Born in Blood



Despite the announcement of victory, bitterness spread amongst the crowd of common folk and martial artists alike.

In hindsight, death battles weren't ideal as a whole. Although this competition was important, there was no need to throw away their lives. 

All the martial art leaders took a note and sternly warned their disciples not to fall for any provocation or insults. 

Only Sun's Spear, who initiated the rule in the first place, didn't say a thing. A stubborn smile was on his face, along with a bit of disdain to the weaklings who panicked. 

And now, it was Usan's turn to fight. 

Of course, his opponent was obvious. The one person that looked incredibly eager to rip into his flesh and drink his blood.

Glorious Wing. Seething with rage and bloodthirst. Both his wings were much more majestic compared to Winged Swallow's. 

They spread across 9 meters each, and looked incredibly dense, releasing a shrill churning noise that probably represented the man's rage. 

That shredding capability Liam went through was obviously stronger with this pair of wings. 

Not even a Rank 5 could touch them without suffering some gnarly wounds.

[Good luck,] Liam told the Unforgiven, hiding a small laugh. [Break a leg or something.]

Usan sneered at him but didn't say anything, simply hovering to the center of the battlefield. 

Myriad Brush was on a slighter elevation to the two, seeing as he was the judge.

"Death battle?"

"Yes," Glorious Wing answered instantly, praying in his heart that Usan answered the same way.

That hope was crushed.

"No," Usan replied. That garnered another round of boos from the crowd.

Reap what you sow, coward!

But the Unforgiven was shameless. Perhaps even more so than Liam himself. A lack of parental figures did that to certain people.

Nevertheless, Glorious Wing wasn't entirely disappointed. If nothing, he'd do his best to severely cripple the man.

"Choose a rule," Myriad Brush said neutrally to both parties.

"Touch the ground every ten seconds," Usan said. 

Liam expected the Myriad Brush to instantly interject… but he didn't. Battles between Rank 5's were largely different to the norm. 

Their fighting style's weren't limited to just their clan arts.

That said, Liam couldn't help but feel a little bitter.

"You can't fly," Glorious Wing sternly denied.

Myriad Brush didn't have a problem with that either. 

Like always, an Isolation Barrier was erected around the massive field.  This wasn't actually Usan's, but Myriad Brushes.

As talented and powerful as Usan was, maintaining a barrier as he fought wasn't ideal. 

Liam wasn't included in there. He'd just be an annoyance, and Usan couldn't be bothered. Instead, he was ushered onto the Monolith Lion's head, his gruesome wounds tended to by the Elders.

///

Usan's gaze connected with Glorious Wing's.

The contrast between their emotions was almost funny. Usan seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the latter's pain, if the smirk on his face was any indication. 

Glorious Wing suppressed the anger boiling in him. Wrath made one predictable and hasty, and neither were useful for battle.

"One."

Usan put on his shadow mask.

"Two."

Glorious Wing spread his wings and heaved a long sigh.

"Three."

The atmosphere turned heavy.

"Begin!"

Both sides shot towards each other with incredible speed, clashing straight away. A shockwave spread from the point of impact, and the barrier rippled hectically.

It was chaos at that point. Both blurred at incredible speeds, blurring as they struck and defended each other's attacks. 

The Glorious chose that moment to create space, swinging his massive wing forward and unleashing a barrage of water-made feathers.

Usan merged with the shadows and entered the Sea of Darkness, but a second later, the feathers exploded with massive currents of water.

Before long, the battlefield was doused in tides of surging water. Obviously, this hindered Usan's abilities to swim through the Sea of Darkness.

Although shadows weren't hindered with water, the same couldn't be said with violent waves that affected the shadows. 

Those raging currents spread from one side to another, forcing Usan to emerge from the comfort of his shadows and evade another series of explosive feathers.

But ten seconds had passed.

Glorious Wing touched the ground for a fraction of a second – his body covered in a defensive membrane of water – before fluttering his wings and flying away again.

That was enough for the Unforgiven. 

Tendrils of darkness and shadow emerged from where the winged cultivator briefly touched.

The shadows ignored that defensive membrane and found their way into the man's flesh, clipping bits of it off.

Glorious Wing grimaced slightly but that didn't stop his flight. His eyes widened when he realized something formless was digging further into his nerves.

With a heavy heart, Glorious Wing ruthlessly severed off his own foot with a swipe of his wing!

Usan saw that action and couldn't help but smile. The Toxic Shadow spell wasn't usually noticed, but the Glorious had keen senses. 

If it wasn't taken care of in time, the toxins would spread and corrupt the entire nervous system – sort of what happened with Wild Fang.

But now the Glorious lacked a foot – sliced clean off and spurting intermittently with blood. 

When flying, that didn't matter at all, but even Rank 5 bodies couldn't regenerate entire limbs in an instant. It took time, and the winged cultivator didn't have any.

He flew back upwards and relentlessly showered Usan with explosive feathers, severing arcs of condensed mist and dominating tides of water.

The field was now a raging ocean, sweeping Usan left and right like a ragdoll. He could barely steady himself as he dodged attacks.

Not being able to fly put him at a great advantage, and several of his bones were cracked and shattered.

Ten seconds passed.

Glorious Wing flew to the edge of the oceanic battlefield and cleared out a section of the tides to safely touch the ground… when a hand pierced through his stomach and came out the other side.

The winged cultivator glanced once behind himself, just to see the Unforgiven...

Unharmed. Unmasked. Grinning wickedly.