Chapter 90: Stronger Blood
Everything was where it should be.
Garran forced fire around his body again.
Lucard stepped back once.
Garran thought he was retreating and pushed forward. That was the final mistake.
Lucard lifted his bloody hand.
The hidden killing step inside the trap woke.
It had been sleeping under the broken circle the whole time. Garran had shattered the visible chains, cracked the outer ring, and burned most of the ash marks. But the killing step was not in the obvious circle. It was inside the false waste channel Lucard had drawn. It had drunk death mana, tasted bloodfire, and waited under the exact broken line where Garran now stood.
Lucard whispered, "Bloodfire."
The cracks under Garran’s feet turned red-black. He looked down. His eyes widened from the shock.
The bloodfire he had released earlier, the bloodfire Lucard had absorbed and hidden through the trap, erupted upward in thin spears. They were not wide flames. They were needles of burning blood, focused into one killing point. They pierced Garran’s vessels of legs, waist, arms, and chest from below.
Garran screamed in pain. The scream shook the hill.
The bloodfire did not burn only his flesh. It entered his veins. It attacked the mana inside his blood vessels. Garran tried to force it out, but he had no mana left to spare. He had used too much. The quickly realised that he had broken the trap with strength and walked into the knife hidden under it.
Lucard stepped closer.
Garran reached toward him with a shaking hand.
"You..."
Lucard looked into his burning eyes.
"You taught Robi that dirty tricks win."
Garran coughed blood.
Lucard’s voice became colder.
"I learned faster."
The bloodfire spears tightened.
Garran’s body arched.
Robi’s fight stopped for half a breath as the other Fifth Circle mage looked toward Garran in horror. Celia’s opponent also froze. Ravencroft’s face turned white. Tina covered her mouth. Adrian looked as if he wanted to run again but his legs forgot how.
Garran Velkhur, Fifth Circle fire battle mage, old rival of Robi Marovain, elder of House Velkhur’s side branch, tried to speak one last spell.
No sound came out. Because the bloodfire reached his heart. His body burned from inside. Then the fire went quiet.
Garran collapsed to the cracked stone platform. The hidden killing spell faded under Lucard’s feet.
For one breath, Black Barrow Hill became silent.
Lucard stood above Garran’s body with blood on his hand and red-black fire fading from his fingers.
Lucard looked down at Garran Velkhur’s body.
The old fire mage had not died like a normal man. His chest still had the marks of bloodfire spears. His clothes were burned through in many places, and faint red smoke came from the wounds. His eyes were open, filled with disbelief and hatred that no longer had a body strong enough to carry it. A moment ago, he had been a Fifth Circle battle mage, a Velkhur elder, and a man who thought dirty tricks made him clever. Now he was only a dying source of blood and mana.
Lucard knelt beside him.
Garran’s fingers twitched once, but there was no strength left in them.
Lucard placed his hand on Garran’s chest.
"Your grandson was good food," Lucard said quietly. "But you are stronger and better."
Then he activated Blood Absorption.
Garran’s body stiffened.
The blood inside the old man’s veins rushed toward Lucard’s palm. It did not come easily. Garran’s blood was old, thick, and full of fire mana. Even after death, it resisted like a wild beast biting at the cage. The Ember Core trace inside his blood was much richer than Dorian’s. His fire mana carried years of battle, old anger, dirty victories, and the heavy pressure of a Fifth Circle mage. It burned Lucard’s palm the moment it entered his body.
Lucard did not pull away.
The blood came faster.
Garran’s skin dried.
His strong body shrank little by little, as if many years were being stolen from him in a few breaths. His cheeks sank. His lips cracked. His red-gray hair became dull. The fire mana that once made the air around him hot now turned inward and flowed into Lucard’s blood path. His body became a dry mummy on the broken platform.
Inside Lucard’s mind, the notifications rang one after another.
[Blood Absorption Successful.
High Quality Fire Mana Absorbed.]
Bloodline Trace Strengthened: Ember Core.]
[Level Increased.]
[Level Increased.]
[Level Increased.]
[Level Increased.]
[Level Increased.]
[Name: Lucard Vardros.
Level: 25.
Current Rank: Second Blood Circle, Crimson Vessel.
Skill: Blood Absorption.
Bloodfire Use Stabilized Slightly.
Fire Resistance Increased.
Fire Mana Trace Assimilated.
Basic Fire Magic Unlocked.
Note: The host can now use weak basic fire magic through absorbed fire mana. Current fire magic control is low. Further absorption of fire bloodline and fire mana will increase strength and stability.]
Lucard’s eyes opened slightly wider.
Power moved through him.
It was not divine. It was not even close. To his old self, this was still a few drops of warmth in a broken cup. But to this body, it was a large step. His Crimson Vessel accepted the fire mana better than before. The fire did not tear through him as violently. It entered his blood, settled under his skin, and waited for command.
He lifted one finger. A tiny orange flame appeared. Then a red-black edge wrapped around it.
The flame was weak, but it obeyed.
Lucard closed his finger, and the flame vanished.
"Useful," he muttered.
Around him, everyone watched with different kinds of fear.
Robi’s opponent, the other Fifth Circle mage, saw Garran’s body drying into a mummy and felt his heart drop. He had fought many battles. He had seen men burned, cut apart, poisoned, crushed, and cursed. But he had never seen a person absorbed like that. Garran Velkhur was not a weak man. He had been a Fifth Circle fire battle mage. Yet in Lucard’s hand, his body had become dry waste.
The mage understood one thing very clearly. This battle was no longer worth fighting.