Chapter 178: Pursuit

The streets of the Royal City were sparsely populated at this hour; once the alarm had sounded and echoed throughout the capital, most passersby had already retreated to places they deemed safe from trouble.

Those who remained on the streets were either possessed of absolute confidence in their own strength or were simply unable to flee.

"What is the status of the target?! Where is he now? Can you see him from your position? Have you requested magical positioning from the Floating Island?"

A mage, wreathed in a swirling tempest, hovered ten meters above the ground, propelled by wind elementals. He flew at breakneck speed, ignoring the intricate layout of the city’s architecture as he attempted to keep pace with the murderer who had slain the Viscount.

The magitech communication device in his hand crackled with reports from various sectors. He was coordinating with every available city guard, attempting to leverage his intimate knowledge of the city’s terrain to corner and intercept the assailant, whose speed was terrifying.

"Negative, the Floating Island’s magical tracking cannot lock onto him. The black smoke surrounding him obscures all detection methods except for visual contact. Sir, can you still see him?"

The response from the comms left the mage feeling utterly helpless. His wind-elemental displacement spell was pushed to its absolute limit, and the flow of mana through his body was nearing the threshold of what he could endure.

Yet, it was not enough. Within the range of his magical farsight, the smoke-shrouded figure was already nearing the edge of his vision.

"Just what kind of strength does this guy have? This speed... where are the reinforcements from the Night’s Blade? Have they arrived yet?"

Even though he doubted he could catch a man who sprinted across the ground at such an exaggerated speed while wreathed in black smoke, the mage still fought to keep the killer within his sight. A Viscount had been murdered; this was no trivial matter, and if left unresolved, the consequences would be dire.

"It’s bad. There are no Night’s Blade squads in the vicinity. Currently, only a Night’s Blade special operations team is performing a mission in the nearby wall district; it is highly unlikely they can spare the manpower to support..."

"Wait, their mission has concluded, and they are rushing toward your position. However, sir, their strength is only roughly that of mid-tier official knights. If you cannot keep up with your wind-magic displacement, they will find it difficult as well."

The response from the city guard chilled the mage’s heart. It was a stroke of terrible luck; under normal circumstances, Night’s Blade squads were distributed throughout the city for patrols and missions, yet not a single one was nearby?

The subsequent news, however, brought a momentary sigh of relief. At least the special operations team was nearby; if they could provide rapid support, it would be a blessing.

As for the issue of strength, the mage knew that members of the special operations team were invariably stronger than their official ranks suggested.

...

The pitch-black humanoid figure sprinted madly through the streets, billowing with black smoke. Every feature was obscured by this dark shroud, making it impossible to discern even the curves of its body, let alone its gender.

Yet, its running speed spoke volumes: this was undoubtedly a knight of formidable power.

It glanced up at the sky, its eyes—glowing faintly through the black smoke—narrowing. The mage who had been pursuing it had vanished from sight.

It sensed the state of the black mist covering its body; the duration was still holding, but it needed to find an escape route immediately.

Once the city guards and the Night’s Blade converged, and the Academy began providing magical support, it would be nearly impossible to slip away from the Royal City, which was their home turf.

The glowing eyes within the smoke flickered. As it rounded a corner and surged forward, the figure came to a sudden halt, side-stepping to avoid an object falling from the sky.

"Clack, clack, clack, clack!" Shards of crimson material plummeted from above, twisting and deforming in mid-air into sharp, blood-red longswords. These blades of varying sizes rained down, covering the killer’s path like a torrential downpour.

High up on a nearby building, Wang Yu clung to the edge, his crimson cloak significantly smaller than before. He watched the smoke-shrouded figure below with calm eyes.

The black-smoke figure locked eyes with Wang Yu for a heartbeat, then, without hesitation, continued its sprint. It leaped onto the side of the building, moving rapidly to avoid the path now bristling with blood-swords formed from Wang Yu’s cloak.

After a brief glance at the black mist on the figure, Wang Yu released his grip on the building’s edge and plummeted from the heights.

Utilizing gravity for acceleration, he pushed off a protrusion on the building’s facade with an arm formed from his blood, increasing his speed further.

The blood-swords embedded in the ground liquefied, flowing like a stream toward the point where Wang Yu was descending.

Before Wang Yu landed—arriving a step ahead of the smoke-shrouded figure—the liquid transformed into several flexible blood-hands, catching him steadily before rapidly coalescing back into the crimson cloak on his back.

"Hah!" Wang Yu, already in position upon landing, pivoted on his right foot and whipped his left leg around like a phantom, striking fiercely at the approaching figure.

"Boom!" Wang Yu’s descent had been rapid; having adjusted his posture in mid-air and cushioned by the blood, he had not even paused, lending his kick an absurd amount of velocity.

The smoke-shrouded figure had barely arrived when Wang Yu was already waiting on its path. It looked as if the speedster had delivered its own head directly to Wang Yu’s foot.

"Slash!" Yet, Wang Yu’s lightning-fast kick was evaded. The figure did not slow down; with a backbend and a sliding motion, it slipped through the gap beneath Wang Yu’s leg without losing any momentum.

Wang Yu’s capabilities were not limited to his four limbs. As he spun and kicked, the crimson cloak on his back transformed into several elongated tentacles, driving into the walls on either side. With the aura of the Blood-Fury Knight secret technique, he tore both walls down.

The brick walls collapsed, and the black figure, having just slipped past Wang Yu, was met with the falling masonry. "Bang, bang, bang!" The backbend-and-slide maneuver offered no room for evasion, and the heavy bricks pelted its body one after another.

While the bricks could not inflict effective damage, the debris littering the path hindered the figure’s movement.

This momentary reduction in speed gave Wang Yu another chance to intercept. The crimson cloak deformed again, the blood liquefying and seeping into the gaps between the piles of rubble.

As the smoke-shrouded figure burst through the dust, several hardened blood-spears erupted from the ground to block its path.

Wang Yu charged forward, his "Furnace’s Fury" firing six ordinary bullets at the figure faster than he could move himself.

The blood-spears also shifted, transforming from the limited hardness of the Blood-Fury Knight technique into the much tougher and more formidable blood-swords created by Material Sculpting.

"Pop, pop, pop, pop...!" Wang Yu’s pupils constricted as he watched the figure. Its arm became a black blur, too fast to track, as it swept toward the projectiles.

Six distinct impacts reached Wang Yu’s ears almost simultaneously; the six bullets were swatted away by the figure’s backhand.

The ricocheting bullets maintained their terrifying velocity, tearing holes into the surrounding buildings and sending fragments flying.

The swatting motion did not hinder the figure’s sprint. Reaching the wall of blood-swords, it paused for a fraction of a second and delivered a whip-kick.

The smoke-wreathed leg collided with the blood-swords, which were tougher than standard iron. It was the swords that shattered. With exaggerated force and physical strength, the figure tore an opening through Wang Yu’s barricade.

Wang Yu did not give up the chase. His mental energy tugged at the Weaver’s Grimoire, gathering a storm: Second-tier dash spell, Storm-Step.

The gathered wind elementals provided an explosive burst of propulsion, instantly raising Wang Yu’s speed from zero to an astonishing level—faster, at least, than the momentarily paused figure.

As Wang Yu hovered slightly off the ground, he felt an instinctive sense of crisis. Something was wrong. The posture of the figure that had just kicked through his blood-barrier was off; it wasn't the stance of someone continuing to run. It was...

Without warning—or rather, Wang Yu’s body reacted before his consciousness could—the figure, which had been posturing to flee, spun around and threw a punch. The sequence was completed in an instant, and the smoke-filled fist slammed toward Wang Yu’s chest.

"Danger!" His body issued a warning, predicting the power of the incoming blow. Even the ripples, lacking Void-enhancement, felt the pressure when the fist was within a meter and a half.

The surface of that smoke-wreathed fist was covered in a layer of materialized aura. Materialized aura—this guy was a Grand Knight!

The surrounding blood seemed to recoil like a startled living creature. Though most of it could not return in time, a portion desperately intercepted the fist.

Boiling and deforming, the blood underwent a qualitative change under the frantic injection of aura, hardening from liquid into a tough sword. Several overlapping swords fused together to form a bizarrely shaped blood shield.

"Crack! Boom!" The materialized aura on the smoke-filled fist smashed the hastily formed blood shield to pieces without a moment’s hesitation.

Hardened blood scattered, some of it flying toward Wang Yu with such terrifying force that it left deep lacerations on his face.

But compared to the strike that followed, that was nothing. Wang Yu crossed his arms in an "X" to protect his chest. After shattering the shield, the fist’s outer aura dissipated slightly, but the overall force remained undiminished.

The skin and flesh of his arms were crushed and torn the moment they collided with the fist, leaving them a bloody mess.

The force, having pulverized the outer layers, passed through the buffer and slammed into the bones beneath. The sturdy bones of an official knight stood no chance against the inhuman strength of a Grand Knight.

With a howl of agony as his bones twisted under the immense pressure, they snapped. The jagged bone fragments were driven through his flesh by the force, piercing his chest.

The blood on the ground that hadn't reached him in time dragged Wang Yu in the direction of the blow, attempting to dissipate as much of the impact as possible.

His body flew backward under the full-force punch of the Grand Knight, slamming violently into the wall of a nearby building.

He was embedded directly into the structure. The impact shook the entire building, and the screams of the residents inside reached Wang Yu’s ears.

Blood quickly converged toward him; regardless of whether it would be effective, he had to form some defense to prevent the Grand Knight from killing him in the next strike.

Fortunately, the figure did not choose to finish him off, but instead turned and continued its rapid sprint.

"Hah..." Wang Yu exhaled, watching the back of the figure as it fled. It was a relief; this Grand Knight’s primary goal was escape, not his life. Otherwise, Wang Yu would be in serious trouble today.

"Do not pursue... This guy’s strength is at least that of a Grand Knight. He didn't kill us only because his main goal is to escape; otherwise, killing you all would be simple."

Blood formed tentacles to retrieve the communication device, replacing his temporarily useless, mangled hands, and he relayed the order to stop the pursuit to Edward, Shael, and the mage officer of the city guard who had requested assistance.

All the blood gathered back around Wang Yu, crushing his vials of recovery potion. The liquid mixed into the blood and entered his body through the mangled wounds in his hands, beginning to repair the horrific injuries.

The blood covered his wounds, its flexible power resetting the shattered bones. The blood itself, possessing regenerative properties, began to knit the wounds together, thread-like filaments of blood stitching the torn flesh and skin back into place.

In roughly a minute, though still gore-streaked and tattered, the wounds on his hands had finally knit shut, no longer dangling by mere ribbons of skin as they had when first pulverized by that single blow.

As for the shattered sternum and the internal organs bruised by the sheer force of the impact, they were rapidly mending under the dual influence of Wang Yu’s formidable regenerative powers and the potency of his medicinal draughts.

"Careless. The chasm between a formal knight and a grand knight is simply too vast; in physique, battle aura, and sheer raw power, I am but a novice formal knight. It is pure luck I am not dead today."

Supported by his own blood, Wang Yu pulled himself to his feet, squinting toward the direction in which the grand knight had vanished.

Whether it was the Bloody Gale Knight secret technique, the Material Sword-Shaping art, the Furnace’s Fury, or the Spellweaver’s Tome, none could bridge the disparity in strength against such a gap.

"Wang Yu, how are you? Are you alright?" Edward’s figure burst from the roadside, followed closely by a breathless, sweat-drenched Charles.

"I’ll live. Minor injuries."

Wang Yu held up his mangled hands; the skin surface was still rippling, a sign that his body was autonomously resetting and reconnecting the severed flesh.

Blood surged within, purging the debris that could no longer be reattached, sending waves of agonizing pain through his nerves—yet to Wang Yu, it was nothing.

Anything that could be healed was merely a minor injury.

"Look at him, don't ask if he's alright; it's obvious he's not. Huff, though, to be talking to us in this state after facing a grand knight, huff, I suppose luck was indeed on our side."

Charles patted Edward’s shoulder between gasps and placed a tarot card depicting a vivid crimson heart onto Wang Yu’s wounded hand: The Lovers, upright.

A pale pink radiance washed over the hideous wounds, and the speed at which the flesh writhed and fused accelerated sharply, hastening Wang Yu’s recovery even further.

"My thanks." As Wang Yu spoke, the scattered shards of solidified blood liquefied, gathering around him, crawling up his fingers and slipping back into the gaping maw of the skull on his Blood-Biting Ring, returning to that peculiar space reserved for blood storage.

"Is this ability your inner potential? When did you successfully awaken it?" Charles watched with curiosity as the blood flowed with an unnatural, creature-like fluidity around Wang Yu.

"It isn't. It’s the Bloody Gale Knight secret technique, combined with a new method of aura manipulation I acquired in the archives."

Wang Yu replied offhandedly and shook his hands; the wounds held firm. Excellent. With a bit more time, they would be fully functional again.

"The Bloody Gale Knight technique? I saw that in the Great Archives, but isn't that secret supposed to only stop bleeding or counterattack when a wound is opened? Your blood... it’s moving with far too much agility."

This time it was Edward who questioned him. As a fellow knight, his understanding of inner potential and secret techniques was far deeper than Charles’s, which only fueled his confusion.

"Not at all. Once you master the aura circulation of a secret technique and practice it enough, the body turns that flow into instinct. From there, with finer control over your aura, you can manipulate your blood freely. Isn't your Iron Sun Knight technique the same?"

Wang Yu was puzzled by Edward’s inquiry; although his own application of the technique involved some ripple effects, even without them, he could achieve this level of fluid control.

"Are you saying you can freely manipulate your entire aura, down to the most minute degree? And that for you, the secret technique has become something akin to instinct?"

Edward’s tone shifted, his voice laced with shock as he stared at Wang Yu.

Wang Yu nodded, confirming Edward’s assessment. That was exactly it. He realized he had never discussed this with Edward—could it be that there was some fundamental difference between them?