The sound of running could be heard along with the heaving sounds of ragged gasps, "No... please... leave me alone!" A voice had shouted back behind himself in between breaths down a dimly lit alley.
The person had tripped over a trash can that had fallen down in the alley seemingly recently as trash had spilt out of it. "What do you want from me!" They asked crawling backwards, trying to communicate with whoever or whatever may have been pursuing them since they left the bar only a short while ago.
"Want from you? That's a silly question what is it that humans want from the cattle that they raise, hmm?" A giant cloaked figure moved from the shadows towards their helpless victim with dark and ominous words.
"No answer then? I'll tell you what humans want from their cattle. Meat, they want meat from their cattle. That is what I want from you." The figure reached out with its large clawed hands to grab the person.
"Aghhh!" They screamed out into the night sky, their death throes falling on deaf ears.
_____
Melvin woke up in a cold sweat. 'What a dream that was,' he thought checking his now fully healed wounds from the fight the night before. 'Is Grimm awake yet,' Melvin thought while opening his tent. Stepping out he seen Grimm sitting down with a tea kettle over a fire he made. Melvin sat down across from him and stared at the flame infront of him.
"This is for you. You killed the creature and now it's power belongs to you." Grimm said handing Melvin a beautifully designed silver amulet with a glowing blood red gem in the dead center.
"What is it?" Melvin asked, looking it over.
"That, my dear nephew is an amulet I have crafted using some materials I had on hand and the core you salvaged from the Blood Bat you killed." Grimm said, sipping on a cup of tea he had poured from the.
Melvin looked at Grimm I shock, "This little thing came from that big core I took out of that monster?!" He practically screamed.
"Yes it did. I had to condense the power of the core and remove parts of it that were unnecessary. But now you can use the Blood Bat screech." Grimm said, taking another sip of his still steaming tea.
Setting down Melvin put the amulet around his neck and instantly he could feel a new sensation in his vocal cords that had never been there before.
"You should go and test the limits of your new power, you seem to be a natural born talent, even in the Vampire world you would be considered a prodigy." Grimm complemented.
"Is that really true, you said as I am now I wouldn't make it on my own in the Vampire world." Melvin replied, looking at Grimm who was sitting down across from him at the fire.
"I did say that. However your growth rate is extraordinary I've never seen anything like it before, your combat sense is also extremely high for someone who wasn't raised in the Vampire world." Grimm said.
Melvin could only sit there in shock that he was being praised for being a prodigy in the vampire arts. After that Melvin had made up his mind to test out the capabilities of his new power.
"Alright then. I guess I should go and see what I can do with this new power." Melvin said, standing up and psyching himself up for the events ahead.
"Alright then nephew, but don't over do it, you have no idea what the drawback is to using a power like that." Grimm said, warning Melvin of potential pitfalls.
"Will do, Master. Now it's time for me to head out." Melvin said, walking out deeper into the forest with a clear objective in mind.
_____
After walking around aimlessly in the woods Melvin had finally come across a creature that looked at least a little challenging. It was a pitch black colored, four legged monster that was covered in a thick, rocky hide. At the end of it's tail it had what was reminiscent of the head of a giant sledgehammer.
"This is perfect." Melvin said, smiling at the idea of bringing down this colossal beast on his own.
'If I can beat this maybe I'll stand a chance against someone of Masters calibre,' he thought to himself. Sneaking around to the backside of the creature in its blindside, Melvin focused on the new sensation in his throat. The next second a loud eardrum shattering screech could be heard all around the forest.
The creature had become petrified by the blood curdling scream that had resulted from Melvin's new accessory. Melvin took this opportunity to launch a preemptive strike. Dashing around the colossal creature and slamming his fist into the creature's hide. The outside effect was minimal, however Melvin's strikes weren't meant to deal external damage he had long since learned from his hand-to-hand training that an armored adversary was more susceptible to internal damage.
So using his power to control blood he sent out signals to the blood to move in the direction of his punches when they had connected. A few minutes later the creature was dead. It had fell to the mass of internal bleeding caused by ruptured organs.
"I did it!" Melvin screamed, yelling at the top of is lungs.
'However that tingling sensation in my throat is gone,' Melvin carefully observed his condition before deciding that it would be best to head back to camp before something even more dangerous showed up while he was recuperating.
However at that moment he saw three people walking in his direction.