Free Web NovelChapter 23: Blood lust 1
"Yeah, so keep your eyes open for any poison hibiscus as we clear the dungeon," Levon said calmly as they moved forward.
In this game there were different types of dungeons. Some resembled labyrinths with nothing but creatures and a single boss. Kill the boss and the dungeon was cleared. Others were task-based dungeons where a player had to complete a specific set of objectives within a set time frame.
Either way, no two dungeons were ever truly alike.
Just as Levon was thinking through his approach, a gigantic creature suddenly flew right over his head.
The place was too dim for him to make out exactly what it was, but he took the precautionary measure of swiping his sword hard through the air, hoping to at least land a hit before it could strike first.
[Level 5 Vampire Bat.
Note: Known for hunting from the air and draining the blood of its prey.]
Levon and Aria did their best to swat it down with their swords, but it kept slipping out of reach, always pulling just high enough to avoid them. frёewebηovel.cѳm
"You know what, we don’t have time for this. After all those kills you should have picked up some mechanical stones. Upgrade your bow to around level four. It won’t take many since your weapon is already of a higher grade. Once you’re done, take them down with it. I’ll go ahead and search for the Vampire King and the artifact. When you’re finished here, come find me," Levon said calmly as he found the widest path available and pushed forward at a surprising pace.
He kept running through the corridor, cutting down vampire bears as they appeared and moving fast enough that others barely had time to regroup or react before he was already past them.
After running for a while, Levon hit a dead end. The rock wall before him was solid and enormous, and behind him roughly 150 vampire bears were closing in, all eager to tear him apart.
Levon’s eyes were sharp with adrenaline.
He turned back to face the wall. He was fairly certain there was no way the dungeon would place both the artifact and the Vampire King along the same path. That would make things far too straightforward. So whichever path he had taken, it had to lead to one of the two.
But all that stood before him was solid rock and a complete dead end.
He couldn’t make sense of it. And the bears kept getting closer and closer, making it look very much like he was completely cornered.
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Aria kept feeding mechanical stones into her bow, and even after it crossed level four she kept going. By the end it had climbed all the way to level seven.
The whole investment stung a little, since she hadn’t held back a single stone to upgrade the Silversteel Dagger.
But she had her reasons. These were level five creatures and she was still at level four, so she simply couldn’t afford to take any chances with these ones.
The moment she was done, she started firing at the vampire bats.
They were enormous, not just in wingspan but in overall size. She was fairly certain even one of them could lift her clean off the ground, so she took no chances.
She fired in bursts of three, four, and five arrows at a time, targeting as many as possible. Whenever one swooped low trying to grab her, she would drive the sharp end of a spare arrow into its eyes or gut while using her hands and legs to fight it off up close.
She was shooting rapidly, and after the cooldown her arrows had regained the ability to regenerate quickly, though only for a window of about twenty-five minutes before entering another cooldown phase where the rate dropped to around ten to fifteen minutes. But for now the rate was high and she wasn’t wasting a second of it.
After two to three minutes of relentless shooting and close combat, she had finally cleared the entire wave of vampire bats, even in the dim light.
Once the last one was down, Aria took the opposite path from the one Levon had gone down. freёwebnoѵel.com
She kept firing at whatever blocked her way, and before long she pushed through into a large chamber with marble floors, noticeably brighter and far more refined than anything she had passed through to get here.
"Well now, what brings you to my domain?" a voice thundered across the chamber without a single figure in sight.
Aria turned her head in every direction but couldn’t pin down where the sound was coming from.
"Oh my, you are quite the sight. I can barely wait to taste you. Your blood must be absolutely delicious," the voice continued, either taunting her deliberately or simply trying to plant fear.
Either way, Aria didn’t care. All she wanted was to locate where this thing was speaking from.
But before she could even do that, two gigantic vampire bears landed directly in front of her.
Their muscles were significantly thicker than any she had encountered before. They were larger all around, their fangs more pronounced, and most noticeably their eyes carried something the others hadn’t. Aria could feel it instinctively. It wasn’t just bloodlust. These creatures had intelligence behind their gaze.
"Ha ha ha ha ha, allow me to introduce you to my newest breed of vampire bears. Come on boys, subdue her with your venomous fangs. Do a good job and I might consider sharing the blood with you," the voice laughed hysterically as it spoke.
The moment the words left his mouth, both creatures surged toward Aria from opposite sides, moving with clear intent to end the fight as quickly as possible.
