Chapter 52: Tying Him Down Until He Goes Limp!

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Tying Him Down Until He Goes Limp!

The clones closed in before Lucien could fully process the trait description.

[Predator’s Reflex (Uncommon) (Lv.2)]

[Enhances reaction speed and instinctive response to sudden movement. Body reacts faster than conscious thought.]

’So it doesn’t make me faster but it makes my body react faster. Good enough.’

The first clone came straight at him, blade thrusting for his chest. The second vanished from view, already circling for his flank. The third hung back, patient, waiting for him to commit before attacking itself.

Vane didn’t move an inch, he just stood in pace and watched, arms loose at his sides with his smile fixed in place.

’That’s what bothers me most,’Lucien thought, blocking the first thrust. ’He’s not even the least bit worried.’

He deflected the direct attack from the clone, twisted to avoid the other clones slash and the third clone caught him from the blind spot, its blade opening a shallow line across his ribs.

Blood sprayed.

He seized it instantly, weaving it into needles, launching them toward Vane’s actual position.

The second clone intercepted, needles tearing through its shoulder and chest.

It didn’t bleed nor did it flinch, it just staggered once and kept moving to attack him.

’Right,’ Lucien thought, gritting his teeth. *These things are not alive, they mist be made from pure mana so Blood Manipulation’s useless on them.’

’Fine, guess the Scythe it is then.’

---

He shifted his focus entirely to the weapon, letting thr basics of the Reaper Crescent’s technique guide him even where his exact movements didn’t match the manual perfectly due to the scythe he was using, wide sweeping arcs to keep two clones at bay, the curved blade hooking aside a thrust before it could land, the shaft catching a follow-up strike meant for his knee, as they carried on back and forth.

The street beneath his feet had been copied down to the cracks in the pavement, storefronts frozen mid-shopping-day, an eerie stillness hanging over the entire replicated block.

’Focus, fight in the space you’re actually in, don’t get distracted.’

The rear clone lunged again, silent and aiming straight for the back of his neck.

Lucien didn’t see it.

His shoulder twisted on its own, blade passing inches from his throat.

’Fuck, that was close.’ he realized, heart hammering. "My body moved before my brain even registered the threat, guess the trait is already showing its value.’

He spun with the momentum instead of fighting it, scythe catching the clone across the chest hard enough to stagger it back.

---

’What am I actually looking at?’

Vane’s smile had begun, almost imperceptibly, to falter.

’How is this trash doing this?’

Lucien Dracul Aethernis was supposed to be trash. Weak bloodline, no talent, a political husband discarded by his own family, and yet here he was, fighting three of his clones simultaneously and not only not losing but actually fighting then on equal grounds and even pushing them back.

’This bastard must be using some kind of enhancement, to be doing this.’ Vane told himself. ’It has to have a limit, I just need to wait him out.’

He watched the clone atacking Lucien directly press forward, watched the other clone that was flanking him adjust its angle the instant Lucien shifted weight.

’They’re not fighting separately,’ Lucien realized, catching the pattern mid-exchange. ’Every time I gain ground on one, another repositions instantly, they are too coordinated, this doesn’t feel like three fighters, it’s like one fighter split into three bodies.’

’Vane’s not even giving them commands, his just standing there and observing but they are communicating somehow, maybe by reading his intent directly through whatever ability he is using to summon them.’

’So I was right, these are clones and from what he’s shown so far, he has a cloning talent, now I just gotta outsmart this idiot somehow.’

---

He targeted the direct attacker first, forcing a trade of blows until an opening appeared, a hooking sweep that caught its wrist, disarming it a half-second before his scythe found its neck, removing its burden permanently.

The clone shattered into blue mana particles, dissolving into nothing.

"One down, Vane. What are you going to do now?" Lucien said to get on Vanes nerves.

Vane’s expression cracked, just slightly.

"That was just a lucky shot, you trash. Once whatever enhancement you have taken wears off, you’re finished, you hear me." Vane screamed, irritated and confused at how Lucien was doing this.

’This trash, has he really awakened a talent and a high ranking one, I’ve got to relay this info back to the young master.’ Vane thought watching Lucien weave blood needles around the battlefield and using it to attack the remaining clones.

Two clones remained, Lucien used blood needles as distraction now, forcing the flanker to intercept while he closed on the rear attacker, scythe hooking its ankle mid-lunge.

He pulled on it making it stumble then he spun through the opening and cut it down.

"One left, Vane, what are you going to do now, why don’t you summon some more so I can beat them, it’s quite satisfying really, good for the stress." Lucien said watching Vane while fighting to see if he would actually bring more out.

---

Lucien slipped past the last clone, scythe already rising toward Vane’s exposed throat as he was lost in thought.

SHNK.

The blade passed through empty air.

Vane was gone.

Lucien’s eyes snapped around, tracking, and caught the ripple of darkness pooling beneath the final clone’s feet.

Vane stepped out of the shadow like it was a doorway, short sword already in hand.

’Some type of Shadow movement, looks like he can move through shadows, great. The whole arena’s a threat now.’

"Enough playing around, it’s time to end this." Vane snapped, and the last clone dissolved.

He pulled a mana potion from his robes and drank it in one furious gulp.

’So there’s a limit,’ Lucien noted, filing it away. ’Every clone costs him mana so he can’t summon them endlessly, thank go otherwise it would be too broken.’

He drew on his own stored blood, quietly knitting the gash along his ribs shut while Vane recovered.

---

"How," Vane demanded, voice tight. "How did a waste and trash like you become like this?" A late-blooming Talent? Some hidden inheritance? "How did you do it?"

"Why would I tell an idiot like you anything, we enemies remember. " Lucien said.

"Fine, don’t tell me, your corpse will have the answers once the young master gets hold of it, maybe it will even help him rise higher, so die!"

Lucien quickly activated Mana Sense and Sanguine Perception together.

[Mana Sense Skill Activated — Mana -10]

[Sanguine Perception Ability Activated — Mana -20]

He coated the scythe’s edge with a thin layer of mana just as Vane vanished once again.

Thay Shadow Hop ability again, Vane reappeared directly in front of him, blade slashing for his face.

Lucien barely twisted clear, the blade opening a shallow line across his cheek instead of his throat.

He retaliated immediately.

CLANG.

Scythe met short sword, and Vane skidded backward several feet, boots tearing at the pavement.

’I’m actually keeping up with him,’ Lucien thought, adrenaline surging. ’That’s good. That’s really good. Looks like my stats are actually quite high, but it won’t last long.’

Then as if by some curse the enhancement’s edge dulled a little, almost imperceptibly, at the corners of his awareness.

’Fuck, looks my timer just started counting down even faster.’

’The temporary enhancement is running out. Ive got a few minutes atmost, maybe even less.’

---

’I can’t outlast him in a physical fight,’ Lucien thought, mind racing. ’So I don’t need to outfight him, I need to make him spend everything he’s got and wear himself put before my timer hits zero.’

He pulled the remaining blood vials he had free before downing them and storing it in the Infinite Sanguine Cosmos storage.

Vane laughed, wiping blood from his split lip. "More blood, is your talent related to blood, but it won’t help you, your fate was already determined the monemt you were removed from the house."

"You really don’t understand what you’re looking at." Lucien said, and released everything at once along with a massive amount of mana.

Not ten needles, not twenty.

But hundreds, raining across the entire replicated street in a crimson storm, all straight at the fem boy servant.

Vane’s laughter died instantly seeing the blood rain.

He Shadow Hopped continuously, dodging and blocking with his blade, Shadow Hopped again and Lucien kept the barrage constant, forcing him further and further from any comfortable range.

"Bastard, is this all you can do, you coward fight me!" Vane snarled to himself, aura flaring as a fresh clone tore free from his shoulder, immediately catching a wave of needles meant for him and disappeared almost instantly.

Another followed, Lucien wounded it badly enough that Vane had to burn more mana reinforcing it.

A third joined moments later, thrown up as a desperate shield.

Vane’s breathing turned ragged as he was barrage by the blood needles all the while Lucien carried on attacking him with his Scythe.

---

"You think this changes anything?" Vane screamed, voice cracking with something close to panic now, blood running freely from a dozen shallow cuts. "I’ll kill you! I’ll kill your wives after the young master uses them! I’ll—"

"Running out of things to say, cock sucker" Lucien said, "or are you maybe running out of mana? Getting hard to tell which, with you acting like a bitch."

Vane’s face twisted into something ugly and desperate, and he lunged with everything he had left, blade aimed at Lucien’s throat.

Lucien caught it on the scythe’s shaft, grunting under the impact, boots skidding backward.

’Im getting close,’ he thought grimly, ribs aching, cheek stinging, arms burning with fatigue. ’Really close.’

Throughout the exchange, blood had been steadily leaking from his own wounds and none of it had been wasted.

Thin, near-invisible blood threads had been spreading across the ground the entire fight, crawling unnoticed beneath rubble and shattered pavement while Vane’s attention stayed locked on the needle storm.

---

Vane went to Shadow Hop away from another wave of blood needles but nothing happened, trying again he realized he had run out of mana.

’Since when?’

He tried to dodge but his leg held firm, invisible thread wound tight around his ankles, blending in with the blood stained battlefield.

"What—?"

Lucien pulled.

Vane crashed to the ground, sword flying from his grip.

Lucien was already there.

"Wait, Lucien, don’t, I can be of use to you, ple—"

Vane scrambled for his blade, desperate, but Lucien’s scythe hooked it aside before his fingers closed around the hilt.

SHRAK.

The curved blade swept clean through him.

Two halves hit the ground with a heavy, wet finality.

---

Lucien stood over the body, chest heaving, blood dripping from his own wounds onto the cracked pavement.

The enhancement chose that exact moment to fully collapse.

Strength drained out of his limbs all at once, legs threatening to buckle, breath coming in ragged pulls.

’Damn, that was too close, anymore and I would have been the one screaming like a pig.’

"Also what the hell did he mean ’being of use to me’, I don’t want a personal cock sucker."

He forced himself forward despite his exhausted body, scythe still raised, and crouched beside Vane’s split corpse.

No shadow pooled beneath it, the mana signature fading away slowly and no movement at all.

He reached one trembling hand toward the body.

"I hope he is really dead, otherwise my life will get way more harder if Silas gets word of what happened here.’

"Stay dead, please, I’ve seen enough weird for a lifetime, don’t pop up again later like some 3rd rate villain." he muttered, falling to the ground.