It doesn't take long for five hearts and five kakuhous to disappear from their own bodies and be swallowed by me, who burps and pats my belly satisfied.
"Ah... that was good."
I feel my mental energy restore at an extremely fast speed before filling completely. At the same time, from my stomach extends the same warmth I always feel when eating and that slightly expands my own body, making me a bit taller while gaining a bit of muscle.
At that moment, I have three floating eyes moving stealthily through the area where these five ghouls came from. The eyes capture and transmit what's happening to my brain, and what's seen there is like a large camp made with fabrics and pieces of metal.
Subtracting the five I've already killed, outside that camp there are about fifteen ghouls lazily patrolling.
Taking into account they could be guards, then inside there must be many others, probably resting or doing whatever ghouls do in their free time.
To verify this, I have one of my eyes enter a room that's quite large, excavated directly into the rock. And I see many restless beings moving back and forth.
The strangest thing is that these beings don't look like the ghouls found outside. They're somewhat hunched with unnatural postures, and because the room is dark their eyes that don't have black sclera like ghouls shine crimson red.
By the frequencies I capture through the eye, I feel chills throughout my body. They produce sounds of low growls and heavy breathing, and since there are many of them the sound produced makes them seem like...
"Zombies?"
I don't know why, but seeing the appearance of those monsters suddenly reminded me of zombies and I pronounced that word without thinking.
Those monsters look forward and seem to want to pounce on something, while at the same time seeming afraid to do so.
I make my All-Seeing Eye focus forward, penetrating vision toward the deeper darkness of the room. And there, two red orbs shine in the center. Those red orbs are actually extremely cold and mocking eyes observing the zombie horde with amusement.
This eyes belong to what appears to be a ghoul, especially because of his red iris, except he doesn't have black sclera and actually his skin is much whiter than a ghoul's. At the same time he opens his mouth and long fangs are revealed.
Suddenly he lowers his head and bites the neck of a woman he has in his arm. The only reason the woman didn't scream in fright at this horrible scene is because she's unconscious.
Sucking sounds are heard.
—Slurp... slurp... slurp...
Shortly after a minute, with his mouth full of blood dripping down his chin, he throws the woman's pale body toward the zombie horde as if throwing meat to hungry dogs.
—Kuuuuhhhh!
Dozens of feet echoed in the room while strong hands quickly dismembered the woman's body. While the flesh was chewed and swallowed with disgusting sounds...
"Hahahahaha!"
I who was watching that scene through my All-Seeing Eyes suddenly started laughing out loud unable to contain myself.
Because I've found my objective.
"A vampire! It's actually a damn vampire!"
×××
I head toward a place where I had hidden my things I brought from the surface. A small hollow in the wall I covered with rocks so nobody would find it.
Arriving there, I move the rocks aside and retrieve a backpack.
I open the zipper and from inside I take out two pairs of smoke screens I stole from some careless police officers.
"I should take that too."
Then I grab flares and along with the smoke screens I put them inside my black cloak. Since firearms did nothing against existences like ghouls much less vampires, I hadn't even taken the time to steal them.
After doing this, I return to the place from where I lured those five bastards a while ago, following the same path through the tunnels.
I walk for about thirty minutes and arrive there, slowly approaching the camp while keeping my steps silent.
"Takeda... Do you know where he went? It's been a while since I've seen him."
"That bastard, surely he and his squad went looking for meat again."
"Tsk! With our lord present, I wonder why they even bother looking for food."
"Hihihi. Since the lord became our boss, we've never lacked delicious human meat to eat."
With my sharp senses, even from over a hundred meters I can hear what the men say as they converse not knowing their death approaches.
It makes sense these ghouls didn't know where the five went, after all I guided them to separate them from those who stay here watching.
So, smiling under my oni mask, I approach through the darkness toward my prey.
Seventy meters.
Fifty meters.
Twenty-five meters.
Then I put my hand under my cloak and throw something that goes flying through the air. Where it falls it's inevitable it would produce sound, especially in the underground area where everything echoes. Hearing the commotion that produced echoes resonating everywhere, the ghouls become alert and look at the object rolling toward them.
One shouts with an alarmed voice.
"Who's there?!"
Then the object suddenly releases thick smoke that covers the entire area in seconds.
—Psssshhh!
The smoke screen expands rapidly.
—Cough! Cough!
Soon the smoke-covered area fills with coughs and curses while the ghouls try to clear the air.
Immediately after, shadows are seen running at an alarming speed through the gray smoke, moving so fast they're barely visible even to ghoul eyes.
—Euuuk!
After the sound of something penetrating flesh, a ghoul lets out a miserable scream before falling to the ground with a thud while blood spurts from his slit throat.
The blurred figure moves toward the next target and a ghoul's head is ripped from his neck with a fluid movement before flying through the air magnificently.
—Thud!
When five more were eliminated in rapid succession, they seem to start understanding the situation despite the panic.
"We're under enemy attack! Be careful!"
'I'm listening to you, captain obvious.'
Following the origin of that shout, the figure moving fluidly through the gray fog, which is me of course, beheads the ghoul with five sharp claws growing on my transformed fingers.
—Shiiink!
—Uuuk!
Desperate screams escape their throats as they try to defend themselves or escape, but in the dense smoke they can't see me coming until it's too late. And in little less than two minutes, all the ghouls perished in puddles of their own blood.
Too easy. If I'd known they were so weak, there wouldn't have even been a need to separate those five from these.
Then, when the smoke slowly dissolves and vision starts to clear, a terrifying presence appears from inside the camp that makes the air itself feel heavier.
"What's all this noise?! Huh...? Who the hell are you?"
Pronouncing those words with a deep and resonant voice, the man looks at me who has claws covered in blood dripping to the floor forming small puddles.
Behind the man are more than three dozen zombies that growl and writhe restlessly, but don't dare move without his permission.
"Kekekek. You've finally come out, Mr. Vampire."
Although it's the first time I'm encountering a vampire with the intention to kill, even if this vampire had subjugated the ghouls and somehow become their boss through fear or force...
I don't feel intimidated.
Faced with that terrifying presence the vampire gives off like a wave of power, I laugh out loud unable to contain myself.
×××
If you liked this, throw me a Power Stone! It might save my life.
At 100 Power Stones, I'll drop a bonus chapter.