My Horny Stepmom Turns Me into Her Vampire Slave

Chapter 184: No way out

"Shit... this guy’s seriously strong..." Chris growls through gritted teeth.

Isabelle wasn’t kidding when she said the Crimson Requiem are insanely powerful...

At this rate, I’m gonna end up getting killed...

Lazarus drives his long, razor-sharp blood spear straight at Chris’s head.

The helmet of his skeletal armor creaks and cracks under the piercing force, but it still holds.

A month ago, that attack would’ve been enough to shatter it.

But as Chris’s strength and mastery of Innatus have improved, so has the durability of his skeletal armor.

"Not bad, kid. Lasting this long against someone like me isn’t something just anyone can do. Though, let’s be honest, that’s all thanks to your Innatus. Without it, you’d have been dead a long time ago," Lazarus says with a smug, confident grin as he raises his blood spear into a guarded stance, ready to strike again.

Chris doesn’t take the bait.

He ignores him completely and keeps his guard up.

"Still... who the hell are you, Chris Valakis? According to Levreeshka Dulcar’s report, you’re Princess Mia’s adopted brother. And yet, as far as I know, we wiped out every single Valakis except for her and the Platinum Death."

Chris stays silent, his serious, focused gaze locked on his opponent, watching for the slightest movement.

During his brutal training with Isabelle, she taught him never to look an opponent in the face.

Instead, focus on their limbs.

"The good thing about fighting someone with formal training is that they’re damn predictable. They stick to the techniques and movements they were taught, so once you figure out their offensive and defensive patterns, you’re already one step ahead," she always tells him during their training sessions.

Reading my opponent’s attack patterns... damn, that’s way easier said than done! But if I want to get rid of this bastard, I don’t think I’ve got any other choice.

Lazarus studies him carefully.

"Oh, I see... I’d almost forgotten the Valakis can turn humans into vampires. So you used to be human... well, for someone like you to be this strong, it had to be the Platinum Death who turned you."

Then he bursts into hearty laughter.

"Damn, kid. You’ve got some serious guts letting her turn you."

"What do you mean?" Chris murmurs, caught off guard by that statement.

"What, your mommy never told you? Being turned by someone like her made you a lot stronger than the average vampire, but you took one hell of a risk. The stronger the vampire, the lower the chances of the transformation succeeding. And since it was the Platinum Death who turned you into what you are now... well, it’s a damn miracle your frail human body didn’t fall apart the moment she poured her Sanguis energy into you."

Damn... that bitch Isabelle never told me I was that close to dying!

...Oh, right... she only turned me because otherwise those goblins would’ve killed me...

"Not that it makes much difference," Lazarus continues. "You got insanely lucky you didn’t die back then... but you’ll need a hell of a lot more luck if you want to survive this!"

"The only reason I’m standing here is because of a miracle... so there’s no fucking way I’m letting you kill me that easily!"

"We’ll see about that, kid!"

Lazarus steps forward with his left foot and bends his knee, pushing off hard with his right leg.

He grips his long blood spear in his right hand while keeping his left arm bent in front of his chest, elbow pointing forward to stay balanced, move faster, and protect his heart.

Chris watches every movement with intense focus, committing each one to memory.

He recognizes the exact same stance Lazarus took just before driving his spear at his head.

But this time, he’s ready for it.

A split second before Lazarus thrusts his spear, Chris instinctively raises his guard to protect his head, but...

CRACK!

The tip of Lazarus’s blood spear drives straight into the bone armor over his heart.

It cracks under the brutal impact, sending Chris flying backward.

S-Shit... I was sure he’d go for my head. The tip of his spear was held at chest level, not angled slightly downward like you’d expect for a thrust at the heart.

And to make things worse, the rest of his movements are exactly the same whether he’s aiming for my head or my heart.

I have no way of knowing where he’s about to strike, and predicting his attacks was the only chance I had of keeping up with his insane speed.

What a fucking mess...

Before he can even get back on his feet, Chris has to roll to the side to avoid Lazarus’s spear.

Thrown from a distance, it slams into the ground right where Chris had been lying a split second earlier.

At that exact moment, Lazarus stretches out his right arm to shape a new spear.

Chris doesn’t miss the opening.

He thrusts his arm toward Lazarus, and a bone spike shoots out from his palm.

It’s aimed straight at Lazarus’s head, but he reacts instantly, catching it with his left hand while keeping his elbow in front of his heart.

D-Damn it... his defense doesn’t have a single opening...

He’s faster than me, physically stronger, way more experienced, and on top of that, we both fight with a spear... except he’s a thousand times better with it than I am.

Yeah, I’m starting to get a pretty good read on how he moves... but what the fuck does that matter if I still can’t break through his defenses?

My Innatus won’t last much longer. I need to come up with something, and fast!

The moment Lazarus finishes shaping his weapon, he charges at Chris again.

Same left leg forward. Same push from the right.

Same right arm pulled back to add power to the thrust, and the same left arm bent to guard his heart and head.

As for Chris...

Same confusion. Same inability to find even the smallest opening to counterattack.

In an instant, his mind runs through one option after another.

He considers dropping his Innatus so he can use his blood katana again, the weapon he’s much more comfortable with.

He throws that idea away immediately. That bone armor is the only reason he’s still in one piece.

Charging in head-on doesn’t seem any smarter either. Lazarus is stronger and his reflexes are far better.

Retreating to find a place to recover and come up with a plan isn’t an option either.

Turning his back on someone faster than him would be a death sentence. And there’s no way he’s abandoning the battlefield and leaving his friends behind.

I can’t attack... I can’t defend... I can’t run... so what the hell am I supposed to do?!

Fuck... there’s no way out!