Chapter 14: The Roundup
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: PlumSauce
No one knew when Burton disappeared. Vampires were very good at moving silently. The silver shackles John had brought with him were left on the bedding, and it was not clear how Burton had actually managed to break free.
“Couldn’t you have kept an eye on him?” Smith looked back at the headless knight.
Without answering, Sir Kimplin turned and left the room. Instead of a canvas bag this time, he switched to a backpack. He put his head in the backpack, which was carried in front of him against his breastplate. He walked like a gust of wind, and the headless black horse was already waiting at the entrance to the manor, stamping his front hooves restlessly.
“Let’s go look for him too,” Coraci ran out with his two companions and found the car. “I’m afraid Burton has gone berserk, maybe he…”
“He’s gone hunting,” John looked out at the darkening sky and took the passenger seat. “I have better eyesight. I’ll sit here this time.”
Sir Kimplin’s black warhorse ran with flames blazing beneath its four hooves and black smoke billowing around it. The car could barely catch up with its speed. Even if Wu Jiu put the gas pedal to the floor, they could only follow behind it.
“John, if it were you, where would you go hunting?” Coraci asked.
“Me? I’m not hunting anymore…” John stopped to think for a moment and said, “Coraci, I can’t offer advice on that subject. You see, I can imagine myself hunting when I’m hungry, but I can’t imagine what a completely irrational bloodkin would do.”
Coraci thought with some remorse that if the first forced feeding had not failed, perhaps Burton would have been able to hold on for a while longer. Although Burton stubbornly refused John at the time, the smell of blood would have remained for some time in the basement where Burton lay, where hunger was already eating away at his sanity, and perhaps the smell would have further induced him to lose self-control…
“Hey,” the shapeshifter Smith could see what Coraci was thinking, “it’s not your fault that Burton’s mind was already impaired.”
“No, it’s at least partly my fault.”
“We have a way to catch him. We have the other vampire, and the knight, and there happen to be two spell masters around today.” The other one Smith was referring to was himself.
Coraci stared ahead with a stiff expression and said in a flat tone, “If he crosses the line, we may have to kill him.”
“I don’t think that knight would agree…”
“Look guys, there seems to be some kind of accident.” John, sitting in the front seat, pointed into the distance. There were police lights flashing on the road ahead.
The knight suddenly disappeared along with the black horse, and only Coraci, the Knower, could still see him: he continued to gallop along the side of the highway, concealing his form. Coraci hurriedly cast a spell on Wu Jiu to make him appear to have a human face.
Several police cars were parked there, surrounding the accident scene. A truck had tipped over on the side of the road, its front windshield completely shattered.
After slowing down and passing by, Coraci muttered, “Maybe Burton did it.”
“You sure? It’s not purely an accident?” Smith asked.
“There are no collision marks here, no other obstructions, the brake marks look like an emergency stop to avoid something, and there’s clearly no other vehicles or animals here. Even if it was an animal, it wouldn’t have caused the truck to look like that.”
John agreed with him, “The point is, there is a strong smell of blood there, so strong that my fingers went numb.”
“There’s also a human here. Can you endure it? Don’t scare him,” Smith said.
“I’m fine, I trust John.” The words came out automatically as Coraci stared worriedly out the window.
John just grinned awkwardly. He wasn’t sure if the shapeshifter could read minds through the seat to the back of his head. If he could, his own mind must be wonderful right now — full of phrases like “Coraci saying that makes me so happy”.
He hurriedly changed the subject, “Actually, the victim is most likely still alive. Really. The chances are high.”
“How can you tell?” Smith asked.
“A mad bloodkin will suck his prey dry regardless of how much blood he needs. He will tear open the throat of the prey, creating large wounds–not the small punctures created by the fangs. What he can’t finish drinking will flow out of the prey’s wounds. There will be blood everywhere on the ground… Just now, when we passed the scene, the smell of blood was there but it wasn’t as strong as that, and there wasn’t that much blood on the ground.”
“How do you know the blood wasn’t inside the truck?” the shapeshifter asked again.
This time it was Coraci who answered, “Although the windshield was broken, the truck door was also open, but it was not bent out of shape, and the door handle had no signs of being forcefully held and gripped. So it should have been opened by the person inside on his own. Perhaps the victim originally tried to climb out and escape. Moreover, the victim is not here and should have been picked up by the ambulance. If there were a body lying there, evidence would need to be collected and even the road might need to be closed. The scene would not have been cleaned up so quickly… More importantly, this area is very remote. We have not met any other vehicles along the way. If the person in the truck is dead, who called the police?”
Smith raised his eyebrows, “Wow, that’s nice. I’m looking at a pair of partners whose hearts beat as one! Which one of you plays the violin? Who was an Army doctor?” 1
“That’s enough from you…” Coraci turned his head and looked out the window.
That night, many people in West Bay City felt something peculiar… They clearly didn’t see anything but felt something galloping past them accompanied by the faint sound of horse hooves. At the same time, many exorcists and hunters, who were awakened by the Association’s internal communication alert, left their beds to take to the streets late at night.
“Wear your badge and pin,” Coraci reminded John as they approached the city to begin their search. “Not every hunter in the Association knows you, and I’m afraid they’ll hurt you by mistake.”
The badge is like an ordinary ID, and the pin is a needle-like button made of reflective material. The badge hangs on the chest, while the pin is to be worn on the back of the neck collar. This is done so that Association members can distinguish between enemies and fellow members, and to prevent being beheaded before having a chance to display their badge.
“I don’t feel the least bit at ease.” John turned his back to let Coraci help him with the pin.
“Don’t worry. Trained exorcists and hunters are very familiar with the pins and badges. As long as you wear them, no one will ever attack you.”
Wu Jiu had contacted Hai Jiu in their own unique way, and now the two incorporeal creatures joined the search for Mr. Burton. Shapeshifter Smith called his current partner and prepared to rendezvous.
“I’m gonna go find my own partner,” the shapeshifter said, waving his phone. “You guys be careful!”
With that, he took off his high heels, held them in his hands, and ran out of sight at an inhuman speed.
Most of the city was silent in the early hours of the morning, with only one or two streets still flashing with neon and carrying faint sounds of loud music. Occasionally, men and women would burst out of the bars and slip into the lanes behind the houses, where the streetlights don’t shine, drunkenly entangled with each other.
The boy, who had just reached adulthood not long ago, was embracing his female partner whose smoky makeup had begun to melt off, and anxiously wondering whether to take her home or also find a place where there was no one… The girl nuzzled her lover’s neck, hugged the boy’s waist, and coquettishly dragged him into the alley, the implication of which is self-explanatory. The boy was not so drunk and was still a little confused and embarrassed.
In the end he decided to go with the flow. The two grumbled to each other about the music in the bar earlier, ducked into the shadows and started kissing.
Suddenly, a sob interrupted their passion and the two stopped and looked further down the alley.
“Hey? Are you okay?” the boy asked in a loud voice.
Huddled there was a blond man dressed in white who seemed to be whimpering and shaking in pain.
The other man didn’t answer, and the boy took a few cautious steps closer with the girl following behind him. The blond man shrank back into the corner and stood up slowly, holding onto the brick wall, his breathing became increasingly rapid, as if he were having an acute respiratory attack.
“What’s wrong with you?” The boy took another step forward.
The blond man was very thin and didn’t seem to be feeling too well. He let his guard down and reached over to support the other man.
Suddenly he saw that the blond man’s body was bloodstained and there was a large blood stain at his feet. The boy took a step back in surprise. At this time, the girl had pulled out her cell phone and the cold light from the screen shone over, and they were able to see what the blond man looked like.
The two young people were so frightened that they could hardly move for a moment. The man’s white shirt and pants were covered with blood, his left arm and left shoulder had multiple gunshot wounds, and a dagger was deeply inserted into the right side of his leg. Those bullet holes and wounds were not only bleeding but also emitting steam-like light smoke.
His features were very handsome, but his skin was pallid, the corners of the eyes, nostrils and lips were colored like dark red blood. The most amazing thing was his eyes. At first his head was lowered, but now he looked straight at the two young people, his eyes like burning blood.
The boy grabbed the girl and fled screaming, but the girl tripped over her own shoes. The screams in the alley could not reach the nearby houses because of the intense music playing in every bar.
“Let go of her!” A female voice sounded. At the same time, something flashed past the monster with a whooshing sound.
With the girl’s neck still in his mouth, the blond monster dodged the silenced gun shot. His skin and limbs were plumper than they had been a moment ago. With one hand he dropped the girl in his arms, and with the other he gripped the dagger in his leg and pulled it out forcefully.
He was greeted by several more intense shots as the blond monster abandoned the girl in his arms and climbed up the wall and then flipped onto the roof along the pipe as if unconstrained by gravity.
“Liz! Give me that!” It was Carolyn who chased over with a gun in her hand. She was still wearing pajamas with Lilo & Stitch printed on it and weapons strapped to her waist and back.
“And I’m the only one who understands what you’re saying…” The black-haired Lizbeth assisted the young girl who had been attacked. She placed the injured person gently on the ground, pressed her left hand on the wound, and with her right hand, she drew a rune in the air with a silver pen and pushed it towards Carolyn.
The rune instantly melted into Carolyn’s body, and the huntress, holding her gun with both hands, jumped onto the roof with equal ease and chased after the monster.
At the back of a building, Coraci and John intercepted Mr. Burton.
John had only seen the Burton who was as dry as a twig, and now Burton looked like a different person. His long, slightly curly hair was like waves on a lake under a golden moon, and although it was messy, it still looked noble and beautiful; his skin had regained its color, his eyes were more vivid, and his lips trembled slightly from the injuries he had sustained.
Apparently he had met more than one hunter before, and, more obviously — he had fed. The blood on his chin and the life force that had returned were enough to show this.
John tried to approach him. Fifty feet, thirty feet, fifteen feet… Burton just stood there, completely ignoring John and Coraci, letting the silver bullets inside his wounds burn his body and staring vacantly at the sky.
John and Coraci both felt it was very strange. Burton had now recovered a lot of physical strength. According to this, his mind should also be restored together, but he was like a lost soul, completely oblivious that another bloodkin was drawing near.
From The Unthreatening Creature Protection Association’s Guide to Unscientific Monsters:
Skin-walkers
Skin-walkers are a human subspecies, not a humanoid species. Their essence is fully human, though they can transform into other humans or animals of roughly equivalent size and build.
Differences from shapeshifters:
- Mind-reading: Shapeshifters can read surface thoughts; skin-walkers cannot.
- Lifespan: Skin-walkers have the same lifespan as ordinary humans.
- Transformation range: Shapeshifters can change into nearly any living creature, while skin-walkers are limited to other humans or animals of similar body size. For example, a strong adult skin-walker could transform into a woman of the same age, a seal, a leopard, or a deer slightly larger than himself — but he cannot become a small rabbit or a supernatural being.
- Transformation method: Shapeshifters shift smoothly, like smoke or an illusion, but skin-walkers undergo a more painful, physical transformation, often howling and struggling for several minutes. This is a literal bodily change, not magical shapeshifting.
Though their abilities may seem similar, their nature is fundamentally different.
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