Chapter 91: Slaying the Enemy

At first, the black-scaled giant was also drawn in by Zhang Ran’s greatsword assault, devoting all its attention to defending against the blade and paying no heed at all to the five Blood Thorns—smaller in size yet blindingly fast.

By the time it noticed the five Blood Thorns bearing down on it with ferocious momentum, they were already less than a meter from its face, far too close to intercept.

Five crisp cracks rang out in quick succession.

The five Blood Thorns had already pierced the skin of the giant’s face and then driven madly into its body.

Although the black-scaled giant’s physique had reached 7.6, making its hardness comparable to most tier-two alloys, its face was not protected by scales. Its defenses there were only about half as strong as elsewhere, a weakness in the giant’s body, and naturally the Blood Thorns penetrated with ease.

Once inside the giant’s face, the five Blood Thorns continued forward, boring through flesh and plunging deep into its skull until their kinetic energy was exhausted.

At that moment, Zhang Ran’s mind stirred, and he activated the effect of Blood Plunder. At his silent command, the five Blood Thorns already within the body began to operate, madly drawing the blood from within the black-scaled giant’s skull.

The giant let out a series of shrill, heart-rending howls as the blood in its brain was frantically siphoned away. Its face rapidly hollowed from blood loss, wrinkling and collapsing inward, while both claws lashed at its own face, tearing at the flesh again and again.

Clearly, the black-scaled giant was trying to claw the Blood Thorns out of its head. But all five had already penetrated deep into its skull, so its efforts only left it raking its own face into bloody ruin, with no effect whatsoever.

Even as the giant clawed at its face in agony, Zhang Ran once more leaped high into the air. He raised the greatsword above his head, the strength of his entire body erupting in an instant and condensing together upon the blade’s edge.

Shatter the Sky.

The sword fell.

The Ruinbreaker in Zhang Ran’s hands descended from above with overwhelming force, aimed straight at the black-scaled giant’s head, tearing through the air with a fierce gale.

At the same time, Zhang Ran’s thoughts moved again, and the ability rune in his sea of consciousness was activated. Two more Blood Thorns broke free from his body and shot toward the giant’s eyes.

Seeing Zhang Ran’s attack bearing down on it, the black-scaled giant raised its arms to block. But the agony in its skull made it impossible to focus, and even harder to drive its abilities. It could only use one arm to meet the crushing slash of the Ruinbreaker, while the other reached for the two Blood Thorns.

With the enhancement of Hardened Scales gone, the scales on the black-scaled giant’s body were still no match for the Ruinbreaker. They shattered under the blow. Not only that, but the blade left a wound a full meter long and ten centimeters deep across the giant’s arm, blood spraying wildly from the force of the impact and splashing the ground red.

As for the two Blood Thorns Zhang Ran had sent out again, the giant, now on high alert, managed to intercept them both without exception, crushing them in its grip and reducing them to blood that dripped to the floor.

Having landed a solid blow, Zhang Ran pressed the attack without pause. He raised his sword again and struck at the black-scaled giant, while the giant, in agony, swung its arms to intercept.

After ten exchanges, the black-scaled giant’s body was already covered in several long and deep wounds carved by the Ruinbreaker, blood loss continuing unabated. Meanwhile, in the giant’s skull, the five Blood Thorns from before had already absorbed a massive quantity of its blood.

As more and more blood was lost, the black-scaled giant grew weaker by the moment. Each strike lost strength, and the hemorrhaging in its head left it dizzy and unable to control its own body. Its vision blurred further and further, and its movements became sluggish.

At last, Zhang Ran prepared to finish this black-scaled giant once and for all. In the tree of evolution within his sea of consciousness, the blood-red Blood Plunder rune blazed to life. Blood within his body condensed into four Blood Thorns, which then broke free and shot toward the giant’s eyes like bolts of crimson lightning.

Faced with the Blood Thorns racing for its eyes, the black-scaled giant wanted to resist, but its injuries had slowed it to a crawl. It was utterly powerless to stop them. In an instant, the left and right eyes were both pierced through.

Two wet, splintering bursts.

With the sound of the crystalline lenses shattering, the Blood Thorns effortlessly penetrated the giant’s soft eyeballs and sank into its brain, where they raged through its cerebrum and destroyed it with savage speed.

With a heavy crash, the giant’s brain grievously wounded, it at last lost the ability to control its own body. It toppled forward with a muffled thud, yet thanks to its formidable vitality, its body still convulsed and did not die outright.

“Die. To become the first level-three creature I have slain is your honor.”

Coldly staring at the black-scaled giant, Zhang Ran held the Ruinbreaker in one hand and sprang lightly onto the creature’s body. He strode to the back of its neck and drove the blade down with brutal force.

With that single strike, the connection between the black-scaled giant’s spine and brain was severed at once. The trembling of its body quickly weakened, and in less than five seconds it lay utterly still, dead beyond doubt.

As the giant perished, a far richer surge of evolutionary energy welled up from its body, several times more concentrated than what was gained from killing a level-two creature. This power crossed space and entered Zhang Ran’s body, merging into the blood in his arteries and flowing through his veins.

Of this evolutionary energy, roughly twenty percent was absorbed by the cells within Zhang Ran’s body, strengthening his physical attributes, while the remaining eighty percent completed a full cycle and entered his spine, merging into the embryonic form of his third evolution point.

A level-three black-scaled giant slain; the body absorbs evolutionary energy, evolution point condensation increased by 12.21 percent. Current progress: 12.24 percent (23).

A level-three black-scaled giant slain; evolutionary energy absorbed, physical attributes enhanced. Strength +0.007, Constitution +0.007, Agility +0.005, Spirit +0.003. Current attributes: Strength 6.326, Constitution 6.240, Agility 6.020, Spirit 5.835.

Compared with level-two mutated lifeforms, the evolutionary energy offered by level-three mutated lifeforms had undoubtedly surged by a tremendous margin, directly raising Zhang Ran’s evolution-point condensation by more than ten percent.

Listening to the chip’s prompts and looking at the black-scaled giant’s corpse on the ground, Zhang Ran’s face broke into a smile. His heart was equally stirred, filled with excitement and accomplishment, because he had finally relied on his own strength to deal with a level-three mutated lifeform—and not just any, but a formidable one like the black-scaled giant.