Chapter 199: Let’s HUNT Vampire!!

The System responded instantly.

[REQUEST ACCEPTED.]

A burst of blue light appeared in Nobody’s hands.

Two heavy crowbars materialized. Each one had a curved blade attached to both ends, forming a brutal twin-bladed weapon. Their metal surfaces reflected the emergency lights, while faint energy pulsed along their edges.

Nobody spun one crowbar around his wrist. "Ah." He smiled. "Now this feels familiar."

Aether landed several steps away. His gaze shifted between the two weapons. "What are those?"

"My emotional support crowbars."

Aether frowned. "That makes no sense."

"Neither does your hair, but here we are."

Aether growled.

Nobody raised both weapons. "System, temporarily give me access to flame elemental power."

The System paused.

A blue window appeared in front of him.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[REQUEST: TEMPORARY ELEMENTAL ACCESS]

[ELEMENT: FLAME]

[DURATION: 30 MINUTES]

[WARNING: ELEMENTAL ACCESS WILL EXPIRE AUTOMATICALLY.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody waited for the rest of the message. "Thirty minutes?" He looked at Aether. "That’s more than enough."

The System responded.

[AS THE USER WISHES.]

[FLAME ELEMENTAL POWER GRANTED.]

A red-orange glow spread across Nobody’s arms.

The energy traveled into the crowbars. Flames wrapped around the twin blades, moving like living ribbons. The metal grew brighter, and heat filled the room. The remaining glass near the window began to crack from the sudden temperature change.

Nobody stared at the weapons. "Nice."

Blossom Bunny peeked from the hallway. "Atta!"

Nobody glanced at him."Stay with Aiden and Toma sharing my stealth skill that I got last time."

Blossom Bunny nodded and hurried after them.

Aether watched the flames carefully. For the first time, his expression showed genuine interest. "Fire power?"

Nobody pointed one flaming crowbar at him. "Correct."

"You’re not human either."

Nobody paused. "Wow. That escalated quickly."

Aether’s lips pulled back, revealing his fangs. "Let’s find out." He charged.

Nobody stepped forward to meet him. Aether threw a punch toward his head. Nobody leaned to the side and swung one crowbar toward Aether’s shoulder. Aether twisted away, but the flaming blade still grazed his upper arm.

The smell of burning fabric filled the office. Aether landed near the window and looked at the damaged sleeve of his shirt. A faint burn mark had appeared across his pale skin. He touched it. His eyes narrowed. "You injured me."

Nobody held both crowbars at his sides. "Technically, your shirt got injured first."

Aether looked up. The burn mark began disappearing. The damaged skin beneath it slowly restored itself.

Nobody noticed. His eyes narrowed behind the helmet.

Aether smiled. "You’ll need more than fire." He rushed forward again. This time, he moved faster.

Nobody blocked the first strike with one crowbar. Aether’s fist collided with the metal blade and pushed him several steps backward.

Before Nobody could recover, Aether appeared at his side. His claws slashed toward Nobody’s ribs. Nobody twisted his body. The claws cut through the edge of his black blazer but missed his skin.

Nobody responded with a horizontal swing. Aether ducked beneath the flaming blade. The second crowbar came from the opposite direction.

Aether jumped backward. The blade passed beneath his chin, leaving a thin line of heat across his skin.

Aether landed on the ceiling. He crouched there like a predator observing its prey.

Nobody looked up. "Okay." He pointed one crowbar toward him. "That’s definitely cheating."

Aether grinned. "You can’t fight what you cannot reach."

Nobody looked around the office. Then he glanced at the ceiling. "Actually, I have a very complicated relationship with gravity."

Aether launched himself downward.

Nobody stepped aside. Aether’s claws struck the floor where Nobody had been standing. The impact cracked the tiles. Nobody swung both crowbars at once. Aether crossed his arms to block. The flaming blades struck his forearms. The force drove him into the floor.

BOOOOM!

Aether’s body crashed through the tiles, creating a shallow crater.

Nobody landed several feet away. He lowered the crowbars. For a moment, he thought the attack had worked.

Then Aether’s hand emerged from the broken floor. He pulled himself upright. His arms were burned. His shirt was torn. Several dark marks covered his pale skin.

But the wounds began closing. The damage vanished before Nobody’s eyes. The blood that had gathered around the injuries seemed to retreat, flowing back toward the damaged areas.

The skin repaired itself. The burns disappeared.

Aether rolled his shoulders. "Is that all?"

Nobody stared at him.

The System appeared beside his helmet.

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[WARNING]

[TARGET REGENERATION DETECTED.]

[PHYSICAL DAMAGE IS BEING REPAIRED AT AN ABNORMAL RATE.]

[CURRENT ATTACKS ARE NOT PRODUCING LASTING DAMAGE.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody’s eyes widened. "Hell nah."

Aether smiled. "Did you finally understand?"

Nobody looked down at the flaming crowbars. "I hit you with flaming metal." He looked back at Aether. "And you just reset your health bar?"

Aether spread his arms. "I am no longer bound by human weakness."

Nobody sighed. "Of course. The enemy has a regeneration ability."

The System added another message.

[CORRECTION: REGENERATION IS NOT THE ONLY ABILITY DETECTED.]

Nobody stared at the notification. "Please don’t say that."

[ADDITIONAL ABILITIES INCLUDE: FLIGHT, ENHANCED STRENGTH, ENHANCED SPEED, HEIGHTENED SENSES AND BLOOD-BASED RECOVERY.]

Nobody slowly lowered his head. "Why did you list them like a shopping receipt?"

Aether disappeared.

Nobody’s head snapped up.

Aether appeared behind him. His claws extended. "Die!"

Aether drove his hand toward Nobody’s back. Nobody sensed the movement a fraction of a second before impact. He activated Zig Zag Teleportation. His body flickered. The claws passed through empty air. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Nobody reappeared several meters away, one knee touching the floor. Aether’s claws tore through the back of the chair behind him. The chair split apart.

Nobody looked over his shoulder. "Whoa." He glanced at the destroyed chair. "That was expensive-looking."

Aether turned slowly. "You avoided me?"

Nobody stood. "Barely."

The System appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[ZIG ZAG TELEPORTATION ACTIVATED.]

[TRAJECTORY ADJUSTMENT SUCCESSFUL.]

[ENERGY CONSUMPTION: MODERATE.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody exhaled. "Good thing I upgraded this."

Aether stared at him. "What kind of ability was that?"

"An inconvenient one."

Aether suddenly rushed toward him. Nobody swung one crowbar. Aether ducked. The second blade came from the opposite side. Aether leaned backward, narrowly avoiding the flaming weapon. Nobody continued the attack, alternating between the twin-bladed crowbars.

One strike aimed for Aether’s shoulder. The next targeted his ribs. Then Nobody reversed his grip and swung upward. Aether moved with unnatural speed, dodging each attack by the smallest possible distance.

The fight moved across the office.

Aether stepped onto a desk, jumped over a fallen cabinet, and landed beside the shattered window. Nobody followed, his flaming weapons leaving trails of light through the air.

Aether suddenly stopped. Nobody noticed too late.

Aether had deliberately led him toward the window. Aether smiled.

"You rely too much on those weapons." Nobody slowed.

"That’s a strange thing to say while standing in front of someone holding two flaming crowbars." Aether opened his mouth. A low growl escaped his throat. The sound carried through the building.

Nobody felt the vibration in his chest. His vision blurred for a moment.

The System immediately appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[WARNING]

[HOSTILE VOCALIZATION DETECTED.]

[POSSIBLE VAMPIRE DOMINATION EFFECT.]

[RESISTANCE REQUIRED.]

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Nobody shook his head. "Did he just growl at me?"

Aether’s red eyes glowed brighter. "You should have stayed out of my way."

Nobody forced himself upright. "Sorry." He raised the crowbars. "I’m terrible at staying out of things."

Aether moved. He crossed the distance between them in an instant.

Nobody tried to teleport, but Aether adjusted his direction midair. The vampire had anticipated the movement. Aether’s claws struck Nobody’s shoulder. Nobody twisted away, but the claws still caught him and sent him crashing against the wall.

The impact knocked the air from his lungs. One crowbar slipped from his hand and landed several feet away.

Aether appeared in front of him. His hand closed around Nobody’s throat. "You’re fast," Aether said. "But you’re not fast enough."

Nobody grabbed Aether’s wrist. The vampire lifted him from the floor. Nobody’s boots dangled above the broken tiles.

Aether leaned closer. "Tell me where they went."

Nobody looked at him. "Who?"

Aether tightened his grip. "Aiden and Toma."

Nobody’s voice became strained. "Oh." He smiled beneath his helmet. "Those two?"

Aether’s eyes narrowed. "Where are they?"

Nobody raised one hand. "Probably somewhere you’re not."

Aether slammed him against the wall. The remaining glass in the window shook. Nobody’s vision blurred again.

The System appeared.

[HEALTH: 72%]

Nobody stared at the display. "Seriously?"

Aether lifted his claws. "Your jokes are becoming irritating."

Nobody looked at the claw approaching his chest. "That’s usually when people start appreciating them." He released his grip on Aether’s wrist. Then he activated Zig Zag Teleportation. Instead of moving backward, Nobody adjusted his trajectory downward. His body vanished from Aether’s grasp. He reappeared beneath the vampire and drove his knee into Aether’s stomach.

Aether bent forward. Nobody grabbed the crowbar lying nearby and swung both weapons upward. The flaming blades struck Aether’s torso. The vampire was thrown through the broken window. He fell several floors before stopping in midair.

Nobody rushed to the edge.

Aether floated outside the building. His clothes were torn. The flames had burned through part of his shirt. A deep wound marked his abdomen. Blood spilled into the night.

Nobody stared. "Finally."

Aether looked down at the injury. The blood began moving. It flowed back toward the wound and the torn flesh slowly closed. Within seconds, his body had completely recovered.

Nobody’s shoulders dropped. "You’ve got to be kidding me."

Aether laughed from outside the building. "You cannot kill me!" He rose higher into the air. "I am beyond death!"

Nobody stepped onto the window ledge.

"That’s a pretty bold statement for someone who was screaming in a prison cell a few minutes ago."