The city was silent when it happened.
I was walking back toward the ruins I called ho, the echo of my own boots barely audible against the cracked stone. The air felt wrong—too still, too sharp.
Then sothing grabbed my ankle.
Before I could react, my body was hurled backward. My spine t cold brick, and the world flashed white. The wall cracked behind . My vision steadied just in ti to see a familiar, hunched figure dragging himself from the shadows.
Harus.
That damned hunchback.
I didn't even have ti to curse before Gemma lunged at with his longsword, his blade glinting red from the torches. Behind him, the rest of the hunters fanned out like a pack of starving wolves — maces, spears, swords, all pointed at .
My instincts took over. I rolled back, summoned Beast, and felt the surge of blood-bonded power ripple beside . He materialized with a snarl, claws scraping against the cobblestone.
"Guard my back," I muttered.
Beast growled in response as the hunters closed in.
I didn't wait for them to strike. I went forward.
The first fool swung a sword at my head. I caught his wrist mid-swing, twisted it, and ripped the arm clean off. His scream was cut short when I condensed the gushing blood into a spear, the weapon forming in my grip like liquid glass.
Would my own blood be stronger? Yes. But surrounded by blood bags, why waste the effort?
I thrust the spear into the throat of another man, twisting it until his head popped free. His body collapsed, and I reached out with my will — his blood rose from the corpse, snaking around the neck of another hunter. I forced it down his throat, watched his eyes bulge as it filled his lungs… then detonated it.
A spray of crimson painted the stones.
Beast tore through a man wielding a mace, ripping out his jugular and dragging him to the ground. For a brief mont, I had space.
I spun my spear in wide arcs, keeping the others at bay, then leapt to the balcony of a nearby building. My crossbow finally materialized in my hand, humming with restrained power.
Perfect timing.
I drew the blood from the dead, compressing it into a single spiraling bolt — a drill arrow. When I fired, it scread through the air, boring through three skulls in a single line before embedding into the far wall with a sickening crunch.
But the shot left open.
Sothing slamd into my side — a tackle. We rolled across the ground, his fists hamring into my face. I felt teeth loosen, tasted iron.
Big mistake.
I gathered the blood pooling in my mouth, hardened it, and spat. The crimson spike pierced his eye and exploded inside his skull. His body went limp instantly.
I pushed him off, reforming my spear just as Beast crushed another hunter beneath his claws. The ground was slick, wet, vibrating with life and death.
I could feel it — all of it.
Blood. Everywhere. Around , beneath , in the air.
I reached out with my mind and seized it. The crimson sea obeyed. Tendrils of blood shot up from the ground, coiling around the hunters' legs, holding them fast.
Then I rampaged.
Each swing of my spear took a life.
Each kill fed .
Each death made faster, stronger, less human.
I spun with the weapon, decapitating two n in one motion, the blade singing through the night. Another hunter stabbed , piercing my armor — it didn't break, but I felt my ribs crack.
I turned, drove my spear through his heart, and ripped it out again, using the blood to harden my armor around the wound.
Then Gemma ca at again, roaring, his sword flashing toward my neck — but Beast intercepted, unleashing a beam of concentrated blood that tore through one of Gemma's legs.
"Damn you, bastard!" Gemma scread before Beast lunged and crushed him under claw and fang.
But I had no ti to gloat. Harus was already on . He swung a chain that wrapped around my torso before I could react. The links glowed faintly with soul-light. I tried to tear free, but he yanked hard — and threw straight through a wall.
The impact made my vision blur. Dust filled my lungs.
I could feel my blood boiling. Too much of it was flowing into my fake arm, draining .
"I guess you're right, Sei…" I whispered to no one. "I have to forsake the last bit of humanity I have left."
Harus stepped through the broken wall, his shadow stretching over .
I smiled. My right arm began to twist and lengthen. The blood red skin peeled away. Veins pulsed, stretching into curved, hooked blades — a grotesque scythe, born from my blood.
When he swung, I t him halfway, the scythe screaming through the air and cleaving the wall beside him.
He flinched, ducked, and then light flared. I was blinded.
The world went black.
But only my eyes were gone.
I could still see him — through the flow of blood in his veins. I aid my crossbow and fired blind. He dodged, just as I expected. My scythe-arm whipped through the air and slashed his shoulder.
He grabbed it before I could retract. His grip was like iron. He yanked forward and brought both fists down like a guillotine.
Pain blood, sharp and total.
My body hit the floor, and the world folded into silence.
The last thing I managed before the dark took was unsummoning Beast, saving him from destruction.
~~~
When I ca to, the first thing I felt was cold tal around my neck. Chains. My mories were locked away, buried under fog.
Then ca the shouting.
"Monster!"
A rock hit my face. Then another.
I was being dragged — through mud, through streets, through the outskirts. People scread, spat, threw whatever they could find.
The sa faces I once passed in silence: the handmaidens, now looking at with worry and a little disgust; the shopkeepers, pelting with rotten fruit.
And there, at the castle gates…
Kai.
He stood there, eyes burning with fury and disbelief.
I almost laughed.
I wonder why he's angry.
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