After the zombie virus crisis had been resolved, Dustin’s hatred for the Skull Covenant had reached its breaking point. Plague, scarlet mist, zombie virus-each one a ruthless attempt to wipe entire cities off the map.
Despite his best efforts to save lives and thwart their schemes, tens of thousands of civilians still died in the chaos. All four major cities across the Ashen Coast had also suffered varying degrees of devastation.
They couldn’t afford to wait for the next attack. If the Skull Covenant struck again, who knew how many more innocent lives would be lost?
The best approach now was to eliminate the root of the problem. They had to completely eradicate the Skull Covenant and restore peace to the Ashen Coast.
Dustin barely had time to catch his breath after returning to Reedcrest. He went straight to find Grace.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” she said the moment she saw him.
“Let’s hear both,” he replied.
“The good news is, my people found the Skull Covenant’s altar. The bad news? The remnants seem to be putting a new plan into motion.”
“Give me the location. I’ll take care of it,” Dustin said without hesitation.
Rage boiled inside him. If he could, he’d tear every last remnant of the Skull Covenant apart without mercy.
Grace motioned to Sadie, who immediately stepped forward with a map. She took the map and spread it out in front of Dustin, pointing to a red-marked spot.
“This is the place. All of my scouts went missing while searching the area. I’m sure the Skull Covenant’s altar is nearby.”
“We finally tracked down these scums.” Dustin narrowed his eyes, a cold glint flashing in his gaze. “I’ll wipe out every last one of them.”
Before Grace could say a word, he shot into the air and vanished in a streak of light. She watched his fading silhouette and murmured, “Be careful.”
Half an hour later, Dustin arrived at the remote area of the Ashen Coast. Thick, inky black fog drifted over the swamp. As he flew low over the mire, the muck below released soft, bubbling pops.
A child’s skeletal remains jutted from the rotting leaves and grass. One bony finger still looped with a faded red string.
Suddenly, a baby’s cry echoed from deep within the fog. Three heartbeats later, it twisted into a sharp, high-pitched laugh.
A group of Skull Covenant remnants darted out from behind the trees, bone spears in hand. The tips were coated in green poison. When they spotted Dustin, they hurled their weapon through the air like missiles.
Dustin had sensed the ambush coming.
Without so much as a flinch, he raised his hand, and a dozen bone spears disintegrated into dust as if they’d never existed.
While the remnants stood frozen, he formed a sword seal with his left hand. He raised his arm and slashed forward, unleashing a golden arc of light.
The light cut through them in a flash. Their bodies stiffened, then a dozen heads rolled across the ground before sinking into the swamp.
“Impressive technique.” Gore’s voice drifted through the fog, thick with the stench of blood. He stepped on a bloated zombie corpse, each footfall sending blood bubbles through the muck.
“It’s a shame that no matter how fast your blade is, you won’t break through my Crimson Flow Formation.”
He suddenly spread his arms wide. Ten blood tendrils shot from his fingertips, each nearly ten feet long. They twisted midair, weaving into a crimson web that stained the swamp red wherever it touched.
Dustin kicked off a piece of driftwood and soared into the air. As he dodged the web, golden light flared from his fingertips, scattering like sparks. Each one struck a node in the tendrils with pinpoint precision.
The strands erupted one after another, forcing Gore back three steps. A muffled grunt escaped his throat as five deep gashes split open across his palm. His eyes locked onto the black mark spreading across Dustin’s shoulder, and a twisted grin spread across his face.
“You still jumping around after being poisoned with Venom’s Rotfragra? In 30 minutes, your bones will rot from the inside out.”
Just as the words left his mouth, a sickly-sweet scent began to drift through the fog.
At some point, Venom was standing on top of the altar, unnoticed until now. She wore a long dress stitched from human skin. The hem was embroidered with rows of tiny, writhing hexspitters. In her hands, she held a black clay bowl filled with squirming, purple-black hexspitters.
“Want to meet my darlings?”
With a flick of her wrist, the bugs in the bowl burst into a cloud of violet mist and swept through the air.
The moment they hit the ground, they burrowed into the mud. Seconds later, they clawed their way back up, but now they had grown to the size of a fist. Their shells were lined with jagged barbs, and jaws dripping acid strong enough to burn through rock.
A golden glow flared around Dustin, forming a spinning ring of light. The hexspitters exploded on impact, and their toxic fluids vaporized into thick purple smoke.
He took the chance to glance at the black mark on his shoulder. The fabric around it had rotted away, exposing a jagged hole.
“Don’t you know that getting distracted can kill you?”
Grinder burst from the ground. His mask was scarred with jagged teeth marks, flashing with a deadly sheen. In his hand, he held a bone whip strung with three infant skeletons. As the tip lashed through the air, it left ripples in its wake.
As Dustin sidestepped the whip, a golden glow condensed into a short blade in his palm. He baited the enemy with an opening, letting the whip coil tightly around his left arm.
The instant Grinder pulled back, the blade slid along the length of the whip and drove it straight into his wrist.
With a crack, his wrist bones were shattered. But he didn’t seem to notice the pain and ripped off his mask with the other hand.
Beneath was a face assembled from dozens of bone fragments. Two crimson fleshworms squirmed in his eye sockets, hungrily fixated on the mark spreading across Dustin’s shoulder.
“Gore! Venom! Form a battle formation!” Grinder’s voice grated like bone against stone.
Gore’s blood tendrils thickened into rope-like coils, weaving themselves into a crimson cage. Venom’s hexspitters swarmed into a deadly whirlpool, sealing off every escape route.
Grinder crushed his own wrist bone and sent the fragments flying like needles, targeting Dustin’s vital points.
Dustin drew a deep breath. His internal energy surged like a dam bursting, and a layer of golden light veiled his gaze.
“You want to die that badly?” he muttered.
“Let me grant your wish.”
