Blood Maiden

"Eye of Judgment!"

Clark's figure burst out of the door. Before leaving, he deliberately activated the Eye of Judgment to check on Arnold's condition.

Nothing serious. If it weren't for the tattooed man's greedy touch on the glove in the final charging stage, providing him with an external source of mental power, Arnold would wake up faster than him. No surprises, Arnold would awaken in a few minutes.

"Power Surge!" Clark uttered a low cry and decisively activated his innate skill. The long-lost pale golden aura filled his entire body.

After awakening, his mental power was abundant, and five days of continuous coma had restored him to peak condition. Without the gloves continuously sapping his strength, his body had also returned to perfection.

Clark dragged the disabled Craig with his left hand and violently kicked open the fire door of the 8th floor corridor with his right foot. The heavy iron door, kicked like a projectile, flew out and crashed into the wall at the end of the corridor.

Room 808—Clark had obtained information from Craig about Augustus' whereabouts. Once he confirmed the direction, he took a step forward like a black phantom.

The door to Room 808 was partially open, revealing dim candlelight inside. No sound? Or no one? Clark furrowed his brow slightly.

The moment he approached the door of Room 808, he felt an eerie chill, and Craig, who he was holding, trembled all over in response to this cold sensation. It was strange; he didn't sense the presence of a living person, but instead, the air was thick with the smell of blood.

"Creak." The door was pushed open, and Clark entered the room cautiously, holding the spine of The Licker in his right hand in a combat stance.

Inside the room, two short, fat legs stood in place, and on the bed lay Marlene, unconscious and unresponsive. The upper half of the person with the legs was missing from the abdomen, the incision appearing as if something had separated it instantly.

"Ah!" Craig exclaimed in horror, recognizing that it was Augustus's legs. He was utterly shocked and couldn't fathom what had happened.

"Drip-drip." The sound of water droplets suddenly fell on Craig's face, and the droplets slid down his forehead. Startled by the gruesome scene before him, he was suddenly taken aback.

Before Craig could react, Clark instantly threw him aside, his eyes alert and ready for battle.

The water droplets were coming from above! A woman was crawling on the ceiling with her back to the ground. Her long hair covered her face, and her whole body was deathly pale, like a corpse that had been left for a long time.

"Ding, detected a first-order mutant [Blood Maiden]!"

"A zombie formed by the fusion of a corpse imbued with resentment and vengeful energy before death."

"Danger level: Low."

The message from the Eye of Judgment rang out instantly. Clark blinked slightly; what was a Blood Maiden? Was that the real name of the Bloody Witch? Well, it didn't matter. The chat channels that had appeared six months ago were not all-knowing, and information gaps were normal. Since he had found it, he would kill it!

Clark narrowed his eyes, bent his legs, and lunged forward! His speed was as fast as lightning, and in an instant, he locked onto the Blood Maiden crawling on the ceiling. Bone spikes pierced the air, emitting a sharp whistling sound as they broke through the air in front of him.

With Clark's current speed and strength, the first-order mutant Blood Maiden had no room to evade. The bone spikes pierced through her head, and the residual force continued, causing destruction to the ceiling's internal structure.

The ceiling shook, and dust mixed with shattered wall fragments fell, creating a destructive force comparable to an explosion. However, the expected kill notification did not come. The bone spikes that had penetrated the head seemed to have no effect on her.

"Creak." The spine reversed, and Clark's pupils suddenly shrank. The woman hanging upside down on the ceiling suddenly turned her face around, staring straight at Clark. Her deathly pale face had a vengeful and malicious expression, and her face, marred by zombie bites, no longer resembled her original appearance.

"Ah!" The Blood Maiden's head instantly split open, emitting a piercing scream loud enough to shatter the room's windows.

"Hiss!" Before Clark could react, the Blood Maiden, with her head pierced through, went berserk and lunged at him.

Downward slash! Clark's gaze became serious as he quickly pulled the bone spike out of her head, causing a cascade of blood droplets. He then reversed the bone spike and directly slashed it downward in the path of the oncoming monster.

He didn't have time to ponder why the creature in front of him didn't die despite having its head pierced. The Blood Maiden's attack was already upon him.

"Boom!" Clark only felt a sweet taste in his mouth as his chest was caved in halfway from the monster's impact. However, the bone spike in his hand didn't stop; it instantly severed the connection between the monster's head and body.

"Thud." The head fell to the ground, but the headless body continued to move as if unaffected.

A large amount of blood suddenly sprayed from the severed neck, and the icy blood instantly lowered the room's temperature to below freezing. Frost spread throughout the room like an ice cellar.

Ice attribute? Clark's heart skipped a beat as he quickly retreated, making sure not to let the blood touch him. 

Clark was currently a classic case of "high offense, low defense," and without resistance to attribute attacks, he had to avoid them as much as possible. But why was the attack ineffective?

Clark was puzzled. The Blood Maiden was at most a first-order mutant, and in terms of killing power, it was not as strong as The Licker. Its great fame in the past was mainly due to this creature, targeting ordinary Awakened and average players. With his current strength, he should have been able to easily kill it.

As the cold spread, Clark felt his movements becoming significantly slower.

"Eye of Judgment!" A pale blue mist rose, stars shimmered. Clark activated his enhanced vision once again, looking at the Blood Maiden.

"First-order mutant: [Blood Maiden]"

 Clark scrolled through all the status information and quickly found a line of explanation.

"Current Status: Blood Grudge (Immune to physical attacks, this state disappears after vengeance is complete.)"

Vengeance? Clark was puzzled, but there was no time to think. On the other side, the Blood Maiden whose head had been severed had quickly picked up her own head and reattached it.

Let's try again! While the power surge was still ongoing, Clark took a deep breath, and with a sudden twist of his waist, he delivered a downward slash.

The woman's face suddenly displayed a mechanical smile, as if she had seen something. Ignoring Clark's blow that could have split her body, she just opened her arms and rushed towards Craig, who was hiding in the corner.

"No!!" Craig frantically kicked his feet backward, trying to escape. However, the wall was behind him, and there was no escape. He was consumed by fear.

Although the face had been deformed by the bites, Craig couldn't forget those eyes, the eyes of Zoe, which had appeared in his nightmares.

Clark was stunned as the Blood Maiden in front of him clung tightly to Craig, as if she were embracing her lover.

The two clung together tightly, and the woman held him so tightly that it was as if she wanted to meld him into her own body.