Syl

Chapter 87: Blood

As one of the more giant orcs charged at me, I instinctively raised my scaled arm to block. The axe, infused with mana, flashed with deadly intent. With ferocious speed, the axeblade hurtled down and sliced through my arm. The orcs, sensing victory, cheered out. But I wasn't done yet. I swiftly grabbed the falling arm, temporarily reconnecting to it before triggering [Slime Burst]. The limb burst and spread adhesive acid slime on the nearby orcs. Despite the orcs' resilience to pain, the flesh-melting acid was a testament to my determination, often incapacitating weaker opponents immediately.

With a quick mental calculation, I reformed the arm, now equipped with a mimicked shield. I used it to block an incoming blow, anticipating the orc's move. Then, I countered with acid-laced spikes that emerged from the shield in retaliation. My [Sub-Cores], always at work, filled the air with multiple magic circles, firing multitudes of [Acid Dart] spells. This was my most effective magic against the orcs since any blocked spell would damage or destroy their equipment, further weakening them.

Like a beating heart, a building pulse of mana began to fill the air. It washed over the entire area, its power palpable. The magic rippled over me, but I seemed unaffected. However, the orcs seemed to freeze in place, their movements halted by an unseen force. Looking towards the epicenter of the spell, I saw Odark leaking a vast quantity of that strange red mana.

"I said stop!" He screamed.

Odark didn't have an absurd quantity of mana like myself; in fact, he had less mana than Dewi or Evan, by my estimation, but when his mana dimmed, it seemed to pulse back to life abruptly with the rhythm of a beating heart.

"You traitor!" One of the orcs shouted.

"You should be working with us! Kill our enemy!"

What started as a few individual complaints soon took over the collective. Odark seemed shaken but recollected himself.

"I haven't betrayed anyone! I stopped her, too!" he declared, and then, looking at me, he witnessed that I was moving unimpeded. He looked startled, "How did you resist my spell?"

I could only shrug, as I had no idea what he was talking about. One of the most giant orcs I had ever seen seemed to be forcing his way through the crowd, his muscles straining against whatever magical spell Odark had cast.

"Odark! Cease this foolishness at once! You will be banished forever if you don't destroy this foe right now!" He screamed with guttural fury.

"The chief has spoken!"

"Big Bro must fight!"

"Kill our enemy!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The orcs seemed overcome by the declaration of the orc chief. Odark was frantically rubbernecking at all of them before his gaze landed on me and he uttered a breathless apology. Whatever spell held the orcs had vanished, and the orcs erupted in elation.

"Big Bro is going to kill you!"

"You're done for!"

"Let the blood flow!"

They all chanted. I readied myself, prepping all my debuff spells. The unknown mana swirled around Odark, and he thrust his hand forward with a crushing motion and shouted, "[Blood Boil]!"

At the same time, I cast [Erode], [Flammable] and [Permeable]. All three debuffs were successfully applied. His mana coalesced around me and focused down, I braced for whatever the spell would do, but nothing happened, and the spell suddenly fizzled out. Odark and all the orcs seemed shocked at this predicament.

"How do you keep resisting my spells!?" Odark demanded as he drew a blade across his arm, spilling purplish blood that erupted from his arm and formed into three lances. They momentarily hovered before he thrust his palm forward and then launched at me.

'He controls blood!' I realized. This explains why his earlier two spells did not affect me—I don't have any! But if he can control the blood in monsters and people, that's terrifying.'

His blood lances actually penetrated me; their purpose must have been to invade my body from the inside, but the blood was rapidly dissolved away by my digestive acid slime. This only further unhinged Odark, who kept muttering how repeatedly to himself.

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Even if he was currently ineffective, I wouldn't sit around and take it. Odark had picked his side, so I had a job to do. I rushed forward to him and cast my [Burning] affliction spell at him.

'Not now, Gramps!' I shouted mentally.

Odark tried to swat the red dust away with his elongated arm, but that only applied the affliction to himself. "[Burning]?" Odark questioned and jumped backward, "That's inconvenient. It's not going away... But it doesn't outdo my [Regeneration]."

I launched [Fire Arrow] spells at him now that he had a weakness to fire from the debuff. He blocked them with his body, and I witnessed how the burnt flesh rapidly reconstructed itself in front of my very eyes. Despite how unfazed he was from taking the spell directly, he seemed to have a new caution in his eyes. Perhaps he hadn't expected to take as much damage as he did, as [Flammable] likely was applied through [Subtle Afflictions].

"Brothers! Bleed for me!" He suddenly shouted, and the orcs cheered. They all thrust their arms up into the air and sliced their own flesh. With barely a chant, the blood seemed to pool towards Odark and floated around him like a sentient cloud.

More spells were launched, but now, instead of using his body to block, the floating blood shifted and shaped into a barrier. I could only chuckle as it vaguely reminded me of how I could fight with my slime. Now armed with his arsenal of blood, Odark actually charged toward me and, with a sweeping motion, directed the blood to form a massive scythe-like blade. I tried to jump over it, but I was not fast enough, and it cut through my legs surprisingly easily.

Again, the orcs whooped and hollered like Odark's personal cheering squad. But when I landed on newly formed legs, their jubilations abruptly ended.

"It looks like I'm not the only one with [Regeneration]..." Odark muttered. "You must be some kind of lizard monster pretending to be an elf, and those scales are your true form. Judging by your regeneration and camouflage, you're some lizard mix between an axolotl and chameleon."

'Should I feel insulted that he thinks I'm a lizard... Is that more believable than being a slime? Well, I could just lean into it; if he attacks anything that isn't my core, it's to my benefit..'

"Close!" I said mockingly, building up a collection of blue flames in my chest, "You're forgetting salamander!" and blue flame erupted from my mouth.

Odark shielded himself by forming a wedge of the blood, redirecting most of the flames, and removing some surrounding orcs. Odark's pool of blood was significantly diminished, and he couldn't block all of the fire; his one arm was utterly burnt into a charred husk. With a quick mental command, he sliced his own arm off with a blade of blood, and a new, fresh arm erupted from the stump shortly after.

'If that's his level of regeneration, it's no wonder he thinks I have something similar.'

"Salamander? More like a dragon. How is this fair..." Odark said in disbelief.

"Big Bro you can do it!"

"Take more of our blood!"

"Kill it!"

Again, the orcs sacrificed their blood to replenish Odark's supply. He also cut his own arm again, as well as his torso, to add fresh new blood of his own to the mixture.

'If he can keep regenerating his own blood, he's formed quite an exploitative loop with his class and race. My slime is self-synergizing, but my exploitative synergy is that emblem combined with [Mana Slime].'

Unfortunately, once again, my spells seemed insufficient. I had endless mana, but my lack of skill levels against an opponent who was also built to endure meant that I needed to resort to using my slime.

One thing bugged me: where was Odark getting the mana from? His aura would diminish and then suddenly flood with more life; surely his regeneration didn't include mana, too? The lack of his mana aura being replenished while his wounds were closing finally gave me a clue. Did he have a way to convert blood into mana? I could convert mana into slime, so why couldn't he convert blood into mana? Or perhaps health into mana? That would explain why he wasn't continuously replenishing his blood weapon pool with his own blood; he needed it primarily to replenish his mana.

While we traded blows, I considered how to deal with the situation. My immediate thought was to build up enough blue flame to obliterate him in one go. I formed three [Inferno Sacs] inside my chest and started to fuel them with mana, ensuring my attacks kept him distracted while I built up for my finishing move. Abruptly, I received a prompt that I could not ignore.

'What? Gramps? Since when can you give me quests? Why should I risk sparing him? I know he's a fellow experiment, but he's trying to kill me.'

Reward: Skill revelation.>

'Sure... Twist my arm, why don't you? I'm assuming I only need to spare him, not the orcs. This had better be useful.'

Reward: Skill revelation (useful).>

'Fine!' I relented, wondering why Gramps was suddenly interfering. I know he prevented Simon from killing me, but that was partially Gramps's fault. This seemed different, and I was surprised he would deny me so much experience and, no doubt, a decent profile, too.

I mimicked [Elemental Amalgamation] and confirmed I could control the blue flame, which was drenched in my mana. I erupted the blue flame from multiple newly formed exits and formed a ring encircling Odark and myself. The orcs surrounding us were likely quickly dispatched by the intense flame, and any survivors were surely not long for the world. I couldn't imagine many things surviving that. Odark stared at me, a mixture of rage and horror at what I had done.

'I need to beat him but not kill him. But he can regenerate like crazy... Don't I have something to stop regeneration?' I thought rapidly, then recalled something I had previously forbidden myself from using, 'Bloodrot!'