Kyros decided to retreat. Unlike before, the entire area was so crowded with the lizards and the chopped-up body parts of dead lizards. He knew he couldn’t move, and his sword couldn’t even cut his way through.

His only option was to get the golems to kill.

Kyros could only hope that his uncle is safe and rushed back, evading the stampeding lizards rushing at his direction. The lizards were in a state of panic that most didn’t even notice Kyros slipping through the gaps and running on the side of the wall to escape them.

Occasionally, Kyros would attack some of the lizards to make them stumble and create another stampede. With this, Kyros managed to make several points where a pile of lizards would crash on each other. On some extreme cases, the lizards at the very bottom had already died.

As Kyros reached the back, some of the Black Lizards managed to command the lizards nearer to the golem horde to fight it. Yet under the leadership of Stoph, who was now implementing the new amazing stuff, Kyros taught him, he was slowly getting accustomed to the tactic.

The Iron Golems were moving faster and could kill more. The Rock Golems even began to replace some of the damaged Iron Golems. 

Kyros took advantage of the frantic concerns that the surviving Black Lizards had and ambushed them.

The torch appeared once more and startled the Black Lizards. As it had been several minutes since the torch disappeared, its sudden appearance blinded the group once more.

The startled lizards were attacked, and Kyros began to order Stoph, which Black Lizard to target.

The battle didn’t even last another minute as the Black Lizards were stunned and down, which made the Golems move faster as no more enemy was shooting at them.

The entire squad of lizards that remained died, and Kyros urged Stoph to send the strongest team ahead. Kyros retrieved his bow and arrows, which he left and urged Stoph.

“Stoph! Hurry! My friends didn’t escape and are still at the end of the tunnel.”

Stoph’s expression changed. 

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Stoph’s expression changed. He suddenly thought of something…

“Then let us hurry. Human Warrior. You are quite strong. Since you have allowed us to kill this many without losing a single one, I will do my best to help you. Only answer me honestly. That Earth Core that you have, can you use it to refuel my Life Source? I’ve seen you refuel the Iron Golem’s magic!” Stoph asked.

“Yes! But it will be very slow! With my magic, it can’t restore much. But if you’re asking that question because you have the means to eliminate their enemies quickly, I have another means that can quickly refuel your Life Source!” Kyros answered without hesitating. He was a Nephilim. He had seen how the Temple functioned. And if the Temple was something that was designed to control and help him get used to that power,

“I will trust you. I will show my sincerity and sacrifice a huge chunk of my life source for you to get to your friends. I hope this will show you how much I am trusting you.” Stoph declared.

Kyros was amazed at Stoph’s offer.

“Yes. If you do that, I can give not just you but everyone this opportunity!” Kyros declared.

“Good!” Stoph said as a strange bright red energy began to appear.

The Ruby rocks became hot, and Stoph’s entire body burst with molten flame.

The Iron Golems had to move away from Stoph as the intense heat was enough to affect them.

Stoph immediately ran towards the lizards without fear and just dove right in.

The terrifying heat burned and charred the lizards and burned them down to ashes. The heat was so terrifying that even those that didn’t touch Stoph were in pain. Stoph kept pushing forward after leaving the charred remains of some lizards and the squirming survivors. Some of the survivors had lost their limbs as Stoph burnt them as he ran.

The lizards fought back and attacked Stoph, but their attacks would all be sacrificing whatever limb they had. 

The Iron Golems quickly followed along with the Rock Golems, and they all began to kill the remaining lizards.

Kyros was amazed at the scene.

“I get it. The lifespan of these creatures depends on the energy. That’s why Stoph was hesitant to use this power until now! This is some strange magic. I cannot identify which of the gods could create such potent life energy that it literally grants life to objects!” Calaminus was amazed.

“This explains it then. The more they fight, the more they deplete their lifespan. He must have offered this to me since this battle didn’t deplete the life energy of the golems by that much. They gained so much that Stoph’s perceived value of me has increased.” Kyros smiled and charged forward.

With Stoph leading the way, the Black Lizards and the Char Vermilion Lizards were dwindling quickly.

Stoph was moving as fast as he could to get to the location where Kyros’s allies.

Soon, he arrived at an opening that had lots of deal lizards which made it difficult to move through.

Aron was standing at the small gap. He had noticed the strange heat that was approaching, which was killing lizards, and gave a cautious look at Stoph.

“You must be… his allies.” Stoph smiled as the heat he released slowly disappeared.

The very moment it did, Kyros immediately emerged.

“Uncle!” Kyros cried.

“Kyros! You’re safe!” Aron smiled and immediately fell as he lost his strength.

“Why didn’t you go down?” Kyros asked immediately. But Aron was already unconscious. His wounds were severe. His shield was broken, and his armor had many bite marks and was bent in odd ways. Some parts of his armor already revealed the Vermilion Scale Armor underneath.

Kyros confirmed that Aron was not in a critical state and immediately glanced around to check on the knights.

The first thing that caught his attention was the emerald green golem that the Golem King called Mardock. The golem stood with a frustrated expression and glared at Kyros.

Kyros now understood why Aron chose to stay. Aron wasn’t deceived by Fate as Kyros and Calaminus thought. Aron’s Warriors Instinct protected them from Fate! Kyros didn’t have time to deal with the Mardock and decided to ignore it. He didn’t even leave threatening remarks as the priority lay with the knights. 

The two vampires were the only ones standing. The seven knights were gathered up near the small tunnel that Avary used to sneak out. They were lying down and were drained of all energy. At a glance, Kyros could tell that none of them have the strength to fight. Yet all of them were tightly grasping on their weapons.

Their armors were a mess. All but one had bite marks and had no limbs.

Scarlet also lost an arm, but she kept standing up and finally stepped forward to report to Kyros.

“Young Lord. The rest have bad injuries. We should be able to treat them. But… three, however…” She trailed off, unable to say the next words. There were tears in her eyes as she said this.

“My Lord… Three are bound to die. No medicine we have can cure them… Unless we can bring them back to the Temple quickly. But… they are at their dying breathes. Lord Aron kept calling at them all the time we were fighting to do our best to live. He said that you are coming and will save them. Those three are… only alive by the strong will and desire to see you.” Gregory answered.

Kyros knew that the vampires were the only ones who could still fight as they have been feasting on the Lizard’s blood to survive. Kyros ran towards the knights who were at the side.

Just as Scarlet reported, all of them couldn’t fight. Three of them were dying. Their wounds were bad. Their limbs were bitten off. Their bones were clearly broken.

“Young Lord…? You’re alive!” The knight who taught Kyros to hammer smiled as Kyros approached.

“I can now die… Lord Aron told us… our duty isn’t over…”

“We haven’t… requested to go… on a leave of absence.” The other dying knight laughed.

“We three are dying…Lord Aron kept telling us to stay awake…” The other knight explained.

“My Lord… can you… promise… to treat my family well?” One of the knights asked.

“I hope… that my lessons were good enough… Helping the young master is a great honor! Be an awesome blacksmith for the family!” The knight who thought Kyros some blacksmiths skills smiled.

Calaminus observed the three and fell to silence. They had lost a lot of blood and are only alive because they were using the small amount of magic they have to keep them awake. Even with everything, Calaminus taught Kyros about medicines and healing. They did not have the herbs and items that could heal them.

“I forbid you!’ Kyros suddenly declared.

“You’re already saying goodbye to me? You think I will let any of you die?!” Kyros furiously asked.

“Vampires! Turn them! Bite these three mercenaries! If they cannot stay next to me alive, then they will be with me as an Undead!” Kyros ordered.

Scarlet and Gregory were shocked.

“You three! I forbid you to die on me! Be a vampire for my family! Serve me! That is your duty as Knights! Serve me!”

[Oration skill activated.]

“Kyros!” Calaminus was stunned.

“Calaminus… You may be thinking that there is nothing they can take that can heal them, right? Wrong!”

“Turning them won’t be enough! Even if they could turn into vampires. It still wouldn’t be enough! No blood can save them! Not the Man-Gators, Lizardmen, the Black Lizards! It’s not enough to make their recovery faster! They would die even before their vampire power settles!” Calaminus argued.

“My blood is here! The moment the Fanged Fallen has awakened, I can feel the special properties of my blood! That was why I allowed the vampires to bite me! If they become vampires and drink my blood now, they will recover a small bit of health! The blood of the Fallen Fang is in me! I will give them as much as I want. The blood of the lizards will nourish my blood loss!” Kyros answered.

The two vampires remained hesitant.

“Do it now!” Kyros ordered again, and the two moved and bit at the dying three.

Kyros stabbed the blood blade on the nearby lizards to gather more blood.

The Sword of Ten Thousand Grudges also appeared, and Kyros made a cut on the arm.

Scarlet had bitten the blacksmith and Gregory, but the two others and the undead power of the vampire began to affect them.

“Knights! With a covenant of blood, I name you my knights forever!” Kyros offered them his own blood to drink.