Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Chapter 584: Death Emerges from the Gate!?

Vladimir’s eyes shrank the moment his son-in-law vanished into the doorway, his world slowed, and suddenly, voices, sounds, emotions, and everything around him became distorted. All that remained clear was the heavy beat of his heart and the voices of his daughters calling Nikolai’s name.

‘I cannot let it end like this.’

For all the years he lacked courage and the many times he made foolish mistakes, now was the time for the Tepes clan to show its honour and loyalty.

“Pierre!”

“Yes, My Lord!”

“Gather the Blood Knights and wipe out the enemy, protect our allies and brethren from the Volkov and Fenrir clans!”

“We must fight!”

His voice exploded, destroying the atmosphere surrounding him with the sound of glass shattering. The world’s sound and colour returned to normal for him. He glanced at the panicked faces around him and lifted his blood blade.

“Do not fear, do not lament, we must pursue, and fight!”

The weakest maids became limp the moment that hand dragged Nikolai inside, many of the strongest maids tried to smash the chains and enter the massive gate themselves.

However, this brought no rewards.

“What do you mean, Patriarch Tepes?”

“Hm,” Vladimir paused, looking at the young maid with fiery eyes and fists clenched tightly. He couldn’t sense a great power, but the determination was enough. “You are?”

“Epsilon Leader, Cleopatra!”

It might have been the first time she introduced herself, facing the might of another clan’s leader. Cleo felt the difference between Vladimir and Nikolai instantly. One was like a powerful, all-encompassing wall that kept them safe.

Nevertheless, Vladimir felt more like a spear wall, pointed directly at her.

“I see, the Volkov clan really does interesting things.” He examined Cleopatra while rubbing his chin, surprised at the fact that she was neither a squire nor a knight.

‘Yet her power is close to our blood knights.’

Vladimir stepped to the side and glanced around at the hapless knights, squires and maids, all demoralised at the loss of Nikolai. ‘My son-in-law is quite the criminal.’

“Do not mourn, grasp your weapons and stand tall. That boy, do you truly think that Nikolai Volkov, the man I admit as my son-in-law, could lose to this rabble?” Vladimir’s greatsword cut through the air, slicing a charging dog in half. “These monsters have entered his land, our land! What would he say if we do nothing and let them walk over us?!”

‘This feels good.’

Most of the time, Vladimir didn’t take part actively in clashes with other clans, so over the many years, listening to reports from his knights made these situations become dreary. Now swinging his greatsword for the first time in decades, his heart burned with glee.

‘No wonder that brat always looks so energetic and proud.’

Vwoom!

His blade cleaved through another dog before he pointed his index finger into a distant group of imps and created a dozen blood spears that appeared in the air, hovering above them.

“Tepes Blood Art – Spear of judgement!”

However, the moment he spoke, the spears doubled in number, and their tips became ever sharper.

Snap!

Nearly a hundred spears rained death upon them when he snapped his fingers; the horde of imps cried out in agony.

“Follow the Tepes Patriarch!”

Fifty blood knights wearing black leather and dated plate armour rushed forward; unlike Vladimir, their blood arts could only create a blood weapon. A type of sword or spear that grew with the one who summoned it.

Pierre was Vladimir’s knight, the strongest knight of the Tepes clan, apart from the twin werewolves who served his daughters.

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.

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Meanwhile.

“Leader, what should we do?”

The maids from the Epsilon maid unit all gathered behind Cleopatra, who checked her MP5 and reserve magazines. Because the maids lacked brute force, they relied on these altered or upgraded firearms.

At least until Nikolai appeared, since the moment he took control, they were ordered to enter the tower three days a week, while the benefit didn’t seem significant at the start.

Thanks to Nikolai donating his blood to the maids to boost their purity, the differences were much bigger than expected.

“Load your guns, check your ammunition, prepare to fight in close combat!” Cleopatra noticed that most of the imps died thanks to the reinforcements and Tepe’s knights clearing them out. Now, the maids could show their hunting skills.

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Cleo closed her eyes, feeling the thump of her little heart as she clenched her teeth, trying to guide the werewolf blood through her body.

The main clan didn’t create these tactics and methods of fighting, but by Leona Volkov. Their comrade, and the first maid to become the wife of a Main bloodline clan member, taught this method after training with their lord one-on-one.

A method to collect their limited Celestial aura and condense it into one or two limbs, creating a partial transformation with strength almost equal to a pureblood werewolf for a limited time.

“Ignore the weak imps, aim for the dogs.”

Cleopatra’s voice distorted as her silky brown flesh tensed, covered in slight bumps as every muscle in her arms and legs suddenly tensed, squeezing as their size increased. Her teeth grew sharper and elongated as her face distorted slightly.

With two huge claws and elongated arms covered in dark hairs, she squatted slightly, tensing her huge, muscular thighs, while scanning the surroundings with wild, darting eyes. ‘I’ll never get used to this exhilarating feeling!’

Speed, power and dynamic vision increased explosively, at the cost of reason and vast amounts of stamina.

“Is everyone ready?”

Behind her, half-wolves with the same transformation, some more complete than others, with various hair colours showing their mixed bloodlines.

“Yes, Ma’am!”

A chorus of distorted, beastly voices answered.

“Charge!”

Their target, two dogs protected by a mass of imps, the demons became more passive after the Blood and Volkov Knights started their massacre.

‘Their movements are slower?’

Cleo leapt forward, beside her a dozen hunting dogs, all able to leap at least four metres in a single jump.

The dogs growled, noticing the approaching women.

“Grrrrr!”

Immediately, the imps, as if understanding, turned to the women, their hands glowing with fire.

Cleo ignored their movements, grunted, and dashed forward, her thighs so powerful that each step cracked and damaged the concrete. She pushed off the ground, shooting into the sky as cracks spread several metres across the ground.

Bang!

With both arms extended, she clawed at the leading imps, her mouth letting out a roar, tearing through them like tofu.

The imps stood no chance.

Thirteen hunting dogs tore through them like blades, ripping apart fragile bodies with snapping jaws and crushing momentum. Fire sputtered uselessly as the dogs slammed into the imps, tearing limbs free and scattering scorched remains across the ground.

Cleo landed hard among the corpses, kneeling, her claws sinking into the cracked concrete as if it were ice cream.

Her head lifted with a snap, eyes glowing with a feral light.

She paused for a brief moment, then twisted her foot and pushed off the ground, rushing forward again like a ferocious beast, meeting the hellhound head-on.

It was larger than the others, with two rows of sharp teeth inside its huge mouth, a blackened hide with a cracked texture like burnt iron. The beast watched her with glowing eyes, carrying a dim, hateful intelligence.

“Grrrrr!”

The beast lunged at her.

Cleo met it mid-charge, one claw raking across its snout while the other drove straight into its ribcage. Bone shattered under the impact, as the creature slid back, before it snapped at her forearm, sharp teeth grinding against her reinforced muscle.

“Agh!”

Her voice wavered with a low groan, but she didn’t flinch; her right arm smashed into the beast’s face, over and over and over. While snarling, her muscles swelled further as she poured celestial aura into the arm inside its mouth.

“Die, Die, Die, Die!”

She grabbed the hound’s neck, twisting violently as her knee slammed upward, crunching its teeth and snapping the beast’s spine. Cleo’s arm tore from the dog’s mouth, torn, bleeding, but holding its tonsils.

“Peh!” Spitting on the floor, she tossed the body like trash, staggering with slightly blurred vision.

Around her, the Epsilon maids fought like demons themselves.

When one wasn’t enough, two jumped and tore apart the enemy; if two, then three. It lacked all elegance, but with their limited power and potential, this was their limit. For the maids, beings treated like expendables because of their low-purity blood. It was a world of magic to fight these creatures as equals.

One maid was dragged down by three imps, shrieking as fire scorched her side. Another tackled a hellhound twice her size, driving a blade through its eye before being hurled across the battlefield.

However, a moment later, their sisters rushed forward to support them.

“Hold formation!” Cleo roared, barely recognising her own voice, as she bit into the throat of an imp to stop it from harming another maid.

The maids adjusted instinctively, falling into overlapping pairs, with pristine teamwork. The enemies’ numbers dwindled as the space where the final gate vanished began to tremble and crack, the black doorway forming slowly as if using the demon’s blood as a medium to manifest.

Ahead of them, Vladimir carved a path through the chaos.

His greatsword sang as it moved, blood trailing behind each swing like a living thing. Where he passed, demons simply ceased to exist. Pierre and the Blood Knights held the line beside him, methodical and brutal, advancing step by step.

Yet even as demons fell, the ground trembled again.

Far behind the enemy ranks, the second massive gate reappeared, pulsing.

A deep howl echoed from within.

Cleo froze for a fraction of a second, her enhanced senses screaming.

‘Something big is coming.’

She looked toward the gate just as another presence forced itself through. Larger than the hellhounds. A much heavier and warped figure, plated with bone and blackened flesh, dragging a massive cleaver that gouged trenches into the ground with each step.

The demon’s gaze locked onto the maids.

Then the fucker smiled!