Chapter 185: A Ten Minutes Countdown

Chapter 185: Chapter 185: A Ten Minutes Countdown

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Predator Form Activated.

All Physical Stats +80%.

Crimson Haze Suppression: Active.

WARNING: Predatory Instinct Override begins at 10:00.

Timer: 10:00

Rashid rushed forward immediately.

His daggers gleamed — twin arcs of steel aimed at Lucian’s throat. His True Vampiric Form gave him speed that bordered on teleportation in such a close distance. The ground cracked beneath his launch. BOOM.

Lucian met him head-on.

CLAAANG!

Claws against daggers. The impact created a shockwave that flattened every standing structure within thirty meters. CRAAASH. Garden walls collapsed. Windows shattered. Stone benches flipped. The shockwave rippled outward, sending debris flying in every direction.

Rashid’s eyes widened. The force behind Lucian’s block was staggering. His arms vibrated from the impact.

Lucian’s claws pushed downward. Rashid was driven back — his boots carving trenches through the stone. He broke the lock with a twist of his daggers and rolled sideways, creating distance.

They clashed again. And again. And again.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The two Predators moved at speeds that Lemora could barely track. All she saw were flashes — crimson haze and dark red mist, claws and daggers, sparks exploding where they met. Each collision sent shockwaves ripping through the courtyard.

Rashid realized the gap within the first thirty seconds.

His inferior True Vampiric Form couldn’t match Lucian’s raw physical output. Every direct exchange pushed him backward. Every clash numbed his arms further. Lucian’s strength — already monstrous at Peak Core — had jumped to a level that rivaled his own father. The Ancient Vampire bloodline was simply on a different tier.

Rashid shifted tactics. He stopped meeting Lucian head-on. Instead, he dissolved into blood mist — phasing through Lucian’s claw strikes, reforming at blind angles, striking with his daggers from unexpected directions. Speed and evasion replaced direct confrontation.

He materialized behind Lucian. Dagger thrust toward the spine. Lucian’s Blood Sense caught him — his claw swiped backward. Rashid dissolved again and reformed above as his daggers descended. Lucian sidestepped and raked his claws across Rashid’s ribs as he passed. SHLIKT. Blood sprayed.

Rashid grunted as he dissolved and reformed again at Lucian’s left flank. Lucian blocked with his forearm and countered with a claw strike that caught Rashid across the thigh.

SHLIKT.

Lemora supported from the outside. Her corpse puppets attacked Rashid whenever he materialized — forcing him to choose between dodging Lucian and dodging them. The Mid Grand Core human corpse swung at Rashid’s head. He dissolved. The fist passed through mist. But the moment he reformed, corpse bats swarmed him — twenty of them, their tiny bodies detonating on contact. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Necromantic fire engulfed Rashid’s upper body. He snarled — regeneration fighting the burns — and Lucian was already there. Claws raked across Rashid’s back. Four deep gashes. SHLIKT-SHLIKT-SHLIKT-SHLIKT. Blood poured from the wounds.

Rashid spun. His dagger caught Lucian across the chest. SHLK. Blood mist poisoned the wound. Lucian growled — his regeneration fighting the toxin while healing the cut. But he gave it back twice as hard. His claw struck Rashid’s shoulder — driving through the muscle and scraping bone. SHLIKT.

Rashid screamed. He dissolved and retreated, reforming ten meters away. His regeneration closed the wounds — but each closure cost Blood Energy. His life force was draining. The True Vampiric Form consumed him from the inside while Lucian’s relentless assaults carved pieces off him from the outside.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Timer: 7:00

Seven minutes gone. Three remaining.

Rashid became desperate. He launched an all-out assault — dissolving and reforming in rapid succession, striking from every angle. Daggers flashed. Blood mist blades screamed through the air. TSSSS-TSSSS-TSSSS. Each strike was faster than the last.

Lucian took hits. A cut across his chest. SHLK. A stab in his shoulder. SHLIKT. A blood mist blade across his thigh. SHLK. Each wound was poisoned. His regeneration fought the toxin while healing the damage — but the accumulation was slowing him. His movements lost a fraction of their sharpness. His reactions dulled by a millisecond.

But Rashid was worse. His regeneration was failing. The wounds weren’t closing as fast. His blood mist was thinner. His True Vampiric Form flickered. His life force was burning out.

Lemora landed the critical assist.

Her last Mid Grand Core corpse puppet appeared behind Rashid. It grabbed both his arms — pinning them behind his back. Rashid’s eyes widened. He struggled — his strength still enormous — but the corpse’s grip held for one second. Two —

Rashid destroyed the puppet in one second. His dagger plunged through its skull. CRAAACK. Dark energy sprayed. The corpse collapsed.

But that one second was enough.

Lucian drove his claw through Rashid’s right shoulder. SHLIKT. The obsidian claws punched through muscle and bone, emerging from the back. Rashid screamed — a raw, animal sound. Lucian ripped his claw free. Blood sprayed in a thick arc.

He followed with a claw strike across Rashid’s chest. Four deep gashes opened from collarbone to navel as more blood poured. Rashid stumbled.

Rashid roared. With the last of his strength, he converted his blood spray into a solidified blood slash. The crimson arc screamed toward Lucian’s chest. SHLK!

Lucian staggered back. A deep slash wound appeared across his chest — bleeding freely. His regeneration struggled against the poisoned blood energy embedded in the wound.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]Timer: 0:49

Forty-nine seconds.

Lucian knew he needed to end it now.

He needed one decisive attack.

Lucian’s crimson eyes blazed. He concentrated his Mental Power — gathering every remaining scrap into a single, condensed lance. He fired.

"Mind Spike!"

The lance of mental energy slammed into Rashid’s consciousness. His eyes went blank. His body locked. One second. That was all Mind Spike could achieve against a Late Grand Core vampire — but one second was everything.

Lucian raised both hands to the sky. Blood Eclipse Art surged to maximum output. Blood Energy and mana poured out of his body simultaneously — a massive drain that left him lightheaded. His vision blurred as blood trickled from his nose.

The crimson energy condensed above Rashid — forming a shape. A ten meter giant clawed hand made of pure, condensed blood. Each finger was two meters long, curved downward like the talons of a god. It hung in the air above Rashid’s frozen body — casting a shadow of absolute crimson.

Thin blood threads shot out from each finger of the giant claw — hundreds of them, razor-thin, indestructible. They wrapped around Rashid’s body, restraining him and holding him in place.

The threads tightened, cutting into his flesh. Blood poured from a hundred wounds.

Rashid’s eyes cleared. He screamed and thrashed. The threads held — Lucian’s blood manipulation reinforced by the Blood Eclipse Art was stronger than Rashid’s struggling in his weakened state.

Lucian strained to keep the spell active. His nose bled freely. His mental power screamed under the load. His mana core was draining — faster than he’d ever pushed it.

He gathered the last of his Blood Energy and mana into his right hand. A spear of condensed blood formed — blazing with crimson light, dense enough to glow like a miniature sun. Two meters long. The air around it ignited.

He drew his arm back.

The blood spear flew across the courtyard.

FWEEEEEESH!

It struck Rashid directly in the chest. The spear punched through his sternum, through his ribcage, through his heart, and out his back. The tip emerged from his spine in a spray of dark blood and fragmented bone.

Rashid’s crimson eyes went wide. His mouth opened as blood spilled past his lips.

Then his body went limp.

The blood threads held him upright for a moment — a puppet suspended by crimson strings. Then the threads dissolved. Rashid al-Khamsin’s body crumpled to the ground. Dead.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Predator Form Deactivated.

Cooldown: 24 hours.

Residual feral instinct: Fading.

Mental exhaustion: Severe.

Recommendation: Immediate rest.