Chương 22: First Blood

A couple of hours later, Zander was still sitting motionless against the rough bark of the Ironwood tree, his eyes half closed, projecting the image of a man getting his much-needed rest. Across the dying fire, Mira's chest still rose and fell in a perfect imitation of sleep. But Zander was no fool. He watched as her breathing shifted, the subtle tensing of her shoulders giving away the lie before she even moved. Then, the facade shattered in silence. Mira dropped the "helpless survivor" routine entirely.

She moved with a sudden, terrifying velocity, exploding from her makeshift bed of dry leaves. Her right hand, previously acting as a pillow, snatched the nearest steel short sword from the dirt beside her. Utilizing her high speed and perhaps a skill, she launched a lethal sneak attack, crossing the distance between them in a fraction of a second. The curved steel hissed through the humid air, aimed directly at Zander's throat. Finally, Zander thought. He had been waiting for her to drop the act.

He instantly activated [Mind's Dominion], pulled 10 points of Will, and dumped them straight into Might, bringing the stat to 29. Simultaneously, he triggered [Scarlet Gauntlet] solely on his left hand. Woosh. The red obsidian materialized in a blink, creating a heavy, bulbous boxing-glove-shaped shield over his forearm. He raised his arm just as the blade arrived. Clang! Sparks showered over the dark campsite as Mira's steel struck the vitrified blood.

Zander didn't budge, absorbing the kinetic impact with the immovable stance of a stone pillar. Mira's eyes widened in the gloom, reflecting genuine shock. She had typecast him as a simple, brute-force Warrior who dumped all his free points into Strength. A slow meat-shield wasn't supposed to have the reaction time to block a Rogue's assassination strike. She didn't freeze, though. Relying on her high Dexterity, she immediately pressed the attack.

She drew her second short sword from its sheath at her hip, becoming a lethal blur of spinning steel and leather. She slashed, stabbed, and hooked, trying to overwhelm his guard with sheer volume. Zander countered, falling effortlessly into his "Hammer and Scalpel" rhythm. His left hand, encased in the durable shell of the [Scarlet Gauntlet], served as his shield and bludgeon, violently deflecting her strikes. In his right hand, the pale, serrated bone of the Ironfang Dagger traced deadly arcs in the dark.

But the level gap was real. She was a level 11 Rogue, and even with his Might heavily buffed, she was slightly faster. Her left blade slipped past his guard, slicing a shallow, burning line across his ribs. Another strike grazed his cheek. Zander hissed, but he didn't panic. He focused his Will on the blood inside his body, identifying the open wounds and mentally commanding the flow to stop. Just like that, the bleeding ceased.

Frustrated by his impenetrable defense and his unnatural ability to ignore his wounds, Mira's rhythm grew frantic. She was used to targets bleeding out or panicking when the first cuts landed. She overextended her posture, throwing a heavy, sweeping cross with her right sword, desperate to find a gap in his armor. It was the mistake Zander had been waiting for. Instead of deflecting the blade, Zander put his dagger back into his belt and relied entirely on his buffed Might to dodge the strike.

The steel still grazed his chest, drawing a small amount of blood. But as a result, Mira was off-balance for a fraction of a second. Seeing his opportunity, Zander lunged. He shot his bare right hand forward, grabbing her leather armor, while he dismissed [Scarlet Gauntlet] to clamp his now bare left hand onto her other wrist, securely trapping her weapon arm. He then unleashed his raw physical power. With a violent heave, he ripped her off her feet. He threw her backward with devastating force.

Mira flew through the air and slammed hard against the unyielding, concrete-like trunk of an Ironwood tree. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Thud. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs. Both of her short swords clattered to the hard-packed dirt. Before she could fully slide down the bark to recover, Zander was there. He pinned her against the tree, his left forearm pressing heavily against her collarbone.

He unsheathed his dagger again and pressed the tip against her neck. The charade was over. Zander completely dropped his own neutral facade, his red eyes glowing faintly in the dark forest.

"You're fast," Zander whispered, his voice cold and devoid of empathy.

"But it looks like even a level 11 Rogue is not fast enough to dispatch me so easily." Mira froze, the remaining air hitching in her throat. Her expression shifted to one of pure, unfiltered shock.

"How..." she gasped out, eyeing the bone blade at her throat.

"How do you know that?"

"I know a lot of things," Zander replied flatly.

"I used [Identify] on you earlier," she spat, struggling against his immense weight, but finding it completely useless.

"The skill gave me nothing. You shouldn't be able to see my class!"

"Consider it a perk of my class," Zander lied smoothly, keeping the pressure on her throat. He didn't owe her explanations about the mechanics of his BloodForged trait or anything else for that matter.

"Now, let's talk about David. And the rest of your so-called party." Mira realized her manipulation had completely failed. The damsel in distress act was dead. She shifted her demeanor, her lips curling into a cold, sociopathic sneer.

"There was no party," she confessed, her voice dripping with malice.

"You're the first human I've seen in this damn forest. As for the Thorn-Back Centipedes? I hunted them. I gutted them alone. They're great experience if you know how to bypass their defense."

"So the ambush with the Ash-Wolves was bait," Zander concluded.

"Not at first," she sneered.

"But then I felt you watching from the shadows. I just needed you to step into the light so I could gauge your strength. I figured you for a dumb, slow warrior. I was wrong." She relaxed her body against the tree, letting out a heavy sigh, pretending to surrender to his cold pragmatism.

"Look," Mira said, her voice softening, appealing to logic.

"You saw the Planetary Integration Status Report. The System considers a seventy-five percent survival rate 'Standard'. We're all just meat in the grinder. Two high-level people working together have infinitely more chances to survive than one person alone. We can rule this forest. And move on to the rest of the new world together." It was a tempting, logical argument. Just then, however, she deployed yet another treacherous gambit.

With a flick of her wrist, a movement so subtle it was almost invisible, she launched a concealed needle from God only knew where. The projectile struck Zander directly in the unprotected skin of his neck. Mira instantly shoved against his chest, putting a little distance between them as she scrambled away. She stood a few feet back, a victorious, manic grin spreading across her face. A familiar translucent red screen chimed in Zander's vision. Foreign contaminant detected. [BloodForged] has nullified its effect.

His transcendent trait wiped the poison from his system before it could even begin to burn. But Zander didn't brush it off. He decided to play the victim. He let out a choked gasp. He let his arm fall limp, pinning the bone blade out of sight against his thigh as he fell heavily to one knee. He clutched his throat with his free hand, his eyes wide in feigned, paralyzed terror. Mira laughed, a chilling, hollow sound that echoed through the grey cathedral of the Ironwood trees.

She casually walked over to one of her dropped short swords, picking it up and admiring the edge.

"Don't take it personally," she said, strolling back toward the kneeling Zander.

"It's just the new reality. If I'm going to survive, I need the experience. I'm going to be the strongest on Earth-7. And that means killing anything that gives me System Coins and stats. Even you." She closed the distance, raising her steel blade for the executioner's strike. She was completely unguarded, convinced her prey was totally immobilized. When she stepped within striking distance, Zander stopped pretending. He exploded upward from his kneeling position.

His right hand whipped out from its concealment, still gripping his dagger. Fueled by 29 Might, the strike was a blur of white bone aiming directly at his opponent's neck. Shlick. The serrated fang sank deep into the soft tissue under her unprotected jaw and pierced straight up into her brain. Mira's manic smile froze. Her eyes rolled back, the short sword slipping uselessly from her fingers. Zander twisted the hilt brutally and ripped the blade out.

She collapsed into the dirt, lifeless before she even hit the ground. He casually plucked the small needle from his neck and tossed it onto her corpse.

'ding' You have killed [Rogue - lvl 11]. For killing an adversary above your level, you receive 300 System Coins. Zander stared at the massive payout. Three hundred coins for a fellow human, just two levels above himself. The System rewarded human murder way higher than it rewarded hunting beasts. The implications were dire. This whole integration could become a blood bath, Zander thought. Mira was ready to kill him, and she had no idea how much she could gain.

Zander was sure that there would be people out there ready to kill their fellow humans for greater gains. A second notification chimed, bringing a grim sense of satisfaction to the bloody night.

'ding' BloodForged Lord has reached level 10. 5 Will and 1 free point received.