Ch.109Chapter 109: Clash (2)

As soon as I sensed Sanguin’s attack targeting my heart, my chosen action was a defensive move.

It was simple and swift, an action infused with desperation equal to its speed.

I had no choice but to take a defensive stance, contrary to Fafnir’s urgent command echoing in my head to dodge immediately.

I was already caught from behind, making evasive maneuvers impossible.

And I knew full well from my pre-regression experience that Sanguin’s attack, already launched toward me, wasn’t something I could simply avoid by wishing to dodge it.

I barely managed to turn my body and carefully examined the knife-hand strike heading for my heart.

Thanks to my tension and concentration expanded to the extreme, even Sanguin’s lightning-fast knife-hand seemed to move slowly in my perception, allowing me to clearly see the energy gathered in his strike.

A bluish energy imbued with crushing power that could pulverize anything in its path, without the characteristic stickiness and darkness of demonic energy.

It was unmistakably similar to the fighting energy that ripples when employing the mysteries of the Combat Energy Scripture, derived from the Secret Transmission of Striking Energy, a martial art developed in the eastern continent.

With a human body made of nothing but fragile flesh and blood compared to blades or blunt weapons.

It was the ultimate weapon obtained by fighters who reached high levels through endless training to surpass such weapons.

The lethal strike, considered the ultimate realm of striking techniques using hands and feet, was flying toward me.

To block the Combat Energy Scripture, which could inflict fatal wounds by penetrating the victim’s body even with just a graze to the clothing, not a direct hit—

Only a weapon made of ultra-metal, born through the intervention of scorching heat and the will of transcendent beings, could block this—not a body made of flesh and blood.

Fortunately, in my right hand, I held a weapon made of material that met those conditions.

I covered my heart with the bastard sword-shaped dragon blade in my right hand, displaying its width to the maximum extent despite its narrow profile.

It was an action to block Sanguin’s knife-hand from reaching my heart with the blade’s surface while minimizing the damage from the Combat Energy Scripture.

It was a posture I could complete with much simpler movements than attempting a sudden evasive maneuver.

I took it without hesitation because I judged it had a greater chance of blocking Sanguin’s attack.

As I expected, the surface of the dragon blade aligned perfectly with the trajectory of Sanguin’s knife-hand.

It was a satisfying movement, even though executed with a body still lacking compared to my pre-regression self, which had been tempered through repeated life-and-death struggles.

That’s why I was certain.

I believed I would perfectly block Peil Sanguin’s knife-hand attack aimed to gouge out my heart with the dragon blade in my hand.

Although the bluish combat energy, manifested to the extreme through the mysteries of the Combat Energy Scripture, was flying toward me with enough force to tear my heart apart.

I had absolute faith that such energy would disappear without a trace upon contact with the dragon blade in my right hand.

That’s why I planned to stall for time after blocking the attack, even if it meant being overwhelmed and toyed with by my opponent, until the moment when the trick that stopped time in this vast space could no longer be maintained.

But such rosy hopes were shattered when his knife-hand and my dragon blade collided.

CLANG—!!

When an unbelievable thunderous sound struck my ears as flesh and blood collided with a black ultra-metal blade presumably created with power rivaling divinity.

“Good idea, but you lack the skill to fully execute it.”

As a cold voice filled with both praise and regret reached me.

“Kuhuk!”

My scream erupted from the shock of Sanguin’s combat energy penetrating my body, which I had failed to completely block.

Woong

As I felt my two legs, which had firmly held their ground despite the slippery snow, float into the air, I realized with devastating clarity that hope was lost.

“Ha…”

A faint sigh mixed with helplessness escaped my lips after the scream subsided.

The judgment to take a defensive action rather than an awkward evasion was certainly not wrong.

Even though I had just awakened from a long sleep and couldn’t fully exert my power.

To effortlessly block an attack from the strongest vampire, the leader of the vampire clan considered the most powerful among the demonic beings that had established themselves as synonymous with terror in this land—

“Trying to block with just that? How pathetic.”

As Sanguin’s cold, mocking voice reached me while I floated in the air, I realized anew how overwhelmingly weak I was.

[If you have time to sigh, focus on your landing technique! At this rate, you’ll be completely incapacitated!]

Thanks to Fafnir’s urgent voice awakening my mind, I regained my scattered consciousness that had been fully impacted by the shock.

But even after regaining my senses, the situation continued to present me with difficulties too hard to overcome.

The moment I came to my senses, I faced the situation of my body flying helplessly, about to collide with the ground.

There was a risk of hitting head-first, so I twisted my body with a falling technique to prevent my head from touching the ground, but I ultimately failed to land on my feet.

BOOM—!!

Along with the explosion when my body, propelled at tremendous speed, made contact with the ground at an unfavorable angle.

“KHAAK!!”

An even more unsightly scream erupted from my lips along with the thunderous sound.

Despite making the best judgment and choosing the best method to match it.

The overwhelming difference in capability between us turned what I had believed to be my best choice into the foolish audacity of a mantis raising its forelegs before a cart.

Moreover, just like when I first encountered the demon Laplace, a demonic being under Renum, in the time-stopped space.

“Ugh…”

The groan escaping my lips made me realize that my super-regenerative ability, which would normally offset this level of shock and restore my body to normal, wasn’t functioning properly.

This was dangerous.

If I lost consciousness now, there was a high probability I would pass out completely.

And if that happened, it would certainly lead to the worst-case scenario where only the vampire clan leader would remain alone in this fortress where time had stopped for an unknown duration.

“Kehek!”

After coughing roughly and barely awakening my consciousness that was about to fade, I tried to raise my fallen body and continue the confrontation with Sanguin, but.

Wobble

As if mocking my will, my body, which was trying to rise again, sank helplessly like a sinking ship.

As my legs, which were trying to stand, buckled at the knees and I sat back down, I had only one thought.

Even considering that I hadn’t fully regained my strength after rising from the coffin recently.

I couldn’t deny that Peil Sanguin indeed possessed the skills worthy of being called the most loyal servant of the demon lord Desire.

Crunch, crunch

The sound of Sanguin’s footsteps approaching me as I lay on the ground could be heard.

[Kid! Wake up! You could die!!]

Fafnir’s urgent voice trying to awaken my mind also reached me.

Perhaps due to the overwhelming shock that my body couldn’t endure, with recovery not even functioning properly.

In the end, what my consciousness, on the verge of completely sinking, last recognized was.

“Stay down and sleep quietly.”

Sanguin’s solemn voice with flashing crimson eyes.

And Fafnir’s desperate voice calling me anxiously, trying to awaken my mind.

[Wake u…!!]

#

Momentarily startled that his surprise attack had been anticipated.

CLANG—!!

While watching his opponent fly away with the sword that had tried to block his attack.

“Trying to block with just that? How pathetic.”

Peil Sanguin, the leader of the Elder Vampires, sneered at his opponent in a cold voice, then.

BOOM—!!

After his opponent was sent flying far away, crashing to the ground and losing consciousness.

“Haa… This time it was successful at least.”

He expressed slight relief with a faint sigh.

“I went through all the trouble of stopping time, and then someone who can move appears. What is this?”

He didn’t forget to mutter with a hint of grumbling in his voice to the man who had surprised him, despite being human.

“Humans are truly unpredictable. A few days ago, there was that threatening being who emitted a great holy light and brought shame upon this Sanguin, and now who would have thought that this young man, not even of age, would be able to perceive and move in the time I stopped.”

Although Sanguin’s grumbling appearance revealed an awkwardness that didn’t match the aristocratic atmosphere created by his long, glossy black hair contrasting with his pale skin.

“Well, anyway, since I struck his body with a shock to seal the movement that predicted my attack, he won’t be getting up for a while, right?”

That awkwardness was only momentary.

“Let’s see…”

Sanguin slowly walked to where his subdued opponent lay, and after confirming that the red-haired man he had knocked down was completely unconscious.

“…I’d like to end his life right here.”

He uttered these cold words while raising his right hand threateningly, once again gathering bluish combat energy in it.

“But I’m too busy right now to do such things, so just stay there and sleep quietly.”

Soon after, Sanguin removed the combat energy gathered in his right hand and, turning his gaze away from the man he had subdued, stood upright and looked around at the world he had stopped.

The scenery decorated with snowflakes frozen in place, surprisingly pure white and untouched by volcanic ash, was the epitome of beauty.

He would have liked to enjoy this sight until just before the time he had stopped began to move again.

“…I have to work. Work.”

Gathering his thoughts while muttering to himself, Sanguin turned his gaze from the sky to the ground.

Where his gaze fell, there were two beings who, like the snow, had stopped moving and were fully affected by his stopped time.

One was a young girl of mixed blood who possessed a faint power characteristic of hybrids, but whose power resonance was presumed to be closely related to his own bloodline.

The other was a woman who possessed a divine artifact born through the intervention of those detestable divine beings who had greatly contributed to putting Sanguin himself into a long, long sleep.

“…Lumen.”

Sanguin’s expression, as he named the divine artifact in a growling voice, was filled with a mixture of fear and anger.

“The holy sword always stands in our way.”

Yet, his voice carried not black hatred but a refined form of sentiment.

If not for the crimson gleam in his eyes that seemed ready to exert physical force at any moment, this aspect of Sanguin would have certainly matched the intellectual demeanor he usually aspired to.