Eleven Men (5)

"That light!" Chris saw the dazzling radiance rising in the distance. Ignoring his exhaustion, he sprinted toward it.

The Scale-kin on the ground was frantically lapping at the blood from Adre's neck when its movements suddenly froze. Several tiny black tentacles extended from Adre's neck and stabbed into the Scale-kin's mouth.

The massive muscular tentacles began to writhe, twisting around the Scale-kin's neck. Their immense strength easily wrung its neck into a twist before flinging it aside. Its head rolled away, watching the thing that looked even more like a monster than itself extend black tentacles into its body. Then, its still-beating heart was drawn out by the tentacles.

The tentacles slowly returned to Adre. Within his body, the tentacles formed from the Black Crow Pathogen kept writhing, until Adre finally opened his eyes.

"I really did nearly die." Adre rose to his feet. His new heart had already begun working, and the Dragon Blood remaining within it slowly flowed throughout his body.

"What a nuisance. I'm not suited to having Dragon Blood implanted. Who knows when I might turn into a mindless Scale-kin." Adre felt more exhausted than ever. "The Black Crow Pathogen has been working for so long. It needs to feed."

Then Adre saw the Scale-kin's corpse on the ground. He extended his right hand, and black tentacles spread out, piercing into the body. Adre no longer cared about Dragon Blood contamination. He had already made up his mind: after replenishing his energy, he would pursue Chris and the others again. Before he turned into a Scale-kin, he would use his life to halt the enemy's advance.

"That is enough. Come back, Adre." A voice suddenly appeared in Adre's mind. Adre hurriedly knelt on the ground and said, "For Lord Negary, I will stop at nothing. Even if I must shed my last drop of blood, I will fight for you to the very end."

"Do you think you did well?" Negary's voice made Adre's face turn deathly pale.

"Some enemies are already not far from me." Negary sat upon the Bone Throne, his tone icy. "Do you know why I spread the false news that I was dormant?"

"This subordinate... this subordinate believes it was to force all those enemies hiding in the shadows to reveal themselves." Adre hesitated before answering.

"That is indeed one reason. Another is that I believe you have gradually been unable to keep up with my footsteps." Negary's tone remained exceptionally calm, but the meaning of his words chilled Adre to the bone.

"Look at the weaknesses you exposed in battle: pride, arrogance, a lack of desire to improve. You have immersed yourselves in the power I granted you, and you have become weaker and weaker." Negary's words left Adre utterly despairing. The meaning of his life had been denied; he no longer had any hope of living.

"But compared to the others, you are still passable. Your act of fusing with a Scale-kin's heart has given me a few ideas. You still have some use for now, so return first."

"Understood, Lord Negary." Adre knelt on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes. They were filled with shame and determination. No matter what, this time he would do his best. He could not squander this chance again and disappoint his lord.

Time rewound slightly. At this moment, Divine Grace Knight Rivers stood guard beside his companion's corpse, ready for an attack that could come at any moment.

"Did you hear the commotion over there?" A sleazy voice suddenly came from all directions, making it impossible to identify the speaker's location.

"The sounds of your other companions dying." The voice spoke excitedly. "Your companions, just like this woman, were killed without the slightest resistance. Their bodies were pierced through, their blood scattered, and life—the most precious thing of all—was lost just like that!"

"That's why people like you are so laughable. Wouldn't it be better to live properly? Yet you insist on coming here to throw your lives away, clinging to your companions' corpses with the ridiculous belief that they cannot be desecrated. That absurd notion only brings you one step closer to death!"

"Stop yapping!" Rivers shouted in a low voice, just as two nearly simultaneous whistles of something cutting through the air rang out.

"Protection!" The faint white glow of the Gift of Protection gave Rivers a little visibility, allowing him to see the direction from which the two bone spears had been fired. But it was already too late to dodge or knock them aside.

He barely managed to slash one bone spear away with his knight's sword, but the other pierced through the protective light around him and sank directly into his chest.

"You really are tough, Sir Knight." The voice continued to mock him. "But your toughness will only bring you more torment. You still haven't found my position. With the next attack, nothing but death awaits you!"

"Who says I can't find your position? You filthy, stupid burrowing rat! These repeated attacks have already let me catch you!" Rivers roared. "My lord has granted me the right to sacrifice. For the ideal in my heart, I will stop at nothing!"

Rivers leaped up, intense white light blooming from his body. Holding his knight's sword upside down, he drove it into the earth beneath his feet. A great many cracking sounds rang out, and the entire ground sank downward, exposing something beneath the soil.

This was one of the great pits where the Crow Men had once buried the remains of the crows' food. Countless bones were piled within it, covered by a layer of earth. The bones had originally been stacked with gaps between them, and several passages had later been deliberately cleared out, connecting different underground locations. The enemy's voice had traveled through those passages to different places, creating the impression that it came from every direction. The reason his voice could be heard underground was also due to bone conduction.

Once the Sacrifice Gift was activated, its recipient received the powerful blessing of holy light, and every attack they unleashed possessed terrifying might. Of course, the user would also pay a grievous price. The bone framework supporting the ground below had already had many bones removed to create the passages. Struck by Rivers's sacrificial blow, it naturally collapsed.

Rivers lay in the hollow amid the pit of bones. Having used the Sacrifice Gift, he felt that his life had reached its end.

Buried underground, the Crow Man struggled without cease. If anyone else had been buried alive like this, they could probably only wait to die. But he was different. He had implanted the Black Crow Pathogen into his bones, allowing it to devour and replace them. When necessary, he could turn into a soft-bodied creature. There were two holes in his palms. He had hollowed out the bones of his forearms and turned them into bone-spear launchers; placing any rod-shaped object there allowed him to fire it.

He extended the Black Crow Pathogen within his body through the holes in his palms, turning it into digging tools as he continuously climbed upward.

"That idiot knight used an attack like that. He's already sprawled on the ground and nearly dead. In the end, I won!" The Crow Man pushed aside the dirt and emerged from the ground. Before he could show a delighted expression, he saw Chris and two others standing before him.

Thus, Divine Grace Knight Rivers had used the Sacrifice Gift and was unable to fight. Of the original fifteen-man assault force, only eleven remained.