Chapter 98- The Strongest
Chapter 98- The Strongest
"Damn it, I lost him," Geralt grumbled as he stopped and kicked a rock in front of him. He had chased the vampire for several minutes before he suddenly disappeared from his senses. At first, he thought he just gone out of his range, but once he increased his speed, he was surprised to realize that he had genuinely just disappeared.
There wasn’t even a trace of his energy left in the air, let alone his presence. That was surprising and quite odd. Something like that can’t happen normally.
’Did he have some sort of teleportation ability? No, even those usually leave traces behind. What happened?’ He frowned.
Staring around him, a feeling of unease grew within his heart as he was completely alone. He didn’t know, but he had a sense that someone was watching him, even though he wasn’t sensing any presence within a good distance of himself.
"..." His eyes looked left and right as he let his gut feeling, honed by dozens of years of experience, guide him.
’Someone is watching.’
He was certain of it. But locating where those eyes were staring at him seemed completely impossible.
Standing there for a while, he eventually turned around to retreat to his group. It was pointless to remain there when he couldn’t find his target. His mission has failed.
Even though he had him within grasp, he hadn’t noticed how it was his clone that he was fighting.
’No, I am certain that wasn’t a clone... Perhaps it isn’t a clone and rather a vessel that he can transfer his consciousness to so he can fight with it, then return to his main body? That would explain why I didn’t notice any clone patterns on it.’
This vampire was particularly unique, even amongst the countless ones he killed. He had a weird ability, and he was also completely odd in general. His words were still resonating within Geralt’s head.
Two individuals. Both seemed to live in the city where he lived, and both seemingly are very important, yet he didn’t know them. How could that be? He knew everything happening in that city.
Hell, he even knew every individual living within the city and yet... Somehow, he had ignored arguably the two most important ones and left them do whatever they want under his nose?
He was Geralt Vaylor, not some random person. He was the strongest and the leader of the strongest clan in the world. His pride wouldn’t let him accept such a thing.
Still, even when he assumed these were all lies, a part of him didn’t want to leave room for anything out of the ordinary to happen. So, as he was heading back, he was already thinking of ways to investigate this.
If they were truly in his city, then they couldn’t hide from him. Even if they were ants crawling some corner of a dark, abandoned alley, he would find them.
That city was his domain and within it... Geralt was the closest thing to a God any human could ever get.
***
Far, far away from where Geralt was, standing on the tallest tree casually, Melissa stared at the scene with a calm look on her face. Her eyes were terrifyingly empty, and her face was so terrifying that Elio would not have even recognized who that person was.
"..."
Wind rustled the branch she was standing on and moved her hair. Finally, she snapped out of her daze and turned around.
"Time to head back."
Saying that, she dispersed into the mist, turning into a gush of wind. A few seconds later, she appeared again near the window of the penthouse. Staring inside, she saw Elio sitting where she left him, still practicing.
However, she didn’t walk in immediately and instead stood there watching him for a while. Her expression was still brutally cold, as if she were staring at nothing. Nobody knew what was going through her mind.
Then, slowly, that coldness vanished, and her eyes regained light again as her playful smile returned and she opened the window.
"I’m back, Elio~" She said as she sat on the bed.
"Hm?" He opened his eyes and stared at her. "That was very quick."
"I told you, a few minutes." She said happily. "Hehe, so, how is your progress going?"
"Hmmm, I’m still improving rapidly. It’s like my body is an endless pit that sucks energy and uses it. I don’t know why, but it’s a nice feeling."
Elio has been constantly gaining status points and improving his control over his Blood Energy. He was now at least 4 times stronger than an average person, which was shockingly fast considering he only started doing this three days ago.
That kind of improvement came from his monstrous and freakish talent.
"At this rate, you will exceed me in a few months, hehe," Melissa said. "My Elio is so strong."
"So, what did you do?" Elio asked. "Did something happen?"
"Hmmm, let’s say I just took care of something annoying, hehe. Don’t worry about it. As for what you predicted, it did happen." Melissa said. "I found that Geralt Vaylor was fighting the vampire that attacked your little friend."
"What?!" Elio raised an eyebrow. "And what happened after?"
"Well, as expected, it was a close battle, but the vampire was defeated." She said.
"... Did he die?"
"No. He escaped. I tried to catch him, but he was squirmy like a leech. I couldn’t get a hold of him. He is probably somewhere now." She said.
"... Dammit, so he can still cause trouble?" Elio muttered. ’As expected of a strong vampire, even Melissa couldn’t get him.’
That only meant that Elio had to deal with this matter in the future. That vampire seems to be targeting him specifically, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he saw him again soon.
"Just focus on your training, Elio. I’m here. He will never touch you again."
"I still don’t want to rely on your protection forever. I don’t want to be a liability. Today, when I saw Fiona get that call and see her stressed look... I felt so powerless." Elio said as he sighed. "I wanted to help, but I know I would only be dead weight."
"..."
"I know I’m still very new, and I don’t even have the license to be a proper hunter yet. But... It’s still quite frustrating when everything seems to be going faster than I can match it."
"Elio..."
"But, I will still try my best. I want to be someone you and Fiona could be proud of. I don’t want to fall behind any further."
"What’s your goal exactly, Elio?" Melissa asked after a long moment of silence; her smile had faded. "I don’t think I’ve asked you this before."
The two stared at each other for a moment. Elio was a bit taken aback by the question, while Melissa just seemed unnaturally serious.
"My... goal..."
"Yeah, what do you want to achieve? After you saw everything and understood everything... What do you want?"
The boy pursed his lips for a second. This was something he had deeply thought about many times over the past few days... Yet, surprisingly, the answer had already settled in his heart.
An answer even he didn’t understand, and yet he seemed fully convinced.
"I..." He looked up at Melissa, eyes fully open, unblinking. "Think I want to be the strongest."