I'm a proper student; I only take nine kinds of potions every day.

A few glaring silver-white strands emerged from the jet-black hair, quietly spreading along the parting.

What's even stranger is his face.

The left half of his face was cold and calm, with taut muscles and eyes sharp enough to cut through the night wind.

The right half of his face, however, resembled a scrambled deck of cards, its expressions shifting every half second between joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

"Senior brother."

Ivan's voice was hoarse and broken.

"I'm starting to lose control of my mind."

As he spoke, Richard saw Ivan's head becoming increasingly pointed at a visible speed.

"Goodness."

Richard scratched the back of his head.

"Master, aren't the side effects of this demon-hunting characteristic loss of fertility and memory damage?"

Why is your head so pointy now?

Evan gripped his scalp with both hands, his fingernails already scratching several bleeding red marks on his scalp.

"Senior brother! It's so itchy! I feel like I'm growing a brain!"

As the skin was scratched, a few drops of blood seeped out.

Richard's bulbous nose twitched.

The next second, his expression completely changed.

"Master, please!"

He took a half step back and stared at Evan with the look of someone looking at a ghost.

"My little junior brother, is this even blood?"

"I'm saying, how can your digestive side effects be so outrageous! How much of that supernatural stuff did you actually ingest?"

Chapter 44: I'm going to give you some juicy gossip!

In those few seconds of their conversation.

From the darkness at the end of the alley came a rustling sound that sent chills down your spine.

A cold wind swept in.

Ivan raised his still-normal right eye to look over, and his pupil suddenly dilated.

Pris is back.

But he was no longer the elegant professor in his black silk shawl.

On either side of the humanoid torso, darkness coalesced into two enormous bat wings covered with bone-spiky patterns.

Its wingspan is more than three meters wide, and dark red veins flow on its wing membranes.

His entire face protruded forward, his mouth split open to the base of his ears, revealing two rows of jagged fangs.

The thing rose from the ground and swooped down toward Richard and Evan.

"kyen!"

Richard clenched his right hand suddenly.

Pris crashed into an invisible wall half a meter away from them, his speed abruptly halted, and the gust of wind whipped up by his wings made Ivan's hair dance wildly.

But next second.

Pris opened his mouth.

From the monster's mouth, which was split open to its ears, came a two-meter-long, scarlet tongue covered in barbs.

The tongue moves so fast that it is almost impossible to see with the naked eye.

It was like a red-hot steel needle, instantly piercing through the invisible shield that Richard had just laid out.

Richard's reaction was also faster than a human's.

He shoved Ivan far away, but his own body missed the best opportunity to dodge because of the pushing motion.

The barbed tongue pierced his chest precisely, entering from the front and emerging from the back with its tip.

Large amounts of black liquid gushed from the wound, splashing onto the cobblestone pavement of the alley.

But Richard showed no sign of pain.

He lowered his head and looked at the tongue piercing through his chest, as if examining a nail stuck in his clothes.

The thick, inhuman-looking left arm rose with lightning speed.

Five fingers, as thick as sausages and covered in fine scales, grabbed the piece of tongue that was piercing his chest.

With his right hand clenched into a fist the size of a sandbag, the scales on it were as sturdy as armor, and he slammed it down hard towards that exquisite yet terrifying face in the distance.

"Dragon Blood Elixir? You succeeded?"

Priss was momentarily stunned when he saw the scales on his fist.

A rare look of shock flashed in his eyes, which were already bloodshot.

"Die."

Richard uttered three words.

Bang.

The fist, the size of a sandbag, landed precisely on the left side of Pris's face.

His once handsome face was as if it had been hit head-on by a tram, instantly caved in, and his cheekbones, nose, and jawbone shattered at the same time.

The upper half of his face looked like a crumpled piece of rubber, which bounced backward a distance.

But the tongue that pierced Richard's chest was still connected to Pris's body.

The next second, Richard suddenly pulled hard.

Prisna's body, which had already flown away, was pulled back by his own tongue, like a fish caught on a fishing line.

"Come here!"

Bang.

The second punch shattered Pris's jaw, tearing the skin off half his face to reveal the white skull beneath.

Bang.

The third punch. The entire left side of the skull caved inward, and the eyeballs were squeezed out of their deformed sockets, hanging precariously on the side of the face.

Ivan stood at a distance, watching the counterattack that resembled a massacre. The last vestiges of clarity amidst the excruciating pain made him instinctively pull out two vials of Blood Burning Potion from his jacket pocket.

He's kept these two bottles close to his body whenever he goes out these past two days.

I'm afraid that if I ever need it, it won't be there for me.

"Well done, senior! Kill this bastard!"

"Senior brother, spare his breath! I want to punch him a couple of times too!"

As Ivan rambled on, relevant demon-hunting knowledge resurfaced in his mind.

"When a Bloodthirsty Seed is injured in battle, it will enter a state of extreme bloodthirst."

"Witchers are accustomed to using their own blood to poison others. This is a unique advantage of witchers among all professions."

Ivan looked at Priss in the distance, who was beaten beyond recognition but still struggling. Without any hesitation, he twisted open the wax seal of the Blood Burning Potion in his hand.

He tilted his head back and gulped it down.

The burning, chili oil-like liquid burned its way down his esophagus into his stomach, instantly exploding in his bloodstream.

He knew he couldn't help Richard on the combat front.

But he cannot become a burden to his senior.

He didn't want to become the blood-sucking bag that Pris could grab and drain after he was seriously injured.

When Jotaro and Dio were fighting, that old man should have stayed far away!

"My blood is already poisonous, let me add some more potent stuff."

[You have consumed an incomplete Blood Burning Potion. Effects last: 5 hours.]

[Effect: Permanently increases constitution by 0.2; within the effects of the medicine, self-healing ability is reduced by 300%, and blood quality is reduced by 50%.]

Evan struggled to throw the second bottle of Blood Burning Potion to Richard.

Just then.

A gentle breeze brushed against the back of his ear.

It's not the night breeze!

Ivan's pupils suddenly dilated.

A figure appeared silently from behind him.

Evan recognized her.

Pris's female assistant.

That plain-looking woman in white, always standing in the shadows of the laboratory.

She has never told Evan her name.

"It happened."

Ivan's mind raced amidst the excruciating pain.

"Luring the tiger away from the mountain."

He hadn't even had a chance to turn around completely.

The female assistant's shoulders exploded simultaneously, and two blood-red, oar-shaped fleshy tentacles extended out with lightning speed, wrapping around Evan's torso from two directions.