Chapter 87: Sword Aura Standing across from the burly prisoner, Ash waited in perfect silence while the man rolled his thick shoulders and snapped the last of his blood-iron shackles free. Chains clattered to the black-glass floor with a dull, wet clang, echoing faintly beneath the roar of the coliseum crowd. The prisoner grinned, revealing a mouth of jagged, yellowed teeth and empty gaps where others had been knocked out long ago. "A fox, huh?" the man rasped, voice like gravel dragged across steel. "Thought I’d get to gut bloodsuckers all day. I Guess a fox will do." Ash said nothing and only watched. He had already appraised this man, and it was nothing much. Just an Ultimate bloodline along with a Law of Metal that was only 24%. After he finished taking of his shackles Ash tilted his head and spoke. "Are you done?" The man laughed and just attacked. As he rushed Ash, he used his Law to conjure metal Gauntlets around his hands. |Adamantine Tyrant’s Grasp (Ultimate)| -55% MP The prisoner’s Law of Metal surged. Molten gauntlets of liquid steel formed around his fists, edges serrated like shark teeth, dripping silver fire. All of it happened in slow, syrupy motion for Ash.... and he didn’t plan to waste any time; he met the man head on as he used a talent. |Absolute Density| The weight of one hundred mountains condensed into a single step. BOOOOOM!!!!! Their collision detonated like a dying star. The black-glass floor spider-webbed outward in perfect circles, shards lifting into the air before they were crushed to dust by the pressure. The prisoner shot backward as though kicked by a god, boots carving twin molten trenches through the arena. Ash never stopped moving. A sword of simple rose-gold materialized in his grip... there was no flourish, no wasted motion. He didn’t use a skill... but there was something else he used that changed the entire coliseum. [Sword Aura Max Level Unlocked.] [A/N: Auras and Intents have ten levels.] The moment the blade lifted, reality behind him tore open. Gone were the stands, the blood mist, the roaring vampires. In their place stretched a cosmic graveyard of planets cracking like eggs, nebulae swirling in silent agony, asteroid belts ground to glittering dust by unseen forces. The illusory domain spanned every kilometer his mana sense could reach, drowning the entire coliseum in the weight of dying universes. Over Ten thousand vampires forgot how to breathe. Ash reigned it in with a thought, shrinking the domain until only the arena floor remained bathed in star-death and silence. Then he swung. Not a slash of light. An arc of entire nebulae, newborn worlds, and shattered moons tore across the forty kilometers between them. The prisoner had time for one wide-eyed stare. BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!! The impact erased him so completely that not even ash remained. The black glass plain now bore a glowing canyon shaped like a perfect sword stroke. [+50 000 EL] Ash glanced at the floating numbers, lips curving faintly. ’One thousand times multiplier... not bad.’ He thought as he couldn’t’ help but love the nonsense. As he walked back to the other side of the arena he couldn’t help but shake his head even more. ’I guess those memories were more helpful than I realized...’ He had just unconsciously used the Sword Aura. This was something that stemmed from the trillions of years he watched of his former life. That Ash had rose to the epitome of the Sword... and Ash had retained every bit of that knowledge. Since he had already been using the sword and no other weapon his progress towards achieving the Aura wasn’t far off, now him using intent... was something still a bit away. He made it back to the other side of the arena, sat cross-legged on the still-warm glass, and waited. The crowd was silent for three full heartbeats. Then the coliseum exploded into sound.... roars, screams, the frantic ringing of betting bells. "W-WINNER—ASH!" The announcer’s voice cracked halfway through the name. High above in the VIP box, Raven Nocturne’s bloody eyes sparkled like fresh rubies. Her fangs pressed into her lower lip hard enough to draw a bead of crimson. Ash closed his eyes again, tails curling lazily around him. ’Well... I hope they have enough opponents.’ ’I’m not leaving until I hit fifty million.’ ---- "How can an SSS-rank achieve Sword Aura?" Summer’s black eyes gleamed like wet obsidian as she leaned forward on the velvet railing, voice barely above a whisper yet sharp enough to cut the roar of the crowd. Her long black hair spilled over one shoulder, brushing the rim of her untouched blood-wine in her glass. "The earliest I’ve ever heard of anyone manifesting aura is five hundred years old..." Seth muttered, shoulder-length white hair falling across his face as he stared down at the arena, red eyes wide with disbelief. "Not just that," Connor added, short white hair catching the crimson torchlight, black eyes narrowed in calculation. "He’s already reached the stage of manifestation. That domain... that wasn’t an illusion." All four pairs of eyes slid toward Raven. She didn’t notice. She was too busy watching Ash carve his second opponent into ribbons of blood and regret. Down on the arena floor, Ash moved like a dream given lethal edge. He hadn’t used a single named skill or flashy talent yet; just the sword in his hand and the aura wrapped around it like living cosmos. The white-and-rose blade now looked like a fragment of the night sky torn free... with swirling nebulae, dying stars, and silent voids all dancing along its length. He had all the knowledge from his previous incarnation; however, he wanted to find different applications of aura use on his own. Currently, he had his aura wrapped around his blade making the white and rose sword look like a cosmic background. SHK! SHK! SHK! Each swing birthed a silent explosion of starlight. Vampires were known for their regeneration.... usually as long as they had blood, then they could regenerate without the use of external aids. However, Ash was doing too much Damage for a mere SSS rank to recover from quickly. A final horizontal arc. BOOOOM!!!! The vampire’s torso parted from hips to shoulder in a perfect diagonal. Blood fountained upward in slow, beautiful spirals before the body even realized it was dead. Three minutes flat. Ash flicked the sword once as blood slid off the blade like water off glass and walked back to the center as casually as someone returning from a stroll. In the luxury box, Raven’s heartbeat thundered so loudly she was sure the others could hear it. Her fangs pressed into her lower lip hard enough to draw a bead of her own blood. "He’s... something," Katherine whispered, blonde hair glowing faintly under the crimson chandeliers, red eyes wide. "I wouldn’t be surprised if the Elders are already digging into his background." Raven’s smile froze. She turned slowly, voice small. "T-they won’t go overboard, will they?" Seth chuckled, but there was no warmth in it. "Oh, Raven... did that fox brainwash you already?" He leaned back into the plush couch. "You know the rules as well as we do. If the Elders decide he’s a threat—" "He’s dead," the room finished in perfect, chilling unison. Raven’s fingers tightened around her glass until the crystal groaned. She turned back to the arena just as Ash’s badge chimed for the third time. Down below, Ash rolled his shoulders, rose-gold eyes calm, tails swaying like they had all the time in the cosmos. Raven could only watch... and hope his background was boring enough to keep him breathing.