Chapter 35: 35
Pablo's movement had not only been to dodge what was coming at him, when he rolled on the ground he grabbed the other two stakes. But before he could stand up the other monster had already kicked him hard, throwing him into the air.
Pablo fell to the ground as well as he could, but the other vampire's hands were already slamming him against another tree. However, the vampire opened his eyes wide, he had not seen the stakes, nor had he anticipated that by getting so close and grabbing his prey by the neck, he could still stab him in the chest. The knife cut was on the vampire's wrists, all the tendons that gave strength to the hands were suddenly severed.
The other stake that Pablo had kept, he stuck it under the guy's chin to the surprise of the guy, he pushed as deep as he could and the vampire fell on his back, with luck it would have affected at least his cerebellum and it would take him a while to recover without immediate food.
The boy looked around, there was no trace of the woman, she had finally dematerialized, could they travel such a short distance with that basic and inherent power? He had no stakes left, nor time to stop and think about the weakness of those guys. The attack came from his right, just as Pablo crouched, the claws hit the tree, splitting it in half right where the boy's head had been a second before.
Pablo was not surviving due to physical superiority or skills, only due to his experience with other vampires, none of his movements could be casual, in the turn while he crouched he cut with the knife where he imagined the vampire would materialize.
It was a superficial cut that in the end did not hit the woman's calf but her thigh, the vampire screamed in rage, and tried to reach the boy with her claws, but he had not stopped to see if his attack was effective, the knife was already tracing an arc upwards.
The woman lost two fingers that were cleanly severed, but she still managed to deliver a kick that sent Pablo rolling and fractured a rib.
She stood up just in time to receive another direct attack, but the fear of silver was too great and the woman acted with caution.
"Who the hell are you? A witch hunter? Who sent you?"
Pablo did not respond and, keeping the woman at bay with the movements of the knife, he was on guard. When the direct attack did not work, the logical thing was to use his powers again, and so it was at the same moment that the girl dematerialized and transformed into a shadow, Pablo cut her in front with the knife.
The vampire was not stupid or so she thought and stayed out of the reach of that vile weapon until the arm passed, she launched herself with all her power, but she had not anticipated that the other fist with silver rings would get in her way.
The woman broke her nose with the blow. Pablo almost broke his arm on impact. But he kept spinning and was about to catch and slit the girl's throat, but she retreated a few meters and vanished into the air again.
The scene was repeated several times with similar results, it was impossible to attack and avoid the blade, the fist, or the backhand of the blade again. She was faster but that also made her attacks unstoppable, and that boy seemed to be predicting all her movements.
Without realizing it, the girl had taken Pablo back to her partner's body that was shaking on the ground, however when he took a zippo-type lighter out of his pocket and threw it at the convulsing body, the vampire's previously pale and soft skin began to burn as if it were cardboard.
Unable to move because of the stake in his head, unable to use his abilities because of the stake in his heart, that vampire was condemned to suffer horrible pain while he was charred. Either they fed him quickly and put out the fire or he would die for real.
The fight continued for another minute, Pablo received a couple of blows that almost killed him, but he managed to defend himself and cut the vampire in several places. It was a technical tie, and she did the most logical thing at that moment, flee and abandon her people, the first jump she made when she dematerialized was barely eleven meters, that was her maximum, and the proof of her power.
Pablo left the vampire who was burning to the bone and climbed the mountain, he knew that the story would not end there, that bitch was sending the eight henchmen who followed her against him. In the absence of a lighter she had two, surely her father would look for them but there would be time for that, she threw the lighter at the other vampire who was still in shock on the ground while he turned to face the henchmen.
Now he was free to kill them, in fact he was eager to do it and break the seal, he would have no mercy on them. The first one attacked him with a large knife, but Pablo's leg hit the head of the guy first with a side kick who did not expect it and fell rolling down the slope with a bundle.
The next one was a woman, he didn't like to abuse his strength but seeing that she had taken out a brass knuckles, he didn't see why he had to act soft with her, he dodged the obvious slap and hit the girl's face twice before throwing her over his shoulder and slamming her against the tree.
A kick to the back announced that there were more to attend to, the pseudo vampire turned around hitting a backhand with his arm fully extended. The powerful slap wouldn't knock out his rival but it did unbalance him, removing him from the middle.
He was able to duck in time to dodge a baseball bat that hit the tree hard and missed him, Pablo grabbed the bat with one hand while kicking the idiot in the chest, knocking him on his back and knocking the gun out of his hands.
With a gun in his hands, hitting like a batter the hand of a girl who was holding another knife with her eyes lost at the vampire's orders was easy. The next swing in the opposite direction hit the girl in the forehead, splitting her head open like a melon.
He wasted no time checking, turned around and with a downward swing he finished off the girl with the brass knuckles, and with another upward swing he sank the nasal septum of the owner of the bat and then finished him off with another lateral blow.
The guy who had been hit with the backhand was getting up only to fall again with his skull broken in half, a little further down the first semi-unconscious opponent was stirring. But his attempts to get back into the fray came to nothing when all of Pablo's weight fell on his ribs, crushing his head was easy.
Pablo didn't like being splattered with blood or leaving that trail of corpses behind, but he couldn't do much in that situation. At that moment the five deaths he needed to break the seal had been fulfilled.
He noticed it, he noticed how each of the cells in his body woke up as total control of his body was once again his. The sensation of recovering part of his strength and abilities was intoxicating, but he couldn't stay to savor the moment. Also something wasn't working as he expected, he had much more control, much more strength and more power, but it was as if only ten percent of his former power had been reimplanted.
It's true that his body hadn't yet transformed into a vampire's, but it was as if the seal hadn't been fully unlocked yet. But he would think about it little by little, now with renewed strength the most important thing was to hunt down those other three witnesses who remained there nearby, and then hunt down that vampire bitch.
He piled up the corpses, but not before taking off his shirt and searching among the three men's clothes for one that wasn't too stained, he chose one that barely had a couple of drops of blood on it, and although it was too tight for his taste, he put it on.
The other three guys had stayed on the stairs, Pablo launched himself at full speed, much faster even than the vampires who had attacked him, the first of the guys only saw a residual image that was coming at him and taking him to the little forest on the other side.
Pablo immediately broke his neck, the other two launched themselves in pursuit, but only death awaited them on the slopes of Montjuic mountain. This time there were no bat blows or anything that splashed blood on Pablo. A broken neck, a strangulation, and a head hit against a rock.
The time of the vampire hunt began, apparently she did not have the power to flee transformed into a shadow all the way so she would have to run and walk like a normal person when entering the city. With a blow she broke the baseball bat in two and was left with one of the splintered parts. This time he would not take the stairs, with his current physical power Pablo could take shortcuts that were previously unthinkable.
The scent trail was easy to follow, now there were two possibilities, that the vampire went to her nest in search of reinforcements, or that she looked for a safe refuge to heal her wounds. Remembering how cruel the teachers could be with a failure or a humiliation like the one they had received, Pablo was almost sure that it would be the latter.