"Boom!"
If one were in the swers, they would notice that the water was rippling violently in some part, a result of something swimming against its pre-determined flow.
This thing had large bat-like eyes, shimmering golden claws, and a fin that was proving to be of great use at the moment, it was the gold-clawed Skilion.
"It's him, it's him, it's him, it's him," the Skilion chanted in its mind, its intent unclear while it swam through the filth of the underground sewage system.
As it propelled itself through the sewage water by an unknown force, its fin guided it, allowing it to make rapid turns that would otherwise be difficult for any other aquatic creature.
But it pushed on until, reaching a specific point, it leaped out, breaking not just through the sewage water but beyond.
-----------
A few minutes before, Luna was busy suppressing the beast.
As her hand pressed down, a pressure that threatened to flatten the entire neighborhood radiated outwards, but the humans under it were left unscathed.
The only thing that could not escape the effect was every glass material in the surrounding area, which crumbled under the pressure, creating a rain of deadly shimmering shards.
That pressure overwhelmed the humanoid beast, its blackened fingertips clawing at the skyscraper it had climbed, but it was pushed down beam after beam, and a moment later it lost its grip.
"Bang!"
It slammed against the concrete with a loud bang, the ground cracking violently beneath it, its bones snapping, black blood forced out of its gaping mouth.
"For a D class, it's not as strong as I'd hoped. Should I just kill it?" Miss Luna thought to herself, her eyes narrowed to slits like she was playing with a toy.
She waited for it to get up, but the beast was unmoving, which puzzled her. Nevertheless, it was not like other beasts; no evolved beasts were the same
"Ring!"
Her phone suddenly rang, prompting her to pick up the call, her voice like a hum as she intoned, "Hey Vlad."
"Luna," Vlad's voice acknowledged from the other end, before saying, "Don't kill it just yet."
"What do you mean?" Luna asked, her brows raised as she continued, "I'm helping you take care of a problem. You know you'll get in trouble with the higher-ups if this thing causes more problems than it should."
"Do not vorry yourself viz such things—"
"But I have to worry," Luna interrupted Vlad before saying, "I'll just kill it for you so you don't have any problems, just sit tight."
There was silence after that, one that was as stifling as it was loud.
"I remind you, Lunechka, you stand in my territory... Do not kill the boy. I am on my way—" Sir Vlad spoke in a threatening tone before cutting the connection.
"Boy?" Miss Luna furrowed her brows at Vlad's word, before looking towards the unmoving beast below, her eyes really focusing on its appearance this time as she thought of a possibility.
"It does look like him, it isn't proactively seeking destruction, and despite having the power, it holds back like a human would," she analyzed before concluding, "it could all be a result of the type of lore it absorbed though."
Like before the beast was healing as she thought, but it was different this time: its breath was slower, its wounds healing at a less abnormal rate.
It appeared exhausted, yet it raised its head to observe Miss Luna.
"So you can get tired," Miss Luna muttered before raising her palm, her fingers crackling with invisible pressure, "Palma Buddhæ!"
"Bam!"
The beast pushed deeper into the concrete, the cracks beneath it growing more defined, its bones screaming in defiance.
But there was still no active movement from it, just the slow rhythmic rise and fall of its chest, shallow and laborious like it was breathing through water.
And just when Luna relinquished her control and the pressure lessened-
"Crack!"
Its leg twitched and then it moved.
Without warning, it sprang up with a burst of desperate strength, ignoring the audible pop of bones grinding against muscle.
Luna's palm barely missed it as it shot forward, limbs bent at unnatural angles like a dying spider.
In a blur, it dashed across the ruined street like a shadow untethered from form.
"Smart," Luna muttered, tilting her head, watching it streak into an abandoned office block.
She made no move to chase, but followed slowly on her flying disc, her eyes locked on it, but then her eyes also caught sight of another blur, which stopped for a moment, revealing a large man.
Upon seeing this man, Luna shook her head and flew down her voice sounding out before she even reached, "So you're finally here."
Meanwhile.
Inside the building, the beast stumbled into the dark, flickering lights casting its reflections on the crumbling walls.
It was panting now, its form limping, its labored breathing a sign that it was exhausted.
It had also stopped healing, evident by the broken bones hindering its movements, and yet despite all this, its instincts drove it.
"Shi!"
"Shi!"
It sniffed, as though trying to trace a certain smell, and when it did this to a certain level, it tilted its head.
Something, someone had moved in the corner of its blackened eye.
It was a homeless man coated in filth, his mouth mumbling nonsense, as he stirred from his slumped position against the wall.
He seemed to have noticed the beast, and despite looking mentally unwell, portrayed a rather understandable reaction of fear.
His blue eyes were widened, brows furrowed and even though he was frozen, his posture was quite defensive.
There was also a shopping cart beside this man, loaded with trash bags that reeked, but that was irrelevant to the thing which did not hesitate.
Rather, it lunged, its blackened fingers digging into the man's flesh as it slammed him against the wall with bone-shattering force, subduing him immediately.
"Ahh—"
The man's scream was cut short as the thing's canine fangs pierced the skin of his neck, inducing a sudden paralysis.
And then, he felt it, a burning sensation that spread throughout his entire body as his skin quickly paled.
The more it fed, the more the homeless man felt pangs of weakness that slipped into a loss of consciousness—a partial sleep.
This feeling continued and grew until he slumped down, his dead weight sagging against the beast.
"Life quickly drained from his eyes, yet no visible blood spilled from his body.
It was similar to the situation with the security guard but this time the beast did not stop.
Rather, it continued to feed, and one would notice that as it did this, the man's corpse now went from pale to deathly white, like all blood had been drained from him.
It was then that the beast let go, its fingers and fangs slipping out of the man's skin, but something notable happened.
From the holes the beast had created on the man's shoulders and neck a clear liquid had started to seep out.
It had the same appearance of clear water but had the thick consistency of blood—no, it was blood, the man's blood.
At the same time, if one looked at the beast, they would notice that its otherwise pitch-black fingertips had started to glow.
The light did not glow dimly, nor did it glow faintly.
Rather it resembled a shimmering, holy white light, almost ethereal in nature.
Outside, Luna narrowed her eyes as she floated midair, her hair drifting gently in the pressure, as she stared at Sir Vlad.
"Don't you want to go in?" She asked the large, dark-haired man before her, whose tattoos on his neck portrayed a rather violent appeal.
The suit he wore did not fit him, rather, he seemed like some kind of thug in a nice dress.
Not paying any mind to the floating woman above him, Sir Vlad moved, and then the air snapped like a stretched rubber band as he sped inside the building, each step causing the ground to crack.
Inside.
The beast seemed to sense something, as goosebumps erupted across its skin, a tremble running through its glowing fingers.
It wanted to run, yet there was no running from something that had already arrived, appearing like a flash of light.
One moment, there was nothing, and in the next, Sir Vlad stepped through the dust-covered floor as if gravity bowed to him, his presence causing the beast to step back.
He was a hulking figure dressed in an obsidian-black suit, crisp and spotless despite the chaos.
In the dim lighting, his glowing, crimson eyes were painfully visible, not in a dramatic sense but one of danger.
Much like Luna, he was terrifyingly calm, but his was different; there was no playfulness involved, just the desire to be done with it.
With a sigh, he adjusted his sleeves with a slow, practiced gesture, a chuckle escaping his lips.
"Haha-"
"Kto b podumal," Sir Vlad said cutting the chuckle, his voice deep enough to make the windows hum. "You would turn yourself into this Valen," he continued.
But the beast, or rather Mr. Valen, looked on as though it couldn't understand his words.
Sir Vlad frowned at this reaction, his eyes narrowed—almost pitying. "I don't know how you did it, little beast... but you can not fool me-"
He took another step forward, cracking the concrete beneath his polished shoe, his Russian accent thickening his words.
"No matter what you become... I'll recognize you, those dark eyes of yours, I still remember it to this day, but do not worry da, I don't want revenge, I'll make you into a powerful soldier as was intended for you from the beginning."
As he spoke, Miss Luna landed beside him with a sharp thud, her boots scarring the pavement.
"Wait-wait, soldier? Is he human? What do you mean by kid?" she asked, turning sharply toward the beast's direction.
And yet despite her inquisitive disposition, she had already begun to piece two and two together.
The fact that the beast looked like that kid.
The fact that he had stolen a monster's blood from the GPV.
The fact that Sir Vlad seemed so fixated on him, to the extent of sending men to spy on him.
It all made a twisted sort of sense.
With widened, almost disbelieving eyes, she exclaimed, her gaze snapping from Vlad to the beast and back. "That thing… that thing is him? The kid from the sock factory? The one from the news? How the fuck did he turn into this?"