Vampire With A System

Chapter 37: Shadow Teleportation and Strength Borrowing Singing

Evan’s pupils contracted as the melodic frequency pierced through his eardrums, vibrating straight into his central nervous system. freewebnσvel.cѳm

The realization struck him like an icy splash of water, it was of the Musical Path.

Instinctively, Evan’s hands twitched, intending to rise and cover his ears to block out the invasive melody.

But he forced his arms back down to his sides, his jaw tightening. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Gritting his teeth, he suppressed the urge.

’No,’ he thought rapidly, his mind racing against the rhythm of the tune.

’If I cover his ears, I lose my hands. I lose my guard. And worst of all, I lose my sense of sound completely.’

In a high-stakes colosseum match or in the real battlefield, blinding your own auditory awareness was a death sentence.

You wouldn’t hear the incoming strike, the shifting sand, or any other small details.

Across the ten feet of sand, Bruce continued to sing, his chest expanding rhythmically as the haunting notes flowed effortlessly from his throat.

Outwardly, he looked like a devout artistic maestro, but inwardly, his thoughts were somewhat else.

’Man, I need to wrap this up fast,’ Bruce grumbled to himself, keeping his pitch perfectly steady despite his internal impatience.

’I skipped breakfast for this stupid tournament, and my stomach is killing me. The sooner this dark horse drops, the sooner I can get some roasted lamb.’

With his stomach rumbling, Bruce decided to stop playing around.

He shifted his breath, causing a sudden, jarring change in the tune.

The melody transformed from a slow, eerie hum into a heavy, oppressive, and fast-paced crescendo.

Bruce was finally unleashing his Awakened blood worm of the Musical Path known as the Strength Borrowing Singing Blood Worm, though his Qi dropped drastically and he could not use any other blood worm for at least an hour.

Unlike basic tools, this was a permanent, highly specialized asset.

Its unique metaphysical properties allowed it to lock onto a single target’s specific spiritual signature, systematically draining their physical vitality through localized soundwaves.

The beauty of the worm was its absolute precision --- it could only affect one person at a time when activated, meaning the surrounding crowd and the referee were completely safe, while the chosen victim bore the full, undiluted weight of the curse.

But the absolute irony of the situation was something completely unknown to Evan, it was that the Strength Borrowing Singing Blood Worm had a strict, severe limitation.

Because it was a low grade awakened specimen, it could only drain and hold an opponent’s strength for a maximum duration of ten minutes per day before its voice withered and entered hibernation.

Bruce was playing on a desperate, invisible countdown.

If Evan could just survive those ten minutes, the stolen power would snap right back to him.

But Evan didn’t know that.

All he felt was the immediate, terrifying wave of lethargy washing over his limbs, as if his blood had turned to lead.

The raw, explosive power stored within his muscles began to evaporate into the air, drawn out by the changing frequency of the song.

’Man surrenders to the dark only because he believes the night is infinite, entirely blind to the truth that his dawn was just a breath away,’ Evan thought, his spirit resisting the crushing weight.

’Shatter that illusion. No winter holds the power to outlast time, the peak is already within your reach, if only you dare to take the final step.’

Suddenly, a cold, mechanical ping echoed directly inside his consciousness, completely independent of the musical attack.

A series of bright, floating text boxes flashed across his vision.

[ WARNING! ]

[ Target’s Musical Frequency Detected! Host’s Physical Strength Is Rapidly Decreasing! ]

[NEW SYSTEM QUEST ACTIVATED]

[ Objective: Defeat Bruce ]

’Okay... well I have got to do it anyways... haven’t I?’

[ Reward: Level Up To Level 10 ]

[ Special Reward: +7 Free Attribute Points. ]

[ NOTICE ]

[ System Shop And Inventory Functions Will Officially Unlock Upon Reaching Level 10 ]

Looking at the floating notifications, a sudden spark of dark excitement flared through Evan’s fading consciousness, momentarily overriding the heavy lethargy in his veins.

’Shop and Inventory?’ he thought, his heart hammering against his ribs.

’If I hit level ten, the full system functionality unlocks. Seven free attributes... that’s enough to completely re-spec my physical limits.’

He locked his dead stare back onto the singing powerhouse bastard.

’Alright, fat face. You want to take my strength? Then I’ll just have to use the worm I just bought from Abraham.’ Evan reached his senses in his aperture.

Resting there was his secret purchase, the Shadow Teleportation Blood Worm, which looked like small black ball emitting a little blackish smoke, because of it, the other blood worm of Evan were at the bottom of the aperture due to it’s owner, while it was at the top.

It was a rare, permanent asset of the Shadow Path. Its function was absolute, upon activation, it allowed the user to instantaneously teleport within any existing shadow within a strict ten-meter radius.

Click.

In a fraction of a millisecond, Evan’s physical body dissolved into a wispy, ethereal shroud of black smoke.

Bruce’s eyes widened mid-note, his song faltering for a microsecond as his target vanished from plain sight.

Before his brain could process the spatial shift, Evan materialized silently like a ghost right inside the long, dark shadow stretching across the sand directly behind Bruce’s back.

Stepping out of the darkness, Evan pulled his fist back, aiming a brutal strike straight at the base of Bruce’s neck.

He poured every remaining ounce of his willpower into the punch.

However, the curse had already done its damage.

Bruce’s song had successfully siphoned away a massive portion of his vitality.

Right now, Bruce possessed half of Evan’s original, monstrous physical strength added onto his own already dense, muscular physique.

When Evan’s fist connected with the back of Bruce’s shoulder, the impact lacked its usual explosive, bone-shattering force.

THUD.

The punch did very little visually, it felt like striking a solid block of reinforced iron because Bruce was so heavily buffed by Evan’s own stolen might.

Yet, because of Evan’s peak-level execution, it did something at least.

The kinetic energy rattled through Bruce’s frame, forcing the singer to stumble two steps forward, his breathing pattern violently disrupted.

The song snapped, the melody dying in his throat as he wheezed from the unexpected impact.

Evan dropped back into a low defensive stance, his muscles aching, his dark eyes fixed on the recovering powerhouse.

The opening exchange was over, the system countdown was ticking, and the battle against Bruce’s ten-minute clock had officially begun... though he did not know it was another case.