Novel Full Chapter 48
“…14th Camp Unit Commander… We’ve confirmed that the camp’s Vampire Lord has indeed fallen… What do we do…?” Asked one of the members of the Vampire Camp defence unit as they stood by the bridge.
Two figures stood on the bridge. A dark and silver haired young man with two swords on his hands who was being approached by a butler.
After thrusting his sword into the ground, the unit commander rested his hands over it.
“Let’s wait and see how this fight plays out… Let them tire themselves out before we kill them…” He muttered. “That is… If we even stand a chance..”
–
[Name: Xavier trigger]
[Level: 8]
[LEVEL UP OPTIONS AVAILABLE: X4]
[LEVELS REMAINING UNTIL EVOLUTION: 2]
Getting into a fighting stance, Xavier cracked his head left and right. Several spikes protruded from the blade’s cross guard before piercing his knuckles and drawing blood.
As Xavier’s blood filled the jewel at the pommel of both swords, it began to glow.
[The sword consumes your blood in exchange for power.]
[You grow stronger by the second!]
The butler walked slowly towards Xavier, his wide grin on his face. The closer he got, the more excited he became.
Xavier clicked his tongue as he looked at his [Skills].
[Gluttony: Level 1.]
The reason he had attacked all those Vampires a while ago, wasn’t just to get a few stats boosts. He did it to get Gluttony’s Level 2 ability, berserk.
‘Why still hasn’t it levelled up…? What am I missing? What are the conditions?’
‘Without it, I won’t be able to beat this-‘
Xavier’s eyes widened and for a moment the butler’s figure blurred, only for a long rapiers edge to appear before Xavier’s eyes.
*SWOOSH!*
Xavier’s heart sank as he swung his head to the left. While doing this, he glanced towards it, only to notice a large cut on his cheek, he barely avoided it.
‘What is this speed!?’ He questioned as he swung both swords at the Vampire butler’s waist.
The Vampire Butler effortlessly avoided both swings as he stepped backwards, before thrusting his rapier forwards once more.
*SPLATTER!*
Xavier’s cheek was once again lacerated by the rapier as it passed by him, despite once again moving his head in an attempt to avoid it.
The instant he moved to counter again from a new angle, countless rapier rapier thrusts were directed at him simultaneously.
*CLANG!* *CLANG!* *CLANG!*
While Xavier was backing up, parrying repeatedly and swaying from side to side, the butler was giving pursuit by stepping in while thrusting out attack after attack.
*CLANGGG!!!*
With an upper swipe, Xavier’s arms were knocked upwards, leaving him exposed before the butler thrust the edge of the Rapier towards Xavier’s chest.
[Retract]
*FWOOSH!*
The butler’s eyes narrowed as Xavier’s figure vanished, right before the Rapier could pierce it.
He had appeared a few steps behind the butler moving to attack him.
*BAM!*
Xavier’s eyes widened however, as the heel of a boot dug into his chest the moment he’d retracted to his previous position.
*VWOOM!*
While soaring through the air, Xavier had his momentum squelched by the butler who appeared behind him with another kick to the head.
[Rewind Level 2: Retract]
*SWOOSH!*
Xavier’s figure had vanished again and the Butler’s kick flew past the empty air, completely missing him.
Xavier on the other hand, had appeared a few meters away from the butler, soaring towards him with his swords thrust out. Mid-air, the butler could not avoid it.
Or so it seemed-
[Barrier Manipulation: Invisible Barrier Wall.]
*FWOOSH!*
Xavier’s eyes widened as the butler kicked off of thin air, barely avoiding Xavier’s thrust while dodging out of the way.
The butler’s heart skipped a beat however, as Xavier too proceeded to kick off with the same spot, appearing before him and swinging his blades at him.
*CLANG!*
At the instant Xavier swung his sword, a barrier suddenly appeared around the butler, blocking his swing.
‘This… The speed at which he adapts to changes in a fight is truly a sight to behold… He caught me off guard by leaping off after me…’
As they plummeted down the bridge to countless pointy earthern spikes below it, Xavier repeatedly swung at the barrier, attempting to crack or break it.
*BAM!*
The Sixth swing was cut short by a kick which crashed against Xavier’s arm as the butler kicked towards his head.
Xavier’s guard was still raised when he was blasted into the wall. Simultaneously, the butler kicked off his own barrier and leapt at him to grab him.
*GRAB!*
The Vampire units which were on standby all watched from above the bridge as Xavier was dragged down the walls by the butler.
While he swung his sword repeatedly at the Butler, Xavier’s head was repeatedly banging against rocks, but no matter how many times he swung, he could not break the tiny barrier layered over the butler’s clothes, he could only partially crack it.
Finally, they reached the bottom, and Xavier’s figure was launched at the pointy spike’s edge.
[Retract.]
Xavier’s figure disappeared right before he made contact with the spike’s edge, only to reappear in his previous location up in the air above a few seconds above the butler.
Right after retracting, however, something grabbed his leg, causing Xavier’s eyes to widen. It was the butler, he had predicted that Xavier would do that.
“Not good enough.” Said the butler as he swung his leg along with his body downwards.
*SPLATTER!* *SWOOSH!*
But the moment he swung Xavier’s leg to launch him back down, the butler ended up dragging his leg alone, it had been detatched from his body. The butler’s eyes widened.
As the butler looked up, he saw Xavier’s face filled with pain as his sword swept through where his leg had been severed and an axe kick headed down at the Butler.
‘He cut off his own leg?!’
*BAM!*
The kick crashed into a barrier layered over the butler’s skin before launching him down to the spike.
Xavier grabbed his leg and plucked downward, before landing on top of a corpse stuck to one of the spikes below.
Before looking over at the cloud of smoke caused by the butler’s impact, he looked at the corpse. He knew the impact wouldn’t have injured the butler.
Groaning in pain, Xavier attached his leg with [Hyper-Regeneration: Level 1] at the cost of [Energy: 114/220 – 78/220]. Xavier was running out of energy.
Nonetheless, Xavier could use one of the [Level up options] to heal himself.
Looking down at the corpse beneath him, he recognised it. It was the corpse of one of the vampires he had launched from the bridge. While staring at it, Xavier noticed something that made him smile.
‘I’ve figured it out… The key to levelling up berserk.’
“Devour…” He muttered.
–
As the smoke cleared, the butler emerged from the top of the broken spike. He was clapping his hands.
“Impressive… Truly impressive… The determination to cut off your own leg and to strike me with your other leg… The ability to think of that in such a short amount of time… You passed. ”
A confused expression hung over the butler’s face however when he noticed that Xavier wasn’t paying attention to him, he was looking up at the bridge.
In addition, Xavier was now wielding three blades instead of two. He had picked one up from what appeared to be a corpse beneath him. A blood orb could still be seen over the corpse, despite being partially devoured.
[Conditions have been met.]
[Skill: Gluttony has levelled up.]
[Gluttony Level 2: Berserk has been unlocked.]
[The hungrier the user is, the stronger the user becomes. The user’s stats increase proportionally to hunger.]
[Warning: The user may be consumed by the hunger whilst using the skill.]
“Hey…” Xavier muttered with the sword’s handle in his mouth. “…I’m hungry…” he mumbled.
‘What’s this feeling…? …The air around him has changed…?’ The butler thought to himself.
“Well, you’ve passed, why don’t we end this confrotation and go get you something to-”
Xavier’s sword edge appeared before the butler’s face almost instantly, interfering with his speech.
*CLANG!*
Across the butler’s neck’s skin, the sword’s edge slammed into the thin layer of the barrier before launching him through the countless spikes around him.
*CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!!!*
Having crashed straight through three giant earth spikes, dumbfounded, he adjusted slightly distorted glasses while watching through his cracked barrier as Xavier approached.
Watching the butler’s blood drip down his forehead, Xavier grew a grin.
‘He’s faster… And stronger… And he managed to shatter through my barrier? This..’
“This is getting exciting…” said the butler as he took off his glasses.