Wandering Knight-Chapter 140: Bloodsurge Doppelgnger

Wang Yu's sharp dagger sliced through the swarm of creatures, driven by Wang Yu's rampaging body under the frenzied influence of Bloodsurge. With the power of an intermediate knight, he cut through the lifeforms' flesh-and-blood wall as if it were nothing more than paper.

These lifeforms that Erphine had manufactured had no organs meant for self-preservation. As Wang Yu's dagger tore through them, their innards and blood sprayed forth, signaling their inevitable demise.

Wang Yu's body was drenched in crimson and other grotesque colors from the fluids splattered all over him. Many of those fluids were toxic or corrosive, melting away his leather armor as toxins sought out blood and skin.

His skin began to rot, only to regenerate at a rate visible to the naked eye. The toxins were obliterated the moment they infiltrated his body—both by his poison-resistant blood and Bloodsurge, which accelerated his body's metabolism beyond its natural limits.

Drenched in blood, Wang Yu faced a tide of converging creatures. There was no retreat. He and Avia had to reach the academy's central area at any cost.

Like a madman, he charged into the swarm. The sheer density of the lifeforms left no room to maneuver, yet in this chaos, Wang Yu found an advantage. He only needed to deal with the ones immediately around him, using the bodies of the others as shields against incoming attacks.

Behind him, Avia calmly pulled a trigger. Wang Yu had directed all his fighting spirit to help shield her, rendering the lifeforms' attacks ineffective. Sheltered in this manner, Avia could focus on crafting specialized ammunition amidst the carnage.

A massive bullet blasted into the horde before Wang Yu. He raised his hand slightly as the projectile, packed with fuel and reactive agents, exploded upon impact.

A deliberately reinforced shell compressed the explosive force further, resulting in an even more devastating detonation.

A shockwave erupted from the point of impact. A violent explosion tore through the lifeforms—both the living and the carcasses now littering the battlefield—and hurled them into the air in a grotesque display.

The battlefield was already drenched in blood; the explosion turned the chaos into a surreal storm of gore.

Thanks to the explosion, an opening formed up ahead. Wang Yu staggered onward, soaked in a rain of blood.

Suddenly, from amidst the gaps in the mangled bodies around him, a lifeform resembling a leopard shot forth. It was lightning-fast, weaving through the falling carcasses in mere breaths as it lunged toward Wang Yu's left.

Its blood-soaked paws dug into the ground, leaving deep imprints. Its face split into four sections, revealing a gruesome array of razor-sharp teeth—an aberrant predator, designed purely for slaughter.

Its speed was terrifying. In an instant, it reached Wang Yu's dagger-wielding arm and bit down viciously.

This mutant lifeform was far more formidable than the others around it. It was larger, stronger, and clearly engineered to eliminate Wang Yu.

Its four-sectioned maw clamped onto Wang Yu's forearm, with serrated fangs driving deep into his flesh, tearing skin, puncturing muscle, and exerting crushing force in an attempt to shatter his bones.

Expressionless, Wang Yu placed his right hand atop the beast's skull. His Voidblade gauntlet enveloped his hand. Since his dagger-wielding arm was restrained, he resorted to pure brute force.

Steel-clad fingers tightened around the lifeform's skull, crushing it with the relentless pressure of a hydraulic press.

The first fractures appeared near its eye sockets. Wang Yu's fingers pierced through, embedding themselves deep in the lifeform's brain. Then, he twisted his finger and ripped apart the core that controlled its body.

Even so, the leopard-like lifeform didn't die instantly. Its limbs twitched from lingering nerve signals, and its jaws remained locked on Wang Yu's arm.

With a casual flick, Wang Yu dislodged the corpse, revealing his forearm—now riddled with gaping wounds, his muscle torn to shreds, and his blood vessels ruptured. The damage was catastrophic, rendering the limb near-useless.

Yet Wang Yu charged forward heedlessly. His Banner of Triumph flared with light, extracting vitality from the slain creatures. Life force drawn from the void poured into Wang Yu's body, mending his wounds at a visible pace, supplementing the regenerative efforts of his own blood and medicine.

Kill. Kill. Kill. At that moment, Wang Yu had become a true engine of slaughter. His own body was breaking down, yet every life he claimed fed into his own. The more he killed, the stronger he remained. The more his enemies fell, the longer he would endure.

Another wave of creatures surged ahead, writhing together to form a wall of flesh, blocking his path.

A piercing shriek came from above. Avia's Wizard's Eye detected a flock of predatory birds diving at extreme speeds, their wings folding in to transform their bodies into living spears. Their hooked beaks gleamed, poised to skewer Wang Yu.

Shotgun fire erupted. Avia had foreseen their trajectory. She unleashed a devastating spread of scattershot—designed precisely to counter numerous fast threats.

These lifeforms, though deadly, lacked supernatural fortification. Against Avia's enhanced ammunition, their fragile bodies were torn apart mid-flight.

Feathers and flesh burst in all directions. Those fortunate enough to only be clipped veered off course, crashing to the ground with shattered bones.

A rare handful of them, undeterred by the carnage, evaded the burst and closed in on Wang Yu. However, Wang Yu's ripples provided him with advance warning. His arm swung back as he used his Voidblade gauntlet as a shield.

The first bird impaled itself against the unyielding gauntlet, its beak shattering upon impact. The force transferred up its body and snapped its neck.

The others found their mark: one pierced his shoulder, another tore through his upper arm.

The birds' extreme speed and barbed beaks ripped through flesh and sinew, obliterating veins and muscles alike.

Wang Yu glanced at his injuries. Though these creatures were fragile, their specialized adaptations made them brutally efficient against him.

Their hooked beaks prevented easy removal—pulling them out would worsen his wounds, tearing at muscle and sinew. Leaving them in, on the other hand would dramatically hinder his movements.

Coldly, he made his decision. Without any hesitation, he grabbed the birds and yanked them out of his body. Flesh tore, muscle unraveled, and blood gushed. The wounds left behind were gaping and nightmarish. He could have chosen a less damaging method, but he didn't.

He kept moving. Endless waves of creatures. An endless road of blood. And yet, amid Wang Yu's relentless slaughter and Avia's devastating explosives, they were nearing their destination.

Through Wizard's Eye, Avia spotted their target—a clearing devoid of structures, where one of the Mountain Forge's exhaust vents was located.

Floating above the clearing was an anomaly—a miniature forest, suspended like a model in mid-air. That was it: the curio nullifying all magic. They were drawing very close to their destination.

By then, however, Wang Yu's body was a wreck. There were countless wounds peppering his body, holes and gashes of every kind. Any observer would question how he was still standing.

Yet Wang Yu made no effort to heal himself fully. His body might be deteriorating, but his Banner of Triumph continued to drain more and more life force from his fallen foes, barely keeping his bloodied frame from collapse.

"What an intriguing lifeform you are. Unlike those arrogant beings who have abandoned the power of life itself, your existence is tenacious. Your ability to harness the essence of life has aspects that I might even consider emulating myself—drawing power from those you slay to sustain your own life. You truly are a resilient creature..."

As Wang Yu relentlessly advanced toward the heart of the academy through bloodshed and destruction, Erphine's voice echoed from nowhere. Though still cold and indifferent, there was a faint trace of surprise and admiration in his words.

Wang Yu's terrifying resilience had even managed to evoke a sliver of astonishment and appreciation from the so-called Font of Life.

"If you choose to join me, I will preserve your body. Your consciousness will reside within me, yet you will be free to use your physical form at permitted times. Furthermore, your body will evolve and grow alongside me until we witness the ultimate form of life together."

Once again, Erphin extended an invitation to Wang Yu, an entity he admired and coveted.

"Idiot," Wang Yu gritted out, the first time he had responded to Erphine during the battle. His hands never ceased their slaughter; his steps never faltered.

Wang Yu found Erphine's ignorance laughable. The ability to extract vitality from slain creatures wasn't even his own—it came from his Banner of Triumph. Erphine, who valued the essence of life over all else while draping his arrogance around him like a mantle, was hardly in a position to judge his strengths.

"Very well. Then your body shall become part of me, and your consciousness will be stripped away. You will face true and complete death."

The swarm of creatures around him paused for a brief moment before erupting into an even greater, more chaotic frenzy. The ground cracked open. From within, beings far more powerful than the rest emerged—ones that could pose a serious threat to Wang Yu by themselves.

They tore through everything in their way, even devouring their lesser kin.

Each of these creatures possessed the strength to deliver a fatal blow to Wang Yu. They came at him in waves, pushing him toward the brink of despair just as he neared his goal.

The battle Wang Yu and Avia were trying to carve their way out of seemed to be spiraling out of control. Faster, stronger monstrosities descended from all directions, leaping onto Wang Yu and sinking razor-sharp claws and fangs into his flesh.

One creature had yet to finish its attack before another pounced, driven by insatiable, primal bloodlust.

One, two, a dozen—the overwhelming horde crushed Wang Yu beneath their sheer numbers, burying his figure beneath a tide of writhing bodies and gnashing maws.

"I'll leave the rest to you."

As he lay on the ground, Wang Yu shielded Avia beneath him, his back taking the brunt of the onslaught. Wounds continued to tear across his body as his life force slipped away, but his voice remained eerily calm.

The girl's eyes reddened. Once again, Wang Yu was fighting with everything he had on the line. Why did it always come to this? She was still too weak...

With a slow exhale, Wang Yu ignored the pain of fangs and talons burrowing deeper into his back, down to the very bone. He closed his eyes.

The life force he had been conserving surged through his body. His wounds healed at an insane rate, flesh mending almost as fast as it was torn apart. Aside from the injuries on his back, locked in a continuous cycle of destruction and regeneration, the rest of his body recovered within seconds.

But it was pointless. No amount of healing could change his predicament. Without the power to break through, he would never escape this abyss of despair. So, he had to create that power himself.

Blood surged. Blood Tempest ignited once more, fueled by the last reserves of his fighting spirit. Now was the time to spend everything he had saved up.

From the gaping wounds on his back, blood erupted like a geyser, instantly solidifying into an unyielding form. A crimson hand extended from the wound, seizing the nearest creature and tearing it apart.

Then came a second hand. From the gash on his back, a humanoid figure slowly emerged: a perfect replica of Wang Yu, a formless, ever-shifting body of crimson, wielding razor-sharp blades of coagulated blood. With fluid, effortless movements, it slashed apart the creatures around them.

At the same time, the original Wang Yu rose from the ground, once again carrying Avia on his back. However, his eyes no longer held the gleam of intelligent thought.

Within his blood-forged duplicate, unseen ripples pulsed and spread. These ripples were the vessel of everything he possessed. His strength, his senses, his very being—the ripples were him in every sense of the word.

He transferred those ripples into the body formed by his Blood Tempest. He infused his consciousness, his essence, and his will into the blood itself—creating a formless yet indomitable second body.

The lifeforms lunged again. This time, Wang Yu's body and his blood-forged doppelgänger moved as one.

Each of his actions was pure instinct, honed through relentless battles and training—an unthinking, seamless flow of motion.

His doppelgänger was immune to conventional damage. The creatures could hardly harm it, whereas it could carve through them with terrifying ease.

Once more, Wang Yu waged his relentless slaughter.

His original body, now hollow of conscious control, functioned purely on instinct. Meanwhile, his doppelgänger cut through the enemy with lethal precision. Any lost blood was instantly replenished—he used the Blood Tempest technique to pressurize his veins and force his body to generate fresh blood at an accelerated rate.

The battle was no longer his alone.

He had entrusted everything to his most loyal companion—his own body, a body that had been forged in endless battle, tempered by pain, strengthened through sheer will.

Tearing, crushing—every enemy that dared to approach was torn asunder. If one stepped forward, it would die. If a group were to attack, his blood-forged limbs could sever them all in a single swing.

Forward, forward, unstoppable forward momentum... From the depths of his body, Wang Yu's power erupted like a crimson tide, carving a path of blood and viscera through the enemy ranks.

His twin forms, born of raging blood and battle-hardened instinct, tore through the despair that sought to consume him.

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