The Curator
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Chapter 21: The Power of Blood and Thorwald's Alliance
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 16:04:15 +0000 UTC
After he moved some distance, he transformed into shadowstalker, and the surroundings blurred as he sped towards the jungle, jumping from branch to branch. After half an hour, he spotted a nice clearing with moonberries growing in it. He jumped down, then transformed back into his human form, took out the Bud of the Sanguine Thorn, and poured some blood over it.
He laid the Bud on the ground, then transformed into glowhorn and carefully tried to position the Bud around where his heart should be without crushing it. Given how his body felt, he probably had more than one heart, but the position seemed good enough.
Immediately after the Bud touched his body, it entered, and, oh boy, did it hurt. After a short period of time, while Thalion was rolling on the ground in his glowhorn form, the pain disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place. Then a rush of pure power surged through his veins, and he felt a connection between him and the Bud establish itself.
He also gained two skills: Crimson Harvest and Blood Thorn. He instantly tried out Blood Thorn, shooting a thorn at the tree next to him. The half meter long thorn almost fully penetrated the nine-meter-wide tree, with the pointy end emerging from the other side. The power in that skill was crazy, but it made sense both were epic skills, even stronger than his Mana Blade.
He then allowed the Bud to feed on his blood. It didn’t hurt that badly, and he was almost not losing any life since he was constantly regenerating with his passive ability. With that, he did what he liked most as glowhorn, munching on berries. He was also lucky that he didn’t encounter any other survivors. These moonberries were of high level, with the lowest at level 19 and the highest at level 23.
He spent the rest of the day eating and feeding the Bud. As it happened, the Bud evolved, which for him meant more pain. It must have already been close to evolving due to the vampire feeding it over the days. After another round of rolling on the ground with his eyes rolled back in his head, it was over. Then power rushed through his body; the power-up he got from bonding with the Bud was nothing compared to this. He even got a new spell:
Vine of the Sanguine Thorn (Legendary): The spell conjures a crimson vine, writhing with wicked, black-tipped thorns. It burrows into the victim, draining their life force, mana, and stamina. Each thorn delivers a venomous sting, causing excruciating pain and weakening the target. Moreover, the vine completely prevents healing while in contact with the victim and significantly hinders healing attempts otherwise.
A legendary spell, and it was massive. Holy shit, it drained health, mana, and stamina, that was just too good to be true. Then it even fully prevents healing while in contact. That spell was not normal. His other blood spells had also evolved, the thorn now completely blocked healing while in contact with the target. And the race of the Glowhorn was no longer an epic race but a legendary one.
At first, he planned to hunt at night as a Shadowstalker, but for now, he wanted to strengthen the thorn, so he kept eating berries while feeding it his blood.
<--
Thorwald was angry. He had hoped for a rematch, but the bastards were all gone. They had tried to find them the whole day but with no success. The good thing was they found a few big beasts roaming the jungle, which they defeated with ease, putting him now at level 21.
Then one of his trackers came to him. "I found a track of a human group, at least 20 people."
"Great work, Joe," he congratulated the scout. "But we’ve been moving the whole day. For now, we’ll take a rest. Tomorrow, we’ll hunt them down. Set up camp. I don’t want any surprises tonight."
But he wasn’t that lucky. Before they were finished making camp, they heard a growl from behind. Thorwald turned and saw a dog-like creature whose flesh was slightly hanging off as if it were half-dead. He identified the creature.
Cursed Wolf, Level 17
He didn’t expect the wolf to be such a high level, especially since its size was not greater than that of a normal wolf back on Earth.
"Formation!" he screamed, and within moments, his men had formed a circle with the light warriors, archers, and healers in the middle. That way, the light warriors couldn’t contribute to the fight, but they didn’t have much space to dodge anyway, so keeping them safe was more important. If the wolves would run, it was their chance to gain some experience.
Thorwald took out his axe and swung it like a madman, cutting down every wolf that sprang out of the deep undergrowth. "How many are there?" he thought after cutting down nine cursed wolves in rapid succession, but they kept coming.
Then he heard a deep growl coming from the undergrowth in front of him, and out stepped a giant wolf with a shoulder height of two meters.
Cursed Wolf, Level 25
"Fire at the big wolf!" he instructed the archers. "Light warriors, with me!" Then he charged the Cursed Wolf, with light warriors directly behind him. Before he could reach it, the wolf howled, and he was thrown back. The wolf then leaped at him with bared teeth.
Thorwald rolled to the side, closely avoiding getting his head bitten off. He swung his axe, plunging it into the side of the wolf. The light warrior also tried to make a move, but the moment he tried to attack with his short sword, the beast turned its head around to bite the light warrior. Thorwald, his axe still stuck in the wolf, couldn’t let his man die like that and rammed the beast with his shoulder, making it miss the warrior by a hair's length.
He violently pulled his axe out to defend against one of the weaker wolves that were jumping at him and finished it off with one swing. The big wolf roared again, and red mist was emanating from the wolf’s body, especially from its open wounds. Thorwald ignored it and swung for one of the wolf's legs, but the beast dodged to the side. Shortly after, it got hit by a fireball from one of his mages.
Thorwald used the time to take a quick look around and saw that the battle was going very well. Most of his warriors weren’t even wounded, and dead wolves were lying everywhere on the ground.
Then he noticed how red mist was rising from the dead bodies as well. The next thing he knew, he was coughing up blood. He swore as he looked back at the big wolf. It seemed to be smiling at him. It reminded him of the look that glowhorn had given him. The beast even activated some spell, its teeth glowing red as it jumped at him. He tried to dodge, but he was weakened by the red mist and wouldn’t have made it. Then a laser beam composed entirely of light hit the beast from above, throwing it to the ground and making it yelp in pain.
A man in white armor descended with white wings on his back, a shining lance in his right hand. When the white figure was within striking distance, he lunged forward with his lance, smashing it into the wolf's head, which wasn’t fast enough to dodge the diving attack. The head popped like a watermelon, the wolf dead in an instant, but the speed of the man was too great as the rest of his body smashed into the wolf, destroying it and even making a small crater in the ground.
Steven stood up after killing the wolf and looked at the leader with the big axe. He was promising. He had watched them make camp. The man held all the power in his group, and how they fought in a group was very efficient. Exactly what he needed to fulfill his plans of conquering this tutorial.
"Get out of the red mist," he ordered the group. Then he picked up the light warrior that was lying on the ground, paralyzed him, and flew him 20 meters over to a safe spot where he waited for the others to arrive.
"Who are you? And why did you help us?" The big man with the axe asked him after they were finished carrying their comrades out of the mist.
"Greetings, I am Steven, and why shouldn’t I help such honorable men who are fighting side by side, who don’t shy away from laying down their lives for their comrades?" He knew that what he said was obviously not true, maybe some of the warriors felt that way, but the axeman for sure didn’t. He would kill every one of his teammates if it was necessary.
"I will pass on to the next stage soon. My goal is to conquer this tutorial. As you know, we are mixed with some other planets. They think we humans are easy prey, but I say it is time we show them who the superior race is."
He saw a lot of people nodding; some were still out of commission from the mist. Most importantly, he saw how the axeman had a wide smile on his face.
"You especially have shown great leadership," he addressed the axeman. "The way I see it, every human would profit from a leader like you. You have shown great expertise and hardship when you fought today. Not hiding in the backline like most would, no, you took on the most dangerous foe there was to protect your men."
"Thank you for your kind words and for saving us. You clearly have earned your strength. I’m Thorwald," he said, reaching out to shake hands.
"We would like to join you in the higher stages, though we're not ready yet. We still have some things to do and levels to gain," Thorwald added. He liked the man in white armor. Steven was strong, cunning, and the rewards he would gain just by standing at this man’s side if he managed to conquer the tutorial would be great. Thorwald didn’t doubt for a second that this man had the strength to do as he claimed.
"Great. I’m looking forward to meeting you all on the next stage. Thrive for greatness, it’s all out there, you just need to claim it," Steven said with a knowing look at Thorwald.
With that, he took to the air, ready to gain his final level. Things had gone better than he had expected. This was the second group he had interacted with, and they would gladly join forces with him.
