Royce and Autumn had been grappling with Kitty for nearly an hour. With Royce's phone battery nearly drained, Ethan had no choice but to end the livestream with regret.
The battle remained deadlocked. It was clear that both sides were equally inexperienced in combat.
Autumn had both speed and strength. Her reflexes showed she had undergone proper training. Her only weakness was her fear of Kitty's dangling, elongated tongues.
Kitty's tongues and body seemed like separate entities. They appeared to have a consciousness of their own, and it seemed the tongues' will overpowered that of the main body.
And those tongues had a peculiar fascination with Autumn. They swirled and toyed around her, forcing her to dart from one spot to another in retreat.
Royce had managed to leap onto Kitty's back. But the pride and dignity of a Vampire stopped him from sinking his fangs deeper into Kitty's throat. As a result, the blood loss Kitty suffered was negligible.
"Royce! Are your fangs just for show or what? Use them like a real Vampire!"
"Autumn! What's so scary about some tentacles? Grab them, tie them up, and bring them down! What would your mom say if she saw you like this?"
"Oh my god! What the hell are you guys doing? It's just one weak dog and you still haven't dealt with it. Stop fooling around and fight seriously!"
Ethan called out from a distance, urging his friends.
And Ethan's heart nearly stopped when all three Vampires - two humanoid, one beastly - suddenly froze and turned to glare at him like they were about to devour him. Even Kitty seemed offended by Ethan's comment on her strength.
"Why don't you come in here and fight if you're so great?"
Royce shouted, his body shimmering in the moonlight from sweat - and the slime from Kitty's skinless body.
"If you're scared, then just run away. But stop acting like a backseat commander - it's annoying!"
Autumn screamed, narrowly dodging a tongue that nearly caught her.
"Hey! Autumn! What if you let one of Kitty's tongues suck a bit of your cursed blood? I bet she'll get poisoned and weakened, and we can take her down more easily."
"Noooo!"
Both Ethan and Autumn cried out, instantly rejecting Royce's idea.
Ethan recalled the battle in the dark alley with that strange Vampire girl a week ago. When she drank Autumn's blood - that bloodthirsty Vampire had been in so much pain that she had to flee, leaving Autumn behind with blood gushing from her neck like a stream.
(Cursed blood, huh?)
Ethan's cold rational mind agreed that Royce's idea was tactically sound. But his emotional heart said NO. Ethan could never bring himself to put Autumn in danger - even though she had told him about the incredible vitality of Vampires.
Ethan stepped closer to the battlefield and started giving out specific instructions like a boxing coach.
"Royce! You go deal with Kitty's tongues. Leave the DOG-BITING part to Autumn."
Royce let out a breath of relief. He immediately jumped down to the ground and tried to draw Kitty's tongues toward himself.
And then, Royce's muscular body was tightly wrapped in layers by Kitty's tentacle-like tongues. A few of the tongue tips, filled with teeth like lampreys, latched onto Royce's body.
Royce's handsome face suddenly contorted in pain. It seemed like the tongues were draining his blood. In the end, Royce couldn't escape the fate of being sucked dry by a female Vampire.
"What the hell are you taking pictures of, Ethan?!"
Royce yelled in protest just before the tentacles overwhelmed him.
Royce's phone still had 20% battery left, so Ethan took the chance to snap a few legendary shots of him.
There are plenty of female fans with unusual tastes. Who knows? Pictures of a hot guy wrapped in long octopus-like tongues might make Royce a lot of money. He'd definitely thank Ethan for it someday.
Now free from the tentacles, Autumn was back in serious battle mode. Kitty's bull-like neck had been shredded to pieces by Autumn's bite. The ground beneath Kitty was now soaked in thick, dark red blood.
Kitty began to tremble and stagger around in her own blood puddle.
With her tough claws, Autumn drove her hand straight through Kitty's body. A moment later, she ripped out Kitty's heart from her chest.
The mutated Chihuahua collapsed to the ground like a rotten tree trunk - dragging Royce down along with her, still tangled in the tongues.
"That's it! Crush it!"
Ethan continued cheering from the sidelines.
In the darkness, Kitty's heart was emitting a faint glow, highlighting its veins in vivid detail. And somehow, it was as if the heart knew its impending fate. It throbbed wildly and erratically in Autumn's small hand.
"I… I can't…"
Autumn's shimmering brown eyes, usually clear like a lake in mid-autumn, began to glisten. Whenever she was emotional - or pretending to be - the tears would rise just to the brink of her eyes, only to vanish the moment she got what she wanted.
A few hours ago, up on the rooftop of the mini apartment building, Ethan had felt those warm tears soak into his chest. Thinking back now, he even found her fear of tentacles somewhat amusing.
But right now, having to see those big, round, enchanting brown eyes of hers overflowing with tears - Ethan felt an unbearable tightness in his chest.
"… Kitty… She was still a living being. It's my fault for not injecting the AntiVamp in time and letting her turn into a Feral Vampire…"
Autumn choked out between sobs. Her tears flowed uncontrollably down her round cheeks.
"… Kitty has never killed anyone. I don't have any right to end her life."
"… Autumn, do you remember how Kitty drained those pet dogs and cats earlier? What if those had been people instead? We have no way of turning Kitty back to normal, do we?"
"I know… but…"
Autumn kept sobbing. Her hands, still holding Kitty's blood-soaked heart, were trembling. She simply couldn't bring herself to clench her fingers and finish the job.
"Royce?"
Ethan called out. He hoped Royce would have a tougher heart than Autumn.
"Don't look at me! I'm out! You do it!"
Royce had broken free from Kitty's tongues. He bolted toward the beach, frantically trying to scrub off the blood and sticky slime from his body.
All of Kitty's tongues had fallen off. No new ones were sprouting from her mouth. The dog lay on the ground, whimpering pitifully.
Ethan sighed.
He walked up beside Autumn and gently placed both his hands on her petite shoulders, which were trembling in waves.
"Autumn…"
Ethan had meant to find some words to encourage her to finish the task. But the moment she lifted her tear-filled eyes to look at him, he was drawn so deeply into them that he completely forgot what he was going to say.
From that moment on, Ethan realized - if someday Autumn asked to rip his heart out of his chest for no reason at all…
… he would willingly offer it, without asking for anything in return.