Chapter 85 - Confronting the Assassins

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As he was pushed by one of the silver masked assassins, the rest of the assassins followed with their respective attacks striking different spots on his body.

Quickly those blows approached Vlad's undefended body, but just as they were close to cut his body, blood began to make its appearance all over the zones targeted.

That mass of blood spread around his body quickly morphed into crimson armor plates.

The sound of a clash resounded in the dark alley.

Then, with the clash's end, the silver masked assassins retreated a bit when they saw Vlad's sword beginning to get covered in layers of blood.

"Well, well. Your devil fruit powers are quite intriguing. However, at the end of the day, you're just a devil user and nothing more. End him, guys."

The silver masked guys arranged themselves in a fighting formation and began rushing once again towards Vlad, who by now had his entire body covered in the crimson armor.

Similarly, Nemesis had formed 4 layers of blood on its blade.

It didn't take long for the assassins to once again get in his range, however this time, he also stepped forward to meet their blows.

Using [Blood Dash], his speed increased even more and, in doing so, came faster than the silver masked assassins could have expected.

His sword, when doing the vertical striking motion, the blade already had imbued a lot of blood from the blood continuously pushed in the sword.

"Don't block. Dodge it." said the gold masked guy from a distance, overseeing the entire fight.

The assassin that Vlad targeted had a confused face as he was preparing to dodge that sword strike.

"Too late, he's mine." said Vlad coldly as he was swinging his sword, delivering the [Blood Slicer] that had a greater intensity.

Yet, as the menacing blood strike got toward the shocked assassin, a sword appeared right in front of the blood attack.

"Hmph, you think I'll let you kill some of my good men? You're overestimating yourself scum."

This time it was Vlad's turn to look a bit surprised when staring at the gold masked guy soft sword that had a black layer on it.

'This guy is a haki user. Tsk, the fight will be hard.'

Drawing back his sword, blood began feeding Nemesis once again. It seemed that he prepared another [Blood Slicer]. But as he was feeding the sword, dark smoke began to surround the blade too.

Not long after the first blood strike, he sent this enhanced [Blood Slicer] right in the gold masked guy direction.

Seeing this attack, the gold masked guy sneered behind his mask as he placed his sword imbued in haki to block it.

"It's useless. All your attacks are in vain."

Seconds after Vlad sent his attack and arrived in front of the assassin, with his sword imbued in haki he once again did a parrying movement.

Then with him placing his sword to block Vlad's attack, a difference began showing up this time. The assassin was heavily pushed by the blood strike, and even his arm got slashed a bit.

"Lord, are you okay!?"

This was the only question the silver masked assassins could ask at this time, behind their hidden shocked expression.

"It's fine, he just took me by surprise that's all. Do you still want to test yourselves, you guys?"

"Lord. We'll try to take him down on our own since it would be an offense for you to act so soon."

"Good. Then go ahead, I'll watch your steps."

Ending saying that all 5 silver masked assassins began moving toward Vlad with a faster speed.

When Vlad saw this, he directly took the Longpoint Guard with the claymore and began taking some steps back, preparing to receive these attacks while pushing more blood around himself, surrounding the assassins and himself.

Staring coldly at the assassins, he also noted that their weapons had some sort of invisible repelling force.

'I think that's haki too, however these silver masked guys haven't fully got it like the gold masked guy.'

'Lets see what I can do against them, worst case scenario I use all my power to escape their encirclement.'

Not long after he finished some of his quick thoughts, his mind got drawn back fully on the fight.

Using his long swordpoint as the first hurdle the assassins would have to take to attack him, he prepared in advance for his later skills, still pushing blood from his feet on the ground. He started blocking the attacks of the assassins while taking continuous steps around the dark alley.

Step by step, he was getting closer to the exit. However, when taking a step closer to the exit, his enhanced senses signaled another attack from his side.

Four small daggers, imbued with Haki flew in his direction directly for his legs and chest.

Seeing those daggers and also having to cope with the silver masked guys, he took a sudden decision and moved back toward the assassins, with an unexpected combo strike that had his sword striking vertically and followed by a quick horizontal strike.

Vlad thought only about the fluid movement this first stance of his [Blood Swordplay - Swift End] should be to achieve the most damage to the assassins.

Those strikes contained Vlad's blood powers when colliding with the assassin's weapons.

When he clashed his sword with two assassins, the three other assassins rushed toward his sides, trying to break his stance.

"Tsk, this guy clearly can tell what's more dangerous. His choice was the best pick he had."

Remarked the gold masked guy while watching from a distance the fight between his assassins and Vlad.

"These new recruits are quite bad, not being able to finish this Blood guy as the protocol states, a swift annihilation. Should I address them to the Elder Assembly or it's that guy stronger than expected."

Commented the gold masked guy from behind, staring at the assassins as each of their strikes were blocked flawlessly by Vlad. The fight, even if it was a 1vs5, looked so far balanced, however signs of exhaustion already showed on Vlad's movements.

Meanwhile, on Vlad's side, he took a defensive stance as he blocked most of the assassin's strikes, but every time he blocked those strikes, his body would suffer even more.

Vlad finally could taste for himself the difference of a true elite fighter, trained from young in unknown manners to him could get them.

'Their formation is so tricky to break. Even [Swift End] or [Crimson Tempest] couldn't break them. To add salt to injury, my blood power starts to get drained with each passing moment. I think I can start imploding [Blood World] and slowly recover a bit.'

He didn't have time to think of his strategy for the fight because the assassins were constantly on his tail, no longer giving him the chance to retaliate. However, he could hear that even their breaths were starting to get harder.

That meant that a chance to end some of them by surprise existed regardless if the gold masked jumped to save them.

Clashing Nemesis with their swords and being pushed a bit by their strong attack, he heard the assassins say to themselves.

"Let's end him, guys. We already embarrassed ourselves in front of Lord Wincester."

"I agree, let's deploy the smoke field and end him."

The 5 assassins all agreed on their following attacks, as they got some smoke balls from their clothes and released them on the ground, crashing and turning the already dark night into an even darker and smoky atmosphere.

"So they finally decided to end that guy? Hmph, that's quite late. We already wasted 10 minutes on a useless fight." commented Wincester as the dark smoke already reached him, creating a perfect veil for the trained assassins.

Looking down at the smoke bombs as they dropped and created a dark smoke veil around him and the 5 assassins turned his cold and collected face into a big sinister grin.

He raised his left arm and accelerated the forming of [Blood World], which circled around the 5 assassins blended in the smoke veil.

The assassins didn't know that they would be trapped and acted according to their plan, attacking Vlad with their strongest attack while taking him by total surprise.

In just some seconds Vlad who was creating [Blood World] heard the friction of air created by the speed of the Assassins, and pushing more blood in Nemesis, he let go of the sword creating a shield to block the assassins.

The voices of the assassins suddenly arrived close to his ears as they called their attacks.

"Garrote"

"Eviscerate"

"Sinister Strike"

"Guillotine"

Followed by their voices, their arms suddenly appeared from the smoke veil to attack an unexpected Vlad, but they saw him with a large shield standing right in front of them.

Gritting their teeth, they continued their attack and shattered the shield, along with a significant chunk of his crimson armor.

They wanted to follow with another attack after seeing that their attack caused so much damage, but as they blended again in the smoke veil, they heard a cold laugh resounding around them.

Ignoring the laughter, they stepped in the shadows and prepared another attack, yet suddenly as they looked down on the floor, something happened that marked them.

"ARGH, my leg!?  How did this happen?" cried in pain one of the silver masked guys while staring at his foot that had a sharp red spike running on it.

"Probably his devil fruit ability. Focus, and listen to your surroundings."

The madly evil laugh resounded around the assassins, along with a sound of something moving at a fast speed approaching them.

"DODGE!?"

Roared one of the assassins when noticing what was coming in his direction. A crimson sword emitting a red light on its blade was floating in the air toward them at fast speed.

He and his group dodged successfully, yet as the sword disappeared in the smoke veil, it just some seconds appeared yet again, moving at them in an ominous fashion.

This process went for a while, until one who got wounded said, with an exhausted tone.

"We can't continue like this, we have to break out from this place, or this guy will toy us from the distance."

"You're right, but don't think he's fine. Do you think summoning such a construct, or attacking us with that flying sword doesn't tax him? It does."

"Prepare your strongest attack!?"

Vlad saw every movement of the assassins, and when he noticed that they planned to use their strongest attacks on the walls, he summoned back Nemesis and rushed toward them.

He used the blood on the floor and wall to attack them and disturb their process, for as long he could, at least until his arrival.

"He's panicking guys, ignore those petty tricks and gather all your strength and destroy those walls."

They dodged some of the wall attacks and attacked the wall with their strongest attack. Vlad was a step late to strike the assassins, however he still sent two [Blood Slicers] that contained dark energy in them toward the fleeing assassins.

When everything that happened inside the [Blood World] started, Wincester, who only thought that his assassins only had some minor difficulties ending Vlad, soon started frowning when not hearing any sound.

In all his arrogance, he moved to check the assassins but suddenly stopped at the walls of a cube structure placed right on top of the smoke veil.

"Could it be? My assassins got trapped inside with that Blood guy. Tsk, I have to break them out, and also take that guy out. I've waited already enough."

Ending saying that he covered his sword in Armament Haki and prepared a strong attack, but as he was doing that, he heard a big clash going on the wall he was looking followed by the shattering of the wall.

Looking inside the structure, he could see that everything was blood red, along with the silver masked guys and two dark-red large lines moving toward the assassins with a fast speed.

"What!?"

Seeing those attacks, Winchester tried to step in and block them but was a step late and had to see two of the elite assassins being sliced in halves.

Looking at the 3 remaining assassins, he said with an annoyed tone.

"You incompetent bunch, that's what you've been trained in the New World? How to get killed by nobodies from the Four Seas. You taint the organisation's prestige with such low performance. Now get the fuck from my sight."

Hearing this from Wincester, the silver masked assassins could just lower their heads and move away from Wincester direction.

Followed by that, Winchester turned to look at Vlad and said to him with an indifferent tone.

"You did a good job killing those two scums. I applaud your skills. For someone belonging to one of the weakest seas, you could hang inside the New World. However, it's unfortunate you have met me. Your journey ends here."

Vlad, who began canceling out the remaining [Blood World] and waiting for his blood to get back, began releasing the dark energy from his body which started covering him in a cloud of dark smoke.

Wincester's eyes looked curious at Vlad, who had his entire body surrounded by this tar-like smoke by now.

"Heh, I don't know what you are pulling there, but I'll not wait for you to end your preparations. I've seen plenty of fools letting their enemy finish their transformations and they ended badly. That's the first rule of the union, end your enemy as swiftly you can."

As he ended saying that, he rushed toward Vlad with his soft sword covered in Armament Haki and delivered a strong diagonal attack that was sure to hold devastating power in it on a vulnerable Vlad who was in the process of a transformation.

"Agonizing Slash"

This attack moved directly to Vlad body, as around his body, the dark smoke morphed into a solid armor that blocked the sword attack while cracking a bit.

Wincester drew his sword back and used the same attack that dented the black armor even more. The only difference this time was that this blow pushed Vlad straight into a building.

"Hmph, don't think I'm done here, you're clearly not dead. What ability is that, I have no clue, but it doesn't hold a candle against me."

Vlad raised slowly from that building, and while doing that, the cracks on the black armor filled back by the darkness surrounding and pulsing around him.

Wincester could see that Vlad's hair and even frame began transforming in real-time right in front of his eyes. Seeing his hair turn from jet-black to full white, and similarly, his mask and eyes turning black together with a slightly paler skin tone put on his face a smile.

"Look at you man, you look so great right now. Why didn't you use that against those lowly guys?"

In the face of this question, Vlad continued to walk calmly while Nemesis in his hand also changed appearance, becoming darker than the red appearance it had first.

"I see, so you want to treat me quietly so be it. Since you got serious, let me also get serious, so you don't feel I look down on you."

As he ended saying that, Wincester's body suddenly disappeared from Vlad's vision, as if everything that happened was an illusion.

With this sudden disappearance, Vlad's stopped from his walk and looked left and right around the dark alley. It felt as if he was the only one alone in this alley.

The darkness around flowed in nothingness with each passing minute by waiting for Wincester's attack.

An attack came from behind that pushed him, but when he turned, he couldn't see the gold-masked Wincester, who disappeared as if he was a ghost.

'Could it be? He's also a devil fruit user? An invisible guy? This is really bad. My transformation only lasts 10 minutes."

Thinking that in his head, he got attacked 3 times, but when he was ready to attack, he was yet again alone by himself.

Slowly minutes passed, and Vlad, who was made to constantly defend even in his dark form, finally thought of something that could work on this unorthodox opponent.

He did a cut on his hand and began splashing blood around himself in its liquid state until he finally sensed that he touched something with his blood.

Finally, after 4 minutes after he was pushed around like a rag doll, he gripped tightly Nemesis that suddenly released a big stream of dark energy from its blade.

Taking a sword stance where his sword was hanging to his left, he focused on sensing Wincester location and his changing position that was approaching more and more to him.

When the assassin stepped inside his sword range, he unleashed a powerful vertical strike from his stance that seemed to even turn the area of attack in complete darkness, an effect that even the light of the moon could reach.

'[Dark Swordplay - Death's Serenity]'

Doing this strike, Nemesis seemed to connect with something, and shortly after, the sound of a man grunt was heard. Soon following the grunt, the figure of the gold masked guy appeared before Vlad at the wall of a building, with a slight wound on his body.

Noticing that he managed to wound the assassin in this exchange, swiftly he started summoning blood that turned in daggers that he began throwing toward Wincester.

The assassin snorted and began deflecting those blood daggers with his sword coated in haki and later began moving toward Vlad with a type of footwork unseen to him.

"Phantom Steps"

This was all he heard when Wincester disappeared from his vision once again. However, this time, he no longer played Vlad around to attack him on occasion because it didn't take long and his voice once again resounded with an impending doom signal.

"Phantom Slash"

Turning around, he quickly blocked with Nemesis. When this clash of weapons started, it was clear that Wincester had the advantage in this. Nemesis, which was coated in multiple layers of blood and strengthened with Vlad's dark energy, could be seen to have cracks on this coating.

Noticing that he was losing this clash of weapons, Vlad did a cheap kick toward Wincester stomach area that made him break the sword clash.

"Haha, what is wrong Blood guy, scared that your sword will break? I'm not done here."

He once again rushed toward Vlad, and with only a push of his feet, he disappeared. Seconds later, when he reappeared again, he was already doing a slashing attack toward his chest.

"Phantom Dance"

The speed and power of the assassin placed Vlad on the defense until the series of slashes that Wincester sent were blocked. In this process, the one that suffered the most damage in the fight was Nemesis, who had all its coating taken away, leaving only the sharp iron blade.

However, something, in addition, started disturbing his attention apart from the fight with the assassin. There was a voice that he thought stopped bothering him forever that appeared again in his head, resounding in his mind with a cold and arrogant tone that belonged to his own.

"Hah, you're so bad, master. Can you even get us from this alive? You fool why are you still trying to fight him when you're clearly outclassed by this guy? Your focus from the start should be to get out from this as fast as possible!?"