Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 431: Tutorial Brats Bite Back

Flying blindly through such a dense cloud was kinda scary, but Thalion still had his title, and with him doing a good amount of wind tempering in the past, he was also able to read the flow a bit—just to be one hundred percent sure he wasn’t flying headfirst into a rock. So far, everything had gone far better than he would have anticipated. In the end, the chaos and greed of all the fighters involved had been far more helpful than expected.Now he was in the middle of the cloud and had no idea when it would end. The only thing he knew was the rough direction he needed to fly in. With his passive skill, Sky Veil, it should be almost impossible for others to find him.

As for what happened to Ryan—he didn’t care in the slightest. If the Chosen died, then so be it. He had enough of that mental child who always thought the world revolved around him.

Thalion had Tempest Glide active and was beating his wings almost lazily to maintain top speed. He also took out a mana flask from his spatial amulet and downed it to make sure his mana would regenerate a bit faster in case someone still managed to find him. Originally, he had wanted to drink one before using his bloodline skill, but everything had happened so fast that there simply hadn’t been time.

Now he could finally check other things—like how much the fruit was worth in leaderboard points. It turned out that the fruit of the golden lotus was worth nine million leaderboard points. That alone would be enough for him to reach the next stage. Bringing it back and handing it over for just one million points in return sounded like a stupid idea.

So what could he do to keep the fruit and avoid going on other missions? There was, of course, the threat of the tablet and the possibility that someone could just kill him with it. The big question was whether this whole tablet thing was real or just a bluff. Death was always a good motivator, and it wouldn’t seem strange for a system event to include something like that to force trial takers to complete at least two missions.

Still, after this one, Thalion didn’t feel like doing another. There were a lot of options—each riskier than the last. What would happen if he simply didn’t return? They shouldn’t know that he had the fruit. There was the possibility that Ryan might eventually return and tell them he had seen Thalion flying off with it. If they checked whether he was still alive… would they press it? Would Thalion risk that?

Thalion would have liked to return, but finding an island without anyone on it sounded like the absolute best idea right now. He needed time to think everything through. They hadn’t given him a timer to return to the capital, and every bit of freedom Thalion had, he intended to use to his advantage.

While searching for the right island, the danger sense from his title began to grow rememberably stronger. Thalion started looking behind him to see if someone had followed, but even with Eagly’s sharp eyes, he couldn’t make anything out. The danger sense kept rising until it peaked—and this time, Thalion could tell it was coming from behind and above.

He spun around as quickly as he could, which wasn’t easy as Eagly, just in time to see the black assassin coming at him with outstretched arms, claws glinting in the light. The assassin was so fast that Thalion couldn’t even think about dodging or evading the attack, which was why he did the only logical thing that came to him in that split second. He shifted into the wyvern—since it was the form where those small claws would do the least overall damage.

The dark hood was pulled deep over the assassin’s face, and Thalion couldn’t make out anything beneath it. But judging by the way the assassin followed through, there was no surprise and no hesitation.

So he already must have known about my wyvern form, Thalion concluded as he breathed out poisonous mist. He missed the assassin, who slipped past and cut a deep gash into his long neck. Thalion tried to hit the guy with his long tail, but that was easier said than done, and he missed by a wide margin.

Still, he had survived the attack with only a few minor injuries. Blood spilled from the wound in his neck, but for such a massive creature, it wasn’t anything drastic. Like all his other forms, the wyvern also benefited from the Outsider and the insane healing ability that came with it.

Thalion didn’t stop there and continued breathing out poison while slowly rotating to form a green cloud around himself. Now, if the assassin wanted a piece of him, he’d have to breathe in some of that good juice.

Speaking of the assassin—Thalion had already lost track of him again. The guy had simply disappeared into a black cloud and was nowhere to be seen, which was worrying since they were in wide open air. The next island was still many kilometers away.

Thalion’s danger sense screamed again as the assassin attacked from behind, completely ignoring the poison in the air. As a wyvern, Thalion was slower to react, which resulted in two new wounds tearing open across his back.

The assassin had absolutely no problem penetrating his scales. In fact, it didn’t feel like they were resisting the attack at all. This wasn’t looking good, and Thalion needed to get some ground under his feet—then the stupid black assassin wouldn’t be able to attack from all directions.

Thalion simply chose the next island as the battleground. The wind thundered beneath his wide wings as the massive wyvern turned toward the island and sped up. Thalion constantly spat green poison around himself to make it harder for the assassin to find an angle to attack. It seemed that the assassin had understood where Thalion was going and was fine with it, as the attacks stopped.

That didn’t mean Thalion stopped watching his back. Breathing poison wasn’t good for his mana pool, but so far it was still around fifty percent. That had to be enough to deal with the assassin. To be fair, Thalion had no idea how he was supposed to win this fight—but he would need to come up with something crazy.

When he was only a hundred meters away, he spotted the assassin waiting for him on the island. Turning around wasn’t really an option, with the assassin being faster and all. He could try one of the bad escape tokens, but if he was unlucky, he would be teleported so far away that he wouldn’t be able to return to the capital before the stage ended—and then he might be executed with the tablet, assuming the king hadn’t lied.

No. He needed to try to kill the assassin first. The escape token would only be used as a last resort if he got too close to dying.

This assassin was a strong enemy, and Thalion started to dislike the fellow—especially the way he stood there, almost bored, waiting for him.

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This stupid assassin would make an excellent blood slave, Thalion thought as he landed on the island and shifted into his human form.

“You really thought you could get away with the holy treasure,” the assassin said in a shrieking voice. His form was roughly the size of a dwarf, yet he still managed to look down on Thalion arrogantly.

“If you want the fruit, you better have something good for trading,” Thalion said coldly while gathering his power. The Sanguis Impera made it very clear that it wasn’t willing to give up the fruit and would be very disappointed if they lost it—sending him one hell of a killing intent in response.

“There won’t be a chance for you to survive this. Don’t you even know whose flag that is?” the assassin hissed, motioning at Thalion’s suit, which was still in pretty good condition.

“A trial taker working for the king. You’re just some stupid brat from the tutorial who doesn’t have the slightest idea what a real fight is—or what it feels like to work for hundreds of years toward an evolution. Look at you. You’re still F-grade and think you can fight me.

“The best part is that the king is forcing you into his war with a lie. Do you really think there’s a tablet that can kill you with the press of a button? We have spies in his high ranks and know exactly about his plans to abuse the trial takers in this stage—to get as powerful as possible before being teleported to the new universe.”

This clearly was something the assassin had wanted to tell someone for a long time, and who was better than a soon-to-be-dead man?

Thalion was very thankful for the assassin’s rambling—it confirmed his suspicion that the tablet nonsense was made up. He had already been suspicious, but fear alone would likely have driven him back to the kingdom like all the others. Now things looked very different. After getting rid of the assassin, he would actually be free to do what he wanted.

Thalion also found it quite amusing that the suit he had bought had done him such a massive service. Otherwise, the assassin might not have spilled all those secrets. The fool probably believed Thalion had swallowed all the king’s lies and would now die for the kingdom.

Getting rid of the assassin was easier said than done, but here on this island, there was no reason to hold anything back. He also couldn’t afford to—otherwise, he might actually die. Good thing he had a few more seconds while the assassin continued to shout and rage. The guy really must have been silent for weeks, judging by how much he was talking now.

“Oh, the typical irony of those integrated. Thinking they’re so strong just because they were allowed to shoot through the levels with ease while everyone else had to STRUGGLE. Do you think you’re better than me just because of your level? I lived for over six hundred years to reach this strength. Every single day was a life-and-death battle for the sect. And you reached this level in months? No—I will show you the difference between power and experience.”

With those last words, the assassin screamed as his aura exploded outward. Thalion was glad it had finally come to fighting. The assassin’s rambling hadn’t made much sense anyway.

First, Thalion had never said anything about himself being a genius or especially gifted, and second, he was sixty-six levels below the assassin. He would have liked to ask the assassin a few more questions about the empire, but talking time was over as the assassin blurred forward almost faster than Thalion’s eyes could follow.

A normal fight was something Thalion wouldn’t be able to win. He would need to surprise the assassin or fight in a way where all that practice meant very little. Since the assassin looked him straight in the eyes, Thalion started with a Crimson Gaze. Sadly, it did nothing, and Thalion’s fine ears only picked up a splintering sound coming from beneath the black robe the assassin was wearing.

Thalion would have loved to go on a proper hate-filled rant about those charms protecting most strong fighters against his mental attacks.

Thalion was almost too slow to respond to the assassin’s strike, but thankfully the Sanguis Impera was there to save him as multiple vines shot out from Thalion’s body toward the assassin. The assassin looked confused for a second as he spun to the side and performed a backflip to gain some distance.

“This plant… I’ve only heard about it in myths… You are not a vampire… How?” the assassin mumbled, observing Thalion and the jungle that was beginning to bloom around him.

Thalion didn’t have time to explain anything. He infused the Sanguis Impera with all the mana it needed for the Crimson Jungle while unleashing a torrent of crimson-red fire at the assassin. He had no idea how effective it would be against the assassin’s resistances, but normally those fast fighters lacked toughness and vitality. A domain dealing constant damage was Thalion’s best shot.

Especially in his human form, which carried the spores of the Sanguis Impera—death once breathed in, combined with the curse that affected the spores, blood, and flames in the area. Thalion also stopped holding back his bloodline, and with his aura, multiple fires ignited around him.

“You think I don’t know how to deal with a domain!” the assassin roared after evading Thalion’s attack. His rage spiked even further as he blurred forward faster than before.

The assassin charged straight into Thalion’s domain, running on the air a few centimeters above the ground, careful not to touch the vines. The direct approach surprised Thalion, and he summoned the claws of the Blooded Templar to defend himself while releasing hundreds of liters of blood into the area around him.

Those were the last reserves he had gathered after Kaelir had vaporized his entire stockpile. It felt like an invisible barrier covered the assassin’s skin as fire and spores failed to inflict any damage. The assassin split open the blood arcane Thalion was forming around himself with a single flash of his claw before diving straight at him.

The claws tore across Thalion’s chest, ripping through the suit without effort and applying a terrifyingly strong poison. Almost instantly, every heartbeat began to hurt, and his fingers started to go numb.

Still, for Thalion, the trade was worth it. He collapsed the entire blood arcane around himself onto the assassin. Before the blood could crush him, the assassin vanished and reappeared exactly where he had been a second earlier.

“See how easy it is to kill someone like you. All your levels mean nothing,” the assassin shouted arrogantly.

Hey, I’m the one who’s down in levels! Thalion wanted to shout back, but instead he drank a healing potion, hoping to counter the poison spreading through his body. Normally, the Sanguis Impera or his vitality would have made him nearly immune to poison. Not this time.

The poison ate through his veins, and it didn’t take long before Thalion dropped to one knee, unable to use his right hand. Turning back into a wyvern was his last resort—but that would cost him his domain, and that would be the end.

While Thalion struggled to find a way out of his predicament, he had to listen to the assassin’s voice.

“The audacity to offer a trade. Normally my victims are begging for their lives right now. Can you feel the poison slowly killing you from the inside? Your mana and health being eaten away while you’re unable to move? How does the despair and helplessness feel?” the assassin taunted from his safe position while dodging the occasional blood thorn Thalion fired at him.

When both of Thalion’s arms hung like dead weight from his shoulders, the assassin lunged forward to finish it. The strategy was the same—diving straight at him while cutting down any vines that tried to intercept him.

Thalion’s mind raced. Mana Wave wasn’t strong enough. Blood claws were out of the question. He pushed the pain of the poison aside to form multiple spears from the blood around him—but stopped when an idea struck.

The assassin appeared in front of him, claw raised to end his life, when Thalion suddenly pulled out the fruit of the golden lotus and shoved it directly into the path of the attack.

“What—!?” the assassin shouted, stopping his swing.

Before he could react, a vine pierced his leg. The Sanguis Impera wasn’t playing games—especially when its prize was at stake—and all it needed was a single second where the assassin couldn’t dodge.

“How the fuck is this possible!? You focused your attention on the blood around you—” the assassin roared, but it didn’t matter. Multiple vines pierced his body, growing through flesh and bursting out of his skin.

“Argh… I hate these stupid tutorial brats…”

Those were his last words before the Sanguis Impera finished the job, ripping his body into multiple pieces.