Chương 105: Blood on the Graveyard Road

Two days had passed since we left the Entei Sect territory. The carriage rolled steadily along the new gravel road. The others felt a little rejuvenated after the rest, especially after using the newly gained coin from Weisha well at a spring-pond tavern. It had provided great food and enough quiet to finally let the fatigue leave our bodies. Conversations flowed more easily now. Small laughs broke the silence as everyone started returning to their usual selves.

Stories of fallen comrades were shared with less choking grief and more quiet resolve. I still walked beside the carriage, my dark red, spiked hair catching the sunlight.

"We are actually moving forward," I said to Xhife, who rode on the edge of the vehicle.

"Not just running. We'll be planning our next steps once we reach base. We will train properly."

"Before new escort missions, of course," Xhife added.

"Otherwise it won't work." His baby face showed a tired but genuine smile. Xihua listened in and puffed on her pipe.

"Yeah. I will make you push your physical limits." Another voice cut in from the cart.

"We carry them. Every meter. That is how we make sure their deaths meant something. So I will also improve." Zhuofing sat at the front, guiding the horses. His voice carried steady encouragement"Stay alert, everyone. Having important conversations is nice and all, but we are still in unknown territory. We have survived worse, but you still need to keep your eyes open. And as for the topic at hand, I have the pearls by my side for now.

I will build a shrine for them as a memory piece so we can always visit them as a reminder not to get too greedy." The mood lifted with each shared memory. Yet the land itself began to change quickly. The gentle hills soon gave way to a far nastier territory. Trees grew twisted and sparse, while the ground turned rocky and uneven. A metallic scent lingered heavily in the air, smelling of old blood mixed with damp earth. We crested a low rise, and the sight hit us like a physical blow.

A fresh graveyard road stretched ahead of us. Many carriages lay broken down and broken into, their splintered wheels scattered across the field. Wood was charred and smashed. Bodies littered the path in unnatural, broken positions, as if their very life force had been violently sucked away. There was very little blood and their skin was bone-dry. Warriors lay in torn battle attire, their arms ripped completely off, leaving only small smears of blood on their bodies.

Travelers of every age had been killed and left behind as a gruesome warning. Some were impaled on crude spears fashioned from the wrecked carriages themselves. The shafts stood completely upright like grim markers, meant to steal any sense of peace from anyone who still thought the road was safe. Red-stained wood was planted deep. On some markers, the blood was old and flies buzzed around it; on others, it still glistened in the weak sunlight. The wind carried the sickly-sweet smell of death.

My stomach turned as grief and anger surged fresh inside my chest.

"Who does this?" I whispered, my voice incredibly tight.

"These people… they were just traveling through this nation. Just like us." We stopped the carriage together and decided to approach the wreckage closer on foot. We examined the impaled bodies carefully. Some of the warriors had clear defensive wounds on their arms, and their weapons still lay nearby. Interestingly, their coin satchels remained completely untouched.

Some of the dead young victims had dark marks on their wrists, as if they had been forcefully held and defiled as he held them down and stopped from running. One child still clutched a small bundle, perhaps a favorite toy. blood flowed into my eyes as I clenched my fists tightly.

"This is not just bandit work. This is a madman's work." Then, a strange man stepped out from behind a broken carriage, woken from his sleep because we were being too loud. He looked to be in his thirties, with wild, spiky, grizzled grey hair that stood in uneven tufts around a gaunt, angular face with sharp cheekbones and a narrow jaw. Later, we would learn his name was Shen. His eyes held a manic, dangerous gleam.

He wore armor made of layered leather, consisting of toughened hides stitched together in a patchwork style that allowed total flexibility for hunting or tracking. Straps crossed his chest, holding small pouches and a variety of knives. His self-made spear featured a long shaft with a red stripe tied near the end, clearly designed to wrap around his arm to allow for longer, whipping swings. He demanded our lives in a bizarre tone, sounding completely mad and furious all at once.

"You should die. All of you. Help me and join the endless road. Become part of my graveyard." Without hesitation, we attacked him. The battle erupted instantly. I activated Cor Flamma first. Flames roared along my Sword-axe as I charged.

"For everyone you defiled and impaled here!" I roared. My first slash cut sharply toward his left side, but he parried it cleanly with the shaft of his spear. The impact jarred my arms, and in that instant, I could tell this freak of nature possessed immense physical strength. Yet, I did not care. Sparks flew as steel violently met steel, and I pressed the attack with relentless intensity. However, as I pursued him with a rapid succession of strikes, he countered with a sudden, whip-like swing.

The red stripe allowed his spear to rapidly extend its reach, and the tip grazed my right shoulder. A hot, burning pain flared immediately upon impact, but I twisted away dynamically, my fire aura flaring even brighter around me.

"You won't add any of us to your collection of corpses!" I snarled, cutting off his mad rambling as he countered my strikes, chanting about how he couldn't wait to impale us on his spears. I followed up with a series of rapid slashes. Each one trailed flames that scorched the air. He blocked them all. His movements were erratic but brutally efficient. A mad grin split his face.

"Good. Burn brighter on my graveyard before you die!" Xhife leaped in with greater rage beside me. His Wind Demon Monkey Vestuto was active.

"You bastard! She was only twelve when you did your dirty deed!" I snarled. The madman countered instantly mid-leap, his face twisted in a manic grin.

"Well, what can I say? I enjoy a young one's freshness and blood a good amount. My graveyard seeks souls of all ages, and eventually, you will join it soon as well!" Xhife spun his staff against the incoming strike, countering the counter with wide, hurricane-like arcs. Forceful wind howled around his rapid strikes. Yet, the madman still blocked and countered them with relative ease, his spear shaft meeting the staff with resounding cracks.

Xhife flipped gracefully over a low sweep, landed directly behind his opponent, and delivered a powerful spinning kick to the man's back. The impact sent the unhinged hunter stumbling forward. But he recovered instantly with a quick, flexible turnaround, pushing his body to its absolute limits. He whipped his spear in a wide circle, the red stripe rapidly extending its reach. The sudden extension forced Xhife to leap back under the continued assault, but he was still cut across his face way too quickly.

Seeing the blood, the madman grinned even further.

"Too slow, monkey boy!" the man laughed. His voice dripped with insanity. Xihua joined next without hesitation. Phantasmal Incense filled the air with a stronger haze than ever before. Thick, choking smoke rolled across the graveyard road.

"Choke on this!" she growled. Smoke whips lashed out from every direction. They wrapped around the madman´s legs, trying to trip him. He spun. His leather armor absorbed some hits while his spear deflected others. One whip caught his arm. He tore it apart with raw strength of his.

"Smoke and whips? Pathetic!" He thrust the spear forward, aiming exactly where Xihua's body was hidden inside the Phantasmal Incense. The red stripe allowed a sudden, violent extension. The strike nearly impaled Xihua, who was completely caught off guard and had not expected to be detected so quickly. She rolled aside at the absolute last moment, releasing a fresh burst of thick smoke that reformed around her for cover, allowing her to escape into a new position.

"You talk too much for a murderer!" she shot back. Her voice was sharp with anger. Qixian came next. Darkness Wings spread wide.

"No more innocent blood!" she shouted. Her twin rods created small craters where they struck the ground. She slid seamlessly through the shadows, appearing directly behind the madman and striking hard at his spine. The weapons connected with a heavy, echoing thud. He staggered once again, but he recovered with terrifying speed. Lunging forward, he whipped his spear backward, grazing her wing with relative ease. She hissed in sharp pain.

"You will pay for every life on this road!" she growled, launching another assault. Her darkness blended with the smoke from Xihua's incense, creating a chaotic battlefield of shadows and mist. Woushi attacked with spinning water rings.

"For the road you turned into a grave!" The rings cut deep, slicing at the madman´s leather armor. He twisted away. His spear whipped back, grazing him across the dominant right arm. Blood welled instantly.

"Is that all you have? Shen is rather disappointed!" the madman taunted. His eyes gleaming with furthering madness. One after another we attacked. The remnants of Safety Delivery and Golden Tooth. All Vestutoed. All giving everything they had left. The air filled with a chaotic symphony of clashing weapons as we unleashed our Vestuto attacks all at once against the madman. Roaring flames and howling winds tore through the valley, while the cracking earth shook beneath his feet.

Powerful waves and crackling electric shocks bombarded his defenses from every angle, accompanied by a heavy darkness that branded the very ground around him. Yet, he dominated the early exchanges. His spear moved like a living serpent, and the red stripe whipped it into unpredictable arcs. He laughed madly through every single clash.

"More! Give me more before you die! The road is hungry!" His unhinged laughter echoed across the graveyard, mixing with the horrific buzzing of flies on the impaled bodies all around us. Finally our leader, Dirty Finger, stepped in. Zhuofing. His Vestuto flared up as earth power surged through his accumulative gauntlets, their power growing by a sharp percentile flare of one percent.

"Enough of your slaughter and arrogant tone! I will show you the end of your graveyard here right now!" he roared. He slammed a heavy punch directly into the man's midsection before he could react in time. The strike left a visible dent in the armor as his gauntlet grew even more powerful, storing an additional six percent of energy. The impact echoed like thunder inside the madman's body, causing him to stagger backward for the very first time.

Blood trickled from his mouth, a stark reminder that he had only been punched by the raw force of the blow and had not even been hit by the gauntlet's true activated power yet. For a moment, we thought we had turned it around, as the man had totally the battle under control, finally lost its tight held grip. With new found Hope flared in my chest. Newfound hope flared in my chest.

"Now I will bury him deep into the ground!" I shouted, pressing the advantage. Activating my first Ignis Ardente burst, a thin crimson aura formed around me, making me faster and stronger as I sprinted toward the target with a powerful swing ready. But then, he began the blood ritual, roaring, "Krwawa Infuzja!" Red threads burst violently from his body. Pulsing veins of blood wrapped around his spear like living sinew while he chanted in a guttural tongue.

The air grew impossibly heavy around us as his pressure turned completely oppressive. His skin remained pale, marred by faint red accents, but the ruby red threads spread across his entire body. His transformation turned more demonic in design. He grew twelve centimeters taller, now standing at a towering 1. 87 meters. His muscles bulged unnaturally, swelling until his neck and arms looked nearly twice the size of his torso.

Two new pairs of eyes opened wide above his original ones, glowing with a malevolent hunger for more blood. His armor shifted in tandem, becoming bulkier as dark plates formed with jagged spikes and horn-like protrusions across his shoulders and back. The gear looked incredibly heavy, yet it moved with terrifying speed. The demonic presence pressed down on all of us. Animo spiked wildly. The ground itself seemed to tremble under his new form. He laughed louder now. The sound was distorted and inhuman.

"Yes… now you see. The road of killing accepts only the strong. I will paint my graveyard red with all of you!" The battle intensified to a new level of horror. His spear, now empowered with blood threads, lashed out with even greater reach and power. Every single swing left blistering red afterimages in its wake. The threads extended from the weapon like razor-sharp whips, cutting through the air with wet, slicing sounds, and I was the very first to get caught up in the onslaught.

We fought desperately against the demonic Shen. Xhife's wind strikes clashed fiercely against the blood threads. They were severed, but they reformed instantly, drawing more blood from the demon's own body to replenish themselves.

"This power of his does not stop!" Xhife panted. His movements were slowing down from absolute exhaustion. After being pierced from shoulder to shoulder multiple times by the end of the onslaught, he was violently blown back, crashing straight into a broken carriage. Xihua's smoke tried to blind the monster, but he simply laughed, whipping the crimson threads through the cloud and parting it like curtains.

"Your tricks are nothing to me now!" he roared. One thread caught her leg, violently pulling her out of her own ability. She cried out, tearing it free with a smoke blade forged from her haze, but blood welled heavily from the cut. In the next instant, a spear struck her ribs, piercing her deeply. She fell to the ground, huffing with smoke still rising from her pipe as she looked up at him. He simply kicked her away like trash as he turned his attention to another opponent.

Qixian's Darkness Wings allowed for rapid hit-and-run attacks, but the new eyes on his forehead tracked her movements perfectly.

"Stop buzzing around!" he said in an annoyed tone. He caught her by the arm and threw her away, though someone managed to stop him before he could break her neck. While flying toward the ground, she warned the rest of us that his eyes could track far better now. Her rods slammed into the earth upon her fall, creating another massive crater. The demon barely flinched; his demonic form absorbed nearly all of the incoming impact. Wousshi utilized his water rings, spinning them with an even higher, furious velocity.

They managed to cut some threads, but they could not reach his actual body. The blood user regenerated them much faster than we could destroy them.

"He's feeding on his own blood… this is insane!" Wousshi shouted in sheer desperation. His voice was heavily strained right before he was also rammed brutally into the dirt. I poured absolutely everything into my Cor Flamma, combining it with my still-active, thin, crimson Ignis Ardente aura. The Flame Aura Blade exploded against his demonic form.

"Burn on my Elsa di Fuoco!" I roared. The aura flared bright, and my heat reached higher than ever before. Yet, he tanked the hits effortlessly. His blood threads actively absorbed and converted some of the blistering threads into his own skin turning it into a new armor. He countered with a rapid spear thrust that nearly impaled me, and I barely managed to dodge. The red stripe whipped around his arm for extra momentum, causing the tip to graze my side.

Hot blood flowed down my ribs as pain exploded through my body. I staggered, but I forced myself to stay on my feet.

"I won't fall here!" I growled through gritted teeth. Zhuofing attacked next, his accumulative gauntlets glowing at their absolute maximum.

"I will end this madness!" he yelled. He landed another heavy blow, successfully cracking one of the demonic plates on the monster's armor, with the gauntlet now climbing to twenty percent. The mutated man staggered backward once more, but the horrific blood ritual only seemed to empower him further. His extra eyes glowed brighter, and his laughter turned into a terrifying roar that shook the broken carriages all around us. The fight continued without a clear resolution.

Our hope was tested once more on this grim graveyard road, for his ultimate transformation had elevated him far higher than we had ever anticipated. However, Zhuofing's massive damage was just enough to grant us the small opening we needed to resume combat, bringing a flicker of chance back to our hopeless situation.