31 - Carin City [3]

Professor Kenivale and the awakener squad leader stood directly opposite each other, somewhere between seven to nine metres of distance separating them.

To an observer, it looked like an imminent face-off.

Their faces were blank and their gazes mean, as if they couldn’t be talked out of it.

On one hand, the squad leader simply wanted to uncover the vampire’s truest intention for which he had come into his city.

Professor Kenivale, on the other hand and for reasons best known to him, was sceptical about giving out that information.

This made the squad leader uneasy.

Everything about him — facial expressions, tone, voice etc — was incredulous.

Carin City and its environs were under his jurisdiction as an awakener and for the vampire to want to act as he pleased...

...That simply did not sit well with him.

"First, you won’t tell me what the motive of booking down this level 0 Gate is," the squad leader continued to complain. "Now, you won’t also bring me up to speed as to where you are really here. That’s rich."

The man slid one hand into the pocket of his trench coat and held his cigarette steady in his mouth with his other hand.

He took the last draw, blew it into the air and dropped it on the ground right after.

"Perhaps you will have more to tell me when they are done gathering intel for you..." he said, quenching the stick of cigarette as he came to a dramatic pause in his sentence.

The squad leader lifted his head, his face and voice more serious this time.

"...Isn’t that right, Professor?"

The vampire’s crimson eyes flinched, the corners of them twitched ever so lightly that one could miss it in the blink of an eye.

Regardless, Kenivale did incredibly well at keeping an unfaltering posture.

The squad leader chuckled and glanced to the sky, the sun’s hot rays blazing down on his face.

There was a moment of silence between them.

The squad leader was more concerned with his admiration, or worthless fixation, on the burning star in the sky.

Kenivale was not interested in breaking the silence either.

"..."

The awakener then reached for his pocket, taking out the same blue and white pack of cigarettes.

He opened it, counted them in his head and bit onto one, taking it out of the small box.

—Snap!

A spark formed between his fingers like the last time, igniting the cigarette.

"Give me some credit, Kenivale," he said. "I might not be an alumni of the prestigious Ivory Academy but I’ve put in the work in this kind of life that we live."

He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, releasing smoke from his mouth and nostrils before pointing it at the vampire.

"Even I can also detect those shadowy beings of yours in my city, you know."

"..."

Kenivale didn’t waver.

Whether what he said was true or a bluff, it didn’t matter to the vampire.

—Step! —Step!

Taking a few steps, he closed the distance between him and Kenivale, now standing an arm’s length away from him.

"Call them off."

"No," Kenivale replied tersely and immediately.

The man’s entire body twitched at the vampire’s cold response.

Most noticeable were his fingers. They subtly tremble as if itching for chaos.

The man lost it. "What did you say!"

Kenivale took a step forward, shrinking the distance even more.

With a laser focus on the man, he repeated himself. "No... Kai."

At this point, small sparks were being emitted from the man’s hand.

The vampire, without moving any part of his body, mentally analysed and visualized the information he had about his environment.

From the numbers of Kai’s allies to their various positions, he considered everything in preparation for a fight, if that were to be the case.

"Die, vampire!"

Kai was swift.

In a heartbeat, his fanned out palm had reached to grab Kenivale’s face and do with it as he pleased.

However, that was not all.

Kai basically went for the kill. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The palm of his eyes glistened, blazing with flame that was much more dangerous than the sparks he lit his cigarettes with not too long ago.

—Boom!

An explosion thundered, a testimony to the volume of firepower that Kai released.

The resonated sound of an explosion drew the attention of every awakener on site.

They left what they were doing and turned in the direction of the explosive sound. Some even rushed to the scene.

As smoke, dust and debris cleared, the outcome of Kai’s attack became more visible to the eyes.

Kai barely winced, managing a maniacal grin as he stared at the vampire with a fierce, crazed gaze.

His hand did not reach Kenivale’s face, stopping at a finger’s length.

This was thanks to the black form that wrapped around his hand and restrained it.

Kenivale’s face was shielded by a mask of black, which absorbed the attack.

It was as though his shadow had risen and acted to protect him from the destructive force that aimed to take him out.

Kai’s grin spread even more despite the black spike of shadow that had gone through his left shoulder, drawing blood effortlessly.

Kenivale ceased the opportunity of Kai’s close range attack to land one of his as well.

"You got lucky!"

Kai refused to give Kenivale credit.

Kenivale immediately withdrew his shadow, causing Kai to grunt in pain as it pulled out from his body.

Seizing the opportunity, the squad leader jumped back to create more distance between him and the vampire.

He touched his coat, where he had been stabbed, to feel it and it was wet with his own blood.

The damage was not much, but then he looked at Kenivale with eyes of knowing. It was as if the vampire intentionally missed landing a critical blow.

Kenivale remained, unmoving and unwavering, where he was.

His shadow returned into one whole, coalescing under his feet and forming small tendrils of fluid black shadow that swirled around him.

"Give it a rest, Kai," he said. "I understand your grievance but it is not to me that you must be furious. Even for you, who is ballsy, going against the Commission is a lot."