Chapter 229: Red Eyes in the Dark

The monster stared at him in silence. It raised its spear, and in the dark of the corridor Luke caught the silhouette of the Midnight Warden emerging from the shadows. The twin red lights in its visor flared brighter as they locked onto him. For a few seconds, the creature stood perfectly still.

[Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

Then, with a sudden, sharp motion, it tightened its grip and hurled the spear. The throw was frighteningly fast, and dead accurate. Luke had already activated his refined perception the moment he heard those metallic footsteps. The spear came in like a lightning bolt, straight for his face. At the last instant, he caught it mid-flight with one hand, stopping it cold inches from his head.

The Warden tilted its helmet, watching him. The spear vanished, recalled instantly to its inventory.

“And to think one of those skewered me once,” Luke muttered.

Princess Charlie gripped her sword firmly, but the Warden didn’t wait. A blade appeared in its hand. The creature let out a roar, activating its berserk state.

Luke braced himself with stamina and charged, alone. Charlie stayed in the corner, eyes sharp, unmoving.

The Warden’s sword came in fast, cutting through the air with precision. Luke slipped to the side, driving a bare-fisted punch into the black steel breastplate. The blow sent the creature stumbling back, crashing to the floor, but it rose quickly. For a moment, it simply stared at him, almost in disbelief at his strength.

Their weapons clashed, steel on steel, the sound reverberating through the fortress. The Warden tried to overpower him, but Luke kept pressing, step by step, feeling the monster’s arms straining to hold against the force.

In a blur, Luke drew both kukris, channeling mana into the blades. He watched the dent in the armor smooth itself out, the enchanted repair already working.

“Knew it,” he said under his breath.

A punch like that should have shattered a statue. He advanced with both kukris, deflecting the Warden’s swings before hurling one blade. It punched through the breastplate, the impact forcing the monster to slide back across the floor. Luke was already there, driving his fist into it again and slamming it against the wall.

Mana surged into the kukri. When the Warden raised an arm to block, Luke’s strike severed it clean at the elbow. The other arm reached for him, he cut that one off too.

The creature staggered.

“I was just warming up,” Luke said coldly.

His free hand smashed into the Warden’s helmet, sending it sprawling to the floor. He stepped forward and, before it could rise, brought his boot down hard on its head, again and again, just as one of these monsters had once done to people in the Haven.

The helmet cracked, revealing fragments of a crushed skull. The thing was dying. Luke summoned his bow from the inventory, drew an arrow, and let it fly into the exposed bone.

[You have slain a Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

Exhaling, he looked down at the corpse. The armor was soulbound and vanished the moment the Warden died, leaving only the undead body behind. Charlie didn’t lower her guard, but moved to stand beside him. She knew he’d wanted to handle this himself.

“One more vengeance for you, Angelica,” Luke said, looking at the bow before sending it back into his inventory.

He’d sworn to use that weapon to avenge every enemy she’d ever had. In the past, this very Warden had killed Angelica’s brother and her friends. Without another word, he turned toward the fortress’s long central corridor and kept moving forward.

***

Another roar echoed through the fortress. A Midnight Warden came charging in. So there wasn’t just one in here. This was the third he’d run into. The clang of armored footsteps rang out again, another one was coming. One swung its sword, the blade smashing into the floor. The other rushed forward with a spear. Charlie raised her Spectral Barrier, the impact rebounding hard enough to make the monster flinch. She stepped in with her sword, spinning into a slash.

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[Mark of Doom activated]

Steel clashed as she traded blows with the sword-wielder, each strike pushing them both harder. Meanwhile, the spear-bearer barreled straight for Luke.

The weapon slammed into the wall when he slipped aside at the last second. The Warden kicked at him while wrenching the spear free, then lunged again in a dead-straight thrust. Luke knocked the shaft wide with a boot, igniting his Demon Blade Dance, and the fight turned into a blur of steel.

Every strike drove the Warden backward, kukris cutting deep. The black armor screeched and buckled under the onslaught, ragged grooves tearing through to rotting flesh beneath. The sound of tortured metal filled the corridor as more pieces gave way.

Luke forced the creature against the wall, spun like a dancer, and swept his kukri through the visor in a clean horizontal cut. By the time he completed the turn, the Warden had dropped to its knees. The spear clattered to the ground. Its final act was to lift one gauntleted hand toward its ruined head, a palm pressing against a skull now missing a large, neat section.

[You have slain a Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

A heavy crash rang out moments later from Charlie’s side of the hall.

[Princess Charlie has slain a Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]