The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 59: The Rescue Team

The more Luciel used his mist, the more familiar he became with it, and the words that Nosferatu had said to him started to make sense.

’Mist...’ Luciel thought as he glanced toward his hands surrounded with faint mist. It felt exhilarating and powerful, but there was a slight fear as well since it was his first time seeing something like this.

This ability wasn’t something he had wished for, and its sudden appearance was a bit confusing. Yet, when it emerged, it felt oddly familiar, like something he’d experienced in his meditations.

Luciel looked around the battlefield, hearing Melisa shouting how they needed to hold on for only ten more minutes.

’Let’s see what it can do!’ Luciel had no time to think about it as the zombie horde continued to approach. It seemed like all those that turned started to gather at one spot.

Seeing the rest of his party struggle, slowly falling back, Luciel clapped with his hands, focusing the cool, expansive energy to condense around them. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Spreading his hands apart, he focused on other, explosive Yang energy that allowed Yin to give form to his mist.

Luciel managed to summon the second burst of mist as a wave around his body started to spread, just like the first time he used it.

It kept expanding, pushing away the zombies that were trying to get a bite of his comrades.

But after the second huge attack, Luciel had to shake his head as he started to feel a little bit lightheaded while a familiar, primitive feeling started to settle in.

Shifting his focus toward Scarlet, he could see her being greatly overnumbered, but thanks to Melisa who gave her a little bit of time earlier, she was back on track, able to find some time to start using her divine art, frying the zombies before cutting their heads.

On the other side of the battlefield, there was Dash and George. Using massive, powerful swings with his axe, Dash had no problem dealing with the enemies, especially when having George on his side who was shielding him from zombies and providing buffs.

Melisa had joined Alex again. She was producing powerful sound attacks, repelling the zombies while Alex would cut off their heads.

Luciel was alone with Helen, continuing to push away the zombies with his mist while slashing those that came his way, but he didn’t know for how long he could keep this up.

Before anyone had realized, the ten minutes had already passed and there in the distance, they could see two more black, hunter cars and a minibus, ready to transport those that had been stuck in a battle.

"The rescue team has arrived!" George shouted, being the first one to notice them.

"George! Focus!" Dash shouted, pushing away the zombie with his axe before looking back at his partner.

The zombies weren’t hard opponents to deal with. They had no abilities or intelligence, but where their strength lay was their resilience, numbers, and the speed at which they were spreading.

Once the cars had stopped and six hunters came out from them, some zombies that were a little bit further away or knocked down, stopped to move and turned their heads toward the new group, changing their focus.

"Wait... Why are they turning away from us?" Helen asked herself, wondering what might have caused the sudden change of behavior.

Seeing how the zombies slowly started to leave the group alone, Luciel stabbed his sword into the ground, getting on his knee as he used his weapon for support.

With the zombies slowly losing interest in them, he felt like he could finally let down his guard.

His vision was blurry and there was static in his ears. He could not see details, only shapes and figures with occasional slashes of light that blinded him for a second.

"Luciel... What’s wrong?" He could hear an echo of Helen’s voice, calling out to him.

He gripped the handle of his sword and gritted his teeth, making a twitch with his head to the left. "Whatever that weird power I displayed was, I think it took a toll on my body." He answered her, blinking a few times, trying to clear his vision.

There were wrinkles of worry displayed on Helen’s face, this wasn’t the first time she had seen a vampire collapse like that after the excessive use of their abilities and she was also aware of what would happen next - thirst.

’They are in trouble...’ Helen thought after seeing how the hunters that had arrived were slowly finishing the remaining zombies and glancing toward Melisa, Helen saw that she was even in a worse state than Luciel.

She was on her knees, using her hands as a support while baring her fangs, fighting to stay in control. Helen wanted to help Luciel as soon as possible, but before she could do that, she had to find someone to take care of the other vampire.

Helen still couldn’t discover why vampires would go into a frenzy after excessive use of their abilities, she could only guess that it had to do with the source of power that they get from blood, but she still couldn’t find out why human blood was precious to them to the point that not even artificial could satisfy them in the long run.

"George!" Helen shouted, getting closer to him so he could hear her.

"Give Melisa some of your blood, if she goes into the frenzy, both she and Luciel are dead!" She sounded panicked as she grabbed George’s hand and pointed with her other hand toward the female vampire.

George glanced toward Melisa with a wary expression and clenched his fist, debating if he should do it or not. They did fight side by side and didn’t show any signs of aggression, but he worked with vampires before; they only ever cared about their skin. Why should he risk his life for one?

"George, maybe you should listen to her, we don’t want this to escalate even further," Dash whispered into his ear when George was just about to refuse, making head gestures toward Luciel who was very protective of his wife.

’Why did he have to come back...’ Dash was trying to keep George in check. They had been tense ever since Luciel returned and they had to work harder than ever to stay on his good side since he could easily find out about the illegal activities that they were doing behind his back.

"Fine." George said through his teeth, "I’ll do it."

’What was that about?’ Helen thought after noticing a deadly glare from the corner of her eye as George went past her and towards Melisa. It felt like there was something more that they weren’t telling her.

"Don’t worry about him, George has... a few things on his mind." Dash placed his hand on Helen’s shoulder, laughing nervously.

"I guess..." She glanced behind Dash and widened her eyes at the sight of a gray zombie coming closer to them.

"Dash! Behind you!" She shouted, turning him around.

Screaming alongside Helen, Dash raised his axe, slashing the zombie’s head, huffing heavily.

He relaxed for a moment because they seemed to stop coming, but it seemed like he had let his guard too early.

"I think that was the last one," Dash commented, looking around. The area was clear and George was doing as Helen had told him.

He cut his forearm and grabbed Melisa by her hair, pulling her head backward as he let his blood drip into her mouth. It might seem cruel, but it was one of the better solutions if he didn’t want to get bitten.

Once the rescue team finally finished dealing with the zombies, they stayed still like a rock, giving it a few more minutes to wait and see if they were finally dead.

"Shit." Helen tensed her fist and furrowed her eyebrows once she saw that the hunters started to approach. Wanting to find someone to help Melisa, she didn’t have enough time to assist Luciel.

"Check everyone! Make sure that they don’t have any bite marks!" The head hunter shouted, putting his spear onto his back.

"Yes, sir!" The hunters under his command shouted after hearing his command.

All six members, including the head, started to check each other to make sure that they were safe before turning toward the group.

Looking at the group, the head hunter had to squint his eyes once he saw a scene that disturbed him greatly. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked, pointing toward George who was feeding Melisa with his blood. "Why are you feeding a vampire?"

"It was my order, sir." Helen slightly bowed her head as a sign of respect. She could feel a heavy air around them and making the situation more tense wouldn’t help the current situation.

"Why? You know that assisting a vampire means death on the spot!" He said through his teeth, taking out his spear and pointing the tip at her neck.

The head hunter was about to pierce Helen’s throat, but once he readied his spear, he felt something sharp pressing against his neck as he heard a low growl that was definitely not human, coming from behind.

"Put. That. Down."