Gray's laughter filled the void of silence that had overcome the battleground, his face twisted in a look of pure bliss as he limped towards the Orc noble's corpse.

"That was the most fun I've had in a while. I could almost taste death" laughed Gray as he stabbed his crimson red katana into the Orc noble's neck, confirming its death.

Its blood slowly seeped into the sword, leaving it an oversized skin bag. Its once bulging muscles now mere bones.

[Blood of higher quality has been used to upgrade the『Mighty Sword Blood Replica』]

[Blood quality『uncommon』, several new features have been unlocked.]

[『Bloodlust Mode』has been upgraded. Blood price reduced and stat multiplier has been increased to ×1.9]

[New Mode unlocked『Blood Demon Mode』. Mode increases stat multiplier to ×2.2, however, blood price is steep.]

[『Might drain』skill unlocked. Mighty Sword now drains a portion of the stats of those it slays, effect lasts 60 seconds from the time of kill.]

[Power has been stolen from『Mighty Sword Original』, its wielder seeks revenge.]

This was the longest the voice in Gray's head had ever spoken, and at the same time, the happiest its words had ever made him.

"Master, watch out!" warned Tesse as Gray drooled over his new strength.

*Ting* The sound of metal hitting metal rang throughout the battleground.

Gray had just barely managed to block『Michael 』's attack, and with his injured leg, he was struggling to hold the mecha back.

*Shchwa*

Tesse shot at the Mecha, tearing a hole in its armor. However even as the corruption tried to spread, the runes on the mecha seemed to dissolve the black goo upon contact, destroying the corrupting effect before slowly closing the hole.

"I must say, it's a shame to kill such an interesting specimen. I was hoping we could play together a bit, however orders are orders," mused Armin as he approached Gray, his hands folded behind his back in a priestly way.

『Michael 』gave Gray no respite, constantly slashing its sword at him with incredible force.

Gray felt nauseous, he had used quite a large amount of blood to pay the blood price for『Bloodlust Mode 』, and the wound the Orc noble had given him didn't seem to be closing. In fact, the pain that exuded from it seemed to increase by the second.

*ting* *ting* *ting*

Sparks flew as their swords clashed, with every encounter Gray's swings seemed to weaken, and Armin kept creeping closer, a lustful smile on his face.

'It seems these guys are really out to kill me. But why? I've never even met them before,' pondered Gray as sweat dripped down his face, his vision slowly becoming blurry as he tried to focus on the enemy in front of him.

'Fuck, I have to get out of here. That guy is bad news,' thought Gray as he eyed Armin approach him from behind『Michael 』.

*Shchwa*

Another ball of thick black goo went hurling towards『Michael 』tearing yet another hole in its armor.

'There's a 15-second interval between her shots, and it takes this thing approximately 7 seconds to heal itself. It seems to be immobile during the healing process,' thought Gray as he used this chance to limp backward, creating some space between Armin and himself.

'That guy's ability has to have an effective range, otherwise, he would have just killed me from where he stood,' continued Gray, tightening the grip on his sword.

'If everything adds up, I only have to fight this thing for 8 seconds before she fires another shot and stalls it. However, this assumes that ammo is infinite. It seems I really can't fight these guys,' realized Gray as the mecha charged towards him once more, fully healed of its injuries.

"Aim for the nun, kill the summoner, kill the summon," shouted Gray, prompting Tesse to change targets.

"Fuck" exclaimed Eleanour, realizing that the battleground was a wide-open plain, with no places to hide.

"Michael! To me!" ordered Eleanour, prompting『Michael 』to run to her side.

"Now, let's have some fun," struggled Gray, his voice a hoarse whisper.

"You can barely stand. At this point, you're nothing more than a broken toy, it seems that all that strength you wielded earlier came at a price," smiled Armin, his pace constant as he made a beeline towards Gray.

"I always hated priests," snorted Gray as he formed a crimson red dagger in his left hand before throwing it towards Armin.

"A pathetic attempt," laughed Armin as glowing yellow chains emerged from the air behind him, blocking the attack.

"The lord protects me,"

'I have to get out of here, I can't hold out much longer,' strained Gray, the world around him now a complete blur.

Tesse tried to approach him, but the second she stopped threatening Eleanour with her rifle,『Michael 』would try charging at Gray. She was stuck in a checkmate, so Gray was left all alone, forced to deal with the enemy in front of him.

"I-I survived. I-I can't believe it!" cried Silas. Everybody had forgotten about his presence. He had broken down into tears right before the fight against the Orc noble and had only now just spoken.

"Food," smiled Gray, changing the katana in his hand into a dagger and attaching a chain at its hilt before throwing it towards Silas. Silas was defenseless, his eyes wide in sheer confusion as the dagger approached him.

*Schluck* The dagger punctured his throat, draining all the blood that gurgled out. His body fell limp to the ground, his eyes still open in bewilderment.

[『Might drain』activated, {+2 agility}, {+4 strength}, {+1stamina}, {+7 attack force}.] resounded the voice in Gray's head.

A faint red glow emanated from Gray's body, stopping Armin in his tracks.

"It seems you still have a few tricks up your sleeve,"

'Eleanour's summon is about to time out, and I'm not confident I can take on that sniper as well as this boy alone. Sigh, it seems that killing him will be more difficult than I thought,' thought Armin as he kept his distance, trying to figure out what Gray was up to before recklessly charging in.

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