Chapter 159 Battle Of The Tormented (9)

His missed attack immediately split open the hill, causing spiderweb-like cracks to spread across three-quarters of the battlefield.

"Ssssssss…"

Blood dripped down from his scalp, painting his face in a scattered red pattern that almost made him look demonic.

"I smell some injuries on you… Are you sure you want to be doing this, little boy?" The man asked as he pulled his halberd out of the ground and stomped the very end of the handle onto the space next to him.

The whole hill shook, including the item which was stuck in the very center… though I doubt it was going to ever be destroyed.

"Of course. Also, let's take this seriously now," I muttered with a large smile, and as I took a step forward, my world slowed down once again.

Blood rose from friendly and enemy corpses, bending to my will as I created an array of blood shaped into deadly weapons.

Spears, swords, halberds, maces, you name it. Everything was there.

"You could've done much more if you used this earlier," The man muttered before stomping onto the ground, causing lava to erupt from the large cracks in the hill.

SHING

I swung my sword, parting the lava just before it could splash all over my uselessly camoed uniform dyed with the blood of my enemies.

The lava soon spread across the mountain, melting allies and enemies alike.

Glug… Glug… Glug… Glug…

Pools of blood bubbled next to me, and soon the blood that had soaked my clothes was extracted from each individual fiber.

This mixed with two pools I had created, which then split into even more weapons that slowly hovered in the air.

Everything… came so naturally. As if I was born for the sole purpose of controlling and bending blood to my will.

FWOOSH

Then, our battle quickly resumed, with me setting off the flare of beginnings as we forged our own story on the battlefield, ready to manipulate the history books as we like.

I swung my hand to the side, sending the myriad of bloody weapons at the man who was seemingly ready to take it all.

But, just before the first sword could even so much as knick his face, a wall of lava rose from the cracks and absorbed any and all weapon that threatened the man.

"*sigh*..."

I let out a long sigh before swinging my spear just as the wall of lava came down, causing the man to block my attack with his grieves.

They were unable to withstand the force of my attack and eventually shattered upon him, placing his foot down.

I smiled lightly as this was enough of a distraction for a few of the bloody weapons to strike his chest plate from behind.

Surprised by the power, he decided to stop testing me out and quickly took our face-off much more seriously.

BOOM

He struck towards me, but I just stepped in, instantly dodging his halberd and allowing me to get a decent blow on his other pair of greaves that sat neatly on his shins.

CRASH

They shattered almost instantly, just like my confidence, as I stepped back and circled around him, only to be met by a smaller wall of lava.

"Seems I need to be warier," I muttered before jumping back once again and putting more space in between us.

Wait… what if I just…

I attempted to take control of the blood dripping down from the man's scalp, but a fiery sensation ran through my body, signaling I had been instantly rejected.

Right now, I needed a plan more than anything instead of just trying to slowly wear him down… as his stamina and mana are obviously much greater than mine.

I still have a few sets of bloody weapons that I can use to create an opening, but now that he's manipulating literal lava to defend and attack… I don't see how I could win.

The gap in our stats was too wide for me to actually have a chance.

"I picked the wrong matchu- oops… Let's not say that. Improvement comes through struggle, and though I'm not the biggest fan of struggling, I guess I'll give it a try,"

The adrenaline in my body slowly died down, giving me better control over my body.

I was in a situation where the odds were completely stacked against me, but the excitement of potential growth was intoxicating and almost relieving.

I had a feeling something like this was going to happen… but I should've prepared myself a bit more.

"What are you gawking at?" The man asked as he raised his lava-coated halberd into the air and swung it in all directions repeatedly.

Blades of lava were flung at me with such speed that I could only block them with my aura-coated spear.

I knew the Sangria King's Spear was strong, but could it really withstand blocking so many high-temperature attacks…?

"Well, I guess we'll see,"

I was just barely blocking the flying blades of lava which melted through my aura and singed the spear to its core… but the commander wasn't just going to let me have an easy time.

He charged in with lava gushing out from the soles of his metal boots with each volcanic step that he took.

Then, for the first time in this match, his spear was coated with a dark orange color that mingled with the lava, creating a swing so deadly that blocking it would be impossible.

Even if my spear did hold up, my arms and, most likely, my legs would completely shatter under the force of his attack.

"Sssssss…"

Everything around me slowed down as I took in a concentrated breath, and with straining legs and arms, I just barely managed to roll out of the way.

BOOOOOOOOOM

He created a massive crater in the hill, which had split open like a lotus, pillars of lava shooting up into the air as if rejoicing for their master's power.

"Geez… what an asshole," I muttered as the man stepped on my spear and coated it with lava so I couldn't take it.

Of course, I had to let go of my spear because dodging with it would've slowed me down way too much.

"Now, let's finish this quickly," The man announced but suddenly snapped his head back at his foot which was pressed against the lava-caked spear.

"Come,"

My spear shot out from under the man's foot and immediately went into my very own limp grasp.

"Huff… Huff… Huff… Huff… Huff… Huff…"

And using the man's surprise, I once again used this to my advantage and shot the remaining bloody weapons circling around this small hill into the man's back.

He grunted upon feeling the first pair of weapons hit him and then blocked the remaining ones with another strong wall of lava.

Crack…

An opening had appeared, and that was a crack in the back of the commander's chest plate.

I was wondering why he didn't defend his head but defended his back… and that is probably because his back isn't as trained to withstand attacks as his head.

I have no clue why that happened, but I'll gladly be using that to my advantage.

All of a sudden, the ground underneath me rumbled, and my senses were like sirens going off in the middle of the apocalypse.

I quickly scaled the side of the large crater and stood on the rocky edge, watching the entire thing go up in flames and fill with lava, creating a lava soup.

He flung another few blades of lava at me, but I had already adjusted to this and quickly dodged them.

"Foooooooo…"

Rows of weapons made from blood quickly circled around the bowl we had created, and this time I decided to use them more sparingly.

"I'll use them in tandem with my attacks," I muttered before running around the edge of the bowl and then slicing towards the man, trying to imitate his flying blade attacks… but I soon learned it was impossible to do that with aura.

I just limply flung pieces of red aura at him, which soon evaporated into thin air, so I gave up on the idea and executed a very simple plan.

FWOOSH

A few weapons of blood flew toward the commander, who stood at the very center of the lava bowl on a patch of rocky land.

They came from all directions, and just as I had expected, he stumbled a bit, trying to stay on the patch of land.

It seems he can't touch his lava… or is it a bluff in order to draw me in?

After gathering as much information as possible, I went in for a swift move in tandem with a few more flying weapons of blood.

The first few weapons knocked him off balance, and I then proceeded to put all my power into my legs, blast off the side of the bowl and then attempt to shatter his chest plate.

An ear-tearing pain echoed throughout the entire battlefield as my spear scratched his chest plate, and he soon realized what I was trying to do.

The lava immediately cooled down into a tray of igneous rock, setting up the stage for the final stretch of the fight.