The fourth S-rank vampire appeared from above — the same angle the first had used at the beginning, testing whether Kai was still reacting the same way.

Kai didn’t throw himself to the ground this time.

He stayed still.

And when the vampire reached two meters, Kai launched a straight punch upward — not at the body, at the center of the chest, at the exact point where in any living being the heart would be.

The vampire blocked it with his forearm.

But Kai wasn’t finished.

The left hand arrived immediately after to the same point — not a strike, direct sustained pressure with the full mass of his body behind it.

The S-rank vampire grunted.

It was the first sound of real pain Kai had heard since the fight began.

---

[NocheEterna99: HE GRUNTED. FIRST TIME ANY OF THE S-RANKS MADE A SOUND.]

[GarcíaFTW: KAI FOUND SOMETHING]

[StreamerHunter: direct sustained pressure to the chest. Not a strike. PRESSURE.]

[xSorinx: the heart. The condition has to do with the heart.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ε=ε=ε=ε=ε= KAI FIGURED IT OUT]

[Deral_Bleattler: STAKE THROUGH THE HEART BUT WITHOUT A STAKE. WITH HIS FIST.]

---

There it is.

Immortality doesn’t protect the heart from sustained pressure.

A strike it absorbs. Continuous pressure on the exact point, it doesn’t.

Problem: I need to reach the chest of something that moves at a speed with no visible trajectory.

Solution: don’t chase it. Make it come to me.

Kai lowered his guard.

Deliberately relaxed his body to the point where it seemed he was too exhausted to keep fighting.

Left flank open.

Head slightly tilted.

Breathing ragged.

The posture of someone who’s just taken too much and is about to give in.

The four S-rank vampires read it at the same time. They hesitated a little, but seeing his battered human body... they got overconfident.

All four lunged.

Believing the human they’d been sent so far to fetch wasn’t such a big deal.

And that was their biggest mistake... Because Kai was no ordinary human, as they believed.

---

Kai didn’t try to handle all four.

He dropped to the ground at the last second — not to dodge, to change the plane.

The four vampires passed over him in the space where his body had been. They realized Kai had pulled the same move as before, but it was already too late.

And in the second it took them to reorient, Kai was on his feet again.

Behind the one closest to him, and he grabbed him from behind in two quick moves.

He applied a wrestling hold from behind — left arm wrapping around the neck, body pressed against the vampire’s back, knee to the spine to lock the position.

Not to strangle him, because that wouldn’t work on a vampire — it was to immobilize him.

Right hand free.

Closed-fist strike directly to the center of the vampire’s chest from behind — the heart accessible from that angle if the force was enough to penetrate the density of the body.

The S-rank vampire convulsed.

He didn’t fall — he convulsed.

An involuntary movement that had none of the elegance of everything he’d done before.

Kai released him.

The vampire stayed on his knees.

It took him ten seconds to get up.

The first time any of the S-ranks had taken more than two seconds.

The other vampires watched him in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Kai wore a smile that, in their eyes, made him look intimidating.

--- 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[GarcíaFTW: TEN SECONDS]

[NocheEterna99: BEFORE IT TOOK TWO. NOW TEN. KAI FOUND THE METHOD.]

[StreamerHunter: "direct sustained pressure to the heart from behind" — no stake. With his fist. BAKI VIBES.]

[xSorinx: the other three S-ranks stopped attacking. They’re looking at the one on the ground and at Kai with that confident, intimidating smile, then back at the one on the ground.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ HE DECIPHERED IMMORTALITY ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Deral_Bleattler: KAI INVENTED AN ANTI-VAMPIRE TECHNIQUE IN REAL TIME]

[User_7741: ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ NEW TECHNIQUE ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ]

---

The remaining three S-rank vampires looked at each other.

Then they looked toward the back of the chamber.

Toward Lira.

The silence that followed lasted just long enough for Kai to notice that no one in the chamber was attacking anymore.

Not the A-rank vampires.

Not the S-rank vampires.

Everyone was looking at the same point in the darkness, sensing the presence as if it had made them stop.

Kai followed the direction of their gazes.

And from the back of the chamber, where the darkness was denser than anywhere else, something moved — the sound of footsteps approaching them.

Not at the speed the S-rank vampires moved.

With a stride.

Slow.

Delicate.

Deliberate.

The kind of movement of someone who was in no hurry because the outcome, for her, was already determined.

The first detail Kai saw was the hair — white.

Then the eyes.

Red.

Bright as fresh blood.

Black gothic dress and gloves of the same color.

Too refined, as if this woman were a high-class vampire.

Without the urgency her subordinates had.

The woman stopped five meters from Kai.

She looked him up and down with the expression of someone who has been watching for a while — observing her future prey and had gotten a pleasant surprise, reaching several conclusions she was still organizing.

"Interesting," she said.

Her voice didn’t have the volume of the S-ranks.

It was calmer than that.

More dangerous than that.

"You’re the little piece of trash they sent me to eliminate," she said.

Kai looked at her.

"And I suppose you’re Lira."

Lira looked at him.

"How do you know my name?"

"You signed the note."

Silence.

"With love," Kai added.

---

[GarcíaFTW: LIRA APPEARED]

[NocheEterna99: "you’re the little piece of trash" / "and you’re Lira" / "how do you know my name?" / "you signed the note" — THIS EXCHANGE FELT SO SILLY]

[StreamerHunter: "with love" he said it with a completely neutral face. KAI.]

[xSorinx: Lira didn’t expect to be told that.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) "with love" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Kai used it as a weapon ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

[Deral_Bleattler: Lira processing that her romantic-threatening note was reduced to "you signed the note." LOL]

[User_7741: ψ(∇´)ψ LIRA VS KAI ψ(∇´)ψ]

[Current viewers: 2,100,000]

[The system notes that Lira is SS-Rank]

[The system notes that SS-Rank vampires are qualitatively different from Others SS-ranks Beast]