Note: I missed yesterday's posting so I'm posting 2 chapters today. This is the 2nd one. Read the previous chapter 33 if you haven't yet. Enjoy!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Csh of Wills

  With her thralls defeated, the mad nymph sitting so vulgarly ohick root finally rose to her feet. Gone was the pyfulness she’d expressed when they arrived. In its pce was a hostility that flowed off her in waves that seemingly caused the hall to tremble…and with her wrath came the marg of the forest.

  Tangled vihick as pythons slithered across the ground in search of prey. The twin rows of pihree to either side of the hall—began to shake, their trunks transf into crooked humanoid forms at least twenty feet tall. Leaves with sharpeips flew into the air, carried aloft by an ill wind… The sight of these terrors caused the party’s bao die down, f a foreboding chill to climb up their spines.

  “Holy shit,” Bridget’s gaze was fixed to the ree monster, “what are they?”

  As if it had been waiting for such a question, a new ag appeared floating over the six tree giants.

  Lesser Treant Formed of Corrupted EarthSurprisingly, these lesser treants’ tags were only yellow despite their size and menag appeara didn’t mean the party would have it easy though. After all, they were outnumbered and surrounded.

  “Well, gang,” Chris let out a deep breath, “some of us might experience our first deaths today…remember to take notes.”

  The Texan’s gallows humor roof he uood what Bram already knew; a single shield wouldn’t be enough to block this tide of terrors. Fortunately for Chris, Rowan wasn’t the only experienced sorcerer in their party.

  A flower with petals formed entirely of fmes blossomed on a patch of grouween the party and Loveless’ creeping flora. These petals spread open one by one, causing intense heat to sweep through this side of the hall to herald the fiery form waking within.

  The otherworldly creature was a sy-looking ur with skin as bright as a r fire. Its long dark hair was styled in a topknot that twirled around its ba braided pits. Curved ivory horns protruded out the sides of its head. The creature’s eyes were bck as a starless night sky, but the tattoos that slid down its cheeks to twirl around its chest and its arms shone like hot coals. Instead of legs, it had a smoky tail made from wispy vapor of a fiery tinge.

  “Apologies for the dey, Yhness,” said the creature who souoo much like Ravi Samal. “Summoning my djinn takes five minutes of painstaking calcutions and prodding.”

  Notig the pride in its voice, Bridget asked, “Is five minutes good?”

  “Five minutes is excellent,” the djinn replied, and then expined, “A regur summoner would least twice the time and ingredients to summon a lesser spirit than this sed-tier elemental…”

  Having experienced a long wait time summonihers into Aarde, Bram couldn’t refute the vice master’s cim. His tension also dimihough he was less in awe of Ravi’s djinn and more reassured that he now had one more soldier to fight Loveless with.

  A quick look over his shoulder showed him an iing sight.

  Ravi sat on the floor beh the floating Rowan. Like her, he too seemed to be deep in tration. Meanwhile, Alkaid and Pheow covered in matg traveler’s cloaks—stood guard around the two sorcerers focused on their spellcasting.

  “You’re in full trol of it?” Bram asked.

  The djinn who’d just finished abs the remnants of its flower s head. “This is easier than giving it ands that might flict with yours…though I ’t keep this summoning up for long.”

  “Worry not, Vice Master…my and’s simple.” Bram fshed the djinn a mischievous grin. “Burn us a path to her.”

  “It would be my absolute pleasure,” the djinn’s tail ed its smoky tendrils protectively around the party, “Yhness.”

  The elemental cut its palm with a long-nailed finger. Hot blood gushed out of the wound to spsh at the ground in fiery sparks. From there, blood stretched outward like molten veins stretg across the earth. Magic burst forth from these liurning the djinn’s blood into rivers of va that then exploded in sprays of fire, molten rock, and ash remi of a volic eruption.

  With the rising fire reflected in his gaze, Bram k was the perfeent to prepare his move. “Emute…”

  Meanwhile, the djinn dispyed such trol of its spell that not a single drop of its magic touched the party, or the unscious Stargazers sprawled on the ground behind them. The same couldn’t be said for the thick vines, lesser treants, and bdes of leaves seeking to harm Ravi’s panions. Loveless’ minions bur the touch of the djinn’s sorcery, causing shrieks of pain to resound in the air alongside the smell of burning wood.

  ‘Crackle.’

  The djinn’s spell came a like a lit mateant to start a fire in an rown forest. When it was dohe devastation was siderable. Not a single leaf or tendril survived in a round space roughly thirty feet in diameter. The stone floor was scorched and bed with ash, ensuring no shrub or tree would grow there for a while.

  Ga~~ah!

  A mental scream resounded across Bram’s brain as a familiar pain began to ignite inside of him. To his credit, the prince didn’t pass out this time. Instead, he just gritted his teeth while his body was in agony.

  Fuck~~k!

  ALERT! [Status Emution Lv.1] was successful. Your status will temporarily be updated to reflect the boons earned from the target’s data. Please wait while the system performs the necessary caleanwhile, two of the six lesser treants caught fire. One was set abze, its entire body engulfed ihe other lost its arms to the fire. In terror, it turned on its heel and fled, colliding into a third lesser treant that caught fire thanks to its rade’s touch. The three who remained became frightened of the djinn and would not approach, leaving a path open for Bram’s party to rush headlong at Loveless—and that’s exactly what they did. Rather, that’s what the prince chose to do on his own.

  ALERT! The system has fis calcutions. Your status has been temporarily updated.Before he left though, Bram gave another simple and. “Kill the treants…then follow after me.”

  One of Hajime’s eyebrows hitched upward. “Yoing to fight her alone?!”

  “We ’t fight enemies…on two fronts,” Bram insisted, his voice strained. “Besides, they’re a part of her… Killing them first might wound Loveless too.”

  GRATULATIONS! A sedary job has been temporarily added to your status. You are now a [Blood Champion Lv.1]!Bram had his back to them, so wheurned around, Hajime couldn’t help but ge away.

  “Y- Yōkai…?”

  Bram khat activating ‘Status Emution’ would ge his features just enough to make him seem less human, and he could already feel his muscles expanding underh his padded jacket. He didn’t think his ge would warrant Hajime’s fear though.

  “Y’all know you’re g tears of bloht, Boss?” Chris expined.

  No, Bram didn’t know that. Indeed, he only just now felt the stiess falling on his cheeks. It shared a strange symmetry with the pain still c through him.

  “His eyes are like Rowan’s now,” Bridget chimed in. “And his skin’s gotten all sparkly too.”

  Bram didn’t know this either. Though he recalled a hazy refle of Rowan’s true appearance when she’d first risen from the abyss and assumed he would resemble her just a little wheing her power.

  Fortunately for Bram, he had an excuse to escape their strange observations of his new form.

  “Hurry to my side when you’ve finished with the treants.” With his pain diminishing, relief filled Bram’s expression. “I keep her eained for two minutes…no more.”

  “That’s about as long as I keep my djinn under trol,” Ravi admitted. “Rowan told me to tell you that hurting Loveless as much as possible may lower the spirit’s resistao the exorcism.”

  “That was my iion.”

  “I know the fault of this possession lies with her, but please try not to maim or kill my master…”

  Through the djinn’s mouth, Bram heard the plea in Ravi’s voice. He gave the djinn a nod, and then he was off and running headlong into danger.

  Being a [Blood Champion] fills you with power. Based on probability and threat assessment calcutions, your physical attributes are temporarily tripled.STRENGTH66DEXTERITY:48STITUTION:84Bram hoped for more, but the Loom seemed to think Loveless’ threat was merely at Baer’s level.

  ALERT! Your HP and SP have temporarily increased. [HP: 660] [SP: 840]ALERT! Emution will st for 2 minutes. Your body may receive penalties o ends.What should have taken him four times lo a sprint, Bram achieved in ten seds—crossing through the divide betweeo reach the other end of the hall where the mad nymph stood in vigil.

  WARNING! Your SP is rapidly depleting due to your body’s inpatibility with [Blood Champion]. You will earn more fatigue with every a you take.Bram let out a gasp.

  His leg muscles throbbed from the strain of his mad dash, though it was manageable enough that Bram remaianding while he faced the corrupted nymph gl at him from above the thick root protruding a good fiftee off the ground.

  “Hello there!”

  Bram wasted another precious sed starting the breathihod he o sharpen the resolve in his heart. Loveless, oher hand, seemed impatient to get things going.

  “Have. You. e. To. Love. Me…?”

  Surprisingly, even at the start of their deathmatch, her thoughts were still flicted with desire. The ging expressions on her fagry one moment, happy the , tear-jerking sadness besmirched by a wanton look—were proof of her madness. Although with all that she’d been through, Bram couldn’t deny that Loveless had a right to go mad.

  “Hell hath no fury like a woman sed…”

  He didn’t mean to repeat those lihey came out of him unbidden, though their effect was instantaneous. Like the snapping of fingers, Loveless’ emotions shifted again. Fury showed on her faow.

  “Why…? Why? Why?!”

  Her once handsome face turned grotesque and murderous.

  “Why?! Why?! Why?!”

  Pity…

  If Loveless were even a little pe, Bram might have scripted her to his cause just as he sought out the rebel trickster of legend. But no, this mad nymph was too unruly.

  “Why won’t you”—thunder filled Loveless’ voice, causing the ceiling to rattle—“Love me?!”

  She flew down from her root with arms outstretched as if readying to hug him, though the sharp cws extending from her fiold a different truth.

  ‘Boom!’

  Bram heard Hajime’s familiar cheer of “Yatta!” from behind which he took as his cue. He chose not to wait for Loveless to crash into him. Instead, the prince kicked hard at the ground and used the force summoned from his borrowed strength to unch his body into the air.

  ‘Ba-dump.’

  The effort of his ‘Kick-Off’ caused pain to spike up his feet, one born from a broken toe or two. He mao stifle it somewhat by recalling a lesson Ser Anthony used to drill into his head.

  To challenge a stronger foe is not the height of folly, but the perfect opportunity to surpass yourself…

  ‘Ba-dump.’

  Bram pulled his longsword back, his fiightening on its handle…

  You’ll have one ce to prove your strength…to scream to the heavens — I am here!

  …Readying his bde for that single ce…that one moment that could decide victory or defeat.

  So, strike the spark in your heart, and like a fireball igniting, draw the swrowing from its embers…

  Loveless shrieked at him from above like a harpy diving in for the kill.

  Wield it with resolve and it shall bee a bde without peer…

  ‘Ba-dump.’

  “…Ohat cut the whole world!” Bram roared.

  They met mid-air, Loveless from above swinging sharp cws at his face, and Bram from below, his bde hurtling up at her.

  ‘Ba-dump!’

  It was a csh that was his to lose fravity was a strong boon to any attack that could harness its power. A, as steel met bone, each grinding against the other to send sparks flying, it wasn’t steel that bent for it was steel empowered, not just by a fragment of a legendary trickster’s strength, but with the determination of a daring young man seeking to ge his fate.

  There was the sound of a bde slig into bone, and then came the shriek of pain that heralded the blood spshing across Bram’s nose.

  There goes my promise not to maim her host…

  They nded ba the ground mere feet from each other, and Bram was quick to cut at the vines creeping at him from below before Loveless could trap him in their folds.

  Another shriek of pain.

  “You!”

  Bram had just enough time to cut his left palm and coat his bde with his life’s blood before Loveless lunged for him.

  ALERT! You have successfully coated your longsword with [Iron Blood Lv.1]! A fourth of your remaining HP was ed to activate this ability.He was gd his gamble worked. He wasn’t sure the system would allow it. But so long as he held his longsword, the Loom seemed willing to accept it as part of him.

  [HP: 820/840] has dropped to [HP: 615/840]The longsword’s bde fortified with ‘Iron Blood’ collided with Loveless’ fist, and the impact caused the air betweeo explode outward.

  “W-What?!”

  To Bram’s surprise, his sword was blown back first. His surprise vahough after he caught a glimpse of Loveless’ fist and the hardees of bark newly coating it. Strangely, instead of feeling fear at seeing her power thwart his, Bram felt etion. Ser Anthony was right. To fight an oppo strohan yourself could be an exhirating experience.

  “Again!”

  Bram dug his feet into the ground and pushed against the pressure threatening to blow him away. With his borrowed strength exploding into his sword arm, he swung his bde a third time and hacked at Loveless’ hardened fist as it came at him.

  ‘Boom!’

  Their collision caused the ground to shake, the air to crackle, and even forced Bram back a step.

  Bits of hardened blood fell off his bde, requiring him to sacrifice more health to reapply its coating. More problematic for Bram was how badly his arm ached. His hand shook from the effort of holding his sword's hilt. His resolve remairong though, and it wasn’t only because he was stubborn. From what his eyes could see, he wasn’t the only oo suffer.

  Loveless’ hands were a bloody mess. One was missing two fingers while the other had lost several of the hardees coating it, causing blood to spill from its torn flesh. It didn’t seem like she mihe pain. Although, from the way she gred at him, Loveless seemed i on gouging his eyes out—and she would attempt exactly that a moment ter.

  “Fine…once more!”

  Though it would cost him another broken toe, Bram ground his right boot into the ground, and recalling Ser Anthony’s advice, used his lower body to gee the power necessary for a single decisive blow. To enhahis deathblow even more, he gripped his longsword’s hilt with both hands and swung it in a crest arc at the ining nymph. She met his ssh with her cws, ae hearing the g of bone against steel a sed time, Bram knew he’d lost this round’s csh of wills. Though he’d broken one of Loveless’ hands, and possibly aire arm too, she also broke his on so that a third of its bde was blown away.

  Sudden doubt flitted across Bram’s face. He couldn’t help it. Could he defeat her now when even a bde empowered with the might of a blood champion proved weaker?

  Damn…

  Try as he might, he couldn’t shake off the doubt. It slowed his rea just enough for Loveless’ other arm—the one whose hand lost two fio reach out for his neck like a noose. She would have caught him too if fortune hadn’t shown its favor.

  ALERT! The [Ring of Three Protes] sehe dao its wielder. [Barrier] has been activated [1/3].As Loveless’ cws brushed against the skin of his neck, a bright golden aura ed around it like ghostly armor strong enough to withstand the mad nymph’s rampage. More than blog Loveless’ attack, the ghostly armor around Bram’s neck blew her back by shattering into hundreds of golden shards that pierced into her naked flesh like shrapnel.

  Loveless’ pained shrieks filled the air.

  With his mouth agape, Bram noticed a familiar tdown.

  15 Seds…“Phoebus’ cock…”

  Anger filled his chest. Not for the mad nymph writhing in pain, but for himself for nearly giving in to despair.

  ‘Boom!’

  An ungodly shriek had e from behind him too, and Bram guessed that the others must have finished killing off the st of Loveless’ treants. Otherwise, the mad nymph wouldn’t have elicited such a mournful cry in the same breath.

  Bram, you bloody fool — how I surrender, when my panions are proving their worth?

  The safer choice would be to step bad wait for the others troup with him, but Bram didn’t like the idea of needing to be rescued. He didn’t like the thought of losing even more.

  So, instead of bag away, he charged right into Loveless’ ra was a gamble, for certain, but Bram renewed his trust in the Loom’s power. More importantly, years of training in all kinds of martial studies have instilled in his body a sixth sense of danger. It was this ‘Danger Sense’ he turo now to dodge Loveless’ attempt to grab hold of him at the st sed. With this feat achieved, he slipped past her outstretched arm, twirled around it, and mao take the nymph’s back.

  “You want intimacy?”

  Twin arms enclosed around Loveless’ waist.

  “I’ll give it to you…”

  He couldn’t see her expression from his pce behind her, but there was surprise flitting across the nymph’s face. Ohat was quickly repced by excitement. Clearly, Loveless misinterpreted Bram’s iio again.

  “…Intimacy that’ll leave you—with a bloodied fad ragged breath, Bram used up the st of his borrowed strength to lift her high—“breathless!”

  8 Seds…Only then did Loveless realize the danger, but her realization came too te. Bram was already flipping her over, sending Loveless smming headfirst onto the hard stone floor with a ‘Lotharian Suplex’ meant to knock her down—and it did.

  GD_Cruz