Chương 415: Chapter 386: Elixir of Cleansing

Thalion fueled the flaming sword until only fifteen percent of his mana remained. He wanted to be sure he had enough left to finish the wyvern if this blow didn't kill it. The air vibrated around Thalion's flaming form as he swung the massive sword downward. The wyvern's head snapped back around just in time to see the enormous blade descending toward it. It reacted incredibly fast, twisting its body to the side.

It was fast enough that the sword didn't strike the center of its skull as intended, instead slicing off one of its two twisted horns before crashing into the wyvern's main body. Scales were ripped off by the sheer force of Thalion's flaming blade. The moment it impacted the body, the entire sword exploded, blasting the wyvern backward. Thalion immediately ended his bloodline skill to prevent draining even more mana.

The mana potion was still working, slowly refilling his pool together with the connection from the Outsider. Thalion watched in horror as the wyvern pushed itself back onto all fours, growling. A large wound stretched from its shoulder down along its back. The scales around it were blackened or ripped out completely from the violent force of Thalion's strike. Thalion had hoped the wyvern would be dead, or at least severely injured so he could quickly finish the job with his remaining resources.

The wyvern roared in fury, lifted its head toward the sky, and then darted forward at Thalion as fast as it could, completely ignoring its massive wound. Thalion was shaken out of his stupor by the Sanguis Impera unleashing its full force. Several vines, each as thick as a tree trunk, shot at the wyvern. Thalion also quickly began channeling his remaining mana into Phalanx of the Blooded Templar as a fiery red portal formed behind him.

The wyvern roared and slashed with its two long forearms — the same limbs that had served as wings — at the incoming vines. Vines were torn apart one after another, but at least they slowed the beast down, even if they didn't manage to injure it. This creature was far more resistant than Thalion had expected. Still, it wasn't just injured — it had taken a massive dose of his curse. It was affecting the wyvern, but at the moment the beast was still too far from being overtaken.

The vines had bought Thalion enough time to channel the last of his mana into the Phalanx. A fiery dark-red portal opened above Thalion, revealing the first lances formed from pure blood, flames licking along their edges. This time, the wyvern was too slow to react. Multiple lances slammed into it with such force that its advance came to a halt, and it was even pushed backward several meters.

Only a few lances penetrated the skin, with many simply deflecting or gliding off the scales, but those that hit true pierced almost their full length and dealt devastating damage. Still, the wyvern refused to give up. Ignoring the pain, it opened its maw and unleashed another breath attack. The green mist hit Thalion directly in the chest. He was out of mana, and his blood control didn't let him dodge fast enough. Thalion's skin corroded away as he was blasted backward and crashed into the center of a pond.

Pain ravaged his body as the poison coursed through him, and landing in a poisonous swamp didn't help either. The venom drained Thalion's health rapidly, and even his high vitality and recovery weren't enough to fight it off. This had never happened to him before. Thalion did the only thing left to do: he used several liters of gathered blood from the Sanguis Impera to form a small armor around himself and levitated out of the pond before something could bite him from below.

Only a few bloodline flames still burned on the wet grass; most had gone out without a target to consume and because Thalion was no longer fueling them with mana. Now he needed to do something he had almost never needed in the entire tutorial. Normally, he only loaded blood with mana — not the opposite. Back in the early days he had learned to drain vitality, stamina, and mana from the blood he collected.

When there was a direct connection between him and a target, he could even drain it directly from the source without absorbing the blood first. Until now, draining had only been useful for weakening enemies, but almost never for refilling mana or stamina. When he managed to pierce a body with a vine, it was far more efficient to simply steal the blood itself — blood that already contained vitality, stamina, and mana — rather than drain it afterward, which was much more difficult.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The amount of vitality and stamina he gained from blood wasn't really worth mentioning, but mana was a different story entirely. Especially after the Sanguis Impera and Thalion had empowered the blood first. Thalion summoned several liters of blood and drained them of mana to refill his mana pool just enough to kill the wyvern.

He still didn't touch his essence blood — that would weaken him far too much compared to the tiny amount of mana he would gain. Yet before Thalion could gain distance from the pond, pain exploded in his leg. A three-meter-long black worm — looking a bit like a mutated blood-eagle larva — had latched onto his right leg. Everything from his foot up to his knee was already swallowed, the worm biting its way upward with terrifying speed, its many rows of teeth sinking into Thalion's flesh.

His vision blurred from the agony and poison, but the Sanguis Impera was still fully in the game — and more furious than ever. Multiple vines erupted from Thalion's leg, completely annihilating the worm, while several more shot toward the wyvern like enraged serpents. The wyvern hadn't taken advantage of Thalion's moment of vulnerability because it was fighting its own battle. It was too weak to resist the curse of the Blooded Templar ravaging through its damaged body.

Now new vines struck at the beast, but most failed to penetrate its scales, and those that did were ripped apart by wild swipes of its claws. Thalion needed a moment to clear his head — and that moment cost him dearly. There were only forty-one seconds left on the clock until the poison would kill him, and he needed to defeat the wyvern before then to acquire the antidote. Thalion stretched his hand toward the wyvern as power bent around him.

He activated Sacrament of the Blooded Templar and began pulling on all the blood within the wyvern. At the same time, the Sanguis Impera forced the bloodthorns and vines already inside the wyvern to grow further, using its blood as fuel. The wyvern refused to give in. It poured everything it had into resisting, so only a trickle of blood escaped, and the vines grew painfully slowly. The realization that they would not be fast enough came quickly to both Thalion and the Sanguis Impera.

The wyvern would be able to hold on too long. That was when Thalion snapped. He threw energies into the technique he didn't even know he possessed, focusing everything on the large wound from his earlier bloodline strike. The Sanguis Impera also redoubled its efforts, focusing all its power into a single vine currently growing through the wyvern's neck. The resistance of the wyvern was incredible, and without the curse infecting its blood, draining it at all would have been impossible.

Thalion clenched his teeth as he pulled more and more blood from the beast. The wyvern realized it could not hold much longer and changed tactics. It opened its maw one final time. Thalion immediately abandoned the draining attempt and blasted forward with Telekinetic Dash. His mana was at fifteen percent — just enough for what he had planned. Taking another breath attack would have ended him, so he was forced to switch strategy. The Sanguis Impera, however, did not change anything.

It continued growing inside the wyvern's neck. This became evident as the wyvern tried — and failed — to swing its head toward Thalion. Instead, it fired its poisonous green breath far over him, ripping apart a cluster of twisted swamp-trees in the distance. As Thalion closed the distance, he charged a powerful Claw of the Blooded Templar and slashed upward, aiming at the damaged section of the wyvern's neck. In that area, few scales remained.

The five dark-red arcs tore through the long neck but were stopped by the sturdy spine, failing to sever it completely. But it was enough. The wyvern collapsed to the ground, limp and unable to move, while Thalion and the Sanguis Impera did everything to finish it off. The Sanguis Impera grew through the wyvern's body, consuming its blood. Thalion slashed like a wild beast with the Claws of the Blooded Templar formed around both hands.

The curse continued tearing through the wyvern's remaining life, forcing the creature to instinctively burn its health to fight it — and losing. When the counter hit twelve seconds, Thalion finally received the Kill Notification. You have killed Venomthorn Wyvern – Level 121 Getting the kill was just in time, but another wave of panic hit Thalion when he realized he hadn't received any antidote. He quickly checked his status screen but found nothing.

Real panic set in, and he did the only thing that made sense — the only way he could possibly find the antidote. Multiple vines impaled the dead wyvern's body at once, tearing through flesh and organs as they searched for anything resembling an antidote inside the beast. The wyvern hadn't carried a backpack or pouch that could hold one, which was why Thalion had expected to receive it as a reward for killing the creature.

It was also clear the Venomthorn Wyvern had been one of the stronger beasts mentioned at the start of this stage. Its strength — and Thalion's title pointing him toward this direction — made that obvious. The vines obliterated the wyvern's insides, and sweat began to run down Thalion's forehead as the seconds ticked away. He had already infused the Sanguis Impera with every ounce of mana he had left. It was already far too late to exit the trial.

Either he found the antidote inside the wyvern, or his journey ended here. Then, a burst of elation hit him when the Sanguis Impera sent a signal that it had found something. The elation vanished instantly as he realized it was only the stomach of the wyvern, filled with a few half-dissolved trialtakers. Grimacing, Thalion used the vines to store the bodies in his spatial amulet, then checked their amulets for an antidote as well. Sadly, they had none.

When the countdown hit three seconds, another vine finally located a small box lodged deep inside the wyvern's tail. Thalion immediately teleported it into his amulet. There was no time left. He ripped it out of his inventory the next heartbeat and opened the box. Inside was a small bottle with something that looked like an inhaler attachment. The moment he cast Identify, a full system notification appeared. Congratulations, you have found: Elixir of Cleansing User Manual: First, remove the protective cap.

Second, twist the top exactly seventeen degrees— Thalion did not read any further. He simply ripped off the top, twisted it roughly, and pressed the only button on the device while inhaling the Elixir of Cleansing as deeply as he could.