Chapter 89: Crossroads (IV)
Lloyd’s eyes opened in surprise as the blade that was meant for him was now coming out of his previous opponent's back. In fact, the crimson sword was so sharp that the tip of the long blade that exited from Zan managed to reach him, lightly cutting his own chest which drew red blood.
Zan stood there between the draconic heiress and the swordsman. His head drooped down towards the ground and so did his arms. His body too, was tilted at an angle as if it was about to fall. Only his legs were deceptively stable, although they were sure to give out at any moment.
Though as exhausted as he was, with the sword piercing through his chest his sentient black blood immediately awakened, and gushed out furiously to cover the surface of the red sword in its abyss colored liquid.
Hellish flames might have previously engulfed the crimson blade, but wherever the black blood flowed those flames were doused on command, submitting to the superior form of life.
The blood was extremely unyielding to the point of arrogance. It held a sort of pride and disposition, as if all things should naturally submit to it.
Interestingly, this characteristic could also be used to loosely describe Zan. In essence though the concept was not too weird, since the two were linked, and somewhat one being.
The heiress opened her eyes wide, surprised that her sword not only pierced through a different target, but that her dragon-phoenix flames were extinguished. This only happened when her opponent had just as pure of a bloodline as hers, or stronger.
Taking the cautious route, the woman immediately used all her strength to pull the sword out of Zan's body. In the process she even felt that the black blood was resisting her withdrawal, wanting to keep the blade within its jaws so it could devour it.
Just before the sword left Zan's body, Lloyd too noticed that the black sentience had strangled and consumed his red blood, which was previously on the tip of the sword.
This sent a chill up his spine. All humans had a sixth sense, and Lloyd vaguely felt the foreshadowing of imminent danger. It was the same kind of feeling as if some hidden predator was eyeing him, soon to pounce on his weak body and eat him whole.
A feeling of trepidation entered his heart, that was soon to spread to the hearts of others.
“Were you not supposed to handle him, brother?!”
“Haha. Apologies, sister. I looked away and he disappeared.”
The two glanced at each other warily.
The brother and sister duo did not completely trust each other, and they were only currently working together because of an outside threat that affected them all.
Blood was thicker than water, but liquid gold was thicker than blood. In a competition to decide the future social hierarchy, even those with the same biological parents would kill each other for higher benefits.
Add to the fact that most of the children of the Brightflame King had the same father, but not the same mother. Leading to most of the little monsters being raised separate from the other children, and only coming together occasionally for an event. Which in turn, led to most of their sibling relationships being shallow.
In this primary case, these two obviously did not have a deeper connection that they could place their trust in.
After a long glance however, their eyes returned to business. They could decide what to do with each other after the threat was gone.
In the reflection of their eyes was the image of Zan. He was ragged and worn, his posture displaying his lack of vigor and vitality. The luxurious black cloth he wore was torn to shreds, revealing his oddly colored skin.
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Thoughts quickly formed and passed within their minds. The color of his body indicated that he had some sort of power, so he was not likely to be a mundane human. Even if the two could not immediately discern his bloodline however, clues from his fighting style and decision making easily led them to the conclusion that he was a pure physical fighter.
If the two were scholars, or even moderately kept up with their history books, they might have inaccurately connected him to those of the Fog Lands. Although their conjecture was wrong, their abilities were similar enough for Zan to be grouped in with them.
Their eyes scanned the center of his chest. Black blood was clumping towards the opening of which the heiress made with her sword. Although his regeneration speed had significantly slowed, it was still an eerie thing to see the black liquid moving around like swarming maggots.
The dragon-winged man took a step, and that foot immediately glowed with a golden draconic light. The woman too, summoned her fiery displays of phoenixes and dragons.
In the blink of an eye they disappeared from their positions, and reappeared at Zan’s location. A double timed attack flew towards the young man. A fist bathed in golden glowing light approached his heart, while the long crimson blade made an arc at his neck.
The crimson blade’s sharpness wasn’t to be underestimated. Although the heiress was much weaker than Lloyd, the sharpness of her artifact sword made up for it. The dark red metal of the sword was due to it being made with the crystalized blood of a dragon-phoenix hybrid.
As for the dragon-winged man, he prepared countless ultimate techniques, intricacies, and draconic arts within his fist. “Zan,” who was the man in front of him, fought the “Sword of the Rain”, the “Mellow Blade” with only his body. He knew that this man’s flesh was bound to be thick as magical steel.
In turn he also used eighty-percent of his body’s energy into this thrown fist. The remaining twenty percent to be used just in case the vile woman next to him tried something.
Lloyd took a step to defend the red haired youth, but nevermind being too slow, his haste and lack of energy led him to clumsily fall towards the surface of clouds.
In the process of his fall his eyes could only watch as his only light of hope was subjected to die.
But he did not.
The body of the youth shifted minutely, and as the crimson sword made its arc, Zan shifted his head to catch the sword.
The sword stopped right before slicing his head in two, but it was not his hands that caught the hellish blade, but his double set of sharp teeth that kept it stuck in his jaws. Although Zan’s mouth bled at the edges, he held the metal tightly in place.
No matter how much the draconic heiress tried to pull away, it was locked there, unable to be moved even an inch.
As for the golden bright fist, it indeed had the threat of death, but a reanimated hand that no one was aware of except perhaps Zan, had moved itself to his left pec as soon as the two assailants had attacked.
BOOM!
The hand was obviously severely damaged by the blow. Its purposely modified body to be indestructible, was now broken and shattered all over. Quin was concave and deformed, even some of his fingers twisted and bent in unnatural angles.
A soft thud rang out, as the child’s hand weakly fell to the ground.
Only a second had passed. The draconic heiress was still vehemently trying to pull back her sword, unwilling to see her prized weapon lost. To her relief, on her next struggle it really was pulled out.
The woman summoned her flames and disappeared from her spot.
To her surprise, her half brother was still in the same position, albeit his body was performing the same motions as she was previously.
‘Did he succeed?’
Did brother’s fist go through his body into his heart? Or maybe he broke the bones but hadn’t breached through them? Was that why he was performing such awkward pulling movements?
The heiress shifted her body to look from another angle, and found that apart from his left chest concaved, Zan was unharmed. Her eyes diverted slightly away from his body, and she noticed that now, the man’s previously limp arm was fiercely holding on to her brother’s wrist.
The same wrist that delivered that punch towards Quin and himself, was currently experiencing its dragon bones and scales collapsing under extreme pressure. The dragon-winged man desperately tried to escape, but a steel-like death grip held the man in place, and no matter how immense his physical strength was, Zan was simply stronger.
Not a blink of an eye later, the young man’s head moved once again. There was no blur or sign of movement. It was simply so fast that it seemed to reappear at another location.
A multitude of factors led Zan to making a certain decision and action. The combination of the dragon-winged man’s techniques which looked similar to Balon’s, his lack of energy and sanity, and finally Quin’s self sacrifice had now truly pushed him over the edge.
The young man’s mouth opened to an extremely wide degree, so much so that it seemed comical. In a cartoon or an animation it would have looked comedic, but in real life it was nothing short of extremely disturbing and terrifying.
The double set of sharp teeth instantly bit down, and three-fourths of the man’s sturdy thick neck was chomped up.
A few fibers were left of the man’s throat, so his head did not immediately fall to the ground just yet. Instead his head hung loosely to his right shoulder, just barely hanging on by a few sinews.
Extremely unfortunate to the dragon man, his draconic vitality kept him alive for much longer than he needed, and the eyes of that dying head were wide open as they looked to the source of the loud chomping, crunching and chewing.
Although the man was saved from further physical pain due to his nerve connections disconnecting from his body, it was still a mind breaking sight to see that his left shoulder was bitten off, and was currently being chewed up.
Zan took a few more bites, taking care to catch the left arm that disconnected from the man’s body, before thoroughly consuming those pounds of flesh too.
At this moment, the only thing the youth was thinking was, ‘Why is it so delicious?’
Well, eldritch creatures usually ate star dragons or greater beings of that nutritious bloodline, so it was not too weird for the young man to think that the human meat in his mouth was quite savory.
By the sounds of his chewing, it sounded like he was gorging on ribs, brisket and pork instead of human flesh.
Although the sounds of war weapons firing, spells casting, and people shouting filled the air, the loudest sound that the four individuals heard at this very moment, was that of messy, viscous chewing.