The Crimson Monarch
The source of Jeong Sinho's power was blood.
Just as I could freely wield the power of Polar Night, that bastard could manipulate blood and shape it into countless forms.
Blood Mail
Blood poured from his wounds and wrapped around Jeong Sinho's entire body, forming the figure of a knight clad in heavy armor.
“Kikikikiki. The more blood I shed, the closer you get to death.”
“You look like you’ll pass out from anemia first.”
“Insolent brat.”
The blood coiled around his forearm stretched out like a whip.
A blood whip drew a sharp arc through the air, aiming straight for the crown of my head.
Backstep activated.
My body shot backward. At the same time, I finished rearranging my mana and dyed the ground with it.
The earth turned muddy.
As soon as I deployed the Mud Trap, a ten-meter radius centered on Jeong Sinho transformed into a swamp.
“I’ve been waiting for you to put on that armor.”
Thanks to the data I’d seen before my regression, I already had a rough understanding of how Jeong Sinho fought.
His ability to control blood itself.
If that was the case…
Wouldn’t he create armor out of blood to cover his whole body?
Weakness Engraving activated.
The engraved area will have its defense reduced by 20%.
A strange inscription appeared on the blood-made armor.
Since his blood currently counted as ‘armor,’ the engraving had worked.
—Every attack he makes with that blood will now be affected by the inscription!
Nyx sounded impressed.
I rearranged my mana once more.
Earth Spike
While Jeong Sinho was retrieving his whip, I completed the spell and fired it straight at him.
GUUUUUNG!
The ground split apart left and right as countless spikes of rock erupted upward.
He reinforced his blood armor and charged head-on into the Earth Spike.
PUUUUK!
The razor-sharp stones pierced through part of the blood armor and struck his real body.
Jeong Sinho glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Just die already!”
Blood Nail
He extended his hooked claws to more than twice their previous length and swung them wildly.
The moment I blocked the blood-red nails with the Blood Claw Technique, an overwhelming weight crushed down on my arm.
The impact was strong enough to throw me off balance for a split second.
I redirected the force behind the nails and kept my footing.
The more blood he had, the stronger Bathory’s blessing made him.
Jeong Sinho was even using the wounds I inflicted on him to boost his combat ability.
Eagle Eye activated.
The opponent is overwhelmingly stronger than you.
The aura radiating from Jeong Sinho grew even thicker.
So he grows stronger by using his own blood as fuel.
It was exactly as the data from before my regression had described.
“Kikiki. Power is overflowing!”
With his long hair flying wildly as he rampaged, he really did look like a madman.
Well, technically he was a madman. The deeper he fell into Bathory’s blessing, the more insane he became.
“Feeling pretty confident in your strength, huh?”
I clenched my fist tightly.
Monstrous Strength
BANG!
With a massive impact, Jeong Sinho’s body was blasted backward.
His hooked nails shattered into pieces.
His right arm bent at an unnatural angle, and broken bone jutted out between the twisted flesh.
“Kihihit!”
A voice thick with pain.
Jeong Sinho glared at me with manic eyes.
“Kiki. I won’t die from something like this.”
He swung his broken arm like a toy. Blood surged from the wound and forced the protruding bone back into place.
—How disgusting.
“You can say that again.”
I gave the goddess a half-hearted reply.
In the age of destruction, I had seen far worse sights than this.
I’d even watched monsters that had been ground into powder regenerate.
While Jeong Sinho regenerated his arm, I created distance again before launching another ferocious charge.
“Kiki. I saw that coming.”
Blood Castle
Jeong Sinho released the blood armor that had covered his body.
The mass of blood engraved with the Weakness Engraving rose up in the shape of a castle wall, blocking my path.
When I slammed into the red wall, the powerful rebound sent me flying backward.
But.
In exchange for stopping my charge, most of Jeong Sinho’s blood had evaporated.
Blood Drain
Shaaaaaaa!
Some of the blood that had splattered onto the ground flowed back toward Jeong Sinho.
All of it was blood that had originally come from his own body.
Thanks to the Thorn Armor protecting me, I hadn’t taken a single wound.
“You sacrificed all your blood just to erase the Weakness Engraving.”
Not bad. He actually used his head.
He had used his weakened blood to cancel out my ferocious charge and shake off the curse I’d placed on him.
If he had kept replenishing his blood, the curse’s effect would have continued.
“Kikikiki. Round two begins now.”
A sinister laugh leaked from Jeong Sinho’s mouth.
Clang! Clang-clang!
Sparks flew through the air.
My sixth sense screamed warnings without pause.
My arms and legs were trembling.
The more damage accumulated, the louder my body creaked.
“Kiki. What’s wrong? Why don’t you keep running your mouth like before?”
Jeong Sinho burst into maniacal laughter.
His combat power was roughly equal to a mid-100s player in full battle gear.
Thanks to the amplification from his blood, the gap between our stats was easily three times over.
Outside the Tower, Beginner’s Luck didn’t apply either, so the difference felt even more overwhelming.
“Kiii. That charge skill. You can’t use it anymore.”
Conscious of my Ferocious Charge, he refused to give me any distance and kept forcing close-range combat.
While I silently blocked the barrage of attacks—
—This one shall assist you!
Nyx’s voice rang in my ear.
I could still hold on.
I didn’t have time to speak, so I simply shook my head in response.
The duration of Blessing of the Night was five minutes.
After that, I would have to wait fifteen minutes before I could use it again.
Since it was a trump card, I needed to save it.
“Haaaaap!”
When I roared, Jeong Sinho’s body flinched.
A gap of less than a second.
I didn’t miss it.
I used Backstep to create distance again, then immediately followed up with Ferocious Charge, stunning him.
“You damn rat!”
“Your house must have some pretty big rats, huh?”
The combination of Backstep and Ferocious Charge.
Because Jeong Sinho was wary of my Backstep, I couldn’t link them often.
But whenever I created an opening, it guaranteed a stun and allowed me to deal damage.
Now, the moment I used Backstep, he reflexively redirected his blood for defense.
“Kahak!”
The instant the stun wore off, Jeong Sinho swung his arm.
Whoosh—
His hooked nails grazed just above my head.
A few strands of hair were caught in the red current and snapped off.
I had barely avoided the attack, but—
“Kiki. Die.”
I couldn’t deflect the follow-up thrust.
His speed was simply too fast.
I crossed both arms in an X-shape and blocked the incoming nail thrust head-on.
Thorn Armor durability has reached 0.
Even after the gray armor shattered, the remaining impact shook both my arms.
The shock was enough to turn my vision white.
Cold Blood activated and dulled the pain.
“Kiki. Why don’t you keep acting all high and mighty?”
Jeong Sinho pressed the attack.
I manifested Polar Night in the shape of tentacles and wrapped them around his arm.
Because of the massive stat difference, the Polar Night couldn’t hold for long and was torn apart.
But that tiny opening let me catch my breath.
Clang! Clang! Jeong Sinho’s blood transformed into countless shapes, aiming for my vital points.
His sharp nails, strengthened by Blessing of Greed.
I barely endured by pouring inner energy from my dantian into the Blood Claw Technique.
“Why won’t you just fall down already!”
Jeong Sinho roared in frustration.
At first glance, it looked like he held the initiative in battle, but if you looked deeper, everything was playing out in the palm of my hand.
Fighting an enemy who moved purely on instinct wasn’t difficult.
The countless essences of creatures I had accumulated until now.
If I used those abilities at one hundred percent, I could fight on equal footing with enemies far stronger than myself.
Slash!
There were times when Thorn Armor’s durability ran out and I took wounds.
“Kikikikiki. Explode and die! Blood Bomb!”
Jeong Sinho clenched his hand.
His dominion extended even to the blood inside his opponent’s body.
Within a certain range, he could make it explode.
Bathory’s Blessing is interfering with the acidic blood.
Due to the different blood properties, you are freed from the blessing’s influence.
Using the ability I had gained from the Deep Slime, I altered my blood’s properties and nullified the explosion.
“What’s wrong? Something not going your way?”
“Kiiii.”
Jeong Sinho let out a strange groan and moved his arm again.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Then twenty minutes.
Time flowed endlessly since the battle began.
A look of impatience began to creep across Jeong Sinho’s face.
His complexion had turned deathly pale.
Because he had been continuously draining his own blood, symptoms of anemia were starting to show.
“F-fucking… bastard.”
His words came out broken.
The explosive momentum he had displayed earlier was gradually fading.
—That wicked bastard’s movements have grown dull!
Yeah.
Everything was going exactly as I had planned.
Thanks to Bathory’s blessing, he had been reversing the blood offered as sacrifice to transfuse himself, but it seemed even that had reached its limit.
“Kiki. I won’t die here.”
Jeong Sinho’s eyes flashed madly.
At the same time, his dwindling mana surged once more.
Corrupt Blood
An act that synchronized the user’s blood with Bathory’s blessing to amplify their stats.
Although it was only C-rank, because it used a Constellation’s power to remodel the body, the side effects were severe.
This was Jeong Sinho’s final trump card.
Before my regression, he had used Corrupt Blood to enter a berserk state, slaughtering countless people and drinking their blood.
“There’s no one here for you to drink from, is there?”
I gave him a chilling smile.
An abandoned building with no people around.
This was a battlefield completely devoid of living creatures he could drain.
“Kikikiki. You… later… I’ll kill you.”
Jeong Sinho turned his body.
To maintain his sanity even in that state…
He truly had the talent to devour Bathory in return and become a Constellation himself.
He kicked off the ground and quickly fled the battlefield.
He was probably trying to suck blood to recover his strength or find a place to hide.
If he chose the former, it would result in innocent casualties.
With my current abilities, I couldn’t catch up to Jeong Sinho after his stats had been boosted by Corrupt Blood.
“Nyx.”
—Understood.
Blessing of the Night has descended upon your body.
All stats increased by 40%.
Berserk activated.
Strength and Agility increased by 30%.
I activated Berserk at the exact moment Nyx’s blessing seeped in.
Immense power flooded into every single muscle fiber.
Using Cloud Flow Steps and full-speed sprint at the same time, I chased after Jeong Sinho.
The distance between us closed rapidly.
“H-how…?”
“You really are an idiot who can’t even run away properly.”
“Who are you calling an idiot!”
Provoked by my taunt, the fleeing Jeong Sinho lost his mind and abruptly spun around mid-sprint.
The provocation worked perfectly.
Blood Burst
The blood that had wrapped around his body concentrated into a single point.
The direction his finger pointed.
The instant my sixth sense screamed, I ducked my head low.
BOOM!
A blood-red orb shot past just a hair’s breadth away.
Jeong Sinho’s final trump card had been wasted.
“Kiki?”
His already pale face turned as white as a sheet of paper.
When he tried to gather blood into his hand again, I slipped into his range.
I leaped in low while charging forward.
Blood Claw Technique, Third Form—Storm Fierce Tiger Claw.
Using the rotational force, I slammed into his chest.
Riiiiip— Flesh and muscle tore open, revealing white ribs.
“My rose-colored future…”
“Rose-colored and blood-colored are just different shades of red, you bastard.”
I pulled my left fist back as far as it would go.
Monstrous Strength
I put my entire body weight behind the punch and smashed it into his exposed ribcage.
His heart, which had been beating furiously, burst under the power-enhanced fist. Blood sprayed in every direction from his body.
“Guh…”
Jeong Sinho collapsed to the floor with his eyes wide open.
“You don’t even deserve to feel wronged.”
I looked down at his corpse with cold eyes.