Science/Magic

The group defending against the creatures looked at Bloed with a dumbfounded look.

Just a moment ago, Bloed was bleeding heavily and they thought that he was seriously injured, but all of sudden, he stood up and killed one of the powerful creatures in one hit!

Moreover, he was being affected by the dragon's domain. In other words, this was not his entire power!

"Brother…?"

"How is it possible?"

"As expected of the man that caught the attention of our goddess."

Eres, Liu Ying, and Charise did not hide their shock. Now that Bloed became this strong it was great news for them!

Bloed also let out a smile after testing his new strength.

The Body-Strengthening Virus had brought a qualitative change to his combat power. With just a rough glance, he could see that his physical strength had doubled after using the virus. And that was just the start.

As more time passes, the amount of mana inside his body will become greater and greater, increasing his physical abilities even more.

Moreover, stronger physical abilities mean that the efficiency of his eyes and fighting style will be much better. Bloed estimated that his combat power had become a few times stronger after this power-up.

It should be enough to face the strongest students in Academy City even without using his trump cards.

"… Unfortunately, I can only use mana to strengthen my body right now." Bloed sighed with a regretful expression.

The fact that Bloed could not manipulate mana had not disappeared. He was just playing a little trick to circumvent it. However, he could still not cast spells like this world's mages.

'Well, it's enough for now. Anyway, I can't use mana externally or it will be devoured by the domain.' Bloed shrugged.

Seeing the sudden death of one of their own, the creatures that were attacking the group retreated warily. They observed the group from a distance while waiting for an opportunity to strike.

"Do you have a plan, Bloed?" Saintess Charise asked at that moment.

Bloed fell deep into thought. Even though the situation had become a bit better now that he became stronger, they were still at a disadvantage.

Just becoming slightly stronger was not enough. If they continued like this, his increase in strength would only allow them to last a bit longer.

These creatures were cunning. They did not attack rashly but observed their prey like hunters and waited for the best moment to attack.

Right now, the only ones in the group that could kill the creatures were his sister and him. As for the others, they could only act as support due to the effects of the dragon's domain.

If the creatures decided to wear them down, then Eres and he would only be able to watch as the group was killed one by one.

Bloed's mind moved thinking of a plan, and finally, his gaze fell on the fifth node.

"I have one."

"Mm? What is it?" Charise asked curiously.

"We will ignore the creatures and destroy the fifth node directly."

…

Bloed's plan was simple. The group would keep their current formation and advance towards the node slowly.

If the monsters attacked them, they would defend against their attacks, and if one of the monsters showed an opening, Bloed or Eres would kill them.

It was a simple plan, and although Charise and some others were not sure about how effective it was going to be, after thinking for a while, they agreed to follow it.

Thus, the group advanced towards the node slowly.

And as Bloed's expected, the creatures could not stay still.

The mission of the creatures was to protect the node. Now that the group was advancing towards the node, they were forced to attack them.

It seemed the same as before, but this time, the group had the initiative.

As the group approached the node, the creatures started to become more anxious. Their attacks became rasher and rasher until finally, one of them made a mistake.

In an attempt to kill one member of the group, one of the creatures received Liu Ying's fist on its head.

*Bam!*

The creature became dizzy and its movements stiffened for an instant. This, of course, was not enough to kill it. Quite the opposite, the creature needed less than a quarter of a second to recover completely.

But two people had been waiting for this opportunity.

In the instant that the creature stiffened, Bloed's saber and Eres's sword clad in transparent flames moved at the same time.

*Swish!*

*Woosh!*

The saber was swung, and the sword pierced the creature's body. In the next second, the creature had been beheaded, and its body had been burned into ashes.

It could do nothing to defend against the attacks of Bloed and Eres!

"Hahahaha, great!"

"Die fucking monster!"

"Let's kill all of them!"

The death of this creature immediately increased the morale of the group. Seeing that the plan was working, they continued advancing towards the node.

In less than two minutes, the group managed to reach twenty meters away from the node and kill another five creatures.

But at this point, the group was forced to stop.

"Dammit! How can they be this smart?" Isabella cursed, and Liu Ying, Aya, Eres, and the others nodded.

Only nine creatures remained alive, but instead of attacking the group, they stood in front of the barrier and glared at them warily.

They were forcing the group to take the initiative to attack.

But if the group took the initiative to attack the creatures, then it would mean breaking their defensive formation. It would allow the creatures to target the weakest members of the group and kill them first.

That way, they could easily decimate their group.

"Any idea, Bloed?" Saintess Charise asked with a frown.

Bloed frowned. They could not remain in this stalemate, or the dragon's domain would slowly exhaust them to death.

His only idea was to use Imaginary Slash to kill some of the creatures in a surprise attack and afterward kill the rest. But when he was about to suggest that, Eres spoke up.

"Brother, if I manage to kill five of these creatures, can the rest of you kill the others and destroy the node?"

Bloed was startled and looked at Eres in surprise. But then, he understood.

Eres was just at the middle stage of A-Rank, but he had seen her unleash power vastly superior to that, reaching the level of a relatively powerful demigod.

However, Bloed had noticed that her sister could not show that level of strength all the time. In fact, most of the time, her strength barely reached the demigod level.

If he was not mistaken, then Eres needed to pay a certain price to unleash that power, or perhaps, that power had some kind of limit.

Bloed stared straight into Eres's eyes, but when he saw her determined expression, he decided to believe her.

"I can… No, we can." He said while looking at Saintess Charise, Liu Ying, Aya, and the others.

"I understand! Let's do it then."

With these words, Eres took one step outside the formation.

And in the next instant, transparent flames bloomed out of her body.