Codename Vestia

Chapter 44

Luas threw a hook with a professional stance. However, Tora caught the fist effortlessly.

Luas immediately swung his other hand, but Tora struck his abdomen in return. Luas was sent flying, crashing into the wall as if he had been hit by a giant’s fist. The wall cracked, and Luas was almost embedded in it.

Without giving him a moment’s break, Tora was suddenly next to him, grabbing his neck and lifting him into the air. Though Luas had a physique comparable to Tora’s, his feet dangled above the ground.

He aimed a kick, trying to find an opening, but Tora caught his leg mid-air and twisted it to the side.

“Kh…!”

The pain was so intense that Luas couldn’t even fully scream.

Jain completely understood why Tora had come all the way here alone. The raw power Tora possessed was unmatched by any vampire she had ever seen.

At that moment, the human men sensed something was wrong and tried to use their radios to call for reinforcements. However, it seemed like the devices weren’t working properly.

“What the? Why is this thing dead?”

Several of them then attempted to run outside. Jain quickly grabbed a chair, spun her body, and hurled it using the momentum. The men were thrown into chaos, scrambling to avoid the flying chair.

“What the hell, damn it!”

The men charged at her. Jain timed her kick perfectly, striking one man in the abdomen. Using the recoil, she kicked off the wall and practically launched herself at another man, landing a heavy blow.

Another man frantically pulled out his gun, but Jain was faster, causing him to shoot his own ally instead. The man who was shot screamed and collapsed.

Fortunately, since the radios were down, there was no way to let anyone leave the room.

“Grab her!”

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the men rushed at Jain all at once, determined to subdue her. If only her hands weren’t tied, she could have dealt with them more effectively. Before long, one man grabbed her from behind, locking her in a tight hold.

Meanwhile, Luas, still in Tora’s grasp, let out a bitter laugh as Tora’s fingers began to dig into the flesh of his neck.

“You’re not seriously… planning to break my neck like this….”

“You asked earlier.”

Tora raised his eyes slightly.

“Was it confidence in a noble bloodline?”

A crimson glow erupted from his eyes.

“You should’ve been more careful if you knew.”

Luas realized his mistake, but it was already too late. A disturbing crack echoed.

Even Jain couldn’t believe what she was seeing, despite witnessing it with her own eyes. Luas’s neck, said to be stronger than steel of the same thickness, had been crushed by sheer hand strength.

The men were equally shocked, standing frozen as they watched the scene unfold.

Tora threw the limp body aside. The heavy body rolled across the floor with a loud, rumbling noise, like a boulder tumbling down.

Then, Tora looked at Jain or more precisely, at the man restraining her. The man visibly flinched.

When overwhelmed by sheer terror, people often forgot even how to run.

The other men, though standing right by the door, couldn’t bring themselves to open it and escape either.

Suddenly, Tora bent down and picked up a fallen bat from the floor.

“Jain was right.”

Clang…

The bat scraped against the floor with a metallic sound, then slowly lifted into the air.

“Nothing’s going to change.”

Tora tilted his head, his crimson eyes glowing faintly, almost radiating an eerie aura.

“The fact that all of you are going to die.”

***

Tora ripped off the handcuffs, snapping them apart. Jain glanced at the chains discarded where he had been restrained earlier.

“Wait… You could break those chains?”

“It took some time.”

As he tried to stand, Tora groaned and clutched his chest.

“Are you alright?”

Jain asked quickly. He hadn’t seemed injured when swinging the bat earlier, but his face looked even more bruised than before.

“I can barely breathe. Can’t remember the last time I got hit this bad.”

“You have been hit like this before?”

Tora gave a bitter smile.

“Marti wasn’t worshipped as a god from the start.”

“What do you mean”

Tora changed the subject immediately.

“You were impressive, Lieutenant. Things could’ve gotten much worse, but you never gave up.”

“If I’m going to die, I’ll make sure to take at least one of them down miserably with me.”

Tora let out a short laugh, thinking how very typical that sounded of Jain.

“Let’s get moving.”

Jain supported Tora, but he was so heavy that she staggered. Tora barely managed to stand upright, mumbling an apology.

“Sorry. My strength’s not coming back yet.”

“It’s fine. But I can’t exactly carry you, so please hang in there.”

At those words, Tora struggled to straighten himself.

“Hold on a second.”

Jain picked up the bat from the floor.

It was covered in blood, so she didn’t particularly want to use it. But the terrorists had panicked earlier and fired wildly at Tora, completely emptying their ammunition. This was the only usable weapon left.

The two of them left the room and moved down the corridor. The place didn’t quite feel like a prison, but the cells lined along the walls made it seem close.

Then, suddenly, Jain felt a presence behind them.

Bang!

Before she could fully register the sound, Tora had already turned, blocking an attack from a massive vampire.

“Jain!”

Tora shouted. Jain immediately understood that it meant run and began sprinting without hesitation. However, more enemies emerged from the opposite direction she was headed.

Jain swung the bat without delay. One enemy took a hit to the shoulder and collapsed to the side. She thrust the bat forward like a sword into a second enemy, then struck his face with a follow-up blow. As another enemy charged, she brought the bat down from above like a kendo strike.

Crack!

But the next moment, the enemy caught the bat with his bare hand. It was Luas.

Luas raised a gun, aiming it directly at her.

Damn it.

She was going to get shot.

Jain realized it too late.

Bang!

“Tora!”

Without thinking, she called his name. Tora had already appeared, shielding her with his body.

Clang!

“I’m fine.”

Tora spoke calmly, then delivered a punch to Luas, sending him rolling across the floor like a ball.

A deformed bullet clattered to the ground from Tora’s body. Fortunately, he was from a strong bloodline capable of deflecting bullets with his skin.

However…

Suddenly, a massive vampire appeared right behind Tora despite his enormous size, he made no sound at all.

Jain, with her sharp reflexes, noticed him instantly. But she was powerless to stop it.

Tora couldn’t dodge he was too busy shielding her.

Thunk.

Tora gritted his teeth. The blade pierced his side smoothly, as if the attacker had studied the grain of his skin and struck along it.

The massive vampire shoved him backward with overwhelming strength. Both he and Tora were hurled into a nearby cell, crashing to the ground with loud thuds.

Clang! Rattle!

Simultaneously, an iron gate slid shut from the side, trapping them inside.

Jain snapped out of her daze and ran toward Tora, who was still down.

“Tora!”

“A vampire and a human coexisting is nothing but a fantasy.”

The massive vampire spoke from outside the iron bars, his deep voice echoing.

“Sorry, but this is for the sake of humanity. When you put a wolf and a rabbit in the same pen, there’s only one possible outcome.”

A cold glint flashed through Tora’s disheveled hair. Jain instinctively felt a chill.

Without another word, the massive vampire left them behind and disappeared.

Tora clicked his tongue, muttering a curse.

“I let my guard down.”

But Jain knew better. It wasn’t that he had let his guard down he had been unable to move freely because he was protecting her. If she hadn’t been there, he would have fought much more effectively.

“Let me see your wound.”

Tora slowly turned onto his back. A blade was buried so deeply in his side that only the handle remained visible, standing upright.

Jain examined the wound seriously, her eyes focused. Tora waited, breathing heavily.

She didn’t seem like she was about to break down crying over the injury, but her calm demeanor somehow made the situation feel less critical than it actually was.

Jain helped Tora sit up properly and said,

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Didn’t have to do what?”

“Hold back because you were worried about me. I can protect myself.”

“I know.”

Tora said it, but it was clear those were just words. He hadn’t been condescending or dismissive, but Jain could tell what he was thinking. She lowered her gaze, focusing back on the wound.

“There are no women in Ituhas, right?”

“Human women can’t fight vampires. That’s just how it is. I can’t let you die a pointless death.”

His tone was a bit rough. It seemed like there had been quite a few female tribespeople who had once wanted to become part of Ituhas.

Either way, this wasn’t the time for that discussion.

Jain removed her jacket and grabbed the sides of her shirt, pulling it over her head. Then, she bit down on the fabric and tore it into long strips. Her movements were practiced, as though she had done this countless times before.

Tora, his eyes gradually losing their color from blood loss, simply watched her in silence.

Jain then gripped the knife handle.

“I’m going to pull it out.”

Tora braced himself, gripping a metal bar protruding from the wall tightly.

“Go ahead.”

“Don’t tense your stomach. Luas said it won’t come out properly if you do.”

With a level of detachment fitting a battlefield medic who treated a hundred stab wounds a day, Jain pulled the blade out in one swift motion. Immediately after, she pressed down on the wound with intense pressure, tying the fabric tightly enough to make it hard for him to breathe.

By the time she finished, her hands, stomach, and even her sports bra were covered in blood.

While tying the final knot, Jain muttered,

“At least Luas doesn’t need antibiotics. That’s a relief.”

Being immune to every pathogen on Earth was undeniably convenient, though Tora seemed to think differently.

“Instead, you’re vulnerable to infections from other vampires. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what if that so-called X-virus from outer space was just too weak and ran away? It just got lucky choosing this planet, where there weren’t any pathogens strong enough to kill it….”

The way he was rambling suggested his fever was rising. Jain stopped him and asked,

“Can you move?”

“I can.”

Tora stood up and grabbed the iron bars, as if he were about to rip them apart. Jain tried to stop him.

“Tora, you’re bleeding.”

“Damn it.”

Cursing under his breath, Tora collapsed back down. Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he suddenly laughed. Jain was exasperated.

“You’re laughing? In this situation?”

Tora turned his back slightly.

“I once called Marti a monster in the woods, remember?”

For a moment, Jain didn’t understand what he was talking about. But it didn’t seem like Tora cared whether she followed or not.

“Marti had gone through so much… she was extremely wary of people. She shut herself away in the forest, avoiding contact with the tribe. She was already strange enough, not really human-like, but when she isolated herself, people started saying she was a monster in the woods a creature that ate children.”

Jain finally realized he was sharing an old story.

“Marti abandoned Rato and me in the forest, as an offering to the monster. We were about five, I think. I still remember that night vividly. The dark forest, the sound of birds, the damp smell….”

Young Rato and Tora could do nothing but cling to each other. They were too afraid to cry, thinking the monster would hear and come to devour them.

Then came the sound of rustling, and something peeked out from beyond the undergrowth.

Even with his short life experience back then, Tora remembered thinking that was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.