Chapter 43: Skill evolution

Chapter 43: Skill evolutionBack in the vampire hall, Damon had already cleared the first wave of the fallen. The corrupted figures had lunged at him the moment he accepted the quest, their forms bloodless, hollowed out, more zombie than noble predator. They hissed and gnashed their blackened teeth as they swarmed, but Damon had ripped through them without any problem. At first, he had thought of drinking their blood to possibly get their skills, maybe even steal something that they could have possessed back when they were living. The idea was good. The problem was that these ghouls seemed to completely lack any blood whatsoever. Even when he slashed them, nothing sprayed. No bodily fluid whatsoever. Their bodies might as well be golems. Damon had to give up the idea of using Blood Extraction as a cheat to get through this test. Not that he needed one in the first place. His basic blood swipe was pulling in big numbers. -1000 -700 -650 Damon had never been the most talented in fighting but it was precisely because of this that he kept practising endlessly. He used to spend several thousands of gold coins in booking time dilation rooms for skill practise, against his so-called friend’s advice, that bastard who betrayed him. Now all of that hours of painstaking effort was finally paying of. He got the chance the start over which he never thought he would and he was cracking the trial with ease. After the first wave came the second wave. This was where the real problem began. These fallen were slightly more intelligent, aggressive and coordinated. They no longer stumbled blindly; they moved with a dreadful, eerie precision, circling Damon, trying to pin him down with numbers. Some of them even brandished jagged weapons — rusted swords, broken spears — as if echoes of their former martial prowess clung to their rotting minds. However, this was still not enough. A well executed blood swipe was a weapon in itself. The trial was particularly designed to show the prowess of a skill when executed well, even if it was a basic skill like Blood Swipe. Damon now had to use two blood swipes instead of one to finish of a single ghoul but nevertheless, he soon cleared the second wave as well. Damon’s breath came slow and steady, not from exertion, but from the methodical rhythm he had fallen into. Strike. Pivot. Swipe. His crimson aura flickered with each movement, weaving a symphony of violence through the dim, crumbling hall. As the second wave dissolved into ash and dust around him, a deep rumble echoed from the cracked stones beneath his feet. The ground itself seemed to mourn the loss of its corrupted children. Damon flicked his wrist sharply, dispersing the blood lingering around his claws. His gaze sharpened. He knew the third wave would be the real test. And it came without warning. One second he was standing in a deserted hall but the next second, thousands of fallen materialized out of thin air and completely surrounded him on all directions. The numbers this time were insanely ridiculous. But this was not all. Before the fallen would only attack with brute melee type attacks but this time everything would be different. Damon frowned as he caught the sizzle of a blood sphere in the distance. A caster! Hidden among the thousands of fallen were numerous casters already preparing dozens of blood spheres to be launched at Damon. The damn trial did not even give out any experience points. It was not as if he continued fighting, he would keep getting stronger. The trial wanted to test his skills and it was dead serious about it. More importantly, his stamina was running out, his blood thirst was skyrocketing and his mental exhaustion was piling up. Damon had an option here. He could easily use Blood Lance and finish off the casters one by one. Without the casters, the rest of the bastards would crumble in time. But if he did this and took the easy way out, he would miss out on the real reward of the trial. He needed to keep using Blood Swipe here and only Blood Swipe. "Bring it on!" Damon yelled in madness, accepting the challenge. Saliva dripped from his fangs and his eyes looked demonic as he directly lifted a fallen and used it as a meat shield against an incoming blood sphere. His next blood swipe then cleaved the three fallen standing on his right, the range of the skill visibly higher. Sёarch* The NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The blood spheres came hurtling toward him like meteors. Damon moved. His body blurred into a swift, ruthless dance. He sidestepped one blood sphere, rolled under another, twisted between two more. A line of blood trailed behind his motions as he carved through the sea of fallen with endless, tireless Blood Swipes. -800 -750 -720 Numbers floated in the air like burning embers, but it wasn’t enough to thin the tide. The fallen surged again, bolstered by the casters from the back. Another blood sphere grazed his side, sizzling against his aura, stripping away 5% of his health instantly. "Tch." Damon hissed through his teeth but didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. His HP was dropping, his stamina bar was scraping dangerously low, and the world blurred at the edges of his vision. And for the first time, a system notification appeared that made his blood stir hotter than the fight itself. [Ding! Blood Swipe Proficiency: 100%] [Congratulations! You have evolved the skill: Blood Swipe -> Blood Cleave.] Damon’s arm moved almost on instinct, carving through the air, and this time when his attack landed, it wasn’t just a swipe. It was a rending, shredding, tearing cleave that seemed to ripple through the fallen as if they were dummies. A half-dozen fallen were simply bisected where they stood, their bodies sliced so cleanly that for a full heartbeat, they didn’t even realize they were dead. Then they crumbled into ash, one by one, like dominos tipping over. -3000 -2700 -2500 The numbers exploded in the air like bloody fireworks. Damon grinned savagely. The strength behind this new Blood Cleave was on a whole different level compared to the old Blood Swipe. And he was only just beginning.