Meeting an Old Friend (Bonus)
The vast arena-sized space carries both basic seating and expensive private boxes to watch the cage built in the centre of the ring. Its once white mat was now stained a dull red from the dry blood, sweat and tears of fallen men, women and monsters alike!
A man stands above a fallen monster with long tubes with a sharp tip growing from its wrists.
This monster is a wraith—a creature that uses those hollow spikes to suck the brain matter from humans when they sleep from the soft spot on their neck.
Now, both those tubes covered in a slimy fluid were snapped while the middle-aged man with silver hair looked down on the young wraith with fierce silver eyes. To lose its way of feeding meant this wraith would die. There wasn't a second chance. He lost everything in the battle.
"Sorry, Kid, that's just how things go. You should never have insulted my wife or son." Ivan's slow, deep voice echoed through the hidden microphones, causing many of the females in the crowd to go wild with screams.
The men also cheered—some earned a killing the moment they saw his name. It was a done deal.
"The winner, and still undefeated! Ivan Volkov, the Invincible Silver!"
'What a stupid nickname…I used to be so stupid. Will Nikolai come up with something as embarrassing? I can't wait.'
Ivan jumped from the ring and ignored the announcer or even the ringside monsters who knew him well. Instead, he walked over to the Fenrir's private box. He knew exactly who Nikita was but never revealed her secret to his son because the young lass clearly loved him and wanted to hide it.
'I hope that now he is awakening, the two can at least be honest with each other…I am sick of pretending not to notice her sneaking into his room at night… How my idiot son is still a virgin, I don't know!'
"Excuse me, this is the Fenrir Clan's private box…could you…."
A young werewolf who looked terrified from Ivan's previous battle, yet he still tried to stop him despite trembling in fear his tail drooping. The scene made Ivan smile, because he remembered a young Nikolai scared of his mother one time he acted naughty.
"It's fine!" A deep, gruff voice echoed from inside, a slight growl coming from the male's voice.
However, Ivan didn't seem phased and just stepped inside. He gave a nod to the young doorman, who looked terrified. The big boss rarely spoke up while he enjoyed watching people fight in the arena, though he won big spending money on Ivan tonight.
"You did good, kid."
So probably wouldn't punish the young pup.
"Yo! If it isn't the 'invincible silver' and my old friend Ivan Volkov!" The boss of the Fenrir clan called out.
Inside, the room was quite luxurious but also a little tacky. When judged by Ivan's opinion, he looked around and nodded before sitting on the black couch facing the werewolf with silky white hair and an enormous body. "You're as uselessly big as always, Dmitri. Where is the actual leader, your lovely wife?" Ivan winked at his old friend.
"Oi…If you mention my lovely wife, no matter how long we've been friends, I might have to fight you!"
"Come on, Dmitri. If I didn't meet Eliza, then your wife Eva would have been mine, hahaha. You should thank your big brother for having the eye to avoid a psychopathic stalker who has issues with obsession."
There were several bald men with shades in the room. All of them trembled when hearing Ivan's words. Not because they felt offended, but all of them knew that the woman he spoke of would never let a man live if she heard.
No, she might even have placed a transmitter on Dmitri and was already en route to attack Ivan.
"B-Brother…there are things you can and cannot say… If Eva heard…" Dmitri's hard act crumbled, and he seemed genuinely worried, but of course, he was.
'Eva would never blame me because of what I did for her in the past. This guy knows she would only blame him, haha. Although I am old now and Eliza is gone, it's good things haven't changed too much…'
"Well, let's forget her. Now, I want information about the current state of the city, also new werewolves, squires and other news. You have it right, brother?"
The room became silent; it felt like their entire conversation up to this point was just a warmup or testing each other. The males in shades all bowed to the pair and began to bring various documents from the shelves and tables around the room without a word.
Dmitri just nodded, and they started working.
"Good men, you've taught them well, Dmitri."
"I used your tips. Will you really not return to the main family and lead your clan?" It sounded like, even now, the big boss wasn't Dmitri but Ivan.
"You know I chose to abandon that life when those bastards tried to kill Eliza and me if they learned about my son…The leeches in the family would use him as a breeding horse." Ivan began to scan the documents on the table, his eyes darting from one side to the other in a flash, reading entire pages in less than two seconds.
"Well, if not you. Then what about Nikolai? I have heard that Nikita seems to have followed him last night, and he killed more than eight VTs on his own in a matter of minutes."
"!!!" Ivan's eyes widened. He looked at Dmitri as if scanning him for the truth but found no traces of falsity. "My boy, killed eight Vampire Thralls? How…When did he awaken? Last night…the night before?!"
Ivan's temper and atmosphere changed instantly with his son, which made Dmitri smirk. He also felt the same about his daughter and could only watch his rival, best friend and idol looking like a brooding father with amusement for a few minutes before he pushed the report that his lovely daughter wrote the night before.
"Don't get so serious—it seems he awakened within the past two days, even though we were shocked at his talent. A partial transformation of his right hand and the ability to kill that many VTs. Ivan, he's probably better than you—no, I guarantee he will surpass you."
The documents were a little over the top, but Ivan could tell Nikita wasn't a liar or a girl who would make things up to make his son seem better. In fact, he could feel her honest shock and amazement at the report.
'This girl is really obsessed with Nikolai. I wonder if that dense idiot knows?'
However, then there was some strange data that he saw on another piece of paper, but Nikita did not write it. It seemed like high-level information that a broker clearly sold. Ivan knew this because the ID and stamp being was Tengu, a female that Ivan knew from his past, a good worker but very stingy. "Dmitri…"
'Why does it say that Nikolai became the Squire of Selene Tepes? When did this happen? Is it because I sent him there for help…No, that is the day after his alleged awakening, and this document mentions him fighting off a Faust Squire the night he was turned.'
Dmitri signalled for his boys to leave. It seemed the topic was important.
"For the record, brother, I have not let Nikita see this. Though the information seems like a lie, what Volkov or werewolf would serve a leech…However, I have confirmed it. Because he fought Sebastian in the Scarlet underground arena Earlier tonight."
"You're not joking? Did he win?" Ivan's aura exploded. He knew Sebastian, someone he trained personally—knowing his strength, he suddenly felt his stomach drop and wondered if his son was alright. Though the information only covered the Faust Squire, it said Nikolai barely won…and that was a one-year-old squire!
"There was a stipulation, you would never believe it, but I watched the match with Eva…We decided not to tell Nikita yet because we are already in a tough situation with the Hati upstarts taking advantage of the Volkov family's current state of being weakened."
"What stipulation?"
"Sebastian would kill Nikolai if he lost, though that was only known to the leaders of each clan. Vlad seems to have kept his grudge because you stole Elizabeth from him. Thus, your boy needed to wound Sebastian to win…Here. I have a recording. Watch and think about who he resembles."
In the room's corner was a large television which flicked on, a blood arena filled with vampires, all shouting and insulting his son…
Ivan's blood boiled watching his son being beaten, the sound of his bones breaking, listening to his pained breathing and groans…Then he saw it.
"Elizabeth?"
That's right, despite seeing the silver fur and claw, he saw it. How Elizabeth beat him in their countless duels…a frail body that struggled to move well. Yet she could dodge almost all of his attacks. He snapped towards Dmitri and saw the other's stern face before swallowing hard.
Dmitri knew that power was from his wife, a vampire. This meant he knew they broke the taboo and created a hybrid…Though mixed couples existed, thanks to modern science. Monsters could change the embryo to gain one of the family's traits and bloodlines.
Avoiding the death sentence of a hybrid.
This helped with both purity and deciding heirs, which became useful to the noble and royal clans.
"What do you want, for me to hide his origins and who he got that power from…"
"I want you to keep fighting, and unless his life is in danger, do not get involved. Although I might look stupid and cat dumb I know my daughter is crazy about your boy. However, we are currently being suppressed by the Hati family, who are obsessed with tying our bloodlines. That's why I want to test your boy, to give him a chance; before it is too late, I will arrange everything."
"…How did the Hati family rise so far? They were just a third-rate family twenty years ago." Ivan muttered while thinking about his son, watching the last strike and the face of the Tepes princess. 'It seems she isn't forcing him, and tried to cancel the match when he got hurt. Just like her mother, with a cold exterior and a soft heart like a marshmallow.'
Dmitri passed some documents and then started talking. "About the Hati Clan…"