Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 46: I Must Get Stronger

Rudy took a glance over his back and, seeing the abhorrent beetle following him, he channelled blood essence to his feet and dashed with all of his might.

Even though he was much faster than humans, before the dreadful beetle, his speed didn’t account for much, and the only way for him to outpace it was by making use of the structures surrounding them.

Without wasting a breath, he turned towards the ruined, dark structures, gleaming under the pure moonlight like polished obsidian, and moved through their narrow alleys.

The dark structures crumbled like feeble wooden shacks as the giant beetle bashed into them.

Rudy gritted his teeth. ’Why the hell did I agree to this?’

Although he was asking himself, he already had the answer — Sera.

As Sera had the path of dreams, her prophetic dreams must have shown her the significance of the epic armour rune located in the underground chamber, and, given how desperately she wanted it, it must be a key to their survival.

For now, he shook off those thoughts from his head and followed the path that they had designed to slay the beetle without dying themselves.

In the direction opposite to him, Sera used her strings to weave a giant golden net and tied its ends to the structures around her.

The more strings she made, the more essence she used, but in the dark desert, essence wasn’t a problem.

As she ran around, essence filled her, and within a few minutes, she finished the net.

Meanwhile, Rudy jumped over the short walls and pivoted at the sharp corners like his towering figure couldn’t be halted by such.

This obviously was the result of the training Elena had made him go through.

His heart thumped in his chest, and his instincts cried for him to escape.

’I have to do this.’

Screeches and the sound of exploding rocks reached his ears as the dreadborn loomed behind him.

Rudy’s expression turned dark; he could feel it. The beetle was getting closer.

"There’s no way I am dying to an insect," he muttered, and just as the beetle was about to reach him.

White sparks appeared around his left hand and took the shape of a water bottle.

The water bottle was full of some bizarre purple liquid and was barely holding up. Without looking back, he tossed it at the beetle.

The bottle melted, and the Noon Scorpion’s poison inside spilled onto the beetle.

As the purple poison touched it, its dark chitin began to burn, and the beetle let out a pained shriek.

Barely visible cracks spread across its chitin, and it slowed down a little.

Rudy looked ahead, and the gleaming golden net came into view.

’Won’t the beetle see it?’ He thought sombrely.

All of a sudden, purple light spread across the beetle, its chitin opened, and its wings spread out.

The wings glowed ominously, and as they moved, a sinister hum travelled throughout the settlement.

As the sound drifted in their ears, an extreme ache struck their heads.

Rudy’s steps faltered, and he felt himself choke as he vomited blood.

Blood seeped out of his eyes, nose, and ears, and the world seemed to have turned upside down.

Far away, Seraphel was the same, though her condition was much better than Rudy’s.

Kalien was standing the farthest and was barely affected.

All of them had failed to account for one possibility that made horrors so feared — they had skills, thus they weren’t limited to just physical strength and abilities.

But even with blood flowing out of his orifices, Rudy trudged forward with a lost look on his face. The world seemed to fall into a daze as he moved, and his body shivered as his mind went blank... or it was supposed to be, but even though the ache was mind-shattering, a single thought remained untouched.

’I must get stronger.’

That thought repeated in his head over and over again, and his body moved by itself as it too denied defeat.

Sera, who was kneeling in a puddle of her own blood, looked at him and, seeing him move, she felt goosebumps rise all over herself and muttered, "How?"

The beetle stopped, and its ravenous eyes fixed on Rudy as it crawled towards him.

Although Rudy was still moving, he was too slow, and the beetle would reach him within the next three seconds; his death was imminent.

However, before that could come to pass, Sera gritted her teeth and shot to her feet, golden strings spread from her hands, and just as the beetle’s mandibles were about to shred him to pieces, the strings reached him and dragged him towards her.

The beetle let out a hiss and once again followed behind him.

Sera dropped Rudy near the wall as she herself jumped before the beetle.

The dreadborn instantly lost all the attention it had and crawled towards Sera.

Sera ran towards the net, and it chased as if it couldn’t see it.

As she neared the net, she jumped and passed through the strings, and once on the other side, she rolled onto the dark sand and poured all of her dream essence into the net.

The golden net glowed brightly, and the beetle crashed into it, the strings shrieked under its might, and Sera reinforced them with her essence.

The net coiled around the beetle and began to dig into its dark chitin.

At the same time, Rudy finally returned to his senses.

"Ugh!" He sat up with a groan and threw the sand filling his mouth.

Then his gaze fell onto the dark beetle pushing itself through the net.

His eyes turned bloodshot, and fury colored his pale face.

He shot up to his feet, and a long sword appeared in his hand. The sword gleamed red as he dashed towards the hateful dreadborn and swung the sword at its rear limb.

A loud clang echoed throughout the place, and cracks climbed its chitin, but nothing much happened to it.

His sword rattled, and a vibration spread down his body, but still he didn’t stop and swung once again.

The beetle, which was already tangled in the treacherous net of Seraphel Thessyne, couldn’t turn towards Rudy, and after multiple gritting strikes, he chopped off its limb.