, girl," Evangeline snapped.

"Get back. I've got a better idea," Luke said, firing an [Acid Blood Arrow]. The arrow struck the monster, and the acid cloud bloomed around it. He put the bow away.

"She's undead, Evangeline," Luke said.

"That affects her too."

"I forgot that part." The beast burst through the acid cloud, firing blood bullets from its mouth, only to be caught by shadow arms. Evangeline had triggered her skill. Anne raised her wand and switched from area healing to a concentrated stream of healing magic aimed directly at the monster. Eleanor kept firing. Luke went in close and started carving into the beast with his kukris. With one sweep of its claws, the creature tore through Evangeline's shadow arms and backhanded Luke hard enough to throw him away.

"Cinderella..." Evangeline started, but a blood bullet slammed into her and sent her flying backward. The monster lunged for Evangeline, but Luke, still on the ground, raised a hand. The bracer fired a knife straight into the creature's face, and it detonated with [Burst Throw]. The impact knocked the beast off course. Then Charlie hit it. She came in wreathed in flames, fully inside her berserk state, and started hammering the monster with her fists. Every strike triggered [Ignite].

The beast howled, clawing at her, but Charlie kept punching as if none of it mattered. Behind it, Anne kept firing healing magic into its back. Eleanor drew an arrow with a gleaming metal tip and sent it straight into the creature's head. Luke came in from the side and hacked off one of the monster's arms.

"You're paying for that, mutt," Evangeline snarled, driving her spear into the creature's skull while shadow arms burst out again to pin it in place. The monster was being locked down.

"Dismember it!" William shouted as he appeared beside them.

"These things heal too fast. You have to tear them apart!" Charlie grabbed one of its legs and started ripping. Anne drew her sword with her free hand and drove it into the beast, activating her offensive sewing skills. They were tearing the thing apart piece by piece. In desperation, the monster started firing blood bullets wildly, hitting rubble, walls, everything. It tried to lower its head and fire at them point-blank, but Charlie smashed a fist into its mouth and kept pulling at its limbs with the other hand.

Almost at the same time, they tore the creature apart. William stood there with one hand on his necklace in prayer and the other gripping his sword. When he finished, he pulled out a canteen Luke had given him, poured the water over the blade, and ran in. He drove the sword into the creature's head. Smoke began to pour off it, as if it were burning from the inside.

They all struck again, and when the severed limbs began dragging themselves back together, Charlie froze for half a second with one fist raised and shouted for everyone to get back. Then she launched herself forward and punched. [Charlotte Vespertilio has slain a Vampiric Beast - Lvl 120] Charlotte Vespertilio's 2nd Class [Black Ash Fighter] reached Level 87! (+18 STR, +8 INT, +7 END, +6 VIT, +6 PER, +5 AGI, +5 Free Points) The monster died. The group dropped where they stood, exhausted.

Luke looked down the street and saw the other two groups still fighting, but one by one, the remaining beasts were falling too.

"What was that thing you did?" Evangeline asked as she pushed herself upright into a seated position. There was a nasty wound across her stomach.

"I turned your water into holy water and coated my sword with it," William said. He had an ugly wound on his arm as well.

"Holy water? I thought that TV nonsense was fake," Luke said.

"Partly. What I actually did was infuse the water with holy mana," William replied.

"I see. So basically an acid that works especially well on vampires," Luke concluded. Luke picked one of his kukris up from the ground. Beast blood still clung to it, and the blade began absorbing it. The kukri trembled for a moment, and Luke felt something stir in his connection to the weapon. You want more of the beast's blood? When he felt the kukri pulse in agreement, he wasted no time. He threw both kukris into the monster's corpse. The Vampiric Beast was already coming apart, its flesh dissolving.

They would only have a short window before it vanished completely.

"During the fight, I hit it with explosive knives," he said, watching the creature's remains break down. Anne was healing Evangeline.

"I think it had unusually high resistance to magic damage," Luke said.

"That's because depending on what powers the vampire had in life, the beast can still retain part of them," a voice said. Eleanor immediately raised her bow. A group of people stood there, dressed in knightly robes marked with a symbol of praying hands.

"One of the brothers," William said.

"Vicar Joseph?"

"Vicars are excellent vampire hunters," Eleanor said, watching William run toward the man.

"Specialists."