Chapter 238: Devouring

Words : 1084 Updated : Oct 7th, 2025

The vampire’s growl was hateful and inhuman as he flared his mana and lunged forward again. Another savage flurry of blows was exchanged. Blow after blow rang out like steel drums of war. Kaiden met them head-on. He matched the noble. But not for long. The vampire’s superior speed and strength began dictating the rhythm. His power started eclipsing Kaiden’s. The Paragon of Sin was slipping. [Devouring Strike] had healed the worst of his wounds, but he was far from full strength. His arms ached. His chest was barely stitched together by lifesteal. His mana pool? Nearly bone dry. The vampire had been right about one thing: Kaiden’s lack of stat investment into Magic was crippling him in a drawn-out battle. If he stalled, he would die. And the bastard wouldn’t let him pop a mana potion for a second. So it had to end. Now. Kaiden gritted his teeth and let out a guttural roar, swinging the Twilight Ripper with everything he had. WHAM! CLANG! BOOM! His final barrage forced the noble back a step. Then two. The vampire’s boots scraped across blood-slick marble. But he wasn’t done. The noble snarled. "Enough, mongrel!" He raised both clawed hands and conjured a burning glyph of pure blood magic in the air. "[Ruin of Blood]!" A crimson blast fired point-blank. Kaiden tried to intercept with his sword, but it was an unsuccessful attempt at a counter. It ripped into his arms, flaying skin from muscle, rumbling through his insides like a swarm of devouring hornets. He dropped the Twilight Ripper. It clanged to the floor. Blood streamed from both his forearms as his entire body ached from crippling pain. His vision blurred. And yet... Kaiden stepped forward. One step. Then another. The vampire’s eyes widened. "How are you moving?! You should be writhing on the ground from pure agony!" Kaiden didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His lips parted, and fangs emerged. "[Ravenous Bite]." With a savage lunge, Kaiden sank his teeth into the vampire’s neck. "GGGRRRAAAAAGHHH!!" The noble shrieked, the sound of which ripped through the chamber. His legs buckled. Kaiden didn’t just bite. He drank. Streams of blood-mana pulsed from the wound, swirling down Kaiden’s throat. He absorbed health. Mana. Essence. Power. [You are draining 1% HP per second...] [You are draining 1% MP per second...] The noble clawed wildly at Kaiden’s head. *WHACK! WHACK! WHACK* brutal blows to his skull, face, temple. But Kaiden didn’t let go. He couldn’t let go. Because Gluttony didn’t let its meal go. His nails raked down Kaiden’s back. His fangs snapped. But the [Sigil of Domination] still glowed, punishing his every desperate motion with backlash. His own power betrayed him. Every second of struggle only made Kaiden stronger. "GET OFF ME!" the vampire screeched, now sounding less like a noble... and more like a cornered beast. But instead of doing as told, Kaiden’s drained arms began to rise. Muscles filled with stolen vitality. And those same arms reached around the vampire’s throat. They began to squeeze. The noble froze. His limbs flailed. Weakly. Kaiden tightened his grip. His jaw remained locked, draining. His forearms crushed down on the vampire’s throat like iron bars forged in nothing but pure fury and all-consuming starvation. *Crack.* The sound of cartilage. *Snap.* The jugular gave. Blood flooded everywhere. The vampire spasmed. Kaiden’s eyes glowed orange in the dark, burning through the storm of gore. Then he wrenched the body backward, slamming it down, pinning the bastard beneath him. He didn’t stop drinking. The vampire begged now, but it was a gurgled sound. His claws scraped the floor like a dying rat. Kaiden’s lips finally parted. And he spat out what little blood remained in his mouth. The noble’s glassy eyes locked onto Kaiden’s face one final time. The last thing he saw... ... was a man who was no man at all. Just hunger, fury, and silent, merciless domination. Kaiden’s voice, calm as death, whispered: "I learned a lot from you." The vampire tried to open his mouth and whisper a long sentence full of curse words, but he wasn’t given the chance as in the next moment, Kaiden drove his hand through the noble’s ribcage and ripped his heart out. For a second, there was only silence. No scream. No movement. No more resistance. Just Kaiden kneeling in blood, clutching the still-warm heart of a fallen monster. Then... [DING!] A single chime echoed in his mind. Followed by another. And another. And then they began to stack. [DING! DING! DING! DING!] A cascade of system chimes poured over his senses like a digital avalanche. [You have slain: Fallen Vampire Noble (Level 27).] [Evaluation: A duel that shouldn’t have been won.] [Modifiers: Fought while under-leveled, alone, debuffed, and resource-drained.] [XP Gained: 103,125] [DING!] [You have reached Level 18.] [DING!] [Level 19.] [DING!] [Level 20.] Kaiden instantly went to check his status window. Back when he leveled to 17 by killing Starved Thralls, he got 10 attribute points to be spent. Now, what awaited his eyes was... 60. Each level-up gave him 20 points. He didn’t need to think long and hard. The Sin of Pride was here; he now had access to proper magical spells. It was time to pay proper respect to the Mana and Magic stats. [Stats] {Vitality: 50} {Strength: 58} {Agility: 57} {Endurance: 52} {Mana: 10 -> 40} {Magic: 10 -> 40} Kaiden reached into his pouch and popped a mana and health potion down his throat to get back in as good of a shape as possible, as he killed the vampire before [Ravenous Bite] could refill Kaiden fully. As the cool potion slid down his throat, Kaiden exhaled before willing clarity back into his bones. His vision sharpened. Muscles tightened. Magic moved through his core, no longer a trickle, but a flood. His [Mana] and [Magic] stats sang with potential. The corpse beneath him had begun to unravel, sloughing into blackened ash, then drifting upward. The noble’s last remnants disintegrated into mana motes and vanished into the gloom, leaving behind nothing but silence and gore-slick marble. And... a monster loot drop. However, Kaiden didn’t even get a chance to examine it properly because he stood from the ground. After all, the battle wasn’t over just yet. Not for him. Not for them. He turned, ready to charge forward and join his lovers, to fight at their side in the final stretch of this cursed ambush. But then... His blood froze. He stopped breathing. "No..."

Chapter 238: Devouring

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