NOVEL NEXT Chapter 101: Redhead's Last Stand!
[You've Gained Immunity to Blood Manipulation.]
The glow brightened one last time before fading completely. The wounds vanished. The resistance in his veins disappeared.
Bruce rolled his shoulders lightly, testing his arm, and smiled.
"Now…" he murmured softly, eyes locking onto her trembling form, "where were we?"
Claire's pulse spiked. Her grip tightened around her twin daggers, and with a sharp exhale she lunged,
Her blood-red, serrated daggers carved twin arcs through the air, each slash filled with murderous precision. The sound of metal slicing wind echoed sharply, her movements fast enough to blur, vicious enough to decapitate a lesser Awakened in a heartbeat.
Her blades sliced toward Bruce in a blur of red and silver.
Bruce didn't flinch. He didn't dodge.
He blocked.
With his bare hands.
Her daggers slammed into his palms...
CLANG!
A metallic ring blasting through the area. Sparks shot out. The shockwave kicked up dust and tore a shallow trench beneath their feet.
Claire's eyes widened instantly. That wasn't possible. That shouldn't be possible.
'Bare hands… he stopped my full-force strike with bare hands…'
The announcement that broadcasted Ozai's death back then flashed in her mind, the disbelief on everyone's faces then, the whispers calling him weak for falling to Bruce.
But now?
Now she understood.
Ozai wasn't weak...He'd touched S-tier potential while still at A-rank. A monstrous feat only true prodigies could achieve. Of course she didn't know this, but Bruce's monstrous strength was so monstrous that she find it understandable that Ozai lost at his hands .
Bruce wasn't something talent could explain.
He was simply too strong.
She had thought Ozai had lost because he couldn't keep up. Now she saw the truth.
Bruce, still smiling lightly, tightened his grip. With his left hand holding one of her daggers in place, he casually drew one of his own blades with his right.
He slashed lazily, almost playfully, at the weapon he was blocking.
"Don't get distracted, Claire," he whispered. "It'll be the end of you…"
CRAAANG!
Her dagger didn't just bend, it snapped the momentum straight into her body. She flew.
She flew back like a ragdoll, strings cut. Her body spun in the air, slamming into the ground before tumbling violently across the dirt.
Thud, thud, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll!
She only stopped by stabbing both serrated daggers into the ground, anchoring herself with a sharp metallic scrape. Dust billowed around her shaking frame.
Claire coughed, tasting iron in blood as she looked up.
Her vision was blurred by the dust around but she could make out Bruce's figure walking toward her with terrifying calmness, each step unhurried, controlled, inevitable.
Her hands trembled. Her breath hitched.
Desperation clawed at her throat as she slammed her palm into the ground.
Her blood spilled out, thick, dark, shimmering with mana. It writhed like a living organism, twisting and coiling before hardening into glowing crimson cuffs.
The blood cuffs shot blindly toward Bruce's legs...
CLACK!
It wrapped tightly around his ankles.
Bruce paused.
He lowered his gaze to the glowing red binds. Despite being made of blood, the mana density was impressive, they were solid, sturdy, almost like forged metal, it wasn't like metal but it was insanely stronger than metal.
Then he laughed softly. "You think this can restrict my movement?"
That laugh, that calm, almost gentle laugh shattered whatever was left of her confidence.
The situation had flipped completely.
Her position on the ground made it look as if she were bowing, prostrating before him. Only the dust streaks on her face, the bruises along her arms, and the daggers anchoring her to the earth proved this wasn't devotion...
It was defeat. Total, crushing defeat.
Bruce lifted one foot lightly...
CRACK!
The blood cuffs shattered like brittle glass. The strength of his legs isn't something measley cuffs can restrict.
He walked toward her, unhurried. Then he crouched down in front of her, looking at her with that calm smile.
Claire didn't dare move. Her body was frozen, by exhaustion, by fear, by the simple realization that nothing she did mattered anymore.
Bruce reached out, fingers hooking gently beneath her chin. He lifted her face.
A single tear slipped down her cheek. Her crimson eyes trembled.
Bruce sighed softly. "You should've just waited for your turn."
His left hand flashed. His dagger slid free with a sound like a whisper.
And in the same instant... he ended her.
A clean strike. Instant. Silent.
She didn't even have time to understand she was dead.
Bruce rose slowly, exhaling.
"Such a redhead…" he muttered. "She actually made me take her seriously for a while."
He looked down at her lifeless body, recognizing the truth...
She was in the same league as Ozai, Aria, Jean. Another hidden monster among the recruits.
He wondered briefly how he didn't notice her before, but dismissed the thought with a shrug.
It didn't matter anymore.
Bruce continued hunting. One recruit. Then another. Then another.
The fights were quick, too quick. Too easy. None of them pushed him. Things were starting to get boring, none of them made his blood stir the way Ozai had.
Bruce moved through the wilds like a calm storm, silent yet devastating. His steps were steady, controlled. His kills were clean, precise. A slash here, a living explosion there, a heart pierced before the enemy even realized he'd moved.
The points racked up. The map slowly emptied. But he felt nothing.
"Hah… boring…" he muttered, casually wiping a speck of blood from his cheek.
He almost missed his fight with Ozai and the Golden Maned Lion. That one had been real. A clash that forced him to think, to react, to enjoy himself even if just for a moment.
He hoped Jean would at least give him that feeling again when he eventually fights her, boring fights were as annoying as hell.
As he crossed a ridge, his eyes caught another red dot approaching, fast. Not running. Not retreating.
Coming straight for him.
Bruce smiled a little. "Another bold one."
A young man burst from the treeline moments later, his body coursing with crackling green lightning. His limbs elongated unnaturally, his muscles bulging as arcs of bio-electricity crawled across his skin. His eyes glowed neon, pupils constricted to thin slits.
"Beast-Form Awakening… interesting," Bruce murmured.