“Ugh, ha…”
Every time I run, the hole in my stomach spits out blood. It wasn’t unbearable pain, but it was intensely torturous.
Besides, starting a war of attrition this early is a bad omen.
Compared to before, my regenerative ability had noticeably improved to the point where a severed finger could be restored immediately, but even that has its limits. And that limit would probably mean my death.
I sense more presences behind me again. No, now it feels like there’s danger not only behind but also on the side.
I took down the two closest soldiers, but in the meantime, other soldiers have closed the distance.
“Vampire!! It’s highly likely that it’s the progenitor, a target for extermination! Dispose of it immediately!!!”
The soldiers who recognized that I was a vampire from the brief skirmish were now even more fervent. They wouldn’t be leisurely aiming for capture anymore; they’d be desperately trying to kill me.
How far can I run? At what point will they give up the chase?
Before I knew it, the trees that had filled the area were thinning out, and my field of vision opened up. This was a sign that the forest was coming to an end. This area was effectively the territory of the Sahelrn Duchy.
Glancing back, seeing so many humans chasing after me felt surreal, like a scene from a war movie. Their momentum suggested they wouldn’t stop at crossing the border.
“Die, vampire!!”
A spear comes thrusting at me with a whoosh from the side. I barely twist my body to dodge.
“That spear is really unfair.”
In the forest, I didn’t have to worry much about the spear thanks to the natural obstacles, but now that it could function properly, it was incredibly tricky.
If I try to counterattack, my hand doesn’t reach; if I try to close the distance, they keep thrusting while maintaining distance. I feel trapped.
The wounds from near-misses are piling up. As the injuries accumulate, my pace unintentionally slows.
Slowing down creates deeper and deadlier wounds. Each time this happens, I allow more enemies to approach me.
I can’t let this happen. At this rate, I won’t get far.
Just as I instinctively realize this, my body is suddenly launched into the air and slams into the ground ahead.
“Ahhh!!”
I feel my spine shatter and my back pierce. The chilling sensation of flesh tearing and organs bursting out makes a shriek escape my lips.
It hurts! It hurts! It hurts too much!!!
My body won’t move. My brain keeps sending signals to my limbs, but my body hangs limply like a marionette with severed strings, only transmitting the lingering pain.
Glancing down, I see the spear tip protruding from my body at a bizarre angle.
Ahaha, I got pierced by a spear thrown from behind.
I didn’t think they could throw like that. Yeah, I never considered it.
It all feels so sudden that I might be unable to accept it as reality; it seems like I’m watching someone else’s misfortune. I should definitely be rolling on the ground like a skewer, but it doesn’t feel real.
However, my denial of reality doesn’t create a pause in time.
In an instant, soldiers surround me. Are they being cautious? While keeping the spearheads aimed at me, they don’t immediately close the distance.
But they are slowly, steadily, and surely closing in.
Clear murderous intent. Eyes filled with malice.
Right. They are enemies. Enemies trying to kill me.
Am I just going to lie here, defeated? Am I going to die like this?
No.
I absolutely cannot allow that.
Move. Move!
Whether it was a reaction to my intense will or simply a manifestation of my regenerative ability in that brief moment, my body starts to regain some freedom.
Though the shackles of my physical body feel unbearably heavy to call it freedom, the important part is that I can move somehow.
With trembling hands, I grab the spear shaft protruding from my abdomen.
Crack!!
I break off the spearhead and toss it aside, then grab the shaft from behind and pull.
Blood spurts out like a broken tap. As I pull out the spear, the hole begins to slowly close up, but the speed of the healing process is notably slower than before.
“Ugh…”
My head spins. Have I lost too much blood? My consciousness feels hazy, and the world fades in and out.
As I lift my upper body and straighten my legs, the soldier approaching me makes eye contact and flinches.
Why are you scared? I’m the one being hunted right now.
I don’t like it. I don’t like the sight of you acting as if your violence is justified while brandishing a spear, nor do I like this situation where I’m surrounded and treated like a bomb.
But that’s just how the world works, right? The winner is justice, so you all think it’s righteous to kill me?
“Heh….”
Fuck that. I’ll never accept it.
If I survive, then I’ll be the one who is just.
I’m not dying here. I can’t die.
No matter what, I’m going to survive. It’s already too late to run, so I’ll fight to the bitter end.
“Everyone, attack!!!”
That was the signal. Spears rain down from all directions.
Struggling to rise, I focus all my concentration and snag a spear that stands out slightly from the rest, pulling it with all my might.
Like a fish caught on a line, one soldier is dragged toward me.
As expected, strength is on my side. The reason I couldn’t escape earlier is probably because I wasn’t using this body’s power properly.
Of course, that makes sense. Having been bedridden for over ten years, how much could I possibly know about using my body?
The body I last used is already dead, and the new vampire body has only recently been starting to function for a few months.
Holding onto the unknown is meaningless. So, I choose the thing I know best.
What can I do better than anyone else? Enduring pain.
It’s not that I don’t feel pain. It’s not that I enjoy suffering.
Having spent more than ten years sick in my previous life, I’m not someone who could endure being cut and having my abdomen torn open without anesthesia, only to later realize, “I became accustomed to the pain over time.” Such unrealistic fiction never happened to me.
But I am confident in my ability to endure.
It’s not that I don’t feel pain, but I can withstand it.
The intense pain reminds me of death, and when I face death, paradoxically, I feel more alive, which makes me cling to life even more.
Clinging to life, I refuse to give up.
Even if my limbs are severed, I won’t lose my mind.
Even if my insides are ripped apart, my heart won’t break.
And it’s because of that, I have a way I can use right now.
In an instant, I pull the soldier I had dragged toward me up and sink my teeth into his neck. Simultaneously, five spear tips penetrate my defenseless back and legs.
It hurts. It hurts so much.
But I endure. Ignoring the metal tearing through my flesh, I focus all my remaining strength into rapidly sucking the blood from the prey in my arms.
As if trying to replenish the blood that’s escaped through the wounds.
*
Something was wrong. That’s what the Imperial soldiers opposing the progenitor felt in common.
At first, they thought the higher-ups were overreacting.
Locking down the entire border just because the progenitor of the vampire might possibly pass through? They’d follow orders but considered it excessive.
What a shit military life. That’s what they thought.
When an unidentified giant attempted to breach the Sahelrn border, and the revealed regenerative abilities and circumstantial evidence proved she was the progenitor of the rumors, the soldiers were tense but not overly worried.
After all, it was just a progenitor who had escaped less than ten days ago, right? They heard the progenitor’s eyes were yellow before capture. This meant she had never tasted human blood before.
A progenitor who hadn’t drunk a single drop of blood was no different from an ordinary person.
While the progenitors and their kin might differ, considering that the average vampire nicked about a human’s worth of blood in two weeks, it didn’t seem likely that anything dramatic would happen in less than ten days.
At the very least, there was no reason for hundreds of Imperial soldiers to feel scared.
Therefore, the tension displayed by the soldiers was less about fear of the progenitor herself and more about worrying about their superior’s displeasure if the vampire of the duchy noticed the commotion or if they failed to capture her.
As expected, the chase was not difficult. While she was faster than expected, she still was no match for the regimented forces of the empire.
Even if two soldiers died, it was a price paid for approaching her, and that led to their successful encirclement, so the absolute advantage remained intact.
Something was wrong. The soldiers felt this when they completely surrounded the fallen progenitor.
Impaled from her back to her belly with spears, she gasped for breath with her body bent at a strange angle.
They had been told to eliminate her on sight, so all that remained was to poke the defenseless enemy with their spears in a simple job.
But no one took the initiative to step forward. No one could.
She should undoubtedly be in a defenseless state. But the glimmering red eyes of the progenitor didn’t seem vulnerable at all.
Those eyes, filled with burning desire and sludgy darkness, looked like a predator lying in wait to pounce on unwary prey disguised as defenseless. The unnervingly maddened smile creeping on her lips was incredibly unsettling.
If someone steps forward, they’ll die.
Even though it was the soldiers who had wounded her and seemed on the verge of victory, the primal fear of being alive was triggered, making the soldiers unable to move easily.
They recalled how the two soldiers lost their lives to the progenitor’s counterattack, which had bordered on a suicidal charge.
Not all soldiers had the sense of mission to sacrifice themselves like the knights. In truth, even the knights weren’t all serving some noble cause.
Of course, no one wanted to step forward and confirm whether the progenitor still had any strength left by risking their own life.
In such times, it was better to proceed slowly and carefully, with everyone standing together.
That was the common conclusion they reached as they were not keen on taking the lead.
As time passed, the number of reinforcements rushing in from afar continued to increase while variables decreased.
Thus, the squad leaders and company leaders, who should have controlled the soldiers, didn’t whip them into action either. They, too, felt similarly.
But who could have known? That momentary hesitation would only worsen the damage.
“Ha…”
The progenitor pulls the spear lodged in her body and stands up unsteadily.
With those glistening eyes and the bizarrely curling corners of her mouth, the company leader sensed something was wrong.
They could not afford to give her any more time. They needed to kill her immediately, reinforcements or not.
“Everyone, attack!!!”
The soldiers at the forefront thrust their spears forward. With conditions set up like this, there was absolutely no way for all of it to be dodged. But only four spears pierced the progenitor’s body.
“What…”
From someone’s mouth escapes a sigh laced with dread.
They clearly saw it. The moment they attacked, the progenitor yanked on the spear to use one soldier as a shield.
While she couldn’t dodge the spears thrusting from behind, she began her ‘meal’ as if no one else mattered.
She was a being that should not exist. Only at this moment did they grasp the gravity of the warnings they’d heard throughout history.
Seeing her kind being devoured, they desperately swung their spears. But the nature of the battle had distinctly changed from the one-sided chase it had been until now.
The progenitor was not trying to dodge all the attacks pouring in from every direction.
She adeptly avoided larger attacks and charged forward while being stabbed and cut.
While subjecting herself to damage, she unfalteringly clung to one soldier at a time, greedily sucking their blood.
Once she drained the blood, she would search for her next meal.
A vampire’s regenerative ability is not limitless. Even for the progenitor, it’s the same.
Even though the progenitor displays relatively exceptional regenerative abilities compared to her strength, she hasn’t been alive long enough for that limit to be ambiguous.
Yet, she didn’t collapse. Even with an arm severed and a hole in her belly, like an evil spirit, she kept on gripping at the neck.
The more blood she drank, the more her severed body parts regrew, and the wounds on her body began to close.
That was when the soldiers realized what the progenitor was doing.
Blood is the source of all of the progenitor’s abilities. Even the kin who inherit her blood experience a temporary surge in power when they drink her blood, as research has shown.
If just a few drops of blood can yield such results, then what happens if it’s the original vampire, who possesses overwhelming regenerative abilities and becomes stronger without limit the more blood she consumes?
The answer was unfolding right before their eyes.
Indeed, the progenitor was still weak. If they compared their combat power, she would fall short against an ordinary soldier 1:1.
But she wouldn’t end. No matter how many times she was struck or stabbed, she wouldn’t fall.
Ignoring the flesh being torn from her body, she prods the chaos, grabbing each soldier one by one and drinking their blood.
The soldiers began to realize something was off.
They knew that a vampire’s average consumption is about one human every two weeks. Just as humans can’t eat more even when the table is full, vampires likely follow the same rule.
But that monster was different. She had already consumed at least thirteen soldiers right here.
With each drop of blood she sipped, the speed of her regeneration returned to normal, and her movements became gradually quicker and more precise.
The enemy was growing stronger even at this moment.
“A monster…”
She was an incredibly dangerous being. There was no way she could be spared.
The soldiers still maintained an upper hand. Reinforcements were coming, and while she was enduring, she was still accumulating unhealed wounds.
This fight would undoubtedly end in victory.
Yet, they could understand clearly now. They finally grasped why the higher-ups were so wary of the progenitor.
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