'They have stopped.' The vampire stood on top of a pointy roof as he oversaw the whole city from there. The alleyways were like mazes, where one could easily get lost. He noticed that this place was quite isolated from the nearest street.
'Did they get lost? This place is perfect for me.' The vampire then sniffed the air as he frowned. 'There are still people with an unfamiliar scent nearby. That does not matter. If they interrupt my meal, I will kill them.'
The vampire leaped from one pointy roof to another. He quickly neared the alleyway where the two familiar men were. He landed on a roof with a triangular floor made of brownish tiles. Since the fog cloud's shadow fell on the roof, the tiles looked black.
'They should be below.' He revealed his blood-stained fangs as his grin stretched his facial muscles. He crouched and leaned forward to take a quick peek at the alleyway. As his head revealed itself from the roof's shadow, he noticed the two men pounding their fists against walls. They were trapped.
The scene looked like two pieces of cheese were put out as a trap to catch the rat.
It didn't take even a second for the vampire to realize that something was wrong. As he turned around, he suddenly saw an enormous shadow looming over him. He raised his head and saw a boulder falling down on him!
The vampire reacted quickly and backflipped from one roof to another. The boulder fell on the previous roof, breaking through the tiled roof and smashing through the building!
Bang, bang!
Two red bullets flew from the dark alleyway and appeared next to the vampire in an instant. The vampire pulled his head back and felt the bullets grazing past his fair-skinned neck.
He snapped his blood-red eyes toward the shadows. With his vampiric vision, he could see the outline of a person hiding in the building's shadow.
'Got you...' The vampire's nails grew thinner and longer, soon reaching 10cm in length. He jumped off the roof, causing the roof's tiles below him to explode. The long-collared cloak fluttered around him as it slowly resembled the shape of a bat's wings.
Bang, bang!
Jason quickly fired two more bullets before running deeper into the alleyway.
The vampire covered his entire body with the cloak and allowed the bullets to hit it. However, the two red-colored bullets couldn't penetrate the fabric and simply slingshotted into the nearby walls.
He landed on the cobblestone ground and saw his assailant's back moving further away. However, with a single step, the ground below him exploded, and he was sent flying across the alleyway. He approached Jason with incredible speed!
Jason stopped running after reaching the end of the alleyway and turned around with the revolver pointing at the flying vampire. He narrowed his eyes and fired a bullet.
The vampire grinned as he put the baggy sleeves in the way of the bullet. Once again, the bullet was ineffective as it ricocheted away.
As he moved his hand back into a slashing motion, a large shadow suddenly appeared above him. The vampire looked shocked as another boulder that could barely fit between two buildings appeared out of thin air!
The vampire stopped his flight and quickly somersaulted forward. The boulder fell right behind him, smashing the ground into pieces. He then quickly turned his blood-red eyes toward Jason and lunged forward. He didn't know what tricks the mere mortal before him used, but he was confident in killing him.
"Shouldn't a hunter check his surroundings so that the hunter doesn't become hunted?" Jason aimed the revolver at the vampire without firing. Instead, he smiled as a figure appeared on top of the fallen boulder.
'What did he say?' The vampire was about to attack, but the second he stopped to think about the words, he smelled something behind him.
He turned around and saw a red-colored bullet flying towards him. The vampire listened to his instincts and swung his head to the side. However, he was unable to dodge in time. The bullet landed on his fair-skinned cheek and tore straight through his skull before exiting from the back.
"Ah!" The vampire cried out as blood flowed down his cheek and stained his cloak. The blood was immensely cold, as if it had been in a refrigerator.
He thought that his wound would slowly regenerate, as it always had. The vampires have incredible regenerative abilities. However, this time, the wound stayed open as it continued pouring blood into the cobblestone ground!
"What did you two... do to me!" The vampire flew into rage, spun his head away from the clown-masked man, and lunged towards Jason. The blue-eyed young man was surprised by the attack and didn't react in time.
The vampire caught him by his throat and hurled him into the nearest wall. The building's wall cracked as if it had been hit by a wrecking ball. Jason, on the other hand, coughed up blood, as this was the hardest blow he had ever received in his life.
"Now you—" The vampire turned towards the masked man, but before he could finish his sentence, the clown had already thrown three joker cards. They slowly transformed into red-colored bullets.
The vampire hid his body behind the large cloak as his blood-red eyes glowed menacingly.
Before the bullets landed on the cloak, the clown snapped both his fingers and transformed the red-colored bullets into bowling balls that were flying as fast as regular bullets!
SMASH!
The vampire's cloak couldn't stop the bowling balls that were flying at such a high speed. The blood-red eyed creature screamed in pain as two of the bowling balls hit his side, breaking several ribs, and the last one hit his leg, breaking it as well.
The vampire tumbled before falling to the ground. His leg was bent backward, the soles of his feet almost reaching his spleen. The ribs were poking through his flesh, as they were severely cracked and broken.
However, those wounds started slowly healing, bit by bit. But the vampire was still screaming in agonizing pain as he still felt the pain. Unfortunately for him, the wound on the cheek wasn't regenerating.
"You think that I will let you recover in peace?" The clown's figure appeared beside him with his fist flying downward. His fist smashed through the vampire's beautiful, fair-skinned face. The single punch broke his skull and shattered his nose.
"Ptui!" The vampire spat out several teeth that were covered in blood. He then moved his head dizzily as if he were drunk and then grew limp. His eyes rolled backward as he lost his consciousness.
The clown reached into his pocket, pulled out a joker card, and transformed it into a silver-black revolver. It looked exactly the same as Jason's. He then transformed it so that the chamber was already full of red-colored bullets.
He aimed the revolver downward and pressed the trigger. The bullet pierced through the vampire's forehead, ending his life.
The clown dropped the revolver beside the vampire's corpse and turned to look at his companion. He ran to him before crouching next to him.
"Are you alright?" The clown asked.
"I have been doing better..." Jason groaned in pain as he sat on the ground and leaned against the wall. He held his ribs as he felt, from the contact with the wall onward, that something broke. "My ribs probably busted. Sh*t, that vampire's throw wasn't a joke."
"Yes, I've got to acknowledge it; he was stronger than I expected." The clown looked back towards the vampire's corpse and said. "Let's get you a doctor. Can you stand?"
"Yup..." Jason gritted his teeth and awkwardly stood up while using the wall as support. "Get the fangs... Don't take anything else, police will be soon here… no time."
The clown nodded before walking to the corpse. He opened the vampire's bloody mouth and pulled out the two blood-stained fangs. He looked at them and saw that the color was still bright, meaning that it hadn't been many hours since he last drank mortal blood.
If it had faded a lot, then they would have to hurry.
He walked back to Jason, who struggled to stand and pulled a joker card. He transformed it into a crutch. "Here."
"Thanks..." Jason took the crutch and used it to walk as he and the clown slowly left the alleyway.
...
"What a mess." A man pondered aloud as he stood in the middle of a building's ruins. Around him were detectives as they looked for any clues as to what had happened here. They were called here by concerned citizens after they heard strange sounds as if buildings were being demolished.
When they arrived at the scene, one of the buildings was indeed in ruins. They only saw two men near the scene, and they were strangely trapped between two walls. They managed to "rescue" them and took them to the station to question them.
This man was the Captain of the Gothic Crime Fighting Agency. His looks weren't anything special, as he had brown hair and stubble on his chin. He lifted his hand, which was holding a cigarette, to his lips and took a puff.
He was looking directly at the boulder in the middle of the ruined building. There was broken furniture, debris, and strewn rocks everywhere. It was as if the boulder fell from the fog sky.
"Captain, we discovered a corpse." A detective came with surprising news. The rest of the detectives looked at the man while the Captain exhaled smoke.
"Alright." The Captain sighed and said. "Call the Murder Analyzing Agency; they can check the corpse."
"Yes, sir." The detective left to make a call.
"Have any of you found anything?" The Captain turned to the rest of the detectives, who were flipping over the rocks, furniture, and debris as they tried to find anything, but they shook their heads as they couldn't find anything.
"Fine, wrap it up. Search the surrounding area instead." The Captain placed the cigarette back on his lips as he wondered what had happened there. The boulder couldn't just appear out of nowhere. It also couldn't be carried since it looked like it weighed several tons.
"Captain, look!" One of the detectives screamed as he pointed at the boulder. Something was happening to it!
The Captain turned around and watched as the boulder grew smaller and smaller before turning incredibly thin. It soon transformed into a thin joker card.
He crouched and picked it up. As he saw the joker card, his expression turned blank. All the nearby detectives exclaimed simultaneously. They knew about this joker card. It had previously appeared a year ago.
"Stop the investigations." The Captain dropped the cigarette and massaged his temples. "This is way above our pay grade."
The detectives gave a shaky nod and left the building ruins as they escaped from the area. They knew that if that man had returned, they couldn't do anything to bring him to justice!
"Why has he returned?" The Captain sighed as he crumbled the card.
"The Laughing Clown...
"A man with a bounty of 525,000 gold coins. Why is he back?"
...
"Your body is something else." The clown chuckled as he sat beside Jason, who lay on a hospital bed. "The vampire used his full power to throw you, yet you survived with only one broken rib, hehe."
Jason rolled his eyes. "That is one too many."
The clown scoffed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small, blood-stained fang and placed it on the metal table beside Jason. "Here is your share. The time limit is probably around 17 to 18 hours, so use it quickly."
Jason took the fang and stuffed it into his pocket while trying to avoid straining his ribs. There were white cloths wrapped around his waist, as it would help his wounds heal faster.
"Now, it's time to say goodbye. Hehe, this was a fun little adventure." The clown chuckled and patted Jason's shoulder as he said. "Don't tell anyone about me. I am shy, hehe."
"Mmh?" Jason's eyebrow rose, but he nodded as if he took his words seriously. Then he watched as the clown walked out of the hospital as if he owned the world.
"A strange person indeed." Jason pulled out the blood-stained fang as he sighed. He only had to buy the remaining ingredients for the three potions, which he could afford, and then he could concoct them.
He planned to make a Night, Strength, and Vampirification Potion. They would be more than enough to push him straight to System Veteran!