Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 316: Pain fed Rage, Rage fed Ferocity...

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-Within the Sealing Cube-

Belron was within five feet of Aurelius. It had its arms spread, its claws glinting with malice and its mouth open wide to show off teeth that now appeared to be taking on fang-like appearances while its black tongue wagged out of its mouth in excitement.

It was just getting within reach to draw its claws through Aurelius when tendrils made of shadow wrapped around its limbs and stalled its approach.

”What in the Hells...?” Belron asked and flexed against the shadow tendrils. It was able to move another foot despite them, but then it stalled again.

This time, Belron didn’t try to pull against the tendrils. It instead directed its swirling black eyes down at the source of the attack.

Caius spat and a vial hit the ground, its contents downed.

”Get back here, you son of a bitch,” he said in a hoarse voice.

Caius’s mouth was dyed in the red of his blood. Despite the Vampiric Mending Potion he had drunk, the pain in his chest had only dulled a tiny bit. His sternum remained shattered and every action was causing pain to shoot through his body almost making him beg for death.

But Caius gritted his teeth against the pain. It may have helped that he had mentally prepared for this situation in the weeks leading up to the Mid-Semester Tests, since he knew the Protective Vests would be useless against attacks made with Demonic Energy. After all, the Vests hadn’t helped in the original story.

Still, it was more pain than Caius had ever felt in both his lives. Whatever he had been prepared for, this was way worse. And it was from a single attack!

What hope did he have for survival if he suffered more?

The thing was though, the pain, while terrible and very debilitating, fed a part of him he had been trying his hardest to hold back for so long.

He could feel it bubbling to the surface already. And he was far too stressed to put any real bit of energy into resisting it.

Belron flexed against the Shadow Tendrils again and Caius reached for the very recess of the power he had acquired from the Umbral Fox, going beyond what he should have been able to acquire.

This was what was allowing him to keep Belron in place. But on the other hand, the increased level of exertion and draw from the Umbral Fox’s power also meant the energy was getting used up faster.

Drinking two vials of the Potion should have granted Caius thirty minutes of power-up. Alas, as things were, he’d be lucky if he had ten.

In desperation, he retrieved three more vials from his Storage ring and downed them all. They were the last of the Umbral Fox’s Trait Acquisition Potions he had refined.

The Five themselves had been a testament to just how accomplished Caius had become in Blood Alchemy. But, of course, he hadn’t been satisfied with the results and such a meagre resource. Alas, there was little he could do. He had limited blood to work with and was burning through ingredients so fast that he could just feel how much it was causing the ’Ophiuchus’ to lament whenever they did accounting.

In any case, while Caius would have preferred to have more, the truth was that he had actually still thought the five would be enough. Belron’s arrival instead of Tyron had ruined that expectation.

Caius let the power he received from those three vials flow through him but he didn’t bother with a calm and uniform circulation. He just fed all that energy into using the shadow tendrils to pull Belron away from Aurelius.

If they wanted to survive this encounter, Aurelius was the key. And giving him time to gather Divine Energy was paramount.

The tactic of getting the ability to harness Divine Energy beaten out of Aurelius was not at all wise as Caius feared Belron wouldn’t need more than a couple of attacks to kill an ’ordinary’ Aurelius.

The proof was his shattered sternum from an attack he had suffered despite not really being Belron’s target.

”Nghhhh... ARRRGGGHHHHH....!!!”

A groan of pain mixed with a cry of effort left Caius’s mouth and throat as he was able to pull Belron even more. Increasing the distance between the Fiend and Aurelius to Ten Feet.

Belron dropped his surprised amusement now and raged against the pull, closing the distance with Aurelius by five feet in an instant.

And that was when Caius let it out.

He felt the nature that had been suppressed since he was turned bubbled to the surface and he didn’t fight it.