Novigrad-a bustling trade capital. By day, the streets of Novigrad bustled with a noisy, endless stream of pedestrians, but as night fell, the city revealed a completely different character. The flagstone streets were tinted a dim yellow by gas lamps, and the damp air carried the scent of ale leaking from taverns, but most shops had long since bolted their carved wooden doors, leaving only the occasional vagrant huddled under the archways.
A cold wind rolled in from the port direction, carrying the fishy smell of Sturgeon Alley and the distant bell of the Temple Isle church. Occasionally, pedestrians hurried along, or drunken city guards on patrol, or as the locals put it, "By day this city belongs to the merchants, and by night it belongs to the rats."
In a dark corner of the port district, a vagrant tightened his coarse cloth cloak around himself and huddled in the nook. A mother and child passed by, and upon seeing the huddled vagrant, the small boy pulled out one of his copper coins and tossed it to him. The crisp, bouncing sound the coin made upon hitting the ground was so clear in the quiet night.
The boy wanted to look at the vagrant, but his mother pulled his hand urgently, hurrying him forward. Watching the departing mother and child, the vagrant sniffed, then picked up the copper coin, stood up, and followed the direction in which the mother and child had left...
Matilda was currently panicking inside because just after her son Glen tossed a copper coin to the vagrant by the roadside, this same vagrant had been following closely behind them from not far away. Although Matilda's husband was merely an ordinary merchant, and their family's financial situation wasn't exactly wealthy yet was decent enough, she was now terribly afraid that the vagrant following behind them would bring harm to her and her son.
Glen also sensed his mother's tension, and to keep up with his mother's pace, he began to trot. As the two moved further and further away from the port district, the surrounding lights grew increasingly dim, and the residences gradually grew sparse.
"Glen, let's walk a bit faster. Once we pass this stretch and reach the trade district, we'll be safe!" Matilda urged Glen softly. The area stretching from the port district to the edge of the trade district was rather desolate.
Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck... cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck
Matilda heard a strange sound suddenly arise in the quiet surroundings, resembling the low growl of some beast. Matilda instantly felt her hair stand on end, a sensation far more terrifying than being chased by a vagrant.
Pat-pat-pat...
Accompanied by the light sound of footsteps, a creature that horrified her slowly stepped out from the shadows ahead of Matilda. It was a creature resembling an upright-walking bat, its head a massive bat skull with long, pointed ears and teeth as fine as a saw. A scarlet, gaping mouth occupied half its head, and its entire body was pale, nearly transparent, like a corpse drained of blood. Blood vessels spread beneath its skin like a black spiderweb, webbed membranes stretched between its arms and body, and the nails on its hands and feet were like sharp blades.
At this moment, Matilda's legs lost their strength as if they no longer belonged to her, and Glen tightly hugged his mother, his tender little face covered in terror. At the thought that Glen and she were going to perish here, Matilda used all her strength to take Glen and run back, but the moment she turned her head, she saw that the vagrant from earlier had already caught up, holding a long sword of unknown origin in his hand.
With wolves in front and tigers behind, Matilda's heart was in despair at this moment. She could die, but Glen was still so young and had yet to begin his own life before dying here together with her; she was so unwilling. Turning her head to glance at the monster, she found it had already reached her behind. As the monster's arm was raised high, Matilda tightly embraced Glen, and just as the two were about to witness their own death, Matilda felt a fierce gust of wind whistle past her ear.
With a clang, a long sword heavily slashed against the monster's claw-blade. That sound was the roar of steel, the collision of sharp weapons, and the instant the two edges met, sparks burst out like thunder-fire exploding in the pitch black.
The monster was forced back two steps by this immense force, and Matilda also stared blankly at the vagrant who had caught up. At this moment, she was utterly weak and could only collapse and sit on the ground. Right now, the vagrant before her was the hope of survival for her and Glen.
Seeing someone disrupt his enjoyment of a fine meal, this monster-or rather, lesser vampire-was quite furious, opening its blood-spattered maw to prepare a roar, but before it could even open its mouth to roar, a coarse cloth cloak flew toward it, covering its head and blocking its vision. With an angry tear, it shredded the cloak, only to see that the man had already closed in right before it, thrusting upward with a sword straight for the throat. The vampire hurriedly leaped backward, narrowly dodging the sword. After establishing their stances, they were finally able to see each other's full appearance: the vagrant who had shed his cloak was a young man with blonde hair and brown eyes, dressed in black studded leather armor, holding a sword in his hand with another sword strapped to his back. A wolf-head medallion hung around his neck, and a pair of brown, slit cat eyes were staring fixedly at the lesser vampire before him.
This person was none other than Yavi, who had undergone ten years of witcher training at Kaer Morhen. Ten years had passed, and Yavi had grown into a handsome young man. His short blonde hair gave him a clean-cut and crisp sense of beauty, and his figure was slender yet robust, like a long sword sheathed-elegant and restrained, yet containing explosive power. His muscle lines did not bulge aggressively, but rather outlined themselves as smoothly as flowing water over his bones, and the broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted silhouette faintly showed beneath his form-fitting leather armor.
Looking at the human before it, although the lesser vampire did not know who he was, its sharp beastly intuition told it that the human in front of it was terrifyingly strong, and at that moment it even felt an urge to turn and run.
Yavi also took his stance, carefully sizing up the lesser vampire, and for a moment the two fell into a stalemate. Yavi made several strange hand gestures with his left hand, and a faint layer of yellow light curtain suddenly appeared over his body, continuously revolving around him. In the end, Yavi couldn't help but strike first; he had been tracking this vampire for several days, and today he had finally run into it. When that mother and child passed by, Yavi's Witcher Senses had detected the bloody scent on the woman, and Yavi's guess was right: the scent emitted by a woman on her period could definitely lure out this vampire.
Just as Yavi cast the Quen defensive sign, the vampire opposite him also made its move. Its body flickered continuously with light, and then the entire monster vanished, concealing itself in the night. The very instant the monster vanished, Yavi cast the sign with his left hand and pushed fiercely forward. A shockwave erupted from his left hand, and for a moment dust flew ahead while quite a few roadside sundries were blown away. As the debris was blown clear, the vampire, knocked down onto the ground, was revealed. Seeing that its invisibility tactic had been neutralized and it could no longer use stealth to gain an advantage, it had no choice but to fight head-on.