Everything happened so suddenly.

Before either of the groups could speak or introduce themselves, the beast the unusual man had dragged along suddenly snapped.

A low growl rumbled through its chest, its front paw tensed, and it leapt.

"Wait!" the pale man called, reaching for the leash. Too late.

The chain slipped from his fingers as the beast flew forward like a missile, straight toward Isaac.

"Why me?!" Isaac yelped, phasing instantly as the beast passed through him with a frustrated snarl. It skidded across the ground, turned sharply, and charged again relentlessly.

"I didn't even do anything!" Isaac cried, sprinting sideways while repeatedly blinking in and out of phase. "Go after one of the others, I just tagged along!"

The beast gave no reply. Only teeth and fury.

That left Kai and the supposed not-Dracula, who now stood across from each other in the vast hall like two duelists sizing up their foe.

Red blood curled through the air around Kai's arms like floating ribbons, forming wicked blades and jagged spears, pulsing in rhythm with his heart.

Across from him, the pale man smirked.

"Now this is exciting," he said, flicking his wrist as a swirl of white mist danced up his sleeve and coiled behind his back. "You're not a vampire. But you're close."

Kai didn't respond. He didn't need to.

With a thought, his blood hardened into spears and launched forward.

The man moved.

Effortlessly.

Inhumanly fast.

The spears exploded against empty space as the man twirled aside, cloak billowing like a shadow. The mist solidified into claw-like extensions behind him, lashing outward.

Takeshi simply stepped aside, letting it all unfold without lifting his blade.

Kai was impressed. 'This guy's no joke.'

The manor groaned around them, dust falling from the ceiling with each impact, and somewhere in the background, Isaac screamed, "This dog beast is cheating! It keeps predicting my blinks!"

But they just ignored him as the real battle began...

-

Their clash continued with a single wordless movement - Kai darted forward, blood already boiling in his veins.

A scarlet javelin erupted from his palm mid-sprint, twisting like a living serpent as he hurled it toward the slender figure cloaked in drifting grey mist.

But the mist moved faster.

The figure's body blurred into smoke, flowing like water as the blood spear passed straight through. Then, from the fog, a long, needle-like blade formed - mist hardened and compressed until it looked almost metallic. It lashed out at Kai's ribs from behind.

"Tch-!"

Kai twisted just in time, using a burst of strength from flowing blood to his feet to burst out of the way. The mist blade sliced clean through his coat, narrowly missing flesh.

'He can shape the mist like I do with blood...' Kai realised, eyes narrowing as his Blood Vision burned scarlet. 'Only, his medium is even harder to pin down.'

"You are quite agile," the pale man said, stepping out from the mist with an overly theatrical bow. His voice was high-pitched but had an archaic elegance that clashed with his dishevelled appearance. Old, ornate noblewear that hung loose on his skinny frame like borrowed clothes from a bygone era.

"But I, too, am nimble. Forgive my dramatics - I've had no guests in many moons."

"You're one hell of a host," Kai replied dryly, forming twin crescent blades in either hand. Blood ran down his forearms, coiling into spinning discs that hovered near his shoulders like crimson moons.

"Ah, a fellow artist but of red," the mist man chuckled. "I ah never gave you mine name. Call me Iancu, if it pleases thee."

He swirled his fingers, and the mist began to spiral and thicken around them. It surged like a living beast, creating wolf-like heads and clawed arms that lunged for Kai from all sides.

'Blood constructs versus mist constructs. I've been here before…' Kai narrowed his eyes as he danced between the attacking forms, slicing through the fog with pinpoint precision. 'But this guy… he's not just throwing attacks. He's directing the flow like a conductor. He's reading my rhythm. And some of his constructs are just illusions.'

Kai flicked a finger, and sharp blood darts flew out, cutting through the air. But they fizzled uselessly through Iancu's mist body.

Then Iancu's voice came again, light and unhurried even as the battle intensified. "This power of mine... is not without price. Sun scorches mine skin. I walk alone in darkness. The animals, mine only friends, I refuse to feast upon. Hence..." He gestured to his bony frame. "Veganism."

Kai stared for half a beat. "...What?"

"And these garments?" Iancu spun with a flourish. "Found them in this manor! Leftover from, perhaps, some vampire cosplayer. Or mayhap real vampires! I know not! But they breathe quite well."

'What the hell is with mutants and monologues mid-fight?' Kai thought, parrying a lance of mist with a blood barrier. 'This guy must be one of the craziest I've come across yet. Still, I can learn from him. The way he flows… his control is next level.'

Iancu twirled, his feet barely touching the ground as his body dispersed into smoke, then reformed on a chandelier above. With a snap of his fingers, a barrage of mist shards fell from above like rain.

Kai raised a swirling blood shield overhead, the impacts making it shudder. Then he grinned.

"Nice tricks. But let me show you something new."

He stomped the ground and sent blood flooding out in a wave. Thin crimson threads split from it, dancing upward like tendrils of a rising tide.

'Control. That's what I'm lacking compared to this guy.' He focused harder, every droplet answering him with finer precision than before.

The two forces collided again - mist wolves versus blood serpents, foggy swords against liquid glaives. It was less a battle now and more a symphony of powers. Mist waltzed. Blood danced.

But Kai was being pushed.

'This isn't just about strength anymore. This is about finesse. Control. Depth of connection. He's not forcing the mist to obey… he's coaxing it.'

"Thine technique is beautiful," Iancu said from atop a ruined pillar. "Yet chaotic. Like an angry river! Mine flows as a whispering brook."

"I'll show you a damn tsunami!" Kai snapped back, unleashing a dozen spikes from his back that curved mid-air and shot toward Iancu.

The mist-man split apart again, evading each strike, and appeared behind Kai.

"Let us clash properly, crimson weaver," he said with a grin.

Their blades met.

Blood and mist clanged together, not quite steel, not quite liquid. Up close, the pressure was crushing.

Kai was faster, stronger - but Iancu was slipperier, more fluid in motion.

Neither could land a clean hit.

Blades clashed again and again, every strike deflected by a veil of mist or a burst of blood. The manor's walls cracked and groaned under the sheer force of their speed.

Takeshi stood far off, arms folded.

Though blindfolded, his head moved ever so slightly, following every movement like a hawk. Still, he did nothing.

Watching and waiting...

Suddenly, mist enveloped Kai.

A cage of dense fog snapped shut around his body like a bear trap, and from within it, a dozen needles formed, aimed for his vital points.

Too fast to dodge.

And it wasn't like he could phase out of it like Isaac.

So Kai...

"Graah!" he roared, bursting blood from every pore, turning the space into a red inferno. The mist hissed and swirled as blood scalded through it, dispersing the trap. But not before a single mist blade found purchase.

Shhk!

It pierced his abdomen.

Kai coughed, staggering slightly as warmth spilled down his side.

But he was smiling.

Iancu blinked. "Why dost thou smile?"

"I was waiting for an opportunity like this."

Kai noticed that while wielding mist constructs, the man couldn't disperse his body into mist.

As such, before Iancu could retreat, he clenched his hands, and the blood pouring from his wound exploded outward. It formed dozens of red splinters that shot in every direction.

The man recoiled, trying to disperse again, but one shard grazed his arm.

Just one.

That was all Kai needed.

Blood trickled from Iancu's arm.

And then it answered Kai's call.

His opponent's expression twisted. "Nay… thou-!"

The blood shimmered, snaked, and severed the connection to Iancu's control. It reformed mid-air into a cruel, jagged scythe.

Kai tightened his grip.

"Game over."

He swung, and the blood he now controlled, Iancu's blood, whipped around like a chain, lashing into his opponent's chest and yanking him to the ground.

The mist howled in protest.

But it was no longer responding to Iancu's call.

Kai stepped forward, eyes glowing with power. More tendrils burst from the ground, slamming into the man's limbs and pinning him down.

He was siphoning blood from his opponent, both adding to his artillery and weakening them. It sealed his victory as he stood over the pale man who wielded mist.

"I don't like people who talk too much during fights," he muttered. "But you weren't bad."

Iancu coughed, winded but smiling faintly. "Thou art… most ruthless… yet elegant. A true artist of crimson."

Kai looked down at him. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood."

The blood constructs held fast… but Kai let the final strike linger.

Then, after a couple of seconds, he released the shackles around the man, which baffled him. He hadn't expected to be spared so easily by his opponent, who leaked bloodthirst. There was also the swordsman, who seemed to be another capable mutant.

However, Kai had his reasons.

Firstly, the man didn't seem like a bad guy, which was something. They had also intruded on what seemed to be his home, so the reaction was understandable.

Moreover, the man hadn't even thought with the intent to kill, but Kai wouldn't have let that stop him from killing someone. Death held little weight to the Bloodweaver, and likely before he even mutated.

It was because of his very bloodlust that he decided not to end the man's life, as if in protest to one of the side-effects of his ability.

However, it seemed as though he might not have been able to kill him as easily as he would have wanted. The man dissipated into mist and reformed himself standing before Kai...

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