Evolution of the Ruined Heir

Chapter 319: Predator

The arbiter of the Murkroot Hollow, Nesroth Adrenari, couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.

It had been a simple plan, one he’d seen through multiple times before. Its execution was supposed to be just as simple.

Ambush the Sutrex with a vita bomb, killing their majority, then suppressing and capturing the surviving members.

They were never supposed to be here when the grade four darkness creatures formed. With the vita veil active, even the grade four darkness would have a hard time getting out.

When their objective was complete and the Sutrex handled, the plan had been to leave, after arming a nuclear bomb that would take care of the trapped darkness creatures. Not even a grade four was expected to survive the blast.

However, the once simple plan had spiraled out of his control.

His eyes fixed on the predator in the distance. Predator, this was the perfect way to describe that woman.

’The Red Eclipse.’ Nesroth swallowed.

He’d heard about how the blooms of the lower clans couldn’t stand against the elites of the grand clans. But he had always seen it as a joke. A bloom was a bloom, no matter how much one claimed the other was superior.

But Nesroth had been proven wrong, and he had witnessed it all with his eyes.

In all his decades of life, he had never seen a more mad woman. He’d thought Beatrix was as mad as one could get, but this woman had taken the crown.

Nesroth had been mildly shocked to discover that the Red Eclipse was trapped in here with them. How she had entered the city unnoticed was shocking to him, but he had eventually been happy.

’I can repay my past failure,’ he had thought. He’d hoped to find Malakai too, but had been unable to, only a few other of his squad mates.

Nesroth had been dissatisfied, but only snorted, ordering her capture. This had been where everything went wrong.

He boasted a total of sixteen blooms inside this veil. Blooms whose power had been enhanced in the Fourth Pulse’s lab. Their limbs had been replaced with superior beast parts and their abilities multiplied.

Nesroth had expected an easy victory, the Red Eclipse crushed beneath the combined might of the blooms. But what stood before him was no prey, only a monster.

Nyx stood in the heart of the clearing. Petite in frame, yet her presence smothered the world.

Her eyes glowed red, and veins of living crimson crawled across her flesh until she seemed more blood than woman.

The air around her trembled beneath the weight of the bloodlust rolling off her, saturating the dome until every breath reeked of iron.

A vast orb of churning blood revolved above her head, rolling and pulsing. Within it, five broken blooms that had fallen to her twisted helplessly.

Eleven more blooms circled around her, their breathing ragged. Some bore cracked masks, others staggered with blood seeping through their broken armor.

Their teeth were clenched and their bodies tensed, but none dared close the distance.

Many couldn’t help but glance towards her back. A small vita dome had encompassed the surviving members of the squad and Sutrex clan alike. This was what shocked them most.

The Red Eclipse hadn’t moved an inch from her position. She was busy protecting other people, yet she had not only withstood their combined might but had felled five of them!

They fixed their eyes on the blood orb above her. This was the object of their nightmares. It was how she had defeated the earlier five, why the Sanguine were one of the most feared in the dome. Blood.

If even one drop of it came in contact with them, it gave her access to manipulate the blood in their bodies. It was a monstrous ability.

The blooms glanced towards each other. They had to make a move, and soon. The grade four darkness creatures had almost spawned. None of them wanted to be here when they did.

“What are you doing!” Nesroth’s voice thundered from behind. “Fucking kill her!”

They gripped their weapons, eyes blazing as they prepared to attack. However, their gazes widened the next moment. The Red Eclipse had vanished.

Hearts racing, their eyes flickered back just as a thunderous collision rocked the earth.

A heavy haze rose from where Nesroth had been standing, and as it began to clear their eyes landed on the scene.

Nesroth, with his teeth gritted and body trembling, had sunk to one knee, trying hard to hold back the Red Eclipse’s descending blade that threatened to split him in two.

His eyes glowed orange, and his hair flared. A surge of adrenaline roared through his body and he began to shakily push up her blade.

“Y-you bitch.”

Nesroth raised his hate filled eyes only to freeze as he met Nyx’s. It was like looking straight into an abyss. He felt a pull, one he couldn’t explain. A shiver ran through his body. He couldn’t handle her. She would kill him.

’I have to escape.’

A heavy blow impacted his face before he could form the thought. He was sent tearing backwards at insane speed. Orders tore from Nesroth’s mouth.

“Vita lance! Now!”

A coldness surged through his body at that moment. He opened his eyes to see a predator appearing above him, blood whipping out.

’Shit!’

The blood was about to hit when multiple beams of light ignited the night sky. They landed on the ground just beneath Nesroth.

The explosion that ensued was cataclysmic. Nesroth felt a heavy force slam against his back and he was sent shooting into the sky.

He was able to regain control over his momentum a moment later, breathing heavy. He felt a searing pain radiate from his back but shoved it down.

He ignored the pain, his tattered armor, and gritted his teeth as he scanned downwards.

’Did we get her?’

He wondered, peering through the thick haze. He saw the aftermath in an instant.