The A-rank vampires stopped attacking.

Not because they’d been defeated — but because the S-ranks stepped forward and the A-ranks simply moved aside.

Hierarchy.

Kai counted four S-rank vampires moving toward the center of the chamber.

The others remained on the perimeter.

The A-ranks who had fought were still regenerating — the one from the ceiling had his neck in a position that wasn’t completely correct yet.

The four S-ranks didn’t have the haste of the A-ranks.

They moved with calm, analyzing their opponent.

Great. These guys remind me of the fighters I used to face in my world.

The first one spoke.

"Interesting," he said, looking at Kai with the dark red eyes of high-ranking vampires — deeper than Lira’s, like dried blood instead of fresh blood.

"A human without magic."

"Yes," Kai said.

"And you took down my subordinates like that?"

"More or less."

The S-rank vampire looked at him for three seconds.

Then vanished.

---

It wasn’t normal speed.

It was so fast that Kai couldn’t see where he went.

Kai felt him coming from behind.

He didn’t see him.

He felt him — the specific air pressure moving at a speed that compresses the environment before arriving.

He threw himself to the ground.

The vampire passed over him, grazing the air inches from his head.

Kai got up spinning and threw a hook to the point where the vampire would be according to the trajectory.

The vampire was no longer there.

He was three meters to the right, watching him.

"Ah," he said. "You have good reflexes."

He vanished again.

---

[GarcíaFTW: THAT S-RANK VAMPIRE IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM THE A-RANKS]

[NocheEterna99: HE HAS NO TRAJECTORY. HE JUST APPEARS SOMEWHERE ELSE.]

[StreamerHunter: Kai threw himself to the ground BY INSTINCT. He didn’t see him coming.]

[xSorinx: first time Kai misses a strike due to pure speed, not technique.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ KAI DON’T GIVE UP ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

---

The vampire appeared from the left.

Kai turned with his whole body — elbow forward, knee raised, the kind of Muay Thai stance that turns the entire left side into a wall of impact.

The vampire crashed into the elbow.

Dry sound.

The vampire stumbled back two steps.

Kai shook his arm — he’d felt that impact up to his shoulder.

Shit. He’s denser than the A-ranks. Much denser.

The vampire looked at his own chest where he’d taken the elbow.

Then at Kai.

And it didn’t hurt him enough.

---

The second S-rank vampire attacked from the ceiling at the same moment the first returned.

Two simultaneous vectors.

Speeds that made the space between them seem nonexistent.

Kai didn’t try to defend against both.

He moved between them.

The exact space where the two trajectories crossed — the blind spot of any coordinated attack, where neither could strike without risking hitting the other.

The two vampires passed to his sides.

Kai spun in the center and struck the second one in the back with a direct karate kick — full hip, full force, the kind of strike that’s not elegant but definitive.

The S-rank vampire flew four meters.

Landed.

Got up.

No pause.

No visible damage.

---

[GarcíaFTW: HE GOT UP LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED]

[NocheEterna99: CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. KAI HAS TO FIND THE CONDITION.]

[StreamerHunter: Kai landed a full-force karate kick on an S-rank vampire and he got up without pausing. HOW.]

[xSorinx: Kai has the face of someone calculating something.]

[Pedro_Sierra: (°ロ°) the condition the condition what’s the condition]

[Deral_Bleattler: ←←←← STRIKE ←←←← vampire flying →→→→ gets up →→→→ like nothing]

---

He got up too fast.

The A-rank took two seconds with half that impact.

This isn’t just faster regeneration.

The damage didn’t register.

Kai processed it while the first one returned — this time without vanishing, charging straight, confident.

Kai didn’t dodge.

He took the hit on his crossed forearm — hard block, the kind that hurts on both sides — and used the contact to grab the vampire’s wrist.

Judo hold.

Full rotation.

The vampire went to the ground.

And in the second it took him to get up, Kai studied him.

He’s not bleeding. The elbow strike from before left no mark.

The A-ranks did bleed.

What do A-rank vampires have that S-rank vampires don’t?

---

On the other side of the chamber, Serah had her own problems.

The two S-ranks who had gone for her didn’t have the convergence tactic of the A-ranks — they had something different.

One attacked.

The other vanished.

The one who vanished reappeared behind her exactly when she finished handling the first one.

Alternating rhythm.

Perfect.

No pause between one and the other.

Serah took a hit to the back that would have sent a human S-rank hunter to the hospital for a month.

The silver markings absorbed most of it.

Most.

"Well coordinated," Serah said, without turning around yet.

"We’ve been practicing for centuries," said the vampire behind her.

"It shows."

She turned and launched a wave of primordial ice in a full radius — not directed, expansive, covering all the space around her in a second.

In the form of spikes, it caught the vampires off guard, and though they managed to get away, they took damage.

The two S-rank vampires jumped toward the ceiling to avoid it.

Serah used that second.

---

[GarcíaFTW: SERAH USED FULL-RADIUS ICE TO FORCE THEM TO JUMP]

[NocheEterna99: she’s learning to create space, not just strike. Kai’s tactic.]

[StreamerHunter: viewers: 2,400,000.]

[xSorinx: Kai is still looking at the S-rank vampire who got up undamaged. He’s thinking.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ SERAH ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

---

Kai had four S-rank vampires moving around him.

Not in formation.

In rotation — one attacked, the other three shifted; when the first finished, another was already in position.

Never the same angle twice.

Never enough pause to reset.

It was the most efficient combat system he’d seen since arriving in Aethon.

And it wasn’t working.

Not because Kai was dominating — clearly not.

He was taking hits.

His right side protested every time he turned.

His lip was split from an impact he hadn’t been able to fully dodge.

But he wasn’t going down either.

And the S-rank vampires were starting to notice.

They still aren’t leaving permanent marks, Kai thought as he blocked another attack with his forearm and counterattacked with a palm to the sternum.

My strikes move them. Throw them. But in two seconds they’re on their feet like nothing happened.

When do vampires die?

He remembered something — not from Aethon’s system, from movies.

From books... He didn’t read much, obviously; he spent his time in the gym training for his fights, but he had rookie teammates who read a lot about vampires.

And they’d tell him things when he said they should train more instead of reading that stuff.

Things his world had imagined about vampires before Aethon showed him what they were really like.

Sunlight.

Stakes through the heart.

Wait.