I May Be A Vampire 09 (Patreon)

"Hah... you're the only monster here, Nero."

Hajime felt like he was about to fall over, both because he was tired, and also because he finally understood what Arcueid had meant when she said vampires were not supposed to absorb too many beasts.

He could feel their wills crashing against him, trying to crush him against their weight. And while he always won, it was still tiring. A battle that he would always win, but one that would also constantly tire him.

Until they suddenly stopped, as if their will had just... given up on fighting back. They submitted.

Well, that was strange.

Nero clicked his tongue. "Brat." He didn't know what to do.

He wasn't blind, he could see that monster's corals growing in his mud, on their way to free Arcueid. If she was released from that mud, then she would undoubtedly tear him to shreds.

The way to stop that was most likely killing the brat, since he would just make more corals if Nerp destroyed them. The problem is that Nero was not confident he could simply attack the brat as he had been previously doing it.

What if he stole even more beasts?

Both vampires were not ready, but Hajime made the first move nonetheless.

He rushed towards Nero. He knew that he could not withstand another barrage of animals, and so he might as well try to make this a close quarters fight.

The vampire didn't bother to fully release any of his beasts, but as soon as Hajime got close, a gigantic hand left Nero's shoulder. It's aim was simple, crushing Hajime into paste. And it could succeed, this was the hand of cyclops after all.

Hajime raised his hands, and created more vines.

Those vines warped around the cyclops hand and held it down. Though they were shaking, and it wouldn't surprise Hajime if the monster broke free eventually.

But that wouldn't happen right now, so he tried to stab through Nero with his claws. To be honest, he would have liked to retreat instead, but he knew that if he had taken pressure off the vampire, he would lose and die.

Except instead of stabbing Nero, claw met horn.

Hajime looked down at his claws, his hand was being stopped by a horn. That fucking unicorn...!

It started glowing, and Hajime quickly removed his hand from it. It's a good thing he did, because the beam shot from the horn would have turned his hand into cinders, and regeneration wasn't free.

But he knew he couldn't retreat, and since that giant hand wasn't an issue for now, Hajime kept up attacking.

Clank, clank, clank.

Again and again his claws met horn, and againd and again he was forced to dodge a beam. This wasn't too bad however, sure he wasn't actually dealing damage to Nero, but he was buying time. If he bought enough time he would win.

Nero however, was getting angrier and angrier. The truth is that he could have easily killed this upstart by sending his Phantasmal Beasts at him. He was scared of manifesting them, scared that they would be stolen...

That went double for the non-Phantasmal Beasts, Nero was sure the Nightmare could have stolen them even if they were still connected, so he completely discarded the idea of using them at all.

If he could overwhelm the brat using special abilities... But he only had these two Phantasmal Beasts within his body. The rest were holding down the princess.

Nero's rage reached a boiling point, he roared.

And with his roar, the cyclops arm tore through Hajime's vines. It came crashing down on Hajime like a meteorite, ready to crush this pathetic Nightmare who was fighting something way beyond his station.

Hajime was forced to dodge with a backflip. "W-whoa!" But even the force of the arm hitting the ground was almost enough to make him lose his balance.

Hajime had once thought that taking a hit from that elephant would have been fine, and now that the elephant was part of him, he was confident that he was correct. It would just take him out of the fight for a while.

That arm though? Hajime was sure it would crush him into nothingness. He wasn't sure his vampiric curse would have been able to handle that.

Nero thought about pushing his advantage with the arm... and decided it wouldn't be wise.

If the boy trapped him in the vines of Gaia once again, it would take time to escape again. He could handle if it was his own body being targeted of course, he could just eat away with normal beasts, but the cyclops was another matter.

Massive shining wings grew out of Nero, and before Hajime could do anything, he took flight.

Hajime stared upwards. "Right... unicorn." This was bad. He guessed that Nero was about to charge one of those big beams that he had used against Arcueid. He could handle the small ones just fine, but...

But that all consuming light would definitely kill him.

And as Hajime expected, Nero's hand formed into a unicorn's head and its horn started shining. Nero was pointing straight at him, a cocky smirk on his face, the vampire knew he had an advantage.

Hajime's mind ran with possibilities of how to neutralize that advantage.

He could create wings to fly too, using Nero's animals... No, he couldn't. The animals he had absorbed were "normal" their wings would be far too small. Furthermore, Hajime wasn't even sure he could do all this partial transformation shit Nero did. It was most likely tied to his Idea Blood.

The second idea was pulling Nero down with the vines, but grabbing him would be difficult. And much like Nero, Hajime had come to the conclusion that even if the vines did get him, he could free himself using normal animals.

So how could Hajime win...?

Ah, he had an idea.

He glared at his enemy. Not at Nero, for he thought his eyes didn't do much against the Dead Apostle Ancestor, but at his wings.

The effects were instantaneous, Nero never even got a chance to dodge. He wasn't faster than Hajime's eyesight after all.

Corals spread through the shining wings, eating it. And even if they didn't eat the whole thing instantaneously, just a little bit was already enough to destabilize the vampire's flight. Nero fell.

And fired the beam anyways. He had charged a decent amount already, after all.

Hajime braced himself, and extended his hands. He couldn't create vines to use as a shield fast enough, so instead he clashed against the beam using his claws.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. It felt like he was trying to hold the sun with hands, but Hajime pushed through. "Argh...!" His claws shone purple, and with one final shout, an explosion consumed his vision.

Hajime lost his hands, the pain was... bearable. He didn't know how to feel about the fact that he had been gaining greater and greater levels of pain resistance these past few days, but he supposed this was good for a vampire.

In a second his arms regrew, the corals giving him enough strength so that he wouldn't feel that annoying and deadly cold.

Nero grit his teeth. "And from a Nightmare of all things...!"

Even if he was weakened to only ten percent... and now less than that, this was still a insult. Or perhaps he was being far too arrogant, the boy's Mystic Eyes were severely hampering Nero, and those most likely had nothing to do with being a vampire.

Nero took a deep breath and recomposed himself. He would need to stop thinking of this as battle between a Ancestor and a Nightmare, and start thinking of it as a battle between a mage and a psychic.

And in such battles, risks had to be taken.

Nero hoped that the boy wouldn't be able to absorb phantasmal beasts, and released his unicorn and cyclops.

Hajime made way to Nero, but he stopped himself once he saw the two beasts. "For real...?" Nero had finally changed his strategy, and Hajime was terrified of it.

A majestic unicorn with gigantic wings, just his presence made Hajime uncomfortable. Without a doubt this was a vampire killer.

The cyclops didn't exude such an aura, but his body was absolutely bulging with muscles. He could probably fold Hajime like a tin can.

Well, the cyclops did have one obvious massive weakness however. Hajime glared right at the beast's eye, it was a pretty big target after all, and Hajime knew his corals would shred through it.

It seemed to work at first. Corals grew on the giant's eye, and Hajime prepared himself to deal with the unicorn... And then the giant threw himself at Hajime.

The boy widened his eyes, and stepped back, and tried restraining the cyclops with vines. The monster predictably tore through them, the raw power of a Nightmare was just not enough to stop him.

As the cyclop backhanded Hajime, he was mind was more stuck on the why, instead of the pain running through his body.

The truth is that Nero was always connected with his beasts... or perhaps it was more accurate to say he was his beasts. Even if the cyclops could not see, Nero and the unicorn still could. Such damage was meaningless.

Hajime's body began regenerating, even as he crashed againt a tree... and another. And another. And another. The cyclops had send him quite far.

Nero frowned. "These corals..." Normally a Nightmare would have already run out of his resources and died at such levels of damage. Nero could only assume the corals were strengthening the boy.

Which means the other way to kill a normal Dead Apostle would be ripping out his heart and destroying it outside of his body... or hitting it with something truly pure.

The unicorn prepared himself to run the boy over. Flight would be negated by those eyes, and hitting the boy for prolonged periods of time was dangerous, but it couldn't be helped.

Hajime meanwhile, never even had the thought of absorbing these magical beasts. He was already pushing it by absorbing eleven after all, and he didn't have an Idea Blood suited for this.

He would need to do something else to kill these monsters of myth.

The unicorn ran at Hajime, and the boy immediately recognized the danger the beast presented. He needed an answer to it's charge, and he needed it immediately.

The boy separated one of the beasts from himself, the elephant, and sent it towards the unicorn. It had taken Hajime a decent amount of slashes to kill it, so surely the elephant would work as a fine shield.

The unicorn cut the elephant in two in a second, almost as if the beast wasn't there.

Hajime barely managed to dodge to the side, saving his life. He rolled on the ground, and quickly stood up.

He had to hold back a frustrated groan. The elephant had not returned, for Hajime was not like Nero. The beast was permanently dead, eleven had become then, and Hajime could feel himself losing a bit of strength.

There was something strange here though.

Instead of pressing his advantage by using the cyclops, Nero had done nothing. Hajime thought the vampire was acting scared, like he didn't want to overwhelm him for some stupid reason.

And then it clicked on his head. Nero was scared of him absorbing these monsters, and while Hajime obviously couldn't do that, Nero was not omniscient.

Which meant Hajime at least wouldn't have to deal with continuous attacks.

But did that really mattered? In the end he was still being utterly crushed.

He could... maybe release all his animals at once, creating some kind of smokescreen? No, Nero could easily counter that with his own "normal" animals. In the end, even if Hajime just needed to buy time, it would be a hard task.

His toolkit was just not enough for this situation, he needed something new to win this war.

Something new...

Hajime closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened them again, they shined bright gold. That rainbow flower had become one single color.

And then...!

"Hah! Never thought I would see a Dead Apostle Ancestor in such a pathetic state!" A new voice entered the forest. "Am I even needed here?" It sounded like a young boy, a very arrogant young boy.

Hajime deactivated his Mystic Eyes, and even if he did not know, they abandoned their gold coloring. He then looked at the new arrival, as Arcueid and Nero did the same.

What Hajime saw was... a golden wolf? It was definitely a supernatural creature, even if it didn't talk, Hajime would have been able to tell with one look. No, even without looking at it, Hajime would be able to tell.

The wolf just had a certain presence to him. An aura of superiority.

Nero's eye twitched. "An Elemental...? No, not just any Elemental." He had heart tales of a wolf god who had clashed against Orstenrosse recently.

This wasn't good.

Ortenrosse was just a brute, a so called "perfect vampire" who excelled at bringing the basic abilities of a Dead Apostle to the maximum... So he was a very different fighter from Nero. Nonetheless, he was also much older than Nero, therefore more powerful.

And this wolf had apparently ruined one of Ortenrosse's plans. If this was the same Elemental, of course.

Arcueid was smiling from ear to ear. "Hey little buddy, help me out, will ya!?" During the whole fight she was either dying of worry, or dying of amazement. Now she could probably relax, help had arrived.

The wolf bowed...!? "Of course Lady Arcueid. I shall free you from these restrains as fast as possible!" He jumped onto the middle of the battlefield. "So, who of you two are my enemy!?"

The question was aimed at both Hajime and Nero. He imagined the boy was not his enemy, but his corals were everywhere, even above Arcueid, so he was just making sure. Besides, the gold liked making a mess, even when it wasn't needed.

Hajime... didn't know what to say. "W-well, I'm on Arcueid's side..." Now he was just wondering why the hell the wolf was on their side as well. Was he like... a wolf vampire? Hajime couldn't feel his rank.

Maybe a wolf True Ancestor?

The truth was more simple than Hajime realized it. This wolf was an Elemental, and amongst the Elementals, True Ancestors were treated as royalty. In essence he had found his queen in distress.

The wolf raised an eyebrow. "Is that so...?" He didn't want to be suspicious of the boy, but he did look like just a common vampire.

It was like seeing a homeless man claim to be an ally of a king.

Thankfully Arcueid quickly confirmed. "Yep! He's my cute little knight, he's using his little corals to free me!" She had told him to not rely on his eyes, but it couldn't be helped. The Mystic Eyes of Gate and Key were far too useful.

The vampire struggled against the mud, she was close to freeing herself. "So please beat that vampire up for a bit! I'm really close to escaping!" She was confused, even if happy.

Had Gaia sent a beast to help her? There was no way an Elemental was just walking around in the area, right!?

The wolf nodded. "Understood." He glared at the knight. "Feel free to step aside boy, I shall put this monster down." Hajime didn't know how to feel about being called boy by such a young sounding voice.

But he did as ordered, even though he would definitely have questions for Arcueid later.

Beast glared at beast. Nero grinned. "So, you won't ask who I am?"

The wolf rolled his eyes. "I know you're a Dead Apostle Ancestor, that's enough information for me." He too grinned. "My master is okay with ignoring small fish, but troublemakers like you are not allowed on her town."

Her town...? Hajime couldn't stop focusing on that. Perhaps the person who had sent the golden wolf, was the same person who had sent the flying pigs? Did this mean he would be seeing them, and perhaps a troll soon?

Or it could be completely unrelated. At this point Hajime had accepted that the supernatural world was much bigger than he could ever imagine.

Nero tilted his head. "So the rumors were true... a golden Elemental who swore himself to a human exists." Hajime now knew what the beast was. "But why lower yourself like that?"

The wolf shrugged. "She smells good." And as if that was all he needed to say, he ran forward.

The wolf jumped to the unicorn's nape, and with one quick bite the beast was dead.

The wolf didn't bother spending much time with the dead monster, instead it rushed towards the cyclops, who in exchange tried to crush the Elemental under his pawn.

And then the wolf grew, in one moment he was a normal animal, and then in the next he was a towering werewolf. With one swipe of his claw the cyclops was cut into pieces, the monster did land his blow, but the wolf had simply ignored it.

Hajime was nothing short of amazed. "That's..." The supernatural world was big indeed.

Still... one day... Hajime hoped he could be just as amazing as Arcueid and this Elemental. Strong enough that he would be able to defeat a monster such as Nero. He wanted more power.

The Elemental didn't bother waiting around, now that he had dealt with the phantasmal beasts, his target was Nero. He would eat this vampire if necessary.

He didn't care what his master needed for him to fight. He was invincible, he had remained invincible for his entire life. It had reached such an absurd point, that his biggest wish was finally learning defeat.

So the planet naturally acknowledged him as invincible, and nothing could touch him. Because sometimes Gaia was just wonky like that.

Soujuurou Shizuki would have a higher chance of beating the wolf than a Heroic Spirit. Because sometimes Gaia was just funky like that.

It was utterly absurd.

Nero at ten percent had no chance against this absurd creature, he understood that... He should retreat.

The golden beast was upon Nero. The Dead Apostle Ancestor tried his best to defend himself with the carapaces of his animals, but the wolf quickly tore through them as if they were paper.

A vampire unicorn was no match for him, a vampire cyclops was no match for him. Clearly these nameless animals wouldn't be either, Nero was just throwing meat into a meat grinder.

Nero should retreat.

Eating Arcueid and adding her to his Primordial Earth had always been an impossible dream anyways, akin to a magus reaching the root. So he should cut his loses and retreat!

But he was so damn close...!

The ground cracked, the corals had eaten enough, Arcueid Brunestud freed herself. "I'm going to kill you, Nero!" She was happy everything turned out well, and now she was gonna make this bastard pay.

It was all happening far too quickly for Hajime's eyes. On one moment, the golden wolf was destroying the Dead Apostle Ancestor... then the golden wolf and Arcueid were destroying the Dead Apostle Ancestor.

Hajime almost felt pity for the poor bastard. He had no chance of victory even as his other beasts returned. Occassionally some monster of legend would leave his body, but either Arcueid or the Elemental would swiftly crush it.

Nero could have most likely beaten the wolf. He was a tricky fighter with many capabilities, a nice counter for someone that relied purely on brute force, but... the wolf and Arcueid at the same time was just too much.

Arcueid by herself would most likely kill him, a fact he was forced to acknowledge everytime she ripped out another part of his body with her claws. Claws far sharper than Hajime's.

Nero roared. "Arcueid...!" And his body became larger, more and more muscular...

Until his was just some form of beast himself. This was his most sublime maneuver, fusing the power of every single one of his beasts, and even if it was a bit weaker than usual due to the thief, it should still be enough for...!

The wolf punched him in the face, it left a deep bruise. Nero flinched.

Arcueid kicked him in the groin, and punched through his gut with her claws right afterwards. Nero had to hold back vomit.

The truth is that Nero was not a fighter, he was a magus, a researcher. And in his inexperience, he had just challenged two close quarters specialists in their specialty.

Even a newbie like Hajime could tell that was stupid.

This "sublime" maneuver was a joke. Nero was at his strongest when abusing the varied abilities of his beasts, not when he could punch harder.

Nero screamed. It wasn't some terrifying roar like before, it was just a scared man who didn't want to die.

And then he exploded into a zoo.

Beasts of all sized were released, and began running away to all directions. Hajime prepared to fight against them, but they ignored the boy, running past him as if he wasn't there.

Then it clicked. Nero was running.

Hajime didn't have the strength to stop this however, so he looked upon those who did, Arcueid and the Elemental. Except those two were just standing around, the wolf had even returned to his small size on four paws.

Eventually all of Nero escaped. The vampire who had almost killed him and Arcueid escaped. Those two idiots hadn't even tried to stop him.

The True Ancestor sent Hajime a bright smile, as if she didn't care, and ran towards him, she threw herself at him, enveloping the boy in a warm hug.

She was really glad. "You did it Hajime! You freed me!" The wolf pouted, but didn't say anything. "You were seriously amazing there, you freaky freakish freak!" She had to test that animal absorbing talent of his. It could be useful.

Hajime had to hold himself back from punching her. "Who cares about what I did!?" He hadn't even won. "We need to go out and hunt down Nero before he reforms!" Could they beat him again?

Probably, but there was no need to risk anything. What if he caught both Arcueid and the Elemental on his concentrated mud!?

Arcueid frowned. "I care about what you did, it was awesome!" Hajime blushed, but there were bigger problems right now! "And about Nero... well, I guess you haven't truly realized what eternity means yet? Right?"

She ended the hug. "As frustrating as it is, I just don't have a method to truly kill him. The same probably applies to Mr. Wolf over there!" The pointed at the Elemental, who quickly nodded.

Arcueid didn't have something as convenient as the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception in her pocket, or a weapon that struck the soul. She could dead with normal Dead Apostles just fine, but an Ancestor with his own Idea Blood was another matter entirely.

There was a reason Roa was still being a bastard and reincarnating. A reason why the Holy Church aimed to seal over kill. A reason why there was little infighting amongst the Dead Apostle Ancestors. Killing someone who had mastered their Idea Blood was hard, almost impossible.

Well, if she was at full power she could probably break Nero's Primordial Earth, but she wasn't.

Hajime looked down. "B-but... what was even the point of this?" It felt frustrating. He had won, but he hadn't finished off the enemy.

Hajime supposed that was a trend with him. He didn't know if the pigs were dead, and Arcueid had obviously survived his eyes. But this one felt worse, because he knew Nero would hunt him again.

Arcueid pats his shoulder. "The point was surviving. We just needed to survive until the sun rose, or Nero retreated, remember?" That was... true. Maybe Hajime had lost sight of their initial goal.

She continued. "Besides, we really weakened him. So that guy is gonna flee town and spend some years hidden in a cave or something. Don't worry 'bout it. Just be glad you can add this event to your vampiric resume." They had those...!?

Hajime left out a frustrated sigh. "Right..." He should just be glad he survived.

But... he really needed to come up with something that could deal with immortals. He didn't know what yet, but perhaps he could learn how to seal someone or something. He didn't want this to happen again.

The wolf snorted as he walked closer. "You're quite new to this world, aren't you boy?" He too sighed. "Well, I do agree with you that blood suckers are the worst of the worst. I have now faced three Dead Apostle Ancestors, and all three were impossible to take down." Three!?

Arcueid smiled. "Oh right, Wolfy." She had forgotten about him, she was far too lost in Hajime's... existence. "Where did you come from anyways, you mentioned a master right?"

The wolf nodded. "Indeed Lady Arcueid. I work for a mage who..." He paused for a second. "I should probably introduce myself first. I am known as Beowulf." Hajime could sort of recognize the name.

Arcueid grinned. "Okay then Beo!" W-wow, she didn't hesitate to call him by a nickname. "You obviously already know my name, but this guy over here is...!" She pulled the boy into another hug. "Hajime Wada! My knight!"

Hajime awkward waved at the world. "It's a honor to meet you, Beowulf..." He had a feeling the wolf would not let any nicknames that didn't come from Arcueid's mouth slide.

To be honest, he felt like an ant among giants.

The wolf smiled. "It's an honor to meet ya too. I respect any man who has the courage to face a Dead Apostle Ancestor." He looked back at Arcueid. "Anyways, my master is a mage... a talented one, but just a mage. You wouldn't know of her."

"I just follow her around because she loves picking fights, and she smells good.." He grimaced while looking at me. "But clearly you don't care about smell, Lady Arcueid. No offense to your servant, of course."

Hajime blushed yet again. This was the second time someone said he smelt bad. When he got home he would take the greatest shower the world had ever seen, that was for sure.

Arcueid hugged Hajime even tighter. She didn't get what people were talking about, he smelt great!

The wolf tilted his head. Wasn't the True Ancestor a bit too close to the Dead Apostle? Well, he supposed it wasn't his business. It was strange however, for he had heard that Arcueid Brunestud was as cold as ice.

Beowulf cleared his throat. "Though if you are interest in my normal master, I can take you to our base, Lady Arcueid." His master hadn't given him that order, but...

This was Arcueid Brunestud. Unless his master specifically requested Beowulf to treat her as his enemy, he would be as respectful and helpful as possible. It was in his nature as an Elemental of Gaia.

Arcueid immediately accepted. "Sure, we will go meet your master, Señor Lobo." She was a princess, so it was her responsibility to go and say thanks.

She ended the hug with Hajime. "So, let's go!"

But... "Well... you can go Arcueid, but I'm going home." Hajime felt exhausted, even if he technically wasn't because of his Mystic Eyes. "I... I need to go rest. And my dad is probably going home too, at this point. I need to get there before he does."

And so Arcueid was faced with the choice of meeting a mysterious person who had chained a Elemental, or spending more time with Hajime.

The answer was obvious. "Okay then! I'm actually going with you!" Hajime didn't object. He had hosted Soujuurou recently, and his father didn't care. No reason he would get suspicious over Arcueid.

Yep, there was no problems with bringing an attractive foreigner to sleep in his house.

One should remember that Hajime didn't have social awareness.

The vampire gazed at the wolf again. "My bad Doggy, but I can't let Hajime be alone. He's like... a little unprepared baby!" She really did mean that.

Hajime was clearly talented, but he didn't know much about the supernatural. If Arcueid took her eyes off him, it was possible he would run straight to the church or something equally as stupid.

Beowulf wondered what he did to deserve being called doggy. "It's fine... Besides, my master has eyes all over the city, when she desires to meet you and the boy, she will." Even he was afraid of her to a certain extent.

"Oh... Sounds creepy. I might end up punching her."

"Please don't... Though she is indeed creepy."



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AN: Ah, Beo cucked Hajime out of being a cool action hero. Just when he was about to scream Bankai...

Nero ended up surviving. I know this will probably piss off some people, but I wanted to show that beating a DAA is just half of the battle, you need to have some other way of putting him down.

And ways of putting them down are very, very rare.

By the way, the Mahoyo collab is like... tomorrow, and if I don't get Aoko I will explode the universe.