Amidst the anguished and startled screams, the remaining swarm of bats dared not come near Alex again.
After a brief, chaotic swirl, they reformed into the figure of Dracula.
But this time, Dracula's face and body were covered in gruesome burns from the laser beams, looking absolutely horrifying.
More importantly, the regenerative abilities that had once been his pride were clearly slowing down!
Alex's heat vision was a deadly weapon against Dracula—so much so that the vampire lord visibly flinched at the thought of it.
"You're not human… what are you?"
Dracula's voice rang out, laced with shock and dread as he stared at Alex.
"Let's just say… I'm not the walking dead," Alex replied with a casual shrug.
Dracula's expression twitched slightly. That brat was clearly calling him a corpse to his face!
Physiologically speaking, Dracula wasn't exactly alive, but for vampires, having their undead nature mocked so directly was deeply offensive—a pointed insult.
Still, insult or not, what could he do about it now?
He couldn't beat the guy anyway!
"What are you staring at? Hand over the ring! Or I'll blast your undead head clean off!"
Alex's voice rang out again, this time with a fierce command, his tone utterly unrestrained.
Since they had already torn off the mask of civility, Alex had no reason to be polite. He didn't bother hiding his intentions anymore.
Dracula's chest heaved, his entire body trembling faintly from sheer rage.
He was the second-generation progenitor of the vampire race—a being of immense status and power—yet here he was, being insulted and threatened by some upstart kid?
Dracula was furious—truly, deeply, irrepressibly furious.
"You really should learn to respect your elders," he spat coldly.
With a sudden gesture, he raised both arms—
A bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky, aimed straight at Alex.
But at that exact moment, Alex vanished like a phantom, reappearing at another location in a blur of motion.
The lightning missed, slamming into the ground with a deafening roar.
In the same instant, beams of searing heat erupted from Alex's eyes and shot toward Dracula.
To vampires, Alex's heat vision was as lethal as garlic, wooden stakes, or silver.
Even with accelerated healing, Dracula wouldn't dare take it head-on.
Dracula zipped around like a shadow, dodging left and right, leaping and flickering to escape the deadly beams—looking completely out of sorts.
To be fair, Dracula's physical abilities—strength, speed—were far beyond any normal human.
Without his vampire attributes, he'd still qualify as a full-fledged superhuman.
But unfortunately for him…
He just wasn't fast enough.
At best, he could reach about 100 meters per second.
Against Alex, that didn't even count as an advantage.
A smirk curled Alex's lips. Activating his super-speed, he chased after Dracula, unleashing blast after blast of his heat vision in relentless pursuit.
Dracula didn't sit idly by. As he dodged, he summoned bolts of lightning in return, hurling them at Alex.
But lightning wasn't nearly as agile as heat vision.
Every time Dracula wanted to call down a strike, he had to perform a specific summoning motion—telegraphing his attacks like flashing neon signs.
In that case, how could he ever land a hit on Alex?
With a flicker of motion, Alex sidestepped a lightning bolt.
The next instant, his heat vision struck Dracula squarely.
Dracula stumbled and crashed to the ground.
Alex didn't let up. Seizing the opening, he blurred to Dracula's side in a flash.
His eyes glowed crimson as he stared down at the fallen vampire.
He raised his hand. "The ring."
Dracula's face twisted with fury, the rage in his eyes nearly tangible.
Never—never—had he been so utterly humiliated!
"You want this ring?" he growled. "Fine. Take it then."
After a few moments of silence, Dracula's expression finally calmed. He shrugged and casually tossed the ring toward Alex.
Something about how easily he gave it up struck Alex as odd.
This guy was the dignified second-generation progenitor of vampires—shouldn't he be putting up more of a fight?
Still, Alex didn't think too hard about it. On instinct, he reached out and caught the ring.
It was his objective all along, after all.
Even if Dracula was planning something, the first step was getting the ring.
But the moment Alex caught it—
A strange, indescribable force surged out of the ring, invading his body like a tidal wave!
At the same time, the once-dim ring lit up again—its glow blazing with eerie brilliance.
Alex was completely caught off guard.
He didn't know exactly what was happening, but one thing was clear—this couldn't be anything good.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dracula smirking with a look of smug satisfaction.
It clicked instantly.
Alex tried to fling it away, but to his shock, it was as if the ring had been glued to his hand—completely immovable.
He tried using his other hand to pry it off, but his strength was absorbed into the ring like it was being swallowed whole.
"It's useless. Once a curse begins, there's no breaking it with brute force."
Dracula's voice was filled with delight as he laughed heartily. "This is fate! Embrace your destiny—welcome to the Undead!"
But Alex wasn't listening to Dracula's gloating.
Instead, in this critical moment, he calmed himself.
If brute force didn't work, then it was time to call on his cheat code.
"Extract energy source!"
Alex gave a firm command to his system.
[Extraction complete!]
[Congratulations, Host! 276 Source Points acquired!]
A series of notifications flashed through his mind.
Almost instantly, the glowing ring dimmed again.
The invasive force that had been pouring into him vanished—completely drained by the system.
Alex let out a long breath of relief.
That was a close one.
That cursed moment had definitely been the stuff of nightmares.