Chapter 139: Lethal Carnage

"Things might look terrible at first glance, but there's a silver lining," Avia murmured, still clinging onto Wang Yu's back. Her vigilant gaze scanned their surroundings. She was carefully and meticulously shaping void energy into ammunition as she prepared for the battles to come.

"Breaking the quicksand barrier requires a sufficiently powerful destructive force, one difficult to achieve with our current strength. Coincidentally, one of the exhaust vents of the Mountain Forge is right by the center of the academy.

"There's a storage area for the heat and waste fuel generated by the Mountain Forge there. This non-magical energy should be enough to create a brief burst of power."

"That's good news. Our plan covers all the bases—don't worry. We'll succeed," Wang Yu reassured her as he sprinted toward the center of the academy.

He gave Avia a thumbs-up without looking back at her. Her nervousness was apparent through the physical contact they shared. It was admittedly a reckless plan, and the situation was dire, but they had to push forward. Fear was unnecessary.

"Mm." Avia nodded and loaded ammunition into her gun.

Wang Yu's ripples didn't have a wide range, at least not in this space where the void had been marked by a certain entity. His vision and hearing once again became his primary means of observation.

The surrounding environment didn't seem to pose any immediate threats, but the sixth sense unique to knights alerted him that he was being watched. Whatever was eyeing him did so in an erratic fashion, and from what seemed like many different locations.

"Avia, is there any unusual activity in the void around us? Could Erphine be watching us through the void?"

Though Wang Yu was certain that Erphine had the ability to observe their movements, it was still unsettling not to know where the enemy was or where an attack might come from.

"It's almost impossible. With such high-purity void energy around us, the surrounding void tends to be in a highly stable state. Even Erphine wouldn't be able to utilize this void energy readily."

Avia's response rejected Wang Yu's hypothesis. Her understanding of the void far surpassed his, and she had a clearer grasp of the current situation. Right now, Erphine was suffering from the same hindrances they did: he was unable to use magic, and likely unable to use the void.

As Erphine himself had said, he was now largely relying on biological forces—though this was hardly a comforting thought.

Wang Yu shifted his gaze from the plants around them to the sky. There were several birds circling overhead, which didn't seem to be looking in their direction. Their eyes weren't focused on Wang Yu or Avia; they seemed to be flying aimlessly.

Even so, Wang Yu's intuition told him that these birds were one of the sources of Erphine's gaze.

Given that intuition largely stemmed from subconscious observation, Wang Yu chose to trust his intuition.

"Take a shot at those birds over there," Wang Yu murmured, pointing up at the birds in the sky.

A bullet tore through the air, its sharp tip whistling as it pierced the body of one bird.

The bird let out a sharp cry as its body, along with blood and pieces of its internal organs, plummeted to the ground. Wang Yu focused his attention on the bird all throughout its fall.

"I'm sure of it... all the lifeforms here are Erphine's eyes and ears." Wang Yu looked away. His keen eyesight had allowed him to spot the third eye hidden among the feathers of the bird's body. This extra organ was what the birds had been using to observe Wang Yu and Avia.

"Try to avoid these creatures—no, it's pointless. Let's just charge through. A single hive mind is truly a pinnacle of biological evolution."

Wang Yu instinctively tried to avoid Erphine's eyes and ears, but he quickly dismissed the idea. It was implausible at best: there were lifeforms all around them. Plants, insects, birds—Wang Yu and Avia had likely lost any semblance of secrecy from the very beginning.

Wang Yu's steps quickened. There was no point hiding from Erphine's omnipresent surveillance. Since they had surely been detected, they would have to move faster to minimize Erphine's preparation time.

"Be careful," Avia murmured. "They're coming." She was maintaing a single Wizard's Eye around them, and had noticed the change in the situation before Wang Yu did. Erphine was starting to move against them.

Some inconspicuous mounds of dirt made faint noises on the ground ahead of Wang Yu.

Wang Yu nodded in response, choosing to quickly take a detour. His footsteps pounded the ground as he arced around those suspicious mounds.

The mounds quickly burst open. Clearly, Erphine had no intention of letting Wang Yu and Avia pass. Spiky creatures leapt out from within.

Though small in size, they exhibited a mix of various biological traits. It was clear they had been engineered for a specific purpose.

Their specialized four-legged bodies were solely designed for locomotion at the cost of reproductive ability and lifespan.

All its organs were specialized for that one purpose. This sort of design, which went against all biological norms, caused Wang Yu to shudder.

The lifeforms, which were about the size of housecats, were astonishingly fast. Their limbs moved rapidly across the ground, giving the impression that they were flying just above its surface. The sharp spines on their backs gleamed dangerously.

The sound of their densely packed footsteps echoed as the strange lifeforms closed in from behind around Wang Yu. Despite his physique enhanced by fighting spirit, Wang Yu's top speed was no faster than these lifeforms'.

Wang Yu couldn't keep draining his fighting spirit, either. He had to abandon the idea of outrunning the lifeforms, whose remarkable speed and economy of structure gave him a glimpse of Erphine's terrifying capabilities.

The power of life itself, subject to the whims of a sentient creator, was certainly horrifying to behold.

Avia's gun flashed as she shot a bullet at one of the nimble lifeforms.

The bullet struck the ground. Avia's target had leaped into the air just before she fired. Its muscles were far stronger than they appeared, giving it an astonishing ability to jump.

"Their vision is linked—they're a hive mind. Your shots won't be effective," Wang Yu murmured, monitoring the situation behind them with his ripples.

The lifeforms' eyes were fixed on Wang Yu and Avia. Avia's fingers would hardly escape their gaze.

As long as a single one of them could spot her movements, the entire group would be able to dodge in advance.

"Understood," Avia replied. In that case, she would have to rely on ammunition that could deal wide-area damage.

Before she could prepare her next shot, however, the small lifeforms attacked. Their muscles moved at breakneck speeds that would cause catastrophic damage to their own bodies—but it didn't matter. They were mindless and working under Erphine's directives. Their muscle fibers tore, and their internal organs began to overheat from their rapid motion.

Their already incredible speed surged once again. Many of the lifeforms overtook Wang Yu, while others deliberately stayed to his sides and behind him, enclosing him and Avia from all directions.

They leapt forward in a single, lethal attack. Rather than use their claws or teeth, which would be awkward to handle in mid-air, they simply rammed the sharp spines on their backs against the sprinting Wang Yu.

They surrounded him from all directions, their sharp spines bristling. A strange, sticky liquid was being secreted from the tips of those spines.

Wang Yu ducked to avoid the lifeforms flying toward his head and chest as he swiftly switched his sword from one hand to the other. With fighting spirit enhancing his muscles, he quickly slashed forward a second time, bisecting the lifeforms approaching him from the sides.

His ripples gave him a 360-degree view within a certain range around his body, allowing him to respond to the lifeforms' attacks.

As long as he was careful about it, even if these small lifeforms could outspeed him, he would be able to react in time.

With a powerful stomp, Wang Yu leapt up into the air and dodged the final few lifeforms aiming for his ankles from below. He had successfully avoided all the attacks—or had he?

His eyes widened as two of the lifeforms that had missed their attacks and flown past him struck each other. One jumped off the other as if it were a springboard.

The sharp spines on the latter's back easily pierced through the former's limbs, leaving them riddled with holes—but these fearless lifeforms felt no pain.

One lifeform fell; the other shot toward Wang Yu at incredible speed—and Wang Yu was running straight at it.

"There's no time to dodge." Wang Yu's mind immediately reached this conclusion. Void energy instinctively surged within him as he prepared a barrier.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"No—this is just Erphine's opening salvo. There are surely worse lifeforms to come. I'll have to be more conservative with my strength.

"I have to abandon my habits. What methods I used against humans and even demons won't work against these lifeforms built purely for slaughter—I can't focus on minimizing the damage I take."

Thoughts flashed through Wang Yu's mind. These foes were unlike any that he had fought before. They had no intelligence and were being controlled by a superior entity. They knew no fear nor hesitation, and were relentless, single-minded predators.

He would have to fight accordingly. No tactics—only brute force would allow him to carve a bloody path forward into the heart of the academy...

Wang Yu gritted his teeth as he allowed the lifeforms' razor-sharp spines to pierce his body.

At the same moment his flesh was punctured, he drove a dagger from his waist into the skull of the small lifeform, grinding its brain into a pulpy mess.

The lifeform's carcass fell to the ground. Though Wang Yu's body was riddled with holes, no blood spilled: his Blood Tempest allowed him to control his blood perfectly.

The Banner of Triumph activated the instant the small lifeform perished. A surge of lifeforce from the void flooded into Wang Yu's body, quickly closing and healing the holes in his flesh alongside his blood's natural regenerative properties.

But those lifeforms' spines inflicted more than puncture wounds. The greater threat was the exceptionally potent "toxin" they secreted—in truth, a swarm of highly lethal microbes.

Wang Yu didn't know precisely what they were, but he could detect them with his ripples the moment they entered his body.

In response to the invading "toxin," his blood surged into action. His Blood Tempest contained their spread even as his blood clumped together to hunt down and annihilate the aggressive microbes.

As they attacked, the Banner of Triumph triggered once more, drawing life force out of nothingness and replenishing Wang Yu's energy. Within seconds, these lifeforms' deadly "toxin" was completely eradicated.

"What an intriguing body... Your physique possesses remarkable potential. Why not join me? I will show you the true possibilities of evolution," a sudden voice echoed from above.

Wang Yu neither slowed his pace nor responded. Meanwhile, Avia fired a gunshot. The shotgun blast created a hail of high-speed, irregular metal fragments that shredded a mutant avian in mid-air.

"What a pity... Why not follow the example of the instructor of the young woman behind you? Merge with me. Within my body, you will attain immortality. Your memories will be forever preserved within me. You will witness the boundless evolution of life itself."

Erphine's voice now came from the gaping maw of a grotesque growth emerging from split bark on a tree trunk at eye level as he continued his insidious persuasion.

Wang Yu remained silent as he charged forward without hesitation.

"Forget it. Arrogant as you are, you would be utterly incapable of comprehending the true greatness of life. But worry not—I will guide you onto the right path..."

Perhaps realizing Wang Yu would never entertain its "offer," Erphine fell silent.

What replaced the silence was an eruption of Erphine's creations that had been buried within the academy.

Mutant organisms, twisted beyond recognition, emerged on the path before Wang Yu. Dog-like beasts covered in thick exoskeletons; flying abominations with grotesquely engorged muscles straining against their skeletal frames; massive, worm-like monstrosities, their entire bodies bristling with spikes and oozing corrosive fluids from their many segmented joints—one by one, Erphine's bioweapons crawled out from the earth and from within the buildings all around them.

Individually, none was extraordinarily powerful. Their overall capabilities were far inferior to transcendent knights who specialized in physical prowess.

But these creatures had all been modified to the extreme. All unnecessary biological structures had been discarded, leaving only certain traits polished to the utmost. They were, one and all, deadly.

Their overwhelming numbers would wear Wang Yu down. Their specialized attacks could tear his body apart. Their fortified defenses might render his strikes meaningless...

For the first time, Wang Yu faced an enemy horde both vast in number and truly capable of killing him. The situation looked dire. That was why he had to abandon his usual combat style.

These creatures were mad and mindless. He would have to become even more crazy, even more furious. Like a beast that thrived on slaughter, he would cut a path through their ranks!

"Protect yourself," Wang Yu warned Avia.

A gunshot roared in response—Avia's only reply. The blast from her explosive rounds tore apart the lifeforms blocking Wang Yu's path.

Without hesitation, Wang Yu downed three vials of potions. He discarded his longsword, hurling it into the writhing mass of abominations ahead—it would be of little use in what came next.

His Banner of Triumph flared to life, continuously restoring his body as he invoked Bloodsurge, that double-edged sword.

With unrelenting ferocity, he charged into the mutant swarm. Wounds tore open across his body—but the potions' effects, his blood's regeneration, and the life force from Banner of Triumph rapidly healed him.

At this moment, Wang Yu was more insane than the mindless creatures he fought. Living on the edge of death, feeding on the deaths of his enemies—their destruction was the fuel that sustained his life!