The Devil's Cage

When Kieran’s voice subsided, his figure vanished.

It was too quick!

His speed had exceeded the limits of the naked eye!

No one in the lobby saw Kieran’s move clearly, even for Wier who had his eyes on Kieran the entire time.

Even though Wier knew something terrible was happening when he saw Kieran’s smile, he was still too slow.

“Hurry up! Go after him!”

Trying to make up for his mistakes, Wier sprinted out faster than the youngest members. The other Spec Ops member quickly followed suit.

Mier, however, stayed behind, she would not participate in this chase for Kieran.

In fact, the chase looked extremely stupid from Mier’s point of view.

The situation reeked of conspiracy, and yet her grandfather stepped into it just like that, it was very disappointing for her.

“Sometimes, we are forced against our will,” Lagren suddenly sighed.

“But we also should hold our bottom lines,” Mier said.

“How do you know Wier didn’t hold his? He always has been, it’s just that you don’t recognize his methods.”

“Want a drink?” Lagren raised his beer mug.

Mier took a glance. Just when she wanted to nod, continuous gunshots suddenly came from outside the hotel.

Bang!

Amidst the gunshots, a loud explosion went off.

The explosion was so massive that it shook the floor of the hotel, dazzling flames outside the door lighted up the lobby brightly.

Mier dashed out like a gale.

Lagren frowned again.

“Seems like there are some bastards playing tricks here.”

“But at this timing…”

Lagren went into deep thought as he figured something out.

…

After leaving the hotel, Kieran hid in the shadows on the street outside the hotel in a flash. He saw Wier and his team chase after him but missed and went further away. Kieran then slowly walked along with the shadows.

Fuu!

A cold wind suddenly approached Kieran. It was like any other wind, except for the coldness and gloominess.

Other people might instinctively neglect the gloomy wind, but for Kieran, any kind of abnormality would raise an alarm, let alone the fact that he was prepared for this.

Bang!

Kieran launched a kick at the wind. His kick landed precisely in the middle, kicking the formless wind into form and a human figure fell out from mid-air.

The figure with red eyes was shocked, it didn’t know how Kieran noticed its presence, but it knew its ambush plan had failed.

More importantly, it had to run if it wanted to live.

Its chest caved in, its organs were crushed into goo by the tremendous impact, and yet the Blood Kin didn’t seem hurt at all, it still wanted to stand up; Kieran was faster.

Without a second thought, when Kieran realized the Blood Kin was still breathing, he delivered another stomp on its head.

Bang!

Its head was crushed, and its brain splattered all over.

After a few twitches from its body, it stopped moving on the ground, but the battle was far from over.

Like a falling domino, after the Blood Kin died, more of its kind appeared at the end of the street. Each of them was equipped with firearms and were looking at Kieran ferociously; they pulled the trigger.

Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak!

Bullets were fired at Kieran like a downpouring of rain.

The concentrated and effective Bulletstorm proved that these Blood Kins had trained for this kind of situation countless times, but no matter how many times they trained, they were still lackluster against Kieran.

The moment the Blood Kins pulled the triggers, Kieran had already left the bullets’ range. He waved his left hand and activated [Wilco’s Redemption] with a shine.

Sou Sou!

Two icy javelins were fired towards the Blood Kins and plunged into their chests.

Bang Bang!

Two icy-cold explosions of a 3-meter radius range exploded upon impact, covering the entire street entrance.

The Blood Kins in the middle of the icy explosions were turned into ice statues, the others beside the blast point were also being frozen rapidly.

The gunshots abruptly stopped just as they had appeared.

The only proof of gunshots in the area was the smell of gunpowder that lingered in the air.

Kieran walked over to the ice statues, as though he was going to clean the battlefield, but when he got close to the sculptures—

Kaboom!

A massive explosion went off.

Few hundred kilograms of explosives blasted half the street into ruins. The ice statues that were caught in the explosions were shattered into pieces by the impact, and the buildings were destroyed and turned into debris, flying upwards into the sky.

“Monster Hunter? So what? The days of wielding knives and swords are over! Even a Monster Hunter has to die in front of explosives!”

Amidst the mockery, the Blood Kin who set up the trap walked out from the shadows at the other end of the street. Its hand was still holding the detonator.

It merely threw the detonator away and was ready to leave.

It didn’t want to encounter the Spec Ops members that would return because of the explosions. Besides, it was eager to receive its reward from the house leader.

However, just when the Blood Kin turned around, a hand reached out from the shadow at its flank and dragged it into the shadows.

…

“Thank you all for coming.”

Inside House of K’s old lair, Erbus. K was holding a dinner to commemorate the person responsible for the successful plan.

Following the pleasant musical performance, silver plates with all sorts of cuisine were being served on the long table. Almost a dozen of dishes were served, but more plates were coming.

One after another, the well-dressed waiters walked beside the banquet table respectfully and humbly.

High Demon Blood Mary scanned over these waiters.

They weren’t Blood Kins, but humans.

Humans that chose to submit to the Blood Kins, or more precisely, humans that were trained by them.

Bloody Mary wasn’t interested in the story behind these humans, just like it wasn’t interested in the musical performance.

It also showed no interest in the food served on the table.

Although Bloody Mary could transform into Kieran, it didn’t mean it possessed the same appetite as him.

What caught Bloody Mary’s interest was the Marquis K in front.

Marquis K was precisely as Bloody Mary’s contractor had expected: it was conspiring against Kieran.

However, there was one thing that Kieran didn’t expect, and when Bloody Mary thought of the shocking expression on Kieran’s face, it couldn’t hold back its soft grin.

Erbus. K, however, seemed to misunderstand the grin at Bloody Mary’s face.

He too showed a smile and raised his glass, that was filled with blood, the freshest kind.

Bloody Mary just witnessed a little girl get dragged in like a ragdoll, had her wrist sliced and filled the glass with blood.

“A toast,” Marquis K said.

“Mm. A toast.” Bloody mary raised its glass as well but… it threw it on the floor instead.

The glass didn’t break. The thick carpet softened the impact, but the wine inside splashed all over.

The dining hall instantly fell into silence.

The musical performances stopped playing; the waiters stopped serving.

Panicked, they watched Bloody Mary stand up from the chair and slowly walked towards Erbus. K.

Bloody Mary bent over, looking at Marquis Erbus. K for almost 30 seconds before it asked, “Who are you?”