CHAPTER 210

[Severo Calavera POV]

Severo Calavera, son of Araya Calavera, matriarch of the Mexican Calavera Family of Hunters, was a veteran Hunter of over 40 years, just like Chris – the patriarch of the Argent Family. And just like Chris, there was very little Severo hadn't heard, and even less what he hadn't seen, but the scene in front of him was a very memorable one – one of its kind.

Hijo Del Diablo, Mâs Abandonado — Spawn of the Devil and the Forsaken One; these were but a few names vampires were known by in his side of the Hunter circle, and looking at it now, he understood why his mother was anxious, overly so, at the reemergence of something like that.

'It's not just another vampire, mijo, it's Bebedor de sangre. A Bloodborn, Severo. It needs to die… if with the Argent then so be it.'

Severo's thoughts were cut short with the ringing of his phone and upon checking it, saw that it was his mother.

"Mama—"

[He knows, Severo. Christopher knows you're there.]

"Are we calling it off then?! We can't go back empty-handed after—"

[Don't cut me off again, Severo.]

"…"

[He knows, but he won't give up his daughter nor his alliance with the vampire. Since he already knows you're there, why not greet him in the way us HUNTERS do? Eh, Severo. Maybe you should remind little Christoph who we are.]

"Sí mama."

He took a deep breath and turned to the man behind him, Félix – a good man, and relayed the order to him to pass down the communication line before turning all of them off.

Looking at the vampire through his binoculars, Severo knew that wasn't something even a veteran Hunter could bring down on their own, and though he wasn't afraid, he also knew that even he would be helpless against the beast. At least it should have been so, but not anymore.

He patted the extra magazines he carried with renewed reassurance and a bloodthirsty smile on his face.

After a hundred years, he will be the first person to kill a vampire.

"Only the girl, the Coyote and the Bloodborn, right Severo?" Félix came from behind him and asked with a taut look on his face.

Severo turned to him with a harsh look in his eyes and a cold cast on his face. "Leave no one alive, Félix. Those are our orders."

Félix being the good man he was, nodded without any sign of objection and matched forward with his gun held upfront.

…..

[General POV: With Tristan]

With the first Oni gone, Tristan finally was consciously able to tap into the other aspect that went side by side with being a supernatural creature. The metaphysical part.

Sure, as a vampire his connection to things like mindscapes and mystics were abysmal, but it was still there. Every Alpha, vampire and werewolf alike, had a journey of sorts – the basis of their spark – and those who traveled it to the end came out with a qualitative difference compared to other Alphas.

It was why Alphas like Talia, Derek's mother, Deucalion, Satomi, and to a lesser extent even Peter, were different from Alphas like Derek, Ennis, Kali and the twins.

The Oni were never an opponent Tristan feared and the way he killed them showed exactly why.

He was above them in every way possible; Nature, strength, speed, instincts, beastiality, and even existence. By the time he got to the last two Oni, he felt the Hunters surrounding them start moving closer at a measured pace.

'So Chris couldn't call it off. Which means killing them is fair.'

Though he said that, he also understood the danger such a large amount of Hunters brought with them. If they were all to open fire on the Argent Family, there is a very high chance that the four people inside the building will die.

He could react to bullets but not that many at once, and even if he could protect himself, what about Allison and Malia? He couldn't allow himself to be careless at this juncture.

Ironically, the house that had been their best defense against the supernatural became the cage that might bring them to their deaths against fellow Hunters.

Tristan shot off like a red blur towards the nearest Hunter who never expected to be the first one the nightmarish beast would attack.

Tristan's hand dug into his chest without any notable restriction and when he brought it out, the man's slowly beating heart was in his hands.

In front of all the other Calavera Hunters Tristan held the heart above his head and squeezed it by digging his five red claws into it and letting the blood fall into his mouth opened below.

"Nothing beats a hunt." He whispered to himself following a pleasured sigh after finally scratching that one annoying itch he had been feeling lately.

"… As for the rest of you."

His head tilted right and a bullet impacted the ground behind him not even a split second later.

"I'll savor this banquet."

He looked and spoke as if he was high on blood but that couldn't be farther from the truth. He had finally clicked, so to say, and now he could truly appreciate a bloodbath.

SQUELCH.

Another heart fell to the floor while everyone was still stunned and then a third, a fourth, followed by a fifth who Tristan drank a good amount of his blood before clawing out his throat.

"KILL IT! KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!!"

Someone shouted and roused everyone to action. Guns were raised and bullets flew.

A red blur and an empty spot was all they saw before they started hearing screams from their back line where Tristan was unrestrainedly causing havoc and building the foundations for a modern horror myth.

A tail extended from his back and skewered through two men who were in the middle of reloading their guns and when it retracted itself, both of the men became gaunt and pale that even the huge hole in their chest didn't let out any geyser of blood.

He didn't need his mouth to suck someone's blood as his blood could do it for him both quicker and faster except that it did not feel half as good as when he drank it directly from the source with his mouth.

Bullets entered his back and legs but Tristan completely ignored them as he hunted his next victim and drained them of their blood.

His vital parts – his heart, head and spine – were already covered in a hard blood shell so he could move around more freely without worrying about every single bullet.

He dropped to the ground, right behind five Hunters who went stiff at his presence, and haphazardly swung his sharpened tails that diced them into meat blocks.

His instincts flared up for a brief moment which prompted him to bring his hands to his eyes just in time for a sniper bullet to crack and almost shatter his armored hand.

His tails whipped behind him and fired off blood crescents and spear-like projectiles towards where the bullet likely came from.

Two bullets went into his exposed thigh and just as soon as they went in, two blood threads pulled them outside and froze over the wound.

Even with house fast he was, the Hunters were coming from a 360° around the Argent House which meant that he couldn't fully protect the house at any given point.

Chris and Victoria were already replying with shots of their own but could hardly do anything with how easily they were suppressed under the rain of bullets.

Malia was tasked with keeping an eye on Allison and so far the wild girl hasn't let the pale and recently traumatized princess go farther than an arm's length away from her.

She wanted nothing more than to run outside and join Tristan in what she saw as a romantic slaughter fest, an extra spark to their already blazing affection for each other. Only if she wasn't delegated to protecting the damsel… who had a crush on her knight in bloody armor. LIKE HELL SHE'LL LET SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPEN ON HER WATCH.

Her Tristan was no one's Prince Charming. He was just that – her Tristan.

"Tristan is going to kill them all!" Allison screamed from behind a wall with her head under Malia's arm.

"Not if they kill us first!" Victoria replied back and put her head out to take a shot that sank into her target's abdomen.

"Are you sure you don't remember tipping off the Calavera that you were a pseudo dark fox?" Malia asked with clipped breaths as a volley of bullets took off the edges of the wall they were hiding behind and caused Allison to scream in panic.

"For the sixth time and the last time, no I don't. If you're done with the questions, mind fetching me a gun?"

Despite the dire situation they were currently faced with, Malia had the luxury of laughing sarcastically at Allison's face.

"I'd rather trust the Calavera to shoot me than to give you a gun right now and trust you not to shoot me."

Allison could only bite her lips in frustration and anger with how true Malia's words were. The lichen effect was already fading off and she hadn't told anyone yet but she could see the Nogitsune in one of the destroyed furniture laughing its wrapped head off.

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