Rise of the Blood Sovereign

Boom!

The dungeon shook a rock pillar fell down to the ground, smashed to pieces by the powerful attack of an ogre. The ogre carried a club, well, it was more of a small tree than a club, but he used it as such. The powerful muscles of the gray-skinned ogre contracted as he pulled his arms back before attacking once again.

His target was Adam.

Adam had already gone through 4 battles in the dungeon. The ogres that inhabited the beginning parts of the dungeon were weaker compared to the ones he and Lyle had fought against, which allowed him to defeat them without suffering many injuries.

But it was only after he had come across the fifth opponent, the ogre in front of him, that he had become a bit nervous.

The ogre was more powerful compared to the ones he fought before, and he had a weapon.

The 'weapon' was very primitive as it was just a small tree that the ogre had ripped out from the ground and had started using as a weapon. The monster had removed all the branches and roots, leaving him with a large stick that it loved to use to smash others.

Adam had the advantage when it came to speed. He was a lot more agile compared to the ogre and could run circles around the monster, which was the only reason why he hasn't been seriously injured so far.

Even one blow from the ogre could have serious consequences and Adam did not want to find out just how his body would fare against the giant's power.

Every time the log that the ogre carried with him fell down, Adam would try to hit it and smash it to bits in order to make the ogre throw it away.

Dealing with an ogre that had a weapon and one that didn't were two very different things. If Adam was able to destroy the log, then the ogre wouldn't have the reach advantage it currently possessed and he would be able to fight much more effectively against it.

Lyle was observing everything from the side.

He had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised by Adam's talent. The young man had managed to grow quickly and his battle proficiency was increasing with every battle he went through.

The week he had spent with Adam back in Olswam hadn't been for nothing in the end.

Adam had improved tremendously and if he was to compare the Adam at the beginning and the one now, even at the same level, the current Adam would be able to fight against 5 of such enemies at the very least.

He didn't know when exactly Adam would be given access to his second ability, but he didn't know when he would get access to his power over darkness either.

One thing that was worrying Lyle was his mana, however.

He had always been at a disadvantage when it came to prolonged fights thanks to his abysmally low mana storage. For some reason, a reason that nobody in the organization could explain, his mana organ and mana vessels were much smaller compared to their average counterparts.

That was why Lyle was an assassin that specialized in dealing with human enemies, and he dealt with them as swiftly as possible.

Fighting a long battle was simply disadvantageous to him as he could easily run out of mana before the enemy. Even now, after he had managed to evolve and become a lord, his mana was still below the average, Adam for example had about double the mana he had.

It was better compared to how much mana he had when he reached the same level previously, but Lyle was not satisfied with it. If he was going to rise to the top and find his father and seemingly had to go up against the empress, he needed a lot more power and mana.

For now, all that he could do was simply get more soul power, increase his level and become stronger. Worrying about his mana would be second as he didn't have the luxury to travel around and look for answers.

From what he knew, his powers as a vampire lord were sealed by the system as he was too weak to use them, perhaps that was the reason why his mana was currently so low. He would break through a seal with each evolution, which was not far away.

The ogres gave abundant soul power, even those in the dungeon that gave much less compared to the ones he and Adam had killed outside. That led Lyle to change his mind about going to Orswald right away, first, he would stay here in Linston and reach the first evolution, which would allow him some more freedom back in Orswald.

After all, it would bring him trouble if he was to simply walk into the headquarters and show his measly strength to others, perhaps he would even be demoted.

The duo continued hunting inside the dungeon, the deeper inside they went, the more powerful the ogres became.

The benefit that fighting ogres gave was the fact that they rarely stayed in groups and one would usually only face 1 or 2 ogres at the same time.

That allowed groups a bit more leeway when it came to hunting here as they could take their time and slowly hunt ogre after ogre.

Adam and Lyle were doing exactly that.

They were powerful enough to go up against 4 or 5 ogres maximum, which meant that fighting against 1 or 2 was not going to be too dangerous.

Adam was the one that fought most of the time, even when 2 would show up. Fighting against two ogres was the most he could do, and sometimes, a third would show up.

Lyle would be the one to deal with any more that showed up, while he had started fighting alongside Adam as they went deeper inside thanks to the ogres not only becoming more powerful but because there were more of them close by.

Their battle would usually draw in more ogres, and they would almost always be fighting against a couple of them.

Both of them were fighting with everything they had, holding back and reserving their power would allow them to fight longer, but it would also increase the chance of getting injured.

One thing that Lyle definitely didn't want to happen was for him or Adam to get injured. That would mean that they would almost certainly have to leave the dungeon as fighting with an injury could lead to more serious injuries, or perhaps even death.

Lyle had heard how powerful vampires could even resurrect the fallen and bring them back to life, but he was certain that his power level was not enough to do something like that. If Adam was to die now, then he would most definitely be lost forever. 𝑏𝑒𝘥𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝘯𝑒𝑡

The two slaughtered their way deep inside the dungeon, earning a couple of levels thanks to that. The ogres were quite generous with soul power, and their numbers, which were higher than what one would usually find inside the dungeon, were enough to give them the levels.

As they reached the end of the dungeon, they came across the leader of the ogres inside this particular dungeon.

A 3.5-meter-tall ogre with tribal tattoos was sitting atop a rock throne. He had braided long hair that fell all the way to his lower back. There was a tattoo of some sort of beast on the left side of his face while a tattoo of a large snake was present on his left arm.

The ogre stared at Lyle and Adam before standing up. He reached for his weapon before clutching it with his right hand and walking toward them. He used an axe.

The axe was about 2 meters long and was double-bladed. The massive axe seemed light for the ogre who easily held it with one arm and started charging at Lyle and Adam.

The two had never before fought against such an enemy before, not even Lyle who had gone through numerous battles in the past. He had mostly fought against humans after he had reached Tier I after all.

The ogre arrived and slashed at the duo who quickly dodged to the side. The powerful axe hit a nearby stone pillar and smashed it to pieces with ease.

The axe was bad news, one hit would be enough to kill Lyle and Adam as neither one was a tank type of fighter. They were both fast and relied on overwhelming the opponent with speed and their sheer number of attacks, a tactic that wouldn't work very well against the ogre.

Adam had taken out his Tier I armor and weapon as the situation demanded that he fought with his full strength while Lyle was clutching his two daggers, ready to start slashing at the monster.

This would be the most difficult battle that Lyle would have after evolving and becoming a vampire lord. He was certain that more such battles awaited him as he was no longer going to be as simple assassin as he once was.