The Battle to the Death (Part 2)

The Bat Incarnation was arguably one of Count Dracula's most powerful offensive abilities. By transforming his remaining life force into bats to attack the enemy, as long as even one bat survived, Count Dracula would not perish. Of course, this left him with only a sliver of life. However, the attack from hundreds of bats was immensely formidable.

This ability had its own flaw—it was vulnerable to area-of-effect attacks or items. A mass attack on the swarm could spell disaster for Count Dracula.

Yet, at this point, Dracula was certain that his opponents no longer possessed any area-of-effect skills or items, allowing him to use this tactic confidently.

Hundreds of bats dispersed and attacked the group frenziedly, biting and clawing. Everyone was busy fighting off the bats, but their numbers were overwhelming, causing continuous injuries.

At this moment, Van Helsing had returned to human form. Seeing the sky filled with attacking bats, he swiftly drew two demon-hunting pistols from his waist and fired a shot at two bats.

Shen Yi clearly saw the bullets ricocheting rapidly among the swarm, bouncing off one bat to another.

Waveform Ricochet Bullets: These bullets could jump from target to target, causing base damage twice and up to twelve consecutive jumps, with 30 initial damage and losing one point of damage with each jump.

Van Helsing's shots immediately resulted in dozens of bats' deaths.

A group of bats screeched towards Van Helsing, exploding upon impact with him, covering him in wounds like a sieve. Despite his severe injuries, he managed to fire two more ricochet bullets, instantly killing a flock of incoming bats, but eventually collapsed in a pool of blood.

Another large group of bats howled towards Wicken. Three waves of vampire bats exploded on him, leaving him a bloody, unrecognizable mess, and he perished on the spot.

"Brother!" Anna let out a heart-wrenching scream.

As another wave of bats flew towards Anna, Gasken suddenly let out a fierce yell, throwing himself over her.

The bats exploded on his back, almost blowing it apart.

The howling swarm then targeted Shen Yi. He quickly pulled the chain binding Frankenstein's monster, dragging it towards him. As the bats reached him and saw the monster charging, they hesitated to explode. Instead, they slammed Shen Yi hard against a stone wall, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

In an instant, all four people attacking Dracula were severely wounded, with only Anna slightly affected.

Dracula's triumphant laughter echoed in the air as he reformed from the bats into human shape.

Despite being left with just over four hundred life points, Count Dracula was still the victor of this battle.

He looked down at Shen Yi and Anna with disdain, saying, "No one can kill the noble Count Dracula, not even with your despicable tricks. However, I will not kill you, Anna, for you shall become my new bride. As for you... troublesome boy, you must pay a heavy price for your actions!"

Despite being the weakest, Shen Yi had caused him the most trouble, fueling Dracula's hatred.

Shen Yi, sitting on the ground and continuously spitting blood, shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't think the fight is over yet."

"Do you still have an ace up your sleeve?" Dracula asked arrogantly.

A mysterious smile flickered in Shen Yi's eyes as he produced a sharp hand axe—the Boomerang Axe from the Dwarf Chief.

Dracula was momentarily startled as the axe viciously cleaved towards him. He knew the damage potential of the axe, yet he instinctively dodged.

However, as he dodged, he was shocked to see Frankenstein's monster lunging at him.

Simultaneously, Shen Yi aimed his gun at the monster.

"No!" Dracula screamed.

A bullet flew towards the monster's chest.

A strange cracking sound emanated from within the monster.

An unusual liquid suddenly sprayed out of the monster, dousing Dracula completely and emitting a cloud of white smoke.

Dracula howled in agony.

Holy Water of Purification: A one-time item causing 600 points of direct damage to undead creatures.

No one expected Shen Yi to have a bottle of holy water hidden inside Frankenstein's monster.

Only a body both mechanical and living like this monster's could harbor such a trap.

Shen Yi exploded the entire bottle of holy water on the charging Dracula.

For an undead like Dracula, encountering holy water was like a human touching sulfuric acid. Though in the past such wounds were recoverable for him, at this moment, it was a fatal blow, the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Count Dracula fell to the ground with a wail.

As Shen Yi watched Dracula disintegrate under the holy water, he coldly said, "I told you, the battle isn't over

 yet."

Everyone stared at Shen Yi in shock, realizing his cunning and endurance were far beyond their imagination.

"Is this... your final preparation?" Anna asked Shen Yi in amazement.

When planning to deal with Count Dracula, Shen Yi had openly admitted to preparing multiple traps for Dracula and acknowledged that he had a final resort if things turned south. Seeing Dracula vanishing in the holy water, Anna believed this was the last trick Shen Yi had been concealing.

Shen Yi smiled slightly in acknowledgment and secretly slid an invisibility pill into his bloody emblem.

"You have killed the vampire bride Elina, earning an additional 800 blood points."

"You have killed the vampire bride Verona, earning an additional 800 blood points."

"You have killed the vampire Count Dracula, earning 4000 blood points."

"You have completed all the plot missions in the Van Helsing novice task, with a difficulty level of 100%. Evaluation: Perfect. Completion rate: 90%."

"Your military rank has been upgraded. Current rank: Private, storage space upgraded to 5 cubic meters."

"You can now choose to return at any time. Your last stay in this world cannot exceed two hours."

After confirming all the information, Shen Yi did not immediately choose to return. He first retrieved two blue boxes and a purple box from the ashes, storing them in his bloody emblem, then turned to Anna.

"Are you leaving?" Anna suddenly felt a sense of farewell in Shen Yi's eyes. Her intuition as a woman told her that Shen Yi was about to leave.

Shen Yi walked over, gently wrapped his arms around Anna's waist, and kissed her lips lightly. "You know, there are many inevitabilities in this world, and one of them is farewell."

"Will you come back then?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Destiny is fickle, no one can see the future. Maybe one day when you hope for my return, I will come back... Gasken is a good lad, and Van Helsing is a decent choice too..."

Anna stared at Shen Yi, suddenly embracing him tightly and kissing him deeply and passionately, not wanting to hear the rest of his words.

After a while, Shen Yi pushed Anna away and solemnly pressed the return option on his bloody emblem.

The next moment, Shen Yi found himself in a square. Beside him was an old man with white hair, dressed in an ancient priest's robe, wearing a ridiculously tall hat. The old man waved at Shen Yi, instantly healing all his wounds.

However, after leaving the mission world, his attribute bonuses disappeared, and he returned to his original state with reduced health.

Shen Yi was about to speak to the old man when he said, "The first time is free, but it will cost you next time." With that, the old man vanished.

The scenery changed again, and Shen Yi found himself in a blood-red sky, with fiery clouds burning the horizon. Below was the bloody city he had seen before. Standing on a stone platform at the city's edge, he realized he had just emerged from a light gate, but the priest-like old man was gone.

Surrounding the platform were several men in combat gear, eyeing him menacingly.

"Kid, this is a robbery!" The leader pointed a gun at Shen Yi's chest.

Robbery?

Shen Yi was surprised by the presence of robbery in the bloody city. "What do you want?"

"Not much," the leader sneered. "Just give us 300 blood points, and you can pass."

300 blood points didn't seem much, but Shen Yi quickly realized something was amiss.

In the Van Helsing mission, the total blood points for all main tasks were only 1700, and this was at 100% difficulty. If the reward was based on percentage, then 25% difficulty would only yield around 700-800 points. This meant the leader was demanding nearly half of his reward without knowing his background.

Now without his enhanced attributes and facing several guns, Shen Yi pondered his options. Suddenly, he took out his pistol and opened fire on the leader.

The leader was taken aback by the sudden attack. An invisible energy shield protected him, and Shen Yi realized he couldn't penetrate it. He then aimed at the others, who also had energy shields.

Shen Yi chuckled and put away his gun. "So, it's like that. No attacks are allowed in this place, right? If every newcomer gets robbed like this, what's the point of bringing in more people?"

The men were stunned, not expecting Shen Yi to figure out their trick so quickly. They reluctantly admitted that adventurers could not attack each other within the city's limits.

Seeing their scam foiled, the men spat on the ground and walked away, complaining about their bad luck.

Shen Yi called out to the leader, offering blood points in exchange for information about the city. The leader, Hong Lang, agreed for 50 blood points, even offering to share more than Shen Yi asked for.

"Deal," Shen Yi said, agreeing to share a drink with them for an additional cost, further cementing their newfound connection.