Born in Blood-Chapter 552: Arrogance

Liam was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Gorock was not willing to listen to reason. He was blind with rage... for reasons unknown.

Well, beside Liam’s obvious attempt to try and humble the vampire, he was being unreasonably angry!

WRSH!

Tightening the grip on his Breaker, Liam blocked yet another chain of blood rain attacks by the vampire, evading one more before initiating another tense staredown with the angered blood sucker.

The look in Gorock’s eyes made it seem like he was imagining Liam undergoing some very morbid methods of torture.

Unfazed, Liam raised a brow in curiosity.

"How can you breathe underwater? I’ve dissected dozens of vampires and none of them had a secret set of gills. Or are you a special one?"

Just as Gorock looked like he was about to lose his mind... he suddenly lowered his head, ran a hand through his hair, then took a deep breath, and calmed himself down.

By now, he must have realized that Liam was pulling his leg, and emotion had no place in a fight.

Then, Gorock saw the writings on Liam’s sword. Vampiric language. Written in blood, no less. To top it all off, they were inscriptions.

Immediately, Gorock made a decision.

Liam was dangerous.

"Are you sure you don’t want to talk? I can brew some tea for the both of u—"

Liam’s words were interrupted by another wave of blood rain, except this time, Gorock made a voice command.

"Devour everything except what keeps him alive."

At once, the piranhas made their move.

"You sure we can’t talk this one out?!" Liam shouted as more than a hundred piranhas rushed him from all sides.

With his tail, Liam used the Breaker as a makeshift shield.

A rain of blood nicked him this time as he dodged, tearing through half of his foot.

He was bleeding badly, but his regeneration... wait, his regeneration?

Why was it so damn slow?

Panic.

Uh oh.

He might have underestimated the Prince of Cruelty a little too much, cause his blood was not regenerating as fast as it should have. Instead, its speed was halved.

’Don’t tell me this guy has anti-heal abilities.’

Then came the horde of vicious fish, their eyes greedy with the hunger of flesh.

SHIIING!

The Breaker split into the odachi, which Liam swung at the very center of the swarm, cleaving the horde in two with an angled arc of darkness.

No doubt, the slash killed many, slicing straight through their fortified exoskeleton and the soft bits underneath.

Except, a horde was a horde.

From more than a hundred, he had only killed seven or eight.

The rest were shooting at him with their jaws like a beehive as Liam retreated.

Between dodging the blood rain Gorock sent flying now and again from the sides and the school of fish wanting his heart, he couldn’t time his swings correctly.

’Controlled attacks have no place in this battle,’ Liam thought as he assessed the Black Blade’s strengths and weaknesses.

’This needs a wild touch of chaos.’

Both of Liam’s hands wrapped around the hilt of the odachi, then separated, transforming into the Dusk Blades.

The chains of the gnarly weapon wrapped tightly around his forearms.

Just as the horde was about to close in on him from all sides, Liam let loose of the blades in a spontaneous dance that sent dead piranha flying like fireworks.

He spiraled around in place, sending diagonal, horizontal, vertical swings in all directions.

Now and again, he’d hurl his Dusk Blade forward, causing it to enter the horde’s inner depths, before exploding in a raw mess of dead piranhas – simultaneously using his tail to whip a blunt strike into the horde of fish, breaking a huge chunk of their armors, which made them way easier prey to rend.

The blades of chaos weren’t the best against armor.

They were splendid against a bare enemy, since the cruel edges were built for the sheer purpose of shredding.

His other two weapons had their own strengths, too.

The Breaker could shatter the best of armors, and the Black Blade was unmatched in finesse, grace and technique.

But this was just a raw battle with none of those qualities.

It wasn’t to say he didn’t sustain injuries. A chomper made it past Liam’s ruthless display of violence and murder, biting away a jawfull of his hip.

Regeneration kicked it, but it wasn’t doing its job right.

’As I thought. Someone with blood would obviously know how to counter regeneration.’

Other than him, of course.

’I need to call this a day.’

He hadn’t sustained the most injuries, but he was ailed with the anti-heal properties of Gorock’s abilities. If it got any worse than this, Liam’s blood supply would run out faster than one could imagine.

To finish off the swarm of enemies, he mixed darkness with White Matter and summoned the Hive.

The hybrid mix of stygian insects immediately began its clash against the horde of piranhas.

Watching with alarmed eyes, Gorock studied Liam’s fighting method and memorized his abilities.

Soon after, the swarm was eliminated entirely. Hundreds of dead Zenith fish lay across the sea floor.

Liam gave the vampire a disappointed look.

"See? I told you. A friendly talk would not have ended this way."

Gorock grimaced, then forced back his disdain and growing impatience.

"I haven’t moved from my spot yet, and you’re awfully convinced you’ve won."

Just then, Gorock’s feet hovered above the waters. He left the domain of his stone fortress, rising to Liam’s level.

Stretching an arm to the side, Gorock opened his palm. Droplets of blood gathered on his palm, which grew and extended into a streamlined, narrow form.

A scythe had formed.

When Liam formed a weapon with his ichor, it was the same rank as his blood, since it was just that.

Hardened blood.

But when Gorock did it, the weapon was not the same Rank as his blood.

It was a Rank 5 inscribed weapon.