Chapter 368: A Fight Between Brothers
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 368: A Fight Between Brothers
— Kyahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
— At last! At last! At last! We’ve become one! We’ve… we’ve become one!! Kyahahahahaha!! I won’t forgive you!! I’m stronger! I’m the strongest! I’m the most!!! Warm! You’re so warm! I love it! I love it!!
An incredibly loud voice hammered at my ears. I’d expected something like this, but the sound ringing in my head was so jarring I could barely think. No, more than that, an immense, sharp pain began to course through my body. Goff’s fist was closing in, yet I couldn’t move.
I was beginning to think drawing Dainsleif had been a mistake. It felt as if all the blood in my body was being incinerated. My entire form tingled, and I felt my vision turn red, as if every capillary had burst. As my hands and feet began to tremble uncontrollably, the voice echoed once more.
— I’m going to torment you! More! More! I’ll torment you more!
‘Fucking… hell.’
I couldn’t be sure of the details, but it seemed the weapon itself was inflicting this tremendous pain upon me. I never imagined it would exact its revenge—or something like it—in this way.
The agony was relentless. I wanted to double over, but this was hardly the situation for it.
“F…uck…”
— It hurts, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? I was hurting, too! Me too! Every time you giggled with some other bitch, I was hurting! Me too! Me too!
It became hard to breathe. Just as I thought I might actually die, a colossal surge of magic began to fill my body. The pain was still there, but I could feel my physique changing. This agony was a reminder that I was alive.
‘Ha…’
— But I love you! You’re perfect! I love you! Let’s be together like this, together forever.
The idea of being together forever was absurd. My vision was still too red to see how my body had changed. More importantly, Goff’s fist was now inches from my face.
It was too late to dodge. I had to either block it or endure it. As that thought crossed my mind, a flood of information poured into my head.
— You can dodge it, can’t you? Huh? Is that an enemy? An enemy?
I brushed aside Dainsleif’s voice and activated the idea in my mind. To my astonishment, my body began to disperse. With a tremendous roar, Goff’s fist, which had finally reached me, struck empty air. No, to be precise, it hadn’t struck nothing at all.
‘Blood.’
My body had scattered into a shower of blood. Around the fist that should have pierced my chest, thorns of blood had already formed, shredding his arm to ribbons. It felt as if my body was reacting before I could even think, as if I had truly become one with blood.
I could roughly grasp my current state.
What was maintaining the shape of my body right now was blood.
The absurdity of it all almost made me laugh. I pulled back to check my condition.
Goff was staring at me with a look of pure shock. But rather than being disappointed that his attack had been blocked, he looked utterly delighted. Of course he would be. This was the first time I had unified with Dainsleif. There hadn’t been many battles since I’d acquired Weapon Unification, but I had avoided using Dainsleif until now.
The first reason was that I’d expected the penalty to be severe. The second was that I simply hadn’t needed to.
From his perspective, I had just unleashed a hidden trump card in this fight, so his joy was only natural. And his assumption was, without a doubt, the truth. I had drawn this power out of a desire not to lose. He was right.
— Together like this! Together like this! Together like this!
‘Shut up.’
— I love your cold side, too! Even your cold side… Haaah… Let’s live together forever inside me. Forever together…
My arms and legs were completely red. I was certainly maintaining my form, but this feeling of my entire body being made of blood was unsettling. The interesting part was that it was constantly dripping.
From the tips of my fingers, from my horns, from beneath my chin, blood was steadily dripping to the ground. It wasn’t hard to guess why.
‘Fuck.’
I was extremely reluctant to check the information.
[Weapon Unification]
[Mode - Dainsleif - Legacy of the Cursed Sword]
[Unifying with the legacy of the cursed sword Dainsleif, which is said to drive its owner to death, you will be transmuted. Your body will be converted into blood. Blood will continuously drip from your body. You carry the penalty of death if you fail to replenish the lost blood. You gain dominion over any blood that has come into contact with Dainsleif. You gain perfect dominion over your own body.]
[Magic +10, Agility +5, Strength +5]
‘Fucking hell…’
The ability was ridiculous, but I knew it would be something like this. The blood currently dripping from my body was accumulating damage. The only way to offset this damage was to replenish it. I could endure a certain amount of damage; I never thought I could win this fight without a single scratch.
The problem was how much damage I would take. If this were a battlefield with tens of thousands fighting, it would be a different story, but my opponent was a single warrior. If the unification ended with me having lost more than I’d gained, the blood I’d lost would take its toll on my body.
‘As fast as possible.’
There was no time to hesitate. The right move was to end this as quickly as possible. The amount of mana it was consuming was already a burden.
“I’ve never seen this form before, Blood Dagger.”
“Sorry, but there’s no time to talk, my brother.”
Using the blood that had dripped onto the ground and the blood pooling at Goff’s feet, I instantly created thorns of blood. Each one was imbued with magic. In terms of both quantity and quality, they were on a completely different level from what Dainsleif could do before unification.
A series of squelching sounds echoed as the thorns struck. They couldn’t pierce deep into his skin, but it was enough to leave his entire body in tatters. In the blink of an eye, his body had become just as blood-soaked as mine. The blood that spilled from Goff’s body became my new weapon.
I immediately charged toward him. Consuming mana was now the same as consuming blood. I decisively gave up on using any other weapons.
— Yes! That’s it! That’s it! You only need to look at me. You should always only look at me!
“Tch. Bullshit.”
Krrrrrack!
“Kwoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”
Goff stomped his foot, unleashing his magic in all directions, and the blood thorns surrounding him were instantly scattered. I immediately raised my hands, but it was difficult to maintain their form. As if he couldn't be bothered by such an attack, he swung an arm, and the blood weapons crumbled away.
“Hah!”
I’d already figured they wouldn’t be enough to deal any significant damage. I tried to move quickly, but I wasn’t as fast as when I was unified with Rideal. Goff’s shoulder came into view. My charge was meant to turn his entire body into a bloody mess, but my own body immediately lost its form.
Splat!
With a wet smack, a part of my blood-body was flung away, but there was no pain. If I couldn’t replenish it, I would receive it as damage after the unification ended.
‘Sharper.’
The scattered blood reformed behind him. I swung my tail.
I poured a massive amount of mana into it and changed its shape. Sharp enough to slice his body, sharp enough to pierce that armor. The tail that had formed in an instant twisted into a grotesque shape, but I paid it no mind.
Imagining something that couldn’t even be called a weapon, I swung the now-heavy tail.
The sound of it cutting through the air hit my ears in an instant. Goff, having noticed my position too late, turned to prepare to block my attack. Deciding it was impossible to dodge, he reached out for my tail.
In that same instant, a sharp pain shot through my body.
He had given up one arm to swing his other fist.
This was the second time I’d been slammed into the opposite side. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.
“It seems you can’t evade and attack at the same time, Blood Dagger.”
“I’m not used to this body yet… That was a mistake.”
I said the words, but in the end, it couldn’t be called a mistake. A glance at his half-severed left arm told me that much. I had pierced through his armor.
“That arm looks inconvenient.”
Of course, a dangling arm would look inconvenient. Just as I thought it would be a hindrance in the fight to come, he suddenly began to strike his own arm with his remaining one. With a massive crunch, the arm fell away absurdly, landing in my field of view.
“Not at all. It’s no problem.”
‘Tough bastard.’
He was using his magic to stop the bleeding as much as possible. At this rate, he would at least have no problem swinging his fist. The problem was on my end. I was somehow replenishing what I’d lost, but it wasn’t easy to maintain my body’s form.
To make matters worse, Goff had realized my weakness. The sight of him using his own muscles to seal his wounds was dumbfounding. The fact that I could only reclaim the blood that was spilled at the moment of injury was a bit frustrating.
— But you’re going to win. Right? Right? Right?
‘Of course.’
I was just starting to get used to this body. I threw myself forward once more. Simultaneously, weapons of blood rained down on Goff. He tried to block them, but wounds were still appearing. The thorns of blood continued to pour down on him.
I rushed him immediately. There was no reason to avoid close combat. Attacks using blood were fatal to Goff as well.
Among all the weapons I possessed, this form probably had the highest single-target damage. If Mystletainn was for recovery, Gram for defense, and Rideal for speed, then Dainsleif’s strengths were clearly in its attack and evasion. The drawback was that I couldn’t use both at the same time, but it was hardly enough to be called a flaw.
As I approached, he swung his fist. But I was faster than Goff. In a battle like this, a large body is a liability, not an advantage. After dodging the fist that cut through the air, I swung my tail again.
I wasn’t aiming for a single, decisive blow like before. My target was his severed arm. As I began to relentlessly exploit his weakness, wounds started to pile up on Goff’s body.
Krrrrrack!
KABOOOM!
Shink.
All sorts of roars and impacts assaulted my ears.
“Relentless. Isn’t this a bit much!”
“You were the one who told me not to hold back. Don’t you dare call me cheap.”
“This is the Blood Dagger I know!”
He was smiling weakly, but Goff clearly wasn’t going to collapse just like this.
I could see it in his eyes. He was definitely aiming for something.
All I could do was keep him in check and continue to wound his body. The only options were to either overwhelm him with a continuous assault so he couldn’t bring out his hidden card, or be ready to counter it.
His fist cut through empty air as my arms and legs struck the Ogre. Thorns of blood continuously pierced his massive body. I could feel my own eyes growing redder.
— Kyahahahahahahahahahaha!
Finally, a blood thorn lodged itself in Goff’s left eye. But Goff didn’t even let out a scream. Instead, looking amused, he pulled out the embedded thorn, let out a monstrous roar, and charged at me. Wounds could be healed after the fight was over. Holding back would be an insult.
“You seem to be at your limit… Are you alright?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t miss out on a fight this fun.”
“Puhahat.”
Covered in wounds, he raised the corners of his mouth in a grin, and I nodded in return.