Chapter 164: Blood Pit (2)
The Velkhur guard stared only at the hollow where the Blood Pit had been full not long ago. The red liquid had dropped too far. Bones and broken metal had appeared at the bottom. A place that should have been hungry and deep now looked drained, as if something larger had come and eaten the eater.
The guard’s face changed from confusion to fear.
"My pouch," he muttered first, as if his mind still tried to remember why he had come back.
A small leather pouch lay near one of the broken anchor stakes, half-covered by dust. It must have fallen during the struggle to lift the coffin. Perhaps it held medicine, spell ash, or signal powder. That did not matter now. The guard had found something much more important than a forgotten pouch.
He took one step back.
Then another.
His breathing grew loud.
"No," he whispered. "No, no, no..."
Lucard held Elowen still behind the rock. He could kill the guard before the man shouted, but the distance was not perfect. The guard stood in open ground, and his hand was already near the crystal tied to his belt. If Lucard moved too early and failed to silence him instantly, the result would be the same.
The guard grabbed the crystal.
Lucard moved.
A blood thread shot forward, thin and fast. It crossed the ground like a red needle aimed at the guard’s throat.
The guard saw the movement at the last moment. Fear saved him where skill might not have. He threw himself backward, and the blood thread cut across his cheek instead of his neck. Blood sprayed into the air.
He screamed.
"Enemy!"
At the same time, he crushed the crystal.
A red flare burst from his hand and shot into the sky. It did not fly like a firework. It became a small flame hawk that screamed once before diving toward the northern path. The sound tore through the quiet basin and carried far beyond the stones.
Elowen’s face went pale.
Lucard clicked his tongue softly.
The guard raised his short blade and tried to form another signal, but Lucard was already in front of him. Bloodfire flashed across Lucard’s fingers. The guard slashed in panic. Lucard caught his wrist, broke it, and drove his other hand into the man’s chest.
Blood Absorption began before the body fell.
The guard’s scream stopped in his throat. His skin dried, his eyes sank, and the lantern fell from his dead hand. Lucard took the blood quickly, not because it was valuable, but because leaving warm blood was wasteful.
[Human blood is absorbed.
Blood Quality: Low-Medium.
Velkhur Guard Combat Memory Fragment: Minor.
Progress toward Level 36: Increased slightly.]
Lucard released the body.
Elowen stared at him. She had seen him kill before, but this time it was too close and too sudden. The guard had been alive, afraid, and shouting a moment ago. Now he was nothing but a dried corpse near the almost empty pit.
Lucard turned toward the northern path. "Run."
Elowen flinched. "Where?"
"Behind me. Not away from me."
She obeyed at once.
They moved toward the black stones on the western side of the basin, but they had gone only a short distance before Lucard stopped. The ground carried vibrations from more than one direction. The flare had done its job. People were coming back.
Not the whole expedition.
Fewer.
Faster.
Lucard pulled Elowen behind a slanted stone wall and looked through the gap.
Lady Maera appeared first on the northern path.
She moved quickly, but without panic. Two guards followed her, both stronger than the dead man. One carried a long hook spear, and the other held a curved sword with fire runes along the back of the blade. Behind them came one mage with an ash bag and a short wand made from black wood.
The coffin was not with them.
Lucard noticed that immediately.
Maera had not dragged the prize back into danger. She had sent it ahead with others, likely the two trusted carriers whose steps Lucard had felt moving away before the flare reached her. She had returned only with enough people to check the problem and kill whatever caused it.
That made her smarter than most.
Not smart enough to leave.
Maera reached the basin and stopped.
Her visible eye moved over the dead guard, the emptied pit, the exposed bones, and the strange dryness around the edge. Her face did not show fear, but her hand tightened slightly around the flame in her palm.
"Come out," she said.
Lucard did not move.
Maera’s gaze shifted toward the stone wall where he and Elowen hid.
"You emptied it," she said. "I do not know how, but you emptied it. That means hiding is pointless."
Elowen’s breathing shook.
Lucard stepped out from behind the stone.
Elowen stayed hidden.
Maera looked at him from head to foot. Her expression did not change much, but her eyes sharpened. She had expected perhaps a beast, a blood relic reaction, or some hidden trap. She had not expected a young man standing calmly beside the drained Blood Pit.
"You were the watcher on the ridge," she said.
Lucard answered, "Yes."
"Where are the others?"
"There are no others."
The hook-spear guard laughed once. "He expects us to believe that?"
Maera did not laugh. "He might be telling the truth."
The guard became quiet.
Maera looked at the dead Velkhur guard again. "You killed him quickly."
"He shouted too loudly."
Her gaze returned to the Blood Pit. "And the pit?"
"It was useful."
The mage with the wand swallowed. "My lady, his clothes are not burned. There is no pit corrosion on him."
"I can see that," Maera said coldly.
Lucard looked at her sleeve, then at the dark red flame moving around her fingers. "You are Velkhur."
"And you are very calm for someone surrounded by enemies."
"I have had worse surroundings."
Maera smiled faintly. "Good. I dislike cowards."
Then her hand moved.
She attacked without another warning.
A dark red flame whip shot from her palm and cut across the air toward Lucard’s neck. It carried the Ember Core trace, but it was different from Dorian’s wild fire. Maera’s flame was narrower and darker. It did not try to explode. It tried to wrap and burn inward.
Lucard stepped back and lifted his hand.
Bloodfire met Velkhur flame.
The two red powers struck each other and hissed. Maera’s flame tried to coil around Lucard’s bloodfire, but Lucard’s power was denser after the Blood Pit. His bloodfire pushed through the whip and split it apart.
Maera’s eye widened slightly.
Lucard moved forward.
The hook-spear guard rushed from the side, aiming for Lucard’s ribs. The spearhead curved inward like a beast claw. Lucard shifted his body and let the hook pass his side by a narrow gap. A blood thread wrapped around the spear shaft and pulled hard. The guard held on with both hands, strong enough not to lose the weapon immediately.
That was a mistake.
Lucard pulled him closer.
The curved sword guard attacked at the same time. Fire runes lit along his blade, and the sword came down toward Lucard’s shoulder. Lucard released the spear thread, turned his wrist, and formed a blood spell circle in front of the blade.
The sword struck the circle.
The circle cracked, but it did not break.
Lucard’s other hand touched the swordsman’s chest.
"Blood Shock."
The guard’s body locked for one breath. His eyes bulged. Lucard took the sword from his weakened hand and drove it backward through the hook-spear guard’s throat.
The hook guard fell, choking on his own blood.
The swordsman recovered too late.
Lucard cut across his neck with the stolen blade, then threw the sword aside before Maera’s second flame whip reached him. The blade was too ordinary to keep.
[Human blood is absorbed.
Blood Quality: Medium-Low.
Minor Fire Rune Trace Detected.
Progress toward Level 36: Increased.
[Human blood is absorbed.
Blood Quality: Medium-Low.
Hook-Spear Combat Fragment: Minor.
Progress toward Level 36: Increased.]
The two guards dried quickly.
Maera did not waste emotion on them.
"Blood absorption," she said slowly. "So the rumors from Gravehold were not all lies."
Lucard’s eyes narrowed.
That was useful.
Velkhur had heard something. Perhaps not clearly, but enough.
The mage behind Maera pointed his wand. "Binding ash!"
Gray powder burst from the bag and spread through the air like a cloud. The wand glowed, and the ash turned into thin chains around Lucard’s arms and legs. The powder was made to suppress blood-like relics. It was not truly meant for him, but it was not useless either. His blood threads slowed for a moment when the ash touched them.
Maera attacked during that moment.
A flame spear formed in her hand and shot toward Lucard’s heart.
Elowen cried out from behind the stone. "Lucard!"
That sound revealed her.
Maera’s visible eye moved.
Lucard’s expression did not change, but his bloodfire flared under his skin. He broke the ash chains with force, but the flame spear had already reached him.