Chapter 35: Spar (2)

Lila came back sooner than expected, walking towards the east grounds with a nervous expression.

"Alright. I hate to admit it but it’s pretty boring without—"

She stopped, because in front of her, Nora was standing a few meters away from Ethan, the Iron Golem in what looked like a battle stance and Ethan looking with a serious expression on his face.

"Okay," she said. "What is this?"

Nora glanced at her, then Ethan replied before she could get a word out. "We’re sparring. It was her idea."

Lila’s eyes moved from him to Nora, "And you’re okay with that?"

Ethan shrugged. "Pretty much. I mean, it’s not like she’s going to kill me."

She studied his face for a moment longer, looking for any sign of hesitation. When she didn’t find any, she exhaled and stepped back toward the edge of the field.

"Alright then. If you say so."

Bef turned its head towards her and moved till it sat her feet with. Lila rested a hand on its head with a soft smile then turned her attention towards the people about to fight.

Nora tilted her head slightly. "Ready?"

Ethan looked at the Iron Golem, then his remaining Death Energy. The pool was full enough for a short engagement if he was smart enough to manage.

Direct confrontation with a Rank A student was going to be hard enough so he knew that the golem had to carry the fight. He only needed to manage the link, preserve energy, and get as much information as he could.

"Ready."

Nora bit her thumb hard enough to draw blood, and as the blood poolled out, several needle-thin strands shit towards the golem.

The golem veered sideways, steeping out of range as two of the blood needles struck the outer plating and flattened harmlessly.

One curled around a wrist joint and tightened, but the golem used its other hand to server it.

The beast rushed towards her and Nora raised her hand, aiming to used the beast’s own blood against it...

Nothing happed.

Nora’s eyes widened a fraction. For her ability to take effect, the target needed to have actual blood flowing in it.

And for something to have blood, it had to be living...

However, she understood immediately that for Ethan, that was not the case.

Though the beast was technically still alive, its connection to the living had need servered. Meaning that whatever was flowing through it wasn’t blood but Death Energy.

"Interesting..." She mumbled as she dodges a strike from the beast and stepped backwards.

The beast swung a fist and Nora deflected with a kick, but the force was strong enough to send her skidding backwards.

She needed to do something and fast...

She raised her forearm and ran her fingernails along it, drawing more blood. The blood pooled from her arms and started to from from threads that hardened as it moved, into short blades.

Though the cost was visible in the way her face went slightly pale, her control remained.

"Move."

The Iron Golem advanced under Ethan’s command, raising a fist and bringing it down on her.

The first clash was brutal as Nora’s blood blade met the golem’s forearm plate with a with a wet sound.

The golem pushed through and swung, but Nora slid under the swing, pivoted and kicked the beast across its chest.

The golem stepped back for a moment, then surged forward, clashing with her continuously.

Ethan kept Death Link active but not throughout the entire exchang. Full-time shared vision would drain him too quickly, so he flickered in and out of the golem’s perspective using it to track Nora’s positioning when she slipped into the angles he couldn’t see from where he stood, then dropping the link to conserve energy.

However, Nora adapted again.

She stopped aiming for joints and started looking to create openings.

She began wrapping blood restraints around the golem’s legs to limit movements, then striking while its balance was compromised.

The golem tore free each time, and whenever it did, Nora would blitz to its side, forcing Ethan to activate Death Link again to be able to see her since the beast blocked his view.

Ethan gritted his teeth. He could feel thestrain on the control and connection slowly catching up to him.

Lila watched from the side in silence, her eyes locked onto Nora’s movements.

She hated to admit it, but from the looks of it, Nora was probably faster than her.

Nora stepped back, and closed distance again.

The golem intercepted, forcing her back with a heavy horizontal sweep. She vaulted the arm using a blood lance, landed inside the golem’s reach, and drove a hardened spike toward the base of its neck.

Ethan ordered it to move at the last second, and the spike scraped metal and missed.

He glanced at his Death Energy pool. It was ticking downward faster than he liked.

He planned to draw the fight out till the five minute timer was up. But Nora’s erratic movements were making it harder for him to fight without using more energy.

Nora’s breathing had grown shallow with the amount of blood she had used but she kept moving, circling the beast as she thought of a strategy.

Her initial plans were useless here. The golem could not be shut down by attacking a something it did not have, so she thought of two options:

Either busy the golem completely or force Ethan to break the connection himself.

She chose the second option...

Without warning she disengaged from the golem entirely and turned toward Ethan.

Blood threads snapped across the towards him lashing out fast as she aimed at his ankles and wrists. Ethan ordered the golem to intercept and the beast moved.

However, Nora had already expected that. A second set shot upwards from a pull of blood as the golem stepped in it. It coiled around the golem’s body, thinner in a way that the golems bulky fingers couldn’t wrap around to break and focused back towards Ethan.

He was forced to move but one hit him across his forearm before he could fully retreat.

The cut was shallow, but that was all she needed.

Nora’s eyes locked on the small amount of his blood now leaking out, and in the next instant, the blood hardened into a short thread that wrapped around his wrist fully and yanked him forward.

Ethan cut the Death Link fully and poured the remaining attention into a single command.

The Iron Golem busted through the binding threads, and stepped between them with enough force to shatter the thread and force Nora to leap back.

However, in a split second, she formed a blood spear and hurled it towards Ethan and he reacted a moment too late.

However, before he was hit the golem reacted fast. It placed its hand in the path of the spear and it tore through it, stopping just inches away from Ethan.

Nora blitzed forward and kicked Ethan, causing him to tumble across the floor, and before he could moved, Nora pointed a blade towards him.

```

[Death Energy: 195/500]

```

Ethan glanced at his system and narrowed his eyes. A hundred and ninety five of his stamina points remained. He could risk it for one more attack, but he needed enough energy to be able to walk back to the dorm.

Plus, there was guarantee that the attack would succeed. Nora may be looking drained but he didn’t know what would happen if he order the iron golem to move. Plus, there was a pool of blood in different parts of the field and his bleeding forearm.

He didn’t want to risk anything...

Ethan sighed and raised an arm up. "I surrender."

Nora held position for a second longer, then lowered her blade as it dissolved and fell back to the ground.

"Impressive," she said. "You almost lasted a full five minutes."

Ethan told the golem to be at peace, then dismissed it back into storage, watching the bulky beast sink into his shadow in that same slowly.

Lila released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding and walked over with Bef following behind.

Her eyes moved from Ethan, then to Nora, then back at him.

"You look like shit," she said.

"So does she." Ethan replied, pointing his thumb at Nora.

Nora flexed her fingers and exhaled. "I’m fine."

"Your undead don’t carry living blood," she said, " so internal attack is ineffective." A pause. "That’s new information for me."

Ethan nodded and spoke: "I know now that if I stay smart about it, I can pressure an A rank. But I’d be too tired or death before I have a chance to take advantage of the openings."

His Death Energy sat lower than he liked, and the shallow cut on his arm burned slightly. He looked at Nora for a moment. The spar had done what both of them needed it to do, so there was no point her staying longer.

.

"We’ll talk later," she said after meeting his gaze then turned and walked toward the far edge of the grounds without waiting for a reply

Lila watched her go and scoffed.

"I still don’t like her."

Ethan glanced at her. "Sure you don’t."