"Kekeke... It seems you'll be the next human to die."
Nova turned toward the source of the voice with a flat expression.
"Who are you?" Nova asked in a calm tone.
The creature in front of him looked surprised to see Nova's calm reaction.
"Wow... look at that calm face of yours. I'm starting to wonder, are you really still just a kid?"
"Hey, I asked who you are. I don't have time to play around like this." Nova stared straight at the creature, his eyes not blinking even once.
"Hehe... alright, I guess I should introduce myself. I am a vampire. Yes, you must be shocked to hear that, right? How could vampires still exist in this world?"
The vampire smiled widely.
"Oh..." Nova responded with his face still remaining flat. "Yes, I am a bit shocked. I didn't expect vampires to still exist in this world. As far as I know, the vampire race was exterminated long ago, right?"
"Hahaha! You're absolutely right, kid. 99% of my vampire race has indeed been exterminated by humans. And now... it's time for me to repay what you've done!"
The vampire's face changed to one full of hatred.
"Unfortunately, humans on this earth cannot be turned into vampires by me at all. I don't know why it's like that..."
Without further warning, the vampire immediately launched his first attack. Dark red blood began to flow from both of his palms, forming several blood orbs floating in the air.
In an instant, those blood orbs transformed into sharp needles and shot toward Nova.
Nova quickly ran and hid behind a large tree in the middle of the dark forest.
CRASH!
The tree where Nova was hiding shattered into pieces, wood fragments flying in all directions.
"Unfortunately, you're still too young to die. But that's not my problem... just blame your human race for why you have to die now too!"
The vampire remained standing in the same place, not moving at all. Only Nova had to keep running to avoid attack after attack that kept coming, destroying the trees around him.
"Do you know? I've already killed many humans besides you. This is a vampire realm that I created myself, because the old vampire world was destroyed by humans."
While continuing to launch attacks, the vampire continued his story with a proud tone.
"I made this realm by killing humans on earth. This is a realm made from the blood of humans I've killed. I disguised myself as an ordinary human on earth and lived like humans in general."
"The vampire race from the beginning already had the power to disguise as humans. The only weakness is language - I need time that's not too long to learn human language. Then after all that, I kill them when they're off guard and take their blood."
Nova kept running while listening to the vampire's explanation. In his heart, he began to understand the real situation.
"Do you know why the Sages in this world don't realize that I'm the killer of many humans? Because I kill them by inserting a very small drop of my blood into their bodies."
"That small blood will slowly burn the human body from within. In other words, my blood is poisonous, and the Sages can't even determine the cause of their deaths."
*So he's the one who killed many humans in recent months... and that's why he can speak using human language. So vampire blood is indeed poisonous... but why is he telling me all this? Is it because he's very sure I will die?*
Suddenly Nova remembered his conversation with his father when they were watching TV some time ago.
**Flashback**
"I wonder, why haven't those Sages figured out the cause of many humans dying mysteriously?" Nova asked while glancing at the TV screen showing news about mysterious deaths.
"Yeah, I think this would be very easy if high-ranking Sages were assigned," his father answered casually while sipping coffee.
"Then why not just send high-ranking Sages? Why does it have to be B-rank Sages? That way it would be easier to solve the problem, right?"
"Nova, I think you already know... we live in a world full of strange things that can happen anytime. What's happening now is still at B-rank task level. S-rank and A-rank tasks are at a different level from this."
"I think father is right, but..."
**Back to the present**
*This vampire is at B-rank Sage level, right? Then how do I defeat him? I haven't even awakened my power...*
Although Nova was still 12 years old, his running speed was quite fast compared to children his age. Nova's physical abilities were indeed above normal average.
Nova was now hiding behind a large rock, his breathing starting to become labored. Sweat was dripping down his forehead.
*Ha... will that plan work?*
Suddenly an idea appeared in his mind. A very dangerous idea, but possibly the only way.
"Alright, let's end all this," said the vampire while walking casually toward Nova.
*There's no harm in trying...* thought Nova while smiling slightly.
BOOM!
The large rock where Nova was hiding immediately shattered into pieces due to the vampire's attack. Nova quickly tried to run again, but this time the vampire wouldn't let him escape.
"You think you can still run?"
Blood flowed from both of the vampire's hands in much larger quantities than before, forming a giant red-black orb with a diameter of almost 2 meters. The energy radiating from that blood orb made the air around it vibrate.
The giant orb was immediately shot toward Nova at an extremely high speed.
Because the attack was quite fast and large, Nova didn't know where to run. The vampire's attack area covered a very wide radius. He couldn't avoid it and was hit directly by the blood orb.
BOOOOM!
A tremendous explosion occurred when the blood orb hit its target. The explosion sound echoed throughout the forest, Nova was thrown far back until he crashed into a large tree hard.
His body was severely injured - open wounds on his arms, legs, and back. The vampire's poison began to seep into his body through the open wounds.
"Alright, I think it's over now. I have to praise you a little because you didn't look scared of me at all."
The vampire slowly walked toward where Nova had fallen.
Nova, who had his head down with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his mouth wide.
◇◇◇
Nova opened his mouth very wide, ignoring the incredible pain throughout his body. He began to absorb the night air with full force using a special breathing technique he had developed himself in the present time. He himself didn't know why he could do that. The vampire also seemed unaware of what he was doing.
Night air... colder, denser, purer oxygen content. This would slow down the spread of poison in Nova's blood.
Nova was now not breathing with his lungs as usual. He was using extreme diaphragmatic breathing - drawing air directly to the lower abdomen using the diaphragm muscle.
Imagine Nova as if he were doing weight training with his abdominal muscles, but the weight was air compressed at high pressure. His abdominal muscles tightened with incredible force, as if lifting a weight of 100 kilograms.
*One... two... three... deep pulls. Gather everything in the center of the body.*
Inside his body, Nova began to gather all the air he absorbed in the area around the solar plexus - the point right below the breastbone, in the center of the body. With incredible internal muscle control, he began to form a kind of "air ball" that rotated like a mini tornado.
Nova had to focus on controlling every inner abdominal muscle. He also had to make the air rotate clockwise, like a mini tornado inside his body.
Air Core was Nova's center of power now. Like a reactor core that generates energy, this rotating air ball would become the source of power for all his techniques, although Nova still hadn't awakened his power, but somehow he could do it all.
Nova pressed his inner abdominal muscles with millimeter precision. Air was forced to gather and rotate at high speed at one point. This required incredible concentration - one mistake could cause the "air ball" to explode and damage his internal organs.
At this time, the vampire's poison had spread throughout Nova's body through the bloodstream. This blackish-red liquid poison was acidic in nature, burning everything from within. Nova could feel his bones burning like fire.
Instead of fighting or trying to expel the poison, Nova actually used the rotating "air ball" to "capture" the poison.
This process was like a washing machine that separates water from clothes with fast rotation. Air rotating at high speed creates suction that pulls poison from the bloodstream.
Air rotating at high speed creates a kind of attraction that pulls poison from the bloodstream. This happens because vampire poison is liquid-based, while Nova's air core rotates at high speed, creating a centrifugal effect that separates poison from clean blood.
*The poison has started to gather around the air ball. Now the poison is isolated, it can't spread further.*
This was the most dangerous and revolutionary part of Nova's technique. The part that should never be done by a child who was still 12 years old.
Nova didn't dispose of the poison he had collected. On the contrary, he began to distribute the poison throughout the bones in his body in very small and controlled doses.
This concept was like vaccination - giving poison in small doses to build immunity. But Nova did it on bones to strengthen his physical structure.
Nova divided the poison into small portions... each bone would only get 2-3% of the total poison. That way the poison wasn't enough to kill him, but enough to trigger a response.
Using the air core as a "transportation vehicle," Nova began to carry poison to every bone in his body. Starting from the skull, spine, ribs, arm bones, leg bones - everything got a calculated portion of poison.
Nova placed the poison right in the outer layer of the bone called the periosteum. This was the most sensitive part of the bone and had the best regenerative ability.
When vampire poison hit bone in small doses, an incredible process occurred.
Of course while doing all that, Nova could feel very painful.
What Nova did was similar to weight training for bones. After bones were "damaged" slightly by poison, the body would build stronger bones as compensation. Nova used vampire poison as "training weight" for his bones.
Nova could feel his bones becoming harder, denser, stronger. The incredible pain slowly turned into a strange warm sensation.
After finishing with all that, Nova reversed the rotation direction of the air core from clockwise to counterclockwise. This created a "pump" effect that pushed the remaining poison out of his body.
The remaining poison was pushed out through his mouth in the form of thick black smoke.
And Nova managed to complete that in 18 seconds!
And exactly in 20 seconds, the vampire was right in front of him. When he saw the result of his last attack on Nova and thought Nova was dead, suddenly Nova stood up straight and immediately swung his right hand at the vampire's face.
WHAM!
The sound of a hard punch echoed throughout the forest. The vampire was thrown very far back, crashing into several trees until they fell like dominoes. His body was dragged on the ground for almost 50 meters before finally stopping.
"Damn... that really hurt! Do you know that?! I almost died! Those 18 seconds might sound fast, but to me it felt very long!" Nova grumbled while holding his slightly trembling hand.
"You... what happened? How can you stand and be fine?"
Suddenly Nova's body released thick black smoke from his mouth - the remaining poison expelled in the finalization process. Nova looked toward the vampire with a thin smile.
"How can I stand again? I have no obligation to tell you. What I can say is... thank you. Thanks to the poison you put in my body, I can be like this."