The snappers were creatures that looked like piranhas but much larger and more aggressive, and they also hunted in their numbers.

Right now, not only were their clacking noises growing louder by the second, but we could also see and feel the entire water around us rumbling violently.

Luckily for us, the week after bringing Evelyn back to life, she had shared about her abilities with us and that was the reason we were confident that we could cross this river without casualties.

Her bonded ability, True Vampire, granted her many powers, one of them being Compulsion. However, the cost to use her bonded ability demanded that she drink a substantial amount of blood immediately before she could use it.

We had already agreed back at the camp that whenever she needed to use her bonded ability, one of us would volunteer to let her drink their blood, and we planned to take turns.

This time, it was Dion's turn to volunteer, so he quickly set the stick he was paddling with down and scrambled over to Evelyn.

"Is it gonna hurt?" Dion asked tensely, while also rolling back the sleeve of his shirt.

Evelyn smiled. "Maybe…"

He sighed, then stretched out his hand toward her, before covering his eyes with his other hand. "I've always fantasized women doing lots of things to me. But never have I thought I'd have one bite me."

As Evelyn grabbed his arm, he added, "Please be gentle."

At that moment, Evelyn opened her mouth and long fangs grew out from her canines, and in the next instant, she bit down hard, causing Dion to yelp and bite his lip.

Then she began drinking as much of his blood as she could.

"Isn't that enough?" Dion asked with a feeble expression when she kept drinking. "Any more and I'm going to be all skin and bones."

Evelyn finally lifted her head. Her crimson eyes were shining with savage intensity and pools of blood rolled down the sides of her mouth.

She licked her lips with a wicked grin on her face as she released her hold on Dion's hand. Dion wobbled and immediately fell onto his bum from the dizziness.

"You might want to hurry up." Ino called out desperately as the clacking noises and the rumble of the water grew louder.

Evelyn turned, her eyes still shining with that savage intensity, and walked to the edge of the raft. She bit down hard on her own hand for one last surge of blood before finally outstretching her hand towards the troubled water.

Drops of blood pooled out from her hand into the water in thick, crimson clouds.

Then we noticed something strange. It looked like the blood she had poured into the water had somehow magically multiplied, as the water a few hundred meters around the boat began to change to a deep, terrifying crimson. The color spread rapidly, staining the entire river surface within view.

While this was happening, a notification popped up at my side:

[The character Evelyn Marcus has activated the bonded ability: True Vampire.]

We all waited tensely for the rumble of the water to finally cease, assuming the Compulsion had taken hold. The initial plan was for Evelyn to compel all the snappers approaching the boat to leave us alone.

But then a look of confusion suddenly crossed our faces as the rumbling of the water grew not quieter, but violently stronger instead.

'What's happening?'

I quickly turned to my side where the map appeared showing me the creatures in their numbers. The red dots were swarming together into massive, thrashing clusters, and many were blinking off in rapid succession. That was when I understood what was happening.

She didn't compel them to leave us alone, she compelled them to fight and kill themselves.

'Crazy…'

At this point, Celeste walked close to Evelyn, her voice trembling slightly as crimson water kept splashing everywhere.

"Aren't they going to leave us alone?"

Evelyn merely cocked her head toward Celeste and offered a chilling smile. "They have," she replied. "Though I have no interest in leaving them alone."

The water continued to boil and churn without abating as more snappers kept coming up closer to the raft only to fall under the compulsion and join the others in killing themselves.

"Let's keep moving," I urged, resuming my rhythm as I paddled through the thick, crimson water.

Dion quickly pushed himself up. Though he still seemed weak and dizzy, he took up his paddle and rejoined us. With Ino navigating, we focused our energy on paddling the raft steadily toward the distant bank.

It took us half an hour to finally reach the edge of the mountain range. Then we skidded the raft to a stop and stepped onto the grass of the foothills.

It was really warm on this side. The environment felt lively, green, and beautiful, as if we had finally reached a normal place in this world.

Besides the numerous oak and maple trees around, there were also lots of banana plants.

I raised a hand, shielding my eyes from the sun, as I looked to the mountains that we needed to cross. It would take us a while, but we were finally close to our destination. All we needed was to cross the mountains, and we would finally be able to see the Puppeteer's Grove.

The others had already begun cutting off some of the leaf stalks from the banana plants around. They were going to need that for both bedding and insulation when we got to the top parts of the mountains.

I turned to the raft, crouched and touched it and the entire raft vanished into the inventory. I was bringing this with me because we would need the wood later on when we got to our destination.

I was about to stand up from the edge of the water where I crouched to rejoin the others when I suddenly felt a sharp sting on my neck.

"Ahh!" I yelped and reflexively slapped the spot with my hand. Then I felt a crunch that signaled I had definitely killed something.

When I brought down my hand to look at what I had killed, my eyes suddenly widened in horror.

'Oh no…'

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