Chương 264: Chapter 253

Sam watched the approaching enemy with detached calmness. Then as one, they all took out their preferred implement of violence and plunged, cut, smashed, hammered, poked, and did general violence things to the nearest NPCs that were still staring with empty looks, saliva barely dripping from their lips.

The explosion of gore didn't help when one of the women, wearing a dominatrix-light outfit that heavily hinted that they were building an assassin-style skill set, began to laugh as the shower of blood began to flow down on her exposed cleavage artistically.

"THE BLOOD FLOWS!" she exclaimed happily as Sam felt the magic in the air, cloying and sickly, rise even higher. Sam glanced behind him, seeing the scared visages of the healers that traveled on the same carriage he had taken, the six-legged lizard was anxiously pacing and Sam didn't need to be a visionary to know that the poor beast of burden wasn't long for this world.

Giving what was hopefully a brief reassuring smile to the scared healers who were trying to draw their cloaks closed, as if they were trying to appear even smaller. Asa, their leader, also looked massively worried, but Sam also could see the determination to survive in her eyes. She gave him a brief nod as if saying she would support him, and then his attention was back on the approaching people. They were all grinning, clearly enjoying their superior positions.

"Stand aside, you pompous fool, let us cut down those healers, and then the city will be ours!" came the order from the main guy, a fop with a ponytail, shaved sides, and few piercings adding to his general 'bad boy' look. Instead of answering, Sam gripped his replacement sword harder, and without warning, sprung forward, activating several skills to increase his speed and power.

However, his enemies weren't totally new and most of them were over level 100, so the moment he moved, another cry came from next to the leader of players acting as blood cultists.

"Magnetic Redirect!" came with a metallic clang as the man to the side of the still grinning man raised his metallic shield and Sam instantly felt his course being altered as his deadly weapon changed its aim from the heart of the ponytailed bad boy to the tank's shield. KRRAAANG! His sword flew true and impacted in the middle of the shield, where it shattered into a thousand pieces.

Throwing away the handle with disgust, he had a fraction of a second to send himself careening away as several elemental arrows crossed the space he was in. Twisting his body around, he reached into his inventory and flung several runic plates – guided by his magic – toward the healers, instantly activating a small shield around them. It wouldn't offer much protection against concentrated attacks, but it would ensure that no stray attacks would hit them.

Landing on a crouch, he was in motion again as his enemies wasted no time and launched several attacks against him. Barrages of elemental arrows, several fireballs (can't beat the classics) and more than enough blood magic flew in his direction to erase a small hamlet from existence. He even saw, from the corner of his eyes, as several well-endowed and darkly dressed women vanished from his sight. No doubt waiting for the perfect moment to ambush him.

Sadly, for them, their mana concealment skills, if they even had them, were abysmal. Sam could feel their location perfectly with his senses. Tapping into his well of power, he increased his acceleration and, with a mighty push of his wind magic, launched himself against the leader of the brigade, bringing another sword out of storage. At the place where he was a moment ago, the attacks landed and, for a brief moment melded into an inferno of devastating magic.

The sound it made suppressed everything, but he could barely hear the frightened cry of healers and the death cry of the lizard as the outer edges of the phenomenon vaporized most of its body along with the cart they rode in. Unfortunately, his attack once again proved ineffective as another tank performed the same defensive skill, redirecting his attack from the still-grinning fop and shattering the blade into myriad pieces.

He knew Magnetic Redirect, and the aptly named Blade Shatter skills and knew they were a good combo, but he absolutely hated when it was used against him. The leader just laughed in delight.

"Look at you! Care to try a few more swords? If you ask nicely, I can feed you their shattered remains." Sam just grinned, summoned another sword, and spun in a complete circle while coating his blade in the sharpest wind he could manage. By the time he regained his balance, he was looking once again at the leader, whose eyes trailed the falling head of one of the assassins who tried to make use of the fact that Sam stood still for a second. However, by the time the head hit the ground, he was already in motion.

If he couldn't target the head honcho, then it was time to thin the minions. Once again, the dead body of the assassin was engulfed in a magical explosion just as he was cleaving through a hastily cast magical shield of one of the enemy mages who strayed too far away from their group. Their gurgling sound as they fell to the floor was silenced by the yell of dozens of new spells aimed at him, and Sam smiled.

'Now, this is why I play this game!'

"Binding Flames of the Sun!"

"Necrosis Arrow Barrage!"

"Ice Boulder!"

"Field of Confusion!"

"Bloody Mist!" And so it went. Learning from their mistakes, instead of going with strong, single-target spells, they switched to area attacks. But Sam was just too fast, or his defenses too strong to be affected. That Field of Confusion was big enough that he wouldn't be fast enough to leave its area of effect, but his mental defenses stopped it from hampering him. Naturally, his enemy saw the hit.

"Got him with the confusion! Get him!" cried one of the mages happily and for some unfathomable reason, the nearby melee-focused fighters rushed forward with enhanced speed, ready to skewer him. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

'Maybe they want more blood?' he mused as he activated his Shadow Mirages, summoning three of his clones while simultaneously filling them with a compacted ball of wind. The three fastest enemies managed to reach his body doubles, not realizing fast enough what was happening, cutting into their bodies, destabilizing the wind mana just as he jumped backward, directly next to one of the other assassins.

"Got him-" WHOOSH"Aaarrgh…" He absentmindedly parried a dagger strike aimed straight at his heart dripping with fluorescent green liquid, and then reached out with his other hand and simply fired off a powerful Wind Blade at his attacker. They had some manner of protective artifact and while it held out for a second, it proved ineffective against Sam's might. As the melee attackers expired and he felt a few more assassins circling, he narrowed his eyes.

'The mana in the air… it got thicker…' The air thrummed with the cloying blood magic, and as the last fighters expired – none of their comrades even casting a healing spell – he had a suspicion. Moving his gaze, both physical and mental to the fop with stupid hair, he saw the piercings glowing and red mist gathering around the man's body. The man grinned sinisterly.

"Ah my friend, it doesn't matter how many you kill, in the end, it's just all the same blood spilled…" Sam let out a sigh.

"Then how about we switch to a higher gear?"

"What?" At the man's questioning gaze, he tossed the decoy aside, boosting its speed with his wind magic and nailing one of the sneaky people in the leg.

"AAARGH! MY KNEES! MY KNEES!" With a mental command to Lucky, black armor began to flow over his body and he slowly unsheathed Moonlight. As the other player took in his sword, recognition lit up in his eyes.

"Solar? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Spelunking…" Sam quipped with a smile and he was off. Not wanting to chance anything, he flooded the area with darkness and his clones, letting them soak up the barrage as he did a little hop, skip, and jump and incapacitated the three remaining skulking rouges, one of whom was in the process of running away. Though they were running deeper underground, so theoretically, Sam could have left them to their own devices. The locals would have taken care of them…

Just as he was ready to launch himself toward his next target his cloud of darkness ceased to exist as if sucked up by a brief but powerful black hole and he was thrown aside as something very heavy crashed into him. CRASH Like a rag-doll, he flew several yards, before landing on his knees and hands, just enough to recognize that the very earth was attacking with great boulders before another barrage crashed right down on him.

"EARTH CRUSH!" He managed to look up, cross his arms, and summon several layers of shield, but even then, he felt the impact of the spell.

"Oooff…"

"What are you going to do now? The great Solar, defeated by little old me! Hah! I'm so buying a new car!" Enhanced by all the blood sacrifice, the leader of the decimated enemy apparently used their earth magic. As Sam was being crushed, he shook his head, causing dust and small pebbles to fly everywhere, and refocused on the issue. The ground and everything around him was in the enemy's complete control, so his meager earth magic skills couldn't fight against that.

However, this is why he cultivated such a diverse set of skills." Mana Disruption …" he murmured almost silently as he reached out with a tendril of his own mana, sweat dripping down his forehead as the blood-magic-enhanced earth did its best to crush and flatten him. Thankfully, while his enemy was powerful, they were piss poor at mana control. A slight poke and twist and the mana holding together the spell crushing him began to crumble.

Not wanting to waste the chance, he began to channel more and more mana into that slight weakness, going toe to toe with the dank and slimy blood magic bearing down on him. Then just as he felt his knees getting weaker, there was a rather welcome sound. CRACK The stone holding him down cracked, easing the pressure, enough that he could gather his thoughts and mana to blow away a portion of it surrounding him and leap away from his prison.

Grinning at the gaping man he cheekily cast a Clean spell on himself, getting rid of all the dust, grime, and blood. No need to chance an infection…

"What the hell?" cried out the man.

"Nobody can survive that when it's powered by sacrifices!"

"What can I say?" Sam returned the banter as he caught his breath, allowed his mana regeneration to kick in, and surveyed the scene of battle. The once smooth-ish walls were crumbling, the ceiling was also developing cracks, and none of the previous light sources were present. The magical fires raging around them were the only ones providing their flickering light to illuminate the situation.

Two mages were trying to batter down the barrier he erected and four fighters, three of the tanks were arrayed around the fop whose name he still didn't know.

"I'm just that good…" he continued with a smirk and with a heave he swung his sword toward his enemies, releasing a glowing blue blade of mana compromised of wind and cleaning type of mana. Surrounding the blade of mana were three other blades, all heading toward the blood magic-enhanced player. The tanks, knowing their job, sprung forward with admirable speed and coordination.""" METAL FORTRESS!"""

they all yelled at the same time as a metallic gray light sprang from their shield and then fused in front of them into one solid block, ready to soak up damage. Sadly, for them, Sam was prepared for that. It was rather funny for him to see as their eyes widened as three illusionary blades splashed against the no doubt expensive to cast defensive skill, while the real blade curved around them and crashed directly into the mages attempting to extradite the poor terrified healers from his magical shield.

Not expecting the attack, no doubt trusting the tanks' ability to protect them, the mages had no opportunity to raise their defenses.

"Now that we trimmed down the fat a little… How about you tell me what you're planning?" Sam asked even though he could sense more and more of the disgusting blood magic gathered around the man surrounded by the tanks.

"Hah! As if knowing about it would help you!" came the answer as the skill protecting him faded and the tanks once again moved into a more advantageous defensive position.

"The ritual has started, Solar! Not even you can stop what is about to happen!"

"Explosions?" he asked with a sigh. Sometimes people were bloody predictable. The man's grin widened, and even his comrades began to chuckle.

"After today, they're going to rewrite the definition of explosion and nothing will stand in our way!"

"You know that you are part of that explosion?" Sam asked incredulously. He couldn't even imagine the death penalty a sacrifice would result in.

"Bah!" came the uncaring scoff from the man.

"I will be well compensated for my actions! And with the proof of me killing you, I will be the MVP of this event!"

"Hell yeah, boss!" came from one of the tanks.

"We'll be living as kings!" Then, with the superior look of somebody confident in their victory, they all took out a ritual dagger, all of them red rust-colored, and simply slit their own throats before Sam could move. However, instead of the expected flow of blood, only red smoke came pouring out directly toward the last remaining enemy. The player's body began to subtly glow with red light while at the same time, Sam could see pulsing veins on their exposed skin.

Then, with a sickening crunch, their body also began to enlarge, growing bigger and bigger as the mana in the air seemingly rushed towards them. He didn't stay still as the transformation happened and used the few seconds he had available to throw out several more rune tablets in the hope they would help him. Then it was over, and the player fighting against him went from a modest six feet to nine feet tall, with bulging muscles that would have made any roided-up bodybuilder green with envy.

Their eyes turned fully red and the veins pulsing on their muscles glowed with a malevolent red light.

"I'm so fucking going to enjoy smashing you into dust!" roared the newly created monster with a voice that shook the entire corridor and caused several loose parts to fall to the ground. In the background, Sam could hear the desperate cries of the healers." Seven circles, three moons, and blood flowing by my hands. Let my action be my destiny…

"came from the monster in a low growling voice. Sam instantly recognized the chant." Let the blood of the sacrifice, let the blood of price, let the blood of allies, let the blood of the world flow!" Muscles flexed, and the eyes of the player danced with victory." Blood of the world, rise, rise, rise, and shower us with your PRICE!" the man finished with a roar and then sent a monstrous smirk at Sam as he felt the mana set into a pattern around the monster, letting out pulses that seemed to come faster and faster.

"He he he," he let out a slow laugh.

"You can fight, wait until the ritual is finished, and die or try to run and die when the ritual is finished. There is no escape Solar! Today you… DIE!"