Dual System: Ascension of A Nameless Nobody

“…Mad, are you? That makes two of us.”

With a swipe of his hand, he assured the blood used for the bindings didn’t go to waste, causing them to reshape into whip-like blades before slashing them against the demon’s sturdy hide.

“Graaaah–!”

It howled out, pushing past the assault as it burst forward, gunning straight towards him with a dash bolstered by its powerful, thick legs.

“–Scarlet Sanctuary.”

This time, he swirled and reforged the surrounding blood into a multi-layered, dense shield that curved around him for further protection, placing it as a means to defend against the lightning-infused charge of the powerful demon.

…Wait! He suddenly thought.

–There was a second dash, or rather, a second “boost” to the dash as a burst of black lightning roared from another kick of the demon against the ground, sending it forward with a flash of speed that shattered right through his shield.

“Grgh–!!”_.

Even reinforcing his blood-forged armor with another layer, the impact blew him back with a thunderous force, sending him flying down the corridor before tumbling across the floor, only stopping once hitting the backend of the hall.

Crack.

The sturdy armor of crystalized blood had been shattered, broken to near completion as most of it fell into particles of crimson droplets onto the carpet below.

More so, the impact resounded internally–throttling his internal organs as he spat out blood onto his own chest.

Despite the awful state he seemed to be in, bruised and bleeding from his split eyebrow, seeping nose, and busted lip…Despite the difference in raw strength–Sol was just given the utmost advantage.

The blood that poured from his mouth ran down his torn shirt, mixing with his shattered armor and rebuilding his crimson set of sleek, tough armor; this time it intertwined, layering itself multiple times for extra protection, adapting to the strength of the enemy.

I need…more power. Enough to crush this horse-mouthed freak, he thought.

Even more, the arterial fluid that trailed down from his wounds opted to forge new augmentations to his blood-forged armor, following his next invocation: “Iron Maiden.”

This new variation of his armor created tiny spikes from the interior, stabbing into his own flesh to draw out more of his blood, supplementing further strength to himself.

This was the terror of the “Blood Forger System”; the more damage he took, the more plentiful his strength and arsenal became. Against all but an insurmountable foe, it was practically unbeatable.

Blood itself is my “spirit”, but also my complete strength. The more of it I can draw from, the more I can increase my power–with “Iron Maiden”, I can close the gap in strength, he thought.

It was a full suit of crimson armor, guarding even his head in completion as it possessed a slightly bulkier form with the additional layers and defense added.

“Come on, then…Let’s finish this already,” he coaxed the horse-faced demon.

Without any further delay, it rushed towards him with that blitzing speed, going for a lariat that he barely managed to react to with a backwards bend, watching the muscular forearm go right over his head.

He countered with a thrust of his spear, aiming for the chin of the towering demon, but a surprisingly agility allowed it to evade the attack, moving its chin back and countering with a roar that released as a lightning-infused shock wave.

“Scarlet Supercharge,” he invoked.

The scarlet armor he wore took to a slight glow, humming as the heat within bubbled up.

It was a momentary amplification of all of his stats, allowing him to eat up the head-on shock wave, pushing through it before gathering a swirl of blood around his lance.

“…Scarlet Piercer!”

Thrusting it forward as he brute-forced his way through the deafening, ongoing shock wave, he unleashed a torrent of crimson blades that blew the demon back, stopping the roar as he instantly released the supercharge.

“–“

He breathed heavily; strained from the short usage of the supercharge as he amped himself up, forcing the spikes of the Iron Maiden armor to dig deeper, drawing more blood as it fueled him with further energy.

“Scarlet Supercharge” has to be used sparingly–it does exactly what it sounds like: supercharging the blood around me, amplifying my physical abilities multiple times over, but it takes a toll on my body, he thought.

To his surprise, the torrent of sharp crimson hardly had an effect on the horse-faced, muscular demon as it only seemed momentarily stunned by the attack after being knocked back. At the very least, it created some space for him once again in the ravaged hallway.

It’s sturdy. More tough than it is fast or strong, most likely, he thought.

“A war of attrition, huh…?” He muttered to himself, staring dead-on at the demon, “…Fine by me.”

He dismantled his own armor in a perplexing move, breaking it down back into its liquid origin as he surrounded himself with rings of hovering blood that slowly swayed around his lengthy, brown coat.

“Come.”

–Without having to say anything, the horse-faced demon was already moving towards him, but took an alternate route as it side-stepped, breaking through one of the walls and sprinting down the halls by bashing through multiple walls.

“–Huh?”

It was a peculiar move, taking him nearly by surprise as the demon reemerged to his left, shattering through one of the walls with a burst of black lightning, slamming it in the ground where he previously stood after he had jumped back.

“Scarlet Eviscerator.”

Coming at the demon from all angles, the blood blades attempted to slash at it, but were avoided as the surprisingly nimble giant bobbed-and-weaved through them, bursting forth with another charge of lightning speed.

As it missed him, it burrowed right through the wall behind him, leaving him little time to react and turn around as it already spun around itself, going for another charge directly at him.

What’s this–? It wasn’t this aggressive nor tactical just a moment ago, he thought.

Waving his hand, he halted its rush towards him by reshaping the blood into spikes that rose from the ground, tunneling towards the hairy humanoid as it rolled to the side, momentarily running on all-fours towards him in a frightening manner.

But, it was just as planned as he held his hand outward, snapping his fingers: “Scarlet Explosion.”

All around the part-equine spawn from Hell, the scattered blood began to boil up and rise with a glowing heat, only being realized by the demonic entity before it released into a bright-red explosion that engulfed it completely.

I wasn’t attacking randomly–this entire time, I’ve been making sure to scatter blood everywhere for this. I realized it once my attacks barely had any effect on you–I needed to bring out the big guns for this, he thought.

The entire floor shook from the resulting explosion, but due to its core element being blood, it had no effect on him, but the same couldn’t be said for his horse-faced foe.

As the crimson smoke settled, the tall, burly demon was revealed to have half of its body completely scorched by the explosion; its skin was burned away, revealing its bare flesh and sparse showing of its bones beneath.

“You’re not done yet, are you?” He asked.