Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Nikolai’s group finished their mission and headed back above ground. At some point, the second team should have joined them, but this never happened.

When Nikolai’s team reached the base camp, they found the old man Alex smoking near the van. He then turned his gaze to notice that Luke, aka Tiger 1, stood with his blue eyes gazing at the half-destroyed village and a pile of burning corpses in the centre.

”What happened? Where is Panther 4 and 5?” Alex sucked on his cigarette, peeking at Nikolai, while his searching gaze peeked around him to find others.

”Where is Panther 1, what happened to Young Master Ryan?”

’He’s not here… that’s strange.’

Nikolai’s thoughts returned to the tower, but he couldn’t have missed Ryan. He and Amphitrite covered each of the floors together.

He looked back, and Risa gazed back with a nod. Thanks to him helping the others recover from their blood frenzy, they took the reluctant Amphitrite back to the mansion first, while Leona and the combat maids would remain just in case.

”I thought he and Maria returned to the base camp, that’s strange.”

Nikolai’s words carried nothing but lies. However, his tone and steady words convinced Alex, who nodded before beckoning Brian over to him.

”Something strange happened, White Wolf. When we were halfway through the mission, a strange door opened in the sky, and sucked half of the mercenaries inside. Bruce, Nicola, and Sarah from the Tiger team all vanished.”

”How did that happen?” Nikolai forced his voice to sound shocked. His mind raced, and he was sure something had happened because he opened the doorway.

He clenched his fists, while worried about Ryan. Because if they didn’t get sent to the forgotten tower, then what if he went to the tower in the nexus.

It was a long shot, but that was Nikolai’s current theory, and that tower was alive and well.

’There’s no chance of them completing that tower…’

”Niko—White wolf, Panther 3! You’re safe?!”

Brian’s deep voice pulled Nikolai out of his thoughts, and he looked around him. Risa still stood beside him, her emerald eyes flickering as she checked her surroundings.

”Panther 4, you look good. Nothing bad happened to you?” Nikolai grabbed Brain’s hand and patted his shoulder.

”Yes, I’m fine. It’s all thanks to Luke and Alex.” Brian smiled and clapped his hands together.

”The boss seems to have vanished, though. What should we do?” He seemed genuinely worried, while Nikolai’s eyes scanned the area, curious about what actually happened and whether the others actually survived.

Bzzzt!

Suddenly, a loud sound echoed through the sky, and a door-shaped portal opened. A figure fell through it, crashing onto the ground. The person rolled across the floor, groaning and stopping as he turned around with a grunt.

”Young Master Ryan!”

”Ryan!” Brian forgot to call him Panther 1, but seeing as Alex also called his name, it seemed to no longer matter.

The next moment after the portal flickered open with an inhumane blue light, several other bodies flung out, with ranging wounds, the black-haired Sarah, and the woman called Nicola with dirty blonde hair. All three of them were bleeding and covered in cuts and bites.

Finally, a woman rolled out, her right arm hanging limp, but she wasn’t unconscious. In her left arm was a sword made of monster parts—a common drop in the first five tower floors.

Maria panted, while pointing the blade at the portal, as if waiting for it to close.

’Wait a minute, where is Brian?’

Nikolai noticed that at the same time as Brian and Alex, the portal flickered and started to collapse. Luke hugged the two women on the ground while Brian shouted.

”Where’s Bruce? Where the hell is Panther 5?!”

”H-He’s gone.” Maria spat blood on the ground and grunted in pain. ”Bruce was a phantom all along! He is the one who created this trap and tried to kill us all.”

Brian stopped, freezing like a statue.

However, Nikolai’s eyes narrowed. He would have noticed if Bruce was a phantom. This couldn’t be true; at least he wasn’t one in the past.

’Did something change?’

Nikolai had a lot to think about, especially if Bruce was a Phantom, or at least half of one, which meant someone had converted him in the past few weeks. Could it be a vampire or a werewolf? He didn’t know, but asking too many questions would expose him or cause too much trouble to come Nikolai’s way.

”How did he fight?” Nikolai asked Maria, who looked at him with dull eyes.

”He could create monsters from thin air, out of blood, but the biggest issue we found was he didn’t die when shot, or stabbed.”

Her eyes glimmered as she sucked in a deep breath.

”Can you save the questions for later, my team member needs medical attention?” Luke suddenly interrupted them as he picked up Sarah. She groaned but stayed still. Her injuries were mostly minor, except for a deep cut on her leg. However, it was nothing serious enough to kill her. ”Let’s go Maria.”

”Ugh.” She groaned again as Luke helped her back to the van, before looking back at Ryan, who got back to his feet with help from Brian.

”N-Nikolai, it’s bad.” Ryan’s hoarse voice sounded like someone put blades in his throat.

”What’s wrong?” Nikolai moved closer and held Ryan up by his waist. The young man felt so light that it almost seemed like he’d snap under pressure.

”It’s…” He gazed at Brian and Alex before letting out a long sigh. ”Let me speak in private, guys.” He waved off everyone else and sighed.

Nikolai helped Ryan to a nearby tree where they sat down against it. As soon as he was sure no one else was listening, he spoke.

”They turned Bruce into a monster, like that night at the bar, where we fought those freaks. He was covered in scars, skin grafts and other stuff I don’t want to mention. They experimented on him.”

Nikolai frowned as Ryan spoke.

The story seemed almost impossible, yet here it was.

”So you think it’s the same people? How did they know about our mission here?” Nikolai asked, trying to piece everything together.

”I don’t know, maybe he sold us out for power? It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.”

However, Nikolai didn’t think Bruce would be their trump card. His role was too small, and he couldn’t be the limit of the corruption. Perhaps the SSS wasn’t against monsters like they believed.

”I saw something strange there,” Ryan added as if reading Nikolai’s thoughts.

”Oh?”

Nikolai wondered if he visited the tower in the nexus somehow.

”We found ourselves in a strange place, with corrupted black walls and strange gremlin-type phantoms. Maybe they were goblins?”

’It could be the tower,’ Nikolai thought as he nodded for Ryan to continue.

”Anyway, after defeating the monsters, we fought a strange phantom, like a stronger goblin, bigger and blue. Perhaps it was the boss and thanks to the Tiger team suffering we managed to kill it, before Bruce suddenly attacked us when we found the exit… he used some strange device to lock the door and summoned more monsters before disappearing through it.”

Ryan gritted his teeth and shook his head. ”It was awful. I can’t believe it ended like this. Sarah and Nicola were eaten by those things, and vanished.”

”Hm?”

”Ryan, what did you just say?” Nikolai’s eyes shone black while gazing at the parting van.

”Sarah and Maria were killed,” Ryan repeated as if confused.

Nikolai’s heart skipped a beat.

Something was wrong. Ryan didn’t see them both come out, so he didn’t know to warn Maria or Luke! His pupils shrank when it suddenly crashed into a broken wall.

”Quick, Help them!” Nikolai’s shout echoed through the village. Risa jumped up and gazed at the van, which made a loud bang. Her eyes shone with a green light before he spoke again. ”Nicola and Sarah are Phantoms!”

In the Van a moment before the crash.

Luke’s hands wrapped around Sarah’s wounds as he applied pressure onto the bandages.

”You’re going to be okay. We’ll take care of you.”

He couldn’t help but become worried.

Maria was someone his boss asked him to care for, and he ended up letting her get wounded. Not to mention Sarah and Nicola, his current lovers, looked horribly pale and weak, hardly able to speak other than moaning or slurring words.

”Let’s get to the hospital, stat!”

”Yes sir!” The driver shouted back, aware of the situation and his team leader’s short temper.

While driving away, Luke noticed a shadowy figure standing behind the car.

He froze as cold sweat ran down his back. There stood a man with short black hair and dull grey eyes. Bruce from the Panther team distracted him.

”Why is he raising his hands?”

Bruce flicked his fingers in the air, drawing a strange shape or sigil. Then, behind Luke, Sarah’s blue eyes shone red. As she sat up, Nicola also moved, her eyes red.

”Sir… what’s happening?!”

Before Luke could answer, the two girls lunged forward and tore into the driver’s neck with their mouths.

Blood sprayed over the window, making it difficult to see ahead, causing the car to crash.

”Arrggh!”

”Ugh!”

With a loud bang, Luke’s body shot through the window, smashing into the wall outside, knocking him unconscious.

However, inside the van, Nicola and Sarah were fine. Their bodies had healed any wounds they had suffered during the crash. Grinning, they stood up and slowly turned towards the door.

No… towards the unconscious Maria with a hungry glow in their eyes.