The battle once more fell into a stalemate, the soldiers held the wall and the dravu kept up their suicidal rush with their near endless numbers. Jace fell into a rhythm, he killed the dravu on droves. Whenever he could he created another blood shield to protect the soldiers, the soldiers on his wall currently had two shields each. He had created a total of eight-hundred shields. There were two soldiers for each meter of wall, with Jace occupying a fourty meter stretch on his his own the soldiers that should have been in his area moved to reinforce the other spots, easing the burden on their comrades.
The dravu kept storming the wall and the soldiers slowly but surely got tired. Their levels were growing rapidly, each of the dravu was around level eighty and most soldiers weren’t even level hundred yet. Despite their growth the endless battle was tiresome on the soldiers, the people in command had kept this in mind and had set a three hour window in which they would fight before being switched out with a fresh group. Any wounded would be treated and the warriors could get a quick power nap before being switched back in three hours later. When the time came for the switch, Jace connected his Blood Shields to the new arrivals and continued fighting.
He had gained four levels in the three hours of fighting and had put his points into strength. At first he had wanted to focus endurance, but with his Inexhaustible skill his points were better off when put into strength. The change was negligible but everything helped at this point. The blood snake which swirled around him had doubled in thickness and had grown to an impressive forty meters in length. A second class Dravu was trying to crawl up the wall, Jace narrowed his eyes but before he could do anything his blood snake shot forward and constricted around the creature, it sank its fangs into the monsters neck and dragged it to the ground wrestling with it.
A snap resounded on the wall and the Class 2 had its neck broken, Jace smiled then blinked when a notification popper up.
[Some of your Blood has gained sentience and has become a living creature, Crimson snake has fallen under your command. Please name your creature.]
Jace blinked and looked at the blood, it had somehow solidified into crimson scales and black eyes with red pupils, it was the same size it had been as blood but it showed intelligence and life in the gleam of its eyes. Jace grinned and looked up at the monster, “I shall name you, Carmine.”
The snake hissed in acceptance before turning back towards the dravu, it wrapped itself around one of the smaller ones while sinking its fangs into another. Jace took a step back to open the panel that became available to him upon Carmine’s birth. He looked through the information while the sounds of battle continued in the background.
[Carmine Race : Bloodborn Crimson Snake
[Level : 1 Sex : Female
[Age : 1
[Titles : Born of Bloodshed, Self Created Sentience
[Strength : 120 Agility : 180 Dexterity : 110
[Endurance : 200 Vitality : 200 Constitution : 190
[Wisdom : 30 Intelligence : 30 Charisma : 30
[Luck : 30
[Skills : None
[Mastery : None
[Loyalty : 100
Jace blinked at the surprisingly high stats and opened the titles.
[Born of Bloodshed]
[You are a rare existence born from the bloodshed of your enemies, the more blood you consume the larger and more powerful you will grow. Your life is bound to the one who created you with a powerful bloodpact. Protect them well, for while you are immortal, they are not. Should they die you will perish with them.]
[Self Created Sentience]
[Through sheer force of will a miracle has occurred and you have created your own sentience. You have a mind of your own and none can command you against their will. Your are immune to all mind altering effects.]
Jace smiled, it was good to know that Carmine had a mind of her own. Jace wasn’t a fan of slavery or absolute dominance even when it came to animals. He marveled at this world’s strange features, a passive skill of his had become a lifeform due to its own will. That was beyond odd, he watched Carmine kill two of the Dravu at once and saw her level increase by six. He got a quick notification that he could use the skill points as Carmine’s master but he swiftly set the option that she could make her own choices.
“Jace! Why are you zoning out! We’re in the middle of a war here!” Jace blinked and came to his senses, he looked over to see Florian looking at him with a worried look. Jace waved away his concern and stepped back into the thick of the fight, new blood started swirling around him in a much smaller semi-sentient blood snake. He wondered if a new life-form would be created if he gathered more blood. He was curious to find out, he dashed forward and sank his sword into the skull of another Dravu, one leapt at him from the side but he smashed it down with his shield. The blood snake turning into a spear and piercing its heart, Jace ducked under another leaping dravu and with a twist cut of its head.
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Carmine was off on her own killing any dravu she could reach, Jace peeked at her sheet when he had a moment's respite and noticed she was putting all her points into constitution. Unlike humanoids she did not gain stat points in class related stats but instead gained an extra distributable stat point per hundred levels. Orso he assumed when he saw that she had six points to spend per level.
All of the sudden an impulse ran through Jace, he shivered and looked at the edge of the battlements. Should he? He had gotten these impulses before, back when he was a soldier. They always led to him doing insane things but somehow they had always worked out, barely. he felt the blood speed up as it rushed through his veins, his heart pumped, his stomach a flutter. A bloodthirsty half insane grin appeared on his face. He roared a challenge charged towards the edge of the battlements and leapt off. The blood gathered around him and with an explosion all of it burst outwards from him, clearing out an area around him. he snarled and dove forward, sword cleaving through the dravu.
He bared his teeth as he smashed his shield into the skull of a dravu, with a twist he turned and cut two more of the creatures apart. The blood around him became restless and increasingly aggressive. A shadow appeared above him and Carmine landed next to him, angrily hissing at the dravu surrounding him. For a moment the dravu paused, for a brief second they stared at him in confusion. Then chaos, they all rushed towards him at once, Jace turned himself into a cyclone of cold steel and destruction as he tore through the lines of monsters. He pushed deeper into their lines, more and more blood answered his call, he ripped them apart, tore of their limbs, slashed through their necks in an violent rush.
He screamed a challenge and felt a crimson haze cover his eyes, he lost himself to the rhythm of battle, tearing through the near infinite amount of opponents. He smashed through the smaller Dravu like they were paper, his levels were increasing rapidly, Carmine was swelling in size. She was as thick an oak tree and was nearly sixty meters tall, ever swep of her tails or bite of her fangs killed dravu. Jace once more bellowed in challenge, looking for something to stimulate his thirst for blood. A class two angrily clicked it’s mandibles at him, Jace scoffed and settled into a sprinters stance, he felt energy gather into his toes. With a burst he rushed forward an angry tidal wave of blood rising behind him, he slipped under the Class 2 and with a twist of his wrist cut through the limbs on one side, he rolled out from under it and with a dash cut through its throat. He roared in victory and stared at the creatures surrounding him defiantly.
Once more the dravu hesitated, this time Jace didn’t wait for them and charged towards them, Carmine rose up behind him like an angry deity. He dove into the fray cutting through more of the smaller creatures, a few of them managed to land a strike but the smaller ones weren’t strong enough to get through his armour or his new skin of steel passive. His confidence bloated and he pushed ever deeper into the enemy ranks. Blood covered his body, unknown to him he was growing, the blood tying itself to him like a parasite. It started to function in place of his limbs, he grew to a height of two and a half meters and rampaged through the enemy ranks. With every kill he would grow a little, every strike he gained power.
Blood dripped down his sword, its length had grown to the size of a claymore. His shield now a huge block of crimson the size of a tower shield. Blood braided itself into his hair, his eyes an ominous red. He stepped forward a step at a time, killing the monsters in swaths. His reason lost to him, pure undultured slaughter the only thing on his mind.
------------------------------------------------- Princess Feliceuze POV----------------------------------------
The princess watched as her new guard jumped from the battlements into the throthing horde of dravu below. Her eyes widened in shock, a brief moment of silence spread over their section of the wall. The soldiers stared on in horror as the one they had come to see as their guardian leaped into the thick of swarm. She watched in quiet awe as a shockwave of blood tore the dravu to pieces as he landed. Then the dravu hesitated, she could almost sense the confusion in the creatures. It lasted for no more than a brief instant, before they rushed at him. Her heart clenched when she saw the surrounding swarm swirl around him. She had to force herself to keep a straight face when the newly born crimson snake jumped down behind him.
Then something happened that all the tutors, famous warriors and reading had not prepared her for. The strange man was tearing through the monsters with apparent ease, he ignored the smaller ones and rushed to a class 2, killing it in seconds. He roared in victory and went in search of other stronger prey. The blood around him started gathering around him, she watched with a puzzled gaze as he grew before her very eyes. His skin slowly becoming the same hue as the blood that he controlled. More and more of the dravu died around him, the assault on the walls seemed to flutter as the dravu focused on the man that had dared to jump into their midst. Suddenly from another wall section she saw a figure dive into the swarm like Jace had done.
She poured some mana into her eyes to enhance her vision and zoomed in on the figure. The Xor woman, Hirki was walking through the horde with apparent ease, all creatures that tried to approach her within a ten meter radius exploded into a rain of gore and blood. Other figures started jumping down from the wall, taking the fight to the horde instead of defending the wall. She frowned, somehow the man’s crazy impulse had caused the horde to react. They focused on the people in their midst, those strong enough to be able to ignore the assault from the minor creatures. She felt her blood surge as she wanted to join the people fighting in the midst of the enemy with impudence.
She took a deep breath, an outside influence was affecting her. Somehow, she had trained her mental protections to an extremely high level. Yet somehow these emotions surged through her, she felt powerful, furious. She felt a hunger for slaughter. She stared at the man who stood inside the crimson liquid. Tearing through the horde in mindless combat. Who was he and why was what he was doing affecting her emotions the way it was. She looked over at the soldiers, the dravu had backed away from the wall and were rushing over each other to reach the warriors who had jumped of the wall. She searched carefully on their faces for and urge to do the same, all she saw from them was a mix of confusion and awe.
She looked over to Richard, “Do you feel it?”
Her childhood friend and loyal protector nodded, “It’s nearly overwriting my urge to protect you from my Loyal Guardian Knight skill. I think he somehow caused others to go berserk, what I find odd is that it somehow only seems to be affecting those who are above a certain certain strength.”
She nodded, “The soldiers don’t seem to feel it, neither do the remnants of Jace’s old team.” Feliceuze looked over to the woman who was providing her with mana. “Do you know the cause behind this?”
Weira opened her eyes and calmly stared down at her brother, “He is bound by battle. It is what my grandmother told me. She said he may have the War God’s favour.”
Feliceuze blinked, “The War God? How would your grandmother know he has earned a god’s favour.”
Weira smiled, “According to her, the War God might be the one that brought Jace to our world.”
Feliceuze frowned. “Did she tell him this, the War God is not one to throw around favors. Most who do catch his attention are crazed. It is a risky business to catch the attention of a god.”
Weira grinned, “Gran told me Jace wouldn’t care. She decided to let him figure it out himself, she even made me sign a contract to keep it silent. She rarely gets this secretive about things.”
“If you are bound to silence then how is it you are telling me now?”
Weira shrugged, “It’s been dissolved ever since he jumped off the battlements. I have no clue as to why. Strange things tend to happen around my brother, one must simply go with the flow or get left behind.”