Realm Wars

Chapter 121: Vein

"Make a Seal of Promise that you'll give us the real cure of your poison in exchange that we heal you," Kai hissed as he pointed his scimitar at Vein, who was bleeding his guts outs.

"Bastards! What's the meaning of this?!" Masha was yelling at the top of her lungs.

Jane sneered. "What? You expect to keep us hostage, without expecting any retaliation?"

Masha gnashed her teeth. "Don't get cocky. The moment you kill us. You'll die as well."

Jane chuckled. "I'd rather die and take you with me than die as your cannon fodders."

"Grr!" Masha looked at Jane with unbridled spite. "Wait till this spell break, and I'll snap that pretty neck of yours."

Jane faked a shiver. "Oh. .. I'm scared. What are you going to do with just the two of you against the four of us?"

"Ha?" Masha grinned with her sweat dropping onto the floor. "Seraphina!"

".. ." 

Masha looked over at the beautiful girl and found her lying on the rocks.

"Don't worry. I've knocked her unconscious, so you can't order her around with the Seal of Promise as your leverage." Jane smirked, and Masha couldn't do anything but looked at Vein.

"You heard what Jane said." Kai raised Vein's head with the tip of his sword. "We'd rather die with you than die as cannon fodders. So you better start compromising. Now!"

Kai was losing patience when all Vein did was stare at him without even making a sound.

"Do you think this is a joke?" Kai's blade drew blood from Vein's neck. "Perform a Seal of Promise that you'll give us the real cure, and I'll let you go."

Vein's sunken eyes stared at Kai. There was something undeniably sinister about him that put Kai on edge.

Vein's lips stretched in a horrendous smile. "Fools."

"Wha!"

Before Kai could finish his sentence, Vein disappeared, and from its place was his shadow, and it draped over at Kai in his moment of confusion.

"Fools. Do you think that you could threaten me?"

Not far from Kai, the real Vein appeared with his lethargic face and woundless frame. "You think I didn't take precautionary steps every time I showed you my back? I have my shadow ready to take my place at a snap."

"Gagh! You. . ." Kai couldn't breathe when Vein's shadows draped over him like a cloak, squeezing the life out of him. When he resisted, another shadow appeared, and another. The more he struggled, the more shadows pounced on him. The collective pressure was too much to bear, and Kai's spine broke.

"Argh!" A sharp pain tore at Kai like claws of madness ripping away his sanity.

"Kai!" Jane and Theodore raised their staff, but they puked out blood instead. Intense pain pulsated through their heart and shoot in their entire body, sending them to the ground.

Jane and Theodore were shocked despite the surging pain of Vein's poison. They had it wrong, the poison inside their body was alive, and Vein could control it at will!

"Spineless dastard," Jane spat, eyes burning with hate.

"Ahahaha! That's what you get for being fucking idiots!" Masha's waves of laughter tore through the cave. "Vein, quick! Kill the midget so I can get out of here."

Vein's sunken eyes shifted to Masha before he appeared before her and clutched her throat.

"W-what are you doing?" Masha was alarmed when Vein looked at her like she was nothing but shit stuck in his boots.

"A pity that you have to go. You're too nave and easily manipulated. But you prove to be more useless than I expected."

"Y-you!"

Masha choked when Vein slid a shadow down her throat. The shadow expanded within her until all blood and air couldn't circulate. 

Masha's body was convulsing and expanding. Her eyes burst, and blood poured from every orifice in her body.

"V-vein. . ." Masha still couldn't move and summon her pet from Theodore's spell, but even if she could, it was too late to escape the moment Vein touched her.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure to tell your sister how you bravely fought Jane and the others and how grand you claim each other's life."

"Fuck you!" Masha roared with all her strength before she exploded into nothing but flesh and blood.

The gruesome sight drained all colors from Theodore's face, and the [Bind] spell broke with his mana nearing depletion. With the amount of mana he had, he couldn't even perform a simple healing spell, much less a devastating one against Vein.

Rather, with his circumstances, the poison was crippling him with nothing but pain. He couldn't even concentrate, much less cast a spell.

"S-sister. . ."

The edge of Vein's lips rose in a smirk that made his sallow face seemed like a vengeful ghost. "Fools that don't know the beauty of my poison should just be cannon fodders for me."

Vein appeared before Jane and snatched her hair and stared at the beauty of her agonizing face. "You should have stayed as cannon fodders, and you wouldn't have to watch your brother suffer as my new test subject for my latest discovery."

Vein let go of Jane's hair and focused his attention on Theodore. His head was skewed to the side with a creepy smile on his face as he approached Theodore with a dagger in hand.

"G-get away from him." Jane was inhaling and exhaling so fast in order to slow the poison's effect but found her resistance futile when the unendurable pain caused her to be in and out of consciousness.

Jane bit her tongue until it bleeds to stay conscious and cast a spell. But the more she struggled, the more the poison evaded her mind.

"N-no. . ." Jane sobbed, and tears rolled in her eyes when she could only lie on the ground and watched as Vein raised his dagger against Theodore's heart with an excited glint in his eyes.

BaAM!

However, before Vein could stab his dagger, Ryu appeared on the side and kicked Vein away from Theodore. The force of his kick bent Vein's body at an awkward angle, and he was sent flying against the wall. The wall cracked, forming an aperture and the debris and rocks fell on top of Vein.

"R-Ryu. . ." Jane and Theodore croaked at the same time. With Ryu's broad back at them, looking strong and dependable, they were reminded of Marcus, and their eyes blurred in tears.

"Get a grip." Kai appeared before Jane and Theodore and gave them an antidote each. The one that Ryu was storing. "This is no time to be weak and wailing!"

Luckily, Ryu stored a total of three antidotes throughout the travel. Though Kai didn't know how long it would last since Vein could control the poison in their body, he suspected that the antidote could at least hold off the poison for ten minutes.

"It's enough to get that dastard screaming in pain." Kai was angry, and this time he was not going to play around. His spine was broken, but luckily Ryu gave him the antidote when Vein wasn't looking. And using a simple healing spell he had in his arsenal, he managed to heal his broken bones. 

Jane was fuming mad, as well, as she wiped her tears. "Even my mana depleted, I'll make sure that scrawny mongrel would pay."

Theodore could breathe easy when the antidote took effect, but since his mana was nearing empty, he could only stand at the side.

"Half-breed. . ." Vein stood from the rubbles. Eyes menacing and face twisting in anger. "How is my poison not affecting you?"