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Chapter 162 – Foul Play (2)

Hu… Hu… Hu…

Ashton slowly calmed his nerves down. It had only been around 10 minutes since the mysterious voice disappeared, and yet those 10 minutes felt like hours to him. He had been relentlessly attacked by night creatures of various types. 

Some had blades attached to their hands, while some were heavily armoured. So much so, it took Ashton to give his all just to take two of them down. However, the most dangerous ones amongst them were the cloaked ones.

They were extremely difficult to see in the dark corridors, let alone kill. But the strangest thing was that all of them had a humanoid shape. 

Ashton had heard and seen a lot of different night creatures, but they were by far the most peculiar of the bunch. Yet that wasn\'t all. There seemed to be no end to them as waves after waves kept appearing in front of him, not giving him any rest. 

Had it not been for the time he spent inside the dungeon before, he would have died more than five times already. Initially, Ashton had thought he would be able to take care of them all using his [Revenger] class abilities only, but now… that did not seem to be the case anymore. 

\'Enough is enough, I don\'t think I should be wondering about keeping my secret anymore.\' Ashton thought, \'The way things are proceeding, without the help of Blood Magic and Necromancy, I\'d die soon.\'

But there was a bit of a problem there… since the man behind the voice could see him, it was safe to assume that the place was filled with cameras. But even with his enhanced vision, he wasn\'t able to locate any surveillance device.  Probably due to the dark.

Ashton was confident enough about killing the creatures, along with the perpetrators who had been hiding carefully in the shadows. There was no way for him to make sure that the surveillance footage wouldn\'t get sent somewhere else before he was able to kill everyone inside the bunker. 

Hell, he wasn\'t even sure whether the man was in the bunker or not. If Ashton had to take a guess, the man wasn\'t in the bunker. Judging from the way the creatures inside the bunker were running rampant everywhere, there was no way someone was controlling them. 

\'Fuck! What should I do? Wait a moment… This could work.\' 

Ashton immediately opened his status tab and dumped all of the unassigned points to increase his mana by 250 points. The increase might seem meagre, it would be instrumental in what he was planning to do next. 

The following moment, he jumped out of his hiding place. After that, it only took a moment for the swarm of creatures to come chasing him. He stood there in his fighting stance and fought as usual, but completely gave up on defending himself. 

He was getting recklessly assaulted by the humanoid creatures. His HP was dropping down at an alarming rate, but thanks to the potions he had, it never went down below 80%. However, his blood was still gushing out of the innumerable wounds he had so graciously accepted. 

\'A little bit more…\'

Soon a small pool of blood was formed underneath his feet. At that moment Ashton set his plans in motion and quickly equipped the [Grim Reaper\'s Earrings]. As soon as those earrings clasped themselves around his earlobes, he felt a surge within him.  That 250 points worth of mana had turned into 1000 points, thanks to the earrings\' effect.

[Unique Skill: Blood Mist has been activated.]

The next moment, all the blood that had flown out of him, turned into toxic mist. Moreover, he no longer had to worry about the camera recording anything. The mist was so dense, anyone watching the feed would have a tough time even outlining someone\'s shadow, let alone the person.

"Let\'s start the killing spree, shall we?"

With that being taken care of, Ashton no longer had to worry about leaking his secret out. Also, he had the perfect opportunity to test his summons. 

[Unique Skill: Valhalla has been activated.]

"Come forth!"

A black portal materialised in between Ashton and the night creatures out of thin air. A second later, Sven jumped out of it followed by nine skeletal wolves. Sven immediately swung his broadsword, severing half a dozen heads in a single blow.

The wolves weren\'t any less fearsome either. Each of them was utilising their agility to their advantage. Although they could not finish the creatures as quickly as Sven, they were at least able to tremendously slow them down. 

On top of all that, Ashton\'s poison was already taking effect on the creatures, as they soon began to suffocate in the mist. Just like that, the tables had been turned. Ashton was no longer on defence. He was going all out instead. 

Sven began spinning his sword around himself like a tornado. Anyone who was unlucky enough to get within his reach immediately had their heads chopped down or their body was sliced into half. Then there were those who were even more unlucky and did not die from a single blow. 

The like of them were taken care of by the wolves as they tore their flesh away till their hearts stopped beating. The empty bunker was soon covered with corpses all around and the best part about it? Ashton was receiving a tremendous amount of exp.

\'You must be tearing the hairs off of your head by now,\' Ashton sniggered, \'The mist only blocks your vision and not the sounds. You must be hearing the cries of the creatures as they die, thinking what the hell is going on here. Don\'t worry, if you\'re here, you\'ll find out soon enough.\'

Ashton wanted to jump in himself but ultimately decided there was no reason for him to do so. Sven and the wolves were more than sufficient for the task. Also, he kind of needed to conserve his strength, after all, one could never know what could be making its way towards them. 

***

In the meantime, back at the capital, Jonathan was enraged. The black rose might have been the symbol of royalty, but there was yet another group of people who were authorised to use the royal insignia… The Conundrum. 

But why would they go after Ashton? They should have known that he was under the protection of the kingdom and the king himself. They did not have the authority to hurt anyone Jonathan had taken under his wings. 

Yet those bastards completely disregarded it as if Jonathan\'s permission did not mean anything to them. Jonathan had always let them run wild, and maybe they had forgotten who he was. If they hadn\'t, then why would they so blatantly disregard his orders?

"Those bastards… just who do they think they are!" Jonathan yelled and shattered his throne with a single blow, "They dare go against my wishes? THEY DARE!?"

"Your highness, please calm down-" One of the ministers tried to calm the situation believing that the Conundrum must have a reason for doing something this rash, but Jonathan did not care. 

"Shut your mouth, maggot!" Jonathan merely pointed his finger at the minister and the latter collapsed on the floor struggling for air, "Summon the royal knights. All of them! We\'ll arrest all those Conundrum bastards and put them in their places… right beneath my feet!"

The ministers immediately went to work, calling back all of the knights who had been away for different missions. They knew the Conundrum had opened the pandora\'s box that would not close unless it gets its fill of flesh and blood. 

In the meantime, Mera was standing right in the middle of the throne room along with her guards. She had never seen Jonathan lose his cool this bad before. Hell, the angriest she had seen him was when she nearly killed her half-sister, and even then he wasn\'t as angry as he was now. 

She had not expected him to go bat-shit crazy when she delivered the news of Ashton\'s disappearance to him. The two of them must be closer than she had expected for him to have such a reaction. 

That being said, time was running out. It had already been almost half an hour since Ashton went inside the portal. They simply could not waste any more time in waiting for the knights to arrive at the palace. They needed to move, now. 

"Father, with all due respect to your knights, we are running out of time." Mera said as calmly as she could, "If we don\'t leave immediately, then god knows what would happen to Ashton!"

"We can\'t just let the king leave without proper security. That too with the likes of you!" Yet another minister opened his mouth, but at the end of the day, he was right. 

It wasn\'t a secret that Jonathan and Mera had a strained relationship. Hell, some would say that the father was at the top of the daughter\'s hit list. That being said, the ministers simply could not let their king leave with a supposed enemy. 

"Fine then… just tell us where we can find him and we\'ll go and rescue Ashton. You and your knight can come later."

"No. I will come with you.. After all, the boy is just as important to me as he is to you."