Triple X System

"Don’t follow me." Elara warned to which Yua ignored.

The trio were currently on route towards the inner section of the west side of the vampire solitude. Which was apparently tied in connection to an underground tunnel, leading to an escape chamber according to Yua.

"I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise." Kyle abruptly spoke, stopping in his tracks.

"You trusted me and I failed, every single one of you had to suffer for my actions." He sniffed, the air more chilly than usual.

With a warm smile, Yua approached him. Wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a soft kiss to his lips. "We all made our decision and knew the consequences. And honestly.. I wouldn’t change one bit."

Nodding on unison they continued on track much deeper into the handmade earth passage with no source of light.

"What’s that awful smell." Elara was the first to complain, choking on her breath. And it wasn’t only her affected by the putrid odor, but also Kyle and Yua.

"It smells like rotten corpses, maybe something died in here." Kyle shrugged, already accustomed to the scent of blood and death. But the foul stench of a rotten corpse undergoing decay was one he wasn’t accustomed to.

"No.. The scent is wrong." Yua sniffed, her eyes glowing a bright red in the dark.

As a vampire, she was naturally more sensitive than Kyle. Not to mention her primary ability with blood control, the literal life force of a living thing that can determine the time of death or remaining years of someone.

"By wrong you mean trouble, right?" He tried clarifying, but the silence that came next was all the answer he needed.

Thump thump thump

Afar in the darkness and stillness, soft approaching footsteps could be heard growing nearer with each step. Kyle Yua and elara were already on guard for the approaching figure, presumably the presence they’d sensed back at the outer parts of the large fortress.

"Must ki-ll, must ki-ll." Low raspy breaths along with a repetition of those two words were the only thing breaking the silence.

The sound scraped against the walls. Wet. Ragged. Like someone was breathing through a throat full of mud.

The footsteps got closer.

Thump. Drag. Thump. Drag.

Kyle stepped in front of Elara on instinct. Yua didn’t move, but her eyes went full red. No pupils. Just blood in the dark.

Then it came into view.

The root crystal deer linked with Kyle jolted inside him.

"Demon, Wait."

"What?" Kyle muttered under his breath.

"This is not undead." The deer said fast, panicked.

"The rhythm is wrong. The heat is wrong. It is not alive either. I believe this is an anomaly, one of a kind. A hybrid breeder."

"A breeder?" Kyle’s brow twitched. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It was made. Not born, but created based on countless trials and errors. Do not let it touch you."

The thing stopped about ten feet away. The tunnel was too narrow for it to stand straight. Its back forced it to hunch, so its head hung between its shoulders like it was carrying something heavy.

It wore butcher clothes. A thick apron tied around its waist, pants caked in layers, boots that squelched when it moved. All of it completely dyed with blood god knows how long for. The apron was stiff. Brown, black, red, all mixed together. You couldn’t tell what color it started as.

Little strands of black hair sticking from it’s scarred head. Most of the scalp was bare and cut in lines, like someone had been carving it over and over.

It’s skin a combination of burns and cuts. No clean patch anywhere. Burns pulled the skin tight over its arms. Cuts ran down its neck, some fresh, some old and yellow. Its fingers were too long and ended in hooks tied on with dirty string where nails should’ve been.

An abomination that should’ve never existed.

It lifted its head. One eye was sewn shut with thick thread. The other eye rolled, yellow and wet, looking at each of them. Its mouth opened and shut. Drool and something darker fell to the dirt.

"Must ki-ll, must ki-ll."

Then it pointed. A slow, crooked finger.

Right at Elara. The one standing in the middle.

Its mouth worked. Trying to say the word. It came out broken and wet.

"Li... live... stock."

Elara didn’t breathe.

In the blink of an eye the butcher then moves. It didn’t run. It shot forward. Both arms outstretched for Elara, hooks aimed at her throat. The air went dead cold.

But before it connected it’s entire arm was wrapped with red strings.

Yua.

She hadn’t moved her feet. Blood was already dripping from her nose.

"Life entanglement."

Using one of her blood skills called life entanglement. It’s a blood related skill that activates with the required amount of blood from the user. Weaving blood threads acting as both offensive and defensive. The red strings shot from her palms and coiled around the butcher’s wrist, elbow, shoulder, yanking it sideways. The strings pulsed, trying to dig in, trying to find blood to hold.

Using the slight interruption Kyle then pulls Elara back towards a safe distance. He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her behind him.

"Behind me. Now."

Elara nodded, still pale.

Joining with Yua in facing the butcher where he uses dark flames. He stepped up beside Yua and slammed both hands forward. Black fire poured out, thick and heavy. It wrapped around the butcher’s chest, up the hunchback, over the bloodied apron.

The fire should’ve eaten through anything.

It didn’t.

To his bewilderment, the flames does little to no damage against the monster. The apron smoked. A few spots turned black. The skin underneath was charred but it didn’t burn. The butcher didn’t scream. It tilted its head, like it didn’t understand what the fire was supposed to do.

"It’s resistance is tougher than I anticipated." Kyle frowned but snow, his system helper telepathically debunks his idea.

[Dark flames effect eats away at not just the skin but energy contained in one’s core. Meaning this thing doesn’t possess any energy whatsoever.] Snow said confused to say the least.

Kyle cursed under his breath. "No core? Then what’s keeping it moving?"

The butcher wrenched. The red strings from Yua stretched and groaned but held. It opened its mouth again.

"Must ki-ll."

It swung. The free arm came down at Yua. She dropped low and the strings wrapped the other arm too, crossing over its chest. The butcher roared, a wet, broken sound that shook dirt from the ceiling.

"Yua, can you hold it?" Kyle asked.

"For now," she gritted out. More blood ran from her nose. "But it’s not bleeding. There’s nothing for the strings to bite."

Elara stepped up behind them. Her hands were shaking but she lifted them anyway.

"Light beam!"

A thin white beam shot from her palms and hit the butcher’s one good eye. It screeched and jerked its head away, blinded for a second.

That was the opening.

Kyle moved. He didn’t waste flames again. He closed the distance and grabbed the butcher’s shoulders, slamming it back into the dirt wall. The tunnel shook. Rocks fell.

"Help me tie it!" he growled.

Yua didn’t ask questions. She moved in. The red strings left the arms and went for the legs, the torso, the neck. She wrapped and pulled, layer after layer.

"Life entanglement. Bind."

The butcher thrashed. It was strong. Way stronger than it looked. But with Elara’s light beams hitting its face every few seconds to disorient it, and Kyle holding its weight, it couldn’t break all three.

Minute after minute they worked. Until the butcher was pinned to the wall. Red strings cutting into its skin but not drawing blood. Because there was none.

It was still breathing though. Those raspy breaths. "Mmmph. Must... ki-ll."

Yua stepped closer. She pressed both hands to its chest, right where a heart should be.

"Life entanglement. Drain."

This was the part that should’ve ended it. The skill was meant to steal the life force of the affected individual slowly. Pull the blood, pull the years, until they couldn’t move.

Nothing happened.

Yua frowned and pushed more blood into it. Her face went pale.

"It’s empty," she said. "There’s no blood."

Kyle stared at it. "That’s not possible."

_Master,_ the root crystal deer said quietly. _I told you. Not alive. Not dead._

Yua pulled her hands back. The strings stayed, holding it.

Kyle let go and stepped back. His arms had new cuts from the hooks but he ignored them.

The three of them stood there, breathing hard in the dark, looking at the thing tied up and still twitching.

"So what is it?" Elara whispered.

Yua wiped blood from under her nose. Her voice was low.

"The butcher. An elite class of unknown race and origin slave to the vampires across generations. Their main job is the breeding and continuation of the vampire race."

Kyle raise a brow not expecting them to be this important to vampires, literally just slightly above the level of slaves. "Breeding? With that?"

Yua nodded. "They don’t make kids. They make more butchers. From bodies. From dead things. That’s why there’s no blood. No core. It’s just put together."

The butcher was still watching them. Still mouthing "must ki-ll" against the gag of red string.

Elara hugged her arms. "We can’t kill it?"

"No," Yua said. "And we can’t leave it loose. So we leave it like this."

Silence fell again. Only the drip of water and the butcher’s breathing.

Kyle looked down the tunnel. Deeper. Darker. The smell was worse now that they knew what it was.

The root crystal deer was quiet.

Snow didn’t say anything else.

Kyle exhaled. "Move. Before its friends show up."

Yua gave one last look at the bound butcher, then turned. The red strings stayed, glowing faintly in the dark.

And the trio continued on, leaving the grotesque, blood-dyed abomination tied and twitching behind them in the handmade earth passage.

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