11 Chapter 11: Bad Situation

Livac let out a sigh as Sirvis walked towards him.

"I don't have any excuses." He pulled out the gourd and took another large drink from it. Afterwards, he sat up without exhibiting the slightest hint of fatigue. His injuries remained, but his demeanor was filled with vigor and vitality.

"Hmph. Anyways, I've come to tell you that the objective has changed."

"Changed?" Livac said with slight shock.

"The lord has changed his mind. Obtaining a drop of blood is now just a fallback objective. Our primary goal now is to kill him."

"Kill? Why?"

Normally, Livac would have been glad that killing Rel was now an option. However, he found it surprising that their lord had changed his mind so soon.

"Are you questioning the orders of our leader?" Sirvis asked with a grave tone.

"N-No, of course not... I'm just shocked that the lord wants the target dead all of a sudden."

"Well those are the orders and we servants are meant to obey. not question. I assume you learned a bit about our enemy after your little spar?"

Livac nodded.

"Yes. He was much weaker than I thought he would be. With the meager strength he exhibited during our fight, I find it hard to believe he was even able to beat my brother. My guess is that the curse you inflicted on him the week before must still be affecting him in some way."

"Go on." Sirvis lifted an eyebrow with an intrigued expression.

"Considering the nature of the curse and how you were spectating us from somewhere nearby... I speculate that your presence is perhaps the trigger to his seal."

Sirvis stroked his chin as he contemplated the thought. Livac's hypothesis did make sense. When Daivak was killed, he was absent from the scene. However, this time, he was not, and Rel's abilities were much lower than normal.

The more Sirvis thought about it, the more he began to believe in Livac's theory. After casting the curse he was left in critical condition. Curses, especially ones that connected two individuals together, usually depended on the state of the user as well. Perhaps the near death state he was in after casting the curse reduced the effectiveness of it, and now that he was back to peak capacity, the curse returned as well.

"Hmm... It does make sense. In that case, I will continue to stay nearby till you finish the job. I suggest you hurry though. By my estimate, you have about ten minutes before they reach the entrance of the building."

After watching Sirvis leave, Livac looked down at the gourd in his hand. He lifted it into the air and poured the remaining liquid into his mouth. Once it was empty, the gourd returned back to its original size.

Livac's red eyes glowed menacingly as he felt a surge of power course through him.

"Don't worry, that's plenty of time."

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Rel and Piri ran like wolves escaping a wildfire as they descended down the floors of the building. The only connecting hallway to the other buildings was blocked by Livac, so the only other exit was the main entrance.

After sprinting down three floors, Rel's speed began to drastically decline. The extra energy Piri had supplied him was spent and his physical abilities began to suffer. He had also overexerted his body while fighting Livac as well. The fatigue he held back was starting to set in, making him even slower.

"Hey Rel, why are we running? That guy from the Blood Clan was down. You could've killed him immediately."

Rel shook his head while readjusting his grip on the two boys hanging over his shoulders.

"Piri, didn't you find it weird that despite giving me such little energy I was able to reverse the situation so easily?"

Piri was silent. Even with Sly's support, the energy that was given to Rel wasn't much. Now that she thought about it more, it made no sense as to why Rel would suddenly be able to knock out Livac so quickly from such a little boost in strength.

"Also, remember how that Blood Clan vampire said he had a grudge against me? Well, the last time we fought he wasn't alone, there were two others with him."

"Two?!" Piri gasped.

"Yeah. I killed one of them, but the other survived and that one is even more dangerous. In our last fight, he used this weird spell that sealed away around half of my power."

Piri's eyes widened with astonishment. This meant that when they first met, Rel was already using less than half his full strength when he fought against them.

She swept her eyes over the two unconscious boys slung over Rel's shoulder. Given by how long she had been with them, she already knew what their reactions would be if they heard this.

"Anyways, judging by how they operated last time, the other one might be somewhere nearby. That's why I want to get out of here as fast as possible and find a place to---'

Crash~

The ceiling above them suddenly collapsed.

"Crap! Piri!" Rel shouted. He extended a hand towards her, but a large piece of rubble fell from above and separated them. Piri cried out, but Rel could barely hear her through the crashing of rubble onto the floor.

The amount of rubble that fell was not proportionate to that of a single floor. Instead, it seemed to be equal to the combined amount of multiple.

Eventually, the weight of the rubble was so much that the floor they were on started to collapse as well. As the foundation shattered and his body fell, Rel quickly tried to look for Piri, but to no avail. Gritting his teeth, he abandoned the thought of looking for her and focused on protecting the two unconscious boys on his shoulders.

It didn't take long for them to reach the floor below and even the one below that. The endless rain of rubble had broken through the remaining two floors they were on and took them straight to the entrance.

Landing hard on his back, Rel groaned in pain. He had used himself as a cushion in order to protect Sly and Ital from the majority of the impact. Being a vampire, the fall wasn't enough to kill him, but it still caused serious damage to his body.

"Agh... That hurt..." Rel felt a glob of blood rise up in his throat, but forced it back down. The collapse was clearly caused by either Livac or his leader, and he already learned the hard way how dangerous it could be to leave even a single drop of blood.

Staggering to his feet, Rel examined himself. His uniform was in a complete mess and his bones creaked as he stretched out. He was heavily bruised, but miraculously had no cuts.

The last bits of rubble had fell, leaving a huge cloud of dust behind. Before the dust settled, Rel hid Sly and Ital under large pieces of debris. Air was tight, but at least they would be unseen.

[Alright... I guess I should go look for Piri before those two goons get down here.]

Coughing a bit due to the dust, Rel called out for Piri.

"Piri! Are you there? Talk to me!"

"If you're looking for the girl, she's right here." A familiar voice said.

Rel let out a sigh as he heard the voice behind the dust. He had figured something like this would happen.

As the dust cleared Livac's figure appeared before him. Beneath him was Piri, who laid unconscious by his feet.

"Don't worry, I just knocked her out. After I finish beating you within an inch of your life, I'll take my time torturing her until she begs for death before your eyes." He smiled coldly.

"You're a monster." Rel was disgusted, but he was relieved that it meant Piri was safe for the time being.

"Who said we vampires aren't? You and the other clans have simply gotten too soft and have been influenced too much by the humans. Once our clan is in power, we will make sure that does not happen again."

Rel picked up a large piece of rubble and threw it at Livac. He dodged it effortlessly, but this was only a distraction so that Rel could get in close.

Unfortunately, Livac was ready. Just as Rel was about to tackle him down, he sent a strong knee kick into the teen's abdomen.

The attack was heavy and caused Rel to gag as he clutched his stomach in pain. It was clear to him now that Livac must have drank more of the liquid within that bizarre gourd before coming. He began to retreat backwards in order to recover, but Livac wasn't having any of it. Quickly catching up to him, Livac grabbed Rel by his tattered shirt collar and started smashing him on the ground like a ragdoll.

Rel covered his head as his bones began to crack from the trauma. His body was starting to go numb, but he didn't utter a sound. All of his focus was on minimizing the damage and making sure he did not cough out any blood.

"You have quite the thick skin. All of this, yet you still don't even bleed. In that case I'll-- Aargh!!"

The last thing Livac saw before his right eye was removed from its socket was a streak of black. Howling in pain, he threw Rel into a pile of rubble and brought his hands up to his face.

"Damn it! Why you! You'll pay for that!"

Rel's entire body shook as he slowly pulled himself back up. A black crow holding a crimson eye in its talons was perched on his shoulder. He let out a faint smile as he panted profusely.

"Heh... Teach, I take it back when I said that this crow was a terrible graduation gift. Capable summons like these that barely require any energy to bring out really do save lives."