Chapter 29. Hunting Human Hunters (3)
Heinkel, dropping his spear, vanished like a wisp, slipping away.
With the spear turning to dust and disappearing, Gebel staggered, barely managing to stay upright.
To any onlooker, it was obvious that Heinkel had taken more hits. But as Heinkel calmly observed Gebel, the latter seemed on the verge of collapse.
Red mist started rising from Heinkel’s wounds, swiftly stitching his flesh back together.
“Sneaking inside your underling and then retaliating… Impressive reflexes, Paladin. If you were in full armor and could do miracles, you’d have been tough to beat.”
Instead of making a grand entrance, Heinkel had hidden within his subordinate’s skin and struck at close range. His shapeshifting ability, a trait of his vampiric nature, enabled this tactic.
Gebel stayed silent. Isaac recalled Gebel never utilizing miracles. While Gebel had given up his Paladin title, it didn’t occur to Isaac that the light scripture had withdrawn its miracles from him.
Heinkel briefly glanced at Isaac with curiosity rather than wariness.
His cautious gaze shifted to Isolde.
“Summon the Abyssal Beast, Inquisitor. Otherwise, you’ll bite the dust right here.”
“And our master wielded the light from across the rift and revealed it to us!”
At Isolde’s almost-shouted prayer, the night vanished from the valley. The Abyssal Beast materialized once more from the ashes. Heinkel Gullmar also began to dissolve like a specter, his expression full of disdain.
No matter how strong, a vampire couldn’t endure this radiance.
“This will buy you a bit more time…”
Soon, Heinkel completely disappeared.
Under the brilliant light, Isaac swiftly assessed Gebel’s condition.
The injury wasn’t severe. Yet, Wallachia hunters like Gebel deemed it dishonorable to cause excessive bleeding in their ‘prey’, thus they avoided deep wounds.
Despite minor external wounds, Gebel appeared to have sustained significant internal injuries.
“Mr. Isaac!”
Isolde approached. The Abyssal Beast she summoned resembled a small moth, evidently summoned to last a bit longer.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect him to hide inside his subordinate and emerge by breaking the body apart. I believed with Mr. Gebel and you, we could endure…”
Seeing Isolde’s expression, Isaac grasped Heinkel’s intentions.
Gebel was no longer fit to fight. Even if the Inquisitor summoned the Abyssal Beast, it would merely temporarily ward off Heinkel. If Isolde couldn’t sustain it and had to recall it, Heinkel would strike again.
And this time, he would take everyone’s lives.
“We’re out of options.”
But one thing Heinkel hadn’t foreseen.
“I’ll stay as a distraction. Please, take Gebel and flee from the valley.”
Isolde was taken aback by Isaac’s proposal.
“Mr. Isaac!”
“I’m not looking to sacrifice myself.”
It was, in fact, a strategy for everyone to make it out alive.
Isaac felt a surge of rage and… hunger toward Heinkel.
“I might not be familiar with the Inquisitor stuff, but I gotta make sure Mr. Gebel stays safe. Just follow my lead. You two, stick together and get outta here.”
***
A red mist started creeping through the cracks of the valley, shaping into Duke Heinkel Gullmar.
The wound from the Judgment sword was still bubbling, not fully healed yet. Healing parts touched by divine power was always tougher.
Heinkel turned his head. The glow of the Abyssal Beast didn’t reach this hidden darkness of the valley, where red eyes glowed.
Heinkel addressed those eyes in the dark.
“Everything’s ready. Once the Abyssal Beast is gone, take ’em all out.”
“Yes, Duke.”
12 hunters popped out of the dark, all Wallachia hunters.
On Heinkel’s signal, the hunters disappeared back into the shadows. No need for detailed instructions; ambushes were like their daily bread.
Heinkel thought the mission was almost done. But a nagging feeling lingered, something he couldn’t shake off. He mulled over what he might have overlooked.
‘Gebel, huh? Skilled and all, but now injured and out of action. The Inquisitor without the Beast seemed no match for a bunch of hunters. So…’
Heinkel remembered the good-looking trainee.
Didn’t see him clearly in the light, but that face in the dark stood out. Quite memorable, and his sword skills were solid.
But that was it.
Heinkel was pretty sure he could take him out in less than 10 seconds.
After all, fair fights weren’t the Wallachia style; they’d go all out.
Even minus Heinkel, if the hunters got into a scrap, the trainee was doomed.
‘What am I missing?’
A gut feeling.
An innate sense that something was off was warning him loud and clear.
The Red Chalice Club, big on pleasure and senses, also valued instincts.
Heinkel didn’t shrug off this unease. It could be a bloody sign from the Red Chalice.
“Lieutenant.”
Two lieutenants stood by Heinkel.
“There’s this trainee, Isaac. Don’t take him lightly, disable him if needed, but try to nab him alive.”
Heinkel paused briefly and added, “He’s as pretty as a girl, so spotting him should be easy. Maybe offering him for the others’ escape could work. Go, pass on my orders.”
***
The Wallachia hunters had no trouble tracking Isaac and his crew in the dark. The Abyssal Beast acted like a beacon, marking their spot.
Direct exposure to the light would blind them, so the hunters shadowed Isaac’s crew within the dimming light, making sure no one slipped away.
The hunt was almost over.
The Beast, forcibly kept from fading, was dimming slowly.
The hunters signaled each other quietly.
In the darkness, the hunters were like shadows, but they could see each other clearly as day.
‘The Inquisitor must be drained by now, resisting would be a struggle.’
‘Get Isaac alive if you can.’
With just one strong fighter, the job was easier.
As the light dimmed, the Wallachia hunters readied their crossbows.
Finally, the shining Abyssal Beast totally dimmed down. The only thing you could hear in the dark valley was the gentle rustle of leaves in the wind.
All of a sudden, the hunters popped up in the valley.
The Wallachia hunters aimed to turn everyone except Isaac into pincushions with their arrows, but they were having a tough time finding their marks.
“What in the world…”
Isaac stood alone in the darkness.
Without a word, Isaac drew his sword as the Wallachia hunters closed in on him.
“Is this basic stuff what you hunters are all about?”
“We got played! The Abyssal Beast was just a distraction!”
With no Abyssal Beast in sight, confronting the Wallachia hunters in the dead of night seemed impossible. They assumed Isaac would follow the Beast, but he used it as a decoy.
Meanwhile, Gebel and Isolde had managed to flee the valley following the Moth’s advice.
The hunters exchanged urgent looks. Six of them dashed after Gebel and Isolde, while the other six moved to capture Isaac.
“Well, at least he’s making it easy for us to catch him.”
One of the hunters teased, a break from their usual quiet demeanor while on the hunt, but they were fuming at being misled.
They thought Isaac had stayed back as bait and leverage.
But Isaac tilted his head, smirking.
“Surrender?”
“If you resist, we’ll chop off your fingers one by…”
“Aaaaagh!”
Before the sentence was done, cries rang out from where the six hunters had followed Gebel and Isolde.
Wallachia hunters found screaming disgraceful. They were flustered but eyed Isaac angrily, saying:
“The knight seems to be alive, for now…”
The screams continued, prompting more shame in the Wallachia hunters that their comrades were screaming rather than being attacked.
Screaming in the silent night was considered crude. Only the quiet flow of blood and the gulp of throats were accepted as proper etiquette.
Isaac, standing askew, inquired.
“No need to see what’s happening to guess, right?”
Finally, two more hunters went to check the situation, leaving four to take down Isaac.
“We may not know your moves, but we…”
“The fact that you don’t know my tricks is why you’re in trouble.”
Isaac’s interruptions riled up the hunter, who looked fierce.
Nevertheless, Isaac casually continued.
“I’ve had my eyes on you the whole time, sticking close to you foolishly. You’ve been under my control all along.”
Nonsense.
The Wallachia hunter, sneering, charged at Isaac.
Like a group of hyenas going after prey, each hunter aimed for different limbs. But they were taken aback when Isaac’s arms twisted in unexpected ways.
Isaac’s arms contorted unbelievably, stretching out incredibly.
Before they realized, a tentacle pierced a hunter’s head, leaving his body floundering like a broken doll.
Isaac whipped out his tentacle, catching a hunter by surprise. The tentacle coiled around him, its teeth-filled suckers tearing into his flesh.
“Aaaagh!”
The detested screams they hated so much broke out.
Isaac spun the hunter around like a top.
Blood sprayed everywhere as flesh was ripped apart, splattering the faces of the remaining Wallachia hunters.
Isaac, with one hunter in his tentacle grip, swung him like a club at another unlucky soul. The hunter tried to block in vain, but when enough force is behind the swing, defense is useless. The two hunters collided with a thunderous bang, merging into a gruesome mass.
The word “Vampire” vanished, devoured. A new perk called “Dead God’s Intestines” popped up, enhancing absorption. Isaac also gained the “Vampirism” perk and a temporary “Blurry Shadow” boost.
Isaac used his fresh “Vampirism” prowess to drink in the essences of the Wallachia hunters through his skin, watching their bodies deflate like popped balloons. “So this is what bloodsucking feels like,” he casually murmured in the shadows.
In a flash, everything changed. The lone surviving Wallachia hunter realized his blunder. “Was this guy from the Codex of Light?” he wondered aloud. But Isaac was no light-dweller; he hailed from a murky, wild realm of primal chaos.
In the dark, with eyes gleaming purple, Isaac declared, “This is my turf. You’ll pay the price for intruding.”
