Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 53: "You don’t smell bad at all."

As the deviant fiend neared the oasis, Rudy cleared his mind of useless thoughts and raised his broken sword.

The noon scorpion let out a hiss as it crawled forward and swung its claws at him.

Rudy blocked the claws while channeling essence into his sword, and as the dreadborn entered his range, he crashed his elbow into its claw with all of his might.

The scorpion cried as it stumbled forward, and Rudy climbed its back. He knelt and lifted his gleaming red sword, then he stabbed it at the back of its head.

The broken sword needed all of his might to go through its chitin, and as it did, dark blood sprayed out. He twisted his sword and pushed it forward, parting its head into two.

Sand rose above the ground as its body landed with a heavy thud and its purple eyes lost their luster.

[You have slain a Deviant Fiend: Noon Scorpion.]

[Your blood has grown pure.]

Rudy let out a deep breath, his dreamy eyes returned to normal, and he looked around in confusion. "Where am I?"

He stepped down the scorpion and just as he set foot on the grass, his eyes turned dreamy, and he said, "What am I doing? I have to guard the oasis."

With those words, he walked over to the scorpion’s corpse and took out essence shards from it.

On the other hand, Kalien and Seraphel were still dealing with the dreadborns that had attacked their directions, and he walked over to the spring.

He looked at it with reverence as he lifted the two shards above the spring and dropped them in it.

"May the spring goddess bless us!"

The shards sank, and he returned to his position.

[You have slain a Deviant Beast: Noon Scorpion.]

[You have slain a Latent Beast: Dawn Antlion.]

[You have slain a Deviant Fiend: Noon Scorpion.]

[You have slain a Deviant Beast: Noon Scorpion.]

[You have slain a Latent Fiend: Morning Mantis.]

[Your blood has grown pure.]

The night passed as they continued to guard the oasis against the restless attacks of the deviant and latent dreadborns, and as the dark desert finally turned pale, they heaved a relieved sigh and slumped under the palm trees.

Every time Rudy killed a deviant dreadborn, the oasis’s hex lost its grip on his mind, but it returned soon after.

The same didn’t happen with the others because, unlike Rudy, they had to absorb the essence shards to grow stronger, which they had dropped into the spring as an offering to the spring goddess.

"I didn’t know you were that strong," Kalien stated with an impressed expression. At the moment, he had removed his bronze armor and was wearing a dark bodysuit.

Rudy looked at him with a puzzled expression.

He and Kalien were childhood friends, so it didn’t make sense that Kalien didn’t know about his true strength, but since everything else made little sense, he ignored the disruption and said with a smile, "The dreadborns were weaker than I had expected."

He turned his head to the right and looked at Sera, who was staring at the spring with a thoughtful expression.

After gazing at her for a minute, he rose to his feet and walked over to her with a curious expression.

"What are you thinking so deeply about?" he asked as he crouched beside her, dwarfing the place.

She turned her head towards him and answered with a slightly embarrassed look, "I... I want to take a bath."

Hearing her silly words, Rudy blinked a few times and blurted out, "What?"

Her lips formed a sheepish smile, and she pushed a strand of her golden-white hair behind her ear as she spoke, "W-Well, I haven’t bathed for weeks, and the desert makes me sweat a lot..."

As he considered her words, a look of understanding appeared on his face. He glanced at the spring and said in an amused tone, "You don’t want to smell bad, huh..."

Her childish expression cracked like glass and turned furious. She erupted, "That’s not what I said!"

The corners of his lips arched upwards, and much to her surprise, he leaned closer and smelled her.

She pushed him away and shouted, "What are you doing, you giant bastard?!"

Rudy looked at her with a surprised expression and spoke while rubbing the bridge of his nose, "You don’t smell bad at all."

Sera’s face turned red, and she shot to her feet. "Of course I don’t! Awakening removes all the impurities from our body!"

"I still expected it to be slightly bad," he mumbled as he rose to his feet. "You can take a bath if you want. I promise I won’t peek at you."

At his shameless words, Sera’s lips opened and closed a few times, and she said, "You sure sound trustworthy!"

"Think whatever you want," Rudy shrugged and turned towards his previous spot.

As he began walking towards it, Sera clenched her fists and asked, "Would you really not peek?"

"I won’t," he stated, then he pointed at Kalien and added, "But that bastard will."

Sera shifted her gaze towards Kalien, who was staring at them with a mischievous grin, but as they looked at him, his grin vanished. He covered his face with his hands and muttered. "Don’t worry, Sera. I won’t dare do such a thing to my friend."

She stared at him suspiciously as she asked Rudy, "Can you take care of him?"

Rudy nodded and walked over to Kalien.

As Rudy’s shadow fell on him, Kalien lifted his head and said, "You don’t have to listen to her!"

Rudy smiled and pushed the armor to his face as he spoke, "For some reason, I want to listen to her."

"Let me go, you brute!" Kalien cried as he tried his best to push him away, but under Rudy’s monstrous strength, he could do nothing but give up.

It was a childlike banter that wouldn’t have been possible without the hex controlling them.