The vampires split into two groups for action.
Led by the old-school Vampire Council, they mobilized forces to eliminate the threat. Cooper led the young faction of vampires to the subway tunnels for a killing mission.
Night was paradise for vampires. Without the sun's constraints, they headed toward Blade's stronghold. When Blade sensed them, those vampires had already entered his base. He hadn't expected these vampires to be so swift. Just one day had passed, and they'd already tracked down his location.
He decisively grabbed his weapons and cut the power. His skin color was his natural camouflage. The vampires entering the stronghold fell into brief panic due to the darkness, though this wasn't a major problem for them. Compared to ordinary humans, vampires had much better vision in the dark.
"Stop hiding, Daywalker, I know you're here!" A disheveled vampire in a pilot jacket shouted, demanding Blade come out.
Blade didn't indulge him, grabbing weapons stored in the stronghold and pulling the trigger directly. A silver stake pierced through that vampire's shoulder. Hearing the commotion, the vampires immediately ran toward the sound.
Blade started running. This place wasn't huge, but with many abandoned shelves stored here, it could create some obstacles. While running, Blade grabbed his weapons to counterattack. There were quite a few vampires here. He threw silver shuriken that pierced through two vampires' necks. The vampires' bodies turned to ash and disappeared.
The vampires also counterattacked. One vampire leaped onto a shelf and pounced toward Blade. Blade seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, stepping on the shelf to leap up and delivering a crescent kick that shattered the unlucky vampire's jaw. Drawing the weapon from his back, he pierced through the vampire's heart. Another vampire died.
A steel pipe was torn from a metal shelf, and a vampire hurled it forcefully at Blade, grazing past him. Blade drew his weapon, dodging the attack sideways, and in the narrow passage, he swung his blade to kill.
A small leader seized the opportunity, dropping from above to land behind Blade, wrapping his arms around him. Seeing this, the remaining vampires all attacked. Blade's expression changed as he struggled to break free but was held tightly.
Just as things were about to go wrong, Ciri, who hadn't shown herself, appeared. Her sword pierced through the frontmost vampire's body. Ciri turned and with two sword strikes, severed the small leader's hands. Freed again, Blade finished off the small leader.
Shelves crashed down as vampires adopted violent tactics, directly surrounding them. Cooper stood there with arms crossed, watching the two fight like cornered beasts. He had caught them off guard and sealed off the surrounding routes.
Though Blade was vigilant against vampires, vampires had human slaves they could command. Even in police stations, there were vampire informants providing intelligence. Under this information asymmetry attack, Blade was at a disadvantage.
The subway tunnel was already difficult to escape from—now it was like catching turtles in a jar. Blocking front and rear escape routes, Cooper waved his hand, "Attack."
The vampires he brought rushed forward, pulling out weapons and beginning to fire. They weren't brutes—naturally they would acquire weapons from humans. Bullets didn't have much effect on vampires, but they were lethal to humans.
Blade took several shots, all hitting the plate armor on his body. Though Blade also had guns, one person's firepower was far inferior to a group's firepower. Though Ciri beside him was magic-immune, the problem was this wasn't magic.
Seeing they were about to be surrounded, Blade also prepared to force a breakthrough. Cooper's eyes held mockery—he was the one with the advantage. After dealing with these two, he'd go take down the Vampire Council. The plan was perfect.
Cooper could already imagine himself leading vampires in an assault on the human world. Thinking of this, he almost laughed out loud.
"Stop," he ordered a halt. The vampires stopped attacking, eyeing the targets of their barrage with bloodthirsty gazes. Cooper wanted to personally act, twisting off Blade's head as a symbol of his ascension to the throne. He walked toward them.
"Bang!" Cooper's smile froze. He looked down at his chest, which had been blown open. A bowl-sized gap proved he wasn't hallucinating. Seeing Cooper wasn't dead, the ammunition was changed.
"Click." The sound of a shotgun being loaded.
Then, a subway rumbled through the tunnel. The flickering train lights revealed an additional figure in the stronghold. A vampire noticed him, and the next second was pierced by a dragon's breath round. The burning body announced death's arrival.
One shot, two shots... A shotgun equipped with dragon's breath rounds could still kill vampires even without silver. The burning bodies were the best proof.
"How dare you!" Cooper bared his fangs, opening his mouth. A sword pierced through his mouth. Cooper's words turned into wheezing sounds. Ciri killed him.
Blade also joined the battle. With the third party's entry, the battlefield situation changed. Blade and Ciri in front, the mysterious person picking off vampires one by one from behind. The arriving vampires were slaughtered in the inescapable stronghold.
John arrived at the subway station. Martha's gaze kept drifting toward people's necks, looking quite pathetic. After the last subway passed, John jumped into the tunnel and walked toward the area. Martha hurried to follow. She didn't know why, but she was willing to follow John.
The two arrived at the subway tunnel stronghold. John picked up a shell casing from the ground. "Looks like we're too late." Walking over, John saw bullet holes in the walls. Charred corpses and blood on the ground all told of the fierce battle that had occurred here.
He stopped, silently crouched down, and stared at a pool of blood on the ground. He muttered to himself, "You were here."
Blood wasn't affected by magic. John handed the syringe he'd brought to the still-daydreaming Martha, saying flatly, "Suck up the blood. It might be useful for turning you back into a human."
Hearing it might help her become human again, Martha was extra careful, not daring to waste a single drop. John walked straight in, his fingers tracing the marks of blade cuts and sword slashes on the walls. Scattered silver stakes, shuriken embedded in walls. "Truly brutal."
S.H.I.E.L.D. faced dramatic upheaval. Director Nick Fury was dead, and Captain America, symbol of America, had defected. Even another Avengers member, Natasha Romanoff, had also defected. In just two days, everything had changed.
Alexander Pierce took over S.H.I.E.L.D. He issued warrants for the two fugitives. The cause of all this was the data Natasha had backed up during the hostage incident.
Natasha and Steve had teamed up. Though Fury had told Steve before dying not to trust anyone, Natasha's help was indispensable to Steve. After all, asking someone who could barely use phones or computers to investigate that data would be too much for the old man.
The two posed as a couple at a computer store to decrypt the data, discovering the origin point of everything: New Jersey. Steve was very familiar with that place. He had once trained there—it was also S.H.I.E.L.D.'s birthplace.
After evading S.H.I.E.L.D. strike team searches, the two drove there in a car Steve had stolen. One could say even the righteous and great Captain America had unknown sides.
Arriving at the location, "I trained at this camp," Steve looked at his former training ground, now desolate. Back then he was small and weak, but with firm determination. As if he could see his former self. The underdog Steve Rogers and Captain America.
They discovered a building that shouldn't be there. It was also S.H.I.E.L.D.'s original site. Walking inside, the walls displayed Steve's former friends. Finding a hidden door, Steve opened it. Natasha used technology to scan and input passwords, activating the elevator.
They came to this unknown secret existence. It was a computer room. All antiques from the last century. Yet there was a modern reader. After inserting the data, the computer activated.
An unexpected presence appeared before them after the computer started. A former enemy. Arnim Zola. HYDRA's scientist, also Red Skull's capable subordinate. The person Steve had personally captured.
He thought this person was dead, but unexpectedly, not only was he not dead, but after Steve became a popsicle, he had brazenly become a S.H.I.E.L.D. member. Zola carried HYDRA's will, which meant...
HYDRA wasn't dead.
(TL NOTE: Unfortunately, my LOTR: Playing Minecraft in Middle-earth book was mistakenly flagged as spam on Webnovel and removed. I'll re-upload it under a different title by today at the latest. Thank you for your patience!)