Jeremy leapt off my shoulder and bolted in the opposite direction. One spawn went after him, leaving two starving-looking dudes. Thank you, Jer, please don't die or I will find a bunch of guns and go on a rampage against every vampire slightly involved in your death. You know, the normal reaction.

  The spawn on the left chose that moment to lunge at me. As the person on the right raised his hand, he suddenly felt a tug. A painful tug that I could describe thus. Like the dude was taking something out of me. The red energy coming out of my chest and into his palm told me everything I needed to know.

  The bastard was using Vampiric Drain on me. I mean, of all the skills to use, that made sense considering they were pretty hungry vampires.

  "Hey those health points are mine!" I accused as the health bar dropped a few points.

  The drain was pretty slow, but it was the principle of the thing. Despite one guy coming after me, I charged at the drainer, dodging a claw and hitting the starving vampire with a kinetic strike. The strike blasted him back, and I maintained my momentum, running directly at my new foe.

  Thankfully, he stopped with the draining as another idea came to his vampiric brain. Let's try clawing his eyes out with my vampire claws. Brilliant strategy, my dude, and so claws met sword. I sliced across, intending to cut his hand off at the wrist or at least parry those deadly claws.

  My sword met air, and claw met flesh. By the gods, he was fast, faster than any creature I had ever fought. Which makes sense. Vampires are quick bastards. These thoughts ran through my head as pain lanced my chest as he raked across flesh.

  Pulling away, the pain offered justification for a retreat. Time is what I needed, and so I made some time. Targeting Mister Claw, I activated Phantom Prompt and Max Decibel. My rage has fueled the prompt, as it was just a naughty set of words repeated a hundred times. The song, however, was a Filipino pop song about people having fake faces. Not sure why the skill chose that one, but it was fire.

  Clearly, this old undead didn't appreciate pop music as he clutched his ears and roared like a beast. So uncultured. I mean, all he has to do is reach across the void to one of the Earth variants and watch some MeTube. Super easy, barely an issue.

  While ruminating on these vampires' poor taste in music, the other guy got a bit too close, and I narrowly dodged a swipe. I really needed to get my head back in the game. I did so and swung a few times with my sword. He took the blows just as I stabbed him through the chest.

  It didn't even faze the bastard as he reached over, pulling himself further onto the blade. The last thing I saw was fangs going to neck. The spawn lunged at my carotid and sank its deadly teeth in. I will admit I panicked, only to find no pain accompanied the attack.

  Instead, I heard a loud snap and a yelp of feral strain. The spawn broke a fang on my barrier, totally forgot I had that up. Not letting this chance go, I had a brilliant idea. I disengaged my blade, drawing the inactive weapon to the side in one swift motion. Re-engaged and sliced across the vampire's neck with every force point I had.

  The blow landed cleanly and met no resistance, pulverizing the flesh. With a plop, his head fell to the floor, his body falling soon after. With one down, I shifted to face the other. He was on the floor, his hands on his head, rolling around as if he were being stabbed consecutively over and over in the ear.

  Tilting my head in confusion, I let him suffer in silence and switched to the other one. Finding the parasite on the other side of the room, clutching Jeremy in its claws and prepared to bite. The moment stood still as instinct took over.

  "Get your hands off him!" I roared as I piped rock music into his brain.

  As expected, he dropped my cat and clutched his head in pure agony. Not sure why they reacted that way, but whatever works. Jeremy fled from his grasp but not before scratching up his legs like the spawn was the side of a couch.

  Pissed off at the vamp that just tried to eat my cat. I stalked over to the writhing vampire with no sense of honour, fair play or giving a sporting chance. I stabbed the hell out of that writhing mess of pain.

  It took a while, but he eventually died from his wounds, trying to heal his limbs back. The experience notification declared his death. With only one vampire left, I turned to face the last contender.

  Instead of a writhing mess, what I saw was a feral beast, claws at its side, bloodshot eyes glaring into the distance. With nostrils flared, it couldn't see me, nor did it have the intellect to dismiss the notification manually. It's hearing impaired, but it had one more sense I couldn't inhibit or contain.

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  Sniffing like a rabid dog, its eyes turned to the occupied casket. Not by sight or sound, but by the blood within. And with no preamble, it dove across and wretched out its former comrade and tore it apart like a savage beast.

  I stood stock-still as the spawn ravaged the corpse and gorged itself on the blood of its kind. Not wanting to find out what would happen. I raised my sword and carefully approached the bestial vampire.

  With his back turned to me, blood and viscera flew in all directions. I reached him in mere moments and prepared to bisect him from his waist to his torso. Before a blade could meet possibly undead flesh, not sure of this species. The spawn turned around and caught the blade in a single clawed hand.

  The smell was most noticeable, along with the sight of a pissed-off vampire, caked in blood, vision obstructed and badass Filipino Pop blasting in his ears on repeat. Let's just say he wasn't a cheerful chap. With a single flex of his wrist, he somehow snapped my magical blade in half, dispelling the weapon before violently shoving me across the room.

  The impact was painful; not even my shield could tank that blow. Knocking the absolute wind out of me, I quickly tried to get up, noting the loss of my weapon. Frantically looking around, I located it not too far away, lying on the floor.

  Just as ascended to my feet, the crazed vampire was on me. Brutish hands gripped my shoulders and brought me to eye level. The grip was powerful, and I could feel my shield shattering under the oppressive force.

  Unable to move, I could only watch as the foul - smelling maw, choked with blood, opened wide. Going straight for the neck, it sank its teeth in. Meeting resistance as my shield held, but not for long.

  In gnawing his way through the barrier, he didn't even care about the damage he was doing to himself. I kicked and struggled to no avail. Even blasted him a few times with a kinetic strike. He barely even flinched from the impact.

  Trapped and with a vampire about to go to town on my neck. If this were a smut novel, this would go in a whole different direction. But no shadow daddy romance for me; I get the grimdark, blood-soaked vampire who is more interested in my blood than my personality.

  I was about to die, and my life-saving weapon was too far away. In that moment of desperation, I had a crazy idea. If I could apply kinetic energy in a strike, why not reverse it and pull something towards me?

  Hand outstretched for my weapon, I tried with all my mental might to reach out and extend the kinetic field. Pushing it further than I had ever achieved. With extraordinary willpower, I pushed it as far as possible.

  It moved about five centimetres away from my palm, and so I was dead. My impending death worsened the failure of this great, monumental life-saving event. The barrier broke, and my flesh was unprotected and about to be torn apart.

  That was until a fur ball of absolute terror and rage leapt atop this vampire and plunged its claws into the exposed eyeballs. The crazed spawn jerked back in pain and frantically clawed at the offending creature.

  Freed, I ignored the pain and leapt across the floor, retrieving the Aetherblade. I activated it with a thought and arrived just as that vile creature flung Jeremy into a wall. I heard the impact and the soft yelp of my friend in pain.

  Not sure what happened, but the world suddenly went red. And I charged with reckless abandon. First, I stabbed him in the spine, then I hit him with a kinetic strike, point blank in the back of his head.

  Dazed and with a sword on his back. I disengaged the blade and positioned it behind its leg and reactivated, severing its left foot and then right. The vampire crumbled to the ground, but I wasn't done. Standing over the still-feral creature, I put it out of its misery.

  Aligning the blade, I reactivated it again and again. Each time the blade extended and sliced through flesh, pulverising everything important. The vampire howled, screamed and fought. No matter the effort, my thoughts were the same every time. Commanding the blade to ignite over and over until the experience notification.

  With the thing dead, I came to my senses and immediately sprinted across the room and cradled Jeremy in my arms. I feared the worst, feared his broken body was beyond repair. And yet, he seemed fine and without injury, despite everything I just saw. Resting cradled in my grasp, Jeremy against my chest. The two of us surrounded by carnage and viscera.

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