Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Level Up!
"One more seat," Dean said, his voice carrying the weariness of a man who’d made too many impossible decisions in the past three days. "Since I’m staying behind, one of you can take my place."
The four of them exchanged glances.
"Elise should go," Ryan said immediately.
Elise blinked. "What?"
"You have a good ranged ability. If something happens during the flight, you can provide cover fire. The kids need someone who can fight from inside the helicopter."
Clara nodded. "He’s right."
Rose nodded too.
Elise opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. She looked at the children inside the helicopter — small, terrified, huddled together — and something in her expression softened.
"...Fine."
She climbed in, squeezing into the remaining space beside Mei and the younger kids.
"I’m staying," Clara said flatly.
Ryan sighed. "Clara—"
"I’m not leaving Lucian."
"He told you he could handle it."
"I don’t care."
Rose stepped forward. "I owe him too—"
"Clara." Ryan’s voice was quiet but firm. "I can’t leave my sister."
The helicopter’s engine hummed louder, rotors spinning faster. Time was running out.
Dean watched the exchange with a neutral expression. "Make your decision. Now."
"I’m staying."
The helicopter lifted off.
Inside the academy, Lucian was having the time of his life.
Schlick.
A normal zombie’s head parted from its shoulders, black blood spraying across the marble floor. Lucian was already moving, Sword of Aikis carving a silver arc through the next two bodies before they could react.
╔═══════════════════════╗
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
╚═══════════════════════╝
They kept coming. Through the doors, through the windows, through the holes in the walls — an endless tide of grey flesh and grasping hands. Lucian waded into them like a scythe through wheat, his vampiric body moving with a fluidity that bordered on dance.
Schlick. Schlick. Schlick. Schlick.
A Late Neophyte zombie lunged from the left — faster, stronger, its mana-enhanced muscles bulging beneath grey skin. Lucian sidestepped, drove his blade through its temple, and used the corpse as a shield against the three normal zombies behind it.
Schlick. Schlick. Schlick.
╔════════════════════════╗
║ Late Neophyte Zombie slain: +200 EXP║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
╚════════════════════════╝
The notifications stacked up like a waterfall. Lucian didn’t read them.
╔════════════════════════╗
║ ╔═════════════════════╗ ║
║ ║ ★ SYSTEM LEVEL UP! ★ ║ ║
║ Level 6 → Level 7 ║
║ ╚═════════════════════╝ ║
║ NEW EXP METER: 825 / 10,000 ║
╚════════════════════════╝
He dismissed it without checking the rewards.
A Peak Neophyte zombie burst through the wall to his right — a former hunter, still wearing pieces of Guild armor, its body radiating residual mana. It was faster than the others, smarter, its dead eyes tracking Lucian’s movements with predatory focus.
Lucian met its charge head-on. Their fists collided — BOOM — and the shockwave cracked the marble floor beneath them. The zombie was strong. Stronger than the Peak Neophyte he’d killed in the alley.
But not strong enough.
Schlick.
Blood was everywhere now as blood threads bidded the zombie.
Head off. Body down.
╔══════════════════════╗
║ Peak Neophyte Zombie slain: +500 EXP║
╚══════════════════════╝
More came.
Lucian lost count. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. The main hall became a slaughterhouse — bodies piled waist-high, blood pooling across the floor in dark, sticky lakes. The air was thick with the stench of death, and still the zombies poured in.
Enough playing around. Lucian thought as he raised both hands.
The blood — every drop that had spilled on the floor, every pool, every splatter, every smear — responded to his will. It rose from the ground in crimson threads, twisting, coiling, sharpening into points.
Blood Spears.
Hundreds of them hung in the air like a forest of crimson needles, each one humming with compressed blood energy.
"Die."
He swept his hand forward.
The spears launched in every direction — a storm of blood-soaked steel that punched through walls, shattered windows, and tore through zombie flesh with devastating efficiency. The main hall became a killing field, crimson projectiles crisscrossing through the air, each impact accompanied by a wet squelch and a spray of black blood.
╔══════════════════════╗
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Early Neophyte Zombie slain: +50 EXP ║
║ Mid Neophyte Zombie slain: +100 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Late Neophyte Zombie slain: +200 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Normal Zombie slain: +10 EXP ║
║ Peak Neophyte Zombie slain: +500 EXP ║
..........
.........
╚═══════════════════════╝
But they kept coming.
Thwop. Thwop. Thwop.
Lucian’s head snapped up. Through the shattered dome above, he could see the helicopter rising into the smoke-filled sky heading away from the academy as he thought.
Good. They made it.
A fist hit him from behind.
BOOM.
The impact launched him through the wall and he tumbled through open air before slamming into the courtyard ground with enough force to crack the stone.
A Peak Neophyte zombie stood in the hole he’d made, glaring down at him with dead eyes. This one was different — larger, more heavily muscled, its body covered in what looked like bone plating that had grown through its skin.
It dropped from the wall and charged.
Lucian raised his hand.
Freeze.
The blood inside the zombie’s body locked in place — every vessel, every capillary, every drop of stagnant blood solidified by his will. The creature stopped mid-stride, muscles locked, unable to move.
But it didn’t burst.
The bone plating — and whatever else had reinforced its body — made it too dense. Lucian could freeze the blood, but he couldn’t generate enough internal pressure to shatter the container.
Light Steps.
Lucian vanished, reappearing behind the frozen zombie, Light Blade already forming in his grip. He swung in a clean horizontal arc.
Schlick.
The head came off, rolling across the courtyard with a wet thud. The body toppled forward and didn’t move.
╔══════════════════════╗
║ Peak Neophyte Zombie slain: +500 EXP ║
║ SYSTEM LEVEL: 7 ║
║ EXP: 7,000 / 10,000 ║
║ BE: 18 / 100 ⚠ LOW ║
╚══════════════════════╝
Eighteen BE. Running dry.
Lucian didn’t hesitate. He ran — out of the courtyard, through the academy gates, into the streets beyond. The zombies behind him howled and gave chase, but he was faster. Much faster.
He found an intact building three blocks away, kicked the door in, and collapsed against the wall inside.
Three blood bags appeared from his shadow storage. He bit into the first one, then the second, then the third and drank deeply, crimson liquid sliding down his throat as the BE counter climbed.
18... 35... 52... 68... 85... 100.
Full.
Lucian let the empty bags drop and closed his eyes. His body was intact — the Eternal Regeneration had already mended the damage from the punch — but his mana was low.
But it had been satisfying.
Downstairs in the academy, four figures stood in the main hall entrance.
Silence.
Dean — the Early Core Realm rescuer storm-grey-adjacent eyes swept the carnage.
Rose had one hand over her mouth.
Clara was frozen, her ice-blue eyes wide, scanning the blood-soaked landscape for any sign of silver hair.
The smell was indescribable.
Ryan took a slow step forward, his shoes squelching in something wet. He looked left. Right. At the ceiling. At the walls.
"Where the hell is Lucian?" he whispered.
