Touch Her Again — I Dare You

"Hmph, you don't even know how to use your own abilities — what makes you think you can kill me?!" Nie Dong roared.

In an instant, vivid crimson blood splashed through the air and hung suspended before him in an eerie stillness. Under the control of Nie Dong's Mental Intent, the blood twisted and coalesced into a long, spectral scythe...

The blood scythe sliced down viciously at the charging Liu Ru — every pillar in its path was severed clean.

A cruel smile curled at Nie Dong's lips: *If I can't have her, then I'll destroy her.*

The enormous scythe — formed from a great mass of blood — reached Liu Ru before she could do anything. She clearly had no idea how to use her newfound speed to dodge; the blade swept across her slender waist and sent her tumbling through the air.

Liu Ru was thrown across the room, crashing through several decorative partition walls. Debris scattered in every direction, leaving the floor in ruins.

"Her constitution is *this* strong too?!" Nie Dong nearly ground his Blood Fang to splinters.

His blood scythe technique was capable of killing even Battle-General-class creatures if they dropped their guard — yet the strike had failed to cleave Liu Ru in two, merely sending her flying. That alone spoke volumes about the extraordinary defensive strength of her body.

Nie Dong was beginning to question whether Liu Ru was truly a member of the Blood Clan at all.

From amid the wreckage, Liu Ru had already clawed her way upright. Her face was white as paper, despair carved into every feature — and her inhuman pupils locked onto Nie Dong with unwavering fury...

It was this Vampire. He had murdered the older sister who had been her only family, the one person she had depended on in this world. Even before all of this, Liu Ru had been desperate to kill him with her own hands.

And now, this despicable, wretched creature had turned her into a Vampire as well.

The memory of a distant, unfamiliar gaze surfaced in her mind — the shame and self-loathing of finding herself with blood at the corners of her lips, the guilt she could not escape. Though no tears would come to Liu Ru's eyes anymore, blood seeped slowly from them in their place, making her look all the more harrowing — and all the more unhinged.

She hated this Vampire. She hated him for taking the person dearest to her.

Her rage had pushed her past the edge of reason, leaving nothing in her mind but the consuming need to kill him. She raged at this abominable creature for making it impossible to ever face the person she had only just begun to care for — the one who had brought a glimmer of hope and anticipation into her bleak, uncertain life.

This despair had long since exceeded anything Liu Ru could bear. She had hit absolute rock bottom.

The only reason she hadn't ended her wretched existence was because she intended to kill this Vampire first — the one who had destroyed everything she had.

Liu Ru paid no attention to the wound across her waist. In her grief, she couldn't feel the physical pain at all.

Where once she hadn't dared to hurt even a small animal, now she wanted nothing more than to tear the Vampire in front of her to pieces.

She charged at Nie Dong again. In the dim floor, nothing but a dark blur streaked through the obstacles at terrifying speed and appeared before him — her face streaked with blood weeping from her eyes, a vision of feral anguish. She extended her razor claws once more.

Cold wind swept alongside her pale claw-blades as she unleashed her strength in raw, undisciplined fury. Slash after frenzied slash raked across Nie Dong's body...

Nie Dong was extraordinarily agile, always finding an escape route amid Liu Ru's chaotic, untrained attacks.

Then, abruptly, he planted his feet and raised one slender finger toward her. The darkness erupted at once with the frantic beating and swirling of countless wings.

**Skreeeeeee—!**

A sharp, piercing chorus of shrieks rang out as a swarm of night-blade bats converged from every direction.

Following Nie Dong's silent command, they descended on Liu Ru en masse, each one leaving a shallow cut as it swept past her.

More and more of the bats swarmed around her until Liu Ru was nearly engulfed, unable to advance a single step.

"You're no match for me. You never were — and you still aren't," Nie Dong said with a cold smile.

The words had barely left his mouth when a mass of dark matter appeared in his palm, radiating a cold, eerie light.

He thrust it forward. The force slammed into Liu Ru where she stood surrounded by the bats.

**Thud!**

Liu Ru was blasted even farther away, her body carving a flat arc through the low-ceilinged space before crashing down hard at the far end of the floor. She tumbled and rolled until she slammed into the tempered glass wall at the far end and lay there, unable to rise for a long moment...

"Worthless woman — making me waste this much effort," Nie Dong muttered, walking slowly toward where she had fallen. His eyes were filled with contempt and disdain.

One hand still pressed against his neck, where blood continued to seep. For members of the Blood Clan, blood was precious — the wound Liu Ru had dealt him was no minor injury.

He reached her and hoisted her up with one hand.

Liu Ru stared at him without blinking. In her eyes, this Vampire had already been reduced to ash by the inferno of her hatred.

"You have no idea what's good for you!" Nie Dong's fury boiled over. He flung Liu Ru violently into the wall on the other side.

The wall was tempered glass, and the entire pane nearly shattered on impact — testament to the sheer force behind the throw.

As if deliberately torturing her, Nie Dong picked her up again and drove her into the opposite wall just as hard...

Any normal person would have been pulverized by now. Liu Ru, having undergone her bloodline transformation, had broken several bones — but was in no mortal danger.

The stronger her constitution proved to be, the more furious it made him. Was his Vampire bloodline actually inferior to this wretched woman's?

**Crack!**

The tempered glass gave a thunderous shriek and shattered completely.

Razor shards exploded in every direction. Liu Ru barely avoided tumbling straight through the gaping hole; she collapsed beside it as howling wind rushed in — and clenched her teeth, forcing herself to stand...

"Blazing Fist!"

A blazing rose-colored flame erupted at the stairwell entrance, instantly flooding the dark, open floor with light and throwing Nie Dong's full silhouette into sharp relief — the Vampire's predatory grin plain for all to see.

At the top of the stairs, a ring of fire coiled around Mo Fan's right wrist, scorching hot and ready to erupt.

"Touch her again — I dare you."

His fist split the darkness and tore through the air. A massive fist of blazing flame thundered down the length of the floor, nearly filling its entire three-meter height.

**BOOM!**

Blazing Fist crashed into Nie Dong before he could react, the tremendous force driving him straight into the glass wall.

The tempered glass exploded with a deafening crack, and tongues of fire erupted wildly from the entire floor — shooting out into the night sky above the building and painting the heavens in roiling, furious red.

The Vampire Nie Dong was sent flying out of the building by a single punch. Wreathed entirely in flames, he plummeted from the fortieth floor and cratered into the street below.