Due to the situation, the leaders were in. In the end, they decided to help neither side. Joining one side at the moment wouldn't guarantee that side would win. Although it looked like the Punisher was cornered, they thought that he would still be able to at least harm Bryce or tire him out somehow.
The best course of action for them would be to wait for a winner out of the two and then for them to act because right now, neither one of the two were good for the vampire settlement.
Now that Arthur was aware that those that were covered in the shadow could use his powers, he decided to go for a different approach. Arthur needed to take out those with the shadow power.
"You are already dead, so there is no guilt inside me when I do this!" Arthur thought as he charged in towards one of those with the shadow powers. Arthur swung his blade, hitting the shadow person from the head down to his feet. The flying Blood blades were still following from behind.
A quick slash was made, And Arthur went on to move to the next one, but he realised something.
'I felt like I hit nothing. What is going on?' Turning his head, Arthur could see that the figure he had just attacked, nothing had happened. It was still standing there. Arthur had no time to slow down. Otherwise, the blood swords would eventually hit him.
When reaching the next person covered in shadows, he decided to do a vertical slash instead, hoping to cut the body in half. This time he paid closer attention. He could see his sword going through the body. He could feel it slicing the body, but just as quickly as he went through it, the shadow was almost reattaching the parts and bringing them back together again.
'I...I can't hurt them... it's like I'm just hitting a body made of shadow's.' Arthur didn't understand these shadow beings, and he didn't have time to figure it out. Turning around, ten blades went to stab him at once.
Moving the sword, he tilted it so the flat side could block the attack, all ten points of the blades hit at once, but the force was great, causing him to be lifted in the air by its power. It was a bit close, but Arthur had no choice but to activate the explosion power.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtA loud bang was made, and the swords were destroyed. Still, Arthur had also suffered from some of the attack made by his own sword. His face was hurt and partly burnt, and for some reason, it wasn't healing either.
"Haha, you really are a fool", Bryce said. "You have a gifted body that can heal you from an attack like this, but I guess for more serious wounds, even you require blood. When was the last time you had consumed blood? If you don't, you will soon die." Bryce said.
Knowing there was nothing else Arthur could do, he decided to go forward to Bryce once again.
"So what I can't use the shadow, so what I can't use blood powers. All I need is a sword in my hand to take you down!" Arthur shouted.
He covered the distance in mere seconds and thrust his sword forward. A shadow appeared attempting to block his attack, and Arthur spun his body using the sword as weight skidded himself across the floor and, moving to Bryce's side. It was open, and the shadow was unable to keep up.
Arthur thrust to hit Bryce successfully on his side. The blood blades followed and stabbed Arthur from behind. Most of them had hit his armour, but one had managed to hit him just underneath the armpit, a gap in his armour.
Still, Arthur pushing through and ignoring the hit continued with the thrust, successfully hitting Bryce, and activated the explosion power again, increasing the power of the hit and sending him across the field.
'That was a bad hit.' Arthur thought as he could feel his blood trickling from under his arm. 'But I got a hit off as well. It might have just hit the armour, but now the twelfth family ability is activated, and I have gained extra speed. It was worth it, and I need to end this now!'
Arthur had a theory, and he wanted to test it out. Running after Bryce, the blood blades stood in his way, but Arthur decided to summon his shadow once more, covering himself. It blocked the blood blade's attacks and Arthur continued to dash forward, the shadow slowly trailed once again. Although following the direction Arthur was going in, it wasn't following him, but going to where Bryce was currently present.
This was because the shadow is on longer Arthur's.
Once again. Arthur went to attack from the front, but the shadow from the other twenty were summoned. With his speed, he thrust his sword and then moved to the side to repeat the same attack as last time, successfully hitting Bryce once again from behind. Another explosion hit off, and Arthur had gained even more speed.
Bryce now was bleeding from his mouth, having been hit by two big blows. His armour was unable to defend from the power of the explosion.
'How...I have the power of the shadow...and the absolute blood powers, and he is still able to hurt me!' Bryce was angered, but the shadow from Arthur soon entered the crystal in his hand.
Arthur had figured it out. All of Bryce's strengths were in a way, his weaknesses as well. The crystal that could stop Arthur from using his shadow and was controlling the others needed to be protected. Meaning the blood wall couldn't be moved to defend himself as much anymore.
At the same time, it wasn't impossible for Arthur to use his shadow. Just every time he did, the shadow would no longer be for him to use again. It was more of a one time use. In emergency situations, he could still block the attack.
This was why Arthur was successfully able to attack Bryce, despite all of his advantages.
'If you had fought me without all these things, it would have been a more interesting fight. This is what happens when you use borrowed power.' Arthur thought.
Repeating the same thing again. Hitting Bryce for the third time. It was getting easier since Arthur was getting faster after each successful hit.
"What are we watching right now? How was Arthur able to turn the tables around?" Jake asked.
"I heard that the leader of the Punishers was a great fighter in tactics and even more," Muka said. "He was someone that the vampires even feared when humans had no powers. He was able to take on mystical beings and had even killed a few stray vampires before he had been turned. That was the type of person they had turned into a vampire.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"That person had 1000s and 1000s of years to hone his skills, and that is what we are witnessing right now. While Bryce had been obsessed with absolute blood control. Bryce also thought that if he could stop Arthur from using his shadow, he could somehow win, yet this is the result in the end."
Seeing how things were playing out, the shadow from the crystal started to lead again, heading to more bodies, and at that time, more of the shadow people were being made. The numbers almost doubled from before.
Bryce had decided on giving up on the blood being used as a defensive measure. Instead, the new shadow users stood between him and Arthur. At that moment, before Arthur could dash in, more than a hundred blood swords had returned, and they surrounded Arthur like a chamber.
"This will be your fall!" Bryce shouted, moving all of the swords at once towards Arthur.
"Did you not learn anything!" Arthur shouted, using his shadow again to block the strikes from the swords, and charged straight forward, holding his sword with both hands. He was ready to swing it out with great speed. At the same time, Bryce had his cane sword held back in his hand.
The blood vortex he had summoned from before was now around his sword, and Bryce charged forward as well. The two were ready for a big clash.
Until a certain individual had dropped out from the sky, landing in the middle of them both, his head was down, making it hard to see who it was. Neither cared for this intruder and had planned to deliver thier attacks regardless.
"Who is that, who jumped in the middle of that madness!" Jin called out.
The leaders looked at each other to see if one of them had intervened, but it was neither of them. They all thought that the intruder was to perish. Even if a leader jumped between those two attacks, they would fall.
The intruder stomped down on both of his feet, and before they could reach him or each other, he threw his fists out in both directions. A large invisible force had hit Arthur, he didn't even see what had hit him, but it caused him to fall on his back. At the same time, the blast in the other direction seemed to cut through the blood on Bryce's sword, hitting it and making the old vampire fall as well.
Leaving only one person standing, raising his head.
"Stop this!"
"That's...the tenth leader!" Jin called out.