Scarlet

I spend a rather peaceful couple of hours watching battles before I’m teleported into the arena myself. And surprisingly, I immediately find my opponent standing directly across from me, the two of us being on a large, circular platform over the top of a volcano.

Supersonic is wearing a black and yellow jump suit that honestly looks rather odd and a little too tight, but the moment the countdown reaches zero, they turn into a blur of black and yellow lightning. Before they can attack me though, I immediately activate blood diffusion. And just seconds later, I feel something impacting me in the back, only for it to be reflected by the blood barrier that’s formed around me thanks to blood diffusion as I feel pain akin to pins and needles spread throughout my body when my blood is burned. But I immediately react to the attack by turning around while shifting my arm and clawing at the direction of the attack, my claws quickly finding their way into flesh just seconds later.

The man grunts as he is sent flying with five gashes running across his side, only to manage to stop himself and then reenter his superspeed mode right afterwards.

I slowly flex my claws while narrowing my eyes and focusing on my hearing, but his speed is too great for me to be able to pinpoint his location, unlike the last incredibly fast Guardian I fought. He’s also managing to keep up his speed despite his wound. Something that has me a little impressed.

Not sure if he’d be able to do that without the 50% pain reduction granted by the magical reality though.

Once again, I feel a sudden impact as he strikes at me with what I now see is a knife, this time going straight for my side. And once again, it is deflected by my blood diffusion. But unlike last time, this impact is followed by a bolt of lightning that has me gritting my teeth as is sets my blood burning like crazy.

I quickly strike at him again, only for him to dodge part of my hit, leaving my claws to only graze him this time as he’s ready for it. A hit’s a hit though, and he finally starts to slow down now. Not enough for me to determine his location, but hopefully enough to help.

Damnit, I hate that I can’t use blood boil or life drain without him being in my line of sight!

A few seconds pass this time before he suddenly rushes at me directly from the front, making my eyes widen as I instinctively slash out with my claws at him. And I do manage to score a clean hit on him, drawing five bloody lines straight from his shoulder to his hip. But I’m not the only one who lands a major blow.

His knife goes straight into my chest and through one of my hearts, shattering the blood diffusion barrier in the process.

My eyes flash and my jaw drops open before I cough out a mouthful of blood on the guy who is now grinning, thinking that he won.

I quickly remove that thought from his mind by using blood boil and life drain on him while also reaching for his neck with my other claws, shocking him when my claws wrap around his neck. And without any hesitation, I burn a large amount of my blood to rip open his neck, ending the battle there.

Then I begin to collapse onto my back, only to suddenly appear in my private booth before even hitting the ground.

“Fucking hell…” I mutter while bringing my hand to my chest to find it completely back to normal without any injuries. “I’ll never get used to having my heart stabbed like that…”

“I would be more worried if you did get used to it…” Tar mutters as Black goes on and on about how Supersonic let his guard down too early and stuff.

But I ignore the Knight as I slump into the chair at the center of my private booth before reclining it back and staring up at the ceiling.

Hey, come to think of it, do blood lycans have two hearts, or do they have more than two?

“Blood lycans tend to have five hearts,” Tar answers, making my eyes widen in shock as I sit up straight in an instant. “Why are you so surprised? They also have more bone marrow than humans. All for the purpose of their regeneration and blood magic.”

That’s… wow. I randomly thought of how I’ll still be undergoing changes with every ascension and realized that it could be possible to get more hearts from them. But I didn’t think they had that many hearts.

“Well, blood lycans have five hearts, wolf ears, their metallicized blood tails made from magic and not the System, a two and a half meter tall beast form that varies on their skill rarity, retractable claws and fangs in their lycan form, the ability to partial shift, and their enhanced regeneration,” Tar says, stating one trait after another. “And these are just the general traits that the regular blood lycans get, not including the etched skills of the Argus branch or the Royal Family.”

My jaw drops open, and I fail to find anything to say in response.

“Unfortunately I’m not allowed to give out knowledge on other contractor’s skills, so I can’t tell you what exact etched skills the Argus branch or the Royal Family has,” Tar says while appearing on my lap. “But they’re very powerful. A lot more powerful than the other etched skills regular blood lycans have. Especially those from the Royal Family.”

Wow. That’s… a lot.

Wait a second, you said retractable claws? In their lycan form? Not just partial shifting?

“Yeah,” Tar answers with a nod before he curls up and pokes at my stomach, seemingly telling me to lie back down on the reclined chair. So I do just that while frowning.

I’m not your bed, you know.

He doesn’t respond.

I sigh before petting the furball on my lap as I think about the information he just gave me.

Guess I’ll be getting retractable claws during one of these Class ascensions?