"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.
Zeke looked aghast upon hearing this, and knew that he was certainly in a troublesome situation.
"Stand down!" Zeke then commanded, while his pupils contracted.
The hunter remained still and had a neutral face, which was a good sign.
Zeke looked to be calming down as the hunter seemingly disengaged, but then he snapped back to life and punched him right in his face before he could properly react.
This punch felt insanely powerful and launched Zeke off his feet, sending him rolling away.
"I forgot to wear vervain today, but your compulsion has already grown so weak that you can't even compel me anymore. How sad!" The hunter taunted in a false empathetic tone, vehemently kicking Zeke in his stomach.
He grunted in pain, and coughed out a mouthful of blood, before slowly rolling onto his back in agony.
The hunter walked over to him, staring down at him with an arrogant smile.
As he did this, Zeke squinted his eyes to get a closer look at him. His face looked awkwardly familiar, but he couldn't place a finger on why.
This hunter gave him no time to react, and drove a stake down toward his chest. He pushed with high force, and Zeke could tell that he had gotten weaker. However, he pushed on with everything he had and resisted it.
The stake slowly descended until it touched his chest and started to puncture the skin. Drops of blood were released, but Zeke was not going to falter.
Pushing to the side as hard as he could, he managed to push his body away, while also moving the stake off course.
It was shot into the ground by this hunter, and Zeke rose once again, erupting in an intense aura of red qi.
"I understand your hatred. We are demons, but I need to carry on living. There are things that I still need to do and I'm not going to let you kill me!" Zeke declared, standing powerfully.
Even after absorbing so much qi from him, the pressure he was exuding caused his adversary to slide back.
Zeke stood tall and powerfully, before leaping off his feet to drive his fist into his stomach. The hunter ended up spitting out a mixture of spit and blood, grasping his stomach in agony.
"Vermilion Heir Fist!" He roared, as a cloak of electric red qi enveloped his left fist.
His eyes glowed white, with red tints to the energy's glow, and red lightning began to flow off the sides of his face from his eyes, that now looked totally white with energy.
Along with this, an elaborate, red inscription-like marking on his right chest glowed.
BAM!
His punch launched his opponent through two entire trees, causing them to come falling down.
BOOM! BOOM!
The loud sound of tree bark hitting the ground along with the intense rustling of shaking leaves was heard as this tree collapsed.
This hunter seemed unresponsive, and Zeke stepped back, holding his chest.
He coughed blood upon performing this attack, looking at his shaking palm that was now full of his own blood.
"Urgh! I've been off my training for too long..." Zeke realised, before chuckling to himself.
He didn't want to wait there for too long -in case this hunter awoke- and he took this chance to escape.
Zeke, now at home, was struggling to keep a calm mind. He had a bamboo cup filled with human blood, and intensely drank at it to try and relax himself.
As he drank, his demonic face was manifesting, and he downed the entire cup in a flash.
'It's okay, Zeke, he's too strong to take you down. You'll be fine, just kill him the next time you see him.' He thought to himself.
Thinking back to his face, he remained still, recalling the battle that he had. Suddenly, he dropped his bamboo cup, causing drops of human blood to drop across his floor. His eyes were wide open and he was completely frozen, deep in his thoughts.
"There's no way." He whispered, in utter shock.
****
"How could your qi strength only be 10, Duncan?! Arwin would've had at least 20 by now, I had 18, your mother had 17!" Vance shouted at Duncan in anger.
The air was thick and the tension was high at Duncan's family dinner, where his mother and father were sat along with him.
His plate was relatively untouched, as for that entire evening he had been berated by his father for his poor talent. There was a black drink, called Black Soda, that was by far his favourite drink.
It was made out of a special rare sugar, that was incredibly toothsome for humans. Even with that, he didn't even feel like taking a sip.
"It's not my fault, father, what can I do?!" Duncan retorted, making his two parents fall silent.
Vance's eye twitched upon hearing this reply, and he lifted from his chair.
"Vance, I'm sure he didn't mean it." Duncan's mother insisted, watching him pace over to his son.
A bright blue aura of qi enveloped his body, and he slapped Duncan across the face with his mammoth hand.
He stood at 6'5 and looked like a true warrior. Unlike most cultivators who had athletic, smaller physiques, he had large amounts of muscle mass and had arms bigger than most people's legs.
A large red mark showed up across Duncan's face, and he could taste the metallic taste of blood after receiving this smack.
"Don't talk back to me, you utter weakling!" Vance ordered, before returning to his seat.
Duncan just held his bruised cheek, before storming out of his dining room. He threw open the shoji door to his kitchen and rushed to his front door.
"You need to go easier on him, Vance. It really isn't his fault!" His mother pleaded.
"Be quiet, Ria! He needs this toughness so that he can grow stronger. No man of the Marok family should be as weak as he is." He stated, before taking a bite of the tender, deep-fried pork on his plate.
Duncan stormed out of the front door of his house, struggling to hold tears back. He opened his mouth to shout but made sure no air came out. He released all of his pent-up anger, while making sure not to alert his maniacal father.
"Duncan?"
From just beside him on the street, a boy with blue, messy hair was stood.
At first he stood there, unable to believe it.
A boy that looked just like his long lost brother.
Arwin.
A large smile grew across his face and he rushed over to hug the boy. There was no mistaking it. This was Arwin, his long-lost young brother.
Tears began to fall from his eyes, and he wailed upon finally re-uniting with his brother.
"I can't believe it's you. I thought, we all though a beast killed you!" Duncan said, pulling back with his hands on his brother's shoulders.
He then rushed over to try and open the door but Arwin stopped him.
"Wait!" He whispered with a slight shout.
"What? What's wrong, Arwin?" Duncan asked, slightly confused.
"I... I don't want them to know about me just yet. Just... I want them to see me when I'm ready." He insisted.
Duncan was taken off guard by his request but he didn't want to just not listen to him. If he didn't understand his situation he felt just like his narrow-minded father, and that almost spawned a flame of anger in his mind.
No, he could never be like his father.
"That's fine. Just tell me when you are. Where are you going now?" Duncan asked.
"I have a place I'm staying at. Don't worry about me, I've gotten by all these years, I can continue getting by now." He claimed.
Duncan, again, was understanding of his brother and let him continue as he was.
"I'll see you again soon. I'll meet you here, okay?" Arwin said, before backing away slowly.
Duncan waved his brother goodbye, with a wide smile from ear-to-ear. Arwin did the same and began to walk off.
Duncan felt a soothing, comforting warmth in his body after seeing his brother in such good condition after all this time. All that torment, all that guilt. In one second, it almost washed away completely.
It was like the weight of anvils had been removed from his shoulders, and he could finally breathe again.
****