Chewed Up

Fis said, "Once I obtain the Blood God's power, I'll overcome the weaknesses vampires have to sunlight, silver, garlic, and the like. And the Blood God's ability to infect humans and turn them into vampires will be limitless. Humanity has only one possible fate: to be raised as livestock for the vampire race."

"And I won't keep this method to myself. As a bargaining chip in exchange for benefits, I sold it to the other powers-that-be in the vampire race. Even if you're lucky enough to escape today and then track me down and kill me, it still won't make any difference."

Crack!

Blade casually punched the monitor, smashing it to pieces, but Fis's image appeared on another screen. His mocking voice came through the speakers. "What are you waiting for? Get him, Pearl!"

Pearl, who weighed four hundred kilograms, let out two strange laughs, tossed aside the keyboard resting on his belly, and bellowed, "Daywalker, today is your last day! I can't wait to taste you!"

Blade's scanner analyzed Pearl's stats and displayed them in a table. The figure representing his body temperature shot up rapidly, soon exceeding 100 degrees Celsius.

The water inside Pearl's body began to boil, and a tremendous blast of air sent Blade flying several meters. Every monitor surrounding Pearl shattered, showering the area with sparks. Some flammable wires caught fire, and a pungent smell quickly spread.

Blade wasn't injured. He had even regained his balance before hitting the ground, landing firmly on his feet.

He looked toward Pearl's position. The area was shrouded in smoke and flames, and heavy footsteps sounded from within, drawing closer and closer.

It was a huge, bipedal creature, just over two meters tall. Its skin was thick and had begun to calcify, overlapping in layers like rhinoceros hide and forming armor. Strange patterns of rose red, lemon yellow, and lake blue covered its body. Its limbs were thick and powerful, its feet ended in three-toed hooves, and tusk-like spikes jutted out from the outer sides of its arm joints.

Its face was even more hideous. Its muzzle jutted forward, and two pairs of fangs, one large and one small, protruded from its lips and curled upward and outward. It looked like a wild boar's face.

This terrifying monster seemed to combine the physical traits of humans, rhinoceroses, and wild boars. The biological computer at Blade's waist displayed the warning, "Extremely dangerous. Evacuate immediately." The readings from his scanner were alarmingly high, and the creature outclassed Blade in every category.

"Kingdom of Destruction: Thrusters. That's what I call this form," the monster said in a deep voice. "You can also call me by my old name: Pearl."

As beings who both coveted the power of the Pureblood Thirteen Elders, Daikan Fiss and Victor had reached an agreement at some point. As a bargaining chip between them, Victor gave Daikan Fiss several injections of Amazon Cells, while Daikan Fiss gave Victor access to the data in the Book of the Blood God. Once Victor finished deciphering it, he would receive a complete copy.

Pearl, a vampire who managed Daikan Fiss's archive and had led the translation of the Book of the Blood God, was sure to receive a share from Fis. He gave Pearl one of the few available injections to improve his odds of surviving if anything went wrong.

But after receiving the injection, Pearl's tastes changed. Human blood no longer tasted good to him—not even the blood of carefully selected, high-quality prey. Instead, the vampires who usually brought him food whetted his appetite far more.

Luckily, the place next door was a bar frequented by Pureblood Vampires, and it provided a convenient cover. No one noticed when one of them disappeared every few days—especially with vampire hunters constantly cropping up and hunting vampires. Those killed by silver weapons usually crumbled to ash, leaving no way to investigate.

This had actually been Wei Xiuming's doing. Human emotions were influenced to some extent by the hormones in the body, such as phenethylamine, norepinephrine, and dopamine, which affected romantic feelings.

That was why lasting love didn't really exist in the world: the hormones associated with love weren't secreted forever.

So, when creating the so-called Amazon Cells, Wei Xiuming had made a corresponding adjustment. The injection threw certain hormones in vampires off balance, affecting their senses in various ways. For example, their own kind began to taste better than humans.

However, because of his enormous stores of body fat, Pearl became exceptionally powerful in his Fang Vampire form after receiving the Amazon Cells. Perhaps it was due to his strength as a Pureblood Vampire, or perhaps he had unwittingly mastered magical knowledge through his long study of the Book of the Blood God. Either way, Pearl's strength exceeded the threshold Wei Xiuming had set. In short, even with his cells metalized and his body fully armored, Blade couldn't beat Pearl in his current state.

In armor form, Blade's limbs were more destructive than ordinary firearms, but they couldn't pierce Pearl's calcified skin and damage what lay beneath. The vampire-dissolving toxin injected through his fingertips and bristles was useless, too—and it was still an open question whether a toxin developed specifically for vampires would work on a Fang Vampire.

By the time Wei Xiuming and his men crossed the street and reached the hidden vampire bar, they saw Blade being hurled into a wall. The steel-reinforced concrete caved in, leaving a deep crater, and half of Blade's body was embedded in it. Even a car collision might not have left him in such a bad state.

The action team's squad leader immediately contacted the members who had stayed behind. "What happened?"

One of the remaining team members answered, "There was an explosion. All the monitoring and listening devices on Blade were destroyed, and the people monitoring him temporarily lost their hearing because of the noise."

"All right, no need for more details," Wei Xiuming said, waving a hand. "Anyone who can beat Blade in his transformed state must be a formidable monster. Whether we knew about it beforehand or not, we have to deal with it."

"The next part is simple. Find that monster, raise your guns, take aim, and unleash everything you've got."

Whistler didn't stay with the action team. He hurried over to Blade and checked on him. "Brooks, are you all right? Are you still conscious?"

Blade was clearly in bad shape. After taking several heavy blows, he would have been reduced to mincemeat if his cells hadn't been metalized. But the outer layer of his armor had already cracked, his internal organs had sustained some damage, and his healing ability could no longer keep up with the toxin's effects.

After detecting Blade's condition, the Kivat at his waist immediately injected an antidote into his body through the blood vessels connected to it. Once the toxin had been neutralized, Blade quickly returned to his original human form.

The change in his size freed Blade from the wall. Whistler caught him at once. Seeing Blade's lips move repeatedly as he hovered on the verge of losing consciousness, Whistler leaned close and listened carefully.

Then he heard Blade murmur, "Run. That monster is terrifying."

Blade was barely conscious, but he kept repeating the same words, trying to keep Whistler and the others from fighting the Fang Vampire. It wasn't an opponent they could deal with using the weapons they had.