Riley Woods had once proposed the idea, none other than to himself, that his slaughter of one-thousand men was worthless.
Because he had not been utilizing his abilities to the fullest, he did not reach his "natural" potential. Akin to hopping on steroids before even your first year in the gym, he had chosen the easy way out, and committed a great crime.
As he stood in the darkness, looking into the lit-up floor, the water encircling him under the effects of [Drowning], simply to add a more physically imposing image upon his opponents, he considered it so.
If I win here, then I'll be proven right. I don't have access to multiple abilities at once, and the strength and bodily adaptations I have all came from the gym and martial arts, not from murder.
Then, to prove that my own murders were truly pointless, I will win here.
Resolving himself, Riley put his guard up, his fists obscuring his cheeks, and his elbows blocking his ribcage.
Slowly, he closed the gap between them, as Scott snarled. Baring his fangs like a wild animal, Scott kicked off the ground. No longer in the background and having to hold back his strength to avoid slamming into the hordes of people, Scott's full speed completely exceeded Riley's very own expectations.
As if he were a bullet, his speed overcame sound itself, his body reaching——
Halt.
The death-wails of sound roared with such ferocity that it broke the windows. Accompanying that sound, a car had been formed, which his body had slammed into—and subsequently, detonated on impact.
Struck by an explosion, Scott's body flew back, landing on the wet floor as the surrendered servants howled, pressing their foreheads against the water and covering their ears from the conditioned fear of [Crashing].
Scott opened his eyes, seeing a glimpse of light, followed by darkness. Riley had raised his shoe and with [Falling], slammed it downwards on Scott's head. Repeating that brutality, Riley broke through the ground, sending Scott down to the third floor.
"Not yet!" Riley shouted, as [Hanging] wrapped around Scott's ankle whilst he was unable to stand. Flying upwards, even as [Hanging] was unsummoned, his momentum carried, only for Riley to slash him with his knife.
Essentially a sure-hit due to Scott's inability to dodge, Riley nearly bisected the vampire down the middle, erupting in a sea of blood for much less than a second. His body regenerated, to which Riley twisted his hips. Turning his body, Riley used the legs he'd trained hard, delivering a brutal spinning back kick to Scott's sternum, sending his body flying across the fourth floor, smashing into the wall.
Yet, that didn't amount to anything.
Scott got to his feet, only trembling from fear, as his body was entirely unscathed. No doubt, as the embodiment of Ghira's ideals and regeneration, he was still a monster.
"Hah! THAT DIDN'T EVEN HURT!" Scott proclaimed, laughing as he stepped forward. To which, Riley simply scratched the back of his head.
"For real? Then——"
The next instant, water shot out. Utilizing [Drowning] in the water-flooded area, Riley shot the water out like a sniper rifle bullet, which attacked Scott's chest, though ultimately did nothing.
Returned to its infancy, [Drowning] was only so strong, and Riley could only add more speed to it up to a certain distance away from his body. Thus, it was practically a null attack that only served to lightly annoy Scott.
Well, that's if my water supply was limited.
"Hydraulic Railgun: Series of the Witch."
Saying a bunch of random words he thought sounded cool, Riley instinctively smirked as the water around him launched in heaps of bullets towards his vampiric opponent.
They hardly acted as even gunshots; unable to pierce him, they simply struck his skin. It was akin having several people chuck pebbles at you.
But even still, it caused pain. Not excruciating, but incredibly uncomfortable to deal with.
"You…!"
Suddenly, the air went white. Riley's body was obscured by mist, obscuring him from everyone's gaze.
Because Scott's vampiric vision only applied to darkness, he couldn't see through the mist.
"Tch!" Clicking his tongue, Scott looked around, as the [Drowning] within the room shrouded it utterly in fog, essentially blinding him.
Riley took one loud footstep, clueing Scott in on his location, before taking several lighter steps.
Overflowing. Scott, having undergone such stressful active combat, was simply overflowing with adrenaline.
Simplifying decision-making, he saw it simply as "If I can't see him, I'll hear him."
His ears twitching, Scott listened intently——
"@+#)#)$)&(#+@-@#-#-3-#+@+@(@(@"
His eardrums ruptured. Exploding, falling off his head, Scott's mind was eviscerated, simply eviscerated, destroyed.
Following through on the concussive blast, Riley rushed forth, knife in hand. Making quick work of his opponent, Riley sliced off both hands, preventing counterattack before implanting [Bleeding] into Scott's skull.
Yet, he did not remove it. The vampire shot out blood from his wrists, his hands reappeared nigh-instantantly, but the knife remained lodged inside the brain. Unable to regenerate due to the omni-sharp blade unmoving, Scott remained unconscious.
"There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare." Fighting's no good; I just want to kill him, after all.
It was anti-climactic, but it got the job done. Riley grabbed [Bleeding] and twisted the knife around Scott's brain. Amplifying the bloodloss, it was a long process of stirring before the body simply ran out of blood, thus ending the vampire's life.
…I killed an immortal. But, honestly? It wasn't fun enough to brag about. No "Cut it down," or anything big. No dramatic final blow. I just took advantage of the fact that he couldn't regenerate a brain when there was a knife still stuck in it.
Dropping Scott to the ground once he sensed the Bloodlust flicker from his body, Riley calmly turned to the others.
"Let's see… One person surrendered first, four people abandoned ship, and three were too shell-shocked to fight. That just leaves you five, who I assume have surrendered. Am I right?"
Calmly, Riley stood with his blanket cape draped over his hero-outfit, looking at the servants who got to their knees.
"T-that's right… That's right," one of them said, and Riley smiled ear to ear. With a gentle clap of his hands, Riley looked up at the ceiling.
"Well, Ghira? You see that? I wiped out your forces, got them to surrender, and all that jazz—without the strength gained by murder."
There was no mistaking it.
In such an utterly lax scenario, simply giving the claps reminiscent of white people when the airplane lands, Riley declared his victory.
No doubt, Riley Woods had won against the Forgotten King.
"Oh! But fiiirst~" Riley said with a high-pitched amusement, sliding [Bleeding] over to the five. "You guys got to strip yourselves of your regeneration, just for safety. Don't worry, I won't hurt ya, I just want to ensure that you guys can't heal or fight properly. Just slicing your hand should be enough."
Treating his POW's kindly, Riley let them make the first move. One of the servants grabbed [Bleeding] and held the bloody knife in their hands, looking at the weapon intently. It was this very knife which had ended the lives of many companions.
Yet, still, they slashed their hands open, spraying plentiful amounts of blood and drastically decreasing their blood-supply, necessary for regeneration.
Once one of them did that, it determined the others would as well, not wanting to take Riley on alone. They discarded their regeneration, and Riley erased [Bleeding] from the world.
"Thanks, y'all. I'll go get the other survivors and make sure they're alright. Maaan, I'm feeling soooo accomplished! Phewie, y'all really had me nervous for some time! I was like, 'yeesh man, they're kicking my ass!' But nah, for real though, y'all were super helpful. I'll see ya in a bit."
Walking out of the fourth floor and over to the stairwell, Riley checked on the catatonic soldiers, finding them still shaking under their curtains. He wished each of them a good day as he followed those who had survived and fled the building.
All united inside of an abandoned warehouse, they were unable to determine Riley's location due to his Bloodlust still being drowned out by theirs. As they clung together, trying to regain composure, Riley simply opened the door, entering inside.
"Heya, y'all," he nonchalantly said, "so like, I'm reeaally trying to not kill you guys. I get that you ran instead of surrendered, so like, can you… like, stop killing people? If you keep killing people, I'll kill you, y'know?"
"...You, you… Fine."
"Great! So, basically, here's my knife. Cut your hand open, bleed a lot so I'm sure y'all can't regenerate, and—"
"Die."
The group leapt off the ground, all at once. Indeed, having distanced themselves from combat, they had regained hints of composure, and firmly decided that Riley was someone who had to die, or else they would not be able to sleep soundly at night.
Riley used [Crashing] to form a barrier, slowing them down as he leapt to the side and on top of several large crates. He stood tall above them, his hands in his pockets.
"Uh oh."
Leaping down, [Falling] was deployed, shooting Riley downwards towards them as he plunged his knee into one of their skulls. With that, it was an instant kill, the momentum from the strike being too overwhelming.
"Three."
Getting to his feet as they charged at him in unison, he instantly detonated [Crashing] behind them, knocking them off balance and sending them flying towards him. With [Bleeding], he disemboweled yet another, before leaping away into the air and hiding within the abandoned warehouse.
"AGHH! AH, HK, GRAHH!"
His intestines spilling from his stomach, the blood struck the ground heavily, downpouring like rain. They collapsed to the ground, crying in pain as they held their stomach together, trying to prevent spillage.
"...S-sh-shit…"
The rest looked down at the blow, as the servant rapidly healed the wound, closing it off. They tried to stand, only for their skin to quickly become a pale white, before they gave out, falling unconscious to the floor.
"Yep, yep, yep," Riley acknowledged, walking out as his cape was stained red. "That feeling, of clutching your stomach, trying to prevent your organs from spilling out, as you writhe in pain on the floor… mhm, it's a nasty sensation. Trust me, I've felt it a few times before. No fun at all."
Reminiscing on the memories he looked back at with both fondness and disdain, he recollected the image of Nina, who had shown how wonderfully human she was when she used deception to overcome a greater force than he could.
She's such a lovely girl.
Riley put his hand in his pocket, using the other and twirling the knife around, making a show of the bloody knife. "Well? It's just the two of you left. I've had waayyy more fights than you have, and this knife can cripple your healing. Or, should I bomb you? Let you cower in fear before the big booms? Or maybe—"
[Hanging] wrapped around one of their necks, and dragged them out of the building, kicking and screaming. Having divided the force, and instilled a horror only found in movies within the last servant, Riley kept a firm smile.
"Or, you can surrender. Do that, and you'll be spared."
"F-fine, shit…"
Riley tossed over [Bleeding], removing [Hanging] from the other person's neck as they were outside the warehouse. The final servant slit his hand, drew blood, and Riley calmly offered up surrender to the other.
No other choice was truly available.
…
Indeed, Riley had stopped the thirty-two warriors on his lonesome.
"How impressive."
Ghira's voice ran out, spreading to the entirety of the remaining survivors.
Riley, having traveled back to the office building, looked up at the ceiling. He sat next to the catatonic servants, hugging them from the side as he smiled.
"Indeed! Yes, yes, praise me more! …Actually, no, your praise is worthless. Boo! Get off the stage, dork! Tee-hee, yes, yes, just go off and die, 'kay thanks."
Feigning extroversion as best as he could, Riley delivered incredibly ruthless insults. Definitely.
"No thanks. Rather, I believe it is the traitors, who ought to die."
"...Huh?"
His eyes widening with fright, Riley felt the catatonic servant go limp. Immediately, Riley held his hand over their heart, feeling nothing.
"Y-you, wait… Ghira, you son of a bitch, what are you doing!?"
Riley looked up, yet still did not see Ghira.
"Punishing the cowards. But, I do believe that's not quite enough, now is it?"
"...Hk."
Riley fully expected his own death. Yet, instead,
Darkness.
As he gazed out into the world, looking out the window, he saw the lights of the city turn off. The black sky completely removed any stars from visibility. The white moon, which Riley had spent many nights looking at, began to bleed.
"My servants lacked the will to kill you. Thus, I've decided. Here and now, Riley Woods, —you are my opponent."
Forming from the great abyss, a humanoid stepped foot onto Earth. His presence shrouded in the darkness, his Bloodlust overwhelmed Riley.
Instinctively, Riley's knees trembled, as the smell of corpses flooded his nostrils, and the sounds of screams pierced his eardrums. Yet, standing out amongst the sensory overload, there was a voice.
"But how amusing it will be, then. I'm quite dissatisfied with his performance, thus he's coming back in. As well, in my realm, I've kept a certain someone waiting. He loves the idea of facing you, you who walked in his footsteps."
Born of shadows, a man with brown hair and brown eyes, wielding a surgical knife and adorned in a doctor's outfit.
"Ah…"
The darkness vanished, and light returned to the world. The lampposts worked, the passing-by cars had their headlights shine brightly, revealing yet another brown-haired servant had returned. With pale skin and piercing red eyes, a vampire——
"Ah… Ahhh, AHHH! WONDERFUL! YES, YES YES! HAHAHA! YES, MARVELOUS, ENCHANTING, HOW ENTHRALLING! SPLENDID!"
A British accent rang the air, as London's greatest killer had returned to the modern age.
The three united murderers against Riley, had descended upon the city. Looking up towards the unprepared youth, their Bloodlust was agonizingly potent. Brimming, overflowing, so vast and grandiose it was impossible to contain, thus spilling.
—The Vampire.
——The Ripper.
———The Forgotten King.
—Hatred for the enemy.
——Desire to prove himself the strongest.
———Yearning to crush the brat's ideals to pieces.
Indeed, those that stood against Riley had their reasons, and had unmistakably chosen to wage war upon him.