Playing With One's Prey

"I am… Your killer."

Barbara looked at the figure before her with visible confusion.

'This person's probably drunker than I am. That's it! Who else would parade in a creepy mask and edgy clothing unless they're piss-drunk?'

Barbara gestured menacingly with her broken beer bottle.

"Alright dumbass, if you don't want to die, then just get lost. I'll even forget that 'joke' you made earlier about killing me. I'm in no mood to deal with nutjobs right now."

The figure's head tilted slightly to the side as if confused by Barbara's words.

"How exactly will you kill me?" The figure asked.

A sneer broke out on Barabara's flushed face.

"Alright b*stard. If you want to die that badly, I'll make an exception to help you out."

Barbara staggered over to the figure and slashed the beer bottle at its face.

In response to this, the figure calmly raised his right hand.

*BANG*

Surprisingly, while the blood exploded on contact, the figure's arm appeared to be unfazed.

A frown appeared on the woman's mouth.

"A strength-based ability?"

Barabara turned and ran away, trying to put some distance between her and the figure.

However, the figure didn't seem to follow her.

It stood motionless in the same spot, calmly watching her.

'Heh, dumbass!'

The woman reached into her pocket, pulling out a switchblade.

She smiled menacingly, as she opened it up and revealed the blade.

Barbara pointed the knife at the masked figure, but instead of running at him with the intent to cut him, she slashed the knife at herself.

Namely, the palm of her left hand.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Barbara left a thin cut that extended the full width of her palm.

Her palm was already covered in similar cuts, with some still in the process of healing.

The instant the knife pierced her already heavily-scarred hands, blood gushed forth.

However, something was off about her blood.

Instead of it being the typical red colour found in humans, it was a purple oozing sludge.

A purple-coloured mist began to form above the cut as if to further solidify the fact that this blood was anything but normal.

The masked figure, who was none other than Lucian, smiled to himself when he saw this.

'Blood poison… The ability to turn one's blood into a type of poison. The lethality and versatility of this ability are only dependent on the user's skill rank. Luckily, since she's an E-rank, it won't be that strong. The dosage required to kill me should be decently large."

Lucian calmly analyzed her ability as he took mental notes on how Barbara used it.

Since he was planning on taking her ability, he might as well learn how to use it properly.

If he could watch Barbara use it, Lucian could figure out the best possible usage for her ability, and see if there was any synergy with his other abilities/skills.

His mask was quite helpful in this regard, albeit a little creepy.

It was fully equipped with a voice changer, video cameras, a built-in computer system, and an audio recorder.

Even now Lucian was recording everything he saw and heard to view again at a later date.

Seeing Lucian standing still despite seeing the purple ooze dripping down her hand, she was a little intimidated.

Normally people would be running in fear when she did this.

'I guess this dumbass is blind as well.'

She licked her lips with a predatory glint in her eyes.

'It seems I'm the one who will need to open them.'

Barbara took the knife, completely slathering it in her blood, coating the silver knife with a purple sheen.

"Die!"

She drunkenly stumbled back over to Lucian and took another swing at him.

Lucian watched this with a dumbfounded expression behind his smiling mask.

'Wait… She's just rushing at me again? Didn't she learn from the first time?'

He brought his arm back up, deflecting her attack again.

Due to her inhibited state, she wasn't able to apply much strength behind her swing.

Losing her balance, Barbara fell to her knees.

"Fuck! Not even this worked!"

Lucian sighed when he saw her crawling away in fear.

"You did the same thing twice, how did you just assume it'll be any different? Your poison appears to only be useful if it can enter my body. If you cant even pierce my body, there's no way you can get m-"

*SPIT*

Barbara turned her face and spat a volley of purple ooze at Lucian.

If it wasn't for Lucian's enhanced stats due to turning into a vampire, there was no way he would have been able to dodge.

Unfortunately for Barbara, her last-ditch attempt at killing Lucian was swiftly dodged.

Lucian saw her mouth dripping purple ooze, and nodded to himself.

'So she bit the insides of her mouth and spat the poisoned blood at me. That could come in handy if it manages to catch an enemy off-guard.'

Lucian took a step towards her, as the black visors covering his left eye retracted back into the mask.

Letting Barbara catch a glimpse of his glowing red eyes.

"W-what the hell are you?" She yelled in terror.

She could no longer run away, being completely frozen in fear.

Lucian shook his head.

"You need to pay more attention to what other people tell you, Barbara."

He walked up until he was right in front of her.

"As I said," he lifted her chin up so that he could look Barbara directly in the eyes, "I am your killer."

[Charm]