CHAPTER 6: Conflict in the forest of doom (Part 3)
"There's a couple of knights to our west so we will attack them first. Anyways did you level up?" Kyle asked while running in the forest followed by Isaac.
"Yes, i also improved my skills" Isaac replied back
"How do you feel?"
"I'm a little tired but i can still fight"
"I mean, how do you feel when killing a human?" His voice was meek but heavy and his eyes glanced at Isaac. Killing someone for the first time is hard to do, it's the time when someone started overthinking and starts to think about what will happen to their family or to the people who love and care for them. Such guilt is hard to hide in someone's heart. Humans are hard-wired to have compassion, guilt, and empathy that killing someone for the first time is mentally painful. His eyes glistened in the memory of the past before shaking his head to focus.
"Feel? i don't know" Isaac replied while avoiding his eyes
"I see.." he turned his head forward as they continue on running.
"The white thread is pointing behind us! Are you trying to trick me! If you want to die then do it yourself" the red knight gritted his teeth and his eyes glaring at the priest. The priest broke into a cold sweat, his eyes darting around before biting his thumb.
'What happened? how is it possible to move that quickly, unless they teleported?' his eyes widened before a smile appeared on his face.
"it's possible that they teleported to avoid us. Meaning that they are desperate!" the priest runs in the opposite direction without waiting for the red knight. The knight followed begrudgingly with his eyes still glaring at the priest. Swearing to himself that if it's still nothing, he will capture the egos himself before killing the priest.
"Ohh, i'm impressed. To be able to fight four knights is amazing for a level one" the witch clapped her hands before watching the spectacle in front of her. Both Isaac and Kyle are heading towards their west where a battle is happening between 7 knights and the fire wolves while the red knight and the priest are heading straight to them.
"Let's see what you can offer" her eyes flicked with excitement.
Once again hiding in an outgrown bush, both of them crouched while surveying the battle. They received the blessing of the witch that gives them protection and amenability to monsters meaning that the monster inside the forest won't attack them. The 7 knights were reduced to five as 2 corpses are laid on the ground with obvious bite marks all around their armor. 1 of them has a broken arm as it swings lifelessly to every movement. The fire wolf dashes forward but the knight swung his sword towards the fangs. The wolf bites the sword before a fire emanates from its mouth as the sword is engulfed from the fire. The knight abandoned his sword before jumping backward. 2 fire wolves opened their mouth as fireballs shot out towards the retreating knight. Luckily, another knight deflected the fireballs at the cost of being pushed back from the impact and leaving the sword behind.
"Re-retreat!" the limping knight shouted as the surviving knights run away only to be blocked by Kyle and Isaac who is wielding their weapons.
"Spear Art: Winded Strike" the spear charged forward to the limping knight and hits him in the chest as the wind started accumulating in the tip of the spear. Pushing back all of the knights with a sudden gush of wind coming from the spear.
"Blood Magic: Blood Explosion" the blood from the wolves and the knights started converging around Isaac's hand as it grows and grows to the size of a human before compressing at a fast rate until it is the size of a marble. The small blood ball started moving slowly towards on top of the knights who are on the ground trying to stand up but the wind is pushing them down. Once it reaches the knights, it exploded violently and the patches of blood turned into a spike that rained on the knights and the surrounding area. It pierces the armor of the knights as they were impaled to the ground together with the wolves and leaving no one alive.
"That was dangerous! it nearly struck me!" Kyle shouted as Isaac panted and falls on his knees.
"Hah…that was tiring than I thought" Isaac smiled before wiping the sweats on his forehead. He can't help but chuckle at the destruction that he made. It was more powerful than he thought and more dangerous to himself. His head hurts but he's in a good mood, as there are many ways of improving his spells to create another type of spell. He was able to create the blood explosion spell from the continuous experimentation on the blood as he compresses and molded it to create a spike. With the help of absorbing blood before compressing it into a small blood ball, the blood inside will be more compact until it is about to explode and using that force of the explosion to speed up the movement of blood as Isaac turns the patches of blood to a blood spike that can drill the armor of the knights and pierce their skin. Added by the speed of blood spike and the sheer amount of it makes it nearly impossible to dodge or block. Ensuring a proper kill. What makes it tiring for Isaac is he needs to single handily turn every blood into blood spikes to not waste any of it. Still, with his focus, some of the blood is still wasted and simply turned into a fast-moving liquid. He needs to make it automatic so he can continually use it.
"That would be weird if you don't, that was a very powerful spell, and added by the fact that you don't use any mana and relies on your weapon's traits made it spammable and in a large army where more blood is splattered, you can use it continuously. Still, you need to fix some of the structure of that spell if you want it to be a nuke-like spell or add blood poison in it so even if it didn't turn into a blood spike. It can always weaken or even kill the enemies" Kyle said while stroking his chin like a thinking wizard. He glances at the blood around him and the protruding blood spikes all around the area.
"Such a waste of blood, if only you can store it or something" Kyle added
"Is there any skill or spell like that?" Isaac asked as he is standing up with a throbbing headache.
"There is one but you needed to be a vampire to be able to use that"
"Oh there is one that you can use, but not right now. It's called a domain and depending on what element or skillsets you have, it will turn the surrounding area that is favorable to you. For example, is a blood domain, an area will turn either a pool of blood or it will rain blood which is very helpful for you. Making you the more powerful one when inside the domain. Still, it has weaknesses. One of them is that the enemy can run away from your domain and making it useless or someone with a domain that can use it and overrun your own domain making you the one who is disadvantageous. Still, as I said it's too early for you or me to create a domain." Kyle replied with a smile
"I see, so it can be used as a trump card to finish off the enemy" Isaac said while gazing at the ground with his hand on his chin.
"We should rest for a bit before moving" Kyle said as he sits in one of the cut trunks of a tree.
"I guess, anyways can you explain what are weapon art, styles, and technique?" Isaac said as he massaged his temples
"Let's start with the weapon art, you see me using three different spear arts right? The Accurate Throw, Reckless Throw, and Winded Strike. It basically improves a normal attack by using an aura which in turn can be used like mana but more internally like fire slash which is one of the elemental aura. I have the wind, physical, and lightning aura which allows me to mix and match different auras to have more powerful weapon art. This is called weapon art when the aura is used in a weapon but the physical aura which is the most common can only be used in your body which is called techniques like enhancing your eyesight or strengthening your arms to punch stronger. Although there are very strong techniques like 7 air steps or demon's rage. It's usually hard to acquire or have ridiculous negatives like using your life force or making you weaker after using it." Kyle explained while Isaac nodded and memorizing every information being given to him. He can't always use blood magic in every fight.
"I have one technique that can save my life, which is called Forceful regeneration. This technique allows me to shrug off any damage and heal it instantly for 3 minutes. Even if my head is ripped apart or my body is decimated, as long as there is the life force or vitality around me I can regenerate any parts of my body. If there are any humans, monsters, or even the forest near me, i will absorb their vitality to forcefully heal myself. The negative is, that it doesn't associate allies which means i can accidentally absorb their vitality, and for every regeneration that will absolutely kill me. I receive the pain 10 times more than usual. This is why it's forceful and reckless since i might lose my mind in pain" Kyle shrugged
"But it's a secret on how i obtained it" Kyle smiled deviously with his squinted eyes and his finger are on his lips but Isaac glanced before nodding.
"So how can i know what's my aura?" Isaac asked
"Isn't it pretty obvious, you don't have mana or aura. Instead, you have full control of blood and bloodlust"
"What do you mean?" Confused, Isaac asked again
"You are a cursed being, someone who can kill the gods since you fully absorbed and suppressed the ego of your cursed sacred weapons" Kyle replied with a smile on his face
"Just because I suppressed it doesn't mean i can kill a god or become godlike immediately, right?"
"Of course, just because you have a god-slayer weapon doesn't mean you can fight them. Even if you're a cursed being, you are still a mortal who dies when decapitated or when starve like any normal person. The difference is how you manifest your power, a normal otherworlder or a normal human can use aura or mana but you use none of it. You inherently control any and all blood that you see. You can also use your bloodlust to create fear and weaken your enemies" Kyle replied
"That means i can't use any weapon arts, style or technique?"
"You can, but instead of mana or aura you use blood. You can even create an armor made with blood sturdy enough to take a beating or coat your weapon with blood to sharpen it. Whatever you can imagine, you can do it using the blood of your enemies, allies or yourself"
"That means i can create a thousand blood spikes if i can imagine it" Isaac said with excitement in his voice. Seeing this, Kyle chuckled
"First, where can you find that much blood, and second, can your mind handle it? If you answer all of the questions yes then you can" Kyle gave a smile with his thumbs up.
"Nevermind that, i can probably handle it but the blood is the issue" Isaac sighed before gazing at Kyle once again. He still doesn't understand how Kyle has more knowledge in this world even when they were summoned at the same time. He gave an excuse that he saw the future but Isaac is still doubtful. Still, he doesn't want to know Kyle's secret because there might be a reason why he is hiding it. Either he saw the future or transmigrated, Isaac doesn't really care but he cares about the reason why Kyle helped him escaped and continued on helping him. Kyle keeps on talking about the blood emperor and knowing his powers, whoever he was in the future might be a powerful hero or villain. He glanced at Kyle before opening his mouth.
"Then how can you still use weapon arts and technique?"
"I only sealed my spear, so i also don't have any mana but i can still use aura. Basically, i'm a half cursed being"
"I'm a demon?"
"Nope, the demon still uses mana and aura. You are a taboo, someone that shouldn't be alive right now or even exist. That's why the Lederion Kingdom is elated to hear that there are two classless otherworlders. First is, the chances of suppressing the ego are nearly impossible, and second is that they can be a killing machine. The people living here cannot possess the cursed sacred weapon and will die once the ego controlled them but otherworlders has different physique. They can still survive even when being controlled by the ego since the gods of this world didn't create them" Kyle chuckled before giving a malicious smile. This surprised Isaac, still his heart didn't waver. His first goal is revenge and to survive, he doesn't care what monstrosity he becomes as he succeeds in his goals. To be strong enough so he can fight back and to never be controlled by the whims of someone stronger.
"We need to stop talking now, there might be enemies around" Kyle whispered before a piece of paper appeared in his fingers saying i know some of the weapon arts and techniques suitable for you but not right now, the witch is listening. Seeing this Isaac nodded as Kyle stretched his arms before standing up. Suddenly his eyes gleamed with panic before grabbing Isaac's arms as he runs away tugging Isaac.
"What are you doing?" Isaac asked back while glancing behind him
"Just run, we can't fight them yet" a hint of panic can be heard from his tone as he gritted his teeth
'How can they reach us that fast? right now we must retreat before Isaac sees them'
"There they are old man! I'm gonna beat them up until they can't walk!" someone shouted from behind. An arrogant furious tone exploded behind them. Kyle tugged Isaac but Isaac wouldn't budge. His eyes were full of anger and bloodlust as he glared at the man in red armor.
"We need to retreat! i can still make a portal" Kyle shouted panickily
"No need, the priest wouldn't allow that" Isaac replied with a heavy tone, his arms is shaking as the katana started spewing blood from its jagged spikes.
"Shit! i guess we can really try doing it. We can only gamble ourselves to the witch" Kyle scratched the back of his head while narrowing his eyes with a slight tilt of his head. He expresses annoyance that even the red knight gets more furious
"Weak otherworlders, just because you have a weapon doesn't mean you can use it. You're just embarrassing yourself" the red knight suppressed his anger with a burst of haughty laughter with tears in his eyes.
"I wonder about that" Kyle smiled