CHAPTER 260: BLOOD CONSTRUCT

[Blood Construct - Level 24]

Two of them this time around.

The monsters whispered in tones that bypassed ears and went straight to the spine. Twisted echoes of past voices, all layered and pleading. "Hungry...So hungry..."

Bastet stepped forward immediately with the golden radiance of her solar aura flaring out. Her fingers began gathering mana with murderous intent as a sadistic smirk already began forming on her sensual lips. "Time to burn, meat puddles-"

Two hands grabbed her shoulders. One was Luna’s, the other Nyx’s.

"Stop," they said in sync.

Bastet’s tail froze mid-swish. "What?"

"If you really are the bane of the undead," Nyx began explaining, "then you’re our ace."

Luna nodded beside her. "Don’t waste mana wiping out every single enemy, or you’ll run dry far too soon. Keep your reserves near-full for now."

"But they’re undead abominations!" Bastet growled with her tanned cheeks puffed out in protest and ears twitching furiously. "Their very existence is an insult to Ra!"

Her voice echoed through the corridor.

Still, she hesitated. Her ears drooped slowly as her golden gaze inevitably moved toward Kaiden, pleading desperately.

He met her eyes.

And shook his head.

"... Understood, Master... I’ll be conservative with my spells. For now..." she muttered in a quiet voice, stepping back like a scolded cat. Her tail hung low, and her solar aura dimmed.

"Aww, the kitty is so dejected, do you not feel any guilt?" Luna asked playfully while sending Kaiden a gaze of scorn as if the idea didn’t originate from her and Nyx in the first place.

Seeing he wasn’t appreciative of her humor, she chuckled and turned back toward the felinid. "Don’t pout, Bastet. It’ll still be satisfying watching us carve them up, right? You don’t need to do all the dirty work when we’re also here to kill them. Division of labor and all that jazz."

Bastet turned her face away from the purple-haired beauty, refusing to respond, still busy pouting.

Luna chuckled for a second time while she took one step forward.

Her fingers flicked to the side, and a long, threatening blade of condensed lightning burst into existence. "[Stormblade]."

The construct noticed the new threat, evidenced by its many eyes suddenly focusing on her.

Too slow.

"[Lightning Step]!"

A loud crack of thunder tore through the corridor as she vanished and reappeared mid-air before the creature. Electricity surged around her as she twisted her body for an aggressive spin and brought the Stormblade crashing down.

"[Thunder Slash]!"

A deafening arc of condensed sound and voltage roared out in a horizontal line, slamming into the construct’s center. However, that was just the shockwave of the spell. Luna reversed her grip on the blade, and now that she was close enough, she did a second slash with the [Stormblade], hitting the blob of flesh directly.

The thing howled, releasing a warbled, bubbling scream as the top third of its form was sheared off in an electric explosion. Blood splattered across the stone floor, but instead of spraying like liquid, it clung to the stone and sizzled.

It wasn’t dead, evidenced by the fact that it was already moving to retaliate, but it was injured.

That was when Nyx made her appearance.

Three black daggers were pulled from her belt, items she bought knowing she would have to deal with undead enemies here. As such, there were silver runes etched into the blades.

She focused her mind on controlling all three at once—as it was something she couldn’t do just days ago—and extended her arm toward the monster.

The daggers flew, slicing the air as [Telekinesis] took over.

One embedded into the construct’s chest mass.

The second pierced through a flickering "eye" that blinked open too late.

The third dug deep into a tendril reaching for Luna.

Each dagger glowed strongly with silver as it found its mark, pulsing with anti-undead magic.

The construct writhed violently. It tried to reassemble, to morph away the damage like it had before... but the daggers remained, disrupting its form. Its entire mass began collapsing inward, convulsing, dragging itself apart in a slow, unwilling death.

Nyx gave it a bored look. She pulled out two daggers while keeping one in its body and stabbed it a dozen times in a single second, ending its misery.

Meanwhile, Diaz and Vaelira’s team were not idle.

The second construct lunged for them, snarling.

Diaz was a blur of motion.

He dashed in, cutting under tendrils with precise dagger strikes. His blades shone black with necrotic poison. With his job done for the time being, he jumped back and vanished from the monster’s view. As a rogue, he didn’t want to be in the spotlight for even a single second.

Then strings appeared in the air, Vaelira’s threads.

She didn’t move a step. Instead, she simply extended her fingers and puppeteered the construct’s own tendrils, starting a power struggle between her powers and the monster’s physical prowess.

This display served as proof that, as far as crowd controlling went, Vaelira was ahead of Nyx a great deal, as the Space Valkyrie couldn’t do the same against a monster of this Strength value.

However, Vaelira couldn’t do it back in the Desert Dungeon either, at least not when it came to high-level monsters such as Bastet and her two guards. It showed that the woman gained levels since then and put the points mostly, if not exclusively, into the Magic stat. Furthermore, her control seemed to be better as well, becoming more proficient with her class in a short time.

There was a reason why A-tier combatants were revered by the general populace and desired by all guilds.

Seeing the power struggle on display, Sasha began firing, and Leon darted in together with Jack. But before they could do much, Diaz reappeared inside the knot of limbs. With a smooth yet powerful motion, he plunged his daggers into the creature’s "core," the swirling mass at its heart.

It gurgled, then exploded outward in a shower of cursed blood, painting Jack and Leon from head to toe. The rogue, meanwhile, managed to dash away just in time.

"Messy," Vaelira muttered while brushing nonexistent blood off her jacket. Naturally, it didn’t hit her.

Diaz sheathed his blades. "I already knew it from before, but we make a good team."

Vaelira waved her hand dismissively. "I make a good team with everyone. They just have to let me do my thing, and we’ll win. Did you forget who you’re talking to, B-tier?"

"..." Diaz didn’t respond.

The room fell silent once more.

Kaiden looked over his shoulder.

Bastet still stood near the rear, next to Aria, who also sat this encounter out, having spent mana on the mirrors while Nyx and Luna were full.

"... You did great," Kaiden said gently. "How was it? Seeing your friends kill your enemies instead of you?"

She didn’t look at him.

"It wasn’t bad..." she whispered. Then louder, the felinid added: "It’s just that... saving Ra’s wrath feels like blasphemy."

Luna snorted. "Don’t worry, Aggressive Kitty With A Mighty Submissive Streak In Her Once Kai Has Her Pinned, you’ll get your boss fight soon enough."

Bastet’s ears perked, completely ignoring the rude remark. She was getting used to Luna calling her names, and, honestly, she had to agree with the name.

"...Promise?" Bastet asked, hopeful.

"Of course." It was Kaiden who replied, earning him a beautiful, bright smile from the Solar Empress.

And as the group moved forward again, the bloodstains they left behind whispered no more.

But the dungeon still watched.

The Heart still throbbed at its core, waiting for new prey to enter its radius.

And as the group of ten awakened was headed exactly where it wanted them to, the Heart was going to get its wish fulfilled right away.