RD 4 Ch 54

Charging through the fortress, I heard a scream from farther up. I gave a small silent apology to Simone before I swung the Bloodiron Blade high above my head with four quick flicks of my wrist releasing Sanguine Slashes that carved a square chunk out of the ceiling that fell with a boom, announcing my presence to everyone above.

But I was done with subtlety, and I was done waiting as I jumped up through the hole. I wanted Vidar’s head separated from his body for what he’d done here.

Whoever had screamed continued screaming as if sending me a beacon to follow.

I cut another chunk in the roof, and this time, the noise came far more clearly. I shot up, rushing down the hall, only to see two bloody simulacrums of me fighting a small contingent of Borrsons.

These men weren't quite as big, but they had three scared Mul Branova pinned at the end of the hall.

I chuckled at the thought of the giants trying to navigate these halls, but at the same time, amongst Borrsons, more powerful physiques contained their size better. That meant these were more likely to be elites of Vidar's.

They spun away from the Mul Branova and to me just in time to get their weapons half-raised.

I slammed into them like the bowling ball at the end of the alley.

Two went flying into the walls before I crossed weapons with a third, having lost enough momentum that he managed to hold out, his feet dragging against the ground.

The two blood simulacrums didn't pause; the remaining two of the gang of five held them off before they could stab any of them in the back.

I dropped one hand off the sword and reached past our braced weapons to grab the Borrson by the throat and swung with all of my weight until I smashed him against one of his fellows.

The two of them went down in a tumble, and the simulacrums were able to press the one still on his feet while the rest recovered.

I glanced down the hall at the three Mul Branova. "Drain him," I ordered.

Without a moment of hesitation, they all switched to the ability I'd seen plenty of times. A red tether of blood shot out of their hands, connecting to the Borrson, only for the flow to reverse the second it snapped into place. They began draining the health of our brutish invaders.

One of them was wise enough to realize what was happening as he got his feet back underneath himself. "Stop them!" he shouted. "I'll handle the giant idiot."

I chuckled. "Good luck with that." I attacked that one, letting our blades slip apart and allowing my attacker to punch a handaxe into my side. It didn't matter. I ignored the wound. Instead, I pinned him against the wall, brutalizing him with one free hand, using my chest to stop his weapon.

Even as he sliced and twisted it, trying to pull it out, my anger was greater than any pain he could inflict.

I made a knife hand, stabbing it into one of his wounds, and began twisting it myself. At the same time, I began drawing out his bloodline.

He screamed. He must have felt something terribly wrong, and his shouts for help caused his fellows to gather their strength and stab me in the back.

The Mul Branova weren’t enough to keep them all occupied.

But as soon as I finished ripping out his SS-ranked bloodline, his strength had fled from him, and he sagged with a look of utter despair. Losing that many stats felt horrid. He wasn’t a problem for the moment.

I spun. Even with three weapons still in me, and my body covered in cuts, I was able to ignore the pain and smash him against his allies. I used him like a giant club despite the axe being shoved into me, pulled back and forth every time I jerked him around like a saw in my side.

The others hesitated to use their weapons on their ally and backed up, holding their attacks.

The pain and rage bled together, and I smashed through them in a blind fury. I briefly registered two skulls caving in under my fists and a small ball of five bloodlines appearing in my hand before I flicked it off to my spatial ring.

Things ended sooner than I would have liked, and reality snapped back into clarity.

I panted as the last of their bodies disappeared into the ground, and several red tethers attached to me as the Mul Branova pumped healing into me. "I'll be fine," I said, standing up straight and looking them in the eyes. "When this is done, I will find a way to reward all of you who remain."

"Lord Bran," they cried, throwing themselves to their knees. "We prayed for you and you came!" It was bittersweet.

Their shouts filled the air, but I was so consumed with anger that I barely heard them. I was driven to push forward, to crush everyone who had dared to invade my fortress. But I couldn't. Instead, I stared down at them, the small ball of blood swirling in my hand. It contained myriad bloodlines. "The blood of your enemies makes you stronger," I reminded them.

Three streams streaked from the small ball, each one pushing S-ranked bloodlines into them. The Mul Branova already had bloodlines, but they were weak, B or C rank at best. The sudden surge of power was enough to make them double over, gasping in pain as their bodies accepted the new bloodlines.

I gestured to the blood on the floor. "Drink the blood of your enemies and become stronger."

One of the Mul Branova looked up with feverish devotion before diving forward, laughing as she lapped up a pool of leftover blood.

"Go gather as many as you can and any enemy you find. Do your best to contain them," I instructed

The three of them reacted in their own ways. One had thrown herself into the blood, another was staring at a system menu in front of her, and the third looked like she was about to pass out on the floor.

"Come, sisters," the one who had lapped at the blood on the floor said, wiping it off her chin and holding up a bloody hand. "We shall drink the blood of our enemies and rise up against them!"

I was worried I may have created something more dangerous than I had anticipated, but if they felt empowered to go after our enemies, then that could only be a good thing. They looked at me for a brief second as if expecting me to stop them. I shooed them away with a flick of my wrist. "Go. I need to find the one who led these people.”

“He's climbing the tower looking for the new visitor," one of them stated.

"The saintess put her in the tower." The one who had been staring at her screen hissed. “If I had known that she was going to bring such a disaster down on our heads, I would have never let her in.”

"We don't know the future," I consoled her. "We can only operate with what we know now."

"Yes, Lord Bran," she replied, dipping her head as if she'd been scolded. She glared at the others before rushing off, but not before they managed to get a lick of blood.

I could almost see their spines straightening and their stats growing as they tasted our enemy's blood. It was a peculiar ability, but at the moment, I was going to take every ounce of help that the system would give me. I didn't balk at the idea of letting them drink blood if it meant they would survive in the end.

They had to survive. My Mul Branova were not so weak as to be crushed by this.

I turned with a singular focus in my mind. I was going to find Vidar and crush his skull. I knew that Venthra had been put at the top, and so that's where I was going. I smashed out a window before grabbing onto a chunk of rock and hauling myself out, climbing the exterior like a giant, muscle-bound squirrel.

Down below the yard was filled with shouts as it seemed the counterattack had begun.

I managed to reach the top tower in short order, throwing myself straight through the window.

Venthra screamed, spun on me, and hurled a fan of knives glistening with poison.

I smacked half of them aside, letting the other half scratch me as I glared at her furiously. "Is that the welcome I get for housing you?" I grumbled.

She backed herself up against a wall, though her eyes didn't look like she was going to back down. "You jumped through a fucking window. That's not something a host does. That's what an assassin does. I should know.”

“Well, at least you're being more honest with me," I said, pulling one of the knives out and lamenting how shredded my shirt had become. And now the fabric was absolutely caked in blood. It was going to get harder and harder to find clothing that would stand up for long.

"Vidar's here in case you weren't aware," I told her.

Her face went pale. "I heard fighting, but I..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't have anywhere else to go."

"Speak quickly and give me a reason not to throw you to him when he finally makes his way up here." I folded my arms across my chest.

"It was like you said. Exactly like you said." She gestured with open hands and then looked at them as if her own hands appalled her. "He gave me Powerful Poison SSS rank and told me he wanted to poison someone close to the clan leader. I…" She hesitated. "I decided to do a little more research on my own before I did the job. A few months ago, I would have just done what he said. But part of me wanted to prove you wrong," she said, her eyes beginning to water. It was odd seeing the fierce assassin starting to break down.

"Sounds like I wasn't. So let me guess, you were actually poisoning the chief?” I waited for her to continue.

Venthra nodded. “I faked it. Said I poisoned him, and instead, I tried to pass a message to the chief." She put her hand on her forehead, her eyes wide.

"I thought maybe I would have more time to figure something out. But the second I reported back to Vidar, he grabbed me and teleported me into the middle of nowhere. He was about to kill me."

"So you ran here?" I asked.

She shook her head, "Not at first. I blinded him with one of the talismans you gave me. You're right. There's absolutely no way I could beat Vidar with my own bag of tricks. So I blinded him and ran, only for him to find me at every turn. I thought this would be the last place he would look for me."

I held my hand out. “Give me everything in your spatial rings."

She stared at me like I was a lunatic.

I rolled my eyes. "He's got some way to track you if he found you here."

She hurriedly slipped off her spatial rings as if they were vipers.

"Yeah. Of course." She was starting to panic, and it was making her make poor decisions.

I took the rings. "Now what's about to happen is Vidar is going to come up those steps. And if he doesn't, I am going to charge down. You understand that he's been killing all of my people here? And unless he runs away, I am going to kill him for that offense. I need to know you are not going to interfere. Are we good?"

She nodded. "I'm dead if I try to go back to the clan. And I'm dead if he gets his hands on me.” Her head fell like her world was collapsing around her. “I'm a dead woman walking. The only thing that's keeping me alive is you, so no, you have my full support. Whatever you want from me, whatever you need from me, you have it."

She couldn’t entirely be trusted, but everything about her demeanor told me she was being honest.

I grinned at her. "I'm so happy to hear that. Because I have a plan, and you need to listen to me closely. I need you to do a few things for me." My tone turned hard.

She bobbed her head quickly. “Anything."