Replies to my Reviews

Mo Eazy: Shirou did aim for the head. But he got derailed... Also, sorry if I didn't do Balalaika well, I'll try better. As for the Twins, their time with Leticia has awakened their buried instinct for a parental figure. And Rock just happened to be the first and only adult who hasn't threatened them or run away yet...

Ariadne Venegas: He's still gonna be the best person there.

KingVessel: {Kienai Shinkou} is inspired by my appreciated fan smatt9411.

Chapter 08: Anything Goes in Roanapur III

Shirou Emiya (a.k.a. Argonaut) stared dumbly at his bloodied blade. 'I aimed for his head... Something too fast to dodge hit my blade aside...'

He flinched at Rock's scream before rushing over to pull off the dead apostle. With a growl, Shirou threw him into one of the nearby walls and turned back to see Rock fall to his knees and clutch his wound.

"Rock! Are you alrig- gurk?!" Revy (a.k.a. Rebecca Lee) ran forward to check on him only to kicked away by Shirou. With a beastly snarl, she pointed her guns at him. "What's the fucking idea?!"

"I did that for your own safety." Shirou carefully kept his distance as well, eyeing Rock's spare hand as it cracked the tarmac from gripping it. "He's transforming and will go nearest the closest source of food. And that's us."

"Exactly."

Everyone turned to see a cloaked figure stand next to the struggling Verrocchio. He didn't even have time to scream before his head was grabbed and his body was transformed into a crimson pearl. "Good evening, Argonaut. It's a surprising pleasure to finally meet you, despite this circumstances."

"Really?" Shirou took a protective stance in front of the kneeling Rock, prompting Revy and Eda to do the same. Balalaika herself stood by while her troops pointed their guns.

"Master!" Hansel and Gretel stepped forward, their eyes wide with awe. "We didn't think we'd see you again!"

'Master?!' Shirou's grip on his weapons tightened. 'Does that mean that he's the one that transformed the twins?!'

"Hansel! I see that you and your sister are doing well for yourselves!" The figure greeted, now revealed to be the one responsible for the Vampire Twins. "Any regrets in your lives so far?"

"Nope!" Gretel chirped. "Although, we're curious to why you're here."

"Oh? I was just here to kill some time actually." The figure pointed a thumb at Shirou who raised an eyebrow. "However, this one's a very recent point of interest for me actually. Although, I won't lie that the Salaryman over there hasn't gotten my interest as well. Oh my, that's reckless."

The sound of a blade tearing through flesh rang through the area as Rock stabbed {Kienai Shinkou} through his bitten shoulder. The blade promptly released Sunfire into his wounds, causing his immense pain to skyrocket.

"Rock!"

Before Revy could move, the figure clacked his boot against the ground, causing the entire ground to be swamped with darkness which paralyzed them all.

"I-I can't move!"

"What is this?!"

"Interesting." The figure stepped forward, uncaring towards Shirou as his higher Magic Resistance required that his limbs be restrained as well by shadowy tendrils. "Listen closely, humans. When a human descends into a ghoul after bitten, their body dies from the strain of the transformation. Then it modifies itself into a form subservient to it's creator. But Rock here is completely out of sequence. Not only is his body undergoing modification before his heart has stopped, his wound was just bathed in solar flames which were then accepted into his body rather than rejected. I believe that we are witnessing a rare occurrence. An instant skip of ghoulhood into Vampirism within just minutes of being bitten! His compatibility is even higher than Hansel and Gretel's!"

"What?!" Shirou yelled in shock, being the only one present to understand the full ramifications of those words.

Rock screamed some more before he stopped and collapsed, his body spasming and twitching. With a groan, he pulled out {Kienai Shinkou} from his arm and laid on his side, unable to struggle in the slightest when he was transformed into a yellow pearl which joined Verrocchio.

"Master?" Hansel fidgeted a bit. "If Mr. Rock is okay, can you let him go?"

"Sure, I don't mind. But..." The figure thrust his arm upwards, creating a Bounded Field that spanned the whole of Roanapur. "Let's put a nice spin to the whole event. I have prepared a game for you all!"

Shirou winced as the last words became directed and amplified... from above?! "It's a Zombie Apocalypse game! Kill or get Devoured! Everyone in this city must become either a Hunter or an Undead!"

"W-What the hell?!" Eda's freaked out as the figure's hood fell back, revealing a skeleton wreathed in shadows.

"25th Dead Apostle Ancestor: Leraje..." Shirou gasped. "This is bad! What's your reason to do this?!"

"Like I said earlier," Leraje tilted his shadowy skull head before replying with a smirk on his nonexistent lips. "I'm just here to kill some time. Also..."

He snapped his fingers, causing two new pearls to appear in his hands. One was black with white streaks while the other was whitish yellow. With another snap, Caren Hortensia and Laeticia appeared in his grasp, both girls unconscious.

"I believe these two are enough to motivate you, Argonaut." Leraje smirked before tossing Caren and Laeticia forward, causing the girls to drop into the shadows and start sinking.

Shirou didn't know how he did it, but he broke out of his paralysis to grab them, only to be dragged under as well.

Leraje stared at the spot where the magus disappeared. "Well, that obstacle fixed itself. As for the rest of you humans, Rock here will be your prize."

"The fuck do you mean?!" Revy strained against her bonds, inhuman growls escaping her throat with her efforts. "Let Rock go and I'll fucking try not to blow holes in your fucking skull. you Adventure Time reject!"

Leraje chuckled and then raised his hands. The two pearls containing Rock and Verrocchio glowed before shooting upwards and away. "In this game, your objective is to find either of those two before Sunrise."

"That sounds..." Balalaika's voice rang out for the first time since Leraje's arrival. "...dangerously simple."

""Simple", she says?" Leraje chuckled. "Balalaika, this is an Undead Apocalypse game. Considering that you can't have something like that without a good amount of Undead, did you already forget... that the people you stationed to watch Verrocchio were bitten as well?"

"?!" Balalaika and Boris flinched in shock before they both looked back at the truck where Verrocchio had emerged from. There were two bloody trails leading away from the truck. At that moment, an explosion rang out from the city.

"Ah, there it is." Leraje cheered. "Don't you just love how the most dangerous thing to a human's life is usually something they don't even notice until it's too late?"

"M-Master..." Gretel called out.

"Oh, right!" Leraje remembered his projects. "Do you two wish to participate?"

"Yes!" Hansel nodded enthusiastically with his sister in agreement. "We want Mr. Rock! Even after we deliberately told him everything, he didn't reject us! He's a good... catch! That's it! If he's a Vampire now, he won't die easily, which makes things even better now!"

"Then go ahead!" As the Twins quickly leapt away, Leraje snapped away, dispelling the {Shadow Bind}. Revy immediately shot at him, not giving a fuck as he made a point of not dodging and simply walking away and vanishing as whatever bullet that didn't ricochet off his bones simply passed harmlessly through his shadows.

"Two Hands! Don't waste ammo!" Eda grabbed Revy's shoulder, pulling her away as Balalaika started to bark out orders to her soldiers. "We gotta find Rock and the others before ditching the city!"

"Ja! Set up checkpoints at the entrances to the city and then send everyone else to surround the city limits as much as possible!" Despite the situation, Balalaika still had a bloodthirsty grin adorn her lips. "Our opponents may be the undead but we finally have a war ahead of us."

"Also," Balalaika's tone became solemn. "If Warrant Officer Salahov and Corporal Menishof are seen, they are to be gunned down. They were the first of our irreplaceable comrades to become casualties to the undead. However, we shall repay them with punishment through our guns!"

The roars from Balalaika's phone easily matched the ones from her soldiers at her side.

"Kapitan," Boris appeared to her side. "Warrant Officer Salahov has just been shot down, with others already in pursuit of his victims. Corporal Menishof is still nowhere to be seen."

Balalaika nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Let's find him and put his soul to rest."

Shirou managed to catch both girls before twisting about to land feet first. A quick look around confirmed them to be on top of a roof overlooking the city. Like an army of invading ants, Shirou grimaced as he saw the numerous ghouls rapidly overtake and devour the humans, bolstering their ranks with every passing minute.

Thankfully, he could already see some shooters fighting back. Ghouls thankfully had the same weakness of standard zombies which were bullets blowing through their heads.

"Ugh... What happened?" Caren murmured as she sat up into Shirou's arms. "There was this sudden headache..."

"Caren!" Shirou steadied her and briefly informed her on everything that had transpired. On the mention of the Dead Apostle Ancestor, Caren shot up, her dizziness vanishing.

"{The Cruel Demon of Rattling Shadows}?!" Caren screamed in a mix of shock and terror. "Why is the 25th Dead Apostle Ancestor here-?!"

Caren's words cut off as she fell over hacking, her bandages starting to bleed wafts of shadows.

"Oh my. That's a misfortunate ability, young Exorcist." Leraje casually spoke from the side, causing the two to freeze as they witnessed a still unconscious Laeticia in his arms.

Shirou moved in an instant, striking a reinforced fist against Leraje's face.

*WHAM!*

There was a small shockwave as Shirou's fist collided against a whirling mass of shadows that had appeared between him and Leraje.

"Is that the best you can do, Argonaut?" Leraje smirked, conjuring shadow tendrils to trap Shirou's limbs and neck stronger than before.

Leraje tilted his head and then the whirling shield moved to entangle his right arm as well before violently twisting it about.

Shirou growled in pain as his arm broke apart in the tendril's grip before a golden glow appeared from his injuries, sealing them shut in a near instant.

"Interesting regenerative properties." Leraje commented before the tendrils prepared to twist the arm again. "But how long till it's exhausted? A thousand more injuries? Ten thousand more? A million more? A billion more? Or maybe a hundred trillion more? Don't worry, I have plenty of time to check."

Shirou snarled as his limbs burst into crimson flames which actually incinerated the shadows, much to Leraje's surprise. In a flash of light, a long blue katana appeared in Shirou's left hand.

The Sea Rending Blade

{Kaizan}

"Slash!" An arc of pressurized water slashed against Leraje's head but did little damage. Laeticia twitched from the splashback of waterdrops on her face but remained unconscious in Leraje's arms.

In response, a giant arm of shadows smashed into Shirou's midsection, blowing him back against the railing of the roof at Caren's side.

"Shirou!" Caren yelled as Shirou impacted the metal railing headfirst.

"[Umbra Sagittae Ignis!(Shadow Arrows of Fire!)]"

Caren choked before shielding herself and Shirou in the Holy Shroud of Andrew as five hundred arrows of shadowy flames manifested and shot at them, devastating the roof.

As black smoke obscured his view, Leraje calmly waited in the air. 'An Exorcist shouldn't die so quickly from that.'

As if to prove his words right, Caren dropped from above to slash against Leraje's arms, her Shroud arranging itself to match a large sword.

"[Greatsword Weave: Phantom Slash!]"

Leraje gasped as his arms were instantly sliced off, releasing Laeticia's body into Caren's grasp. 'Ah. Compared to that magus, the Exorcist's weapon is actually imbued with Holy energy.'

Caren and Leraje landed on separate roofs, the latter humming as shadowy miasma appeared to regenerate his lost limbs.

"Laeticia! Laeticia!" Caren shook Laeticia but it was no good. The girl was being kept unconscious magically, which unfortunately wasn't Caren's forte.

There was an impact of something large impacting the floor behind her and a turn around revealed Leraje but four times larger with his shadowy aura larger than before and spreading out from his body. Before Caren could react, Laeticia came awake with a hypnotized look in her eyes and smacked Caren towards Leraje, who promptly grabbed her entire body in a giant skeletal arm.

"Caren Hortensia, I've never actually Turned someone of the Church before." Leraje taunted as Laeticia stood by his side with an emotionless look in her eyes. "Would you like to become the firs-?!"

Leraje's words cut off as a fist ablaze with crimson flames smashed into his face, actually cracking the skull as the Dead Apostle Ancestor was launched away with Laeticia still in his grip.

"SHUT UP, SKULL FACE!" Shirou roared, his features darkened as he fully drew on his Alter's flames to enhance his power. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY FRIENDS?!"

With a heavy slash, {Kaizan} slashed forward a wave of hellish flaming water which slashed through Leraje and a building behind him and acted as napalm in burning down whatever it's liquid touched.

'Impossible! It's miniscule and corrupt but there was Divinity in his punch and that attack!' As Leraje regenerated slower than before, he sent forth a blast of black shadows right at a charging Shirou!

"[Shield Weave: Watershed!]"

The Holy Shroud of Andrew morphed into a roof shaped shield as Caren dropped down to block the attack, splitting it aside harmlessly.

"There you are, Caren!" Shirou cheered in gratitude.

"Shirou, can you still fight?" Caren demanded. "Especially with those flames?!"

"Of course!" Shirou assured before blanching at Leraje's form. "Dammit, he's already regenerated!"

"Our opponent is a Dead Apostle Ancestor, Shirou!" Caren replied as the duo dodged a few shadowy limbs. "Fighting with our full power is the only way we have a chance of living through this!"

"Understood- guh?!" Shirou stumbled as Caren's shroud morphed into a spear and pierced through his stomach.

"Hypnosis is so convenient." Leraje commented. "Especially when you learn how to apply it without needing eye contact."

Shirou fell down, the hole in his body taking slowly to heal until there was a sudden flash of golden light from Shirou's body. A ball of golden and blue light flew out of his body, disappearing out of the Bounded Field while Shirou remained unconscious as his body actually started to heal faster rather than stop.

"What was that just now? With such a light show, I thought that your healing ability would actually decrease instead of increasing. Was that a corruptive influence? No matter. If neither the magus nor the Exorcist are able to fight, you've lost the game. And I had such high hopes for the {Kaleidoscope}'s student."

A faint whisper of black smoke curled from the unconscious Shirou's mouth.

Two prostitutes chatted, unaware of the undead soldier being attracted by their voices.

"Hey, you wanna see pictures of that murder down the street?"

"What? Oh, that really gross murder?"

"Pictures have been going around. See?"

"Urgh! Hey, don't show that to me! I just had a late dinner!"

"Ha! Serves that bastar- ARGH!"

Undead Menishof chomped down on the unfortunate prostitute's shoulder, causing her friend to scream and be unaware of another ghoul which blindsided her and ripped into her throat with it's fangs.

Nearby, a taxi driver was smoking with his doors open when and his earphones active which deafened him as an undead entered into the car.

"What the fuck?! Why are you biting me?! STO... ARGH!"

It happened in a ridiculously quick manner. The Bounded Field above Roanapur had blocked the Church (the magic Worldwide Church Network, not the smuggler one near the city) from becoming aware of the forming danger, leaving the ghouls to fester as much as they wanted.

However, this is Roanapur. The City of Depravity. The denizens adapted rather quickly.

"Get those fuckers!"

Bullets, grenades and missiles flew through the air, wrecking both ghoul and concrete apart as random mercenaries shot without care.

"Blow 'em up!"

"Don't let a single one of those bastards pass!"

"Go to hell!"

"Fuck yeah!"

{Lagoon Company} stood on standby in their boat. After Revy and Eda ran into Benny in their car, the bespectacled man had dropped off Eda at the Church of Violence before rushing off to meet Dutch who was already prepping their boat.

To Dutch and Benny's immense relief, the ghouls all stopped at the beach, never even attempting to swim, leaving them all lined up for Revy to shoot while trying to calm down.

'He'll be fine.' Revy mulled as she shot down another one. 'That idiot always survives through everything. He survived and won against those Chopper bastards. He survived me. He... Well, that fucking maid didn't actually have any reason to go at Rock. If anything, his constant protecting of that brat might have netted him some good points with her... He just can't die...'

After she ran out of ghouls to kill, Revy stopped shooting and curled into herself, blearily eyeing the bridge where one of Hotel Moscow's regiments was stationed before burying her face into her knees.

Rock sighed as he sat up, clutching {Kienai Shinkou} as he surveyed his surroundings. He was currently on a roof, the air which was usually saturated with the scent of blood, smoke and metal now had the dominant smell of death invading it.

"A zombie apocalypse..." Rock muttered as he surveyed the streets from his position. "Dammit, there still isn't a good zombie film with a happy ending except Zombieland..."

With a grimace, he sat up, scratching his throat and licking his lips. "I'm so thirsty..."

A door nearby banged open, revealing Bao and the strippers of the stripper club above his bar. "Rock?! Is that you?! Thank God! The whole city's-"

"Stay back!" Rock thrust an arm out in warning, feeling his thirst increasing just from seeing them. "I've been bitten."

With horrified gasps, the women noticed Rock's shoulder. The wound had healed but there was clearly a large splotch of blood over that particular area of his shirt, with the ripped through part easily clueing in that it was a bite that caused it.

"I'm sorry, Rock." Bao grimaced as he aimed his sniper rifle. Goddammit, Rock had been his most likable customer. Why did the good ones always die before the bad? "Any last words before you turn into... 'them'?"

"No." Rock climbed over the railing and waved his weapon. "I'm going to kill as many as I can before I go down. Goodbye, Bao. Thanks for the drinks."

With that, he leapt off. He expected to hit the ground.

What happened was that he shot into the sky with far more power than he realized, soaring several meters into the air with a hysterical scream before dropping onto a metal water container.

"Woah." Rock turned behind him to see the Yellow Flag already thirty meters away from him. "That's... amazing! Okay, if I have Vampire powers now, I guess super strength is a given, considering that jump. What about...?"

With a grimace, he dropped down, cratered the road from his landing, dashed forward... and shot off into a nearby truck, nearly tipping it over with how hard he impacted it.

"Superspeed present." Rock groaned as he shook himself. "I don't have any broken bones despite dropping several meters and denting a metal wall with my body so I guess super durability is present as well. Now then, what happened to Revy and the others?"

A ghoul lumbered out of an alleyway, tilting its head in a confused manner at the sight of Rock. The feeling was mutual from Rock's end. "Why did a vampire's bite result in zombies of all things? Am I going to turn into that?"

The ghoul moaned before being attracted by a noise by the dumpster. A quick turn revealed a girl, tears already springing up in her eyes from being noticed by the two monsters. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

The ghoul charged forward but Rock was faster. In an instant, Rock was between the girl and the ghoul.

"[Okajima Style: 1st Stance: Burning Slash!]"

Rock unleashed a single concentrated slash, cutting through the ghoul's head in an instant. As he did so, the katana released a blast of golden flames which promptly incinerated the ghoul's body, rendering it to ashes in three seconds.

"Hi there!"

Rock turned to see Hansel and Gretel behind him with former waving at him after his greeting and the latter raising up the struggling girl to- "Don't eat her!"

Gretel closed her gaping maw and pouted while clutching the girl's mouth and jaw shut. "Why not?"

Rock frowned before replying an answer that he hoped was satisfactory but still honest. "I don't want either of you to kill those I want to save."

The twins stared before chuckling a bit.

"Wonderful." Hansel gasped, looking at Rock as if he was some rare majestic creature he had thought to be extinct. "To be able to look us in the eye after everything, you really are wonderful, Mr. Rock."

Rock sighed before heading over to the frightened girl. He nonchalantly remembered her as one of Rowan Pigeon's strippers. "Cristal, right?"

Human. Meat. Blood. Feed.

"C'mon, I'll take you to safety." He took her hand and in a swift movement, put her in a bridal carry.

Human. Meat. Blood. Feed.

"Hansel, where's the nearest civilian retreat?"

HUMAN. MEAT. BLOOD. FEED.

Rock shuddered then took to the sky, doing his best to ignore the sickeningly sweet smell coming off Cristal as she clutched his neck and screamed in his ear.

HUMAN! MEAT! BLOOD! FEED!

Rock jumped across several rooftops in seconds, the bridge in firm sight ('My eyesight's a lot better, too.') as he noted the flying missiles and an actual tank in use. "They're losing..."

"Fire!"

Even with support from local gangsters and mercenaries, Hotel Moscow's ammo supplies ran the very real threat of running out for the first time since their arrival into Roanapur.

Their enemy had numbers that outnumbered them... and kept increasing as time passed.

They were like the worst of Roanapur given physical form: unreasoning, self-destructive, merciless and persevering.

This was enough to plunge several of the hardest, coldest, toughest residents of Roanapur into despair.

On the other hand, the Hotel Moscow soldiers were insane like their commander and were having the time of their lives.

"And that's 195!"

"183!"

"187."

"They're coming in from the other the of the bridge! Also, 207!"

"The side, too! Are those fuckers actually climbing from under the bridge?! Also, 199!"

*BAM!*

Gigantic hammers of blood slammed down on the surrounding ghouls, instantly flattening and killing them.

Gretel hummed as she, Hansel and Rock landed with a shuddering Cristal in tow, the former retracting the bloody weapons back into her arms.

"Here you go." Rock released a still trembling Cristal from his grasp and shuddered silently as he could still smell her frighteningly delicious scent. Cristal seemed to realize that she was still in some sort of danger so she hightailed it as soon as she felt her legs work properly.

Gretel hummed as she set up her Browning Automatic Rifle, startling the soldiers next to her. The soldiers then flinched when she bit her hand and smeared the resulting blood all over her weapon, causing it to twist and morph into a crimson, bloody and demonic version of itself.

*RATATATATATATATATATA!*

The several ghouls in front of them proceeded to get blown apart as each shot bullet ripped through their bodies with the same intensity of an AK-47 and power of a tank's load.

Gretel hummed as she kept shooting, uncaring for the three ghouls coming up behind her.

*SKKRSH!*

Hansel cackled as a large axe composed of blood tore through the approaching ghouls with contemptuous ease. He then threw out his arms, releasing several large tentacles of blood that snatched up four large buses which had been nearby and slammed them onto the road, successfully blocking the ghouls from passing his side of the bridge.

"Those Vampire Twins saved us?!"

"He blocked them!"

Gretel nonchalantly hopped back and upwards, continuing to shoot the ghouls from the top of the impromptu wall.

"Look! There's a hoard of them popping up from behind us!"

Rock eyed the twins in speculation, then noticed a large sunken ship just off coast. He thrusted out his arm as well, hoping for something similar to the twins' ability to summon giant appendages.

The crowd yelled and gasped in shock as a massive arm composed of golden flames surged towards the ship and carried it over the side of the bridge.

"Hngh!" Rock struggled with the weight of thing as he hovered the ship over the ghouls and then dropped it, sealing off the second end of the bridge. He then bent over in exhaustion, clutching his knees as the thirst in his throat grew to a numbing high. He was however then bowled over the applause of the saved people.

"Nice work, Salaryman! When'd you become a superhero?!"

"You and those crazy twins saved our lives! I owe ya one!"

"Rock!" One of the soldiers came to Rock's side, suspiciously eyeing the healed but still bloody spot on his shoulder. "Are you like... them?"

Rock hesitated a bit before answering with a solid grip on {Kienai Shinkou}. "I got bit by Verrocchio directly, but I didn't turn into them."

"So you got superpowers instead." To Rock's relief, the paratrooper Polansky relaxed the grip on his gun. "Still, you and those... twins may have bought some time but unless we find a way to really tip the scale, we're just delaying the inevitable. I may prefer to die in a war even like this, but even I still like to have a chance at victory."

Rock gulped before replying. "I'm gonna go look for Verrocchio. It's like an instinctual buzzing in my head but I just know that everything's gonna end as soon as Verrocchio is taken down."

"No, Mr. Rock!" Hansel landed at Rock's side, glaring up at him. "On the possible chance that your idea is valid, won't you die too?!"

Rock silently stared back at Hansel before shaking his head. "I don't know why but I didn't become a zombie like them. I'm like a mutation, so I'll probably be fine."

"True." Polansky nodded in agreement. "And even if killing off that Guido doesn't work, he still needs to die for killing Salahov and Menishof."

Rock nodded and ran to the edge of the bridge. With a gigantic leap, he soared over the waters, his target already in sight. When he'd picked up the ship, he seen it in the far distance thanks to his improved eyesight.

With a heavy grunt, Rock landed on the Lagoon Company's torpedo boat, knocking Revy down on her back and bringing up Dutch to the surface.

"Rock! Is that you?!" Dutch questioned as the salaryman fell to his knees, panting heavily as Hansel and Gretel landed at his sides. "And who are those two?!"

"Fucking trouble, that's what!" Revy reared back to her lively self, her relief at Rock's appearance dwarfed by shock at the presence of the Vampire Twins. "Step the fuck away, you shitty monsters!"

"R-Revy... It's fine..." Rock panted as he felt a burning sensation rip through his throat. Was the fire that helped him before now hurting him? Or was it this crazy thirst driving him mad?

"Mr Rock, have you eaten since you Turned?" Gretel questioned. "That's no good. You're starving yourself!"

"Hey, you're Mr Rock's friend, right?" Hansel appeared dangerously close to Revy. Before she could do anything, Hansel's claws lashed out and made a small cut on her cheek. "Give a helping hand."

"Dammit! Rock, do-!" Before Dutch could say anymore, Gretel grabbed his face and pushed him down the hatch, before stomping it down with her boot, ensuring that he couldn't come out again unless she wished it.

Rock's eyes fixated on the cut, watching the crimson liquid of life drip downwards. His audible gulping caught Revy's attention as for the first time ever, she saw Rock not as a harmless puppy but a rather starved wolf.

And Revy was the bleeding prey.

"Rock, calm the fuck down-" Revy choked as Rock slammed into her, throwing the both of them down to the deck.

Rock growled as his vampire instincts warred against his human restraints. As he internally struggled, Revy herself struggled as well, straining against the tight grips on her wrists. Kneeing Rock's crotch did no good either as he was too hungry to even notice the attempt. She was completely at his mercy.

"If you're worried about Turning her, it's fine." Hansel crouched next to Revy's head. "Just feed to your satisfaction. If you don't want to Turn her, she'll stay human."

Rock shook violently before releasing Revy and backing away. "Gretel, get off the hatch and let Dutch out."

Dutch must have been listening because he came out immediately with guns trained on Rock and the twins, putting himself between them and Revy. "Rock, what happened to you?"

Rock looked at his crew members, tears springing up when he saw the hidden fear in Revy's eyes as she wiped her blood away.

Fear aimed at him.

"I'm so sorry..." Rock choked as his eyes started to burn along with his throat. "I... I am here... to resign from the Lagoon Company. I... can no longer in good conscience... work with those I'm starting to see as food rather than people."

KingVessel: Done! Please review!