Chapter 391: Battle of Patience - Part 5

"Mommy, ice cream!"

A little girl pointed towards an ice cream maker, but her mother grabbed her by the hand and dragged her away.

"Not now, dear. We need to visit the doctor first, alright?"

Her mother said with a smile.

The little girl pouted and watched as the ice cream maker disappeared around the corner.

Soon after, they reached their doctor. The doctor’s office was tucked between two similar-sized buildings.

The mother took her child inside, and after a short while, she stepped out of the doctor’s office by herself while her child was still inside with the doctor.

’The smell of the doctor’s office always makes me a little nauseous.’

The woman thought.

It was the reason why she stepped out in the first place.

At that moment, she noticed something strange.

There were dogs and cats—moving together—as if they were running away from something, and they went and hid inside the sewer.

’What?’

She thought with a strange look.

It was weird to see the dogs and cats being together—in the Tower of Black, they were mortal enemies—whenever they were together, they would usually be fighting by now.

However.

Every local in the tower knew the words from the Old Testament—whenever dogs and cats worked together, darkness was approaching.

She was a teacher, and of course, she knew about that little ’prophecy,’ but she had always thought that it was just some silly thing that the elders had made up to scare the children.

’Darkness...’

...

Outside the city walls, over at the edge of the forest, Rasmus stood with a cold look in his eyes.

By just taking one step, he would officially step out of the forest and would become visible to the guards on the city walls.

The blood tendrils wiggled behind him.

"Death is here..."

Rasmus said aloud, and at that moment, he took a step forward and was about to lean forward to completely exit the forest.

In that moment.

A hand suddenly grabbed one of his blood tendrils and yanked him backwards, and it took Rasmus greatly by surprise.

"The hell?!"

Rasmus flipped over and landed on the ground.

In that moment, he saw the person who was grabbing his blood tendril—it was a Red Knight—he was Graham.

"Hands off me!"

Rasmus shot his blood tendrils forward, but then, Graham drew his beautiful sword and sliced through the tendrils.

He did a tug on the blood tendril that he was already grabbing and pulled Rasmus towards himself.

"Ugh!"

Rasmus’ eyes widened in a shock.

"Red Fury!"

Graham stabbed his sword through Rasmus, and a gush of blood sprayed out backwards as Rasmus let out a bloodcurdling scream.

[-321 HP]

[Rasmus - HP: 8754/10000]

Rasmus stopped moving. It was as if he had suddenly died.

Crack~! A twig got broken in half behind him, and at that moment, more Red Knights poured out of the forest.

With them, Xiao Yue and Fang Raon appeared.

"Good job, Graham."

Xiao Yue said.

"...Young Princess."

Graham nodded, and then he pulled out the sword from Rasmus’ body and watched him collapse on the ground.

"Rasmus, I do not wish to kill you, but at this point, you’re not really giving me a choice here. You leave me no other option but to get rid of you."

Xiao Yue said coldly.

"Haha..."

Rasmus laughed, as if he was making fun of him, and then he turned around and looked at him with a bloody face.

"You brought me... so many blood bags... I thank you..."

At that moment, his chest just ripped open—as if he were under surgery—and dozens of blood tendrils just shot out as if they had a mind of their own.

The blood tendrils shot towards the Red Knights and smashed against their red armor, but the blood tendrils failed to penetrate the armor.

"Eh?"

It took Rasmus by surprise.

"This is the weakness of the Blood Drain. Your tendrils cannot penetrate armor."

Xiao Yue said.

"You are not wearing."

Rasmus looked at her and then shot all the blood tendrils towards her, but she didn’t move, as if she didn’t need to.

In that moment.

Red Knights stepped forward and slashed through the blood tendrils with their blazing swords.

"...Ngh!"

Rasmus’ eyes turned bloodshot.

Whenever those blood tendrils were killed, he also lost his health as a result, and his health was dropping drastically.

[Rasmus - HP: 7565/10000]

[...]

[Rasmus - HP: 7145/10000]

Rasmus jumped to his feet. He drew a sword. It was a side weapon of the Rangers. It was only used when there was no other choice.

He jumped towards Yue—Rasmus just intended to kill her—he didn’t seem to care about anything else.

Yet.

Xiao Yue didn’t move. As if there was an invisible force field around her. She was fully confident that she didn’t need to do anything.

In that moment.

Graham blocked the sword.

"Piss off!"

Rasmus screamed and started hacking his sword at Graham, but he effortlessly blocked every blow.

CLANG~! CLANG~! CLANG~!

Rasmus stabbed, hacked, slashed, and chopped, but Graham’s sword defense was like an impenetrable fortress.

It was like he was staring at a brick wall, completely immovable.

’Who is this bastard?’

Rasmus thought with a grave look.

In that moment, one of the Red Knights swung their blade for his head, and Rasmus ducked under the blade.

The blade grazed his hair.

Red Knights moved forward and swung for Rasmus, and he was forced on the back foot and desperately blocked their strikes.

Three swords—sometimes four—came at once, and it took all of Rasmus’ strength to just barely deflect them.

At that moment.

Graham stepped past the Red Knights, sword drawn, and he rushed towards Rasmus with a quick lunge.

He swung the blade. Rasmus lifted his sword to block. It was a feint.

Graham stopped his blade just before it made contact, instead delivering a powerful kick to Rasmus’ side.

"ARGH!"

Rasmus smashed through the trees, the impact knocking the wind out of him, and when he stopped, his face was twisted in anger.

"These... these... these... bastards!"