I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 104: The Vampire Ranch (Patreon)

Liam followed the direction of the spider’s legs and, to his surprise, saw clusters of arrows pointing the same way.

“Looks like that’s where the creature she wants us to save is.”

Lily hurriedly said, “Little One, she’s almost gone.”

Liam nodded. He cradled the spider in one palm and covered her with his other hand. A faint green glow emerged around both hands as he began healing her.

Before long, Iktomi, whose spiritual energy had been all but extinguished and who had nearly become a dead spider, gradually regained her vitality. Several of her legs twitched.

Good. She wasn’t going to die.

Once the emergency treatment was done, Liam tucked Iktomi into his shirt pocket.

“Now we need to go where she was pointing us. Ever since we found Blood Servants here, I’ve had a bad feeling.”

Lily looked at the spiderwebs on the trees. She had noticed something was wrong too.

“Let’s follow the spiderwebs. We should find out the truth once we get there.”

Fortunately, Iktomi had woven the webs into arrows that pointed them in the right direction.

Following the arrows saved Watson the trouble of tracking the trail, allowing the group to move at full speed.

Liam was eager to confirm his suspicions, so he ran at a furious pace. For the first time in ages, he was actually panting heavily.

Along the way, they found more than a dozen arrows. If ordinary spiders had made something like this, it probably would have taken thousands, if not tens of thousands of them.

At last, Liam reached the end of the trail.

On the surface, it was nothing more than an ordinary barn, but the fact that there was a barn in the middle of the forest was strange enough by itself.

As he drew closer, he caught the familiar smell of blood.

He set up the camera, glanced at Lily, and cautiously approached the door.

“Creak!”

The rotten wooden door wasn’t locked. It swung open with a push.

Liam had already prepared himself for the worst, but the sight inside still caught him off guard.

More than a dozen children were sprawled across the floor. The oldest couldn’t have been more than ten, while the youngest was only six.

Even when they saw someone enter, the children barely reacted. None of them even bothered to raise their heads.

To Liam’s eyes, the children had suffered an extreme loss of spiritual energy. But that wasn’t the most alarming part.

Nearly every one of them was anemic.

He walked farther inside and picked up the oldest child. The boy was so light it was hard to believe.

“Kid, wake up.”

Liam gently shook him awake. The child struggled to open his eyes and murmured,

“Are you taking me away?”

“If you want me to.”

Instead of looking relieved, the child closed his eyes again in despair. The other children shrank farther back in fear.

Puzzled, Liam turned to Lily.

“What is it with people in Rhode Island? I think I look pretty friendly.”

“Don’t be upset, Little One. I think you look very friendly,” Lily said reassuringly.

Liam set the child back down, then turned the camera toward the scene and filmed the surroundings as well as every child inside.

Just as he was about to take the children away, a shrill female voice came from the doorway.

“Foolish mortal. How dare you trespass on my territory.”

Liam turned and saw a black-robed figure standing at the barn entrance.

He immediately brought the camera over and stepped forward.

“Miss, I’m a TV host. From the sound of it, you’re in charge here. Could you tell me a little about this place?”

The black-robed figure recoiled at the bizarre question, then quickly regained her composure.

“So you’re a madman.”

Liam’s smile never changed.

This was a tactic he often used to test people. By ruining the atmosphere and interrupting their train of thought, he could throw them off balance.

Clearly, it had worked. The black-robed woman seemed to have forgotten whatever insult she had intended to throw at him and could only force out that single sentence.

She extended a pale hand, and long, sharp nails slowly grew from her fingertips.

Almost instantly, she appeared in front of Liam and slashed at him.

Her speed was so incredible that even Liam barely had time to react. He leaned backward, trying to evade the strike.

He wasn’t quite fast enough.

Four cuts appeared across his chest, and blood slowly seeped from them.

The black-robed woman returned to where she had been standing, raised her claws to her lips, and licked the blood from them.

“Such rich life force. Who are you?”

Liam wasn’t particularly surprised. He had already suspected that the person before him was a genuine Vampire.

“It seems our young lady is a little worked up. We’ll have to wait until she calms down before continuing the interview.”

Liam tossed the camera behind him, and Lily leaped into the air and caught it securely.

Facing the camera, Liam straightened his torn clothes. A faint green light shield immediately appeared around his body.

The black-robed woman clearly had no idea what the shield was, so she charged again.

“Clang!”

This time, her attack failed completely. When her nails struck the light shield, the impact rang out like metal against metal.

Liam seized the opportunity and grabbed her arm.

She really was a Vampire.

All he felt beneath his fingers was cold. There wasn’t the slightest trace of human warmth.

The black-robed woman tried to wrench her arm free, only to discover, to her shock, that the human in front of her possessed terrifying strength. She couldn’t move his grip at all.

Her reaction was immediate. She slashed through her own arm with her claws and darted backward.

Liam watched as the severed arm in his hand rapidly withered before crumbling into ash.

He looked back at the woman.

Blood surged from the stump of her severed arm, gathered into the shape of a limb, and gradually solidified into a new arm.

Once the regeneration was complete, her chest rose and fell slightly. The process had clearly consumed a considerable amount of strength.

“Miss Vampire, that’s quite an interesting ability. Would you mind showing me a few more?”

The black-robed woman said nothing. She immediately retreated.

Liam gave chase.

The moment he stepped out of the barn, he saw that the surrounding area was packed with residents of Exeter.

They were in terrible shape. Every one of them looked disheveled, and their shoes and pants had been worn through. Apparently, chasing Liam all the way here had taken quite a toll on them.

The black-robed woman stopped in front of the residents and pulled down her hood, revealing the pale face of a young woman.

Then she let out a piercing shriek.

“Ah!!”

The residents responded at once, unleashing shrieks of their own as their bodies began transforming into Blood Servants.

Liam stared at the crowd of several hundred people in front of him, silently backed into the barn, and began checking whether he had brought enough ammunition.

He could transform his firearms into toys children would love, but everything he created still needed to be grounded in reality. Producing something entirely out of thin air consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t brought enough bullets.

He had expected a fierce battle, but carrying more than a hundred rounds everywhere he went simply wasn’t practical.

His only option was to fall back inside the barn and hope the flimsy wooden walls could hold them off for at least a little while.

At the same time, he called out,

“Lily, Watson, get the children together. Keep them out of the line of fire.”