CHAPTER 314: SOPHIE ATTACKS!

Ragnarok’s voice cracked as he shouted. His joke might have been crude, but deep down there was fear in it and no one laughed. Because at that moment, Sophie reappeared right behind one of the Martial Palace disciples.

Her hand was already on his head. Before he could even scream, she slammed his face into the ground violently.

BOOM!

The stone floor cracked. Blood splashed in all directions as the disciple spasmed once, then went completely limp.

"Ah—!"

"Shit, she killed him in one hit!"

They all knew death inside the Tower wasn’t exactly permanent. Players would respawn eventually, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying when it was your skull being caved in.

Especially when the one doing it was supposed to be your ally.

"Stop!!" Evelyn roared, golden petals spinning madly around her as she tried to create distance between Sophie and the others.

Sophie didn’t answer. She just slowly turned her head, the veil shifting enough for them to see the corner of her mouth.

Her lips were stained with blood. Her fingers spread slowly, nails lengthening into sharp, claw-like tips. Her aura changed.

If before she was calm, elegant, and serene, now she felt like a starving beast let loose from a cage.

Veins pulsed across her pale neck and under her eyes. Little by little, that faint, controlled red aura began to expand around her.

The vines at her feet trembled. They had always been a natural dark green, with hints of earthy brown. Now, right in front of their eyes, the color shifted. It crept along each vine like ink spreading through water—darker... darker... until they became a deep crimson.

Almost like they had been soaked in blood.

"Her vines... changed color?"

"That’s not good, right?"

"No shit it’s not good!!"

BANG!

The blood-colored vines burst out from the cracked ground with terrifying speed. They lashed toward the closest target.

A random player who had joined Martial Palace for protection screamed as a vine wrapped around his waist, lifting him into the air.

"Help—! Let me go—!"

The vine tightened.

Crack.

His spine bent at a horrible angle. His scream cut off as blood drooled from his mouth. Moments later, his body broke into data fragments.

Another vine shot toward a Martial Palace disciple. He tried cutting it, but his blade only carved a shallow line. The vine twisted around his arm and leg, pulling hard. He was yanked in two directions and slammed into the wall.

"Defensive formation!!" the senior Martial Palace member shouted.

But the vines didn’t care.

They slithered across the floor like snakes, some thin, some thick, all moving with eerie purpose. They didn’t go for the corpses.

They went for the living.

Evelyn’s petals sliced through a cluster of vines, severing them cleanly. But the cut pieces just wriggled on the floor like dying worms, soaking up spilled blood.

A second later, they grew again, thin crimson tendrils sprouting from the stumps.

"She’s regenerating them?!" Evelyn’s face darkened.

Ragnarok’s sword glowed as he slashed out a crescent wave.

Swish! Swish!

The attack cut through several vines and tore open the ground, but Sophie merely tilted her head and sent more vines forward.

"Why is she targeting us? Aren’t we her friends?!" a Broken Dawn player cried, panicking as a vine barely missed his leg.

Cassie’s heart hammered in her chest.

She wanted to scream that Sophie wasn’t doing it on purpose. That it was the infection. That it was the Tower. That maybe there was still a chance.

But right now, all anyone saw... was a vampire.

A vampire dressed in a faded green gown, with familiar posture... and a veil now stained in blood.

Sophie’s body flickered and reappeared behind another disciple. Her movement was far faster than before. Her agility had clearly skyrocketed.

Her foot whipped out, smashing into the disciple’s knee. With a sharp snap, it bent the wrong way.

He screamed and collapsed.

Sophie grabbed his collar and yanked him close. Her red eyes gleamed beneath the veil. For a moment, she stared straight into his terrified face.

Her fangs extended fully—and she bit down.

Chink!

Blood splashed across the floor.

"SOPHIE!!!" Cassie’s scream echoed down the corridor.

She could barely recognize the figure in front of her. This wasn’t the calm NPC who liked to quietly argue with Gabriel about strategy.

This wasn’t the woman who made sure everyone was alright and the camp was in order... this was a monster.

"Dammit, she’s too strong... her strength, speed, and skills are all boosted," Anna muttered under her breath, eyes narrowed. "Maybe the vampiric transformation is using her main stats."

"Don’t talk like you’re reading a guide right now!!" Ragnarok yelled.

He spun as a vine nearly snagged his leg, slicing it with a desperate swing.

Two more players were grabbed and slammed into each other mid-air, their health bars plummeting.

The corridor was turning into a slaughterhouse.

And all this while, Gabriel and Liang were nowhere in sight.

They were still in their separate passageways, clearing their own routes, fully unaware of the chaos erupting here.

At that moment, a vine suddenly shot straight toward Cassie. She reached for her treasure—her Replica Mirror, capable of reflecting one spell below Level 5.

But a part of her didn’t want to use it as it would hurt Sophie. Although she wasn’t a fighter, Cassie was still averagely skilled. She twisted on her heel and dodged the hungry vine.

"Fall back! Everyone pull back!" Evelyn shouted. "We need to regroup!!"

"What about Sophie?!" Cassie yelled.

Evelyn hesitated.

Another vine wrapped around a player’s throat and snapped it like a twig.

One of her own Martial Palace juniors.

Her eyes turned cold when she saw this. It was the last thing that pushed her over the edge.

"If we let her continue, more people will die," she said, voice low and serious. "Even if it’s her... if we have to, we—"

"You’re not killing her." Cassie cut in sharply.

Everyone turned to look at her.

Her eyes were red around the edges—not from infection, but from tears she was holding back.

"Be reasonable," Evelyn said. "Look at her! She’s going crazy. She might already be fully turned. We don’t know if there’s a cure."

Sophie’s vines lashed out again, disrupting their conversation.

Four more Martial Palace fighters were injured—one losing an arm before someone managed to force a potion into his mouth.

"Cassie, if we don’t stop her now, even more people are going to die!" Ragnarok gritted his teeth. "I don’t want to kill her either, she’s literally one of my top three favourite women in this world, but this isn’t a game where we can just wait and see."

"It is a game technically!" Bunny shouted from behind. "But since she’s an NPC... a death means permanent!!"

"Exactly, shut up!" Ragnarok snapped.

One of the NPCs, a stoic Martial Palace elder, tightened his grip on his spear.

"She’s a threat now. If you people can’t do it, then we will."

He lowered his stance, ready to take matters into his own hands.