Chapter 148: The Eyeless Beast

Chapter 148: 148: The Eyeless Beast

Lucard released the man’s broken wrist but kept a hand on his shoulder.

A city lord’s daughter running from marriage.

A hidden chase.

A dangerous cave.

A beast that had already killed trained thugs.

This was becoming less like a stray thread and more like a knot.

The man whispered, "Please. I told you. Let me go."

Lucard looked at him calmly. "No."

The man’s face emptied.

Lucard’s fingers tightened on his shoulder. He had already said enough. A living Red Hook man could return to Stoneford and tell the city lord too much too early. Lucard did not need that. He could get information from blood more easily than from a coward’s mouth.

A thin blood thread moved from Lucard’s finger toward the man’s neck.

The man felt something cold touch his skin and understood.

"No, wait. Please, I told you everything I know."

"Not everything," Lucard said. "But your blood will."

The blood thread was about to pierce his throat.

At that moment, the cave entrance exploded with movement.

A pale shape shot out from the darkness with a wet hiss. Its long arm struck the broken pillar beside them and shattered old stone into flying pieces. The ground shook under the impact. Dust burst into the air.

Lucard moved back at once.

The Red Hook man screamed and fell to the side. Lucard’s hand left his shoulder for only a breath, but that breath was enough for fear to become strength. The man scrambled up, holding his broken wrist against his chest, and ran toward the city road without looking back.

Lucard did not chase him.

The beast had already reached the entrance.

It was taller than a man when it unfolded itself, but its back bent forward like something used to crawling through tunnels. Its skin was pale gray and stretched tightly over thin muscles. It had long arms, black claws, and no eyes on its smooth face. Its mouth opened too wide, showing narrow teeth wet with blood.

From inside the cave, the girl’s breathing became quieter, as if she had heard everything and was trying not to be found.

Lucard looked down into the dark behind the beast.

"I know you are there."

No answer came.

The eyeless beast turned its head toward his voice.

The smell of beast blood rose from its body. It was thick and tempting for him.

Lucard’s eyes became calm. He had found the food.

Its head moved in a slow, strange way, as if it was listening with its skin instead of ears. The smooth face had no eyes, but Lucard did not mistake that for weakness. Beasts that lived underground did not need sight to kill. They felt heat, breath, blood, sound, fear, and movement. Sometimes losing eyes only made a creature harder to deceive.

Lucard stepped to the side.

The beast followed the movement at once.

Its long claws scratched against the broken stone. The sound was sharp and unpleasant, like knives being dragged over bone. Its mouth opened wider, and a wet hiss came from its throat. Blood dripped from its teeth. Some of it belonged to the Red Hook men. Some of it was older. Some of it belonged to the beast itself, from wounds made before it reached the surface.

Lucard noticed that part.

Something had injured it.

The girl hiding inside the cave did not have that kind of strength. That meant the beast had fought something else below, or it had been wounded by hunters before returning to its nest. Either way, wounded beasts were dangerous. They were more desperate, more aggressive, and easier to provoke into mistakes.

The beast rushed forward.

It did not leap like a wolf. It moved low to the ground, using both arms and legs together. Its long body crossed the distance in a blink, and its claws swept toward Lucard’s stomach.

Lucard moved back just enough.

The claws cut through the front of his cloak and scraped across the stone behind him. Sparks jumped from the impact. Before the beast could pull back, Lucard’s blood thread slipped from his finger and wrapped around its wrist.

The thread tightened.

The beast’s skin was tougher than it looked. The blood thread cut into it but did not slice through. Pale blood seeped out, thick and cold. Lucard’s eyes sharpened slightly. The blood was not normal red. It carried a gray white color and smelled of damp caves, old marrow, and half rotten meat.

Useful.

The beast twisted its arm.

The blood thread almost snapped.

Lucard stepped forward instead of back. His left hand moved like a knife, and a red line cut across the beast’s wounded wrist. Blood burst out. The beast screamed, but the sound did not come only from its mouth. The whole body vibrated, sending pressure through the ground and nearby stones.

Inside the cave, the girl gasped.

The beast heard it.

Its head turned toward the sound.

Lucard’s eyes became colder. "You are looking away too early." ℯℯ𝑙.

He pulled.

The blood thread dragged the beast’s wounded arm to the side. At the same time, Lucard’s foot struck its bent knee. The joint cracked, but not fully. The beast collapsed for only half a breath before its other arm came around with terrible speed.

Lucard raised his forearm.

Blood gathered under his skin and hardened for a moment.

The claws struck.

Pain flashed through his arm. Four lines opened across his sleeve, but the claws did not reach bone. Lucard did not show pain on his face. He used the impact to turn his body and send a short bloodfire spark into the beast’s open wound.

The reaction was immediate.

The pale blood inside the wound burned.

The beast screamed again and threw itself backward, hitting the cave wall hard enough to shake loose dust from the old stones. Lucard watched carefully. The bloodfire did not spread well. The beast’s blood was cold and damp by nature, making it harder to burn, but the wound stayed open and smoking.

That was enough.

The beast was around Rank Three in body strength, perhaps close to Rank Four in short bursts. Not enough to threaten Lucard if he fought patiently, but strong enough that careless injury could become costly. Its blood had unusual traits. Underground survival. Blind sensing. Cold body. Fast movement in cramped places.

Lucard wanted that blood.

The beast rushed again, angrier now.

This time, it did not attack Lucard directly. It struck the ground first. Its claws dug into a crack in the stone and ripped upward. Broken rocks flew at Lucard’s face. Behind the rocks, the beast came low, using the noise to cover its movement.

Lucard smiled faintly.

"Better."

He moved through the flying stones instead of away from them. One sharp piece cut his cheek. Another struck his shoulder. He ignored both. His blood sense followed the beast’s pulse. When the pale creature reached him, Lucard’s hand was already waiting.

His fingers touched its head.

"Blood Shock."

A pulse of blood power entered through the wound near the beast’s mouth and struck the blood behind its skull. The beast froze for one breath. Its body still had strength, but the command between body and movement broke for that small moment.

One breath was enough.

Lucard stepped behind it and drove his hand into the wound he had made earlier. Blood threads entered the beast’s body like roots entering wet soil. The beast recovered and thrashed wildly. Its elbow struck Lucard in the ribs, and the force pushed him back two steps. Pain spread through his side, but his blood threads remained inside the creature.

The beast tried to retreat into the cave.

Lucard did not allow it.

"Stay."

The blood threads tightened around the cold veins inside its arm and chest. The beast screamed, pulled, and tore its own flesh while trying to escape. Pale blood spilled across the stone. Lucard pulled harder and forced the creature back into the open.

Then he began Blood Absorption.

The beast’s blood resisted at first. It was colder than normal beast blood and carried a stubborn instinct to sink downward, as if even its blood wanted to crawl back into the earth. Lucard’s blood power crushed that instinct and dragged the pale stream into his body.

The beast’s strength dropped at once.

It clawed at the ground, leaving deep marks. Its mouth opened and closed, but the screams became weaker. The long arms shook. The smooth eyeless face turned toward the cave entrance one last time, as if it wanted to return to the dark.

Lucard absorbed faster.

The pale blood entered him in cold waves.

His body grew slightly heavier first. Then his ears sharpened. Not hearing, exactly. Something deeper. He could feel small movements through the stone under his feet. The girl’s breathing inside the cave. The fleeing Red Hook man far behind him, stumbling on the road. Small insects under the rocks. The faint drip of water below the fort.

A system message appeared inside his mind.