Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 15: It Is An Ability

Chapter 15: It Is An Ability

His expression tightened, his muscles burned and ached as he groaned hard, raising his other hand that held the bat.

Dion shoved it into the zombie’s temple, grinding the broken end of it through brain matter until the zombie collapsed.

Finally, a relieved sigh broke through his chest as he fell back to the ground on his feet.

Dion stood over its large corpse, his attention only briefly lingering on it.

Then, as timely as usual, without interrupting his fight this time, that voice sounded in his head.

{You have felled a Level 10 Destitute Zombie, harvesting its essences.}

{You have felled a Level 4 Destitute Zombie, harvesting its essences.}

{You have felled a Level 5 Destitute Zombie, harvesting its essences.}

Then he glanced upward, and the students that had been trembling within there were no longer anywhere to be seen in its small space.

’That’s what normal people would do... I suppose.’

He didn’t blame them for their fear. It was only natural.

Be that as it may, fear would get them nowhere but keep them within the confines of that room, shivering in the darkness, staring down whatever threat would no longer give them the time and leniency to be so scared.

Without giving them any more attention, Dion, catching his breath, leaned down towards the corpse, and he began to yank out his weapons.

Blood spritzed out of the wounds, pooling beneath his feet as he did that.

"Hey man, thank you so much. You saved our asses."

Dion lifted himself back upright. He saw the other students towards the back of the two young men that had approached him directly flinch a little at the sight of him.

’I probably look like shit...’ He thought wryly.

However, then, his brows furrowed as he saw the two young men at the front raise their own weapons and stagger backwards from him along with the others.

"Step back from the door."

"Huh?" His expression only fell more confused within himself.

"He said step back from the door! There are students in there, and we won’t let you kill them when you turn! We’ll give you a peaceful death while you are still normal, so long as you don’t resist."

Dion’s expression entirely darkened from its curiosity.

The one that had spoken last was the guy the girl had called Glen.

One of the windows to their side had been broken through by something, someone having thrown something through it at an earlier point, perhaps.

Through that gap, a slight wind, cold and laden with foul blood, brushed between them.

Dion’s expression had frosted such that the other students behind the men in the front retreated even more urgently.

"You want to kill me? For what? You think I’m a zombie?"

"How else would you explain your eyes!? Changes in eyes are one of the symptoms of zombie infection! You were probably hurt by one before, and you didn’t notice, and it may have been small so it takes time to have an effect on you." Glen barked, bleeding aggression, as if he could hardly hold himself back from attacking that moment.

There, the coldness in his expression loosened, and he blinked a few times.

He could feel that his pupils had been sharpened, and honestly, he had gotten used to the sensation of it as he went down the floors.

When he had to fight so many zombies, they were the last thing that had been on his mind this whole time.

He laughed a little, and how he relieved himself with it even despite the strange looks that they gave him. Although he made sure that he would keep the sound of it low.

"I’m not a zombie. This is just an ability of mine. I have an eye-based one."

With that, blinking a little, Dion only silently and desperately tried to will his eyes to return to normal.

This lie would only work if he was able to make it seem like he could put them back to normal with ease.

’Shrink! Shrink, damnit! Normal human eyes!’

With several blinks as the tension of the people ahead of him lingered between them, he tried, and he tried.

Their unease only grew, and his enhanced senses could hear the racing of their heart in his own urgency.

Then a sharp, disgusting scent hit him, and perhaps that was what had helped give him that final push into sobering because within moments of smelling it his eyes returned to normal human eyes.

"See? All normal now. You can drop your weapons."

For a few seconds, as his eyes bounced between the two guys, silence lingered.

They didn’t take their attention off of him, and the people behind them hadn’t relaxed at all.

Over all of this, he gradually felt that foul stench that came as if it were right under his nose grow in potency.

"Phew.... I hope you’re really fine then." The other young man beside Glen had said.

Dion gave a brief and careful nod at that, and he watched as Glen carefully and slowly, turned back towards their friends that had retreated.

Then, the other young man half turned back to them.

"He’s fine. He’s just an awakened with an eye-based ability."

Within this, even turning back, Glen, with his weapon lowered and catching his breath, had kept watching him.

His expression was a little pale; he had used his ability after all, and perhaps his mana was low, and he was suffering from the same debilitating pain that he had felt earlier, but he was still glaring at him as if he would turn at any moment.

Then, the one who seemed to be leading the group of them turned back towards Dion.

"I’m Norman an—or at least I was an Engineering major. Seriously, it’s a relief to meet you."

Dion faintly nodded, remembering something that he had only briefly caught as he approached.

Even mid-swing, Norman’s eyes kept flicking to check on the guys behind him, his lips moving each time faintly, perhaps giving himself a head count, making sure he hadn’t missed or lost anyone.

’In a world like this, it could end up being rare to find others like him.’

At the same time that Norman spoke with him, Glen had finally fully spun on his heel over to the girl that had screamed for his help earlier.

"Hannah, they didn’t touch you, right? You’re okay?" Glen’s muttering to the nervous girl made it to him.

Hannah herself seemed to scold him a little, telling him not to worry about her; rather, he should catch his breath. And in that, a part of Dion felt some respect for her.

Despite her obvious fear, she had still been willing to leave the safety of the apartment to join them. Even if it was only for his sake, it was commendable.

They seemed to be a couple, with how affectionate they were being, so Dion brought his attention fell back to Norman, giving him a response.

"I’m Dion. I was a Law major, pleasure to meet you. You guys are from this floor, right?"

"Yeah, this room actually," he laughed as he pointed to the one that he had speared his fireplace poker into.

’Those must be people who were too afraid to help then...’

With that being said, perhaps that thought was too harsh.

In the first place, at a time like this, it was better to keep a travelling group small unless you had a lot of capable people with you.

Without more capable people, walking around with a larger group would only put one at more risk with having to watch over so many others who couldn’t fight as well.

So, perhaps it wasn’t that they were too afraid.

Maybe they had offered, and Norman had just made the smart call to keep the travelling group as small as possible.

There, his attention was drawn back to the young man.

"Would you like to come with us? We’ve got a small group, but we’re looking to get out of here and find food to last us some time so we can hole up and wait for government aid."