Born in Blood



Fourteen attack exchanges happened between Usan and Zeth.

As of now, the two looked horrible.

Usan panted heavily with a scowl.

He stood crookedly, like the bone that held him up straight was shattered. 

Holes riddled him from the neck down, oozing with red.

His shadows weren't as dark, either. Like their reserves had been exhausted.

Zeth didn't look too good either.

The pearly, statue-like body was riddled with cracks and fleshy wounds.

He, too, had see-through holes across his figure.

For both of them, these wounds didn't heal as fast as they should have.

Why?

That was another one of Myriad Brushes restrictions.

If both the Rank 5 cultivators were allowed to heal their bodies extensively, the battle would last hours.

Despite that, Unmoving Mountain was doing much better than Usan due to his amazing defenses.

But right now, it was Usan's turn to attack.

"Do me a favor and drop dead after this," Usan said through clenched teeth.

Usan used all the 'Ora' in his core and outstretched his hand.

Zeth frowned.

Using all the 'Ora' in one's core was dangerous.

For one, it put significant strain on one's body and abdomen.

For higher ranking cultivators, this was dangerous.

Their cores were amazingly powerful, after all, and the 'Ora' inside it was incredibly dense.

Even with their powerful organs, if too much strain was put on them… their cores would shatter.

What Usan was doing now was literally risking his life to win the fight…

As Usan's aura grew bigger and bigger, Zeth's eyes widened.

'He's going above his threshold?!' Zeth thought.

'Does he plan to die?!' 

Going above the threshold for Rank 5 cultivators meant straining your core to a lethal level.

It was essentially the equivalent of sacrificing a portion of your longevity to attain momentary strength.

And that's what Usan was doing.

As his darkness grew purer, it was also becoming more volatile.

Zeth had no intention to die. 

He activated all the defenses he possibly could to counter something of that level.

Within the Isolation Barrier, the atmosphere screamed as the two auras spread and occupied both halves of the battlefield.

By the end of it, Usan's hand formed into a spike.

All of his shadows had merged with it, too, leaving him defenseless and bare.

Usan's gaze locked with Zeth, who had a bit of fear on his face.

'I'll live,' Usan thought with a resolute look. '...For now.'

'I'll live.'

Usan's hand twisted through the air and blurred.

It vanished into Unmoving Mountain's chest.

Usan's hand struggled. 

It cracked on impact.

The force caused even his shoulder bones to chip and shatter.

…But the momentum generated from the attack was enough to poke a hole right through the Unmoving's solar plexus.

Zeth coughed.

Blood sprayed across Usan's grim and pale face.

"Unforgiven Shadow wins."

The barrier dissipated. 

And that was that.

***

Liam woke up with a raspy cough, his gaze stuck to the ceiling of his room.

Pain.

Pain seared through his body and burned every corner of his being.

All of this agony stemmed from one part.

His right hand.

Liam summoned all his strength just to sit up.

Thankfully, there was no one in the room to see how pathetic and weak he was.

Then, Liam looked to his right hand.

What he saw made his stomach sink.

Deformed.

That was the first word that entered Liam's mind when he saw his arm.

Followed by 'ugly' and 'disgusting.'

Tendons of muscle were sticking out of his tumor-like skin, layered with shards of black bones. Blood naturally oozed from his orifices, but healed repeatedly.

It looked like each striation of his muscles were intertwined in countless unopenable knots.

Liam saw bloodied bandages to his left and right, as though the person who patched him up didn't know what to do with his disgusting arm.

Liam tried using Transfiguration.

…

It didn't work.

It was like his arm had turned to unmendable metal.

It was impossible to manipulate.

Liam used Transfiguration on his left arm.

It worked fine.

'Well… that's not good.'

Liam thought back to the fight.

Thinking hurt, and his memories were also hazy.

'I used Transfiguration in my Ashura Form somehow.'

'Is that why I can't use it now?'

The structure between an Ashura and a human was vastly different.

Their muscles and bones had different density, and although they looked similar, their structures were also different.

Liam slightly narrowed his eyes.

'So I can't change my arm unless I change back to my Ashura Form…'

…That was not going to be easy.

As of now, Liam was incredibly weak.

There was barely enough energy in him to get up from his bed.

And becoming a full Ashura had drastic effects on his body.

If that was all he focused on until his next fight, he would be drained of his strength, even if he got his arm back.

His goal would be figuring out a way to hone Transfiguration to attune it to his Ashura Form.

But that was an entirely separate project.

Despite his deformed arm and dangerous predicament… a broad smile grew on Liam's face.

A Zenith.

'I killed a Zenith!'

Liam felt extremely proud.

Has anyone else achieved what he had?

Probably not!

But there was a logical explanation to his victory.

Blood. Chaos Pearl. Mind. Body. Core.

Liam had to cultivate all 5 of these in order to make them stronger.

The typical Zenith had just 3.

Although his Blood Shadow didn't have a specific Rank, he cultivated that, too.

'If I can kill a Zenith now, then what can I kill once I become one myself?' 

Liam pulled himself out of his thoughts.

He couldn't let pride cloud his thinking.

Groaning, he picked himself and left the room.

In the corridor, Jargon and a few other Shadows were waiting for him.

As soon as Jargon saw Liam, he beamed with  a sunny smile.

"My liege!" he said. Then he saw his arm and frowned a bit. "Are you well?"

"Look at my arm, Jargon. What do you think?" Liam responded. 

Jargon chuckled awkwardly. 

Ruth, Krel and Maeve were there too, all of them glancing at his deformity.

"Sup," Ruth said with a terse wave. "Nice arm."

"Yikes, it's worse than I thought it would be," Maeve added, making an exaggerated disgusted face.

"You try defeating a Zenith and coming out uninjured," Krel defended him. 

Before they could start bickering, Liam clicked his tongue and caught their attention.

"Are you here to fill me in or just give me another headache?"