Luke returned to reality. Enid stood close to him, her senses sharpened and ready to act if a sudden enemy appeared.
‘Was that the last message my parents left me before they died?’ Luke thought with mixed emotions. It wasn’t the message he had expected, but he wasn’t disappointed either.
The strangest part was his father’s advice. There was no emotional message from his parents, and the little information they gave him wasn’t helpful. His mother had simply repeated what was written in the letter—that vial number two was very important.
He put the empty vial in his backpack, zipped it up, and stood up. “How much time has passed?” he asked, looking at Enid.
Enid turned around, and a smile formed on her face upon seeing that he had returned to reality. “Less than five minutes,” she replied.
“Good. Let’s go back to Wednesday and Natasha,” Luke said, slinging his backpack over his shoulders.
He had already told them that he had obtained the evidence. As for their fights, they were about to end. The only opponent left to defeat was Elena, Niklaus’s wife.
‘They were at a numerical disadvantage, yet they won so quickly,’ Luke thought.
At the start, Wednesday and Natasha had been fighting four vampires—Elena, her two sons, and Alex. However, Luke wouldn’t count Alex as a real threat capable of shifting the battle’s outcome, as his strength left much to be desired, just like Armand and Rosalie.
Luke and Enid began heading toward Sunnyvale, but at one point, he sensed a presence approaching them through his domain and stopped.
A collision was imminent. Before that happened, he sent the evidence to a safe place using Shambles, hiding it and memorizing its location. He knew it was Niklaus, and a fight would be unavoidable, so the best thing to do was ensure the evidence was secure.
Afterward, he sent a telepathic message to Wednesday and Natasha, telling them where he had hidden the evidence, as he was about to face the vampire leader of the secondary branch.
[Natasha, you go. I’ll take care of this vampire,] Wednesday said through the group’s telepathic link. In the middle of battle, this was the best way to communicate.
[Fine] Natasha replied instantly. The moment she found an opening, she withdrew from the fight and headed into the forest.
Elena saw this but couldn’t do anything to stop her. Her condition was far from ideal, and she was shocked by the strength of these two women. If she lost focus, today could be her last day alive. The cold expression on the Addams girl’s face told her that if she won, she wouldn’t let them live.
Luke looked toward the north, and within seconds, he saw a small bat rapidly approaching. When the bat was only a few meters away, its form began to shift until it transformed into a man.
For the first time, Luke saw Niklaus. He was a middle-aged man who almost looked elderly due to his white hair. His eyes were red, and his skin was even paler than Wednesday’s—paler than any vampire Luke had ever seen before.
Luke noticed that Niklaus glanced at Enid, as if wondering who the hell she was and why she was there. Then, he looked at Luke with a seriousness that chilled the air.
No one spoke. The only sounds were those of the forest. Luke locked eyes with Niklaus and attempted to enter his mind, only to be expelled within seconds.
“Trying to enter my mind? What a joke. You should know your limitations, young one,” Niklaus said, his tone rough and dry.
Luke remained silent. It was true that he had been expelled, and he had expected resistance from a vampire who had created a mental artifact, but the few seconds he had spent inside Niklaus’s mind were beneficial.
In that brief moment, Luke had seen that before coming to find him, Niklaus had gone to his home and sent what appeared to be a message. He didn’t know to whom, but it didn’t look good.
Why hadn’t the old vampire wanted to negotiate when Wednesday had suggested it?
Luke assumed the worst: that this damned vampire was allied with those Spellman bastards and had sent a message revealing his presence. He quickly sent a message to Natasha and Wednesday, informing them of this.
[This doesn’t look good. Let’s get out of here as soon as possible] Natasha replied, already on her way to retrieve the evidence.
[I suspected that old vampire acted differently the moment he learned my identity…] Wednesday responded as she launched a powerful joint attack with her giant raven against Elena, who was in increasingly worse condition.
[Enid, we need to take him down as quickly as possible] Luke said to Enid through a separate link.
[Okay] Enid replied, sensing the urgency in Luke’s tone as her body began to transform.
Luke took advantage of the moment Niklaus watched Enid’s transformation to launch himself at him with an explosive telekinetic burst. His body became a projectile, crossing the distance in a blink, dragging a whirlwind of wind and loose leaves in his wake.
In his right fist, he concentrated telekinetic waves that vibrated with fierce intensity, forming a translucent sphere that compressed the air around it. Without hesitation, he aimed the punch directly at the old vampire’s face…
But before the blow could connect, Niklaus vanished.
What Luke’s fist met was not flesh or bone, but a dense, dark mist that dispersed with an eerie hiss. The unleashed telekinetic waves, now without a target, generated an explosion of uncontrolled wind.
An unfortunate tree was struck by Luke’s blow. Its trunk exploded into splinters with a deafening crack before collapsing with a thunderous crash.
Luke landed with a slight forward tilt, his eyes locked on the mist drifting through the air before it condensed once more into the figure of Niklaus, a few meters away.
‘The speed of a vampire over a hundred years old…’ he thought, grimacing as he noticed his enemy didn’t even seem concerned. Niklaus kept his hands behind his back, watching him with an exasperating calm, as if Luke’s attack had been nothing more than a gentle breeze.
“The rumors said you were more talkative…” Niklaus remarked.
Before Luke could respond, though he had no intention of doing so, a fierce roar tore through the air.
Enid, now fully transformed into her wolf form, emerged like an unleashed beast. Her paws dug into the ground, and with a single powerful leap, she launched herself at Niklaus, claws ready to tear him apart.
But the vampire dodged the attack just as he had done with Luke. His body dissolved into dark mist at the exact moment Enid’s claws slashed through empty air. He reappeared a few meters away, his expression now marked by a faint glimmer of disdain.
‘Werewolves…’ he thought with contempt. These wild creatures had always been too impulsive and lacked any sense of refinement.
But before he could mock the lycanthrope, Luke was already in motion.
The ground trembled as two massive trees, each weighing over two tons, were ripped from their roots and lifted into the air.
With a flick of his hand, Luke hurled them like deadly projectiles straight at the vampire. At the same time, an invisible yet overwhelming force crashed down on Niklaus—six tons of telekinetic pressure bore down on him, attempting to pin him in place or at least slow him down.
Niklaus let out a low growl. The pressure was considerable. His body, though powerful, felt the crushing force restricting his movements. He could no longer move as effortlessly as before, and dodging the incoming trees was not as easy as he would have liked.
However, even with the telekinetic force limiting his mobility, Niklaus’s strength remained overwhelming. With a burst of raw power, he forced his body into motion and narrowly evaded the trees hurtling toward him.
Once again, his figure dissolved into a swirling cloud of dark mist, dispersing into the air before reappearing in what he believed to be a safe spot.
But he was wrong.
Before he could even catch his breath, Luke was already there.
Niklaus’s eyes widened, his mind processing the impossible in a fraction of a second.
“How…!? That’s not speed…!”
His instincts screamed at him to react, but his body had no time. That’s when he realized—Luke hadn’t just appeared there out of nowhere… he had been waiting for him.
‘Can he see the future? Is it teleportation? But that’s absurd…!’
He couldn’t keep debating how the hell the Poe boy had gotten there, because Luke’s fist—surrounded by vibrating telekinetic waves—slammed brutally into his torso.
The impact was devastating. A shockwave of invisible force erupted into the air as the punch connected, sending Niklaus hurtling like an out-of-control projectile. His body was flung violently, smashing through thick branches in his path and kicking up a cloud of dust and dry leaves.
Luke barely moved two fingers of his hand and murmured, “Shambles.”
In an instant, one of the many leaves floating in the air vanished—replaced by Enid. Now, she was suspended in the sky, directly in Niklaus’s trajectory.
The vampire’s eyes widened in horror.
‘He swapped positions with a damn leaf?! What kind of ability is that?!’ Niklaus thought. He had never heard of such a power from a psychic, let alone one as young as Luke.
Enid was already prepared to strike. They had planned it in mere seconds through telepathy—an incredibly useful tool for fighting as a team.
Luke’s telekinesis propelled Enid toward Niklaus. The werewolf’s savage roar echoed through the air as she descended with her claws extended, ready to tear him apart.
For the first time in centuries, Niklaus felt something.
Fear of death.
He couldn’t believe that these teenagers—young enough to be his grandchildren or even younger—fought with such brutality and coordination. They didn’t hesitate, nor did they carry the arrogance of the inexperienced. Every movement was calculated, precise, lethal.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
With the instincts of a cornered predator, he raised a hand, and his own thick, dark blood spilled from his wound, molding itself into a crimson shield in front of him.
The impact was brutal.
Enid’s claws dug into the blood barrier, which didn’t last long before shattering. Her attack continued, striking Niklaus. He managed to block the killing blow, but the injury was far from minor. Pain shot through his body, and he heard his bones crack.
The vampire crashed heavily onto the ground, rolling several meters before stabilizing himself. He propped himself up on one knee, breathing heavily as blood dripped from his mouth.
The wound on his torso—courtesy of Luke’s telekinetic punch—still throbbed. It had caused internal damage, and it wouldn’t be easy to heal. Enid’s attack had been just as vicious; her claws had torn into his side, and thick, dark streaks of blood stained his clothes.
He tried to stand with dignity, but his movements were no longer as fluid as before.
And that’s when Luke spoke for the first time.
“Well, old man…” His tone was mocking, arrogant, as if he were enjoying himself. “For a vampire over a hundred years old, you look more like a drunk who lost a bar fight. Maybe kidnapping normies and drinking their cheap blood made you rusty.”
Niklaus’s eyes turned bloodshot, a mix of fury and wounded pride burning inside him.
‘Now you talk, you bastard!?’ Niklaus thought indignantly.
He snarled, baring his fangs, ready to lunge at the insolent brat—but Luke and Enid were already moving, resuming the battle without losing an ounce of intensity.
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