"Are you sure he can hear you from all the way here? Let's go out and look." Another adult beside them insisted.
Vance looked furious at Duncan, giving him stares of pure fury that made Duncan's legs tremble. He retreated anxiously upon watching his father advance.
"Follow me, Duncan." His mother said, holding Duncan's hand.
She had golden-brown hair and hazel eyes, with olive-toned, clear skin.
The group of adults searched and searched, finding nobody at all.
"That goddamn waste of space went and lost us our only talent! The Marok Family will shun us until the day we die!" Vance roared, with Duncan hearing from afar.
"Why did it have to be Arwin, WHY?!" He called out, as tears began to form in his eyes.
Streams of tears fell from Duncan's eyes as he watched his father, who was in such distress.
He turned to his mother, and even she didn't give him a glance. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, and the others who were present tried their best to console them.
However, they had just lost a child. There wasn't much that they could do.
****
"Are you okay?" One of the merchants asked Duncan.
"Oh yeah I'm good, sorry." He replied, laughing.
'Brother? No, it can't be him, just forget about it. A beast killed him that day.' Duncan told himself, looking back to where he had seen a figure.
Abel had found a nice elixir at this stall that he was drawn to. This was called a 'Violet Phoenix Invigorating Elixir'. There were various types of elixirs that had different purposes.
The most common type was just a healing elixir, that accelerated the healing of the body to essentially give it a healing factor for a certain period.
On the other hand, there were other types of elixirs based on cultivation. Firstly, there were elixirs that strengthened the qi within the dantian and allowed it to climb the ranks more quickly.
However, there were also elixirs that focused on increasing the volume of qi that one could draw from. This meant that one wouldn't exactly have stronger qi, but that they could fight for longer and use attacks that required more qi in one go.
The elixir was a whopping 450 silver coins, that was more than Abel's new monthly rent for his room in the siheyuan.
This was what fermented the hierarchy in society. Those who were richer, could afford expensive elixirs that further increased their strength. Those who were weak were forced to remain weak, being unable to afford the resources that would let them grow.
It was in a spherical flask, with purple liquid inside it, and he held it tightly from how expensive it was. He wasn't willing to just lose the elixir he had worked so hard to afford and was anticipating his first cultivation experience with it.
Duncan said his goodbyes to Abel and Zeke, who took different paths back home. Duncan was in a slightly more affluent area with his parents but was still in the lower-level, working-class quarters of the city.
Zeke and Abel diverted from each other, taking their more specific paths home. They waved each other goodbye, and Abel could feel that he was getting a lot closer to Zeke. He was a vampire, like he was, and was helping him greatly.
The fact that they were both supernatural and different from everyone else around them gave them an even bigger reason to become closer.
Zeke shook the thin, long bottle of green substance that he had bought from the market. He gave it a closer inspection and scoffed.
'This may not even work that well with my demon qi. It should do something, though.' Zeke hoped.
He was currently walking through some of the greenery to return to his own neighbourhood. The city was dense with buildings, but also had areas of lush forestry and foliage.
Thwip!
From ahead of him, he could see a long wooden stake getting launched toward him. It was enveloped in an aura of blue qi, and he was forced to move at the last second as it was aimed perfectly for his heart.
It stabbed into his chest, near his right shoulder, so the attack wasn't going to shut down his body.
'A hunter!' He realised, shouting in pain from the wooden stake in his chest.
He mustered the courage to rip the thing out and took a large breath of relief.
Looking back up with a weary face, he could see a shirtless man charging toward him. Across his chest and face were special black battle markings, and Zeke was forced to leap out the way to evade his first attack.
"I'm surprised that you dodged my first shot. So, you're the vampire that I was told about. You don't seem too strong so I should have you down pretty quickly." The boy rambled, almost thinking aloud.
Zeke, holding the wound in his shoulder, started to look confused as he realised that it wasn't healing properly. However, this was due to the wooden chunks that were left over when he ripped the stake out.
He was forced to remove every last bloody chunk of wood that he could see and was finally relieved to see the wound sealing up.
"Who are you?!" He asked, alarmed.
"You don't get to ask questions, you disgusting demon! You're no better than the beasts!" He declared, revealing another stake from a bag fastened at his holster.
His body erupted in an aura of bright blue qi, and he charged forward at full speed, with the stake in reverse grip.
He zipped toward Zeke and drove the stake down, aiming right for his heart. However, with Zeke using his own qi as well, he evaded his attack.
This hunter was clearly going to aim for his heart to try and kill him, so that was something he could bank on and sufficiently counter.
Now a few steps from this hunter, he launched out the blood pellet attack that he was teaching Abel, and the large ball of blood landed in this hunter's gut. A large explosion was given off, then Zeke retracted both of his palms.
His demonic face was taking form, showing off the black veins across his face and his black sclera, along with his glowing red eyes.
"Blood shrapnel!" He roared, shooting out his hands.
More than 15 balls of blood, just like the blood pellet technique, were released at high speed as if it was an explosion.
His explosion shredded through various trees, and launched the hunter back. This first attack left grave wounds across his body and launched him into a trunk of a tree that was still standing.
The hunter lifelessly slid down it, and Zeke looked almost confused at how weak this man was.
'Oh well, I should kill him now so that there won't be any problems in the future.' Zeke decided approaching the man.
Just as he began to descend to try and rip out his heart, a stake was stabbed into his leg.
"AARGH!!" Zeke roared in pain, before throwing out a punch in reaction.
He landed his punch right on his enemy's jaw, then swiftly ripped out the stake from his own leg to stab it into the hunter's stomach.
Zeke became overwhelmed by his rage, and his strong will to live meant that he was willing to do anything to survive.
He continuously punched the man in his torso and face with powerful punches that seemingly cracked and broke bones on impact. Zeke didn't hold back with any of his punches, but he soon realised that they were getting weaker and weaker.
After a few attacks, he felt his body being sluggish and heavy. It was like he wasn't even a vampire anymore and was lacking that boost in physical strength.
His aura also retreated closer to his skin and looked less intense and energetic.
"What's happening, what have you done to me?!" Zeke asked, throwing another punch.
His fist hit the man's jaw, and he felt a sharp pain through his knuckles. It felt like he was trying to punch through a boulder. He retreated while holding his smarting, and the hunter just chuckled as his eyes flashed blue.
"Answer me!" Zeke demanded.
"Wow, you're a vampire and don't even understand the people that hunt you. Us hunters can draw out the power from the supernatural demons that we kill. As we fight, we get stronger while our adversaries only get weaker." He announced.