Chapter 367: Change In Strategy

Chapter 367: Chapter 367: Change In Strategy

Chapter 367: Change In Strategy

Rhain carried Lyra’s unconscious body back to the safety of the cave.

Once inside, Karsten and the surviving four men immediately collapsed into the corners of the cavern, too traumatized and drained to even speak.

Rhain gently laid Lyra down on a flat stone.

His dark grey eyes ignited with a faint golden light as his Eyes of Truth swept over her body.

He found that her shattered heart had perfectly healed, and her meridians were surging with a vibrant life force.

She was completely fine and didn’t need his help to recover.

Seeing she was safe, Rhain walked a few paces away and sat down cross-legged on the floor.

It was time to focus on his own condition.

His essence was completely depleted, and faint arcs of the Level 8 Domain Master beast’s golden lightning were still rampaging destructively through his internal organs.

"Abyssal Sovereign Technique," Rhain murmured inwardly.

The pitch-black void within his dantian spun fiercely.

The tyrannical devouring power of his physique aggressively crushed the invasive golden lightning, converting the destructive energy into pure essence to heal his ruptured flesh.

As he rapidly refined his own dark essence to replenish his four drained cores, his mind drifted to the shocking phenomenon he had witnessed.

’That phantom... and the aura she released,’ Rhain marveled internally.

The image of the colossal war goddess that had manifested behind Lyra was now imprinted in his mind. The bloodlust he had sensed from that figure was entirely on a different dimension.

Hours passed in the quiet cave.

Eventually, Lyra’s long eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.

She instinctively braced herself for the crippling weakness and the agonizing pain of a shattered chest.

But as she pushed herself up, she froze.

Instead of pain, she felt an ocean of explosive power coursing through her veins.

Her crimson eyes widened in shock as she quickly inspected her dantian and her meridians.

"Peak of the Core Formation Realm..." Lyra gasped weakly. "Level 9..."

Hearing her voice, Rhain slowly opened his dark grey eyes and looked at her.

"You’re awake," Rhain spoke, his voice carrying a sense of relief, but his dark grey eyes showed a strict glint.

"You shouldn’t have taken that hit," Rhain scolded her, his tone turning unusually stern. "You should know by now that a blow like that wouldn’t have killed me. My physique would have handled it. But if you had died right there? How the hell was I supposed to show my face to Matriarch Seraphine?"

Hearing his scolding tone the moment she woke up, the initial relief in Lyra’s heart was instantly replaced by a flare of haughty indignation.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position, glaring fiercely at him.

"You arrogant scoundrel!" Lyra snapped, her face flushing with anger. "Is that how you talk to the woman who just saved your life? You should be thanking me respectfully! I didn’t even have time to think when I saw that beam coming for you! I was just trying to pull you out of the way, and I certainly hadn’t expected the lightning to hit me instead!"

Rhain looked at her furious, pouting face.

Beneath her haughty outburst, he could hear the genuine concern that had driven her to risk her own life.

He let out a quiet sigh, the strictness in his eyes softening slightly.

"Just... don’t do something so reckless again," Rhain said.

Lyra crossed her arms beneath her chest, letting out a loud Hmph! and turning her head away to hide her burning cheeks.

As her gaze swept across the dim cave, her crimson eyes suddenly paused.

She counted the men resting near the campfire.

Karsten and four others.

"Wait," Lyra frowned, her expression dropping. "Where is Jax?"

A silence descended upon the cave.

Karsten slowly raised his head. His scarred face was filled with deep grief, and his eyes were red.

"He... he didn’t make it, Lady Lyra," Karsten answered, his voice choking with emotion. "When the beast fired that last golden beam at you... Jax threw himself in front of it. He sacrificed himself to block the lightning. He said... he was repaying his life debt to you."

Lyra’s eyes widened slightly, her lips parting.

The image of the mercenary laughing by the campfire just a few nights ago flashed in her mind.

He had given his life to repay the debt for when she deflected the Six-Winged Terror Wyrm’s black feather.

Lyra fell completely silent for a while. She lowered her head, her hands clenching tightly into fists over her knees.

Rhain watched her quietly, allowing her a moment to process the cruel reality of the martial world.

"Lyra," Rhain finally spoke, his voice softening slightly. "What exactly happened to you out there? Your aura completely transformed."

Lyra took a deep breath, forcing the sorrow down into the depths of her heart.

She looked up at him, her beautiful face carrying a trace of genuine bewilderment.

"I don’t have much knowledge about it myself," Lyra admitted. "After I lost consciousness, everything went dark. Then... I heard some vague, ancient words echoing in my mind. And then, I just felt a sudden, massive surge of power explode inside me."

She looked down at her own hands. "I am still not sure what that power exactly is."

Rhain looked at her and nodded thoughtfully. It seems that even Lyra wasn’t entirely sure about this matter.

Lyra shook her head, forcefully clearing the lingering confusion from her mind.

Her crimson eyes hardened with a fierce resolve.

"We need to focus on the matter right now," Lyra stated firmly, her tone turning strictly business. "Fifteen days have passed. We only have three hundred and fifty-one cores. To survive this death trap, we need to hunt roughly six hundred and fifty Domain Master beasts in the remaining fifteen days."

She looked directly into Rhain’s dark grey eyes.

"As you had said earlier, we cannot rely on our previous strategy anymore," Lyra declared. "Luring them one by one is too slow. If we want to complete this trial, you and I will have to actively hunt the hordes of monsters."

She stood up from the floor, the aura of the Peak Core Formation Realm leaking from her slender frame.

Karsten and the mercenaries paled. "H-Hunt the hordes? Lady Lyra, that’s suicide!"

"I am in perfect condition to fight," Lyra ignored them, her crimson eyes locking onto Rhain. "Are you with me?"

Rhain looked at the confident girl in front of him.

’Well, we don’t have any other choice."

"I agree," Rhain nodded simply. "We hunt the packs."

--------------

A few hours later, deep within the dense ancient forest.

The group deliberately marched straight into the established territory of a notorious pack of mutated Iron-Tusk Boars.

There were seven of them.

Every single beast radiated the oppressive aura of Level 2 and Level 3 Domain Masters.

This time, Karsten and his surviving men did not step forward to leak their auras.

They followed behind Rhain and Lyra, clutching their weapons nervously.

They were no longer bait. They had been officially demoted.

ROAAAAR—!!!

The seven massive boars detected the intruders.

Their eyes burned with a berserk fury as they charged, the ground shaking violently under their heavy hooves.

Lyra stepped forward.

"Crimson Tempest Rend."

Swoosh—!

She moved elegantly, there were no wasted movements in her actions.

The moment she made her move, the bloodthirsty, majestic combat instincts of the Blood Heaven Valkyrie Physique took completely over.

SLASH! CLANG! BOOM!

In mere seconds, she cleanly decapitated two Level 2 Domain Master boars and drove her rapier straight through the eye of a Level 3, incinerating its brain instantly.

Rhain did not fall behind.

He matched her rhythm.

As the remaining four beasts turned their tusks toward Lyra, Rhain materialized directly before them.

"Void Fist."

BANG! BOOM!

With domineering strength, his pitch-black fists effortlessly shattered their armored skulls.

Within less than three minutes, the chaotic battle abruptly ceased.

Seven massive Domain Master beasts lay dead on the scorched earth.

Rhain casually flicked the blood from his knuckles. Lyra smoothly sheathed her rapier, not even slightly out of breath.

Behind them, Karsten and the mercenaries stared at the carnage with their jaws practically hitting the dirt.

Seven Domain Master beasts. Annihilated in under three minutes.

"Don’t just stand there like idiots," Lyra called out over her shoulder, "Harvest the cores."

The mercenaries hastily scrambled, pulling out their daggers.

They exchanged entirely bewildered, awe-struck glances as they set to work.

They were now reduced to mere porters.