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Vlad swung his blade against the Blood Demon Skeletons with everything he had. Moving as quickly as he could, although the skeletons sometimes were faster, catching up to him and attacking him together. Their Blood Demon Runes gave them short burst of power and speed, giving them the ability to surprise him.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
As they hit him, he tried to dodge or parry the blows; however, they were too many. Despite the small cracks spreading across its rusty surface, he was utilizing the armor to its full potential and taking hits with it too.
“Haah!”
He kicked the skeleton in front of him, swinging his blade horizontally and slashing apart two other skeletons, only for them to begin crawling towards him even when divided into two, grabbing his legs tightly, trying to break them.
“Dammit, cut it out!”
He pierced their heads and shattered their skulls; only one of them ended up dying as he pierced the Demon Blood Crystal inside and absorbed its essence; the other continued moving.
“So not every one of them got the crystal in the same place…!”
Vlad realized that the Heavenly Demon snorted.
“But of course they don’t, my brainless reincarnation.” He laughed. “That would make things too easy, wouldn’t they?!”
“Ah, you’re not helping at all by being an ass, you know?!”
Vlad continued fighting, kicking the skeleton away and then hitting it with his shield to destroy the bones, enhancing his arm strength using the Blood Demon Runes he gained.
CRAAASH!
As he shattered them, he found the destroyed red crystal in the middle of the pelvis! It had gone all the way there to hide from him.
Once he broke it, its essence leaked, but he quickly touched it, making sure not much was lost.
He didn’t have time to rest though; the moment he kneeled to grab that crystal, three more skeletons attacked his back while two more came from the front.
“Use your Soul Aura! You can unleash a Soul Pressure with it; you’ve cultivated it enough, fool!”
The Heavenly Demon panicked, giving him an important tip.
“Soul Aura… right!”
Vlad quickly unleashed his Soul Aura, by merely willing it to happen, his golden aura surged, suddenly gaining red-colored veins and resembling flames.
FLUOSH!
The Soul Pressure pushed the skeletons way, burning their bodies with Soul Flames, buying him enough time to grab the sword and slash their legs apart.
SLAAASH!
After that, he charged against them, smashing the head of one, stabbing another’s ribcage, and then crushing a third with the shield.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
As he crushed them, he felt their broken crystals fuel him with a bit more energy, which he used to attack the other two that were on his front.
He jumped over one of them and pushed it into the ground with the weight of his body before crushing its bones with his fists.
Then, the second that came behind him, hitting him very strongly with a hammer, shattering the backside of his armor, was quickly greeted with several spear thrusts, making its broken body collapse.
“How many more do I need to fight? This is endless…!”
Vlad kept moving across the floor of the castle, finding more and more red skeletons with horns everywhere; they immediately attacked him upon seeing him.
There was no way to escape or grain any sort of higher ground; the only thing he could do was fight and struggle until the bitter end.
“Prove your worth and fight!”
“Those that don’t fight aren’t worthy!”
“Prove your worth!”
“Fight, battle!”
“Don’t you dare escape!”
“There’s nowhere to escape…! Fight to the death!”
“Prove… yourself!”
The skeletons surrounded him, dozens after dozens of them making a huge army; so many of them were that they had little space to even stand, stuck with one another like a swarm.
[Prove to the Ancient Blood Demons that you’re worthy of inheriting their true legacy.]
[Fight as many of the Ancient Blood Demons while not using Skills or Magic, using your stats alone.]
[Because of this trial, your Stats had been restored to their original numbers.]
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[Objective: Slay as many Ancient Blood Demons as possible. The more you slay, the higher your score.]
[Time Left: 24 Minutes.]
Vlad glanced at the system message again.
“It has only been six minutes?!”
He felt like he had already been fighting for a whole hour, but barely six minutes had passed, and twenty-four more were needed for this to end.
And he believed that if he died, it would be game over, and he wouldn’t pass the test. So while having to slay as many as possible, he also had to survive until the last minute.
“A cowardly pipsqueak like you can never hope to inherit our ancient legacy!”
A furious Blood Demon Skeleton roared, rushing towards Vlad.
This one was different than the rest too, twice as big, with four arms and a sword in each weapon.
He had four horns and a longer pair of them on his forehead too…
It seemed to be of a higher ranking, probably giving more points as well.
Strangely enough, the other Blood Demon Skeletons didn’t interfere, watching from the sidelines as this “general” marched towards Vlad.
“No, I will prove you I can.”
Vlad’s mind blazed with new resolve after realizing he had no other option than to struggle with whatever tools he had at his disposal.
He grabbed the swords the skeletons had been dropping and threw them at the four-armed blood demon skeleton, controlling them with his Soul itself.
How? By wrapping them on Soul Threads themselves!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Gahahah! What’s this? It’s not even worth a damn thing!”
The four-armed blood demon skeleton, however, easily slashed the weapons away, laughing at Vlad’s stupid attempt at dealing any damage.
However, that was merely a distraction.
CRASH!
“Guh?!”
The skeleton glared at Vlad, who had sneaked behind him and pierced his spear through its pelvis all the way to the chest and then the head.
“Is this worth anything then?”
FLUOSH!
Blood Soul Flames erupted from the spear as it was destroyed, exploding alongside the giant skeleton’s insides, spreading tiny bits of red bones everywhere.
BOOOM!
As it fell apart into a pile of red bones, the other blood demons gave a step back, surprised that Vlad could use magic in here.
“How can he use magic?!”
“This is a sacred place!”
“Powers such as those are sealed!”
Vlad wasn’t using magic though, but his very soul to destroy them. He had used a tiny piece of it, igniting it through his Blazing Soul and using it as a bomb.
To do this, he had to sacrifice a small piece of his soul, a tiny one, but it was still rather painful to do so…
However, if he wanted to win, he couldn’t be a coward about things like these!
“I am not using magic; this is the very ignition of my soul,” said Vlad. “You said I was a coward? Now what do you think? I’m willing to blow up my own soul to defeat you!”
The blood demon skeletons laughed, glancing at one another and nodding, charging all at once against Vlad!
“Then how about you fight all of us at once?!”
“Kill him!”
“I’ll drink his damn blood!”
“Every limb, tear them apart!”
Vlad infused more of his Blazing Soul into his sword as he swung it against them while spinning on the floor, slashing apart the skeletons one after another.
SLAAASH!
As the skeletons were being destroyed into pieces, he constantly absorbed their crystals, gaining more and more blood power as a result.
They attacked him from every angle; sometimes spears pierced his back or sometimes a dagger would stab his stomach, but he continued fighting, cauterizing his wounds with his own blazing soul while keeping the weapons inside his body.
CLASH! CRASH! BAAM!
He continued fighting relentlessly, swinging his blade until it broke, then grabbing more from the floor, the weapons of fallen blood demons, and using these weapons against them.
The blood demons never stopped being hard foes though; although some died instantly, others cunningly sneaked behind, hitting him strongly, sometimes leaving him bleeding even more.
Yet Vlad barely kept himself standing, constantly fighting, going mad as he lost blood and felt thirsty, the blood crystals never satiating his hunger.
“RAAAAHHH!”
In the last minute, he screamed like a mad beast as dozens of skeletons pierced his body with spears, swords, and lances, blood splattering everywhere.
“Don’t you dare…!”
SLAASH!
“Think I’ll lose…!”
CRAASH!
“Fuck this…!
BAAM!
“Stupid game!”
BOOM!
Swords cut through the skeletons, shields crushed their bones, powerful stomps made them fall into the ground, and explosions of blazing soul fragments blew them up into pieces.
The counter continued moving; ten seconds remained!
10
“Hahh…! Hahhh…!”
9
8
7
Vlad felt both his avatar and his soul reaching their limits. While having one of his arms sliced off, his left eye missing, and his stomach and back covered with wounds, he grasped to life however he could, grabbing skeletons and throwing them around.
“Stop him!”
“He doesn’t deserve our legacy!”
“Don’t let him win!”
Even in the last six seconds, the demons continued fighting furiously, their powerful runes giving them short bursts of energy.
6
5
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
Vlad’s face was punched from one place to the other, giant skeleton fists punching his beautiful vampire face, leaving it black and purple, bleeding everywhere.
“Gahahah! That’s a better look!”
“GRRRHHH!”
Vlad roared like a mad dog, opening his jaws and biting through the fists of the skeletons, punching him, tearing them off while taking out the weapons from his body and stabbing and pulverizing their bodies.
4
3
“END THIS ALREADY!”
He kept screaming, and while struggling, he felt his legs being cut off and torn out of his body; the agony and pain were endless, making his mind go completely insane.
2
“COME ON!!!”
1
0
Zero.
No more time was remaining, and Vlad…
Somehow, survived.
His soul avatar, missing two legs, two arms, and one eye…
Remained alive.
“Graarggh…!”
He vomited blood, unable to even move anymore.
The system message appeared in front of him as he drifted from conscious and unconscious state constantly.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have passed the Ancient Blood Demon test, and you have gained their trust after showcasing your never-ending ferocity and will to live.]
“Hahhh… Hahhh… I won…”
The sadistic system didn’t even dare to heal him. Glancing as he struggled to live, Vlad saw the notifications, about to fall asleep.
The realism of this game was simply too much, to the point it felt utterly ridiculous and torturous for the human mind.
Yet every time he logged out, all of this feeling dissipated, as if he had only had a bad dream and nothing else.
It was strangely enough, something that only lasted in the moment but never left any emotional scar in the mind.
[After having calculated how many Blood Demons you’ve killed, it has been estimated you’ve earned 625.782 Score Points!]
[Your points have surpassed the 500.000 points necessary for the highest upgrade for your Class and Subclass.]
[The surplus points had been used to further power up your Class and Subclass Rank Up!]
[Your [Class] has evolved into…]
“Ah… Wait… Ugh…!”
Before he could even see what it was, Vlad lost consciousness within the game world.
Darkness swallowed him entirely as his mind went back to his avatar’s body.
Yet, unknowingly, two crimson eyes were staring him amidst the darkness where his mind drifted away from.
“How interesting…”
Enormous, red-skinned hands with long black nails appeared within the black fog and then generated something.
A small droplet of red blood, sending it towards him.
“Take my Legacy, endling. And avenge my kind. The ones that ended the Ancient Era are coming for your world again. And you will not be able to stop them as you are.”
The darkness rapidly dissipated, as whatever remained of this being fully disappeared alongside it.
And then Vlad woke up, opening his eyes widely.
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