First Casualty

Walking down a street that seemed paved with countless dark red clots of blood, every step of their deerskin boots squeezed out an unknown liquid resembling a mixture of corpse fluid and blood.

Collapsed houses lined both sides of the street, along with hills of flesh and blood formed from the corpses and severed limbs of countless blood slaves.

Dago's expression was grim as he continuously calculated the next step in his mind.

Although the mission team was in the middle of Third Street, the closer they got to the fifth house, the more chaotic and frenzied the inexplicable whispers became, making them restless and agitated.

Having come this far, the mission team had expended quite a bit, but fortunately, there had been no casualties.

The five of them looked at the countless houses before them, connected by masses of vine-like blood vessels, with dozens of blood cocoons hanging from them.

Just as everyone raised their wands and prepared to unleash their spells upon the houses, an intense surge of energy spread out from within the buildings along the blood vessels.

Other than some blood cocoons that had already been frozen to death by Dago's Ice Crystal Cannon and showed no reaction, twenty or thirty blood cocoons fell to the ground and burst apart.

Inside were four-legged crawling beasts resembling Lickers. Their bodies were covered in exposed, knotted muscles, their beastly eyes gleamed with bloodlust, and copious saliva dripped from the corners of their hideous mouths.

They scrambled across the street and rubble on all fours, rapidly closing in on the five. They were scarcely any slower than Shadow Leopards.

The five were instantly horrified and unleashed their spells at the blood beasts.

Wind Blade Vortex, Lightning Spear, Fireball Spell, and Ice Crystal Technique shot forth, instantly turning the area ahead into a sea of ice, fire, lightning, and wind.

Despite the mission team's fierce assault, ten blood beasts still broke through the barrage. Amid decay and crimson blood, their ghostlike figures drew ever closer.

They opened their bloody maws at the five, rows of sharp teeth clearly visible.

The other four rose into the air and hovered above the ground to evade the attack, while Wilton grabbed Herid and flew backward at high speed.

Ed and Lai Qiong glanced at Dago in surprise. They had not expected this youngster to have already reached the level of a Half-Step Formal Wizard.

At that moment, before they even had time to catch their breath, the blood beasts whose attacks had missed let out piercing shrieks that made their eardrums tremble, then charged straight at Dago.

"Bang!"

Without time to think, Dago raised a hand and pointed at the incoming blood beast. An Air Bullet shot out with extreme speed.

The seemingly casual Air Bullet flashed past and pierced straight through the blood beast's body, blasting it into a cloud of blood mist.

The next instant, another blood beast burst out of the blood mist, spreading its limbs and pouncing at Dago with incredible speed.

"Whoosh—"

A massive Ice Claw extended from Dago's right arm and crashed down with enough force to pierce a skull, pinning the blood beast and freezing it to death. Then he clenched his hand, crushing the beast's head into icy fragments.

Dago raised his left hand and gripped the Ice Crystal Wand, continuously firing Air Bullets with remarkable "grace" while hovering half a meter above the ground.

Meanwhile, the Ice Claw on his right hand continuously condensed spheres of ice crystal energy and bombarded the charging blood beasts without pause.

By the time the other four reacted, Dago had already slaughtered nearly all the pursuing blood beasts, leaving only two or three.

They then each unleashed their best spells and finished off the remaining blood beasts.

At that moment, Lai Qiong vented his frustration by bombarding the blood beasts madly. He killed two of them. Dago could see it clearly now—he was raging out of sheer incompetence.

The five gathered on the street once more.

"Captain Ed, those two Black-Robed Wizards who left earlier are at least Half-Step Formal Wizards. They could return at any time. Shouldn't we retreat first?"

As Dago spoke to Captain Ed, he took a bottle of Mental Potion from his storage ring, uncorked it, and slowly drank it.

"No," Lai Qiong and Herid said in unison.

"Our mission is to destroy the Blood Pool stronghold. If we fail, do we still want the mission rewards?" Lai Qiong continued.

"Exactly. What would it mean to give up now?" the young wizard Herid echoed.

Dago ignored the two of them and calmly looked at Captain Ed.

"Dago has a point, but it would be too much of a pity to give up now. In three minutes, we'll launch one more full-force attack on the fifth house. If it still doesn't work, everyone retreats," Ed said firmly after thinking for a while.

Seeing Ed's resolute attitude, Dago said nothing more. He continued drinking the Mental Potion to restore his mental power. He also heard Wilton sigh softly, and guessed that Wilton shared the same thoughts.

As the seconds passed, it felt as though something within Third Street had been disturbed and awakened, yet no other movement occurred.

Dago felt that something was wrong. Looking down, he saw the blood beneath his feet faintly boiling, while the whispers by his ears gradually became excited and frenzied.

Things were developing in an unpredictable direction.

The moment three minutes passed, Academy wizard Lai Qiong impatiently charged toward the fifth house. If he destroyed the stronghold, he would surely become first in the team's contribution rankings.

Dago kept his Detection Technique trained on the house. The energy fluctuations within it grew increasingly intense, as though some monster were awakening. They abruptly surged from Advanced Apprentice level to Half-Step Formal Wizard level—and were still rising.

He shouted lowly at the other four, "Don't go any farther. There's danger!"

Yet the leading Academy wizard, Lai Qiong, acted as though he had not heard him and continued flying forward with his head down, his wand surging with electric light.

The three behind Lai Qiong did heed the warning and stopped.

"Whoosh~~~"

Dago heard the sound of an incomparably sharp weapon slicing through the air.

A massive, illusory blood-colored scythe flew out of the house, as though a speeding car were rushing toward them.

A vertical slash!

The energy shield around Academy wizard Lai Qiong, who was only about ten meters away from him, shattered under the blood-colored scythe's strike like a fragile eggshell.

Immediately afterward, Lai Qiong's mouth hung slightly open as his body was silently split into two in midair.

Blood and internal organs splattered onto the ground, greedily sucked up by Blood Leeches that had appeared on the street at some unknown time.

"Blech!"

The horrific sight made the young wizard Herid, who was closest to him, vomit on the spot.

His father, Wilton, also wore a terrified expression, but quickly flew in front of him to protect him.

Ed and Dago reacted instantly, raised their wands, chanted incantations, and unleashed spells at the house.

They opened with their signature spells, Ice Crystal Cannon and Wind Blade Vortex, which shot toward the house one after the other.

The boiling blood on the ground wriggled together into a giant leech that swallowed both spells in one gulp. The spells exploded inside the Blood Leech's belly, inflating it into a huge balloon.

One was shredded into pulp by the wind blades, while the other turned into an ice sculpture before exploding into ice fragments that scattered everywhere.

At that moment, the first thing to emerge from the shadowed doorway of the house was a withered old hand clutching a wand made from an entire spine.

An elderly wizard in blood-red robes slowly stepped out, with a phantom image above his head of countless Blood Leeches entwined into a mass.

The hem of his robe swept across the blood on the street, its crimson deeper and more somber than coagulated blood.

Yet the dark runes embroidered along the robe's edges glimmered with flowing light as he moved, like black snakes crawling.

Three pigeon-blood rubies hung from the edge of his hood, lightly tapping against his collarbone with every step, producing a crisp jade-like chime that formed a strange resonance with the dull knocks of his staff against the ground.

When the hood was gently lifted by a knobby finger, the aged wrinkles spreading from the corners of his eyes revealed an inhuman lifespan.

As he raised his hand, his wide sleeve slipped down, revealing blood-red patterns intertwined around his wrist, forming a mysterious design.

"Forgive me for failing to welcome you properly," he said to the four, his voice like poisoned wine steeped in honey.