I seriously just want to curse my fate now. Why do I have to deal with a transformer now, of all times?

  Out of every kind of vampire out there, a transformer is objectively the worst. Why couldn't the man have been a charmer? His charm skill can be considered to be good enough for that.

  A transformer is a type of vampire that has focused on training the ability of its body to transform. Every vampire can transform to a certain degree. That is how they can form their claws in the first place.

  A vampire that focuses on that aspect of their abilities, though, is a terrifying beast to handle. They tend to have more control over their transformation ability. They can shape their bodies into any shape that they want to.

  Every transformer tends to have a different form. The only common thing between them tends to be that they all tend to be uncanny. The limbs always tend to take on an unnatural length. So does the rest of their body as well.

  The perfect example of that is the man standing in front of me. You certainly would not be able to tell that the man was supposed to look like a human. In the time that I have been looking at him, the man has been transforming.

  His limbs have been extending like a rubber band stretched for too long. His back hunches over as he falls on his four legs. This one has based his form on that of a werewolf, it looks like. A werewolf that has been starving for a few weeks, but still a werewolf.

  There is no way that I am going to underestimate the man in front of me. After all, a werewolf tends to be a primal creature. A being of primal fury, if you will.

  These creatures are a storm of muscles and claws and are impossible to kill. Still, they tend to be quite easy to manage since they can't really think in this state.

  The creature in front of me is intelligent. While the rest of its body has been warping, twisting and turning, its eyes have not left me. It is trying to bait me by showing an obvious vulnerability.

  That is why I have been recording all of this while circling the creature. Well, I guess that I have to be thankful that I am only supposed to delay the creature. Killing a transformer is nothing short of a nightmare.

  This pause of mine is also to give the folks in this room the time to run away. After all, fighting a vampire in a room full of people is not easy. The people here must have seen many wild things before, but they have never seen a man transform like this.

  That is why the idiots are standing there shocked. I am of half a mind to just scream at the people to get going. That would be a stupid thing, though. That would just provoke the snake to attack them.

  The only reason that he is not thinking about them is because I am here. You don't worry about the flies when a lion is in front of you. Well, not everybody here is an idiot. The few with a presence of mind have already begun to leave the place. Looking at these people, they have begun to move.

  Let's just hope that all of them will leave before we cross blades.

  "Well, you are certainly quite patient." The snake speaks as I finally look at the man. He has a raspy voice that somehow sounds both like a scream and a whisper. "Others would have already attacked me."

  "I happened to know of all your tricks, transformer. I know that I would die if I attacked now." I reply. "I have put down quite a few of your kind. Don't expect to survive this time just because you have made yourself look like a skeleton of a werewolf."

  As I say this, the man takes a step towards me. Before I can stop myself, I wave my sword at the creature.

  "Well, the next time you try to threaten them, I would suggest you get a better grip on your fear. You are quaking in your boots right now." The creature spoke while laughing at me. It's laugh sounds like somebody is scratching my ears.

  Well, I had forgotten to protect myself against the effect of the creature's charm. I don't react to this provocation, as I keep quiet. Now is not the time to lose my mind. I steel my mind as I resist the man's charm.

  I study the creature as I try to figure out its movement. Every creature tends to have tells about it. The flexing of muscles or the shifting of eyes tells me about how the creature is going to strike.

  The problem is that the tells of this creature are nonsensical. Its entire body is twitching like it is standing in the middle of a blizzard. Its twitching could just as easily be a twitch, or it could be an indicator of a strike. The creature still moves like a human, though everything is a bit off.

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  That is why I stare at the creature's eyes. The eyes are a better indicator when dealing with a transformer. They are better by only a bit, since the creature's eyes are darting around the room.

  The best way to describe it is that it feels like the creature is having a stroke.

  "I must say that you are quite patient," I say, in my most sarcastic tone. "My people must be killing yours even as we speak."

  "It is cute that you think that I care whether they live or die." The creature speaks, laughing out loud again. I wish the damn creature would stop doing that.

  As he speaks, the creature finally makes his move. It jumps at me, as I jump out of its way. It doesn't let me rest as its claws cut through my shirt, almost getting a cut on my chest.

  That is when I finally notice it. The sickly mana that I can feel on the creature's claws. Just feeling the mana makes me want to puke. That is some kind of poison mana. A very potent strain of it as well. There is no way that I can take a hit from that claw.

  "You haven't yet told me why you people are here." I ask. As I do this, I activate the formation on my sword. (Let's hope that I am not doing this too late.)

  The burst of blood mana enhances my senses as I look at the creature again. I can sense its movements better, but they don't help me as much since I still can't make sense of it.

  "I thought that would have been obvious by now. We are here to act as bait." The creature laughs while saying this.

  It charges at me, as I block it using my sword. I can feel the sword tremble under the assault of the creature. I keep pushing myself, though, as I keep blocking both of its claws.

  With every hit, the creature is gaining an advantage over me. It is purely my instincts with which I am predicting its movement. This stalemate of ours finally ends with the creature's claws in my chest. I don't even know how I missed that strike. I don't feel the strike itself.

  What I feel is the other party injecting me with a ton of poison mana. How do I describe this? It feels like the man has poured acid into my wounds. A very potent acid at that. I circulate my vital mana as the pain subsides for a bit. It feels like pouring a bucket of water in an inferno.

  "What are we doing here, human?" The creature suddenly speaks. "You are stronger than this. Such a basic strike should not have struck you."

  Damn it, he was not supposed to realise this. I don't reply to this as I begin to strike the man. I try to attack him with my full force, each sword strike moving faster than it has in a very long time. After all, there is no more use in trying to hold myself back now.

  Still, the creature is a step ahead of me as it dodges me, blocks me, or counterattacks me. Thankfully, this has stopped the creature from thinking about anything but the fight. I just need to keep the creature distracted for a bit longer. I just hope the searchers have succeeded in their tasks.

  "You are not using that sword of yours fully." The man suddenly speaks as he strikes me in my arm. I block using my sword. "You can use way greater amounts of blood mana. Why are you not going all out?"

  The man jumps back before I can get a strike in as he continues.

  "You are trying to buy time for something, human."

  Fuck, he was not supposed to realise that. I charge in towards him as I fully activate my sword, finally. Just as my sword gets within striking distance, the creature sidesteps me fully as it claws into my arm.

  I counterattack by striking his arm. It is a deep strike, as well as the sword reaches into its arm. It might as well have been a pinprick for all the reaction the man gives to it. Damn vampires. Why do they need to be so durable?

  "Why are you here, human? It can't be to kill me. After all, if that was the case, you would have brought one of the others. The ones that are stronger than you." The creature speaks as it circles me. "Why are you here?"

  "I have already told you, beast. I was here to act as bait for you." I reply, as I stare at the creature. "Have you noticed nothing strange in our surroundings?"

  As I reply to this, the creature finally stops as it looks around itself. I stare at the creature as I aim for its neck. My sword strikes the creature's neck as it moves back in surprise.

  I encounter no resistance as the sword passes through its neck. The spurt of blood that I was expecting did not burst out, though. As confusion takes me for a moment, the creature strikes my chest. I can't even block it as it strikes my chest.

  "My nails are laced with a poison of my creation, human." The vampire smirks. "It is quite harmless until it enters your body. Once it does, though, it wrecks your body."

  As it says this, the creature has placed its claws on my neck.

  "The first thing to go is your sense of speed. Everything around you seems to move slower than it is. The second thing to go is your vision. I am sure that your vision must be darkening even now." The creature continues speaking as it claws a bit deeper into my neck.

  "The next thing to happen is be your body will lose sensation. Then, you will lose consciousness. Finally, your heart will sto...." The creature suddenly stops. "What is that?"

  Right now, there is a massive burst of mana coming from the direction of the casino. This time, it is a massive burst of blood mana. The only way you could produce that much blood mana is if you were to burn through your reserves.

  "Well, you were asking what I was waiting for. It would have been impossible for us to fight all three of you vampires together at the same time. We tried, and that failed quite spectacularly." I reply, by now, my vision is gone completely. "So, the easiest way to kill you was to get rid of each of you. I was not meant to bait you into a trap, vampire. I was meant to bait you away from one."

  "You bastard." The creature screams as its claws strike into my throat.

  As the world becomes world becomes darker, I can feel blood feel my throat fill with blood.