White limestone dust billowed thickly, covering the bottom of the gorge, turning the daylight into a suffocating, misty twilight. The post-landslide silence lasted only five seconds before being replaced by a chorus of suffering.
The screams of men pinned under rocks, the howls of Wargs with broken legs, and panicked shouts of command.
"SHIELDS! FORM SHIELD FORMATION! PROTECT LADY ISOLDE!"
The heavy voice of a knight captain rang out from the direction of the halted black carriage.
Up on the cliff, Vaelen didn't waste time admiring his handiwork. The spectacle was entertaining, but EXP wouldn't walk into his pockets on its own if he just stood there.
He ran toward a slightly gentler side of the cliff—a scree slope of loose rocks about twenty meters from the main impact point.
"Time to descend to the dinner plate," Vaelen muttered.
He slid down, his boots surfing over sharp gravel. Every time he was about to lose balance or crash into a boulder, his body flickered into a black shadow for a second.
Vwoom.[Abyssal Step].
Vaelen reappeared two meters below, his feet planting firmly. He used his remaining Abyssal Qi sparingly, only to correct his landings.
In ten seconds, Vaelen reached the bottom of the gorge, landing behind a giant chunk of limestone that had just fallen from the sky. He was now on the edge of the Chaos Zone.
In front of him, the dust mist slowly thinned, revealing the scale of destruction.
About two-thirds of the Black Wolf bandit force was finished. Flattened bodies protruded from under piles of rocks. Blood pooled, mixing with limestone dust into a gruesome pink sludge.
However, the strongest survived.
"ROOOAARRR!"
An explosion of red aura—similar to the Fat One's Rage Skill earlier, but ten times denser—swept away the dust in the center of the rubble pile.
A one-ton boulder was thrown into the air as if it were cork.
From behind the dust, a giant emerged. He was two and a half meters tall, his muscles swollen unnaturally. He wore crude iron plating on his chest and a helm shaped like a black wolf's head covering half his face. In his hand, he gripped a giant spiked mace (Morningstar).
[Boss Detected: Commander Fenrir]
[Rank: Rank 8 (Mid Stage) - Awakened Berserker]
[Status: Enraged (Strength +50%, Sanity -30%)]
[Threat Level: DEADLY.]
"One by one..." Fenrir growled, his voice sounding like grinding stones. "I'll turn you royal dogs... into meat paste!"
Around him, about ten elite bandits and two Shadow Wargs that survived the landslide began to rise. They were bloody, injured, and very, very angry.
Opposite them, eight Silver Knights from the Kingdom of Eisenwald had dismounted. They formed a tight defensive circle around the carriage. Their tower shields shimmered with faint blue light (Mana Shielding).
"Hand over Lady Isolde!" shouted Fenrir, pointing with his mace. "And I might kill you quickly!"
"Dirty ambushers!" retorted the Knight Captain—an old man with a short white beard, holding a Claymore. "You dare attack the Duke's family crest?!"
They thought this was a failed trap. They didn't know there was a third party manipulating the situation.
"ATTACK!" ordered Fenrir.
Battle broke out. Not honorable one-on-one duels, but a brutal brawl.
The surviving bandits, driven by fear of their own captain, charged the knight's shield wall. The Warg wolves leaped over the front line, trying to rip out the throats of the carriage draft horses.
Clang! Bam! Srrrt!
The sound of steel clashing against steel. Fire and ice magic began to fly from behind the carriage—there was a mage inside.
Vaelen watched from behind the rock. He saw an opportunity.
A Shadow Warg was knocked backward after being kicked by the Knight Captain. The wolf howled, its ribs broken, lying near Vaelen's hiding spot.
The beast was dying, its HP flashing red.
The knight who kicked it didn't chase to kill, too busy holding back Fenrir's mace.
"Thanks for the donation," Vaelen whispered.
He broke from cover. Not running, but gliding like a ghost. As the Wolf tried to get up, Vaelen was already beside its head.
His steel longsword thrust straight into the wolf's ear.
SHLUCK.
[Target Eliminated: Shadow Warg]
[EXP Acquired (Last Hit Bonus)]
Vaelen's hand instantly pressed against the animal's head.
[SKILL: PROTOTYPE SIPHON]
In three seconds, amidst the chaos of war, Vaelen sucked the remaining life of the Rank 9 wolf. The Qi in his body surged.
Vaelen didn't stop. His eyes swept the battlefield.
A bandit Archer was crawling backward, his leg pinned by a rock, trying to aim at the mage in the carriage. The archer didn't see Vaelen coming from the side.
SLASH.
One clean sword swing to the neck.
[Kill Steal Success.]
[Madness Accumulated: +1%]
Vaelen moved like an evil spirit. He didn't target the fit knights or bandits. He targeted the injured, the fallen, and the dying.
He absorbed the overflowing death energy in the gorge like a dry sponge. The more people died, the faster Vaelen moved.
[Abyssal Qi: 45/50 -> 60/60 (Capacity Increase due to Level Up imminent)]
Suddenly, the balance of battle shifted.
Fenrir, the Boss, went berserk.
His giant mace glowed fiery red. [Skill: Earth Smasher].
He smashed the ground in front of the Knight's shield wall.
BWOOM!
The ground exploded. Three Knights were thrown into the air, their shield formation shattered.
"Die!" Fenrir stepped forward, catching one of the fallen knights—his helm came off, revealing a frightened young face.
Fenrir lifted the knight with one hand, then crushed his head with the mace like smashing a watermelon.
Blood splattered onto the black carriage behind him.
"PROTECT THE LADY!" shouted the Knight Captain, now bleeding profusely, fighting desperately against three elite bandits at once.
One bandit slipped through the gap in the broken formation. He headed for the carriage door. The bandit carried a torch. His intention was clear: if he couldn't kidnap, burn the contents.
Vaelen, ten meters away, paused.
Option 1: Let the bandit burn the carriage. Passenger dies. Vaelen can loot their corpses later. Safe, but Items inside might be damaged.
Option 2: Intervene.
Vaelen saw the bandit's hand raise, ready to throw the torch into the carriage window where the curtains were slightly parted, revealing a pair of terrified crystal blue eyes.
Not warrior eyes. Prey eyes. The eyes of a young girl with silver hair.
In that instant, Vaelen's brain calculated. Silver hair... Crystal blue eyes... That's the trademark of the Valstyx Bloodline. Mages. High Value Asset.
High Value Assets shouldn't be burned in vain.
"Besides..." Vaelen raised his free left hand, gripping an iron bolt he had taken from the Skinny One earlier. "I need an 'entry ticket' into human society."
The bandit threw his torch.
Simultaneously, Vaelen threw the iron bolt. Not with a crossbow, but with Strength 6 arm power plus Qi Reinforcement.
The bolt shot out. Not strong enough to pierce armor, but accurate enough.
Thwack!
The bolt hit the bandit's wrist just as the torch left his hand. His throw went wide. The torch didn't go into the window, but hit the carriage wall and fell to the ground.
The Bandit turned in shock, clutching his bruised hand. "Who?!"
He saw a young man with messy black hair, wearing mismatched leather armor and holding a longsword coated in black blood.
Vaelen stood amidst the smoke and dust. He wasn't smiling.
"Sorry, this area is designated for burning trash, not burning treasure," Vaelen said flatly.
[SKILL: ABYSSAL STEP]
Vaelen's shadow disappeared. He appeared right in front of the bandit.
Thrust to the heart. Fast. Efficient.
The Bandit collapsed.
The carriage door behind him opened slightly. The blue-eyed girl stared at Vaelen. There was shock on her face seeing a savior who didn't look like a holy knight, but more like a demon who had just crawled out of hell.
Vaelen turned to her. His face was splattered with blood, but his voice was calm, even slightly polite in an unsettling way.
"My advice, Miss..." Vaelen kicked the bandit's corpse away from the door. "Close the door. It's raining body parts outside."
Just as the girl was about to speak, a giant shadow fell over Vaelen.
Fenrir had finished "playing" with the lowly knights. The Knight Captain lay unconscious or dead in the distance. Now, the Boss monster stood five meters from Vaelen, his crazy eyes locked on the stranger daring to stand in front of "his property".
[BOSS AGGRO ACQUIRED]
Vaelen snorted, checking his full HP and comparing it to Fenrir's HP which was still at 75% but in Enraged mode.
"Alright," Vaelen rolled his shoulders, feeling Abyssal Qi churning in his veins. "Let's see if a Boss soul tastes any better."