The path to freedom opened, but at what cost? (VOL 1 END ZONE)

When Vlad heard that coming from Belpel, he frowned hard instantly. At the same time, gripping his hold tightly on the crimson sword. With this said, the plans in Vlad's head also changed. His cold eyes that seemed to have darkened a bit started to lose their focus for a bit as if something happened inside him.

Then as if nothing happened to him, he looked to Belpel's face with his dark-green eyes, still looking coldly at him.

The aftermath of receiving that strike from Belpel showed themselves in the fact that Vlad's crimson sword lost two layers of blood reinforcement.

Recovering his balance, he took a Fool's Guard stance to test how good was Belpel in reality with the Haki included. He pushed his blood powers to a new cycle getting himself another series of « Enhancements » until he felt his muscles screaming in pain. As if they almost began tearing apart from all the strain he put on them.

Yet, he wasn't bothered by those side-effects. Feeling the blood moving faster than usual in his arteries and sensing his body even lighter, almost like when he fought with Nius, he sprinted toward the spearman.

Belpel sneered at Vlad's attempt to take him by surprise and used the natural advantage of a spear to keep Vlad at bay. While doing so, he also covered his spear in a weaker version of Armament. Compared to Nius, the one that Belpel pulled was a half-version.

Yet, that didn't mean that his following attacks were weaker. With the spear tip covered in haki, he would go for some thrusts targeting Vlad's legs and middle section. His speed was exceptional, while his powers were still to be seen.

Vlad stepped back from the spear reach, not risking himself to enter the range of his attacks, knowing on his skin that being hit by a weapon covered in Armament was something he didn't wish ever to experience.

Instead, he chose to circle Belpel using his increased abilities, such as speed. He kept circling around Belpel until he would notice a break in the spearman guard.

Yet as he circled at high-speed, the small rocks around Vlad's range of circling started rising in the air, like they experienced a strong storm blowing in their direction.

Keeping that strategy to counter Belpel's powerful attacks combined with Haki was very taxing on his body. Yet he spotted, after some rounds, a breaking point of Belpel's stance around his backside. Not thinking twice if he should go for the opening, he just acted upon his instinct, going for a thrust to Belpel's back.

In no time, Vlad already reached that opening, and with a crimson sword in hand, to his, inside right, he pushed his sword towards the spearman back. If Vlad hoped that the strike would land, luck wasn't on his side this time. Belpel rotated with his black spear and deflected Vlad's thrust, and while he pushed his enemy, he said with a grin on his face.

"That was sneaky of you little monster. If I was late by 1 or 2 seconds my spine would be done for. But now let's see if you can block this strike of mine."

Belpel switched the way he held his spear, slowly grasping the tip of his now black spear handle tightly, and with a serious face, he held the spear behind his back and dashed towards Vlad.

While he reached Vlad, he roared with all his might « Sky Eater » and swung his spear from that position of his with a menacing face.

When Vlad saw Belpel approach him, wielding his spear that way, and seeing him how fast he moved, he entered directly in a Plow guard in order to deflect that swing of his, using all his Blood Powers to reinforce his sword. Similarly pushing yet a little bit the blood power on his arms and legs, not even feeling the pain because of the adrenaline. He waited for the spear to approach him while being in the sword guard.

The well anticipated moment came at last when Belpel's black spear that held an incredible momentum approached with its blade at Vlad's body. It was only met back by the crimson blade.

The spear connected with Vlad's blade, and a clash between powers happened. Vlad's blood reinforcement quickly gave up, shattering like glass. Then when Belpel reached Vlad's naked metal sword it unexpectedly even managed to snap his blade in half and later cutting into Vlad's body like it was nothing.

Vlad could only stare at the spear as it snapped in two his sword and fastly approached his body.

The sound of iron cutting into the skin was heard on the entire battlefield, slowly filling the battlefield in silence. However, that silence was broken later by Belpel's laughs as he stared intently at the deep cut he carved onto Vlad's body around his chest area. Blood was dripping from that cut, rapidly flowing along his body. However, it never hit the ground for an unknown reason.

This time he felt the pain assault him, even when he was in an adrenaline state. Breathing hard, he placed his hand on his chest around his cut, then felt a pain attack his heart.

Getting on his knees, trying hard to breathe from the excruciating pain he felt. Slowly his mind began to get clouded by some dark thoughts in his mind. His eyes started shinning with dark mist-like energy.

In no time as his state changed from being assaulted by pain to being freed by it.

Vlad was only staring coldly at Belpel, thinking of the quick exchange that happened between his sword and the spear. Later turning to look at his body, which was dripping blood that was gathering in his hands.

'Damned spear users. I always hate to fight against them with their insane advantage of having a longer range. Now what? I don't even have a sword. Should I try to build one from my blood, but I never managed to do one before, what if it fails?'

'This cut maybe can help me out a bit, supplying me with the blood I need. So be it, let's see you arrogant fuck if you can handle my powers then.'

As Vlad was thinking about what to do next, Belpel switched how he handled the spear again, going for a thrust instead of a slash. With the Shoe(handlebar) close to his body, he rushed to Vlad, who was still standing in place with blood all over his body and a deep cut on his chest.

"Hmph, take this you ignorant fool, taste my «Crocodile's Tail» you'll die soon anyway. Better do it faster and go back to my young lady waiting for me." Said Belpel arrogantly while rushing with his spear close to his body.

As he approached Vlad, he spun the spear in his hand and just thrusted his spear at a fast speed.

Vlad was staring coldly at Belpel as he was going for that thrust. Closing his eyes, he thought of his heirloom back home. The longsword with the handle in the form of a dragon had a splendid appearance for an ancient sword. As he visualized that lost partner of his, the blood in his hands started gathering and transformed itself into the form of that longsword. When he didn't have enough blood to continue its transformation, more blood from his chest wound started flowing towards Vlad's hand as it held the dragon's body. The blade of the sword began forming very quickly. In a couple of moments, the blood he got from that chest cut was enough for him to create the sword that always reminded him of his home.

Grasping the handle tightly as it condensed, the blood sword solidified itself just in time for Vlad to block Belpel's thrust. After blocking that spear thrust, he rushed with his crimson sword towards Belpel and slashed back his open body.

While all the changes were happening with Vlad when he had his eyes closed, with some smoke-like substance exiting his eyes. Strangely enough, he noticed as the blood of the young man didn't flow on the ground. Instead, he gathered quickly around his right hand and fastly taking the form of a crimson sword that outshined the reinforced iron sword he used to fight.

When he saw that, he wanted to see what else this young devil fruit user could do. Going forward with that thought process with his spear covered in Armament rushed towards Vlad with a smiling face while executing a thrust motion.

Unfortunately for him, Vlad, by the time he reached to thrust his spear into his body. He was met by that menacing-looking blood sword that had some black mist around it, blocking his spear blade and deflecting it in a different direction.

Belpel only saw as the boy who he initially thought was done for cut his body in a manner that he never got to taste while giving him a sinister smile. Taken by surprise, he didn't manage to use Armament of his body, and in this way, the cut that he received stopped on his ribs. Blood flowed from his wound with the same flow Vlad's wound did.

Feeling the pain of having his body cut gave Belpel an adrenaline rush, making him stop playing with the boy. He chose to target the other kids with the hope of doing so would make Vlad get on the wrong foot and gain an opportunity to end this fight.

Belpel gritting his teeth from the pain, hastened to where Kipset and the others were fighting the guards with the intent of killing them and disrupt Vlad's focus. With blood flowing from his wound, he rushed with the spear held for a thrust. In a short time, Belpel arrived in front of the guards and boys who were in an open fight. Vlad also noticed Belpel shift his focus away from him, choosing to go for the kids. He rushed to stop him. However, he was a step late, even when pushing his body to the top of his abilities.

Kipset, when seeing Belpel behind the guard's body with his spear rushing straight from the guard's body, he was shocked. 'This guy is crazy, he even goes as far to kill his soldiers just to kill me?' Gritting his teeth, he held his sword hanging right to his body in order to receive and block that thrust going in his direction.

The spear, as it impaled the guard passing towards Kipset with unimaginable power, crashed into his sword, pushing forward to his heart. Kipset held his Guard high and prayed to the sky that his sword would hold on and not crack. The spear was getting closer and closer to his heart when suddenly, the thrust stopped when touching his chest skin.

Later he heard the middle-aged man said with a sneer to Kipset. "You got lucky lad, your master just saved your skin. But don't get happy I will find an opening to kill you and the other bugs."

Robert and Inorra, who were busy dealing with the guards pushing into them, heard Aerius give a big scream of panic.

"That bastard is here! Be on guard, he wants to kill us."

Robert and Inorra nodded their heads and prepared to jump to help Kipset in no time.

The Commotion happening around Kipset made everyone focus on that exact spot. These guards also switched a bit of their attention to what Belpel wanted to pull. Instantly when seeing him impale one of them just to kill Kipset made them lose some morale.

Seeing Belpel thrusting his spear from the body of a guard toward Kipset made them quiet the fight they had with the guards and jump to help Kipset in his worst moments since the fight started.

Kipset holds for deal life, staring intently at the black spear pushing more and more on his body. Then he noticed Belpel retreat his spear without giving him a finishing blow. He saw Vlad attack Belpel with a blood sword that had some black mist around it.

As he attacked Belpel, the spearman quickly retreated his spear and turned to block Vlad's strike while mocking Vlad.

"Hoh, so you care for your little bugs? Am I right, you Blood fucker?" asked Belpel in a severe manner, a bit mocking Vlad's weakness.

Vlad only snorted while looking at the spearman with cold eyes. He started pushing Belpel with his blood sword, surprising Belpel with how strong the Blood Sword was when clashing with his Armored Spear.

Vlad didn't get lost in the fight, and while doing the charge, he also would target the guards that were close to him, especially the one who fought with Inorra and Robert, stabbing them from the back.

Aerius had a short brief moment to see Vlad's cold expression and look in his eyes and sword and gave a breath of relief. 'Phew, he still is in control.'

Then he heard Vlad turned briefly and said to him together with the other kids in an emotionless tone. "You should prepare and go to the gate, I don't know how much I will keep my current clearness since this person is very strong and my energy runs slowly dry. However, I'll try to move the fight towards the gates and when I have the best chance I'll open the gate open for you."

The three of them could only nod their head, with sweat all over their body. It was visible the effect this fight had on their minds and body. Exhausted for all the battle, they rushed toward the gate and started looking for an efficient way to get out. The gate looked to be out of wood, closed by an entire mechanism that could open the right of access for others. Their only way out to freedom now was closed with a lock mechanism.

Seeing this, the boys rushed to figure out the mechanism. Minutes passed, and they still couldn't figure out how the mechanism worked. To add up to the problems they had on their head, the guards led by Anastas, who recovered a bit from the fight he had with Vlad.

Still, his left arm went limping while he held his rapier with only his right hand. He was now rushing to stop them. Belpel, also directed by Vlad, entered the zone of conflict that was right beside the gate.

"Hah, what are you even trying to do little monster? Pushing me around like this? Hmph just wait before I impale you right before I end those little bugs. You destroyed my entire day for this reason? You could just have told me you wanted out and I would just let you out, no question asked." said Belpel, a bit annoyed and with a slight smile on his face when hearing the guards behind him.

For the first time since all this fight started, Belpel heard Vlad's voice directed at him. The voice held a cold tone, an arrogance similar to a ruler talking to his lowly subjects. "You would let me out? Hah, you really are talking a lot, just like that blonde guard." as he ended saying that, his eyes still cold and dark that looked at Belpel didn't switch an emotion, with his crimson sword, he thrusted his sword towards Belpel's throat with a quick cut.

Noticing that Vlad still had that cold and weird change in his eyes while fighting with him. He could hear the heavy breaths from Vlad, but in a similar situation, he could be placed.

"Hmph, don't get arrogant kid, you're not even able to use Haki and still planing to kill me? You're far too young to take my head. Maybe if you were older you could take me out. Now let me show you something else that this old me knows to do." said Belpel with a frown face while blocking with his black spear blade, Vlad's thrust.

He followed with a series of spear jabs that he threw at high-speed that shock the atmosphere flowing toward Vlad like a storm.

As menacing looking those high-speed spear thrusts from Belpel were. They were barely blocked by Vlad's blood sword, pushing him many steps back while his sword cracked a bit. Turning to look with his cold eyes at the sword, he spotted the cracks and quickly reinforced them while feeding the sword more of his blood.

After that attack, still looking seriously at Vlad as he blocked that attack, it made him even more infuriated. Stepping back and retreating his spear back close to his body, he started another tempest of strikes coming toward Vlad's body which looked more weakened with each of his attacks going.

Seeing that his strikes had success in the fight. He stepped back again when he saw Vlad approaching him, retreated his spear back again, and throwing another spear thrust targeting Vlad's throat at a high-speed.

The spearman's relentless attack pushed Vlad more than he could imagine. The hardness and strength of the spear were tremendous, clearly a sign of the Armament Haki. Regardless if it wasn't the complete form of Armament, it still gave Belpel an edge in this fight.

Vlad placed his blood sword in the spear blade and blocked the throat cut. When the clash between the sword blade and spear blade, Vlad countered Belpel's attack by pushing his spear on another side with a decisive blow. Seeing the annoying spearman being opened by his counter, he pushed all the energy in his body, entering inside his range.

Belpel snorted and started retreating quickly, his spear to block Vlad's advance on his inner range.

Looking at Vlad's face, he saw a sinister smile on his face as he entered inside the spearman range. Technically, it granted the swordsman all the advantage of taking down a spearman.

He heard him mutter something under his breath before not short seeing him follow with a slash to his body with a blood-red sword that had some dark energy around it.

Not knowing what to do since he was in the process still retreating his spear back to block Vlad.

Sensing a chill ran down his spine, Belpel quickly used the spear shaft to block Vlad's strike while using Armament on the shaft too.

A clash between the blood sword and spear shaft reinforced by haki began but only lasted 3 seconds before getting split into halves.

Gritting his teeth, Belpel pushed the shaft of his spear to block the blood sword in its way. The shaft got sliced in half, and the strike continued moving at a menacing rhythm at Belpel's body. Instead of standing there and receiving a finishing blow, he pushed aside the spear. He dropped on the ground, rolling down to avoid any further attacks from Vlad.

Vlad's cold eyes become shocked a bit by this sudden shift of strategies coming from Belpel. But quickly, they turned back to their cold and dark luster. Not relaxed one bit by this win of his over Belpel's, he turned to look towards the three boys and Aerius on Robert's shoulder, who started having a hard time when they reached the gates.

Taking notice of their situation, he got a thought in his head that screamed in his mind to use that power. The shouts that resounded in a sinister manner started drowning his initial thought of saving the kids. They become even stronger when he began to regain his clarity and to get a bigger recoil.

The voice in his head started shouting in a sinister voice. "THIS IS NOT WHAT WE ARE. WE WERE NEVER SAINTS. KILL YOUR ENEMY FIRST BEFORE FOCUSING ON SAVING OTHER SOULS. YOUR LIFE IS FAR MORE PRECIOUS TO BE WASTED ON SOME RANDOM SOULS. THE POWER INSIDE US CANNOT BE STOPPED."

Shaking his head hard, the dark mist in his eyes started to scatter a bit, and when that happened, he extended his left white hand and followed that action with a grabbing motion.

Focusing on the blood around himself from all the dead soldiers and even his own blood, clenching his hand tightly in the form of claw slowly made the blood surrounding him move towards him like they were drawn by a magnet or followed their path to their master.

His eyes turned even redder when the blood got close to his body. Then he started bleeding blood as soon as he began to gather the blood of the dead in his left hand. In no time, the blood that kept coming towards him turned into a ball the size of a cannonball after easing his tight grip.

Then as the liquid and viscous blood in his hand started solidifying, some blood started flowing from his nose as a consequence of using a power that he still didn't have control over.

The crimson ball settled down to take the shape of a ball in the form of a cannonball and began pulsing a bit as if it was a star.

*Heavy breathing* 'My mind is assaulted by my that cursed power. I can only hope that this attack of mine will manage to destroy that gate.'

Aerius, who was focused on assisting Robert in his fight with the guards, sniffed something with the smell and taste of iron. Then turning towards Vlad, he noticed him holding in his left hand a medium to large size projectile that seemed to pulse from a distance.

'Fuck, fuck. Don't tell me he's no longer Vlad, and tries to kill us all togheter? There's no time to guesses, I better tell this kids to drop down.'

Then as he finished thinking that, the black gryphon yelled at the three young boys. "DROP DOWN IMMEDIATELY!"

Vlad wasn't in the right mind of state to even bother at what Aerius screamed since he was tightly squeezing the projectile, condensing it even more before he pushed with all his power towards the gate.

The blood projectile trajectory had the gates as a target. With a fast speed, in no time, it reached the conflict zone around the gate. After shooting out the projectile, Vlad's face paled a bit, turning closer to how someone with half a step in the underworld would look. His body seemed to have lost some weight from the Blood Power consumption, while his eyes and nose kept bleeding.

Gritting his teeth to stay awake and not let his dark thoughts take over, he took a step forward and half-kneel on the bloody ground while supporting his body with the crimson sword. Breathing heavily, his nose bleed began to stop, similarly to his eyes.

When Kipset and the others heard Aerius scream and saw the crimson projectile moving at light speed towards them. They dropped to the ground without bothering themselves, with the guards looking confused at them.

Anastas sensed something wrong and turned his back. He spotted a red medium size projectile moving at fast speeds towards him and the gates. It was moving right in his direction. Sensing the impending doom approaching caused his legs to drop by themselves to the ground.

Some of the guards were less fortunate than him and got hit by the projectile, getting instantly killed by the projectile's power. Then when the blood projectile touched the wood gate as if the blood was corrosive, it fastly passed throughout, creating a large hole in the gate's wooden structure. A hole big enough for the kids to jump inside and escape the hell for good.

Everything stopped in place. Belpel was shocked while looking at Vlad's pale body that tried hard to breathe while dropping his head on the ground groaning in pain. Anastas could barely hear anything from where he was in the radius of the explosion. The guards were also scared by the blood projectile dropping down for fear it would blow them up.

As for Kipset and the others, when the blood projectile created the hole, which was big enough for them to slip in, just looked outside of the gate. It was a rocky environment that had paved a road leading to the unknown for the boys. Turning back to look at Vlad and seeing him half-kneeled and with his head on the ground made Kipset even sadder, but at the same time made him more focused to at least do one thing he promised Vlad. To rush out of this hellhole on his two feet and see for himself the world. Switching his view to Inorra and Robert, he later heard Aerius screamed at them as if he didn't want them to waste any time. "Now, now is the time you kids, jump in the hole and run for dear life. They can't catch us once we're out. Inorra don't you fucking dare drop the food supplies or I'll hunt you down to even Valent, did you hear me piece of shit. Also, don't worry about Vlad, if we stay any seconds more here, we might not even get out of here alive. So let's get out NOW. YOU BETTER RUN FAST ROBERT!"

The adrenaline they felt at that moment could beat even the one they had while fighting with the guards. Seeing probably their only way out of the camp, they rushed fast to the freedom. After some seconds, they slipped in, while the guards barely had enough time to figure out what just happened.

Anastas was the one to reach the hole, trying to slip by. He just couldn't. He was too tall to move in and go after the kids.

Seeing as the boys were getting far in the distance made him yell at the guards. "Open the door immediately you morons, we can't have them escape, not if we don't want to lose our heads."

After one minute, the guards opened the mechanism locking the door, and slowly with the chains dropping around the door, it opened itself alone. Unfortunately for the guards, the kids were already far away. It was even unknown where they rushed towards. Gritting his teeth, Anastas turned to look at Vlad, who was now pale as a dead person.

Signaling his guards to follow him, they walked slowly towards Belpel and Vlad, with swords in hand.

Vlad, who was groaning in pain while hitting his head hard on the bloody ground, couldn't hear anything outside of his mind. He only heard his cursed power scream at him, mock his stupidity for being such a weak person. He tried his best to take over him, to wear Vlad's mind to submission.

Then he heard his inner voice said to him without screaming or cursing, yet in a slow and sinister voice. "Your kids are out of this small cage. You can rest and let me take care of this mess you created. Also don't worry we're the same being, you're the king over this space while I'm just the driver of the carriage that would take over once you would mess up. Just like in your first life when you turned into the famed Impaler Prince."

"Now stop resisting. You need this power to survive. Those blood powers, while they are indeed powerful, are taxing you too much right now. That Belpel guy is stronger than we ever thought, now LET ME IN."

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