Chapter 310: Declaration of War
byThe acid cloud finally thinned, unraveling into the air like a gray veil torn apart. The metallic stench of rot still hung over the clearing, but the crushing pressure eased. The instant the Phantom Assassin died, Luke felt the venom inside him lose its grip. It was like a hostile tide retreating, leaving only waves of pain in its wake.
In just a few minutes of fighting he’d burned through more than three thousand hit points. Open wounds and corrosive toxins were in a dead heat to see which would destroy him first.
[Health Points (HP) 1282/4340]
“Good thing I dumped so many points into Vitality…” His voice came out rough, eyes flicking over the damage etched into his body.
If not for the Blood of Mother Freya, he’d already be dead.
[Corrupted Blood of Mother Freya (Ultra-Rare)]: The botanist’s blood, once blessed by Mother Freya and now fused with a demonic symbiotic essence, has evolved into a living organism. It functions as a perfect catalyst, enhancing and stabilizing any plant-based concoction. When applied to flora, it regenerates damaged tissue, accelerates growth, and can even revive near-dead specimens. It allows cultivation in infertile soil and can induce natural mutations, reshaping plant structures. Internally, the mutation has fortified the user’s body. The blood now grants high resistance, or even immunity, to most poisons and diseases, thanks to active antibodies that seek and neutralize threats with lethal efficiency.
The blood was fighting the poison with increasing efficiency, but Luke had still lost far more HP than expected. Kruger’s epic skills had made him a nightmare in a one on one fight, a truly lethal opponent.
And yet the assassin had met his natural predator, ironically, Luke.
Maybe Kruger had something that amplified poison, he thought, already filing away a note to research enemies who applied debuffs.
Worse than the physical pain had been the assault on his mind. No magical blood could block that. During the fight it felt like invisible needles stabbing into his skull while a deafening screech, like claws raking across slate, echoed inside his head.
“So mental damage is a thing too… just like poison,” he muttered.
The buzzing vanished the moment Kruger died.
“At least it’s not permanent.”
He took a long breath, clarity creeping back, and pulled two powerful healing potions from his storage item.
[Healing Potion (Common) Restores 503 HP.]
He drank them back to back, the sweet liquid sliding down his throat. Warmth spread slowly through his body, knitting minor wounds and feeding a faint pulse of energy back into his muscles.
“If he thought pushing me to the edge of insanity mid fight would help, he miscalculated,” Luke muttered, slipping the empty bottles away.
He rose, muscles still taut and heavy. With a smooth motion, he conjured an arrow from his enchanted quiver. The bow materialized in his hand, light and steady, ready to fire.
[Mana Points (MP): 6/5100]
[Mana Points (MP): -5]
[Mana Points (MP): 1/5100]
His feet carried him into the dense forest, weaving between scorched trunks and blackened leaves. Mason’s explosions had turned the camp into a ruin, trees toppled, clearings carved open by force, fires still eating their way outward in ragged circles. The smell of burned wood and blood fused into a choking atmosphere. He passed the corpses of assassins he’d cut down minutes earlier. Eric’s lifeless body lay where it had fallen, and Luke didn’t slow. His eyes kept sweeping the terrain, every sense still on high alert.
Frost scored the ground ahead, jagged lines carved into earth. Shards like crystal blades jutted up, catching the firelight. Allison’s work, most likely, though it could have been another ice mage. He bet on her. A figure darted between the trees up ahead, someone he didn’t recognize. Without hesitation, Luke drew the bowstring, exhaled, and loosed the arrow.
[You have slain a Human…]
[+1 Soul Fragment acquired]
‘My lessons really paid off. I’m actually proud of myself.’ Artemis whispered in his mind.
The body hit the ground with a heavy thud. Luke sprinted to it, yanked his arrow free, and glanced at the intact tip before moving on through the wreckage.
“I surrender!” someone shouted ahead, stumbling out from behind a boulder with hands raised.
Luke didn’t slow. He loosed another arrow, this one burying itself in the man’s throat. The muffled gasps mixed with the wet patter of blood on scorched earth.
“Fuck your surrender,” Luke muttered, eyes scanning for more targets.
[You have slain a Human…]
[+1 Soul Fragment acquired]
He climbed the angled trunk of a fallen tree and got a panoramic view of the battlefield. The camp had become a mosaic of flames, bodies, and shattered debris. From a stone house in the distance, an archer fired shot after shot, Eleanor.
Luke dropped to the ground and ran toward the Wild Zone gate.
“It’s over!” A voice boomed, sharp with command, Ronan.
Luke leapt down from another tree, his whole body throbbing with pain. Near the gate he spotted Jack crouched behind a slab of rubble, gripping the axe Luke had given him in one hand and a wand in the other. Around him lay a grotesque carpet of dismembered enemies.
Beside Jack stood a figure Luke knew instantly. As soon as he saw her, he closed the distance and wrapped her in a fierce embrace.
“Hey, Charlie,” he breathed, every wound throbbing under her touch.
She didn’t care about the blood or the dust. Her hands moved over him quickly, checking each injury with urgent precision.
“Charlie… don’t drop your guard. You even sent your sword back to your inventory,” Luke murmured, still short of breath.
‘Let her have the moment, dummy.’ Artemis teased inside his head, the tone almost playful.
Charlie paused and met Luke’s gaze. Her fingers brushed dried blood and bruises, then curled into a trembling fist, rage tightening her knuckles for whoever had hurt him.
“It’s fine. Whoever did this to me is dead,” Luke said, trying to calm her.
Jack shot to his feet, still breathing hard.
“Luke, you had to be there! It was insane. First there were explosions, and then Charlie grabbed me like a twig and threw me here and then these guys came out and she started swinging and then this shadow guy appeared and then…”
The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Luke clamped a hand over Jack’s mouth. “You’re in shock. Don’t drop your guard.”
In the original plan, Charlie’s role was clear. Protect the healer. Dragging Jack into the heart of the ambush had been risky but necessary, he was the only one who could raise the epic barrier. Now, after what had happened, he had to be moved somewhere safe.
Before they could say more, heavy footsteps echoed through the trees. Charlie reacted instantly, pulling her sword from her inventory and stepping forward to shield them. Evangeline emerged from the underbrush with Ronan slung over her shoulder. Both were streaked with blood, but Ronan was far worse, his body looked like a human pincushion, arrows jutting out at sick angles.
“Help me with the big guy,” Evangeline panted, lowering him to the ground.
Ronan slumped back against a rock, his face twisted in pain. Jack crouched beside him and pressed the wand to a wound. A soft green light bloomed, slow but steady.
“Where are the others?” Luke asked Evangeline.
“You’re a wreck, Luke,” she shot back, giving him a quick once-over before tilting her head toward the trees. “Allison and Mason went to sweep the area. Survivors are surrendering, the rest either ran or died. I handled the shadow assassins.”
That was exactly her role: eliminating hidden killers. She was the only one with a natural sense for magical shadows.
“Mason went after the enemy? He’s out of mana,” Luke muttered, frowning.
“They don’t know that,” Evangeline replied with a thin, nervous laugh.
Eleanor dropped from the roof of the stone house, landing with practiced grace beside the group. She, Jack, and Charlie looked the least battered of them all.
“No more hostiles heading our way,” Eleanor said. “What about the raven?”
“It’s already airborne, sweeping the perimeter,” Evangeline answered.
Ronan stared at the ground, hollow-eyed. “I can’t believe it… they betrayed us.”
“You’re the only one who couldn’t,” Luke said flatly.
As they spoke, Luke flicked open the Princess Charlie notifications hovering at the edge of his vision.
The [Pugilist] 2nd Class of Princess Charlie has reached Level 42! (+3 Strength, +2 Endurance, +2 Agility, +2 Vitality, +2 Perception, +2 Intelligence, +2 Free Points.)




0 Comments