The damn monster roars and charges toward me. Its tentacles surround me until they form what looks like a cage of flesh.
To dodge it, I slide under one tentacle, jump over another, at the same time my body moves vertiginously.
My rinkaku kagune extends and coils around its leg. With a yank, I manage to throw it off balance.
The monster falls to its knees, making the surroundings tremble under its weight.
Without giving it time to stand, I run toward it, climbing up its leg like it's a steep mountain. My claymore digs into its flesh, using it as leverage to climb faster.
I climb up its leg, then its torso while the eyes on its body turn toward me. I see them looking at me with hatred and hunger.
—Fwoooos!
Its eyes glow crimson and I realize what it wants to do.
I quickly surround my brain with a robust layer of mental frequency. At the same time, the monster's mental frequencies attack me in waves.
—Crack!
There's a crack in the layer I made. However, it only manages to stagger me this time without producing the same pain as before.
While cursing the monster, I keep climbing, using my own feet and my kagune to scale its body. The monster writhes trying to shake me off.
I hold on tight thanks to my tentacles full of sharp blades that dig into its flesh.
I reach its shoulder, right next to its head. The monster looks at me with its two main eyes.
I smile at it.
"Hi there."
And I drive my claymore into its neck.
The blade sinks deep, piercing through its throat. The monster howls in pain.
—Roooooaaar!
At the same time black blood splashes my face. The monster panics. As its tentacles try to reach me, my body moves and dodges frantically.
Dodge, cut, dodge again.
But all that isn't enough.
Even if I wound it gravely, its wounds close in seconds, its bleeding eyes multiply, and its strength increases instead of decreasing.
I realize.
The monster is adapting.
If I don't finish quickly, the difficulty will switch to hard mode.
—Fwoooosh!
Wave after wave of mental attacks pound my brain. My defensive layer cracks again and again, making my head start throbbing with unbearable pain.
I see a tentacle approaching from the corner of my eye. It's too fast. I try to dodge it, but my body is slowed by pain.
The tentacle hits my side, and the force sends me flying through the air. I feel my ribs break again. I land violently, head first.
I stand up, shaking off the dust. My head's buzzing, but there's no time to complain. The monster's already approaching again.
Direct fighting doesn't work anymore since its adaptability is too fast. Every time I hurt it, its attacks get stronger and its body becomes more resistant.
It's the first time I've fought a monster that adapts.
I need something new.
I extend my left hand and the drops of black blood on the ground rise into the air, like small metallic magnets.
"How about we try this?"
With a movement of my fingers, the blood clusters together, forming sharp needles. They're small, but many. Hundreds of them float around me.
Then, with a gesture of my hand, the blood needles shoot toward the monster.
The black blood needles pierce the air silently while aiming for a specific target.
The eyes.
—Pop! Pop! Pop!
Hundreds of needles dig into the monster's eyeballs. The eyes burst like balloons full of liquid, splashing more black blood and accumulating in puddles on the ground.
The monster howls in pain and fury at the same time its aura becomes violent and chaotic.
Without paying attention to its screams, my focus centers on the newly spilled blood.
"Now."
Its blood rises and joins together, forming thick, dark chains that coil around the monster's limbs.
One chain wraps around its right leg, pulling it hard. Another coils around its left arm, immobilizing it.
Little by little, the monster becomes wrapped in chains of its own blood.
It struggles and writhes, but the chains hold it tight making it unable to move.
"Not so fast now, huh?"
I launch forward. This is my chance.
My claymore crashes against its chest again and again. There's no external defense this time. My blade sinks into its flesh, opening deep trenches. My lightning-filled tentacles lash its body, leaving crackling burns. The blade-fingers of my left hand tear its skin over and over.
Black blood splashes in jets, covering the ground and my own clothes. I tear it apart again and again. I wound it so much that its body, which was once a large, shapeless mass, begins to shrink in on itself.
Huh? What's happening?
I realize it's getting smaller.
Despite all the damage where even its heart must be mush, it's still alive. The bastard's wounds close, at the same time its body becomes denser, its muscles more compact and its skin much more resistant.
"Damn it..."
The next second, the blood chains binding it break with a simple flex of its muscles.
It's free.
Before I can react, its fist, now smaller but incredibly dense and fast, crashes into my stomach.
The air leaves my lungs, my body curves from the impact, and my spine makes noises.
Mr. Bastard doesn't give me time to recover.
One punch after another. With monstrous speed and strength, I feel each impact is like being hit by a train. My regeneration struggles to keep up, closing wounds as fast as they open.
I see an opportunity.
'Blood is the river of life, but also the shadow of death.'
My body dissolves into red mist. The fists pass through the mist unable to harm me.
The blood mist reforms my body fifty meters away.
It's a mobility ability I called Blood Mist.
It's an ability I got from the broken chains in my mind by mixing my desire and a strong will to be able to transform into a bat.
So why did it come out as a blood mist ability? Honestly I don't know.
However, it's quite useful, especially because in that state most physical damage can't hurt me, plus I can move through the air at breakneck speed.
That way, I was able to get from the 20th Ward to the 1st Ward in very little time to save Rize.
Though in battle, if I maintain it and take many hits, at some point I'll start materializing and taking damage. So it's not an ability that makes me invincible.
The monster looks at me. Its body that was once the size of a house is now only twice my size. It's also much leaner, though it still maintains the eyes on its body.
"If that's the case..."
This thing is a perfect adversary. It adapts and evolves during combat.
If I only attack it, it'll just get stronger. At some point, it'll completely surpass me.
"Then..."
I didn't want to use it, but...
The blood in my body begins to boil. I can feel the intense, roaring heat expanding from my chest to my extremities.
—Thump! Thump! Thump!
The sound of my heartbeats resonates in my ears.
My white skin turns gray, at the same time red veins mark its entire surface. My fangs that normally stay inside my mouth now protrude above my lips. My claws grow several more centimeters and turn black.
In the monster's eyes is reflected the smiling figure and crimson eyes of another monster.
"I just have to destroy it before it can regenerate, right?"
This is my Vampire Mode.
×××
If you liked this, throw me your Power Stones!
At 300 Power Stones, I'll drop a bonus chapter.