Taylor and Hanz casually approach the lone cabin in the middle of the field. It stood amidst an endless field of tall grass with no roads in sight. This was where the stage 7 demon was hiding.

As Taylor walks forward, his senses detected a trace of magic appear for an instant before disappearing.

“Ah, I think he got us.” Taylor says. He wasn’t too worried about getting caught with Hanz here, but now they had to watch out for a struggle.

Hanz stares into the field, seeing something beyond his vision. “Ah, he's running. You better go after him, Taylor.” He says nonchalantly.

Taylor raises an eyebrow. “Me? Why don’t you run after him? He’d probably kill me if I did it.” Taylor admits. He was only on the sixth stage. He knew better than to run after an old and experienced stage 7 demon.

“Don’t worry so much about it. Just chase after him. Ah- There he goes. Go, I’ll watch over you.” Hanz says with an urging gesture.

Taylor lets out a sigh before a flame engulfs his body. “Fine. But if I die, I’ll haunt you for the rest of my undead life.” He says mean-spiritedly as the air compressed beneath his feet. Suddenly, Taylor shot up into the sky, flying and crossing the distance to the cabin within an instant. Taylor pauses and opens his third eye to detect the lingering energy before flying off in a direction, following the demon’s tracks. Taylor chased as fast as he could but he couldn’t catch up, and oddly enough he wasn’t losing distance. Taylor suddenly thinks of something before gathering his senses to search his surroundings. Fuck, Hanz isn’t anywhere near here! This bastard is trying to get an easy kill! Taylor grumbles before deciding to hurry back.

But before he could fly off in the opposite direction the demon appears before him. Taylor stares blankly, watching as the demon simply smiles before feeling a heavy impact to his gut. Taylor was sent flying a kilometer away before shooting to the ground like a meteor. As Taylor helplessly rolls on the ground from the lingering impact, he could feel something acidic on his skin. Taylor takes a quick look at his stomach and sees that there was something eating away at his skin as it turned the surrounding flesh green. “Fuck.” Taylor exclaims.

The stage 7 demon ignores the flame that had caught on his hand and lunges forward once again, deciding to go for the killing blow.

But as he rushes forward, a red, missle-like projectile formed from energy hit him mid-air before going through his body and flying into the distance. Fuck. The demon exclaims. That bastard is still around. He thinks before letting out a groan of frustration and bolting away, his senses heightened to the max to watch out for any incoming attacks. He also made sure that he had a clear attack trajectory to Taylor. If that bastard tries anything… I won’t be going alone… He thinks with firm determination.

Luckily for the demon, another shot was not fired and he was able to run away. Whether Hanz sensed the danger for Taylor or whether he was simply too lazy to care was unknown. The demon only cared about living to see the next day.

Taylor continues to roll back and forth on the ground, from the churning feeling of being hit in the gut and also the acidic poison that was eating away at his skin. Worse yet, he felt that whatever that thing was, it was traveling through his blood stream, causing all of Taylor’s insides to feel like it was burning.

Suddenly, Hanz was before him. He looks to Taylor’s state and lets out a sigh. Hanz holds his wrist up to his mouth and takes a bite. As the blood flows freely from his arm, Hanz lets it hover over Taylor’s wound. Hanz’s blood soaks into Taylor’s skin, and like the poison, it also began to move through Taylor’s body.

Taylor watches this with wide eyes. “Woah, woah. You aren’t trying to turn me into a vampire, are you?” Taylor asks, somewhat worried. Although his mind wasn’t closed off to the idea, it still wasn’t something he would decide on if he was given the freedom to.

Hanz tilts his head and considers the idea. “Although, yes, I would love to have you as one of my own, Taylor, and yes, this step would be involved in the process, you’re sort of a special case. In a normal case, a cultivator’s energy would be sufficient to stop the process, depending on the stage difference, and yes, my eighth stage blood would be sufficient to turn you into a vampire, but… sometimes things aren’t so simple…” Hanz says as he looks at Taylor with a deep gaze.

Taylor feels Hanz watching him and raises an eyebrow. “What is it? Am I or am I not going to turn into a vampire?” He asks, still somewhat worried.

Hanz lifts his gaze from Taylor and lets out a sigh. “No, you aren’t. I can feel the world’s presence in your energy, and the presence is strong. For some reason it wants to keep you from me. I doubt it would allow your vampirication. At least, without your consent.” He says as his mind ponders the possibilities.

Eventually, Hanz’s wound heals, and Taylor’s, likewise, was also beginning to heal with the assistance from Hanz’s blood.

“Anyways, it doesn’t change a thing. We’re blood brothers now, Taylor.” Hanz says with a smile.

Taylor lets himself collapse onto the ground and exhale a breath. “Wouldn’t some of my blood have to be in your system?” He asks casually, not really caring about the answer.

Hanz smiles. “We’ll go through that step when you’re ready, my love.” He says as he leans down and reaches his hand out.

Taylor lets out a sigh and grabs onto Hanz’a hand, allowing himself to be pulled up. Maybe one day… Taylor thinks to himself.