"GRAAAAA! Because Ruby deserved it!"
Kai roared.
His voice was becoming harder and harder to understand. It was rough, low, and echoed like the growl of a wild beast. But that didn't stop him from talking.
"Ten years! I stayed by Ruby's side for a full ten years. Ever since I was six, I've always treated her with kindness, gentleness, and devotion. I would do anything she wanted. And she even promised that I would be the first human she'd ever drink blood from… She promised meeeee!"
Ethan had no time to think deeply about Ruby's broken promise or Kai's bitterness over wasting ten years of his life hopelessly chasing a girl instead of playing with Lego sets and toy cars like other children. Because right now, he was busy rolling several times across the floor to avoid Kai's furious direct kicks.
Oh! And what the hell was this now?
Right beside Ethan, the floor had been punctured full of holes like a honeycomb!
Terrified, Ethan pressed both hands against the floor, quickly pushed himself up, and leapt backward to dodge rapid, powerful thrusts from a long, blood-covered object lined with spikes!
That thing seemed to be growing out of Kai's back.
Was that… a tail?
Kai already had more than a dozen horns growing from his head, and now he had also sprouted a spiked tail?
What kind of creature was he mutating into?
"She said she didn't even like him. She said he was just some rude, coarse guy with no sense of style and no idea how to take care of his appearance. And yet… in the end, she chose him for her first feeding instead of me. Whyyyyyy?"
Ethan leaned backward just in time.
The sharp claws on Kai's elongated arm swept past him, tearing open his white school shirt and leaving a long streak of blood across it.
There.
In just a split second, Ethan had already lost blood simply because his curiosity had gotten carried away by Kai's hatred toward some boy - the lucky bastard who had become the first human Ruby ever drank blood from.
With trembling hands, Ethan lightly touched the wound on his chest. Fresh drops of blood, reeking of iron, dotted the floor beneath his feet. It would have been a lie to say the wound was nothing, or that he wasn't in pain or afraid.
He truly didn't want to imagine what would have happened if he hadn't dodged in time.
"Because of blood? What's so special about the blood of tall bastards like you and him compared to mine? The taste of your blood…"
Kai glared at Ethan while lightly running his tongue across the claws still stained with Ethan's fresh blood. Ethan wanted to stop that lovesick Infected, but it was already too late…
"The taste of your blood… GRAAAAAA!"
Kai suddenly clutched his throat and screamed, while Ethan stared at him in utter horror.
Feeling both the Bloodbound mark on his neck and the heart inside his chest competing to see which could beat faster, Ethan slowly stepped backward, trying to distance himself from the writhing Kai.
Ethan couldn't stop himself from letting out a long sigh.
Just because of a single drop of human blood!
A single drop of human blood was enough to turn an Infected into a Vampire - Ethan already knew this from experience, and yet he still hadn't been able to stop it from happening.
And it was all because he was exhausted and no longer fast enough.
If only he had been more rational, more focused - instead of getting distracted by the story Kai had been desperately trying to tell - none of this would have happened.
Horrified, Ethan stared at the bleeding wounds across Kai's calves, shoulders, and arms. The writhing things inside them were stretching outward, tearing apart their host's flesh and covering the floor in blood.
Within moments, nearly Kai's entire body became tightly wrapped in slimy, spike-covered tentacles born directly from his own wounds.
"No!"
Kai burst into sobs.
Chunks of tentacles and sprays of blood splattered everywhere. Kai desperately tried tearing apart the cocoon slowly enveloping him with his veiny hands.
But the harder he struggled, the faster the tentacles worked. The entire room echoed with the sickening crack of shattering bones and the agonized screams of the Infected transforming into a Vampire.
What kind of Vampire would Kai become?
If he were lucky enough to become a Semi Vampire - a being with power comparable to a Vampire while still retaining a human appearance, reason, and morality, though occasionally hot-tempered like Autumn's father - that would be wonderful.
But…
Would he really be that lucky when the success rate was only 0.01%?
"No! I don't want this… Help me!"
Kai no longer had the strength to resist the mutated parts of his own body. The tentacles had already swallowed nearly his entire form, engulfing even his arms, leaving him completely helpless.
Only his head could still move. The Poodle boy could do nothing except cry out in despair while looking toward Ethan with those beautiful eyes, begging for help.
Ethan silently cursed himself. He felt like such an idiot.
Just a few minutes ago, that crimson-skinned Infected - with horns covering his head, a spiked tail, writhing tentacles all over his body, and standing nearly 230 centimeters tall - had attacked Ethan mercilessly with all his strength.
He was the one who had injured Ethan and made him bleed.
He was the one who had tasted Ethan's blood and turned himself into this horrifying state.
And yet Ethan's damned body no longer obeyed his reason!
His body automatically sprinted toward the shattered mirror at the end of the room, picked the largest shard, then wrapped one end of it with a strip of cloth torn from one of the costumes hanging nearby.
No!
Just give up!
Nobody could save him anymore.
Even though Ethan thought one thing, his actions did the exact opposite.
Ignoring the disgusting sensation of his skin touching the slimy fluids coating the tentacles wrapped around Kai's body, Ethan still tried using his makeshift weapon to cut away layer after layer of flesh.
Would it even help?
Whenever one layer of tentacles was cut apart, another immediately grew back in its place.
Ethan had once witnessed Kitty - the Chihuahua belonging to his former landlords - being attacked by its own giant tongue. Even Autumn hadn't dared risk her life trying to save it.
So what the hell was Ethan doing right now?
Suddenly - whoosh!
Something as fast as the wind swept past, and Ethan had no chance to dodge it.
His neck instantly burned with pain while, at the same time, he felt himself choking.
Powerless from the lack of oxygen, Ethan could no longer keep hold of his makeshift weapon. The shard of glass fell to the floor and shattered into pieces instantly.
Ethan wheezed desperately for air.
His fingertips were gradually being torn apart as he clawed frantically at the thing wrapped three times around his neck. Looking down at the broken shards beneath his feet, he felt a wave of regret.
But…
…hope suddenly surged through him when, reflected within the shattered pieces of mirror, he saw the image of a petite girl with short, shoulder-length flowing hair leaping through the air.