...
Blackie confused her opponent with the afterimages produced by the 'Ghost Evanescent' movement technique. She also dodged the blood spikes shooting out from the ground continuously which were now covering almost the entire arena.
On the other hand, Earl Cray seemed to maintain a leisurely look on his face. It was as if he was still not taking Blackie seriously despite her gradually improving movement technique as the battle progressed.
Blackie still hadn't landed a clean hit at her opponent as the vampire earl was able to escape from her time and time again by turning himself into a pool of blood whenever she caught up at him.
She finally showed a slight change from her expressionless face by frowning her brow. She might not be saying anything, but Shin could tell what she was thinking.
She needed to increase her speed more, much faster than her opponent couldn't respond to her sneak attack and transform himself into a pool of blood.
Thinking about that, Blackie decrease the number of afterimages that she was producing so that she could focus on her speed when trying to catch her opponent. And when she saw that it was still not enough, she continued to decrease the number of her afterimages until there were only two of them.
The two copies of herself became more realistic as she was chasing after her opponent. There seemed to be no difference between them and her real body.
On top of that, those two copies of herself were also dodging the blood spikes that tried to attack them, making it hard for Earl Cray to find the real body.
In the meantime, Shin suddenly came to slight enlightenment when he saw Blackie use his foot technique at this level. "Interesting!"
At the same time, he also realized that it was Blackie's potential really exceeded his expectation. "It looks like I also need to put attention to my Elemental Spirits. They may give me more surprises in the future.
…
Going back into the battle, Earl Cray started to feel the pressure from the restless assault from Blackie, making him wear a serious look on his face.
As time went by, he found it more and more difficult to fend off the attacks coming from Blackie. Not only her speed was gradually increasing, but the angles and directions where those attacks were coming from were also getting trickier, making it hard to predict.
The realistic illusions that she made were also making it hard for the vampire earl to read her movements.
Seeing that it was not looking good for him, he finally decided to take this fight seriously.
He turned himself into a pool of blood that sipped into the ground before appearing away from his previous spot. And right after he materialized himself, he quickly raised both of his hands in the air before waving them down, summoning a barrage of blood spikes that started shooting out from the ground, coving the entire arena.
Since he couldn't find the real body of his opponent, he decided to attack in every direction. It would not matter if he couldn't find his opponent, he would just shoot at the whole area. He didn't believe that he would not able to land a hit this time.
Sharp crystalline branches suddenly grew from that ground and covered the whole area, creating a cage made of crisscrossing blood spikes.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
In the meantime, Blackie used her mobility to dodge each of the sharp spikes trying to hit her, executing a series of complex maneuvers to prevent them from touching her body.
But since she was too focused on dodging, she failed to maintain the copies of herself, making their forms collapse and disappeared.
But aside from that, the battle between them remained to be in a deadlock, not having either of them to be at a clear advantage.
…
Watching from the sidelines, Shin knew that the real battle was just about to start. It was the same for the vampires who were spectating the battle.
And they didn't wait that long before the two contenders fighting at the center of the battle arena to show their real powers.
A black smoke shrouded Blackies body before turning into a black flame which also became a send of armor. Her claws, on the other hand, were covered with a set of shadowy flames which made them look very wicked and threatening.
Then a pair of black bat wings grew from her back while the tattoo at the center of her forehead started to release a dim and cold light, that seemed to be able to freeze the hearts of her opponents.
'Elemental Spirit Transformation: Abyssal Monarch'
Meanwhile, Earl Cray suddenly opened his mouth, revealing his sharp fangs. His eyes turned crimson and made them look bloodthirsty while his nails grew longer and sharper.
A hot stream was released from his mouth and the expression on his face turned hideous and terrifying.
After his transformation, he locked his gaze on Blackie before releasing a deafening roar, summoning a huge number of crystalline spikes from the ground, that grew like sharp branches of the trees.
Seeing that, Blackie flapped her wings lightly and propelled herself forward, ignoring the crystalline blood spikes that were coming at her like a flood.
She swung her claws repeatedly, sending a series of claw waves at the incoming crystalline blood spikes and obliterating them in the process.
But no matter how powerful her attacks, it was not enough to properly clear a path that she could use to head over her opponent. In the end, she was forced to dodge the crystalline blood spikes repeatedly.
But she didn't give up and summoned a clone of herself that had similar fighting power to the original body.
She worked together with her clone to create a path that was leading toward her opponent while using a variety of movement techniques and claw strikes in the process.
While Blackie was busy fending off the attacks that were coming from every direction, Earl Cray summoned a field of blood that covered the entire arena, supplementing himself with an unlimited source of power to produce more blood spikes.
'Personalized Blood Field: Blood Spike Prison'
It was a blood field that continuously produced blood spikes that were crisscrossing against each other. They created a cage that trapped his opponent inside while he was waiting for them to die.
Shin couldn't help but wear a solemn expression on his face as he watched the space that Blackie could use gradually grow smaller as time went by. And if this battle continued to be this way, then she would lose without being able to land a clear hit on her opponent.
At the same time, he was thinking of a solution to how he was going to escape if he was in her situation. Naturally, he limited his set of skills similar to Blackie. Aside from his movement and assassination techniques, he would not use anything if he was in her place.
Those blood spikes might look rather simple and ordinary but he could tell that avoiding them was not going to be easy. Aside from the unpredictability of their attack patterns, he also had to consider their speed.
Those spikes were also shooting more spikes from their bodies, creating a crisscrossing branch. From the distance, this blood prison looked like a crystalline forest field with sharp thorns and spikes.
Avoiding their sharp points and edges was already hard enough. But if he added the slowly decreasing space that he could use, the options that Shin could use were also gradually getting smaller.
On top of that, those crystalline spikes were also pretty sturdy.
Now that Shin thought about it, it seemed like the fighting style of this particular vampire was the bane of assassination type of fighting style.
Shin thought that Dracula picked his representative randomly but it looked like the latter already saw through what type of Elemental Spirit Blackie was and chose the most suitable opponent that could counter her.
Thinking about that, he couldn't help but look at the Vampire Primogenitor. And the moment when his eyes landed on the latter, he saw that the vampire king was looking back at him with an amused expression.
The corner of Shin's mouth suddenly twitched when he was that. 'He may look like he doesn't care about this 'little' competition, but he actually too prideful to suffer a defeat.'
'As expected of a king, I guess,' he added before turning his attention back to the battle.
He saw Blackie was slowly getting cornered by the blood spikes and was already out of options on how she was going to escape her predicament.
But despite that being the case, Shin remained calm. This battle still hadn't reached the stage that it could be considered a clash between two powerful existences.
He still vividly remembered the battle between Hanzo and Vladimir during one of his previous quests. And from his estimate, their strength during that time should at least be comparable to Ascended Beings.
If his guess was right, then there was still something to see in this battle. It was also an opportunity for him to get a glimpse of how powerful Blackie could be at her peak form.
...…
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)