Chapter 222: Black Blood Crystal (Part 2)

William’s expression changed as he felt his instincts screaming at him.

A blood-red light flashed in his hand and the Blood Moon sword appeared in his grasp. Golden ripples spread out from his body as he used the Time Acceleration and Time Perception skills, slowing everything in his eyes to an extreme degree.

At the same time, he activated Eyes of Insight to look at the surface, from where No. 1 was about to leave the underground area.

Because No. 1’s body was already at the edge of the surface, he couldn’t stop it in time even if he wanted to, so all he could do was prepare for the danger he had just sensed.

As he activated Eyes of Insight, William immediately noticed a humanoid figure standing right at the spot where No. 1 was about to emerge from the ground.

Moreover, that figure held something sharp in its hand, raising it above its head to cleave down as if it knew No. 1 was about to emerge from the ground.

William’s grip on Blood Moon tightened, and arcs of Blood Lightning flashed around its blade.

Under the combined effects of 2.5× Time Acceleration and Time Perception, William did all of these things within just a second of sensing the danger.

The next instant, No. 1’s body slowly emerged from the ground, and a black blade fell towards them, wanting to cut them apart.

But as the blade was falling—

Crackle!

The sound of lightning crackling echoed, and along with No. 1’s head, a curved red blade enveloped in crimson lightning also emerged from the ground.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed, and a powerful shockwave erupted from the point of impact, shattering the ground into dust and pushing the holder of the black blade a few steps back.

At the same time, a figure with two jet-black wings on his back flew out from the collapsed ground, holding a little girl who had a stunned look on her face.

Crack! Crack! - - -

The sound of bones snapping echoed as William’s shoulder, which had been dislocated from clashing with the black blade earlier, moved under the effects of Super Regeneration and returned to normal.

Unlike the little girl whom William had protected behind him, No. 1 wasn’t that lucky. Although William had tried to protect it as much as possible, the shockwave that erupted during the clash still tore apart its skin, and black blood flowed out as its body was blasted away.

But William had no time to pay attention to it, as his gaze was currently fixed on the creature that had attacked them.

’It’s similar to the Crawlers I saw riding those giant elephants...’ William’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the black humanoid Crawler, who was similar to the ones he had seen last night among the Crawler Army.

Standing on its two feet, it was two and a half meters tall, with its entire body covered in black carapace. It had two big eyes glowing with an orange hue and a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth. What stunned William even more was that the black blade he had clashed with earlier was actually part of its body, protruding from right below its elbow.

’This guy is strong...’ William immediately realized when he noticed that his earlier attack had only left a white mark on the tip of its blade.

Although everything had happened very quickly and William hadn’t been in an ideal position to swing his sword properly and bring out all its power, it didn’t mean his earlier strike was weak.

His earlier attack had still received a boost from his Sword Dominator Trait and an additional boost from Child of Blood because he had used his Blood Lightning ability.

But even then, he had only managed to leave a white mark, while his shoulder had been dislocated upon impact.

Just as he was assessing the situation, the humanoid Crawler, which had also been staring at him, opened its mouth.

"Who are you?"

William was stunned when he heard the monster speak, and in Universal Language at that.

"Dadda Dadda!"

William ignored the girl, who was throwing her arms around in excitement because of flying in the sky, and narrowed his eyes.

"You know Universal Language?"

"Universal Language?" The monster showed a look of confusion upon hearing him. "What are you talking about, human?"

William frowned slightly upon hearing that the monster didn’t know what Universal Language was.

But he had at least heard a word that made his eyes light up slightly.

’Human, huh... It means there are at least some places in this Desolate Land where humans live.’

Previously, William hadn’t been certain whether Varhan City, where he was heading was a human settlement or belonged to someone else.

After all, among the skeletons he had found in the village, he had seen many that looked like humans but were far too tall to belong to the human race.

But after hearing the Crawler mention humans, his hope that Varhan City belonged to humans increased slightly.

"Who are y—" William wanted to get more information from the monster.

But before he could ask anything, two black wings suddenly unfolded on the monster’s back, and with a flap of them, it instantly shot towards him.

"Damn, don’t you know you shouldn’t attack when someone is talking?"

William cursed and immediately threw the little girl in his arms backward.

"Woah!" The little girl shouted in excitement at being thrown away, not caring that she would soon fall to the ground.

The instant he threw her away, the Crawler arrived in front of William and swung the sharp blade protruding from its arm at him.

William responded by swinging Blood Moon as well.

The sword and blade collided, and because of the momentum the monster had gained by flying forward, William felt a tremendous force coming from the blade, and he was blasted backward through the air.

As he shot backward, William controlled his body using his wings and moved slightly to the side, catching the falling girl in midair and stopping only after flying nearly thirty meters backward.

Without stopping, William flapped his wings and descended from the sky, tossing the girl to the injured No. 1.

"Take care of her," He said, and the next instant—

Bang!

A red glow flashed in his eyes, and the ground beneath his feet sank as he flapped his wings and shot back towards the monster, his eyes filled with cold killing intent.