Chapter 266: Enjoy the Show

Julius couldn’t help but appreciate the man’s attempt. If it was anyone else, they would not have noticed the approaching Tier 4. The woman had concealed her presence very well and once again [Spatial Perception] saved his life.

As soon as his blade of mana crashed into the woman, he instantly manipulated it so that it flowed over his body, into a set of armor.

The woman had exceptional reflexes and managed to intercept the attack with her crossguard just in time, sending her rolling off to the side.

He didn’t go after her. He could already tell that this woman was different than the legless man he had just beaten.

Whereas the man had focused on speed and evasion, this woman was a typical warrior. She was still fast but also had the strength and fortitude to go along with it. Her ambush had shown that she was both quicker and stronger than him, even with his new skill, which was saying a lot.

He took the time to examine the woman in depth. There was no way to know for certain, but his gut was telling him that this woman was stronger than the Tier 4 he had just fought.

Her aura wasn’t even affected by his aura. It stood steadfast in the face of its ruinous effects. Her Authority also had a much more hefty weight to it. While not as subtle, it pummeled into him and it took a significant amount of willpower to hold it at bay.

As he assessed the woman, she did the same to him. But she also looked down at her colleague with disdain.

“You let a Tier 3 beat you down this bad? What are you? Some fledgling Tier 4 who doesn’t know his ass from his blade?”

“Shut up, Lyn. Don’t underestimate him. He’s dangerous,” the man groaned, still on the ground, desperately consuming a healing potion.

Julius frowned, he didn’t know how much a potion would do for the man’s legs.

The woman, Lyn, still didn’t attack and gave Julius a curious tilt of her head. “How are you able to hold off my Authority so easily?” She asked barely retraining her bloodthirsty aura.

“I wouldn’t say it’s easy,” he replied, keeping a close eye on the woman. He was more than fine with her talking because it allowed him to get a better measure of her.

“Certainly seems so,” she said as she ramped up her Authority pressing it more tyrannically onto him.

Julius took it on straight on and gritted his teeth as he fought against it, noticing the woman’s growing smile as she watched him hold her back.

“Be careful of his aura skill,” the man suddenly called out.

However, as he spoke, the woman stopped using her Authority to pressure him and turned around to kick the man in the face. The man’s head snapped back and started to bleed from his forehead. Weirdly enough, the man didn’t seem that shocked to be kicked.

“Shut up. You lost, so now you can just sit there and be quiet. I don’t need any help from someone who gets their legs cut off by a Tier 3.”

Then she turned back to look at Julius who had a surprised look on his face. “Sorry about that. He is a good assassin, but honestly, he is pretty shit in a real fight. All he knows to do is to stab people in the back and run away,” she said with scorn.

Then she switched her full attention to him, pointing her longsword at him with a steady arm.

“Let’s hope you are different.”

Julius tilted his head at her and held up his arms loosely by his sides. “I guess we’ll see.”

***

Rolus POV

He slung his sword to the side, removing the remaining blood from its surface.

Those two Tier 4s while decently strong, weren’t anything close to his level. It was unfortunate that he wasn’t able to finish off that mage though. They had managed to retreat while he was finishing off that warrior.

The good news was that the mage wouldn’t be a problem for the rest of the battle. Rolus had inflicted his blood magic on the poor mage and unless he found a top-grade healer quickly, they would barely be able to move for the time being if he even survived that is.

He stepped over the body which he had cut into two pieces. The body itself was dry as a bone, the blood within was almost completely drained of it.

He then dropped to one knee and removed the man’s storage ring, pocketing it for further inspection later. He didn’t really care much for the valuables inside the ring, but he was much more interested in what kind of clues or information he could gain.

While he doubted the man was stupid enough to leave everything inside his ring, there were other ways to find information. Most people would be surprised by what a single innocuous item could tell him about a person.

As he caught his breath and recovered from the fight, he took a look around the plains. It was still nighttime, but with how many fights going on, the sky was quite bright. Flashes of colorful mana filled the area and the screams of people filled the air.

The sheer amount of blood was what got his attention though. There was so much blood around him, that he couldn’t help but try and control it.

He wasn’t a mage by any means, but his blood affinity allowed him to have pretty good control of blood in general. He wasn’t like his sister who was able to create a storm of bloody constructs, but being present within such a rich environment, he couldn’t help but bring some of the blood toward himself.

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With an extension of his Authority he gained control of the blood and managed to draw it through his skin. The blood seeping into him like it was water in the dry desert.

The rest of the wounds and fatigue were recovered in a matter of moments, barely costing him any mana for it. While most of the blood was only Tier 3 blood, there was such volume that it didn’t matter.

He sighed pleasantly as the usual euphoric sensation surged through his body and he fully recovered back to his peak form.

Battlefields really are blood users’ greatest allies, he thought to himself with a shake of his head.