บท 7: Hybrid - Blood Frenzy

A resounding beat echoed through the dark room. Nikolai's heart released a low thud each time it pumped the two bloodlines through his body.

The once-open window was now tightly closed, and all his clothes were neatly folded on his chair. There were no signs of Nikita ever entering his room, only a lingering scent of her body and the marks on his neck.

[Bloodline Assimilation 3%...]

[Bloodline Assimilation 5%...]

[First-tier synergy achieved, stopping fusion ritual.]

In the dark room, the moonlight faintly shines before the rise of the sun greets the world. Nikolai's body reached a state that no monster had reached in their millennia of existence. He was a complete hybrid, even though his bloodlines only reached the first tier.

This was a moment of history because normally, this level of fusion would tear apart the hybrid and leave the room covered in flesh and organs.

"Ugh... what?!"

Nikolai's eyes snapped open, his hands rubbing his face, trying to remove a strange, itchy sensation, his movements causing pieces of dried skin to drop onto his pillow, revealing a glossy, youthful layer of skin without dirt or blemishes.

"How much dry skin does I... Why the hell is my voice different? Ahem, ahem! Hello, h-hello I am Nikolai Volkov! Huh? Did my voice break for the second time?"

He held his throat, squeezing it several times. Nikolai felt a strange sensation as if something was lodged in his throat, rubbing his fingers along his protruding Adam's apple.

'Somehow my voice became like those strange metubers who make boyfriend experience videos with anime avatars... Could I sing a Larry Black ¹song with this voice?'

"Forget it; what time is it?"

Nikolai rolled off his bed with a loud crack while rubbing away the sore sensation from his eyes and the rest of the 'dry skin' from his face. "Hm? What was that sound? Um... do people normally shed their skin like this? Ugh..."

His head felt strange—the moment he moved his eyes, the world spun, as if he lived in fast forward, forced to squat for a moment, rubbing and pressing against his soft fleshy eyes, trying to remove the unbearable feeling.

His eyes narrowed, their vision much better than before able to see a cracked dark shell that carried the same shape as his body.

Though for this much dry skin, he began to worry he might have some strange condition, quickly reaching out to his phone and tapping the keypad on the search engine. 'I woke up, and my skin shed like a lizard.'

However, the only responses seemed stupid or fake sites with viruses.

—REAL LAMIA Sheds her first skin for your enjoyment! R18+

—Snake queen's dirty shedding only $400 on Mbay!

His fingers tapped several links but came up with nothing... leaving him with Selene's bite being the most obvious cause, so he asked her over a message. When looking, there was a slight tinge of pain in his stomach, followed by a loud growl.

Like a beast roaring.

'Hmm, my stomach feels so empty. Should I buy something to eat?' Nikolai walked towards the corner of his room, towards the wardrobe. When he touched the handle and twisted it, the wood snapped straight off.

"What?"

[Nikolai, you need to adjust to your body's changes. Look in the mirror and see... Have you not even noticed your room is pitch black, yet you see it like it is daytime?]

'It really is mother's voice... I don't know whether to feel comforted or freaked out.'

[Once you check your changes, I will show you in a numeric value how different you are now from the Nikolai of yesterday. Please be mentally prepared to accept what seems bizarre!]

'I will do my best... Damn, I almost called her mother...'

He turned to the right, the human-sized mirror he bought with his second paycheck at eighteen, almost obsessed with skincare and his hair because Nikita always scolded or got him in an armlock until he submitted and let her cut it for him.

The same distorted sensation remained, his eyes moving faster than he could keep up. He felt like the world moved faster, and he could perceive more than before, but it made his head feel a little strange and dizzy.

"When did it become so small?" He whispered before his eyes widened at the sudden appearance in the mirror.

Although he worked out daily and maintained a strict diet, his paltry amount of money meant he couldn't afford to keep the most pristine muscle mass and toning while forced to work most hours of the day to make ends meet.

'What the hell is this? Did someone inject me with litres of steroids!? I look like the god of war, Cratos¹!'

Nikolai's height always seemed tall for his age, now roughly six feet and four inches; not only that! But his body was built like a tank, with perfect muscle lines and formation as if a professional trainer and nutritionist had the help of a plastic surgeon to cultivate him overnight.

"I look like the goddamn armoured giant who broke the gates of the wall, Wario! So ridiculous and over the top... look at that bicep bulge... Everything about me received a significant size up! Heh, now I'm bigger than Dad!"

[...]

It seemed the trauma of his dad calling him the little mushroom prince growing up caused significant mental damage even now.

Nikolai twisted his body, posing in the mirror while examining his changes, noticing that his scars, blemishes and marks from the past twenty-five years vanished overnight! 'Even the wounds from that battle are gone...'

It was at that moment he noticed his brilliant white teeth, and the sharp canines and other teeth seemed slightly different.

He slipped his fingertips over his gums, feeling a tight sensation over the top row. The slightly hard and bumpy sensation felt like another set, or something hid beneath his gums.

"....Am I a vampire now?"

[Half]

'What do you mean?'

[Let me show you, please, put on some pants. Though you can be proud as a male, learn some manners and decency as the heir of the Báthory Clan!]

—⁂—

[Name: Nikolai Báthory Volkov]

[Heritage: Vampire (Progenitor 5% Awakened), Werewolf (Origin 5% Awakened), Lupus Diabolus (??? 5% Awakened)]

[Clan: Báthory, Volkov, ???]

[Racial Level: 0]

[Bloodline: Hybrid]

—

[Physical: 21]

-[Strength: 18]

-[Endurance: 25]

-[Dexterity: 18]

-[Agility: 22]

[Mental: 19]

-[Intellect: 14]

-[Wisdom: 25]

-[Charisma: 18]

[Blood Frenzy: 99/100]

—

[Abilities: Devil Wolf Form (Claw)]

[Blood Arts: Blood Aura(F-)]

—⁂—

While reading his attributes, he wore a pair of simple pants and his black shirt. "W-What the hell does all this mean, and why is Blood Frenzy so high!?"

However, before the necklace could answer his words, there was an intense pain in his abdomen, as if his stomach and organs were squeezed in someone's hands... "Guh...?!" Then a hunger... like he hadn't eaten for a year, a thirst as if he had lived in the desert for a decade...

"I..."

[Warnig Host Entered Blood Frenzy!]

That instant, his eyes started glowing dark red, and his extra teeth began to descend two rows of sharp teeth as his figure lunged towards the window, sniffing the air.

"Blood..."

The scent of blood flowed from a distant alleyway, over five hundred metres away from him, as his body flung from the window, falling with his arms and legs spread before crashing into the ground below with a bang!

However, he vanished, running faster than an Olympic sprinter on all fours, a pitch-black aura flowing around his body.