Within a minute, the barbarians' middle group sank into chaos as their men swiftly fell down dead one by one. They did not have the slightest clue of what hit them, and the unknown would always be the most fearsome. The barbarians could only watch with wide eyes as the brethren beside them lost their lives, one at a time.

Unfortunately, after killing more than a dozen barbarians, Tristan can no longer sense the blood pearl he made. It appeared to have diminished bit by bit from each hit. But it is still a very satisfying skill indeed.

"Dark magic!! Dark magic!!" shouted one of the barbarians, which unfortunately brought even more chaos to the already chaotic situation. Seeing their friends and companions died in succession made some of the barbarians charge forward in desperation. Alas, their attempt only resulted in them falling under the swings of Tristan's blade.

The other two groups of barbarians that went in from the two other directions were still making their way over to Tristan's group, completely oblivious to what happened to the group in the middle. Well, they at least knew that something was up as they could hear the sounds of screaming.

Still, they kept continuing their march as they walked in rhythm. Archers were aiming their bows and shooting at Tristan and the others.

Naturally, Tristan's companions tried their best to deliver as much counterattack as possible. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, Bifur's crossbows and Layla's gun played an important role in the group's retaliation, especially the latter. The speed and accuracy of the bullets fired by her caught some of the barbarian archers off guard as they were being flung off the shield footing.

Even so, the two could not do much because there were too many enemies.

Minutes into the battle, the second casualty finally appeared.

Borin was busy fending off the rain of arrows coming at him when fate decided to screw him over as his unprotected foot was hit by an arrow. Because of that, the side he was protecting received the arrows that should have been blocked. Half a dozen arrows rained down on the group and almost hit Layla and the others.

Realizing that the situation is dire, Tristan glanced at Herrera who since the beginning had been preparing her spell.

"Herrera, now!!" shouted Tristan as he got out of the way and ordered Astrid to do the same.

The female magician immediately released the fireball spell that she had been casting for a while.

Three spheres of flame were blazing through the air, heading towards the three barbarian groups.

Even though the thrown fireballs could only heavily injure a few barbarians, Tristan's real objective had been achieved. His real reason ordering Herrera to do so was to create more chaos among the barbarians, to stop them from their advance.

Tristan ordered Scrall, the strongest fighter beside him, to take his previous position fighting the middle group. Meanwhile, he headed to the right flank to bring back and take over Borin's position.

He still wasn't sure on how to deal with the left flank as Astrid definitely wasn't enough for the job. Then, when he was thinking about the matter, the old dwarf master suddenly shouted.

"We will take the left side!"

Before Tristan could say anything, the three dwarves already rushed towards the left group. The old master led the way while swinging the gargantuan hammer in his hand. With each swing, the barbarians would be knocked back and their shields were blown away. The three dwarves were wreaking havoc in the left group, breaking apart the shield wall formation.

Seeing that the dwarves were doing fine, Tristan decided to not waste any more time.

There were more than 50 barbarians on each side, a lot of enemies to take care of. He had to make sure none would pass through and threaten his sister.

Tristan jerked his feet and his body swiftly shot forward. The claymore was brandished in front of him, charging right to the center of the barbarian's formation.

One heavy swing of his claymore, split apart two barbarians at the same time and threw a few more crashing back to the others.

Tristan proceeded to send slash after slash to the barbarians. With each slash, a few barbarians would either be dead or heavily wounded. None were able to stop Tristan's terrifying strength.

Unfortunately, there were simply too many barbarians. From all three sides, some managed to pass through and dashed towards Layla and the others.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Fortunately, Layla's gun and Herrera's fire magic were still enough to keep them safe from those barbarians. Moreover, there were still Astrid and Borin with them.

The two immediately used their skill. The female barbarian's body began glowing with blue tattoos, while Borin screamed out at the top of his lungs 'Battle Art! Strength Up!'.

They were doing their best to block the barbarians that slipped off the three sides, providing cover as well as opportunity for Layla and Herrera to strike them down. While all of this was happening, Seth was still standing behind the two women, hesitating.

A few minutes later, Tristan finally obliterated most of the barbarians in the right flank. With blood still dripping off his body, he screamed out his victory.

"Aaaarrrgggg!!!"

The few that survived quickly tried to flee from the area, only to be stopped by faint red mists that entered their body.

[Blood Seal]

[620 Blood Essence to proceed]

Tristan instantly turned the five surviving barbarians into his puppets and sent them to help Scrall and the dwarves. After doing so, he began extracting the fifty plus bodies on the ground as fast as he could.

[Blood Extraction]

[1000…]

[2000…]

[3200 low quality blood cell were found]

[Extracting and filtering blood cells..]

[580 Blood Essences extracted]

He had to kill 50 of them to have enough Blood Essence to turn 5 into his side. Tristan's eyebrows couldn't help but twitch because of that.

Throwing the matter back to his mind, Tristan decided to create more of the blood synthesis flying pearls and saw five of those small pearls cost him about fifty Blood Essence.

Tristan hated the fact that in the heat of the battle, just like now, he also had to calculate his blood essence. However, if he didn't and used his skills wantonly, sooner or later he would run out of Blood Essence and have no more to kill more of the barbarians.

He took a look at the system, checking his current reserve of Blood Essence.

[Blood Essence 1480]

The body upgrade, even though extremely beneficial, practically turned him into a blood beggar as well.

Shaking his head, Tristan thought to himself, "I guess it's time to extract some more."

Tristan was about to rush towards the left flank to help the dwarves when another warhorn echoed through the air.

Toooooeeeettttt!!

The next batch of barbarians had approached the group