Ch.14Blood Bag (3)

KWAAAANG!

But that sympathy was never meant to last long.

I couldn’t feel any sympathy while experiencing my muscles weakening uncontrollably and my body being pushed back helplessly.

The action I took was simple. Not bothering to hold onto the armor that was about to be stripped off, I just kicked out with my leg.

Yet the moment my leg made contact, I could feel the strength within my body being completely drained.

It was bizarre. Just a simple kick, yet strength was leaving my entire body. It wasn’t as severe as blood flowing backward, but I felt my muscles and blood flow being controlled.

It was the same at the Sky Fortress. Even ordinary attacks had this effect whenever they landed.

My defenses were easily broken through, and my attacks either missed or delivered minimal damage while leaving me wide open.

Something that would normally be difficult to understand, let alone perceive.

I realized then that all these phenomena were basic magic wielded by those Blood Knights.

Nothing like this existed anywhere in Grim Darker.

It was the same now. Before her pale white leg was even fully exposed, I was kicked along with my heavy armor. I barely managed to steady my flying body before skidding to a stop on the ground.

I’d never learned anything like breakfalls, but this monstrous body of mine had been sent flying without being able to control itself. It wasn’t normal.

What was even less normal was the Blood Knight’s attitude.

The floor cracked, the stripped armor flew backward, and the Blood Knight closed in.

She was approaching in a state close to half-nakedness, but there was no time to look and enjoy. A beheading sword was falling straight toward me.

“…Ugh!”

I barely managed to twist my head and spring my body away as the sword struck down, shattering the floor.

It was chilling. If I had been hit by that…

“How annoying.”

No sooner had I regained my balance and landed than something flew past, grazing my head.

It was a helmet with rather small slits. As I twisted my body to avoid the helmet that narrowly passed before my eyes, I finally saw a white figure rushing toward me.

BANG!

The sound of the helmet crashing into and embedding in the wall.

And simultaneously, long silver hair fluttering with crimson eyes.

A physique and appearance that clearly looked much younger than the days she had lived.

Despite being naked, she showed no signs of embarrassment, nor any confusion about her suddenly changed body.

This vampire was simply trying to kill me.

Without any hesitation despite her fully exposed body.

SWISH!

The beheading sword passed in front of me. I barely managed to dodge by leaping backward. Being defenseless against the follow-up attack was unavoidable.

UGH!

So I was finally caught. Even though I extended my arm wrapped in holy blood to block, I could clearly feel my wrist breaking as it bent.

That’s what a beheading sword was. A weapon with massive weight and even greater sharpness designed to easily sever necks.

The weapon the Blood Knight wielded had to be magical, so even with holy blood wrapped around my arm, I couldn’t completely block it.

CLANG!

So my best option was to sacrifice bone to save flesh. As my arm broke, I kicked out, pushing the Blood Knight away, and immediately felt my leg being cut off.

What a tough bitch.

Before I could even roll on the ground, I saw the Blood Knight approaching again.

CRACK!

Her lean, pure white leg kicked up under my chin. My head snapped back involuntarily, and blood filled my mouth from biting my tongue.

I couldn’t win. I didn’t know how big the level difference was, but this wasn’t an opponent I could defeat by cheating with some combination trick.

So the best I could do was…

My eyes rolled around scanning the surroundings, and I reached behind my back to place my hand on my cloak.

The cloak’s form changed. I threw the cloak, which had crumpled in my hand, without hesitation.

“Isla!”

Blood Knight Lorian briefly glanced behind at my shout. Her red eyes, which had moved swiftly, fixed back on me before even a moment had passed.

This is maddening.

Lorian, having already swung her beheading sword, tightly clenched her right fist.

An attack I’d already experienced several times. A strike I couldn’t block even though I could see it coming.

But now things were a little different. I planted my feet firmly on the ground and kicked out.

THUD!

For an instant, those red eyes on white skin filled with surprise.

The girl’s body flew backward. A completely different result from the Sky Fortress.

By the time I realized what had happened, I was just as surprised as she was.

The Blood Knight’s arms and legs had become shorter when she transformed into a girl. That was the cause.

Well, no matter how monstrous a Blood Knight might be, she couldn’t immediately adapt to a newly changed body.

I instinctively noticed what I needed to target.

The dissonance caused by her shortened limbs.

I lowered my body just as the Blood Knight regained her stance to attack.

While I dodged the beheading sword swung by the leaping Blood Knight, had my hand cut off trying to deflect it, and minimally blocked attacks with my arm wrapped in holy blood.

The Blood Knight tried to grab my extended leg but missed, and repeatedly allowed my precisely thrown punches to land, making her grimace.

Anyone could see I was at a disadvantage. My attacks couldn’t be called effective hits, but every one of the Blood Knight’s attacks was lethal.

But.

That wasn’t what I was aiming for.

What I was targeting wasn’t the Blood Knight but what was behind her.

Isla, who was busy running around picking up something and putting it in the cloak.

I briefly made eye contact with Isla and then blocked the beheading sword aimed at my throat with my wrist.

SLASH!

My wrist flew off, but my regenerative power hadn’t diminished. Just as I was about to grab my rapidly regenerating wrist…

“It’s done!”

Isla shouted. A roundabout statement with unclear intent. But the Blood Knight wasn’t thick-headed enough to not understand what had happened.

The armor was gone. Isla had the cloak in her hands.

Even if she didn’t understand the exact mechanism, the Blood Knight guessed.

Isla and Luvellin had stolen her armor.

“You…!”

SWISH, I barely dodged the attack aimed at my throat when I heard a sound in my ear.

The sound of approaching humans. The pounding sound of running.

Not many people. Just one. But I realized the person I’d been waiting for had arrived, and I backed away.

No, this isn’t enough. I put strength into my legs and leaped.

The sound of stone slabs shattering and my body soaring high. The Blood Knight looked at such sudden behavior with a puzzled expression but still gripped her beheading sword with both hands.

It was a cold-blooded response despite not understanding the situation.

She clearly intended to attack and kill me the moment I fell.

Whether she planned to cut me in half or take my head when the opportunity arose.

But that wouldn’t happen.

The sound of the approaching person stopped, and from the widely opened entrance, someone took a breath and then…

“Star.”

That’s what they uttered.

Before I could even turn my head at the sound, space distorted.

KWOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAH!

And as if to fill the distorted space, flames poured down.

A sight impossible to see under normal circumstances.

Before I could even think it was dangerous, I thought it was beautiful, given its absurdly overwhelming power.

So I, suspended in mid-air, blankly stared at that terrifying flame.

It was more intense than what I’d seen in the game. It looked like a waterfall cascading from a great height.

Except the falling water was replaced with flames.

Is this the flame manifested by the Star’s contractor?

Just as I gaped in amazement…

“STAR!”

Someone’s shout reached my ears beyond physical laws, and the flames intensified.

CRACKLE-BOOM!

The sound of flames hitting stone slabs and the sound of heat waves sweeping in all directions.

The acrid smell of burning flesh from sparks flying everywhere.

Followed by an indescribable roaring sound mixed in.

When I unconsciously looked up beside that intense and perilous solar flame, I saw it.

The ceiling opening up like a rift to reveal the universe, and flames pouring down from that universe.

The flickering flames undulating from the open universe, burning the dungeon ceiling.

As my feet, which had risen high, finally touched the ground again, I ran to Isla who was covering her eyes.

“Let’s go!”

No answer came, but there was no time to hesitate. As I picked up Isla, I felt her naturally wrapping her legs and tail around my waist.

I immediately crossed the open exit and fled outside.

*

“Star…!”

A man contorted his face in anguish as he stretched out his hand.

Where he pointed, flames that no being could withstand were pouring down.

The legendary transcendent being known as Star, said to have melted castle walls, burned dragons, and crushed volcanoes.

These were the flames summoned by the contractor of such a being, the leader of this mercenary group.

He recalled the corpses he had seen on his way.

They were once his subordinates.

His men with their heads crushed, severed, or cut in half.

They were grateful fellows who had followed him all the way to the New Continent. As long as they gave him their loyalty, he was supposed to protect them.

He hadn’t been gone for very long. He had merely gone to investigate why the Cannibal Baron, with whom he had frequently interacted, had gone quiet.

But what was this? His men had been slaughtered like pigs in an abattoir.

It was unforgivable. Though they both made their living through killing, there were still standards to uphold.

In these malicious killings, he sensed a contempt for the value of life.

The identity of the culprit was obvious. It was the monster before him.

Though it had the appearance of a beautiful girl, it was clearly something else. Even as he strained to draw out his power, he hoped the being before him would burn to a crisp.

“Kh, nngh…!”

As his face flushed red from the forcibly extracted power, blood vessels bulged over his muscles, and cold sweat poured down to the floor.

WHOOSH—!

The flames stopped as suddenly as they had begun.

Then, through the wavering heat and flames, a cocoon appeared.

It was a red cocoon. There was no other way to describe it.

Something that hadn’t burned despite the prolonged exposure to Star’s flames.

The leader of ‘Star’s Blade’ cautiously drew the longsword at his waist, but…

CRACK!

The cocoon splitting open was much faster.

Something shot out from the cocoon. No, “flew out” would be more accurate.

In exactly the opposite direction from the man, toward a newly created exit that hadn’t been there before.

Thud, a small figure matching the light landing sound appeared under the still flickering flames.

Long silver hair reaching below the waist and crimson eyes.

Along with an arrogant demeanor that seemed to disregard all life.

Despite her beautiful appearance, which made her exposed nakedness seem irrelevant, the being clicked her tongue lowly while holding a beheading sword wet with blood.

And then she vanished.

All that could be seen was her back figure crossing the exit and heading outside.

The man who had been standing in a daze gritted his teeth.

“That fucking bitch…!”

And so the sound of four sets of footsteps echoed at the exit.