The two, Tristan and Kaiya, had been fighting now for about 10 minutes, the air thick with the metallic tang of blood and the crackling hum of expended mana. Their mana capacity was beginning to catch up to them, reserves draining like sand through clenched fists. Between flying and using skills their mana was constantly draining—just flying took 10 mana per second, which was a total of 6,000 mana burned in the frenzy. Both of them had wounds and scars to show for in this battle, gashes weeping crimson across pale skin, bruises blooming like dark storms, and currently neither had the upper hand. Separated by a few hundred meters, Kaiya eyed Tristan for a moment before looking around the surroundings, her sharp gaze cutting through the haze of dust and debris.
She saw small craters from their collisions, jagged scars gouged into the earth like wounds from the gods, and even the gate was destroyed—twisted metal and splintered stone scattered like forgotten bones. Seeing this she began to get a bit angry, fury simmering beneath her composed facade. 'To think these idiots ruined my surprise!' She thought internally before Tristan's voice cut through the tension like a serrated blade.
"Well, it's time to finish this. I gave you the opportunity to come with me nice, but you chose to force my hand." He said as he spat out blood, the crimson droplet arcing through the air before splattering on the ground below. He then dematerialized his twin blood swords and rose his hand towards Kaiya, palm open like a harbinger of doom.
|Crimson Hemorrhage — 1250 Mana|
[15,000/25,000]
Seeing he was activating a skill Kaiya steadied her guard preparing for anything, muscles coiling like springs under her skin. However how could she know this man in front of her could even control the blood of his foes?
Badump!
Her heart skipped a beat as she felt her blood flow reverse, a violent surge ripping through her veins like liquid fire in reverse. She instantly fell out of the skies as blood poured from all seven orifices—eyes, ears, nose, mouth—crimson rivers staining her face in grotesque trails. As an Epic Rank cultivator, she still didn't have the ability to 'stand' on air. To fly it required them to split a bit of their focus, and it drained their mana per second.
Currently she couldn't move or do anything to stop her blood from leaking out. The more it leaked the weaker she felt herself becoming, vitality ebbing like a tide retreating from shore. Her face was paling and her skin was losing its natural glow, the vibrant hue fading to ashen gray. The hunters from the side saw this as a job well done, they began celebrating the victory of Tristan, cheers rising like a raucous wave.
"Haha! Of course, President's son would win!"
"Right, he could've used that skill from the beginning!"
Ignoring the chatter Tristan descended from the skies landing just before the bleeding Kaiya, who was embedded in a newly formed crater, the earth cracked around her like a shattered mirror. He crouched down and smiled as he ran his fingers through his hair, slick with sweat and blood.
"Phew! Girl you're not just beautiful... you're strong as hell too." He said before turning around to the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel.
"She will be coming with us Tristan." Elise said as her eyes shifted to Kaiya, concern flickering in their depths.
"Not this time princess. You see, my father would like to have a word with this beautiful woman here." He said as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, her limp form draping like a broken doll.
Seeing this Elise frowned, her brows knitting in disapproval. "You're willing to go against the Sunbelts for this?" She asked pulling her final card.
Tristan shook his head. "Haha, I don't give two shits about the Sunbelts. You fuckers only toss around your weight for those weaker than you." He spat, venom lacing his words.
Hearing this Dustin's mouth was about to open until a voice was heard, cutting through the charged silence like a void rift.
----
In the skies above them Set appeared, the fabric of space rippling faintly as he materialized. On the way he honestly couldn't wait to see what kind of property Kaiya would get. To him the style didn't matter too much as long as it wasn't anything too over the top. However, when he appeared all he could see was wreckage and destruction—smoking craters, shattered marble, the once-pristine lawn torn asunder.
"Uhh, is this the right address?" He asked looking at Vyrak, his voice laced with bewildered amusement.
"You fool! How am I supposed to know?" He asked, scales glinting irritably in the sunlight.
Down below the group stopped talking and looked towards Set, heads tilting upward in unison. Elise smiled seeing the figure, but then she became worried as she thought of Kaiya's condition.
'Will he hate me?' She thought.
"And who the hell is he?" Tristan said as he looked upward seeing the light brown skinned man with godly levels of beauty... well it was much beyond that, an ethereal perfection that made the sun seem dim. 'This fucker even looks better than me!' He thought.
"He's the real target..." Dustin said with a frown. 'Doesn't he usually wear a mask?' He thought before looking to his sister who looked to be worried. Her actions just stirred more thoughts for him. 'What the hell is up with her?'
"Target? How come I only know of this woman?" Tristan asked as he was trying to recall his father's words. However, nothing came to mind about some man. While they were discussing Set he had just began to truly look.
Set's eyes surveyed the area for a moment, and it was then he saw everything. Standing by a destroyed gate was a group of about 20 hunters. He then looked and spotted the people in the hot seat.
His brow raised seeing Elise. "Hmm? Elise, what are you doin----" He was moving towards the group as he spoke until he saw Kaiya all bloodied and thrown over the shoulder of Tristan. This caused his movements to completely stop.
"The fuck?!"
BOOOM!
He spoke and his aura subconsciously exploded as he looked on in shock seeing her bloodied condition, the pressure wave rippling outward like a shockwave from a detonating star. He looked between the group once again and appraised the two unidentified people.
[Tristan Velk]
Age - 28
Race - Human
Rank - Epic Rank
Innate Ability - Eyes of Blood
Affinity - Blood
------
[Dustin Sunbelt]
Age - 28
Race - Human (Wolf God, Fenrir Bloodline)
Rank - S rank
Affinity - Lightning
------
He then looked at Elise and took a deep breath. "...Elise.... what the fuck is going on here?" He asked her because knowing all the circumstance surrounding them two, he believed in her the most if only just a smidge.
Hearing the cold tone of his voice Elise shuddered. However, before she could speak Dustin's voice sounded, but it was hard for him to speak as he felt Set's Aura pressing down like an invisible mountain.
"S-Set, isn't i-it? F-Firstly, stop talking to m-my little sister as if you're friends. S-e...condly, this entire situation is because of you!" He said which caused Set's eyes to shift to him.
"W...e c-couldn't find y..o...u, so we came for her... simp-le. O-Oh, not j...u..st that s-she is now the enemy of the Hunter's Association. I---f yo....u don't know they're the second biggest faction in the world... and adding us to the list, shouldn't you just come along nicely?"
Set ignored him outright, then looked back to Elise. "Elise... I will ask once more. What the fuck happened here?"
She bit her lip a bit before speaking. She could speak much clearly as Set's aura wasn't affecting her. "W-well... my parents began to follow your trail. In fear of certain information and secrets getting out they sent us to hunt down you. However, like my brother said finding you was impossible, so we were tasked to bring her back...." She paused before continuing.
"That was the initial plan at least. Before we came here, she had killed an A rank hunter from the Association. This is a big offense against their faction which led to a bounty being placed on her." She gestured towards Tristan.
"He is the Son of the Association's President. The two of them had a battle shortly before you arrived."
Hearing all of this there were so many questions in the air, but for Set it was no longer any need to speak. He then activated |Null Stride| in succession and appeared right before Tristan. He ignored him too; however, he then forcefully snatched Kaiya away without a struggle whatsoever.
After picking her up he disappeared, reappearing a bit away. He then took out the best pills and potions he had, vials shimmering with ethereal light. He gave them to her and her condition began to get better almost instantly, color returning to her cheeks, wounds knitting closed—however she was still unconscious.
He looked at Elise, "Watch her."
A simple statement, but one Elise did without a single argument. "Alright... but we need to talk later..." She said causing Dustin's already wide eyes to grow wider.
Set nodded before looking at Tristan.
"Tsk, to think you fuckers not only came to my home. You came here destroyed the place and nearly killed someone close to me!"
BOOOOM!!!!
Set's aura flared in full force, the ground trembling beneath the invisible weight. He looked at the group of Hunters standing at the gate.
|Abyssal Edge Cascade|
He manipulated his void affinity to form swords in the skies above the group, hundreds of blades humming with annihilation, edges warping reality itself. Before they could even move they crashed onto the group. They all hit at the same time, but there wasn't a loud explosion or anything. In their place was just an empty piece of earth. They had been erased into nothingness.
He received some status notifications as well, but he ignored them for right now.
"Heh, and you.... you won't enjoy this at all." Set said as he turned back to Tristan. He then moved using his Null Stride. In a mere moment he appeared in front of him throwing out a punch.
BANG!
Set's movements were just too fast for someone struggling to comprehend the situation. Tristan and the others just watched as Set turned about 40 cultivators into nothingness.... literally. This for them was a bit shocking, not to say they weren't used to killing. However, doing it without batting an eye?
Set didn't give a damn though, he poured on an onslaught of attacks. Tristan's eyes tracked him barely but enough to counter a few of Set's attacks. Currently Set had yet to draw his sword—it was only bare hands. He unleashed a barrage of punches, kicks, knees and even elbows. To be honest, he had never once trained with hand-to-hand combat and currently it was very amateurish, but his speed and power was so overwhelming it was hard to notice.
In fights speed and power can be determined in a few ways if two people were of the same rank. They both revolved around Mana Capacity, for speed cultivators all used movement skills. This was effective for blitz attacks or traveling. Some even had more advanced skills that would be introduced in the future. The second way was mana enhancement and not the skill. It was a basic application of mana that was learned in the second year of the apocalypse.
The user can channel as much mana as they wanted to increase their speed and power. The more mana channeled, the faster or stronger one would be. There was one key point that made cultivators use it in spurts though. The minimum mana one could use is 1,000 mana. For each 1,000 mana one would get 2x their speed and/or power.
[A/N: I will create a chart to show a visual representation of it shortly. Battle prowess and more cultivation details will be listed as well to clear possible confusion.]
When training Vyrak told him about this and since then it had been like a passive ability. He channeled his full mana capacity into his speed and power consistently. So, at all times had about a 128,000x enhancement to his speed and power. In other words, he was 128,000 times faster and stronger than any Epic Rank.
BANG!
He landed a punch directly on Tristan's face sending him flying.
[Would you like to assimilate the Affinity of Blood or Eyes of Blood]
Seeing this screen show he accepted the Eyes of Blood. Once they assimilated they simply added a new ability into his Eyes of Infinity.
He didn't plan to give Tristan a second to breathe, he drew his sword and spread his stance a bit.
Then after small foot adjustment he swung horizontally aimed right for Tristan. As he released it he spoke.
"Not too much... you won't die just yet."
WHOOOSH!
A massive sword arc that spanned for 4,999 meters shot out towards Tristan who had just recovered. His eyes cleared to the blinding white sword arc heading towards him.
"Shit! Who the fuck is that guy!" He asked in a panic as he hurriedly activated an artifact. It looked like an ancient tablet he channeled an absurd 3,000 mana into dropping his already low reserves to 12,400. The tablet shone dark red before he was encased in a dome of blood.
BOOOOM!
The sword arc smashed into the dome, but it didn't dissipate. It kept charging like a heat-seeking missile, Tristan looking from the inside couldn't help but form beads of sweat on his battered and bloody face.
"...I have to find a way to escape... I can use that, but it will leave me half dead, considering my low mana." He said as he looked around, but his attention was forced back to Set as his dome finally broke.
From down below Set launched another sword slash that joined in with the first one.
BOOOOM!
Seeing the arcs were moments from clashing with him, he made his decision. He pulled out another artifact which was a red button and pressed. It drained 10,000 mana just for one use and the moment he pressed it he was teleported away. However, not before leaving an arm behind.... quite literally.
"ARGH----" The guttural cry of Tristan was cut off by his transportation as his blood sprayed against the skies.
Set looked at the arm falling from the sky and scoffed. "Tsk... I will be paying the Association a visit real soon... don't you worry buddy."
After those words he turned to the siblings in the distance. He began walking to his mansion in the distance that was still in pretty good condition considering everything.
"Come in, we will go to the Sunbelt's residence shortly." He said.