Scarlet

Before we clash at the center of the clearing, I begin using blood boil and life drain on him while covering my forearms in blood claws and covering my vitals in blood armor. Meanwhile he shapeshifts his feet into powerful bearlike extremities and covers himself in some sort of grey energy. Then the moment our claws meet, a faint shockwave shoots out, striking at the grass and trees in the clearing. And unsurprisingly, his strength actually pushes me back a little until I start burning my blood.

Damned Tier A strength of his.

“You were expecting this,” Tar states, dismissing my complaint.

Too bad the blood lake I took from the last round doesn’t extend to this round, leaving me with however much blood I had when coming into the magical reality in the first place. Which was a decent amount, but nothing to scoff at.

Even with blood sacrifice in play, unless I want to burn my blood too much and try to bring this to a close quickly then I still don’t overpower him. We simply match evenly in strength. So we both break off, jumping backwards before rushing at each other again, striking back to back, claw to claw for minute after minute. Neither of us really doing much damage to the other as we keep blocking the other’s strikes.

Throughout the process of our fight though, the surrounding trees slowly take on damage from the shockwaves, along with my missed blades of blood. But Lucas simply continues brute forcing things, as he always does. Because the guy is built purely for physical strength, with no ranged skills and no defensive ones. Only brute force strength.

He also seems to be pretty good at resisting my blood magic, since he hasn’t even so much as let out a groan despite my blood boil and life drain skills working overtime on him. And he doesn’t have much to show for it either except a bubble of blood popping once in a blue moon on his skin.

My eyes narrow as I jump back, breaking off contact again.

This isn’t working. For once, I’ll have to try something else.

“You’ve never fought someone physically stronger than you before,” Tar comments. “At least not someone you can’t just beat with blood sacrifice. But you do know one way to beat him. A way you specialize in.”

I narrow my eyes even further at that before sighing.

Guess I don’t have a choice.

Without hesitation, I open my status and allocate twenty six of the Skill Points I saved just for a rainy day to Blood Retribution, bringing the skill up to level 7. Then I quickly check on the skill’s updated description.

{Blood Retribution – Any damage dealt to the user while this skill is active is returned to the one who dealt the damage in the form of blood burning. Activation of this skill costs 12.5% of the user’s total mana. Each activation lasts for twenty seconds.}

I let out a sigh of relief at that.

Good. It looks like all of the levels after level five have greater increases than the levels before level five, just like you expected. And the time was extended along with the decrease in mana percentage cost.

This is gonna be hella risky, but I should be fine with the blood moon increasing my regeneration.

I grin at the thought before rushing at Lucas again at the same time he comes at me.

In a large Penthouse on Earth

Fredricka smiles as she calmly sits with her legs crossed on a chair in front of a large tv showing the final round of the Primary tournament occurring at this very moment. And no matter how hard she tries to stifle it, her excitement at seeing Her Highness fight in a manner so very similar to the Blood Lord himself is making it difficult for her to sit still.

Which is the very reason why she begins scowling when she notices three presences appearing on her balcony.

“Come in,” she shouts at them, flicking her wrist to control the doors with her telekinesis skill, making open on their own and letting the three changelings inside of her home, each of which are disguised once again as human children. But she doesn’t bother looking at them, simply continuing to watch as Scarlet activates her Blood Retribution skill and purposefully lets strikes from the filthy human hit her. The mere sight of which has the three changelings growling, and even Fredricka can’t help but narrow her eyes.

She manages to calm herself down quickly enough thanks to the sight of her opponent letting off red steam with a grunt. Then Fredricka can’t help but smile when she sees any wounds that would prove crippling to the princess get blocked by Blood Diffusion, leading to a loss in blood instead of actual wounds. Meanwhile wounds that she can easily take and heal she simply does so, as it means more damage for the filthy creature she’s fighting.

“Her Highness is performing well, as expected,” one of the three changelings – Fredricka believes their name was Morax the Deceiver – states with more than a little respect in his tone.

“Of course she is!” another one says, sounding like the mere thought of her not outperforming the humans is an insult to all demon kind, much less the Royal Family.

“Enough,” Fredricka says, practically feeling the three Class III changelings standing at attention behind her in the forms of human children stiffening at her words. “Report.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Morax immediately begins speaking, “We have successfully scouted the location designated by the Witches as the spot in the vision where the Class V Fracture will originate and have set about plans to infiltrate the building.”

“And the building itself?” Fredricka asks, still not taking her eyes off of the battle as the princess’s opponent slowly grows weaker than her faster than she herself weakens.

“The building is one of the largest hotels in the city and is located near the center of the city itself,” Vapula the Tinkerer answers in Morax’s stead.

A hotel? That makes things easier.

“Leave the infiltration of the building for the higher ranking changelings,” Fredricka says while smiling at the sight of Her Highness scoring a major blow on the human. “They can either join the shareholders for the buildings, or for the midranking changelings can even enter employment under the hotel management.”

The three changelings simultaneously cross their fists across their chests and exclaim, “As you wish, Countess Rosenfort.”

“Now then,” Councilwoman Fredricka von Feld la Rose of the Human Government, otherwise known by demon society as Countess Fredricka von Rosenfort, the only Class V changeling in existence, states while finally glancing at the Class III changelings. “onto the next matter at hand.”