Though waiting for them to attack would have looked cool, I didn't have such luxury.
I might have been stronger than them, but that was on an individual basis.
If they attacked me together, things might become a bit messy.
Giving one last glance to the corpse near me, I charged.
Charge in the sense…
I literally ran toward the monsters.
And my opponents weren't fools either.
They charged at me in two separate groups, trying to block my escape route.
Not that I was planning to!
I swung my sword at the one before my eyes.
Huh!
It jumped into the air.
Not a small jump.
It soared some six feet into the air before launching itself in my direction.
Was it a kangaroo?
Not that I had seen one…
I shifted to my back foot, aiming to cut its head mid-air.
But my lack of combat experience kicked in.
I had forgotten about the other monsters entirely, my focus solely on the one in the air.
Three of the rabbits lunged at me from my sides, their fangs aiming for my neck, while their claws were directed at my chest.
Yes.
They had claws!
Big ones.
And sharp too.
I grabbed the one on the left with my bare hand, slamming it into the ground.
Wham!
Its skull was crushed under the sheer pressure of my attack.
The other two were inches away from my body.
My brain went into overload.
I could see them moving in slow motion…
Or was it me who got faster?
I swung my sword in a diagonal slash, aiming to parry the claws of the one on my right.
Clang.
The sword not only deflected the attack, but it cut through the monster's claw, ripping its chest apart.
Splurt!
A thin line of blood sprayed onto my face.
I could taste it on my lips.
Disgusting!
Before I could wipe the blood, I felt something warm on my back.
Turning my face, I saw a rabbit with its fangs pierced below my shoulders.
Tsk.
The pain began to take over my reasoning.
But I didn't have enough time to deal with it.
The monster that was already in the air scraped its claws across my face, tearing the skin from my forehead to the side of my jaw.
Blood began to trickle from the wound.
The remaining three, seeing me in a losing state, lunged at my thighs, biting off chunks of my flesh.
Skrch.
Aargh!
Pain…
It wasn't my first time facing it.
I had been shot many times in my previous life.
Once, I had been stabbed eight times by one of the assailants from a low-key gang.
Pain wasn't a new thing for me.
But this level of pain was something new.
Every part of my body screamed of death.
I could feel the blood flowing out from the wounds that had been made and the new ones that were being inflicted on my body.
The monsters kept attacking with their claws, trying to rip my body into shreds.
I held on.
I tried to detach them from my body.
But it was easier said than done!
As I grabbed the monster on my back, it furiously resisted, moving its claws in wild motions.
One of the claws hit the back of my head, and—
Immense pain shot through my nerves.
The sudden pain was so intense that I—
I felt numb.
The surroundings began to feel dim.
The light in my eyes was slowly fading.
I could feel darkness drawing my vision blank.
The situation was getting out of hand.
I was arrogant.
The realization struck me.
I kept comparing this world to my old one.
But I had gravely underestimated this place.
The magnitude of danger here was far more brutal.
A single bullet to the head was the end for a person on Earth.
Here…
Death felt like mercy.
No!
It was a mercy.
I couldn't bear the pain of my life slipping away with every passing second.
It felt agonizing just to live.
My will to survive, something that I had always prided myself on, was slowly being shattered under the reality of my situation.
In this world, I wasn't X.
I wasn't some demon that the world feared.
Here—I was just a weak boy with some good brains.
Any random creature with decent strength was capable of ending my life before I even knew it.
This…
It felt pathetic.
Dying at the hands of a—
Rabbit?!
Ridiculous!!
How could I even think of death?
And against such measly creatures at that.
This isn't me.
This…
Kael.
It must have been Kael's feelings that had taken over me.
Haa.
He was just a kid.
Such brutal fights must have taken a toll on his mind, which had never faced such pain in its noble life.
A single cut on his hand would have resulted in a group of healers rushing to cure him.
This fight…
Such brutality must have been taxing on this body.
Still, it makes me wonder…
How did his personality take over me?
His emotions should have been sacrificed in the ritual.
The Kael I knew from the game was a monster who was feared, not the other way around.
Interesting.
I looked at the monsters clinging to my body, trying to avenge their fallen family.
Sigh.
I might just need to do them a favor.
Hehe.
And people call me a demon.
I might just be a saint!
I willed the mana in my muscles, warming them for—
Huh?!
The mana in my core was quickly drained to half of its former reserves.
What the hell!
I could feel the mana traveling to… the injured parts of my body.
And—
I blinked.
How?
I could see all my injuries healing at a breathtaking speed.
No, it wasn't just healing—
It was regenerating.
The muscle fibers were being grown out of nowhere, and all the damaged blood vessels were being repaired.
Though I couldn't see them, I could feel my nervous system connecting itself to the newly formed muscle fibers.
This…
Am I a vampire?!