"Captain, what happened?"
The crew of the Narwhal rushed over, following the rats. Most of them were disheveled, reeking of alcohol, their collars smeared with lipstick marks.
"Do any of you know where Deep went last night?" Charles asked them.
The skinny chef, Frey, immediately spoke up. "Captain, I know. The Second Officer took that kid away last night. He said he was going to find a pricier place to make him a real man. It's just ahead, not far from here."
"Grab your gear. All of you, with me!"
Did we piss off the local gangs? Charles immediately wondered. Usually, industries like this were controlled by specific groups. But that didn't make sense. No gang kidnaps people and then bothers to send a resignation letter. That kind of move was clearly meant to prevent others from noticing the disappearances.
Soon, an inn draped with red curtains appeared before them. Just approaching the entrance, they could smell the fragrances that made men restless.
"BANG!" Charles kicked the door open and stormed in. The couples tangled up in the lobby all turned to look at him.
A burly man nearly two meters tall stood up, his face dark. Dozens of his underlings gathered behind him.
"Bastard! Who dares make trouble on our turf!" a short man yelled, only to be slapped through theair by the burly man.
The burly man, his face a mass of flesh, walked up to Charles and looked down at him.
Charles stared right into his eyes, not backing down. "I was told my crewmen are here."
Despite Charles's provocation, the burly man seemed strangely calm. "Your two crewmen aren't here. Perhaps they went somewhere else."
Charles's eyes narrowed, a coldness creeping into his expression. "Did I say there were two of them?"
The burly man's expression turned ugly. He hadn't expected to be caught in a trap like that. Realizing he'd been exposed, he waved his hand.
The surrounding goons began driving out the guests. In no time, the once-lively place became eerily quiet.
"I know you sea dogs are trouble, but since you're all here, you might as well stay." As he spoke, the burly man licked his lips with a blood-red tongue. "The Lady blesses me. I, Durand, am quite lucky. I've caught a whole batch of humans."
Hearing the overt hostility, Charles didn't hesitate. SHING! His revolver was out, aimed right at Durand. The rest of the crew whipped out their weapons as well.
The next second, everyone in the room burst out laughing, as if Charles had just told the world's greatest joke.
"BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!" Bullets slammed into Durand, spraying blossoms of blood.
But then, an astonishing scene unfolded. Durand's gruesome wounds began to close, healing completely in just a few seconds.
"It seems you still don't know what you're up against, humans," Durand grinned, a terrifying smile splitting his bone-white face.
KLANG. Two razor-sharp fangs descended from his upper lip, and the whites of his eyes flooded with crimson.
"So, a vampire," Charles's pupils shrank.
"Your blood is mine!" Durand kicked off the ground, launching himself straight at Charles.
Charles was instantly tackled to the floor, sharp fangs plunging viciously into his neck.
As Durand struck, the others in the room also moved, dropping their disguises. They bared their fangs and leaped at the crew.
While feeding, Durand suddenly sensed something was wrong. The dark-eyed man beneath him wasn't struggling. It was completely unnatural.
Did I scare him stupid? The thought had barely formed when a white mask of ecstasy snapped over Charles's face.
SHING! A flash of cold steel—Black Blade was already buried deep in the vampire's chest, shoving him backward.
"And here I thought this was something serious. Turns out it's just vampires. What a pathetic sideshow."
"AAAAAH!!" Behind them, Jamie, who was nearly four meters tall, roared as he grabbed a vampire and ripped it in half.
The rats shrieked and swarmed over another vampire, whose pained screams echoed from beneath the mound of fur and teeth.
The rest of the crew launched their attack. Sure, they had been timid when facing the giant butterfly, but after an encounter with a "God," vampires were hardly frightening.
"You!" Durand raged at the white mask before him. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.
Durand's sharp claws became a blur as he slashed furiously at Charles's masked face.
The muscles in Charles's neck tensed instantly, allowing the smooth mask to deflect the deadly swipe perfectly.
"You like biting people, huh? Here, bite this!"
The bloodied Black Blade arced up and then slammed down, plunging straight through Durand's open mouth and exiting through the back of his head.
Enraged, Durand still tried to resist. Charles gripped the hilt and shoved forward, cleaving the monstrous face in two. An instant later, he raised Black Blade and plunged it accurately into the vampire's heart.
The once-arrogant creature convulsed on the ground before going still.
With chilling focus, Charles pushed the two halves of the mangled head together, then performed a backflip and joined the fight behind him.
Seeing Charles slicing through their kind like he was chopping vegetables, the remaining vampires finally lost their nerve, crashing through the windows to escape.
"What the hell, that's it? I was just getting warmed up," Charles scoffed as he watched them flee.
Charles's ears twitched. He led the crew through the wrecked lobby to a wooden door.
Pushing it open, he saw Deep and Krona strung up like cured meat on inverted crosses. Their wrists were slashed, and their blood dripped into wooden basins on the floor. Their faces were ashen. If Charles hadn't arrived when he did, they would have eventually bled to death.
Spotting Charles, the two on the racks thrashed desperately.
Charles didn't free them right away. He strolled up to Deep and tapped his face with Black Blade. "So? How did you enjoy the lady vampire, huh?"
The gagged youth couldn't speak, but he pleaded desperately with his eyes, making muffled whimpering sounds.
A flash of white light, and the chains binding them snapped in two.
Ignoring the two pathetic wretches, Charles turned to inspect the various bloodletting instruments nearby. This seemed to be a room dedicated to exsanguination. Just the sight of glass jars as tall as a man, filled with blood, told Charles that there were far more victims than just these two.
The other missing crew members weren't here. It was highly likely that these weren't the only vampires.
"Charles, sir, what do we do next?" Lily asked curiously.
"Isn't it obvious? We killed a bunch of vampires. Of course, we call the cops."