Free Web NovelChapter 717: Blood on the Pier
In the darkness of the city, a group of people clad in jet-black leapt between the rooftops with swift movements. A tall man with silver hair led the group; behind him, two women and another man followed.
"Are you truly going to leave him to deal with this alone, Ivan?"
The voice was none other than Elizabeth, Ivan’s wife and Nikolai’s mother.
The group stopped at the easternmost tower overlooking the pier facing the Nosferatu’s floating island.
’Elizabeth...’
Ivan turned back to the group, his large hands pressing down on her shoulders as he tried to give a comforting smile.
"If I were to step in now, it might affect our son’s growth."
"B-But what if something happens... he’s never done this before and so..."
Before Elizabeth could continue, Ivan interrupted her.
"He is our son, and the reason we are taking an alternate route is to clear the path for our children. I have contacted the base, and several hundred wolverines and warriors will be dispatched to help us break through their initial defences."
"Wow, that stuck-up bastard never changes, right, babe?"
The sensual black-haired woman slipped under Dimitri’s thick, muscular arms, resting against his chest, almost twice the size of her body.
"Shhh, if he hears you, it’ll be me that suffers!"
"Fufu, don’t lie... we all know you enjoy that kind of skinship with him."
"Nagisa!"
Ivan’s fluffy ears flicked against the wind.
Of course, he heard the two speaking, but there wasn’t any reason to take the insult personally.
"What about Vlad?" Elizabeth asked while clinging to Ivan’s chest, glancing down at the looming ocean, and she couldn’t help but think of their other friend.
"I told him to protect the compound with his forces."
"I see, well, I’ve sent the girls to the hospital and ensured that they enter lockdown mode after everything begins..."
"Oh? That’s good."
Ivan’s gaze swept to the west, where the Volkov outpost stood, the lights now flickering brightly as if it had become a huge lighthouse for the lost.
"With that, Nikolai should be at ease."
"Hmph, why do you act so cold when you clearly adore him more than anything...?" Elizabeth smirked at her husband, watching his expressions carefully. freewēbnoveℓ.com
Ivan’s ears twitched again.
"That is a separate matter."
"Oh? Is it?"
"Yes."
Elizabeth’s smile grew sweeter, making Dimitri look away immediately, as if he had seen nothing. Nagisa, however, covered her lips with one hand and laughed without restraint.
"The great Ivan Volkov, ruler of iron discipline, defeated by his wife in three sentences."
Dimitri tightened his arms around Nagisa’s waist and whispered, "Please stop provoking him before he throws me into the ocean."
Nagisa leaned back into his chest. "If he does, I’ll rescue you."
"You can’t swim that well."
"I’ll look pretty while trying."
Ivan ignored them and stepped toward the edge of the tower.
Below, the pier stretched out into the black water, lined with cargo lights and armed checkpoints and beyond it, far across the sea, the faint outline of the floating island appeared and vanished between drifting mist and rotating searchlights.
The Nosferatu had turned that place into a beast covered in steel.
"It doesn’t look good..." Dimitri muttered while squatting beside Ivan.
"Ah, this is quite troublesome. We will probably need to use what’s hidden in the armoury."
Even from this distance, Ivan could see the outer tide walls and the glimmer of gun batteries sitting above them. The island no longer looked like a refuge; instead, it took the form of an iron coffin that had grown cannons.
Elizabeth stood beside him, her earlier teasing fading as she stared across the water.
"He’s going to attack head on, isn’t he?"
"Ah, our son is too honest... to fault. He hates using underhanded tactics and will probably suffer most of the damage himself as he can regenerate."
Normally, Ivan rarely spoke so much, but for a moment, the group just basked in how deep this old man’s love for his son was. "I am not leaving him alone," Ivan said quietly. "I am making certain he reaches the enemy without wasting his strength on such a plan."
He turned to Dimitri, then to Nasiga. "Are you both with me?"
"O-Of course..." Nagisa blushed at how direct Ivan was in asking for her help; in their line of work, and the monster world in general, one seldom lowered oneself, especially when Ivan was the father of the current alliance leader.
Dimitri didn’t think so deeply; he nodded and bumped fists with Ivan.
"Of course we’re gonna help!"
Elizabeth giggled.
"You boys always sound so honest."
His mouth curved faintly.
"Do not get used to it."
Dimitri rolled his shoulders, the thick muscles beneath his black coat shifting as he stared at the harbour defences below.
"So we hit the eastern supply line?"
Ivan nodded.
"Their island still needs ammunition, preserved blood, fuel, repair parts, and replacement bodies. They cannot produce everything while moving. This port has been feeding them for the last three days, and with Nikolai cutting closer, that will soon stop."
Nagisa’s playful eyes shone as she clapped.
"So we’re going to cut down those forces before Nikolai bites into them, right?"
"Correct."
"Aren’t there civilians nearby?" Elizabeth hesitantly asked.
"Don’t worry, darling. I have already had them shifted and relocated... There shouldn’t be any issue if we wipe out the entire pier." Ivan joked.
"Tsk, and this is why we do this quietly at first."
"At first?" Dimitri asked.
Ivan glanced at him.
Dimitri sighed. "Right. Stupid question."
A burst of static whispered from Ivan’s communicator. He lifted two fingers to his ear and listened without speaking. Several seconds passed before his eyes shifted westward.
"The first wolverine unit has reached the drainage tunnels beneath the port. Second and third units are waiting near the old warehouse district. Our warriors are in position."
Elizabeth sighed, covering her face dramatically.
"Oh, it seems our moment of rest is over... if only the kids knew just how hard we worked for them!"
"Enough, I am sure he knows something is off." Nagisa smiled at her best friend, her glance shifting to the outpost as she thought of her daughter. "We cannot fail, everything starts now, the beginning of the end!"
Ivan looked toward the floating island once more.
Somewhere beyond that black water, Alucard waited. Franz waited. The Nosferatu waited behind steel, old pride, and stolen science.
And Nikolai was coming for them.
Ivan’s chest tightened for a single heartbeat.
He remembered a much smaller boy with silver hair and angry eyes, who refused to cry after falling during a school meeting, always hating his strange hair and being bullied for it. Once his mother died... everything was so tough that Ivan couldn’t be there for him.
’I was too selfish back then...’ freewebnσvel.cѳm
To the son who tore himself apart to return his wife, how could Ivan ever think this was difficult?
He was family.
To Volkov’s, there was nothing more important than that!
Even if that little boy had become a man with wives, soldiers, enemies, and burdens that should have taken centuries to gather.
With the momentary hesitation, he tapped the communication device and issued an order.
"Move out, follow the mission briefing."
After a buzz of static, the four shadows dropped from the tower.
They fell through the rain without a sound, landing on the lower rooftops before leaping again toward the port district. The wind tore at their coats. Salt spray struck their faces. Below them, Nosferatu sentries patrolled beneath floodlights, rifles slung over their shoulders, unaware that the old generation had already entered their blind spot.
Nagisa landed first on the roof of a customs office, light as a cat, her black hair snapping behind her.
"Two on the left," she whispered.
Dimitri landed beside her, cracking his neck.
"Four near the fuel line."
Elizabeth’s eyes glowed faintly.
"Six by the ammunition lift. One officer inside the glass booth."
Ivan looked at them all.
"There is no need for prisoners; these people have already tried to kill our grandchildren, slaughter them all."
His words were like a sharpened blade, cutting through others’ doubts.
For a single breath, even Dimitri and Nagisa stopped smiling.
Then Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed, and the warmth of Nikolai’s mother vanished beneath something far crueller. "Understood."
Ivan stepped off the roof first.
He did not leap loudly or crash down with arrogance. His body slipped from the edge and vanished into the rain. The first sentry beneath the customs office never saw him land. One moment, the man turned toward a flickering floodlight, and the next, Ivan’s hand closed over his mouth while the other tore through his throat.
Blood washed into the puddles.
Nagisa moved like a black cat across the wall, sliding behind two soldiers near the fuel line. Her fingers flashed once, and both men froze, rifles slipping from their hands as thin red lines opened beneath their jaws.
Dimitri hit the ground harder.
Concrete cracked beneath him.
Four Nosferatu soldiers spun toward him, eyes wide, only for his massive arm to sweep through them like a hammer through rotten wood. The first struck the fuel pipe head-first. The second folded around Dimitri’s knee. The third tried to raise his WVYRN, but Elizabeth appeared behind him and drove her hand clean through his chest before he could touch the trigger.
These were the previous generation of monsters.
This was their method of hunting.
The soldiers didn’t have enough time to trigger the alarm, or even realise they died.
Ivan walked toward the glass booth, coat swaying in the rain, silver hair plastered against his cheek. The officer inside finally noticed the bodies and reached for the red switch.
Ivan’s claw pierced the glass before his finger reached it.
The officer stared at him through the cracked pane.
Ivan’s voice remained calm.
"For my grandchildren, I will do anything."
A moment later, the booth turned red.
