Noah and Michael stared at the fallen vampire without batting an eye. Then, all of a sudden, the vampire began twitching his limbs. Soon, his whole bloated carcass trembled violently as yellowish goo oozed out of the tumors in his body. The strong putrid smell of ammonia and sulfur overwhelmed Michael's senses.

It was quite nauseating as Michael had a strong urge to throw up. His face was turning green when the vampire's body began to bloat while his body released a green mist.

"He's gonna explode!" suddenly Noah shouted. In a snap of time, Noah cast the void step, grabbed Michael by his hand, and dashed into the air. Michael had zero clue how Noah found the vampire was about to explode. But just as he said, the vampire's body bloated rapidly, releasing more and more green mist until it exploded. The explosion wasn't a small one. It was as though a mini atomic bomb had gone off. One could see the mushroom cloud from a hundred miles away.

Every single building within the one-mile radius from the arena turned into ruin and the alchemy guild, one of the oldest buildings on the Ozer continent, crumbled down.

Almost for an hour, no one could get closer to the arena, which was now nothing but a crater of ashes. Then, as mother nature had given the city her blessing, the dark rain clouds gathered above the arena and began to shower the city with heavy rain.

The heavy rain quenched the heat radiation and settled the dust clouds around the arena. The rain also put the houses on fire and prevented the fire from spreading.

At that moment, the sky was full of people and warships. The guardians, the holy church, the king's men, and every single noble family in Idrisal arrived at the arena to fight the vampires.

It was a real pity that many were caught in the explosion and burnt to a crisp. Still, each of them received backup and brought their own runemasters and mages to control the fire and isolate the area.

Since the dust storm settled down, revealing the ground below, several people descended to investigate the area. Alicia and Norvin were among them.

"NOAH!" As soon as Alicia's feet touched the ground, she shouted out loud.

"Careful"

"What the hell happened here?"

"Can you see anything?"

The guardians behind her murmured. The heavy smoke and the ash from the explosion prevented them from seeing everything clearly. There was nothing but smoke and ashes as far as they could see.

While they were aimlessly strolling in the smoke, a group of twelve men robbed in pure white robes appeared above the ruins. The long white beard, the staff in their hands, and the pointy hats on their heads gave them an exotic mage vibe.

Right at that moment, they formed a circle around the ruins. Surprisingly, the heavy rain couldn't drench them as it drenched everyone else. These mages remained as dry as a desert possible because of the translucent force field around them.

"AIR PURIFICATION!" each of them chanted the word as they raised their staffs in the sky. From each staff, a bright light shot to the sky and met at a center point, forming a radiant orb of light.

A few seconds passed when the orb of light transformed into a spinning chakra with a mile radius. Countless indistinguishable signs and letters formed the chakra. The chakra's brilliance lit the entire city of Oxshore and provided the people the comfort they needed.

As the chakra rotated, sucking the heavy smoke and ashes. The chakra swirled in the sky, purifying the air until Alicia, and the others could vividly see what was in front of them, which was nothing but barren lands.

Alicia couldn't recognize the place at all. She felt as though she stepped into a desert only with ash instead of sand. As far as her eyes could see, she found nothing, not even a brick.

"Look!" Alicia immediately turned to the man who shouted to see a skeleton, and when the man touched it, the skeleton crumbled into white dust.

Meanwhile, more and more people landed on the ground, including Olivia and Atian. They joined in the search for Noah and Ghost. To be honest, only Olivia came to search for Ghost while the guardians focused on finding Noah. But, deep down, Alicia wanted Ghost to be one of those skeletons.

Since Olivia had no sway with the guardians and they had already refused to search for Ghost, she began to run around the barren lands searching for her teacher. But, of course, if this happened in Elon, the entire River town and the Sunrise sect would have been on the scene. But unfortunately, Michael had no connections in the Ozer continent.

"If anyone could survive this, it's Noah" Seeing Alicia's eyes watering up, Norivn gently patted her on the head,

While they were scouring through the ashes, a group of twelve men dressed in silver armor with the crest of the Guardian guild on their chest landed on the ground. The one who led the group was a tall domineering elf with striking blonde hair; Tanulia Valren AKA the alpha guardian of Hunter Guardians.

"I want every inch of this place searched. Coordinate with the holy church guards. No stones unturned, got it?"

"Yes, Alpha Guardian!"

The guardians behind Tanulia raised their voices, and each of them dashed in a direction to search the premises.

"We will find Noah," Tanulia said when he came to Alicia and Norvin,

"Grandmaster Atian," Tanulia then turned her gaze towards Atian, who was still looking pale and terrified,

"How is Lord Hendrix?"

"He is now stable. The healers asked him to take a rest,"

"I have assigned my best men to protect him. His safety is our top priority right now,"

"GHOST!"

Their conversation was abruptly cut short when suddenly a panicked voice reverberated in the area. They all looked in the direction of the voice to see Olivia frantically digging through the ashes,

They all rushed at Olivia and saw a hand sticking out of the ash.

"Quick!"

Tanulia shouted at the men surrounding her. But no one needed an order as they had already begun to dig the ashes. Alicia and Norvin joined in the digging; the more they dug, the more they uncovered Ghost's body.

While digging, Norvin felt another hand beside Ghost. His speed doubled, thinking it might be Noah. Just as he guessed, when Norvin and Alicia dug out the ashes, they uncovered Noah's body.

Together, they all finally managed to dig out Ghost and Noah. Unfortunately, both of them were in pretty bad shape. Their clothes were burned and torn up, several parts of their body, such as hands, neck, and legs, were covered in burn wounds, and they could even see Noah's femur sticking out of his leg through the pants.

"Are they alive?" Atian asked while the guardians were carrying them away from the dig site,

"He has a pulse" Olivia grabbed Michael's hand and sensed a weak pulse,

"Bring me the healers!" Tanulia shouted as several guardians flew out of the ruins to bring the healers to her.

Meanwhile, the guardians placed two wooden beds on the ground instead of taking them out of the crater. The rain slowly washed off the ashes on their faces. Alicia and Olivia's tears also hit their faces along with the raindrops.

"What are you doing?" looking at Olivia taking out a healing potion from her space ring, Tanulia questioned her,

But instead of responding to Tanulia, Oliva gently poured the healing potion on Michael's neck, which was severely burned by the explosion.

The potion healed up the wound but not the marks. Afterward, Olivia took out another potion and gently poured it into Michael's mouth.

"Wake up Ghost," Olivia could barely speak those words through her lumped throat,

Most of the sparkling potion leaked out of his mouth. This was why the others waited for the healers. Instead of dumbly pouring the potion down an unconscious man's throat, the healers would turn the healing potion into an easily absorbed vapor and send it through the patient's skin pores.

However, Olivia had neither patience nor trust in the Guardians after she read how they try to drive people by hiding the vampires' existence from the world. As a result, not only Olivia but many people shared her thoughts and lost faith in the Guardians.

After what happened in Idrisal spread across the world, the majority of the people would blame the guardians. However, the Holy Church was already on a secret mission to dethrone the guardians; today, they received an ultimate weapon to use against the guardians.

Tanulia or the others didn't give a damn about Ghost. Hence, they didn't stop Olivia from pouring vial after vial into his mouth. Instead, except for Atian, they all focused solely on Noah.

Suddenly before the healers could arrive, Ghost's finger twitched,

"GHOST!" The sight of Ghost's pinky finger twitching may be the happiest memory she had ever experienced.

Michael gasped for the air, opening his mouth. Immediately the healing potion in his mouth went down his throat. As soon as the healing potion reached his throat, the wounds on his body began to close up. The redness gradually returned to his body as they all stared at Ghost's breathing, getting heavier and heavier. Looking at Ghost responding to the healing potion, Alicia wasted no time. She took out a bunch of healing potions Noah brewed and smeared them on Noah.

"Wait for the healers" Tanulia didn't want Alicia to choke Noah with healing potions. She had witnessed many unconscious soldiers die because their fellow soldiers tried to pour down healing potions down their throats.

There was a reason why the battlefield had healers and tents to treat unconscious soldiers.

With a flick of her wrist, Tanulia paralyzed Alicia before she killed Noah. On the other hand, Olivia kept shaking Ghost by his shoulder.

His eyes abruptly opened, shocking everyone.

"Uwak!" As soon as he opened his eyes, he turned his head, throwing up blood.

"GHOST!" Olivia's motherly instincts kicked in as she held his head sideways to make his vomiting as comfortable as possible.

She kept patting and brushing his back while Michael continued to throw up blood. A few minutes later, Michael finally stopped coughing up blood. He took out a healing potion and chugged in in one gulp.

"Teacher," Olivia said, but Michael raised his finger, wordlessly telling her to wait. He then stood up from the bed and took out another glimmering jade vial.

Under their stunned gazes, he emptied the potion into his mouth. The miraculous potion healed his burned skin, visible to the naked eye.

"Argh," Michael growled as he rotated his head, producing cracking noise,

"I am never judging a competition again,"