Chapter 246: Sins of a Father 2

The blood covering his body suddenly surged.

Thick streams rushed down his arms and gathered around both hands. Within seconds, the liquid began to harden, forming two long, curved blades made entirely from crystallized blood.

The weapons were dark red and slightly transparent, with sharp edges.

Holden lowered his sword from his shoulder.

"So we’re done talking?"

Draven answered with a furious scream.

Then he charged.

His thin body shot across the courtyard at tremendous speed, the blood surrounding him flowing backward as he closed the distance.

Both blades swung toward Holden from opposite directions.

One came from the left.

The other from the right.

The attack was aimed at his waist, with both weapons moving to cut him in half.

Holden raised the Eclipse-Sun Sword.

CLANG!

The dark blade caught both weapons before they could reach him.

The impact sent a sharp ringing sound across the courtyard.

Crimson flames flared along the Eclipse-Sun Sword, coming into direct contact with Draven’s crystallized blood.

TSSSS!

The reaction was immediate.

The edges of Draven’s weapons began to soften under the heat. Small drops of blood fell from the blades, hissing as they struck the ground.

Draven’s eyes widened.

"What?"

He quickly pulled back.

Both blood-blades were smoking, and their once-sharp edges had become uneven.

Holden glanced at them.

"That’s unfortunate."

Draven snarled and poured more energy into the weapons.

The damaged sections began repairing themselves, fresh blood flowing into the cracks before hardening once again.

Within seconds, both blades had returned to their original shape.

Holden watched with interest.

"So you can repair them. Not bad."

"STOP MOCKING ME!"

Draven swung again.

This time, Holden stepped aside and allowed the blade to pass in front of him.

The second attack came almost immediately.

He raised his sword and knocked it away.

CLANG!

Draven stumbled slightly, but recovered and launched another strike.

Then another.

Holden blocked both without difficulty.

Despite his unstable state of mind, Draven was still a Rank 4 cultivator. His attacks carried real power, and his control over blood allowed him to repair his weapons almost as quickly as Holden damaged them.

But there was one problem.

He couldn’t keep up with Holden’s reactions.

Every time Draven attacked, Holden was already prepared.

The 10,000x processor followed the movement of the blood-blades, helping him identify where the next strike would land.

His Rank 3, 9-Star body handled the rest.

CLANG! CLANG!

Another pair of strikes hit the Eclipse-Sun Sword.

Holden blocked the first and pushed the second aside before stepping forward.

Draven immediately retreated, putting several feet between them.

His breathing had already grown heavier.

Holden, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed.

"What’s wrong?" Holden asked. "Getting tired already?"

Draven bared his teeth.

"I’LL RIP YOU APART!"

He raised both hands.

The blood spread across the courtyard floor suddenly began moving.

At first, it gathered into several small pools around Holden.

Then the pools erupted.

WHOOSH!

Sharp spikes of crystallized blood shot upward from the ground.

There were dozens of them, each aimed at a different part of Holden’s body.

Holden reacted instantly.

Void-Step activated.

SWISH!

His body vanished into a brief swirl of dark mist.

The spikes burst through the space where he had been standing, their sharp tips piercing the ground before extending several feet into the air.

But Holden was already behind Draven.

The patriarch spun around.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN KEEP RUNNING?"

Holden gave him a questioning look.

"Running? I’m standing right here."

Draven snarled.

"This is my fortress! Every drop of blood here belongs to me! You have nowhere to hide!"

He spread both arms.

The pools of blood surrounding the courtyard began to rise.

Thick streams poured across the bone floor, joining together into a massive wave that rolled toward Holden.

The blood climbed over broken stones and scattered bone fragments, swallowing everything in its path.

Within seconds, the entire courtyard was covered in moving red liquid.

Holden looked down as the wave approached.

"That’s a lot of blood."

The liquid rushed over his boots and around his legs.

Dark red fluid splashed against his armor, attempting to spread its corrupted energy through anything it touched.

But the Crimson-Ward Ring reacted immediately.

A faint pulse traveled through Holden’s body.

The blood could still splash against his clothing and equipment, but its harmful energy couldn’t affect him.

Any attempt to manipulate the blood inside his body was also blocked.

Holden remained unharmed.

He looked down at the red liquid flowing around his boots before taking another step forward.

The blood shifted around his legs as he walked.

Across the courtyard, Draven stared in disbelief.

"WHY ISN’T IT WORKING?"

Holden looked up.

"What?"

"MY BLOOD! WHY CAN’T IT HURT YOU?"

Holden raised his left hand, showing the dark red ring on his finger.

"Jewelry."

For a moment, Draven simply stared.

Then his face twisted with rage.

"YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?"

Holden lowered his hand.

"Not really. But you’re making it hard to take you seriously."

Draven released another furious scream.

The blood surrounding his arms surged into his weapons, causing both blades to grow longer and thicker.

Within seconds, each one had extended to nearly four feet.

Their edges sharpened, while dark red energy spread across the crystallized surfaces.

"ENOUGH TALKING!"

Draven charged again.

This time, his movements were different.

Instead of swinging wildly, he attacked with a proper sword technique.

The first blade came down from above.

Holden raised the Eclipse-Sun Sword and blocked it.

CLANG!

The second blade immediately swept toward his ribs.

He turned his wrist and knocked it aside.

Before Holden could counterattack, Draven stepped forward and delivered another strike.

Then another.

CLANG! CLANG!

The courtyard filled with the sound of weapons colliding.

Draven’s attacks came faster now, each movement flowing into the next.

He swung from the left, then the right, before bringing both blades down together.

Holden blocked them all.

The Eclipse-Sun Sword moved smoothly in his hand, meeting each attack with just enough force to push it away.

Whenever Draven tried to change direction, Holden adjusted.

Whenever the blood-blades came too close, he stepped aside or raised his weapon.

The difference in their reactions was obvious.

Even with his Rank 4 cultivation, Draven couldn’t land a clean hit.

And every time their weapons collided, the Eclipse-Sun Sword’s flames damaged his blood-blades.

TSSSS!

Small cracks appeared across the crystallized surfaces.

The sharp edges began melting again, forcing Draven to pour more energy into repairing them.

He continued attacking, but his breathing grew heavier.

The constant repairs were draining his reserves.

Holden noticed.

So that’s how it works.

Draven could create and repair his weapons as long as he had enough blood energy.

But repairing them repeatedly wasn’t free.

Every time the Eclipse-Sun Sword burned through part of a blade, Draven had to spend more energy rebuilding it.

And the longer the fight continued, the more exhausted he became.

Holden decided to test something.

When Draven swung his right blade toward his neck, Holden caught it with the Eclipse-Sun Sword.

CLANG!

Instead of immediately pushing the weapon away, he held it in place.

Crimson flames spread across the point of contact.

The blood-blade began to melt.

Draven quickly tried to pull back.

But Holden stepped forward and struck the second blade before it could reach him.

CLANG!

Another crack spread across the weapon.

Draven staggered.

Holden followed with a quick swing aimed at the man’s chest.

The patriarch barely managed to raise both blades in time.

CLANG!

The force of the impact pushed him backward.

His boots scraped across the blood-covered floor as he struggled to keep his balance.

Holden advanced.

"What’s the matter, Draven? I thought you were going to tear me apart."

Draven gritted his teeth.

"SHUT UP!"

He lunged again, swinging both blades in a desperate attack.

Holden blocked the first strike.

Then the second.

The third came from above, aimed directly at his head.

He caught it against the flat of the Eclipse-Sun Sword.

This time, however, he didn’t stop there.

Holden tightened his grip.

Aether-Steel strengthened his arms as he pushed forward with all the force he needed.

BOOM!

The impact tore through Draven’s guard.

Both blood-blades cracked as the Eclipse-Sun Sword forced them backward into his chest.

Draven was thrown across the courtyard.

His feet left the ground before he crashed down several yards away, sliding through the blood covering the floor.

CRASH!

He struck a raised section of bone and rolled onto his side.

For a moment, the patriarch remained there, struggling to recover.

Then he pushed himself onto one knee.

His breathing was ragged.

The blood-blades in his hands were badly damaged, with cracks running across their surfaces. Their sharp edges had become uneven, and several pieces broke away as he tried to lift them.

Draven stared at the weapons.

Then he looked toward Holden.

The young man was already walking toward him.

Slowly.

Calmly.

The Eclipse-Sun Sword rested at his side, its black and crimson flames burning steadily.

"You..."

Draven’s voice sounded weaker than before.

"You come into my home, destroy my gate, and attack my guards..."

He struggled to stand.

"You resist my strongest curse, break my weapons, and now you stand there acting as though I’m nothing!"

Holden stopped a short distance away.

"Your guards are alive, Draven. I knocked them out. You might want to check on them when this is over."

"Don’t mock me!"

"I’m not mocking you. I’m telling you what happened."

Holden glanced at the damaged blood-blades.

"You’ve spent this whole fight blaming everyone else for your problems. Your son lost because he picked on someone he couldn’t beat. Your family lost its influence when the Royal Family fell. And instead of dealing with any of that, you came here and started making monsters."

He shook his head.

"How exactly is any of that my fault?"

Draven’s expression twisted.

"You wouldn’t understand!"

"Then explain it to me."

The patriarch opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Holden waited for a moment.

When Draven remained silent, he continued.

"You had power. You had money. You had a family name people respected. And when those things started disappearing, you couldn’t accept it."

He gestured toward the fortress.

"So you built all this. An army of Blood-Ghouls, a castle made from bones, and enough blood magic to poison an entire region. All because you wanted to feel powerful again."

Draven’s skeletal hands began trembling.

"SHUT UP!"

Holden’s expression hardened.

"People are suffering because of what you’re doing here. Those Blood-Ghouls didn’t create themselves, and the creatures feeding your fortress didn’t volunteer for it."

He took another step forward.

"This stopped being about your son a long time ago."

For several seconds, Draven simply stared at him.

His sunken eyes burned with hatred, but beneath that anger was something else.

Humiliation.

The same feeling his son had experienced after losing at the Academy.

Draven had spent years believing his family stood above everyone else.

Now, the very person he considered beneath him was standing in his courtyard, treating his strongest abilities as little more than an inconvenience.

He couldn’t accept it.

"I am Lord Draven," he whispered.

Holden said nothing.

"I am the head of House Draven!"

The blood surrounding the patriarch began to rise again.

"I AM A RANK FOUR CULTIVATOR!"

His voice echoed across the courtyard.

"And I WILL NOT be defeated by some filthy boy from the slums!"

Draven forced himself upright.

The damaged blood-blades dissolved into liquid, flowing back toward his arms.

At the same time, every pool of blood in the courtyard began moving.

Thick streams rose from the ground, gathering around Draven’s body.

Holden stopped walking.

Another technique?

The blood continued rising.

More liquid poured from the dark iron pipes running along the walls, adding to the growing mass surrounding the patriarch.

Draven spread his arms.

The gathered blood surged behind him, forming two enormous shapes.

Wings.

Massive wings made from thick, crystallized blood.

Their surfaces hardened as they spread outward, each one several times wider than Draven’s body. Long, sharp sections extended from their edges, making them resemble the wings of some monstrous bird.

The wings moved.

WHOOSH!

A powerful gust swept through the courtyard.

Loose sand and broken bone fragments scattered across the ground as Draven slowly rose into the air.

Holden looked up.

"Well, that’s new."

The patriarch continued ascending until he was several yards above the courtyard.

His blood robes flowed beneath him, while the enormous wings beat steadily to keep him airborne.

More blood gathered around his hands.

Within moments, two new blades formed.

These were larger than the previous ones, with thicker bodies and sharper edges.

Draven raised both weapons and looked down at Holden.

His face was twisted with rage.

"You think that ring makes you untouchable?"

Holden glanced at his left hand.

"I mean, it’s doing a pretty good job so far."

Draven bared his teeth.

"THEN LET’S SEE IF IT CAN SAVE YOU FROM THIS!"

The enormous blood wings spread to their full width.

Dark red energy poured from Draven’s body, causing the liquid covering the courtyard to rise higher.

The bone floor trembled.

Blood gathered in thick waves around the raised platform, swallowing the lower steps and spreading toward the surrounding walls.

Above it all, Lord Draven hovered with his weapons raised.

His eyes blazed as he stared down at Holden.

"IF I CANNOT CURSE YOUR BLOOD, I WILL DROWN YOU IN MINE!"