Free for All
"Whew, finally done!"
Rat finished attaching the last doll eye and stretched with a long, satisfying groan. Across from him, Monty immediately shouted.
"Then help me out too!"
"...Heh. My friend, a man ultimately has to stand on his own two legs in this world!"
"Just you wait. I'll throw those words right back in your face someday."
Monty muttered the threat under his breath, but Rat pretended not to hear. He finished his stretch and launched into a full set of limbering exercises. Jinma Argon never created Esquires, yet everyone in Esprit agreed that if he ever did, it would be this Rat. The reason was simple: among all of Esprit, Rat's combat ability was second only to Argon himself. That was why Argon had never bothered to send additional personnel even as the situation in Korea spiraled from bad to worse.
"Being trusted this much and then doing absolutely nothing once I got here... I almost feel guilty."
"Tch. What do you want me to say? As the brain of this operation, my judgment is that jumping into this mess right now gains us nothing."
"Hmm. If we keep thinking like that, we'll never find a timing to jump in for the rest of our lives, will we? My black snake's getting all engorged over here."
"..."
Monty clamped his mouth shut and redoubled his speed, jamming doll eyes into place as fast as his fingers would allow. That was when it happened.
Ding-dong!
This apartment belonged to vampires; unexpected visitors were virtually unheard of. Sure, the occasional peddler or newspaper salesman would show up, but the moment they realized foreigners lived here they usually turned tail and fled.
"...Still, guests in broad daylight? What a pain."
Monty stuck the final doll eye in place and let out a long sigh. Of course they couldn't open the door during the day.
"Hey. You Esprit bastards in there?"
"..."
But if the visitor already knew the members inside by name, that changed everything. While Monty fretted, Rat walked to the door with a perfectly calm expression.
"What's the business?"
"Take this first. Did you lot come to Korea on vacation or what?"
The man outside shoved a set of documents through the newspaper slot. Rat caught them and tossed the papers to Monty. When Monty opened the envelope he found official paperwork authorizing the immediate rental of a vampire transport trailer for the purpose of capturing Sarhyuk.
"'Rental' is a generous word, seeing as how a whole pack of us will be riding together."
The human beyond the door spoke casually. The fact that he was walking around under the sun meant he wasn't a vampire—just a mind-controlled human thrall.
"If you can't handle the sun, we can put up a light-blocking field. Strong daylight will cost you a little VT, but a typhoon's rolling in, so it should be fine. Get in the trailer."
"Ah, well, I don't exactly love the sun, but I don't need a light-blocking field."
"Damn it."
Monty checked the last doll one final time and shook his head.
"Hey, Rat. Just so we're clear, I'm the brain. Barbaric combat is really not my specialty."
"It's fine, it's fine. Wild guys are popular these days."
"That's not the point. My ability development has been completely non-combat focused—"
"Ahahaha! Then jump past your limits. Just do it, yeah?"
Rat muttered the slogan cheerfully and began dragging Monty toward the door by the collar. Monty thrashed and fought every step of the way.
"Uwaaaaah! Limits are called limits for a reason! Telling someone to surpass them is the arrogance of a pure mentalist!"
"My friend. If you keep thrashing around, your body will leave the light-blocking field. Mind yourself!"
The two vampires muttered and complained the entire way, barely managing to stay out of the direct sunlight until they stood before the vehicle.
Inside the trailer, where every scrap of light had been sealed away, creatures that rejected the sun were already packed shoulder to shoulder. The two of them were clearly the last guests to arrive.
A thick beastly stench filled the air. Inside this metal box that had banished the sun and created its own darkness sat beasts that had themselves rejected the sun.
"Is that Rat Gunip of Esprit?"
"Argon's Esquire, right?"
"Argon has no Esquire."
"But looking at the general definition of an Esquire, he fits it perfectly."
The vampires traded quiet remarks right in front of the man they were discussing. Whispering damp, shady gossip inside a dark vehicle—how very vampire of them. Rat simply whistled as he took a seat.
"Being able to sit face-to-face with other clans like this is actually pretty fun. Hey, how about it? How's the market these days?"
He tossed the question out in the brightest, most cheerful tone imaginable. The other vampires fixed him with strange, glittering eyes. Hunting dogs bred for slaughter sat in the darkness looking every bit as terrifying as their purpose demanded.
"Hey, Rat. Maybe don't make unnecessary conversation..."
"Hmm. Why is communication between people—getting to know each other—unnecessary, my friend? Aren't we comrades who need to cooperate for a single purpose?"
"This is an FFA—Free for All. Anyone with the ability and the opportunity can eat him. 'Cooperation' is a word that never even existed here."
One of the vampires answered flatly. Rat only grinned wider at the fact that someone had bothered to respond, folding his arms across his chest.
"Hahahaha! An FFA against a Jinma!"
A giant of a man well over two meters tall climbed into a sturdy Humvee, wearing a long coat that had no business existing in the middle of summer.
"A typhoon's coming, huh? What a delightful setup for a fight."
He untied the cord holding his hair back. It had been bound for so long that simply releasing it sent the strands uncoiling in permanent waves.
Ever since Juyda had carved those deep wounds into him, Zein had hidden himself through a violent organization and spent every single day inside a casino. A casino was the perfect place for a fallen piece of trash, but watching a proud vampire lord sink that low was almost funny in its own right.
"I'll eat that bastard and turn him into my power. Trash."
He gripped the wheel and turned the ignition. Ordinary vampires would wait for night, but a Jinma could move even under the midday sun. The Tetra Anax types trusted the systems they had calcified over thousands of years so completely that flexibility never entered their thinking. As for the other so-called Jinma, they claimed to resist Tetra Anax with their mouths, but whether they actually intended to resist was another question entirely. Dancing on the stage Tetra Anax had prepared while claiming to oppose them was simply ridiculous.
"Casinos are open during the day too, you idiots."
Sarhyuk gunned his beloved Humvee toward the hotel parking garage.
Whirrrrrr...
A destroyed CCTV camera twisted its neck with pitiful persistence. The motor spun uselessly through empty air while the shattered lens dangled from a thin copper wire, turning in slow circles.
Reflected in that broken lens was a wrecked underground parking garage, human corpses torn apart by overwhelming violence and scattered between the parked cars.
Tap. Tap. Tap...
Dry footsteps echoed across the wide underground lot and stopped in front of the elevators. The giant man stood waiting, one massive hand clamped around the back of his own neck as if he meant to tear it off.
In the mirror-clean surface of the elevator shutter, the man's twisted mouth was reflected. He was smiling.
KRAK!
His fist punched straight into the elevator shutter. The steel shutter crumpled under the blow. One more kick and the entire panel tore free, crashing down into the elevator hall.
BOOM!
"Huhuhuhuhuhu!"
The man snatched a fire extinguisher hanging from a pillar, leapt into the elevator shaft, braced his legs against the walls of the narrow passage, and locked his body in place. Then he swung the heavy extinguisher once in a wide arc and launched it upward like a rocket. A thunderous crash of tearing metal rang out, followed by human screams.
Of course elevators had safety systems; it wasn't going to drop. But this one would be out of commission for a good long while.
"Nice. Should I wreck the next one too?"
With terrifying strength he punched through the wall and wrecked the elevator beside it, then the one after that—three elevators in total. Next he sprinted to the emergency exit and kicked the concrete stairs to pieces. Concrete stairs shattering under a human kick should have been impossible to believe, yet he demolished every flight in a single rush. After that he drove his fist into the wiring panel on the wall and yanked out the communication cables the way one might pull the guts from a living creature, snapping them one by one.
"That should keep things quiet for now. Ah—better smash the cell-phone repeaters while I'm at it."
A repeater only relayed wireless to wired signals, so cutting the cables should have rendered them useless. But why take chances? He destroyed every nearby repeater, then bounded up the ruined stairs and stepped calmly onto the first basement floor.
"All right. Time to play the well-mannered gentleman."
He took out a comb, smoothed his hair back, straightened his clothes, and pushed open the door onto the casino floor as if he owned the place. The moment he stepped through, a wave of miscellaneous noise crashed over him.
A casino might dress its people in suits, but underneath it was still just a marketplace. Granted, they put real effort into the interior. Marble floors polished so clear you could see up a woman's skirt—almost rude, really. Silk-smooth carpets layered over them, high-end casino tables, elegant chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and slot machines that caught and scattered that light. Nothing about the place looked like a grubby traditional market. Even the people inside looked clean and respectable at first glance.
But what was the reality? How many people actually came to a casino purely for entertainment? Aside from a handful of nouveau-riche types, the vast majority flooded in for one reason only: to gamble. No matter how polished the surface, the vulgarity underneath made a street market look refined.
"Haaah."
The giant man took a brief breath to steady himself, then drew a thick knife from his waist.
"Ah!"
The security guards stationed on the floor startled and reached for their weapons, but the giant was already moving at unbelievable speed. In a single rush he slammed both guards against the wall.
"Uwaaaagh!"
The two men were pinned flat against the concrete by pure strength. Even though he was only pushing with his hands, the wet, grinding sound of bones and joints twisting filled the air.
"Tsk, tsk. I've already sealed every escape route, you know."
He drove a knee into the thrashing guards' backs. The single blow landed like a sledgehammer; both humans died instantly. Then he sank his teeth into one man's throat and began to drink.
Shuuuuuuk!
The suction was so ferocious that the body shriveled into a withered husk in seconds. He drained the man the way one might suck milk from a sealed pouch, emptied him completely, then bit into the next throat. When he was finished he tossed the ragged corpse aside like garbage.
"Kyaaaaah!"
A guest who had just returned from the restroom screamed. The creature mid-meal spun toward the sound with terrifying speed.
"That voice made me think it was a young woman—damn it. What a disappointment!"
The moment he saw it was a middle-aged ajumma he openly radiated murderous intent and lunged.
"Kyaaa—hup!"
Her neck snapped cleanly. The scream cut off mid-note. He had struck the cervical vertebrae with the flat of the knife and broken them in one blow.
"Irritating. If you're going to die, don't scream—just run. Women will still play the helpless little victim even after they've gotten so old no man would look twice."
He flipped the blade and swung with terrifying force. The thick knife tore through flesh and bone, dismantling the human in an instant. After killing her he drank her blood as well. Simply expanding his binding force was enough; the blood leapt to him of its own accord and was absorbed.
"All right. I'm going to kill every last one of you. Annoying humans! And vampires too!"
He kicked a door off its hinges and stormed inside in a single stride.
Zein spun a chip idly on the table, killing time. After Juyda's attack the damage to his VT had been so severe he had even lost his five-hundred-meter teleportation ability. He had come here to protect himself while he recovered. Restoring VT lost to injury was far simpler than raising one's VT permanently; he had already regained the five-hundred-meter teleport. But fleeing simply to stay alive was an unendurable humiliation for a Jinma.
And because he was still too afraid to face that humiliation, he remained buried inside the casino.
"Haa... I won again."
Zein watched the chips pile up in front of him and muttered without the slightest emotion. For a vampire with long-range teleportation, roulette was the most boring game imaginable. A microscopic spatial shift was all it took to place the ball wherever he wanted. Of course he could have tested pure luck without using the ability, but once you possessed a power it was almost impossible not to use it.
"Hm?"
That was when he heard the strange noise.
The elevators just broke?
All three central elevators had gone down at the same time. There was still one glass panoramic lift on the outer wall—this was a tourist hotel, after all—but destroying three elevators could only mean one thing: someone was sealing the escape routes. It had to be deliberate. And the faint residual vibrations still traveling through the elevator shafts into the entire building... those were sounds no ordinary human strength could produce.
BOOM!
Next came the crash of collapse from the stairwell. This bastard was thoroughly destroying every exit. That was a declaration of intent: not a single human in this building would be allowed to leave alive.
"Is he insane?"
Killing this many humans? Living under Tetra Anax's world, Zein could not even imagine it. Did the bastard mean to destroy the foundation of the mad lunar order that had lasted for thousands of years?
"Of course, destroying Tetra Anax's rule is the finest path available... but that act also destroys the very identity of being a vampire. Typical trash."
Zein muttered to himself as he stuffed chips into his pockets. At that exact moment the door flew off its hinges and Sarhyuk burst through.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
"Ah, shut up~ You old sows aren't even worth raping!"
Sarhyuk grabbed the nearest person by the entrance and hurled them into the crowd like a stone from a catapult. Bodies flew at speeds that would have done a siege engine proud.
"Weaklings just shut up and die! You're all just broiler chickens waiting for the master to slaughter you anyway! So damn irritating!"
With a roar Sarhyuk charged into the mass of people, fists swinging.
THUD!
The sound was exactly like an axe splitting watermelons. People toppled like cut stalks of wheat. Corpses slammed into slot machines, yanking levers on the way down, and—absurdly—a jackpot erupted at that exact moment.
"Uwaaaagh!"
People screamed in pure terror and scrambled in every direction, trying to flee. But there was nowhere to run. The elevators had already been wrecked by Sarhyuk's own hands, and the stairs were the same. Amid the panicked chaos the slot machine blared its victory fanfare and vomited coins in a glittering cascade.
Chrrrrrrr...
A corpse crashed down on top of the waterfall of coins, spraying blood.
"You bastard!"
At that moment the men seated beside the roulette table rose. They moved through the panicked humans at terrifying speed, closing on Sarhyuk. One of them simply leapt over the crowd, kicked off a chandelier, and swam through the air toward him.
"Hoh!"
Yet Sarhyuk, the one under attack, only slightly furrowed his brow. He was not surprised. He had known vampires were here when he launched the assault. He had confirmed Zein's car parked in the underground garage before he ever came upstairs.
Shiiik!
A silver-white flash sliced between the vampires and the humans. Sarhyuk licked the hook-like claws that had sprouted from his left arm and walked straight toward Zein, still seated at the roulette table.
Whoooosh!
He had moved so fast that the air only now caught up, whipping a typhoon through the previously still casino hall. The vampires caught in that storm were shredded into pieces and slammed into blackjack tables, dice tables, and the chandelier respectively. Every human who had been standing inside the flash's range was cleanly bisected as well.
"Kyaaaaah!"
A female dealer screamed when she saw that the man who had been standing right beside her now had half his face missing. Sarhyuk savored the sound as if it were heavenly music and dropped into the seat next to Zein.
THUNK!
The knife buried itself in the tabletop. Sarhyuk beamed as he asked the question.
"Hey. How's the game treating you? Looks like your gambling luck is pretty damn good."
"...You crazy bastard."
"Hm? My hearing's gotten a little bad—couldn't quite catch that."
Sarhyuk played the fool with perfect shamelessness. A vampire with bad hearing was unheard of. Zein, however, had no leisure for banter.
"I called you a crazy bastard, you piece of trash. You're throwing a tantrum right now because you want to smash the stage Tetra Anax built... but no matter what you do, Tetra Anax won't so much as flinch. Even if an entire country vanishes, Tetra Anax will still be standing."
Zein spoke as he slowly rose to his feet. He took the roulette wheel from the dealer, spun it with his hand, and picked up the ball.
"Shall we?"
"You throw first."
"Hmph."
Zein flicked the ball into the spinning wheel. It raced around the rim at high speed. Judging by its momentum, it would be a while before it settled.
"Enemy six. All-in."
Sarhyuk muttered the bet and stood. In the middle of the chaos people were finally coming to their senses and pulling out phones to call the police. But Sarhyuk had already destroyed every cell repeater and wiring panel on his way up. A man meticulous enough to wreck elevators and stairs was never going to forget the phone lines.
"Well then... shall we begin!"
Zein hurled the chips he had been holding like throwing stars. Sarhyuk raised both arms to shield himself, but the chips suddenly vanished mid-air.
"Tch!"
Something punched into Sarhyuk's body an instant later. Zein had teleported the chips straight into him.
"Kaaah, what a pain in the ass!"
Landing the hits had taken effort, but plastic chips were nowhere near enough to stop a creature like Sarhyuk. He kicked off the floor and charged straight at Zein.
Awoooooooo!
A woman's scream—exactly like the howl of a wolf—echoed through the entire casino hall.