This was it. Luciel was already saying goodbye to his life when he saw Scarlet's sword going towards his neck and he could barely move thanks to the lightning bolt he received earlier.
But just as Scarlet would behead him, Luciel saw a familiar figure heading their way - it was Kai.
In the last moment, Kai managed to approach Scarlet from behind, putting one of his arms around her and quickly opening his mouth, biting her neck to inject his venom into her bloodstream.
Before Scarlet had a chance to break free from Kai, she dropped her sword onto the forest ground.
The vampire's paralyzing venom was so potent that it could incapacitate the victim almost immediately.
"Let go of me!" Scarlet bared her teeth, wanting to punch, kick, bite, anything just to get free, but her body refused to listen. A bite from a vampire usually meant death.
While observing Scarlet, Luciel could hear her rapid heartbeat and see droplets of sweat appearing on her forehead as she kept trying to break free.
"Wait! Don't kill her!" Luciel slowly got up once he was close to finally recovering. He placed his hands on his knees, staring at Kai who decided to drink her blood.
"Kai!" Luciel raised his voice after he didn't get a response from his friend.
Even if Scarlet tried to kill him, Luciel still didn't want to see her dead.
Scarlet had a good enough reason to kill him, especially since he didn't prove himself to be any different from the rest of the vampires.
No matter how much he tried, Luciel knew that sooner or later, he would become a vampire like the one in front of him, if he hadn't already.
"Hey! Kai!" Luciel shouted again and rushed towards him, grabbing him by the hair and pulling his head upwards, finally detaching him from Scarlet.
Luciel knew that Kai was getting close to killing Scarlet once he heard her heartbeat becoming weaker while her eyes slowly started to close.
"You'll kill her if you continue." Luciel and Kai both hissed at each other, displaying their fangs.
Luciel's eyes started to glow vibrant red once Kai dared to hiss at him as anger settled in. 'How dares he hiss at me!'
Luciel grabbed Kai by his shirt collar and threw him, making his body fly above Scarlet who was lying on the ground, fighting to keep her eyes open.
'Just what is going on?' She thought, observing Luciel approaching Kai who was already on his feet.
'Luciel… He saved me.' She couldn't believe what was going on in front of her eyes. Two vampires were battling it out. One was fighting to keep her safe even if she was about to kill it.
The fight in front of Scarlet was one of the most brutal and savage fights she had ever seen, with both parties clawing at each other.
The whole scene wouldn't make her feel uneasy if the vampire involved hadn't been Luciel.
Seeing Luciel matching Kai's behavior felt uncomfortable since for humans, it was still unimaginable how much a person could change under the effects of vampirism.
Luciel growled at Kai and made a slice across his chest, but Kai didn't even bother to block it as he went towards Luciel's thorax, holding his fingers closely together.
Seeing the motion, Luciel made a spin and hit Kai in his abdomen, throwing him far away into a tree, and making a small dent in it.
Luciel did not bother with holding back right now. With the constant battles, he didn't know how much longer he had left.
He was also concerned about Kai since this mindless beast wasn't the one he used to know.
Was it the bite from back there that made him act like this? Or was it hunger? Something else? Not only that, but with each cut that Kai made, Luciel felt weaker.
Speaking of getting weaker, if Kai's twin sister could manipulate sound waves, what was Kai's ability anyway? He never saw him using it.
Hissing, Kai launched himself towards Luciel, opening his mouth and going for a bite.
Reading his opponent's movements, Luciel extended his arm and grabbed Kai's face, smashing it down on the ground with all of his strength, hoping that he wouldn't kill him in the process.
Even if Luciel had an opportunity to see vampires recover from severe head injuries, his human side still felt concerned.
Luciel was on guard, waiting for a possible ambush from Kai, but after what seemed like ten minutes had passed, he was finally able to relax, letting out a breath of relief.
He could still hear Kai's pounding heart, which meant that he was still alive, for now at least.
Luciel rubbed his left eye before going to move Kai's shirt collar a little bit to see the place where he had been bitten.
The bite marks were healed, but there was something else that deeply concerned Luciel.
"This is not good…" He stared at the place where Kai was bitten previously. He could see black veins extending towards his neck, chest, back, and arm while the skin where the wound used to be showed slight color variations.
What used to be pale vampire skin was now dry, gray skin with patches of blue and purple, resembling the zombie they fought against earlier.
'No wonder he had been falling behind me.' Luciel thought. It made sense now why Kai wanted to be left behind so much. He probably knew what was going on.
There were a few things that Luciel was concerned about at the moment and he didn't even know where to start.
There were so many questions he wanted answers to, but no one to answer him.
The zombie clearly had the ability to not only infect humans but vampires as well, except that it was spreading way slower.
Luciel wondered if the zombie could infect other creatures as well. Just how powerful could it be to infect a vampire with a powerful healing factor?
Luciel poked Kai's face, hoping to see some kind of reaction, but there was none.
"Great…" Luciel muttered. Kai was unconscious and who knows when and if he'll wake up, and if he would be the same Kai he knew or the beast he fought against. Not to mention that the sun would be up soon.
Letting out a sigh, Luciel picked up Kai in a princess style, turning his back towards Scarlet. "When should the venom in your body wear off?"
Luciel looked over his shoulder, staring at Scarlet with the corner of his eye.
"In a few hours. Shouldn't take the whole day."
"And your hunters?"
"I told them to let me go alone. But I don't know what that thing did to them. In any case, they should start a search after some time."
"Hm…" Luciel was in deep thought. The time was running out and he didn't have enough time to find shelter with the extra weight.
Going up to the trees to at least reach a safe place from potential predators was also tricky since Kai could just fall down. The tree branches weren't so wide after all. If only he would know the way to the nest.
While carrying Kai, Luciel walked towards the nearby tree and put him down.
"You know, I never intended to kill anyone that day." Luciel's gaze went across the ground while he was still kneeling before proceeding to sit down next to Kai.
"When Alukah turned me in his last moments, I simply couldn't resist it. The fact that I managed to let go of Alex was a miracle in itself." Luciel didn't know why he was telling this to Scarlet.
He wasn't asking for pity or redemption. He didn't want forgiveness either. Perhaps he just wanted someone else, besides Alex, to listen to him.
Scarlet was about to say something, but before she could, Luciel cut her off: "Get some rest. I'll be here till someone comes. And don't worry, if I wanted to, I could have killed you already."
There was a reason why Luciel decided to stay and protect Scarlet. It wasn't because of the good in his heart. He knew Scarlet's character and he wanted to use it.
He had nowhere to go and heading deeper into the forest might be the death of him.
Once Scarlet recovers, she won't be able to kill him right on the spot because she was going to owe him a favor for sparing her life and offering protection which he desperately needs due to venom in her blood system.
Luciel closed his eyes and once he slowly opened them, Scarlet could see something horizontal moving across them, revealing the previous, chocolate-brown eyes he used to have as a human.
"I thought that you had turned into a bloodhound that still had some sentiment left, but you actually did become a full-fledged vampire."
Scarlet always thought that Luciel acted weird after getting turned. His behavior never matched the typical bloodhound.
Bloodhounds was the name for a subspecies of vampires. Humans that drank vampire's blood would turn into one.
They were lesser vampires that only had one feeling left - thirst.
Bloodhounds were mindless beasts who only knew how to chase after blood. There were cases where those with a strong mind would keep their intelligence, making Scarlet mistake Luciel for one.
Except for the fact that most of them lacked sentiment, the other big difference between bloodhounds and vampires was their ability to walk among humans.
Unlike vampires, bloodhounds couldn't hide their red eyes, fangs, and claws, making them easier to spot.
"Sometimes I wish I turned into a bloodhound." Luciel scoffed, bringing his knees closer to his body, resting his right hand on top of them.
Scarlet and Luciel continued to exchange what happened in the past events after Luciel had turned, with Luciel keeping most of the stuff to himself.
He left out Alex in his story, details about Kai and Melisa, as well as how he was surviving till now.
Meanwhile, Scarlet told him how Helen and the rest of the hunters were doing, but there was nothing special to say.
The hunts were running smoothly, especially now since the vampires weren't as confident as before with Alukah gone.
The way everything is going, they might become the first colony free from vampires.
After a small exchange, the two went quiet for a while. Scarlet was ready to finally fall asleep till Luciel started to talk again.
"Once you return to the colony, be on guard." He started, "When Kai and I were in the city, we fought against some strange creature that resembled that of a zombie. Its bite is highly infectious, it even managed to affect a vampire."
Luciel proceeded to show where Kai had been bitten, proving that he wasn't lying.
"What do you mean?" Scarlet had a terrifying expression on her face after hearing the rest of the information that Luciel had disclosed, it didn't seem like he was lying.
If Luciel's statement was true, then that means that they might face a problem that's even bigger than the vampires.
From that moment on, Scarlet went completely quiet, processing the new information.
She wanted to get up and hurry back to the colony as fast as possible, but she still couldn't move her body, not even the tips of her fingers.
'Curse this venom.' She thought, glaring at Kai who managed to sneak behind and bite her, but eventually, she lost all of her strength.
Scarlet couldn't even keep her eyes open before she finally passed out.
The excessive use of divine arts, fighting, Kai's venom, and now this finally took a toll on her.
Meanwhile, Luciel was also fighting to stay awake. He was the only person who was still capable of fighting somehow so it was up to him to protect the two.
He yawned once the sun finally showed up, putting on the cape's hood on his head and bringing the edges of the cape closer together, trying to keep himself protected from the sun's rays.
Luciel felt his eyes closing before he felt a smell of burning flesh hitting his nose.
"Right, vampires…" Luciel looked at Kai whose skin looked like a burning charcoal wherever patches of light would touch him.
'I wonder why are they so sensitive to the sun anyway?' Luciel asked himself before raising his head, looking towards the tree that was covered in green leaves.
He got up and scratched his eyes, finally retracting the third eyelids, allowing his crimson eyes to be seen.
He wanted to try and adapt to this uncomfortable sensation while finally being able to catch a break.
Having his third eyelids folded and his fangs extended felt like taking off an uncomfortable uniform and being able to be naked after a hard day.
Extending his claws, Luciel climbed up with a frown on his face whenever his skin would touch the sunlight, but Kai had it worse currently.
Once he reached the branches, Luciel started to break some, letting them fall to the ground.
Getting down from the tree, Luciel picked up the branches and placed them on top of Kai, removing any possibility for the sunbeams to reach his skin.
Once that was done, Luciel finally went to his previous position, trying to stay awake until his eyes finally closed.