Chapter 78: The Blood Elf 2

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: The Blood Elf 2

"Urgh... AAAAARGH!"

The elf shrieked in agony. The sheer volume of mana was too immense for his channels to endure. His skin split open in spiderweb cracks, dark blood spurting from his pores, ears, and nostrils. His mana flared wild, unstable, and erratic.

Yet even through the horrific backlash, the raw power was absolute.

"Kill... KILL YOU ALL!" the elf bellowed, blood tears streaming down his face as he began forcing his erratic mana to align.

Felix’s face went dead pale. "He’s forcing his circuits to stabilize! If he gets full control over that SS-rank output, this clearing will be our grave! We kill him now!"

The elf blurred.

BANG!

He crashed directly into Felix and Seraphina.

Felix brought both mana blades up in a desperate cross-block.

The shock hit like a falling meteor. Both of his blades shattered into dust. The impact snapped Felix’s forearms with a sickening —

CRACK,

and blew him through a massive boulder, shattering the stone into rubble.

In the same breath, a jagged tendril of SS-rank crimson lightning whipped across Seraphina’s torso.

Her water shields evaporated into boiling steam in a fraction of a second. The lightning tore across her chest and shoulder, burning through her tactical gear and charring the flesh beneath.

Blood sprayed as she skidded fifty yards back, her boots digging deep trenches into the earth.

Cough!

Felix crawled out of the shattered boulder, his arms hanging limp and mangled. He clamped his teeth together, forcing his healing to flood his forearms.

Bones crunched and snapped back into alignment, muscle fibers reweaving under green fire.

He didn’t even wait for the pain to fade. He launched himself forward. "Sera!"

Seraphina was already pushing herself up. Her breath was ragged, blood dripping down her chin and soaking her chest. But looking at Felix, seeing him throw his own body into the meat grinder just to keep the beast off her, something inside her violently shattered.

I am not standing behind him.

I am standing beside him!

Inside her chest, her lightning affinity: long stagnant at Mid I, violently contracted. The extreme pressure of the SS-rank aura, mixed with her burning, obsessive drive to protect the man in front of her, crushed the bottleneck to dust.

CRACK-CRACK-BOOM!

Brilliant, blinding blue-white lightning erupted from Seraphina’s core, tearing through the ambient crimson mist.

Her lightning affinity broke through Mid I, and skyrocketed straight into High III in a single breath!

The ambient air ionized until the hair on Felix’s arms stood straight up. Seraphina’s speed multiplied exponentially. She didn’t just move; she turned into a streak of pure, razor-sharp azure light.

SHING!

She reappeared directly in the elf’s flank, her hand coated in high-frequency lightning blades that cut with a deafening hum. She slashed down across his back.

SLASH!

Carving deep through his reinforced flesh, the high-tier lightning scorching his erratic mana channels.

"GAAAAH!" The elf roared, swinging a massive whip of compressed blood and electricity at her neck.

"Felix, cover!" Seraphina shouted, unable to parry the raw weight of the SS-tier whip alone.

From fifty paces back in the trees, Liora acted.

Now!

Three phased needles of compressed shadow vanished into empty space and tore out directly in front of the elf’s golden eyes.

Puff-puff-crack!

The needles detonated against his face. The damage didn’t pierce his skull, but the sudden blast in his eyes threw the elf’s swing off by two inches.

That two-inch gap was all Felix needed.

Felix appeared underneath the whip, ducking the lethal arc. He drove a condensed, heavy emerald palm strike straight into the elf’s exposed ribs.

BOOM!

The hit sent shockwaves straight into the elf’s already strained mana core, disrupting his stabilization. The elf coughed a fountain of black blood, his knees buckling.

"You... insolent... worms!" The elf snarled, his aura flaring in a desperate attempt to trigger a self-destructive explosion of SS-rank mana.

The crimson lightning began swirling into a vortex around his chest.

"He’s going to detonate!" Liora cried from the rear, firing another volley of phased needles to disrupt his focus.

"Not on my watch," Felix growled, blood dripping from his nose as he burned his own reserves to the absolute limit.

Felix clamped his bare hand directly onto the elf’s remaining shoulder, his fingers digging into torn flesh. He didn’t just heal; he inverted his mana flow, pumping volatile healing energy straight into the elf’s ruptured channels, turning the elf’s own uncontrollable power against him.

The elf’s veins bulged like thick ropes, paralyzed by the conflicting flows.

"Sera! End it!" Felix roared.

Seraphina didn’t hesitate. With her newly unlocked High III lightning coursing through her veins, she gathered every drop of her mana, condensing a massive, crystalline halberd woven from roaring water and blinding azure lightning.

She stepped forward, moving with blinding speed.

"Die," she whispered, her voice colder than ice.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The lightning halberd swept across the elf’s neck like the blade of an executioner.

The head separated clean from the shoulders, flying into the brush in a shower of sparks and blood.

The headless SS-rank monster stood frozen for two horrific seconds before the chaotic mana inside it finally imploded.

Felix lunged forward with his knife, slicing open the chest cavity and ripping out the pulsing S-rank core just as the massive body collapsed heavily into the dirt.

Silence crashed down over the forest.

The elf was dead.

Felix fell to one knee, breathing like a dying engine. His chest was covered in deep lacerations, his ribs were bruised to purple, and his mana reserves were scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel.

Beside him, Seraphina dropped down onto both knees, the blinding azure lightning fading from her skin as she coughed violently, clutching her burned shoulder.

Then, the ground violently pitched beneath them.

CRACK!

The pale sky split open like shattered glass. Huge spatial fissures tore through the canopy.

Without the core and the boss holding the realm together, the entire dungeon was collapsing in on itself.

"The gate..." Felix wheezed, forcing himself back onto trembling legs. "It’s coming down! Move!"

Seraphina gritted her teeth, dragging her bound A-rank prisoner up by the collar. Liora sprinted out of the treeline, grabbing the other unconscious elf, and hooked her arm under Seraphina’s side to help support her weight.

"Felix! Hurry!" Liora screamed over the deafening roar of falling earth.

All three bolted through the shaking trees toward the blue vortex ahead.

They threw themselves through the portal just as the rift collapsed into a single, blinding pinpoint of light behind them, tumbling hard onto the cold concrete.

The Association officers and medical teams waiting on the platform froze in total disbelief.

Felix was drenched head to toe in blood, barely holding himself up on trembling legs. Seraphina was covered in severe burns and blood, leaning heavily against the platform railing.

Liora was the only one standing upright, though her face was pale as chalk, dragging an unconscious, gray-skinned dark elf behind her while the other prisoner lay bound at Seraphina’s feet.

"Wait... you were in a B-rank rift!" a field officer stammered, his eyes darting from the alien prisoners to the mangled heroes. "You two are top-tier combatants! What on earth happened in there?!"

"Save the questions..." Felix muttered, his voice barely a rasp.

His vision swam with black spots. The immense blood loss and mana exhaustion finally caught up with him. His knees gave out, and he collapsed flat onto the concrete.

Seraphina’s consciousness slipped away at the exact same moment, slumping down right beside him.

"Felix! Seraphina!"

Liora panicked, letting go of the prisoner. The fierce, terrifying combat rush vanished in an instant, and the shy, frightened girl came crashing back.

"Felix?! Wake up! Please!"

No answer. Sirens began wailing across the platform as dozens of armed guards and trauma medics swarmed the bay, shouting frantic orders and preparing stretchers.

Liora backed away, trembling violently. The blaring alarms, the bright floodlights, and the crowd of shouting strangers terrified her. She clutched her sleeves tight against her chest, retreating until her back hit the wall.

A senior medic approached slowly, keeping his hands open and low. "Easy, girl. Easy. We’re medical staff. We’re here to help them. You’re completely safe."

Liora didn’t answer. She just pressed herself against the wall, her wide, light-pink eyes watching them as the medics rushed Felix and Seraphina onto emergency stretchers.

The gate was gone, but the truth was out.

An artificially boosted dungeon. Mysterious pills that could force mana past the mortal limit into SS-rank.

This was never just a rift mission.

It was the first exposed thread of a massive, deadly conspiracy and Felix Valerius had just ripped it wide open.