Chapter 74: One of Us Dies Today!
The heart of the House Hurst estate had become a cage of blood.
Dark red tendrils emerged from the ground, the walls, even empty air. They wound around Joren’s battered black armor like pythons and kept tightening.
Metal groaned under the pressure.
The S Class [Black Dragon] nano armor had reached its limit. Its once smooth liquid surface was mottled with dull gray scars where the high rank blood poison had eaten through it.
"It is over."
The Bloodfiend floated above the ruins and adjusted his bow tie with practiced ease.
Below him, Joren was trapped like an insect in a web.
"Orson, finish it."
"The blood from his heart belongs to me. You may have whatever meat remains."
Orson answered with a bestial roar.
There was little left of the man he had once been.
To maintain his Rank Five strength, he had burned his own blood essence. His skin had split from head to toe, leaving him looking like some grotesque creature stripped raw.
None of that dampened his excitement.
The chance to crush a future peerless genius with his own hands made every sacrifice worthwhile.
"Die!"
Boom!
This time, Orson held nothing back.
Every trace of protective force in his body gathered into his enormous Fiend claw. He dragged in the surrounding blood river as well, forcing all of it into the attack.
The claw swelled beneath the open sky.
In moments, it had grown as large as the front of a truck.
It blotted out the light and came down carrying the weight of annihilation.
Joren remained bound beneath it, no different from a fish nailed to a chopping block.
No room to evade.
"So this is Rank Five?"
At the center of the storm, Joren showed no panic.
All his attention rested on the blade in his hands.
The S Class heavy blade [Heaven’s Sin] trembled faintly against his palms.
"And this is what they call Dominion?"
His head remained lowered.
"The world has a will."
"Wind, flame, lightning, all of them are expressions of that will."
"An Awakened Warrior has a will too."
"Dominion is simply that will given form."
"The will of man imposing itself upon the will of the world."
"Borrowing the power of heaven and earth as though it were your own."
"That is Dominion."
Joren closed his eyes.
Deep in his mind, the purple Talent [Primordial Bladebody] began to flash with violent intensity, burning hotter with every pulse.
What was a blade?
From the moment it was forged, it had only one purpose.
To cut.
Nothing more.
A mountain could stand before it.
An ocean could rise.
Even Dominion itself could descend from the sky.
"If all things have a seam..."
"Then one cut is enough."
Joren opened his eyes.
His pupils were gone.
Two ink black lines stood vertically within them, thin and absolute.
Pure edge.
The world had changed.
Everything could be cut.
The next instant, an indescribable presence erupted from him.
There was no vast pressure.
No overwhelming weight.
Only sharpness.
So pure that it seemed to wound the air itself, drawing faint hissing cries from the space around him.
The blood tendrils wrapped around Joren touched that presence.
They parted without sound.
Butter before heated iron.
"What?"
The Bloodfiend’s face changed.
Something had entered his blood river.
No.
It had forced its way inside.
Like a needle driven into an eye.
"Retreat!"
His shriek came too late.
Orson’s giant claw had already reached Joren’s head.
"Cheap trick!"
Orson drove down with everything he had.
The air beneath the claw compressed until it seemed solid.
The ground caved inward.
Joren raised his blade.
The movement looked slow.
To Orson, it was faster than sight.
A faint tearing sound crossed the courtyard.
Like scissors cutting cloth.
The enormous claw carrying the full power of a middle stage Rank Five shattered apart.
Blood colored protective force broke into countless motes of light.
"What?"
The savage grin on Orson’s face had no time to fade.
Then the pain arrived.
"Aaagh!"
He clutched his right arm and staggered backward.
His entire hand and half his forearm had been severed in one flawless cut.
The surface was smooth enough to reflect light. Even the grain within the bone remained clearly visible.
Blood poured from the wound.
"No."
"That is impossible!"
His pupils shook as he stared at the boy holding the black blade.
That was not brute strength.
"Idiot!"
The Bloodfiend screamed from above.
"That is Blade Intent!"
He cursed Orson, but his own hands never stopped moving.
"Ten Thousand Bats Devour the Heart!"
Both palms slammed together.
The blood river that Joren had driven back began to boil again.
Countless bats no larger than a thumb formed within it and swept toward Joren beneath a shrill ultrasonic cry.
They were not living creatures.
Each had been condensed from corrupted blood.
The instant one touched flesh, it would enter the veins and devour the organs from within.
"Let me see you cut this!"
Poisonous triumph gleamed in the Bloodfiend’s eyes.
Joren looked up at the red swarm blotting out the sky.
Before now, he might have needed thunder to force his way through.
Not anymore.
His wrist turned.
The long blade traced a circle.
The swarm struck an invisible boundary three feet from his body.
Puff.
Puff.
Puff.
Thousands of blood bats burst at once, reduced to mist before they could cross that final distance.
The Bloodfiend went pale and spat out black blood.
"There is something wrong with this brat!"
"We cannot hold anything back!"
His skin flushed crimson as his slender body began to swell.
"Orson, burn your life essence!"
"Otherwise we both die here!"
Madness entered Orson’s eyes.
He understood.
One of them would die today.
"Roar!"
He threw back his head.
Flesh churned violently at the stump of his right arm.
Within two seconds, a new limb grew from the wound, warped and covered in black bone spikes.
"Kill him!"
The two Rank Five monsters attacked from opposite sides.
No retreat.
No restraint.
Only life exchanged for life.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Three figures tore through the ruins of House Hurst.
Every collision sent another tremor through the estate.
Joren had grasped Blade Intent, but the gulf in rank remained.
And he was fighting two enemies at once.
Deep wounds soon opened across his body.
Black Dragon had nearly been destroyed, exposing torn muscle beneath the ruined armor.
Orson and the Bloodfiend were in worse shape.
"Damn it!"
"Why will it not heal?"
Orson stared at his wounds.
Anything cut by [Heaven’s Sin] refused to regenerate.
A domineering blade force remained inside every injury, continuously destroying the vitality of his cells.
More than twenty wounds covered him now.
Every one deep enough to expose bone.
Blood soaked the rubble around his feet.
The Bloodfiend fared no better.
Half one wing had been carved away, leaving him barely able to stagger through the air.
He watched the blood drenched young man grow fiercer with every exchange, and something inside him began to crack.
An ordinary Rank Three Warrior would have burned himself empty long ago.
Joren showed no sign of exhaustion.
The red light in his eyes only grew brighter.
[Bloodthirst Frenzy stacks: 120]
[All attributes increased by 120 percent]
He had become a killing machine that did not tire.
"So this is Rank Five?"
Joren kicked Orson away as the old man tried to strike from behind.
He wiped blood from his face.
Disappointment sat plainly in his eyes.
"Game over."
The blade in his hands stopped.
Joren drew one slow breath.
All the violent air around him went still.
A terrible certainty settled over Orson and the Bloodfiend.
Run.
That single thought filled both their minds.
"Blood Escape!"
The Bloodfiend did not hesitate.
His body burst apart into a rain of blood that scattered in every direction.
Orson turned and fled.
Joren’s voice drifted across the ruins.
Talent, [Phantom Thorn].
Activate.
His body vanished.
The next instant, blinding lightning erupted within the blood rain.
Talent, [Thunder Dominion].
Lightning locked every droplet in place and forced them back together.
The Bloodfiend reformed in midair, screaming as electricity tore through him.
Thunder was the natural enemy of such corrupted methods.
Before the paralysis faded, a black blade settled against his neck.
"In your next life, remember to brush your teeth."
Slice.
The blade fell.
Under the absolute edge of Blade Intent, the pale head flew high into the air, terror and unwillingness still frozen across its face.
The headless body twitched twice before dropping from the sky.
[Ding! Middle stage Rank Five Bloodfiend killed.]
[Bloodstars obtained: 5000]
Orson heard the sound behind him and looked back.
His soul nearly left his body.
Dead?
The unfathomable Lord Bloodfiend had died just like that?
"You are not leaving either."
The voice came from beside his ear.
Every hair on Orson’s body stood upright.
He tried to turn and fight.
Crack.
Pain exploded through both legs.
Joren swept [Heaven’s Sin] across them and cut them away at once.
Orson crashed into the rubble, screaming. His hands clawed desperately at the ground as he tried to drag himself forward.
Joren walked after him.
Black red blood dripped from the edge of [Heaven’s Sin].
"Do not kill me..."
Orson rolled onto his back.
Tears and mucus covered his face.
"I have money."
"I have more than you can imagine."
"I will be your dog."
"I will give you every resource House Hurst owns."
"Please."
"Let me live."
Joren stood over him.
There was nothing in his eyes.
Only the stillness of an abyss.
"Go join your son."
"You owe him that."
"And you owe those students far more."
Joren raised the blade.
"No!"
Orson’s final scream tore through the ruins.
The ugly head rolled across the ground and stopped beside the Bloodfiend’s.
Two severed heads.
Two pairs of eyes that refused to close.
Staring at one another.
[Ding! Middle stage Rank Five Fiend killed.]
[Bloodstars obtained: 5000]
Joren was in no condition to celebrate.
Seven or eight bones had broken across his body, and several organs had shifted from their proper place.
He bent down slowly.
One head in each hand.
Then he turned toward the shattered opening where the gates had once stood.