I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Cleaved

Lucian charged straight at the Sound Blast.

The compressed air hit him a fraction of a second before he reached the zombie. It felt like being hit by a truck — his eardrums screamed, his vision blurred, blood vessels in his nose burst.

But he was already inside the blast radius. Close enough to touch.

He drove his blood claw into the zombie’s open mouth. The hardened blood punctured through the soft palate and into the skull cavity. The zombie’s jaw snapped shut on his forearm — teeth sinking into flesh — but Lucian twisted the claw inside its head.

The zombie thrashed. Its hands grabbed Lucian’s shoulders and threw him sideways. His claw ripped free, taking a chunk of brain matter with it. The zombie staggered, black blood pouring from its ruined mouth.

Lucian hit the ground rolling. Came up on one knee. His forearm was mangled — the bite had torn muscle and exposed bone. But the wound was already knitting. Eternal Regeneration kicked in, flesh weaving together at a visible pace.

Well, it’s a good thing I have a broken ability like eternal regeneration. It can’t heal. I can.

The zombie’s head wound was still open. Black blood flowed freely.

Lucian stood. Twisted his neck.

He raised the blade. Light gathered along the edge. The light was concentrated and looked more refined and compressed unlike his past display. It clung to the metal like a second skin, humming with contained energy.

The zombie charged again but it was slower this time.

Lucian didn’t dodge. He activated Blood Eclipse Art.

The transformation was immediate. His crimson eyes deepened to black-red. Dark energy crawled up his arms like living veins. Every spell he cast would be 50% stronger — but every second cost Blood Energy.

He met the zombie’s charge with a crescent sweep. The Moon Shattering Blade carved an arc through the air, and this time the light didn’t just coat the edge — it extended. A perfect crescent of white light, a meter beyond the blade, powered by refined mana control and the Blood Eclipse Art’s amplification.

The arc hit the zombie’s chest.

The crescent of light and pure mana sliced through grey flesh, muscle, and bone like they were paper. The cut ran diagonally from the zombie’s right shoulder to its left hip. The two halves of its body separated with a wet, grinding sound.

The zombie’s black eyes flickered. Its mouth opened.

It collapsed. Both halves hit the concrete with separate thuds.

+1000 EXP.

Quest Progress — Kill 2 Core Realm Zombies (Solo): 1/2.

Blood Eclipse Art deactivated. BE: 34/100.

Lucian stood over the bisected corpse. Blood dripped from the Moon Shattering Blade in a steady stream. His breathing was heavy. His arms trembled slightly from the mana expenditure.

Allistar’s training wasn’t garbage after all.

He cleaned the blade on a scrap of cloth and walked toward the exit. The furnace hall fell silent behind him, broken only by the distant sound of combat from the eastern side of the building.

The main hall was a warzone.

Clara stood at the center of a frozen corridor, ice walls channeling zombies into a kill zone. Her Psychokinesis launched ice shards in rapid succession — one every half second, each one finding a skull with mechanical precision. Her movements were so fluid now.

Rose had stopped using her shield generator entirely. Instead, she’d weaponized Aegis directly — concentrated force pulses that hit zombies like invisible battering rams. One pulse sent five zombies flying into a wall. Another crushed three against a concrete pillar. Her control over force manipulation of her Aegis ability had grown dramatically since the cure.

Ryan fought beside her with Lumina wrapped around his right arm as a living gauntlet. Ice formed along the plant matter and launched in concentrated streams.

They moved like a machine. Clara controlled the flow. Rose delivered the heavy hits. Ryan supported with crowd control. Lumina adapted — shifting between gauntlet, shield, and whip depending on what Ryan needed.

Lucian raised his hand.

Blood Needle Rain.

Forty crimson needles materialized above the zombie horde and rained down. Each one found a target — piercing skulls, spines, joints. Zombies dropped in clusters.

The others didn’t pause. Clara’s ice shards filled the gaps Lucian created. Rose’s force pulses crushed the ones that survived.

Forty minutes later, the main hall was silent.

Bodies covered every surface. Black blood pooled in the cracks of the concrete. The air was thick with the copper-rot smell of zombie gore.

Rose leaned against a wall, breathing hard. Clara wiped ice residue from her hands. Ryan sat on a crate, Lumina returning to its small sprout form on his shoulder.

"The Core realm zombie?" Clara asked, looking at Lucian. "I couldn’t sense it anymore halfway through the fight."

"Dead," Lucian said.

Clara raised an eyebrow. "You killed an Early Core Realm zombie solo? You’ve really grown stronger."

"Barely." Lucian sat down heavily. His body ached. The Blood Eclipse Art’s aftereffects combined with the physical toll of the fight left him running on fumes. "It had a B-Rank Sound Blast. Nearly burst my eardrums."

Clara smiled and asked, "Do you think you can beat me now?"

Lucian says with a smirk, "Guess we have to find out later. Cus in bed, I’ll still win."

Clara pinched his nose with a smile, "Silly boy", as she can closer to his ear, "My stamina has gotten a lot better. You might not last as long as you think."

Rose looked at Ryan as she says with a deadpalm expression, "This two. Have they forgotten we are here?"

Ryan shrugged.

Lucian checked the system.

Quest Progress — Kill 2 Core Realm Zombies (Solo): 1/2.

Day 4 and 5 passed in recovery and cleanup.

Lucian slept for fourteen hours after the Core Realm fight. His regeneration repaired the physical damage, but the mana and Blood Energy depletion took longer to restore. He spent the recovery time cultivating with the Blood Eclipse Art, slowly refilling his BE pool while circulating mana through his meridians.

The group cleared the remaining Neophyte zombies in the factory district. Peak Neophyte variants fell to coordinated attacks. Mid and Late Neophyte zombies were handled by Clara and Lucian together. The normal zombies were cleanup — almost boring after the intensity of the first three days.

By the end of day five, the kill count had climbed significantly.

Normal Zombies: 1,024/1,000 — COMPLETE.

Neophyte Zombies: 203/200 — COMPLETE.

Core Realm Zombies (Solo): 1/2.

The first two quests were done. The third was the problem.

"There’s no second Core Realm zombie in our zone," Ryan said, tapping his wrist display. "I’ve scanned the entire four-kilometer radius three times. The factory one was the only one. Every other signature is Neophyte or below."

Lucian stared at the quest notification. The penalty for failure was clear: all passives suppressed for seventy-two hours. No Eternal Regeneration. No Enhanced Senses. No Predator Aura. He’d been through that once before and he didn’t like it.

"Then I go outside the zone," he said.

Rose looked up from her barrier maintenance. "The government and academy are watching us. Leaving your assigned zone could count as a violation."

Lucian’s eyes flickered gold. He looked up at the sky. "I can see them. Three invisible drones, about two hundred meters up. Rotating shifts."

Ryan confirmed with a nod. "Standard surveillance protocol. The World Government monitors all expedition participants through a combination of mana-signature bracelets and aerial drones. They track your location, kill count, and combat data in real time."

Rose’s eyes widened. "Wait — does that mean they’re watching us pee?"

Ryan blinked. "The drones have thermal imaging, not visual cameras. They track mana signatures, not body details."

"So they see a warm blob squating in a bush. That’s basically the same thing."

"It’s really not."

"It’s close enough!" Rose threw her hands up. "I’ve been peeing behind buildings for three days thinking I had privacy!"

Clara, who had been quietly cleaning her gauntlets, spoke without looking up. "You could have just used the warehouse we slept in. It had four walls and a door."

Rose opened her mouth. "I didn’t think of that."

"We’re done here," he said. "Every zombie in our zone is dead. We have time left before the week ends." He looked at Clara. "Vienne City isn’t far. There might be Core Realm zombies there."

Ryan adjusted his glasses. "Vienne City was partially cleared by military teams, but they didn’t finish the job. If there are remaining zombies, they’d be in the deep city — the areas the military deemed too dangerous to enter."

"Then that’s where we go."

Rose had finally stopped complaining about bathroom surveillance. "We’re just going to leave our zone? What if the academy penalizes us?"

Lucian picked up the Moon Shattering Blade and sheathed it. "The academy did not mention we must stick to our zones, did they? And I’m not sitting here for two days doing nothing."

He walked toward the warehouse exit. Clara fell into step beside him. Rose followed, muttering about privacy violations. Ryan brought up the rear with Lumina, already pulling up a map of Vienne City on his wrist display.

The factory fell silent behind them.

Four figures walked out of Saint-Étienne’s eastern edge, heading southwest toward a dead city that held memories none of them had forgotten.