Blood for Blood

Lucian panted heavily. His helmet had been shattered, and blood covered one of his eyes.

His armor was covered in scars, while the parts not protected by metal had been bitten and clawed into a bloody mess.

Several arrows he had not had time to pull out were lodged in his back and shoulders. A Misbegotten's head still hung from his leg, unwilling to let go even after being beheaded.

During the battle just now, he had used up two Flasks of Cerulean Tears and one Flask of Crimson Tears.

Tinnie had faced the Winged Misbegotten's siege and dealt with nearly all of them alone.

Unfortunately, it had not yet been harmonized by a spirit tuner with Lucian and could not wield the strength it had possessed in life. In the end, it regretfully fell beneath the Winged Misbegotten's bites.

The Flame Crest Wooden Shield had reached its limit and shattered beneath repeated blows.

Storm Stomp had played an enormous role in the battle. If he had not unleashed it several times and cleared out large numbers of enemies, Lucian would likely have been knocked to the ground and hacked into mince long ago.

Unfortunately, the halberd shaft had been severed by a Scaly Misbegotten's long-handled cleaver. But the remaining half of the halberd had pierced its head.

The Lordsworn's Greatsword was embedded in another Scaly Misbegotten's forehead. Because of the other Misbegotten's attacks, he had not had time to pull it out, and it had rolled away somewhere along with the corpse.

When he lost a weapon, he snapped a Misbegotten's neck and used the Misbegotten Iron Cleaver he had taken.

Though it was a tool for chopping firewood, it was unexpectedly handy for chopping Misbegotten.

As the slaughter continued, Lucian's wounds grew worse and worse, but the number of Misbegotten kept dwindling.

After cutting off the head of the last Scaly Misbegotten before him, Lucian carried his cleaver toward the Misbegotten in the distance, who no longer dared approach.

The remaining dozen or so Misbegotten broke down. They could not understand why a creature could survive such injuries.

The thing before them was not human at all.

Humans were fragile creatures. If they surrounded them and hacked at them with cleavers, they would cry in pain and die.

Yet this thing before them had been surrounded by nearly all their brethren in the castle, but it had not been cut down. Instead, the brethren who had pounced on it had been killed one after another.

Bisected, pierced through, beheaded, executed...

Blood and limbs lay everywhere. The piled-up corpses terrified them. So this was what it looked like when the bodies of their own kind were stacked together.

This thing only looked human. It wore human skin, but inside, it was a monster more terrifying than they were!

Their legs trembled ceaselessly, and foul-smelling liquid ran down from between them.

No one knew who started it, but someone threw down their weapon, clasped their head in both hands, knelt, and began begging for mercy.

This was a posture they had learned from humans over the past two days. If their opponent truly was human, it should work, right?

Lucian walked up to the foremost Misbegotten and looked down coldly at the begging creature.

In his previous life, he had never even suffered an injury serious enough to require surgery. Now, with wounds like these, he felt as if every drop of blood in his body had drained away, yet he could still move. Just as some master had said, the human body truly was marvelous.

It hurt. His whole body hurt.

At first, he could still tell the pain of his calf being bitten from the pain of his shoulder being struck.

Later, he could barely distinguish which part of his body hurt. As for now, he had gone completely numb.

There was no need to care where he was bleeding anymore. No matter where it hurt, he only needed to kill the enemies in front of him.

Lucian did not know what was supporting him, but as long as he killed his enemies, he would live. Simple and clear.

"Tooth for tooth, eye for eye. Now it is time for you to pay blood for blood."

Lucian swung the cleaver at the Misbegotten's great maw. Its upper jaw, along with its brain, happily fled the scene, while its lower jaw and body remained behind to suffer.

Seeing that this monster would not spare them, the other Misbegotten rose from the ground one after another.

But they did not rise for a desperate final stand. Instead, they turned and scattered in every direction, unwilling to follow in their brethren's footsteps.

Lucian no longer had the strength to chase them. He did not sit down, merely standing quietly atop the pile of Misbegotten corpses.

His mind was a little hazy. He was simply too exhausted. Every ounce of strength had been squeezed from his body, and his wounds needed treatment—or he needed to find a Grace and rest immediately.

He raised a hand, intending to wipe the blood covering his eye away, but failed to wipe it clean. Looking down, Lucian realized his hand was also drenched in blood.

Fighting those touched by the Frenzied Flame was dangerous. He could not afford to take even a single hit.

But this battle had been brutal. Lucian did not know how many wounds he had suffered, nor could he remember how many Misbegotten he had killed.

Yet Lucian was very happy, because after blocking the first wave of Misbegotten, he had realized there were simply too many of them.

So Lucian activated Wind Spirit Moon Shadow's function to increase the Runes he obtained.

The Rune acquisition multiplier was fixed at five times and lasted for an hour. There were still a little over ten minutes remaining.

Lucian did not know exactly how many Runes he had gained, but it was definitely a huge fortune.

Lucian only had one use of Wind Spirit Moon Shadow left. If he had activated infinite Cerulean Tears just now, he could have easily farmed all the Misbegotten.

But he could not use it. That final use was for saving his life, and unless absolutely necessary, Lucian would never activate it.

Fortunately, it seemed he would not need to use that chance today.

Lucian wanted to set off to find Irina's father, but the moment he lifted his foot, he could no longer keep his balance and plopped down onto the pile of corpses.

"It seems that facing so many enemies with my current strength is still a bit too much."

Lucian muttered to himself, though it sounded as if he were speaking to someone.

A pitch-black Ballista Bolt shot toward Lucian from his blind spot behind him.

The storm rose once more. The Ancient King used wind to deflect the bolt's trajectory, and it brushed past Lucian's ear before plunging into the pile of corpses.

Lucian twisted around sharply and hurled the cleaver in his hand, showing none of the exhaustion from before.

His opponent was no pushover either. A cleaver was not suited for throwing in the first place, and with a slight turn of the body, the attacker dodged it.

But the newcomer's figure was now completely exposed before Lucian.

Clad in black armor, holding a black crossbow, with an iron double-bladed sword strapped to his back.

It was a Confessor from the Roundtable Hold.

Beside the lift stood two walls three or four meters high, structures that served as watchtowers. The Confessor had been hiding atop one of them earlier.

The Confessor approached Lucian step by step, putting away his crossbow and drawing the double-bladed sword from his back.

"You are truly an extraordinary warrior. You thwarted my ambush twice. As fellow Tarnished, I had no wish to become your enemy."

"Unfortunately, if I do not kill you, I fear I will not be able to kill that blind girl either, and then I cannot complete my mission."

"Since ambushes do not work, I will cut off your head with my own hands. Do not blame me for taking advantage of your condition. The Lands Between are simply this cruel."

Lucian was not too weak to stand. He had deliberately lost his balance and sat down just now.

He had entrusted the last of his magic to the Ancient King to defend against the Ballista Bolt precisely to force this guy out.

But Lucian truly no longer had the strength to sustain another round of battle, and he no longer had a suitable weapon in hand.

But Lucian was not afraid, because the Ancient King had told him that another storm within Castle Morne had already arrived.

The Confessor leaped into the air, whirling his double-bladed sword as he charged straight for Lucian's head.

But a halberd wrapped in a storm struck him down from the air.

At last, it was time to use Wind Spirit Moon Shadow. This haul was going to be huge.