The aura pressured Lucas down, collapsing in his own blood, but that was exactly what he wanted. The blood, fueled with magic, started to coagulate around him, forming a strange armor.
Godfried watched on with interest as he liked having a good fight. He knew to be wary since Elam also almost killed him, but that mage was old, powerful through decades of work. This man hadn't even reached a fifth of his own life experience, he wasn't going to fail.
Anticipating the worst, he conjured up his shields and protections, not falling into the same trap his underlings had.
The blood started to slowly pulse under the immense pressure.
Lucas' body convulsed, but controlled. His blood pulsed and thickened, sloughing over his skin like molten tar before hardening into plates of crimson armor. Bones split and reformed with wet cracks, spearing through his flesh as jagged spines. His arms stretched until tendons snapped, twisting into elongated limbs, fingers morphing into massive, serrated claws.
A maw of protruding teeth that looked carved from his own shattered ribs. The stench of iron and rot thickened the air, making the ground itself seem to recoil.
From his spine erupted a forest of bone-laced tentacles, writhing like hungry serpents, their tips ending in barbed hooks slick with blood. Each lash came with the sound of skin tearing open and cartilage snapping. Godfried who watched on from afar didn't know what he was looking at.
Godfried had fought horrors born from forbidden magic and men twisted into beasts, but this… this thing unmoored him. His aura faltered against it like paper against flame. His instincts, honed over a century of battle, screamed not of danger but of annihilation. For the first time in decades, his body trembled.
Godfried conjured his magic out of instinct, summoning a large thunderbolt aimed straight at the monster. Under the constant pressure, it was still stuck, until the bolt hit the beast.
It's electrifying capabilities broke the beast free, as it screamed in an inhuman tongue. It's pressure fully released, even Godfried felt cold sweat appear on his back. His own pressure was being pushed back, no, it wasn't forced back. 'Is it... eating my aura?'
There were no words for what Godfried felt, a twisted mix of fear and anxiety made him float in the air for a second before alarm bells went off in his head. Dodging to the side, he barely dodged a blood-red beam. As the beam passed him by in that mere split second, drops of blood were carried over.
The moment they touched his shields, he could feel it being drained of durability. Inspecting the blood, Darkness was fused into it. Godfried had done plenty of experiments himself, none of which saw Darkness being so perfectly fused with anything.
His eyes and mind distracted for a mere moment, the monster that Lucas had become had already closed the distance as the claws swung wide, shredding his defenses apart.
"What in the world are you!", Godfried covered his fist in Lightning, punching the beast in its stomach, making it fly away. His defenses were almost instantly torn apart, not by being destroyed due to the power, but the bones that made the claws had a layer of darkness around them.
The creature screamed, loud enough for Godfried to feel his ears ring. Not holding back, the man summoned his signature spell. Thunderclouds formed and gathered near him to form a massive upper body. Towering over the blood beast, the figure created a gigantic thunderbolt and launched it towards it.
The beast narrowly dodged as it pursued Godfried. The man used his Storm Avatar to push the monster back, but it never relented. It's stamina seemingly endless, Godfried had to keep dodging the Blood Beams that shot out at random intervals.
Only by his instinct and willpower did he have any chance of avoiding the attacks as they came without warning. Seeing that normal attacks barely fazed the beast, Godfried knew he had to go all out to bring it down.
Covering himself in a layer of lightning, it provided basic protection as he relied on his shields to do the most. Rushing towards the beast, he stretched his hand out to conjure a large whip made of electric currents.
The moment he got close, he whipped it towards the being, hitting it right at the edge of his own attack range. The attack stunned it for a small moment, but the blood thirst seemed infinite as it screeched and rushed towards Godfried. Spreading its mouth wide open, rows and rows of sharpened bone teeth glistened with blood.
Godfried felt unnerved, but this was all part of his plan, harassing the beast from afar with his whip, avoiding the beams that came out of nowhere.
Flying straight up, Godfried had to use his willpower to detect where it exactly was as the tentacles elongated and attacked at random, slashing the air right next to him. Each time he barely avoided it, sometimes it hit his shields, puncturing it in an instant. Seeing the tentacles up close, they were covered in small spikes with a large spike at the very tip steeped in darkness.
"You monster! You'll die here by my hands!", Godfried suddenly stopped in the air as the beast caught up to him. Raising it claws, Godfried suddenly vanished from his sight as two massive hands from the avatar smashed down on him. Plummeting to the ground, a crater formed on impact.
Godfried watched on from above, preparing his next spells. He wasn't planning on giving him any room, but the moment the dust cloud cleared a bit, he couldn't help but be surprised.
Part of the bloody monster had been cracked open, revealing the bare skin of Lucas underneath. His skin was torn open by dozens of small skeletal spikes that bore through his skin. In the end, all that monster-like being was, was an armor holding Lucas.
Having that realization put Godfried at ease, making him smirk even. Preparing his next attack he launched it forward to the seemingly immobile Lucas. Yet the moment the attack was about to hit him, a tentacle shot forward and took the impact, exploding apart.
Godfried created his next lightning bolt when he couldn't help but frown. The tentacles from Lucas' back shot in a few directions, gathering the bodies from the other mages he killed earlier. Grabbing their cores, they brought them back to the bloodied fiend.
Something clicked in Godfried's mind. Normally, he wouldn't really worry all that much about a mage having a Rank 3 core since the power contained within was impossible to control as a Rank 2. The thing was, Lucas was far from a normal mage.
Feeling his options being limited, he instantly brought his Storm Avatar forth to pummel the monster with lightning from all sides. The ground shook as lightning bolt struck after lightning bolt, scorching the earth black, lighting the nearby woods on fire.
From the center a massive shockwave pushed even Godfried away. A massive cocoon of blood swirled on the ground before it shot upwards. The monster had regrown its entire body, but now it had an entire cocoon of blood as protection.
Bringing his avatar in front of him, Godfried didn't hold back as he fueled it with a ton of mana, making its power skyrocket.
The mass of blood that shot upwards, grew larger and larger. The cocoon split open with a deafening crack, disgorging a colossal form stitched together from coagulated blood and splintered bones. It lumbered into the shape of an alligator only in outline, its body rippling and sagging as though it was barely holding itself together.
The jaw stretched impossibly wide, stuffed with layered fangs of marrow, and when it opened, a serrated tongue uncoiled, dripping a rain of steaming blood.
The Storm Avatar grabbed the upper and lower part of the beak and tried to keep it separated, a futile attempt as a massive serrated tongue shot forward, piercing the chest of the avatar. The moment it lost its strength, the gigantic maws closed shut, breaking the entire avatar apart.
Godfried coughed up blood as he felt his body being torn to shreds. His avatar was closely linked to his body, but that also held true for his opponent. "Storm Avatar! Explode!"
From the inside, the avatar collected all its magic and exploded from the inside out. The world froze for a single moment as it was bathed in a bright light before a shockwave tore apart the ground. Trees went flying, and any building was flattened by the raw power that came from the explosion.
The maws that were shut tight around it, were blown apart as a sea of blood drenched the earth red.
Godfried, who was holding on by a sliver of mana, barely keeping his flight activated was blown to the ground. Creating a crater on impact, he felt a familiar feeling coming up.
'Both that teacher of his and he were able to bring me to this state.... Freaks.'
Trying to collect his breath and mana, the blood that rained down was accompanied by sharp pieces of bone, hurting even Godfried since his shields were almost all destroyed. 'At least there's no darkness in this. I guess all the energy went to that Avatar. What a monster. I hope that the Patriarch will understand if I don't have anything to bring back.'
Yet when he tried to get up, he felt an aura encompass him, one he felt before. His heart froze as he realized this battle wasn't over yet. At the edge of his crater, the large mass of blood and bone stood intimidatingly.
Its presence bled into the world, staining the sky a deep scarlet and making the earth thrum like a beating heart. Godfried's vision fractured — the monster's shadow twisted into images of screaming faces, the cries of the dead whispering inside his skull. Every step it took seemed to drag the air itself down with it, as though gravity bent to its will.
Godfried saw scenes flash before his eyes that made him throw up. His mind was flooded with emotions so pure that he felt his body disobey him.
"Aaargh! What are you!", Godfried screamed out as he barely kept his consciousness.
The monster stepped forward, its hands grew new sharp claws as blood dripped down from them. The black eyes were focussed on Godfried's every movement.
With each step, Godfried felt a sting in his heart, fear blossomed from within as he felt powerless in front of it.
The low thump of each step forward broke Godfried's mind. "You monster!", in a last ditch attempt, he conjured an electric spear with the last bit of willpower and pierced it forward.
The spear went right through the body of the beast, yet it didn't halt its forward progression. Letting the sword pierce it's body deeper and deeper, it kept moving.
The large bloody hand reached towards Godfried's neck, grasping it tight. The sharp nails dug into his skin, clamping him tight as the tentacles that sprouted from the beast's back shot in action, piercing his body one by one, Godfried felt his entire being filled by the bloody fiend's aura, turning him completely insane.
Godfried screamed out as that was the only thing he could do. Crying crimson, the man felt his mind break down as the aura turned his body inside out. As the strength in the claw around his neck increased, Godfried saw the end.
His head burst apart as his body fell lifelessly to the ground.
The monster stood there as its aura vanished. It's power plummeting, cracks started to form on the hardened shell. Lucas, immersed in the form of the bloody monster, felt his consciousness fade. The hardened blood started to lose form as it fell apart, landing on the ground with a wet squelch.
The skin, ridden with holes where bones pierced his skin. His body in tatters, he looked at his hands to find the two cores of the Rank 3's completely empty.
Lucas closed his eyes and collapsed in the pool of his own blood and bones. A deafening silence ensued.
Streams of blood started to form as the ground started to cool down from the battle. The clouds summoned by Godfried started to unleash a torrent of rain, trying to wash out the blood from the ground, yet it only helped it spread further.
It wasn't clear how much time passed, but eventually, a portal opened nearby. Asta jumped through, quickly scanning his environment. His defenses up and ready, he tried to figure out what happened. Not feeling any threats nearby, he noticed where he stood.
"What in the...?", he felt like he had stepped in mud, a wet sound reached his ears. He felt frustrated seeing his shoes were covered in red from the grass. The smell reached his nose, it was unmistakable.
The iron scented air shook his nerves. Not because of the blood, for he had long gotten used to seeing it. No, the fact that he couldn't see any green of what was once an open field frightened him.
The clear blue sky he left mere moments ago had turned into darkness overcast. The ground was covered in blood, small pieces of what seemed to originate from a skeleton were scattered long the ground.
Sensing the energy in the air, Asta felt that this wasn't a battle among his rank. 'What the hell happened here.'
Looking ahead, he saw a large crater. At the center, a headless body lay limp while Lucas, covered in wounds, was motionless.
"Lucas!?", Asta rushed to his body, uncaring of the possible dangers still lurking about. Kneeling on the ground, his clothes were soaked in the bloody concoction that pooled around the bodies. Ignoring his own ignobleness, he reacted like any panicking human would. Placing his head against his chest, he hoped to hear something beat.
A wave of relief washed over him the moment he heard that familiar sound. It was slow, rhythmic, but a clear sign of life. "What the hell did you do?", Asta spoke to himself as he stared at his surroundings, the damage to the terrain was immense.
Noticing the two empty cores, Asta couldn't believe his eyes. 'Two, no three Rank 3's? How in the world?'
They had plenty of strategies and were proud of what they were capable of working together. The moment they would separate, Asta wasn't sure he would be able to take on a single Rank 3 by himself without using some tricks. Yet here, Lucas defied his own beliefs trifold.
Grabbing his body, he lifted it up from the pool of blood. Seeing the wounds, Asta felt lacking. He could heal him, yet refused to do so, for that would mean staining his hands with elemental magic, a sin.
Opening the portal again, Asta walked to the other side, leaving the bloody plains behind.
Having affected such a large area, people speculated what exactly happened. Nothing really pointed to one noble family or some known mage. So for now, they left it as it was, ignoring the area.
To their dismay, the blood that covered such a large area was infested with a ton of magic. The animals that ate from it turned insane and hunted anything that moved. Normal docile deer turned into dangerous beasts, lusting after the blood of any animal they came across.
Eventually, contracts and requests were sent out to kill as many of the infected beasts leading to a mage burning it all down to remove the blood soaked earth.