Chapter 009: Deadly Poison

Du Fan smiled as he set the crossbow aside and rummaged in his storage ring for a moment. This time, he took out a small vial of white liquid.
Shaking the vial gently, Du Fan said in a low voice, “I think you know what this is, right, Feri?”
Feri stared at the liquid for a while before hesitantly saying, “This… seems to be Weakness Mist?”
Du Fan nodded with a smile. “As I thought, you do know it… So do you know how to use it?”
Although Feri recognized Weakness Mist, he had never used it before, so he could only shake his head slightly.
Du Fan wasn’t bothered. He shook the vial as if talking to himself, “This Weakness Mist isn’t very useful on its own. Its only function is to gradually weaken a person’s combat energy or magic power and drain their stamina. But it takes a long time for this potion to take effect. Under normal circumstances, there’s no chance to use it. However… the opportunity before us seems quite good…”
As he spoke, Du Fan opened the vial cap. A flash of combat energy appeared in his palm, causing the liquid inside to boil and form a thin mist. Before the mist could spread, he waved his hand again…
This time, a faint stream of combat energy carrying an extremely thin mist blew in the direction of the octopus and the academy members.
These wisps of Weakness Mist drifted into the battlefield, so inconspicuous that even the most cautious person would likely not notice them. In fact, even when the thin mist covered the entire battlefield, no one realized its presence.
Although this mist was effective against magical beasts, the octopus’s intelligence wasn’t enough to tell the difference between this mist and ordinary water vapor. As for the students from Roland Academy, they didn’t have time to pay attention to such details. Under the attack of dozens of tentacles, the slightest carelessness meant certain death.
The fierce battle continued, but soon, a few students at the edge of the formation began to feel something strange happening to them.

Originally, every time they made a move, they would exert all their strength to block the attacks from those tentacles. But gradually, they realized that despite still going all out, their moves became weaker and weaker compared to before. Even though they tried to put in more effort, they found it increasingly difficult. Eventually, a sense of weakness spread throughout their bodies, as if they might collapse at any moment.

At this moment, this seemingly useless potion turned out to be extremely sinister.

“Ah—”

Several shrill screams rang out simultaneously. Several students at the outermost edge of the battle formation were dragged into the tentacles. They didn’t even have time to resist before being torn to pieces alive.

Their defenses, which were already on the verge of collapse, became even more precarious.

As time passed, almost all the students at the periphery were killed. The remaining eight students skilled in ranged attacks huddled together with Kris. Relying on Kris’s martial skills, they barely managed to resist the increasingly intense attacks, and their situation grew worse by the moment.

Aldas had already sensed something was wrong. Concerned about Kris’s situation and hearing those screams, his heart was in turmoil, as if fifteen buckets of water were being poured into it.

But the more anxious he became, the less accurate his moves became. In the end, frustrated and angry, he roared loudly. Ignoring the consumption of his combat energy, he ignited combat energy on his long sword. His hair turned silver-white again, and the dual-colored combat energy surrounded his body.

The blade of his sword grew several feet long. With each swing, it emitted a thunderous sound, turning any tentacle it struck into minced meat instantly.

Aldas took a deep breath and let out a fierce roar. He thrust his sword forward, compressing his combat energy violently before releasing it again. Waves of energy were generated, turning all the tentacles within dozens of meters into powder.

This was a move similar to self-destruction, Aldas’s ultimate lifesaving technique, which consumed a great deal of energy. Although this move eliminated all the tentacles within ten meters of him and created a deep pit in the ground, his combat energy dimmed significantly. The energy he had painstakingly gathered was nearly exhausted after such an effort.

But intimidated by the power of his move, the octopus monster seemed instinctively to back down, its waving tentacles slowing down. Most of the tentacles that had surrounded Kris and the others separated and rushed toward Aldas, instantly reducing the pressure on Kris’s side. The students all felt relieved—their lives were saved.

Du Fan turned the empty bottle in his hand and tossed it aside. A flash of shock crossed his eyes. Although he had known Aldas was strong before, he never imagined it to such an extent. That move had been so dazzling it was hard to look at. His own true strength paled in comparison—almost nothing at all.

Ferey was equally shocked. Having served in the Temple Knights for years and witnessed countless battles and extraordinary warriors, even Knight Commander Joshua’s Holy Light Cross Slash hadn’t been as dazzling as Aldas’s move in that instant. Out of innate respect for the strong, Ferey even felt an urge to worship Aldas.

After taking a soft breath, Du Fan said in a low voice, “It seems Aldas’s strength is truly extraordinary. If we don’t push further, this battle will likely end soon.”

Ferey’s expression changed. “Lord Du Fan, what do you plan to do?”

Du Fan sneered. “A small-minded person isn’t a true gentleman; a man without poison isn’t a real man. These are our enemies—should we spare their lives out of mercy?”

“Well…” Du Fan tilted his head and thought for a moment. “Killing Aldas is probably impossible, but… I can still cause him some trouble.”

Without looking at Ferey’s reaction, Du Fan raised the crossbow arrow in his hand and pulled the trigger in the direction of the battlefield.

Aldas’s worries hadn’t eased at all. Though he had barely managed to overcome the current crisis, no real problem had been solved. If he was right, it wouldn’t be long before the octopus monster regained its strength.

At that moment, he began to regret his recklessness. Over the years, he had always been cautious, making occasional mistakes but never any major blunders. Yet this time, he had been played by that damned Du Fan, almost leading to the destruction of his entire army. Something like this—he probably hadn’t even considered it before.

Ordas gave a bitter smile and blocked a tentacle charging at him with his sword. Seizing the gap, he took out a secret medicine from Roland Academy and stuffed it into his mouth. Feeling his combat energy slowly recovering, he felt a bit more at ease.

He silently calculated that if his combat energy recovered by half in a little while, he should be able to kill this octopus monster in one strike and end the battle. But suddenly, a faint black line flashed past Ordas’s vision, startling him and leaving him stunned for a moment. That tiny black shadow was incredibly agile, seemingly formed from some strange combat energy. It pierced through the sparse tentacles and rushed toward the remaining students of Roland Academy. Its target seemed to be Kris, right in the middle of the crowd.

Ordas’s heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t help but shout, “Kris! Get out of the way!” Kris was startled and tried to step back, but just then a tentacle lashed out, forcing her to jump back again. She was stuck between two choices, not knowing what to do.

As the black shadow neared Kris, a student nearby swung his sword in an attempt to cut it apart. Unexpectedly, the shadow twisted mid-air and shot toward the student wielding the sword. The student, caught off guard, couldn’t avoid it in time. He tried to use his protective combat energy, but the shadow was eerily unpredictable. With a “thud,” it ignored the protective energy and struck the student’s arm, causing blood to flow endlessly.

It was then that everyone realized the shadow was actually an arrow. The student groaned, pulled the arrow out, and threw it on the ground. Everyone around him felt relieved. It seemed that though the arrow was strange, its power was ordinary—only a worthless fool like Du Fan would create such an impractical weapon.

But at that moment, the student suddenly stiffened, his face turning dark as black blood poured from his orifices. His body began to shrink at a visible speed. In less than a moment, he was reduced to a pool of blood, leaving only a blackened skeleton still holding his long sword and wearing his black robe, in the posture he had in death. A gust of wind blew, causing the skeleton to make a soft sound before collapsing one by one.

For a moment, everyone felt their hair stand on end and their bodies grow cold. Although they had long known Du Fan to be despicable and shameless, who could have imagined that such a short crossbow arrow would contain such deadly poison?