Ficool

Chapter 23 - Chapter 23

3rd Pov:

As soon as Xicor's words echoed in the air around them, the entire environment completely changed. Gone was the barren, ragged land of Mato, and in its place was brief darkness before a beating heart resounded in both their ears.

Soon, the beating began to speed up, and the dark environment turned to blood. Everywhere they looked was blood, and in the centre of it all was a beating heart like a ceiling fan.

Crimson Sovereignty is the domain of blood manipulation, Xicor's own creation. Within this domain, the user gains absolute control over all blood inside the domain. Not just his body but the very walls and even targets inside the domain.

Dodging the attacks is impossible as the attacks can be within their own bodies.

The 2nd unit chief stared at her surroundings as she felt her own body tingle with a strange sensation she couldn't describe but something else was weighing on her mind as she clearly heard Xicor's voice before the environment changed.

"You're a man, aren't you" she said more to confirm rather than leave to her delusions.

"Yes, though you won't live long enough to tell the others" Xicor replied.

"Sure, we'll see about that," the chief said with a grin as her flames expanded.

She fired a torrent of flames at Xicor a blood wall appeared in front of him to stop the attack before beams of blood from the walls behind the chief.

She used her flame wings to fly around, doing her best to avoid the beams of blood attempting to pierce her, but it was futile as they struck through various parts of her body, and the skin around them slowly turned purple.

While all this was happening, Xicor watched everything, his mind working through different possibilities of this domain as he had absolute control over every drop of blood in the barrier.

He was brought out of his thoughts as he jumped to the side as the 2nd unit chief crashed down with flames erupting from her impact.

Just as she was about to launch herself at Xicor, she fell forward into the blood floor, 'my legs, my arms, they won't move and they feel numb!'

As soon as the domain was placed over them, Xicor immediately used it to stop the blood flow in the chief's legs and arms, pretty much immobilising her.

Xicor could do other things than stopping her blood flow such as spike her internal pressure causing invisible internal damage, slow their circulation which will cause her movements to slow. He can even increase their heart rate or outright stop it.

"I believe this is where I win, goodbye chief of the 2nd unit" Xicor said as he pointed his index and middle finger up.

As soon as he pointed up, multiple blood spikes shot out of the ground and impaled the woman in different parts of her body, they didn't just stab her as they appeared to be absorbing her very, the chief's body was becoming more and more pale by the second until there was no blood in her at all.

A quick and brutal victory.

Xicor released his domain as the bloody environment shattered and returned to Mato's barren and ragged wasteland.

He took in a deep breath, welcoming back the familiar environment he had grown so used to. He turned his attention to the template he had received.

―――――――――――――――――――――

[Megumi Fushiguro Template: 0% ]

[Cursed Technique: Ten Shadows]

[Speciality: None]

―――――――――――――――――――――

'In the palm of my hands is a nuke I can unleash but better save that when I can tame it' Xicor thought as he scratched the back of his head before waiting a moment.

'Really, no high-level threat rewards from a chief?' He frowned before going into thought, 'It might be to do with the damage done to my body and how exhausted I am'

He turned his attention to the distance as light explosions echoed and lit up the environment as the reinforcements fought Ryu but it would appear Ryu was losing against the overwhelming number of them.

"As always, they travel in packs and attack like wolves" he muttered under his breath.

"Change" he said before Xicor bent his legs low to the ground and leapt forward, leaving behind a trail of smoke.

With Ryu, he was struggling with the number of attacks he was receiving. Bullets and missiles hit him from all angles and some unseen force moved his body against the land.

Angered by the unrelenting pressure, Ryu screamed into the sky as the air around him rippled and pushed anyone close away.

Ryu used the chaos to his advantage as he immediately charged into one of the humans who had a rocket for an arm.

Ryu rammed into the human and she was sent into a wall, Ryu flew high into the sky as he continued to buy as much time as possible for his master.

Before he could make a move against the woman, Ryu felt his whole body being grabbed and forcibly pulled down to the ground. Ryu tried to move and attempt to retaliate but he couldn't as a mountain was dropped on it.

Standing on a pointed ledge with her hands stretched out in front of her with two members on each side of her was the chief with black hair tied in a high ponytail, she was the chief of the 3rd unit.

On one side of her was a woman with short brown hair and eyes who had two energy tendrils coming from her back and on the other was a woman with long black hair and closed eyes, her hands were pressed together in a prayer.

"Nicely done Chief Lilith" the woman with short brown hair said with a thumbs up.

"Beautifully done" the woman with black hair said softly, almost motherly.

"Gather the others, we need to move, we are wasting time and Chief Hotaru needs our help" Lilith said urgently as she was about to rush to their vehicle and rush over to Hotaru.

But before they could get a few feet to their vehicle, something crashed into it. The sudden impact quickly alarmed as all three got into a fighting stance.

As the smoke slowly cleared, on the hood of the vehicle was the pale body of the 2nd unit's chief, Hotaru, all the girls were frozen in shock as the black-haired woman rushed over to check her condition out of disbelief.

"S-She's dead" she stuttered out, almost not wanting to believe it.

"W-What C-Could have caused this" the brown-haired woman said out loud but she wasn't answered.

Suddenly, in the distance, the howls of wolves and screams of the other woman, who helped to take down Ryu echoed through the wind.

The three girls scrambled to find the source of the sounds to find one of their members being dragged away as the only visible thing they saw of her was her legs kicking around in a panic before her screams ceased and a bone-crushing sound reached their ears and her legs stopped moving.

Their other member was nowhere to be seen as they tried to find her but the brown-haired woman immediately leapt to where her comrade had been killed and prepared to slaughter whatever did it.

But as soon as she reached the body, there was no killer only the corpse of her comrade, bleeding from the skull with wide eyes of fear.

"Numi!" Her chief yelled out in alarm and desperation.

Instinctively, she swung her energy tendrils behind her but whatever was behind her had ducked under her swing and thrusted its fist into her shoulder as an overwhelming force launched her into a wall.

Xicor stood there with his fist out front, he had used ratio to knock out one of the members so he could focus on the chief.

Xicor glanced at the dead demon defence force member as he allowed a satisfied smirk to grace his lips behind his mask, 'Seems like Divine Dogs did their work perfectly'

Xicor suddenly felt his body enveloped by a purple aura and thrown into the wall, before he hit the wall he used cursed energy reinforcement to reduce the damage done to him.

Lilith jumped down from the ledge before picking up a cluster of rocks with her hands stretched out and covered in a purple aura and thrown towards Xicor.

He retaliated by placing a hand on the rock wall he was on as an arsenal of small volcanoes littered the wall before they began to fire lava.

With his free hand, Xicor flicked away orbs of blood in different directions. Faced with waves of lava, the rocks that were thrown were either destroyed or pushed back and Lilith leapt around to avoid each lava shot fired at her position.

On top of the ledge, the black-haired woman shook her head and focused on the current situation as she stealthily moved around, purposefully avoiding the onslaught of destruction caused by Xicor.

Lilith took opportunities to light several boulders to destroy the volcanoes, sometimes she would be successful sometimes they would be destroyed.

But the volcanoes stopped firing as she used this time to attack Xicor but when she looked where he was, he was gone.

Xicor shot up above Lilith and smashed his leg into her back with ratio as she plummeted into the ground and skidded across the rocky terrain.

His fist was then coated in cursed energy as 7 large cursed fists were launched at Lilith's position but she managed to hold off the attack by erecting a stone wall.

But as the last fist hit the wall it finally crumbled down as Xicor blurred through the smoke and debris to grab Lilith by the neck and press her ruthlessly against the wall behind her.

She gritted her teeth and glared at Xicor as she held him by the wrist while using her other hand to bring in a volley of small stones at speeds that could penetrate the human body.

But Xicor wasn't worried as the gravity around him shifted and the stones froze from different forces trying to manipulate them.

He increased the pressure on her neck as her breathing was becoming difficult and her control over her ability was loosening as the stones floated mid-air before being dropped to the ground.

Suddenly, Xicor let go of Lilith and twisted his body as he brought up his arms to block an energy tendril slapping his body away from the 3rd unit chief.

"You stay away from her!" Numi yelled out as she chased after Xicor.

Xicor's form was still being flown away as Numi was running close by before she sent her tendrils to pierce him but Xicor twisted around and grabbed the tendril and pulled her towards him before driving his knee into her chest as she felt her ribs vibrate and visibly crack from the impact.

"Guh!" She yelped out from the pain.

Xicor didn't continue his assault as his mind was somewhere else, 'There must be a healer among them, probably that black-haired woman, she's probably with that chief now, if I don't get rid of her she'll become a problem' he thought before his eyes lit up.

'Unless I allow it to happen to farm the templates of these people'

Xicor grabbed Numi by the hair and threw her into the sky before launching a cursed fist into her as her height increased until she was out of earshot, "change"

The cursed fist disappeared as Numi twisted her body around to face her opponent but she found him gone. She searched around for him but there was no sign of him until her feet were a few inches from the ground as a clap resounded through her ears behind her as Xicor thrusted his fist into the back of the girl.

He continued the assault by manoeuvring around to her front and launching a flurry of punches and kicks. Numi tried her best to block and counter but her lack of experience in hand-to-hand combat was clear, even using her tendrils at this range was useless.

Each strike was more brutal than the last yet it was also precise. Numi threw a reckless punch to try and hit Xicor but her fist was caught and a knee was driven into her open side.

As Xicor pulled back his leg he spun Numi around before throwing her away then he picked up a piece of rock and infused it with cursed energy.

He threw the rock as hard as he could and it followed Numi from above before it was replaced by Xicor with a clap.

Xicor dropped both feet down on Numi as she was dragged across the ground with Xicor looking down at her with crossed arms.

Gritting her teeth, Numi shot her tendrils at him but Xicor disappeared and appeared a few meters away. Numi staggered up, using the wall closer by for support as she whipped some blood from her mouth with her breathing heavy from a mixture of fatigue and pain.

Xicor watched her for a moment before glancing behind him but there was nothing, although beyond the norm's sight, he sensed the chief and the healer together, signifying his timer before this becomes a two-on-one.

His form blurred as Numi's energy tendril stabbed the ground where he was, "Stay still!" She yelled with frustration before a cursed fist crashed into her side.

She stumbled back from the impact as a clap reached her ears but before she could react a hand was thrusted through her stomach, her own blood coating it almost mocking her for her weakness.

The bloody hand came out as she lost her strength in her legs and dropped to her knees as her energy tendrils slow disperse and was about to fall face first into the ground but Xicor stopped her by grabbing her head.

Right on cue, Lilith crashed down in front of them as her eyes landed on the duo's current position, she stared with wide eyes, "Numi!" She yelled in desperation and anger before charging forward.

Xicor smirked behind his mask as he pulled Numi off the ground and threw her at Lilith, who caught her, before throwing a cursed fist forward as Lilith quickly erected a stone wall to stop the attack.

Xicor blurred at her side with his hand inches away from her head and his sharp nails in her vision before he had a grip on her and dragged her through the air and into a stone wall as a crater expanded from the impact.

As Lilith was dragged away, she dropped Numi who rolled on the ground before attempting to get up and help her chief but a gentle hand stopped her.

Turning to the source of the hand, Numi came face to face with the black-haired woman, "Nino" she breathed out, almost like a plea.

"Don't worry, I'll heal you" Nino said as she put her hands together in a prayer before a holy light enveloped both of them and her wound in her stomach was fully healed.

"Thank you Nino" Numi thanked before bringing back out her energy tendrils.

She smiled gently, "You're welcome, I'll keep supporting you from the shadows"

Numi grinned at her and gave Nino a thumbs-up. "You got it"

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