Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Chapter 553: The Lamia’s Husband

”I won’t die!” Ryan shouted from the top of his lungs and crossed both arms in front of his face to block the incoming blow.

Boom, crack!

The leader’s fist smashed into Ryan with devastating force and created a deep crater filled with huge cracks running along the wall.

”F-Fuck...!” Ryan’s wrists ached while his brain shook from the blow as Alexei’s fist appeared before his eyes, deforming the vampire’s cheek.

”Eh!?”

The vampire vanished from his sight.

’His face, it collapsed.’

Thud!

Alexei’s punch crushed the monster’s face and sent him flying into the opposite wall with enough force to shatter the entire thing.

”Ptooey! Fuck I can’t feel my arms. What the hell is that power?”

Ryan spat out the sweet blood from his mouth, mumbling in a whiny, apathetic tone. The way he cracked his neck, before checking his arms, made the maids pay attention to him for the first time.

”Eh, does the lord’s friend have monster blood?”

”I’m not sure...”

”Hm?” He glanced down at his arms after hearing their comments. ”What?” Then gasped. Ryan’s pale skin was gone, replaced by sleek, obsidian scales like those along the spine of his beloved lover.

’Are these lamia scales? Sweet!’

Despite not knowing why or how he’d gained them. Ryan’s moist lips smacked, twisting into a smile. His beloved mentioned something in the past. ’You’ll understand in the future, ask Nikolai.’ was all she told him... but now he knew.

”Ptooey! Your love is perfect. I won’t forget it, babe.” Ryan smirked.

While rolling the lingering blood on his tongue before spitting it out, he glanced at the remaining vampires.

He clenched both fists, the scales like elegant gauntlets. No, rather than just elegance, they exuded a deadly atmosphere. ”Ah?” When he gripped both guns tight, a purple mist, almost like smog, leaked from his fingertips and seeped into the magnum’s chamber.

’Whoa, the bullets are purple!? Is this her poison?’

”Lord Ryan!”

The maid’s leg snapped out, crushing the vampire’s crotch.

”We’ll aid you, human!”

A second maid grabbed the stunned vampire and smashed its head against the stone pillar.

’Shit! Nikolai’s women are crazy!’

Ryan’s eyes slipped towards Alexei, fighting five of the seven ghosts. ’They’re not dying?’ He snapped back to the one the maids just defeated, both magnums aimed at its dome.

”Die!”

Dut, dut!

With a single shot, the purple shells cut through the air and popped the vampire’s skull like a hammer hitting a melon. Blood sprayed from the corpse. No longer black. But purple. Was it because the poison spread, he instinctively thought as the colour matched the bullets.

”Huh?”

Ryan’s body shifted to the side, avoiding another vampire’s sharp claws from tearing out his throat. He twisted his body and took another two shots at the female vampire’s chest. Her chest burst open with a disgusting squelch.

’It’s different!’

The body dropped to the ground, clawing at the wounds that no longer healed. Purple-coloured spots spread like water touching tissue. The vampire’s veins popped, leaking an amethyst ichor that bubbled and hissed like acid.

He watched the vampire clutch her throat with a low groan as the strange green mist dissipated.

”Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

”I can kill the ghosts with this strange mist...?” Ryan turned to Alexei with his lips curved into a grin. ”Alex, get down!” With his pistol aimed at the vampires, he trusted his friend to avoid them easily.

Pap, pap!

Six shots burst from the muzzle.

Ryan’s fingers throbbed from the rapid movement before as he dashed towards Alex, while hitting the magazine release with his thumb.

”Kyaaaak!”

”Grraaa!”

’Shit, I missed one!’

Two of the vampires dropped instantly, with the third losing its arm in a burst of purple mist. Ryan’s body slipped on the blood coating the floor as he jumped, rolling over a desk. He landed beside Alex, with both guns aimed at the two downed vampires.

”Well, you’re pretty damn useful for once.” Alexei joked while holding the leader down.

”Tsk, don’t act all strong. Worship me!”

”Fuck off! You ain’t him!”

”Prick!”

Ryan snapped fresh magazines into the magnums and rolled both wrists to aim them at the wounded vampires.

”Oi, damn ghosts there’s only three of you left! Why don’t you answer some questions!”

Alexei suddenly turned to Ryan with a bewildered gaze, his eyes and mouth opened wide, while still crushing the windpipe of the leader. ”You... when did you learn how to speak human!?”

”What?”

”... insolent mortal, how dare you—Ack!? W-What are you doing, ruffian!”

The ghost inside the leader screamed in agony the moment Alexei punched it in the face, breaking both vampire fangs from the undead’s body.

”Heh, it speaks like a moron.”

”Takes one...” Alexei stopped speaking as he suddenly glanced up at the sky. ”What?”

”What’s wrong, baldy?”

Suddenly, Alexei’s atmosphere changed. His thin lips trembled while glancing up. He slowly lowered his head and glanced back at Ryan while visibly shaking.

”We, need to hurry.”

”Alex?”

Even through the black scales, Ryan could feel the subtle prickle in the air, which made his heart beat faster.

’Danger?’

Was it something bad? There was a feeling in his mind for a moment. Flee. Before he shook his head and pulled the trigger, killing the two subordinate vampires, and pressed the muzzle against the leader.

”Then, let’s get what information we can. After all, we’re here to help Nikolai.”

”Tsk, you’re right.”

”F-Foolish!”

Crack!

Ryan whipped the vampire with his pistol butt. The force cracked the vampire’s skull, creating a gaping hole, revealing his brain.

”Who do you serve?” Thud! ”Who is your master?!” Crack! ”Which clan created that array?!”

Alexei punched the vampire leader after each question. He didn’t hold back, squeezing the monster’s throat in order to anchor it for maximum power. Black blood sprayed through the air as the two interrogated the final ghost.

”...”

’Alexei is so brutal.’

Above them, the green array flickered with a dull light, turning grey with each punch; it cracked and faded more.

Ryan pondered his next move while grasping his guns. The mission for his group wasn’t to reach the top, but to secure any information and stragglers. These ghosts and the strange atmospheric pressure led to a tension that almost suffocated him.

”Why won’t he speak?”

”I don’t know, there’s likely some kind of curse stopping him.”

Sweat dripped down Ryan’s cheeks. The heat from the battle and his racing heart, trying to compensate, pumping oxygen to his starved limbs, wasn’t enough. His breathing was a mess, and the mist also began to thin out.

’There’s not enough time, eh... but?’

Suddenly, he lowered his magnum and aimed at the vampire’s foot and crotch while hooking the trigger. Ryan remembered that the vampire earlier recoiled in pain after taking damage to its genitals.

”Alex, let my try something. Keep him still for me, okay?”

The huge bald vampire shrugged his shoulders and gripped the eloquent talking ghost with both hands, easily controlling the monster’s movements.

”Don’t blame me for this, you’re the one who wouldn’t speak.”

”W-Wait!?”

Bang, bang!

Ryan and Alexei’s faces turned pale after the flash and echoing bells vanished from their ears. The vampire’s screech forced through the tightly gripped throat as purple veins spread through his body, from the destroyed genitals and missing foot.

”Y....you.... FUCKING HUMAN!”

’Wow!’

There was nothing left.

His lower half crumbled into purple mist and ashes, while Alexei swallowed and looked back at his partner in crime with a strange, but accepting grin.

”You’re a menace.”

”Shut it, Ptooey! ask the questions!”

”Hmm? Well... okay then.”

”Let’s make a bet.”

Alexei’s eyes lit up as he glanced down at Ryan, whose expression and aura almost matched a wolf’s. It was so impressive he couldn’t help but nod his head.

”Sure.”

”Heh, then I bet this fucker will tell you everything you want to know! $5000!”

Ryan’s cocky grin twitched while waiting for Alexei to respond. The huge vampire slowly tapped his phone and then nodded. ”Sure. Let’s do it.”

”Speak!” Alexei barked, twisting the ruined vampire’s jaw until bone creaked.

The leader shuddered. His pupils shrank to pinpoints, then blew wide, trembling like he was staring into a nightmare only he could see.

”H-Haa... stop... the mist... it burns...!” the ghost’s voice cracked, slipping between tones.

Ryan raised a brow. ’My wife is the best!’

He came to realise that the mist and the snake scales saved his life, but also worried him that his wife’s toxins seemed able to affect the mind.

But the vampire’s body convulsed. The more the purple spread through his veins, the more his body collapsed.

’Neurotoxins?’

”Who sent you?” Alexei demanded.

However, the vampire just stared at him blankly, with bloodshot eyes, the capillaries glowing a vibrant violet while pulsing into his iris.

”...Nos.....ratu....”

”Anyone can tell that! I don’t buy it!”

Thud!

”Tell me who made the damn array, you ghost bastard!”

A strangled hiss escaped him as the poison dissolved the vampire’s body, only his neck nd head in Alexei’s hand while the rest crumbled to ash. His eye burst in a spray of amethyst vapour before he finally cracked.

”N-Not us...! The Lamashtu clan! Those damned Djinn!”

”What!?”

Ryan gasped in shock, but a huge burst of searing hot aura exploded from Alexei’s body.