The explosion of wind thrust the curtains to the side, instantly bathing the living room in golden sunlight.

Miles was unaffected, being down on the ground and his black clothing providing protection even against the little light that came into direct contact.

However, as the Blood Spike burst forwards with insane speed and the sunlight reflected off of the jagged crystal, he couldn't help but frown.

It wasn't very clear, no one could have noticed, but Miles did. In his mind's eye, owing to the mysterious connection with the spike, he saw everything.

The particles of the blood crystal had started to shatter and break apart, as the sunlight forced the blood to vibrate and heat up. This was, undoubtedly, an effect of Sol's Hatred. One the system had failed to inform him about. 

Fortunately, it was over as soon as it began, as the speed of the Blood Spike ensured it was out of the Sun's effects before long.

In the end, all that had done was make the blood spike unstable. Even that was rather minor with the exposure to sunlight having been extremely short.

Miles made a mental note to consider the effect of Sol's Hatred on the blood spike the next time he would have to act within prolonged sunlight, but right now, it was irrelevant.

In fact, the minor instability may even have helped him...

Meanwhile, the monstrous rat had just barely struggled back to its two hind legs after the collision with the wall.

It looked straight ahead, gazing right at him with unbridled rage.

Miles was unfazed, but he couldn't help but notice that the creature's hulking muscles had dwindled slightly, giving it a strangely leaner figure…

Regardless, he was confident it could not see the Ironblood Spike, especially one that had been enhanced by (+43).

Whatever this was, wouldn't matter either. 

But that was exactly when a faint glow of intelligence flashed through the eyes of the rat. And instantly, it jerked its torso to the side.

'Wha--?'

Time almost seemed to stop, as Miles observed the ongoing events through the blood spike.

The creature had actually dodged, shifting its body away from the path of the blood spike...

But then, he grinned.

It had dodged, or rather, had tried to dodge. 

The blood spike was too fast. Before the rat could dodge completely, it would definitely strike.

Almost in slow motion, he watched as the tip of the blood spike lightly poked it's hairy shoulder. 

KLUSH!

Instantly, a strange sound rang out, almost as if a stone or rock had fallen into water, piercing through liquid.

Miles's eyes widened, as the imposing figure of the rat monster was instantaneously replaced by a bright red explosion of blood and gore.

Flesh, muscle and organs burst upwards and sideways into the air, almost like bloodied fireworks.

Despite the macabre display, Miles's grin widened.

Somehow, someway, he had succeeded! 

But his happiness died down almost immediately, as he was thrust back to reality as the overwhelming pain of having a limb explode crashed right back down on to him.

Ding!

[HP 4/10. Critical Condition: Right Arm Incapacitated.

[Heavy external bleeding detected. ]

[2.4 BP lost. 8/10 BP remaining.]

[3.1 BP lost. 5/10 BP remaining.]

[1.9 BP lost. 3/10 BP remaining.]

The bleeding alone seemed to be extremely serious, having made him lose over half of the blood points in his Kindred body in just a few seconds.

To make matters worse, after exerting everything he had to control the blood and the (+43) spike, Miles was no longer in a state where he could resist the Kindred desire for blood.

The enhanced hunger due to losing so much blood had just started to overwhelm his mind, when…

[Conditional Undeath activated.]

Almost immediately, the hunger started to recede as the Blood Bank instantly replenished the missing 6 BP and sated his desire for blood.

To his great relief, the pain of the injury also started to wane, instead replaced by a faint itching, focused upon his missing arm.

Miles couldn’t help but reach out to scratch the itch, but his eyes widened the moment his gaze fell upon his formerly bony right hand.

Red blood continued to seep out of the fleshy stump below his right shoulder, but instead of dripping down onto the floor, the scarlet liquid had started to form into perfectly uniform strands. They whirled and wrapped around his bone like beautiful ribbons, as if controlled by some mysterious force.

And with every blood ribbon that enveloped the white bone, Miles could feel the missing muscle and flesh growing back.

He had expected something similar out of Conditional Undeath, but he still couldn’t believe it...

Slowly but surely, his arm was growing back!

Splat

Breaking his line of thought, the rat gore that had been in the air during the last second or so, finally splattered down onto the floor, the furniture, and the walls in grotesque fashion.

They colored everything in dirty black red, easily beating the bloody explosion of his own arm.

‘Eh?’

To Miles’s great surprise, these pieces of flesh and muscle began to deform, or rather reform, into the smaller rat familiars.

Naturally, they were only bodies now. Actually not even bodies, just random rat parts, scattered across the living room.

‘So this rat monster is still just a composite of the smaller rats? When killed, it returns back to how it was?!’

There was no confirmation, but the notifications continued.

Ding!

[You have slain {Horde Rat (Base)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced)} x10]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Listener (Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/ Meager Sonokinesis/ Perfect Memory)} x5]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Smeller (Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/Scent Manipulation-Lesser)] x2]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Digger (Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/Meager Super Strength/Sharpened Fangs and Claws) x4]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Warrior (Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/ Lesser Super Strength/ Lesser Super Speed)] x5]

Ding!

[Kindred Class: (Newborn has reached Lvl. 5- Stat Points allocated.]

‘So instead of considering the creature as a single entity, the system considers each individual rat? But, hold on… that’s only 26 out of the 50 or so that had remained. Where’s the rest?’

Despite the good news of a level up, Miles couldn’t help but frown as he shifted a wary gaze up towards where the monstrous rat had been.

The explosion of blood cleared, leaving only a faint reddish mist wafting in the air.

The rat beast was revealed, somehow still standing!

Miles hurried to get back up on his feet, ‘It’s still alive!?’

But he paused halfway through.

Despite remaining standing, the rat creature now possessed a massive hole on the left side of its body, from the shoulder to the thigh, as if a chunk had been efficiently cut off, effectively halving its body mass.

The monstrous rat’s eyes were widened in shock and disbelief, as it lowered its head towards the gaping hole in its torso.

The single remaining clawed hand reached out towards the fatal wound, almost as if it couldn’t believe that it’s impenetrable skin had been broken through.

Splud!

The rat creature finally collapsed onto the blood splattered ground, face first. The pink worm-like tail jutting out of its lower back, had somehow remained intact, but was as lifeless as the rest.

It was every bit the picture of something dead.

Miles slowly pushed himself up with a single arm, ‘Maybe… not? It sure looks dead. Nothing can survive a gaping hole as large as that... But, what happened to the rest of the rats?’

Once again there was no answer, but the notifications continued.

Ding!

[Multiple Blood Sources Consumed.

+1 Free Stat Point. +26 BP gained.

Horde Rat Blood absorbed (Base, Listener, Smeller, Digger and Warrior Variants)]

Miles couldn’t help but feel surprised by the massive volume of blood that was suddenly leeched back to him, ‘26 Blood Points from just 26 rats?! Shouldn’t it be 2.6 BP like before? That’s a 10x increase! Not that I’m complaining about getting more, but I wonder why it increased so much...

Maybe the rats provide more blood when they are killed in the larger composite rat form? Hmm, perhaps this is related to why some of the rats weren’t included in the kill notifications...?’

Either way, this massive flow of blood served to nourish the blood ribbons wrapping around his right arm, causing the rate of regeneration to increase even further.

By now, about half of the muscle and flesh of Miles’s right arm had grown back, all the way from his shoulder to the elbow, with no signs of slowing down!

And the notifications continued.

Ding!

[Sufficient Volume of Blood for Horde Rat Variant-(Base) has been obtained (10.9/10 BP).]

[Species ID #19773, Horde Rat (Base) Sample Obtained.]

Ding!

[Creature Analysis Available.

Horde Rat (Base): The most common and ordinary form of the Species: Horde Rat.

Any ordinary rat that comes into contact with a suitable source and absorbs mana, may evolve into a Horde Rat.

However, the horde that a specific rat belongs to, will depend on the source that supplies the mana. i.e., the rats of one Horde will always have the same source.

All the rats of a horde are connected via the source, allowing them to sense the death of any other horde rat.

The Base Variant is the weakest and least specialized form, reached first in the evolutionary path of the Horde Rat.

Generally, holds the Enhanced Status.]

‘Oh? This is quite interesting. Even before the information about ‘horde rats’, this ‘species ID’... And mana? Isn’t that another word for mystical energies like qi or chakra?

Not to mention the fact that the system revealed this information, only after I absorbed enough blood from that specific creature... ’

There was a lot to be learned from this, but mildly annoyingly, Miles’s thought process was disrupted as the notifications continued.

[Status effect analyzed.

Enhanced: Grants +5% boost to all physical attributes. Available to most mana enhanced creatures.]

Instantly, the annoyance vanished, replaced by excitement. ‘Oh? Sounds pretty damn useful, especially in the future once my attributes increase even more.’

[Status effect Enhanced is incompatible with the Kindred Physique. Sealed.]

‘Well, f*ck you too,’ Miles cursed, the annoyance returning back in full force.

But that was also the same time he felt a change.

A sudden sense of completeness from his right arm, as the vague itch dissipated entirely.

[All wounds healed. HP 10/10.

Total BP lost: 7.4]

A quick glance confirmed that the exploded limb had reformed, as if nothing had happened. There was no scarring, and his arm was as it had always been, albeit slightly paler than he was used to.

He had lost an arm, and gained it right back. The only true loss incurred were the aforementioned blood points.

And with the 26 points leached from the rat creature, he wasn’t doing too bad on that front either.

(Blood Bank: 61/100)

But while everything looked good on the surface, Miles had to admit, he did not feel like it.

For the first time since he had become Kindred, he was feeling tired. Absolutely exhausted.

He had gone without sleeping over the last night and felt no effect, but his attempt to form and control the (+43) blood spike seemed to have made a much larger effect. He would have to take a break soon, lest he fall asleep on his feet.

But for now…

Miles shifted his eyes towards the corpse of the rat creature, sprawled across the floor in a pool of blood and rat flesh.

Despite the grotesque scene, he had to admit that it was an intriguing creature. One formed from the amalgamation of multiple lesser beings, the ‘horde rats’.

When a part of its body was separated from the whole, that portion would reform into the individual horde rats.

If he hadn’t known that these things were Familiars to some unknown witch, he might’ve even mistaken them for a type of wild Fae Beast...

‘Wait... Considering how little I know about familiars, it's entirely possible that these rats were Fae Beasts in the first place!’

Fae beast, a general term for the formerly ordinary creatures that gained unnatural abilities or showed unusual growth.

The first Fae beasts were supposedly discovered on the very same day the Fae invaded, coinciding with the awakening that the first grandmasters had gone through, leading many to believe the two incidents were connected in some way.

Although some Fae Beasts were not dangerous, most of them were hostile to humans. Not to mention the fact that most Fae Beasts could easily disguise themselves among ordinary animals.

However, rather thankfully, there weren’t a lot of them and most did not attack unless provoked.

‘Hmm, didn’t the system mention something about ordinary rats having to absorb mana from a suitable source to become a horde rat? Then assuming that the horde rats are Fae Beasts, are all Fae Beasts formed upon mana absorption?’

Perhaps. Maybe this was even related to awakened humans. Or he could be entirely wrong and horde rats could be nothing beyond a type of familiar.

The system didn’t tend to use the general terms that humanity had come up with, and it honestly made things confusing.

Either way, he had bigger things to worry about.

Something that was roughly the size of half of an overgrown rat, to be exact.

While the creature hadn’t been easy to kill, Miles was also aware that something of this level would not be a threat to Capital City, let alone himself had he had access to all of his resources. Had he been in the Lykaon mansion, a single turret would have made quick work of it.

It would’ve been even easier had he had time to prepare.

But, the fact that someone, a witch as laughable as it sounded, was behind the horde rats was rather worrying.

It was not their battle power, but the fact that someone was listening in on him, that was troublesome.

Or, an even worse scenario.

‘What if these rats had nothing to do with me? What if they weren’t here for me and were simply met by chance? This safe house was selected at random after all...

What if every single rat I had seen in the streets was a horde rat?! What if the witch’s familiars are everywhere?!’

He couldn’t even imagine the repercussions of such a revelation. If these rats truly could hear and gather information, later to be transferred to someone who could use it, the scope of such an espionage network was unfathomable.

No one would see it coming. People guarded against contemporary spyware and technology, but no one guarded against rats!

And even if the rats were killed, which was quite unlikely as most would not see them inside the walls, no one would ever know they were spies! It was only the system that had revealed the truth!

Miles's gaze fell back onto the half of the overgrown rat corpse.

‘And that’s all the more reason to use this corpse to get as much information as possible. I did request a stock of basic laboratory equipment in all of my safe houses…’

Despite feeling tired and exhausted, he forced himself to walk forwards, intending to prepare the rat corpse for examination.

Somethings were more important than rest. And he knew from experience, that delaying could and would ruin opportunity. 

Once this was taken care of, he could take a well-deserved rest. 

Already starting to imagine the sweet embrace of sleep, Miles reached the rat corpse.

But the moment he took another step, the air... screamed. A scream of warning, far beyond anything he had ever felt before.

Whatever it was, it was insanely fast, and extremely dangerous. 

Miles could just barely make out where it was coming from, but he was far too slow to react.

Whip!

He barely felt a painful strike upon his neck, as something coiled around his neck. And the next thing he knew, he was up in the air, with a terrifying force crushing on his windpipe.

Instinctively, Miles began to struggle, reaching for the pink thing around his neck, trying to pry it apart and give him space to breathe.

But despite his every attempt he couldn't even make it budge, only resulting in the coil tightening even more.

Black spots started dancing within his already blurred vision, as his mind threatened to fall unconscious. 

Still struggling in vain, Miles couldn't help but feel helpless. He may have been Conditionally Undead, but that did not mean he was immune to being knocked out. And he was powerless against this attack. 

However, deep down, he knew that there were still some options left. With conditional undeath alone, there were several risky maneuvers he could attempt.

But Miles was also aware that he was in no state to make up a workable plan in the few seconds he had left, assuming he even had that long.

Perhaps he could've done better, had he not been exhausted due to the (+43) Blood Spike, but it was not his habit to make excuses.

He himself had made the decisions that put him in this position. It was he who had failed.

Miles accepted his defeat. The overgrown vermin had won.

.....

But, that didn't mean this was over. Far from it, in fact. 

Through out his rather short life, Miles had experienced quite a bit of instances just like this.

Assassins, Corporate Spies, Bounty Hunters, Jealous Rivals, you name it. It was just another perk that came with being the heir to one of the wealthiest conglomerates of the world.

But even back then, when he had been far weaker than he was right now, he had made it through.

In all of those instances, he had only done one single thing and his survival had been guaranteed.

His thumb reached forwards and tapped once on the Lykaon ring.

And he had just done it again.

SLASH!

Barely a second passed, when a streak of bright white light flashed within his fading vision.

And in the next instant, Miles crashed down onto the ground, coughing and sputtering. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could just barely make out the severed half of the giant pink rat tail that had fallen alongside him.

Miles raised his head towards the familiar figure and sputtered out with a light grin, "Y-You're late *cough* o-old Zhan."