Chapter 77: Bloodline Evolving

I finished killing all those hunters, or rather, the students who would have become hunters one day.

I thought I’d feel terrible seeing their lifeless bodies scattered across the camp. But I didn’t. I felt nothing, and that scared me a little.

It was a strange mix, being unsettled by what I’d done and by how I felt about it, while also feeling relieved at the same time. Relieved to be this way in a cruel world. That indifference would definitely serve me well down the road if I wanted to survive.

I moved on after killing them. The night was just getting started, and I knew I could cover a lot of ground and probably cross the border before it was over.

Why sleep? I could rest once I made it to the other side. Better to stay focused and get there as fast as possible.

So I started running, much faster than before when I’d been chasing them.

I didn’t need to worry about staying hidden or being spotted. I went as fast as I could.

My eyes had fully adjusted to the dark, glowing intensely in a bright yellow. Every movement I made was quick and fluid, like a snake or some kind of magical beast.

The strangest thing happened about 5 minutes into the run. I slipped into a kind of zone, like my entire focus had narrowed down to moving forward and pushing through that forest. Nothing around me mattered anymore.

A primitive zone. A trance. My body stopped running like a normal person. I felt my nails growing into claws, and I started using my arms more as I ran, my body curving forward slightly.

I’d leap and dig my claws into the trees, then launch myself ahead, over and over, like a monster. That serpent bloodline was changing my body in ways I hadn’t expected. I knew the changes would come, but I didn’t think they’d be this intense, or this fast.

After a few hours running like that, I lost track of how long exactly since my sense of time had blurred, I finally got close to the border.

And there, of course, I spotted some soldiers. Or more accurately, they were something like park rangers living out in the woods, stationed in towers and cabins deep in the wilderness, making sure anyone passing through the area was just hiking or climbing the mountains, which was pretty common in that region.

What they didn’t want was people crossing from either side with illegal goods. Some kind of control was necessary.

Of course, since this stretch was basically just raw wilderness, almost no one made it through alive. I wasn’t worried, precisely because I wasn’t just anyone.

A path that would take a regular person days to walk, I covered in a few hours. And no wild animals came to attack me. My aura alone was enough to drive them all away, so naturally everything was easier for me.

But that was exactly why the people stationed out there were no ordinary rangers. Most of them were hunters.

The US knew that only hunters would be capable of passing through that region carrying illegal goods without dying in the forest, so of course the park rangers living there were hunters too.

I knew all of this because Zoen had given me that sheet with all the details. He wouldn’t have sent me out there blind.

Zoen told me someone would be there to help. One of the men working the area would be able to show me an alternate route to cross where security was thin.

I stood still, hidden in the trees, watching from a distance at the spot Zoen told me to wait. Around midnight, a guy showed up.

“You’re the one Zoen sent?” he said, looking at my claws and my glowing snake eyes. “A rather unusual killer, I see. Anyway, follow me.”

The bloodline effects had started to wear off. I could think more clearly, but the claws and the snake eyes hadn’t gone away yet, which wasn’t great. I needed to find a way to control that, because walking around a Canadian city looking like this would draw way too much attention.

I followed him through the forest until we reached an underground tunnel.

“This tunnel runs under where the others are stationed and comes out the other side,” he told me. “That way they won’t find you. If you try going over the top, the defense systems will pick you up.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the help. I’m sure it wasn’t out of the goodness of your heart.”

He laughed.

“Not even close. Zoen does a lot for me, so I return the favor.

I ran through the tunnel to get to the other side as fast as I could. It was straight for most of the way, but then I noticed it starting to climb, which struck me as odd.

That wasn’t how it was supposed to go, but I kept moving, telling myself it might just be my imagination. Maybe the tunnel crossed into the other country and ended somewhere near the top of a mountain. The area was full of them, after all.

But then I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Impossible. There was no way I’d reached the other side that fast.

I wasn’t stupid. That whole thing was a trap, no question about it.

I could turn back and try crossing over the top, but I’d get caught that way too. Either way, the result was the same. Apparently the contact Zoen trusted to get me across the border was selling him out.

I stepped out of the tunnel and came face to face with about 9 people, all men. These were the ones living in the cabins and the towers on the mountain near the border.

“Well, well, what a peculiar killer we have here,” one of them said. “Told you so.”

The guy I’d just met was standing right there among them, waiting at the end of the tunnel to have me killed.

“I thought you were someone I could trust,” I said.

He shrugged.

“Things changed. You giving up, or are you still going to try to fight?”

I read the power level of each one of them, and unfortunately, I was in deep trouble. Every single one of them was rank B, and at least 4 were rank A. These were serious hunters.

There was no way I was winning this fight, I was sure of that. Escaping might have been an option, but I wasn’t sure it would work either.

Even if I slipped into my pocket dimension, I wasn’t untouchable in there. They’d still feel the energy at the spot where I vanished, and eventually they’d break through and pull me out.

The best move I had was to fight and try to take at least a few of them with me. If I could kill 2 or 3, that would be enough. I could die in peace with that.

So I summoned my cube and used it to reinforce my own body. My claws were enhanced, along with everything else.

It was like wearing armor made of blue energy.

“His abilities are strange, watch yourselves,” one of the hunters said.

A fight to the death was about to begin. I felt my blood pulsing, like my bloodline was reacting to that life-or-death moment, pushing me to overcome my enemies.

[Danger]

[Bloodline operating at full capacity for survival. Temporary increase of 100 points to all attributes]

And there it was. My bloodline was doing everything it could to keep me alive. I felt that surge of power instantly. It felt incredible.

But it came with a price. My judgment took a hit. I couldn’t think straight or form any real strategy for the fight. All I wanted to do was charge at them and kill them, and that’s exactly what I did.

I ran straight at the hunter who looked the weakest, most vulnerable, most scared. One of the rank B hunters.

My base power was already higher than his, so with the attribute boost on top of that, my speed was enough to close the distance in seconds.

I swiped with my claws and cut his throat clean, like slicing through butter. He grabbed his neck with both hands as the blood poured out.

I turned toward the next target, but the moment I tried to move, I felt my feet locked in place. Stuck in mud.

One of the hunters could control the earth.

“That quicksand is strong enough that you won’t be getting out. Don’t even bother trying,” the hunter said.

He was standing close to me. If I could move, it wouldn’t even take a second to kill him too.

Being stuck in that situation meant death, no question. The other hunters would close in and finish me off.

In the heat of the moment, running entirely on raw instinct, I used my own claws to cut off both my feet, tearing free from the quicksand.

With one hand I pushed off the ground and launched myself toward the hunter.

“I-Impossible.”

Those were his last words before I latched onto his throat and tore his head clean off.

In just a few seconds, 2 of them were dead.