CH66:KISSED BY A WHIP

[7:00PM]

[Weather Conditions: Cold with a chance of dry, icy winds.]

[Location: Another Unknown City]

As soon as those who saw Ace and Sky arrived, they found her body lying next to writings on the ground that spelled out, PLEASE HELP. Even though they found her nearly breathing, some of them thought they saw another entity carrying the body as it run towards them.

"The girl's conditions will carry her through the night," One of the five who came spoke while they checked the wounds on Sky and her vitals. "We need to get her to a sickbay as soon as possible."

"What about the other entity we saw carrying her?" another asked. "Could they have abandoned her and resumed with their business?"

"Well no matter what," The first one spoke. "We must care for those brought to us. Let's hurry and go. The night time isn't so kind to us these days."

While Sky was taken into the city to be given first aid, Ace too was making his way to it, but his agendas were completely different.

The sun was already past the horizon, the sky was painted with a navy-blue hue and the stars were especially bright tonight. The moon, which had a slight red hue to it, shone violently upon the Earth and blessed everything with its light. The effects of the red moon were still active, but they were highly reduced since it wasn't one hundred percent red nor was it full anymore.

With these slight energy increase, Ace was speeding into the city while hiding in the shadows so no one could spot him. In this state, he was going through uncharted energy and territory, not knowing what could happen at any time. While jumping from building to building and from alley to alley, Ace's nose was hit with a powerful scent that nearly knocked him off his feet.

The blood mutant stood still and breathed everything in. The blood on his body vibrated as his stomach growled so loud that a few people close by heard it and got scared.

"Something's in there."

"Quick, call the Hunters. It could be a beast."

Ace ignored what the random strangers said as he unconsciously followed the smell. Eventually, he was led to a large building that had lots of people laid down on hospital beds currently undergoing blood transfusions. Each one of them were in extremely poor conditions, and the transfusions were just a couple of steps they were taking before they'd get back into tip-top shape.

At the moment, all of the thirty patients were either sedated or in deep sleep so that they'd receive their medication peacefully, not knowing that an eight-foot, blood-thirsty beast was standing in front of them.

*DING*

[Limited Time Remaining. The longer you take, the further you move away from your humanity.]

The system notification wasn't lying for Ace could barely remember who he was. With all of this blood in front of him, he felt his body fed on him even more as his lust grew. 'Time to feed.'

The blood mutant moved to the back of the building where he found a large bank vault that was hooked up with pipes that supplied it with liquid nitrogen in order to freeze the blood inside. Without wasting any time, Ace clawed through the thick metallic layers and froze as his eyes glared at stacks of neatly packed blood packs.

The blood mutant grabbed as many blood packs and consumed them. From ten, to twenty, to fifty, to one hundred, he kept on feeding and feeding, but his hunger wasn't quenched.

[Lust Quenched: 15%]

Five minutes passed and Ace had consumed more than two-thirds of the blood packs. His hunger wasn't done with him, and his urge to feed more was becoming harder to ignore. "I—NEED—MORE!!"

"Sadly, for you, fowl being, that's going to be the last meal you're ever going to have." Ace quickly turned his attention to whoever spoke and saw a man dressed in brown leather clothes, thick boots and a metallic whip on his sides with a gun on his right hand. The man had a large, cowboy hat which currently covered his face. "This alien gas has brought out the worst in you, fowl beasts. Luckily, I'll take care of you and keep your crystal. You seem to be an intelligent one, given you know how to speak our language."

With confusion written all over his face, Ace tilted his head sideways and squinted his eyes while trying to make out who exactly was brave enough to stand before him and not quake.

"Come on now, beast," The man slowly inched closer to Ace with his gun spinning in his hand. Unlike the traditional, olden day guns with metal, gunpowder and bullets, this one had an extended, double-sided barrel with a slim, glowing crystal moving from its front to its back. The tip had a small star-shaped piece installed to help him aim better. Given its current size, the gun looked like it could carry at least twenty rounds in it before having to reload and it also seemed to be heavy to yield with one hand, let alone with a finger. "Did you think you'd be able to come into this town and take all that precious blood without facing me? I've dealt with bloodsuckers before but…never as hideous and human-like before."

"That's because I'm not human."

"WHAT THE…" Ace leaped onto the ceiling and thrust himself to the man who was still flabbergasted due to Ace's response. Before he could aim and shoot, Ace already had a tentacle aimed for his eyes shooting straight at him, however….

[-15HP]

[35HP left]

[Blood level too low to perform emergency healing.]

Ace felt a raging pain from his left leg and when he looked at it, he saw the metallic whip leaving after it left a huge rip on his body. His own blood begun to spill out uncontrollably as his health continuously dropped with each second.

"Didn't think I wouldn't come prepared, did you beast?" The man grinned while his whip drew back to him. "Say your prayers."