“I also gained this cool or I guess lame title blood baron candidate.”

This info perked Henries interest as it seemed she would gain some nobility in this world down the line.

Gotta keep her around he thought to himself.

Henry continued to make conversation with this girl, as they kept walking he found it was quite easy to talk to her, but it would be easy to talk to anyone with all of this new shit happening, Henry thought.

As they kept walking they slowly got lost in conversation until Henry froze. A cold sweat was beading down his head, very quickly this cold sweat was drenching him. He felt a power so immense he knew he couldn't be out of their league. With his power he felt a life form stalking them in the trees, while it wasn't as powerful as the red demon, it was leagues above the ape he fought.

The girl, noticing his sweat profusely out of nowhere, asks him, “Is everything okay, you seem… a bit off?.” She tried to be subtle about his sudden sweating but Henry paid it no mind, he grabbed her hand and began to run. She knew this wasn't some lovey dovey thing, that was long behind most people here, she knew there was extreme danger.

As they continued to run, she heard light cracks clearly from sticks behind her, but slowly those light cracks turned to snaps, then full on crashes as large branches and small trees toppled over. Her heart was thumping even more than when they first arrived; at least the red demon had thousands with them, someone was bound to live. Between the sounds she heard and Henry's attitude she was almost forsaking life before she even saw her killer. But isn't this the normal response from someone in my position she thought to herself, for crying out loud while I might have been weird; I was still just a girl a mere week ago.

As the noise of trees falling became louder and louder

Thump

Thump

They knew they had nowhere to run at this point, Henry turned to her and told her, “We can fight him, think it's two of us and one of him.” Now Henry had not believed a single word of what he was saying but he had to keep spirits alive, it was his fault she came out there.

“Give me your ax” The girl turned to Henry and demanded.

Knowing it was as good in her hands as his if he wasn't blacked out, he quickly forked it over to her. What she did next left Henry confused.

Slash

A deep gash was made on her palm, but before Henry could be surprised this large pool of flowing blood began to congeal and quickly it became a substance resembling metal. A comically large sword was birthed from this girls hand, it had a deep red color similar to blood fresh from a wound but richer. This sword had an aura of royalty with its ornate and flamboyant features resembling a greatsword with gems made of blood engraved in it.

“Blood Baron” The only words that could come to Henry's mind looking at her. Until, she began to swing her sword. While she was able to produce this comically large sword she clearly had no knowledge of how to use it and control it. The size was hindering it he figured while trying to slash the silver back.

After Henries last fight and seeing what he could do he felt truly powerless, while his Nature Command had increased in level he didn't feel as if he could pull out as much power like his alternate self could. Just barely tying down this silverback ape, as to slow his movements for the girl.

Swing

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Swing

Swing

All of her swings kept just barely missing her target but it was costing them all of their energy and the silverback ape was getting more and more angry. Knowing it couldn't last like this Henry decided to try something.

“Hey can you concentrate your sword down? Like condensing the blood.”

The light bulb went off in her head almost as if she knew she could do it without trying, she only had not thought of it as this was the first time she had ever properly fought with her sword. In the past week she had mostly just been creating it to test it out and swing it around. Even during the fight with Nature she couldn't swing it around as she needed the blood and nutrients in her body while he was draining them.

As the sword quickly shrank its rich red color gained a darker more blackish tone resembling closer to rusting iron. But, along with the color change so had her ability to use it increased with the lack of weight behind it she could move much more freely.

Swing

Swing

Swing

This time the swings were a combination of Henry and the girl, with Henry also slowing the ape and the girl doing a large majority of the damage. As, the sword had shrunk but was still much larger than Henry's ax.

While they briefly felt elated, the ape had barely shown its true strength and began to pound down on them even harder.

“Haha, this is what it feels like to be in danger!” Henry had not been able to experience first hand any of the battles in the past, this was the first one he was in the passenger seat. It terrified him, suddenly his life was on the line and he could control that he was now in charge. With the fear struck in him, his blood began to pump his adrenaline kicking in, he felt a weird scratchy feeling on his head, but with it came a large boost out of nowhere to his muscles. They were now bulging more than ever before, if ever before.

“I’ll stall him if you can collect the blood around us, maybe it will power you up somehow!” Henry claimed it as their last ditch effort. He resigned to taking this apes' punches if to save them for just a few seconds of time.

Boom

It struck down but he stood resolutely, the scratchy feeling on his head grew slightly painful like something had been growing. But his strength kept increasing so he decided not to pay it any mind, and just dodged around trying to keep it on him.

During this fight between Henry and the ape both had been losing immense amounts of blood, between Henry getting beat down or the ape losing blood earlier from the girl's slashes. She was collecting a lot more blood into and around her. But her blad had not been increasing very quickly as one would expect. Instead her blade was very slowly growing by a few inches per multiples pints of blood, but the color had been growing much deep over time slowly moving to a deep crimson as the blood was sucked out of everything it fell.

Henry, now solo fighting this ape for close to four minutes, was on the verge of falling, not knowing how his bones had not broken from just one let alone multiple punches. He looked behind himself only to be surprised by the sheer majesty the sword the girl was holding called to itself, almost as if declaring it was the true royalty here. Along with the sword Henry had noticed a thin red line developing on this girls head but was unsure of what it could be. He quickly relieved the front line position and moved back using some vines to slow the ape down. All of which were somewhat pointless as this girl made a few quick movements of her sword and cut deep gashes into this apes skin. And, after just a few more minutes she delivered the final slash to it.

***

“Phew that really almost killed me” Henry slumped as he exclaimed. He was expecting to hear something similar come back from the girl as he had always had energy issues after using any of his abilities. Instead of what he expected he was greeted with the sparking eyes of the girl staring at him and continuously looking back at the ape.

Henry, visibly confused, asks her, “are you asking for the ape?” he asked her with confusion painted on his face. He pulley planned to take it back to the camp, but didnt know what she wanted to do with it alone.

“I mean you did most of the damage, you can choose what you wish to do with it”

She was quickly elated as she put her hand forward and suddenly felt a rush of blood come out from the ape into her body from where she cut earlier. Her smile grew large and wide, only growing more as she absorbed more and more blood. With a slight look of euphoria being painted all over this girls face, she began to giggle uncontrollably as she fell to the ground.

Blood Baron Candidate: Absorb the blood of powerful targets to gain further position