Chapter 113: blood and steel
Yuki stood in the blood-drenched clearing of the forest, his cloak stained a vivid crimson with golden engravings gleaming beneath the canopy.
A massive blood-formed war spear rested casually over his shoulder as he stared down the cowering men before him.
It had been five days since he had arrived in this remote wilderness. By relentlessly clearing system quests over the past week, Yuki had drastically leveled up his martial fundamentals while deepening his control over [Blood Manipulation]. He could now shape his blood into virtually any weapon or construct imaginable—provided it remained in direct physical contact with his body. The moment a construct lost contact with his skin, its structural integrity collapsed, reverting back into a pool of inert liquid blood.
Because his system rewards had consistently granted him basic combat and weapon skills, Yuki being the perfectionist he was had pushed those fundamentals to their absolute limits, reaching peak theoretical mastery across swordsmanship, spearmanship, blade combat, and combat perception.
The result was a terrifying contrast: a cute, pale young man casually slaughtering entire bandit camps like it was child’s play. Even when facing Rank 1 combatants, his supreme agility, weapon versatility, and absurd vampiric regeneration rendered him virtually unkillable.
Surrounding him were twenty-three remaining bandits, every single one of them trembling in sheer terror.
”How the hell are we supposed to kill her?!” one bandit screamed at his commander, his hands shaking on the hilt of his sword.
”Her ability clearly takes a ridiculous amount of essence to sustain!” the leader shouted back, desperately trying to rally his men. “Keep the pressure on! Once her essence runs dry, we move in and tear her apart!”
”Didn’t the noble say to bring her back alive?!” another called out nervously.
”Shut up!” the leader roared. “There’s no capturing a monster like this! We kill her, collect our coin, and get the hell out of here! Got it?!”
”Sir!” the men yelled in unison, forcing themselves into a battle stance.
Yuki waited patiently, letting them finish their little pep talk before stepping forward to crush them like bugs.
Reaching down, he dragged his own claws across the back of his right hand, slicing through his flesh. The trickiest part of wielding blood constructs was actively suppressing his vampiric regeneration just enough to keep the wound open and flowing. Once he locked his healing factor in check, crimson liquid surged out, instantly hardening into a massive arm-blade that scraped against the dirt.
Dashing forward in a blur, Yuki closed the distance instantly.
The lead bandit swung a wild overhead strike toward Yuki’s neck. Feeling the blade whistle inches over his head, Yuki planted his lead foot, pivoted left on his heel, and whipped his arm around. His blood blade sheared through the bandit’s torso like paper, bisecting him before he could even register the pain.
Before the two halves of the severed body hit the dirt, Yuki was already in the center of the next group.
Three men raised their weapons to defend themselves, but Yuki was simply too fast. He ducked under a heavy horizontal slash, side-stepped a thrust, and let the sword bury itself harmlessly into the ground.
Slamming his boot down onto the flat of the stuck blade, Yuki pinned the weapon into the earth, morphed his blood into a jagged spear, and drove it directly through the attacker’s throat.
”Die, you freak!” another bandit screamed in rage, rushing up from his blind spot with a spearing thrust, planning to impale Yuki while he was anchored.
Yuki didn’t even flinch. He turned casually, sweeping his left arm around to wrap smoothly over the thrusting blade. Guiding the weapon’s tip right under his armpit, he yanked the man off-balance and slammed his clawed right hand straight through the bandit’s chest cavity.
With a flick of his wrist, Yuki tossed the corpse aside, reformed his weapons, and continued his lethal advance.
Man after man rushed him. Man after man fell in seconds.
Yuki dropped low, sliding across the blood-soaked grass on his knees while constructing twin blood katanas, sweeping them out horizontally to sever the legs of three advancing spearmen. Bounding back to his feet, he condensed the blood into a heavy Odachi, splitting one man clean down the middle before instantly morphing the weapon into a thrusting lance to pierce the man behind him.
Within minutes, the clearing fell deathly silent. Over two dozen bodies lay scattered across the forest floor, drowning the grass in a sea of blood.
Yuki let out a soft exhale, flexing his wrist as the crimson constructs dissolved back toward his hand. He was preparing to press deeper into the woods when a bright system interface flashed open before his eyes.
[NEW TASK: ELIMINATE THE HERETIC INQUISITOR]
Reward: [Reinforced Blood] – Significantly increases the density, hardness, and power of all blood constructs.
While stripping the corpses of their armor and weapons to convert into system points, Yuki suddenly felt a heavy, oppressive presence entering the area.
Looking up toward the treeline, he saw his bright red system objective marker floating directly above the approaching figure.
“Time to fight again,” Yuki muttered softly. He pulled a small vial of Goddess Varisa’s blood from his pouch, opened it, and drank it down to instantly replenish his drained essence.
“Well, well, well… Look at what we have here,” the Heretic Inquisitor chuckled, stepping out from between the trees and slowly licking her lips. “Aren’t you a cute little thing? And strong, too—just what I was looking for. The lord said to bring you back alive, but I think I’ll play with you first. Ha! It’s not like he can do anything about it anyway.”
“You talk too much,” Yuki cut her off, his voice ice-cold. “Raise your weapon and come at me. Let’s end this.”
A wide, feral grin stretched across her face. “That’s more like it! Show me your strength, sweetheart!”
Yuki readied his blood blade, preparing to spring forward. But right as he went to take a step, he froze—his pureblood instincts screaming at him to drop into a guard.
Rousing his focus, he brought his weapon up into a tight defensive stance.
In the span of a single heartbeat, she was already upon him. Her massive blade whizzed through the air, slamming down onto Yuki’s weapon with staggering force. The violent impact sent shockwaves rattling through every bone in his body.
Yuki reeled back, his teeth grinding together as his boots dragged deep trenches into the forest floor.
“You feel that? That’s the power of a true master at Rank 1—not some puny punk like you!” she boasted, her grin widening from ear to ear.
Stepping back, she swung her weapon again with terrifying speed, smashing her heavy blade against his guard.
CLANG!
The force sent Yuki flying backward. His hands went numb, and his arms buckled as his blood blade shattered from the sheer physical blow.
Realizing he couldn’t survive by playing defense, Yuki immediately disengaged, dashing backward through the thick woods to buy distance. The fallen Inquisitor pursued him relentlessly, as lethal as she was deranged.
In a split second, Yuki felt another sharp spike in the air. He froze and ducked low.
SWISH—BANG!
Her follow-up strike swept clean over his head, pulverizing a massive oak tree into splintered debris. Twisting her body mid-motion, she brought her blade down in a brutal vertical execution strike.
Yuki leaped backward as the ground where he had been standing detonated, spraying dirt and rock in every direction.
He landed light on his feet, watching as she adjusted her grip on her heavy longsword. Moving forward, she threw a heavy gauntlet-clad punch directly toward his face, her eyes filled with sadistic joy.
Yuki rapidly channeled all his exposed blood around his fist, constructing a dense crimson shield to absorb the impact.
BANG!
The blow knocked Yuki back once more, shattering his temporary blood armor.
The fallen Inquisitor paused her assault, side-stepping and leaping back just as a massive, razor-sharp blood blade whistled inches past her nose, cleanly severing a tree behind her.
Impressed that Yuki had managed to launch a lethal counterattack while under so much physical pressure, she let out a low chuckle before instantly closing the distance to strike again.
Yuki surged his excess essence straight into his eyes and arms, anticipating her charge.
Focusing his blood, he forged a long, segmented blade and unleashed it. The metal-like crimson weapon split apart into multiple interconnected links, transforming into a bladed whip.
Gripping the handle with both hands, Yuki stepped forward, sweeping the weapon in a fluid, flawless motion. The segmented blade whipped through the air like an iron serpent, biting out at his opponent from all angles.
The Heretic Inquisitor gritted her teeth, rushing headlong into the storm of strikes while deflecting and blocking every single lash almost effortlessly.
The two traded rapid blows across the clearing, countering, blocking, and driving each other back without giving an inch to breathe. The forest floor around them shattered into craters, and the surrounding trees were carved to pieces by the stray wind pressure and blood-slashes.
She slammed her right boot down, missing Yuki’s chest by mere inches, before leaning into a lethal thrust with her longsword.
Yuki instantly formed a heavy blood war hammer in one hand, bringing it smashing down onto her blade to redirect her weapon into the dirt. Simultaneously, he used his free hand to construct a long halberd, driving the spear tip forward to impale her chest.
Releasing her right hand from her sword hilt, she brought her heavy gauntlet up, swatting the incoming halberd aside with the back of her wrist and knocking the weapon straight out of Yuki’s grip.
Seeing that his balance was broken, Yuki relinquished his control over the hammer, dissolving it into liquid as he tumbled backward to reset his stance for the next exchange.