Chapter 10: Save it.

A middle aged man stood in the middle of the street with the roadway being made out of cobblestones. He held an open black umbrella on one hand and a leash on the other, he was wearing a traditional British suit and a black trench coat. He had long, silver, silky smooth hair, silver coloured eyebrows and eyelashes, crimson red eyes and pale white skin. The rain was pouring down heavily but the dog wasn't drenched, it was a normal bloodhound from the twenty first century, with black and tan fur colour. Completely different from the one Rose had.

In front of the man was a beautiful and long wrought iron fence that looked extremely old, completely different from the modern style. Behind the fence were tall trees and green grass that hid everything about this place from the outside world. The man then began to walk towards the entrance and when he was in front of the gates, it opened up by itself, the man not seeming to be shocked by this walked inside. Each of his steps seemed calculated, carrying a rhythm that clearly suggested that this was no ordinary person.

The gates closed by themselves behind him but he continued walking like nothing happened. He walked for about ten minutes before he could see the silhouette of a majestic castle. After walking an extra twenty minutes, the white limestone castle was finally in full view and not just that, the place was buzzing with activity. At the castle doors, two maidservants were already there in their black and white uniforms, standing with them were two knights in shining armour.

"We greet Lord Gu…"

"Save it. Show me the way to the Gathering, hurry up!" said the man. His voice was deep, cold and full of authority. In an instant, the two knights opened the golden doors while the two maidservants quickly led the man to the Gathering.

The walls consisted of GRG gold coating with classic flower decorations, the flooring was of the highest quality marbles placed in a pattern that blended together with the walls in harmony. The ceiling was that of a moon pattern and golden chandeliers lighting up the place. The two maidservants led the man through many twists and turns before reaching their destination.

Outside the room, the place was crowded by many people, the youth and the elderly mixed together. Only a few youths were socialising while everyone else just did their own thing. When the maidservants appeared with the man, all eyes were on them, the two maidservants lowered their heads and dared not make eye contact with the people here. As for the man, he ignored them and walked slowly towards the door with his dog accompanying him.

After a few seconds of glaring at the man, the elderly seemed to recognise him as they all bowed in respect and saluted the man.

"We greet Lord…"

"Save it."

That's all the man said before opening the door, entering and closing it behind him. The place had suddenly become quiet because of the man, the youngsters were curious as to who exactly that man was but were too proud to ask the older generation.

"Hahaha, I never thought I'd live to see the day… hahaha! I met him, I finally met him! He's nothing like what the books described him as… he's the real deal." one of the old men broke the silence with his hysterical laughter but what he said next made everyone think of something or rather… someone.

"I-It can't be..! Is he..? How is it possible..?!"

…

"Gunner, I'm glad that you finally decided to return home. I didn't think you'd attend the Gathering this time but I'm glad you came. With you…" sounded a voice that was quickly interrupted by the man who just entered.

"Save it. I'm not here for your stupid Gathering. I'm here for the Blood Pool, I'm in urgent need of it. Give me that and I'll leave in the same manner I came in." said the man.

Inside the room was a rectangular table wooden table with black wooden chairs, the only different chair was the biggest one, placed far from the table and its position a little higher. And it wasn't a chair but a throne upon which a red haired, red eyed middle aged man was sitting lazily on while wearing loose robes. Everyone else sat on the chairs placed around the table but what was shocking was that everyone, both inside and outside, maids or guards, everyone here had one similar thing and that was the eyes.

For some reason, all of them had crimson red eyes, some even shared similar hair colour. What they also had in common was the pale white skin as though they bathed in milk filled bathtubs.

"William, duke or not, know your place and watch what comes out of your mouth! You can't speak to the Blood Lord like that, did losing that woman suddenly make you forget about the hierarchy?!" spoke one of the figures sitting around the table. It was a green haired old man with a cane and a calculative eyes like those of a fox.

"I'd advise you to watch your words when talking about my wife. I don't want…" the man whose name was William was interrupted by the old man who continued to speak.

"What?! You disappear for tens of thousands of years and when you come back, you come here demanding things from the Blood Lord as though he owes you. Just what has that woman bee feeding you to talk such nonsense, is her pussy so good that…" the old man couldn't finish his sentence because William had suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the throat with eyes glowing in a dangerous glint.

"Keep my wife's name out of your filthy mouth!" said William coldly while his grip on the old man's throat became tighter. The old man's face turned red, green and finally purple as he was running out of breath.

[Duke William Gunner, former Lord of the Gunner Dukedom, former General of the Blood Legion that laid waste to many of our enemies. What business do you have coming here, with demands even?!] spoke the man sitting on the throne with an amused expression.

"I hadn't come here with ill intentions but since you lot think that I'm easy to bully like you did in the past, think again." he said as he threw the old man away like he was a bag of rotten potatoes.

"I came here to challenge you to a Blood Battle, you've grown too complacent on that seat of yours, it's time that things change and someone more competent takes over. If you win, I shall return to the battlefield and fight for free for as long as you wish." said William in a cold yet arrogant tone.

The Blood Lord was about to laugh at his challenge and take it as a joke but when he heard that William was willing to return to the battlefield if he lost, his expression became serious. This was simply too great an opportunity to let it slip away.

[It seems that you're really confident in yourself. Is it because of your improvement in strength that gave you so much confidence? Sorry to disappoint you but you weren't the only one training their ass off these past thousands of years. I accept your conditions, give me a time and date!]

"How about now! No need to waste time preparing nonsense, let's do it now."

[As you wish. Let's go to the arena to quickly get this over with. With you back in the military, it'll make a lot of things more easier and save us a lot of time.] the Blood Lord spoke to William as though he had already won.

…

The two men were now standing at the top of the mountain where a battle arena had been created there.

"Sit." said William as he climbed the stairs to the arena, the Blood Lord didn't say anything and also walked up the stairs. He was still wearing his loose robes and had a casual look on his face, William also didn't take off his suit and trench coat. It was as though these two men were taking a stroll rather than preparing for battle.

"As per the rules of the Blood Battle. You will only obtain victory if your opponent admits defeat or when they are dead. This battle is between two people and two people only, anyone else who tries to interfere will be executed on the spot, their bloodline shall become slaves and everything they have shall be confiscated. The battle shall commence when this drop of blood touches the ground. Any questions?" the old man whom William had almost choked to death read the rules.

"No."

[No.]

Bang!

The old man pulled the trigger and the drop of blood flew high in the sky before slowly descending in free fall.

Two balls of blood appeared on William's hands and a blood red sword appeared on the Blood Lord's hand. The two men then waited for the drop of blood to touch the ground. When the blood drop was about three meters above ground, it seemed like time had been slowed down. The blood drop would touch the ground in about ten seconds, it was then that the place became completely quiet, the wind stopped blowing and the trees stopped rustling.

Ten… nine… eight… seven…

Williams silver hair changed colour and became blood red, his eyebrows and eyelashes turned black as his crimson eyes glowed. The Blood Lord still had his nonchalant face while waiting for the drop of blood to fall and the spectators waited in anticipation for the battle about to begin.

Three… two… one…

Swoosh!

Swoosh! Swoosh

Instantly after the drop of blood touched the ground, Blood Lord moved at extreme speed that he left a blur but William didn't move from his position and instead threw the two blood balls at Blood Lord with the same speed. The distance between the two of them was about a thousand meters but the Blood Lord covered half the distance in a blink of an eye. When he was about to cover the rest of it, a blood ball the size of an orange appeared right in front of his face. Blood Lord swung his sword and cleanly cut the blood ball into two equal halves.

[Mhm?]

He was slightly shocked by the impact he felt from his sword when it came into contact with blood ball as he didn't expect it to be so heavy. But he didn't linger on that thought, just as he was about to increase his speed again, another blood ball appeared, this was even faster than the last because it appeared a few inches from his face. The Blood Lord's eyes glowed and the blood ball became slow in his eyes. He turned his head to the side and barely managed to dodge the blood ball.

Swoosh!

He didn't waste even a second and he was already in front of William with excitement and anticipation for the battle.

[Show me what you go…]

Whoosh!

Clang!

Bang!

Blood Lord wasn't done speaking when his hand that was holding the sword suddenly moved on its own to cut the blood ball that had appeared behind him. Surprisingly, this time, the sword failed to cut the ball but instead collided with it like two metals clashing. William took advantage of Blood Lord's distraction and sent a punch on Blood Lord's face but with the quick reflexes of the Blood Lord, he managed to block it with his other hand but the force of the punch still pushed him back a few feet.

Two more blood balls appeared on William's hand as he threw them at the same time while also rushing in the same direction. The two new blood balls were aiming for Blood Lord's left shoulder and he twisted his whole body to the side. What he didn't expect was for the third blood ball to collide with the fourth and changed its trajectory, now aiming for his chest. Blood Lord leaned back by ninety degrees and the third blood ball missed him but was shocked to see the first ball just right above him and in a perfect spot for the forth ball to collide and change its trajectory yet again and this time, it would be coming for his head.

Blood Lord's current posture wasn't good so he quickly fell on the ground and did a kickback. The blood ball struck the ground, an inch away from his head. When Blood Lord landed on his feet, William was already there with nails sharper than even a sharpened blade and did a vertical slash but…

[Scatter!]

Blood Lord changed into a horde of bats that helped him dodge the attack but he wasn't done. Some of the bats regrouped to create a blood red fist that landed on William's face, sending him flying. William bent his body and performed multiple backflips and after finishing the last one, his legs muscle had already contracted and with a little bit of force..

Swoosh

The ground cracked as William propelled himself forward, instantly covering the distance between him and his opponent, two blood balls had already appeared on his hands but instead of throwing them like he did the previous ones. These blood balls turned into liquid that wrapped around his hands like gloves. Blood Lord first saw a blood red fist before seeing William who had just appeared but he wasn't fazed by it.

Bang!

William felt a powerful kick land on his chin as Blood Lord moved his head to the side and dodged the punch. William then threw a knee strike which Blood Lord blocked with his hand. The blood balls also entered the battle, coming from different directions and closing any chances of escaping.

Clang! Dodge! Block! Block! Clang! Clang! Attack! Duck!

William and his four blood balls made this battle a five versus one and Blood Lord handled himself very well. It was clearly obvious that Blood Lord was good at close combat because not once did William and his blood balls land a single hit. He would dodge, block, parry, attack and defend himself from his opponent.

Clang! Dodge! Block! Clang! Clang! Clang! Punch! Kick! Parry! Block!

The battle then began to escalate as the speed of the attacks increased continuously. William, Blood Lord and the red balls increased their speed to a point where in the eyes of the crowd, they were blurs and couldn't follow their movements at all. This extreme speed battle continued for about five minutes before they separated. Although blood Lord wasn't injured, his robes had holes in many places and looked no different than a rag. He tore the off the top part, showing his refined bulky physique.

[General Gunner, this is a Blood Battle! Show me what you got!]

"Unfortunately you haven't pushed me enough. Give me a real fight and I'll show you what I can do."

[Fine then. You asked for this!] said Blood Lord before releasing a high pitch roar that created strong winds.

His crimson red eyes glowed brightly as his pupils dilated and spread to cover the whole eye. There was no longer any white sclera on his eyes as only red could be seen. His ears became sharp and prominent, his nose became leaf-like and his teeth were now razor sharp with four canines protruding from his mouth. His muscles also disappeared, replaced by a more lean body that allowed for flexibility. His arms and legs turned into sharp claws and a one meter long tail grew from his lower back. Then finally, blackness with cracks appeared around his eyes, making him look menacing.

William expression also turned solemn, the blood balls wrapping his fists returned to their spherical shape. Four more blood balls appeared, making a total number of ten balls that floated around him. These balls then began spinning like a top but at an extremely fast speed, the shape also changed from a sphere to a needle one.

"Go."

As though alive, these ten centimetre long needles pierced through the air as they targeted the beast of the man called Blood Lord. The sword in Blood Lord's hand turned into a crown that fit perfectly on his head. A red aura enveloped his body and everyone felt a suppression of sorts that forced everyone to kneel, including those that were left in the castle, everyone fell on their knees except for one man.

[Even if Bloodline Suppression doesn't work on you, I'm still the Blood Mornach. Stop!] Blood Lord ordered the blood needles to stop in their tracks. Since he was the ruler of blood, he could control all the blood in existence but there was a condition to having such a broken ability; You had to have the power to control the blood. This was the one and only condition to this ability.

Vampires had an extremely long lifespan, and could live for a very long time if not killed, that's why they were regarded as immortal. But the downside to this so called immortality was that they took an extremely long time to improve their strength. If an average person or creature took ten days to advance from a Rank One Mortal to a Rank Two then a vampire would take a hundred days or longer to do to achieve the same result. Fortunately vampires were blessed creatures and there was a way to circumvent this situation. By sucking the blood of a more talented or stronger creature, the rate of improvement could be increased.

This solution sounded simple enough but it was actually far more difficult then improving their strength as each race tended to protect their own kind, especially if their seedlings were talented enough. As for the other option, it was simply impossible because the vampire would die before accomplishing that task.

[Stop!]

It was such a simple command, the command was for the blood needles to stop, simple right. But something happened, something the Blood Lord never in his wildest dreamed was possible and that was his command not working. The blood needles didn't even stop for an instant and soon covered the distance between them and the Blood Lord.

[If Blood Control doesn't work then I'll simply crush your needles and let them fill the gap in my stomach!]

Even though his Blood Control wasn't working on the needles, the Blood Monarch didn't panick and remained calm.

[Blood Domain!] screamed Blood Lord as he slit open his wrists and litres of blood gushed out like tap water and spread in a ten meter radius on the ground but it was already too late. The blood needles were supposed to be absorbed by his blood on the ground to make the domain stronger but his Blood Domain didn't even react.

[What..?!]

Two needles pierced his palms, another two piercing his shoulders, two on his knees and two more on his feet and the last two pierced his upper and lower spine, the cervical and lumbar vertebrae.

Plop

Blood Lord fell knees first on the ground before the rest of his body followed suit, Blood Lord felt the heaviness of his body and lay on the ground without being able to move a single muscle. A moment ago, he was all powerful but the next he was laying flat on the ground.

The crowd was shocked by the outcome of the battle because Blood Lord had been dominating the battle this whole time and even seemed to be going easy on William but now… he was just laying there like a cripple.

[What did you do to me?! What are your blood balls made of? How and where did you obtain them?!] asked Blood Lord.

William slowly walked towards Blood Lord at his rhythmic pace, "I increased the heaviness of your body to a level where you couldn't control it using my blood needles. As for my blood balls, I actually named them Blood Worlds and I got them up there." said William as he pointed at the cloudy sky.

"You know, I didn't waste thousands of years just playing around with my wife. We were constantly on the run from the Holy Race and sometimes go into hiding which would last for months or even years. It was then that I realised just how weak I was and I hated it. I hated being weak, I hated running away with my tail between my legs and I hated living the life of a rat, a life of constant fear. I then decided to grow stronger, so strong that my enemies would think twice before even thinking of coming for me.

For years I trained, honing my skills and abilities to become a part of me. I didn't just train but also started taking risks. I spent most of time in the Wilderness, taking advantage of mutated beasts that were injured and hunting them down to grow my own strength. I almost died many times but as the humans say; Fortune favours the bold. I risked my life to gain power. As the years went by, I found that slowly, the mutated beasts were growing weaker or rather that I was growing stronger. When I could finally enter and exit the Wilderness unscathed, I turned my attention elsewhere, up there. And look at the level of power I've reached."

The blood needle on the cervical vertebrae pulled itself out from Blood Lord's neck and landed on William's hand. Finally, Blood Lord could raise his head but when he looked at William, shocked couldn't even begin to describe what he was feeling. This was because William's eyes seemed to contain numerous stars . No, his eyes contained a fraction of the galaxy with a countless number of stars.

William then took the red crown off Blood Lord's head, " Admit defeat." said William calmly. Unfortunately Blood Lord was so out of it that he wasn't paying attention to anything and started talking to himself.

[I read all the books we have in our library. I have all the knowledge of all books we've ever owned in my head and there's this book called Universal Order where it talks about the strength of the beings in the universe. There's a passage where it speaks about beings whose eyes are literally a cluster of stars. Have you also reached that level? Have you also become…. a S-Star Sovereign?!!!]

"What if I have, what if I haven't?! Admit defeat and sever your connection with the crown. I don't have all day!"

[But…]

"Save it. Admit defeat and sever your connection with the crown. I'm not gonna ask again but your head will be rolling on the ground… Edmund Bloodworth."