Chapter 78 - Practical Test [12]

A/N: New book of mine might be releasing soon. Idk if I wanna continue this one, I feel like the quality of writing is kinda worse than my last book

***

Red mist flowed from my body, alerting me of everything that it touched along with anything that happened within the confines of the mist. The mist was like an extension of me.

'Crush...'

I thought, driving my hand into the enemy's armoured liver and using my grip strength to crush and twist their flesh through their armour.

'Knee. Face.'

My hands latched onto the back of their head, forcing their face down as I drove my knee into their mouth.

'Again..'

I repeatedly slammed my knee in their face, feeling their bones crack from not only the sheer number of blows, but also the strength I had put behind each and every blow.

'Die.'

As their body began to stop resisting, I raised my hands and slammed the into the person's back, before hearing them crash into the ground and leaving a gigantic crater beneath their face.

'Die.'

Lifting my leg, I stomped on their body, trying to crush them through that armour.

'Just die.'

Channelling every ounce of strength I had into my right arm, I landed a powerful blow on my enemy's chest, feeling their bones crush under my fist with a satisfying crunch. Blood splattered everywhere as their body contorted in pain, yet, I could only hear a small grunt of pain.

'Dead.'

I turned around, walking away, looking for my next target. However, I heard the sound of metal rattling, and I turned around to see the enemy getting back up.

Gritting my teeth, I blasted my blood mist everywhere, making it impossible for the enemy to see anything. But even so, the enemy's sword was able to reach me, my arm was sliced clean off, leaving the left over stump spurting out blood.

Before I could even make an effort to regenerate, I felt a set of knuckles ram into my jaw and for a moment, my Enhancement faltered. Thus, my jaw was blown off my face, leaving me without the lower half of my face.

'Kill.'

Channeling and condensing divine flames into my palm, I delivered a strike to my enemy, engulfing him in flame.

However, what my hand collided with wasn't armour, but a familiar substance.

'Ally.'

***

Watching as Reinhardt prepared an enormous blast of pure, unbridled fire, I extended my hand, and formed a cocoon of darkness to shield Arthur from being burnt to a crisp. While most people weren't able to see very well in that mist created from Blood Manipulation, wherever shadows roamed, I could see.

And so, it was effectively impossible to avoid my gaze. Where there was darkness, I could win. Where there was shadow, I could thrive.

I took a moment to breathe, moving the orb of darkness shielding Arthur toward me before making it disappear.

"Get lost. This fight is mine. Even I can tell your body is barely holding up against Reinhardt's, you just don't have the output to beat him in one shot. So stop wasting time and fight someone else."

'Leave. Please.'

Sighing, he deactivated that armour of his, his sword dissipating into silver sparks along with it.

"He's all yours."

Smiling, I enhanced my body and created a hair tie out of darkness, tying my rather long hair back into a neat little pony tail. But as Arthur was about to leave, Reinhardt dashed in my direction, splitting the lake in two with the sheer force he generated from moving.

Reinhardt was mere centimeters away from Arthur, but even so, it wasn't enough.

Coating my hand in darkness, I touched his back, extending my darkness to wrap around his body and thus, creating a grip.

"Sorry."

Then, I swung with all my might, in attempt to create as much distance as I possibly could, and threw him. I couldn't let anyone find out that Reinhardt's supposedly bottomless pit of Mana was running out.

'I need people to keep thinking you're invincible.'

Ordinarily, he'd be able to fight for days without stopping, everyone knew that much. But the Mana consumption of those flames was on an entirely different level to ordinary Magic. An ordinary Awakened might not even be able to create a small ball of fire. But Reinhardt had been doing far more and had been dousing himself in those flames for a while now, using them to move, shoot enormous waves of heat and essentially create a combustine engine of blood.

The amount of Mana he had used was genuinely crazy, it was unfathomable for a human to have that much. It was actually for that reason he was chosen as my Knight even if his combat capabilites weren't too incredible when we first met.

His entire job was to basically be a meat shield, after all, who could protect me better than an Awakened who could withstand just about any injury. However, after he came back things changed a little.

He became a total beast, one that probably surpassed my power.

'All this.. without an Oath.

As Arthur finally left, I closed my eyes, dissapearing into a nearby shadow before reappearing behind Reinhardt. However, he grunted and sickening cracks could be heard coming from his back as he did a full 180° turn, and faced me. As his fist approached my face, I braced for impact, and prepared to draw my sword as I reached for the shadows.

But just before his fist landed, he stopped, healed and began to walk away.

'What? Fight me. Don't run. Don't let them find out that your body can be pushed to the brink like this.'

I kneeled, placing my hands on the ground, the air around me becoming frigid and the light around us slowly fading into darkness.

"Mana Art, Palace of Darkness."