Aidou didn’t prefer relying on a personal weapon, but he also didn’t prefer relying on such base attacks if he could help it, and normally he could… in normal situations, in normal times, when he had his full range of abilities to call upon. This was just disgusting, having more congealed blood on his hands. It ranked up there with the night Akatsuki had… the night Aidou had killed his doppelganger, because he knew things were only going to get much worse. Every ounce of energy he had, he’d no doubt need.

Landel had seen to limiting his capacities like the bastard were lobotomizing an animal, but Aidou hadn’t felt the impact in quite such a way as this. And that was a mindset he couldn’t fall into, because he would not be rattled and he would not let himself think of failure.

Of what it would mean to be overwhelmed by this… army of undead.

The first zombie was making an effort to regain its feet despite the gash in its throat oozing dark, rank blood, and the vampire kicked it in the head. Hard. He was going to make it out of this, damn it. He’d trump everything Landel threw at him. The stuttering figure behind him was another story, though. The other hadn’t entirely been forgotten, and Aidou turned just as the other stumbled, needing to clutch the creaky wood for support. The vampire could still smell his blood, even with the cloy of the dead stuff all around him.

But exactly who was the predator and who was the prey anymore? Those things were out for blood, too.

“You can’t fight,” was the addition to Hanatarou’s statement. It wasn’t a question. If the undead creatures had gotten their hands on him before Aidou had, they certainly would have done more than given him a nosebleed. That was also a fact in the noble’s mind. “The next time you might not be so lucky. They’re still in here, and more will probably come.”