Second Genesis

Grey felt his eyes nearly burst apart when he made eye contact with the vampire pimp. It was like real daggers were crossing between their gazes instantly, boring into his head.

Subconsciously, he pulled on Mental Fortitude again.

—

[Lv2 Mental Fortitude > Lv3 Mental Fortitude]

—

The pain dulled, but it didn’t vanish.

The vampire pimp slowly stood, clutching his cane. His muscles bulged, his jaw pulsing with lines of veins. His teeth clenched and Grey could have sworn he heard echoes of sharpening blades from them alone.

"You brought the Mechanical Jaw Lineage here, Esmeralda? It seems that you really want to do this the hard way. Do you think I’d fear you even in neutral territory? What do you think you could possibly do to me in my own territory?!"

His voice boomed with such force a wall of wind slammed into Esmeralda the witch, knocking the hood that covered her head off.

A face that could only be called half a beauty appeared. From one side, she was a delicate perfection touched by the moon’s light and the caress of heaven’s winds. On the other, she was a mangled mess—burnt, torn, shredded to pieces.

Esmeralda looked up to see Grey as well. One of her eyes was a murky, milky color, completely obscured by blindness. The other, though, was the most vibrant blue Grey had ever seen. It almost looked like a nebula had exploded within it, layer upon layer of various shades of bright to dark blues intertwining atop of one another.

"... I did not bring him here, Valdris. They are children and have nothing to do with this. You have grown bold in the spreading of your territory after our fall. Your darkness has reached beyond where it should. It is not a surprise that some might slip into the land of the Dark Kin by accident."

"Don’t deign to tell me how to run my empire. Children, kill."

"Valdris! This is not necessary!"

"Didn’t you come here to tell me that you are willing to do things the hard way? Then let us. The Savages have fallen. You are no longer Empresses and Warlords. You are scourges who are only fit to rest beneath our feet. It is time for Dark Kin to rise."

"Ah shit..." Grey mumbled.

Clink. Clink.

A shadow suddenly shot out from one of the coffins. A naked baby with the claws of wolves and the teeth of bears lunged right at him.

"Fuck off, couldn’t you at least put them in diapers."

—

[Name: Rampaging Baby Vampire]

[Proving Class]

—

Grey’s heart sank. "Proving Class" wasn’t exactly a marker of strength. Well, it was, but there was a huge range between the weakest of the Proving Class and the strongest. But the Skrill Elite Grey had defeated just earlier that night had been the first enemy he faced with a Class denomination, and now this was another.

The difference was that there was only one of that Skrill Elite. But...

There were dozens of these baby vampire coffins.

"Left and right, right?" Grey called out.

"Right." Amunet finally responded, rising to her feet.

Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink.

"Alright, don’t backstab me woman or I’m coming back from the dead."

"Focus on the naked blood sucking babies and less on ass and you might be alright."

BANG.

Grey didn’t get a chance to respond as the first baby slammed into his curved saw blade. He was knocked off his feet, the air rushing out of his lungs as he was sent rolling backward.

Never in a million years could he have expected a baby barely tall enough to reach his knees could ever have such momentum. It didn’t even have much leverage. It had just jumped right out of its coffin and hit him like a speeding truck.

It must have been heavy. A baby that size would normally be 10 kilograms, maybe 15 at the most. But it felt like something 10 times that had slammed into him.

Grey didn’t allow his shock to slow his reaction.

"They’re heavy!" Grey shouted. "Don’t meet them head on!"

He didn’t know if Amunet understood or had the time to react. He couldn’t pay any attention to her right now, he could only hope that between the wall to his right and her to his left, there wouldn’t be anything coming at him from the back.

And if he could count on that, then that meant all he had to do was deal with one vampire baby at a time.

Using the momentum of his roll, Grey slid back and up to his feet, flipping his legs over his head and landing with his blade at the ready. He wasn’t willing to use his chainsaw just yet, the timing wasn’t right.

As expected, the baby was already upon him. But it wasn’t coming from straight on. Its claws had dug into the rock face to his right. It scampered forward like it had come right out of some low budget horror exorcism movie and then it lunged at his neck, its maw open wide with glistening, sharp teeth.

"I am never having kids."

Grey roared and slashed.

The baby bit into his blade, holding onto it tight. Its feet slammed into the ground as Grey completed his swing, but it hardly seemed to care. Bending its knees and rebounding back, Grey lost control of his blade as the baby vampire launched itself upward.

Grey’s Goblin Warlord Spirit blared warnings at him. His arms were pulled above his head, and now his chest was wide open for the baby to kick at him.

Its strength was off the charts. If he suffered a blow like that directly, the best result was a few cracked ribs.

The worst result was his lungs and heart being skewered through by his own bone.

But he wasn’t nearly so helpless as he seemed.

He let go of his curved blade.

Magnetic Push.

He focused on his blade, and it was already far too late for the baby vampire to release the grip its teeth had on it.

BANG.

The blade ricocheted off the wall, taking the baby vampire’s head with it.

Before the small creature could recover from its shock, a pair of needles shot out from Grey’s sides, layering Metal Affinity and Magnetic Push into one, sizzling through the air.

The needles pierced right into the baby vampire’s body.

It squealed in pain. But all Grey saw was it releasing his rusted blade.

He grabbed the hilt right out of the air before it clanged to the ground, slashing down with all his might and cutting the baby in two.

BANG.

Grey couldn’t even celebrate the victory before a second vampire baby slammed into his side.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, the crackling of his own ribs echoing in his ears.