The group of fifteen halfling children, who were done picking themselves up around the red-headed woman, reacted to Lucas with hostility.
"Shall we attack him as a team?" one of them suggested.
"Absolutely! We outnumber him fifteen to one!" another chimed in.
"I'll tear off his neck!" added a particularly fierce young halfling.
Lucas didn't mind the small fries because he knew none of them was a match for him.
Even though they were halflings, aside from being a little faster and stronger than the normal children, they had nothing.
They didn't pose a threat to him, especially with his armor. At most, they were a distraction.
"Don't!" seeing the way Lucas was emotionlessly gazing at the children, the red-headed woman yelled a warning. "Do not stay to fight! Run all of you!"
"But–!"
Before one of the halflings could argue, Reina cut him off.
"It's an order!" she roared with her eyes glowing in an ominous red shine. "Run!"
"Tsk!"
Since it was an order from her – the vampire who bit them – their bodies couldn't help but oblige.
"Now, now. Do you really think I'll let you run?" Lucas, who had been quiet till now, summed his Edit Pen from his smart bracelet and pointed at the children.
Before any of them could react, he swiftly waved the pen in the air as if writing on an invisible surface, and suddenly the halflings fell to their knees.
"Heik!!"
"Wh-What's going on?!"
"It… It's heavy! I feel heavy!"
"It's our clothes! They suddenly weigh a ton!"
The last kid was right.
Suddenly the weight of their clothes was increased to the point where it would've crushed a normal child their age.
Lucas had used his Edit Pen on their clothes to achieve that.
Mary, who had been standing behind the red-headed woman, cried out in concern for her friends. "Guys! Are you alright?!"
But before she could run to their aid, the woman stepped in front of her. "Stay behind me! That guy is dangerous! He's using some kind of unknown gravity magic!"
Lucas' eyes moved to Mary.
He saw her bright orange hair and matching eyes, as well as her healthy complexion and full cheeks.
Unlike the halflings, she wasn't sickly, and her eyes weren't glowing.
"Is that girl a halfling too?" he asked, but he soon realized that this was not the case.
Mary was human, not a halfling like the rest of the children here.
"She's definitely not a halfling," Lucas thought to himself out loud, stroking his chin.
But then why was she following a vampire around? Not to mention, judging by how they both were interacting, Lucas could guess that they had become fairly close.
None of this wasn't mentioned in the story.
All that the novel said was Reina grabbed a 'sacrifice' meant for the Vampire Monarch for herself and ran after fighting her own kind.
Lucas just assumed that after that, she must've devoured the 'sacrifice.' But if she didn't, then there was no reason for Mary to keep following Reina around.
She must've gotten several chances to escape when Reina was on the verge of death. But she didn't.
Why? There was only one reasonable explanation that Lucas could come up with. Maybe Reina had mind-controlled Mary to follow her.
But why would she do that?
What would she get out of carrying a burden around? Why did she just not straight out devour her?
And why did she risk being executed just to have one girl? Was there anything special about Mary?
As these questions filled his mind, Lucas turned to the red-headed woman and demanded, "Have you compelled that girl? Why haven't you bitten her? Why did you keep her around?"
"Who are you?!" but instead of answering him, Reina shot back with a voice dripping in venom and her eyes narrowing in rage. "How dare you come here and threaten my children?!"
"Arghh. Your children? That's what you call the people you turn?" Lucas shot a judging glare. "Damn that Joe, couldn't he have come up with something less cringe?"
Naturally, Reina had no idea what this guy was mumbling, so she repeated her question, this time with more hostility.
"I asked you something! Who are you?!" she raged. "Who sent you? Is it your military? Are they sending kids to war now? Well, they had been doing that for a while–"
Cutting her off, Lucas started speaking. "Okay, first, I'm not a kid. I'm eighteen. Secondly, no one sent me. I came here all by myself."
"Don't lie!" Reina was obviously skeptical of Lucas' words. "How did you find me?"
Rolling his eyes, Lucas lifted his spear and pointed it at the red-headed woman.
It was clear that she had no intention of answering his questions, and he was far too busy to answer hers.
"Can you please just stop with all these boring questions," he said, infusing mana into his spear as it started glowing scarlet.
He then shot a mocking grin, "Besides, what's the point of answering someone who's going to die in a few minutes anyway."
Nerves popped up on Reina's forehead as she gritted her teeth again. "This is the first time I've been provoked to kill a kid. Fine, if you want to die so badly, then so be it!"
As soon as she said that, she closed her eyes and her body started convulsing violently as bones cracked and shifted under her skin.
Her muscles bulged and her skin stretched, making way for the emerging monstrous form.
Her hands contorted, and long, razor-sharp claws burst out from her fingertips. Her canines elongated into fangs, and her skin became as dark as night.
Her cheeks sank in, and her eyes turned an eerie shade of red as her pupils grew vertical, giving her a predatory gaze.
The air around her grew heavy with an overwhelming sense of danger, and her once-alluring appearance was replaced with a terrifying visage.
She then opened her mouth and spoke in a horrific demonic voice, "Who's about to die?"
"Damn," Lucas shrugged his shoulders.
If that's what she's like without her full powers, he wouldn't want to imagine what she would look like with it.
But still, not a speck of fear was present on the silver-haired boy's face. It was as if he knew his victory was certain. For some reason, this made the former Vampire King worry.
"Anyway, if your dramatic transformation has ended, why don't you listen to my proposal?" Lucas suggested. "You have a mythical beast egg in your possession, right? Give me that egg and I will spare your life. I won't even alert the military police."
"What?" listening to the boy, Reina raised her eyebrows in surprise. "How do you know about that? Who are you?!"
"Doesn't matter," Lucas shook his head. "What does matter is, if you want to live, hand that over to me. I'll let you go and won't tell anyone about you. Be thankful that I'm generous."
"Ha!" the vampire scoffed before speaking, "I don't know how you found out about me or the egg, but you're crazy to think I'll hand over a mythical beast to you! A mere human!"
"Yeah, well, I kind of thought you would say that," Lucas shrugged. "Well, it's fine. I'm done stalling for time. They should be recharged by now."
"Stalling for time? What are you—!!"
Before the vampire could complete her sentence, Lucas brought out a remote from her pocket and pressed a button on it.
Kwshiiing—!!!
Two flash bombs lay scattered on the ground, their glow intensifying before they exploded in a blinding flash of light.
Lucas had saved two of the five bombs, knowing he might need them to create an opportunity later on. As he had hoped, the explosion left an opening.
"Arghhh!" Reina winced in pain and shielded her eyes as the light hit her.
Despite feeling like her skin was on fire, she quickly opened her eyes and searched for Lucas, only to find him gone.
Confused, she scanned the area until she sensed something above her.
".....?!!"
Looking up, she saw Lucas descending towards her, his silver hair gleaming and his spear poised for a strike.
