Arc 1; Nosferatu

"Who in their right mind would refuse a drink from a pretty woman like you, Miss Lena?", Xed replied.

Lena was a beautiful woman in her early thirties with blue eyes and dark red hair and a well-proportioned body with very athletic legs.

" I am Xed." Xed said after taking another sip from his cocktail.

"Very unique eyes you got there, Mr. Xed. You don't see a red eye nowadays." Lena let out a small smile and continued, " Red eyes like the vampires and a very handsome one at that."

Her eyes were sparkling when she uttered the word vampire.

" Don't joke, Miss Lena! How could I be a vampire? I was born with red eyes. Though the red color deepened since then." Xed answered back.

" Hm, maybe. I have never heard of anyone, even a human or vampire born with red eyes. Guess there is a first for everything then, huh? Red eyes are only seen in people practicing blood element or vampires."

Xed himself knew that he was born with red eyes. After every cycle of life he killed, the color deepened and darkened, until it reached the point where the change became barely noticeable.

"You look like someone who knows a lot about vampires, Miss Lena even though you are clearly not a local."

" I read a lot of books. So what are you doing here, handsome?"

"Well, I just came for some sightseeing and stuff. You, Miss Lena?"

" Me too. I like vampires a lot. So I thought I would visit the home of the Great Dracula, you know, just out of curiosity."

"Don't you think that will be dangerous?"

"I am a professional human mage too, I can look after myself."

Xed smiled and stood up as he finished his drink.

"Nice meeting you Miss Lena. Hope fate permits me to meet this gorgeous beauty again."

Xed placed a small kiss at the back of her palm.

" We may meet again sooner than you think, Mr. Xed." Lena giggled and replied.

Xed soon left the bar after settling his bills.

Since the night was still young and the air was fresh, Xed decided to take a stroll to the nearby inn rather than taking a taxi.

As he walked through an empty road, he heard a faint growling sound from behind. Xed smiled widely and turned back.

'How exciting!', Xed singled out the sound to deep within an alley nearby.

He then walked deeper and deeper into the alley, brimming with the excitement of meeting a new species.

He finally spotted the creature. The creature resembled a human but had orange eyes and two long canines extended from his mouth, biting onto a dead young male. A glimmer of insanity was visible in those eyes.

Xed watched as the creature sucked the corpse until it shriveled into something that resembled a mummy. It then turned to Xed and let out a deep growl.

Xed was happy beyond mentioning. Even though he spotted some nonhumans among the peoples inside the bar, he didn't bother since they weren't hostile.

But now was a different case.

He could feel the hostility oozing out of the creature.

The creature lunged towards Xed but he caught it by its neck with his lightning-fast reflexes.

He raised the creature up the air and tilted him back and forth, analyzing him from top to bottom like a butcher examining his victim.

He then started mumbling to himself.

"Hmm, You are clearly not a vampire. What are you then?"

"guargh!!"

"Are you the famed Nosferatu that I spotted in the books?"

"guargh!!!"

" I thought so! Humans who failed to become vampires, losing their sanity and control in the process, living as slaves to the vampires. Interesting indeed. You only have your instincts left."

"guargh!!!"

" All the nonhumans I have seen in the bar have souls. I guess the Dracula myth may not be entirely true."

After muttering to himself a few more times, he turned to the Nosferatu and said, " Inspection is over. Aren't you happy? It's time for tests!!!!"

As if it could sense a bad foreboding feeling from the person holding it, it struggled to escape the grasp and started to whimper softly instead of its growl.

Xed smiled sweetly in return and said, " Let's start with a fire test."

As he finished speaking, a huge ball of fire encased the creature and burnt it.

" Combustible. Exaggerated reactions than humans!!"

After the fire left the creature to a near-death state, Xed healed the creature and continued,

" Cold test!"

" Rock test!"

" Thunder test!"

" Choking test!"

" Water test!"

" Light test!"

.....

.....

" Dropped from 1000 ft test!"

.....

" Onion test??"

.....

" Stab test!"

With each passing test, the whimper of the creature died down slowly and it's eyes began to lose its brutality.

As he finished with all his tests, Xed finally killed the Nosferatu by stabbing his heart and laid out his conclusions.

Nosferatu flesh was no different from human flesh except its exaggerated response to fire and light. They died quickly by stabbing their heart and was reduced to ashes. Onions and Silver also don't have any special effects as specified in some books.

Their blood was special and could absorb vitality from other blood. More pure the special blood, the stronger the absorption was

To make more conclusions, Xed decided to compare it to vampires the next time he catches one.

Xed then returned to his search of an inn and soon left the alley.

************

After some time, an unknown silhouette entered the same valley where Xed killed the Nosferatu.

Seeing the ashes scattered on the ground, the silhouette grumbled,

" Interesting! Someone managed to kill the Nosferatu before I found it."

Note : Even though Xed can find everything about the vampires within seconds with his divine power, he won't do so. He will be living for a long time, maybe millions of years, until the time comes for him to do his duty. So he will be wasting time doing whatever he wants until then.