Chapter 47 – Using the Blood Powers
Now that he managed to get his hands on some cold steel and after he finished reinforcing the iron blade in a layer of his blood. Feeling satisfied with the time it took him to reinforce the blade, he thought in his head.
'Hmm, good about 12 seconds for the first layer of blood. I'll keep adding layers as we go forward.'
He then threw the other sword to Kipset after he came after cleaning his kills. Receiving the cold sword, Kipset gripped his hold on the sword with a more serious face. He tried to be as calm as possible in all this ordeal. At the same time, Inorra and Aerius, who were on Robert's shoulder, trembled a little when seeing how Vlad quickly killed the two guards in cold blood.
"Man, what crazy guy did Louis left to take care of me before I get to my adult form." said Aerius while tapping with his tail Robert's back.
"Don't worry, it's not like he will kill you or something. So probably we're the safest in all this ordeal." responded Robert while staring at Vlad, a bit affected by how cruel his kill was.
"Hmm, little guy, I'm really glad that I can stay with you, and not that weird Vermilion. With you at least I feel that I can talk easily, not having to back out from saying certain things. Robert, I'll help you out with the fights, just don't get me killed. My vision and hearing are higher than yours humans, so I'll be your ears and eyes when a fight starts."
Started Aerius saying this to Robert as if to make him team-up faster with him.
"I've never heard of a gryphon from my teacher, but I draw to believe that what you're saying is true. I'll count on you friend. I still have to get home in one piece, I can't die here." replied Robert to the little gryphon.
Then Robert looked at Vlad's tall back and the now crimson blade in his hand. He couldn't say that he felt some fear from Vlad, but it was still manageable knowing that he has no intention of harming him. He could see his long jet-black hair flowing on his back when a strong wind blew, showing his cold and emotionless face.
With Aerius's support, the feeling of vomiting was removed when he saw the guards killed in that fashion. Still, remembering that vision of his, he gritted his teeth and followed Vlad's back.
They continued walking silently between the cover of the houses. They thought they were unnoticed, but somewhere close to the gates, a blonde man was thinking of something concerning this shift. He turned toward his subaltern and asked in a worried tone.
"Has unit 8 come back to report to the center? It's been 20 minutes since they left, and no signs of them back. They would be messing around with their patrol, right?"
"Sir Anastas, you're worrying too much. They would just take a break or something. Nothing moves around here anyway, so the guys take it easy. There are eight units on patrol this night, while the rest are looking over the gate or inside the control building, in total 38 people for this day." reported the guard to Anastas, with a blank expression.
"No, I feel something going on here that is wrong. Those two aren't the kind to slack work. Those two would already be back by now. Get unit 3 and 5 to check along the route they followed immediately." commanded Anastas while frowning a bit at his thoughts.
'Is the Blood Devil out of the escape this year? All by himself on the hunt, he's truly crazy. I hope I can stop him until sir Belpel takes notice of the entire situation. But what if it is just my mind acting up over nothing? Would I get punished for creating a mess in the patrol order? Whatever, I'll deal with the consequences, better safe than sorry.'
The subaltern left to tell units 3 and 5 to look for unit 8. The guards could only compile since the orders came from Anastas, second in command after Belpel.
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They left on their way to where unit 8 was supposed to patrol. Team 5 took the path leading to the alley's left, while unit 3 went forward from the central passage. They felt always doing rounds of the zone when it was total darkness.
All sounds could be heard, from the winds hitting the stone walls or even blowing from their ears, going as far as hearing their heartbeats.
The guard's units split to be more efficient when searching unit 8. Team 5 took the path to the left, precisely the one Vlad was moving towards after killing unit 8. Walking by the side of the stone homes, he heard the sounds of footsteps moving towards him as if each of them were drops of water resounding right in his ears.
'Good, to think using « Enhancement » on my senses could be such a great success. I thought of using that little bugger Aerius to help me out with the senses and vision, but there's no need. The consummation of the blood power is decent so far.'
He was a bit surprised to hear that there were already so many guards moving around his direction.
While in his crouched position, he started trying to find any locations to hide his presence and prepare for another easy kill. Yet, the chance wasn't for him, unfortunately. There were only the homes' walls to stay beside. Those walls couldn't offer him any hiding place for what he had in mind to do. As such, he turned to look towards Kipset, who held the guard's sword by his side and said coldly.
"Prepare for a fight. Go for their openings, and try not to make a mess. While the other two will look for the backside, if someone is coming in the opposite direction, try and deal with them. Got it?"
Aerius, who heard that from Vlad, approached his face closer to Robert's ears and said in a whisper. "This is our chance friend, if it's your first time fighting, just follow my instructions. It will help a lot Kipset and his fight."
"I understand." nodded his head, Robert, while strengthening his grip on the glass dagger.
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The 3 of the boys only nodded their heads and prepared themselves for a tense fight against the coming guards. If the rest of the group was nervous, Vlad, now that he had a real sword in his hands which to top it off, was even reinforced in his Blood Powers. For him, the feeling of holding a sword when fighting was the best. It took him more than two years to achieve that.
He truly felt now like a fish in the water. He could only think evilly in his mind about the unfortunate moments of the guards. At the same time, the mark on his chest area pulsed a bit without giving Vlad any pain.
After two minutes of waiting, finally, unit 5 reached where Vlad's group was situated. Not expecting to see four young men staring at them after passing by the house. They appeared to wait right there in place for them to appear.
The guards discovered the boys beside the house wall, especially the tall young man with long hair and a cold, handsome face, with protruding green eyes. They instantly reacted, shouting.
"Found you, rats. So, Sir Anastas was right all along. It was you, Blood, causing all this commotion. Give up. You can't fight your way out of this." ended the guard while drawing out his sword together with his colleague. They rushed ruthlessly at the boys, with the idea of not giving them time to react, but for the worst of them, Vlad expected this outcome.
With the blood sword already in hand, Vlad clashed swords with the first guard, who rushed at him. They touched swords for a brief moment, testing their powers, but the guard pushed forward with his strikes. Not wanting to give Vlad any fleeting moments to think or react, he attacked relentlessly. His colleague also wanted to attack Vlad but was stopped by Kipset, who clashed strongly with his sword.
"Ohh, you're not bad, young man. For a slave who probably wields his first real sword, you have some technique in you." said the guard fighting Kipset with a grin on his face while he was pushing around Kipset. The young man was parrying most of the guards' blows using a basic yet efficient Pflug(Longpoint) Guard.
Aerius seeing that Kipset blocked that guard, nodded his head for a bit and said to Robert. "Keep waiting don't mess up and rush like a idiot to get Kipset distracted. When a chance for you to strike appears I'll tell you." turning his attention on Inorra, he said to him.
"Hey you idiot kid, don't you think of doing anything stupid such as distracting your big brother there."
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When Inorra heard the gryphon say that, he stopped from rushing to help out Kipset and started thinking in his head. What Aerius said made sense, and so he also waited to see what Kipset would do with this guard.
Similarly, Robert already had his dagger prepared and was waiting for Aerius' signals.
The guard noticed the two brats and a weird black cat on the smaller kid looking at him as if he was prey. He snickered while clashing swords with Kipset, and when they disengaged, he only said.
"Those friends of yours, don't really seem like friends to me. They didn't even jumped to help you against me." said the guard this to Kipset in order to disturb him mentally.
However, Kipset only did a mocking smile while rushing at the guard with a middle-stage Longpoint Guard and did a vertical strike to the unexpected guard.
'Hmm, those weird stances sure are annoying.' thought out the guard as he blocked the attack coming from Kipset.
Then as they continued clashing their sword, Kipset, who started being pushed by the guard, saw as the guard began doing a thrusting cut on his chest. With serious eyes, he prepared a sword stance that looked close to Neben to counter that thrust.
When Aerius saw Kipset's movement and stance, he tapped Robert's face and said to him with a rushed tone. "Now, now. Prepare for your strike. When you see Kipset almost clashing swords with that guard rush to stab him on his side."
"Sure, ahhh, they are close." discovered Robert that Kipset and the guard were close to clashing their swords.
Tightening his grip on the dagger, even Inorra noticed the changes in Robert and was also prepared to attack. Then Robert rushed towards the guard with his dagger ready, followed by Inorra.
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Then as if Aerius could see in the future, Kipset, who was close to clash swords with the guard, raised his sword and deflected it, pushing the guard's sword high from his strike.
Losing balance and with his arms in the air after they followed the sword, he heard some steps in his way, then when he turned his head, he spotted Robert with a dagger moving in the direction of his side.
In just some short seconds, Robert stabbed the guard on his sides, making the guard let a massive cry of pain. Gritting his teeth, he stared coldly at Robert and getting his balance back, and with a more stable sword, he prepared to strike Robert for that cheap-shot, but Aerius was a step ahead of him, giving Robert a punch in his head while yelling in his ears.
"Get the fuck out from here or you'll get slashed in parts!"
As if lightning stroke him, Robert and even Inorra, who was late to make a successful attack, got back to their initial position, making the guard fume with anger.
Yet, the guard didn't give up on the fight and did a series of strikes that managed to wound Kipset, bypassing his guard right on his shoulder.
Kipset gritted his teeth to hold in pain. Fortunately for him, the wound wasn't deep.
"Hoh, you managed to keep your calm. You're a really talented young man. As for those bugs beside you, just let me kill them, and I'll make it easier for our fight." said the guard while touching a bit the stab he just received from Robert while looking with hate at Robert and the weird creature who talked on that boy's shoulder.
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On the other side, Vlad and the other guard also had an interesting fight. The one pushing the other and winning was Vlad that was doing a series of attacks with the crimson sword. Yet, to Vlad's surprise, the guard didn't panic. It felt to him that from how the guard fought so passively that he was waiting for reinforcements to come.
Vlad smirked at the guard and increased the intensity of his swordplay speed. From how Vlad began his strike, it seems that he even forgot about his first world sword stances and pushed with basic instinct on guard.
Clash after clash, Vlad pushed the guard's some small steps. The guard managed to parry his blows, but for how long? Vlad started dissecting the guard's fighting style in his mind like he was a surgeon while leaving the appearance that he, too, was having a hard time fighting with the guard.
With each second passing, the guard's breath got more declining, a sign of using too much energy on this fight while Vlad was not even breathing that much. As if this fight was more Vlad toying with this guard, tormenting him with various tempo attacks and combo strikes.
Seeing the guard's labored breathing of air finally made Vlad switch to a traditional sword stance from his first world, Vom Tag(Roof) Guard. With his crimson sword raised to his right shoulder side, he gave an evil grin to the guard while his eyes looked even colder.
The guard was sweating from having to defend all this fight. Using a bit of his Blood Powers « Enhancement » his strength in his arms increased by some margins. He later followed the momentum with a fast diagonal strike that crushed the guard sword guard. Rendering the guard only to stare at the Blood Devil in front of him, who was preparing to cull his life with an indifferent facial expression.
The guard now left all open, gave Vlad the chance of ending this guard. But suddenly, he heard footsteps going towards him. Another group of guards rushed to reinforce the guards already engaged in the fight, and especially the struggling one who was dealing with Vlad.
"It was you all along, Zagreus. You devil, did you by chance kill unit 8? Damn, you'll pay for this. This time you'll die for sure, no longer spared like two years ago." said one guard of unit 3 with fury in his eyes, who was also rushing to clash swords with Vlad.
Vlad's only response was to snort, not feeling like talking to those insignificant people. The only moment he spoke with someone on the battlefield was when he really found a worthy foe or someone he wanted to torment. As for the common soldiers from the enemy armies, they were just ants to him when getting in the war mode.
Following to parry the coming blow, deflecting the guard's sword to the side, opening his body open for a cut or thrust. But that opportunity ended as soon as he spotted the mate of the one belonging to unit 3 rushed to save his skin, clashing his sword with Vlad's crimson sword.
'Maybe I should add another two layers to the sword, making it three layered. So it shall be.'
Then as Vlad thought of that, fresh blood started to surround his crimson blood while he was clashing swords with the guards. In doing so, some viscous blood was blasted from Vlad's sword, but while this happened, it always found its way back on the sword.
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Like this, a status-quo began where Vlad was waiting for enough blood to gather on the sword from inside of his body. Then after 10-12 seconds, that liquid-viscous fresh blood would solidify when Vlad would disengage from the clash.
Similarly, he did this for another time, adding a 3rd layer to his crimson sword, making the guards confused about what they saw.
The fight turned into a 1vs3, but Vlad was quite relaxed and composed compared to the other guards even when he used his Blood Powers which required him to spend some attention. He smiled evilly at them and only said in a cold tone." Playtime is over."
The guards were confused by what they heard and rushed to cut Vlad's body. But as soon as they approached Vlad, they felt the aura around him suddenly shift. They felt the taste of blood on the tip of their tongue. At the same time, they could hear a loud beat resounding around them, like the drum of a god smashing it in their eardrums. Vlad's heart was displaying its power, quickly pushing blood into his arteries. In just some seconds, a cycle ended, followed by other cycles. The blood rushed madly in his system like it was a factory going on overclock.
Vlad didn't show any changes on the outside. Still, compared to the outside, his insides were like a slumbering Leviathan who finally had the chance to wake from the deep sea long sleep.
He was still looking at the guards clashing their swords with his broadsword, but his focus was more on his circulatory system and tissues. After some seconds of only blocking the relentless strikes of the guards, he finally made his move.
Deflecting the guard's attack with a powerful horizontal strike enhanced by his devil powers. The guards, taken by surprise, got pushed by Vlad's powerful blow. After being pushed by Vlad's blow, from where they were, they started to see Vlad was slowly disappearing from their view. In a second, Vlad was right in front of them with his sword raised for a vertical cut. His sword created a slight wind that enhanced the strike of his sword when going for that cut.
While staring at the sword that was fastly approaching him, the guard that the sword was targeting could only grit his teeth and put an attempt at a parry from where he was. Unfortunately for him, his body couldn't keep up with Vlad's speed and power, ending up killed by the vertical cut that switched direction a bit. The guard's body almost got split into two parts.
Slowly Vlad turned his attention on the two guards left, that had a face of fear. One even shouted at Vlad to trigger some emotion on his cold face. "You might kill us now, but you can't kill sir Belpel in combat. You're still far from his power. You'll die soon."
Vlad scoffed at his petty attempt to annoy him and rushed to kill them. It didn't take long to end the rest since their morale dropped by a significant margin. They didn't stand a chance for Vlad's enhanced body. Both guards ended up killed in the same menacing and brutal manner of almost being ripped into pieces. After killing the guards blocking his way, he nodded his head when feeling the changes going inside his body and how his body reacted and moved.
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Vlad turned his head toward where Kipset and the guard of unit 5 fought alone, while Robert Inorra and Aerius were looking by the side in a calm manner. He could see Kipset having some cuts on his body but was still fighting head to head with the guard. The guard was not faring any better than Kipset. His shoulder and legs were having some nasty cuts oozing blood, especially the side of his body that was heavily bleeding.
He stared coldly at Kipset's way of fighting and could only nod his head in approval, feeling that all the two years he trained the boy wasn't just for nothing.
Robert, Aerius, and Inorra noticed Vlad moving towards them with some blood on his clothes that surprisingly started to be removed from his clothes. As if to push the dirt away from the true master. The two already got used to seeing Vlad in this way. Especially Aerius that calmed a bit down when he saw that Vlad looked at him with his clear dark-green eyes and not the dark misty energy. The rest switched back to watch Kipset and the guard fight.
Kipset heard someone's footsteps moving towards him and turned to look at who it was. When he did that, the guard tried to take advantage of this but was detected by Vlad. The latter acted before he could react, summoning a small projectile of solidified blood the size of a ping-ball that he launched toward the guard temple.
The guard failed to notice the ping-ball projectile rushing at a fast speed in his direction, failing to do so. His brain ended destroyed from the inside as the projectile made its way inside his skull. That was how powerful a condensed ball Vlad could summon was at the moment. Even being able to pass solid bodies like the skull directly.
Kipset was shocked. He felt something passing by from where Vlad was but couldn't see it properly. Not long, he heard someone's body dropping on the ground and Vlad's cold, indifferent voice.
"Never in your life do you take your eyes off your enemy, regardless if is an inoffensive looking child, woman, or aged person. Or you'll later get yourself killed for forgetting the basics. You were shit in that fight, but at the same time passable."
