"Come here. Let's see what we can do to the rest of the Mistwalkers," Vacuse said and gestured hurriedly at the dragon construct.
The construct rumbled as it came over, and it did not come out of the fight completely unscathed. Some of its stones were chipped and some enchantments had worn out.
Thankfully, Vacuse just had to add more energy crystals to the core of the construct, energy crystals that he had taken a lot of and kept inside his ring.
The two entered the nest and found a battle going on. The Mistwalkers were walled off by their shield of yellow light and a woman outside was throwing bolts of red, destructive magical energy at them while she dodged the attacks from the Mistwalkers.
Lady Slave had already engaged them and their shield seemed on the edge of collapse while she herself seemed to be enjoying the fight.
Vacuse waved his hand and pointed, using mental command on the dragon construct. "Go on. Kill all of them!"
The construct did not waste time and their shield was nothing but paper before its crushing might. What happened after that could only be described as brief.
The sheer strength of the dragon construct and Lady Slave's spell was enough to slaughter everyone, making the air smell thickly of blood.
And while the slaughter was happening, Vacuse kept his eyes on another thing. The longleg spiders had come, all right. Long legs held up small heads with fangs and large abdomens that ended in wicked-looking needles that glistened with venom.
The thirty-five longleg spiders were led by a much larger and brutish spider that looked directly at Vacuse with its numerous eyes filled with wicked intelligence.
But even with their strength, the monsters did not rush. They stayed at the edge of the maze as if waiting for something or keeping eyes on something.
And maybe they were, because even though Vacuse was low in energy, his draconic aura still filled the air with malevolence and the readiness to commit carnage.
His red eyes watched the spiders flatly as if daring them to cross over.
But they did not. They stood there in unnatural stillness until the slaughter was done.
"What are you doing?" Vacuse asked Lady Slave. After the battle she now stood over the bodies, her fingers matching her mouth as she whispered a spell.
She did not say anything for a while.
The blood on the ground began to tremble and then slid over the ground and upward like reverse rain, slow at first but soon turning into a flood as it formed into a ball. Even the blood splattered on the dragon construct sank deep inside the corpse until nothing remained.
After it formed into a large ball, she gasped and trembled as if it was taking all of her energy to hold it. But she was not done, because as Vacuse watched, the large ball of blood began to shrink, compressing so fast it was visibly getting smaller.
Lady Slave sweat and shivered, but she continued, only resting after the ball of blood turned as small as a pill in her palm. Only then did she sag, take a hurried breath, and wipe the sweat from her face. "Sorry. I can only do it immediately before the essence escapes from their blood."
Vacuse watched her, a little weary. While he knew he was stronger than her in raw strength, he knew she also had her tricky way and had demonstrated it by using that binding. And even though he knew she would not try to betray him into harm now, there was no promise of another time.
Even though there was the binding and he was holding her strange coffin inside his ring, he was still wary of her.
"What is that spell for? What are you going to use that for?" Vacuse waved at the red gem on her palm.
She smiled. "I harvested their essence. Basically it is called refining, but this is just a crude version. With this, I can digest their strength and have a huge boost at critical moments. But it also has its downside. It can destroy the body and the magical circles around the heart.
"So it is only used for emergency."
Vacuse's eyes glinted. "I see. Can it be added on? Let's say, can you still take more from the blood of others and add it to the one in your hand and make it stronger?"
"Absolutely. The more the better. The more the stronger."
While still keeping an eye on the spiders, Vacuse gestured for her to continue as he was absolutely interested in what she was holding.
"It is called the devouring, ravaging blood of the... we just call it the ravage pill."
While she began talking she started to loot the bodies, stripping them of their enchanted armors and weapons and anything else they might have had with them.
"It is not forbidden. Almost nothing is forbidden in Cold Barren, but the pill is frowned upon. After all, it is by killing that you can get it. We have two types.
"The one I just made is called an imbalance ravage pill because it was made from different resources. Its power is much lower than the balanced one. The balanced pill is made by using resources that are aligned. Like using the same Magus. Ten fire Magus is a better pill than twenty Magus of different magic."
Vacuse nodded. "I understand. Does the same apply for races? Monsters and humans?"
"Of course. It is even much more imbalanced. But if you can create a pill from a whole host of monsters of the same type then it is all right, or monsters that share the same affinity."
"During war, this expensive pill is highly sought after to be created with the amount of resources that would be available. But you must know, after the body has been ravaged, it cannot be used for anything again. Nothing."
"Not for undead?" Follow current novels on novel★fire.net
"No. Even monsters and animals will not eat it."
Vacuse rubbed his chin. "This pill seems interesting. Can it be created by anyone?"
Lady Slave snorted. "Only blood Magus."