Righteous Theft (2)
“Alright, Cyber Phantom Neti. You've taken over the CCTV in this shopping arcade, right?”
“Can you tell me how many intruders there are right now and where they are?”
With that, Neti snapped a photo of the person climbing the stairs via Biman and sent it over. The image quality was poor, making it hard to identify who it was, but judging by the slender, elongated silhouette, it looked like the assassin from the Vito family after all.
Ju Kang-rim suddenly realized that Neti's potential was far more limitless than he'd imagined. A hacker ghost you could carry around in your phone? It was an unheard-of concept. If he sold off a bit of his conscience, he could almost think of this phone as a cyber magic wand.
Ju Kang-rim turned right as Neti directed. He could sense someone passing through the hallway he'd just come from. He knew the Stealth ability of his Saingeom kept his footsteps nearly silent, but leaving an enemy at his back felt eerily unsettling anyway. Still, the presence faded into the distance.
Ju Kang-rim let out a sigh of relief and kept moving. It might be nice to take out the grim reaper he'd already encountered, but with the other one's location unknown, he wasn't keen on taking risks. Fighting 2-on-1 wasn't ideal.
That's when Neti spoke up.
“Yeah?”
Ju Kang-rim had closed the shutter door before leaving to buy a little time. But seeing it breached so quickly, it seemed the enemy had been narrowing down the area using precognition.
Neti muttered in a voice full of anticipation.
Before three could even come, a massive boom echoed through the building. It didn't stop at one—boom, boom followed in rapid succession, accompanied by crackling static.
Ju Kang-rim figured out what the noise was right away.
“Electrocuted?”
He'd suspected some trick, but a high-voltage trap? Even a vampire immortal would be out of commission for a while after getting fried like that.
Ju Kang-rim thought maybe he should hunt down the remaining one while he was at it.
“Still no sign of the other guy?”
“But?”
“……”
Ju Kang-rim smacked the phone hard—thwack thwack thwack. No guilt since it was just a phone.
That's when it happened.
A boom, and a red smear appeared on the window right next to him. Ju Kang-rim recoiled in shock, stepping back. It looked like red droplets on black paper. Then he realized what it was as the red stain began writhing, forming a shape. It quickly turned into a blood-red bat-like blob.
Ju Kang-rim smashed the window with his hand axe, but the bat screeched in a tearing voice at full volume.
“Here! Here! Here!”
Flap flap flap flap flap.
The night sky was suddenly covered in a red wave. Hundreds of bats swarmed outside the building, circling. The invisible one had turned into a bat swarm to scout the area.
In response to the bat's cry, an enraged roar echoed from down the hall.
“The one you zapped must not be fully cooked.”
Of course he'd figured as much. If electrocution killed them, they wouldn't be immortals.
Now Ju Kang-rim had to face two grim reapers at once.
Neti asked cautiously, but Ju Kang-rim just smirked. A ghost was still just a one-year-old at best. Showing tension here wasn't something an adult did.
“They're gonna get smashed either way. Might as well do it now.”
“Raaargh!”
Myuska let out a furious bellow and slammed the door. The steel shutter crumpled and shattered in an instant. The high-voltage shock had inflicted excruciating pain. Just before the transformer blew and cut the power, flames had erupted from her heart, eyes, nose, and mouth, charring her from the inside out. She was squeezing out what little blood remained to regenerate, but fully restoring her burned body wasn't easy—especially her carefully crafted face.
“Myuska.”
Berjunak's voice whispered in her ear. She turned, thinking he'd come, but sensed no presence.
“I sent a bat. Can't revert from surveillance form yet. You okay?”
“Those bastards—I'll kill them!”
“Report your status properly.”
“……Lots of burns. I can probably output about 40% of my original power. Face is the hardest to fix. Smell's intact, but vision's impaired. Especially in this darkness……”
Myuska groped the wall and stood. Her hastily regenerated eyes could make out shapes somewhat, but in the dark, she was as good as blind.
“Not good. What now? Retreating's an option.”
“We can't let those bastards screw us and escape.”
“Agreed. Master’s hinting at their position. If they stop and vanish now, we won't find them again until they strike. We take them now.”
Plus, Berjunak didn't even know who was attacking them. He'd heard about Gerald, but this didn't feel like their style. For practical or symbolic reasons, they had to catch them now.
“Fine. Eat this bat first and recover a bit. You're better than me in direct combat, so you attack.”
“Yes.”
Myuska devoured the bat Berjunak sent as ordered. Crunching through, she felt his power flood her veins. Her body recovered substantially, but her vision remained poor.
“I'll handle vision. You just chase without losing them.”
Another bat flew in and perched on her shoulder. Ju Kang-rim's image flashed briefly as he dashed up the stairs—their master's telepathic hint of the 'attacker.'
Myuska swelled up and charged forward in one burst.
“These damn bat shits……”
Ju Kang-rim snarled and swung his hand axe viciously at the bats. But Berjunak, focused on surveillance, wouldn't send them into axe range. He considered the blunderbuss but doubted one shot would clear them all. It took too long to reload, so it was for decisive moments only.
“Hup!”
Ju Kang-rim caught a bat cornered at the hall's bend, smashed it flat with his palm, and twisted its neck. One down, but the swarm was too vast to celebrate.
“Fight or get fucked—pick one!”
Berjunak ignored Ju Kang-rim's shout. He had his own opponent.
“Rooooar!”
Boom boom boom boom boom.
A roar and thundering footsteps came from above. Ju Kang-rim bolted up the stairs in alarm, but something faster kicked off the wall and lunged.
Crash.
“Kuh……!”
Ju Kang-rim barely shook off the tackle that threatened to bisect him. But the enemy grabbed his collar and yanked, seizing his throat.
“You little……”
Bam!
Stars exploded in his vision. The enemy had slammed him into the floor. He managed a proper breakfall, but the raw strength treating him like a ragdoll adult male left him stunned.
Ju Kang-rim grabbed the arm choking him and tried to twist into a joint lock. Only then did he see her: Myuska, enormously elongated and gigantic. Hanging off her arm, he couldn't even reach her elbow. Her face was the same, but her body was grotesquely 16-head proportions.
Myuska casually lifted her arm, staring down at Ju Kang-rim's face. He felt like a cicada clinging to an old tree and quietly tried to release the lock.
Myuska helped—by grinding him into the floor.
Bam, bam, bam, bam!
She pounded him like a pestle in a mortar until she realized he'd vanished. In her hand dangled only his shed robe.
“Ha, I, this, damn.”
Across the hall, under the moonlight, Ju Kang-rim caught his breath and barely stood. Myuska slowly rose. Knees half-bent, head scraping the ceiling sideways—she was about 2.8 meters tall. Her outfit, once leather pants, was torn and charred into shorts. A nightmare come to life.
“You allowed to look like that? Won't the Vito family kick you out for being so gross? Looks like a giant with anorexia on top.”
“You know nothing of fashion.”
Myuska grinned, baring her fangs.
“I'm Natasha Vito's 1944 Milan Beauty Triple Crown winner. Even Garnache lost to me.”
“For real? Wait, that exists? More importantly, '44? How old are you?”
“Like you'd know—you've never even managed cherry tomatoes twice a day!”
Instead of explaining, Myuska charged. Ju Kang-rim thought inwardly that the world was vast, full of crazies with broad strike zones, and regripped his axe.
Crunch.
The axe nailed her hand perfectly. Even enhanced flesh couldn't resist severed fingers. But Myuska sneered.
“Do I look like an idiot to you?”
She gripped the embedded Saingeom and regenerated her arm around it, trapping it tight. She fumbled blindly, then seized Ju Kang-rim's throat.
“I'll pickle your head in tar and hang it from the gallows.”
“Do I look like an idiot to you?”
Myuska expected agony, but got his smirk instead. In that moment, Ju Kang-rim whispered while clutching her hand.
“Blood Rain, empower the Saingeom.”
Shrrrk.
The Saingeom in her hand belched and rapidly shifted form. Myuska panicked and tried to pull away, but it was lodged deep—tearing out flesh and bone. Worse, her hand began withering around it, drying up fast.