Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 375: Hydra Again...

Thalion had looted three more palaces, which brought him to position one hundred twenty-five on the leaderboard with a little over eight thousand points. He had run into quite a number of groups, but that had been welcome, it allowed him to refill his lost blood. A blood cultivator without blood was quite weak, after all.From one of the groups, he had obtained a map showing nearby safe zones, and he was currently flying toward one in the form of Eagly. Having such a map made life in this event much easier. It was good that he didn’t have to waste time searching for a place to rest, which gave him room to think — mostly about Kaelir, the Chosen of Pyrael.

It was clear that Kaelir was a well-trained fighter with incredible power at his disposal. Still, one thought wouldn’t leave Thalion’s mind:

Less mana cost for using fire — and probably another boost in power as well. His human form would be unstoppable. The only question was how much of his original bloodline would remain. He could only have one bloodline per form, which meant he would have to fuse his own with that of the elf.

But what if the elf’s bloodline overpowered his current one?

Yes, the bloodline of a Chosen was much stronger in raw power than his, which Thalion didn’t find fair at all. He had risked everything to obtain his bloodline, while others were simply born with something better. That was beyond frustrating.

If only he could extract certain aspects of a bloodline and add them to his own form. Then he would truly be unstoppable. It might take longer to adjust to the new power, but that was a price worth paying. If he wanted to defeat other Chosen, it was probably necessary.

There was also the coming war on New Earth, and Thalion genuinely wanted to help Eric. The man had seemed like a decent fellow. The problem was that Thalion was still far too weak. Against a Chosen, there was no debate, no chance to fight back — he would have to run. Kaelir hadn’t even looked exhausted at the end of their battle, despite that monstrous display of power. Maybe that was why he hadn’t worried about another Chosen finding him.

Thinking back over the fight, Thalion had considered several times whether he should have switched to his Tidecaller Serpent form, but in the end, that seemed like an even worse choice. His blood had similar properties to water but with far higher fire resistance. Water would have vaporized far earlier than his blood, and the Tidecaller Serpent wasn’t fast enough to dodge any of Kaelir’s attacks, especially on land.

Still, he wanted to test that form in the ocean soon, to see how much stronger he had become. The crystal he had absorbed wasn’t fully integrated yet, but the rough edges should be gone by now, and the Tidecaller Serpent already felt far stronger in the brief time he had used it to stabilize his soul.

In the distance, Thalion could already see the zone of nothingness devouring the land. He could also see the safe zone — and it wasn’t empty. About fifty humans occupied it. None seemed particularly strong, but their demeanor was aggressive, reminding Thalion of some kind of mafia gang.

Not that it mattered — he didn’t plan to leave a single one alive.

They were all weaklings anyway. So many humans in one place were also a great opportunity to gather more blood, so he decided to approach in his human form. If he used the eagle or the crippled Eclipsari, he’d simply destroy their blood along with their bodies.

Thalion turned forward and shot down toward the ground like a rocket. He was still far enough away that they shouldn’t have seen him yet, even though the safe zone lay on open grassland between six mountains. Right before hitting the ground, Thalion shapeshifted into his human form and used Blood Manipulation to halt his fall.

Lightly, with as much grace as possible, his bare feet touched the cool grass. Then Thalion began walking toward the safe zone.

Inside him, a storm was rising. The Heart of the Sanguine Archon pounded faster, filled with anticipation for what was about to happen. Thalion would now test just how powerful the Sacrament of the Blooded Templar truly was.

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It didn’t take long for the first humans at the outer edge to notice him. They started shouting toward the others and pointing in his direction. All of them were E-grade, but compared to Thalion, they were still pitifully weak.

Their leader was a muscular man with a broad chin and round nose. He wore no armor, only a sleeveless shirt with the sides torn off to show his thick arms. Altogether, he looked more like a lumberjack than a warrior. The only real difference was the long lance he held lazily in one hand. His eyes gleamed with amusement as he saw Thalion approach.

“Well, look who’s coming our way. A new voluntary member of Hydra! But aren’t you a bit old to be in this trial?”

His loud voice drew everyone’s attention, and soon over fifty people had turned toward Thalion. He felt multiple Identify skills brush against him as the entire crowd fixed their eyes on him.

Thalion thought, holding everything back not to roll his eyes. He no longer had his mask to hide his expressions, which made his irritation all the more visible. His gaze wandered over the gathered people. He didn’t recognize a single face. Either Hydra had expanded far more than he had thought, or the original pack was already dead. Not that it mattered much. This was a good opportunity to make up for his earlier mistake.

“How big has Hydra gotten, or are you the last ones alive?” Thalion asked in a cold voice.

The leader looked at him, perplexed, before throwing his head back and laughing loudly.

“Haha! Old man, you’re funny. Don’t worry. We’ll find a place for you!”

“Ah, boss… did you check his leaderboard position? He’s at one hundred twenty-one! This man’s a big shot!” one of the underlings said, tugging at the leader’s shirt repeatedly to get his attention.

That seemed to startle them all, as a new wave of skills hit Thalion.

“How can that be? He’s only F-grade… maybe he found something really valuable,” the leader muttered, suddenly sounding less confident.

“What can he do? He’s alone against us! There’s no way he can win. Yeah, let’s take his items — we’ll reach one hundred twenty!” some of the weaker members shouted, probably also the dumbest of the bunch.

There was a long silence where no one said anything. Thalion used the moment to think. He could leave one alive and let the curse take over, but that seemed like a waste of time for such unimportant information. Dropping down the leaderboard was annoying, but he already had a guess why. The Chosen and the leaders of large parties had likely reunited with their subordinates, who handed over all their loot. That would probably happen every stage from now on — which meant only the night rankings really mattered.

“Hey! That’s close enough, old man! Throw your amulet over if you want to live!” the leader shouted, his voice suddenly less enthusiastic and far more serious. The change in tone went unnoticed by his men, who were cackling and joking about the wealth and power they would gain from robbing someone with such a high ranking.

“You know,” Thalion said, still walking toward them without a hint of hesitation, “I was there when Hydra was created.”

The leader’s eyes narrowed, but he stayed silent. Thalion continued, his tone low and cold.

“Back then, it was already as annoying as it could get. And since that day, I’ve regretted not killing every last one of them in that safe zone. So I’ll offer you all one last chance at life. Leave this trial… or die.”

Thalion wasn’t joking. He truly wanted to give them a chance to walk away. Maybe some of those in the back had been forced into Hydra and didn’t want to be there. It would feel wrong to kill them too. Besides, the gain from this fight — aside from blood — would be negligible.

“We are Hydra, and we will never surrender! Cut off one head, and two more will grow!” the leader roared, raising his spear high as a signal to attack.

Thalion had to stop himself from flinching at the sheer stupidity of the words.

he thought in exasperation.

What was wrong with these people? How had they even survived their tutorial? They were E-grade — meaning they hadn’t just hidden until it ended. So either they were incredibly lucky… or Thalion’s tutorial had been far more difficult than theirs.

Either way, this would be their end.

A few attacks were already flying toward him, but Thalion used Mistform to dodge and shot into the air directly above the group, the perfect position to drain them all. It was getting easier and easier to control his movement skills. Most of the time, he now landed exactly where he wanted to.

The Hydra lackeys below him were far too slow to realize what had happened as Thalion activated Sacrament of the Blooded Templar.

Draining so many at once was difficult. It felt like he and the Sanguis Impera were trying to wrench open a heavy metal door while something on the other side tried to keep it shut. The weak ones were the first to lose their blood, and with every dying member, the pressure on the remaining ones increased. The power Thalion and the Sanguis Impera could focus on the survivors grew with every second.

More and more died. The struggle was over before anyone could strike back.

Twenty seconds later, over fifty empty husks lay scattered before Thalion.

He landed gracefully, already gathering their spatial amulets and other items. If he was lucky, he might even climb the leaderboard again.