Scarlet

The moment we clash, a shockwave shoots out from our point of collision, sending the nearby demons and humans flying with the exception of the Knights and Demon Lords. But even the Knights end up being pushed back a bit from it, leaving them all shocked.

Leonidas and I don’t stop with just one clash though. We continue striking each other one time after another, sending shockwaves out with each. Meanwhile Leonidas continuously sends blades, arrows, and various other weapons made out of blood flying at me from all over using his Blood Domain.

I even feel him trying to grab onto the blood in my own body with the domain, but his attempt never takes hold, the Red Plague devouring his mana before it can.

“Not bad,” he says as we finally break away from each other, neither of us showing a single wound as our Lycan’s Regeneration skills managed to heal everything we’ve done to each other. “Not bad at all.”

Despite his saying that, I can’t help but feel surprised that he even did any damage to me at all. Considering the Red Plague armor I’m using.

“It would appear that your father has a true damage skill,” Tar comments, making me nod my head.

True damage. A type of damage that ignores everything and directly harms the one it’s targeting. Just like my Bloody Thorns and Blood Retribution.

The question is what sort of true damage skill is it. Is it just like Bloody Thorns, where I take damage when he does? I know it’s not like Blood Retribution since I’ve been taking damage this whole time.

If I’m being honest, it looks almost like every single attack he deals passes straight through my Red Plague barrier to hit me.

“Let’s see…” Leonidas mutters before shifting back into his lycan form, to my surprise. “You recently got Lesser Blood Runes, right?”

I frown at that but nod anyways.

“Perfect!” he exclaims, a faint grin spreading across his face as he raises a single hand with his fingers held like he’s about to snap them. “In that case, how about a lesson?”

Without giving me any chance to respond, he snaps his fingers, following which strange runic symbols written with blood begin appearing all around him in the air. And as if that weren’t enough, his Blood Domain appears to be resonating with the symbols.

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I quickly find even the other Demon Lords and the Knights beating a hasty retreat out of the Blood Domain, giving me a rather bad feeling.

Then everything begins to turn into blood around us. The trees, the air, the soil. Everything.

If that were all, I’d still be fine. But what follows next is much worse. All of the blood suddenly forms a single hammer and swings itself to slam into me before I can even blink, sending me flying across the entire map while coughing out a mouthful of blood.

Even after I land and quickly begin to float back up into the air, more bloody symbols appear around me, seemingly teleporting the hammer to slam into me again.

And the same process repeats itself over and over again until I finally let out a roar and attempt to manipulate the blood with Blood Manipulation. But that doesn’t do shit, so I use Blood Nullification instead. Which does affect it a little, but not as much as I’d hoped.

“You’re never going to get out of that cycle with those petty skills,” Leonidas says, very much reminding me that while I am a lot stronger now, I still cheated my way up here with the Red Plague.

But at the same time…

I scowl as I transform back into my lycan form, briefly glancing at the Red Plague that’s been loosed onto the environment from my wounds. Then I spread my arms out while the hammer returns for more, only to send it flying when I let the Red Plague out of my body, immediately absorbing the runes floating in the air along with my own blood. And just as quickly as it started, I end it by pulling the Red Plague back into my body again.

“Relying on the Red Plague may work against the void creatures, but it won’t get you any achievements, nor will it help your training,” Leonidas says while appearing in a flash of red light surrounded by more blood runes. “Think about what you can do using something other than the Red Plague before relying on it.”

I grit my teeth.

Seriously? I already tried using…

My mind blanks.

A grin stretches across Leonidas’s face the moment I use Null Magic Field over a dozen times, each right on top of a blood rune. Then I use Blood Nullification on the rune that suddenly became destabilized by the field, erasing a tiny part of it and messing up the entire rune in the process.

Despite the runes exploding in his face, Leonidas begins laughing, “That’s it! That’s what I was looking for!”

I float up into the air until I’m a little over a dozen meters in front of Leonidas. But even when the bloody mist that marks the remains of the blood runes explosion clears, Leonidas can just be seen floating there without a scratch on himself.

Likely due to Lycan’s Regeneration.

Damn, never thought my own skill would be used against me like this.

“Uh, you do remember that it’s not your skill in the first place?” Tar points out.

Well it’s not his either. It’s Gramps.

“That’s not-” Tar starts, but I just use Rain of Blood and Blood Plague, making extra sure to keep the Red Plague out of the skill. Since it always wants to rush into those two skills, what with being my strongest plague by far and all.

It’s a major pain, fighting without being allowed to use the Red Plague.

Quite a few of my powerful skills involve the Red Plague after all. Or just plagues in general.

Even just keeping myself clothed involves the Red Plague now, since my clothing or armor would just be devoured by my own blood when I get injured. Making for a waste of armor and clothing.

And more importantly, a hit to my dignity.

“Let’s try this again,” I tell my father with a grin on my face while flexing my claws slightly to my side.

He just grins and says, “Let’s.”