Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic

Scarlet

I can’t help but ponder over the question as we run through the hallway. But my attention is immediately taken away from that subject the moment we enter the large room where the people on this floor are gathered as my eyes focus on a large demon. One seemingly wearing a set of pitch black armor with a glowing red sword in its hand, and a red visor in the horned helmet on its head.

“A knight!” I hear Officer Winslow shout, bringing the attention of some of the people in the room fighting it to us before they return their attention to the fight. Albeit not until after a brief glance at me.

My mind almost blanks the moment my eyes reach the demon knight’s head and I hear the message from the System playing out in my head.

|Demon Knight – Subspecies: None – Level 53|

The demon doesn’t make a single sound outside of its footsteps as it swings its massive sword around like some sort of stick. And every time it does, the people around it move far back, avoiding the blade whose path makes a whistling sound just from splitting the air as it passes right in front of them, sending a small blast of air in their direction and pushing them back even further. Meanwhile, I also see a few huntsmen around the edges of the large room, which looks to be some sort of chamber meant for experimenting with weapons or something, because while a large portion of the room is a common area like space, there’s also a lower level that has targets, along with what looks to be a disabled shield over it that would act as a platform for people to walk on.

I also can’t help but notice that the hounds we were just fighting are dead, seemingly at the hands of the knight itself for some reason.

Maybe by accident? The thing is rather clumsy. Which is really the only reason why I’m considering staying to fight it.

“Jackson!” Officer Winslow shouts, looking in the direction of the security officer holding the pulse rifle fighting alongside the seven other people against the knight.

The guy returns his look with a nod before firing his pulse rifle at the demon knight, only for it to barely leave a small burn on the armor.

Shit. It’s way too strong for the pulse rifle to be enough!

Damage or not though, it does serve to distract the knight for a moment, leaving the others to fire at the huntsman scattered in the corners of the room, aiming directly at their crossbows.

I nod my head in agreement with that decision. Because they’re not likely to be able to do much with the knight here without their crossbows even if they can fight without them. And the guns won’t do much to the huntsmen either. Considering that they’re all between levels fifteen and twenty.

“Does the shield generator for the experimental chamber down there still run!” I shout at the people fighting, seemingly confusing them for a moment before one of them answers, “Yes!”

Without wasting anymore time, I lightly drag my blood claws against my own arm to pull in more blood, grimacing slightly as I cut open my skin before rushing in with the strengthened claws towards the knight while it’s distracted.

Let’s hope this works.

The other side of the room

Arnold Fraught wasn’t sure how today could’ve gone any worse. First he was late for work. Then he found that the shield generator used for the experimental testing chamber was jammed and needed to be fixed, making his job a lot harder until someone finally managed to fix the damned thing. And not even a few minutes after that?

A Demonic Assault began, with a Fracture smack dab in the middle of the company building. Even if it’s only a Class I Fracture.

And that was fine. The first thought that went through his head when he saw the spawn was that maybe this could be considered some sort of offhanded luck that they managed to finish right before it happened instead of being stuck working on it while it was happening.

That is, until he went to the bunker with the other researchers and found the generator in there just as busted as the generator for the experimental field. And by the time they reached the main chamber of the floor where the field was, they already found that a demon knight had taken up residence in the area for some reason.

And the thing seemed absolutely against anyone trying to enter the experimental field.

After seeing that, he’d lost all hope he had of surviving. Because no uninitiated human can survive a knight unless they run. And there wasn’t anywhere to run with the knight blocking the path.

Arnold can’t help but glance at the pulse rifle the security guard from the floor above them is holding before turning his gaze towards the girl who is obviously a Guardian as she runs towards the knight.

Now though… there’s hope at least.

Then he sees her cutting her own arm with her bloody claws and begins to question whether that hope is a false one or not. Until he sees her rushing at the demon knight who is still stepping towards the security officer who is waiting for his pulse rifle to cool down to fire again before the girl leaps into the air and lands on the demon’s back.

At this point he wonders if she’s entirely sane, or if she’s just too powerful a Guardian to care.

Either way, he continues firing his own pistol at the knight while being extra careful not to shoot the Guardian girl as she tries to dig her claws into the creature’s armor-appearing scales with no success. She then frowns at this before glancing at the security officer and shouting, “Try to hit the same spot as before on the knight!” and jumping off of the knight in the process. The entire time the knight didn’t even bother acknowledging her presence thanks to the greater threat of the pulse rifle.

Arnold’s eyes widen slightly in understanding, and apparently the security guard seems to understand as well, because as soon as the rifle is ready to fire again, he aims at the exact same spot on the knight and fires out another pulse of blue energy that burns ever so slightly deeper into the creature’s scales.

“Everyone!” Arnold shouts at the others around him, “Shoot at the huntsmen to keep them distracted and give the others time to deal with the knight!”

Arnold’s research team – all not experienced in any form of combat – manage to give out shaky answers of agreement before firing at the huntsmen who are all hiding in the shadows. But before Arnold can join them to do the same, the girl runs up to him and quickly says, “Can you turn on the shield for the experimental chamber down there?”

After a brief moment of surprise, Arnold nods his head and answers, “If it’ll help.”

He then runs off to the shield while the knight is busy with the girl and the security officer.

Let’s just hope that whatever she’s planning works.

I watch for a second as the man who had answered my question earlier runs off while the knight is focused on Jackson before turning around and going back to the knight myself.

These things aren’t very intelligent from what I remember in my lessons. They have incredibly durable scales that for some reason take on the appearance of armor but are singularly obsessed with defending whatever their charge is and will almost always singularly attack a single target. The one it sees as the biggest threat to it and its charge.

Which right now is that pulse rifle in its eyes, meaning it sees me as nothing more than a gnat flying around the room. No matter how insulting that may be.

“Carl!” I shout at him, “Can you help Jackson in shooting that one spot?!”

I see the mute man giving me a thumbs up before attempting to go around the knight to shoot it in the same spot that Jackson just did.

Okay. This plan may be a rushed one, and also may or may not take in the fact that it lets me finish the thing off to get the EXP, but it should work.

Probably.

It also hinges on them not, ya know, shooting me. Because that would kill me. But I know the security guards here are trained to shoot well, even with these rifles. Something about Allen requiring it.

I rush in towards the knight again right after it swings and misses Jackson once again, showing off its rather slow speed. Or is it a slow reaction speed?

“That’s one of the things that can happen when your stats aren’t evenly balanced.” Tar suddenly says, having returned who knows when from who knows where. “If your mental stat isn’t high enough, your thoughts may not be able to always keep up with your body’s enhanced physical capabilities. And demon knights are notorious for how low their mental stat is compared to their physical.”

Putting aside where you’ve been till after this fight, that sounds incredibly unbalanced.

“That it does. These knights aren’t meant to do anything besides act as living shields for their charges after all,” the tanuki responds, ignoring my comment about his having been missing.

Okay, that’s kind of sad.

For it that is.

The creature continues to ignore me as I rush up to and even slash at its legs, ducking as it finally decides to attack me, only for the attack to be disrupted by another pulse shot to its chest that goes frighteningly close to my head.

“Please don’t hit me!” I shout back before going around the creature and deciding to attack it from the other side.

Surprisingly, the knight finally lets out a groan after another shot hits it from Carl, just a few seconds after the one from Jackson. And after that, it begins to shake slightly, simply stopping in place.

Just in case it’s about to do something big, I jump back, creating a large amount of distance between myself and it. And I quickly find myself to be ecstatic that I decided to do so. Because not even a few seconds later, the knight stomps one of its feet on the ground, sending a strange red shockwave outward in a circle around itself that barely misses me as I jump over it at the last second. The shockwave continues for several meters in each direction, only stopping right after it hits one of the researchers who is busy distracting the huntsmen for us.

My eyes widen in shock as the man lets out a hoarse scream while his body seemingly liquifies below his calves.

What. The. Fuck?!

And that almost hit me too? Would have if I hadn’t jumped.

Almost everyone stops to stare at the wounded man who is now sobbing almost nonstop, no longer firing his gun – likely too overwhelmed by the pain to do so. But after only a couple seconds of this, the man who I had talked to earlier shouts, “You’re in no situation to stare right now!!!”

His words snap both me and the others out of our stupor before I hear two pulse rifles firing at the same time, both at the knight’s armor. And once the smoke clears, I find that the scales have been completely melted, with some of the flesh beneath burnt.

“Leave this part to me!” I shout at Carl and Jackson. “You two help the others deal with the huntsmen now!”

The huntsmen are annoying in that they like to hide and shoot a bolt out at random. But these haven’t been doing much thanks to the bullets that keep being shot at their crossbows.

Despite that though, they’re still a problem that needs to be dealt with.

I can’t help but send a slightly fearful glance towards the researcher whose legs are now nothing more than a pile of goo before shaking my head and rushing towards the knight.

No time to be afraid right now.

I glance at the experimental chamber to find the man who broke everyone out of their shock tinkering with some sort of machine that was hidden behind a panel in the wall.

“How much longer until the shield is-” I begin to shout, only to cut off as I hear the sound of the shield starting up, followed by a large blue barrier appearing over the experimental chamber. “Never mind.”

The man gives a half-hearted grin at that, to which I try to return before focusing on the knight again as it begins moving towards Jackson at a slightly faster speed than before. Which honestly works out, since Jackson is closer to the edge of the floor overlooking the experimental chamber.

I run up to the railing before grabbing it and breaking part of it off, following which I run over to the knight.

Please let this work. Oh pleeeaase let this work!!!

Without a second to spare, I run around it on its side closer to the railing right after it swings its sword again, only barely missing Jackson in the process and slicing straight through the railing a little further down from me. Then I jump onto the railing and kick off straight towards the creature with a pipe in one hand and my claws stretched out in the other.

While the creature is still recovering from swinging its large sword, I stab my claws straight into the gap in its scales, making my hand dig nearly two inches deep. But my momentum, along with the creature’s blood joining my claws, allows my hand to dig just a little bit deeper. Meanwhile the pipe remains unused in my left hand as the knight lets out a roar of pain that has me grinning.

Looks like I finally got its attention.

I rip my hand out of its body, sending a spray of greyish black blood out to cover my jacket and Jackson behind me before I kick off of its body into the air. The creature tries to reach for me but is too slow and barely misses. Whether that’s because of its low mental stat making its reaction time terrible, or the wound I just gave it slowing it down, I’m not sure. But either way, I land nearly four meters in front of the thing, with its back facing the shield and railing.

A surge of pride runs through me as I feel the hunt reaching its climax at the sight of the knight raising its sword with a bit more difficulty than before, only to then pause at the top of its climb and instead raise a foot.

“Shit, run!” I shout while leaping backwards, vaguely noticing Jackson already having started running immediately after getting splashed by the blood.

I let out a sigh of relief at seeing the wave barely miss me before I take advantage of the little period of rest I noticed it had after using that particular skill by rushing at it with the pipe of the railing held up like a javelin. Then, the moment I get within one meter of it, I pull back, jump up, and send it shooting forward with my momentum, right into the knight’s chest. And while it doesn’t really dig very deep, it still goes nearly four inches in.

But that’s not the main reason for my doing this.

I jump off of the creature as it falls backwards, topples over the railing, and straight onto the shield that ends up making a loud shrieking sound as bolts of electricity fly off of the creature’s body, ravaging it from both inside and out, with many of the bolts latching onto the pipe and being driven into the creature’s body through it.

After a few seconds, the pain in my own ears from the combined noise of the creature’s roars and the shield make me switch to my human ears just for some relief.

The electricity continues shocking the knight for over five seconds before the bolts begin to grow even larger, some of them even striking through the pipe away from the field, barely missing me and making me back up a few feet.

Wow.

That’s… beautiful.

After watching the electric show for a couple more seconds, I look down at my hands in front of me with a frown before using my Clean skill.

Then a bolt from a crossbow punctures straight through my arm and into my stomach.

I turn to stare at it for a few seconds, briefly wondering where it came from before looking up and finding one of the huntsmen with its head and crossbow peaking out from behind a pillar. Only for said huntsmen to get that very same head vaporized by a pulse shot from one of the pulse rifles.

Whether it’s from shock, adrenaline, or what, I don’t really feel the wound. All I see when I turn back to look at it is a thick black crossbow bolt going straight through my arm. In one way and out the other, with the head of the crossbow going into my gut only by an inch or so.

But that doesn’t last long before the pain really arrives. And it’s so great that it has me falling to my knees while silent tears leak out of my eyes practically nonstop.

The pain is so much worse than a hound simply chomping on my leg a little. So much worse than anything I’ve felt before.

After a few seconds, the pain becomes too much and I fall onto the ground with one last thought going through my mind.

Didn’t the huntsmen already have fixations here?

Then a ding echoes in my head, and everything goes black.

The Experiment Hall

Holy shit! She did it! She fuckingdid it!!! The girl actually killed the knight!!

Arnold can’t help but let out a whoop of excitement as he stands up from his spot kneeling next to the generator and watches as the knight is pumped full of electricity from the shield. But his excitement dies just as quickly as it had started when he sees the crossbow bolt enter straight through the girl’s arm and into her stomach.

“Oh hell no!” the man shouts before breaking off into a sprint to get to her as fast as possible, uncaring of the remaining two huntsmen who are still being shot at by the two pulse rifle bearers.

She did not just save our lives to die herself!

As soon as he gets to the girl, he touches her wrist to feel for a pulse before nodding at finding one and reaching for the bolt stuck in her arm. Only for a tanuki to suddenly appear in between his hand and the bolt, startling him into falling onto his rear.

“Do not take the bolt out until she is in the moonlight,” the tanuki talks to him, making him wonder for a very brief moment if he’s losing his mind. But after a few seconds later, and the sounds of more pulse rifle shots followed by the vaporization of the remaining huntsmen, he realizes he’s not.

Then one of the men that had accompanied the girl here – one he recognizes as the head of security for the floor above this one – walks up and stares at the tanuki before muttering, “A spirit?”

Arnold – having heard his muttered words – jerks his head to look at the tanuki again and asks, “Wait, are you her contracted spirit?”

The tanuki just nods its head and answers, “Bring her to the moonlight before you take out the arrow.” Then it vanishes again without a trace.

Silence passes for a mere two seconds after the tanuki’s disappearance before Arnold and the man gently begin picking the girl up and moving her over to the room connected to this one that has a window.