Chapter 20: Potion Cultists

Boom! Mars erupted in flames.
Eros, who thought he was doomed, saw at the last moment a blade suddenly appearing to block the enemy’s fierce sword strike. After rolling several times and struggling to get up, he dodged an attack from a Dark Cultist, picked up his own sword, and clashed with another one. With a quick roll and thrust, he drove back the Dark Cultist who was about to attack his companion. Half-carrying his injured friend, he asked urgently, “Sharl, how are you?”
“I’m not dying!” The young man named Charl had a bloodied hole in his left thigh; blood gushed out profusely. Even in the cold weather, such bleeding would quickly be fatal.
Thud!
“Ahh… ahh…” A thin Dark Cultist had sword wounds in his abdomen, feet, and legs—deep enough to reach the bone. Though not dead yet, he writhed in pain on the ground, his cries sounding especially agonizing.
It was the wielder of the sword that saved Eros who did this. Eros could tell he was deliberately not ending the Dark Cultist’s life quickly to intimidate the others.
The night wind carried snowflakes, drifting sideways.
“Yah!” A Dark Cultist roared and charged fiercely, holding a thick, wide sword like a war chariot, aiming at the savior.
Eros saw the seemingly frail savior confront the Dark Cultist bravely, even taking the time to perform a sword flourish mid-fight. As the two were about to collide, suddenly, the savior accelerated so fast he seemed to become a blur.
Thud!
A precise slash!
The Dark Cultist’s leather armor did nothing to save him; his waist and abdomen were almost severed, blood sprayed wildly, and his intestines spilled out before he collapsed, letting out final, agonized screams.
It was then that Eros clearly saw the savior was holding the sword upside down. The sword flourish earlier wasn’t for show but to distract the opponent while switching grip.
Boom!
The savior suddenly turned his head and fired a pistol in this direction. Startled, Eros flinched but found himself unharmed. Looking back, he saw a Dark Cultist who had sneaked within two meters of him with a sword get a blood hole in the forehead. His eyes dimmed beneath his mask, his weapon fell to the ground, and then his body collapsed.
“What are you waiting for? Drag him to a corner and tie the wound tightly with bandages!” The savior removed his mask and snapped at Eros. His speech was fast, but clear and easy to understand.
“Oh! Oh…” Eros dragged Charl, whose lips had turned white, to the corner. A bright red blood trail remained in the snow, standing out sharply.
After finally getting Charl to sit against a stone wall, Eros suddenly remembered the problem. “I… I don’t have any bandages!”
“Tear off his shirt sleeve!” The savior was already fighting two more Dark Cultists.
“Oh…” Eros wanted to hit himself on the head. He was usually quite clever—why did his mind go blank at such a critical moment?
In a hurry, he tied a tight bandage around Charl’s thigh and grabbed his sword to observe the battle. Eros saw the savior had killed another Dark Cultist and was now facing four of them.

Suddenly, the Savior threw the sword in his hand, hitting a man who was feeding a dying Dark Cultist. The force of the strike was immense; the man, dressed differently from ordinary Dark Cultists and thin in build, flew several meters before landing, the sword still embedded in his neck. The remaining four Dark Cultists, seeing that the Savior was swordless, exchanged glances and rushed at him together. Dodge! Avoid! Though the Savior’s dodges were clumsy, they were effective and unexpected. Eros was about to step in to help. Boom! The Savior fired his gun as he slipped under one of the Dark Cultists’ waists; the man was hit in the groin, screaming like a chicken with its neck squeezed, then collapsed and soon stopped moving. Eros was astonished—the Savior was clearly better at handling unfavorable situations than he had imagined, able to load his gun even while dodging. To be honest, Eros couldn’t see exactly how he did it. Eros rushed into the battlefield, picking up the sword of the first Dark Cultist who had been killed along the way. Though his combat skills were limited, Eros could still hold off one enemy. 3 against 2—the Dark Cultists had the advantage in numbers, but their fanaticism made it clear they wouldn’t back down. Madness might increase combat strength to some extent, but it was useless against a calm and highly skilled opponent, and the Savior was undoubtedly such a person. After fighting for over ten seconds, another boom echoed as another Dark Cultist fell to the ground, clutching his left chest. At that moment, Eros was facing away from the Savior, dueling with a Dark Cultist. The clash of swords was drowned out by the gunshots. Then Eros saw the Savior appear beside him, stepping on the Dark Cultist’s chest. The man flew backward, but the Savior wasn’t done with him—stepping forward quickly, he swung his sword, leaving a huge wound across the man’s body. Blood sprayed everywhere, and the man fell to the ground, clearly dying. The last remaining Dark Cultist completely lost his fighting spirit, screaming as he turned and fled, even throwing away his weapon. Eros saw the Savior calmly load a bullet into his gun. Boom! The Dark Cultist collapsed in the snow, crawling forward in pain. The Savior had hit him in the knee joint, breaking it—difficult to run, difficult to die. “Keep one alive to interrogate. Make sure he doesn’t swallow anything.” “Okay!” Eros replied, rushing toward the injured but still alive Dark Cultist. Glancing back casually, he saw the Savior beheading the dead man. As Eros wondered at the Savior’s cruel behavior, two Dark Cultists got up from the ground—the burly man who hadn’t died completely and the thin man who had been fed something, as Eros had seen with his own eyes. Boom! Nio fired a gun at the thin man, hitting him right in the forehead, but the man was only pushed back a step by the kinetic force of the bullet.

Neo had no expectation that a pistol could solve the problem. He charged forward. The emaciated cultist reacted swiftly, hunching over and spreading his arms in a bizarre posture as he launched a counterattack. From a distance of over 3 meters, he leaped into the air and pounced down like a giant turkey, swinging his arms together and sending out a nearly tangible energy blade.

With a quick sidestep, the energy blade sliced past Neo’s body with a sharp sound, cutting through the cotton coat and a piece of flesh on his upper arm. Even the armor on his forearm was shaved off in a thin layer, as if scraped by a steel blade.

Stab! Slash! The blade in Neo’s hand pierced deep into the emaciated cultist’s chest and abdomen as he fell, as if lifting him with a spear—points sticking out from behind. Then, with that slash, foul blood sprayed out, severing half of the cultist’s body.

Though Neo could hardly control his forward momentum, he used the force of the blade’s slash to quickly turn in mid-air. The blade then circled back, miraculously cutting through the wound it had made earlier, severing the other half of the cultist’s body.

Thud! Neo was flung backward. After landing, he rolled backward and knelt up, rushing at the cultist whose body was split in two at the waist.

“Be careful!” Eros shouted sharply at that moment.

Bang! Neo still couldn’t avoid the attack from a massive figure and was sent flying by its bear-like claws. Yet, the sword in Neo’s hand had already pinned the emaciated cultist to the ground like a holy spear.

The emaciated cultist let out a shrill squawking sound, flailing his arms wildly. A large amount of filthy substance, like fecal soup, flowed from his chest. Gradually losing strength, he eventually lay motionless.

Neo, who had been flung away, hit the ground hard and slid several meters before stopping. Enduring the pain in his chest, he quickly got up, his cold gaze locking with the savage, bloodthirsty eyes of the beast.

The massive cultist whose abdomen had been cut open earlier had now turned into a monster and was continuing to change. Saliva flowed from its mouth, its muscles twitched visibly. It moved on all fours like a beast, its body swelling as if inflated. Its limbs became thick and completely deformed, with its hind legs bent backward, and even fleshy rat tails grew out…

“Good heavens! What kind of monster is this?” Eros cried in shock. He had heard that demons would reward mortals with potions that enhanced combat power or even allowed them to transform like werewolves in order to win them over. But reality was far more terrifying than he had imagined. He couldn’t even figure out what these two dark cultists had become—beast-like traits, immortality traits, ugly and horrifying, and clearly, the effects of transformation varied from person to person.

“A beast?” Neo stood up, walking steadily. He picked up a long sword and swung it a few times, his eyes never leaving the beast.

“Beast!” Now, he had confirmed his guess—low-level demonic transformation, severe mental damage, and a beast-like intelligence. Only such an intelligence would allow it to maintain this confrontation using its most primitive instinctive reactions under his “Hunter’s Gaze,” a technique designed to deal with fierce beasts in the forests. If it had human intelligence, even after completing the transformation, it wouldn’t have allowed it to calmly pick up a long sword.

Nio suddenly stopped, took a stepping stance, and slowly raised the sword above his right shoulder. At this moment, his energy converged, and his mind became focused—this was his ultimate technique, “All-In Gambit.”

Nio’s action seemed like a provocation. The monster let out a roar and charged at him. Its sturdy limbs struck the ground powerfully, sending snow flying, combining the ferocity of a bear with the speed of a cheetah.

Eros’s heart soared to his throat because he could see that Nio hadn’t yet fully charged up his ultimate technique.

Courage! Composure!

Using an ultimate technique sometimes meant risking one’s life. The threat of death pressed on one’s nerves, yet one had to endure it with strong self-control and a focused mind at such a critical moment, all for a single decisive strike.

The monster’s massive body was already in the air, its claws swinging. The force behind it was like a mountain crashing down, filling Eros, who was several meters away, with fear and despair.

“All-In Gambit” was unleashed at this moment—desperate and relentless.

Swish!

The sword was ordinary, but the strike it delivered gave an impression of extreme sharpness and satisfaction, as if all the pent-up frustration inside him was suddenly released. A faint blade of light remained in the air as the monster’s head and half of its shoulder were severed. Unfortunately, Nio failed to strike a heroic pose. The monster’s impact was so strong that just the scrape from its hind legs sent Nio flying, causing him to tumble several times.

“Cut off its head!” Nio’s shout made Eros realize he had messed things up again. In just a short time, the legless Dark Priest had already started convulsing and transforming, clearly having swallowed some magical potion…