Chapter 113: Crimson Vessel
Lucian faced Kham Phaninit alone.
The bull minotaur towered over him — seven feet of muscle, fur, and golden bloodline glow. The massive hammer rested on one shoulder. Blood ran from a dozen shallow cuts across his body, but his eyes were fierce.
"Your friends left you," Kham rumbled.
"They’ll be back," Lucian said flatly.
Kham grinned. "Let’s see if you’re still standing when they do."
He swung.
BOOM.
Lucian dodged with Light Steps, flickering three meters to the left. The hammer cratered the ground where he’d been standing, sending rock fragments spraying in every direction. One shard cut Lucian’s cheek. Eternal Regeneration closed it instantly.
Kham swung again. BOOM. Lucian Phantom Walked through the swing, reappearing behind the bull, and drove a Moon Crescent Slash across his back.
Whoosh.
The slash cut through fur and skin — a thin line of blood — but didn’t penetrate the dense muscle beneath. Kham’s Bull Tyrant bloodline distributed the cutting force across his entire back, turning a deep wound into a surface scratch.
Kham spun. His horn caught Lucian’s arm — crack — throwing him sideways. Lucian hit a cliff face, his shoulder screaming. He rolled off the wall and landed on his feet.
He’s too durable. Normal attacks aren’t going to work.
Lucian made a decision.
He activated Crimson Vessel.
A faint crimson sheen spread across his skin. His blood circulated at extreme pressure, reinforcing every cell, every fiber, every layer of tissue. His skin became dense.
Kham charged. Hammer raised.
BOOM.
The hammer hit Lucian’s raised forearm.
Previously, that kind of impact would have cut through his defense. Now the hammer struck his crimson-sheened skin and stopped. The force traveled through his body, but his flesh absorbed it like a sponge absorbing water.
A bruise formed.
Lucian raised an eyebrow. That’s quite useful.
He grabbed the hammer shaft with his sheened hand and pulled. Kham — surprised by the grip — stumbled forward. Lucian drove his knee into the bull’s stomach.
Bam.
Kham grunted. It hurt but it didn’t double him over like it should have.
Kham headbutted him.
Crack.
Lucian’s vision blurred for a split second. The crimson sheen absorbed most of the impact, but a minotaur headbutt was still a minotaur headbutt. He staggered backward.
Kham swung the hammer in a wide arc. Lucian ducked — Light Steps — and fired three Light Bolts into the bull’s chest.
Pew. Pew. Pew.
The bolts hit. Small burns appeared on Kham’s fur.
Lucian pressed forward. Light Steps — Phantom Walk — appear left, strike right. Moon Crescent Slash across Kham’s thigh.
Whoosh.
A deeper cut this time. Blood ran down the bull’s leg. Kham snarled and swung the hammer in a blind rage. Lucian dodged, dodged again, flickered behind him, and slashed across his back.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Cut after cut. Each one shallow — the Bull Tyrant bloodline was frustratingly effective at distributing force — but they were accumulating. Kham’s fur was matted with blood. Dozens of thin lines crisscrossed his body.
But Kham kept fighting. His stamina was monstrous.
I need to wear him down. But I also need something that bypasses that bloodline defense.
Blood Chains.
Lucian raised both hands. Blood erupted from the cuts on Kham’s body — the bull’s own blood — and formed into thick, dense chains. They shot toward Kham’s legs and wrapped around his ankles, his knees, his thighs — coiling tight, pinning him in place.
Kham roared. His muscles bulged as he strained against the chains. The golden glow intensified, trying to burn through the blood restraints.
He was strong. But Blood Chains were A-Rank. And they were made from his own blood.
"Stay still for a moment and let me finish this," Lucian murmured.
He raised the Moon Shattering Blade. Dark light flickered along the edge. The spatial distortion bent the air around the blade, making it look blurred, like the weapon existed in two places at once.
Kham’s eyes widened. He’d never seen anything like it.
Lucian swung.
Heaven’s Severance.
The slash moved through the air — and space bent with it. The dark light didn’t cut Kham’s skin. It passed through the space between Lucian’s blade and Kham’s chest, bypassing the physical surface entirely.
A deep gash opened across Kham’s torso — from left shoulder to right hip.Blood poured from the cut in thick streams.
Kham screamed.
The Bull Tyrant bloodline’s passive defense was meaningless against an attack that didn’t travel through normal space.
Lucian stepped forward and punched Kham in the chest with a blood-reinforced fist. The crimson sheen on his knuckles amplified the impact.
BAM.
Kham’s ribs cracked. The bull staggered, chains straining, golden glow flickering.
Lucian raised the Moon Shattering Blade one final time.
"Crescent Moon Slash."
The arc of light caught Kham across the neck.
The bull’s eyes went wide. Blood sprayed. His massive body swayed.
His bracelet flashed blue.
"GEA — Kham Phaninit eliminated."
The minotaur form dissolved. Kham Phaninit — human again, pale, bleeding from the neck wound — dropped to his knees, then onto his face. IAR healers rushed in.
Lucian turned and ran toward Bruno.
Bruno was holding his own, but barely.
His body strengthening ability had boosted every physical stat — strength, speed, durability — but he was fighting two coordinated Early Core Realm fighters simultaneously. The rock-armored brawler absorbed his punches and hit back with stone-covered fists. The precision striker fired stone bullets from range whenever Bruno tried to create distance.
Crack. Boom. Crack.
Bruno took a bullet to the shoulder — crack — and a fist to the ribs — boom — in rapid succession. His body strengthening ability absorbed the worst of it, but the damage was accumulating.
Then Lucian arrived.
Blood Needle Rain — whoosh — forced the striker to dive for cover. Lucian closed the distance to the brawler and slashed across his stone-armored chest with the Moon Shattering Blade. The stone cracked but held.
Bruno recovered and slammed his fist into the brawler’s side.
BOOM.
The brawler staggered. Lucian drove a Light Bolt into his knee. The brawler dropped.
The striker tried to run. Blood Chains caught his ankles. He hit the ground. Lucian eliminated him with a single slash.
Clang. Bracelet activated.
The brawler tried to stand. Bruno grabbed him by the collar and threw him out of the arena.
"GEA — two eliminated."
On the far side of the arena, Ethan and the mystery mid-core fighter were locked in a stalemate.
The man — average build, calm expression — had revealed his ability during their exchange. A-Rank Kinetic Redirection. He couldn’t absorb kinetic energy like Ethan, but he could redirect it. Every punch Ethan threw was caught and sent back at a different angle. Every explosion Ethan absorbed was partially reflected outward.
They’d been trading blows for three minutes with neither gaining an advantage. Both were Mid Core Realm. Both were durable. Neither could land a clean hit.
"This is annoying," Ethan muttered.
The man smiled. "You can absorb all day. But you can’t hit me."
At GEA’s crystal,
A crack.
The girl with the sealing ability turned. The cube of sealing energy around Clara — stable for the entire match — was developing fractures. Thin lines of light spread across its surface like ice cracking on a frozen lake.
"What— that’s impossible—"
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Clara’s fist pushed through the breaking seal. Shards of translucent energy fell away like glass. Clara stepped out of the crumbling cube, her blue eyes cold, her expression murderous.
The sealing girl stumbled backward. "How? My sealing ability should hold a Mid Core Realm for at least twenty minutes—"
Psychokinesis activated — she lifted herself off the ground, rising ten meters into the air above the rocky terrain. Wind whipped around her, her blonde hair streaming behind her.
The earth user near the crystal panicked. "Stop her! Stop her now!"
He slammed his hands into the ground. Stone walls erupted upward — trying to block Clara’s line of sight to the crystal.
Clara raised both hands above her head. Her eyes closed. Her lips moved.
"Ice that freezes the sky and shatters the earth — Ice Tornado."
The temperature plummeted.
A massive tornado of ice materialized above Clara — spinning, growing, feeding on the moisture in the air and the mana she poured into it. It was thirty meters tall, composed of razor-sharp ice shards rotating at impossible speed. The wind alone flattened the vegetation on the mountain terrain.
The sealing girl screamed and raised three barriers in rapid succession — stone, then mana, then a combined layer. The earth user reinforced them with every ounce of his ability.
The ice tornado hit.
Crash. Crash. Crash.
The first barrier cracked. The second buckled. The third held for three seconds — ice shards screaming against it like a buzzsaw — then shattered.
The tornado descended on the crystal.
Chime.
The crystal cracked. Light spilled from the fractures. The ice tornado tore through it, and the crystal shattered into a thousand blue fragments that swirled upward into the vortex before dissolving.
Silence.
Then the referee’s voice echoed across the stadium.
"Match over. European All-Star Academy wins."
The crowd erupted.
Lucian walked out of the arena with the others, his expression flat.
The team returned to the hotel after watching the remaining Round of 16 matches.
Arthur gathered them in the conference room and pulled up the results.
Key upsets. Siberian Frost Academy from Russia barely beat Oceanic Horizon from Tonga — 4-3, with Russia looking vulnerable in the final minutes. Elysian Lumière Academy from France dominated Tokyo Kami Academy from Japan, eliminating them 5-1 in a performance that made the crowd go silent. China crushed Southern Cross Academy from Chile with zero losses — clinical, efficient, terrifying. American Apex Academy dismantled Black Iron Reich Academy from Germany, 5-1.
The quarter-final bracket appeared on the display.
Match 1: Roman Imperium Academy — Italy vs Chinese Vanguard Institute — China
Match 2: American Apex Academy — United States vs Amazonia Emerald Academy — Brazil
Match 3: European All-Star Academy — United Kingdom vs Iberian Sun Academy — Spain
Match 4: Siberian Frost Academy — Russia vs Elysian Lumière Academy — France
Arthur turned to the group.
"Quarter-final lineup. Iris Langford, Ethan Clarke, Bruno Remmos, Amira El Fassi, Rose Chevalier, Carlos Vega."
Mickey raised an eyebrow. "You’re benching yourself at this stage again?"
"Correct. And I’m benching you, Lucian, Clara, Ryan, and Nadia."
Lucian leaned back in his chair. He didn’t care.
"The only variable in this match will be Iris," Arthur continued, looking at the silver-haired girl with glasses. "Her technology-based fighting style is something Iberian Sun has no data on. She’ll be the wild card. The rest of you have displayed your abilities in previous matches already. We’re saving Mickey and Nadia for later rounds."
Iris adjusted her glasses. "Understood."
"Rest up. Match is tomorrow evening."