Chapter 61: I’m Going to Make You Suffer

The night, although calm, was far from silent. The attacks against the academy’s barrier were so powerful that I could still hear the impacts from several miles away.

I summoned my cube and used it to fly. I wanted to get a better look and see exactly what was attacking the academy. While inside, I could only see the blasts crashing against the barrier. The ones actually responsible for the assault were still a mystery to me.

I flew higher into the sky without getting any closer to the academy itself. Thanks to my enhanced vision, I was able to clearly spot the invaders, and they weren’t at all what I had expected.

I saw grotesque creatures made of flesh and bone, looking like the undead summoned by some powerful necromancer.

Some of them looked like the rotting carcasses of birds, others resembled giant winged toads, and the rest were just bizarre skeletons I didn’t have the knowledge to identify. But the most curious part wasn’t the monsters themselves. It was the people standing on top of them, staring down at the academy. I knew exactly what they were.

Vampires. They had to be. Even though they just looked like human silhouettes in the distance, I knew they were vampires. Frederic had been hiding one in his house inside the academy, and there was also that bizarre vampire who had let me live during the first rift I explored. Deep down, I already knew the vampires were planning something, but I had no idea it would be on a scale this massive.

But it wasn’t just them. Although the vampires were apparently responsible for the attack on our academy, the assaults happening at all the other hunter academies, in the cities, and across the rest of the country were being carried out by different types of monsters. It was almost like a revolution. I had no idea what to expect or what the coming days would bring.

While I was staring at the vampires, one of them turned his head and looked directly at me. I broke into a cold sweat. Just as my vision was good enough to see him, his was good enough to spot me.

And the worst part was that the vampire jumped off the flying creature he was riding and started rushing straight toward me.

"Shit, shit," I cursed out loud.

I dropped down from the cube and started running through the forest without looking back. My arms scraped against the sharp branches of the trees. Within seconds, my hoodie was completely torn, and blood ran down my arm, dripping onto the ground.

This wasn’t good at all. The vampire could easily track me like this. Shit. Maybe I should have been more careful. But even so, going through the forest was the best thing to do.

If I were flying, he would easily spot me, and even if I flew high, that vampire could still launch ranged attacks. He was already doing that to the academy’s barrier, so what was stopping him from doing the same to me?

Deep down, I knew I only did this because I wanted to fight the vampire. Maybe I just didn’t want to admit it because it was a stupid move. After all, I needed to focus on running away, not fighting those vampires.

Was I acting more on instinct than reason? The serpent bloodline had changed me completely. I was no longer careful. Instead, I had a thirst for blood.

I kept running through the forest until I stopped in a more open area. A clearing. Instead of continuing to run, I stood still and waited for the vampire to catch up.

As smart as they were, vampires were still creatures who lost all reason and control around fresh blood. I walked over to the blood trail I’d left behind and used my toxin.

I opened my mouth unnaturally wide, almost as if my jaw were broken. From deep inside my mouth, out of the new glands I now possessed, an almost transparent toxin sprayed directly onto the blood on the ground.

Would this actually work? If it did, this vampire was dumb as fuck. After setting the trap, I returned to my original spot and waited.

Even before I could see him, I could hear the vampire leaping from tree to tree, closing the distance in record time. He was faster than I’d expected, though maybe slightly slower than me.

The look of surprise on his face was priceless. The bastard thought I was going to run forever. Too bad for him.

"Oh?" he said, walking toward me with his hands behind his back. "I thought you were going to keep running, but you decided to fight. My prey don’t usually do that."

Crouching down, the vampire swiped a finger through the blood trail I had left behind. Damn, it was actually working. What an absolute idiot.

He sucked on his finger while staring right at me. A little weird, but whatever. The second the blood touched his tongue, an intense burning sensation spread through his entire mouth.

"Argh, what the hell is this?!" the vampire screamed in pain, frantically trying to spit the blood out.

But the toxin was already inside his mouth and spreading through his body. There was no getting rid of it now.

"You really are a moron," I said, laughing.

"What’s wrong with your blood?" he demanded, still spitting out the toxin. "It doesn’t matter. That won’t be enough to kill me anyway. And now you’ve pissed me off."

The vampire’s eyes turned completely red, and veins bulged across his face. He was in combat mode.

And he wasn’t wrong. That toxin wasn’t enough to kill him. After all, he’d only gotten a small amount in his mouth. If it had been more, it definitely would have done more damage.

But that wasn’t the goal anyway. I just wanted to weaken him before the fight. It was already something.

While he was throwing his tantrum, trying to show off what a big, bad, powerful vampire he was, I was coldly analyzing his power. The fight wouldn’t be easy, but it wasn’t impossible either.

He had the strength of a B-rank creature, or somewhere around there. If this had been before I absorbed all those crystals, winning might have been a bit complicated. After all, creatures in the same rank could have vastly different levels of strength. Vampires were considered one of the strongest creatures of their rank.

But after absorbing the crystals? I was stronger than him. I was sure of it.

"Could you tell me the reason for the attack on the academy?" I said, speaking slowly without a trace of fear. "If you tell me, maybe we can avoid you dying here."

The vampire got even more furious when I asked that question. He stuck his tongue out. It was long, abnormally long, and he began to salivate.

"I’m going to suck out all your blood and leave your corpse to be devoured by the animals in this forest, you little shit. That’s what you get for poisoning me."

I could feel the anger behind his words. What a stupid vampire.

He came rushing toward me, his movements fast, almost animalistic. His nails had morphed into sharp claws. He aimed straight for my throat, intending to slice it open and kill me right then and there.

I still had Tom’s attack stored inside my pocket dimension—his wind blade. I decided to release it to distract the vampire.

A greenish blade made of wind flew at the vampire, who easily deflected it with his claws.

"That’s it? Pathetic."

It was just a distraction. I maneuvered my cube, which was shrunk down to a tiny, almost invisible size, right behind him. I wanted to strike him in the back!

Now that my ability was at Rank A, I could modify the cube in new ways. Not just its shape, but its color too! I turned the cube the exact same shade of green as the grass we were standing on. The vampire didn’t notice a damn thing.

The vampire closed in on me and started attacking with his claws, trying to slash me. I moved nimbly, matching his speed, barely dodging his attacks. He kept coming close, but never actually landed a hit.

This only fueled his fury, his bloodlust. The vampire suddenly burst with speed out of nowhere, and one of his attacks finally connected. I jumped back, but one of his claws caught my forearm, tearing away a chunk of flesh.

It was a nasty wound... for an ordinary person. For me, it was just another day on the job. The vampire flashed a twisted smile, watching me from a distance. But a moment later, he scowled.

"No screams of pain? You’re not worried? Playing tough isn’t going to make me afraid!"

He thought I was putting on an act. I couldn’t help but laugh.

A piece of my forearm was hanging by a thread, the flesh practically falling off. I reached over with my other hand, ripped the chunk off completely, and tossed it aside without showing a hint of pain.

"I’m going to make you suffer for that," I said coldly.