Child of Destiny

……

As the battle continued, the trio was getting more and more pressured by Dracula even though they possessed borrowed powers. And as if being overwhelmed by the powerful spells and strong combat techniques were not enough, they were also sensing that the control of the Great Demon King over Dracula’s body was starting to get stronger.

With this, Shin and the other two could not only worry about their safety during the battle, but they also had to think about the time that was slowly becoming in their favor. It was burning steadily like a dying candle.

Arthur, despite himself getting accustomed to his new form, and Leonard, who fully adapted to his new strength and already found his rhythm, could not help but wear a dark expressions on their faces.

What’s more, Shin, who only borrowed his current powers from the special token to match those two, was also running out of time. The duration of the borrowed powers was already approaching its end.

With the time being totally against them, their current situation was no different from them having their backs against the wall.

Being in such a situation, the gears within the heads of the tree were currently working to the fullest as they were trying to look for solutions to get out of their current predicament. And the more they looked at it, the more convinced they become that there was the only way for them to win this battle.

It was to use their final trump cards and gamble everything with them. It would be an all-or-nothing gamble that would decide everything. They would be betting their fates on it.

Coming up with that idea and steeling up their resolve, they exchanged glances with one another and quickly noticed that their brothers had the same thought as them.

Having a tacit understanding with one another, the three of them quickly went into action and increased their pace. They would be trying to minimize the pressure that they were getting from Dracula and looked for the right opportunity to use their final card.

The battle continued in the same state as earlier where Shin and Leonard constantly tried to set up an opening for each other with Arthur covering them in a timely manner while also launching a good attack went the situation permitted it.

The pressure from Dracula was still present but it was no longer as heavy as before because the three of them were getting more aggressive and intensifying their attacks.

Everything was on the right track when an accident suddenly happened. Due to the accumulated fatigue, there was a slip in Leonard’s movement that left him wide open. And with such a sharp battle instinct that Dracula had, it was impossible for him to miss such an opening.

Swoosh!

Dracula quickly seized that momentary slip from Leonard to get close to him right after shaking off Arthur, who tried to block his path. And right after he arrived in front of his target, he quickly threw a forward stab with his blood rapier as it was releasing an intense sanguine glow.

In front of such a dangerous situation where Leonard could neither dodge nor block, he could only face it head-on. With a powerful stomp on the ground, he planted his feet firmly and dropped his center of gravity heavily, rooting himself on the ground like a sturdy tree.

At the same time, he was channeling all of his energy on his entire being. He accumulated all of his negative emotions, particularly his rage, and spread them on different parts of his body.

Due to that, his body released a sanguine glow much stronger than the light that his opponent’s rapier was emitting. There was even a scarlet flame burning on the surface of his skin and leather armor. Even the lion’s mane of his helmet was flapping violently in the air due to it. 𝘣𝑒𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝑒𝘭．𝑜𝘳𝘨

Puchi!

(-10,000,000)

Then the rapier pierced through his heart, dealing massive damage that was supposed to empty his entire health bar. But for some unknown reason, his health bar stopped dropping when it reached the ‘1’ value.

‘Primordial Beast Racial Skill: Undying Rage’

He survived with a sliver of health, barely holding on to his life.

With his decisive action, the situation suddenly took a huge turn. Dracula, who was supposedly trying to end his life was now standing right in front of him, wide open and vulnerable to any attacks.

Leonard could only hold his current stance and state for a couple of seconds, so he did not think of anything else and quickly followed his instincts and threw a powerful punch forward, pouring everything on it.

With the ‘rage’ that he gathered earlier with the help of his racial skill, he tightly grabbed the wrist of his opponent with his left hand, refusing to let it go. At the same time, he guided all of his remaining powers toward his right hand as he clenched it into a fist and took position on the side of his waist.

His fist seemed to turn into a black hole that was pulling all of the surrounding mana and devouring them to become its nutrients. A spiraling energy was created around his clenched fist as he threw a rotating punch forward, straight to his chest of Dracula.

‘Hundred Beast Method: Vengeance of the Beast King’

Boom!

His actions produced a sonic boom that reverberated in the whole place followed by a strong shockwave that pushed everything in every direction.

Fusing the special effects of the ‘Undying Rage’ skill and the martial prowess of his martial arts, this attack reached a whole new realm without Leonard knowing.

Dracula tried to block that attack but it was already too take for him fully negate the force accompanying that attack. And because of it, the incoming fist slipped through his free hand and shot straight to his chest, dealing significant damage.

At the same time, Leonard let go of his wrist at that very moment as he was catapulted away due to the powerful force from the impact. It was impossible to nullify that force in his current position, so he could do nothing but get swept away by it.

But Leonard did not fare well either. He had been pushed away toward the opposite direction, drawing a long and deep trail on the ground. Fortunately, he was still in the state of ‘Undying Rage’ at that time, making him unable to die. If not, then he could say goodbye to his current progress in the game despite landing such a powerful strike.

Though, he quickly kneel on the ground after he stabilized his footing. He was panting heavily as he struggled to catch his breath.

All of his accumulated exhaustion finally exploded at this point in time. Even if his body could somehow continue to fight by borrowing more strength from his current Elemental Beast Companion, Lycan, his mind could no longer support it due to extreme mental fatigue.

He could no longer continue this battle. The only thing that he could do right now was to entrust the rest to his two brothers.

Struggling with his breathing, he was forced to raise his head and looked at what was happening in the distance.

…

Right after Leonard landed a powerful strike at Dracula and sent the vampire lord flying, both Shin and Arthur quickly sprung into action. How could they let this opportunity slip away from their grasp? This was the opening that they were waiting for up until now.

Arthur squatted his hips for a moment and put a lot of strength on his legs before catapulting himself high up in the air, positioning himself right above the place where Dracula was about to land.

Since they decided to gamble everything on this final exchange, Arthur decided to bet everything had.

Due to them being in the special quest scenario where they could borrow some of the strength of special NPCs assigned to it, he could retain some of those powers when initiating a powerful move.

He divided the powers that he was receiving from Eira before distributing them to the other three Elemental Dragons that he had – the Infernal Dragon Vulcan, the Ocean Dragon Oceana, and Storm Dragon Tempest.

He then summoned them simultaneously as he also released his current Elemental Dragon Fusion.

It weakened the strength of his current form significantly, but their combined forces would definitely be much stronger.

This was a very risky move for Arthur since he would lose the support of his current form, designated for this quest scenario after he launched this attack. Especially when this was going to be a one-time trick.

Regardless of the outcome of this move, he would no longer able to be able to regain the strength that he was supposed to have for this scenario.

Failure was not an option!

He summoned his golden dragon and ride on it while taking a deep breath. He still had the lingering powers from Eira after he released her from their fusion form, so he could not waste any more time and continued.

Steeling his resolve, Arthur gritted his teeth and let the four elemental dragons position themselves behind him, forming a diamond formation with him standing at the center. Then they released their respective dragon auras that produced a visible flame shrouding their bodies.

Their auras formed lines that connected them to each other as they chanted out a series of incomprehensible words in dragon language. And quickly after that, magic runes flew about from their mouths before forming a huge magic circle behind Arthur.

Boom!

Heavy pressure was quickly produced right after the magic formation was formed in the sky, locking on Dracula and pressing him to the ground. And since the vampire lord suffered a serious injury from a previous attack, he could not properly protect himself and was forced to stay in his current position.

Seeing that, Arthur quickly pointed his spear in the sky which produced a reaction from the heavens. A huge hole was suddenly created in the Blood Field that trapped them as a flash of multicolored lightning struck down from the sky and landed on him.

Without waiting for Dracula to react, Arthur quickly swung the spear down and pointed its tip toward the vampire lord below him.

‘Elemental Dragon Formation (Four Dragons): Wrath of the Heaven’

Boom!

Compared to the first time when Arthur used this special skill, the might that it currently had was much more powerful and domineering. It was because four elemental dragons formed this formation.

Swoosh!

A huge pillar of light suddenly fell from the sky and struck down Dracula, who was currently in the middle of summoning his blood-elemental powers to contend with the incoming attack. But due to the injury that he received from the previous strike of Leonard, he found it hard to regulate his powers and was a step too late to summon the full might of his attack.

Boom!

A beam of sanguine light and a pillar of majestic light from the heavens collided with each other. They pushed each other while creating an intense collision in the air. But the difference between the two immediately showed itself after a couple of seconds.

Dracula did not have enough time to accumulate the right amount of power for his attack, so the sanguine beam of light was immediately pushed back. His injuries also played a big effect here since he could not maintain his stance with such a heavily injured body.

Boom!

Then he was immediately devoured by the remaining powers of the descending pillar of light. It might be not its strongest power, but it was still enough to deal a massive amount of damage to the already injured vampire lord.

It worsened the injuries on Dracula’s body and left him hanging with a quarter of his total health.

…

Hu~!

In the meantime, not far from where Dracula was standing, Shin took a deep breath to regulate his breathing and focused his mind. It was his turn to throw his trump card.

In normal circumstances, he would not be able to use this particular skill since he did not have enough strength to wield it yet, which was why he could not use it yet since the time he acquired it.

But now that he had the borrowed powers from the special token, he could barely touch the threshold where he could use this skill.

First, he needed to use his strongest Elemental Spirit Possession to turn his sword into a strong catalyst that could use the Ultimate Skill.

Releasing Hanzo, Shin muttered in a quiet voice and summoned Solus. “Solar Reaper!”

……