“Why didn’t you try this in your past life?”

Helena started poking holes in the already shaky theory.

“I’m not attractive enough for the Plague Doctor to come to me. If the theory is right, the person who fought him was basically the antagonist in the Plague Doctor’s story.”

“Wait, did you bring Juliet because…” Helena’s eyes went wide.

“I brought her because she might be able to help people. Point in case, I felt her using some of her power before through the Ancestral Bond. Let’s go check on her.”

“But if your theory is right,” Helena spoke while hurriedly catching up to him, “Juliet might be a prime target.”

“Yes, but her powers can easily neutralize the Plague Doctor’s diseases.”

“Isn’t it still risky? If you don’t know much about him, can there be something he can do to her to kill her, or worse?”

It was a fair question.

Jacob couldn’t rule out with absolute certainty that the Plague Doctor did not have any trick up his sleeves, but he had to trust that Juliet would be safe with them.

“If she’s not safe, we might be dead too, anyway,” Jacob noted cinically. “I can neutralize poisons and diseases, but only to a degree. If the poison is too strong, same for a disease, I might succumb.”

Jacob suddenly stopped.

What the hell was that.

They were going toward the general direction of Juliet; his Ancestral Bond was guiding them. But as soon as he crossed a tall condo, he had been hit with a strong and bloody aura.

“Fuck,” Jacob spat the words with hate and immediately smashed the door of the place.

“What are you—”

Helena was cut off because Jacob was already running up the stairs at full-tilt. His senses had sharpened and he was one step away from the Mantis Realm. Now, he was finally getting back his extremely high perception for Qi and Mana.

And the Qi he had felt in the air wasn’t the good kind.

And this wasn’t about the Plague Doctor.

…

A man tried to scream, but a webbed hand covered his mouth. However, the slimy sensation on his lips was nothing compared to the terrible sound of his ribs snapping.

A sucking noise came from the side.

“It is true that when you do this when they are still alive they taste much better,” the first figure said.

“Yeah, you just have to feed them some Qi or some potion to make sure they don’t die on the spot,” the second agreed. “Then, a little paralysis spell and they are done. It’s like growing algae on a coral.”

“I need to clean my teeth, though, the bones are getting between them. It’s so annoying,” the first figure was trying to get out some of the pieces of ribs he had stuck between his canines.

“Is the Formation ready, anyway?” the second asked while keeping the human restrained. The paralytic poison hadn’t been able to completely put him asleep; and so, they needed to avoid screams that could warn other preys.

“It’s sucking the blood out of the others, but it’s slow. We don’t have many materials for it.”

Blood Magic, one of the worst kind.

“Good, it’s going to be a pleasure cultivating amidst all their blood. It is a waste of good flesh, but I can’t wait to reach the Oriole Realm.”

The man had tears in his eyes.

He had been waiting for the Vermillion Tyrant, how some called him, to come back and save them from the plague. Little had he known that two monsters who looked almost like humans would start kidnapping people in his building and eating them alive. And not just that, they were slowly bleeding the others for some kind of weird ritual.

“They have some disease going around, the little piggies. Let’s hope we’ll not catch it,” the first triton said.

“They are weak, you know. I don’t think we would get infected with something as stupid as a human plague. And it’s a perfect moment to strike. Everyone is behind doors because they fear this thing will spread otherwise.”

“As long as you don’t make me eat those nasty infected, I’m good with whatever.”

The Tritons had come from the sea in batches. They had been stealthy and they had infiltrated the unaware humans without a problem. It had been easy, since they looked almost the same. They had just stolen a few induments and covered their gills and webbed hands.

“How many ribs did you get so far?” the first figure was a bit bored of restraining the man and wanted to eat something too. He wasn’t exactly hungry, but a glutton’s a glutton. You don’t always eat because you need to, you can simply enjoy it.

“I don’t know, six?”

“Don’t you think it’s time to switch?”

“Nah, you get the next one, come on. It’s full of stupid and delicious humans here. It makes no sense fighting over one piece of meat, does it?”

“I guess you are right… Hurry up, at least. I’m sick of staying holed up here. I want to go hunt again.”

“Yeah, yeah. We are going, we going.”

The second Triton was starting to carve out another rib with his claws when someone knocked.

“Huh? Who’s that?” the two tritons froze.

“Go ask! If it’s a human, just pull them in and let’s eat them!”

The Triton who had just interrupted his meal looked wistfully at the rib on the man’s chest, still only half carved.

“Whatever,” he said with a smack of his lips. “I’m going to kill this bastard for disturbing in such a crucial moment.”