Chapter 1664: Blood Loss
The Earl refused to believe what had just happened. His eyes… it couldn’t have been wounded. He couldn’t have lost an eye, could he?
He was an Earl, the son of a Marques. How could he have taken on a wound from a boy that was barely a man?
His face flared with pain, but perhaps due to the thrill of the battle or the anger in his heart, he found himself capable of ignoring the pain.
He raised his sword back up, let out a massive scream, and forced the tendons on his leg to tense up. Then, he pushed against the ground and flew right toward Ning.
He placed his sword in front of him and readied himself for shattering the barrier. However, that was not what happened at all.
Ning had seen him coming and created a barrier to stop him. Only, he didn’t create the barrier facing the man, but sideways. He made it so that the thin side of the barrier was what the man came across.
And when he landed there, his speed dropped drastically as he got closer to the center.
The barrier couldn’t cancel out all momentum, but then again, it didn’t have to. The man’s momentum was just too strong for him to be completely stopped, but slowing down by itself helped Ning massively.
Ning had enough time to dodge his attack and move to the side while sending back one of his own. Now that the Earl had used his power, Ning had a few seconds to fight him normally.
Even though he was one-handed now, he moved his spear in intricate paths. Like a snake moving in between tall trees, his spear seemingly curved around the sword slashes, going for the man’s body.
The Earl’s armor blocked most of the attacks, but the more Ning fought this man, the more familiar he got with his fighting style and the better he got. Even though he was missing an arm, he was now much better than when he had both arms.
The two fought and the man was pushed back. Ning put some distance between the two of them as well. The man’s spring-like dash was going to be used at any time and he needed enough distance to react to it.
‘I don’t have much energy,’ Ning thought. And his barrier was bound to prove useless now. The man certainly knew his trick, right?
His only chance was to create multiple barriers, which was what Ning did.
The man was sneaky enough to attack him from the side too, so Ning created two barriers around him, both at an angle. Like two shields held in both hands, facing away at an angle, Ning remained protected from all directions but the back.
The man moved and moved around.
Ning followed a blur and barely managed to catch up with a bang that landed on his side. The man hadn’t realized that Ning had created a barrier facing the side and slammed onto it.
Thankfully, he hadn’t used his sword this time around, or Ning would’ve been in danger.
Ning canceled the barrier and made his move on the man, attacking him. His spear finally found flesh along his cheek, but it was shallow. He pulled it back, letting a spray of blood to the side.
Before he could attack again, the man rolled to the side and moved away.
Ning tried to follow, but a single step caused him to stumble a little. He blinked, trying to figure out what was wrong. He felt as though he was drunk, but…
‘Blood,’ he thought, looking down at his arm. The adrenaline had made him stop feeling pain at the moment and because of that, he had even missed the fact that he was losing a lot of blood.
‘I can’t bleed out,’ Ning thought, quickly ripping off his own clothes. He tightly wound it around his arm, barely managing to make some sort of knot with his single hand.
He had tied it tightly enough that it stopped bleeding.
‘I need better medical attention,’ Ning thought.
The sound of running horses caught his ears and he looked to the side. He saw a cloud of dust in the distance and knew that people were coming toward this place.
Given that they had come here after the Earl, there was little chance of them being on the same side as Ning. He was way too wounded to fight more people. He needed to get out of here.
“You bitch!” the Earl suddenly cried out, pulling Ning’s attention back toward him. He was facing the other side, now looking at a shivering Shara who had come out.
Shara looked horrified, her lips quivering. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” The words mumbled out of her lips as she slowly walked out from around the frozen house.
“Grab her!” the Earl ordered and the corpses walked over each other to grab Shara.
Shara couldn’t seem to be able to do anything at all. She seemed shaken from whatever she had seen, from whatever she had done.
She didn’t even move as one of the corpses grabbed her roughly and started dragging her toward the Earl.
“Shara!” Ning shouted. “Move! Do something.”
She seemed to come out of whatever state she was in and realized what was happening. “N-no!” she shouted. “Let go of me. Leave me—”
The corpse fell face-first to the ground and Shara dropped next to it. She tried to get up but another two got to her and grabbed each arm of her.
“No!” she shouted, and both of those corpses fell as well.
The Earl tried to control them with his mind, but they didn’t respond to him at all. The Spirit within their body was gone.
The Earl was shocked for a bit but gained his composure soon enough. “It’s… it’s true,” he said. “I didn’t believe them. I thought they had lied. But… you… you really are one of them, aren’t you?”
Shara looked toward the man. “One of what?” she asked, now wanting to know more. “Do you… did you… know my father?”
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