Pangang -!!
As she flicked her finger, the blood blade flew and cut off Oliver's tonfa in an instant.
It was quite surprising. It was a weapon with maximum strength, filled with mana.
"… Fourth (Duncan) would be disappointed."
Oliver threw the broken tonfa at Bathory, and immediately took out a quarterstaff from his pocket.
The quarterstaff, shrunk by reduction magic, quickly returned to its original size, and Oliver took his usual combat stance.
"Wow…"
Bathory showed interest in Oliver's quick weapon change and once again sent a blood blade flying.
This time, it was large enough to cut a person in half.
Oliver wrapped his quarterstaff with a black suit and then struck the blood blade directly, aiming for the relatively weak side rather than the blade.
Chacha -!
Fortunately, Oliver's judgment worked.
As he hit the side, the blade shattered like glass.
Oliver took advantage of the momentum, controlling the black suit directly to perform acrobatic movements, breaking the blood blade while quickly approaching Bathory.
He thought that if he just approached, he could do something, but this was a huge mistake.
"How about this?"
At Bathory's will, the broken blade stopped in mid-air.
And in an instant, the blade fragments turned into water droplets, and the water droplets turned into needles, flying towards Oliver.
Surprised by the sudden change, Oliver reflexively retreated, blocking the blood needles with shadow tentacles, but it was impossible to block them all.
At least, thanks to the black suit, he wasn't effectively hit.
‘It's not completely safe either…'
Oliver thought as he looked at the damaged black suit.
It was only because there was little blood and the black suit was three layers thick that it had blocked the attack; if the conditions had been slightly off, it would have been pierced.
‘Um…'
"If you're thinking of controlling blood, it's better to give up. It's mixed with my blood, so it's practically the same as my body."
"… Are you reading my thoughts?"
"There's no need to read thoughts. Talented warlocks usually try to imitate me. They're pretty arrogant."
"Ah… I apologize if I made you uncomfortable."
"There's no need to apologize. Arrogance is the right of geniuses. And I don't dislike such geniuses. It's just a matter of using them well."
Bathory spoke leisurely and attacked Oliver again with a blood blade.
This time, she reduced the size of the blade and increased the number, making it more difficult to avoid.
Considering the enclosed space, evading was virtually impossible.
So, Oliver decided to counterattack instead.
[Greed Fire]
The black flame that defeated Marie, female warlocks, and other difficult opponents in one shot flared up again. However, Bathory immediately blocked it.
"It's a bit disappointing, isn't it? Using the same method that's already been broken. Don't tell me this is the only skill you have?"
Bathory snapped her fingers and tore the Greed Fire apart with the blood blade once more.
"I don't like hot things."
"What about cold things, then?"
Oliver mixed mana and emotions into his quarterstaff and struck the ground with all his might.
The moment he hit the floor with a bang, the incantation at the end of the quarterstaff activated, and a black snowstorm whirled around.
"…..?!"
Unexpectedly, Bathory was amazed and gathered the blood floating in the air to protect herself.
The snowstorm mixed with obsession emotion surprisingly froze Bathory's blood.
"Amazing?! Mixing cold and obsession, considering that blood is a liquid too.”
"Thank you for the compliment."
Oliver approached Bathory in an instant, imitating Cook and kicking the ground.
He approached her through the frozen blood, and Bathory seemed surprised, unable to follow with her eyes.
"You……"
[Icicle]
Oliver shot icicles at Bathory at close range, impaling her and pinning her to the wall in that state.
Bang! Bang!
Pinned to the wall like a saint, Bathory groaned in pain and bled but did not lose her smile and composure. Rather, she seemed delighted.
"..…It hurts quite a bit?"
"I really don't want to do this."
Oliver sincerely spoke as he extracted Bathory's emotions and mana.
With the extraction, which was in a different dimension from ordinary warlocks, Bathory's emotions and mana flowed lumpily, and when Bathory tried to resist, Oliver stopped extracting, stored the mana in his body, and stored the emotions in a test tube. Then, he unleashed the snowstorm he had used earlier on Bathory.
[Binding Cold]
With the cold, countless snow and ice stained with obsessive emotions were fired at Bathory.
Bound by the persistent and tenacious cold, Bathory's body slowly stiffened, and soon, white snow crystals formed on her skin, and her whole body hardened like ice.
It seemed like a winning situation.
However, Bathory's relaxed emotions and Oliver's senses, built through numerous battles, did not agree.
Bang!!
Oliver smashed Bathory's frozen abdomen with his quarterstaff, shattering her like a snowman, and stepped on her frozen body, turning her into minced meat.
"Oh, this is bad."
After completely crushing Bathory's corpse, Oliver looked around and said.
The blood frozen by the cold was not only silent but also increased its temperature by drawing out the mana contained within.
It was enough to surpass the ice created by Oliver.
To make matters worse, the blood that had accumulated outside the entrance in the hallway also flowed in this direction.
Seeing this, Oliver did not hesitate for a moment, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, activated the incantation, and opened a portal.
A large amount of blood that entered the entrance boiled like lava and rushed towards Oliver, and Oliver narrowly entered the portal and closed it immediately.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
"Alright, I've made up my mind. I need to escape."
Having evacuated to the safety zone inside the Chimera Laboratory through the portal, Oliver spoke with a confident voice.
No matter how he thought about it, Bathory wasn't an opponent he could defeat. Especially not in the well-prepared laboratory.
Even after freezing her body and shattering it to pieces, Bathory still fought by controlling a large amount of blood.
She even managed to counter the cold attacks infused with emotions and mana with her blood.
He might have been able to win if he continued to attack and accumulate damage, but Oliver was certain that he would be defeated first.
‘I might be able to win with a Pilgaret, but…'
Oliver shook his head.
There was no reason to fight Bathory at the expense of consuming a precious Pilgaret.
In the first place, Pilgaret was not meant for combat.
‘First, I need to take Mr. Willes and leave this place.'
Oliver firmly decided and took out a piece of paper from his pocket.
Merlin had advised him to be cautious in using it, but Oliver always carried a few sheets of paper containing portal magic, just in case.
In particular, he always carried at least one sheet connected to his residence.
"I should've placed them all in one spot instead of scattering them."
Oliver went outside the room and moved to where Willes was.
He had placed the papers far apart from each other just in case, but now it seemed like a foolish choice.
"It's strange. I scattered them because they say not to keep all your eggs in one basket, but it's more inconvenient."
"Are you investing in stocks too?"
Bathory's voice came from the crossroads he had just passed.
Pshhhhhhhhh-!
As soon as he heard the sound, Oliver used the shadow blade to cut Bathory, who was behind him.
The shadow blade, which was slashed diagonally, easily cut Bathory's body into several pieces according to the condensed emotions, but it didn't have much effect.
The pooled blood around her immediately supported Bathory's body and healed her.
‘She's similar to Mr. Puppet, but different.'
Oliver thought while watching Bathory heal.
Puppet's Corpse doll also had the ability to heal by consuming humans, but Bathory's level was a step higher.
It seemed like as long as there was blood, she could easily recover and even counterattack.
It was almost as if the blood was her own body.
Bathory, who seemed to have read Oliver's thoughts, spoke.
"Don't be too surprised. This entire laboratory is like my belly, so it's not because of your lack of skill."
While connecting the veins in her blood, Bathory spoke with pure sincerity, not boasting.
"How do you feel right now?"
"Um… I want to make peace with you, Lady Bathory."
"If you want to make peace, shouldn't you stop preparing magic behind your back?"
Bathory drew up the mana within her body and fired lightning magic at Oliver.
As she had said, it was pure magic, unable to mix with emotions and mana unless it was blood. Oliver created a temporary barrier with ice magic in one hand to block the lightning magic.
Although he managed to withstand it once, that was enough for Oliver.
[Black Mist]
He fired a black mist made of emotions at Bathory, blocking her vision.
The mist, made of emotions, even blocked the eye of a Warlock. With this-
"Over there?"
Before Oliver could finish his thought, the blood pooled around him flew like a spearhead.
He barely reacted in time, narrowly avoiding it, but he felt a chilling sensation as three layers of his black suit were torn apart in an instant.
It was really dangerous.
The black suit that always protected Oliver in any situation was torn apart by the attack.
In essence, the black suit, Oliver's primary means of defense, was almost meaningless against Bathory.
Oliver tried to freeze the surroundings again with ice magic.
At that moment, the blood on the floor swarmed around Oliver with a sizzling sound.
It boiled and bubbled.
[Bloodfire]
Along with Bathory's incantation, the blood boiled like oil, and a deep red flame with adhesive properties ignited.
"Ugh…"
It was so powerful that even Kevin's flames seemed inferior. Moreover, it clung to the body like blood, burning its target more persistently.
As a result, the ice magic Oliver had prepared was burned by the flames without even being activated, and the black suit seemed to be devoured by the bloodfire like an oil-soaked rag.
The heat penetrated the black suit.
[Ecdysis]
With his skin exposed to the boiling Bloodfire, Oliver boldly abandoned his black suit and exploded it outward, forcibly pushing the surrounding flames away.
Of course, it was merely a temporary reprieve as Bathory's will and power kept the flames from disappearing completely.
As the aftermath of the explosion subsided, the crimson flames, fueled by blood, tried to engulf Oliver once again.
In an extremely dire situation with no minimum protective gear, Oliver didn't panic and instead focused his mana into his quarterstaff, slamming it into the weakened floor.
The floor crumbled immediately upon contact with the staff, and Oliver and Bathory fell to the level below.
"This…!"
A flustered Bathory momentarily lost control of the blood, but only for a moment. As soon as she landed on the floor, she manipulated the scattered Bloodfire to attack Oliver.
Of course, Oliver was also prepared.
"You should have learned that the armor (black suit) is useless."
Bathory covered Oliver with Bloodfire.
"Slightly cooked blood has quite a taste-"
—Kwaang!!
Before Bathory could finish speaking, the Bloodfire was torn apart by a massive shockwave.
The flames, created by mixing hatred and mana through blood, were Bathory's pride, so she too seemed quite shocked by the turn of events.
Surprised, Bathory quickly regained her composure and reassembled the dissipating Bloodfire.
[Out Cry]
Oliver, clad in black armor, appeared as the crimson flames were swept away.
From the fully covered Oliver's face, a mouth opened wide, and let out a scream filled with dark magical energy aimed at the Bloodfire.
The scream, imbued with physical force, not only blew away the Bloodfire but also left a massive hole in the ceiling, shaking the entire laboratory with a thunderous sound.
It was as if a dragon had breathed its breath.
Bathory was genuinely astonished for the first time in decades.
"What on earth is that-"
"Excuse me."
Astonishingly, despite the bizarre appearance of being covered in a black suit, Oliver spoke in his usual calm voice.
This only made the atmosphere even more chilling.
With her mouth agape, Bathory tried to counterattack.
[Blood-]
[Out Cry]
Once again, Oliver fired a shockwave, and the shockwave overpowered Bathory's blood magic, directly hitting her.
(To be Continued)
OR
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