Chapter 539: The Vampires

The further they moved into Tunnel Rat territory, the older the sewers became. The tunnels became smaller, and the smells far worse, to the point that Arc thought the only reason the newer sewers stank was because of the continued existence of the old.

The fifth time something she did not want to identify squelched under her boots, she finally asked, "Why would anyone live down here?" For the fifth time, she was happy the lights in the older sewers were far too dim to let her see what she’d stepped in. To her surprise, it was Owyn who answered.

"Wherever people can be free, that’s where they’ll go." he turned his head so he could see her as he led at a prominent crouch, now supporting Steven with one arm instead of carrying him. "Just like back home."

Arc noticed his slip, but there was something wistful in his face that held her attention. A sincere shimmer in his green eyes that made her redden a bit, despite her recent disgusting experience. A little muck on her boots suddenly felt less important.

"So the brute does have philosophical thoughts," Steven taunted, his pretentious and annoying voice killing the moment.

"The brute can also drop you in raw sewage," Owyn retorted, slightly extending his arm in a way that pushed Steven to rapidly apologise so as to avoid being pushed off the narrow walkway. Almost the very moment that was settled, a troubling sloshing sound announced the deposition of someone’s waste through a wall pipe between the two pairs.

Arc held her nose and her breath before lightly hopping over the line of fresh sludge.

"And where is home for you?" Veng asked.

Arc tensed. She considered stepping in, but then thought that would only be more suspicious. But if Owyn answered wrong-

"I guess I could say the, uh, Eighth Ward. Though I mostly spent my time outside that..." Owyn lied, and Arc felt some of her back loosen a bit.

"You were with the Foresters?" Veng asked.

"Ah! A nature lover!" Steven said, his interest sounding oddly genuine. "I myself enjoy ruminating over the thought that all but our bones shall return to the world... To be feasted upon by gangs of maggots and ants."

"I wasn’t in a gang," Owyn said quickly.

Arc internally facepalmed as she heard Veng’s mouth open and close with some unstated phrase, but the next moment, something in her peripheral vision caught her eye, a humanoid shadow leaping behind her, and she turned. "What was that?" She felt her claws instinctively slide out as she strained to find the source of the movement.

Veng also looked, but after a tense moment reported, "I don’t sense anything."

They stood together for a moment, Arc all too grateful he was sticking with her this far. Though she had no clue if it was just his deference to her as daughter of "The Demon Lord."

"There’s a chamber up here," Owyn called back, having taken just a few steps more with Steven.

Past the bend, the sewer opened up into a wide, domed circle of a room that led off in four equally spaced directions, including the one they came from. The entrance was labelled Purification, and Arc saw that the centre of the room featured a slightly raised portion of concrete, into which had been inscribed what looked like a circle filled with sigil core script.

Only, the moment she saw it clearly, she saw that it wasn’t the arrow-like alphabet used by the sigil core, but something that used regular runes in a complex script. The sheer about of what had to be shorthand made the script itself unintelligible, but given what the room was for... Her eyes fell on the eight-toothed gear inside a hexagon that was the sigil of her auntie Moshui, nicknamed Moshui the Novel, and an epiphany began to spark inside her.

"This is the way," Steven confirmed, indicating the exit to the right of where they’d entered, and Owyn walked over to the tunnel, which was, of course, the darkest one.

If anyone could figure out a way around her inability to use mana, it had to be her genius auntie...

That was when their pursuer attacked.

Arc’s staring at the spell circle had put her the closest to their original entry point, as the boys were checking the ways out. She barely heard one of the others shout out before a set of serrated jaws clamped around the back of her neck.

A spike of terror hit as she fought her instincts, trying not to injure herself by turning even as she struck backwards, her only-slightly enhanced elbow strike smacking against a body that might as well have been a bundle of steel rods.

As the boys took up their fighting stances, a clawed hand pinched both sides of her throat, drawing blood as the jaws left her neck and a spiteful voice like a thousand scraping razors in her ears ordered, "Hold still, or the midgit dies." Arc was lifted off the ground by her assailant, pinned to his chest with an iron grip as he loosed his other hand to smash something at the wall out of sight. To her horror, the flood doors set into the archways started to slowly close. "I won’t warn you again, ihktzakek."

Fury at what she’d been called briefly flared before she remembered that the last word he’d uttered was close to ’traitor’ in demonic, but unfamiliar to her. Without being able to visually confirm, at first, she thought he meant Steven they’d picked up, but then Steven looked from their attacker to Veng.

"How do you know Ripper?!" The human’s voice hit a higher, desperate pitch.

Veng took a step forward. "I don’t." He reached up and pulled at his high-collared uniform jacket, exposing more of his face past the torn portion. If she wasn’t at risk of getting her throat ripped out, Arc would have appreciated his pale, sharp features. Features that seemed to draw her gaze to his lips... and the large, predatory fangs he bared with a hiss.

The claws on Arc’s neck pressed deeper, and she let out a whimper. She tried to charge her body with enhancement magic, but her captor hissed in her ear, a clear warning that he could sense what she was trying to do. Her terror only increased as Ripper spoke, "Fake vampire. Your parents should have cut your throat the moment you grew from an imp, but now I’ll get the honour of serving our race..." The psychotic demon giggled." I wonder if you would suffer more, zakek, if I killed a real demon in front of you."

I’m three-quarters angel, dammit! Arc jerked before the pain in her throat brought her back to reality.

"You hate me because of what I am. I get that." His voice was calm and fearless in a way that seemed to draw Ripper’s attention away from her, and she felt the sharp points in her neck ease. "But you know you can’t take all three of us on. So let her go," Veng said. "I’ll fight you one-on-one." He started to circle, and Ripper walked sideways as well. Only then did Arc realize that Veng had put himself in a position that meant he wouldn’t be able to get out before the doors closed.

Ripper seemed to know this as well, and the moment he was sure, pain flared in Arc’s neck as he abruptly shifted his grip and threw her towards the closing door with Owyn and Steven on the other side.

"NO!" Veng shouted, fury lighting his face as his eyes turned red as the door slammed shut.

Arc was lifted off the ground, she heard the dull sounds of the fight beginning on the other side. A spark of magic fire lit up, held by Steven.

"Shit shit shit, she’s bleeding." Steven stammered, gasping and faltering with every jerky movement of his body. "We need to get her to the hospital." His words made her notice the heavy, hot sensation flowing against her neck. True to his name, Ripper had not been gentle when he tossed her, and his claws had slashed deeply into her neck.

"N-no," Arc groaned as she saw Owyn’s silent panic. She felt his hand pressing against her wound, and she reached up, pulling it tighter onto herself. Thankfully, he got the message and held his hand at a firmer pressure.

Talking hurt, and before she could gather herself, Owyn lifted her and started hurrying through the tunnel, Steven calling out as he ran to keep up. "I can’t enhance and hold the light at the same time!" the human shouted, but Owyn was already past the reach of the light, crouched as he ran with enhanced speed and strength, a pained look on his face. He kept glancing down at her, his mouth moving, but Arc couldn’t hear him so well.

Her head felt light, the whole world flashed, and she had a moment to realise they’d entered a brightly-lit part of the sewer before her eyes grew too heavy to keep open...