Anticipating the large empowered Blood Stalker to angrily charge at me, I prepared to shoot it with Rapid Shot when it came close; but rather than charging, it unexpectedly began drinking from the ever-growing pools of blood on ground instead. Quickly realizing it was trying to store blood for healing, I immediately ran towards it and activated a maximum 12 arrow Rapid Shot—blood splashing in the air as I took each step.

Then allowing the Skill to control my movement, I grabbed all 12 arrows at once—holding them in my draw hand—before rapidly and efficiently shooting each of them in quick succession with systematic perfection. Though hastily reacting to the barrage of incoming arrows, the Blood Stalker turned its large body and used it to take the piercing impact of each of the arrows. However with its empowered body, the arrows didn’t seem to pierce its leathery hide as well as it did with the previous Blood Stalkers.

Grinning at me, it roared “Bloodthirst!” And beginning to bleed from its eyes, its veins prominently appeared on its limbs, and its already large size increased even further—now appearing to stand 8ft in height while on all fours.

“Well unlucky for you, two can play at that game." Activating my own Bloodthirst.

You have been affected by the Status Debuff: [Bleeding].

Forced to halt myself in place, a sudden throbbing and agonizing pain surged through my entire body, dropping me to my hands and knees screaming in pain. “Aaahhhhhh…!” I could feel my pulse rapidly increasing, thumping loudly in my head, and causing all the blood vessels in my muscles and body to be filled with a rushing flow of blood. But soon after, the blood vessels in my eyes abruptly popped, and blood came falling down out of them onto each side of my face. With my eyes seeing red, not only did an overwhelming need for blood to be shed fill my mind, but also a thirsting appetite for the pools of blood surrounding us—parching my mouth the longer I stared at them.

Hearing the splashing of the blood on the ground, I looked up to see the Blood Stalker fiercely charging towards me. Then powerfully leaping into the air, it pointed its elongated razor sharp claws directly at me, and was aiming to pounce on top and crush me with its giant heavy body.

Frantically rolling out of the way, covering my entire body in blood, the Blood Stalker landed onto the bloodied wet ground and caused all the blood in the area to splash high up into the air. And accidentally creating momentary cover for me, I took that chance to strike before the blood splash could fall back down.

Simultaneously using my arms to propel myself and my legs to kick off the wet ground, I activated Sprint and easily slid straight under the Blood Stalker’s belly, slicing a deep gashing wound while I passed underneath. Though overwhelmed by the need to see more of its blood shed, I relentlessly attacked with my increased speed; leaping over the Blood Stalker and slicing its back, cutting into several inner and outer sections of its legs, and to top it all off, severing its thick tail clean off.

The Blood Stalker roared in a frustrated and pained rage, “Grahhh! Weak elf! Red Moon make me strong!” blindly swiping its claws and attempting to bite me while it profusely bled from all over its body. And suffering too much damage, it growled “Blood Heal!” Causing the numerous cuts and slashes to rapidly heal, which even included its tail slowly growing back, as it then also began drinking more blood from the ground again.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock...” Odelia amusingly smiled, pressuring me with the time.

Ignoring her, I started to think “This is gonna be more annoying than I thought. And with all these blood pools around, the Blood Stalker can basically always have Bloodthirst on and heal whenever it wants—all without having to worry about finding a source of blood to drink from.” Casting First Aid to heal the Health I lost from the bleed, it deactivated Bloodthirst at the same time.

You are no longer affected by the Status Debuff: [Bleeding] Removing the ‘Bleeding’ Status has immediately ended the ‘Bloodthrist’ Skill.

Then it hit me, “Wait, if First Aid can end the Skill, maybe I can surprise the Blood Stalker by turning off Bloodthrist while it's not expecting!” Finishing drinking blood from the ground, the Blood Stalker grinned and angrily bared its jagged teeth at me. “I’ll have to injure it to the point of needing to heal again and wait for an opportunity to surprise it.” Then thinking of a back up, “I’ll save Eicio’s Bloon Moon eyes as a last resort if I can’t kill it in time.” and preparing myself for the charging Blood Stalker again.

Still slightly faster than the Blood Stalker even without using Sprint or Bloodthrist, I easily dodged and evaded all of its familiar bite and claw attack, and countered each of them with swords slashes across the different parts of its body again; but dealing too much damage it, the Blood Stalker frustratingly healed it all away again too.

Continuing the battle like that for 3 minutes, I made sure to never allow it a chance to refill on blood from the pools, resulting in the blood it was oozing out from Blood Heal beginning to lessen, and driving me to keep up my relentless slashes on its body. However, as I was about to dodge another double clawed attack, my foot suddenly got caught in something and momentarily stopped me from moving. Leaving me no choice, I raised my arms to guard from the incoming attacks, and felt each of the razor sharp claws dig deep into my armoured and unarmoured forearms—causing me to tumble back from the sheer heavy force behind both attacks.

Health: 4,195/6,420

Not tumbling far, I realized I was strangely being pulled back towards the Blood Stalker, and looked down to see that it used the pools of blood as cover to sneak its tail around my ankle. “Actually pretty smart.” I thought, impressed by the Blood Stalker’s use of the terrain, “But it shouldn’t have anymore blood to heal with, so I think it’s about time I end this.” Activating Bloodthirst again, I felt myself already getting accustomed to the intense pain, as my eyes started to bleed and my body grew increasingly stronger.

You have been affected by the Status Debuff: [Bleeding].

Allowing the overwhelming bloodthirsty instincts to take over, my body knew exactly what to do, as I reached down to touch its tail and cast First Aid on it first. Instantly the Blood Stalker’s giant body shrunk, and without a moment of hesitation, I pushed myself up to my feet and used all my strength to slice down onto its tail—severing it once again and freeing my ankle.

The Blood Stalker roared out in pain, recoiling back its blood spurting tail; and simultaneously using that pained reaction, I held Silverthorn with both hands, brought it over and behind my head, and forcefully flung it straight forwards at the Blood Stalker’s head. Then flying and spinning with incredible speeds, the sword landed perfectly blade first into the Blood Stalker’s bone face—in the space slightly above its eyes—piercing halfway into its skull. Though somehow still being alive, the Blood Stalker swayed back and forth, completely being disoriented with a sword stuck in its head.

Knowing I had to finish it, I activated Sprint again and ran head first towards the clueless Blood Stalker with full speed; then as I approached, I lowered my body, grabbed the hilt from underneath, and pushed my arm straight upwards to the sky. And with the sword rotating inside of its head to point downwards, the top of Blood Stalker’s skull split with a geyser of blood spraying up into the air, and its entire body collapsing directly afterwards. Yet even still, with a sword in its head, and its skull split in two at the top, the Blooder Stalker was still somehow alive.

Faintly breathing, it let out a blood curdling growl, “...Blood...Blood Heal...”

“Wow, you can heal even after that?” Watching its split skull heal extremely slowly, “I admire you Blood Stalkers for being so resilient, but you’re not making it out of this alive.” Pulling Silverthorn out of its head, I positioned myself standing over top of it, and fully winding my sword back, I struck a heavy finishing slash straight across the back of the Blood Stalker’s neck—cleanly beheading and killing the monster in one fell swoop.

Congratulations, you have Leveled Up 2 Levels! All Stats have increased by 4 , and you gained 20 Available Points. Swordsmanship increased by 1 Level. You have learned the Skill: [Archer’s Fury]. Archer’s Fury: Temporarily entering into a perfect Flow State, you unleash an inner fury reflecting the calm, deliberate, and patient nature of an Archer. Duration: 1 Hour. Cooldown: 24 Hours.

“Oooh, a Cooldown Skill!” I excitedly exclaimed to myself, “I can’t wait to try it out!” After deactivating Bloodthrist, I directed my attention to Odelia, and saw she was currently fending off a hoard of thirty Lv.55-65 monsters.

Having already killed around twenty that were severed into countless scattered pieces on the blood-soaked ground, Odelia faced off against a majority of monsters I was already familiar with; from more Blood Stalkers, to Trolls and Orcs, and even a few large Ogres; but there were also a few monsters I haven’t seen before.

The eight Lv.55-58 Aciks for example; small red goblin-sized creatures that looked to have no eyes, ears, or noses. But even with their deficiencies, they were still accurately spitting a barrage of acid in Odelia’s direction using their large jagged teeth maws—which made up most of their round heads.

There were also four Lv.59-62 Nalkas; grey-skinned humanoid creatures with large red beady eyes and a body that was thin to the bone. Moving the fastest out of all the monsters, it used its four abnormally long arms and its two long legs to crawl quickly across the bloodied ground, with a long skinny and spiked tail dragging behind it.

The last unfamiliar monster was a Lv.62 Blood Scorpion; looking to simply be a giant red scorpion, with blood dripping all over its body, giant pincers big enough to grab an entire person, but which had two large blackened stinger tails.

Regardless of how the odds look to be stacked against her, Odelia didn’t appear to be concerned about these particular monsters at all, disposing each of them with such ease. And while I observed her truly fight for the first time, I realized just how big the difference in our combat ability was. Other than her incredible speed, she freely moved around as if gravity affected her differently, gracefully spinning and leaping all around while precisely slashing through each monster she passed, while calmly assessing and dodging the countless attacks directed at her at the same time.

“I’ve got a pretty amazing teacher.” I thought to myself, simply in awe of Odelia's skills. But after keenly noticing her using Swordsmanship and Hand-to-hand Skills I haven’t seen before, I wondered “Why didn’t she teach me any of those? They would’ve made the Combat Test so much easier.” As I watched her jump directly over a Lv.65 Ogre, use an unknown Skill to emit a purple aura around her feet, and then suddenly plummet with unnatural speed on top of the ogre’s skull—utterly obliterating it on contact and killing the large ogre in a single kick.

“I so need to get her to teach me that!” However, noticing more monsters arriving from all directions of the Dungeon, I shouted “Odelia! I did it! We can leave now!”

Continuing to slay the nearby monsters, Odelia shouted back “I know! I saw! You truly are remarkable, Lord Eyes! Congra—” Her eyes widened and she pointed behind me, shouting “Lord Eyes, watch out!” But before I could turn around, an unbelievably loud screech echoed directly behind me, and too focused covering my ears from the deafening sound, I found my feet suddenly lifted from the ground as two giant taloned feet clenchingly pierced into my armour and shoulders—losing ⅔ of my Health in an instant.

Health: 2,127/6,495

"AAAHHHHHH!!" I screamed out, feeling the taloned grip tightening the further away we got from the ground. Struggling to look up, I saw an enormous bird creature with the name Lv.80 Vulcrin. “A Lv.80?! What the fuck is this?!” Panicking, I tried to raise my arm to slice at the feet with my sword, but the moment I started to move, the talons only tightened further around my shoulders, causing me to scream out in agonizing pain again.

Health: 1,729/6,495

Through the pain, I all of a sudden heard Odelia shouting something from way below, and when I looked down to see what she was on about, I was completely surprised by 3 giant mana-arrowheads spinning like crazy and coming straight towards me.

Hearing the sound of the giant incoming arrowheads, the Vulcrin looked down and noticed them too, but simply tilting and flying to the left, it dodged every single one of them. But for some reason, it suddenly screeched out in immense pain, heavily wobbling as it flew, and drenching me in a layer of its thick blood.

“What the—”

At that moment, I watched as a giant spinning arrowhead drilled straight through the Vulcrin’s left wing; and right after the first one came, another one drilled straight through a different part of the wing, and then another soon after that. Following the arrowheads with my eyes, I watched as they magically turned their way back towards us, and pierced straight through the Vulcrin’s body again. Each time they should be flying away, they instead turned themselves back around towards us, and came in for another attack—relentlessly homing onto the Vulcrin specifically.

No matter how hard the Vulcrin tried to avoid the arrowheads, they always found a way to strike its giant body, successfully drilling numerous bloodied holes all over, and subsequently ending with it falling limp in the air—causing the 3 mana-arrowheads to abruptly stop and dissipate into nothing.

“It continued until the monster was dead? What the hell was that Skill?" Though I quickly shook my head at that unimportant thought right now, "No, I gotta focus. I can’t be under this thing when we crash, or I’ll die too at my current Health.” Ripping the loosened taloned grip out of my shoulders, I held on to the dead Vulcrin’s foot and quickly healed myself with First Aid as a precaution. Recognizing we were well above 500ft in the air, I truly understood the unbelievably massive scope of the Millennium Dungeon from up here, but quickly moved on and tried to climb my way up on top of the Vulcrin’s falling body.

However, while we fell closer and closer to the ground, I suddenly heard Odelia clearly shout “Let go!” And not knowing where she was or what she had planned, but knowing that I could fully trust in her words, I gave up climbing and simply let go.

Free falling, I closed my eyes in trust, and after a few seconds of when I should’ve hit the ground, I smiled at the realization I was no longer falling. Opening my eyes, I found myself perfectly caught in a large mana-net 50ft above the ground—tethered to the trees in the area—with Odelia smiling in relief right underneath it.

Snapping her fingers, the net dissipated into thin air and Odelia caught me, “I got you.” before letting me down and checking my injuries, “Are you alright, my Lord? I am so sorry I did not kill the Vulcrin faster, you must have been so frightened.”

“What are you talking about? That was amazing, Odelia! You saved my life!" I expressed wholeheartedly, feeling very grateful for her, “Thank you!”

"It is simply my duty to protect you as your Master and Personal Guard, Lord Eyes. There is no need for thanks, for I will always be there to save you when I am needed.” Odelia proudly declared, deeply bowing to me.

“That’s what I'm worried about.” Then excitedly asking her, “Odelia, what was that awesome Skill you just used? How did you make those arrows perfectly track the monster like that?” Using First Aid on myself again.

“Not now, my Lord. We are relatively deeper inside the Dungeon than I would ever prefer, and the monsters I left behind should be catching up any moment now.” Odelia stated, already having 6 mana-arrows nocked to her bowstring.

“Right, you’re right.” Holding back my ever-growing curiosity about the Skills Odelia hasn’t taught me yet. “Oh, but why don’t we just teleport out of here?” Holding Odelia’s arm, I activated Return Home, but a sudden notification appeared.

You are unable to use Teleportation Magic within this particular Dungeon.

“I’ll forgive you for not knowing this one, my Lord, but Teleportation Magic does not work in the Millennium Dungeons—regardless if they are a Closed or Open Dungeon.” Odelia informed me.

“Aww, shit…” I thought to myself, telling Odelia “Okay, well at least let me heal you before we fight our way out.” Noticing the several wounds that weren’t there before I got taken, “You look like you got injured trying to save me.”

“I accept, although you look like you could use some healing yourself, my Lord.” Odelia pointed out my heavily injured shoulders.

“I’ll be fine.” I assured her, casting First Aid on her wounds first. “I still have this after all.” Pulling out my last Greater Healing Potion and drinking it right away—also using First Aid on myself one more time.

First Aid increased by 1 Level.

Though while we were in the middle of healing our wounds, unnaturally large dark clouds completely blocked out the crimson moonlight, and everything was once again shrouded in darkness. It was almost silent for a moment, then all of a sudden countless amounts of monsters could be heard frantically approaching from every direction; and as they slowly appeared in the darkness around us, they displayed their collection of mesmerizing glowing Blood Moon eyes.

Pressing my back against Odelia’s and drawing my weapons, the large dark clouds passed, and the crimson moonlight returned to illuminate the entire forest again. But what it showed us was something no one would ever want to see; for hundreds and thousands of high-level monsters completely and utterly surrounded just the two of us.

“Do not worry, I will protect you, Lord Eyes.” Odelia claimed, drawing and aiming her bow, “And luckily for us, I do not see a Boss amongst them yet.”

“You must be stronger than I already think you are, if you really think you can take on all of these monsters by yourself while protecting me.” Looking at the horde of monsters ranging from Lv.55 all the way up to Lv.75.

“Oh, you have no idea, Lord Eyes.” Odelia chuckled to herself.

“Although I’d love to see you go all out, why don’t I take the ones under Lv.65? You can take the ones over Lv.65, okay?” Worried she would push herself too much otherwise.

“Alright, but I will be slowly carving a path out of the Dungeon, so follow close behind, understand?” Odelia then consecutively fired the 6 arrows she had already nocked in different directions, causing 6 enormous explosions and disorienting the entire horde.

Following Odelia’s lead, I thought “Desperate times, calls for desperate measures, and I can't hold anything back if I want to keep Odelia safe and prevent my Vision from happening.” Deciding to use both Archery’s Fury and the Eyes of Eicio’s Blood Moon at the same time.

Instantly I felt myself enter into a tranquil fury; perfectly feeling my every breath as it slowed and stabilized, my mind clearing and absolutely sure of what I could and needed to do, and finally simply waiting for every perfect opportunity to strike. Yet capturing my gaze, my eyes were completely drawn in and enthralled by the beautiful crimson moon, filling my entire being with its overwhelming and empowering divine glow.

A wicked smile grew widely on my face; as my mind reveled in the tranquil fury, as my body bathed in the divine moonlight, and as something inside of me knew I was simply unstoppable.