Blood Online: Evolving Endlessly

The stale air was heavy with the scent of blood—thick, tense, and weighed down by apprehension. For a long moment, no one moved. Even the bots stood still, their eyes narrowed as they calculated their next move.

Akhil stood amid a pile of mangled mechanical parts, destroyed beyond repair. A blood-red mist swirled behind him like a vortex, casting him in the image of an angel of death. Despite the number of enemies still before him, his spirit remained unbroken.

Intense fatigue gnawed at every muscle in his body, yet he stood firm, crimson eyes locked solely on the figure ahead.

Akhil bit his lip, anger and frustration twisting inside him. He didn't want to continue the fight. Why would he? The one standing against him was Seth.

They hadn't shared much of what could be called a bond, yet Seth had always been his biggest supporter—someone who believed in him even when he couldn't believe in himself.

Akhil had brushed off Seth's praise countless times, even scolding him for it. He never wanted to admit it, but having someone place that much faith in him was one of the reasons he kept pushing forward.

Through every trial back in the game, Seth had been there, cheering him on. Because of that, Akhil had always fought harder than he thought possible.

Seth wasn't just a friend. He was the anchor, the driving force behind many of Akhil's achievements.

And now, he stood as his opponent.

'Well… damn it.'

Akhil released a slow breath, his eyes narrowing as they settled on Seth.

Through his heat vision, he could clearly see the pulsating core embedded in Seth's chest. 'He didn't turn into a zombie like Ronald…' Akhil thought. 'If I destroy the core, can I still free him?' The thought sharpened his focus, purpose hardening in his gaze.

"I can't fight him up close… that's his specialty," Akhil muttered, spitting a mouthful of blood. His eyes burned with a deep crimson glow as he stared Seth down. "So I don't have a choice…"

"You've been paired with the wrong opponent," one of the masked puppets mocked with a low laugh. "I was worried about you at first. But once we realized you needed blood… all that fear was for nothing."

Akhil frowned at the words. 'He's not wrong,' he admitted. 'There's no way to refill my blood essence with a pile of scrap.'

Then his lips curled into a wicked grin as he looked back at Seth. 'But I'm not a good match for you either.'

He had already won. Or at least, he had the winning idea.

Their gazes locked. Blue energy flared in Seth's eyes as his presence sharpened. In the next instant, he vanished, charging straight at Akhil. The remaining puppets reacted immediately, bursting into motion to follow his advance.

Akhil was surrounded from every direction.

Yet he remained calm.

Raising his arms, he unleashed torrents of attacks toward Seth, forcing the clash to begin.

Since Seth was deadly at close range, the plan was simple: keep him as far away as possible.

Several blood bullets shot out from the swirling vortex, darting straight for him. But Seth's terrifying abilities were on full display once again. He wove through the attacks effortlessly, moving as if he already knew where every strike would land.

No matter how hard Akhil tried to maintain distance, Seth was closing the gap fast.

'You shouldn't focus on just him,' one of the masked puppets called with mocking laughter, closing in with a sharp blade. Akhil had his attention solely on Seth, seemingly forgetting he was facing an entire army of bots.

Before he could react, the puppet slammed into his chest. Akhil staggered, coughing up blood as he sank to one knee. His movements slowed, his guard faltering.

To the enemies, it looked like the end.

Seth and the puppets reacted instantly, shifting into a final, coordinated execution formation.

"It's over now," the lead puppet said.

All five lunged together.

Akhil grinned.

He released his blood vortex completely.

The red mist didn't vanish—it collapsed downward, instantly flooding the floor. Thick, viscous blood spread across the chamber, coating the legs of every bot.

They were already in motion. Weapons raised. There was no stopping them.

"I never thought I'd use this bastard's power… but here we go!" Akhil yelled.

With the last of his essence, he formed a single spark.

[Skill — Lightning Spark activated!]

He slammed his palms into the blood-soaked floor.

Lightning erupted outward.

'Wet machines don't work well,' Akhil thought.

The current surged through the blood, traveling instantly into every machine standing in it. Bots locked up as their systems short-circuited, smoke pouring from their frames. The puppets were thrown backward, their coordinated attack collapsing under the electrical surge.

He had intentionally kept his focus on Seth the entire time, doing his best to keep him away from the center of the energy spark. He only needed enough electricity to immobilize him—not to kill.

Akhil pushed off the floor, activating the {air walk ability}. He rose above the sea of twitching, sparking metal, hovering just out of reach of the electrical arcs dancing through the crimson pool below. His vision blurred, the edges of his consciousness fraying, but his eyes remained fixed on Seth.

Seth was down on one knee, his frame seizing as the current fought against his internal dampeners. He wasn't destroyed, but he was frozen—a window of opportunity that wouldn't stay open for long.

Akhil glided forward, his shadow falling over his friend. He landed softly, his boots splashing in the shallow, electrified blood. The sting of the current traveled up his legs, but he barely felt it. He was running on empty, his mana reserves bone-dry and his heart hammering a frantic, hollow rhythm against his ribs.

[Remaining Blood Essence: 50]

'Just a little more,' Akhil hissed through clenched teeth. 'Just enough to bring him back.'

He reached deep into his core, dragging out twenty units of his remaining essence. It felt like tearing away a piece of his own life. The blood materialized in his palm, swirling and hardening into a jagged, translucent spike. It hummed with a faint, macabre glow.

With a trembling hand, Akhil pressed the tip of the spike against the pulsating core in Seth's chest. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, staring into Seth's vacant, glowing eyes.

"Forgive me, Seth," he whispered.

He drove the spike home.

The crystal shattered with the sound of breaking glass. The blue light in Seth's eyes flickered once, twice, and then extinguished completely. The mechanical tension in his body vanished instantly. Like a doll with its strings cut, Seth slumped forward, falling into Akhil's arms before sliding heavily to the floor.

He was unconscious, his breathing shallow but rhythmic. The core was gone; the tether was broken.

"Finally..."

The word was barely a breath. The adrenaline that had been keeping Akhil upright evaporated. Air walk stopped abruptly and his legs turned to water.

He collapsed back, hitting the floor with a wet thud, sitting amidst the wreckage of the bots he had just decimated.

His chest heaved, every breath a battle against the exhaustion threatening to pull him under. He looked at his hands—shaking, pale, and stained. But he had done it. Seth was safe.

The blood slowly lost its power, breaking into particles and disappearing as though it was never there in the first place.

Akhil let out a long, ragged sigh of relief, closing his eyes for just a second to savor the silence.

Then, the silence changed.

The air didn't just grow cold; it grew heavy, as if the atmospheric pressure had suddenly doubled. The lingering scent of ozone and copper was wiped away by a suffocating, sulfurous heat.

Akhil's eyes snapped open. Every instinct in his body, screamed a terrified warning. The hair on his neck stood on end.

From the shadows of the far corridor, a rhythmic, bone-deep thud echoed—the sound of footsteps that made the very foundation of the courtyard groan.

Emerging from the darkness, his massive frame framed by the flickering embers of the facility, was an orc, with strange markings spread all over the skin, strangely it looked like....

"Ryan?" No, it couldn't be him. Or at least, he wasn't sure it was... Akhil's eyes sharpened catching the figures face.

Towering and wreathed in a silent, suffocating aura of pure violence, the figure advanced with the slow, inevitable grace of a natural disaster.

Akhil's throat went dry, his relief replaced by a cold, paralyzing dread and realisation.

The titan of wrath had finally appeared, and Akhil let alone being able to fight, he couldn't even move from his spot.

Akhil tried to force himself up, but the system notification flashed before his eyes, {-5 blood essence}

{Blood essence left: 20}

From the start, the odds had been stacked against him and even now, things only seemed to have worsened.

[A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry for missing yesterday's updates. I haven't been feeling very well lately, but I'm working on getting back on track! To make it up to you, I'll be posting some extra chapters soon. Thanks for sticking with me!]