Chapter 92 : Blood for Blood
For a brief moment—
Elizabeth didn’t move.
She simply stood there, head slightly turned, cheek faintly reddened where Arthur’s hand had struck.
She took a heartbeat to process it.
A human.
Had just slapped her.
In front of her people.
In front of her elite.
In front of her entire race.
Slowly—
Her head turned back toward Arthur.
Her eyes darkened.
The red glow inside them burned brighter, like molten blood.
A thick, dark, ominous aura began pouring out of her body, flooding the arena like a suffocating tide, pressing down on every spectator until even breathing felt like a reluctant act of defiance against her wrath.
Arthur felt it wash over him.
His throat went dry.
He swallowed hard.
"Yeah... that did it," he thought.
He instinctively created distance, pushing off the ground and leaping back several meters to widen the gap between them, boots scraping against shattered stone as his balance wavered for an instant.
Elizabeth did not give him time.
She blurred.
One instant she was standing still—
The next she was right in front of him.
Her fist crashed into his ribs.
Boom.
The force launched him upward.
Before he could stabilize in the air—
Her second punch slammed into his chest, sending him spinning.
The third blow crashed into his back mid-spin.
Then—
She twisted, bringing her leg around in a savage kick.
Her foot connected with his side.
Arthur’s body shot downward like a meteor.
He smashed into the ground.
BAM.
The impact carved a crater into the arena floor, cracks spiderwebbing outward.
Dust and shards of stone flew in all directions, rattling against the barrier that separated the spectators from the battlefield like a storm of broken glass.
For a second—
There was only silence and haze.
Then Arthur moved.
He pushed himself up, coughing.
"Kh..."
He spat blood onto the ground, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
His body ached everywhere.
Berserk and Omnicognition still surged through him.
But there was a time limit.
He couldn’t depend on them forever.
There was only so long his body and mind could handle this overload before he collapsed.
He knew it.
If he didn’t clear the quest soon—
He would die.
"This is the only way I see out of this," he thought. "So I have to finish it fast."
In the next instant—
He switched his breathing.
"Lightning Breathing..."
Electric sharpness flowed into his muscles.
His figure blurred.
He shot forward, closing the distance like a streak of motion.
This time—
He combined it.
Celestial Dragon Flow.
First Form.
"One Point Collapse."
His foot dug into the ground as he twisted his waist.
His fist shot forward in a devastating arc, all of his force compressed into a single point.
The air around his knuckles warped.
Elizabeth didn’t back away.
She stepped into him.
Her own fist rocketed forward.
Their punches collided.
The air screamed.
A shockwave exploded from the point of impact, rattling the arena, forcing the vampires in the stands to shield their eyes from the blast of dust and wind.
Inside Arthur’s body—
Infinite Harmony activated.
Mana and qi did not clash.
They moved together.
Mana reinforced his muscles.
Qi refined his movements.
Both forces, normally difficult to balance, flowed in perfect sync, multiplying the power of his strike.
For a moment—
Their strength was evenly matched.
Then Arthur pushed harder.
He roared, channeling everything into his fist.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened a fraction.
Her stance broke first.
Her body was blown backward.
She shot across the arena and crashed into the far wall.
BAM.
Stone cracked, fragments exploding out as her back struck it.
Arthur landed, breathing hard.
He could feel it.
The attack had connected cleanly.
But—
"It didn’t have much impact on her," he thought, watching as the dust around the wall began to settle. "Not enough."
He didn’t hesitate.
He rushed her again, intent on pressing the attack.
He aimed a kick straight at Elizabeth’s face the moment he got close.
But this time—
She was ready.
Her head tilted back just enough.
His foot sliced through the air where her face had been.
She stepped in and drove her fist directly into his midsection.
Boom.
Arthur’s world jolted.
He heard it.
A sharp cracking sound from within his own body.
Pain flared through his torso.
He flew back a short distance, forced off his feet.
[ Warning: Multiple ribs cracked ]
[ Warning: Internal bleeding detected ]
The system’s notifications flashed across his vision for a brief moment as he spun in the air.
Gritting his teeth, Arthur twisted his body mid-air, forcing himself to regain balance.
He exhaled sharply.
Then landed on his feet.
His legs buckled for half a second—
But he forced them to hold.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth again.
His ribs screamed with every breath.
He straightened his back anyway.
And lifted his eyes to face Elizabeth once more.
Elizabeth looked down at her fist with a serious expression, flexing her fingers once.
"You can still stand... after taking that attack," she said quietly.
Arthur coughed.
More blood spilled from his lips and hit the arena floor.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and forced a crooked grin.
"It’s nothing," he said. "It’s not the first time I’ve broken a rib... or two."
He straightened his back a little, even as pain lanced through his torso.
"You’d understand if you’d taken thousands of strikes on your body," he added. "Compared to that torture, this is nothing I can’t handle."
He inhaled slowly.
Then controlled his breathing.
Each breath became deliberate, measured, circulating qi and mana through his body.
He focused it around his damaged ribs and organs, pushing them toward stability, willing torn flesh and fractured bone to obey his stubborn refusal to fall.
The internal bleeding began to slow.
Then stopped.
Elizabeth watched him with narrowed eyes.
Then she raised her hand.
"Blood Construct," she said.
In the next second—
Blood rose from the cracks in the arena floor and from the lingering traces of previous attacks. It gathered behind her, swirling in mid-air.
Five humanoid shapes began to form.
They solidified into figures identical to Elizabeth.
Same face.
Same hair.
Same cold, crimson eyes.
But their bodies were slightly translucent, their forms made entirely from condensed blood.
Five blood clones.
Standing behind the original.
"Let’s start again, then," Elizabeth said.
All six figures moved at once.
Arthur’s instincts screamed.
"Danger."
The next moment—
They were on him.
The colosseum stands erupted into noise, but to most of the crowd, what followed was just a blur of movement, a chaotic storm of afterimages and shockwaves that shook the very foundations of the arena.
Six Elizabeths.
One Arthur.
They clashed at lightning speed.
A fist came from his right—he blocked with his forearm, only to feel a kick slam into his side from the left.
He ducked under a sweeping arm, then spun and drove his elbow into the ribs of one clone.
It rippled, body warping under the blow, before bursting into a splash of blood that evaporated into mist.
"They’re weaker than the original," Arthur realized. "Good."
Another clone lunged in front of him, fist aimed at his jaw.
He stepped into it.
"Flow Reversal."
He caught the punch with his palm, let the force travel through his arm, down his spine, into his legs—
Then twisted his body and sent the force back, amplified.
His counterstrike slammed into the clone’s chest like a cannon.
The blood construct exploded, splattering apart.
A third one appeared at his back, clawed hand reaching for his neck.
Arthur shifted.
Lightning Breathing for speed—
His body blurred as he slipped away from the grasp, appearing beside the clone’s exposed flank.
"Iron Breathing."
Power filled his muscles, bones hardening, tendons tightening.
He launched a punch directly into the clone’s side.
"One Point Collapse."
His entire body aligned behind the blow.
Every joint, every breath, every muscle compressed force into a single strike.
The punch landed.
The clone imploded, its form disintegrating into a red haze.
Two more closed in together, one high, one low.
Arthur blocked a kick with his shin, parried another punch with his elbow, and used Flow Reversal again—absorbing the combined impact, spinning, and blasting it back through a sweeping strike that tore both constructs apart at once.
Blood burst around him like red rain.
But he didn’t escape unscathed.
While he was dealing with one side, another clone landed a solid punch across his jaw.
His head snapped to the side.
Another kick hammered into his back, sending a jolt of pain down his spine.
He coughed blood again as a clone’s knee drove into his abdomen.
His body was getting bloodied.
Bruises.
Cuts.
Fresh pain layered over old injuries.
He staggered once, then regained his footing.
He switched between Lightning Breathing and Iron Breathing again and again—one moment his movements were blindingly fast, the next they were brutally heavy.
It confused Elizabeth.
From her vantage point, she watched her constructs crumble one after another.
Arthur’s qi and mana worked together, amplified to the limit by Infinite Harmony.
His speed let him close gaps and dodge killing blows.
His power let him crush the blood constructs when he found an opening.
Soon—
Only one Elizabeth remained in front of him.
The real one.
His chest heaved.
Sweat and blood mixed on his skin.
But his eyes were locked on her.
He stepped forward, gathering everything for one last strike.
"This is it," he thought. "I’ll put her on her knees with this."
He drew in breath.
Qi and mana surged along his limbs.
He prepared to unleash a final One Point Collapse—
And then—
Everything inside his head lurched.
[ Omnicognition – Duration limit reached ]
[ Skill entering cooldown ]
[ Cooldown: 6 hours ]
His vision blurred for a second.
The world that had been moving in clear, calculable lines suddenly became messy again.
No more slowed perception.
No more perfect predictions.
His thoughts, which had been racing like a supercomputer, dragged back toward normal speed.
The sudden shift almost made him stumble.
Elizabeth saw it.
In that moment of weakness—
She moved.
Her fangs bared.
She darted forward like a shadow, appearing right in front of Arthur.
Elizabeth’s fangs pierced the side of Arthur’s neck.
"Kh—!"
His body jolted as her teeth sank in deeper, cold lips pressing against his skin while heat rushed out of him in a dizzying wave. His blood was dragged from his veins in a relentless pull, flowing into her like a crimson tide she commanded at will.
Strength poured out of him.
His muscles weakened.
His knees trembled.
The arena, the noise, the watching vampires—all of it blurred into a distant smear of color and sound as his vision tunneled.
[ Host, don’t lose consciousness. ] the system’s voice echoed sharply inside his mind, a single clear note ringing through the chaos.
Arthur’s thoughts staggered.
He could feel his awareness slipping, like his mind was being peeled away layer by layer.
No.
He refused.
With what little control he had left, he forced his jaw to move. He opened his mouth—
And bit down.
Hard.
On his own tongue.
White-hot agony exploded through his skull. The raw pain burned through the haze, jolting his fading consciousness back toward clarity. The sharp, metallic taste of his own blood flooded his mouth, mingling with the sickly sweetness of her bite.
His eyes snapped wider, pupils tightening.
The pain anchored him.
He gasped raggedly through his nose, forcing air into his lungs.
"System..." Arthur thought, every word strained. "I leave... everything else to you."
He couldn’t fight her strength.
He couldn’t stop her fangs.
So he did the only thing left to him.
He moved.
Slowly at first, then with a desperate surge, Arthur’s hand shot up. His fingers seized the front of Elizabeth’s collar, clutching the fabric in a blood-slick grip.
With the last of his bodily strength, he yanked her closer, dragging her face down toward his.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden pull, but before she could fully react—
He struck back.
Arthur turned his head and bit down hard on the side of her neck.
His teeth tore through her pale skin, breaking the perfect, unmarred surface in a savage mirror of what she had done to him. Hot, rich blood spilled into his mouth, far thicker and heavier than anything he had ever tasted.
It was different.
Denser.
Older.
More dangerous.
A violent, primal energy surged along his tongue and down his throat with every mouthful. It felt like swallowing living fire, like inviting a storm directly into his veins.
Notifications began to flare across his vision.
But Arthur didn’t look at them.
He just held on.
Jaw clenched around her neck.
Hand locked around her collar.
He endured the burning flood, refusing to let go, even as his body shook between the pain of being drained and the terrifying power beginning to awaken inside him.
In the next instant—
Notifications flooded his vision.
[ Origin King Bloodline – Activated ]
[ Traits Engaging: Blood Absorption / Bloodline Extraction / Bloodline Assimilation ]
[ Target Bloodline Detected ]
[ Identifying... ]
[ Target: Elizabeth Crimson ]
[ Bloodline: Crimson Clan Progenitor Lineage ]
[ Bloodline Purity: 95% ]
A terrifying power surged into him.
It felt like his veins were on fire.
Like his very existence was being dragged into something deeper.
[ Initiating Evolution Sequence... ]
The world around him began to fade at the edges.
And everything went white.
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A/N:
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