Chapter 598: One Arrow to Explode a Pureblood

"Ah!"

The Voidcleaver Greatsword pierced Tubote's heart, drawing a piercing shriek from him.

His body exploded instantly. Though many streams of crimson energy were burned away by *Dragon Aura*’s flames, preventing him from transforming into bats, a large number of crimson glows still scattered, morphing into bats that fled in all directions. However, in the next moment, Liszt had already drawn the Bloodlight Net.

He cast it overhead.

Nearly all the transformed bats were caught in the net. The crimson threads sizzled upon contact with the bats, scorching them and forcing them to shriek and thrash about, unable to escape. They remained trapped, seared by the unrelenting flames.

The duration of the *Dragon Aura* had grown increasingly prolonged.

"My Lord! Three transformed bats escaped!" Elizabeth, still seated on the ground, urgently gestured toward three directions and shouted.

Her warning was unnecessary—Liszt had already noticed.

Standing still, he had already drawn the Swift Shadow Bow into his hands. Three arrows were swiftly nocked and loosed, flying in a trident pattern. In a flash, one arrow struck a bat, exploding upon impact and obliterating it into nothingness.

Turning, he fired another three arrows, blasting apart a second bat.

The last bat had flown far, but Liszt nocked three more arrows and fired, then swiftly drew another three and shot again. The latter trio of arrows caught up to the first three, guided by his mana, colliding and veering in an impossible arc. In the blink of an eye, they overtook the fleeing bat.

Boom!

The bat was struck and exploded, a burst of fireworks drifting slowly from the sky—the ultimate secret technique of *Multiple Arrows*, the *Phantom Multi-Shot*, never failing to strike true.

All this had taken less than five seconds since Elizabeth's warning.

Watching the three fleeing bats being blasted apart one after another, the female vampire gulped audibly, both awed and profoundly relieved she had made the right choice. This unbelievably young sky knight was no ordinary warrior—his strength bordered on absurdity.

"With such power at his age, had he been born in the Kingdom of the Eagle, he would undoubtedly have been chosen by the royal family as a candidate for Dragon Knight. Eventually, like His Highness Alonso Cyclamen, he would have become a serving Dragon Knight!"

Royal lineages did not always produce gifted heirs.

For the kingdom's dragons to demonstrate their combat prowess, they needed Dragon Knights. Thus, the selection of candidates became a fierce competition among geniuses.

The victor among the candidates would become a true Dragon Knight, serving the crown.

Achieving military merits would make a title guaranteed.

In fact, merely succeeding in riding a dragon would earn one the title of Count. With sufficient military achievements, promotion to Marquis would follow swiftly. Continued accumulation of merits would eventually lead to the rank of Duke with ease. Though, upon retirement in old age, the dragon would be reclaimed by the kingdom, and the ducal title revoked, descendants would inherit the rank of Marquis in perpetuity.

A Dukedom was a sovereign rank, and by the laws of most nations, they could not be granted lightly. Only those Dragon Knights who raised their own dragons could establish a Duchy with the rank of Archduke—though if their descendants declined over time, the territory might degrade into a mere duchy or even lose its sovereign status, becoming ordinary nobility.

The idea of Dragon Knights churned in Elizabeth's mind.

She even felt a sudden pang of regret for Liszt—a shame he wasn’t born in the Kingdom of the Eagle or the Kingdom of Steel Ridge. His astonishing talent was destined never to align with the path of a Dragon Knight.

...

Of course, Liszt had no idea Elizabeth pitied him for his lack of a dragon.

After shooting down the three fleeing bats, he took the time to crush the remaining bats trapped in the Bloodlight Net one by one. Eventually, the bats coalesced into raw crimson mana, reforming into the figure of Tubote, the Pureblood Vampire Black Knight, blood seeping from every orifice.

"Ugh... ugh... ugh..."

Tubote couldn't move a muscle. Every bone in his body seemed crushed, or perhaps the suppression of the *Dragon Aura* had disrupted his humanoid restoration, leaving him boneless as a ragdoll.

His throat produced wet, garbled noises, unable to form a complete word or sentence.

His eyes were glazed over, unable to focus.

"What's wrong with him?" Liszt turned around and asked Elizabeth, who was still dazed. "I barely even touched him—why does he look like he's about to die?"

"Ah." Elizabeth snapped out of it, stammering, "Maybe... maybe you hit too hard, my lord. From the way he looks, it's likely his blood magic—Bat Form—was forcibly broken, causing a magic backlash that's messing with his body’s systems."

Vampires can shift freely between bat and human form, relying on the blood magic—Bat Form.

If the magic is forcibly broken, backlash is common—unless the hit’s strong enough to kill him outright. Otherwise, even if many bat forms are destroyed, the blood magic itself remains intact. As long as Tubote escaped with even one bat form, he could revert to human form, losing only a small amount of blood magic.

The crushed bats would dissolve back into blood magic and return to his body somehow—Liszt figured it was some kind of magic network trick.

Magic teleportation, maybe.

Anyway.

Tubote had already collapsed and looked half-dead already.

Elizabeth excitedly approached, a faint red mark from a slap on her cheek, her eyes gleaming with hunger as she stared at Tubote. "My lord, if you extract his heart before it stops beating, we can harvest pure blood magic. Also, among his belongings, there's a blood casket containing my heart!"

But she had the presence of mind to first seek Liszt's permission. "Please allow me to retrieve it for you, my lord!"

Liszt nodded, signaling for her to proceed.

Moments later.

Elizabeth crouched down, her hands weaving spells as pulsing blood-red magic emerged, enveloping the still-living Tubote. Wherever the magic touched, Tubote's blood began to flow backward, quickly returning to his body and gradually gathering at his heart.

"Uh... uh... uh..."

Tubote was locked in a loop, gasping the same sound.

Amid his stuttering, Elizabeth suddenly slashed open his chest, reached inside, and yanked out a glowing red heart that had already stopped beating.

This was no ordinary heart—it was crystalline, like blood jade, semi-transparent with clearly visible veins, slowly oozing blood.

As the jade-like heart was extracted, Tubote's unfocused eyes flashed briefly. His limp body twitched, and his arm slowly rose as if trying to stop Elizabeth from taking his heart.

But it was just his last gasp.

Halfway up, his muscles slackened, and his arm dropped instantly—stone dead.

Once the heart was removed, Elizabeth didn't hesitate. While the body was still warm and blood magic lingered in Tubote's corpse, she continued casting blood magic. From the pockets inside Tubote's coat, she pulled out several personal items like a street magician.

Finally, she slowly retrieved a long, narrow box.

She eagerly opened it, and a bloody light pulsed—five hearts lined up inside, each like blood jade.

Just as she was about to reach for her own heart—

A soft cough sounded behind her.

Elizabeth froze, turning her head with an awkward smile. "My lord, this is... my heart."

Liszt nodded. "Hand it over."