71: Found you!

Locke, however, stood completely motionless, as if he had been struck by a paralysis spell.

Seeing this, Victor looked quite disdainful. "I thought you had some tricks up your sleeve, but I didn't expect you couldn't even dodge a casual strike from me?"

"You really disappoint me."

But before his mocking words had even faded, Locke, who had been standing there like a wooden puppet, suddenly raised the longsword in his hand at an incredibly tricky angle.

He blocked Victor's blade just before it could touch his neck.

Sensing something was wrong, Victor immediately pulled back and retreated.

"This... how is it possible? My swordsmanship is so fast, how could you possibly react to it!"

His blood-red eyes were filled with shock; he couldn't understand how someone who had become a Vampire only a few days ago could react to his swordsmanship.

However, seeing that Locke only blocked the strike and didn't counterattack, he grew suspicious: "Could this kid have just been a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse?"

The reason Locke didn't counterattack was that he was still searching for the whereabouts of that ghost thing. He was mainly afraid that if he counterattacked and fully revealed his strength, the ghost thing hiding in the shadows might hide completely and never show itself again.

He couldn't accept that.

Because that would mean a monster with strength approaching Sequence 9 would be lurking in the darkness within the Vampire Base, ready to strike.

He, of course, wasn't afraid, but how many others could escape from such strength?

It's not like he could ask all the Vampires to abandon this base and find new lodgings in New York; that wasn't very realistic.

Besides, if they ran, the opponent could just chase them.

Therefore, Locke's plan was to dispose of Victor and that mysterious creature right here today, which was the only way to resolve this major threat.

"Playing games."

Seeing that Locke still wasn't paying attention to him, Victor suppressed the unease in his heart, raised his sword, and charged out again.

Only this time, he didn't hold back his strength; instead, he awakened the muscles that were still in a dormant state.

This strike was thirty percent faster than the previous one.

The force was also significantly greater; the tip of his sword left afterimages in the air and created a sonic boom.

Clang~

Watching the sword tip slice toward Locke's throat at an even faster speed, Victor's mouth curled up subconsciously: "Hmph, kid, let's see how you block this."

Unexpectedly, the scene that followed completely overturned his perception.

At that critical moment, Locke moved half an inch to the right with casual ease, looking completely relaxed. That mere half-inch distance caused Victor's strike, which had used nearly 70% of his power, to miss entirely.

The tip of the sword was 0.01 centimeters from Locke's throat, grazing his skin as it slid past.

This scene nearly made Victor's jaw drop, his expression changing constantly: "What the hell is this kid doing? Was that a conscious dodge just now, or was it luck?"

After experiencing this seemingly dangerous strike, Locke's expression remained calm, unchanged in the slightest, with a faint smile still hanging on his lips. To Victor, this smile made him feel like a clown being mocked.

This immediately made him decide not to hold back at all. He forcibly awakened his internal organs and all the muscles that hadn't fully woken up, instantly entering his peak state.

"I don't believe it! I've used my full strength, and you can still dodge it!"

Watching Locke still walking slowly toward him, Victor refused to believe it. Without thinking any further, he immediately charged out again, determined to use his most powerful strike to sever Locke's head.

He was very confident that this sword strike would have a chance to cause damage even against a powerhouse like Marcus.

Therefore, he didn't believe that a kid like Locke, barely in his twenties, could dodge it as easily as before.

On the other side, after searching for a long time, Locke still couldn't find the trace of that ghost thing with his naked eyes. Feeling helpless, he could only wave his hand to retrieve the 【myriad spectacles】 he had just sent back to his Personal Space and put them on his face again.

The world before his eyes turned gray again. In the entire room, apart from the faint red light emanating from Victor, everything else turned gray. The white ash began to fall from the sky once more.

Locke didn't hesitate; cherishing every second, he hurriedly began to scan the area, searching for the target's trail.

He naturally skipped over the red light on Victor, then looked around from the top of the secret chamber to the surroundings, finally spotting a faint, leaking black ghostly light beneath the bronze seat above. That streak of black was not very obvious in this gray world; if Locke hadn't been focused, he might have overlooked it.

"Finally found you."

Locke curled his lips into a somewhat creepy smile. As for Victor, who was charging toward him, upon seeing the myriad spectacles that Locke had suddenly put on, his eyes immediately turned greedy. He even swallowed unconsciously, and his breathing became a bit hurried: "Huff... this thing, this thing... if I'm not mistaken... it should be an extraordinary item."

Although he didn't know how Locke had conjured it up, that didn't matter. What mattered was that if he had this thing, he could take it to the Secret Cult to exchange it for something that would allow him to advance. How could he not be excited?

"It's mine, it's mine! Kid, give me the spectacles on your head. As long as you give them to me, I can consider sparing your life."

"Ha? Are you high, or are you dreaming?"

Locke held his sword in one hand and put the spectacles away with the other. Watching Victor charging at him to kill, he didn't intend to hold back this time.

The threat in the shadows had been found, so Victor had lost his chance to continue living.

With a light tap of his feet, he shot out like an arrow released from a bow, his speed several times faster than Victor, who was charging from the opposite side.

This sudden change dumbfounded Victor, his face filled with panic: "F*ck, how can his speed be faster than mine..."

With Locke attacking with full force, Victor immediately wanted to change direction, stop his forward momentum, and dodge. However, because he had used his full strength to kill Locke, his speed was already up; within this short distance, he couldn't stop at all, let alone dodge.

Locke narrowed his eyes, his mouth cracking open to reveal a set of ghastly white teeth at Victor: "Hey, Victor, didn't you want my stuff? Come and kill me, kill me, and my stuff will all be yours!"