Our Family Has Fallen

”Indeed, it’s quite exceptional.”

Lance had to admit that these Transcendents had more tricks up their sleeves than he had imagined.

As the battle on this side concluded, the fat pig, weakened by Alhazred’s consecutive attacks, found itself completely powerless to fight back.

Finally, Boudica let out a howl. Lifting her Axe Spear, she executed a leaping cleave, channeling all her explosive power to chop straight through the pig’s head, utterly ending its life.

The fat pig’s massive body collapsed with a thunderous fall, signaling the end of the battle.

”AWOOO!”

Boudica let out a wild shout, her excitement palpable.

The larger the prey she killed, the more glory she gained.

Lance glanced at her to ensure she was uninjured, then his attention inevitably turned to Alhazred.

He must have cast quite a few Spells. Lance could see the Spiritual Essence rippling around him. Tendrils of purple-black smoke also coalesced into vague tentacle shapes, entwining around his body.

It seemed that casting such powerful Spells also had severe negative effects. It was only because of Alhazred’s experience that he could avoid losing control from such backlash.

For most Transcendents, calming and controlling their Spiritual Essence would be very difficult, but it was a breeze for Lance.

He reached out toward Alhazred.

Bless!

The Ability activated instantly. Lance saw the smoky tendrils extending from the Void suddenly contract as if shocked, withdrawing from Alhazred’s body.

At the same time, his restless Spiritual Essence calmed under the effect of the Bless, like a mischievous child forced to behave before a stern adult.

Alhazred was controlling himself, aware that Supernatural Power comes at a cost, and he had paid more, even sacrificing something very important.

But what he gained... He seemed once again to hear whispers from the Void.

However, at that moment, the strange power that had entwined him instantly receded. His restless Spiritual Essence calmed, and the unprecedented relief was so great it almost made him think it was an illusion brought on by ’it.’

Until he saw the Lord approaching him.

”I have a bit of knowledge in Mysticism myself,” Lance said with a smile as he came closer. ”I should be able to help you.”

Alhazred didn’t know what to say. However, he inexplicably felt relief upon hearing those words. His nerves, which had been tightly wound for who knew how long, finally relaxed for a moment.

He even forgot what that feeling was like?

Perhaps, here, he could find a chance for rest...

But Lance didn’t know what he was thinking, as his attention was called away by Boudica.

”Boss! Look, I finally chopped down this Big Flying Pillar.”

At Boudica’s words, everyone involuntarily turned their attention to the corpses of the Beast Lair Pigmen.

It was the first time the others had seen such Pigmen. The problem was, it was also Lance’s first time.

Lance pried the Axe Spear from its forehead and tossed it to Boudica. Then, he began to closely examine the fat pig, which far surpassed a normal Pigman in size.

Unlike the previous Pigmen, which had dark skin and disfigured proportions resembling a crude fusion of human and pig parts that required various modifications to take shape, this fat pig bore no such signs. Its gear was worn, not cruelly fixed onto its body.

Moreover, its flesh did not show the same degree of atrophy and tumors as seen in the previous Pigmen.

This Pigman before him... how can it be described...

It was neither human nor pig, but rather a more advanced hybrid of the two.

This reminded Lance of the ”perfect creation” once mentioned by the Cannibal Witch in the wilderness.

This was probably the result of the Old Ancestor’s increasingly deep research, devoid of the fleshly flaws left by evil rituals.

But was it truly one of the Old Ancestor’s ’perfect creations’? Lance still harbored doubts, as the Beast Lair was far from fully explored. What if there were more ’surprises’ later on?

Even now, Lance wasn’t sure what the Old Ancestor might concoct next.

If Lance were to describe it...

If the Pigman Butchers encountered earlier were like dark-skinned wild boars infected with various diseases, then this was akin to a purebred large white pig cultivated by humans.

After examining the fat pig, Lance carried the torch deeper and found the Pigman Assassin whose soul had been devoured by Wang Cai.

Unlike ordinary pigs, its body was covered with white fur. Though filthy, this fur was soft and dense, unlike the stiff bristles typical of pig hair, and resembled sheep’s wool.

An even more distinctive feature was its ears, which, compared to the fan-shaped pig ears, were more like the long ears of a goat.

Moreover, its lower limbs were not short, stubby pig trotters. Instead, they were proportional to its body and structurally more like goat hooves.

He had been puzzled at first, but the emergence of this monster seemed to clarify why there were disabled Pigmen.

Pigmen types like the Pigman Butchers and Hookhands were mainly products of human and pig amalgamation. Even if deformed, their malformations were within a certain range and could be rectified with reconstructive surgery.

But for Pigman Assassins to achieve swifter mobility, some goat anatomy was integrated. This improved their lower limb structure, which was ill-suited for an upright human stance.

It might even possess a hint of Transcendent Bloodline—otherwise, how could it master the Ability ”Stealth”?

Thus, the Pigman Assassin was like a synthesis of technologies, blending human, pig, goat, and Supernatural Power.

The fact that the Old Ancestor had actually pulled this off, despite such complexity, meant he was truly a genius.

However, this very complexity also suggested that the success rate for creating such Pigman Assassins was likely low. Those that failed ended up with paralyzed lower bodies, disabled, only to be repurposed through modifications.

Those successfully cultivated were armed and became these skilled, stealthy Pigman Assassins.

This logic likely extended to the Pigman Butchers and fat pigs. The former had sharply protruding trotters, while the latter’s hooves had a bowl-shaped structure, similar to those of horses or cows, allowing these Pigmen to support even larger bodies.

Even though it felt a bit cobbled together, these Pigmen showed signs of iterative improvement, further validating Lance’s earlier speculation about the origins of the Beast Lair Pigmen.

Damn you, Old Ancestor!...

The appearance of the fat pig and the Pigman Assassins also indicated a class division among these creatures. Those that were failures, requiring modifications to survive—like the Hook Pigs and the disabled Pigmen—were all driven to the outer peripheries.

It could be expected that the deeper one went inside, the stronger the Pigmen encountered might become.

Lance had many speculations he could not voice, so he remained enigmatic. However, he still warned everyone about the dangers of continuing forward.

”We haven’t encountered these two types of Pigmen before, and their strength is more formidable and troublesome than those we’ve faced earlier, especially that stealthy Pigman Assassin,” Lance said.

Lance wasn’t just stating the obvious. The fat pig appeared formidable but was slow-moving. Its mobility wasn’t even comparable to that of the equally large, but quadrupedal, Pigman Knights.

Only Boudica, when she got worked up, would engage it in a head-on fight. Had it been Amanda, she likely would have kept her distance, throwing projectiles, Casting Spells, and lashing out with her whip to bleed the creature. It would have raged helplessly, unable to land a hit, as she whipped it to death.

Similarly, given a little preparation time, Alhazred could control it completely and then weaken it into a pile of rotten flesh.

More importantly, with its physique, hiding was nearly impossible for the fat pig. It made too much noise, and its large shadow was visible even in the dark.

For Lance, taking it down would be a matter of a single blow—such was the confidence of the strong!

But the Pigman Assassin, small and nimble, was virtually invisible in the surrounding darkness.

Just like moments before, if Lance hadn’t accidentally seen through its ”Stealth,” Boudica would likely have been sliced a few times before even noticing it.

Fortunately, within the team, both Lance and Amanda could see through such crude ”Stealth.” Wang Cai could even perceive its true nature, so naturally, they wouldn’t be fooled.