Chapter 41: The Kill Shot

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: The Kill Shot

As Evelyn descended like a falling star, her bare skin glowing like forged celestial steel under the mantle of their combined aura, Valerius’s aristocratic composure tore completely away.

The High Vampire thrust his pale palms upward. The boiling crimson blood from his forearms erupted into a dense, interlocking lattice of hardened blood-armor, expanding into an impenetrable shell around his head and torso while three razor-sharp blood-spikes thrust upward to impale her.

"Evelyn, adjust trajectory! Left flank!" Donald yelled from below.

His SSS+ [Valuation Eye] surged to life, its golden reticle spinning rapidly in his vision. Under the 300% stat multiplier of their [Dual-Cultivation Synergy], the skill didn’t just calculate basic threat levels—it peeled back the atomic structure of Valerius’s magic. A cascade of microscopic blue and crimson stress-lines mapped themselves across the vampire’s defenses.

There.

At the juncture where the blood-armor met the collarbone, a microscopic gap existed. The mana density in that precise square millimeter thinned out every time Valerius channeled kinetic force into his offensive blood-spikes.

It was a structural flaw smaller than the tip of a needle. But against two linked cores, it was a death sentence.

Valerius, sensing the aerial threat, abandoned defense for a swift, brutal execution. He redirected his right blood-spike away from Evelyn and thrust it down at Donald with lightning speed. The spike was forged of hyper-compressed, crystalline blood, vibrating with enough spatial power to punch through concrete.

Donald saw the lethal trajectory coming. His reaction time was bolstered by the synergy, and he could have dodged.

He didn’t.

Instead, Donald deliberately stepped forward, shifting his posture to take the strike.

PUNCTURE!

The jagged blood-blade slammed straight into Donald’s left shoulder, bypassing the outer edge of his defensive aura. The crystalline blade drove completely through his collarbone, bursting out the back of his shoulder in a shower of hot blood and agonizing pain.

Donald let out a guttural, roaring grunt, but he didn’t stumble back. Driven by sheer, ruthless tactical intent, he instantly locked his shoulder muscles, using the dense, multiplied Vanguard physique flowing through his veins to clamp down around the embedded weapon like a steel vice. With his right hand, he reached up and seized Valerius’s wrist in an iron grip, locking the vampire’s arm to his body.

Valerius’s glowing crimson eyes widened in sheer, horror-stricken shock. He tried to yank his blood-weapon back, but it was anchored firmly in Donald’s flesh.

"What... what are you doing?!" the High Vampire hissed, panic finally cracking his cultured cadence.

"Setting the trap," Donald snarled, his teeth stained crimson. "Evelyn! The collarbone!"

Evelyn didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond. Trusting Donald’s setup implicitly, she rode the kinetic arc of her descent, twisting her body mid-air to channel every ounce of her multiplied Vanguard aura straight down the length of the Bloodhound’s Fang.

The cursed steel ignited in a blinding wave of sapphire and golden light.

"[Crescent Slash]!"

She delivered the strike not as a wide arc, but as a laser-precise, devastating spatial execution. The blade struck the exact microscopic flaw Donald’s [Valuation Eye] had pinpointed at the vampire’s collarbone.

The hyper-dense blood-armor shattered like cheap glass upon impact.

The Bloodhound’s Fang sheared cleanly through Valerius’s neck, the spatial pressure of the skill obliterating bone, muscle, and blood-core in a fraction of a heartbeat.

A high, horrific screech caught in the High Vampire’s throat before his head parted from his shoulders, tumbling through the air in a spray of black, boiling blood.

The moment the head detached, Valerius’s body lost its cohesion. The blood-spike embedded in Donald’s shoulder instantly liquefied, turning into harmless, lukewarm water that washed harmlessly down his chest. The rest of the High Vampire’s torso collapsed onto the ruined concrete floor, violently erupting into a roaring pillar of holy white flames as Donald’s lingering synergy-mana incinerated the remains.

Within seconds, there was nothing left of Lord Valerius but a pile of smoldering, gray ash.

[CRITICAL TARGET LIQUIDATED!]

[Target: Lord Valerius (Level 62 A-Rank High Vampire).]

[Executing Massive Experience Payout...]

[Level Up! Level 8 -> Level 13!]

[Primary Asset ’Evelyn Vance’ Level Increased!]

[Calculated Investment Yield: Legendary-Tier.]

The golden System text cascaded across Donald’s vision, but he barely registered it. The sheer exertion and the gaping hole in his shoulder finally caught up with him. His legs buckled, and he collapsed toward the floor.

Before he hit the concrete, Evelyn caught him.

She landed beside him, wrapping her arms around his chest and lowering him gently against the wall. She was panting heavily, her skin glistening with sweat, her heart hammering against his chest.

"Donald! You reckless, insane idiot!" Evelyn gasped, her voice trembling with a mix of raw fury and overwhelming terror as she hovered her hands over his bleeding shoulder.

"It worked, didn’t it?" Donald rasped, a weak, bloody smirk tugging at his lips. He raised his right hand, pressing his glowing palm against her waist to maintain their core link. "Told you... I’m the shield."

His newly upgraded skill, [Purifying Touch], ignited automatically. Powered by their linked cores, the blinding white light surged into his shoulder wound. The holy mana rapidly burned away the lingering vampire corruption, sealing the torn muscle and knitting his flesh back together at a visible, miraculous rate.

Evelyn slumped against his uninjured side, letting out a long, shuddering breath that shook her entire frame. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, her grip on his waist tightening so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Don’t ever pull a stunt like that again," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "I mean it, Donald. If I lost you..."

"You won’t," Donald said softly, his hand sliding up to trace through her damp hair, holding her close against the cold expanse of the generator room. "We’re in this together now."

In the quiet, smoldering ruins of Sub-Level 4, surrounded by the ash of an A-Rank monster, the two of them sat locked in each other’s arms, their synchronized cores pulsing like a single, unbreakable heart.