Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Chapter 547: The Libra Building - [1]

Nikolai hopped through the second-floor window, his shoulders hitting the wall with a thud as they took out the second guard. Because the humans who bought these properties to help the SSS and Nosferatu, it would’ve been impossible to secure them if not for the expertise and abilities of the Volkov security and hacking team.

”Phew, we’re all here?”

”Yes, Master.” The leading maid had black hair and red eyes.

She seemed to be someone from the Báthory clan who moved to the Volkov estate not long after he met his aunts.

Behind her, the others were a mix of werewolves and vampires. Alexei and Ryan also climbed into the window and secured the ladder from below.

”Nikolai, what’s the goal?” Alexei asked while glancing at the three doors ahead of them.

”You’ve all examined and learned the structure of this building, right?”

”Of course we have, Nikolai.”

Ryan’s nerves seemed to have calmed as he held one of his magnums, carefully keeping his finger beside the trigger comfortably.

”I’ll take the third passage, Alexei and Ryan can you take the second. Lyra, the first passage leading to the data storage and network I’ll leave to you.”

To ensure this plan worked perfectly, the maids would use their mobile laptops and hacking equipment to change the information on the database before disabling the security and other technical issues to make it easier for Nikolai and his brothers.

”Although it seems like a simple mission of attacking and taking by force, there’s several other teams doing things in the background. Ryan, Alex we cannot afford to rush or mess things up.”

[White Wolf, this is Celtic One, can you read me? Over.]

Celtic one was Leona and her group, while White Wolf was a name used by Nikolai since he became a mercenary.

He tapped his ear and closed his eyes to expand his senses to their limit.

”It’s me, I can hear you. Celtic One. Over.”

[Affirmative, White Wolf! Celtic Two and Three have secured the surrounding objectives and begun their mission. How is the primary tower? Over.]

Nikolai’s chest throbbed when speaking to Leona at work. He loved spying on her in the mansion when she led the maids or took part in training. There was just something about a professional woman that drove him crazy.

’Am I perverted?’

He shook his head before responding.

”Loud and clear, Celtic Two. We are splitting into three teams, with Red Eye heading to the networking route as planned. Over.”

The response didn’t come for a while, so Nikolai tapped the wall and pointed at doors two and three. He glanced at the vampire maid and nodded.

”Do your mission, contact me immediately if you’re in danger.”

”Yes, Master!”

”Same to you, brother.” Ryan and Alexei slipped into the second door after the maids vanished with their tactical gear and infrared goggles equipped.

Nikolai used to think that monsters and supernaturals wouldn’t need any equipment, but when he learned, his clan had developed enhanced goggles that surpassed human technology to suit the improved vision of a monster.

He also flipped down his goggles, and the obsidian eye he used suddenly enlarged; his vision spread into a wider arc. It allowed him to see everything in a huge cone ahead of him, along with the goggles being able to detect the vibrations of a person’s heart from behind a wall.

’Five targets, two with a low heartbeat... probably monsters.’

The difference between the two was quite simple. A human or monster heart would beat at different resting and active rates. At rest, a monster’s heart beats between 20 and 40 times per minute. In contrast, a human would usually range between 60 and 70.

”Phew...” With a long breath, he slipped closer to the wall and examined their movements, while listening to their conversation.

.

.

.

”Do you really think that someone will attack tonight?” A human bandit asked one monster.

”Hmph! Don’t be so pathetic, those idiots wouldn’t dare attack. We’ve got the support of the Nosferatu clan!”

”But I heard boss shouting about the stocks and goods being hindered...” Another human interjected, causing the heart rate of the monster to spike before shouting at them.

Nikolai closed his eyes and calmed himself.

’There will be a signal for me to go.’

Although this mission was about conquering, they needed the first team to establish the connection to stop them from calling for support. Two of the buildings had already lost contact before Nikolai even entered this one.

Hiss

The radio in his ear flickered.

[White Wolf, This is Red Eye. Commence Mission! I repeat, this is Red Eye. Commence Mission. Over]

Nikolai tapped the side of his goggles once, tightening his focus, while taking out his gun with one hand. The newly developed silencer wouldn’t remove all the noise, but it should buy a few seconds to eliminate more enemies.

”Understood. Red Eye, operation confirmed.”

The moment he said it, the entire atmosphere in the hallway shifted. Footsteps softened, heartbeats spiked, and the chatter in the next room froze. Nikolai’s three hearts slowed to nearly one beat per minute as black blood pumped through his body, and he aimed at the wall with a smirk.

Even without the signal reaching them directly, the monsters inside reacted to the sudden cutoff from their network, but none of them sensed that something was wrong.

’Good. That means Lyra did her job.’

He stepped away from the wall with a slowed pulse and relaxed muscles. Every part of him shifted into predatory calm. The momentary hesitation he felt earlier vanished as the mission-state took over.

A guard inside the room muttered, ”Hey, the line just died—”

Before the guard could finish the sentence, Nikolai pulled the trigger.

The silenced shot cracked through the wall, punching cleanly into the skull of the human closest to the door. The body dropped before the others even understood what had happened.

Nikolai shifted his aim, firing twice through the plaster. His Obsidian Eye predicted their movements a half-second ahead: a monster ducking to avoid a shot, another raising his automatic weapon, while one human stumbled back in panic with a spiking pulse.

Each prediction and movement created an opening, allowing him to line up and place the shots without delay.

”Three left,” he muttered.

He crouched low, kicked the door off its hinges, and slid into the room beneath the falling slab of wood. The monsters inside opened fire, but they aimed at where he’d been a moment before, not where he was now.

Nikolai rolled behind a table, flipped it for cover, and kicked another across the room with his boot. It crashed into a human guard and pinned him to the wall with a wet crunch. The guard vomited blood and screamed.

The remaining monsters growled as their fangs grew.

He welcomed their sudden charge; close-range combat was his favourite.

His claws extended, covered in blue and red auras, the elemental auras from Selene and Lunaria, empowered by Anya’s blood art.

He caught the first monster by the wrist and crushed the bone the moment skin met skin. With his other hand, he carved up under the ribs and tore out a fistful of blackened flesh. The creature shrieked, stumbled, then hit the ground twitching.

The last one tried to flee toward the auxiliary door. Nikolai flicked his wrist and fired a single suppressed shot. The bullet caught the monster in the spine, dropping him face-first.

Only silence and the slow drip of blood remained after he killed them both.

Nikolai cracked his neck and examined their bodies before he scanned the area with his goggles; no heartbeats or reinforcements in the surrounding rooms. ’What was this place used for?’ He wondered.

He tapped his earpiece and contacted everyone.

”White Wolf to all units. Third passed secured, proceed to phase two.”

The static crackled with their affirmations before Leona’s steady voice reached him on a private line.

[Affirmative. Celtic teams are advancing along passages one and two. Red Eye is moving deeper. Maintain pace and await further intel. Stay Safe.]

”Of course.” He mumbled to himself.

The reinforcements would soon start flooding the building. Since they took the network and power, Nikolai could aim for the top, where the leader was rumoured to be. Nikolai stepped over the bodies and reached the next locked door. Lyra’s work had disabled the digital locks and alarms, but the mechanical bolt still held firm.

”Heh!”

Crack!

He pressed his palm against the metal, and it bent inwards slowly, before completely shattering the lock. Nikolai huffed and tensed his muscles, and pushed on the metal.

The door opened with a hiss as the hydraulics whirred.

He forced it open with brute force.

However, when he looked inside, Nikolai’s expression changed. The first rooms resembled a normal office, but that couldn’t be said for the sealed room. No windows, reinforced door and walls... each side of the passage had huge cells with thick metal bars.

Rows of reinforced cells stretched before him. Makeshift, yet high-quality holding rooms packed with unconscious or sedated monsters. Some were werewolves with shock collars, their limbs covered in scars and wounds.

The other thing he noticed...

’Hybrids...’

Monsters with extra limbs, or two types of monsters stitched together.

A sudden surge of anger pulsed through his chest, a tight and stuffy pain lingering inside, but he swallowed it down and kept calm.

”Leona.” He called her on the radio, his voice icy cold and different from before.

[Nikolai, what’s wrong?]

”They’re experimenting on monsters.”

What made him so angry was that each werewolf carried a certain trait.

White or silver fur.

These prisoners were all from the Volkov and Fenrir clans.

He clenched his fists so tight that blood dripped between his fingers, and he glanced up to the sky with a low howl.

”How long have my people suffered in these dark... stifling cages!?”