Bloody Melee 2

Growing up, Seth thought he was special, really special, and not just in the way every child was to their fathers and mothers. His talent amongst his peers was unrivaled. Seth left the academy a year before he was supposed to graduate and cut down more beasts and enemies than everyone in his class. His talent with mana a d the blade we're undeniable.

He would have been hailed as a genius if he came from any other house, but he was not. He was from house Ryall, and house Ryall had Tessa Vermillion Ryall. Her talent and skill made his mediocre at best and pitiable at worse. He always trailed behind her, envious of her genius and afraid of what it would mean for his legacy. As long as he wasn't beside her, he was exceptional, his father told him once while he sulked after losing a duel to his sister for the fifth time. She had the same disinterested look in her eyes as he walked away with a spellbook tucked under her armpit.

"You are not as talented as your sister, Seth," he said, rubbing his matted hair. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes as he heard those words. "That doesn't mean you have no talent," his father continued. "It just means you have to work a bit harder than everybody else. In a few years, if you work hard, I'm sure you'll be just as powerful as your sister," he beamed with a reassuring smile.

***

On his knees, bordered by crackling wood, deep with a burning forest, the memory of that day flashed before his defeated, tear-soaked eyes. "I did work hard, Father, and it amounted to nothing. I'm walled in by the flames I set. There is no escape. I am not as talented as my sister. My best was not enough." He dropped to his knees and waited for the blast to come. There was no use fighting. He was wounded, had no magic, and could only move one of his two hands. Even if he managed to stop the attack, with only one arm to attack and defend, the outcome would be the same.

A notification screen popped up in his mind, startling him. His eyes flickered open, and he saw a notification screen.

[Mission complete

Blood ability unlocked: Life sense. Close your eyes and try to feel the energy oozing from the blood surrounding you. Once you tap into that energy, practice it until you can see it with your eyes.]

[Mission: Delay the Blight ghoul

Difficulty: A

Rewards: Basic guide to darkness magic control]

"Delay?" He could do that. If the rest of the team were as close as the system says, he could hold on for a bit longer. He hadn't failed his mission, not yet.

He sprung to his feet and eyed the black mass forming in the beast's maw. He took a huge step backward, and with a fierce whip, he hurled his estoc at the mass. The impact caused an explosion that leveled a few trees and cleared the most of the flames. Though he was close to the beast, he was surprisingly untouched by the blast. In the center, the beast stood still, covered in wounds, but not fatally injured. It opened its mouth and let out a blood-curdling screech that forced him to Seth to his knees. It walked towards Seth, with both claws retracted, and ready to pounce.

Seth's ears dripped with blood, and his entire body vibrated with pain. Before he was forced back to his knees, he leaped in the direction of one of his daggers and flung it at the creature, which it easily dodged, but not before it stopped its attack. It opened its mouth to attack, but Seth interrupted with a firebomb and promptly closed the distance between them.

When he was close enough, he threw a weighty punch with his remaining arm, aimed at the creature's head. If it connected, it should incapacitate him. He swung with all his strength and waited to hear the satisfying crunch of the creature's skull fracture, but he completely missed. The beast simply angled to the right, completely evading, and retaliated with a sharp swing of its claws. Seth raised his forehand, positioning it directly below the beasts, shortening its swinging arc. He pushed forward with a headbutt to the creature's jaw, snapping it shut, just as it prepared to counter-attack with a scream.

While the beast was still off-balance, he whipped his leg and attacked with a low kick, forcing the beast to its knees and continued with the punch that the beast dodged earlier. The hit connected, but not with the level of power or momentum he envisioned. While the beast was low, he resolved not simply to settle for delaying it, he was looking to kill it. He stomped hard on the beast's caps with a fierce jump, paralyzing it, and launched a full-powered punch this time around.

Inches from the beast face it shot a small condensed ball of dark energy. It whipped him back, sending him stumbling to the floor. His hand was raw, but he could still move it. He looked back to the beast when he heard several loud snaps. It's knee caps were snapping back in place and it roared a confident roar.

Seth complexion paled, his eyes desperately searched for his sword, or dagger or something. He didn't find any of them in burning trees or bushes around him, so he charged once more, this time with an intention to use both arms, damaged or not.

The beast's knees and its burn marks were fully healed when he managed to get close enough, and his tactless advance was met with a ruthless double slash. Seth had scarcely any opportunity to block with both raw arms before the force of the attack flung him in the direction of the ghouls he butchered earlier.

He crashed into a corpse he nearly decapitated, with a certainty that he'd used both of his arms for the last time in that battle. The ghoul got on all fours and leaped at him before he could scarcely blink- it was its turn to lead the battle.

Seth's eyes made out the blurry features of the beast as it reappeared overhead. It's jaw wide open, rearing to snap; its claws tapered to point, fresh with blood. Just before its claws struck, he felt a drastic shift in him. An eerily familiar wave of sinister energy welled up within him. It flooded his mind and moved his lips to speak in a foreign tongue.

The words he spoke carried a strange power that invaded all the bloody masses around him. It forced into a frenzied spasm and drew blood from their mangled corpses. The blood twisted, then annealed to form large bobbing spikes, that struck at the incoming beasts.

He felt foreign mana well up in him, and he muttered words equally as strange. Blood burst out the dead ghoul in beside him and impaled the airborne beast that hovered above him. The spell he cast took effect in an instant- faster than any spell-casting he thought possible.

Seth hurriedly scampered backward from the suspended beast in shock, fear, and confusion. The Ghoul that was upon him seconds ago wordlessly hung mid-air, completely paralyzed. Though he was understandably apprehensive, Seth inched closer, almost unable to stop himself.

He had so many questions? How was this possible? Was this the system's doing? Before his thoughts could gather, a system notification interrupted.

[Mission updated

Kill the beast and use blood siphon for the first time to absorb the beast and level up before your team's arrival.

You have 30 seconds]

Seth noticed a slight tremble journey through the body of the entrapped beast. Its muscle spasmed slightly. It was clear the blood restraints would give out sooner rather than later. He ran over to the site of the explosion in search of his blade- knowing fully well he couldn't very well strangle the beast to death.

[Kill the beast, and use blood siphon before your teammates arrive]

A fresh update appeared in front of him, pushing him to search even faster. He waded his way through the ash snowing down around him, pushing his way through the pain and eventually felt something like the handle of his blade. He pulled on the handle, and a blood-stained, soot-caked blade emerged from the ash. Finally, armed with his trusty dagger, he charged in the ghoul direction and rammed the blade deep into its skull. The blood bonds shattered almost immediately, and the beasts squirmed one last time before all life left its body and its muscles eased in defeat.

With the creature dead, he wasted no time setting his mind to the second mission the system had instructed. He dug into the creature's stomach through the hole the strange blood attack created earlier and focused on connecting with the strange mana he felt earlier when he subconsciously used the strange spell. With his teammates drawing closer with each passing second, he couldn't afford to waste even a single moment. He traced the source of energy back to its roots and found himself nearly overwhelmed by it.

He was standing in a boundless space that held hid mana conduits and core. Thin, almost colorless energy lines ran up and down, connecting it to his tainted light and darkness conduits, but no lines connected to the blood core he'd found when he meditated the day before. He flew towards the core and reached out to it with his incorporeal hand.

A constant flow of energy radiated from the core. It was warm, twisted, savage, and almost beguiling. He felt an instinctive draw to the core he found almost too powerful to resist. In his heart, he knew there was something truly damning about the power it held. Tapping into it was starting down a one-way path that only led to death and chaos, yet for Seth, there was no real alternative.

Without the power that the core held, he would fail in his mission to save his sister and probably die. Moments ago, the power from the core had saved him. It would be foolish not to take whatever gifts it offered, especially if they could increase his strength.

Yet, he hesitated. His religion, his morals, they held him back- whispering in his ear, reminding him of the punishment that awaited all who stray from the true path. He didn't doubt the threat of eternal damnation was real; at that moment, he just found it too distant to care about wholly.

"Uvu, be damned, what other choice do I have?" He gave in to the core's pull and surrendered to a sensation so profoundly complex and strangely energizing. Without needing instruction, he initiated the blood absorption siphon ability and drew in the beast's blood. It seeped in through the wounds in his biceps, arms, obliques, and other cuts and scratches. He felt his muscles stitch back together fiber by fiber and a foreign strength course up through his veins and into his core.

His eyes rolled backward, and he spasmed uncontrollably. He tried to force his eyes open, but they fought to shut close, still reeling from the explosion of power shooting through his veins. He was lost in a near paralyzing trance of pure ecstasy.

When he finally managed to pry both eyelid open, he found the beast's dried-up lifeless carcass before him. It was so pale and dry, not even the red tint of its exposed muscles remained. Just as he reached out to touch the body, he felt a surge of mana build up behind him. The swathes of flames that ravished the forest, reducing it to near ash, started to fluctuate, then condense and finally flow in the direction of Germo's outstretched hands.

"There you are!" the burly man said with a smile. He looked at Seth, inspecting all his wounds, "you don't look good."

Sera brushed past him and fell to her knees, barely minding the soot and ash, "are you okay!"